The LSG New Music Series is the longest standing experimental music series in the Bay Area, with weekly Thursday night shows since 1991. Founded by LSG Gallery Directors Laurie Lazer and Darryl Smith, the series has been curated by several Bay Area musicians.
Since 2002 the New Music Series has been curated by Outsound Presents and local improvisers/sound artists Rent Romus and Matt Davignon. They present a wide cross section of sound artists from every experimental genre.
Thursdays 8-10pm Admission $6-10 sliding scale All ages welcome, no one refused for lack of funds.
The series is an artist-run, grass-roots DIY effort that relies on volunteers. Please join us in setting up chairs, curtain, lights, sound once a week, and contact Outsound Presents to get involved in marketing and project coordination.
The Luggage Store Gallery is a non-profit corporation funded by the City of San Francisco, grants, and your contributions. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, Noon to 5pm. For gallery information call 415-255-5971.
BOOKING Please read the policies here. Contact Rent Romus for booking and all other inquires.
Principle
Artist-run, volunteer, grass-roots DIY effort with little money and extraordinary results
Type of Music Presented
Experimental: new sonic, improvised, noise, electronic, lowercase, avant-jazz, outrock, 21st century composition, and sonic art. See artist list below.
Format
Weekly on Thursday Nights 8-10pm Usually two or three acts per night 7:00pm Setup 8:10pm Set One (45 min) 9:10pm Set Two (45 min) or 7:00pm Setup 8:10pm Set One (30min) 8:40pm Set Two (30 min) 9:25pm Set Three (30 min)
Booking Lead Time
Two to four months in advance
Terms & Policy
70% of door equally split between two sets 30% of door goes to the gallery which Outsound is not directly affiliated with. We volunteer our time and efforts to running the show. One comp admission per artist. No Power tools, or destructive devices of any type allowed. No fire or fume generating devices unless under a controlled environment and is 100% non-toxic. No smoking of any kind allowed in the space.
Facility and Equipment
Visual arts gallery with simple PA (mixer and 2 speakers, 2 mic stands, 2 mics), full window film screen, one LCD projector (no interface must supply own cable). A few tables, 45 folding chairs and 2 music stands are available. Max Capacity 100(standing room)
Location
Second story storefront on Market near Sixth 1.5 blocks from Powell Street BART station, and several San Francisco buses stop right outside. If you are driving to our space, please email us for advice on where to unload and park.
Do Not Have
Piano, projector, microphones, instrument cables, power strips
Do Not Provide
Guaranteed payment, guest passes, hotel accommodations, transportation, rehearsal space/time, or a sound person.
To Book a Gig
Check calendar for date availability. Submit performance description with proposed dates, brief artist bios, website information and links to audio/video to Rent Romus
Past Curators/Volunteers
Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Sean Rooney, Steev Hise, Scott Looney, Matt Ingalls, Damon Smith, Bob Boster, Melissa Metrick, Jon Brumit (send us a note if you presented over the past 20 years, we'd love to hear from you).
Past Performers
Over the course of its Thursday night concerts, the series has presented hundreds of artists drawn from a vanguard roster, among them Cecil Taylor, Miya Masaoka, Alan Silva, Carl Stone, Biggi Vinkeloe, Joe McPhee, Janet Feder, Peter Kowald, Henry Kaiser, Fred Frith, Gino Robair, Koji Asano, Andrea Neumann, Axel Dorner, Kitundu, Pamela Z, Wolfgang Fuchs, Amy Denio, Jason Kahn, Eddie Prevost, Karen Stackpole, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Gianni Gebbia, Karen Borca, Oluyemi Thomas, Saadet Turkoz, Yasuhiro Otani, Eddie Gale, Jim Ryan, Dina Emerson, Burton Green, Jane Rigler, Jack Wright, Assif Tsahar, CJ Reaven Borosque, Glenn Spearman, Danielle DeGruttola, Bob Marsh, Shoko Hikage, Bob Ostertag, Xome, Randy Yau, Stimbox, Kaffe Matthews and countless others both local and international.
dap·ple-gray (d p l-gr ). adj. gray with an ill-defined mottling of a darker shade. Nava Dunkelman [Percussion] April-Jeanie Tang [Electronics]
Nava Dukelman is a percussionist born and raised in Japan, performing classical, contemporary, ethnic fusion, Japanese taiko and uchiwadaiko and Indonesian gamelan, among other musical genres. She studied percussion under Eugene Novotney at Humboldt State University prior attending Mills College in 2011 with major in Music Performance, studying percussion with William Winant.
