RADIO WONDERLAND

Saturday 28 March 2009
Doors open 7pm
RADIO WONDERLAND 8pm
They Might Be Giants 9pm

Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
212-505-FISH

Sharing the stage for the first time since the golden ’80s! Way back when, Joshua–for that was the name of my act in those days–and TMBG shared the stage at some of the coolest, funkiest, glam-est club/performance spaces in the East Village and elsewhere.  TMBG were about to steer indie rock in a more conceptual, clever, absurd direction on the strength of exquisite pop songs about animals, death, and the mundane, while I was making the primitive ancestry of what I do today: high-concept new music with performance art, unusual tech and dirty grooves.

Now, they’ve got their Grammys (finally!), and I (may I say?) am fulfilling the promise of back then: all live, all sound processing, the grooves even dirtier, the concept, ahem, higher.  And…the Steering Wheel.

The band has also asked me to join them that night in a series of comic bits for their musical set-within-a-set, a new version of their Venue Songs, co-scripted by John Hodgman.

Food and drinks will be served.

We will rock it. 

Le Poisson Rouge Tickets

There are some pictures up of the project I’ve been talking about here and there: I’m writing interactive music for a family-friendly
science center being built in CT.

Photo set of interactive instruments

Ann’s blog about it is here: geeky blog post

Are you here because you just saw me perform in Minnsapolis for Spark? The winner of the poll for most-favored-performer will get a commission for next years Spark.

Vote HERE. We endorse Joshua Fried’s RADIO WONDERLAND.

piece on Transmission Arts with quotes from JF

Yes, the world is insane. But within the confines of the media-mangling new music cult that is RADIO WONDERLAND, excitement reigns. And the “economy” –in the form of gigs, and ever-more juicy live FM radio bits to feed them– is growing: it’s not every week that I play two of NYC’s most artsy and fun venues. But, thanks to the merry pranksters at NWEAMO who never got the memo that computer musicians are supposed to be sexless screen-starers, I’m at the new DUMBO Galapagos and Joe’s Pub, with Stony Brook as almost a tasty appetizer. Hope to see you at one or more of these shows. (Then we’ll settle into some get-out-the-vote calls to swing states….right?)

RADIO WONDERLAND LIVE

10:30pm Thu 30 Oct 2008
Stony Brook, NY, for NWEAMO
University Café, Stony Brook Union Building
FREE

**********9:30 pm Fri 31 Oct 2008
Joe’s Pub, NYC, for NWEAMO
also featuring Scott Johnson with Mark Dancigers and SWARMIUS
425 Lafayette Street, between East 4th and Astor Place
New York, NY 10003
$15

*************Early! 5pm-8:30pm Sat 1 Nov 2008
Galapagos, NYC, for NWEAMO
with Sxip Shirey [MC], Kinesthetech Sense, Benoit Maubrey/Die Audio
Gruppe,
C.K. Barlow, Fearsome Sparrow and more
$15/10 donation
16 Main Street, corner of Water Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

NWEAMO’S theme this year is: Can Art be about Sex?
What is this NWEAMO?

Sat 27 Sep 2008: Le Petit Versailles, East Village
Sunset outdoor show with the towering writer, artist and consummate authority on things avant, *Richard Kostelanetz*.

6pm Saturday 27 September 2008
Le Petit Versailles
346 E. Houston Street between Aves. B & C, NYC 10002
Rain or Shine FREE (but donations gracefully accepted) 212-529-8815
Le Petit Versailles is a NYC public community garden in the East Village that presents a season of events including art exhibitions, music, film/video, performance, theater, workshops and community projects from May – October. LPV is a project of Allied Productions, Inc., a non-profit arts organization.

Radio Wonderland
welcomes the fall and the election media season with Freaks and Geeks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thu 04 Sep 2008: Freaks and Geeks, East Village
Freaks and Geeks “Eclectric” Cabaret Show

Erotica + Electronica
Sideshows + Go Gos
Performance + Magic

10pm+ Thursday 4 September 2008
Freaks and Geeks
@ Identity Bar
511 E. 6th Street between Aves. A & B, NYC 10009
$6.00 – 212-995-8899

New Museum Thursday 7 August

http://www.newmuseum.org/
http://www.free103point9.org/events/1942/
Continue reading →

Yikes: 5 shows and 2 talks in 3 days. Heat, sunshine, and some really fun crowds and great tech crews. Pics should be up soon; and today Cleveland Ingenuity kicked off their final IngenuityFest News E-Flash with a Q&A by yours truly.

