Saturday October 19 2024
Vernal Scuzz
Sam Wenc
Emily Robb
Matthew Lee
8 PM
10 – 15 $
Vernal Scuzz is a free-form band from Alabama, USA. Wild mixtures of improvisation, themes, songs and tape experiments played by Jasper Lee, Mika Carpenter, James Elliot, and others on bass, zithers, euphonium, tapes, drums & words. They pursue an evolving sound informed by cut-ups, noise, avant-folk, and punk. Collaborators include Turner Williams Jr., Johnny Coley, Joel Nelson and the groups Silica Gel and Worst Spills.
Somewhere between proto-punk and primeval ceremony, the music is a vehicle for navigating the murk of media litter. Radio signals and diary-like tape collage meld with deep euphonium tones and crackles of noise…diegetic sounds that build an atmosphere and then burst suddenly into song. Words emerge sometimes and sometimes the ineffable just takes hold.
Jasper Lee’s work in film, radio and visual art informs the group’s idiosyncratic arrangements. Vernal Scuzz combines Lee’s film music craft and visceral playing style with Carpenter & Elliot’s dynamic interplay to create a sound that is charged & unpredictable. Their first album will be released in October 2024 through Sweet Wreath.
Emily Robb is a Philadelphia-based musician known for her free-form electric guitar. Her live show is a ride – a sermon in the House of Guitar – with flashes of The Velvet Underground, Henry Flynt, and Tetuzi Akiyama’s Don’t Forget To Boogie. The Washington Post explained her set opening for Mdou Moctar as “raucous solo instrumentals [that] ranged through 20th-century guitar history from raga-rock string-bending to a Chuck Berry-style vamp that expanded into a wall of sound.”
Fall of 2023 saw Emily’s second solo release, If I Am Misery Then Give Me Company, on the Petty Bunco label, as well as a split LP with Bill Nace on Open Mouth Records. Emily maintains a steady touring schedule, often with her partner Richie Charles accompanying her on electric organ and sometimes performing in collaborative duos (Bill Nace, Bill Orcutt, Anne Ishii). Stay tuned for her upcoming recordings and events.
Sam Wenc is a composer, improviser, and interdisciplinary artist working with sound, text, performance and installation. He has released music on Where to Now, Moone Records, Noumenal Loom, and Sweet Wreath among others. He co-founded the record label Lobby Art Editions and he manages archival label Mississippi Records.
Matthew Smith Lee is a Philadelphia based musician and a member of Totally Automatic.
