Brian Carpenter

Remembering Harvey Pekar

2010-07-13T15:42:23Z

Harvey Pekar passed away yesterday. In 2003, Harvey invited me to his home in Cleveland after I asked him to record some voiceover narration for a documentary of jazz musician Albert Ayler I was producing. Harvey and illustrator Gary Dumm (also the brains behind "American Splendor") created an incredible series of panels on Ayler's life. I found Harvey to be incredibly gracious and extremely passionate about music and art (and everything else, it seemed!) His work has always been a big inspiration to me. He will be missed.

Harvey Pekar, Cleveland comic-book legend, dies at 70

Christian Marclay at the Whitney

2010-07-10T16:37:32Z

Christian Marclay was one of the biggest influences on my radio show Free Association.
The Whitney Museum in NYC is presenting a festival of Christian Marclay exhibits through September 26th. I'm going to try to make it when I'm in NYC again. More information here. Here Christian is performing on the short-lived television show Night Music. To the casual observer, he's just screwing around. Closer inspection and listening reveals a methodical approach to spontaneous block composition. For example, fast decelerated spins serve as loud, sharp transitions between melodic ideas.

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Ghost Train Orchestra Friday night NYC

2010-07-01T17:25:23Z

For those in NYC, the Ghost Train Orchestra will be performing this Friday night, 10pm at Barbes in Brooklyn. The orchestra is Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Andy Laster (saxophones), Oscar Noriega (clarinet), Jessica Lurie (reeds), Mazz Swift (violin, vocals), Cynthia Sayer (banjo), Ron Caswell (tuba), Rob Garcia (drums), and me on trumpet. Reedman Oscar Noriega and banjoist/pianist Cynthia Sayer from the Woody Allen Band will be making their first appearances with the GTO.

Ghost Train Orchestra mixes up

2010-05-25T00:13:25Z

We've finished mixing the new Ghost Train Orchestra with esteemed producer Danny Blume. I've uploaded three mixes, you can listen here. The record documents some of the pieces the band has been playing live for several years, the music of late 1920s Chicago and Harlem bandleader/composers Tiny Parham, Charlie Johnson, Fess Williams, Don Redman, and John Nesbitt. We'll be mastering next month and are currently in the process of scouting labels for this record. If you have ideas, let us know!

The Sound Of Horror available

2010-05-17T01:50:40Z

"The Sound Of Horror", a 3-hour radio program study of sound design in modern horror films, is now available for order on this website. This radio program has been used in universities across the world in study of sound design. Included are clips, interviews, and examples of classic director / sound designer collaborations such as David Lynch / Alan Splet (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet), Alfred Hitchcock / Bernard Hermann (Psycho, The Birds), and Darren Aronofsky / Brian Emrich (Pi, Requiem For A Dream). Films studied include "Psycho", "The Haunting", "The Birds", 2001", "Alien", "The Exorcist", "Blair Witch Project", "Eraserhead", "Blue Velvet", "Mulholland Drive", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Seven", "Pi", and "Requiem for a Dream". See more information here.

Hosting Free Association on WZBC tonight

2010-05-14T14:32:22Z

I'll be hosting "Free Association" on WZBC tonight 7-10PM EST. Here's the link to listen online:
http://www.wzbc.org/listen.html

Beat Circus back in action this spring

2010-04-14T18:04:36Z

We're back in action this month after a winter hiatus. Since releasing Boy From Black Mountain to rave reviews last fall, we've been busy. I have been in the studio recording with the Ghost Train Orchestra and recently recorded with Michael Gira's reformed Swans. Paran Amirinazari has been touring with singer-songwriter Larkin Grimm, Gavin McCarthy has been in the studio with his new band Wallcreeper, and Paul Dilley has been on tour with Miss Tess. Starting in late April, we'll be embarking on a short tour of the Northeast with Brooklyn's La Strada, who are releasing an album on Ernest Jenning. We're working on a lot of new material for our next album with new instrumentation, so expect to hear a lot of new songs.

