Highwire Gallery, May 10th

Shows You the Most, Part 11

May 3rd: Let's be adult, with ADULT CONTENT.

May 10th: I will be doing a solo guitar performance at the Highwire Gallery in Philadelphia. This show was put together by a fellow musician friend/twanger Eric Carbonara. Also on the bill for this evening of solo guitar will be Jesse Sparhawk and Trevor Healy. For more info, please check the Fire Museum Presents event page by clicking right here.

Shows You the Most, Part 10

This Friday (April 26th), I will be joining this fine gentleman pictured to the left, Mr. George Korein, at the Highwire Gallery. He has a new album out called Brain Problems that we, George on bass and vocals, myself on guitar, and Eli Litwin on drums, will be playing a few selections tunes from, causing severe head truama and loose butts from dancing too much. Also playing that evening will be Lovely Little Girls and Phillly locals Lion's Head.

Where are you?: Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia, PA

Got the Time?: 8PM.

Do I need to bring money?: Sliding scale of $6 - 8.

What's My Age Again?: All ages.

The Pageant: Soloveev Set

Shows You the Most, Part 9

Fire Museum & Pageant : Soloveev Present:

Michael Evans / David Grollman / Andy Haas Trio

Space Whale Orchestra

Keir Neuringer

Travis Woodson

Thursday, March 21nd, 8:00PM (Sharp!)

Pageant : Soloveev

607 Bainbridge St.

Philadelphia, PA

$6-8 sliding scale

FB Event Link: click

PYRAMID MINDS - "Basic Box" Video

Just messing around with a video editing program, and this is the result. The original video source of the Wrecking Crew Orchestra from Japan doing their Tron inspired dance routine. Watch in 1080p HD. More vidoes, including us jamming, can be found here.

Whoa! / New Project

First, I want apologize for the lack of updates. For the past month, I have been unable to use my laptop due to an unfortunate accident. This problem will be alleviated some time soon (hopefully). Since you're here any way:

I've been recently involved in a new project called Pyramid Minds. This project includes myself on guitar, Jeff Daniels (not the actor) of Blackest Lava and Burden on drums, and now joining in on the fun is Mr. Mattheweikel on electronics. This has been a fun group to play in and we have been recording some of this fun, just so you don't miss out on it. There are plenty of recordings for download on our Bandcamp site, and you can also "like" us on Facebook.

Old Drone

Shows You the Most, Part 8

Flyer by Ron Greenwalt

Split Red will be once again opening up for Mike Watt & the Missingmen. Not only that, we're also playing with one of my favorite bands from Japan, LITE. For more info, check the North Star Bar shows page.

Need a Ringtone (or two)?

Shows You the Most, Part 7: Memory Lane

Flyer by EMGE Design

A few write-ups for the show

Phrequency, July 23rd, 2012 (article by Lucy Briggs)

The Key, July 26th, 2012 (article by Laura Jane Brubaker)
City Paper, August 3rd, 2012 (article by Patrick Rapa)

NEW EP Project with Eric Slick, "Failures III: Friend Is Your Death"

"This an EP of acoustic guitar improvisations. I'm a complete novice at the guitar, which is why it's a part of my new Failures series. Every couple of weeks I'll release a series of improvisations for different instruments. The point is to generate material and also develop my compositional ideas. It's also an exercise in un-creativity - they're intrinsically wandering, aimless, and sometimes melody-less and it's good to get them out of my system. You can listen, fast forward, or skim through. Any way to listen or not listen is totally acceptable. I recorded them with my computer microphone, so the quality is crude. Think of them as primitive sketches. Thanks for listening, or not listening!" - Eric's explanation of the first Failure EP.

Eric has now turned this into a more collaborative project, asking others to use the recorded material provided and overdub your own "failure". Here's my contribution to this project; it proudly hangs on the refrigerator.

Music for Three Guitars

"This is the first performance of these pieces, please bear (bare) with the slightly awkward moments."

"Lesbians With Victorian Sensibilities" (Travis Woodson)

"Slope II" (Carl Testa; written for bass and cello, arranged for three guitars)

"Gary & Monty" (Eric Slick; written for solo guitar, arranged for three guitars by Travis Woodson)

"Personality Donor (A Donor for 3)" (Travis Woodson; arranged for three guitars)

"Free" (Ornette Coleman)

Shows You the Most, Part 6 (with NEW Music)

Logo by Travis Woodson

Electric Simcha will be playing June 9th at International Waters House in West Philadelphia. We're playing with Les Rhinocéros, and it will be a fun, potentially sweaty show! I did drop the ball on mentioning our first show since New Year's Eve at The Blockley with Slavic Soul Party and West Philadelphia Orchestra on May 19th (sorry for not posting about it, whoever reads this); went pretty well, if I must say.