E-FLASH #11 | 07.27.2008
NEWS FROM THE CLEVELAND FESTIVAL OF ART + TECHNOLOGY
www.ingenuitycleveland.com

Q&A WITH JOSHUA FRIED: RADIO WONDERLAND

Joshua mixed FM radio into electric oblivion this weekend, using a boom box, old shoes and a steering wheel, completely wowing the audience in Radio Wonderland. Check out his Sunday performance at 2:00pm on the NPi Stage, or visit his website here.

Your performance is completely alive in that it is subject to constant variation. How do you deal with the element of surprise and how has it enhanced your work?
JF: Because my source is live FM radio, the unexpected is built-in.  I structure my work on this foundation, deliberately.  Every artist chooses problems to solve.  To figure how to reign in chance and get beautiful (danceable, tuneful, harmonic, funny, stirring, hypnotic) results is to tap into the highest mysteries,  I think.  Simply to frame the chance material is amazingly powerful.  Since I’m using commercial material I often get iconic, uproarious clips. It’s odd:  people usually comment that I got lucky during the show they just attended. 

What do you think the role of a new "recycled musicality" could be within the industry, reusing not only material, but also audio (the digitally recyclable)?
JF: Not sure what you mean by industry, and the difference between “material” and “audio”. But the sampling and general intellectual property debates are so tough and so important.  I don’t believe in what I call "artificial scarcity".  Digital data can be copied infinitely and society must grapple with this sensibly.  The arts evolve best, artistically speaking, when borrowing is pretty free.  This is part of why reggae grew so gloriously in the ’70s.  And Mozart had to quickly arrange his music for various types of ensembles just to beat his competitors to the punch. Would I bite the hand that feeds me?  Give my music away?  Well, my dad did write music for TV and his royalties sent me to college. But this is a new world.  We have to embrace Quark even if the typesetters lose their jobs.   The artistry that goes into the Quark document, however, or into music, for that matter, does not diminish or become less necessary in the digital revolution. 

How have your collaborators influenced your style or process?
JF: Oh, hugely.  I get the advantage of their own ears  and their own musical history.  The deadlines and the requirement to support another medium–or other musician–help me shore up my current skills.  Collaborators help me relax away from the usual artistic torment. 

If FM radio is accessible music/news for the masses, do you, in a sense, make the mainstream accessible to the musically "elite"?
JF: By the time it hits the speakers, the radio is too mangled by me to call it mainstream,  I think.   I recontextualize the mainstream so we can hear new things in it, new aspects, but it is no longer mainstream.  And sure, I can get a smile at a snippet of cheesy arena-rock, from someone who would otherwise be mortified to be caught enjoying it. I might even say that I make found sound accessible to the mainstream. And I try to make all of my music, based on found sound or not, accessible to humans, not ‘musicians’.  I want everyone to hear the power of, say, phase patterns, polyrhythms/cross rhythms, beautiful chord changes, a deep house groove. Why keep it a secret by means of obscurity?

With the increasing corporate-ness of radio, have you ever considered your work as politically charged, taking something that is carefully controlled and re-controlling/ re-releasing it in an uncensored, democratic environment?
JF: Yes, I have.   In fact, that’s what I explicitly aim to do.   I want  to expose the commercial stream as something to be messed with by everyone (not just gearheads or theorists).  I want to show those who may be cowed by technology:  LOOK!   –We can interrupt the never-ending flow.  I put a mustache on the Mona Lisa,  so you can too.  Er, well…Duchamp a mustache on the Mona Lisa first, so I can too. So you can too. 

The title of your performance, Radio Wonderland, conjures the thought of an imaginary landscape of sound. If you were to visually describe this "wonderland", what would it look like? 
JF: Well first of all, you’re there too. Yes YOU.  You look great.  And say, the balloon seller is giving them away for free!  The disco ball is turning.  Let’s dance.

Ben Neill, the mutantrumpeter and new music demi-god, will sit in for part of my set at The Stone on Saturday!

THE STONE
Avenue C at 2nd street
New York, NY 10009

ADMISSION
$10 per set
children 12 and under free
No advance sales; all admissions are at the door prior to each set.

