Solution oriented muzik in a parallel universe

Avast Comrade! HUMANWINE announces their first show of '10 and it's ALL AGES! Berklee School of Music has a wonderful red cafe called simply, Cafe 939 where HUMANWINE first played last year and they liked us so much they use a picture from that show on their events page. We have the ticket link (see below). Saturday 1/23 (HUMANWINE) Cafe 939 (Berklee School of Music) 939 Boylston Street Boston, MA  Tickets on sale: 1/5 Doors @ 8p - 8:30 Showtime ALL AGES / $10 ATTENTION! This is a Pajama Party in honor of the song "Wake Up!" "Crawl out of bed even in your night clothes and meet us outside where the sky greets the road..." (cc) 2010 Nervous Relatives Records

Labels: Boston, holly brewer, HUMANWINE, january, jeremy harman, live music, mat mcniss, Nate greenslit, Paul Dilley

Labels: Brooklyn, Extra Life, holly brewer, HUMANWINE, Knitting Factory, Larkin Grimm, live music, Martin Bisi, mat mcniss, Nate greenslit, NYC, Paul Dilley

Artist: HUMANWINE
CD: Mass Exodus ep

Label: Nervouse Relatives Records / Self Released

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With a previous EP ("Rivolta Silenziosa") the US wandering HUMANWINE introduced us full-on to their narrative world of Vinland. They matched the metaphor-as-politics (and vice versa) stories with a gutter-circus-folk sound style that was a stunning marriage of simplicity and subtlety. It's sepiachord required listening.

On their full-length follow up, "Fighting Naked", the band continued to explore their Vinlandish themes but the music had more of a "rock" feel. The end result was good, but the band seemed a little uncomfortable in their new skin.

The new EP ("Mass Exodus") finds the band returning to a three song format and returning to more pared down arrangements. The results are arresting.

Of the three pieces found on this CD the last, "Our Devolution is Televised", best continues the work that Vinland fans love. It's political (of course) and features an infectious circus bounce. It could easily have been slipped in as the fourth track on "Rivolta Silenziosa" and held its own against the great songs found there.

The opening piece on this new EP is also overtly political: "1st Amendment". Its "be the media" messsage might come across as a nuts-and-bolts politcal screed... were it not so spare and, well, pretty. It builds and flows nicely showing off the performers individual strengths especially Holly Brewer's remarkable voice. Its a perfect appetizer for the middle piece: "Megan Rose".

"Megan Rose" seems to pre-date the existence of HUMANWINE as a band and features Holly alone, just her voice and a piano. When the song starts you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is merely a ballad of friendship to the title character. It *IS* that, but takes stomach-wrenching turns that are all the more powerful because you don't see them coming. This is the key to tragedy: you don't see it coming. "Megan Rose" is a beautiful, seductive PUNCH IN THE GUT that will make you cough up a bit of blood and still make you want to play it over and over... even if, like me, you found yourself on the verge of tears the first time you heard it. This really is one of those songs that descriptions fail for, you have to sit down and listen to it. And you should.

HUMWINE's DIY aesthetic has never been more clear in their sound ~and~ in the EP's visual presentation. Not only does the look and feel of the packaging clearly place the band in the line of descent from seminal grass-roots political rollickers Crass but HUMANWINE does something other bands never seem to do: give credit where it's due!

Lots of politically charged punk bands have aped the art of Crass, but this is the first time I can think of where credit for inspiration is given to the artist responsible for this distinctive look: Gee Vaucher. Kudos.

Recommended.

HUMANWINE:
http://www.humanwine.org/

Labels: Ashley vandiver, Courtenay vandiver, holly brewer, HUMANWINE, live music, mass exodus, mat mcniss, nathan greenslit, Paul Dilley, recorded, sepiachord