Time?: 8PM, roughly

Money?: $5 Donation, perhaps

Where Are You?: 532 S. 48th St. (btwn Hazel & Larchwood)

What's My Age?: All ages!

"Nope! It's Friday Night in Philadelphia now, bro!"

June 22nd: Music for Three Guitars: Arrangements and Compositions by Travis Woodson - "The music that you will be hearing is a preview of some material I have worked on for the past year. I basically wanted to come up with a series of compositions and/or arrangements I thought would translate easily for this type of instrumentation, as well as be inquisitive of the sound possibilities. With the aid of Alban Bailly and Nick Millevoi, you will hear music from some of my favorite composers like Ornette Coleman, Morton Feldman, György Ligeti, and a special piece originally written for solo guitar by Philadelphia's own Eric Slick of Dr. Dog. I will also be sharing a few of my own compositions, including a song I wrote for Make a Rising that didn't make the cut. I'm quite fond of how these turned out and would love to share these ideas with everyone as I'm going through this process. Together, we will finally solve the age-old question: How many guitarist does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Link

Time?:  8PM

Money?: FREE, but you can donate

Where Are You?: The Rotunda - 4014 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA

What's My Age?: All ages!

Logo by Erik Ruin

Split Red will be heading up to Death by Audio in Brooklyn on June 24th. We will be playing with Tom Blancarte, Louise D.E. Jensen, Tim Dahl, and Weasel Walter in different configurations throughout the night.

Time?:  8PM

Money?: $7

Where Are You?: 49 S. 2nd St., Brooklyn, NY

What's My Age?: Questionable.

Playing "Etude" by Paul Motian

(lead sheet transcription by: Aaron Quinn)

More audio from the show:

Shows You the Most, Part 5

ADULT CONTENT, David Fishkin's sexy project, will be playing at Johnny Brenda's on March 23rd as a part of an event organized by Little Baby's Ice Cream.
Time?: 8PM
Money?: Yes, $15
Where Are You?: 1201 N. Frankford Ave., Philadelphia (corner of Frankford & Girard)
What's My Age?: 21+

This evening has been organized by LITTLE BABY'S ICE CREAM as a fund-raiser for the expenses related to the opening of their ice cream parlor (Spring 2012) in Fishtown. All ticket sales from the evening go towards purchases of equipment to fully outfit their parlor and commercial ice cream-making kitchen! Complimentary ice cream will be provided by Little Baby's Ice Cream, as well as refreshments and a fully stocked bar courtesy of Johnny Brenda's. Event Link

March 25th, I will be performing solo guitar for a celebratory birthday event of the late great Jazz drummer Paul Motian at the Highwire Gallery. Also performing that night will be a Paul Motian tribute group, Sod House, featuring some of Philadelphia's finest players led by a good friend of mine (and a hell-of-a musician) Matthew Stein. Vinnie Sperazzo will be there too, performing that night in trio format with Motian alumnus Loren Stillman (alto sax), and my Split Red band mate Matt Engle (bass).
Time: 7:30PM
Money: Yes, $8
Where Are You?: 2040 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia (corner of Frankford & Susquehanna)
What's My Age?: All Ages

Graphic Scores I + II: CERN

Back in the summer of 2011, I debuted this graphic score with the quartet version of Live Like a King. Out of boredom, I just wanted to do something outside of what I originally had in mind, so I decided to draw up a series of graphic scores that can be applied to that ensemble (though not exclusively). I was mainly inspired and intrigued by the graphic scores of Anthony Braxton, Morton Feldman, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and since I had certain images in my head that I wanted to attempt to translate to music, it gave me an excuse to want to go forth with the idea. To be honest, I only remember about 30% of what happened that evening because I was completely anxious to just get the performance done and over with. I myself will have to experience this set again; wish me luck!

