35mm photographer, musician and writer. NYC.
A deep freeze has descended on New York City just a few days before I leave for a full US / Canadian tour with Pharmakon and I am left bored in my room with a cold. I usually wait longer between photo updates, but this past month or so have been pretty prolific. I feel freer just knowing what I am about to do. Treacherous, redundant days are numbered. The smog has been cut.
This year marked the fifth Savage Weekend, a two day noise festival hosted annually at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Curated by Ryan Martin (AKA Ry Mar AKA Secret Boyfriend AKA the dude who does Hot Releases), Savage Weekend always offers a fun spirited and diverse plethora of projects. Whether you want harsh noise, hard techno or performance based weirdness, there is always a little something for everyone. Ry Mar has threatened that Savage Weekend 2014 may be the last, which would be a shame and a loss. No other noise fest of it’s kind offers such great vibes, good biscuits or general savagery. It has been a great delight to attend the past four years and watch some projects grow, watch some projects begin to bud.
I would not have started to play solo if it were not for Ry Mar’s encouragement. Three years ago, he asked me to play Savage Weekend. I told him I would DJ, as I did not have a project at the time. He told me there were no DJs, that he wanted me to play and that it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a project. My multimedia project The Waitress was born. I still carry the crumbled up dollar that I chased around on a stick while being dominated live in a waitress costume in my synth bag for good luck.
I recently resurrected an old project with Ciarra Black, Appetite. Before preparing for Savage Weekend 2014 we had only played one show three years ago- a Secret Boyfriend/ Lack show that I set up in Philly as my going away party before moving to New York. I am not so sure I would have if it were not for the push of performing at the fest this year. While trying to write new material for The Waitress, everything seemed to come up flat. I decided it was time to hang up the apron and explore new territory. I am grateful for the push every year. I really hope that this was not the last Savage Weekend, as every year has been as fun as it was inspiring but if it was- I will always have a lot of love for Ry Mar and for the fest and for everyone who participated in any capacity. These pictures are not even representative of all the awe inspiring things that I heard and saw, just the things I managed to get a decent snap of. Hope to see many of you next year.
I premiered Profligate’s newest single, “From all Sides” for Impose magazine.
“From all Sides” is the first single off Profligate’s The Red Rope EP, available October 15 on the newly minted DKA records. The songs’ sturdy structure is strewn with apt but unexpected accents. The rather appropriately titled “From all Sides” patches together diverse synth sounds with sparse guitar and bass. From glittering arpegiation to New Order-esque moments of pure pop to what seems to be synth horn blasts to swelling harsh bits that almost resemble a horses’ nay, the track manages to strike a strange harmony. Deep breathy vocals add an extra layer of human warmth to this electronic dance gem.
Noah Anthony has been playing under the Profligate moniker for a couple of years now, and history has shown that he does not stray from the usual formulas used for dance floor ready jams. Perhaps his early investment in noise and experimental music allowed him to refuse the redundancy often suffered with the varied genres many have tried to assign Profligate (namely techno). Anthony has endured several incarnations as a musician performing as Social Junk, Nightburger and his current collaboration with Rick Weaver and Ren Schofield (A.K.A. Container) in Form-a-Log – which happens to be one of the most demented sounding projects I have ever heard (and I mean that in a good way).
As I eagerly await Profligate’s third LP, it comes to no surprise that The Red Rope EP is Anthony’s boldest and most cohesive work yet. He is dedicated to pushing his own boundaries, figuring out what works. In an interview I conducted with Profligate last year, he mentioned that he was dabbling with integrating guitar and bass into his once purely electronic set up and questioned if it “ever works”. “From all Sides” is a testament that it can. Even when I inquired about the sudden departure from his usually dreamy VHS like ascetic from The Red Rope’s artwork he simply replied: “You’ve got to keep them guessing”.
Profligate’s The Red Rope EP is out October 15 on DKA Records.
Profligate is about the hit the road with North Carolina comrade Samantha Vacation for a new west coast dates, and will also be performing in New York City next month with Humanbeast.
October
11- Oakland @ The Church
12- San Francisco @ Warm Leatherette
13- LA @ Complex
14- LA @ TBA
November
11-NYC- @285 Kent w Humanbeast
JANE PAIN 