April-Jeanie Tang was born in Hong Kong. Formerly majoring in behavioral science, she later begin studying cross-modal synesthetic compositions. Growing up in Hong Kong influenced her to gravitate to sounds of industrial constructions and airplane engines. Her compositions in noise and timbre focuses on ways of transitioning from different ends of opposing sounds. She is currently a student of Electronic Composition at Mills College with focus in hardware electronics.
Kadet Kuhne is a media artist whose work spans the audiovisual spectrum. With the goal of forming somatic experiences which can prompt visceral responses to sound and movement, Kadet openly exposes the use of technology in her practice by employing fragmented, jump-cut edits and amplifying evidence of sonic detritus. This glitch aesthetic, contrasted with layered ambient reflection, is intended to heighten tensions between motion and stasis: a balanced yet heightened "nervous system" to reflect our own. Trained in jazz guitar in her youth, Kadet became attached to the instinctive nature of improvisation which led her to the California Institute of the Arts where she studied Composition and Integrated Media. As an award-winning filmmaker she has numerous shorts that have screened worldwide including Infinite Delay, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her installations involve a combination of motion sensors, customized software and online virtual space exploring themes of communication and control. Kadet's compositions twist signal processing, FM synthesis and neurological impulses into experimental electronic ambiences that make your cilia vibrate in curious patterns. http://www.tektonicshift.com/
This show will be a CD release performance for Kadet's brand new disc, "Matter of Mind". You can download it here: http://tektonicshift.com/shop/
Thursday, May 24 2012 8:00 PM
8pm: Thomas/Levin duo Oluyemi Thomas - Bass Clarinet, Saxophone, Percussion Ike Levin - Saxophone, Bass Clarinet 9pm PAS Music (NY) Robert L. Pepper, Amber Brien, Jon "Vomit" Worthley, Michael Durek, and Will Seesar
"[When] Oluyemi Thomas, the sage-like reedman from Oakland, California [...] performs, his aim is to reach up towards the ceiling, to gauge the nature of the room, in terms of its acoustics and its human inhabitants. Although he moves through a broad range of instruments, including saxophones, musette, flute and various percussion pieces, it's the bass clarinet that occupies most of his concentration. "My main and great spirit guide on the bass clarinet has been, and still is, Eric Dolphy ," he says. "His tone is so sweet, poetic, meaningful, soulful and clear. Listening to Mr. Dolphy at first made me want to find my own vocabulary system as he did, but Eric showed me it can be done emphatically. Bass clarinet and saxophone, I love them both because they both speak and sing the ancient/modern language-tunes. But the bass clarinet has that floor-of-the-ocean tone that I really adore." No matter which performance context Thomas finds himself in, the overwhelming aura is one of invocatory ritual, in the tradition of Sun Ra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and beyond. In his early days, Oluyemi was listening to a funkier form of jazz (this still remains so), but revelation came when the likes of Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders , Archie Shepp and Ornette Coleman passed through the city. [...]"-Martin Longley, All About Jazz
Ike Levin has been playing reed instruments professionally for over 25 years. A native of Chicago, Ike was an active performer in the city's jazz, blues, and new music scene before relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area. He studied music at the Roosevelt University Conservatory of Music and in the Jazz Music Studies program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. While a student, Ike performed as a regular member of the University Jazz Ensemble and the Jazz Members Big Band comprised of many top Chicago area jazz musicians performing original compositions. He studied privately with legendary reed jazz master Joe Daley who helped him establish his technique and neo-bop musical roots. In addition, he studied with Fred Anderson, one of the co-founders of the Chicago based Association For The Advancement of Creative Music (AACM). Under the tutelage of Fred Anderson, Ike begin to explore new musical frontiers of spontaneously improvised, creative music.
