By Way Of Addressing Things People Often Wish To Know About Anti-Social Music:
Hi! We're Anti-Social Music. Perhaps you've never heard of us, and let's be honest, I'm not surprised, this city is teeming with low-rent new music groups fighting like rabid little black-clad wolves for a bite off the fundraising bone. What makes us so damn special, anyway? Who, exactly, do we think we are?
THE DIRT: Anti-Social Music, Inc., is a non-profit collective of composers and performers created for the purpose of presenting new music by emerging, primarily New York-based musicians. We came together in November 2000 for what was originally intended only as a one-off concert called "An Afternoon of Anti-Social Chamber Music". Turns out people liked it, so now we present concerts of premieres, twice yearly, of new compositions written and performed by ASM members and associates. The programs for these concerts are intended to feature exclusively premiere performances of new work, written in most cases specifically for the ensemble and the concerts; and are additionally intended to not be so gosh-darn serious. This stuff is supposed to be fun, no? Plus we do shows of ASM repertory at festivals, clubs, on rooftops, and venues both conventional and urine-stained. And all shows feature artwork and stage design by some of our favorite local artists.
Since then? Approaching our thirteenth anniversary, we've played everywhere from the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe to Merkin Hall. We've released five studio albums, with more on the way. We produced a hit indie opera. We toured Ukraine in fall 2010. As of 2009, we've played over 75 shows, premiered 123 new works by 28 composers, and over 110 performers have played or recorded with us. We've received funding from Meet the Composer/JPMorgan Chase Fund for Small Ensembles, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Meet The Composer's MetLife Creative Connections program. Not bad for a bunch of scrubs.
THE PEOPLE: No-one in the group is simply a chamber-music lifer or a downtown-jazz snob or a punk-rocker dabbling in the "legit music" world. ASM concerts have featured members of Gutbucket, World/Inferno Friendship Society, Balkan Beat Box, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Hold Steady, Ida, Jon Langford's Ship & Pilot, His Name Is Alive, Barbez, Luminescent Orchestrii, the New Jersey Philharmonic, New York City Opera, and so on and so on. You get my point. Basic New York scene eclectics. All the fun without the pretension.
Oh yes, one last point of interest. People often ask us, "Why 'Anti-Social Music'? Who are you trying to fool? Clearly you're just a bunch of nice kids with music stands." By way of an answer, I suggest an experiment. Next time you throw a party, cocktail hour, or other social gathering, put our CD in your changer between Animal Collective and the Dirty Projectors and see how long it takes before your guests begin to shift back and forth uneasily and start looking at their watches. Email us at antisocialmusic@gmail.com and let us know what happens!