Arts vs Entertainment: 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Fields of Industry at Mittenfest III

Dec. 26-28 at the Elbow Room in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
See the full schedule here.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Guyz Nyte ft. Oscilabot - Domino's Effect

In preparation of the transcendent freedom jazz experience of live
Flatlands Collective, the Guyz order a pie and invite reclusive
synth-smasher Oscilabot over for a pre-game of hot mozzarella and
cold-war tension soundscaping. Liberation guitar marches, electronic
missile commands and mixing console standoffs ripple through this
live-to-tape-deck sizzler. Says one hard-to-impress collaborator on
the playback en route to the main event, "This is actually pretty
good."
Get it here.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Gates McFadden - You Can See Russia From Here On A Clear Day

Gates McFadden's fullest album to date has improviser/composer Joel Schrauben making a digi-romantic Glenn Branca of himself. But not via an army of guitarists; it's just Joel and a laptop - therein being dozens of delay loops and tones. You Can See Russia... is an exercise in infinite repetition; fitting in that the Palin remark appropriated is just one of a series of infinitely repeated talking points this season - repetition to the point of a loss of meaning. Fortunately for Gates McFadden, the loss of meaning here is not a descent into idiocy but one of recontextualization; where repeated tones and sounds layer upon one another building a veritable Tower of Digital Babel that comes crumbling down when Schrauben (as creator) sees fit. Schrauben achieves a unified, suspensefully ambient statement that gives credence to those who may assert that tension and resolution are overrated concepts.
Get it here.

Guyz Nyte - Smmmrtyme Blooze

In the heat of the summer, two men did not forget what heat and oppression are all about. Summer has come and gone, and the dutiful execution of heat mongering, sweltering summer death and 10,000% humidity by our two prophets of sweat stands as a testament to those months now lost. As you stand in the death-piles of raked leaves, counting the dismal days until you are buried in ice and snow, hold vigil with our heroes, Guyz Nyte, for the taste of the Mississippi Delta that comes to Michigan every year.
Get it here.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Save Me From the Gallup Poll - Buried in Screens - Eric Gallippo solo noise part 2 of 2

Okay and here's part 2. If SMFTGP's first solo release didn't significantly melt your bowels, Eric Gallippo made a second one to finish the job, just in case. The shrill vociferation of the apocalyptic harbinger is drowned in the gelatinous mire of brown note explosions. A joyous synthesis of dooms.
Get it here.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Save Me From The Gallup Poll - Eric Gallippo solo noise 1 of 2

If he's not blowing your mind on guitar in either Man at Arms, Fields of Industry or A Paschal Circus; or doing any number of things in the Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble, Eric "Gallup Poll" Gallippo is probably literally going to make your brain explode into gory chunks all over your wood paneled room with his solo noise jams. Just a man, a mixer, and a stupid long string of effects pedals.
Get it here.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Pattern is Movement + Fields of Industry + Boywife / 9/15 @ Mac's Bar in Lansing

Pattern is Movement
Fields of Industry
Boywife

Friday, August 01, 2008

AvE Ensemble with a one-two punch

Dual EP releases from the Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble kick off the suffocating, steam-breathing weeks of a midwestern August. AvEE gets (half) digital on Gig Guides Don't Grow on Trees pluggin' in plugins of disorientation. Of Chicago chronicles the analog sounds of slow motion violent electrocution on the streets of the jewel of Lake Michigan. Now download the soundtrack to your back to school shopping.

Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble - Gig Guides Don't Grow on Trees
Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble - Of Chicago

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Cathartic Pipe - Modern Purgatives

Cathartic Pipe's sophomore release. The boys are preaching the gospel of impending government-engendered doom and annihilation; a full fledged apocalypse of the bowels and neural network of every man, woman, boy and girl by compulsory consumption of atomic laxatives (of the brain). This is the end of all things, and the finale is hearkened by the bellow of a trombone, bowed electric bass, live electronic boxes with arms and legs, and a buzzsaw for a heart. This is the infernal vision of a single summer afternoon; school is out and the world is over.
Download it here.
Listen on last.fm

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble Has a Keen Cultural Sense

The latest from the AvE Ensemble sees the lineup and the sound coalesce around the core of Fields of Industry. Has a Keen Cultural Sense features selected recordings of what were essentially Fields of Industry experimental rehearsals meant to inform the band's live repertoire. But these and additional sessions have taken on lives of their own, to the extent that the band has lately been recording them for their own sake. The resulting improvisational pieces consist largely of manipulated guitars and function generators, live electronics, and live laptop performance with a tiny bit of acoustic instrumentation (e.g. penny whistle). The aesthetic of atmospheric and ambient noise of the first AvE self-titled release remains, but is supplemented here by an affinity for droning krautrock and a greater emphasis on electronics.
Download it here.
Listen on Last.fm

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Fields of Industry live on WCBN 5/14/08: Download the set

We played with no drummer on a Wednesday night in Ann Arbor, stuffed comfortably into Production Studio B of the defiantly obscure and vehemently varied WCBN, transmitting something much more somber than I think any of us expected. Eric tapped a floor tom with timpani mallets between guitar strums; Joel employed the function generators to fill some empty space. I like this set a lot.

