Gang Gang Dance / Ambulance - Skinny Wolves Club : Thur 31st August (1 Viewer)

[SONYMEGADRIVE]

i thought reviews of ivan at ATP were unfair... "repetitive", "irritating", "obnoxious" are pretty harsh words. that whole 'who let the dogs out' thing does get a bit tedious after a while though...

farrell, are you sure you want to go this year?

yer gettin paid tonight, b

ivan curating my mind

 

[skinny wolves]

what time are Ubs on?

UBS : 9.30pm w/ Ivan (Sea Dog) on Hurdy Gurdy and i think David Lacey on drums....

 

[swingkid]

 

[skinny wolves]

Oh, and Grime fans...

London's Ruff Sqwad MC, Tinchy Stryder features on the new GGD LP

 

[HalfHunter]

nice bit about gang gang dance in todays metro page 15

 

[Nate Champion]

nice bit about gang gang dance in todays metro page 15

Jasus, that's a good few writeups now - It's hardly going to sell out?

Or will it?

 

[skinny wolves]

Jasus, that's a good few writeups now - It's hardly going to sell out?

Or will it?

 

[paul-]

Oh, and Grime fans...

London's Ruff Sqwad MC, Tinchy Stryder features on the new GGD LP

Haha! So nuts! Im not mental about GGD but Im definetly gonna have to pick that up for the Tinchy Stryder apperance.

 

[meta]

The Wire 252 [February 2005]
"Lab Dancing: Gang Gang Dance" by Marc Masters

> View images of original text

"It's strange to be in this situation," remarks Josh Diamond, guitarist in the New York quartet Gang Gang Dance. "Our shows are usually experiential events, not like a concert where you go watch a band. If people want to participate, we encourage that." Diamond and his bandmates are backstage at the Ottobar in Baltimore, nearing the end of a two week tour opening for Animal Collective. Having interrupted work on a third album to join the tour (replacing Black Dice at the last minute), the group seem slightly disoriented; up to now, Gang Gang Dance have played mostly in art galleries and basements. "Every band says this, but it is weird," adds drummer Tim DeWitt. "We're used to things being hectic and out of control, and on these big stages, everything's too controlled. There's a little bit of everything in the monitors. And the audience is just... down there."
Contrast this with a Gang Gang Dance show in late 2004, at a crowded Turkish sports pub called the Marquis of Lansdowne in East London. "It was our favourite show to date," declares synth player Brian DeGraw. "It was super raw; it felt like a basement rave, with everyone in a circle around the band, dancing manically." "We didn't know what we were going to play, and we didn't know how it would sound," explains singer Lizzi Bougatsos. "But it turned out great." Throughout their five years of existence, Gang Gang Dance have relied on unplanned invention to build a throbbing, organic sound, evoking the tribal collectivism of Can, the art-damaged theatre of The Residents, even the nervous cacophony of Boredoms. Until recently, Gang Gang Dance shows were completely improvised, and spontaneity remains a priority. "There's always room for stuff to blow up and turn into something else," insists DeWitt. "That comes from the way we used to play shows," adds Bougatsos. "We wouldn't see each other for weeks and then we'd get on stage and be all freaked out, and it would be great."
Gang Gang Dance's origins stretch back to the late 1990s, when DeGraw and DeWitt, previous members of Washington DC absurdist punk outfit The Cranium, began playing together again after moving to New York. The pair briefly formed a trio with Diamond called Death and Dying, and played occasionally with Bougatsos and Nathan Maddox, spurred on by frequent meetings at the Pink Pony, a Lower East Side coffee shop. "It was where we went to get free coffee, because it was the place that would hook up every broke-ass musician," says DeWitt. "I learned a lot there," adds Diamond. "People like [free jazz musicians] Daniel Carter and Sabir Mateen would hang out there and talk to you until five in the morning." Gang Gang Dance gelled into a permanent unit in 2000, after a memorial show for the late NYC artist Pat Hearn at her husband Colin de Land's infamous American Fine Arts gallery. "Colin asked us to perform some of the songs Pat had done in the early 80s with some downtown musicians," recalls DeGraw. "They were kind of cabaret tunes, but we turned them into something quite darker and heavier and Colin loved it." Bougatsos adds, "It made us remember that we worked well together."
Initially a quintet including Maddox, Gang Gang Dance began practising more frequently at the space they still share with the Animal Collective and Black Dice, obsessively taping the rehearsals on a boombox. In 2001, the group recorded twice, first at Charles Burst's studio in Chinatown, then later in Kentucky at Paul Oldham's Rove Studios. "Charles would put a reel on, and we would play for 16 minutes [until the reel ran out], then stop and look at each other. If everyone was smiling, then we would keep it and move on," states DeGraw. "[In Kentucky] we had a few prepared pieces, but still just tried to get something that we could zone out to with satisfaction."
In between the two sessions, Maddox passed away, but his presence remains tangible. "We consider Nathan to still be in the band, and anyone who met him for five minutes can understand why," says DeGraw. "The idea of him not being involved in the music, after his departure from Earth, is just absolutely impossible. The last thing we recorded with him was the final scream at the end of side two on the Fusetron LP, and I think the sound of that scream says quite a lot."
That self-titled LP, released in early 2004, uses material from both studio sessions, plus practice tapes and live recordings. So does Gang Gang Dance's second LP, Revival Of The Shittiest, issued in September by Social Registry. Revival feels like a series of avant garde lab experiments, with loops and jolts jutting out of song-chunks, while Gang Gang Dance plays more like a ritualistic symphony, two side-long tracks of continuous sound that build and swell like elongated, debris-filled ocean waves. The group constantly scale sonic heights towards a stunning five minute climax, wherein Bougatsos's and Maddox's relentless vocal calisthenics meld uncannily with the surrounding din.
Already, the group's sound has evolved since those two releases. During their Baltimore set, spurts of dance based melody emerge, with Bougatsos spinning lyrical lines more fluid than her inspired scrawlings on the records, while DeGraw and DeWitt forge jagged hooks and syncopated repetitions. Such forays into tighter structure hint at the direction of God's Money, Gang Gang Dance's forthcoming record, which is still changing due to the tour that postponed its completion. "The pieces from the start of the sessions have changed by being played live, so we constantly want to go back and rerecord," says DeGraw, back at home in NYC. "If we play a song perfectly onto tape, but not everyone has felt it, we scrap it and do it again."
"We want to remain unconventional and enigmatic. Not to be on the road all year round, or think, 'Here's what we're doing this year'." concludes DeWitt.
"There's a lot of other interesting ways to make and perform music, and have it be something special."
Gang Gang Dance is out on Fusetron; Revival Of The Shittiest is out now on Social Registry

