House and Living Organics at the Dryden

I headed over to the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) to catch the films screened there. Starting out was a short film called Living Organics which was a series of animated, abstract vignettes depicting how modern culture works to remove humanity from the living world it is part of. It was fitting introductory piece to Hausu (House).

There really is no way to explain what happens in the movie. It's rooted in a nightmare horror scenario where members of a party disappear one at a time. Its execution … well, that's another story. My friend Albert commented afterward that it was very dreamlike — so perfectly so, in some ways, that we were having a hard time remembering the events that transpired. It's supremely bizarre narrative. I guess it makes a little more sense from a Japanese perspective, as there are some cultural references — but even then, it's dominated so much by this dreamy nightmare motif that it's really hard to explain.

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Other/other/other and Jay Repp at Record Archive

I started out by heading to The Record Archive (33 1/3 Rockwood St.) to catch the in-store bands. First up was Jay Repp playing solo. I generally liked his acoustic-rock and modern-rock style, but I wasn't particularly drawn-in by it either. As before, I greatly liked other/other/other with their melodic trancey synthesized music. It just touches on dreamy and ethereal, but stays rooted in gently danceable beats.

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Where is Fred Brown? and the Bogs Visionary Orchestra at Boulder

I headed to Boulder Coffee Co.MySpace link (100 Alexander St.) to catch the show there. When I got there, Where is Fred Brown? was already playing. Conceived as a three-piece with John ValentiMySpace link, Alfred Brown, and Paul BurkeMySpace link, it's temporarily named for the absence of its middle member. They played a great set of melodic trance-snyth. It had this nice dreamlike finish to it. I also stayed for The Bogs Visionary OrchestraMySpace link who played some excellent "new Americana", so-to-speak: rooted in Americana, but with a modern-rock presence. Unfortunately, the flu I'd been fighting for the past three days was getting the best of me and I didn't stay for Seth Faergolzia.

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