ISSUE PROJECT ROOM AND WFMU PRESENT A MONTH OF COLLABORATIVE CONCERTS
Featuring:
Irene Trudel
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/IT
with David Garland, Pete Galub, Greta Gertler & Friends + Noa Babayof
http://www.3garlands.com/davidgarland/about.html
David Garland’s early fascination with adventurous music was confirmed in 1968 when he attended a concert by Jimi Hendrix and had his 13-year-old mind blown by the opening act, England’s Soft Machine. Growing up in an artistic family in Lexington, MA, Garland drummed in what was literally a garage band, and taught himself piano and guitar. By the time he attended Rhode Island School of Design (’72-’76, overlapping with members of Talking Heads), Garland was organizing free-improv ensembles, playing jazz piano, composing chamber music, and singing songs. After graduating with honors from RISD, Garland moved to New York City primarily to hear and make music.
Garland’s first album, 1987’s “Control Songs,” on the German label Review Records, included musicians John Zorn and Christian Marclay. In 1985 and ‘86 Garland was one of five improvising vocalists, with Arto Lindsay, Shelley Hirsch, David Moss, and Sussan Deihim, in “Dead Stories” and “Tower of Babel”—concert and theater projects by turntable pioneer Christian Marclay.
Garland formed The Worlds of Love with banjo and synthesizer player Cinnie Cole and percussionist Ikue Mori (of DNA), releasing an album and touring Europe in 1989. With The Worlds of Love, Garland recorded an album of songs by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, “I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times,” released in Japan in 1993.
Garland’s 2007 album “Noise In You” (Family Vineyard) is his most heartfelt and imaginative, and his first to be widely distributed. In “Noise In You” Garland has created a sumptuous experimental song cycle in which his voice is joined by the voices of some of the most creative of a younger generation of song-inventors: Sufjan Stevens, Diane Cluck, and others. David’s voice can also be heard on WNYC as the host of Evening Music, Fridays through Sundays, and as host of “Spinning On Air.”
Pete Galub cites a diverse range of musical influences from the likes of Thelonius Monk to 60’s and 80’s melodic guitar pop music a la the Byrds, Big Star, and the Chills, as well as folk/country tunesmiths like the Louvin Brothers and Michael Hurley, and raw punk groups like Wire and the Undertones. Pete has had the pleasure of sharing stages with the likes of Gillian Welch and Liz Phair and his music has received radio-play in the United States and Ireland, where he also lived for a year in 1999.
A strange cast of characters graces “Boy Gone Wrong”, the debut record by Brooklyn-based songwriter Pete Galub. Between members of Pete’s band, the Annuals, and producer Chris Cunningham the musicians on this record have been around and played with the likes of Marianne Faithful, hardcore band Negative Approach, no-waver James Chance and power popper Marshall Crenshaw. And the results are still not at all what you’d expect; a very refreshing dose of heartfelt, well-crafted and meticulously arranged indie pop/folk songs a la Big Star, Robyn Hitchcock, Will Oldham, and East River Pipe. With “Boy Gone Wrong”, Pete Galub establishes himself as one of the most interesting new songwriters to come around in a while.
Greta Gertler grew up near the beach in Sydney, Australia and currently lives amongst construction sites in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her debut album “THE BABY THAT BROUGHT BAD WEATHER” (2003) brought her into the light as “a hot commodity on the New York music scene” (WNYC, Soundcheck), with a “spacious voice and a welcome weakness of lushly orchestrated 70s-style pop” (The New Yorker). In the move from Australia to New York City, and with the encouragement of a recording deal from Jarvis Studios, she was inspired to write and co-produce her first solo album with Noah Simon over a three-year period, featuring an astounding group of musicians that she met in the streets and subways of New York.
The young Israeli singer/songwriter Noa Babayof is rapidly establishing a presence on the new international folk scene. Her debut album From A Window To A Wall was recently recorded and mixed by renowned Greg Weeks (The Espers) at his studio in Philadelphia. The album is set for a US/European release in spring 2008 on Weeks’ new analog recording label Language of Stone (distributed by Drag City).
From A Window To A Wall features lush string arrangements backing up Noa’s arresting singing and writing style. Noa is influenced by the likes of Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, along with such contemporary icons as Diane Cluck, Smog and the Espers. Anova Music, Noa’s Israeli management and label, released From A Window To A Wall locally in fall 2007.