06-01-09

Avast Comrades! Tuesday June 9th (Live on air) 9pm-9:45pm 6/9 HUMANWINE on WMBR 88.1 FM Pipeline! ATTN: This show will be available as a podcast. You are encouraged to Listen Live! below is taken directly from pipeline.wmbr.org: Here’s how it works: Starting at 8pm, Jeff plays records and CD’s of bands from all over the New England region. Then, at 9pm (or close to it!), that week’s live band starts playing over the air. That usually wraps up around 9:45pm, leaving time for a quick on-air interview before the next group of degenerates comes in at 10pm. Feel free to poke around, join in on the fun, and drop us a line if you feel like it. Don’t be shy. At the end of each Pipeline! we podcast the live band set. Every week, you can download a live in-studio recording from one of New England’s finest bands! There are two ways to do this: 1) Use iTunes to get the set from the iTunes podcast directory. You can even set it to automatically grab each new episode for you. 2) Use the raw podcast file. Some web browsers will let you download the sets by directly clicking on the link, while others require the use of third party software. There are already 50+ sets for you to download, going back more than a year. Enjoy! What’s Pipeline? Pipeline! is the live local music program of WMBR 88.1 FM. We play music by bands from the Boston metro area, as well as all of New England. In addition to spinning records and CD’s, every week a local band plays live on the air. Hosted by Jeff Breeze, show airs every Tuesday night from 8pm-10pm EST. Multi-Media Ep Release @ The Paradise 6/27! A 2 hour set from HUMANWINE joined by members of A Far Cry Paradise Rock Club 967 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA doors @ 8pm/ 9pm showtime cost:$12 Adv/$14 Dos This show is age restricted to 18yrs and up Tickets for this once in a lifetime show are here also if you click on the ticket image to the right and at Paradise Rock Club and Orpheum box offices to avoid insane fees Box Office hours Mon – Sat 12-6 Phone 617-562-8800 Fax 617-562-8804 concert line at 617-562-8800 *We are overwhelmed at the amount of presale tickets already sold, thank YOU for spreading the word. This show is going to be magnificent! These Seeds Become Trees There will be prizes awarded to folks who come as Characters of Vinland HUMANWINE will be joined by A Far Cry for a full 2 HOUR SET! If you have a camera bring it to this show. Not to say HUMANWINE is wrapping up but once this show is complete we will compile all live material of our new songs and get them ready for release. The New CD will be available before the end of the summer out on Nervous Relatives Records. HUMANWINE just released Mass Exodus the ep through Nervous Relatives Records. Get a copy here. A Far Cry (Boston's proudly unconducted Chamber Orchestra)We are a group of musicians bound together by our desire to share great music and great art with people who are young, people who are mature, those near, and far. The music we play is music we love, and music we don’t want to live without. We have a mission to bring together all the loves of our lives, those that range from film, dance, and visual art, to our love for each person who lives the joy and suffering (and in-betweenness) that inspire the art of life. We are excited to have you join us as we discover how we can communicate our passion with different audiences, with different artists and with each other, to be a part of the cries of need and celebration that make up the world in which we live. The Boy Who Spoke Clouds (AUS) The Boy Who Spoke Clouds might be described by some as indigenous, world, tribal, folk, neo folk, electroacoustic, or some amalgamation of the above. Imagine Sufjan Stevens meets Jesu. The Boy Who Spoke Clouds is an intimate portrait of Adam Casey and his native Australia and emotes something lost in much of today's music; no doubt having a tendency to put down roots wherever he is listened to. The Boy Who Spoke Clouds will be launching their debut album (released on Sun Sea Sky Productions) and touring as a three piece band across the Eastcoast of the USA, and the Southcoast of Canada throughout June/July, 2009. We know some folks who drive from North Carolina, Pennsylvania and far reaching states who are saddened when HUMANWINE plays a 30 minute set, WELL **TONIGHT WILL NOT BE ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS! These Seeds Become Trees! Tell everyone you know, bring everyone you know. *Groundkrew: Thank YOU for your e-mails and messages of volunteering! We're printing more flyers as soon as we get back into town. GroundKrew join @ info@HUMANWINE.org "GroundKrew" **If you are already planning to attend the show and would like to be involved in our performance please send HUMANWINE an e-mail @ info@humanwine.org "AKTOR" Donate Scraps to Recycled Movement What we still need: + wood stove (under 2 ft wide/under 2 ft long) + plywood (any size/depth) + steel caging (window security) If you have these materials or can direct us to them... Please write to: donate@HUMANWINE.org Mass Exodus ep USA orders $8.00 All other orders $10.00 The Buy Now link may not work for folks using hotmail.com LONG LIVE ART! RAH! RAH! word. holly & m@ The muzik of HUMANWINE can be found on the web in a bunch of different places. We run EVERY site that is OFFICIALLY marked. HUMANWINE.org, MySpace, facebook, purevolume, CDBaby, iLike, lastfm and now twitter.

