new website up and running

zach hench put up a pretty beautiful website for me at:

www.silver-wonder.com

or

www.silverwonderpress.com

go check it out!!! All the cds and most of the chapbooks are available for sale online!!!

cruel november

folks I've spent most of this month very sick and have been unable to post here as much as i wanted to. some exciting things did go down and i managed to drag myself out of bed to do them...

november 9th the end of the world band joined p. michael grego & travis from ONO and played a set at plastic crimewave's four million tongues festival at the av-aerie.also on the bill:alela diane, heather leigh murray, outpost, alisdair roberts, and charlambides. someone told p. michael that we sounded like a riot!

november 20th the chicago guitar ensemble played at elastic. this time around it was:
me
alex wing
jesse thomas
cliff ingram
travis
brian klein
c.ezra lange
don ramon
bill mackay

brian labycz was gonna conduct this one but his gear wouldn't function so it ended up being a free for all!

labycz played in the opening set with his group-travelers and conquerors=labycz/zarzutzki/davis. aaron zarzutzki did some pretty incredible shit with a couple of cymbals and a no output turntable!

no new gigs scheduled for a bit. taking a little break to work on my meat puppets biography...

An Electric Prayer For Derek Bailey

Friends,

Tonight I get to make another one of my dreams become reality. When Derek Bailey passed away on X-mas day in 2005, I conceived a tribute to him called An Electric Prayer for Derek Bailey. It took almost 2 years to finally realize but tonight this show is happening.

I will be conducting a large improvisational ensemble that consists primarily of electric guitars, through written instructions and object cues, and have put together quite a talented group.

I hope to see ya tonight!

Friday October 26th
8 pm
South Union Arts
1352 South Union Avenue
Chicago Il
www.southunionarts.com

the group:

e gtars:
jesse thomas
bill mackay
dave bernabo
p. michael grego
travis
brian labycz
neil jendon
travers gauntt
don ramon

bass:
c.ezra lange
alex wing

horns/reeds:
jim ford
dean giavaras

drums:
charles rumback
ben billington

Lawrence Welsh Article in Tejano Tribune

Here is a link to a great article by Leslie Council......She talks with Lawrence Welsh about his new chapbook-Walking Backwards To Santa Fe.......

www.epcc.edu/ftp/Homes/elcon/092707f9.htm

love & death & teeth in the blood reviewed in Zen Baby #18

Another review of Todd Moore's bad mutha of a chapbook appears in the new issue of Zen Baby. You can get a copy for $2 from editor Christopher Robin at:

Zen Baby
PO Box 1611
Santa Cruz, CA 95061-1611

My review of Carducci's- Enter Naomi up at Smoke Signals Mag

This is my first published review so the excitement bubbles over here. Find out my thoughts about Joe Carducci's- Enter Naomi at:

www.smokesignalsmag.com

Todd Moore's Chapbook reviewed at Outsider Writers

Todd Moore's Love & Death & Teeth In The Blood was recently reviewed by Victor Schwartman on Outsider Writers. You can find it in the review section at:

www.outsiderwriters.org

Copies are still Available for $9 from
Pitchfork Poetry Press
P.O. Box 146399
Chicago Il 60614
Checks or M.O.'s payable to C.A. Gibson....

Abe Gibson/ Rotten Milk Duo Tonight!!!

i've got this going on at myopic bookstore tonight. it's supposed to be a duo with rotten milk but according to his recent myspace bulletin he's in missouri so if not i'll be bringing some solo e gtar action perhaps with a flying cymbal or two....

myopic bookstore- upstairs
1564 north milwaukee avenue
chicago illinois
7:30 pm
free show!!!

Lawrence Welsh reviewed in Saint Vitus

This is reprinted from www.saintvituspress.com:

CROWS AND RAVENS AND DREAMS: THE POETRY OF LAWRENCE WELSH
BY TODD MOORE

The bio note at the back of Lawrence Welsh's WALKING BACKWARDS TO SANTA FE informs the reader that he has already published five collections of poetry. Those readers who are currently familiar with Welsh's work know that his poetic base is the desert southwest and that he has already begun to mine much of the region from Los Angeles where he was born to El Paso where he is presently living and teaching.

Armed with those bare bone facts, one might assume that Lawrence Welsh is a poet strongly drawn to local color and the romantic Old West, but a close reading of his work only proves this assumption wrong. WALKING BACKWARDS TO SANTA FE is anything but a work of local color. And, while some of the poems tap into the rich tradition of the Old West, the thrust of these poems is toward something darker, something deeper.

The best poems in this collection ping pong between the personal and the hardscrabble life of mountain and desert. The elegy which opens the book, On The 15th Anniversary Of My Father's Death, is a homage to Welsh's origins, a kind of one off Kunitzian salute to a dead father. This is what you do as a good luck gesture so as not to disturb the old gods. This is what you do before entering the primal world of poetry and power.

This poem is a good introduction to what Lawrence Welsh is up to these days. The voice is clipped, elliptical, sometimes hermetic. The poem itself is a tip of the hat to Charles Olson obviously because of the open field way that the lines are displayed. And, of course, that influence extends through Olson to Robert Duncan. In fact, later on in the collection, in a poem entitled Elegy For John Wieners, Welsh refers to Olson and Duncan as well. This poem suggests the basic tension of the entire collection of the literary East with its lingering sense of High Modernism and Post Modernism and the ghost town deserterdness and near death darkness of the Old West.

an old timer says
keep your eyes open
study the shadows
el paso is all shadows...

from-The Elbo Room/Guadalupe

Welsh employs a clipped short line where the narrator is often felt to be hooded, almost invisible, and even when visible somehow withheld. The touch here is also of New York School and maybe just a hint of Language Poetry.

Welsh's voice and style also seem to be caught in that same tension of literary East versus the open hearted West. In the East the poet reveals nothing. He relies on allusion, he relies on aesthetic stance. In the West, the poet relies on the metaphor of the story itself and usually leaves out all the literary allusion. You can see the comparison very clearly in the poetry of Kell Robertson. Robertson tells stories laconically, elegiacally. Welsh suggests stories stoically and at an aesthetic distance.

Can such a tension survive as a recognizable style in a poet who live in El Paso, bordertown, gunfighter town, exile town, narco corrido town? It's a teasingly interesting question to consider. My take is he can, if he continues to maintain that tricky tension in both subject and style. However, my instincts somehow tell me that Welsh is a poet is search of a much larger subject. Maybe something all encompassing, a novel, a long poem, a sequence of shorter poems that somewhere in the future become a long poem, a metaphor is a long poem that somehow fuses Black Mountain, the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, and Charles Bukowski; Hart Crane first lost in the desert and then lost at sea, and the El Paso of Cormac McCarthy, Mariano Azuela, and John Welsey Hardin. These are all speculations, but poetry is haunted by all the best speculations. I Somehow have the feeling that Lawrence Welsh is searching for the secret metaphor that will define where he lives, where he writes, and where he dreams. A long poem that will define El Paso the same way that MAXIMUS defines Gloucester. And America. The grid for the poem and the myth for the dreams await him.

WALKING BACKWARDS TO SANTA FE is published by Pitchfork Poetry Press- www.pitchforkpoetryprojects.com and sells for six dollars

I Got Shows! Sunday & Monday!!