Why not come for Ben Neill’s 8pm solo set too — there just may be a special guest appearance by a certain steering wheel + shoeist. Ben is the inventor of the electro-acoustic instrument Mutantrumpet; he’s a long-time creative force in new music, and sometimes he deconstructs early music like Radio Wonderland deconstructs pop. http://benneill.com

Both sets were curated by the splendid bass clarinetist/composer Michael Lowenstern.

The Stone is a not-for-profit performance space, founder and artistic director, John Zorn. “There are no refreshments or merchandise at The Stone. Only music.”

“Fried is a brilliant improvisor”! — Peter Mathews, Feast of Music

Read Feast of Music

Not sure who the author is (that’s good, right?) but it’s a nice mention. Meanwhile, I hope to see people Tuesday at the Toxic Pop bash, and beyond. See the Upcoming section, left.

Live at SPARK, 28 February 2008, Minneapolis Minnesota, PHOTO BY Shari Hagen

Last month’s SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Art was complete fun and made me feel like a star! Folks were shouting and shimmying like they don’t often do in tough, black-clad NYC. These photos are by Shari Hagen, whose very presentable photographer’s web site is HERE. Stay tuned for VIDEO!

live at SPARK 28 Feb. 2008, Minneapolis, photo by Shari Hagen

live at SPARK 28 Feb. 2008, Minneapolis, photo by Shari Hagen

Live at SPARK, 28 February 2008, Minneapolis Minnesota, PHOTO BY Shari Hagen

Live at SPARK, 28 February 2008, Minneapolis Minnesota, PHOTO BY Shari Hagen

live at SPARK 28 Feb. 2008, Minneapolis, photo by Shari Hagen

live at SPARK 28 Feb. 2008, Minneapolis, photo by Shari Hagen

Curator JP Hungelmann & JF, 28 February 2008, Minneapolis Minnesota, PHOTO BY Shari Hagen

A trio! …

with Hans Tammen, on Endangered Guitar
Tom Shad, on Electric Bass with digital whammy
and yours truly RADIO WONDERLAND, on Radio Wonderland

===MIDNIGHT SET===

Here’s the hype folks, courtesy of Rebus PR:

The newest entry into the technologically-enhanced extended improv sweepstakes is the trio of virtuosic veterans Hans Tammen–“endangered guitar”, Tom Shad–Blue Man bassist, and Joshua Fried–AKA “Radio Wonderland” on his shoes, steering wheel and laptop. What sets these guys apart is the engagement of the body as well as the ear and the mind (read: they know how to groove). Expect the most current sonic DSP (that’s digital signal processing in case you missed it), as well as muscular jams that fly Jimi and Miles into the heart of NYC’s vortex of alt-jazz techno jams.

LINKS
Hans Tammen, Endangered Guitar
Tom Shad, bass/digital whammy
RADIO WONDERLAND

Dj Shakey and Moldover present
the monthly party:

WARPER

2 Rooms of Omnidigital DJs and Biomorphic Musicians!

Live Music from 8pm sharp 17+ electronic music performers

Projected Images, Workshops, and Interactive Art too

WEDNESDAY March 19th
Supreme Trading
213 N. 8th st Williamsburg Brooklyn 11211
Supreme Trading, where the Warper Party is

St. Patrick’s Day night! 10pm

Tom Swirly’s Psych-o-delic Circus
at
Cave Canem, Under Lucky Cheng’s
24 First Avenue (at 2nd St)
New York, NY 10009
$5

The dizziest, maybe the messiest (messy can be good!), definitely the series most likely to make you doubt your senses. Anything can happen, including dancing on stage, more than one Radio Wonderland set, and spontaneous jams with Tom Swirly on his clarinet-like MIDI wind controller.

As Tom Swirly puts it:

“More crazy, more lights, more strange, always, this and every Monday at Cave
Canem in the East Village.

A monstrously strange avant-garde musical/talk show with variety acts, magic
tricks, weirdness, sensation and live electronic music. “

I first performed at Dixon Place in the mid-late ’80s. I go on, it goes on, good to be back. The Gothamist says,

“The long-running, always-surprising Little Theater is happening tonight at Dixon Place. Curated by Mike Taylor and playwright Jeffrey M. Jones … the monthly series is beloved by downtown theater denizens for its eclectic mix of performance art, play excerpts and general experimental mayhem. There’s always a lot of laughs, too.”