PAS started in 1995 out of Brooklyn, NY, USA, driven by the creative talents of Robert L. Pepper working in the mediums of sound and video. Since then PAS has evolved into a collective with many different instrumentations and lineups. Permanent members include Amber Brien, Jon “Vomit” Worthley, Michael Durek, and Will Seesar. Guests and occasional collaborators include, ZEV!, Hati, Steve Beresford, Thomthom Geigenschrey, Matt Chilton (Vultures), Anthony Donovan (Vultures), Damien Olsen, Philippe Petit, Robert Pascale, and many others. PAS have released 9 full length releases and have been on several compilations throughout the years. Some of these can be found on www.cdbaby.com or iTunes. PAS have performed in various countries including the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Greece, Lithuania, Macedonia, and Poland. Sound and video installations have also included Chile and the United States. PAS have also performed at Fausts Avant Garde Festival 2009 and 2010, the 18th Olympia Experimental Festival in Washington, the 2010 Spark Festival in Minneapolis, and the 2011 CoCArt Festival in Torun Poland. Robert L. Pepper has also founded the projects Magic Zorillo and Jazzfakers. He is also an active member of the SK Orchestra
Thursday, May 31 2012 8:00 PM
3 sets of improv groups arranged by Paul Stapleton and Matt Davignon
8:15 pm: Paul Stapleton (Belfast): Bonsai Sound Sculpture Ted Byrnes (LA): Percussion Laura Steenberge: Bass
8:45 pm: Paul Stapleton (Belfast): Bonsai Sound Sculpture Edward Schocker: instruments Matt Ingalls: Clarinet
9:30 pm: Paul Stapleton (Belfast): Bonsai Sound Sculpture Ted Byrnes (LA): Percussion John Ingle: Sax Matt Davignon: Turntable Laura Steenberge: Bass
Paul Stapleton is a sound artist, improviser and writer originally from Southern California, currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Paul designs and performs with a variety of modular metallic sound sculptures, custom made electronics, found objects and electric guitars in locations ranging from experimental music clubs in Berlin to remote beaches on Vancouver Island. He is currently involved in a diverse range of artistic collaborations including: performance duo ABODE with vocalist Caroline Pugh, interdisciplinary performance group theybreakinpieces with Nick Williams and Mona McCarthy, improvisation duo with saxophonist Simon Rose, networked installation design with Tom Davis, Eric Lyon's Noise Quartet, and the DIY improvisation quartet E=MCH. Since 2007, Paul has been lecturing at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Queen’s University Belfast), where he teaches and supervises MA & PhD research in performance technologies, interaction design and site-specific art. http://soundcloud.com/paul-stapleton
Thursday, Jun 7 2012 8:00 PM
8pm Retro Blue Jim Ryan - saxophone, vocals Tim Orr - drums Bob Marsh on bass
9pm Solar Dynasty Micah O'Malley - Saxophones, Mark Brumwell - Clarinets Joseph Burke - Bass, Bob Hubbard - Drums
With his new band, Retro Blue, Jim Ryan creates a fresh look at the blues, R&B, and the folk ballad with original compositions in these styles. His saxophone, vocals, and lyrics pay homage to the venerable tradition and take it out into experimental areas where humor, emotion, and improvisation forge a gripping dialogue with the future. He’ll play and sing Run From Baby Blues, The Death of the Sun, Bullshitting Charlie, as well as hitting his instrumental pieces such as Jimmy’s Jump and How Are You?
Solar Dynasty "Arrows in the Quiver" CDR Majmua Music free jazz on the Fire Museum Label. "I wasn't too excited about this release because I didn't recognize any of the names on it, but the press release talked about how their first gig was a Sundara Kanda, or musical celebration highlighting the exploits of Hanuman, the devotee of Lord Rama. It also referred to the group being initiated into the tribe of Saraswati. In other words, these guys aren't in it just to get a gig at the knitting factory and a mention in The Wire... after reading all that i kinda had to listen, and yeah, this is some serious shit. There are seven tracks on here, but they really all blend into one overall scorching album length meditation. Tenor Saxophone, Alto Clarinet, Electric Bass, and Drums honed and focused into one fiery voice, ragin', full on." - www.blastitude.com
Glou-glou, active in the Bay Area since the beginning of 2012, is dedicated to creating improvised electronic music that is primarily ambient and consonant. Gretchen Jude plays koto, Roland SP-404 and sings (among other things); Arjun Mendiratta plays violin, laptop and rocks (and such). http://glou-glou.bandcamp.com
8pm Xo Xinh Nguyen 9pm O-nami Lynn Thu Tun- vocals Adam Robinson- tenor saxophone songs together drawing great waves and keeping still
Thursday, Jul 26 2012 8:00 PM
8pm The Holly Martins Kasey Knudsen- alto sax, Eric Vogler- guitar, and Lorin Benedict- voice 9pm Jill Burton- voice with Cardew Choir
The Holly Martins(named after the main character in the classic postwar film, The Third Man) is a trio of Bay Area musicians dedicated to exploring the boundaries of jazz-infused improvised music, but without the trappings of a traditional "rhythm section". This configuration requires each individual to simultaneously take on multiple roles typically assigned individual players (soloist versus accompanist), thereby promoting more open-ended explorations of the material. As to said material, The Holly Martins often construct mutations of normal jazz standards, transformed from their more familiar forms in the time domain. Likewise, their original compositions are often "jazz-like", but with twists and turns such as asymmetric harmonic rhythms, cycling rhythmic and pitch patterns, etc.
