Surrealist Games:
Thurs., Feb.4: 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, NH.
Miller will be hosting his Surrealist Games Night at the wonderful 3S Artspace (Burma played there in 2015 and loved it). Everyone becomes creative in this setting – there is literally nothing you can do about it. Drawing and Word Games create previously unheard of Proverbs, charms, and warnings. Drawings produce beings that Darwin could not possibly have anticipated. A splendid time is guaranteed for all (based on previous experience at the ICA Boston, Mass MoCA, First Night Boston, and many many nights with friends in homes).
Interview with Miller on New Hampshire Public Radio.
Interview starts at 21:24
Photo by Bridget Toner
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As A Composer:
Thursday, Feb.18, SCREAM, GILGAMESH, SCREAM (commissioned by the Callithumpian Consort) will be performed at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory by The Callithumpian Consort, with Miller playing the electric guitar part.
Miller completed the last four bars to his take on the Epic of Gilgamesh in October 2015, and will be honing the final details of the score into early January. The composition is for Baritone and Soprano voice, piano, two percussionists, electric guitar, synthesizer bass, alto saxophone, French Horn, Bass Clarinet, two violins, viola, ‘cello. Rock smashes into classical music and Edgard Varese would likely be amused.
Miller is simultaneously working on The Davis Square Symphony. The Fall season footage was re-shot this November, and editing 4/5 hours worth of video down to 25 minutes has begun. Once the editing is complete the next step is composing and orchestration for full orchestra. Performance will happen mid-June in Hodgkins-Curtin Park in Davis Square, Somerville.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay Humbaba.
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Trinary System:
The band continues working on their 5-song EP with Andrew Willis (bass, vocals) engineering. The focus is on layering things sonically without diluting the energy of the band. Two songs, THIS HOUSE and CHEMICAL STEW, are nearly mixed and plans are for a 7″ 45 in spring 2016, with a 5-song EP download card inside.
Trinary System at 13th Floor in Florence, MA
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Unusual Vinyl Releases:
This has been an unusually prolific year for Miller and vinyl.
1. FARMERS (Feeding Tube Records) features Daved Hild (vocals, accordion) of the Boston art-punk band The Girls with Miller backing him on guitar, cornet, piano, drum, recorded live in 1984. Outsider neo-Americana art-music somewhere between Pere Ubu, Nick Cave and Capt. Beefheart, but sounding completely unlike any of them.
2. ROGER MILLER? OH. (Feeding Tube Records) is Miller’s 1988 LP for Forced Exposure, recorded on a 4-track cassette deck. This record exhibits Miller’s most complete lack of concern for commerciality to date, which may account for it being released by three different labels over the years (second was a CD on New Alliance 1995). It was very favorably reviewed in the NY Times as “The Miller Experiment: Avant-Garde Record of the Week.”
1989 N.Y.Times review of “Roger Miller: Oh.”
Even more unusual than those two releases, two songs Miller recorded in 1977 under the moniker F.U.K., “Road Kill” and “Fire in My Head”, will be released mid-2016 as a 45 on HoZac Records. “Road Kill” sounds like a prototype for XRay Spex and “Fire in My Head” was written while listening to the first Ramones album.
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Alloy Orchestra:
Feb.14: Northampton Academy of Music Theater. Son of the Sheik. Rudolph Valentino on Valentines Day!
Feb.28: Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA.
Alloy Orchestra Smites Again!