NURSE BABY ASPARAGUS K-STARR SINGS TANKO BUSHI
Mike Iveson

DAS KAPITAL — PRELUDE TO CHAPTER IV
by Rob Handel
directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
with Matthew Maher

SMEARCASE
by Ursula Eagly, in collaboration with Dean DeChiaro,
Abby Harris, Jeremy Holmes, & Keith Malone

MY BIRTHDAY SHOW
The Alien Comic

RADIO WONDERLAND
Joshua Fried

***************************************************************
Monday, February 4, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Dixon Place, 258 Bowery btw. Houston & Prince
(F/V 2nd Ave; R/W Prince; 6 Bleecker)

Tickets $10.00 with printout of this email
$12.00 at the door, or online (http://www.dixonplace.org)

first come, first served, no reservations

You wanna see laptops get funky (along with your good friends the SHOES and WHEEL aka RADIO WONDERLAND aka me)??

Shakey and Moldover consistently present the New Music-est laptop-ers. Or the most laptop-y New Music. Oh, forget it, you know I don’t usually even like laptops–that’s why I control mine by shoes and wheel instead of keys and mouse–but this series is good.

DJ Shakey and Moldover present
the monthly party:

MUSIC – FRONT ROOM
08:00 _VectorZero
08:30 Jazzy Burn’s
09:00 Self Love
09:30 Hercules
10:10 In the Loop
10:50 Shakey
11:30 Vusac
12:10 Steve
12:30 Atom
01:20 Wetterberg

RADIO WONDERLAND on MySpace

Radio Wonderland performance details, community, audio and video.

Soon to be replaced by an even better edited video from more recent show(s). But we have to start somewhere.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.showvids&friendID=165912636

width 720

It just occurred to me, regarding my big heroes:

As a performer, I identify with Bob Dylan (the risk taking, spontaneity).

As a producer/composer/maker of recorded works, I identify with Kubrick (unprolific, perfectionist).

kubris

NetLingo Classification: Online Jargon

RADIO WONDERLAND will appear live at that monthly music-for-people-who-like-robots
series, TRANZDUCER.

-(TRANZDUCER is LEMURplex’s music, art and performance series hosted by
Eric Singer and Jamie Allen.)

–(LEMURplex is the home of LEMUR.)

—(And LEMUR = the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.)

I played the very first Tranzducer back in January.
It’s up on YouTube, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSDvh0TNPEQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuomvC5bXXI

This coming Friday I’m playing last so that puts my set time around
10pm. Tranzducer’s blurb makes me feel like a star….thanks Jamie!

Friday 26 October 2007
8PM – 11 PM (RADIO WONDERLAND around 10)
$5 at the door
LEMURplex, 461 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215

DIRECTIONS

LEMURplex is located at 461 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, between 9th and 10th
streets near the vibrant neighborhoods of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens,
Gowanus and Red Hook.

By subway:
Take the F/M/R to 4th Ave and walk one block down either 9th or 10th
St. to 3rd Ave. Or, take the F/G to Smith & 9th St and walk two blocks
up 9th. Cross and then turn right onto 3rd Ave.

By car via Google Maps

———————————————————————-
———————————————————————-
tranzducer.010!!!

Joshua Fried’s RADIO WONDERLAND

Paul Amitai with Lady Firefly

Glissando Bin Laden and his MusicHadeen

We happily welcome Joshua Fried’s solo project RADIO WONDERLAND back to
the LEMURplex stage in October. Also, Paul Amitai with the video artist
Lady Firefly, and Glissando Bin Laden and His MusicHadeen will be
hitting tranzducer.010 on Friday, October 26. Just to whet your
palate…think steering wheels, shoes, midi controllers, vocals, video
and improv… all producing fun, electronic music for the masses. Always
a sensory experience, the sound is great, the drinks are cheap, and there
is just no way to spend a better Friday night on 3rd Avenue.

———————————————————————-
———————————————————————-
Joshua Fried
RADIO WONDERLAND, Joshua Fried’s solo project, gets all its source
material from a live FM radio. The show is completely local, immediate
and live in every sense (including different-every-time). No sounds are
stored before the performance. Anything picked up over the course of the
show is fair game throughout. All processing is in Max/MSP on the
laptop, controlled by old shoes hit with sticks and a vintage Buick
steering wheel. Joshua Fried has jammed at Lincoln Center, Club 57,
Galapagos, the Kitchen, the Dutch Royal Palace, Tokyo’s trippy ICC and a
street corner in Gowanus. He’s remixed Chaka Khan and They Might Be
Giants and others. He teaches Max MSP and is the youngest composer in
Schirmer Book’s *American Music in the 20th C*

