Author: nina.j

PREVIEW: Ben Rolston CD Release

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Ben Rolston CD Release Concert

Little is more exciting for a musician than the long awaited launch of his very first CD. This Friday, April 20th, U of M Music School grad Ben Rolston will be celebrating this very event. “Fables” is a debut creation by the bass player/song writer. All the compositions are original works, written and recorded over the past year.And if you’ve never been to the Kerrytown Concert House, where the show will take place, that alone is worth the ticket. One of the coziest venues in town, the Kerrytown Concert House is the perfect spot to sit back and hear some Friday night  jazz. The walls feature rotating works of art by various artists from the area. Currently on display are Cathy Barry’s esoteric, abstract oil paintings, a sight to behold.

A great deal of work has been leading up to this special evening performance. “The songs are from a  variety of periods,” said Ben. “Some were written specifically for the CD (For Continuing Curiosity and Wonder, Branches and Bark for example) and some were written earlier and adapted or reworked to be played on the album. The Cd has been a goal of mine since last spring.” And a year later, the work is complete.

The show will feature a slew of well known faces in the U of M music world. Student musicians include Ingrid Racine on trumpet, Marcus Elliot on saxophone, Alex Levine on guitar, Ian Finkelstein on piano, and Julian Allen on drums. Profs who will be joining are Andrew Bishop of the Jazz Department and Steve Rush of The School of Music. Not only is the performance an act of student collaboration but the album design as well. Recent School of Art and Design grad Katharine Drake’s large scale clay sculptures are elements of the album art (see the image below to get a visual). Many aspects of this creation can be attributed to energetic collaboration between campus artists on the rise.

I got an “exclusive” first listen to the entire CD last week. All ten tracks. Some are short, instrumental pieces while others are as long as ten minutes. Most have a jazzy flavor, but some, like (mineral) have a more experimental sound to them (thats my favorite track). One thing I really enjoy about this album is that in every song, the bass has a very commanding presence. They always say you don’t know the bass is there unless it isn’t, but in this case, the deep string sounds take center stage in a refreshing way. Another prop about the album is that it flows comfortable between foreground and background sound. I listened to the whole thing while doing my homework and was able to balance the harmonies with my concentration. But also, I paused at moments to listen only to the rhythms and let it be my entire focus. A great listening experience, this release is bound to be everything the recordings are and more.

To get a listen yourself, check out Ben’s Bandcamp. The site is in development so only one song is currently available (more to come). Click to listen to the track Leafy. The CD will be available at local record stores, itunes, bandcamp, amazon, cdbady, and more, but only after the release. The concert is the first place the CD will be available.

Below is a picture of Ben on bass, Marcus Elliot and Julian Allen playing a gig at Bakers in Detroit.

Ben Rolston in the studio recording “Fables”

Some info about the concert:

Friday, April 20th 2012

8 pm

Kerrytown Concert House

415 N. 4th Street, across from the Farmer’s Market

REVIEW: Atlas Sound feat. Fthrsn

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Atlas Sound and Fthrsn

On Tuesday, April 10th, The Center for Campus Involvement presented Atlas Sound in The League Ballroom. The name is an alias for Bradford Cox, who you may recognize as a music maker in  the local band Deerhunter. The ambient punkrock performance drew a decently sized crowd, especially for a Tuesday  night. Synthesizers and electric mixing brought a whole new meaning to guy-and-his guitar. In Deerhunter, Cox plays guitar, but does not always take center stage—the reason he has branched out to command his own act. Apparently, the singer songwriter works in stream of consciousness. Not sure if that means improv on the spot, but apparently he doesn’t write his lyrics beforehand. Pretty bold! Each song he played was incredibly lengthy, loud, and and mesmerizing- almost hard to tell one track from another. At one point, I laid down on the carpet in the back and closed my eyes to listen. Despite the volume, it could have lulled me to sleep. A rage nap, if you will.

I wonder if the majority of the crowd was there for the headliner or the opener, Fthrsn. (I was definitely there for the latter). As an award for winning this semester’s East Quad Music Coop’s Battle of the Bands, Fthrsn got the opening gig for this performance. Performing Arts Technology student, Macklin Underdown’s homemade musical alias, Fthrsn, is on the rise. Under the genre of Ann Arbor Bedroom Glitch Pop, Fthrsn is a spacey, technologically altered mixture of voice and computerized sounds affect. I’m going to go ahead and boldly say that of all of the current college groups making waves, this one is my favorite. I listen to his Soundcloud regularly while doing my homework and felt embarrassingly like a groupie when I knew all the words to the songs he played. But not too embarrassed to happily sing along. Normally the one man band acts alone, but for this particular performance, he called on the help of fellow music school students Evan Layborne on the drums, Peter Felsman on the keyboard, and on guitar, Jeremy Malvin of Ann Arbor’s pride Chrome Sparks. The set was paired with visuals of psychedelic nature, flowers, birds, and, of all things, hoolah dancers- an instructional video for the audience? Who knows, but I danced along.