Our May 5th show at Middle East Upstairs with La Strada and Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores will be one of only a few Boston-area shows this year so we hope to see you all there. Advance tickets are here.

Ghost Train Orchestra record in the can

2010-03-11T15:26:16Z

I've recently finished mixing the debut Ghost Train Orchestra album with producer Danny Blume (Klezmatics, Sex Mob). The album is called "Hothouse Stomp". New arrangements of dance music from 1929 Harlem and Chicago. I formed this band when Heather Kuhn, a programmer for the Regent Theater, a historic vaudeville theater in Boston, hired me as musical director for the theater's 90th anniversary. I was interested in 1929 in particular, that being a transitional year for jazz, and so I went about exploring, transcribing, and arranging this music from that era.

The album covers four of the most important (and I think overlooked) jazz bands of that year: Charlie Johnson's Paradise Orchestra, Tiny Parham and His Musicians, Fess Williams' Royal Flush Orchestra, and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. This music that has not been heard live for 80 years and the original recordings, if you can find them, are of very bad quality. Since the Regent Theater shows three years ago, I've been developing this band live at Barbes. I've retooled the original arrangements to add strings, musical saw, voice, and a few other surprises. Last November we recorded at Avatar Studios with Grammy-award winner Danny Blume (Klezmatics, Sex Mob) and just recently finished mixing. I've just posted three mixes up on the Facebook page. Enjoy.

Boy From Black Mountain wins IMA for Best Alt/Country Album

2010-02-16T03:50:29Z

Boy From Black Mountain won the 9th Independent Music Award for Best Alt/Country Album. This year's judges included Tom Waits, Ricky Skaggs, Aimee Mann, Judy Collins, and Suzanne Vega. See the winners in all the categories here.

Accolades for Boy From Black Mountain

2010-01-23T17:27:18Z

Boy From Black Mountain has been earning great reviews. PopMatters writes "Beat Circus has provided one of the highs of the year." The Boston Phoenix raves "Boy From Black Mounain is the prettiest darn dark Americana record in recent memory." The Boston Herald ranks Boy From Black Mountain in their top 10 of 2009. The album has also been nominated for Best Alt-Country Album by the Independent Music Awards. Boy From Black Mountain is now available in our online STORE. All profits from our online store go directly to the artist!

Ghost Train Orchestra mixing

2010-01-23T17:24:56Z

Last November I finally recorded the Ghost Train Orchestra with Danny Blume at Avatar Studios. We're in the middle of mixing this record now and I'm excited about it. Ten-piece orchestra playing the music of late 1920s Chicago and Harlem. Hope to have it mastered by end of March and then we'll be looking for a home for it. Stay tuned...

Beat Circus This Weekend

2009-10-23T15:49:46Z

Get tickets now for Saturday night at Middle East Upstairs! We'll be performing several new songs with a revamped instrumentation plus a few favorites from our latest cd Boy From Black Mountain. This will most likely be our last Boston-area show of the year. The Boston Herald wrote a story on the band which came out today here.

On this show is the incredible Blood Warrior from Brooklyn, led by O'Death front man Greg Jamie. This band must be seen to be believed. Compelling songs featuring Greg's signature voice combined gorgeous and haunting vocal harmonies. Also performing are two of our favorite Boston bands, Mr. Sister, featuring Amelia Emmet and Mike Fiore (Faces on Film), and Guillermo Sexo, a dark Latin-tinged psych rock quartet also from Boston.

Also, tune into WZBC 90.3FM this Friday at 5PM EST for a live set by Guillermo Sexo followed by an interview at 6:20 with Beat Circus. You can win free tickets by calling in at 617-552-4686 or IM'ing wzbcdj. Tickets on sale at the Middle East Box Office and through ticketmaster here.