(cc) 2009 Nervous Relatives Records

Labels: a far cry, Boston, concert, holly brewer, HUMANWINE, live, matteo Mcniss, n8 greenslit, Paradise Rock Club, Paul Dilley

When we hear our songs in our heads we hear them in a very orchestral way but we have never had a chance to hear see/hear/feel these songs dripping with strings, covered in a fine layer of violins, laid down in a bed of cellos and upright bass and wrapped lovingly with viola.
September 28th, in a warehouse in Allston Massachusetts, with A Far Cry our dream came true.
8 songs were chosen 6 days before the show.
M@ transposed all of the songs within 3 days and e-mailed them off to Courtenay Vandiver (cello) and Ashley Vandiver (violin) who then built parts for all the songs in 2 days.

Day of the show
Sunday
A Far Cry trickled into the space
we went over each song once
The moment we heard the first song
We were seeing the song or real
for the first time
and a few hours later
our dreams came true

Ken from Brighton, MA said,
"I really enjoyed the performance and the backing strings section - it brought back the mystique of one of Pan 9's *you just had to be there to see them* shows to Rugg Road."


Then night began with What Time Is It? Mr.Fox, a welcomed, reoccurring visitor of Vinland, who filled the room with songs from their new album, tales of Joan D'Arc, love and Religious interference performed by Brian King (piano/guitar), Nathan cohen (violin), Courtenay Vandiver (cello) yes she was in all three bands! and Mike Leggio (double bass).

Brian King said,
"I have spent countless hours, driving through snowstorms, hurricanes, to concerts, shows, plays, movies, anything, hoping to be moved, shaken, or transformed. Unfortunately I'm often let down. Something is missing. I'm just not taken over or taken in. Or I just don't believe it. But I still continue to go, knowing that at some point someone is going to reach into my chest and shock me back to life. Sunday was one of those nights.
Everything felt real. No clever aesthetic. Just the raw beauty of true passion and talent transcending ego and creating something alive. I'm beyond thrilled to have been able to be there and part of it. That night I dreamt in strings. "

The center of the evening was filled with the sounds of Boston's Unconducted String Orchestra, A Far Cry who's set included the likes of Bartok & Mozart performed by Andrew Eng, Annie Rabbat, Ashley Vandiver, Courtenay Vandiver, Frank Shaw, Jesse Irons, Loewi Lin, Margaret Dyer, Megumi Stohs, Sarah Darling, Sharon Cohen


Amy Toxic said,
"It was a fantastic night. You sounded brilliant! Like it was meant to be that way.
It can’t get much better than hearing both Bartok and HUMANWINE live on the same night!"


Afterward members of A Far Cry came up to us and said, "I've always wanted to play to a standing audience."
Think about it
you're in an orchestra
the audiences generally are sitting and reserved
they clap at the end of each piece
and remain silent otherwise.

The set up of a Concert Hall lends a hand in creating
the atmosphere of institution unless you look deeper into ART.

It can seem like a "one way energy stream".
If the audience doesn't give back
the energy coming from the stage
hits a sponge.

The CYCLE is broken
it can be draining

whereas
when the energy coming from the stage
is allowed to be a CYCLE
it is so enlivening

you don't even feel like
you're pushing.


For example
2 shows
1 week apart
The artist(s) put 100% into both shows.
NIGHT #1 the audience is like the aforementioned audience (sitting, reserved, docile)
NIGHT #2 the audience is REACTING to you (standing/sitting/crawling on the rafters, laughing, dancing, singing along, standing perfectly still with their jaws open in appreciation), the 2 shows will "feel different" to the artist(s).
The first night will be more of a drain and the second night will leave the artist(s) energized.

