Tiny Vipers and Alela Diane at Lily Pad

Tuesday, November 13th 2007. 8-10pm.

(((End of an Empire Presents)))

Tiny Vipers (Sub Pop)

Alela Diane (Holocene Music)

Lily Pad
1353 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA (Inman Square)
(617) 395-1393
http://www.lily-pad.net/
$8. All ages.

The subtle, largely acoustic music of Tiny Vipers is the project of Seattle-based singer/songwriter Jesy Fortino, a self-taught guitarist whose intricate playing and lonesome vocals give her work a uniquely haunting quality. A friend working at Sub Pop brought her to the label's attention, and Fortino signed with them in 2006. Her debut EP for Sub Pop, Hands Across the Void, arrived in summer 2007.

http://www.subpop.com/artists/tiny_vipers
http://myspace.com/tinyvipersss

'Now here's a lovely surprise. A singer-songwriter who hails from Nevada City, California, and currently resides in Portland, Oregon, Alela Diane has a voice that seems far older than her early-twenty-something years. Her sing-songy tunes are honest and earthy, her diction intense and mannered but never pretentious. [Her] songs–plaintive vocals accompanied by a slight guitar and backing vocals, often little else–seem situated perfectly between the parlor and the campfire.' -Amazon

http://aleladiane.com/
http://myspace.com/alelamusic
http://www.holocenemusic.com/aleladiane/

Alasdair Roberts and Charalambides at the Nave Gallery

Friday, November 2.
End of an Empire Presents:
Alasdair Roberts (Drag City)
Charalambides (Kranky, Wholly Other)
plus Heather Leigh Murray

The Nave Gallery
Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church
155 Powderhouse Blvd., Somerville, MA

8 pm/ $8/ All ages

Scottish songwriter Alasdair Roberts' career as a recording artist sprung into a critically lauded, cult-praised profession when a demo he made with his group Appendix Out found its way into the hands of Will Oldham (Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy). Oldham identified with Appendix Out's similarly calculated sound enough that he released their first recording, the 7" titled Ice Age/Pissed with You, on his own Palace Records label in 1996. The momentum from this release's affiliation with Oldham sparked not only a series of split 7" releases, but also to a recording contract with Chicago indie label Drag City. After Appendix Out's third release for the label, released in February 2001, Roberts immediately recorded and released his first solo album, released on Secretly Canadian and titled The Crook of My Arm. Roberts later followed with his second solo release, Farewell Sorrow, which garnered more critical acclaim and showcased the development of his songwriting growing tendrils around the roots of the British and Scottish folk traditions. The stark and beautiful No Earthly Man arrived in 2005, followed by the more band-oriented Amber Gatherers in 2007.

http://www.alasdairroberts.com/

To say that the words "unique" and "singular" are over-used in describing music is to state the obvious. To apply these words to the sounds created by the various duo/trio configurations of the Texas group Charalambides over the last decade plus would be understatement. To be sure there are numerous antecedents to their music; to deny this of any artist‘s work would be akin to saying that they are deaf. But they have surely broken new ground in the primitive/ folk/mystic/improv/psych valley in which they toil. As Marcus Boon wrote in The Wire; "...here is a truly 21st century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th century discovered amplification, noise and speed."

http://www.kranky.net/artists/charalambides.html
http://frontporchproductions.org/artist/charalambides

James Blackshaw at the BCA Mills Gallery

Wednesday, October 10.
End of an Empire Presents:
James Blackshaw (Tompkins Square, Important Records)
with Eli Keszler and more.

Mills Gallery
Boston Center for the Arts

539 Tremont Street
Boston (South End)

617.426.8835
http://www.bcaonline.org
8pm/ $8/ All ages

BIO:

When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string guitar, something spiritual takes place. Performing and recording since 2003, his name is frequently mentioned alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Sir Richard Bishop and Glenn Jones as one of the most foremost modern pioneers of solo acoustic guitar music. Now at the age of 25, Blackshaw, an untrained musician born and still residing in the suburban environs of Greater London, draws as much inspiration from early religious music, South-Asian folk music and composers such as Arvo Part, Simeon Ten Holt, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine as he does from John Fahey, Robbie Basho and the early Takoma Records roster, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. In his part improvised and part written songs, Blackshaw makes expert use of Eastern and Western scales, chord changes reminiscent of European classical music and incredibly intricate fingerpicking patterns to make a sound that is both challengingly minimalistic, yet warm and approachable to anybody who might hear it, with a rare sensitivity that conveys both immense beauty, hope and sadness.