Download it here

And check out other artists featured on WCBN's Local Music Show at the LMS podcast. Jason Voss hosts lots of really, really good stuff.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

"Point of Contention" video!

Today is FoI's big day. Two Dogs, A Television is now available on everyone's favorite digital stores, AND the video for "Point of Contention" is finally available. This was filmed on a frigid February day in Grass Lake, MI at Joshua's house with lots and lots of friends. Graham Mason, Dax de la Monta and Yoni Goldstein all worked very hard on this for a very long time and we're all ecstatic to present it to you today.

Fields of Industry - Point of Contention [HD version] from Arts vs. Entertainment on Vimeo.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Fields of Industry - Dogs EP 2005 (re-up)

Fields of Industry self-released the 3-song EP Dogs back in 2005 in a minuscule batch of 50 copies. These songs were the first to include someone other than Joshua Barton in the recording process in any substantial way; that someone was Eric Gallippo.

With Two Dogs, A Television being just over the horizon (or already here if you got it at a show) we decided to make Dogs available again in an unlimited pressing of infinity copies (thank you Internet).

Get it here for free.

Also, check out the video that Graham Mason made for the track "Ramona Bopper"

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Long Whisker debut with Long Live Long Whisker

Some things are bound to happen, like Long Whisker. The assemblage of Reagan Sova, Scott Hein and Jim Cherewick must be fated since it is so unlikely. All three members come from acts that have made their names in the burgeoning Ypsilanti scene or in the Detroit area to such a degree that they needn't have begun another project (granted, LW may not have happened had Sova's old project Bear Mountain Picnic stayed together). Yet Long Whisker is real and the quickly assembled debut EP is so well executed that it can't be anything but destiny.

Long Live Long Whisker is the proclamation made at the outset and the name of the band's first effort. Cherewick and Sova summon the plodding rhythm and indie sensibility of acts like Silver Jews and imply the nostalgic ethos of The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society with their acoustic guitars and vocal tradeoffs. The interjecting harmony of Hein's various keys, especially the occasional Rhodes-like sound, is a perfect unifying element for the overall sound. Lyrically, Long Whisker are a synthesis of storytelling and peculiar observation ("astronauts are so expensive to insure because the darkness of space is so unforgiving"). Sova's direct, doubletracked delivery contrasts with the unique emotive croak of Cherewick.

In all their modesty and subtlety, Long Whisker appear to be a modern version of what any number of prestigious bands might have been in the seventies had they not slipped from country-fried to arena rock, or hated each other so much or been such broken, self-conscious rock gods. As grandiose as that may sound, all it really means is that modesty and sensitivity coupled with masterful execution makes really good music and Long Whisker have made a great start. Download it for free here.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/longwhisker
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Long+Whisker

Monday, April 21, 2008

Hospital Garden

Lucas Hollow left Bear Mountain Picnic behind in Ypsilanti, Michigan in late 2007. Having settled in Dayton, Ohio, Hollow has found a new cohort to launch the project Hospital Garden, which continues the loud, frayed-edged and earnest rock that came out of BMP. Hollow's latest self-recorded songs are now available via AvE as Mailbox Demos. These tracks were originally circulated among friends to allow a testing of the waters, now that Hollow is without his BMP songwriting partner, Reagan Sova. They will be the basis for full band recordings later on. Though all you get here is electric guitar and vocals, one can already tell that Hospital Garden is going to be an intensified continuation of the BMP experience (anyone who saw them live will wonder if further intensity is possible, but those that have already seen Hospital Garden might attest that it is). Think of a fierce crystallization of Dinosaur Jr., Pavement and The Pixies and then imagine it as lo-fi as it can get (almost). Mailbox Demos is available here for free. It's also up on last.fm.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Fields of Industry set to release Two Dogs, A Television

It's taken a long time, but a release date for Two Dogs, A Television is finally set. The album will be digitally released May 20th by Cerberus Records via iTunes and other major digital outlets. The band is self-releasing the CD on Arts vs Entertainment. Copies of the disc are already available at shows. The album features art by Graham Mason.

Check out FoI's myspace for upcoming shows in and around Grand Rapids, Lansing and Ann Arbor.

Update: Two Dogs, A Television is now up for name-your-own price on Bandcamp.

Goro Doesn't Die

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Gates McFadden returns with Get Out The Tape

Joel Schrauben, aka Gates McFadden, has wasted no time in filling out his compositional niche by releasing his second album for 2008 within three months of his first. Get Out The Tape re-emphasizes the G.McFad tendency towards patterned construction of songs, approaching a minimalist idm but not quite. If anything, Gates' voice is becoming more mature as Schrauben's techniques become more sophisticated. Get Out The Tape employs repetition and subtlety in variation to beautiful effect so that each moment is a pleasant stasis of sound without becoming disengaging. These eight new songs are written and performed on laptop with some sampling of Schrauben's old band Bear Mountain Picnic thrown in for good measure. Think of mashing Stars of the Lid's heavenly swells with the stylized electronic adolescence of Cornelius. It's up on last.fm now, or you can get it here.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble - self-titled

