Last week, Justin called Kyle Hall in advance of New Year’s Eve. They talked Detroit, getting older, cassette tapes, and making new music. The conversation begins (abruptly, due to a snafu with Justin’s recorder) with Kyle explaining a new project he’s working Ben Christianson, a gent from a band called Lord Scrummage. Below is the full chat.
Ho, ho, ho. We’re signing off for a few days to spend time with family and eat (a lot). We wish you a good long weekend, whether you’re kissing under the mistletoe, ordering Chinese in, or just playing it like every other wonderful day of the year. Eamon and Justin will sign back in on Monday for a rundown of their favorite tracks of the year, Tuesday for an interview with Kyle Hall and Wednesday for a New Year’s Eve update. Until then…
We are thrilled that we do NOT have a Mister Saturday Night this weekend, not because we like a Saturday off (which we do), but because we get to take part in ‘Unsilent Night’, a tradition that is not just our favorite holiday happening of the year, but one of our favorite New York City experiences, period.
Created by composer Phil Kline, ‘Unsilent Night’ is a carol for boomboxes. Hundreds of people show up underneath the Washington Square arch, with CDs, mp3s and tapes cued up on their various players, and with a countdown, Kline has them press play. Thus ensues a parade that wanders through the East Village to Tompkins Square Park, where different movements of the ambient masterwork take over entire city blocks, with the sound changing depending on where you stand. The best is when, as everyone congregates at the end, the piece comes to a staggered end, thanks to people late in pressing the start button and low batteries that cause the tapes to run more slowly than their digital counterparts. It’s beautiful and wonderful, and you absolutely should not miss it.
Unsilent Night begins at the Washington Square Arch in Manhattan at 7:00pm on Saturday, December 18. Meet under the arch at 6:40pm. Kline hands out a few boomboxes, tapes, and CDs to first folks who arrive. You can bring your own playback device, and you can email to find out about getting the mp3 for download in advance. If you don’t have a boombox, don’t worry. It’s plenty of fun to walk with the group.
Packing up from Halloween and pitching the tents for another Mister Saturday this weekend, we’ll still be taking some time to get into the city this week. In the unlikely-but-awesome-rendezvous category, tonight, Syrian wedding singer Omar Souleyman meets Williamsburg, and tomorrow, death-defying, Italian/Japanese Blonde Redhead rock trio meet German post-minimalist Pantha Du Prince.
Thursday we’ll be checking the premier of a never-before-seen Bruce Springsteen concert film as part of the DOC NYC Fest, and Friday we’ll admire Pablo Picasso (the band not the artist) at PS1. Saturday, before we head to the loft, we’ll probably peep another doc – this one, featuring Iggy Pop – and on Sunday, we’ll wipe the sleep from our eyes to check our Halloween party-decorator’s puppet show, The Fortune Teller. Monday? We’re staying at home. Continue reading “Other Nights of the Week: Docs and Rock”
If you’d like to send us a demo, here’s the drill:
We’ve started to receive too many demos for us to respond to every one we receive. (We’re a small operation.) We promise that we will listen to your music, and if we like it, have feedback for you or would like to hear more, we will get in touch.
The best way to make sure we give your music the attention it deserves is to email a link to a site where we can stream your music. (Soundcloud is great, but if you use something else, that’s okay with us, too.) If you are sending us Soundcloud streams, please make the tracks are downloadable (preferably in wav or aiff format), in case we want to give your tunes a test drive at the party. Finally, please only send us two tracks. We get overwhelmed when there’s more than that!
This is the email where you can send your demo: demos@mistersaturdaynight.com.
Thanks for sending us the tunes. We can’t wait to listen!