Jill Burton is a singular and extraordinary performance artist, vocalist, dancer and energy worker who has been consciously synthesizing her art form for over 40 years. She has developed such a unique style that it is difficult if not impossible to label or categorize her work. Performance healing? Energy art? Improv shamanism? With an extensive background in many traditional and modern music and dance techniques, she has always held a special interest in experimental performance and free improvisation. She has also studied and practiced many bodywork, energy work and spiritual healing modalities, always incorporating these with her performance work.
She is privileged to have worked and played with many amazing artists from around the world, and has taught and performed in New York City, Miami, San Diego, Anchorage, Boulder, Atlanta and many points in between. For most of the '80s, she lived in the East Village of Manhattan, where she was immersed in the downtown experimental music and performance scene. She also lived in Sitka, Alaska for 6 years, where she was deeply honored to provide musical accompaniment for Tlingit storyteller/shamans. She currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.
Thursday, Aug 2 2012 8:00 PM
8pm NOT TWICE Kris Tiner - trumpet + compositions Phillip Greenlief - saxophones Motoko Honda, Jordan Aguirre, Andrew Koeth - keyboards + electronics 9pm Eurostache
zBug is an industrial jazz unit based in San Francisco, CA that presents structured improvisational music sets based on the performance venue and compositional themes along with featuring prominent video artists and musical guests on selected concert engagements. They have also been associated with Wadada Leo Smith, Kidd Jordan, Eddie Gale, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio.
The Realization Orchestra formed at CalArts in Los Angeles in 2009, its members converging from several regions of the country and including members of WITT, Ty Segall, Moonhearts, Japandi, and Weatherbox. In 2011 the group released their debut, REALIZATION, an extended form composition that defies genre distinction by traversing and reshaping the disparate landscape of modern popular and unpopular styles at accelerated rates, interweaving strains of rigorously-crafted written material with soulful creative improvisation. Each musician individually navigates the structural obstacle course of the triptych suite with his own time-sound acrobatics, resulting in a group effect of constant merging and dispersal.
Thursday, Aug 23 2012 8:00 PM
Guest Curation by Josh Allen Batterie and Brutality Performing artist TBA
Thursday, Aug 30 2012 8:00 PM
8:00pm rawmean - guitar, live looping, Tupperware, hand drum 8:35pm Zu Zed - John Givens: guitar, drums, vocals, Laurie Buenafe: vocals, found objects, stuff 9:25pm Monisola Gbadebo - voice/electronics
rawmean is the live looping project of San Francisco based musician Ramin Rahni. An amplified hand drum is created by placing a contact mic on a tupperware container, the sounds of which are then looped as a makeshift drum machine. Using a loop station as his primary compositional tool, Ramin layers heavily processed guitars and found sounds to create songs on the fly.
Monisola Gbadebo (b.1986) is a composer who works extensively with electronics, text, spacialized rhythm. Currently studying at Mills college, she began her work as a composer of electronic music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her music is influenced by western and west African musical idioms and aesthetic ideologies--hence the attention to rhythm, narrative, and an overall destabilized temporality. Holding a strong association between sound and tactile texture, she spends numerous hours crafting a sonic pallet before composing a single gesture or phrase.
Pretty Agony is a stellar noise-pop duo composed of christie scott and dustin johnston. he is the pretty and she is the agony. it formed when christie came down from the mountain and began writing songs again and sought out noise. The music is a combination of keyboard pieces with processed vox and beats complimented by the subtleties and sonic expression of noise. The vision is one of 'taking back pop' ...
Thursday, Sep 20 2012 8:00 PM
8:15pm: Anna Wray 8:45pm: Feline Bureau radio, found objects, analog synth, voice 9:30pm: Moe! Staiano
GRAMPUS is an improvising, interface driven trio based in Los Angeles. Using the signal processing program Max/MSP both trumpet player Louis Lopez and trombone player Daniel Eaton create elaborate ways of modifying their acoustic instruments. In developing these new digital instruments, the search for integrating acoustic and processed sound through improvisation led them to the percussionist Michael Lockwood. Together they have developed a sound truly unique and varied that takes full advantage of pulse and augmented timbres. In their live performances they incorporate visuals that are controlled by their instruments in real time, creating a complete immersive environment. The members of GRAMPUS seek to constantly expand their musical vocabulary and explore new modes of creating. GRAMPUS has just released their debut album "ILK ILK" this February 2012.
