avant gentlemen's lodge

MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED, DAVE SMOLEN, NEWTON,CHARLES COHEN,SHARKS WITH WINGS,CARS WILL BURN, JOE LENTINI,DRUMS LIKE MACHINE GUNS,SWEET NOTHING, TIM ALBRO, TWEETER

THE THING----Mats Gustafsson (SE) reeds, Ingebrigt H. Flaten (N) bass, Paal Nilssen-Love (N), drums

INZINZAC----Alban Bailly, accordion Dan Scofield, saxophone Jon Barrios, double-bass Eli Litwin, drums

LOCKSMITH ISIDORE----with Jason Stein, bass clarinet Kevin Davis, cello Mike Pride, drums

James Plotkin has been involved in making difficult music for over half his life. Whether writing, performing, or producing, his recordings have been invariably unique and extreme. Each release is usually a complete departure from the last, satisfying the need to explore different and sometimes uncharted avenues of sound and composition. More recent projects display a return to the aggressive, intense style that had originally drawn listeners to his music. Plotkin's body of work to this date consists of over 100 releases across many formats. He has recorded and performed with Franz Treichler, Michael Gira, Mick Harris, Ikue Mori, and John Zorn among others, and has been an integral part of groups including Scorn, Old, Khanate, Phantomsmasher, and Death Ambient.

Tim Wyskida has been playing drums in various groups for over 20 years. His early years were begrudgingly spent playing with a variety of conventional jazz and rock bands. Over the past 10 years he has began collaborating with less conventional musicians that delve into less explored areas of sound. His current groups include Blind Idiot God, an instrumental trio that worms their way through loud, uptempo, complex, precise compositions. Downriver, an instrumental quartet that plays clean, melodic, monotonous passages with improvised drums and pedal steel guitar. And Khanate, a primitive ambient metal quartet that bashes their way through aggressive, time stretched compositions.

Ettrick is a self-destructive free jazz/black metal assault featuring two multi-instrumentalists rotating through every permutation of their drum and sax duo. Jacob Felix Heule and Jay Korber explore the extreme sounds that can be wrenched from their instruments through brute force – screaming through saxophones, throwing drums and other such impolite extended techniques. The doubled instrumentation provides a situation to explore playing contrasting and complimentary styles on like instruments. Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers, XBXRX), Moe! Staiano (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Moe!kestra!) and others have joined Ettrick on stage for trios and quartets of drum/sax multi-instrumentalists.

Normal Love is a Philadelphia based quintet comprised of amplified violin, two electric guitars, electric bass, and drum set. Their music generally has a loud and brutal aesthetic with compositional influences ranging from african minimalism to serialism to death metal, but rarely within the same piece.

EXTRA LIFE Charlie Looker (zs) side project has blossomed into a full on mind blowing compositional force! Check it out!

MOTH return performance of another Zs side project featuring Sam Hillmer on sax and Ben Gerstein on trombone.

From a white and tiled palace suspended among milky clouds slid Antoinette, a woman-child of mysterious origins, feet first into the murky swamp of reality.
On this dull earth, she found herself being waltzed senseless by perverse clowns, and wandering lost through the poisonous forest…
a trajickal historie: Antoinette in the Milkie Citie.

STAY FUCKED Brooklyn thrashers step up their game in the past year with an amazing new release that kills it

NORMAL LOVE AGL favorites, back for more awesome shred, and modern composition

CALABI YAU equal parts math rock, free improv, and Derrida-like deconstruction of form, melody, and musical time

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3rd 8pm $5 Bowerbird.org Presents...HYPERCOLOR (nyc)eyal maoz, guitar lukas ligeti, drums james ilgenfritz, bassBREAKFAST?bryan rogers, saxamnon freidlin, e. guitar
pete angevine, drumsSOLANAS (philly / baltimore)alban bailly, accordiondustin hurt, accordion dave smolen, circuit bending
andy hayleck, bowed metalspaul neidhardt, idiophones / bowed metals LENTINI / PETSU / DOMINIC joe lentini, laptop
sebastian petsu, electronics dominic, electronics

