Mahjongg set to take Casa stage on 4/20
By Marshall Pearson, Staff Writer
April 20, 2008 | 6 a.m.
When a consortium of talented artists and a bevy of concert venues are found in a small college town, nationally renowned bands are bound to make appearances. The next group to do so will be bizarre electro-dance-rock posse Mahjongg, who will be playing a set at 10 p.m. this Sunday, April 20 at Casa Cantina backed by Athens locals Space6oy and Death Beef.
Mahjongg hails from the musical hot spot Chicago and recently released its album Kontpab on prominent independent label K Records, which has been the home of artists such as Modest Mouse, Kimya Dawson and Little Wings. Fortunately, the band has not experienced any loss of creative control with the move to a larger label -- a common experience for many small groups that get signed.
“Mahjongg has always been and always will be total freedom," band member Hunter Husar said. "Ownership is theft. K is our brother…helping us get the message of Kontpab to the masses.”
Opening for Mahjongg is Death Beef, a local, one-man noise act comprised of Ty Owen and a plethora of unusual musical equipment. Owen has performed with artists such as Girl Talk, Sword Heaven and Emeralds, and he is greatly anticipating Sunday’s show.
“I am really, really excited…that I get to play with a band that is kind of experimental as opposed to your traditional rock band, and their new record is amazing,” Owen said.
For the set, Owen plans to perform with a laptop running Max/Msp, a program that he will be using to translate the information from a Guitar Hero controller into MIDI signals, as well as several homemade microphones and synthesizers.
Because of its more traditional indie rock and dance orientation, Mahjongg is taking a different direction from Owen with regard to the arrangement of instruments for the show.
“We’re using drums, keyboards, mouths, computers and guitars," Husar said. "Our speakers are arranged to create a sphere of sub-harmonic bass that we sit in while we play.”
Despite the stylistic contrast between the two artists, the way they approach their musical performance and creation is very much the same.
“When I am creating things, I try to approach it like no one has done before," Owen said. "I constantly try to do things differently than anyone else. All my performances are very improvisational and free-form.”
Brian Ostrander, promotions director at ACRN.com, Ohio University’s student-run Internet radio, assembled the event. Mahjongg’s performance is the last event of ACRN Week, a series of events celebrating ACRN’s 37th year of existence. Ostrander had no difficulty in booking Mahjongg, who is currently in the middle of a Midwest tour.
When asked what he expected the vibe of the show to be, Ostrander replied, “People aren’t going to know what to do but in a good way. Everyone is just going to get fucked up and release some energy.”
Although the event is not drug-themed, it happens to be taking place on April 20, a day that marijuana users around the world often regard as an informal holiday dedicated to the recreational drug. The impact that this could have on the show is negligible, according to Owen.
“I am used to playing to people baked out of their minds, and I honestly think the show will go over better," Owen said. "I am approaching it like any other show.”
According to Ostrander, the date picked for the show was simply a coincidence. “I just knew that if Mahjongg played a show on 4/20, we could get lots of people to come out and enjoy the music,” he said.
Regardless of any coinciding “holidays,” Casa Cantina will be hosting a night full of the most unique electronic music to come to Athens in some time.
In the words of Husar, “We come in peace…all we want is to play music for you.”
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