The New Puritan
video still, Charles Atlas, “Hail the New Puritan”, 1985-86, courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix, (EAI), New York, www.eai.org

Curated by Sydney Hermant

UNIT/PITT presents the third annual Wrong Wave music festival since its revival in 2011.

TICKETS at door of events or festival passes at: http://wrongwave2013.eventbrite.ca/

Wrong Wave 2013: Revenge of the New Puritan draws inspiration from Charles Atlas’ 1986 fictionalized documentary of dancer/choreographer Michael Clark as he prepares for his punk ballet production, Hail the New Puritan. Featuring music by The Fall and production design by Leigh Bowery, this landmark documentary features modern dance, music, and art sharing the stage in a jarring mix of post-punk and New Romanticism. Co-produced by the Western Front, and co-presented by the Pacific Cinematheque and SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Wrong Wave 2013: Revenge of the New Puritan includes new dance work by Jen Weih, Charles Atlas’ Hail the New Puritan, music and film by Kensington Gore and friends, as well as other special musical guests and panelists.

Thurs October 24th 
Hail the New Puritan
1985, Dir. Charles Atlas
Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe Street #200
$11 at door or free with festival pass

Friday October 25th
Stack of Moves
8.30- 11pm
Luxe Hall Western Front
303 East 8th Ave
Introduction with Justine Chambers, 8:30 – 9:15. Dancing until 11ish. Free admission.
Stack of Moves is a dance project. It is participatory, but you don’t have to dance. Highly recommended to come to the intro. Everybody welcome.
Justine A. Chambers is a Vancouver-based contemporary dance artist.
Stack of Moves is organized by Jen Weih.

Saturday October 26th 
Unit/Pitt Projects
236 East Pender St
8:30 $5 at door, or free entry with pass
orphans and dogs featuring Elizabeth Fischer.
A rare public performance by Mark Szabo
DJ sounds by New Moon Poncho
Also: Scrap Nap, an installation by Yuriko Iga

Sunday October 27th
Music and film with Kensington Gore and White Poppy
SFU Woodwards Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre
149 West Hastings Room 2555
7 pm $5 at door or free with festival pass
With films by:
Les Smolenski
Daniel Presnell
Lou and Katie Webster
Adam O. Thomas
Alex Mackenzie
Khan Lee
Wade Thomas
Derek Brunen

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Elizabeth Fischer is a truly inter-disciplinary artist: she is a musician as well as a visual artist and a writer. During the 80’s, she was the lyricist, singer and keyboardist in Vancouver’s infamous poetic art-funk group Animal Slaves as well as providing all the visual material for the same.  After Animal Slaves disbanded, Fischer continued to write, play and record both solo and in various ensembles, performing original material as well as continuing to explore her fascination with Brecht. Fischer has recorded and played with many of Vancouver’s improvisational luminaries, Tony Wilson, Peggy Lee, Gord Grdina, Tommy Babin, JP Carter, to name a few.

More recently, she recorded two well-regarded albums with the group darkblueworld, both of which (darkblueworld s-t, and the perilous beauty of madness), are available on Drip Audio (http://www.dripaudio.com). With the same group, she twice toured Eastern Europe and Russia.

Orphans and dogs is Fischer’s latest enthusiasm, where, with the able support of her musical partners, she gets to newly explore her own ruminations as well as interpret the musings of other societal misfits and miscreants of similar inclinations.

Fischer fearlessly flirts with different musical genres as proven by the breadth of her artistic output, yet she aggressively retains her originality. Her uncompromising poetry, her voice, deep, supple and electric, her urgent vocal performance, seek to confront vulnerable humanity. And somehow survive the process.

