Pillars and Tongues + Apothecary Hymns + Jason Ajemian's Playing You To Sleep

Friday, September 5
Admission: $5, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 8 & 10:30pm
reservations are recommended

Pillars and Tongues are a Chicago trio focused on the abstraction of form and language. Their resulting exploration of such just happens to take shape in musical form. Recalling the aesthetic employed by the 'spiritual jazz' workouts of icons such as Pharaoh Sanders, wherein the creation of music itself can be seen as a positing method to address larger concepts at hand, Pillars & Tongues utilize an organic, 'spontaneous composition' design in which the three communicate their ideas. The result is not so much a 'free music,' but rather an unfolding musical discussion that, like a logical conclusion to a question of study, moves towards organization and resolution. Theirs is a language peppered with considerable representations of visceral forms of distinctly American art and musics: there is gospel and there is blues, there is folk, and there are even hints of Tonalism.
myspace.com/pillarsandtongues
contraphonic.com
thelotussound.com

The Apothecary Hymns sound is a mix of heavily lysergic jam based psych music and drifter folk rock. He plays around New York & the outer borroughs both solo and with a cast of very capable longhairs. In one review, Stimmel was likened to a high school teacher leading a madcap crew of kids through a mesmerizing battle of the bands. If only the writer knew how right he was. Stimmel is a teacher in the public school system where he gets plenty of self defense training which, in turn, does wonders for his guitar chops. (from locustmusic.com) Stimmel was a member of the Bay Area’s Court and Spark.

myspace.com/apothecaryhymns
locustmusic.com

“Jason Ajemian’s music shifts and wanders; toys with one direction then immediately backtracks to try the other fork; spends six minutes developing a phrase and condenses the very next track to just fourteen seconds; and of course challenges, but with an approachable warmness that is the steadfastness of the underground Chicago jazz scene.” (from audiversity.com) Jason Ajemian is one half of Born Heller (alongside Josephine Foster), one third of the Chicago Underground Trio, is a composer, conductor, and bassist. He has most recently released a record on the venerable Delmark. He currently resides in New York.
myspace.com/sundmagi
sundmagi.com