Nick Millevoi

Guitar Solo

2012-02-27T20:27:00.001-08:00

I played a show at the Highwire Gallery here in Philly the other night and I took this guitar solo. I'd recommend cranking up your volume if possible as it was quite loud at the time:

Missing Time review

2012-02-27T20:20:00.003-08:00

Many Arms just got a new review for Missing Time. It's a four-part review which includes our very good friends Hyrrokkin and Scorch Trio, led by Raoul Bjorkenheim, who I took a few lessons with a few years back and who has been a big influence on Many Arms

http://killedincars.tumblr.com/post/18407884273/powertrio

Here's the Many Arms part:

Many Arms - Missing Time

I wasn’t familiar with Many Arms until I picked up their 1st self-released disc “Palabras Malas” at the merch table of a Zevious show (bassist John DeBlase capably serves in both bands). Zevious, by the way, is another excellent power trio with two good albums and a truly great live show. But I think I like Many Arms even more: for me, this band reaches to the top tier of thoughtful and visceral power trio music, and deserves to be celebrated with classic trios like Blind Idiot God and Massacre.

Many Arms splits the difference between Hyrrokkin and Scorch Trio on the composition-to-improvisation continuum. Songs are mostly composed, but many feature intensely high energy solos. And they really excel at both. Compositionally, this music nods to math, prog, drone, psych, jazz, thrash, and more contemporary NYC scenes without bursting at its seams. In terms of playing and soloing quality, the whole band can exhibit an almost punishing display of technique, but they pull it off without turning into “shred” music. Nick Millevoi’s guitar playing in particular floors me. He can spin endless jazz lines or angular stabs of sound with a particularly assertive picking technique. He’s not much of a legato player, but I’ve never heard picking articulation that so effectively demands attention. This is a guitarist to watch carefully. He also recently released a powerful 12-string electric solo record on New Atlantis that I’ll be covering in the near future.

Though John DeBlase is the least flashy performer in Many Arms, maintaining structure when the guitars and drums go wild, he writes a lot of the band’s music, and he gets an especially satisfying fuzz bass workout on the epic “Enfolded Within a Great Flow.” And drummer Ricardo Lagomasino sounds comfortable in every stylistic context he tries, from jazz to blast beats. He’s especially inventive when shifting accents and densities over ostinato bass figures, a technique that makes “Extraction” rock both weirdly and hard. That approach is also responsible for my favorite section on their “Palabras Malas” album, the outro of “The Year 500 Billion.”

“Missing Time” is available from Engine Studios, but also be sure to check the Many Arms BandCamp page, where you can find all of their music. And stay tuned in March—Tzadik Records is set to release the third Many Arms full-length, followed by some April tour dates with Hyrrokkin.

Preview from The Deli

2012-02-26T20:02:00.003-08:00

A little late, but some kind words from the Deli:

Extraterrestrial Shredder Nick Millevoi at Highwire Gallery Feb. 25

Extraterrestrial shredder Nick Millevoi will be wowing the audience tonight at Highwire Gallery. Armed with his 12-string electric guitar, he’ll be invading people’s minds with his otherworldly sounds. Though Millevoi may have some fine, edgy artillery in his arsenal courtesy of his 2011 debut album Black Figure of a Bird, this evening will be his first completely improvised guitar set. So if avant-garde noise and lightning quick guitar work is your thang, then I highly suggest that you make it out to catch one of Philly’s rising stars, and have your brain scrambled. Nick Millevoi will also be joined by locals Flying Sutra and Brooklyn’s killer BOB. Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave., 8pm, $6, All Ages - Q.D. Tran

Something Else Reviews

2012-02-13T09:16:00.001-08:00

New review posted this weekend for Black Figure of a Bird:

Nick Millevoi – Black Figure Of A Bird (2011)

Posted by S. Victor Aaron

When I was very young, I’d pick up my brother’s guitar or tap on my mom’s
piano just to try to see what kind of cool sounds I could get out of them. I
wasn’t concerned about notes, chords or songs, I merely wanted to get the
things to make some sort of resonance that would resonate with me. Nick
Millevoi looks for the same primal satisfaction from his 12-string guitar but
with informed with technical mastery for his solo release Black Figure Of
A Bird. Millevoi, as our fringe music lover audience might recall, co-leads a
free metal-jazz trio called Many Arms and about a year ago we put an ear
on their second album Missing Time.

Millevoi’s new solo record, as indicated above, was recorded entirely and
only with a 12-string guitar, using different tunings and no discernable effects,
except on “Nothing Forms A Liquid”. The whole record feels created on the
spot and probably was, as songs are coherent in mood but are otherwise
unstructured and unpredictable. Most of the half dozen pieces are fairly brief,
save for “What Sunlight Does Make It Through” and “Nothing Forms A Liquid.”
The former basks in rich chords shimmering from 12 strings that for a moment
corrodes into slashing strums before returning to the calm. The latter track
explores chiming sounds that somewhat resembles a glockenspiel, exploring
the space between the notes as much as the notes themselves. “Life In Ice”
alternates among strident strums, pensive staccato lines and Bruce Eisenbeil-
styled string scraping. On “Warm Green Discs,” light and fleet fingerings share
space with forceful strumming of alien chords. “Bruxer” (video below) is an
intense eighty-eight second ride on the metallic side.

Clocking in at less than 26 minutes, Black Figure Of A Bird comprises more
of a short story than a novel. Nonetheless, it’s s fascinating look into the music
of Nick Millevoi at its naked core.

Black Figure Of A Bird released last September 11 as one of the inaugural releases
of New Atlantis Records. Visit Nick Millevoi’s blog.

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/02/11/nick-millevoi-black-figure-of-a-bird-2011/

South Fallsburg Bulgar

2012-02-12T22:26:00.001-08:00

A few weeks back, Dan Blacksberg and I recorded a version of "South Fallsburg Bulgar." Dan is a masterful Klezmer player and is leading the way on this really cool tune. I'm going to keep on Dan about teaching me a bunch of tunes so we can get our "Archer Spade goes Klezmer" series together.

New music

2012-02-05T22:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend I played two shows with Alban Bailly and Joe Moffett in Hartford and Brooklyn. We're hoping to do some more shows in the summer, maybe more than two next time. This week we were celebrating the release of our new album, Strange Falls, which was released on Eh? Records. I just updated the Discography/Record Store section if you're interested in checking it out.

Here's the cover, done by the great Hans Rickheit:

Last week, Ed Ricart and I led a session with Ches Smith and Travis Laplante. We recorded with Jason Lafarge at Seizure's Palace in Brooklyn and we're really happy with the results. Ed and I have worked together in a bunch of other capacities (touring, sharing bills, doing some improvising, Ed released Black Figure of a Bird) and the idea for this recording came up while on tour together as a way for us to collaborate. If you haven't checked out his band, Hyrrokkin, you can check them out on Facebook here, they are a power trio that really brings it:

My new solo album is being mastered by Colin Marston this month and it will be released on tape by Flenser Records. I'm still working on plans for a vinyl release.

