TONIGHT: MIKE GANGLOFF (Appalachian fiddle) Gulpd 8.45

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Black Sun & Plugd Records present:

Gulpd Café, Triskel Arts Centre
Wednesday evening, April 3rd 8.45pm
Donations appreciated. (There might be cake, too)

8ish: Super8 programme (35 mins + introduction from Max Le Cain)
9pm: Tóla Custy, followed by Mike Gangloff.

Photo of Mike Gangloff and Nathan Bowles by Kevin McDonnell

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With US underground drone wizards Pelt and later the barnstorming Appalachian old-time band Black Twig Pickers, Mike Gangloff helped forge a unique blend of avant-garde freedom and dyed-in-the-(plaid)-wool backwoods traditionalism. But along the way, the multi-instrumentalist offered only rare glimpses of the music he plays alone. This April, Gangloff returns to Ireland for a second visit, performing fiddle, banjo and vocal tunes he learned from regional masters around his home in Southwest Virginia and stretching out into personal spaces claimed in nearly two decades of improvisational music.

His is an idiosyncratic musical landscape informed by knee-to-knee sessions with players ranging from guitar fire-breather Donald Miller of Borbetomagus to Charlie Parr, from the late Jack Rose (a bandmate in Pelt and frequent Twig collaborator) to pre-war recording artist Clayton Hall, from the Slate Mountain Ramblers to the Ivanhoe Wildcats.

Expect dones and hoots, full-on stomps and disconsolate dirges. Expect to be rocked back on your heels in a way you’ve never been before.

“join pelt in celebrating the ecstatic joy that results from refusing to accept the alleged primacy of shit-culture. it does not exist if we will not believe in it. and we must refuse it on all levels always. the proof of its surrender is at hand. yr hand. right now, motherfucker!”
-Byron Coley

"Both scholars of the regional sounds and advocates of an ecstatic and highly personal approach to the music, the Twigs hold down local dance and bar gigs, play all manner of celebrations and every so often, hit the road. Along the way, Isak Howell, Nathan Bowles and Mike Gangloff kept company with some of underground America’s heavyweights and haunted the doorsteps of Appalachian fiddle and banjo masters. They’ve played for the National Council for the Traditional Arts and for audiences overseas. And they’ve put out a string of acclaimed albums, including 2008’s Hobo Handshake and last year’s Jack Rose & the Black Twig Pickers.” -Thrill Jockey on the Black Twig Pickers

Special guest Tóla Custy:

Also as part of this night, Black Sun is delighted to present a programme of Super-8 films by Bill Mousoulis, a legend of the Melbourne independent film scene who has created over a hundred works since the early ‘80s. Filmmaker, critic, founder of the journal Senses of Cinema, and passionate advocate personal filmmaking, Mousoulis has been hailed by Australia’s preeminent film critic Adrian Martin in glowing terms:

Can there be any doubt that (for the Super-8 world, but more generally for Australian independent film-making) Bill Mousoulis is a visionary? Tireless worker for the small movie at large, and ceaseless creator of his own contribution to cinema, he has come into this world, I believe, to inspire us… A romantic, a mystic, an artist inspired by the muse, a free spirit …I happen to think that Bill’s work is simultaneously naive (in all the best senses) and extremely sophisticated. You surely don’t have to look twice to be convinced that he is, after all, the Bresson of Super-8 … Bill’s movies aim high, and they convince you of their right to aim that high…

Cork audiences will have the rare opportunity of seeing a selection of Mousulis’ short works from the ‘80s and ‘90s, films in which he conjures witty, poetic and often soulful cinematic gems from his immediate surroundings, often with the help of an inspired ear for popular music.

For more information on Bill Mousoulis, visit his website: http://innersense.com.au/

 

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Interplanetary Music! Last year, Mike's gig for Black Sun happened to fall on the evening of a powerful solar storm that threatened to disrupt communication systems down here on planet Earth. We pulled up some seats at the end of Mike's performance and improvised this short set together which we then named 'Greeting the Solar Storm'. This track wound up (heh) on our debut tape, released by Fort Evil Fruit. You can hear the whole release over at meitheal.bandcamp.com.

Read Mike's description of how Meitheal came to be in a recent wearenoise article:

I blame Colohan. Dave’s an instigator, which I learned way back at the 2008 Terrastock Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, in the US. Jack Rose introduced us and then threatened to throw Dave over a balcony if he couldn’t identify the singer on a cd we were listening to. Dave saved himself by saying “Scott Walker”, I think.

Dave was there with United Bible Studies and I was there with Pelt and to play with Jack, and we were all staying at a seedy hotel shared by dozens of the musicians. On the last night of the fest, everyone was carrying on in a courtyard in the middle of the motel and the manager was trying to shut things down, saying there was a Baptist convention also staying there and they needed some quiet....

Mike Gangloff’s Meitheal Memoir

 

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Hey all, venue change for this! We're downstairs in Gulpd and will be kicking off a little later than planned at 8.45pm! -Vicky