We recommend Boy From Black Mountain on CD! The CD was mastered by the great Fred Kevorkian at Avatar Studios in NYC and the booklet features illustrations by the very great Carson Ellis and gorgeous photography by Amy Higgins, and lyrics to all of the songs. The Boston Phoenix raves "Boy From Black Mountain is the prettiest darn dark Americana record in recent memory". Purchases from our online store go directly to the band!

http://www.beatcircus.net/

A Weird American Gothic Story - Part 2: A Boy From Black Mountain

2009-10-07T17:44:07Z

Boy From Black Mountain began as a way of continuing a trilogy of "Weird American Gothic" albums began in 2006 with Dreamland. If Dreamland used the mythologies of the American circus as its backdrop, Boy From Black Mountain used Southern Gothic mythos and storytelling, inspired by my father's life growing up as a watermelon farmer in the rural Bible Belt. As so often happens, what I set out to do was only a small part of what I actually ended up doing. In December of that year my son was diagnosed with autism. I stopped writing music for a year. And over the next 18 months Caroline and I spent our days helping our son overcome many obstacles.

I. Clouds Moving In

We saw early symptoms such as stacking and repetition but several trips to so-called "experts" did not yield a diagnosis. He wasn't talking much at age 2, either, but when he started the temper tantrums when his routine changed, we knew there was a serious problem. While Caroline was reading every book under the sun about autism, I was writing music in an attempt to release what I was feeling and document the phases of what we went through from diagnosis to recovery. I'll never forget coming home one Halloween night and seeing all of these happy families walking their kids along the streets. And then getting home and seeing my son fast asleep, in his Superman cape, and asking Caroline what happened. They walked less than half a block and he started screaming because he wanted to go a different way. There was nothing she could do, he was just terrified and upset. And I just broke down because I wanted him to experience Halloween like other children were experiencing it, but mostly because I knew something was very, very wrong.

II. The Sound And The Fury

I was distraught and I felt a lot of dread every day coming home to a screaming child who couldn't talk with me, who couldn't explain to me how he was feeling or what he was so terrified of. I've told Caroline (years later) I remember walking up to the house at night and hearing his screams from outside on the sidewalk, and I would stop at the fence and look up, my briefcase in hand, the street light shining down on me. And I often felt like Father Merrin in The Exorcist coming home every night. "Saturn Song" came out of seeing my son getting teased on the playground and wondering why the parents of these snotty, spoiled little Cambridge brats didn't step in to do something. I was so angry at just about everyone.

III. The Course Of The River

After finally getting the diagnosis of austim in December 2006, we began battling with the public school system to get services. In 2007 our son moved into an ABA classroom in Cambridge taught by Moira McNabb, who we are convinced is either an angel, some kind of miracle healer, or just one of the best darn preschool teachers for special needs kids around. She was able to bring out his personality in a way other teachers could not. She went into his world, and if he was nervous about something she got silly with him to make him laugh. With Moira's help, an intensive schedule of ABA, and of course one-on-one with Caroline and me, he slowly started talking and making eye contact and he was on his way to recovery.

IV. Boy From Black Mountain

After he overcame many of the obstacles, I was able to write about the experience through some of the songs on this album. Black Mountain (a mountain and progressive school in North Carolina) became a metaphor for autism. Today my son is the most gregarious and creative little social butterfly. He loves to read books and never stops talking about all of his creations and stories and friends. His repetitive behavior is gone and he never screams anymore. His friends are very important to him. "Boy From Black Mountain" is a love song to my son, a boy with a hyper-creative mind whose obstacles disappear in his dreams and whose exceptions provide a unique path to fulfill his dreams.