Friends and Neighbors,

I've got 2 shows this weekend. I've been hiding out in the apartment and haven't been doing a lot of hanging out with friends so I hope to see you at my shows. Both are free...

The first one is a doozy. Along with 124 other acts, The End of the World Band will be performing as part of the 2007 John Cage Musicircus at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Details:
Sunday October 7th Noon to Four p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington Street
www.musicircus.chicagocomposers.org

we play at 2:15 pm on the first floor
at the Randolph Cafe East alcove 1e

Then on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. I'll be playing a duo with Rotten Milk at Myopic Books. This show is free and BYOB

Details:
Monday October 8th 7:30 p.m.
Myopic Bookstore
1564 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago
www.myopicbookstore.com

Daniel Carter in Chicago this weekend

it is my pleasure to let you know about 2 shows this weekend featuring NYC's Daniel Carter, in addition to being the James Joyce of the free jazz world he is also quite a musician. He belongs to the groups Test and Other Dimensions In Music. He has been performing for the last 30 years with folks like Alan Silva, Sun Ra Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Antipop Consortium, and this weekend he'll collaborate with some of Chicago's young musicians.

Friday September 28th
9pm
Elastic Sound and Vision Gallery
2830 North Milwaukee Avenue
upstairs
$10 suggested donation- byob

Daniel Carter with The End of The World Band
Daniel Carter- reeds, horns
Abraham Gibson- Drums
Jesse Thomas- E Gtar

Giallorenzo/ Stein/ Daisy Trio
Paul Giallorenzo-Piano
Jason Stein- Bass Clarinet
Tim Daisy- Drums

Names
Mayjabeen- violin
Brian Klein- Electronics

www.elasticrevolution.com

Saturday September 29th
The Empty Bottle
1053 North Western Avenue
9pm
$15
Wire Magazine's- Adventures in Modern Music Festival

Daniel Carter- Reeds, Horns
Ben Vida- Gtar
Mike Reed- Drums

Headlining this evening will be photographers of their own poop- Deerhunter

www.theemptybottle.com

for Daniel info:

www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/dcarter.htm

www.furious.com/perfect/danielcarter.htm

www.aumfidelity.com

daniel carter chapbook review from smoke signals mag

Daniel Carter's WORK IN PROCESS #1 is a sliver of a chapbook, 4 81/2 x 11 sheets stapled and folded, with text from pages 5 to 16. But it could easily take as long to read as a novel, dense as it is linguistically. In 12-point font with inchy margins, there are about a dozen sentences, several running more than a page in length.

If you can call them sentences. They're more like DNA, strings of ideas that have a logic made of associations. These associations paint the inner life of author Daniel Carter, a musician living and performing today in New York City and around the world.

Daniel Carter (b.1945) has a good Wikipedia article at last glance. He is also a philosopher and a very strange sort of activist. He is very active seeking out and working with young musicians and artists and creating connections between them.

Carter started his musical career singing doo-wop in parking lots and schoolyards. His middle-class background has left him with a tolerant attitude; his African-American heritage expresses itself through a Cornel West-esque eloquence spiced with popular colloquialisms; and his graduate studies and prodigious lifelong reading habit have put him into a world of the mind that he, himself constructed from elements found among the texts he has read.

Reading Daniel's work should be a collaborative process. I have created collages from snippets of his work. It can be used as a script for theatrical or video productions; processed as source code for constructions. I think DNA sequencers should sequence some of it out and see what happens.

Despite his laid-back attitude about self promotion, Carter's work is fairly widely published. The work in process chapbook is part of an ongoing series by Abe Gibson's Pitch/The Silver Wonder Press (also publishers of some good stuff by Matt Sheahan, Doug Draime, and Gibson himself) that will eventually result in a sort of urban jazz Finnegan's Wake.

You should read this book at random, paging through and letting your eyes land where they may. Then your eyes skid along like skaters on ice when they hit something like:

eternity stood trembling, her stability thoroughly undermined by a creeping terror
that now burst beyond fashion into permanent policy and into the cold business
of everything shattering.

It's prophet-type stuff, so it's especially going to resonate with readers who enjoyed the Nag Hammadi Library and Old Testament books like Isaiah and Ezekiel. It will also appeal to fans of James Joyce, and maybe to some people who wouldn't mind a slightly more accessible version of Joyce; it's still musical, weird, and fun but Carter stays primarily within the English language.

Review by C.B. Coble
www.smokesignalsmag.com

this is available for $3.00

the silver wonder global h.q.
po box 146399
chicago, il 60614
checks payable to c.a. gibson

guitarkestra III

today i had the pleasure of taking part in the sonic maelstrom that is the plastic crimewave vision celestial guitarkestra orchestrated by steve krakow. we were the group that opened up the hideout block party at noon.
it felt great to be out in the sun being a part of this pulsing, klanging mass of guitars (and basses, and a violin, and a great freakin drummer). although we were about 60 shy of the hoped for 100 it is always a joy to be a part of (or even near) a beautiful large sound like this....
another highlight of the day was finally seeing mucca pazza who were even better than i expected, a rare occasion indeed! as the kids say-"these guys are the shit!"
and speaking of shit-art brut who played a bit later were shit, pure shit.in fact half way through their set i went and took a shit. bryan ferry's body double just wasn't cutting it for me folks-but that's what exits are for...

review of dalachinsky/connors cd

from downtown music gallery newsletter:

STEVE DALACHINSKY & LOREN (MAZZACANE) CONNORS- Thin air (Ltd-CD-R) (Silver Wonder;USA)

featuring the voice and poetry of steve dalachinsky and the electric guitar of loren connors.this was recorded live at the knitting factory in 2000 and took quite a long time to finally get released. after a flurry of activity, with some fifty+ discs of mostly solos and duos, loren connors has been laying low for the past few years, playing the area set and recording infrequently. the great local poet, scenester, cantankerous character and good friend to all of us other downtown freaks, steve dalachinsky has grown more busy in the past few years, doing more readings than ever, going to paris a few times a year and having more discs out than he used to. this duo has played here at DMG on a couple of occasions through the years and i savor each set.

thin air captures an entire 63 minute set from the new knit when friends of ours still played there regularly. steve's poetry is honest and apt as he describes his and ours lives here in the ever changing downtown scene. loren's spooky guitar is often sparse and a great match for steve's words. i like the way steve repeats certain phrases so that it gives us some time to let the observations sink in. loren also works his special magic by selecting notes often one at times and bending those strings to add some pain/punctuation to the stream of observations that steve slowly dishes out. it's funny how steve's brooklyn accent and the tone of loren's lonely/haunting guitar remind me so much of this scene i've been a part of for so many years.an hour may seem like a long time to loan yourself to this disc, but i find it to be like listening to a short story about my life, our lives here on the lower east side-BLG
cd $14 (limited edition of 300 numbered

downtown music gallery
342 bowery
nyc 10012-2408
http://www.dtmgalley.com

or you can order it direct from us for $8+ postage...

new chapbooks from todd moore and lawrence welsh

hey folks they have been a long time in the works, and i'm happy to announce the arrival of 2 new chapbooks from a couple of america's finest poets.

