Pitchfork: Tony Conrad, Whitehouse, Gary Higgins to Play Festival

Tony Conrad, Whitehouse, Gary Higgins to Play Festival

Was your Halloween experience not up to snuff? Not weird, creative, anachronistic, or experimental enough? Perhaps it lacked minimalist droning, smoked-out free folk, and mind-bludgeoning electro-horror? Well trick-or-treat: it's the Two Million Tongues Festival, and it's bringing the ultimate sonic candybag right to your Chicago doorstep this week!

From Thursday through Sunday, watch the evening become eclectic as Chicago's Empty Bottle plays host to an intimate carnival of some of the most innovative acts in modern music history. The extravaganza was curated by Chicago experimental scene legend Plastic Crimewave, and is being presented by freakier-than-thou publications Galactic Zoo Dossier and Arthur magazine. Each night will feature four primary artists gracing the Bottle's main stage, as well as several "sideshow" performers. As for those various flavors...

The minimalist droning: Avant-garde composer, Faust-collaborator and former Primitive Tony Conrad will make a rare live appearance on the festival's opening night. Now in his mid-60s, Conrad took experimental music to new heights, pioneering "Eternal Music" in the 1960s. Conrad and his cohorts pretty much invented drone, as they'd hold single notes for hours, to a hypnotic and quite possibly spiritual effect. Several Conrad ensembles featured some dude named John Cale, who co-founded some band called the Velvet Underground, which you may have heard "hip" people talking about at your local Urban Outfitters.

The smoked-out free folk: Fresh off the Drag City re-release of 1973's Red Hash, cult folk icon Gary Higgins will headline the second night festival with another rare appearance. Higgins will be joined by his trusty son Graham and plans to play the majority of Red Hash. The fire-maned folkie will also share some new tunes, one of Graham's compositions, and marijuana with all in attendance. Concerning that last bit: JK LOL.

The mind-bludgeoning electro-horror: Seminal British "power electronics" act Whitehouse will tour the U.S. for the first time in over ten years, and will headline Saturday night. The beast of one-time Essential Logic member William Bennett, Whitehouse have spent the last twenty-five years concocting music that makes early Swans sound like the Byrds and Slipknot sound like Fraggle Rock. Jarringly dissonant noise, shrieks, and the most brutal lyrical content pretty much ever make this the good stuff kids go for.

Other Two Million Tongues performers of note include Jackie-O Motherfucker, No Neck Blues Band, Ed Askew, Josephine Foster, and Jack Rose. (Recent Drag City Records signees Pearls & Brass, scheduled to perform on Friday, had to cancel due to a family emergency).

Here's the entire rundown:

11-03 Tony Conrad, Hototogisu, Miminokoto, Mountains, Amy Cargill/Tim Kinella Duo, Birdshow, Lux

11-04 Gary Higgins, Jackie-O Motherfucker, Jack Rose, Hardscrabble, Number None

11-05 Whitehouse, Josephine Foster, Andrew Ortmann, Haptic, Chris Connelly, Travelling Bell

11-06 Charlie Nothing, Michael Chapman, No Neck Blues Band, Ed Askew, Elisa Ambrogio, Singleman Affair, Tar Pet

In conjunction with the festival, Arthur's Bastet label released the limited-edition compilation 2 Million Tongues yesterday, November 1. Tracklist:

01 Mountains - Speaking
02 No Neck Blues Band - Pulse
03 Miminokoto - Tokedasu
04 Tim Kinsella & Amy Cargill - Song for Josh
05 Michael Chapman - The Northern Lights
06 Josephine Foster - Wondrous Love
07 Chris Connelly - Pray'r
08 Pearls and Brass - Waterfall
09 Traveling Bell - Apparitions
10 The Singleman Affair - Good to Be With You Again
11 Jack Rose - Hey Fuck You Rag
12 Tar Pet - Takeit Heri
13 Birdshow - Pilz
14 Tony Conrad - Bowstring 1
15 Hototogisu - Blues for Steve K
16 Haptic - Indifference -> Building on Fire
17 Lux - Need Fade In + Out
18 Hardscrabble - Sail It Away

As mentioned, Whitehouse have tour plans surrounding Saturday's shocker, and their brief U.S. trek kicks off tonight. Become their roadie:

11-03 New York, NY - Rothko *#
11-06 Philadelphia, PA - Vox Populi *
11-07 Cambridge, MA - Middle East *

* with the Psychic Paramount
# with Thurston Moore

Whitehouse also have a new album, Asceticists, scheduled for release on their Susan Lawly label in February. Tracklist:

01 The Avalanche
02 Language Recovery
03 Guru
04 Nzambi Ia Lufua
05 Killing Hurts Give You the Secrets
06 Ruthless Babysitting
07 Dumping the Fucking Rubbish

Finally, Gary Higgins will follow up his Tongues appearance with a one-off gig in Philadelphia later this month:

11-19 Philadelphia, PA - The Khyber *

* with Espers, Randall of Nazareth