It's a symbiotic relationship between the audience and the stage.
As lovers of ART, we are often in an audience
as a part of the audience
you can tell whether an audience
is a CYCLE or a SPONGE

HUMANWINE shows have been filled with positive and open energy for a long time running.
We all feel honored to collaborate with so many wonderful bands
who we love
and to know that there will be the likes of YOU there reciprocating, inspires us all
to do it a while lot more.




A Far Cry [Official Site][MySpace site]

“Homage” Quincy, Massachusetts - October 16, 2008
Tickets $5/$10/$15
7:30pm Eastern Nazarene College Cove Fine Arts Center, 23 East Elm Avenue

• Pärt: Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten
  
• Mozart: Divertimento #2 in B-flat Major, K. 137
• Muffat: Concerto Grosso No. 12 in G major “Propitia Sydera”
• Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10

Hailed by the Boston Globe as “one of Boston’s most promising classical music groups,” A Far Cry is making waves, experimenting with how music is performed and heard. A tightly-knit group of 16 young professional musicians, A Far Cry formed in early 2007, seeking the freedom and flexibility of a string quartet as well as the power and beauty of an orchestra. Operating with rotating leadership and no conductor, A Far Cry is generating interest not only in the concert hall, but also with its innovative model. All artistic decisions are made by vote as a collective, and the musicians take care of all the behind-the-scenes work, from booking concerts to designing programs. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, A Far Cry is also committed to social change and harmony, donating proceeds from concerts to homeless shelters in the Boston area, and partnering with other non-profits such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A Far Cry’s 2008-09 season holds engagements at the Yellow Barn and Kneisel Hall Festivals, concerts from Minnesota to Florida, and a growing hometown series in Boston.





What Time Is It ? Mr.Fox [Official Site] [MySpace Site]

10-23-2008
T.T. the Bear’s
10 Brookline St
Cambridge
Massachusetts
02139

with Dorian Wood (L.A.)
Black Fortress of Opium
Garvy J

We are thrilled to bring Dorian Wood to Boston! A monster talent: "The androgynous emotionality of Wood’s singing voice lends itself to the demanding theatricality of [his] lyrics, arrangements and production. The nakedness of a lover’s need and the wide-eyed madness that ensues when that need is not met twine around one another." - LA Weekly ----- "Dorian’s voice is evocative of those persons, places and things in your mind that ring like cultural archetypes (the carnival ring leader who knows everyone’s secrets, the fool lamenting at the moon, the gregarious saloon piano player), but these apparently familiar characters he seems to be depicting yank at the proverbial rug under you and demonstrate his dynamic cultural literacy. Though they draw from different sources, his songs’ emotional roots are firmly planted in his own experience." - Signal Tribune ----- "Wood unleashes gospel-infused wails and testimony that bring the audience…to a frenzy.” – The Advocate ----- "Dorian Wood is an instigator extraordinaire. A shape-shifter. A subtle court jester posing as a harmless house pet. An inspiring addition to the freakish world we now live in...a true artist in the purest sense of the word. Fearless, confident, filled with passion. His songs are beautiful without being pretty, well orchestrated, and creepy almost to the point of being masochistic, all the while continuing to work under the guise of ’folk music’." - Citizen LA Mr. Fox goes on at 9pm sharp Garvy J: 10pm Black Fortress of Opium: 11pm Dorian Wood: 12 midnight

WHO is MR. FOX? a dahl character? bluebeard-like bachelor? a teacher? a friendly furry creature with an intimate knowledge of clocks? any ideas are welcome. Never fit into a scene. never subscribe to a specific genre. just try to be true to the guts of the song. whether it be gospel, carnival, psychedelic blues, folk, country or a collage, we hope the truth of it comes through. Lots of songs about relationships and their many beautiful and demonic manifestations. songs about identity, and trying to make sense of the inner workings of our own clocks. and of course the occasional "i just got dumped," "i'm afraid you're going to dump me," or "you smell" songs. So i write the songs and fantasize about being some sort of male annie lennox. nathan travels abroad like bartok, collects ideas, and basically proves you can play any type of music on a violin. so when we make music we get to be transported to turkey, alabama, ghana, hungary, ireland and sometimes pluto.

Labels: a far cry, Boston, holly brewer, HUMANWINE, live recording, m mcniss, music, Paul Dilley, What time is it mr fox