Black Tar Water - Video Premiere (Boston Globe) / May 10, 2016 by Chris Baum

Bent Knee's new music video for Black Tar Water, the second single from Say So (out 5/20 on Cuneiform Records), was just premiered by The Boston Globe. You can read the article and watch the film at https://goo.gl/vIGsbb.

Via The Globe:

"Bent Knee, a hard-working, stylistically uncontainable sextet of witty virtuosos whose members found one another at Berklee College of Music, is set to release its third studio LP, “Say So,” next week on the respected avant-rock indie label Cuneiform Records. Having performed the entire album at a Jamaica Plain concert in January and releasing a video for lead single Leak Water in April, the band notches up anticipation for the new LP with a second clip, this one for the moody song Black Tar Water. Via e-mail, Bent Knee bassist and backing vocalist Jessica Kion divulged some of the video’s secrets:

'Black Tar Water is about escaping depression and cleaning up the mess it’s made of you. The lyrics circle around thoughts of deflated self-esteem, while the phrase ‘black tar water’ refers to anything evil or poisonous in the world. The music video spawned from the idea of escaping a bad situation and starting anew. The main character sheds his self-made shell and experiences a ‘matrix’-style rebirth as he tears down a barrier to become completed soaked in light.

“The creation of the video was really fun and quite challenging. With a budget under $2,000 and a crew of eight (five of which were band members), we filmed over the course of a 15-hour day inside of a small shed, with videography by Eric Freeman and stunning acting by Jake Brasch. [Bent Knee guitarist] Ben Levin and I acted as writers, directors, set designers, smoke-machine operators, food runners, makeup artists, editors, and producers. My brother Tyler Kion came up from New York just to lend a hand and artistic eye.'"

Album Announcement + Summer Tour Dates / April 5, 2016 by Chris Baum

I'm very pleased to announce Bent Knee's new album, Say So, out May 20th on Cuneiform Records. This collection of music has been in the works for quite some time, and I can't wait for you all to hear what the band has been up to in the studio. Preorders are available at https://goo.gl/mJJPwi

A huge thanks to Consequence of Sound for announcing Say So, alongside premiering the video for the record's first single, Leak Water.

"Boston’s Bent Knee proudly occupy the grey area where baroque pop, rock, and the avant-garde meet, but even they are sometimes caught off guard by their intricately woven, surrealist stylings. The element of surprise and desire to fuse disparate sounds was felt throughout their sophomore record, 2014’s well-received "Shiny Eyed Babies". It shines through even brighter on follow-up album "Say So", due out May 20th through new label home Cuneiform."

You can read the article and stream the video at http://cos.lv/10jRJN.

Leak Water was directed by the extraordinary Greg Bowen of Human Being Productions (who also created the album's cover art) and stars the talented Audrey Norwood. Enjoy.

North American Tour Dates

5/1 Brooklyn NY @ Saint Vitus

5/6 Pawtucket RI @ Zabinski Music Studio

5/8 Gettysburg PA @ Majestic Theatre

5/12 Northampton MA @ One Bar

5/13 Worcester MA @ Ralph’s Rock Diner

5/14 Lowell MA @ Hi-Hat

5/19 Somerville MA @ ONCE Ballroom

5/20 Washington DC @ Songbyrd Music House

5/21 Baltimore MD @ Orion Studios

6/2 Portland ME @ Empire

6/4 New Haven CT @ Lyric Hall

6/5 Providence RI @ News Cafe

6/8 Mount Joy PA @ Bube's Brewery

6/9 - New York, NY @ The Bowery Electric

6/10 Wooster OH @ Private Show

6/11 Kalamazoo MI @ Louie’s Back Room

6/12 Dayton OH @ Ladder 11

6/13 Kansas City MO @ miniBar

6/16 San Francisco CA @ Elbo Room

6/17 San Jose CA @ SLG Art Boutiki

6/18 Eugene OR @ Black Forest

6/19 Portland OR @ Twilight Room

6/20 Seattle WA @ Victory Lounge

6/21 Port Angeles WA @ Coo Coo Nest

6/22 Nanaimo BC @ The Vault

6/25 Mayne Island BC @ Campbell Bay Music Festival

6/26 Vancouver, BC @ Franklin Studios

More info at bentkneemusic.com/tour

Guy Mendilow Ensemble April Tour Dates / April 4, 2016 by Chris Baum

Guy Mendilow Ensemble's US spring tour, with appearances in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Wyoming, kicks off this Thursday. Dates below:

4/7 Hartford CT @ Charter Oak Cultural Center

4/8 Mansfield CT @ University of Connecticut

4/11 Powell WY @ Park County Arts

4/13 Rock Springs WY @ Broadway Theatre

4/15 Evanston WY @ Uinta County Concerts

4/17 Waltham MA @ Brandeis University

For more information, visit http://www.guymendilow.com/

VGO Announces CAPCOM LIVE! + China Tour Dates / March 7, 2016 by Chris Baum

Video Game Orchestra is excited to announce "CAPCOM LIVE!”, the official Capcom concert tour. Produced by industry veterans Shota Nakama (Video Game Orchestra) and Tommy Tallarico (Video Games Live!), the concert series will feature a rock band and symphony orchestra performing music from a broad array of classic Capcom titles, from Mega Man® & Street Fighter® to Resident Evil® & Monster Hunter™. Capcom is well known for their exceptional hybrid soundtracks, and VGO will be bringing their greatest hits to life on stage for the first time.

