Anti-Social Music

From Aiding & Abetting

Anti-Social Music
The Best of the First Year
(self-released)

There's this stereotype of music in the big city. Kids leave home playing Mozart and Bach, go to music school in, say, New York, and come home playing some of the weirdest stuff around. Suffice it to say the folks who are collectively known as Anti-Social Music are never going home.

Which isn't to say these pieces are truly off the map. There isn't the almost-blinding idiosyncrasy of a Philip Glass at his most maddening. Nor is there the "concept for concept's sake" form of experimentalism epitomized by John Cage. Rather, these always-engaging works push the envelope by melding together rather disparate styles.

Imagine some of Ornette Coleman's mouthpiece squawks dropped into some Gershwin-style classical jazz. Or a little Vandermarkian riffing within a romantic (if a kinda atonal) atmosphere. In any case, this music is most definitely written and performed to the letter. Improvisation is not on the menu here. If you're surprised by something you hear, it first occurred to the composer.

Which makes these pieces almost more impressive. Improv can bring out some wonderful ideas. But to conceive and then preserve such creativity is truly the mark of greatness. Anti-Social Music knows a few good composers, and the collective knows how to make these works sing.

- Jon Worley, Issue #231

From Time Out New York
June 20-27th, 2002 Issue No. 351

Anti-Social Music, CAMI Hall, Friday June 21, 8pm

The scrappy composers' collective sneaks into an uptown venue for an evening of new works (naturally) by Peter Hess, Erik Jakebson, Dan Lasaga, Pat Muchmore, Dan Neustadt, and John Wriggle.

From New York Press:

How much new chamber music has been composed, let alone performed, for the general public as of late? Not enough, according to the Anti-Social Music Collective. They're bringing not punk rock but punk orchestra to the people. More precisely: original chamber music by way of DIY. Tonight, ASM presents its fourth Semi-Annual Premieres Extravaganza, featuring a full roster of new compositions from "punks who went to orchestra camp." The last performance was so packed that the crowd spilled onstage. This time, they promise standing-room-only space in the rafters. Greenwich House, 46 Barrow St. (betw. Bedford St. & 7th Ave. S.), 917-543-0947, 8 p.m., $9.99.

From Evilsponge

After they were done, i wanted to sit and relax, so Tracers and I trudged up to Earthshaking Music to see Anti-Social Chamber Music. We knew nothing of this band, but figured that given the name, we had to check them out.

And they were very very fun. ASCM is, apparently, a musical collective from NYC. There were 4 members present tonight: a keyboardist, a cellist, a saxophonist, and an accordianist. They played a sort of whacky free-jazz, and just seemed to be having so much fun that the crowd was happy.

And it was an odd crowd -- i supect that most of the people were like us in that they had wanted to sit down, and the name intrigued them. Most of the people that is -- Binary System (the free-jazz keyboard combo from last night) were there and they were ecstatic.

ASCM played several pieces, all of which i remember enjoying as i watched. The only one i remember is a solo cello piece. The cellist played along with some drones looped on a CD, in a beautiful exploration of the capabiliites of his instrument.

Otherwise, they were different, and they told jokes and silly stories between songs. What fun, and totally unexpected.

[Evilsponge also rated us as one of the three best touring acts at Independent Georgia, saying:]

Anti-Social Chamber music. O.k., I don't like free jazz, and this was free jazz. Still, this four piece (more or less) was having so much fun and was so into it that I had to buy into what I was watching. I especially liked the cellist's solo piece.

From WNYC
93.9 New York Public Radio

Soundcheck with John Schaefer
Exploding Family Collectives
Thursday, June 20, 2002

Live performances by surprisingly functional families and collectives - featuring the Ying Quartet, the Anti-Social Music Collective, and the Goldman Memorial Band.

Families that play together stay together, and the Ying Quartet is proof. This fine familial ensemble joins us for a return visit, and they'll treat us to a live performance. Members of the Anti-Social Music Collective come by to talk about what's new in their world of cutting-edge cultural production. Listened to any solo tuba lately? You won't hear it here, either, but members of the Goldman Memorial band will be in to talk about their upcoming program of works by Wilder, Gould, Schuman and Rogers, as well as selections of vintage circus tunes, and "Tubby the Tuba," narrated by Tuba virtuoso Harvey Phillips.

Transcript of the interview