Pitchfork

[Posted Friday, September 26th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Micah C. Harding and Will Bryant report:
Screw Reggie Jackson, 2003's Mr. October has got to be Thurston Moore. We didn't think we could sit through a three-hour tour with any Thurston other than Howell, but in the Sonic Youth principal's case, we can make an exception. We reported earlier that Moore will be hosting four episodes of the Sundance Channel's "Sonic Cinema" series; add to that two live performances with freeform side project Dream/Action Unit (a collective which also includes Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty) at the Freedom From festival in Minneapolis, MN and again at the 8th annual Dream Festival in Kingston, NY. The Dream/Action Unit tore it up last week with Lightning Bolt at the University of Connecticut; to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, if you have the means, we highly recommend it. Dates:

10-04 Minneapolis, MN - Destijl (Freedom From Festival Of Music)
10-14 Kingston, NY - Deep Listening Space (Ione's 8th Annual Dream Festival)

Moore is also lending his hand a reading October 18th at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City in support of Slow Toe Publications' poetry jam February 03. In addition to reading with contributors Todd Colby, Alex Gildzen, and Matthew Wascovich, Moore will also bring the noise (presumably leaving the funk at home) with merrymakers Tyondai Braxton, Christina Carter, and Maria Chavez.

Moore also appears on the recent Chrome Peeler comp You've Got Your Orders alongside artists including Beehive & The Barracudas, Nels Cline, the toy-piano slamming antics of Twink, the noise-punk rock styles of Hella, and the ever improvising Weasel Walter. How did this conglomeration of unholy bedfellows come together? Well, it's all the brainchild of the motivated music-lover and writer Jason Ziemniak, who wrote a list of song titles and sent one to each of his friends asking them to write a song by that name. Many of Ziemniak's friends slacked and never completed the assignment.

Stuck with a huge list of great song titles (and no one to form songs from them) Ziemniak decided to mail them out to his favorite musicians in hopes that they would fulfill his request. The eventual turnout was overwhelming, receiving positive responses from a plethora of underground giants; enough to release two volumes of the aptly named You've Got Your Orders. One person to thank for supplying Ziemniak with such a broad spectrum of hard-to-reach artists is MC5's Wayne Kramer. Although Kramer declined the request personally (due to a tight schedule), his manager supplied contact information that helped reach many of the featured artists.

All of the participating artists were financially responsible for their own recordings, so sound quality and recording method differ from track-to-track. Unique and inviting, the final list of artists and songs is:

01 House of Low Culture: "Showtime at the Apollo 9"
02 Neil Fallon: "Instant Winner"
03 Nels Cline: "X-Ray My Dreams"
04 Erik Larson: "Smile for the Soul-Stealing Camera"
05 Bluebird: "Late Night Moan"
06 Harry Seitz: "Sign Language Tourettes"
07 Chronicles of Lemur Mutations: "Shredders"
08 Mark Arm: "Coke Limo"
09 Betty's Trash: "Broken Mirror Music"
10 Twink: "Not Enough Crayons for Everyone"
11 Jedediah Parish: "The Sons of Lee Marvin"
12 Godstomper: "Gameshow Contestant Flip-Out"
13 Weasel Walter: "Shaking Hands and Kissing Babies Covered in Bacteria"
14 Chris Crude: "You can Get Away with Any Crime if You Just Run Fast Enough"
15 Bliss Blood: "Vaudeville Distorted"
16 Hella: "Dance of the Drunken Siberian"
17 Mike Gent: "Point a Finger"
18 Badgadget: "K.A.P.L."
19 Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, and Thalia Ferriera: "Like a Ghost On Fire"
20 Beehive & The Barracudas: "Smut Merchant of Venice"
21 Johnette Napolitano: "Memory of a Liar"
22 IDX1274: "Tickle Party #2"

A definitive list for the second volume of You've Got Your Orders is still pending, but some of the artists reported to grace the album include Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, R.E.M.), Nathan Larson (Shutter to Think), Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill), Matt Talbott (Hum), Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven) and Eye from the Boredoms. The compilation's second installment is scheduled for release in late 2003.