Tour Dates

March 19th | Shanghai, China | Luwan Stadium

March 26th | Beijing, China | The Worker’s Stadium

April 9th | Boston, USA | Berklee Performance Center

Additional information at vgo-online.com/events/

capcomlive.com

vgo-online.com

VGO is:

"All Together Now" (Boston Globe) / January 15, 2016 by Chris Baum

Seldom do I sit down with a member of the press and struggle to pull away from the conversation nearly three hours later. An enormous THANK YOU to Steve Smith and The Boston Globe for taking the time for this interview, and to Anil Prasad and Stephen Humphries for the introduction. In the article, published online yesterday and in print today, Bent Knee discusses band origins, the creative process, and our upcoming record, "Say So", which comes out in May on Cuneiform Records.

Via The Boston Globe:

With heady buzz and a new LP, Bent Knee bids for the big time

Early in December, a clutch of journalists and curiosity seekers from Boston and beyond arrived at the Space, a cozy gallery and concert venue tucked away on a quiet street in Jamaica Plain, to witness a remarkable sight. Bent Knee, a young local sextet, had packed the room on a frigid Saturday night. A disparate mix of friends and devotees, young and old, gathered not just to hear the group’s newly completed third LP played from start to finish, but also to lend their voices to a few climactic choruses. Since the concert was being filmed for potential release, the crowd obligingly sat on the floor.

Said album, “Say So,” resoundingly demonstrated the increasing refinement and confidence of a group that doesn’t quite fit any conventional pigeonhole. Bent Knee’s emphatic crunch and knack for complexity, mixed with lively wit, have aligned it loosely with that most marginalized of genres, progressive rock. Live, the band projects visceral glee, exactingly harmonized and wholly infectious.

Courtney Swain, Bent Knee’s dramatically potent lead vocalist and pianist, delivers emphatic, enigmatic lyrics in a manner that can evoke Björk, Alanis Morissette, or Joanna Newsom while sounding like no one but herself. Vince Welch, the sound designer who shapes and sculpts the group’s performances onstage and in the studio, adds still more shades to an expansive palette: electronica, classic pop, heavy metal, and hip-hop all figure into Bent Knee’s matrix somewhere.

Exactly one month after the show, five band members — Swain, Welch, guitarist Ben Levin, violinist Chris Baum, and bassist Jessica Kion — huddled around a table in a Newbury Street cafe for an interview. Drummer Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth had been done in by travel, his bandmates compensating with tangled narrative threads and oversize ebullience.

They’ve got plenty to be excited about. Thanks in part to Anil Prasad, purveyor of the influential progressive-music webzine Innerviews (www.innerviews.org), word about Bent Knee has spread well beyond its supportive Boston home base. Having self-released two albums and an EP, the band will issue “Say So” on the venerated US indie Cuneiform Records in May. And while Bent Knee still books its own shows stateside, it recently joined Paperclip Agency — whose roster includes Afrika Bambaataa, Shonen Knife, and Television — to coordinate European touring.

You can read the full article at https://goo.gl/Q2ipQa

More on Bent Knee at http://bentkneemusic.com

Between Lands VR Installation Premiere (MFA) / December 9, 2015 by Chris Baum

"You are not surprised at the force of the storm — you have seen it growing...

Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain.
Now the immense loneliness begins...

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have."
(Rilke, Book of Hours II, 1)

Who, really, doesn't know darkness? Whether it's personal, societal, environmental, or political, we know it all too well. So what then does it mean to be a light? "Between Lands”, an audio/visual experience that blurs the line between our physical and digital lives, attempts to answer that very question. Using virtual reality technology, the installation experiments with new forms of social interaction; participants communicate between two separate realities to illuminate a series of beacons, gradually bringing light into a darkened world. The piece, created by Mike Mandel, Jeff Hesser, Dare Matheson, Dawn Rivers, Tim Zylicz, and Dan Egan, with music by Guy Mendilow and myself, premieres this evening at the MFA in Boston.

Utilizing new technology from HTC and Valve, one participant will wear a headset that reveals a fantastical alternate reality within the space of the exhibit. Carrying a digital torch, they will navigate the exhibit seeking to illuminate each beacon one at a time. Their torch will only stay lit if they follow a secret path, visible only to the audience and a second participant. This participant will guide the torch carrier on a journey through a series of hidden portals, revealing dark hallways and open vistas, culminating in an explosion of color and sound when a new beacon is successfully illuminated. As each of the 8 beacons are lit, the room transforms from a dark and mysterious place to a vibrant and joyful one.