Maybe it was because the concert was school sponsored or maybe because it was held on school grounds, but something about the evening felt incredibly prom like. The dark and open space of the ballroom was crowded in the middle with floaters milling about on the outskirts of the room, hesitant to join in at first though certainly wanting to. Also, I was there with a date and for all I know, I might as well have been wearing a corsage and slow dancing. But the evening was certainly enjoyable and, if nothing else, it was exciting to see Fthrsn play live when it usually only plays loudly in my headphones in the library.

Check out Fthrsn on Soundcloud and on Bandcamp. And get a listen to Bradford Cox as Atlas Sound and Deerhunter. And lastly, Ann Arbor’s DJ Peter Wiley as SUBVADER played beats at the very beginning of the show while the crowd filed in. All local, all awesome. All great music for summertime (Happy last day of classes!)

Below, pictures of Fthrsn and Atlas Sound respectively

PREVIEW: Spread Your Seeds

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SPREAD YOUR SEEDS

Wednesday April 11th, 7-10pm at the Kelsey Museum of Archeology on State Street

A group of graduating seniors is organizing a heartfelt event in honor of an incredibly important cause: Spread Your Seeds The evening launch event will include “food, friends, the opportunity to buy and sponsor necklaces, artistic and creative outlets (painting wall! reflection journals!), planting stations, music, and most importantly–the chance to cultivate community. This will be a space where people can gather, meet new friends, create art, conversation, and community–to become grounded and rooted together.” Bring a dish to pass, instruments, $10 in cash for purchasing necklaces and seeds, and most importantly, yourself.



To get more information, check out the website and the Facebook event


“When we lose our grounding, we lose ourselves. The solution? Find a way to ground yourself wherever you are: through community, art, sharing, and of course, love. In other words: Spread Your Seeds.
Spread Your Seeds is a growing organization devoted to helping root community and prevent isolation. The premise is simple: as a community, we hope to de-stigmatize depression, starting right here on the U of M campus. We raise money by selling handcrafted necklaces, composed of vials filled with local, Michigan seeds. The wearer can scatter the seeds anywhere that makes them feel at home or at peace–to remind them that they are connected to the world. The money we make from selling necklaces will all be directed toward different projects to build a community of understanding about depression.
Our first project is creating a collaborative children’s book about depression–the idea for which came from a community member who suffered deeply from depression. We hope the book can be a positive step toward making depression a more understood and less taboo social topic. We hope it will educate kids at an early age that depression, like other mental illnesses, is not a personality flaw, but a very serious disease that can be overcome when addressed and understood fully.”
Come and root yourself in the wholesome celebration of life and the effort on behalf of this organization to cultivate a sense of compassion and understanding.
(Logo design by Ellen Rutt of The MORE Show)

PREVIEW: The MORE Senior Thesis Show

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The MORE Show

Tis the season of senior art shows and, really, what could be better? All month long, you will be perusing free exhibitions of preprofessional work. It will be displayed all across campus: The Work Galleries, The Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, The Ann Abor Art Center, The Warren Robins Gallery, and more.

Two life long friends and freakishly talented art students, Ellen Rutt and Megan O’neil, are putting together thesis’s of their four years of work  in the School of Art and Design.  The title of the show, The MORE Show, is an acronym of their initials (see Ellen’s graphic design on the poster below for a better idea of how that works). Unlike most other senior thesis shows, this one will be held off campus. The two found a vacant warehouse on South Industrial Highway (by RoosRoast coffee) across the street from the ReUse center, and refurbished it for their purposes. After much trash sorting, wall scrubbing, sweeping, painting and repainting, the space is now gallery ready. Not only are the canvases a part of their exhibit, but the very space itself.

It is fitting that this particular show would take place across from the ReUse center because the theme is closely tied to environmental justice and sustainable creativity. “MORE art, less waste.” As many aspects of the exhibition as possible have been locally sourced and reused or recycled. For example, the opening reception will feature locally farm-grown snacks and appetizers served on reusable plates and utensils. Even the musicians who will be playing live music  are Ann Arbor locals.

Not only that, the entire assembly has been a result of inter-talented trade; the cost of the production has been internalized through artistic cooperation. By that, I mean Ellen and Megan are paying their collaborators with art, not cash. As a graphic designer, Ellen has the ability to do all sorts of snazzy things for business people who need to look good on paper. In exchange for writing this article, she jazzed up my resumé using InDesign; she did the same for the photographer who will document the reception, and the musicians, who are coming out with a new CD soon (Fables by Ben Rolston), are receiving much advice on the color palette for the album art.

