IPR Residency

It’s not official yet, but KIOKU has been offered an artist-in-residency at the Issue Project Room.

SOH DAIKO at Brooklyn Sakura Matsuri, 4/29 at 12 noon

The weather forecast predicts “partly cloudy” with a high of 67 degrees. SOH DAIKO will open up the Sunday show with Underground, Yuudachi, Matsuri, and Hachidan Uchi.

Posted to youtube by eggrollboy.

HAPPYFUNSMILE at Brooklyn Sakura Matsuri, 4/28 at 3:30pm

Come join the fun at the annual Brooklyn Botanic Garden Sakura Matsuri! HAPPYFUNSMILE will be blitzing the garden with an intense 45-minute set with Brian, Rodrigo, Akiko, Kaori, and the entire band! Check out the garden’s website for the entire weekend schedule.

Saturday, April 28, 3:30-4:15pm
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Sakura Matsuri
2/3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
Admission: Free with garden admission

Update: Thanks everyone! We had a great time at the Botanic Garden and the cherry blossoms were just beginning to peek out. Here are two photos from the performance.

 

Public Transportation

Okay, so usually it’s nice not having to drive and all that. But I just had the worst public transportation day ever. I caught the 1 train down to Penn Station, hopped on the NJ Transit to Princeton, and everything seemed fine. The train, however, was moving a bit slowly. All of a sudden, they announced that due to a police investigation they were skipping Princeton Junction and heading straight to Trenton. Someone committed suicide by jumping in front of a train.

So, people were complaining and I even heard a woman call the NJ Transit complaints line on her cell phone, which I thought was completely tasteless and unfeeling. In any case, I made it to Princeton after three hours on the train. I wouldn’t complain, but on my way home, there was a police investigation at 59th Street. So it’s midnight and I’m waiting on the 1 train, and waiting, and waiting some more. Finally, they announce a suspension of all 1, 2, and 3 trains. I walk over to the A train but I accidentally get on the E train. Now I have to transfer to the 6 train to go uptown and take the M96 bus. As I get out of the station, I see the M96 pull away. Obviously I could have taken a cab, but I refused to pay more money to get home. So I wait for the bus, catch the M104 uptown and finally arrived back home at 1:15am. Tonight, I seriously hate public transportation.

Update: An apparent suicide at Princeton Junction. Accidental death in NYC on the subway. Jeez…

SOH DAIKO at the American Museum of Natural History, 4/22

SOH DAIKO will be performing for the Global Weekends, International Earth Day along with the drum group Hachijo Daiko from Hachijo-jima. The show starts at 3:30pm and runs for an hour. The suggested admission is $14, but you can pay whatever you like or get free admission with the Asian American Arts Alliance Culture Pass. AMNH Kaufmann Theater, 1st Floor, 79th Street at Central Park West.

Update: The performance went fairly well on Soh Daiko’s part and the Hachijo drummers were awesome! Even better was the dinner afterwards, with food from Flor de Mayo, lots of beer and sake, singing, dancing, and drumming on plates–Hashi Daiko!

KIOKU and Anthony Coleman at Issue Project Room, 4/20

We’re excited to be sharing the stage with Anthony Coleman! This performance is in preparation for his upcoming CD of chamber music, to be recorded for New World Records with Marty Ehrlich, Doug Wieselman, Jim Pugliese, Ned Rothenberg, Jacob Garchik, Dan Barrett, Joe Kubera, Ted Reichman, and Marco Cappelli. We’ll be opening the show with our Virginia set: Miyake, Interlude D, Binalig, and Pinari.

Thanks everyone for coming out! We had quite a few people coming to see the show, so the place was full! Congratulations to Chris for not only bringing out the most people, but having a really great performance with his brand-new amp and the venue’s nice subwoofer.

Tonic

I can’t believe it, but Tonic is closing on April 13.

KIOKU in Virginia, 4/6 and 4/7

KIOKU will be doing another road trip, this time down to Virginia for two gigs. Our friend, Wendy Hsu, set up performances for us in Charlottesville and Richmond. Come check it out if you happen to be in the area.

April 6, 2007 at University Chapel, University of Virginia
University Avenue and McCormick Road. Pinko Communoids and Anhedoniac to be opening on this triple-bill!

April 7, 2007 at The Camel Cafe
1621 W. Broad Street, Richmond, VA, 23220
Presented by the folks at 804noise, KIOKU will be performing at the brand-new Camel Cafe in Richmond, VA along with Caustic Circle (Kenneth Yates and Clifford Schwing) and Martin McCavitt.

Just got back from Virginia and had a great time with all the experimental-music people! This was also a good tryout for our California tour. Ali, Chris, and I all went with minimal setups and managed to fit everything into the back of our SUV (Pontiac Torrent, 2007). It was a really fun outing and my girlfriend Traci and Ali’s girlfriend Kim accompanied us on the trip.

We had a great time with the folks at UVA. Very cool musicking and we were able to hang out afterwards with Wendy and Carey. And then it started to snow! The next morning we went to TJ’s house (Thomas Jefferson) and used his bathroom.

Richmond was a different kind of scene. Kinda desolate, but the Camel Cafe was a cool space. Interesting music and again more cool people. We returned on Sunday afternoon having taken no pictures. Sorry.