Nov. 10 "Strings N' Things" Recap, Manchester, NH

The 'theme' of this event sounds like a craft night to take place in a church basement, which in an abstract way, I suppose it was. I was having a difficult time getting out of town and ended up at Marc and Dei's house around 6:45pm, only an hour and 45 minutes later than I'd planned. Their basement was cleared out and strewn with strings of little lights. They had made black beans, brown rice, cornbread and provided beer, which was nice. I was starving and stressed out by the time I'd made it there.
The show started with birdorgan, Mike on bass, Mike on guitar, Marc on guitar, and Dei with her vocalizations. It sounded pretty wild, a great alternate invocation of birdorgan.
I think Offset Needle Radius performed next? Vertical guitar into two split signals into two amplifiers. Lots of the usual bowed strings with steel rod finishing up with microcassette mutterings. It didn't come off as I'd hoped. Something wasn't happening.
Next Walter Wright with a friend on toy piano and Marc Bisson on guitar was next. I didnt' get his friends name who played the toy piano. The sounds were nice, three vary different textural sounds blending, contrasting, and conforming together.
Last was Layne Garrett, who began his set on a steel guitar, improvised latin strumming style sort of a classical gypsy sound. The tunings changed as did the mood of the improvisations. Layne concluded his set with light sensitive sound generation synth and effects, more noise to contrast with the melodic nature of his guitar work.
Layne was touring via Greyhound Ameripass which is daring and brave. He had two CD's for sale, one of which he had sewed covers for on the bus between stops.
It was a great show to be at let along perform at.

Amplified Strings Event in Manchester, NH 11/10

November 10th is a TUESDAY.
Offset Needle Radius will be performing at an....................
Amplified Strings and stuff show in.....................
Manchester, NH...................
at the House of Goings On......................
301 Laurel St....................
8 pm, Donate Money for Out of Town Performer.....................Performing will be:::::::::::
Layne Garrett (DC).......................
birdorgan (NH)......................
Offset Needle Radius (ME)


Marc and Dei are hosting an evening of amplified strings and other stuff at The House of Goings On, Manchester, NH

"The Stranger The Better" Journalism

Article about the "Antipop" show at the Next Generation Theater, Brewer, ME on October 6th. Says Jay Grant of the Maine Campus University Maine Orono paper "When the crowd returned to the speakeasy-like theater in the back of the gift shop, a man named Josh Baker had set up something called an “offset needle radius,” — a bike wheel turned upside down. Baker spun the wheel, drumming on the spokes with silver rods as two improvisational dancers moved around the stage and among the crowd. As Baker continued, the performance got progressively more interesting, employing looping techniques, homemade horns fashioned from some kind of tubing and intentionally induced feedback to make for a fascinatingly bizarre few minutes of sound..."
Read it all here...

Autumn Equinox Happened, and We Were THere

Fun night at Grain Surfboards September 20th. Eli made butternut squash soup, cookies, cornbread. Marc Bisson and Dei Xrist of birdorgan brought the beans and rice. Great performances happened from Mystic Out Bop Review, birdorgan, Adam from Peace, Loving created an innovative installation with surround sound and edited Star Trek video. Offset Needle Radius kicked off the night with new perspectives on the musical wheel harp bike wheel performance. Walter Wright collaborated with Kit Demos for some beautiful electronics duetness, and then sat in for the birdorgan session as well. It's too bad Grain Surfboards is so far from any town. It was a nice intimate space for such an event. Stay tuned for developing plans for winter solstice...

Offset Needle Radius to Perform At Highest Latitude Yet!

Offset Needle Radius will be performing at the Next Generation Theater in Brewer, ME on Tues. Oct. 6th. That is to say, Offset Needle Radius will be performing above the 44th parallel for the first time ever, making this a sort of historical event.
Also performing at this latitude will be Nicole LePara, Noel Walsh, Martin Shartran, Id M THeft Able, Joe Gates,Les Trois Etoils. This is like a small slice of Frantasia Festival 2009 in freakin' Bangor Me. I would post the trippy flier here but the "file is corrupt".

Offset Needle Radius makes Front Page News

The August 28th issue of the Livermore Falls Advertiser (Not the Livermore False Advertiser), featured an article on the 2009 Frantasia Festival. A photographer for the paper was there at the very onset of the three day event, sent to cover this strange happening. What had seemed like a not so prime performance time slot turned out to be not so bad. I'm sure the photographer just wanted to shoot a few acts, get a general sense of the thing, and disappear. Lucky for Offset Needle Radius, he stuck around just long enough to take this photograph during the bicycle wheel portion of the set. The Livermore Falls Advertiser gave a sizeable space to the article, which was situated just above the article about a senior logger and his log hauling and saw models.
And now the world shall know the name Offset Needle Radius.

Quarter Inch Jack on BBC 6 Radio

Thanks largely to Marc Arsenault's diligent campaign to get the word out about our upcoming release, titles off of the record have been popping up here and there. On this latest set list of Steuart Macoine's "Freak Zone" program, our track Quarter Inch Jack fits in nicely amongst tracks from Bardo Pond, Aphex Twin, Pharoh Sanders, and Hawkwind. Not such bad company to keep! Check out the set list here, available for the next 7 days...