TUESDAY OCTOBER 10th --- ARS NOVA PRESENTS MoHa! with Morten J. Olsen, drums/SuperCollider3 Anders Hana, el. guitar/baritone guitar the latest signing to Rune Grammofon Records, the home of Supersilent, Deathprod, Scorch Trio, SPUNK, Alog, and many other leaders in Scandanavian improvised music. Anders Hana is a member of Jaga Jazzist, Noxagt, Ultralyd and the Ingebrigt Flaten (Scorch Trio, The Thing) Quintet. Morten J. Olsen is a member of Ultralyd and has performed with Axel Dörner, Fred Frith and the late Steve Lacy. MoHa! has been performing together for 8 years and have recorded with American saxophone player Andrew D´Angelo as Morthana, with Norwegian sax player Frode Gjerstad and Noxagt bassist Kjetil Brandsdal as Ultralyd and in a quartet with Gjerstad and bassist Per Zanussi. Their latest CD Raus Aus Stavanger was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, showing two young musicians at a very high level of control, communication and creative powers, the music being a powerful mix of high energy improv, slowburning drone riffing and detailed electronics.8PM SHARP $8

MONDAY OCT 16th - CHEER-ACCIDENT Quite possibly the greatest band to emerge from Chicago's post punk renaissance. Totally unpredictable, beautiful, and abrasive. Like being in 3-way boxing match with Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, and Henry Cow. NORMAL LOVE Philly's new gods of instrumental rock complexity. Basically this band is the shit and we would have them play every show here if we could. MAKE A RISING local art/prog gentlemen return with a new clarinet player in tow. On tour with Cheer-Accident. ONE MORE TBA $5

SATURDAY AUGUST 5th
PETER AND THE WOLF
(junkyard folk orchestra, ritual music - getting much hype for their upcomming sailboat tour)
NAT BALDWIN
(double bass songwriter extraordinaire. Dirty Projectors collaborator.)
EXTRA LIFE
(guitarist from the mind shattering band Zs doing a tour of solo work. not to be missed!)
ORCA ORCHESTRA
(bedroom folk weirdness from philly)

TUESDAY AUGUST 8th
THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS!!!!
(Legendary, rip-your-face-off prog unit led by the unstoppable Weasel Walters since 1991. COME OUT FOR THIS!)
SATANIZED
(Who's this? Oh is that Natalie, the haunting improv folkster? Oh wait, why is she fronting a harsh no wave band? Woah she just poured blood on her face!.)
MARY HALVORSON AND JESSICA PAVONE
(return performance for this genius duo from new york because I was in Argentina when they played here. Cello and guitar compositions creative, beautiful and mesmerizing!)

FRIDAY JULY 28th 8PM THE AWESOME COOl DUDES(gang party dudes from Austin)THE AMBITIOUS ORCHESTRA(as the name states - 16 piece propulsive orchestral rock from NYC)LONG LIVE DEATH
(psychedelic goth folk from Baltimore. Dark dirges, at times reminiscent of No Neck Blues Band and Comus.)ONE MORE TBA

Friday June 9th 8PM MARY HALVORSON and JESSICA PAVONE (guitar and viola duo. Mems of People, Trio Convulsant, etc... This is beautiful stuff! Come on out! )MOTH (featuring Sam Hilmer of Zs and Ben Gerstein on trombone) FLITTERMICE OF ELD (a return perfomance of ultra high frequency guitar, bass, and electronics. Last time they blew my guitar amp, so we're letting them play again)ROBBIE LEE (the guy who runs I and Ear records touring his relaxed, experimental pop. Like Brian Eno meets the Kinks in a living room)

Friday May 12th 8PM Accoustic Guitar Hero Night! MIKE TAMBURO (pittsburgh. fahey meets tony conrad on a lotus leaf) KEENAN LAWLER(kentucky. Resonator guitar, amplified on the hole and on the head for maximum harmonics, played in totally unique and groundbreaking ways.total guitar genius)NICK SHILLACE(detroit. sounds like: Takoma Records and South Bay 60s intrumental with "post-rock" tendencies.)