the first:
love & death & teeth in the blood
by todd moore
$9

todd moore has had more than a hundred books and chapbooks published since 1976. his work has appeared in more than a thousand zines since 1970. his style is unmistakably minimal and noir. he is best known for his long poem DILLINGER, based on the life and times of the legendary depression era bank robber john dillinger. hypnotic when read, cinematic in scope, DILLINGER has been compared to tom mcgrath's letters to an imaginary friend, john steinbeck's the grapes of wrath, and cormac mccarthy's blood meridian. he is one of the major voices of the outlaw poet generation.
love & death & teeth in the blood is his largest poetry collection since DILLINGER.

the second:
walking backwards to santa fe
by lawrence welsh
$6

lawrence welsh was born and raised in south central los angeles but has called el paso texas home since 1994.he is the former lead singer of seminal l.a punk band- the alcoholics.
he is the author of five collections of poetry, including believing in bonfires which i also published by hey sorry folks-it's all sold out. this is his best collection yet.

you can acquire these goodies by contacting me at

muggyfuggy@hotmail.com

or the silver wonder global h.q./ pitchfork press
po box 146399
chicago il 60614
checks and m.o.'s payable to c.a.gibson

the silver wonder recording company is open for biz

as mentioned in my previous post. this tuesday july 31st i'll be having a label showcase/ record release party at elastic arts in logan square. we will be celebrating the release of 3 recordings....

swr01 robert o'neal- shadowboxing
spoken word/ musical collaboration from robert o'neal and friends. like jello biafra fronting the magic band. edition of 100

swr02 steve dalachinsky/ loren connors- thin air
recorded live in nyc in 2000 here we find one of new york's hardest working poets performing a set with guitar shaman loren connors and magic ensues...edition of 300

swr03 abe gibson/paul giallorenzo/ brian dibblee- live at 3030
a live set from 2005 from three young chicago improvisers...edition of 100

all these are handmade cdr releases and are available for $8

for more info contact:

the silver wonder recording company
po box 146399
chicago, Il 60614
muggyfuggy@hotmail.com

mari akita in chicago

my friend mari akita will be in chicago and performing with the end of the world band:

july 30th
myopic bookstore
1564 north milwaukee avenue
7:30 pm
free show!!!

abe gibson- percussion, electronics
jesse thomas- gtar, electronics
mari akita- movement

she will also join the end of the world band the next night at:
elastic arts
2830 north milwaukee ave
9pm
$7 suggested donation
this is a cd release showcase party for my cdr label- the silver wonder recording company

also playing:
gibson/giallorenzo/labycz trio
fred lonberg-holm/eric leonardson duo

www.elasticrevolution.com

उप्कोमिंग shows

july 30th- myopic bookstore
w/jesse thomas & mari akita (austin)

july 31st- elastic
the silver wonder recording company presents:
gibson/giallorenzo/labycz trio
fred lonberg-holm/ eric leonardson duo
the end of the world band with mari akita

august 16th- south union arts
the end of the world band
names
cookies and dirt

august 19th- fireside bowl
the end of the world band
dbld (pittsburgh,pa)
cookies and dirt

september 8th- hideout block party
i will be performing as a member of plastic crimewave's vision celestial guitarkestra (100 gtars!!!)

oct 26th- south union arts
abraham gibson conducts!!!-
an electric prayer for derek bailey

nov 18th- myopic bookstore-
the silver wonder press presents:
readings by abraham gibson and larry sawyer
reading from my new chapbook-
'move over and give them some room'

all these events take place in chicago, ill...

abe gibson & andy stowers 9/11/2006

photo by john atwood

the bull's tongue

i thought that arthur mag was kaput so imagine my surprise when i was forwarded a link to a review written by mr. thurston moore in the bull's tongue review column that he does with byron coley. they say some really nice things about unicorn mountain #2 (i'm the fiction editor folks-send me something good!) and he also mentions - work in process - a chapbook by daniel carter that i published last year.

it's here at:

www.arthurmag.com/magpie/?p=1904

Robert O'neal's A Cosmic Clown's Science Fiction Religion Now Available

We're really churning them out now folks! I'm happy to announce the latest release from the silver wonder press- Robert O'neal's A Cosmic Clown's Science Fiction religion. This is O'neal's third chapbook and the second one of his I've published. It also features a cover photo by John Atwood and is available for only $2!!!!!

At the end of july O'neal's cd- Shadowboxing will also be available from the silver wonder recording company.......

He was recently featured in the online magazine gnome, with several new cosmic clown poems there. check it out at:

http://www.asteriusonline.com/gnome/issue08/oneal.htm

the silver wonder global h.q.
p.o. box 146399
chicago, il 60614
(checks and m.o.'s payable to c.a.gibson)

Tonight!!! Southside!!!

Some sick love from my group the end of the world band tonight!!!

We are playing a show at south union arts along with bill mackay's darts & arrows and one other act...

You can catch all the psychedelisized shronk action at this location:

south union arts
1352 south union avenue
chicago , il

show starts at 8 pm
cover is $5-10 (donation)

www.southunionarts.com

silver wonder chapbooks from robert o'neal & guy r. beining out now!!!

Even more chapbooks out this month from the silver wonder press. I'm happy to announce the release of two new ones.

The first is A Cosmic Clown's Science Fiction Religion from Robert O'neal. This is his third chapbook and he takes no prisoners-uttering the words "fuck high fructose corn syrup" (yes he went there) Be the first on yr block to get a copy with a cover photo by John Atwood...

The second is Outside the End by Guy R. Beining. This book is a beautiful mixture of Guy's poetry and art.

They are available thru yrs truly at:

The Silver Wonder Press
PO Box 146399
Chicago, IL 60614

O'neal= $2
Beining= $4
(checks and m.o.'s payable to c.a.gibson)

next week- Lawrence Welsh's Walking Backward to Santa Fe (pitchfork press)!!!!!!

the end of the world band on myspace

jesse and i have joined the cyber society of jerks, also known as myspace. now you can see and hear us online!!!! one click and you'll have proof that we are indeed yr friends.

add us!

www.myspace.com/theendoftheworldband

New Gerald Locklin Chapbook Available Now...

the avalanche of releases from the silver wonder/pitchfork press starts today with the release of P-019 Gerald Locklin's - The San Antonio, Savannah, & Daytona Beach Poems. It's the second chapbook I've released by Locklin, our first was -The Ultimate Pessimist & Other Poems. These are his "down south" poems...

You can get your copy now for seven bucks!!!
(Checks and M.O.'s payable to C.A. Gibson)

The Silver Wonder/Pitchfork Poetry Press
P.O. Box 146399
Chicago, Il 60614

stay tuned in the next 8 weeks for books from robert o'neal, guy r. beining, todd moore, lawrence welsh, & lee ranaldo. and cds from robert o'neal, steve dalachinsky/loren connors, and the gibson/giallorenzo/dibblee trio

plastic crimewave vision celestial guitarkestra at hyde park art center

folks,
i have joined up with plastic crimewave's vision celestial guitarkestra, a gtar group considerably larger than the jabberwhorl gtar ensemble. we will be performing as part of juan angel chavez's speaker project at the hyde park arts center this saturday june 2nd.
last time around the group was 70+gtars, this time i've heard young kids will be part of the ensemble. i've also heard we'll be playing in a giant speaker....

all the details are at:
www.hydeparkart.org
www.emptybottle.com

hyde park arts center
5020 s. cornell
chicago
saturday june 2nd- 3pm

zygote in my coffee #87

zygote in my coffee #87 hit the internet yesterday with my poem
-you don't believe me-
included in this issue so why don't you type:

www.zygoteinmycoffee.com

and check it out friends.