A Weird American Gothic Story - Part 1: The Concept Album

2009-09-28T05:20:28Z

In an interview recently discussing his album Berlin, Lou Reed called the concept album "the kiss of death". Berlin was released in 1973. It was Lou Reed's third album, after the very successful Transformer, an upbeat glam-rock record. In comparison, Berlin was seen as a downer, a collection of songs about jealousy, anger, and loss centered around a couple of drug addicts, Jim and Caroline. The album received generally scathing reviews, most infamously from Rolling Stone, calling it "a disaster...his last shot at a once-promising career. Goodbye, Lou." In 2006, Reed revisited Berlin with a series of shows at St. Ann's warehouse. The live concert was filmed and edited with dramatic footage by Julian Schnabel and the result is one of the most emotionally charged concert films in recent memory. It's stunning, a huge production by Bob Ezrin and Hal Willner, with a children's choir, strings, brass, Antony and Sharon Jones singing backup vocals. So why did critics hate this record so much? Because it was heavily arranged? Because somehow big arrangements are contrary to good ol' rock and roll? Because it was a downer? Lou himself is mystified by it, if you compare the story to say, Hamlet, where everyone dies in the end. Or maybe it got the reception it did because it was a concept album. Does a concept album somehow imply to audiences that the songs can't stand up on their own?

I'll go on record here and say this. I'm not at all sure what the point of releasing an album is if there is no concept behind it. An album needs cohesion. Otherwise why not just release independent singles? Especially in this day and age where everything seems to be downloaded anyway. Of course, there are many different ways to provide cohesion between songs. Consistent instrumentation, consistent characters, consistent themes...and some combination of those or all of the above makes a concept.

The albums which have had the biggest impact on my life either emotionally, intellectually, or musically have all been conceptual. John Zorn's The Big Gundown, Tom Waits' The Black Rider, and Henry Threadgill's Too Much Sugar For A Dime all affected my musical mind in a big way, opening up doors in terms of sound, instrumentation, and writing. While not an album, Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's opera Einstein on the Beach was a vastly ambitious concept which paid off. The opera refers to Einstein the historical figure and his breakthroughs through a series of 9 20-minute scenes with textual contributions by Christopher Knowles, an autistic poet with a long-standing collaboration with Wilson. Nick Cave's The Boatman's Call is another album which affected me in a big way and we know those songs are all about Polly Harvey. Funny that Nick Cave has often dismissed this album, too, in interviews: "I was making a big heroic melodrama out of a bog-standard rejection by a woman". Beat Circus alum Alec K. Redfearn released one of the most haunting and beautiful albums I've heard in years, The Blind Spot, a concept album dedicated to love ones lost to drug overdose. I'm not sure it's one of his best-selling albums but it's his best, in my mind. Dirty Projectors have been releasing a string of albums with heavily-loaded concepts behind them, including Rise Above a couple years back, an album of Black Flag covers half-remembered by leader Dave Longstreth. And I really enjoyed his previous album The Getty Address, a "glitch opera" (you have to hear it to understand what that means) about musician Don Henley (I still don't get that part).

There's a reason why musicians shy away from marking their albums as concept albums. How many people shrugged off Berlin without listening critically because they read it was about a couple of drug addicts and ended in a suicide? Or maybe they listened but if they knew the story beforehand, it was always there coloring their experience. And how many people were busy asking Dave about Black Flag after Rise Above was released without remarking on how completely unique the musical vision behind his new album was. Hell, you could barely even call his interpretations covers at all. I'm saying the concept often gets in the way of the songs. It's all about the songs, after all. The concepts are really just frameworks for songwriting and compositions. And if the songs don't hold up, the concept is meaningless.

One could argue that all albums are by their very nature concept albums. And as Eric Penna of Ketman wrote to me recently, long live the album. Who knows how long albums are going to be around for? And if albums are approaching extinction, I guess concept albums must be just about dead and gone, now, right?

Boy From Black Mountain is here

2009-09-17T04:00:42Z

The new Beat Circus album Boy From Black Mountain is now available in our online STORE. Boy From Black Mountain is a collection of personal songs about children, fatherhood, dreams, lost love, lust, revenge, and redemption. The songs are inspired by songwriter Brian Carpenter's son, stories handed down from his family in the rural Bible Belt, and the Southern Gothic literature of Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, and Eudora Welty.