"Hey, Fred!" 03/27-04/02/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Jeff Parker and the New Breed | Titonton and Jadalareign David Michael Butler's Idyll
Music
03/28/2024
Jeff Parker and the New Breed
Wexner Center for the Arts, 1871 N High St
March 28, 8 pm
Tickets starting at $6 available here: https://wexarts.org/performing-arts/jeff-parker-and-new-breed
I’ve been a big fan of guitarist/composer/bandleader Jeff Parker since hearing his work in Tortoise starting when I was 18 and over the years, that fandom has only blossomed. I had the pleasure of talking with him to preview this upcoming show for Pencil Storm and I’ll let that preview do most of the talking. This is just to restate: don’t miss this.
03/29/2024
Residual Presents: JADALAREIGN and Titonton Duvante
Skylab, 57 E Gay St
March 29: 10 pm
$10 cover before 12
Titonton Duvante was part of the genesis of modern electronic music in Columbus. There had been electronic acts before, especially of an experimental stripe, all praise due to Mark Gunderson/Evolution Control Committee and others - Jeff Chenault gives a fantastic talk about that history - but the group Body Release consisting of Titonton, Textbeak, Todd Sines, and Charles Noel unlocked something in 1991 that still reverberates.
When I started hanging around campus and the Short North as a teenager a few years later, it felt like their broader electronic music collective—ele_mental —was everywhere. They were throwing events ranging from side rooms at our largest clubs to the patio at my regular coffee house, putting out 12” every time I turned around. I gravitated toward Titonton Duvante’s sound and taste. That preference solidified with the release of his first full-length, Selections for Intercourse, on his own label, Residual Records (which I believe he ran at the time with Thomas James, who sold me all manner of great stuff at World Record). That release show - I don’t know if it was still Mekka or had transitioned to Glow or The Factory - with string players from the CSO reconfigured what I thought about electronic music and reaffirmed that it was one of the most exciting scenes in my town that era.
I don’t see him spin that often anymore, but I’ve caught sets in the last few years, and it’s still a great time, keeping the crowd moving without pandering or bullshitting. This set uses the classic Residual Records branding and continues his spirit of collaboration and friendship with the great new talent of other scenes.
JADALAREIGN worked with the Discwoman collective - home of favorites of mine like Ciel, SHYBOI, Bearcat, Juliana Huxtable - and throws parties while holding down residencies for Nowadays (the Brooklyn club of the moment in a packed field) and The Lot Radio (where inspirations for this newsletter Dada Strain, the Love Injection zine folks, and so many more also hold court) and doing one-off mixes for high profile venues like the Guggenheim, MoMA, and Mixmag.
Seeing these two in long-running alternative art space Skylab is going to be special.
Visual Art
03/29/2024
David Michael Butler, Idyll: Remix
Streetlight Guild, 1367 E Main St
March 29 through June 29; Opening March 29, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
Free
Streetlight Guild is a breath of fresh air needed in the Columbus scene in many ways, but for me, especially where visual art is concerned. It’s the gallery many of us didn’t know we needed, but we needed it badly, and every show I’ve seen there has delivered. This inaugural show of 2024 features illustrator/collagist David Michael Butler paired with Streetlight Guild founder Scott Woods adding words to rework a much talked-about installation, Idyll: Interlude. Miss at your own peril.