the end of the world band and other stuff

it's been a busy month and i haven't really had time to post on here as much as i'd like to.some notable things...

on april 17th i played in fred lonberg-holm's lightbox orchestra at elastic. the group was:me, brian labycz, vadim sprikut, aaron zarzutski, todd carter, michael colligan (on dry ice!), rob drinkwater, eric leonardson, & frank rosaly. this was my second show with the LBO and i had a blast.

some poems appear on the website strange road at www.strangeroad.com. they are oldies but goodies from my iowa city days

i've got a new band where i am playing the drums and singing. we are called the end of the world band

the lineup:
me:drums/vocals
jesse thomas: guitar
and for this show we'll be joined by
spencer heck on bass

we are playing our first show tomorrow night wednesday april 25th at the mutiny
2428 north western ave (at fullerton)
chicago il
i think it's a free show
starts at 10 pm
also playing:
the swinging richards
and spencer heck solo

the following day my daughter dolma echo gibson will be turning one. if the weather's good she gets to visit the zoo....

a poem in blind man's rainbow

a poem from my ukrainian village days- 'walking the dog'- appears in the new issue of blind man's rainbow (the winter 2007 issue aka volume XII, issue 1)

you can get yerself a copy for $4.00 from the editor at:
blind man's rainbow
p.o. box 1190
troy, MT 59935

their home online is at:
www.theblindpress.com

50 miles of elbow room

i meant to post this earlier but it slipped through the swiss cheese holes in my head.

adam lore has made daniel carter's- work in process volume one available through his website. so if you haven't bought a copy yet, you can get one, as well as a shit ton of carter records at

www.50milesofelbowroom.com

poems in two places

received a few things in my mailbox today.
one is issue #89 of free verse featuring a haiku of mine
available for $5 at:
free verse/marsh river editions
M233 Marsh road
Marshfield WI 54449

the second is issue #17 of zen baby featuring my poem: i have been away
available for $2 at:
zen baby
po box 1611
santa cruz ca 95061-1611

alottashittyness

it's been a totally shitty month and to be honest with everyone i'll be glad to see it go...i've been dealing with migraine headaches for most of the month-so i've spent alot of time in bed, then last weekend i fell down a flight of stairs- so i'm pretty jacked up lurching around like frankenstein's monster.i'm tired of the pain and ready to get on with my life already...

Can - Paper House (Beat Club 1971)

new issue of zygote in my coffee!!!

went to check the PO box today and found zygote in my coffee #2 with my poem 'the silver wonder' (metal version) in its groovey pages.

if you'd like to order a copy for yourself-a mere $7.50 or just wanna check out the e-zine go to:

www.zygoteinmycoffee.com

for the hardcore...

atonal boners show tonight has been postponed til feb 8th-hope you can hold yr load til then...

ATONAL BONER THIS WAY COMES

the fabulous sexy return of shronk rockers THE ATONAL BONERS!!!!
thursday jan 11th!!!!!

abe gibson-vocals!!!!!!!!&drums!!!!!!!!!
jesse thomas- gtar!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ezzy lange- bass/gtar!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bar vertigo!!!!!!!!!!
oh shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

future days and sounds

a lot of tumbleweeds blowing thru my barren blog but here's a little news...

i've got 2 shows coming up on monday the 8th of january.

the first is a duo w/fred lonberg-holm (vandermark five, peter brotzmann tentet)
i'll be playing acoustic gtar
& fred will be playing the cello
we start at 7:30 pm
at myopic bookstore (upstairs)
1564 north milwaukee avenue
chicago il
free show

i hope to see you all there.
for more info:
www.myopicbookstore.com
www.fredgigs.blogspot.com

then i'm headed over to elastic in logan square
to play in a sextet with:
paul giallorenzo-synthesizer
bill mackay (darts & arrows) -e gtar
brian labycz- electronics
jason stein (bridge 61) - bass clarinet
charles rumback (darts & arrows) - drums
i'll be playing e gtar for this one....
at 9:30 pm
2830 north milwaukee avenue
chicago, il
$5
www.elasticrevolution.com

a little later in the month the atonal boners will return with the sweet shronk live and at month's end i'll be reading in milwaukee so stay tuned friends!!!

poems online at word riot!!!

more of my restless wandering poems found a home, go check out 'flying into windowpanes' & 'miles of wires (and pipes)' at:
www.wordriot.org

two poems in the new OVER THE TRANSOM

the latest issue of OVER THE TRANSOM (#16)has arrived at my door with two of my poems included-'electricity' and 'whacking at spiders with an old shoe'. this issue also features work from: charles p. ries, john grey, guy r. beining, and arthur winfield knight...
if you'd like to purchase a copy send $5 to:

OVER THE TRANSOM
825 bush street #203
San Francisco, CA 94108

ways and means duo w/abe gibson & pamela osbey

i will be performing new and newer poems this evening(as will pamela osbey) at the muse cafe with the ways and means duo of dan godton and joel wanek making music along with us.

you can catch all the action tonight
tuesday november 21st
muse cafe
837 north milwaukee avenue
8-10 pm
$3

robert altman r.i.p.

i was just watching one of his films last night and this morning my computer is telling me that american film directing legend, robert altman has passed away.
for all of my cine-obsessed friends out there i highly recommend nashville, the player, and particularly his take on the stories of raymond carver- short cuts. if you haven't seen these films there is a gap there, folks.....

gibson/lange/thomas at myopic bookstore

3 dudes...3 electric gtars

monday november 20th
7:30 pm
myopic bookstore
upstairs
1564 north milwaukee ave
chicago, il, usa
free show

www.myopicbookstore.com

Neil Young - Tell Me Why

this one too...

Groove is in the Heart - Dee-Lite

the world needs a little of this on this monday...

malachi ritscher 1954-2006

from peter margasak's the meter column chicago reader nov 10 06:

A Final Protest

last friday morning during rush hour a man set himself on fire near the ohio street exit on the kennedy expressway. he hadn't been officially identified at press time, but members of the local jazz and improvised music community say they're certain it was malachi ritscher, a long-time supporter of the scene who recorded more than 2000 live shows. bruno johnson, who owns the free-jazz label okka disk, received a package monday from ritscher that included a will, keys to his home, and instructions about what should be done with his belongings. johnson, a former chicagoan who now lives in milwaukee, started making calls and discovered that though police won't confirm it was ritscher until they get the results from dental tests, an officer told one of ritscher's sisters that all evidence points to the body being his. ritscher's car was found nearby, and he hasn't shown up for work since thursday.what's more, on ritscher's web site chicago rash audio potential, a compendium of invaluable show postings, artwork, and photography, are a suicide note and an obituary. both indicate that he was deeply troubled by the war in iraq, and pinpoint it as a motive for suicide (though no method is specified). a note found at the scene of the immolation reportedly read "thou shall not kill."

www.savagesound.com/gallery99.htm
www.savagesound.com/gallery100.htm

a memorial will be held at elastic
2830 north milwaukee avenue
sunday november 12th from 5pm to 8pm

myopic=gtars X 5

this monday november 13th i will be at myopic as part of a 5 piece gtar ensemble...

the players...

josh abrams
ben boye
cliff ingram
abe gibson
alex wing

the details...

myopic bookstore
1564 north milwaukee avenue
chicago
7:30 pm

Cat Power on Letterman

go ahead, throw yr birkenstocks at me

all right listen up van halen haters of the world-they are going into the rock and roll hall of fame and there is nothing you can do about it. I for one am fucking thrilled (this is david lee roth we're talking about here-not sammy)
what bothers me is what i'm reading from these PC rock writers who are outraged that van halen would be inducted along with their critical wet dream, R.E.M.
this is a no brainer. this is the rock and roll hall of fame not the VH1 hall of fame. Why is no one blinking an eyelid over R.E.M.'s induction?
this whole deal reminds me of an episode in neal pollack's book-never mind the pollacks- where he goes to a house party in athens with the minutemen and R.E.M. is there. Pollack removes michael stipe's tape from the deck and puts on van halen II. stipe is horrified and declares that van halen's music "promotes rape". yeah record nerd, go read it, it's awesome.
don't get me wrong, i've got a few R.E.M. records in the stacks but i refuse to lick their butts as so many "rock" writers do and kinda question their induction among other rock heavies who really deserve it like patti smith and the stooges.