http://www.rtxarchive.com/hagerty/wire252.html

 

[Charlie Bucket]

Jasus, that's a good few writeups now

not to mention the 4 star review of the UBS cd in mojo today

 

[nEiLo]

that was cool.
well done guys.

 

[swingkid]

that was cool.

damn right, this was amazing!!!

 

[swingkid]

R.I.P. Aliyah!

(photos by grainne d!)

 

[zebra heart attack]

damn right, this was amazing!!!

it sure was! i didn't expect gang gang dance to be that good. rhythmtastic. the ubs set was very nice too. it could have been a wee bit longer.

i hope the hub didn't get rid of the old sound guy though. the new one didn't seem the best.

 

[plug]

damien/ivan satanification alert!

 

[Ex-User (5116)]

this was amazing. nice one SW - quackquack and this were me 2 favourite gigs all year man, deadly buzz.

 

[Nate Champion]

Awesome awesome gig. I was a bit worried about that drummer when he got up during the first song - I thought he was going to stab someone with his ridiculously sharp face!

Those guys up the front really augmented the atmosphere...

Giving it socks (sic) so they were!

 

[swingkid]

Those guys up the front really augmented the atmosphere...

Giving it socks (sic) so they were!

those guys were from vetiver as far as i know...




oh, and whoever i owe the change from the GGD CDs at the merch stall, get in touch, i couldn't find you after....

 

[righteous harmony]

damien/ivan satanification alert!

all ready for satanic rave on saturday! this was gnarly to the maxx

 

[righteous harmony]

R.I.P. Aliyah!

(photos by grainne d!)

can't wait fpr my aaliyah t shirt to arrive!