Many Arms tour dates are up now in the upcoming shows section. Looking at all these dates is getting me really pumped. It's been over a year and a half since our last proper show so we've decided to really go for it this time. Getting psyched!

Archer Spade in Philadelphia City Paper

2012-01-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today's City Paper has a feature on Archer Spade written by Shaun Brady. He calls us "cosmic neo-noir" which I think is just about the finest description an avant garde duo such as ourselves could ask for.

Check it out here:http://www.citypaper.net/authors/shaun_brady/2012-01-12-archer-spade.html

Inside scoop: Dan was holding a live chicken in this photo.

Rising Artifacts

2012-01-10T22:28:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to announce that on Monday, Impose Magazine reviewed and premiered the new Many Arms track, "Rising Artifacts in a Five-Point Field," which is coming out on our self-titled album on Tzadik in March. Getting psyched!

Here it is:

http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/many-arms-rising-artifacts-in-a-five-point-field

We're almost ready to post tour dates!

Also, if you haven't had a chance to check out the Archer Spade Kickstarter project, now's the time! We've got 4 days left and $1264 to go!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1828828693/archer-spade-commissioning-series?ref=live

Hello 2012

2012-01-02T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hello 2012.

The Deli put Black Figure of a Bird on their year-end list. I love The Deli, they're the coolest:

http://philadelphia.thedelimagazine.com/8206/qd-tran’s-top-15-local-albums-2011

I've finished my new solo guitar album. Eric Carbonara made my guitar sound huge and punishing. I'm looking forward to releasing it, but I'm going to have to find a label first!

Tomorrow I'm heading to Oakland with Dan Blacksberg to meet up with Drew Cecatto and work with Roscoe Mitchell on the composition he's going to be writing for our trio (Archer Spade + Drew Cecatto). I'm totally psyched to get to work with Roscoe, who is a total hero. I'm also psyched to play with Drew and Dan because I think we make really great music together but we get to do it so rarely since we're bi-coastal.

See you soon!

Year end status update

2011-12-06T20:44:00.001-08:00

As the year is coming to a close, I'm coming close to finishing up a lot of projects that I'd like to let everyone know about.

Last week, Many Arms played our last show of the year at Elena's in Philadelphia (a show organized by the wonderful Stephen Buono and promoted by Fire Museum). It was a really great show, and great to play alongside Little Women, Banned Books, and Split Red, who debuted their new singer Justin Duerr.

Many Arms probably won't be playing for a few months as we're getting our upcoming touring schedule together. We'll be touring when our new album is released and hitting a healthy chunk of the US in late March and April and heading to Europe in May.Here's an idea of what to expect:

Last week, Electric Simcha recorded our new album with Colin Marston at Menegroth: The Thousand Caves. It sounds amazing! We still have to find a label to release it, so no details yet on when you'll be hearing it.

Next weekend I'll be recording a new solo guitar album with Eric Carbonara. It's going to be quite a bit different from Black Figure of a Bird. I'm really excited to get all the new music (and some that is less new) recorded and my neighbors are really excited that I'll stop practicing so loudly for a while.

In January, Archer Spade will be pretty active. We're heading to California to work with Roscoe Mitchell and our sax-friend Drew Cecatto to work on a piece that Thomas Buckner is commissioning Roscoe Mitchell to write for our trio. While we're out there, we'll be playing a concert with Ken Ueno and Matt Ingalls at CNMAT. When we return, we'll be debuting our new duo piece, So Timid Persons Can Kill Their Own Fowl, at a free show at the Rotunda in Philly. Two days later, we'll be finishing up with our Kickstarter campaign (see the video two posts below!).

In late January, Eh? Records will be releasing Strange Falls, the debut album by the trio of Alban Bailly, Joe Mofett, and myself. I'm looking forward to some shows we'll be playing together in February!

It looks like the debut album by the Johnny DeBlase Quartet will be getting released early in 2011. I'm looking forward to having the details on that ready to share. Soon!

Now check out this great cat:

See you soon!

Many Arms: A letter

2011-11-18T15:19:00.000-08:00

From Tiny Mix Tapes:

Many Arms: A letter: Caroline: we're working on a decision here. Personally I'd probably work on drinking coffee while playing guitar and also searching for mov...

Archer Spade Commissioning Series

2011-11-16T21:37:00.001-08:00

I'm excited to announce that Archer Spade, my duo with Dan Blacksberg, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a set of commissions from composers Gene Coleman, Dave Soldier, and Johnny DeBlase. I won't go into discussing how much I love all of their music (we deal with that on the Kickstarter page), but I will say that I'm really looking forward to working with each of these guys and I think they will be writing some really great music for us.

We'd love your support. Check out the page, enjoy the video, and tell your friends. Thanks!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1828828693/archer-spade-commissioning-series?ref=live

Many Arms: New album, Beyond Territories, to be released on T...

2011-10-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

Many Arms: New album, Beyond Territories, to be released on T...: We're excited to announce that our new album, Beyond Territories, is going to be released this spring on Tzadik, one of our absolute favorit...

Double Indemnity

2011-10-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

Many Arms has finished our new album, Syzygy, which we recorded with Eric Carbonara. It sounds really great, it's three long-burn tracks. We're super-stoked. We've got some exciting news coming up about the album really soon!

The other day I returned from a really fun tour with Hyrrokkin. This was their first tour and I'm glad they had me along. They wail and they're some of the coolest dudes. They've got a tape out on New Atlantis and you can check it out here: http://hyrrokkin.bandcamp.com.

Here's a recording of an improvisation I did at AS220 in Providence from tour:

Double Indemnity by Nick Millevoi

More soon!

Many Arms site

2011-09-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

There's a new Many Arms page up at http://www.manyarmsband.com. There's some new info on there and we're looking forward to recording our new album with Eric Carbonara next week. 3 long tracks!

Many Arms - "Beyond Territories"

2011-09-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

On August 3, Many Arms played a show at Johnny Brenda's where we debuted the new music we've been working on this summer. We've been laying low getting this stuff together and we're planning on recording our new album at the end of the month.

Here's a video of us playing part of "Beyond Territories" (a 15-minute blaster) from that night:

Video of new piece from August 20th at Highwire Gallery

2011-08-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

This is one of the three new pieces I premiered at the Highwire Gallery on August 20th, tentatively titled "Into Endlessly Unfolding Hallways."

Not the Wind, Not the Flag were in town from Toronto and played one of my favorite sets (of quite a few) that I've seen them play. Their set consisted of three pieces, an all-percussion groove piece first; the second, an edgy and disjunct sax/drum piece next, and this is the final guitar/drum blowout spirit-vamp jammer.

The opening set was from Traits, who delivered some really beautiful and lush textures, after which they played the nerdiest version of "The Immigrant Song" that I'm aware of.

