After her Burque gig, NYC free jazz stalwart Mary Halvorson’s next recital finds her keeping company with John Zorn. If that doesn’t clue you in to her avant-jazz chops, you’re probably not the target audience for this show, but never mind that. If you like your jazz guitar effects-laden, pitch-bended and thoroughly post-conventional, this is a shouldn’t-miss. Renowned improviser Halvorson’s quintet also features Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Jon Irabagon (alto saxophone), John Hébert (bass) and Ches Smith (drums). Get your highfalutin, Big Apple jazz fix at Outpost Performance Space (210 Yale SE) on Thursday, Dec. 19. This rarefied all-ages recital kicks off at 7:30pm, and admission will run you $15 to $20.
Four Up A Smashup Blowout
Compfight cc via Ole Husby
LowLife M.C. is a collaboration between local A/V DJ conspirators Muffins tha Magician, Caterwaul, Lüftmensch, fredricksbrooke and others. The collective’s debut, Vids’n’Vinyl Trainwreck, happens on Friday, Dec. 20 at Sister (407 Central NW). The 21-plus happening revs up at 8pm, and admission is $3. According to organizer Derek Caterwaul, the evening begins with a set of “clips, trailers and music videos that demand to be heard as well as seen.” Then, the A/V overload really kicks in. Caterwaul anticipates the vinyl soundtracking will lean “punk, rock, hip-hop and funk,” while the video aspect will be loosely themed on “post-apocalyptica, drugs and gore, abstracted sci-fi aesthetics, futuristic cityscape metropol-fetish, logo fetish, pretty colors and flashing lights, distilled psychedelia.”
Four Up Anti-Xmas Grind
Compfight cc via riptheskull
If you’re craving festivity that doesn’t glorify the cult of Christmas as commodity, grab your earplugs and motor down to Launchpad (618 Central SW) on Friday, Dec. 20 for the 2013 Anti-Christmas show. Starting at 9pm, this 21-and-over festival of metal will reverberate those holiday blues right out of your sugar plum-eschewing head. Self-described “Old Town grind” fivesome Laughing Dog leads the humbug fest, and Largactyl (feat. members of Logical Nonsense and Grimple), Coloradoan foursome Burns Like Hell (feat. members of Fanatics) and American death groove outfit Sorry Guero follow suit. If you’re feeling more Krampus than Kris Kringle, this is your show, hesher.
Four Up Apache String Theory
Laura Ortman
Courtesy of artist
Now based in Brooklyn, White Mountain Apache multi-instrumentalist Laura Ortman took up the violin when she was 3 years old. On her 2011 solo outing, Someday We’ll Be Together, Ortman coaxes ethereal beauty from violins, Helpinstill piano, electric guitars, Apache fiddle, subway recordings, windchimes, bells, Casio keyboard, megaphone and pine branches. If you couldn’t jet around to catch the artist’s performances at MOMA or PS 1, experience Ortman’s transdimensional sonics—along with local electro-acoustic ambient noise project MŪN—at Spirit Abuse (1103 Fourth Street NW) on Saturday, Dec. 21. Starting at 9pm, this all-ages concert promises to awaken your senses, and admission is only five bucks.
