A BENEFIT FOR SILENT BARN

“Silent Barn, Ridgewood’s great all ages outpost for underground music of all stripes, was broken into and vandalized in mid-July. The venue lost it’s entire, multi-floor sound system to the thieves, as well as thousands of dollars worth of personal possessions which were stolen or senselessly destroyed.  They are now trying to raise funds to replace lost equipment and rebuild the Silent Barn.  They are only a few thousand dollars shy of reaching their $40,000 goal, but the project will only be funded if If they reach their goal by September 18th. We are happy to show our support for the Silent Barn with this benefit show, which will feature no wave/Branca acolytes, Neg-Fi, dueling guitar and drums burners, 1129 (Tom Carter, Marc Orleans, Michael Evans), and Twin Cities based, extended banjo virtuoso, Paul Metzger, plus Special Guests. All proceeds will go to the Silent Barn kickstarter fund (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1008830584/rebuilding-the-silent-barn).”

PAUL METZGER

ELEVEN TWENTYNINE

NEG-FI

In 1979, Paul Metzger drilled a few innocent holes into a Yamaha acoustic guitar. A self taught musician with 5 years of playing behind him, Metzger was growing tired of the conventions of the instrument. This lobotomy was the first of many surgeries that would follow in years to come. Strings were added, subtracted, added again; the frets of the neck were disemboweled and retrofitted with a sarod like metal fingerboard plate; paint was splattered over it, a rejigged music box was affixed to the guitar’s belly, a crash cymbal mounted to its bottom. On the face of it, the instrument took on the look of a piece of tramp art.

Thirty years on, Metzger plays the same guitar in rotation with a heavily modified 23 string banjo in a tireless – often isolated – search for a musical style of his own which he finally took public for the first time in 2002. His sonic vocabulary ranges from deeply satisfying & impulsive outer cosmos ragadelia to clangorous, rapidly punctuated percussive workouts. Metzger has been described as a virtuoso and a visionary whose live performances are vital, deeply visceral and simply breathtaking.

Long time collaborators Tom Carter & Marc Orleans have formed a new project, Eleven Twenty-Nine, and signed to Brooklyn’s fastest growing indie, Northern-Spy Records. Taking the name from blues parlance for a year long prison term, their first, self-titled release lays down a devilish pact of pulsating, impressionistic sound keeping one foot solidly in the soul and depth of blues while the other is planted firmly in an enigmatic free improv rock.

Skeletons & Nine11Thesaurus