Paul McCartney and Wings - Helen Wheels

nice one dumbfuck

the atonal boners, the greatest band in the world played their first show last night and you missed it!

i sing real good

tomorrow night i will be unveiling my latest group, a shronk rock ensemble by the name of the atonal boners-featuring myself on gtar and vocals, jesse thomas on drums, and chris lange on bass. other bands on the bill-the machinist (a.k.a. brian klein) and sounds happy+william sides...

bar vertigo
853 n western (a few blocks south of the empty bottle at iowa ave)
10pm
$5

i am the new fiction editor of unicorn mountain

you may remember me mentioning unicorn mountain a while back, it's a beautiful 200+ page anthology featuring comics, writing, and a compilation cd with every issue. well, i have become the fiction editor starting with the next issue #3, and this is what we're looking for...

UNICORN MOUNTAIN seeks creators who approach the world with a sense of optimism and child like wonder,people who love where they are from (especially Pittsburgh as the magazine has their global hq in that fair city)- we try hard to distance ourselves from the cynicism associated with "underground" art that can put people off and poison the well...

so kiddos please send your shorte(er) fiction my way at:
abe@unicornmountain.com

check us online at the hot webite designed by mister mike woodfill at:
www.unicornmountain.com

bob dylan - one more cup of coffee

there's a little mister fuckhead in us all

yeah folks you can catch my latest shenanigans as part of arvo zylo's group-mister fuckhead. we will be playing quite the blazing noise set opening for pommel and mcdonald's over at the fireside bowl on chicago's stinkin ass west side. so come on out and don't be a pussy-leave the earplugs at home.....

2648 west fullerton ave
chicago ill
sunday oct 15th
9pm

if you are religious about noise- then this will be an excellent way for you to get straight with the lord this sunday...

The Howling Hex

live at schuba's 9-21-06

chicago guitar ensemble has a myspace page now...

one of these days we'll all agree on a name, in the meantime we've settled on the generic-chicago guitar ensemble. there is now a myspace page up you can check it out at:

http://www.myspace.com/chicagoguitarensemble

right now there's a few photos and a short video of our show at elastic on 9/11/06 and there will soon be mp3's from our 6/23/06 spare room show...

pj harvey _ rid of me

the howling hex last night

had a pretty nice day off yesterday. My friend spencer recently moved to chicago from austin and is staying in a highrise on clark in lincoln park across from the zoo til his place is ready to move into. So i went over there yesterday and we sat on his balcony on the 36th floor and had a smoke watching the sunset and the city light up. needless to say-it was fuckin awesome-i'll even go so far as to say it was awesome to the max!!!!!to the extreme!!!!!!we listened to a bit of the new yo la tengo and bob dylan records and then caught the lincoln bus up to schuba's to see neil hagerty and the howling hex.
Neil had this weird bass/guitar thing going with two amps-playing all the bass parts on the top 3 strings and then soloing his ass off on the bottom three. he had a hot shit guitarist, playing an sg, that looked like one of marc bolan's turds and then a guy who sang, played the tambourine and recited a poem. he looked like that actor who played that speed freak david in drugstore cowboy.at one point he was shirtless...not good. An extra bonus of the night was nori tanaka on drums!
the set started strong with both neil and his other guitarist playing one incredible solo after another over tanaka's locked rhythms. things kinda fell apart in the middle but man they came with it for the last two songs both in a heavy VU vein (think guess i'm falling in love from the another view lp) and man neil's playing was so amazing i thought i might go into convulsions. the triple vocal thing got old quick but overall this was a pretty solid show from one of the most incredible guitarists out there-and i didn't have to wait long for the bus home...

Capain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Detroit '71

jandek at the empty bottle...

got home a little bit ago from seeing jandek play at the empty bottle as part of this year's wire magazine 'adventures in modern music' fest- he was supposed to make it last year but cancelled since he thought hurricane katrina was gonna wipe out his place in houston....never thought i'd be able to get tickets for this thing but it was pretty easy....the show wasn't superpacked like i thought i would be- jandek played first and some people might not have realized this and arrived later- i couldn't tell you who the group was (a bass player and drummer) couldn't tell you what they played which is the appeal of jandek i guess.

i went into this a little scared knowing that he planned to play for 2 hours. i thought it might end up being an endurance test after seeing footage of his scotland concert but actually it turned out to be pretty good-not amazing but i wasn't expecting that. anyone that tells you jandek is amazing or a genius etc-is either on heroin or severely brain damaged...he is what he is- interesting and inspiring to a certain degree but no genius. still though it wasn't predictable like i thought it would be and the band with him added alot and helped to hold the audience's interest. the two hours ended up a treat....

either way i just fucking saw jandek and i doubt the chance will arise again- something to tell my grandkids about after he is elected president of the mysterious sci-fi future...

there really is no reason to stress out

everything is fine

Boredoms - Vision Creation New Sun

not the full 60 minutes but this will do...

touch and go 25th block party

it's how i spent my wekend, it's why i took the time off. my homeboy andy and his lady adri flew in from lawrence kansas via kansas city to take it all in and well here's what i took in...

friday night: i saw all the acts and have to say that the girls against boys set was really the highlight. they did the venus luxure no:1 baby lp in its entirety plus kill the sexplayer and a few others...the shipping news wasn't bad despite a bass heavy sound man (duh, dude turn it down and give us some treble)....supersystem was a huge stinky one...ted leo did his typical thing...and !!! danced their asses off til i went home....

saturday: i caught killdozer who did king of sex as well as uttering the classic-you call this cup of shit coffee?...well i'd rather drink from the dick of a goat
then there was jon langford and kat from the ex's short set that wasn't bad despite an argument i got into w/a dude who spent alot of time manicuring his facial hair-the song i remember was called bouquet of barbed wire, i think...not bad
but really for me and andy and all of us central/southern illinois kids the real treat of the fest was the reunion of the didjits who did not disappoint delivering probably the most kick ass set of the festival. and the most clever insults.
after that i wasn't up close but heard negative approach's plummeling set followed by scratch acid's reunion as the sun set. man it was cold and all i had on was a t-shirt-i really wanted to stick around for big black's short reunion and shellac's set but was so cold and miserable that i had to bail out of there.

sunday: couldn't care less about this day....tara jane o'neill was not bad-had a few good moments towards the end of her short set...seam made no impression...todd trainer's brick layer cake was a damn shame to see...and finally the black heart procession played but even with a coat-it was shitty. so with the rain coming down and no bands to really get excited about it was bye bye to the touch and go fest which was fun but made this goofy mutha feel a little old, you know?....

