Alloy Orchestra:
Midwest Fall Tour starts in Detroit – first time playing there in quite a few years and the band is glad to be back. The tour goes as far West as Bismark, South Dakota (my first ever gig in S.D.) then turns east and ends in Nashville, TN. In between we hit Chicago, Milwaukee, Iowa City, Des Moines, St. Louis and other suitable urban centers.
After that tour there are many more gigs, from Gloucester to Providence to Boston to many upstate New York towns, then on to Atlanta and San Francisco and surrounding areas. All Fall All Alloy Touring All The Time.
For more information about Alloy’s fall touring.
This summer Alloy scored their new film for the fall, VARIETE, and premiered it at the Telluride Film Festvial in early Sept. The resulting standing ovation was a good sign. Drama in a circus/trapeze setting. Suitable for the band.
This summer the band also scored the crazily inventive Japanese film (silent of course, until Alloy gets their hands on it) A PAGE OF MADNESS. Set entirely in an insane asylum, this film is right up Alloy’s alley: moody, emotive, dark, and completely insane. This will be released on BluRay later this fall.
As a Composer:
Miller is excited about, and working steadily on, his “Sonata for Piano and String Quartet”. He is using this image of Frozen Oceans on Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons) to structure Movement II, the classic “slow middle movement”, but in this case without a beat, any pulse, any melody, harmony, or concert pitch.
Movement I, structured less severely by a photo taken on Mars by one of the Mars Rovers, will generally have an on-again/off-again rhythmic thing going. Movement III is based solely on intuition and feel, with the struggling forward-motion of Miller’s 1976 CalArts composition “24:24”. Movement I and III have similarities to Scream, Gilgamesh, Scream which premiered at Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory on Feb. 2016. Movement II has similarities in style to Vines for Music, which premiered at N.E.C.’s SICPP festival in June 2014 (and got a nice write-up in New Music Box Review).
For more information about Miller’s composing.
Trinary System:
Due to Alloy Orchestra and Soundtrack work dominating the summer and fall, Trinary System won’t be playing much in the near future. But the band continues to work on new material. PRESS THE BUTTON is complex and pursues what in 1969 Miller called “Warp Riffs”, but now might bear some similarity to the later style called “Prog-Rock”, if you believe what certain individuals have to say on the topic. WHEN THE DUST SETTLES is more on the pop/rock side with even a full-on chorus. Top-40 here they come….
For more information about Trinary System.
As a Soundtracker:
Over the summer, Miller composed 40+ cues for the feature-length documentary “500 Years”. This is the second film he’s done with Skylight Pictures on the Genocide in Guatemala which began in 1982 (with the graces of Ronald Reagan). Two films Miller scored with Skylight Pictures premiered at Sundance. Mixing will happen in later October (after the first round of Alloy shows) with long-time producer/partner Michael Bierylo.
For more information about Miller’s Soundtrack work.
Mission of Burma:
Generally, we’re not workin’ too hard. But in Paste’s Top-50 Post Punk LPs, Vs. came in at #44. Musta done something right at some point (as if these lists are “truth”).
And as a Normal Person:
