Musician, artist and Small Engine Gallery co-curator Raven Chacon played Song Roulette with us this week. He doesn’t own an iPod, so he got creative and groped around in the dark. Check out his diverse Song Roulette results.
raven chacon

Culture Shock
What We Listen For
In Lightning Speak Raven Chacon composes music that celebrates silence
Music History
Uncaging the Sun

Year in Review: Music
The Year 2014 in ABQ
On what we lost ... and gained

Song Roulette
Raven Chacon's Random Tracks

Arts
Postcommodity on the rise
Anyone who’s interested in sound- and art-installation in the Southwest is probably familiar with Postcommodity. The collective, comprised of four Native American artists working in a variety of mediums has been creating politcally charged and culturally inquisitive work since 2007. For this week’s arts profile, the Alibi caught up with member Raven Chacon to discuss the direction of Postcommodity in the wake of a large grant and an upcoming installation in Australia.

Arts Profile
Eye in the Sky, Hole in the Ground
Postcommodity’s Raven Chacon on art without borders

Music
Deerhoof tonight
Bay Area avant pop act Deerhoof plays at Sol Santa Fe this evening with Portland’s AU and New Mexico’s own Raven Chacon. Get details and read about the band and its Burque connection here.

Spotlight
Language Fails Us
A talk with Deerhoof’s John Dieterich
Deep into a second decade of making music, Deerhoof continues to introduce avant anachronisms to the world of pop music. Ostensibly based in the Bay Area, Deerhoof’s music evokes specific San Francisco sound memories: crashing waves under the Golden Gate; the high-pitched squeal and hiss of the N Judah train; a mission junkie’s shuffle. Straying from the geographic origin that lends an aural palette to its songs, the band is spread throughout the country with drummer Greg Saunier living in New York, singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki “floating,” guitarist Ed Rodriguez in Portland and guitarist John Dieterich in Albuquerque.

Music
High Mayhem this weekend
High Mayhem Emerging Arts, the Santa Fe series that showcases Nuevo Mexicano and international sound art, enters it’s 10th year this weekend. Samantha Anne Scott interviewed Raven Chacon about Mesa Ritual (one of his numerous projects), which will be performing Saturday. Read the article here.

Show Up!
Electric Mesa Ritual
Raven Chacon talks motel butchery and mayhem
Flyer on the Wall
Postcommodity
A balance of painterly and graphic techniques are lent to gloomy blacks, whites and grayscale in what appears to be a bird-laden landscape print. Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, Kade L. Twist and Nathan Young make up the interdisciplinary American Indian arts collective Postcommodity. On Friday, June 10, they'll be doing a noise show at the Santa Fe Art Institute's Tipton Hall. The show begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $10 general, $5 for students/seniors/members. (Jessica Cassyle Carr)
Albuquerque Is Awesome
More and more, our remote, wild Western burg is proving to be an oasis of music and art that explores new frontiers. Nay, you say? Here’s evidence: Albuquerque Experimental is a two-day festival composed of 25 performances. The lineup is largely local with notable out-of-town troubadours sprinkled throughout (NYC psych pioneer Silver Apples; John Dieterich of Deerhoof, who’s performing with New Mexico’s own Raven Chacon). This event, masterminded by KUNM music host Peter Mezensky, will take place at The Kosmos (1715 Fifth Street NW) on Friday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 16, at 3 p.m. Two-day passes go for $20, while single passes are $10 on Friday and $15 on Saturday. For a full lineup and more information, go to albuquerqueexperimental.com. (Jessica Cassyle Carr)

Aural Fixation
The Albuquerque Sound
Raven Chacon curates the city’s underground
In life there are certain truths: What goes up must come down, all's fair in love and war, a stitch in time saves nine and one who makes a synthesizer out of a cougar pelt is wicked awesome. Musician, teacher and installation artist Raven Chacon is familiar with the latter, having made just that as part of a Winnipeg-based project by his interdisciplinary American Indian arts collective, Postcommodity. When the piece is pet, the pelt synth purrs, and when it’s twisted it raars. The group also fashioned an antler cello and antler harp, and made a drum from a boar bladder and a coffee can. The instruments, says Chacon, are meant to be played by a futuristic tribe representing the last of its culture.

Music
Lionhead Bunny, Raven Chacon, and More at Kosmos Tonight
From Rocksquawk.com
New Venue for stuff.
Tonight:
Lionhead Bunny (mem. Grave of Nobody's Darling)
Raven Chacon (me, solo)
and these characters:
KOSMOS (1715 5th st NW)
7:30pm $5
come check it out, talk to the girl running it, she is looking for new bands for the summer.
(See the original post here.)