Saturday APRIL 22nd 8PM: Kayo Dot (Tzadik records) From Boston. "elements of modern classical composition with the layers of guitars and vocals more common to rock and metal" Ahleuchatistas (Cuneiform records) 3 piece rock trio in the "herky jerky" style (meaning) total post punk/prog rippage. Make A Rising (high two) the AGL house band.

Thursday April 6th 8PM SHARP!!! ARS NOVA WORKSHOP PRESENTS::: GOOD FOR COWS (members of Nels Cline Singers, Mr. Bungle, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog. Asian Man Records.)JORRIT DIJKSTRA/JOHN HOLLENBECK DUO (featuring the Claudia Quintet leader. Cuneiform Records.) KURU KURU PA (jagged post punk thrash free improv)PLEASE NOTE! BECAUSE THIS IS AN ARS NOVA SHOW, the DOOR CHARGE IS $10!! AND IT WILL START PROMTLY AT 8pm!!!

Tuesday October 18th: 8pm $5. Alec K. Redfearn + The Eyesores (cuneiform records) huge nine-piece band (accordion/vocals, guitar, French horn, violin, electronics, alto sax, string bass/vocals, drums and percussion), they combine a gigantic array of influences, such as acid folk, maverick 20th century Americana (Tom Waits, Charles Ives, John Cage, Harry Partch), Eastern European folk music, noise/drone rock, cyclical minimalism (Terry Riley, Philip Glass), cabaret and theater music and more. The Tuna Helpers (web of mimicry)Adrienne and Bethany are the odd and delightful sisters who form the basis of a trio that is rounded out by their similarly odd & delightful long-lost sister, Khattie. The music--at times-- is like a doll come to life singing to you with an operatic voice, & teaching you to waltz to sparse drum beats on broken toys. To complete the effects, at shows The Tuna Helpers visually dazzle audiences with puppet shows and American Sign Language. Though theirs is a tapestry of gothic styling, they uniquely weave the doctrines of girly power, gross-out contests and sophisticated musical sensibilities into what they hope will become your favorite play-thing. Niagra Falls (honeymoon music)"An emerging typhoon of psychedelia…Niagara Falls captures the subtlety of transient movements, stuffs into a barrel and sends it over the thunderous cascade of early krautrock inspired sprawling. Not to be missed." (Gregory Best)

Thurs Sept 29th 8PM $5: Ramona Cordova brilliant soloist Ramon sings like a tin pan alley,tiny tim angel. Beautiful melodies that range in
influence from snow white to south american to upbeat indie pop. F! from philly. "Twisting parisian polka and italian opera into avant insanity, while capturing odd timed breakbeat drums infused with polyrhythmic surf bop" Matt Weston "Percussionist and electronicist Matt Weston has performed throughout the US and in Europe. He has
studied and/or collaborated with Arthur Brooks, Bill Dixon, Charles Gayle, Milford Graves, and William Parker. His unique approach to percussion has earned him critical praise in such magazines as Cadence, Signal To Noise, and Bananafish for his debut solo
release Vacuums." Make A Rising the house band

Saturday - Sept 3rd 8pm $5: PEOPLE : Featuring guitarist extrodinaire Mary Halvorson - who also plays in Tervor Dunn's Trio Convulsant. Also featuring Kevin Shea of Storm & Stress. Wolf Vs. - hermetic philly noise/math rock/improv quartet.Stay Fucked - Brooklyn angular instrumental rock ala Minutemen without the blues. George Korein - performing his solo album "Memoirs of a trilobite". 1/2 of infidel?/castro!. Eccentric demolishion derby of prog, pop, rap, and whatever else george feels like doing.

Sunday, JULY 17th: RUINS! the legendary, Japanese masters of brutal prog. Actually just the drummer. He (yoshida) will be playing with a different bass player in each city. This night he will be playing with local heavy Evan Lipson (powerlunch). The set will include several Ruins tunes, with extended duo and solo improv.

also to play is Snuggle/Stencil, featuring members of Time of Orchids,Z's and more... +1TBA