Ellen’s work is based in graphic design while Megan’s is in large scale oil and acrylic paint. She mostly paints figures but has an array of other pieces as well (I even did some nude modeling for her to help her prepare for the show and she traded me with a print. At first I was nervous, but Megan is so passionate about and deft with crafting the human form that her translation of my body into painting was an enlivening and surprisingly comfortable experience). You may recognize Megan’s work from a mural she was commissioned to paint about the  Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market. As for Ellen, you may recognize her work from the pamphlets for the “Arts at Michigan” program or from The Vintage Twin, the revamped clothing store that used to be on South University (but now operates online). These ladies are preprofessional artists in the works. Be sure to ask for an autograph when you see them at their show; they won’t forget you when they’re famous.

Details on the Don’t Miss Show:

Opening Reception:

Saturday, April 14th 8pm,

1080 Rosewood, Ann Arbor 48104

Live music and refreshments

Click Here for directions

Additional gallery hours:

Monday April 16th- Friday April 20th

11am-5pm

AND! Furthermore, there will be  taxi shuttling students between The MORE Show and other off campus senior thesis opening receptions happening same night: a free ride departs every 15 minutes from 8-11 pm at the Cube behind The Union, The Ann Arbor Art Center on Liberty and Main Street, and on Rosewood where The MORE Show will be held.

Finally, to get more info straight from the artists themselves, check out the website: www.erutt.com

Attend the event on Facebook!

And be sure to pop into other exhibits this month. Info at the Arts at Michigan Website here.

Below are images of Ellen and Megan hard at work in the warehouse

Samples of Ellen and Megan’s artwork respectively

PREVIEW: F.O.K.U.S Vanguards

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F.O.K.U.S Vanguards

If you are strolling through the Diag this Saturday, April 14th, you will see something like a circus taking place. A velcro wall, a bicycling, skateboarding, and bedazzling stations, throwback food, live music, live artwork, and, of course, lots of dancing. The student group F.O.K.U.S (Fight Obstacles Knowing Ultimate Success) is holding its 8th Annual Vanguards Event. Music by Maimounna Yousef and other fabulous performers will be sounding from the Diag from noon to 5pm, so be sure to walk by and add a little flavor to your Saturday. I attended last year and had a celebratory time being creative and collaborating with other students who were excited about creativity and social justice through the arts.

F.O.K.U.S. strives to create and foster a diverse community by using the arts as a common medium.
We encourages artists, art enthusiasts, and other communities to work together and expand their comfort zones
through arts-related events and dialogues; we provide inspiration for artists to follow their dreams,
for perspective artists to attempt an art and for audiences to enjoy it all through our productions. F.O.K.U.S. events
attract artists and audiences from all walks of life as we see this inclusive nature as the only way to truly grow and
develop as a community. Since 2003, F.O.K.U.S. has been creating exciting spaces for people to explore themselves
and widen their appreciation for the arts.

art is…what unites us.

For more information, check out their website and Facebook event. See you there!

Photos from last year’s Vanguards




REVIEW: Research Through Making

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This summer I am going to China with The Taubman College of Architecture. I will be living and working at B.A.S.E., an architecture studio in Caochangdi, the artists district of Beijing. I have never been the the Eastern hemisphere, do not speak Mandarin, and have absolutely no conception of what I will be doing there aside from the fact that I know that I am going. So the first thing I did to prepare was go to the exhibit “Research Through Making.”

The architecture program is in its third year. It acts as a seed funding resource for faculty projects which combine both research and creativity in unusual ways. The idea that design and research are opposites is intended to be debunked by this fabulous exposition of “applied art.” The scope of the gallery is expansive such that each installation stands on a spacious scale. It gives you plenty to explore.

The installation is being held in the Liberty Research Annex (305 W. Liberty St). The exhibit has been open since the premier celebration on January 20, 2012 where the pioneers of each work celebrated the showing of their accomplishment. The closing will be on April 7th, 2012. The gallery s open on Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm-7pm.

The five installations  on display include:

  • Glass Cast by Cate Newell and Wes McGee
  • Ruralopolitan Maneuvers/HOUSE 50 by Mary-Ann Ray and Robert Mangurian
  • Dirty Work by Neal Robinson
  • Morphfaux…recovering plaster as architectural substrate by Steven Mankouche, Josh Bard, and Matthew Schulte
  • Resonant Chamberr by Geoff Thün, Kathy Velikoy and Wes McGee

(The photos below are ordered accordingly)

Before she left for a semester in Chile, my friend Deena Etter and I went to the gallery to explore the space. Deena was a part of the program last May and June when her project piloted in the small village of The Pearl River Valley region. She took verbal and photographic inventory of all the personal possessions of one family’s home, then created a book to encapsulate her findings. Below is is a picture of her seeing her work on display for the first time. Isn’t she cute. I will have the great fortune of continuing her work in China under professors Mary-Ann Ray and Robert Mangurian. Should be a great summer! And what a beautiful appetizer of an exhibit to get me excited for it.