A delayed notice that the self-titled Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble album is available for free download in full here. Joshua produced and compiled this from incidental recordings made from Jan.-Dec. 2007, mashed into a collage of 6 untitled tracks. Lots of droney, ambient and freely improvised stuff. I think about a dozen people contributed to this, willingly or not.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Swim Club Super Friends Blowout 2008

In East Lansing, Michigan a select group of distinguished swim clubbers, culled from disparate regions of the nation, ushered in 2008 in the company of Fields of Industry, Goro, and, in their debut performance, The Make-Out Kings. Ripped from the boutique sensibility of an on-cam audio mic, this dirty sound is every lo-fi aficionado's dream. Experience it along with those that attended by downloading the audio here for free (with two special songs performed by FoI that night that we can't put on last.fm), and feel the Michigan winter basement swelter, smell the burning chest hair. Get it.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Rx Gibbs write up

Check out Eric's piece on Rx Gibbs in this week's City Pulse.

"Sometimes the pieces drone on like an extended wordless hymn; other times they build into soaring polyphonies."

And check out Rx Gibbs on Myspace

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Stay tuned for...

Releases forthcoming from:

Etxa Aranguren - pseudo-Basque-separatist diy folk.
Zach Lockwood - solo leviathan drone
V/A Swim Club Super Friends - New Year's Bash Bootleg (feat. The Make Out Kings, Fields of Industry and Goro)

Also the release of Fields of Industry's long awaited "Two Dogs, A Television" jointly produced by Cerberus Records and Arts vs Entertainment.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

What's going on

This isn't going to be just a series of bios of our bands, as it appears right now. After awhile these bios will disappear into the archive and be linked to in the side bar to the right (over there --->), kind of like a real webpage. In the meantime, bear with us and pardon our mess, as it were.

Goro

Michigan's four-armed behemoth, Goro, is a tribute to the Mortal Kombat character and to all things awesome. Adam Jaros and Brian Wiers, shirtless and strapped back to back, battle for the microphone to sing their respective lyrics while the band plays metal-influenced, G.G. Allin style rock written by Joel Schrauben - also of Gates McFadden and Fields of Industry. This is sweat-drenched vulgarity that could only have been birthed in a filthy university co-op house.

GMEZB's - mp3

Cathartic Pipe

The duo of Cathartic Pipe is Reverend Doomhammer and Joshua Barton of Fields of Industry. This side project is essentially a blatant infantile spree of any kind of energy music the boys happen to feel up to at the instant they press record. They have covered the territory of ultra abrasive sheets of noise, microphones in dryers, sensual wood-flute scores on themes of arson, irreverent send-ups of Jimi Hendrix derivatives and crude approximations of hip-hop. Their rise would bode ill.

Pork Hock Chain Saw - mp3

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Arts vs Entertainment Ensemble

The Arts Vs Entertainment Ensemble is the namesake creative endeavor of the AvE label. The ensemble's first self-titled release features collages of a year's worth of live, impromptu recordings. The recordings are primarily improvisational, experimental music with a wide variety of instrumentation and a different lineup of participants at each session.

Untitled 1 - mp3

AvE ensemble on last.fm

AvE ensemble on myspace

Gates McFadden

Gates McFadden is the solo project of Joel Schrauben of Michigan-based bands Fields of Industry and Bear Mountain Picnic. Schrauben's solo work is diverse and can range from abrasive noise to light electroacoustic compositions. His music is instrumental, often loop-based and largely informed by experimentation with recording technique. In 2008, Gates McFadden's first release from Arts Vs Entertainment, 8 Tracks, showcased a selection of Schrauben's guitar driven work.

Login Please - mp3

Gates McFadden on Myspace

Fields of Industry

Fields of Industry is a Michigan band that plays minimal, affecting pop music while also dabbling in ambient, psychedelia, and burnout improvisation. Since 1999, they have performed and recorded songs by vocalist and guitarist Joshua Barton with a revolving lineup of bandmates. Champions of crawling tempos, FoI can vacillate between abysmal melancholy and mountainous blitzes of sound. The band also sneaks in the noisy disorientation of bands like Spacemen 3 and The Jesus and Mary Chain, but remains centered on the staid and pious (or anti-pious) minimalism of major influences like Low and the Velvet Underground.

Fiction Writer (live on WCBN) - mp3

fieldsofindustry.com
Fields of Industry on Last.fm
Fields of Industry on Myspace

Reverend Doomhammer

Michigan's Reverend Doomhammer merges noise, synth pop and gore grind to massive, overdriven effect, conjuring a sweltering, slimy world of pink, bubbling toxic sludge and balloon animals where everyone is happy and no one goes hungry because there are plenty of corpses to satiate the masses of undead every mealtime. The Right Reverend is inspired by Wendy Carlos and Gary Numan as much as he is by Wolf Eyes, Carcass, George Romero and H.P. Lovecraft. Fans of abrasive finesse and creepy glee can't go wrong.

I CAN'T STOP EATING MASHED POTATOES - mp3
Corpse Conservation Recycle Rangers - mp3