Paul Amitai
Paul Amitai is a musician and media artist who performs electronic and
improvised music in clubs and art spaces around the U.S. As both a solo
performer and a member of various bands, Amitai has shared the stage
with a diverse range of musicians, including Run-DMC, The Skatalites,
The Specials, Califone, and Crooked Fingers. His installation work has
been exhibited at venues such as Scope New York, Art Chicago, Soap
Factory (Minneapolis), and Exchange Square (Manchester, UK). In addition
to work as a practicing artist, Amitai has written on electronic arts
and culture for New Art Examiner, Signal to Noise, MTV, and The Onion.
He was also the creator and curator of the New York Festival of
Electronic Composers and Improvisers at the Knitting Factory. Amitai is
currently exhibitions and public programs coordinator at Eyebeam.

Lady Firefly
Fusing the surreal with the sensual, Lady Firefly (Zarah Cabanas) has
splashed her electrorganic videoworks and mixes in spaces, galleries,
music venues, and events all over NYC, most recently at the American
Museum of Natural History, and at the River to River Festival, Nublu,
Tonic (its spirit lives!) and Share. Firefly has participated in
festivals in Australia, Spain, and most recently in Russia at the
Apositsia III Experimental Music Forum as a VJ and saxophonist; While
her video artwork at Blue Man Group has appeared on performances with DJ
Tiesto and earlier this month on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Glissando Bin Laden and His MusicHadeen
New York’s Glissando Bin Laden and His MusicHadeen (Alex Ness, Jim
Altieri, Meighan Stoops, and Sam Pluta) are a microtonal improvising
noise quartet set to terrorize your occipital lobe with their unique
blend of droning and crackling violins, clarinets, and electronics.

Yep, finally had to. Here is the place to find edited RADIO WONDERLAND shows, suitable for home listening or for dancing.

{{{{{{{ (NO SOAP) RADIO WONDERLAND = Radio Wonderland & Jed Distler
plus video by Adam Kendall and Brock Monroe (Mighty Robot)

Epic, groove-based, technologically enhanced A/V improvisation }}}}}}}

Wednesday, October 17
Showtime: 8pm
MONKEY TOWN
58 N 3rd St
(btw. Kent & Wythe)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211

Admission: $5 + $10 food/drink minimum

reservations:
http://www.monkeytownhq.com/reservations.html

Hotline: 718.384.1369

It will be my longest set ever as Radio Wonderland, a duet with the
amazingly versatile pianist Jed Distler on keyboards (he’s also a
classical music critic, a curator, a Deadhead and a general music freak)
along with analog+digital video by Adam Kendall and Brock Monroe who we
brought in just for this occasion.

We will all be improvising–

grooving in fact I hope

–together.

You can eat dinner while we play. It’s at Monkey Town, that strange land
on the continent of Williamsburg, Brooklyn where the video screens are
giant, the cultural offerings are far out and the food is gourmet–well,
check out their menu, here:

http://www.monkeytownhq.com/dinnermenu.html

oh, and also:
http://www.monkeytownhq.com/dessert.html

oh, and also:
http://www.monkeytownhq.com/winecocktail.html

They even have a *Sommelier*, which I believe refers to a man or woman
who manages to look both aloof and obsequious at the same time and
murmurs something about the wines.

Email address: monkeytownhq@aol.com

9/29/07 at 3LD Art and Technology Center, 6pm-2am…

80 Greenwich Street (near Rector St., lots of subways nearby)
New York, NY 10006
tel. 212.645.0374

Installations by LEMUR robots, Troika Ranch, 3LD, more. Live DJ. Live Radio Wonderland of course.

FREE! And word has it….free booze.

Something about the inmates taking over the asylum? That’s how I felt about 3 Legged Dog when they started, because it looked like theater techies starting their own theater and doing everything. I can relate, as I believe in seizing the means of production to make art. They’ve turned out to be a vital force in experimental theater and performance, not strictly focused on tech. They’ve been at the center of World Trade Center-area culture, both BEFORE and AFTER. Their new space is amazing, and is a development lab, full of shiny gear and people even shinier (okay, I was a little drunk that night). Radio Wonderland will rock the house. The 3LD parties are amazing–people really turn out, it’s a bit like wandering around a computer art show at the New Museum, only with drinks and dancing and a slightly debauched vibe. This is also where next year I will be creating the theater piece Frequency Hopping with the Hourglass Group, and an all-robot orchestra!