“Screwed Anthologies”

Improvised music under the influence of the late DJ Screw

David Dove – trombone, amplified trombone with effects, PA/Screw tracks

Lucas Gorham – guitar, lap steel guitar, effects, loops

Complete tour schedule below.

Originally commissioned by the gallery labotanica for the exhibit “Screwed Anthologies”, David Dove and Lucas Gorham bring their long history as collaborators to their exploration of an expansive (yet particular) musical sensibility.

With trombone, guitar, lap steel guitar, loops and effects, “Screwed Anthologies” (which became the name of the duo) improvises without preconceived structure.

Preset compositions/forms are not used, but the two access the thick and languid feel of DJ Screw’s mixes as a guide through their own sound world, sounding something like a record of improvised music slowed down, with a dose of low drones, some achingly-slow-to-a-crawl blues, and a sampling of DJ Screw tracks (selected from the hundreds of mixtapes released by DJ Screw in his lifetime).

Screwed Anthologies connects seemingly disparate musical genres with a deep sense for how regionalism, experimentalism, tradition, and technology cross the lines of genre. Screwed Anthologies makes electro-acoustic improvisation with a love of the layers, thick textures, soulful expressiveness, deep bass, and unusually slow tempos that mark the music of DJ Screw.

DJ Screw was an artist who (in his short life) left a profound legacy that was both intensely regional and extremely influential beyond its region. His music was absolutely experimental, yet not self-consciously avant-garde. It had the urgency of improvisation in its raw construction and immediate creation (DJ Screw made somewhere between 600 and 1000 hundred-minute tapes in only 8 or 9 years).

“Screwed Anthologies” crafts music with a strong influence from their fellow Houstonian, DJ Screw. They make it in acknowledgment of aesthetic undercurrents that connect artists across the lines of genre. They make music influenced by an artist who was one of the most radical to ever emerge from their city.

Screwed Anthologies will release a double CD in time for their Summer tour.

Excerpt from forthcoming double CD

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Bios on Lucas Gorham and David Dove are below.

Information on labotanica’s “Screwed Anthologies”: http://labotanica.org/projects_screwed.html

Bio of DJ Screw: http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:abfpxqegldde~T1

DJ Screw, “The Untold Story” Documentary Film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwVX3QpEAIg

Artist Bios

Trombonist, improviser, composer, and educator David Dove grew up learning his horn in the public school band program, while at the same time playing electric-bass in punk rock groups. Before he was out of high school, he began a period exploring (formally and informally) a range of musical styles (including classical, jazz, experimental and 6 years in the band Sprawl). In the early 1990’s, he became dedicated to free improvisation, gigging and experimenting with a small group of like-minded Houston musicians (including New Zealander Paul Winstanley and the then-trio Charalambides). A degree of isolation, an eclectic musical background, and a commitment to creativity eventually led him to conceive of a new approach for music education. In 1997, Dove started working at MECA, an inner-city arts community center, where he began to develop this approach. In 2000, Pauline Oliveros (an important mentor) invited him to start a branch of The Deep Listening Institute (DLI) to further his education goals and bring contemporary musicians to Houston. In 2006, DLI Houston became Nameless Sound, an independent, Houston-based organization. Nameless Sound reaches over 1500 young people every year through creative music workshops in public schools, community centers, homeless shelters, and refugee communities. Dove has given performances and workshops all over the US and some internationally (Mexico, Canada, Scotland, Vietnam, Germany). He has collaborated with many of his favorite local/national/international artists (some well known, some less known)^[1].

Guitarist, lap steel guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Lucas Gorham first met Dove when he was a teenager in 1999. Lucas was playing guitar in a local ‘rock-en-español’ band. Nurtured on his parents’ record collection and turned on to Cecil Taylor by a hip math teacher, Gorham fit right in with Nameless Sound’s Youth Ensemble. By the time he was 19, Gorham had gained (through Nameless Sound) experience from workshops with some of the premiere names in creative music (including Pauline Oliveros, Joe McPhee, Eugene Chadbourne, Sam Rivers, Leroy Jenkins, and William Parker). Gorham went on to become a key player in Houston’s music scene (both ‘underground’ and ‘above ground’). He fronts (and writes for) Grandfather Child, a hard-rocking, heartfelt, and inspirational soul/gospel/boogie/blues quartet. Strongly affected by his time playing for a charismatic ministry, Gorham calls his band “church music without the religion”. His ecstatic tendencies (and experimental tendencies) are even stronger in his “Sad Gorilla” solo sets, where three guitars (two lap steels), voice, and looping pedals weave a raw-but-soulful web of grooves (and deconstructed grooves), blues, boogie, drone, noise, and improvisation (sometimes done in ‘guerrilla’ style public performance). Gorham isn’t chained to his own vision. His wide range and open spirit have made him one of the most active collaborators in Houston’s busy improvisation scene.

