Fri 8/27 @ 8-10PM
Fingers crossed for good weather as Loaded, the experimental/sound art music/visuals series at MOCA Cleveland comes to an end. Intended to be performed outside on MOCA’s loading dock, the first two concerts were moved inside to the lobby due to bad weather.
Maybe the third time will be the charm. The series, curated by three local mavens of the noise/experimental music scene, Andrew Auten, Lisa Miralia and David Russell Stempowski, wraps up with three acts that are the most conventionally “pop” and accessible of the ones they’ve presented. Don’t expect radio-ready hits but you should be able to dance to these bands.
Form a Log, featuring members from Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas, collages snippets from cassette tapes, coaxing toe-tapping rhythms from the resulting pile-up. Their source material comes from a vast range of disparate genres to create whiplash textures described as “somewhere between ecstatic noise and surrealistic comedy.”
Cleveland’s Fake Species is a five-member pop outfit that combines acoustic instruments and electronics. They utilize real drums and bass and the vocals of Joanna Ericta, hand in hand with synths and samplers to translate their basic live band sound into new territory.
Finally, Cleveland’s Hiram-Maxim, a quartet originally formed for the 2013 Lottery League, explores dark, heavy, bad-dream music in open-ended structures shaped by improvisational techniques. The band ties there music into the ideas of DEVO founder Mark Mothersbaugh, whose work is currently on display at MOCA. They say, “Hiram-Maxim’s culturally-relevant lyrics speak to Mark Mothersbaugh’s philosophy regarding the devolutionary aspects of modern society, and the band will pay further tribute to Mothersbaugh by covering a DEVO track and making it their own – an experiment in the deconstruction of sound.”
The Mothersbaugh show, Myopia, closes the following day. Before the concert starts you can see the show for only $5 from 5-9pm.
mocacleveland/loaded-concert-series