Battle in Heaven (trailer)

oh my god, the best movie i've seen since 'black orpheus' go rent this now!

The Breeders - When I was a Painter

for all fans of pod era breeders...

jabberwhorl guitar ensemble september 11th!

but wait there's more....after the myopic show there's another one, a big one at elastic. last time we were called s.u.g.e. or gtar army but now we are officially- the jabberwhorl gtar ensemble. this time around the group will feature 15 guitarists from chicago. yeah you read right-15 guitars.

we'll be at elastic in logan square right up the road from the myopic gig-more accurately at:

2830 n milwaukee avenue
upstairs
10pm

not sure about an opener yet but it'll probably be a group bill mackay is putting together, so it'll be good...

their home on the web is:
www.elasticrevolution.com

the group:
abe gibson, alex wing, bill mackay, jayve montgomery, jesse thomas, minh nyguen, brian labycz, brian klein, chris lange, micheal silvestri, brian ashby, matt field, matthew daniel, cliff ingram, and arvo zylo.

so fuck going to see gnarls barkley at the rivieria, forget about vashti bunyan-she's got another show booked on the 12th-come out and see our ensemble...

duo with brian labycz at myopic

after the big touch and go records blowout-goddamn the didjits, and scratch acid reuniting and big black sort of too. not to mention ANDY!!!!!!!!!! so yeah after all this excitement-i'll try to make it continue with a little excitement of my own on monday september 11th...

there will be more music
free music
at 7:30 pm
the group is:
brian labycz: electronics
abraham gibson: e gtar

1564 n milwaukee avenue
upstairs
wicker park
chicago

www.myopicbookstore.com
www.savagesound.com

poetry in zen baby #17

i have a new-er poem appearing in the upcoming issue #17 of zen baby out of santa cruz. the poem is called -'i have been away'

you can get a copy of this mag for a mere $2 or a 3 issue subscription for $5, so why wouldn't ya? he's practically giving them away! get yours now at:

zen baby
christopher robin, editor
po box 1611
santa cruz ca 95061-1611

and for my chicago people- you can also get it at quimby's.....

EUGENE CHADBOURNE - WHERE'S THE STAGE

a documentary about one of the real guitar gods. enjoy this one folks!

music at myopic on august 14th

I'll be performing this upcoming monday evening at myopic books in my first duo with mr. chris lange, the president of the local chapter of the KISS army. come out and check us folks-

we'll be at
1564 north milwaukee avenue
chicago il
upstairs-7:30 pm
www.myopicbookstore.com

poems online in the latest zygote in my coffee

the good folks at zygote in my coffee have been so kind to publish two of my poems in issue #66 of their online poetry zine. you can check out "one for the history books" and "fame! i wanna live forever!" at:

www.zygoteinmycoffee.com

new "official" address

manoman it seems like things are moving slow here....at least we'll be moved into our new place soon......i know the constant address changes of the last couple of years have been a hassle for people trying to find us, so i've finally got a p.o. box that'll stay solid while we move around.....so, it you need to reach us or send me presents, here's the address:

the silver wonder and co.
pitchfork press
p.o. box 146399
chicago, il 60614

july- under the surface...the silver wonder

manoman june turned out to be quite a month, and while july won't be so hectic for me performance-wise, on the homefront there's a whole shitstorm of stuff brewing...

at the end of the month we'll be moving out of this loud ass roach motel and into a bigger quieter place on the far north side of chicago...so only one more month of putting up with constant distractions, lots of roaches, and a crosstown bus ride.

friends visiting-spencer from austin and david from boston-i'll try not to get too drunk....linklater's animated version of PKD's 'a scanner darkly' will hit theaters....and the silver jews will come to town at month's end....if only the cubs could win a fucking game already!

hopefully i can get michael c ford's chapbook 'to kiss the blood off our hands' w/ bonus mini chap 'the marilyn monroe concerto' out by the end of the month and follow it up soon after with steve dalachinsky's 'trust fund babies'.....

machines are humming here at HQ and finally after 10 years of big talk- i've finally got my record label up and running.....it's called the silver wonder recording co.

here's a list of our first releases:

swr01- robert o'neal- shadowboxing
swr02-steve dalachinsky/loren connors- thin air
swr03- abe gibson/paul giallorenzo/brian dibblee- live at 3030
swr04- abe gibson/alex wing/bill mackay/jayve montgomery/brian labycz-5 gtars
swr05-fred lonberg-holm/eric leonardson-tba

mike woodfill will be designing a website that we hope to have up pronto and you can purchase discs there. check out the other site mike designed: www.unicornmountain.com

so if all appears quiet this month- i assure it is not, under the surface of things, i'll be churning out the goodies to you fine folks.....

Luc Ferrari r.i.p.

i just heard luc ferrari referred to as the late luc ferrari, a sad and devastating thing to hear.

if you're not familiar with his work- i won't make an ass of myself here trying to describe the music he made, but i will urge you to check out some of his sounds

several years back blue chopsticks put out his-cycle des souvenirs (1995-2000) an incredible record full of whispers and firecrackers (literally).

there is a photo on the back cover of him sitting on a ledge in headphones w/tape recorder and microphone recording the desert

luc ferrari dead...why couldn't it have been wayne coyne instead? or that aging drunk ron wood? or eric "fartbag" clapton?

S.U.G.E.

folks a dream come true for ol abe- been working at it with alex wing for awhile now and we've managed to put together quite a guitar army.....

we are calling our group suge, or - subtext unleashed guitar ensemble and you can see us this friday night (june 23rd) in chicago at the spareroom
2416 west north avenue
chicago
8 pm

the first incarnation of suge will feature:

abe gibson
alex wing
bill mackay
jesse thomas
chris lange
brian labycz
jayve montgomery
matthew daniel
brian klein
ben boye
matt field

and we are still waiting for confirmation from several other guitarists.

fuckin exciting shit, eh?

jack "shitbag" white

Am i the only one who's had enough of this fucker?

I've never seen a person conduct himself in a more idiotic manner.

Hey, I'll be honest- I had problems with this weinerboy from day one. The first reason he gave me to wish ill of and on him was when he butchered "one more cup of coffee" a perfect song that should have been left alone.

Then there was the time i accidently saw the white stripes- i had a free sxsw wristband a few- shit , maybe five years back and went to room 710 for the sympathy for the record industry showcase- the headliner was a personal favorite-bob log and right before him were the bellrays (everyone was saying they were like the mc5 w/aretha franklin as their lead singer- they were alright) and before them were those sorry ass stripes. They played a sloppy shitpile of a set and frankly I felt that the drummer should have left stage embarrassed. And jack "shitbag" white (if that is his real name) wasn't playin shit.

Then there was his involvement with hachetfaced talentless texan actress renee zellwegger- which luckily didn't produce offspring.....

followed soon by a sickening display of ridiculousness of suing garage rock legend Billy Childish for plagarism. Which to me is like john denver suing bob dylan- I MEAN, COME ON. I read jack's stupid ass comments and you can too at:

www.theebillychildish.com

and now i'm hearing about some fight w/the von bondies and jackie boy trying to act hard (behind his lawyer) He marries a model and starts swinging his little dick around...