Press from The Deli for tonight's show

2011-08-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Incendiary guitarist Nick Millevoi has proven to be a man of many strings throughout the years. And from his explosive trio Many Arms debuting a set of new music at their August 3rd show at Johnny Brenda’s to the debut of his eerily disturbing new video for the track “Bruxer” (which you can check out below) from his highly-praised solo album, Black Figure of a Bird (you can read the review of our April Album of the Month HERE), August has already proven to be a productive month for the artist. To move things along in that trend, Millevoi will be debuting some new pieces when he performs an intimate show at Highwire Gallery tonight. And it will be an especially interesting show since he’ll be joined by Traits, the experimental noise duo of Ben Remsen (Little Ocean, Big Ocean) and Sebastian Petsu (Rain of Belle Isle). Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave., 8pm, $6, 21+ - Bill McThrill

http://nyc.thedelimagazine.com/6837/nick-millevoi-debut-new-pieces-highwire-gallery-aug-20

Philly Weekly's Monday Morning Comedown

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

This week's Monday Morning Comedown (5 new videos every week) features the video to "Bruxer."

Elliot Sharp writes:

Nick Millevoi – Bruxer: Philly guitar destroyer Nick Millevoi (Many Arms) released his first solo album earlier this year called Black Figure Of A Bird. Last week he dropped a video for the song “Bruxer,” where the classic B&W images accompany his burning, terrifying 12-string electric axe chops and zigs and zags. He’s playing Highwire Gallery on Saturday, August 20.

Follow the link to see the video as well as well as videos by ASAP Rocky, Marissa Nadler, Prince EA, and Jay-Z and Kanye West.

http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/music/2011/08/15/monday-morning-comedown-new-videos-by-nick-millevoi-asap-rocky-marissa-nadler-prince-ea-and-jay-z-kanye-west/

Review from Gapplegate Guitar Blog

2011-08-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a great new review from the Gapplegate Guitar Blog:

Nick Millevoi: "Black Figure of Bird" Delivers High Impact 12-String Electric Guitar Solos

This past March I covered the avant power trio Many Arms and their high energy assault speed metal. The guitarist on that was Nick Millevoi. Nick has been busy since then, among other things putting together a solo CD of 12-string electric guitar pieces, Black Figure of a Bird (Sundmagi na001). It just came out and will no doubt be turning a few heads around.

Essentially Nick has created some structured outness for six episodic segments that have an overal aura about them but also pacing and variational depth. He uses the full sonarity of the 12-string. He'll deviate from standard tunings (it sounds like) to fashion open resonant chords of an unusual sort, make interesting use of chiming harmonics, then come in with dynamically alive industrial trance figures (sometimes sounding a hair like late Crimson or the League of Crafty Guitarists only much more insistent), and so on.

There is a good deal of really interesting guitar work happening on Black Figure. The sounds he gets set him apart; the note choices, chord voicings and rapid strummings put him in a league of his own.

This is sometimes startling, ever-engaging, bright-dark and brittle music. And what seems most encouraging to me is that it is music first and foremost. It is rather remarkable as guitar music as well but you go away from the disk knowing you have heard good music.

Welcome to the Millevoi Zone....you can get there from here. I recommend that you make the trip.

http://gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com/2011/08/nick-millevoi-black-figure-of-bird.html

Black Figure of a Bird officially released today, buy it here!

2011-08-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Black Figure of a Bird is officially released! And now you can buy it in the "discography" section for $10 plus $2 s&h. Check out Aviv Rubinstien's video below and get psyched!

BRUXER - new video by Aviv Rubinstien!

2011-08-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

With all due respect to Rod Serling:

A few things I'm excited about right now:

2011-07-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Many Arms will debut a set of all new music at Johnny Brenda's on August 3, when we open for Bardo Pond and the William Hooker String Trio.

My good friends Not the Wind, Not the Flag from Toronto will be playing at the Highwire Gallery on August 20 and I'll be playing solo and debuting some new pieces. Traits, the new duo of Sebastian Petsu and Ben Remsen will be opening.

I'm curating a 12-hr concert with my friend Justin Gibbon at Sinergy Space in Kensington on September 17. The lineup is looking pretty amazing so far. More info will be coming shortly.

Eh? Records will be releasing an album with myself, Joe Moffett, and Alban Bailly in January. They released the great Psychotic Quartet album a few months ago that everyone is talking about.

More show details in the "Upcoming shows" section!

My favorite song of the day:

New Many Arms video from PhilaMOCA

2011-05-19T11:40:00.001-07:00

Many Arms @ The Mausoleum from Tachyphylaxis on Vimeo.

Videos from May 6 at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia

2011-05-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Black Figure of a Bird named The Deli's Album of the Month for April

2011-04-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

"If the massive resurgence of fuzzy, static-laden, shoegaze-y music in the past five years is any indication, music fans love noise. But Nick Millevoi, a key figure in several projects before this, isn’t reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine in the slightest. Instead, his frenetic twelve-string compositions owe much more to the No Wave scene of ‘70s/80s New York, a flash-in-the-pan group of musicians who used noise, minimal structure, and sometimes utter intimidation as their claim to notoriety. The noisiness found on Millevoi’s Black Figure of a Bird offers virtually nothing in terms of the warmth, delicacy, or etherealness that’s expected from today’s shoegaze trend-followers. In fact, the title of the last track, “Nothing Forms a Liquid”, might be a perfect descriptor of what’s going on here. Millevoi’s lone guitar is all treble, a chiming, brittle tonality that maps out into a dozen angles at once. His compositions are fiercely bare-bones, but with an undeniable life-blood churning somewhere at their core.

“Warm Green Disks” shows something of Millevoi’s jazz leanings, as well as a serious King Crimson vibe (Larks’ Tongues in Aspic era), in its constant, spidery movement up and down his freakishly-tuned scales, before building into a fuller, more atonal onslaught. This structure becomes a pattern, consistently finding new variations over the course of the record’s brief tracklist. “Life in Ice” offers a similar chordal fury interspersed with noise-making that gives you, quite chillingly, the effect of ice cracking and splintering off beneath your feet. “What Sunlight Does Make It Through” is about as gentle as the record gets, with spacey swaths that grow increasingly more tense and effects-laden. “Bruxer” is like a Greg Ginn solo pushed to its limit and looped for a minute and a half, and “Nothing Forms a Liquid” experiments with excessively-overdriven pinch harmonics.

Black Figure of a Bird isn’t for everyone; it really only caters to that specific set of listeners who enjoy atonal guitar experiments. But those who feel themselves a part of that category will undoubtedly find these tunes both visceral and fascinating." - Joe Poteracki

http://philadelphia.thedelimagazine.com/

City Paper preview

2011-03-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

Nick Millevoi
Thu., March 31, 8:30 p.m., $5, with Colin Fisher and Josh Carrigan, The Marvelous, 208 S. 40th St.