"In recent months, 24-year-old UK guitarist James Blackshaw has burst fully-formed onto the folk underground, his remarkable talents already seeming at peak maturity... Blackshaw has established himself as an instrumentalist of astonishing grace and delicacy, seeming as though he's gobbled and digested whole the primitive folk canons of Takoma and Vanguard. Relying primarily on 12-string guitar, Blackshaw's intricate creations web together Robbie Basho's wayfaring mysticism, Ben Chasny's soft-focused acid tongues, and the rustic fantasias of Sandy Bull... Blackshaw is able to differentiate himself through his exotic lyricism, stray pan-ethnic flourishes and pure unmasked virtuosity." - Pitchfork

Links:
http://www.jamesblackshaw.com/
http://www.myspace.com/jamesblackshaw

Upcoming:

November 2: Alasdair Roberts, Charalambides, and Heather Leigh Murray at the Nave Gallery

Lichens and Matteah Baim at the BCA Mills Gallery

Wednesday, September 26.
End of an Empire Presents:
Lichens (Kranky, Holy Mountain)
Matteah Baim (Dicristina)

Mills Gallery
Boston Center for the Arts

539 Tremont Street
Boston (South End)

617.426.8835
http://www.bcaonline.org
8pm/ $8/ All ages

BIOS

LICHENS Is the personal vehicle of Robert A.A. Lowe (90 Day Men), created for solo and collaborative performances and recordings. Lichens has performed steadily in Chicago, beginning at the Arthur magazine-sponsored Million Tongues Festival during the summer of 2004, as well as at various venues in New York. Lichens live is a transfixing experience, looping wordless vocals into curtains of drone. Lowe adds acoustic and electric guitars, percussion and other effects to create alternately rough-hewn and delicate works. In addition to his mesmeric current release, The Psychic Nature of Being (on Kranky), Chocolate Industries is releasing a limited edition 7 inch single by Lichens packaged inside a book of art Lowe curated with contributions by Jon Beasley, Justin Schaeffer, Devendra Banhart and others. Lowe's new outfit, Singer, opened for Battles on their most recent US tour and was recently signed to Drag City; the band also features members of U.S. Maple and Bird Show.

"Lichens... debuted at the Million Tongues festival last summer. Lowe's finger picked acoustic guitar sounded like he¹s spent time pondering Fahey's legacy, but his looped, wordless vocals were reminiscent of Meredith Monk." - Bill Meyer, Chicago Reader, March 18, 2005

http://www.kranky.net/artists/lichens.html

http://www.holymountain.com/lichens.html

MATTEAH BAIM is best known as one half of Metallic Falcons, the lo-fi prog metal outfit she assembled with CocoRosie's Sierra Casady. As you'd expect from someone in that position she's been known to fraternise with a wealth of notable freak folk scenesters including Devendra Banhart and Jana Hunter, both of whom make contributions to this excellent album. The accompanying blurb bills this album as a 'type of New Age Grunge', and while that's not an entirely inaccurate by account, it hardly begins to do this album justice. Far from the ramshackle, makeshift sounds that characterised the Metallic Falcons album, "Death Of The Sun" shows a great deal of poise. Baim's solo debut makes for a wonderful retake on the psych-folk explosion and shows that she's ambitious enough to strive for something beyond that, finding her own very distinctive voice along the way. Her band, Death's Groove, features Robert A.A. Lowe of Lichens and Butchy Fuego of Pit Er Pat.

http://www.myspace.com/matteahbaim

http://dicristinarecords.blogspot.com

Upcoming:
October 10: James Blackshaw at the BCA Mills Gallery
November 2: Alasdair Roberts, Charalambides, and Heather Leigh Murray at the Nave Gallery