Jack, just because you are from Detroit doesn't make you a bad ass. I'll gladly take off these thick glasses and kick your ass all over the MTV video music awards.

You're a chump- you've burned all your bridges and there's no going back now.

Say hi to Neil Sedaka and Herman's Hermits for me in the bargain bin you hack because that's at the end of your road-Jack(ass)

Daniel Carter's 'Work In Process'

the churning continues here at HQ...yet another new chapbook to entice you good folks with. I am referring to work in process (volume one) by daniel carter who is an amazing writer and quite a musician to boot. He has played in Test and Other Dimensions In Music as well as in various ensembles including Matthew Shipp, Federico Ughi, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, & Alan Silva.

Two recent recordings featured Daniel that I highly recommend are "let's be still" on yo la tengo's 'summer sun' lp and the record he did with matthew shipp and the anti pop consortium is fuckin dynamite!

As far as I know this is the first collection of Daniel's writings to be published in a single edition, and it is planned that more volumes will continue this work in process....Get yours now for only $3! For order info contact me at:

pitchforkpoetrymag@hotmail.com

For more info on Daniel try these:

www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/dcarter.htm

www.furious.com/perfect/danielcarter.html

and check out his page on the aum fidelity site at:

www.aumfidelity.com

first public poetry reading since 1998!

alot of excitement in my life this week with the trio playing tomorrow night and then on sunday....

i'll be reading poems at myopic bookstore (mostly from my new colection-"the glass onion effect in the new millenium") with a guest, Charles P. Ries from Milwaukee who has appeared in the pages of the pitchfork poetry magazine...

you can catch all the action this sunday june 11th
at 7pm
myopic bookstore
1564 n milwaukee avenue
chicago

www.myopicbookstore.com

and for more on Charles click these:
www.literati.net/Ries/
www.pitchforkpoetryprojects.com/poetsphp?id=226

a splendid time is guaranteed for all

The Hits Just Keep On Coming!

here are the details on my upcoming show at elastic.......

the group:
paul giallorenzo-synthesizer
brian labycz- electronics
abe gibson- e gtar

also playing will be the duo of eric lenordson and fred lonberg-holm
tuesday june 6th
show starts at 9:30
at elastic
2830 n milwaukee avenue
logan square, chicago

www.elasticrevolution.com
www.savagesound.com

hope you see you there!

Matthew Sheahan's Poems For Toiling In Obscurity

I can think of few birthday presents nicer than getting some time to get some things done, and that's exactly what went down today folks as I celebrate 31 years here on earth with both feet on the ground....

After nearly two very freakin frustrating years, I am back in business with the release of Matthew Sheahan's "Poems For Toiling in Obscurity" from Pitchfork Press.

I highly recommend this chapbook (his first) from NYC's "polite new yorker" and member of the punk rock group, Blackout Shoppers.

They are available direct from me (or Matt) for only 3 dollars!!!!!

for more details, please contact pitchforkpoetrymag@hotmail.com

rumblings (towards june!)

had a fit of organization today in an otherwise scattered month- being sick, getting used to having a baby around, working extra hours, etc. i have been run down and it's been pretty quiet but do you hear those rumblings folks? sounds like old abe is ready to run his mouth some more and june proves to be a real hum-dinger (whatever a hum-dinger is. sounds kinda dirty)

anyway here's what you and I have to look forward to in the next few weeks:

I'll turn 31 in about 48 hours.
Dolma will be one month old in 4 days.

On June 6th I will perform some music with Paul Giallorenzo and Brian Labycz.
On June 11th I will be reading poems at Myopic Bookstore w/Charles P. Ries
On June 21st Jessica and I will celebrate one year of marriage.

Poems will appear soon on the wordriot website
and in Over The Transom Magazine out of San Francisco.

and Pitchfork Press will be releasing three new titles
P-015 Poems For Toiling In Obscurity by Matthew Sheahan
P-012 To Kiss The Blood From Our Hands by Michael C Ford
&
P-017 Work In Process (Volume One) by Daniel Carter

So stayed tuned here folks for all the juicy details!!!!!

Sweet Child O Mine

Dolma Echo Gibson

The wait is over for me folks......i can quit worrying and go back to digesting solid foods again. Last night at 11:28 (that's central time people) my sweet sweet daughter- Dolma Echo Gibson came screaming and crying into the world.....

poems in st. vitus poetry review #6

well, i guess it's been out for awhile now, but i'm just getting a copy today, thanks to the sketchy chicago mail....i've got a few poems- 'polluted landscape w/marathon runners' & 'jittery paranoid scenario' in the latest (issue six) st. vitus press and poetry review out of albuquerque, new mexico.

the issue also includes work from gerald locklin, t.k. splake, dave church, a.d. winans, kell robertson, and others.

if you'd like to acquire a copy they are available for $14 from the editor:

Theron Moore
St Vitus Press
7408 Estes Park Avenue NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114

or try emailing him at:

stvitusfan@aol.com

music at myopic on april 10th

okay folks after a long break i am back at it, performing in chicago....

monday april 10th
7:30 pm
myopic bookstore
1564 N milwaukee avenue
www.myopicbookstore.com

the players:
alex wing:guitar
bill mackay:guitar
abraham gibson:guitar
brian labysz:electronics
jayvee montgomery: multi instruments

so come on out- it's a monday, what else are you doing?

this is a free show, and yes, you can smoke (and byob)

new updates to pitchfork website

well folks, i know it's been a while, but it's kinda hard to coordinate with my web dude since he's in New Jersey and I'm in Chicago, but anywho..... there are a buch of new updates to the pitchfork poetry website (mostly photos and bios) so if you sent me stuff many months ago and keep checking the site to see if it's up and it's not.....well now it is. take a little look why don't ya.....

www.pitchforkpoetryprojects.com

in other news at month's end our publishing drought will be over with the release of michael c ford's "to kiss the blood off our hands" which the author himself has said is better than "nursery rhyme assassin"!

also a performance coming up at myopic on april 10th (i'll post details soon)

ugh

why did i drink so much last night? i said give me a beer but the lady keep pouring me shots. big ones of maker's mark, now it's churning through my guts at 11 am and i need to get myself out that door.....

(it wasn't a bad night at all)

on second thought...

it takes a big man to admit that he's wrong (or is that a neurotic, schizophrenic?...anyway...) after the show the other night i felt compelled to give animal collective's 'feels' lp another, closer listen, and folks, it's not as bad as i earlier made it out to be. it's....alright. it...has its moments.

but.....it's not fucking brilliant like sung tongs and don't i, the rock fan have every right to demand consistent brilliance from these people? is that so much to ask?