Mark Szabo is an essential contributor to the Vancouver blossom of 90s indie singer songwriters, writing for and playing in the bands Shiny Grady, The Infernal Devices, Thee Crusaders, and most memorably Horsey, Good Horsey, Capozzi Park and Mark. It has been said that Mark Szabo is one of Vancouver’s great unknown musical gems. Those who have had access to Mark’s work since the release of Regressing, Songs by Mark and Horsey, in the early 90s agree that his work in songwriting remains some of the best out there. All three of those recordings existed on tapes, scattered 7 inches, and some, but not all, made it onto a cd. My Songs by Mark tape got eaten by a Pontiac a decade ago. Otherwise it would be on regular rotation, for the song smithing therein entangles intimately with the rawness the recordings themselves provide. However it is this technical lack of reach, (how do you even get your hands on those recordings?) and Szabo’s own retreat from the world of live music shortly after the release of his last record, The Record of Capozzi Park in 2002, that contribute to his obscurity and increasing eccentricity as a musician. Despite a small and cultish following, including a cover album led by his former bandmate Marcy Emery under the moniker Heartbreak Scene, entitled The Szabo Songbook in 2007, Szabo’s performances are few and far between. Fans and newcomers alike do not want to miss this rare opportunity to hear Mark perform, on October 26.

Yuriko Iga was born in Winnipeg and raised in Calgary with Japanese parentage. Her experience of the traditional Japanese house and family, combined with her work in the contemporary art field, have led her toward a broadened conception of art as the creation of installation or social space always ignoring the boundary between art, multi-media, design, and life. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Yuriko’s many artistic endeavours include running a cafe/gallery in Calgary called Kisaten from 1994–1996; working with the collective Colours for Industry on a multi-media dance piece called Microluft ; and curating a music event called Squibb. Now based out of Vancouver, Yuriko’s recent project is called Blim. Blim is a Community Based Art Resource Center which facilitates screen-printing, button making, drawing, local emerging artists, creative workshops, and crafts in the independent field. Blim also hosts the Blim Market, which is a monthly craft event that houses local handmade craft, art, vintage, and organisations. Blim has been active for 9 years and has now moved to a larger location in historic Chinatown. Yuriko is also an active member of the Powell Street Festival Programming Commitee.

 

British Columbian inner-peacenik Crystal Dorval’s “experimental therapeutic pop” project White Poppy fuses the warm, washed tonalities of her earliest cassette-blurred lotus meditations within a richer range of glittering guitar gestures, sky-way keyboard cascades, and neon-violet vocal refraction.  White Poppy’s self-titled debut album came out September 3rd, 2013 on Not Not Fun Records in the form of black vinyl LPs in Parthenon-portraiture jackets designed by Ms. Dorval, herself.

http://requiem-media.com/client/white-poppy-2/

Who doesn’t like a little bloodletting? Kensington Gore is actually the recipe used to create blood in Hammer horror films. Made up of Stephen Wood and Scott Gubbels, Kensington Gore have been holed up in I.H.O.J. Studios over the last year or so putting together a 10 song sonic mutation. Some connection to keyboard-oriented Krautrock bands like Harmonia and La Dusseldorf may be warranted. Perhaps if eighties Krautrock was good this record would fit the bill. The songs are a combination of spontaneous and studied with several being conceived, recorded and mixed in a single day. Kensington Gore will be playing some of their tracks along with films commissioned by the band by special guests. Kensington Gore are:

Stephen Wood was the guitarist in the “classic” Destroyer line-up which also featured Jason Zumpano, John Collins (new pornographers) and Scott Morgan (loscil). Since then he has led The Battles which have included members Dan Bejar (destroyer), Jeremy Schmidt (black mountain),and Scott Morgan

Scott Gubbels was a guitarist in the sludge bubblegum outfit Superconductor. He has also played keyboards in Capozzi Park and British Columbia Voltage Controlled Oscillator (featuring Jeremy Schmidt and Josh Stevenson [von bingen, jackie-o motherfucker] ).

 

Perhaps best known for releasing the first two Destroyer albums (we’ll build them in a golden bridge/city of daughters), this is Tinker Records’ first release in 14 years.

http://kensingtongore.bandcamp.com/album/from-forthcoming-kensington-gore-lp–

 

 

 

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