In pushing the boundaries of what we think we know, the contemporary art center is hosting two musical events this week. One attempts to say something interesting about something so normally uninteresting (their words) as rock. The other sets to 21st-century music Buster Keaton’s silent film, Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Jason Brogan, a local composer and guitarist, is the curator of New Directions in Rock Music. He believes rock isn’t taken as seriously as it should be. You’re more likely to find a singer-songwriter in Charleston clubs than you are to find rock that’s truly compelling. So he put together a night of music to make his point.
The line-up is three bands — a local hard-core punk outfit called Small Pox, the New York ensemble Extra Life, and Brogan’s own Death Drive, performing original and “fully notated” music inspired by 1960s avant-garde.
“The bands are into Philip Glass and Sonic Youth, Ornette Coleman, and Black Flag,” Brogan says. “With rock you can perform what you feel, but a lot of it is locked down in Charleston. The forms are predictable and boring.”
Meanwhile, composer Dan Nettles is anything but bored. In fact, he’s ready to laugh. The Athens guitarist and his Kenosha Kid bandmates, bassist Neal Fountain and drummer Jeff Reilly, are teaming up with the New Music Collective to perform an original soundtrack to an old silent film. The event is a joint presentation by NMC and Jazz Artists of Charleston.
Nettles’ project is part of a trend in which composers are using more visual elements, including movies like Steamboat Bill Jr. that are now in the public domain. But, Nettles says, he’d love to work with living film directors.
“We just haven’t found one who will let us torture his film,” says Nettles. —John Stoehr
The New Music Collective and the JAC present Kenosha Kid and the New Music Collective doing Steamboat Bill, Jr.: A Silent Film and Live Music Event at Redux Contemporary Art Center (136 St. Philip St., 843-722 -0697) Two shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Admission is $10, $7 w/ CofC student I.D. Redux presents New Directions in Rock Music at 8 p.m. on Fri. Sept. 19. Admission is $10, $7 w/ CofC student I.D. Visit www.reduxstudios.org for more.
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