^{[1] Dove’s frequent, occasional, and one-time collaborators include or have included: Tetuzi Akiyama, Susan Alcorn, Remi Alvarez, Frédéric Blondy, Kyle Bruckmann, John Butcher, Rob Cambre, Tom Carter, Eugene Chadbourne, Maria Chavez, Chris Cogburn, Anat Cohavi, Alex Coke, Cooper-Moore, Ryan Edwards, Sandy Ewen, Alvin Fielder, Sonia Flores, Juan Garcia, Aaron Gonzalez, Dennis Gonzalez, Stephan Gonzalez, Lucas Gorham, Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten, Thomas Helton, Susie Ibarra, Matt Ingalls, Jason Jackson, Peter Kowald, Annette Krebs, Joelle Leandre, Thomas Lehn, John Martinez, Joe McPhee, Donald Miller, Heather Murray, Tatsuya Nakatani, Kurt Newman, Le Quan Ninh, Pauline Oliveros, Carlos Pozo, Bhob Rainey, Vic Rawlings, Matt Roberson, Kurt Stallmann, Jawwaad Taylor, Suzanne Thorpe, Liz Tonne, Roger Turner, Vu Nhat Tan, Susie Wasserstrom, Paul Winstanley, and many others.}

Screwed Anthologies 2010 Tour

Sunday, May 30 – Houston, Texas

with The Gray Tapes & BLACKIE

at The Husk (next to Kohn’s)

2808 Milam, Houston, TX

7:45pm

presented by Resonant Interval

http://resonantintervalhtx.wordpress.com

Monday, May 31 – New Orleans, Louisiana

with Koboku Senju (Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Oyvind Lonnig, Espen Reinersen, Martin Tacks)

at Fair Grinds Coffee House (upstairs)

3133 Ponce De Leon, New Orleans, LA

(504) 913-9072

8pm

presented by Anxious Sound

http://fairgrinds.com/

Tuesday, June 1 – Jackson, Mississippi

at North Midtown Arts Center

121 Millsaps Avenue, Jackson, MS

(601) 467-7454

8pm

presented by Mississippi Improvisation Alliance

http://www.myspace.com/themississippiimprovizationalliance

Wednesday, June 2 – Nashville, Tennessee

with Hobbledeions, The xists, and Rj

at Betty’s Bar and Grill

407 49th Avenue North, Nashville, TN

(615) 297-7257‎

10pm

presented by Leslie Keffer

Thursday, June 3 – Athens, Georgia

with John Fernandez

at Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA)

160 Tracy Street, Athens, GA

(706) 208-1613

8pm

presented by Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA)

http://www.athica.org

Friday, June 4 – Atlanta, Georgia

with the k!ll!k

at Eyedrum

290 MLK Jr. Dr. SE, Suite 8, Atlanta, GA

(404) 522-0655

9pm

presented by Eyedrum

http://eyedrum.org/

Saturday, June 5 – Gainesville, Florida

with Roamer, Ice Jet, Rainbow Blood, DJ Smooth Guy, and Frog

at The Laboratory

818 W. University Avenue, Gainesville, FL

8:30pm

presented by Action Research

http://www.myspace.com/actionresearch

Monday, June 7 – Charleston, South Carolina

with Tribearaclops

at The John Rivers Communications Museum

58 George Street, Charleston, SC

(843) 953-5810

8:30pm

Tuesday, June 8 – Carrboro, North Carolina

with Crowmeat Bob

at All Day Records

112 E Main Street, Carrboro, NC

(919) 360-8516

8pm

presented by All Day Records

http://www.alldayrecords.com

Wednesday, June 9 – Greensboro, North Carolina

(improvisation workshop and concert)

at 7 Day Weekend

1313 Grove Street, Greensboro, NC

(919) 259-6722

open workshop starts at 5pm

concert starts at 7pm

presented by 7 Day Weekend

http://www.myspace.com/mazemirage

Thursday, June 10 – Baltimore, Maryland

with Susan Alcorn

at 2640

2640 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD

7:30pm

presented by 2640

http://www.redemmas.org/2640/

Friday, June 11 – Washington, DC

with New Atlantis Quartet and Layne Garrett

at Pyramid Atlantic

8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD

8pm

presented by Sonic Circuits

http://dc-soniccircuits.org/

Saturday, June 12 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

with Bird. Fly. Yellow and Shot x Shot

at Highwire Gallery

2040 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA

(215) 426-2685

8pm

presented by Fire Museum Presents

http://www.museumfire.com/events

Sunday, June 13 – New York, New York

with Maria Chavez/Shelly Burgeon/Stephan Moore/Suzanne Thorpe

at White Box

329 Broome Street, New York, NY

(212) 714-2347

7pm

presented by White Box NY

http://www.whiteboxny.org

Monday, June 14 – Syracuse, New York

with The Atlantic Drone

at Metropolis Underground

615 S. Main Street (backside of building), Syracuse, NY

(315) 884-0026

8:30pm

presented by Metropolis Underground Inc.

http://metropolisunderground.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, June 15 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada

with See Through Trio

at Somewhere There

340 Dufferin Street (one block south of Queen/north of KingCorner Building – entrance from Melbourne Avenue),

Toronto, ON

8pm

Presented by Somewhere There

http://www.somewherethere.org

Wednesday, June 16 – Buffalo, New York

at Hallwalls

341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY

(716) 854-1694

8pm

presented by Hallwalls

http://www.hallwalls.org

Thursday, June 17 – Ithaca, New York

Secret Audiovisual #3 with Keir Neuringer

at Wildfire Lounge

106 S Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY

(607) 277-9143

Doors at 9pm, Music at 10pm

presented by Wildfire Lounge

http://wfithaca.com/

Friday, June 18 – Boston, Massachusetts

with Mutations in the Gryd

at Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media

141 Green Street, Boston, MA

(617) 676-5904

8pm

presented by Non-Event

http://www.nonevent.org/

Saturday, June 19 – Providence, Rhode Island

with Aster, Panoptics, and (R)octopus

at as220

115 Empire Street, Providence, RI

(401) 831-9327

9pm

presented by as220

http://as220.org