Queens-based The Home of Easy Credit challenges the boundaries of free-improvised music, jazz, folk, and pop music with an iconoclastic approach that defies all those who seek to classify music by genre. Two musicians who met in New York in 2008 and were married one year later, Danish multi-instrumentalist Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen and bassist Tom Blancarte have teamed up musically as The Home of Easy Credit, releasing their self-titled debut album on Northern Spy in 2012. Taking their name from a department store sign in a dilapidated section of downtown Houston, Texas which they photographed while on tour there, the duo seeks to hold up a mirror to contemporary musical tastes to create a dark, beautiful and thrilling sound world that reflects upon the decline of contemporary civilization.
Recently gaining notoriety for her improvised solo performances, Jensen uses a broad range of colors, drawn from a long lineage of Scandinavian artists including Jan Garbarek, Arve Henriksen and Björk but blended with saxophone sounds as diverse as Lee Konitz or Mats Gustafsson. An experienced veteran of the New York DIY music scene, Blancarte, who plays electronic futuristic jazz with the Peter Evans Quintet, hyperactive prog banjo/guitar shred with Seabrook Power Plant and provides hellish bass insanity to tubist Dan Peck’s improvised doom metal outfit The Gate, utilizes every trick in his book to underpin his wife’s apocalyptic musical narratives. The year 2012 promises to be an exciting year for the duo, as they plan an epic tour of North America in the fall and two tours of Europe in the spring and summer.
Thursday, Oct 11 2012 8:00 PM
Y2X+2 Live looping Festival
Thursday, Oct 18 2012 8:00 PM
Guest Curation by Josh Allen Batterie and Brutality Performing artist TBA
Thursday, Oct 25 2012 8:00 PM
8:10pm Eubanks/Marsh Duo - Bryan Eubanks, electronics; Bob Marsh, contrabass 8:40pm Cat Lamb - solo violin 9:25pm Peter Knight (Trumpet/Electronics) from Melbourne
Bob and Bryan have been meeting every two or three years to exchange musical musings and ideas in Portland, New York and San Francisco. What will they think of this time?
Catherine Lamb (b. 1982, Olympia, WA.) is a composer/violist exploring sound through intimate ensembles and solo work. She is interested in microscopic color variances in (mostly) narrow bands, often with an ever-opening form. She works with the phenomenological dimensions of quiet perceptual/sensual layers moving in and out of presence, as a being moving in space.
Thursday, Nov 1 2012 8:00 PM
8pm TBA 9pm Art of Trio
Thursday, Dec 20 2012 8:00 PM
Guest Curation by Josh Allen Batterie and Brutality Performing artist TBA
Thursday, Jan 10 2013 8:00 PM
8pm: TBA 9pm: Abode (Paul Stapleton - inventions & Caroline Pugh - vocals & electronics - both from Belfast)
"[When] 
sweet, poetic, meaningful, soulful and clear. Listening to Mr. Dolphy at first made me want to find my own vocabulary system as he did, but Eric showed me it can be done emphatically. Bass clarinet and saxophone, I love them both because they both speak and sing the ancient/modern language-tunes. But the bass clarinet has that floor-of-the-ocean tone that I really adore."
The Holly Martins(named after the main character in the classic postwar film, The Third Man) is a trio of Bay Area musicians dedicated to exploring the boundaries of jazz-infused improvised music, but without the trappings of a traditional "rhythm section". This configuration requires each individual to simultaneously take on multiple roles typically assigned individual players (soloist versus accompanist), thereby promoting more open-ended explorations of the material. As to said material, The Holly Martins often construct mutations of normal jazz standards, transformed from their more familiar forms in the time domain. Likewise, their original compositions are often "jazz-like", but with twists and turns such as asymmetric harmonic rhythms, cycling rhythmic and pitch patterns, etc.
Jill Burton is a singular and extraordinary performance artist, vocalist, dancer and energy worker who has been consciously synthesizing her art form for over 40 years. She has developed such a unique style that it is difficult if not impossible to label or categorize her work. Performance healing? Energy art? Improv shamanism? With an extensive background in many traditional and modern music and dance techniques, she has always held a special interest in experimental performance and free improvisation. She has also studied and practiced many bodywork, energy work and spiritual healing modalities, always incorporating these with her performance work.
Queens-based The Home of Easy Credit challenges the boundaries of free-improvised music, jazz, folk, and pop music with an iconoclastic approach that defies all those who seek to classify music by genre. Two musicians who met in New York in 2008 and were married one year later, Danish multi-instrumentalist Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen and bassist Tom Blancarte have teamed up musically as The Home of Easy Credit, releasing their self-titled debut album on Northern Spy in 2012. Taking their name from a department store sign in a dilapidated section of downtown Houston, Texas which they photographed while on tour there, the duo seeks to hold up a mirror to contemporary musical tastes to create a dark, beautiful and thrilling sound world that reflects upon the decline of contemporary civilization.