Arts Desk » Six Organs of Admittance

Don’t Be Bored: Mystery Train

Jonathan L. Fischer — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:30:46 +0000

The twin exhibitions now on view at Flashpoint don’t limit themselves to appearing in the gallery; they become part of it, toying with the architectural features not just of the exhibition space, but also the facility’s accompanying cubicles, conference rooms, and bathroom areas. In"Trace," Nicole Herbert adds a series of supernumerary fixtures to the office in ways that echo the surroundings, such as windows with taped outlines that abstract the view outside, or fake water pipes that go from nowhere to nowhere. The works are hard to locate, even with motion-sensored lights to illuminate them, and their conceptual impact is equally subtle. More successful are the works of Janell Olah (pictured), curated by Amanda Jirón-Murphy. Olah hijacks the building’s air vents and HVAC system with a network of translucent plastic coverings that inflate and deflate depending on how the air is flowing. The appearance of Olah’s works is frustratingly indifferent—the visual vibe of her materials might be described as “IKEA-shower-curtain”—but the notion of giving a star turn to something as fleeting as airflow is clever. Plus, there’s something unexpectedly thrilling about a row of cloud-shaped plastic forms spontaneously inflating in unison whenever the AC kicks on. (Louis Jacobson) On view noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturday and noon to 3 p.m. Fridays to August 27 at Flashpoint. Free.

MUSIC

Bob Dylan brings his never-ending mystery train to the leafy Columbia, Md. With Drive-By Truckers and Leon Russell at 6 p.m. at Merriweather Post Pavilion. $40-$77.50.

I like Six Organs of Admittance's lush, folky mode, and I like the band's drone stuff too. I really like it when the Ben Chasny-led group goes all long-form and combines the two. With Donovan Quinn and Lithia Corsica at DC9. $12.

It's the one-year anniversary of Rock Creek Social Club's Goodlife parties at Recess. More on this later today!

BOOKS

D.C. novelist Jennifer Close's book Girls in White Dresses—which, according to the Post, "follows three women and peripheral friends as they alternately flounder and flourish through their 20s. Weddings provide the backdrop as the women feel their way in and out of inert relationships and crappy jobs, trying to figure out who they want to be—sounds exhausting. Maybe it's your thing though! Close reads at Politics & Prose, where she also works, tonight at 7 p.m. Free.

THEATER

Everybody wants to hang out in a room with Cate Blanchett. Today's "Theater Look-in" event with the cast of Uncle Vanya is sold out.

Photos: Om @ DC9

Brandon Wu — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:07:03 +0000

Al Cisneros got a haircut, Chris Hakius morphed into Emil Amos (pictured above), and Robert Lowe of Lichens sat in on guitar, keys, and percussion. Om is very different now than they were when they last played D.C. Some growing pains were evident as the sound was rough and some of the pieces seemed a little sloppy. Still, with Cisneros staring wide-eyed at nothing while slamming his palm against his bass and Amos bashing the skins as gleefully as Hakius used to, it's hard not to be transfixed by this band.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

Om:

Six Organs of Admittance, who played a very nice all-acoustic set:

Lichens, an amazing opening set of nothing but looped vocals:

Full gallery here.

Leak Proof: Neon Indian, Kid Cudi, Gang Gang Dance, Six Organs of Admittance

Aaron Leitko — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:56:54 +0000

Neon Indian: "Should Have Taken Acid With You"
Houston, Texas/Brooklyn, New York's Neon Indian waxes nostalgic about a missed opportunity to experience romance whilst getting experienced. The music–Daft Punk-style dance pop rendered with bargain bin synthesizers–suggests that he eventually found another opportunity to drop out. But that doesn't make this moody gem any less affecting.

Kid Cudi: "You Can Call Me Moon Man"
"You Can Call Me Moon Man," Kanye protege Kid Cudi reveals that he's not from the Midwest, as previously believed, but from the heavens. Specifically, the Moon. And what's it like on the moon? Dark, apparently. Cudi spends most of "You Can Call Me Moon Man" dropping sobering boasts along the lines of "Shit is so damn sick/ No antibiotic could ever fucking stop it/ If you copped it, please O.D." Other lines–"I make immortal songs for the mortals to cruise with,"– imply Cudi might be getting high on hot air.

Gang Gang Dance: "Live @ Southpaw, April 2008"
Just in case you forgot they were out there, Gang Gang Dance recently slipped a full live set into a podcast by Social Registry (the band's US label). Because the concert was taped all the way back in '08 and is largely made up of tunes from the group's last record, Saint Dymphna, so none of this is new, exactly. Then again, the way that the songs "First Communion" and "House Jam" are mashed up here with slurry jams, you might not recognize them right away, anyway.

Six Organs of Admittance: "The Ballad of Charley Harper"
In his paintings, Cincinnati-based artist Charley Harper sought to simplify nature–to create an ordered representation of a complex reality. There's a good chance that Six Organs of Admittance's "The Ballad of Charley Harper," with its slowly cycling melodies, is an homage to that sensibility. Ben Chasny uses simple components–an acoustic guitar, some distortion, a single lyric–to suggest some larger and more elusive mystic truth.