Calvin Johnson

Event information

ALL-AGES | BYOB

Based in Olympia, Washington, USA, Calvin Johnson’s work in underground culture started as a teenage fan volunteering at the local community radio station, KAOS-FM. He moved on to writing for fanzines, organizing music and film events, playing music in various ill-fated bands. Calvin established K, a locally oriented media outlet, in 1982.

In 1993 Calvin founded Dub Narcotic, a recording studio, in which he has documented the work of the Somehow Is and Never Was, such as Mirah, the Blow, Versus, Built to Spill, Fitz of Depression, Make-Up and Little Wings. It has also been the incubator of many Calvin experiments in collaboration and self-expression, such as Beat Happening, Halo Benders and Dub Narcotic Sound System.

The decade of the double zeroes has seen Calvin Johnson set out into the world, acoustic guitar in hand, as a solo artist of musical platitudes.

MUSCLES OF JOY

“Muscles of Joy are an all-female group of Glasgow-based artists and musicians, Leigh Ferguson, Victoria Morton, Katy Dove, Ariki Porteous, Jenny O’Boyle, Sophie Macpherson, Anne Marie Copestake and Charlotte Prodger. Formed in early 2008, the group rehearse weekly and their collaborative experiments have developed into a number of songs which explore ideas of improvisation, rhythm, narrative, and the voice. These mesmerizing tracks build on simple, repeating notes, beats and phrases, with the voices of all eight performers employed onstage. A wide variety of acoustic, percussion and electric instruments form part of each track, along with customised instruments of the group’s own making. Off-kilter rhythms and a capella notes are used to create a distinctive DIY sound which traces the history of the female voice in music and art, calling to mind the non-linear narratives of Meredith Monk and the feminist subject matter of the Raincoats. This summer they record their first EP which will be released by Watts of Goodwill at Monorail, Glasgow.”

All right – that’s a great description of what MoJ do and sort of how they sound (cribbed from the programme notes for the Nurse With Wound event at Tramway last month), but what it cannot tell you is how elating it is to watch them fall in and out of line, switching up their instruments and sharing vocal duties like a hivemind. Muscles of Joy are the type of live band who let you see the process behind everything they play – true DIY – and (relatedly) one of the rare groups who make me wish I had a group of my own. So excited for this show.