On Wednesday, June 26th we are proud to present performance artist Lara Allen’s (NYC) solo project Sailor Beware, electro-acoustic sound collage artist S*Glass (NYC), and experimental musician Karen Eliot’s project Mumber Toes (CMH). Doors 7:30pm, show begins at 8:00pm. Performance will take place at the Old First Presbyterian Church (1101 Bryden Rd). $8.00 online, $10 at the door.
About the artists:
Lara Allen’s solo work under the name Sailor Beware combines sound collage, spoken word, and vaudeville in a kaleidoscopic portrayal of her experiences in Cincinnati public schools, a troubled teen industry cult, and children’s mental hospital. She was in Caroliner for a while, way back when, and also fronted Heavenly Ten Stems, who specialized in covers of Asian pop and rock tunes (the sort later popularized by labels such as Sublime Frequencies, et al.), has appeared on an album by Secret Chiefs 3, and was the off-the-hook screeching front-person of legendary Ohio psycho-rock juggernaut Manwich. Her artwork was on the cover of Bananafish #12 and she was interviewed in #17. More recently, she was a guest on Will York’s Who Cares Anyway podcast. She currently teaches at Pratt in Brooklyn.
Numerous practices make up the electro-acoustic sound collages created by S*Glass. He combines tape music, electronic processing, voice, found sound, and chance operations. Every show uses a different batch of curated audio, mixed live, while the self-produced studio albums are more refined assemblages. The playing of non-musical objects is sometimes incorporated (dental floss, aluminum foil, wind-up toys, metal lunch box, cabbage). Self-shot video is screened during sets, which is mostly textures made with multiple layers that slowly wobble out of sync, jump cuts, and a smattering of primitive animation. The overall effect is one of surreal disorientation.
S*Glass is a founder of Bren’t Lewiis Ensemble (a large non-musical music group begun in the early 1980s), and Glands of External Secretion (a duo with rock musician Barbara Manning since the early ’90s). From the late ’80s until 2004, he was the main driver behind Bananafish. Since 2017, he’s performed as a solo artist and completed U.S. tours of the West Coast, New England, part of the South and Midwest, England and Scotland, a handful of places in Canada. This past October he toured Australia and New Zealand for three weeks; coming up in April is 10 days in the Southwest.
He’s released music and sound on his label Butte County Free Music Society, and has also collaborated with an international array of others such as Dylan Nyoukis (Scotland) Anla Courtis of Reynols (Argentina), Noel Meek (New Zealand), Bryan Day (US), Andrew Zukerman (Canada), Cody Brant (US), and Orchid Spangiafora (US). Other labels include Chocolate Monk (UK), Siltbreeze (Philadelphia), Spleencoffin (Baltimore), Blue Spectrum (UK), l’Esprit de l’Escalier (US), Krim Kram (Ireland), Independent Woman (New Zealand), Beartown (UK), Ikuisuus (Finland), Tanzprocesz (France), I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden), Coherent States (Greece), Feeding Tube (Massachusetts), VHF (Virginia), Opax (Italy), Ultra Eczema (Belgium), Dinzu Artefacts (Los Angeles), and Starlight Furniture Co. (San Francisco).
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma is thee The Mumber Toes, also called Karen Eliot, and seen to hir subjects as the Wing’d Master ov Thee UnEnding Beginning and TheE Timeless End Times. SHe has been producing all varieties of unholy racket for nearly half a century utlizing everything from battery-powered sex toys and sheet metal to synthesizers. SHe has spent time in the trenches with ensembles including Second Family Band, Davenport, Hintergedanken, Superjack! and all too many more. Recordings have been issued on myriad labels including 23 Productions, Brave Mysteries, Mansfield Deathtrap Re-Recordings, Skulls Of Heaven and hir own Backbacon Records imprint.