About
Latest Beacon venue hosts its first shows
Around 25 years ago, as gentrification creeped in, stickers and graffiti emerged in Texas urging people to "Keep Austin Weird."
Going for a punk aesthetic, an early version of the poster promoting the triple bill on Saturday (May 30) at The Cafeteria, a new venue in Beacon, shows a singer with a mohawk wearing a Dead Boys shirt.
Two slogans adorn the bottom quadrant: "Keep Beacon Weird" echoes the call in Austin and "Hot Lunch Lives" nods to the space's former role as a high school cafeteria. It's now occupied by Clutter Gallery, which manufactures collectible designer toys and recently moved from Main Street.
The old high school is home to the KuBe Art Center, and the event is homegrown. Happy Valley Arcade Bar brings food and drink. Gavin Hecker booked the bands under the new Prophecy Lab brand that differentiates his live music arm from Prophecy Hall, the former church on the west side of town.
The Cafeteria holds 150 people and will host music shows twice a month, says Clutter co-owner Josh Kimberg. On May 30, alt-rock combo Monski opens for guitarist Jeffrey Lewis, coming from New York City. A veteran of the Austin music scene, he crossed paths with Ed Hamell, who is playing at Lucky Dog in Beacon today (May 29). The troubadours convey clever lyrics with simple but emphatic chords.
Lewis also hobnobbed with Daniel Johnston, an influential Austin musician who received a modicum of fame after someone photographed Kurt Cobain wearing a shirt depicting the cover of his 1983 album Hi, How Are You. It featured an abstract drawing of a frog, dubbed Jeremiah the Innocent.
Johnston, who died in 2019, was a friend of Ron English, another local designer-toy artist. Kimberg is working with Johnston's estate to create works related to the figure.
Also on the Saturday bill is Nick Yulman and the Bricolo Mechanical Band, housed in his basement at the foot of Mount Beacon. Active in the automated music circuit, he's played gigs at the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Composer Angelica Negron has written several pieces that incorporate his contraptions for the Sö Percussion ensemble, which has performed twice for the Howland Chamber Music Circle.
Yulman's works are heavy on thuds, chimes and disembodied vocals. Sounds emanating from a modified keyboard — along with an analog vibraphone and percussion instruments — are triggered by a computer program that operates jury-rigged solenoids (valves with plungers).
One rig can play every key on his modified reed organ; other controllers manipulate drumsticks and pedals on command.
At the show, Yulman will sing and play guitar to accompany the robots. The set-up includes wooden boxes that he hangs around the room, adding an element "that alters the sound depending on where you stand," he says. "You can mix your own experience by moving around."
Tracks are layered so thick that he laughs when asked how many a typical composition contains. Onscreen, the MIDI keyboard's programming panel looks like the paper rolls with cutouts from player pianos of the early 1900s.
"Mechanical music isn't new," he says. "But triggering weird sounds on my laptop didn't move me. This is a lot more fun."
The Cafeteria is located at the Clutter Gallery, 20 Kent St., in Beacon. Tickets for the May 30 show are $20 ($25 door). See dub.sh/cafeteria-5-30.
Around 25 years ago, as gentrification creeped in, stickers and graffiti emerged in Texas urging people to "Keep Austin Weird."
Going for a punk aesthetic, an early version of the poster promoting the triple bill on Saturday (May 30) at The Cafeteria, a new venue in Beacon, shows a singer with a mohawk wearing a Dead Boys shirt.
Two slogans adorn the bottom quadrant: "Keep Beacon Weird" echoes the call in Austin and "Hot Lunch Lives" nods to the space's former role as a high school cafeteria. It's now occupied by Clutter Gallery, which manufactures collectible designer toys and recently moved from Main Street.
The old high school is home to the KuBe Art Center, and the event is homegrown. Happy Valley Arcade Bar brings food and drink. Gavin Hecker booked the bands under the new Prophecy Lab brand that differentiates his live music arm from Prophecy Hall, the former church on the west side of town.
The Cafeteria holds 150 people and will host music shows twice a month, says Clutter co-owner Josh Kimberg. On May 30, alt-rock combo Monski opens for guitarist Jeffrey Lewis, coming from New York City. A veteran of the Austin music scene, he crossed paths with Ed Hamell, who is playing at Lucky Dog in Beacon today (May 29). The troubadours convey clever lyrics with simple but emphatic chords.
Lewis also hobnobbed with Daniel Johnston, an influential Austin musician who received a modicum of fame after someone photographed Kurt Cobain wearing a shirt depicting the cover of his 1983 album Hi, How Are You. It featured an abstract drawing of a frog, dubbed Jeremiah the Innocent.
Johnston, who died in 2019, was a friend of Ron English, another local designer-toy artist. Kimberg is working with Johnston's estate to create works related to the figure.
Also on the Saturday bill is Nick Yulman and the Bricolo Mechanical Band, housed in his basement at the foot of Mount Beacon. Active in the automated music circuit, he's played gigs at the New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Composer Angelica Negron has written several pieces that incorporate his contraptions for the Sö Percussion ensemble, which has performed twice for the Howland Chamber Music Circle.
Yulman's works are heavy on thuds, chimes and disembodied vocals. Sounds emanating from a modified keyboard — along with an analog vibraphone and percussion instruments — are triggered by a computer program that operates jury-rigged solenoids (valves with plungers).
One rig can play every key on his modified reed organ; other controllers manipulate drumsticks and pedals on command.
At the show, Yulman will sing and play guitar to accompany the robots. The set-up includes wooden boxes that he hangs around the room, adding an element "that alters the sound depending on where you stand," he says. "You can mix your own experience by moving around."
Tracks are layered so thick that he laughs when asked how many a typical composition contains. Onscreen, the MIDI keyboard's programming panel looks like the paper rolls with cutouts from player pianos of the early 1900s.
"Mechanical music isn't new," he says. "But triggering weird sounds on my laptop didn't move me. This is a lot more fun."
The Cafeteria is located at the Clutter Gallery, 20 Kent St., in Beacon. Tickets for the May 30 show are $20 ($25 door). See dub.sh/cafeteria-5-30.