By Shaun Brady

[ jazz ]

Granted, Philly guitarist Nick Millevoi usually has help in creating the ferocious squalls of noise he conjures on a regular basis: trombonist Dan Blacksberg in the duo Archer Spade, his triomates in Many Arms, and the like-minded genre-mashers of Make A Rising and Electric Simcha. But just because he goes it alone on his new CD, Black Figure of a Bird, doesn't make him any less dangerous. On his solo debut's half-dozen tracks, Millevoi wrestles a 12-string electric into doing things it clearly doesn't want to do, creating harsh textures, blistering runs, odd-angled lines and punishing eruptions. The occasional moments of breath and clarity seem a merciful respite for the instrument.

Thu., March 31, 8:30 p.m., $5, with Colin Fisher and Josh Carrigan, The Marvelous, 208 S. 40th St., nickmillevoi.blogspot.com.

http://www.citypaper.net/music/2011-03-31-nick-millevoi.html

Deli Interview

2011-03-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an interview that I did with The Deli about Black Figure of a Bird:

http://national.thedelimagazine.com/5012/where-my-mind-nick-millevoi

Where Is My Mind?: Nick Millevoi

- by Q.D. Tran

“Philly guy Nick Millevoi always seems to be in the middle of something interesting - saw him do a lovely solo show a couple weeks ago.” That was a quote from our interview withNotekillers’ David First when we picked his brain about whom he was currently into at the time. How true that statement turned out to be! I had already heard of Millevoi from his work withMake A Rising (who were actually The Deli Philly’s first Featured Artist(s) of the Month). He’s working on a new project with trombonist Dan Blacksberg as the duo Archer Spade and still pushing the boundaries of improvisation with his avant-garde punk-jazz trio Many Arms (Engine Records, Majmua Music). Well, he also has his new solo album of 12-string guitar compositions coming out in April titled Black Figure of a Bird. The 6-song EP will be released by DC's New Atlantis Records and Sunmagi Records as the first of a series of three collaborative releases which also includes efforts from Peter Brotzmann and Han Bennink, and Jason Ajemian. Black Figure of a Bird really spotlights this shredder and master craftsman making a statement while finding his own sound. He’s having his CD release party this Thursday, March 31 at The Marvelous. We had a chance to catch up Millevoi to talk shop and the absurd (or is it?). Find out why he thinks there is a very good chance we’ll have more hard proof in the next few years that aliens have lived among us (if they aren’t still living with us now), what cover song guided him down the path to his obsession with the guitar, why he thinks The Edge is the most overrated guitarist in music history, and much, much more.

The Deli: What made you want to play a 12-string guitar?
Nick Millevoi: About a year and a half ago, I had been listening to a lot Pharaoh Sanders and thinking about how huge his tenor sax tone is, and I wanted to figure out a way to get a bigger sound out of the guitar that didn’t mean using more pedals or more amps. A friend offered to lend me his 12-string electric, and I found exactly what I was looking for!

TD: What inspired you to do a solo album of 12-string compositions?
NM: I think it’s important to play solo music, which is something I had been reading Anthony Braxton talk about a lot. I love so much solo music, so the time came that I thought I should make my own contribution to the body of experimental solo guitar music. I had been working on developing my own solo vocabulary but felt like I had a final hurdle to cross before something came to fruition. There’s something about the 12-string that immediately spoke to me and I just started to write, and once I started to experiment with alternate tunings, all of the music that is on this album came about quite quickly.

TD: Was there much cutting and pasting or overdubbing with this album or was it basically Eric Carbonara hitting the record button while you just play your ass off?
NM: This album was all recorded live. Eric had a really good vision for how to record and set everything up, and I just sat in the room and played everything a couple of times until I was totally exhausted!

TD: You’ve certainly been involved with many projects. What do you find most enjoyable about the collaborative process?
NM: The most enjoyable part of the collaborative process is having other people involved shaping what is being created. For example, I play in a duo with trombonist Dan Blacksberg called Archer Spade where we compose in collaboration using extended and non-extended techniques of both of our instruments. We work best this way because we both offer such intimate relationships with our instruments that we need to rely on each other to work things out. In Many Arms, a lot of the fruits of collaboration come about from pushing each other in improvisations where the group interaction keeps getting more intense, going longer, faster, and the energy keeps going in a way that no one of us can control.

TD: What do you like best about doing a solo project?
NM: I really love the sound of an unaccompanied guitar so for me, this is just another case of making music that I’m really excited about!

TD: What’s the most challenging thing about a solo project?
NM: I’ve been trying to play solo guitar music for a long time now, but in the past few years, I’ve been really inspired by reading about Anthony Braxton and his solo saxophone music and listening to people like Eric Carbonara and Joe Morris, who both have totally singular solo guitar sounds. I think the hardest part has been looking at music like theirs that’s so individual to the people creating it and trying to figure out what kind of statement I was trying to make.

TD: Why did you name the album Black Figure of a Bird?
NM: It’s a reference from the great noir novel The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. A lot of the imagery I associate with the music on this album is based on noir films, sci-fi, and outer space.

TD: What would you like someone to takeaway from the album after listening to it?
NM: Some kind of feeling of catharsis, maybe more energy. Also, if people listen loudly enough, I’d expect their ears to ring.

TD: Do you prefer playing a 12-string or 6-string guitar, and why?
NM: I don’t have a preference. They’re both really different in terms of color, so I use them each in different settings. Right now I’m using the 12-string for my solo compositions, but still mostly using 6-string for solo improvisations. Both are really great for high energy group playing though. I think the 6-string is probably more direct in that context, and someone just told me that the 12-string sounded scary after a Many Arms set.

TD: Please name a 12-string guitarist that we should check out.
NM: Arto Lindsay is my favorite 12-stringer.

TD: Who do you think is the most overrated guitarist in music history?
NM: Probably The Edge. I just watched that movie It Might Get Loud. I thought it was lame, but since I teach guitar, I felt compelled to check it out. The Edge spends more time talking about his effects than guitar, and there is a scene where he goes outside to play guitar, and he has to take his effects rig with him. I don’t think that should really count as playing guitar. I remember reading a Keith Richards quote where he said any good song should work on acoustic guitar, and I think that works for what he was talking about, but maybe not for all music, but I will say I think if you’re a guitarist, you should at least be able to make music with just a guitar.

TD: Who do you think is the most underrated?
NM: I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone seriously talk about Ronald Jones, who was a member of the Flaming Lips in the nineties. He plays one of my 10 favorite guitar solos on the song “The Abandoned Hospital Ship”. It totally rips a whole in the fabric of the song! I’m not sure I’m ready to say he’s the most underrated guitarist in music history since his output is so minimal, and I’m really only basing it on one solo, but he was certainly capable of greatness. Also, Jerry Garcia is certainly a revered guitarist, but I think a lot of people, particularly in experimental music, write him off because of his stereotypical fans and what the Dead became in the eighties and nineties. His sixties and seventies output is definitely some of the greatest rock guitar playing that exists.

