Interview

The ironic thing about Saturday's The Art of Rebellion group show at la.venue in Chelsea is that, in practice, it's hard to make capital-A art and capital-R rebellion work together. (Especially when the whole affair is corporate-sponsored. Harley-Davidson, to be fair, is not exactly Coca-Cola, but still: not so rebellious!) The result, in this case at least, is a bunch of lowbrow artists milling about in nice clothes, chatting politely while a DJ plays remixes of The Doors at a perfectly respectable decibel level. (PHOTO CREDIT: BRENDON BOUZARD)

This was the second iteration of The Art of the Rebellion (the first was in Santa Monica in February, which showed Shepard Fairey's work the same day he was arrested), featuring ten artists best known for designing rock posters, each of whom painted a gas tank to benefit CUE Art Foundation. The interpretations of the theme ranged from the fairly predictable (Brian Ewing showed a beautifully detailed skull-and-hummingbird theme) to the rather impractical (artist Art Chantry blew holes in his tank and shone a red light inside, creating a cool jack-o-lantern effect that also rendered the tank totally unusable). At the preview Friday, we spoke to three of the artists.

MORE »

Grooms

The only diary entry on Brooklyn noise-pop outfit Grooms' Myspace page is a playful one, titled "New Name...New Album...New Haircuts." (The haircuts part, it turns out, is a joke–bassist Emily Ambruso confides she hasn't cut her hair in over a year.)  The entry starts out: "We were Muggabears, now we're Grooms. Is it a verb? Is it a noun? Not telling."

Grooms (née Muggabears) are, thankfully, more forthright in person than in writing. In anticipation of their Under the Tracks show at Highline Park tomorrow, we sat down for a chat at Death by Audio, the Williamsburg arts space where the band practices and records (Emily lives there, too, with a cat named Honeybeans).

ALEXANDRIA SYMONDS: What have you been doing today?

EMILY AMBRUSO: I had a mole removed!

AS: Yeah? From where? Is it sensitive?

EA: [Gestures to her ribs] It's numb. I don't even feel it.

MORE »

Photo by Bao Nguyen

There's an old philosophical dilemma called Theseus's paradox, which asks whether a ship is still the same ship if all its hardware is replaced piece by piece. The same could be asked of Ambulance LTD–in the near-decade since the band formed, all but one of its original members have departed to pursue other projects. (One of those projects, The Red Romance, actually boasts two Ambulance alums, so you could make the case that it's more like the old Ambulance than the current Ambulance is). 

So it's mostly to the credit of frontman Marcus Congleton, the sole hanger-on, that the band performs so well these days–a lesser musician might get caught up in identity crisis and let it ruin his poise, but Congleton leads his newish fellow members confidently.  During Tuesday night's show at the Mercury Lounge–sold out and stuffed to the gills with longtime fans–Congleton and co. handled the old material and the new (some of which was written with the Velvet Underground's John Cale) with equal aplomb.

MORE »

Change is on the horizon for Aviram Cohen, formerly of avant-jazz outfit Soiled Mattress and the Springs. For Cohen, this month brings a record release for Silk Flowers, his new band—which has a decidedly more delicate name than the last one—with Ethan Swan and Peter Schuette, along with a show at Cake Shop this Saturday that just happens to coincide with his 29th birthday. The new project is also a stylistic divergence for Cohen and Schuette, who also hails from Soiled Mattress—where Mattress’s focus was on the sax, Silk Flowers builds on electronic loops à la Philip Glass, along with Bauhaus-style distorted vocals.

“The show on Saturday is like a joining of different aspects of my life from the past to the present, which makes it sort of extraordinary,” Cohen notes. “The record we made is a meditation on the past and how to move forward from that. It will also mark the last year of my twenties. So, there is an element of reflection in all this for me but, also sense of anticipation for what's to come.” What’s to come is promising: Silk Flowers also has an upcoming show at SculptureCenter in Long Island City with Brendan Fowler’s spoken-word pop band BARR, and West Coast dates throughout August.

MORE »