Tonight’s planned performance by Good Stuff House—the trio of Mike Weis and Matt Christensen (both of Zelienople) and Scott Tuma (ex-Souled American)—was technically a reunion, but it’s not like the world wept after the group’s last performance in 2009; in fact, probably few if anyone even knew it would be a final gig. Nonetheless, it’s good to have this low-key outfit back, even if the reunion will have to wait a bit longer. Tuma hurt his back and is unable to perform, so Weis and Christensen will be joined by Jaime Fennelly of Mind Over Mirrors fame. The concert arrives as part of a new weekly experimental series at Bar DeVille called Over/Out, organized by Joe Darling as part of Uncanned Music. Other upcoming shows in the series include appearances by Mythic Birds, Nick Butcher & Jordan Martins, and Handsome Tyrants.
The timing of the scheduled Good Stuff House performance coincides nicely with the recent reissue of the trio’s 2006 eponymous debut, originally a CDR released by Maine’s Time-Lag imprint, freshly made available on LP and cassette by the Austin, Texas, label Holodeck. That album nicely encapsulated the trio’s seductively murky core sound, a hazy melange of pump organ, harmonium, Jandek-grade vocal chants, inside-the-piano tinkering, harmonica, and deconstructed guitar sounds, all subsumed by a distinct and deliberate lack of sonic clarity. But within that murky sonic stew is an unalloyed, meditative beauty marked by a deeply intuitive connection, as nonidiomatic folk detritus collides with free improvisation. Below you can listen to the second of the album’s seven untitled pieces.
No word yet on when the actual reunion will take place.
Today’s playlist:
Fred Frith Cosa Brava, The Letter (Intakt)
Roman Filiu, Musae (Dafnison Music)
Alexi Lubimov and Natalia Pschenitschnikova, John Cage: As it Is (ECM)
Jenny Hval & Håvard Volden, Nude on Sand (Sofa)
Chick Corea, Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian, Further Explorations (Concord Jazz)