TD: What was the first cover song that you ever learned to play on the guitar?
NM: I started learning guitar because of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, but it was too hard for me back then, so the first song I really got into was “Come As You Are”.

TD: We all know that guitarists can sometimes be show-offs and wankers. What do you think is the cheesiest guitar move that you secretly enjoy seeing live?
NM: Whammy bar dive-bombs on a Floyd Rose, which is an awful type of bridge system on shredder guitars that nobody should ever buy. When I hear one, I do get a bit jealous that none of my guitars can do that. Especially when they bring it back into a harmonic or a sweet high note.

TD: I thought that I read an interview where you said that you believe in aliens. Is that true? If so, do you think alien astronauts/ancient aliens existed?
NM: Totally true. I believe in the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. I try my best to remain skeptical about their current involvement on earth, but there is a lot of evidence that can’t be argued away. I think there are really convincing arguments for ancient aliens, but so much of it is sensationalized so people can feel comfortable convincing themselves it’s not true. I think there’s a very good chance we’ll have more hard proof in the next few years. It’s quite chilling to think about.

TD: What is your favorite thing to get at the deli?
NM: Whitefish salad on a poppy bagel with lettuce and tomato.

Tour dates!

2011-03-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

March 31
The Marvelous
208 S 40th St.
Philadelphia, PA
8:30 pm

w/Colin Fisher and Josh Carrigan

April 1
Sonic Circuits and New Atlantis Present at
Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Ave.
Silver Spring, MD

w/Colin Fisher opening for Eugene Chadbourne/Tatsuya Nakatani

April 2
Orion Studios
2903 Whittington Ave
Baltimore, MD 21230
8:00 pm

w/ Colin Fisher and Matta Gawa

April 3
The Shop
312 E Seneca St.
Ithaca, NY
3:00 pm

w/Colin Fisher

April 4
The Spotty Dog
440 Warren St.
Hudson NY

w/Colin Fisher and Savior Self

April 5
119 Gallery
119 Chelmsford St.
Lowell, MA
7:30 pm

w/Colin Fisher

April 6
The Whitehaus
10 Seaverns Ave.
Boston MA
9:00 pm

w/Colin Fisher

April 7
Death By Audio
49 South 2nd Street
between Wythe & Kent
Brooklyn, NY 11211
9:00 pm

w/Colin Fisher, Suite Unraveling, and NY 69 (Adam Caine/Kevin Shea duo)

April 8
Building 116
Providence, RI

w/Colin Fisher

April 9
Uncertainty Series
810 State St.
New Haven, CT

w/Colin Fisher, Chris Riggs

Press for Archer Spade and Drew Ceccato

2011-03-16T21:20:00.001-07:00

From the Philadelphia Weekly:

Thursday, March 17
Archer Spade & Drew Ceccato
Having opened for guitarist Bern Nix last month, the venturesome duo Archer Spade—trombonist Daniel Blacksberg and guitarist Nick Millevoi—return for another mission. Blacksberg is a diligent student of improvised music, holding down klezmer gigs, landing sideman spots with the likes of Anthony Braxton and hatching compelling schemes as a leader (e.g., Bit Heads). Millevoi shreds furiously with his punk-math-jazz trio Many Arms (Palabras Malas, Missing Time) and conceives prickly, evocative music for solo 12-string guitar on his new Black Figure of a Bird. West Coast woodwind specialist Drew Ceccato joins the duo this week for a tribute to Roscoe Mitchell, the prolific composer and co-founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. On the program will be Mitchell’s “Marche,” “L-R-G,” “Cards” and “Nonaah.” -David R. Adler
8pm. Free. The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. 215.573.3234. arsnovaworkshop.org

Read more: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts-and-culture/Calendar-March-16-22-118034089.html?page=1&comments=1&showAll#ixzz1GpM7lKDH

From the City Paper:

Archer Spade + Drew Ceccato

Thu., March 17, 8 p.m., free, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., arsnovaworkshop.com.

By Shaun Brady

The lessons of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) have been well-absorbed by many on the Philly avant-jazz scene, who mix styles, genres and eras of music with anarchic abandon. Case in point: the duo Archer Spade, consisting of trombonist Daniel Blacksberg and guitarist Nick Millevoi, who between them traverse the terrain of jazz, rock, prog, klezmer and experimental musics without pausing to take a breath. The pair will pay homage to AACM founding father Roscoe Mitchell with four of his compositions, supplemented by West Coast woodwind player Drew Ceccato, a student of Mitchell's at Oakland's Mills College.

Thu., March 17, 8 p.m., free, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., arsnovaworkshop.com.

http://www.citypaper.net/music/2011-03-17-agenda16.html

Make A Rising

2011-03-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

There's a new Make A Rising EP available over at makearising.com. We worked on writing and rehearsing this music for over a year, practicing 3 times a week most weeks before going into the studio last February to record the basic tracks. Since then, Jesse has been working on producing it, adding tons of synths, vocals, percussion, and other instruments and now it's finally finished.

Jesse moved to LA last March to work for Adventure Time and we haven't played since. I'm not sure what Make A Rising will do or be in the future, but these recordings stand as a great studio statement on what we were. Before I joined the band, Make A Rising were my favorite band and I think the second MAR album, Infinite Ellipse, is one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded, so it's totally my honor to finally have the music we worked on together released. Someday, maybe we'll work together on a triple album.

Roscoe Mitchell

2011-03-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

For our upcoming concert of Roscoe Mitchell's music this Thursday, Ars Nova asked Dan Blacksberg, Drew Ceccato, and myself to talk about what Mitchell's music means to us. Here's the link:

http://www.arsnovaworkshop.com/node/562

Video of Moffett/Bailly/Millevoi trio from Highwire

2011-02-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

We performed as Lord and Manor. I believe this is a piece titled "Safari Vacation."

New Missing Time review

2011-02-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.somethingelsereviews.com/2011/02/many-arms-missing-time.html

Record release show announced!

2011-02-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

I'll be celebrating the release of Black Figure of a Bird on March 31 at West Philly's the Marvelous with my friend Colin Fisher from Toronto, who will be playing an improvised guitar set, and fellow Philadelphian Josh Carrigan. I'll then be going on tour for 9 days with Colin. All of the information for the Philly show is on the "Upcoming Shows" page and the tour dates will be announced soon.

