the junk kitchen

JUNK KITCHEN #3

2012-02-26T23:43:00.000-05:00

SOUND OF THE FOUND
Music of Found Objects and Homemade Instruments

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 2012 @ 8PM
Outpost 186
186 1/2 Hampshire St.
Cambridge, MA

***special guests to be announced!***

There is a real problem with Music these days: its ego is way out of control!

Music’s strong arm on the public has slapped the artists to the waysides for years while tricking the neighborhood kids to grab a guitar, grab a microphone and play by the rules. Believe in the hype and fame and fortune will follow. A few tired blues licks later these pop stars are mistaken for visionaries of creative sounds. The Junk Kitchen Concert Series is going to give it a reality check!

Music of Found Objects and Homemade Instruments is a full-on intervention at the Outpost, cornering Music to the front of the room and having it fess up to its faults, its wrong doings and to hopefully show Music what it can be and not what it has been for years on end.

The performers of this show will act like surgeons spending the evening undressing Music to its frail and skinny core, putting it under the knife with the scalpels of bare hands on the back of cold metal chairs. Old spoons on empty paint buckets will play ugly rhythms underneath disjointed melodies made out of twine. Old rusty nails will poke through in attacks of dissonance as a climax of hubcaps will loudly crash together scaring Music out the door and back into the streets, delirious and humbled.

In the end there is something to be discovered while performing music on anything that is not an instrument. It will showcase the fact the music is made by people and not the instruments that they play. Torn away are the rich textures, controlled range, and harmonic potential that we are all used to.

This night Music is in its purest form. Whether it’s drumming on the back of a stop sign or blowing into empty beer bottles, the music here will exist simultaneously on either end of the spectrum by exploring the fringes of acoustic sound art while throwing us back into our primal urges to create.

Audience members are encouraged to bring there own homemade “instruments” to play in a group performance at the end of the evening. For those less savvy, the requirement is that you only bring in what you have found on the way to the Outpost!

JUNK KITCHEN #2

2012-01-29T20:00:00.000-05:00

GET OUT YOUR MINI

Friday, February 24, 2012 @8PM
Outpost 186
186 1/2 Hampshire St.
Inman Square, Cambridge, MA

While mini skirts are more thanwelcome, and may even get you a surprise at the door, this night isabout an altogether other kind of mini: the miniature piece of music.

The miniatures featured in this Junk Kitchen installment are very,very short pieces of music, ranging from a matter of seconds to aminute, maybe two. But anything over two minutes isn't very minianymore, now is it?

So this program will feature dozens ofpieces—composed, improvised, covered or stolen—performed on oboe,piano, vibraphone, guitar, voice, and more!

Featuring:

Special guests!! duo Cotton Candy

& compositions/performances by:
JohnMcDonald, piano
William Kenlon, voice/percussion
Brigham Hall, piano

First Worst Thirst:
Ben Dicke, drums
Esther Viola, oboe
Eric Hofbauer, guitar

JUNK KITCHEN #1

2012-01-14T15:01:00.004-05:00

Join us FRIDAY JANUARY 27, 2012 at 8PM

MUSICFOR TOYS

Have you ever graced through the aisles of a toystore, spotting various musical instruments on display? Has thetemptation of creativity hit you enough that you’ve banged out afew chords at the toy piano, broken into a beat on “My First DrumKit,” or tried to come up with something... anythinginteresting on a one-octave xylophone in the key of C?

Well,the folks at the Junk Kitchen Concert Series have concocted a remedyfor those of you with such childish urges: a musical pursuance thatwill relieve you of being seen in a toy store and getting kicked outby security. This first installment will feature music written forand improvised on toy instruments and will feature many areaperformers and special guest Jaggery.

Ourmission here is not only to give these instruments their due, butalso to pose a challenge to those performing on them. We‘re keepingthe Jazz Box in its case, and the Mark 7 at home, 'cause this is anight for musicians to get in the zone with the mostinteresting sounds this side of Christmas.

JUNK KITCHEN #0

2011-12-07T14:37:00.001-05:00

Join us TUESDAY DECEMBER 13 @ Outpost 186 for Junk Kitchen's pre-launch party!

The official start of the series will be in January, but we couldn't wait to get started! So we decided to throw a warm-up concert, featuring performances by First Worst Thirst in diverse formations.

We'll be playing original tunes, improvisations, as well as samples of some of the themes of the up-coming season, like Raymond Scott Night, Burt Bacharach Bash and Get into the Mini, a program of miniatures, compositions and improvs.

In line with the festivities of the season, this will be a thoroughly entertaining affair. So dress up or dress down, whatever you need to do, and come ready to move, have a drink, play along or just sit back and enjoy!

CALL FOR ARTISTS*:

2011-11-09T22:11:00.002-05:00

We are currently booking for 2012, the fourth Friday of every month. If you are or will be in or near Boston and are interested in performing or collaborating on our series, please contact us!

*musicians, composers, painters, poets, graphic designers, dancers, writers, photographers, chefs... or any other creatives welcome!

Working theme ideas and dates for 2012:
Jan 27 - Music for Toy Instruments
Feb24 - Miniatures and Short Pieces
March 23 - Music of FoundObjects
April 27 - Solo and Duo night
May 25 - Raymond ScottTribute
June 22 - New Music Night
July 27 - Music of Brazil
Aug24 - Burt Bacharach Bachelor Pad
Sept 28 - “Other”instruments: Reeds and strings of foreign shores
Oct 26 TBA
NovTBA
Dec TBA

pre-launch party-jam!

2011-10-22T15:07:00.002-04:00

the junk kitchen: consumable improvisation

2011-10-12T13:13:00.000-04:00

The Junk Kitchen is a mobile, monthlyconcert series based out of the Outpost 186, in Inman Square,Cambridge, MA. Conceived by oboist/vocalist Esther Viola and drummerBen Dicke, the mission is to presentdiverse, at times obscure music styles in ways which are inviting andconsumable to audience members who may be inexperienced with some ofthese forms. Our series brings together our favorite elementsof the music we love: accessible, approachable melodies and groovesbalanced with experimentation, genre-blurring and boundary-pushing.Our ultimate goal is to express our insatiable curiosity in a formthat a wide audience can appreciate. This means that whileexperimentation and the avant-garde will remain in the foreground,these elements will also be tempered by an awareness of what ouraudience and potential audience will appreciate. In short, with thisseries we pose the central question: How can we create and packagethe music we love in a format that speaks to you?