(for those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, that last bit there was sarcasm.....i'm just dripping with sarcasm)

i finally saw animal collective

now i know i have been a bit of a naysayer lately when it comes to animal collective, and according to the little write up in the chicago reader this week i am not alone. their new record-'feels' is a big letdown for me after the amazingly original and multilayered album 'sung tongs', as well for as several other fans of theirs.

the last record was just two guys, alot of sweet acoustic songs (through tons of weird but organic processing) for this new one they've added 2 new(er) members and really created a "big" sound that on record does not translate, in other words...it sounds like shit. i hate it. i even hate the cover art. there are parts that remind me of rush (my one misgiving about our move to canada is the proximity to that horrible fuckin band. seriously!)

so after suffering through my ranting you can see that i had pretty low expectations going into their early show tonight at logan square auditorium. i arrived a bit late, and more that a bit buzzed (give me some time to drink some more of my free fuckin whiskey) AC had already started their set but i couldn't have missed much.

the place was packed, i don't know what capacity is over there so i'll say there were several hundred if not a few thousand people there (a bigger crowd then the boredoms drew) i walked into a huge swelling sound, that droned and pulsated through my body. it was the kind of sound that makes you want to cry-cause you can't control it. it's the kind of sound that makes your knees buckle.

most of the songs they played were unfamiliar to me. i recognized a few from the feels lp that were not annoying live like they are on that shit disc. one of the last two songs they played was "kids on holiday" from sung tongs. a highlight for me. if there was anyone in the audience with cancer, i'm sure that this music healed it.

animal collective are the real deal folks, experience them while you can......

AC virgins can learn more at
www.fat-cat.co.uk

what i did today

woke up
got outta bed
was immediately hassled by wife for blanket hoarding in the night
sat in the back bedroom
stared out into space
got ready for work
went to work via 74 fullerton bus to sheffield transfer to red line train to addison
noticed all the drunks buying cubs tickets (huge lines!)
bought a cheeseburger
ate it
cleaned the bar
drank a superfood
bought a book at bookworks- the key by junichiro tanizaki
went to home depot on halsted
bought a caulk gun
caught the 74 fullerton back west
got the mail
did the dishes
talked to the landlord on the phone
talked to my mom on the phone
cooked eggplant parmasean
ate dinner and talked w/my wife
wrote in my journal
took the dog out to shit
checked my email
supplied cia/fbi with detailed list of day's activities.......

suggested biographies: Rainer Werner Fassbinder/Philip K Dick

this month i've read two biographies of artists that i am obsessed with. one for the past ten years or so and one for the past year or so. Both were insanely prolific, both died young. I'm talking about the science fiction novelist, Philip K Dick, and the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

the Fassbinder bio I read first a few weeks ago. It's called "Love Is Colder Than Death" and was written by Robert Katz. It details Fassbinder's rapid fire work pace and drug intake. At one point he was doing 8 grams of coke a day! He was rather infamous in West Germany in the 70's as a degenerate homosexual and drug addict who constantly participated in orgies. A fellow Gemini (May 31st) Between 1969-and his death in 1982 he made between 35-40 films as well as the fifteen hour "Berlin Alexanderplatz" for German television. How much do I love Fassbinder? If our child due in 8 weeks is a boy, he'll be Rainer Gibson. So if any of this sounds interseting in the least, I urge you to read this biography as well as to go see his films. Some of my personal favorites include: In A Year With 13 Moons, Fox and His Friends, Ali:Fear Eats the Soul, Veronika Voss, and The Marriage of Maria Braun.

the Dick bio I just finished last night. It's called "Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K Dick" and was written by Lawrence Sutin (who has also written a bio on Aleister Crowley) I had been wanting to read this book for a long time as I heard that it was kind of the definitive Dick bio and has only recently came back into print. I first became aware of Dick while reading in Alec Foege's Sonic Youth bio "Confusion is Next" that Dick's writing was the inspiration for their LP Sister (A reference to PKD's twin sister Jane, who died after living less than a month) Some of the song lyrics were lifted from his texts. Then I moved to Texas and met John Stobaugh who immediately loaned me quite a few PKD novels like: Valis, Ubik, and Martian Time Slip and I instantly became hooked to this wonderful trippy writing that went far and beyond what you'd expect from trashy science fiction. This bio is incredible, the more you read it the more you realize how strange his life really was and how much of his fiction draws from that weird weird life he led. Five marriages, suicide attempts, stays in the psych ward, and communion with divine?alien? wisdom, too weird to get into here. Philip K Dick has been ripped off so much and when you are familiar with his work you can see what a huge influence he's had on things today. This guy is as or more important than Thomas Pynchon, Don Delillo, Jack Kerouac...I'll go so far as to call him the most important American writer of the past 40 years! This bio sheds so much light and is quite interesting even if you are unfamiliar with his writing.

so tell oprah to shove it up her bookbag- you've just found something better to read.......

Derek Bailey 1930-2005

I just found out today that one of the greatest and most innovative guitarists has died. Derek Bailey died in England on xmas morning at the age of 75.

He saved so many guitarists from a Steve Vai/Joe Satriani Hell on Earth by showing us what ....else you could do with a guitar.

There is a nice article and tributes to him in the latest issue of the wire (with edan on the cover) check it out

man versus machine

i can't believe it's actually working. sorry folks but i haven't been able to access this thing for months, on a whim I give it a try and my inane ass is back yapping for yer (dis)pleasure.

the big news out of the gibson household these days.... my boys can swim! my wife is pregnant and has been for the many months i couldn't access this blog, and we are expecting our first child on or around april 24th. so congratulate my ass!

pitchfork poetry website up and running

My friend Josh Flanders has been working away at the pitchfork poetry mag website and it is now up and running. I need to add contributor photos & bios and do a little tweaking here and there but it is up now if you wanna take a peek.
Soon this site will also be the home of the pitchfork poetry web zine, so stay tuned for a new issue soon.

http://www.pitchforkpoetryprojects.com

trio at 3030 august 5th

all right! more music.

got an upcoming performance at 3030
this will probably be the last electro night there since the neighbors have complained and they have to cease hosting shows there.

the group:
brian dibblee- laptop
paul giallorenzo- synthesizer, objects
abraham gibson-electric guitar

there will be other groups playing also but i'm not sure who it will be. come out and say goodbye to electro night and get a dose of krang.

august 5th
9 pm
3030 w cortland
http://www.elasticrevolution.com

music at 3030 on july 19th

bored out of my mind with no job (again) and this long year of poverty just dragging on,but I am happy to report that I'll be getting off my ass on tuesday july 19th and performing at 3030 as part of the elastro electronic music series.

the performers:
rotten milk
todd carter
paul giallorenzo
fred lonberg-holm
abe gibson

groups will be assembled randomly by the roll of dice

tuesday july 19th
9 p.m.
3030 w. cortland
www.elasticrevolution.com

3 poems online at unlikely stories

some brand new poems online at

www.unlikelystories.org

check out 'the edge of town', 'slow going in post-apocalyptic scenes of crumbling civilization', and 'bloodyears'
somebody in el paso likes me!

MISTER gibson

last tuesday i officially became MISTER gibson when i married the lovely jessica lippincott in the tackiest town in the world- las vegas.
many thanks to woodenlung, j.ho, and minh for the bachelor drinkfest before i left chicago.
while in vegas, i lost 20 bucks on goofy ass slot machines, saw some rather tame female mud wrestling at gilley's, and was nearly farted on by a stumbling drunk on the strip. good times!

zygote #41

the good folks of zygote in my coffee have published another poem of mine in their latest,issue #41. take a peek at "poetry and vision" originally published in my chapbook 'new shattered patterns and the murmurwall conspiracy' (pitchfork press 2004) at www.zygoteinmycoffee.com

krang w/dibblee at myopic june 27th

i've got an upcoming performance w/brian dibblee (laptop) and maybe some special guests coming up
this monday
june 27th
at
myopic bookstore
1564 north Milwaukee Avenue
chicago, IL
7:30 pm
this is a free show

www.myopicbookstore.com