John DeBlase Quartet at Highwire Gallery

2011-02-14T11:42:00.001-08:00

This Friday's show in the Philly Weekly

2011-02-09T21:10:00.001-08:00

Check it out:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/events/John-DeBlase-Quartet-115493734.html

Philly.com article on February at Highwire

2011-02-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

Brian Rademaekers wrote a really nice article about my curating for the Highwire this month over at Philly.com. I'm really excited about these shows!

http://www.philly.com/community/pa/philadelphia/netimes/Music_Row_Explorations_in_music.html

Away With the Tide

2011-01-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

Ben Remsen just posted a review about the first Circles track ever written or recorded on his blog. You can listen to the track there, read the review, and then read his sweet blog.

http://noonegivesahoot.blogspot.com/2011/01/circles-away-with-tide.html

New tracks posted from my forthcoming solo 12-string guitar record

2011-01-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

If you look to the right you'll see a SoundCloud player. That's the first track from my new solo 12-string guitar album, The Black Figure of a Bird. I'm really stoked about it. The CD is coming out in April and I'm working on putting a tour together with my good friend, Colin Fisher. More news soon!

February at Highwire

2011-01-05T15:36:00.001-08:00

I'm guest curating the music at Highwire Gallery for the month of February. I'm really excited for each of these shows and I think it's going to be a really great month!

For any more info, check out http://www.museumfire.com/events

FEBRUARY AT HIGHWIRE GALLERY
curated by Nick Millevoi

Fire Museum Presents:

Split Red

The Suite Unraveling

Eliot Klein

Guest curator: Nick Millevoi

Thursday, February 3rd 7:30pm
Highwire Gallery
2040 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA $6

Split Red:

High-energy punk rockers Split Red bring touches of hardcore and funk into their music, guaranteed to be crowd pleasing and have plenty of hooks and shredding. Featuring members of Bird Fly Yellow, Cuddle Magic, Shot x Shot, and Make A Rising. - bio

The Suite Unraveling:

Fresh from the Brooklyn underground, guitarist/composer Lily Maase is at the forefront of the arts movement sweeping through the recently-reclaimed industrial neighborhood known as Bushwick, where she has built fully-equipped stages onto warehouse rooftops, recorded music in cavernous basements and abandoned churches, and built a multimedia experience around her new music ensemble, the Suite Unraveling, with her own two hands.

More rock band than jazz quintet, yet playing music more improvised than composed, Lily and the Suite have one foot planted in the world of rock and roll and the other firmly in the avant-garde, embracing influences as broad as Ornette Coleman, electronic music, and guitar heroes from the days of yore. The goal? To create something honest and new, steeped in the sensibility of simpler times, but reaching with reckless abandon into the sonic landscape that lays ahead.- bio

Eliot Klein:

Scifi soundworld/future blues: shifting layers of tonesounds from fingers on keyboards: stage piano, synthesizer, just-intoned kalimba: run through delays and loops: improvisation mending through time, the elastic substrate. 5-year resident of Philadelphia, denizen of the former Adventure Island warehouse studio, hailing from such bands as Unisex Starship, Big Ocean, Magnet City Kids, Jimmy Cousins' band, Shri Camel, Foxy Lady and the Pretty LA Women. - bio

Fire Museum Presents:

John DeBlase Quartet

Julis Masri & Charles Cohen

Alban Bailly

Guest curator: Nick Millevoi

Saturday, February 12th 8:00pm
Highwire Gallery
2040 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA $6

John DeBlase Quartet:

Johnny DeBlase is a bassist and composer most noted for his work with instrumental guitar trios Many Arms and Zevious. His new group performs high energy, improvisational compositions which are inspired both by the 20th century serialism of Schoenberg and Webern, as well as the avant garde jazz of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and David S. Ware. The project features a rotating ensemble of his friends and collaborators who are some of the most creative musicians from Philadelphia and New York City.

For his performance at the Highwire Gallery Johnny will be accompanied by trumpeter Joe Moffett from New York, as well as guitarist Nick Millevoi and drummer Dave Flaherty, both from Philadelphia.

Julius Masri & Charles Cohen:

Charles Cohen is one of the legends of Philadelphia's improvised music scene and his singular voice is one of the most enduring and unique. Creating music since 1971, his music is entirely improvisational and produced solely on a vintage Buchla Music Easel synthesizer, an extremely rare integrated analog performance instrument made by synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla.

Julius Masri, born in Lebanon, started playing music state side in the early 90s. He attended Bard College where he studied composition with Joan Tower, percussion with Thurman Barker (AACM), and experimental sonic improvisation with Richard Teitelbaum (MEV). Aside from focusing on trap set and circuit bent electronics, Julius stays up late at night worrying about the gray space between the immediate transcending experience of sonic phenomenon, the immediate aural complacency when confronting idiomatic music, and the attempt to reconcile both worlds in the most uncomfortable fashion possible. He currently performs in Chakra Khan/Air Pirates, Electric Simcha, TinMouth, Q-1, as well as many pickup projects with creative people in any number of artistic denominations. Julius is an Aries, and loathes walks on the beach.

Alban Bailly:

Alban Bailly is a multi-faceted guitarist who studied composition, jazz and improvisation in France. He performed regularly in Europe before moving to the US in 2005. Currently a resident of Philadelphia, he continues to be in demand and has performed extensively on the east coast. He has been fortunate to play with many wonderful musicians in various settings (Jack Wright, Ron Anderson, Carol Genetti, Fred Lomberg Holm, Alvin Curran, Tony Buck, Jack Wright, Alex Waterman, Martin Tetrault, Eve Risser, Mark Sarich, Helena Espvall, Andrew Drury, and many others).

He has been a part of the improvised music scene both in Europe and US performing bowed acoustic guitar and toured the in US and Canada with Jack Wright, Mark Sarich and Heddy Boubaker among others. He is the guitarist for the contemporary tango group Oscuro Quintet, for which he’s also written several pieces. Alban is also a collaborator of the dance company Da•Da•Dance for which he composes electro-acoustic music and performs regularly.

Fire Museum Presents:

Hush Arbors & Jason Ajemian

Puddles In A Gondola

Travis Woodson

Guest curator: Nick Millevoi

Sunday, February 13th 7:30pm
Highwire Gallery
2040 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA $6

Hush Arbors and Jason Ajemian:

Hush Arbors/ Keith Wood, has gone from “soft and hypnotically picked folk songs” to “belting rock records,” David Morris of Hinterground.com wrote. The London-based guitarist and songwriter, a native of Virginia, is a member of Current 93 and Voice Of The Seven Thunders. Wood played for sold-out crowds at the ATP festival and shared the bill with Sonic Youth.
Jason Ajemian is among experimental jazz’s most exciting and innovative bass players. He has played with Ken Vandermark, Dave Rempis and other stars of the genre. Ajemian has performed in over 15 countries and at world-renowned art events and venues like The Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, The Palais De Tokyo in Paris, the Festival Della Creativa in Florence and the 50th Anniversary of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Ajemian and Wood are old friends. “After 20 years of playing music apart and together,” Wood says, “we’ve decided to take it on the road and roll like we always roll.”
James Jackson Toth wrote of Hush Arbors 2009 record Yankee Reality: “This is a classic, timeless, ageless American album, full of hope and yearning, beauty and melancholy, and which pours out stories like flowers. Are these rainbow-at-end-of-the-world songs? Or heart’s break/heart’s ease-at-the-end-of-the-road songs? Anyway, I thought of horses and acid, death sleeping in a shack, the river bursting its banks and grinning like whisky, the birdlight and fading empires. Starry, dreamlike, plaintive, gorgeous and broken, Yankee Reality is a perfect and utterly individual work, endlessly inventive yet instantly recognizable as being in a noble and generous tradition.”
Jacksonville, FL, reviewer Jack Diablo wrote about a 2009 solo performance by Ajemian that the musician “coaxed the audience to the floor below the stage, politely asked for their attention, and then received it in full. While his request was polite, his music demanded it. For an instrument that is normally relegated to providing accompaniment for a melody, he made the beast sing, eliciting sounds far outside its usual range.”