During a period of writer's block between the summers of 2009 and 2010, several bouts of sleeplessness brought upon ten graphic scores. The first four were inspired by a situation scientist at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland faced while conducting an experiment attempting to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang using the Large Hadron Collider. This experiment received some criticism and speculation, mainly the concern of producing catastrophic results such as a black hole that can potentially swallow the Earth. With this in mind, and a little imagination, the graphic scores tell a story of an "experiment gone wrong" and the only people who could reconstruct a new Earth and civilization from scratch, though a little too late to warn those on Earth, are ancient astronauts from a distant galaxy.

CERN I

CERN II

"CERN II" features pre-recorded guitar drones I created, as well as snippets of a radio broadcast discussing the LHC experiment.

Shows You the Most, Part 4

So, I've got two things that I know of coming up. This Monday, February 6th, I'll be playing in one of David Fishkin's groups, Adult Content, as apart of a festival celebrating the New Zealand holiday, Waitangi Day. To describe Adult Content, you would have to take one part this and another part that and you might find us somewhere in between (I don't think that summary helps. Well, you can at least dance to it). This will be taken place at NOSPACE in Philadelphia (2315 E. Hazzard). Check the site for more detail, and I do believe we are last in the scheme of things (11PM? Maybe?). Everything (i.e. the bacon) starts around 5:30PM, so there's plenty time in between.

On February 15th, practically the same band (EXTREME FISHKIN!!!) will be playing at Tritone for the last Avant Ascension, a music series dedicated in presenting Philadelphia's avant-new-freejazz-progressive-improvised-punk-noise-garde-whatever music scene. The Tritone is unfortunately closing its doors at the end of February, so it seems like there has been quite the blow-out parties going on there. I'm not entirely sure of who else is on the bill for that night, but as always, there's the open jam later in the evening; bring your ax.

Travis Feels Nostalgic & Shows You the Most, Part 3

I've been quiet, but that's natural.

So recently I've been going back to old live recordings to attempt to "remaster" them. I realized when I first tried to tweak them, to my ears they ended up sounding pale. This time I tried to correct that mistake and hope that everything is a little more audible. Not only that, I cut out a lot of my banter because well... to be frank, I don't want to hear myself talk ("Shut up and play already!"). The two recordings I've been focusing on were the Papa Shango Curse show from 2008 and the Live Like a King show from 2009. I know I've posted these in full and widely available to be heard for awhile now, but my perfectionist side kicked in and I wanted to make it sound a little better than what they were (or at least to my capability). In the future, I plan on offering pristine recordings of these ideas, but for now I have to do the best with what I have (thank you "Taper Tom" for the recordings; keeper of all good and potentially embarrassing performances, as well as hilarious musician rants).

Also, I know it's a bit late, but I'm playing two show this weekend! One is in West Philly at 45 & Kingsessing where I'll be in a trio with Scott Verrastro and David Fishkin as VFW on Friday, January 20th, roughly 8PM start ($5 suggested donation). Joining us will be Malcolm Tent, My Nation Underground (dudes from Drums Like Machine Guns) and Warshack (grimy doom metal, YES INDEED!). The other is Saturday evening at the El Bar in Fishtown where I'll be playing with Split Red. I actually don't know when it starts, the other band we're playing with or the cover, but lets say it "starts" at 8PM and the cover is "$5". Don't take my word for it.

As an added bonus, here's a recording of an old idea I rehashed for prosperity.

One afternoon, I presented an old "pattern groove" idea, amply titled "Olsen²", to two friends. It's constructed with a simple melody played in 2/4 while the rhythm section is in 3/4. After awhile of riffing on the phrase(s), we play musical tag and trade off the 2/4 beat to each other and the person who trades of their 2/4 will be in 3/4. It's just a working idea and it will probably appear in something in the future. Thank you Julius (drums) and Eliot (keys) for hashing this out!

Electric Simcha News

Photo by Matt Hurst

Earlier this month, Electric Simcha went into the studio to record our follow up to our tour EP we previously did a year ago. We went up to Colin Marston's studio, The Thousand Caves, for two days and banged out several mind-melting tracks that is sure to cause some ruptured spleens. I haven't had the chance to listen to the rough mixes in its entirety yet, but from the snippets I've heard, I think people will be very pleased. It was plenty fun and I hope that energy will be rightfully portrayed on the new compact disc.

This New Year's Eve, we will also be "rockin' in the new year" at the Highwire Gallery for a little fundraiser. You can find more info on this event at the Fire Museum site here. Come one, come all! New faces are always welcomed.