The biennal art festival known as Performa 09 wraps up with weekend in NYC, inlcuding a number of events devoted to experimental music. Last night, I saw the first of Mike Kelley's two-night experimental noise fest A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality at the Gramercy Theater, featuring such old school downtownies as Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Z'EV, Jad Fair and Arto Lindsay, along with new schoolers James Moore and Taylor Levine of Dither (above, performing Fred Frith's Stick Figures.) Maybe I'm still coming down off last week's venture to Carnegie, but to my ears, it all sounded more like provocation than proper music – which I suppose isn't all that surprising, given the in-your-face nature of current contemporary art. (More pics below and here.)
More pics here.