Music

Tim Barry

Tim Barry: No-Bullshit, Stripped-Down Country Folk

Though his career began with melodic hardcore-punk band Avail, Tim Barry has been releasing solo albums — while existing off the grid — of bare-bones country-folk songs about injustice and the beauty of change.

Contest: Win a five-day pass to CMJ 2010

Once a year, for the past 16 years, the entire music industry descends upon New York City for a few days of live music, film screenings, discussions, networking, and general revelry. This year’s CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival takes place October 19-23 in venues all over NYC.

The mountainous lineup is only partially announced and is sure to keep on growing. Seeing so many stellar acts might get a bit pricey, so CMJ and ALARM have teamed up to give away two five-day passes to two lucky readers. Total retail value of one pass alone is $495 and will give its bearer access to any show, provided that it’s not sold out.

Morrow vs. Hajduch

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Bongripper’s Satan Worshipping Doom

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Bongripper: Satan Worshipping DoomBongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom 2xLP (August 13, 2010)

Bongripper: “Hail”
[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Bongripper-Satan-Worshipping-Doom-01-Hail.mp3|titles=Bongripper: “Satan Worshipping Doom”]

Morrow: Chicago’s Bongripper makes the type of music that you might glean from its name — bleak, crushing doom metal that’s built on stoner riffs and down-tuned guitars.  I will preface this by saying that I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but the band already has two strikes in my book for the lame pot-related name and the (presumably tongue-in-cheek) Satanism.

Matmos

Matmos: Experimental IDM Wizards Coax Notes From a Cactus

Matmos members M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel succeed avant-garde composers David Lang, Iannis Xenakis, and John Cage, creating musique concrète with electronics, tin foil, synths, cacti, boardgames, and whatever else happens to strike an interesting chord.

Zine Scene: Pink Noises

For the past ten years, Tara Rodgers, a.k.a. Analog Tara, has dedicated herself to studying female electronic musicians and the evolving dynamic of gender, creation, and community. With her website, PinkNoises.com, she publishes interviews, investigates the supposed dearth of women in electronic music, and develops collaborative relationships with the many fascinating women that she finds.

In a new book, Pink Noises: Women On Music and Sound (Duke University Press), Rodgers republishes and expands 24 of those interviews (including Ikue Mori, Le Tigre, and DJ Rekha), along with some striking black-and-white photographs and academic meditations on the meaning of her project.  Along the way, she tries to address some of those big questions of gender and music with what she has learned in the past decade.