Puddles In A Gondola:

Puddles in a Gondola are Matt Stein (illuminea, Live Like a King, Racketshop) - double bass, toys, June Bender (Oscuro Quintet, Matt Davis) - violin, more toys and Hal Dean (soundcloud.com/howl-din) - guitar, EWI, electronic toys. Enthralled and inspired by Hal's sonic landscapes, Matt and June asked Hal to join PIAG in the early days of 2011 so the three could explore their mutual fascination with sound together. PIAG takes a truly improvisatory and childlike approach to playing. Often times the audience has to remind itself that they are watching real musicians and not observing a psychedelic Montessori school on the brink of destruction.

Travis Woodson:

Travis Woodson either is or has been in Make A Rising, Electric Simcha, Papa Chango Curse, Extreme Fishkin!, Sonic Liberation Front, Live like a King and more. Tonight he will be performing a solo guitar set.

Fire Museum Presents:

Dan Blacksberg Trio

Joe Moffett with Nick Millevoi and Alban Bailly

Bonnie Lander/David Smooke& Erik Spangler

Guest curator: Nick Millevoi

Friday, February 25th 8:00pm
Highwire Gallery
2040 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA $6

Dan Blacksberg Trio:

Dan Blacksberg, Matt Engle, and Mike Szekely are the Dan Blacksberg Trio. From allaboutjazz.com: “With the vinyl-only release of Bit Heads, we can add Philadelphia-based trombonist Daniel Blacksberg to the short list of players chancing a trio stretch. Blacksberg is a player who has clearly done a lot of listening to his forebears—Mangelsdorff, Moncur, and George Lewis—as well as other brass instrumentalists who explore the wide point of extended technique. But what's notable is that, as an improviser, Blacksberg is far from showy, eschewing the rampant brashness of BassDrumBone and Brahma for a cooler, introspective detail and an easy egalitarianism with his trio mates.”

Joe Moffett, Nick Millevoi & Alban Bailly:

Joe Moffett is a trumpeter/improviser based in Brooklyn. He has been playing the Northeast circuit for years, leading his own groups and also performing with musicians such as Joe Morris, Kenny Wollesen, Tony Malaby, Ras Moshe, Luther Gray, Forbes Graham and Jim Hobbs. He is a founding member of Bird Fly Yellow (bird-fly.com) and leads a newly-formed quintet, Ad Faunum. He will be joined tonight by guitarists Nick Millevoi (Many Arms, Circles, Make A Rising & Racketshop) and Alban Bailly (Inzinzac, Oscuro Quintet & Da•Da•Dance

Bonnie Lander, David Smooke & Erik Spangler:

Bonnie Lander is a coloratura soprano based out of Philadelphia, PA. Classically trained, Bonnie performs a wide range of contemporary music in a wide variety of spaces. Most recently, she performed with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society under the baton of Leon Fleisher and as a participant in the Yellow Barn Kurtág Residency studying with soprano Susan Narucki, who affectionately termed her "the Janis Joplin of modern music". Bonnie is currently an Artist In Resident at the space, a founding member of chamber opera company "Rhymes With Opera," and a featured artist with the "Embody" vocal arts series in Baltimore. She has performed experimental improvisation with amazing musicians Mike Formanek, David Smooke, Shodekeh, Kate Porter, and Peter Price.

Composer David Smooke currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches music theory, rock music history, and composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. The Washington Post claims that "Smooke has some of the most uninhibited brain cells around" and describes his music as "superb [...] a kaleidoscopic sonic universe where anything could happen." His honors include those from the Maryland State Arts Council, BMI, the National Association of Composers USA, the MacDowell Colony, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He has composed commissions for groups and individuals including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), CUBE, and pianist Amy Briggs. He received an M.M. degree from the Peabody Conservatory, a B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he received the Century Fellowship, the highest fellowship offered by the Humanities Division. In addition to his composition activities, David performs improvisations on toy piano with the support of Schoenhut toy pianos and also blogs on New Music Box, the online magazine of the American Music Center.

Erik Spangler (Ph.D. Harvard University, 2004) is a composer and electronic musician working within a wide range of listening environments. His compositions have been performed across the United States and internationally from Canada to China, by ensembles including the Atlantic Brass Quintet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and International Contemporary Ensemble. Expanding upon turntablist performance practice, Spangler performs “fizzy, angular susurrations” (Ann Arbor Observer) and patterns on diverse electronics, creating music ranging from “a skillful merger of recorded Arabic phrases flecked with DJ turntable effects” (Washington Post) to “rigorous … improvisatory” (Gramophone) compositions with a range of chamber ensembles. His music may be heard on Innova Recordings, indie hip-hop label Nonsense Records, and live in spaces ranging from academic concert halls to art galleries, from clubs to sidewalks.
Performances include collaborations with duYun, Rare Degree, Oxter, S.K.I.P., VJ Art Jones, Cornell Symphony Orchestra, and Ithaca College Percussion Ensemble.
Spangler works regularly with saxophonist Brian Sacawa as the genre-bending duo Hybrid Groove Project. Along with Sacawa, Spangler is also co-founder of the Contemporary Museum's Mobtown Modern music series in Baltimore.

Fire Museum Presents:

Eric Carbonara

Pairdown

Brendan Codey

Guest curator: Nick Millevoi

Sunday, February 27th 7:30pm
Highwire Gallery
2040 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA $6

Eric Carbonara:

Eric Carbonara is a Philadelphia based guitarist, whose search for raw aural expression has led him far and wide – from noise & electro-acoustic music to taking deep root in the bounty of the wooden guitar. Carbonara’s playing draws on the rich musical styles from Andalusian Roma-Flamenco to Hindustani & North African folk to form a kind of exalted pidgin style of playing that covers a wide emotional terrain from meditative calm to restless unease. He has developed a unique idiom of gypsy music for non-existent cultures by combining rogue self-taught, free-form classical and flamenco techniques with those learned from formal studies in India.His live solo performances range from contemplative acoustic meditations to aggressively loud electric sets; both encompassing Carbonara’s ability to draw the listener in to his world, where his lyrical playing doesn’t just entertain but triggers a myriad of emotional responses.

