The Philadelphia Experiment: New Music Festival

Hi all
I am hosting the following festival that's coming up in October. Hope to see some of you there!




THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT: NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL

Featuring Cheer-Accident, The Red Masque, Make A Rising and Fern Knight

October 24, 2009


Venue:
The Rotunda
University of Pennsylvania, 4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-573-3234.
http://www.therotunda.org

Additional Info:
7 PM. All Ages.
FREE but donations for the bands requested
(Pay-What-You-Want Admission).

Hosted by The Red Masque

Contact:
Lynnette Shelley (lynnette@theredmasque.com)


The Line-Up

HEADLINERS
CHEER-ACCIDENT
(Chicago)
Official Website: http://www.cheer-accident.com/


Photo by Corinne Halbert

For over 20 years, Cheer-Accident have been a creative, interesting force in rock music. They constantly strive to surprise their audience and themselves with constant reinvention. Fear Draws Misfortune (released January 2009 through Cuneiform Records) is their 16th release and arguably their best release and their album which strives the furthest towards a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio techniques and the excitement of a visceral, live, well-honed rock band. Which is saying something. It is a strongly compelling and high-reaching album that uses a wide variety of ideas, styles and studio techniques, resulting in a cohesive and ambitious album of art-rock. The basic band is a trio who between them perform on vocals, keyboards, trumpets guitars, bass and drums, but they are augmented by 15 additional musicians who, each in their own way, bring their own musical gifts to the album. Fear Draws Misfortune reveals a fortuitous intersection between Cuneiform and Cheer-Accident, both of whom have long admired the other and both of whom finally decided to do something about it! This long overdue marriage, which neatly coincides with a timely (and quite lengthy) cover-feature article in December 2008's Signal To Noise magazine, promises to hurl Cheer-Accident into wider recognition.

"I could easily fill a page talking about any given minute of this album, but suffice it to say that if you've ever loved Magma's apocalypticisms, Neu!'s ghosts in the machine, or Beefheart's Dada boogie—or at least dreamed of watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir fall down a very long flight of stairs—it might be for you." — Monica Kendrick/Chicago Reader

"...[Cheer-Accident] meld difficult, angular rock with absurdist lunacy in intentionally disturbing ways that are just brilliant." - Alternative Press

"There are few ensembles that can make noise sound both as mysterious and as strangely inviting as Cheer-Accident." - Delusions of Adequacy

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THE RED MASQUE (Philadelphia)
Official Website: http://www.theredmasque.com



Photo by Matt Romano


Founded in 2001, The Red Masque is an original avant rock band from the Philadelphia area. Part art, part alchemy, the group's experimental songwriting style is both angular and eerie, accented by freeform space rock improvisations, intricate acoustics, dark atmospherics and chunky riffs. Unconventional and eccentric in musical form, the sophisticatedly sinister The Red Masque fuses together such disparate musical references as horror movie soundtracks, rock-in-opposition, progressive rock, experimental, zeuhl, heavy rock, gothic, psychedelia, space rock, and kraut rock. The Red Masque's compositions are as intense as they are unique.

The band is currently signed with RER USA and released their third studio album, "Fossil Eyes" in August 2008. The Red Masque's live download-only album, "Stars Fall On Me" is scheduled for release in November 2009.

"From Pennsylvania hails a quartet without limitations to their purposes and without shame regarding norms and dogma within new rock." - Tarkus Magazine

"In the Nu-progressive rock underground, few bands are as respected and feared as Philadelphia's The Red Masque. Without irony or kitsch, the whirlwind that is Masque ... stalks the darkness of Hammer Horror ambience and cursedly complex musicianship (think Gong meets Bauhaus) with only feedbacking noise, sound-collage clustering and the howl of vocalist Lynnette Shelley to light its way." - A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia City Paper


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MAKE A RISING (Philadelphia)
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/makearising



Photo by Ryan Collerd


Tunneling its way out of the West Philadelphia nether worlds Make A Rising is a band that is beyond unique. The quintet's debut record is a swirling mix of violin, keyboard, guitars, drums, saxophone, trumpet, bells, whistles, and assorted noisemakers - all swelling together for subversively addictive pop gems. With orchestral crescendos combined with off-kilter vocals and fast-changing tempos Make A Rising is the sound of chaos, bliss, bravado, nerves and naivety - avant chamber rock at its most dynamic - like Daniel Johnston singing Beach Boys songs interpreted by Naked City.

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FERN KNIGHT (Washington D.C.)
Official Website: http://fernknight.com/



Under cellist Margaret Ayre's orchestration, D.C./Philadelphia quartet Fern Knight transfigures her acoustic Medieval-tinged songs with contrasting layers of 60s improv, 70s prog rock and NWOBHM - retelling the band's collective history.

Juxtapositions of the arcane and modern in her music and life drew Margaret to pen the band's fourth album (vhf), Castings, a song cycle exploring how the ancient divinatory art of the Tarot and the well-worn archetypes contained therein continue to flow through present day society.

The core quartet is rounded out by Jesse Sparhawk (harp/electric bass), Jim Ayre (Flying V/drums) and James Wolf, published Sun Ra scholar (violin). Margaret also co-scored a new soundtrack to 1970 Czech new wave film 'Valerie and Her Week of Wonders' for a ten-piece ensemble that included Jesse and Jim called The Valerie Project (Drag City).


Festival Website and Info: http://theredmasque.com/fest/index.html

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