Carbonara has toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe promoting his releases on Locust Music, Majumua Music and New American Folk Hero as well as various self-releases for solo guitar and solo upright-chaturangui music.

Paindown:

Pairdown is David Leicht and Raymond Morin. They perform as a duo, drawing from a repertoire of fingerstyle guitar duets and songs. Their newest project, Petrifidelity, is a limited-edition, handmade tablature book with accompanying audio CD. Prior releases include: Holykyle, a full-length LP blending folk rock, blues and experimental music; and the eponymous EP, a short collection of acoustic songs.

Brendan Codey:

Brendan Codey is a foghorn trigger and rapscallion lover of dusk, five o'clock, and shadow. He was born onto the east coast sometime in the late seventies and is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Currently, he abides in Philadelphia, PA, where he labors in labor.

Review of Eric Carbonara's CD release show for AAJ

2010-11-30T07:40:00.001-08:00

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=38188

Press for Electric Simcha

2010-11-08T11:34:00.000-08:00

Our performance last week opening for Omar Souleyman caught the attention of some writers:

Dan had a talk with the Arty Semite about the band:
http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/132922/

The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewed the show:
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20101105_Syrian_performer_Omar_Souleyman_at_Johnny_Brenda_s.html

Many Arms interview in Phillly Weekly

2010-11-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

Elliott Sharp interviewed Ricardo and I for the Philly Weekly. We talked about music and aliens. Mostly aliens:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/music/QA-With-Many-Arms.html

New AAJ articles

2010-11-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

Review of Scurvy's Fracture:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37936

Michael Formanek Quartet at the Philadelphia Art Alliance:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=38007

Early review from Burning Ambulance for the new Many Arms record!

2010-10-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

http://burningambulance.com/2010/10/28/many-arms/

Many Arms at the New Atlantis Festival in Washington DC

2010-10-18T11:34:00.001-07:00

Omar Souleyman

2010-10-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

On November 3, Electric Simcha is going to be opening for Omar Souleyman. We're all incredibly stoked about this. Julius and I both went to see Omar and co. perform in Central Park at Summer Stage this June and it was nothing short of an amazing and huge dance party.

If you don't know about Omar Souleyman yet, I recommend starting here:

R5 have a good bio posted on their site if you want to get the full story on Omar.

Review of Merzbow and Charles Cohen's show at International House on All About Jazz

2010-10-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37695

The Breathing Gym with Nicole and Dan

2010-09-19T11:04:00.000-07:00

The other night I played a show with Q-1, an improv group I'm a part of with my friends Bonnie Lander, Dan Blacksberg, Julius Masri, and now Nicole Bindler. This show was a lot of fun, and during one part, Dan played trombone while walking around the space with Nicole on his back (Julius was playing chairs at the time and Bonnie and I were sitting on "stage" watching quietly).

Unfortunately, there is only an audio recording of this. However, I remembered I posted these videos of Nicole and Dan's last duo show together from the spring. I followed them around Pageant-Soloveev while all of this took place. I think that these videos are totally entertaining.

Two new articles posted at All About Jazz

2010-09-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Review of last week's Sleepthief show at the Art Alliance:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37534

Review of Lift by the Scott Amendola Trio:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37459

Daniel Fishkin's WHAT YOU SEE is WHAT YOU HEAR: Times Square // a sound & light collage in three parts

2010-08-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

I recently received an email from my friend, Daniel Fishkin, with a link to his latest video project. His explanation was this:

"Recently, I've been working with some circuitry which converts light into sound. I moved to New York about 13 months ago, and one of the benefits of living in the concrete jungle is the multitude of lights here—there's so much to listen to. So, I went to the NYC hub of obnoxious light sources, Times Square, and listened to its, LED message screens, lit billboard displays, neon signage, police beacons, traffic, and street vendors. Normally, Times Square really disgusts me, but with the headphones on, it's like being in a playground. After a few trips, I went with a video camera, and attached the circuit to the camera. In this composition, you're listening to the sound of every light you see. As you point the camera, you're conducting your own symphony. I'm still pretty ambivalent about living here—this video is one of the ways I've made peace with it."

His video, WHAT YOU SEE is WHAT YOU HEAR, made me feel as though I was walking through Times Square inside an alien's brain. This type of alien just happens to convert light into sound, and it sounds amazing!

WHAT YOU SEE is WHAT YOU HEAR: Times Square // a sound & light collage in three parts from df on Vimeo.

Video from last week's Chakra Khan show

2010-08-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Despite the audio being a little blown out, we had a really great set and I think this clip is still pretty representative of what happened.

Upcoming shows in Philly and New York

2010-08-08T16:34:00.001-07:00

Thursday, August 12
Mill Creek Tavern
42nd and Chester Ave.
Philadelphia PA
Free - 9 pm

Wormrider - myspace.com/epicwormrider
WIth Eyes Abstract - from Portland, OR - myspace.com/witheyesabstract
Chakra Khan/Air Pirates - trio version. Julius Masri and I will be joined by John DeBlase on bass.

____________________________________

Monday, August 23
National Mechanics
22 S 3rd St.
Philadelphia PA
Free - 9 pm

Vocalist Bonnie Lander and I will be playing and I will be playing an improvised duet.

____________________________________

Saturday, September 25
Cafe Orwell
247 Varet St
(between White St & Bogart St)
Brooklyn, NY
donation - 8 pm

Adam Caine, Joe Moffett, and I will all be performing solo sets.

____________________________________

November 3 is the official release date of the new Many Arms album, Missing Time. We'll be
playing a few record release shows in Philly, New York, Baltimore, and New Haven. More details
soon!

A Blog Supreme/NPR Jazz review of New Atlantis Festival

2010-07-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Many Arms played at DC's New Atlantis Festival last Saturday. It was a really great time and there was a ton of great music.

Here's a cool review from NPR's A Blog Supreme:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2010/07/27/128805980/two-days-of-free-jazz-in-d-c-new-atlantis

Tomorrow at Pageant-Soloveev

2010-07-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 29th
Pageant-Soloveev
607 Bainbridge St.
$5 - 8:00 pm

Q-1 - I'll be playing in an improvised quartet (minus one [Julius
Masri]) with Dan Blacksberg and Bonnie Lander. This is our first show
together in this setting.

Jacob Zimmerman/Randy Pingrey/Jesse Ward/Joe Moffett - alto
sax/trombone/guitar/trumpet. They're coming from NY, TX, MA, and CA.
This will give you a better idea of what they're up to:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=103306826386980&ref=ts

The Scriptors - Bryan Rodgers, Matt Engle, and Mike Szekely.

________________________________________________________________

Thursday, August 12
Mill Creek Tavern
42nd and Chester Ave.
Free - 9 pm

Wormrider
WIth Eyes Abstract - from Portland, OR
Chakra Khan/Air Pirates - trio version. Julius and I will be joined by John DeBlase on bass.