[scott v]

Having lived in Buffalo all my life and being part of the underground music community for almost 20 years hard to not have seen this man at shows, performing and having a laugh. RIP Tony.

https://trend.network/2016/04/09/ton...to/N_pfzlc6xsM

"Tony Conrad” the composer, musician, video artist, teacher, and writer” has died, The Buffalo News reports. Conrad is considered a pioneer of minimalism, drone, and noise music. He had been battling prostate cancer and was recently hospitalized with pneumonia. He was 76.

Conrad was born in Baltimore in 1940. After he graduated from Harvard in 1962, he moved to New York, where he became an integral member of the city's underground music scene. He collaborated with La Monte Young and was an early member of the collective Theater of Eternal Music (aka the Dream Syndicate). He was in a short-lived pre-Velvet Underground band called the Primitives with John Cale and Lou Reed. Conrad reportedly introduced Cale and Reed to a book called The Velvet Underground, which is how they got the band's name.Â

In the 1960s, he became an experimental filmmaker. His first was 1966's The Flicker, which is considered widely influential in the development of structural filmmaking. Conrad worked with Faust to create the 1973 album Outside the Dream Syndicate. In 1993, he returned to performing after a long hiatus, and in 1995, he released Slapping Pythagoras, his first new album in over two decades. From that point on, he released several records, including collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Rhys Chatham, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and many others.

Conrad taught at the University of Buffalo's Media Department starting in 1976. About a week ago, he was scheduled to perform Outside the Dream Syndicate with Faust at Big Ears Festival, but was forced to cancel because of his health. Laurie Anderson performed with Faust in his place. In an interview with Pitchfork contributor Marc Masters, Conrad said, "I still have a lot of music that hasn't found its way to daylight yet."

[Toilet & Bowels]

Sad. I saw him in London about 10 years ago, he was playing violin to a glitchy backing track, it was very good. It wasn't until the end of the performance that he told us that there were technical problems and the backing tracks weren't supposed to glitch.

[guest]

this one really hit me. been listening to slapping pythagoras all day.

incredibly inventive/articulate individual whose impact can't really be calculated. saw him perform twice (solo on a bill with charlemagne palestine, and in a duo with chris abrahams from the necks; faust were playing that night but unfortunately no outside the dream syndicate) and was a marvel on both.

[RanaldoNecro]

Shitty. Outside the Dream Syndicate is an amazing listen. RIP

[The Soup Nazi]

Goddammit.

 

TONY CONRAD 1998-10-01 Frankfurt(Germany), KOZ (R.I.P. TONY CONRAD)

https://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=dcTJz1wutK3civM69nqlRj_Rehc2M&q=tony+con rad&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKzfbM2ITMAhW JdT4KHYpkC_IQqgIIKDAA

[hipster_bebop_junkie]

I had the fortune of seeing him playing live in Mexico City a few years ago, and also could had a chat with him about Keiji Haino, live recordings of independent origin (like the one currently being seeded to dimeadozen), and music ending up on youtube... He was very gentle, funny, and was kind to anyone who approached him for any reason: Autographs or whatever (he signed my copy of "Musculus Trapezius", a record I really love, released by Lasse Marhaug through Pica Disk).

It is sad news indeed, and a huge loss.

 

[Toilet & Bowels]

What did he say about Keiji Haino?

[scott v]

I performed with Tony once, in an ensemble as part of Rhys Chatham's G3 Is My Life performance in Buffalo 2007. All the members of my then band (Bare Flames) were in this ensemble plus other friends involved in the Buffalo underground rock/experimental scene. Tony arrived late to rehearsal, as he had to be coerced by Rhys to play (Rhys and Tony were long-time friends going back to when they both lived in NYC). I'm assuming that he probably didn't play much guitar since The Primitives (pre VU band he was in with Lou Reed and John Cale). We were rehearsing and Tony shows up thru a door and down the steps onto the back of the stage holding a 60's short scale Harmony/Silvertone Bobkat electric guitar, and asks "Will this work?"

I was lucky to have witness quite a few performances as he was quite active in the Buffalo-scene from the late 90's to about the mid/late 00's. He always had the element of surprise he's most well noted for playing violin behind a white sheet with one light such that all you could see is his shadow and hear the long drones, but he also had long string instruments attached to long pieces of 2x4. He had made "phonograph player"
which he performed with in Buffalo a few times, it was a hand-held electric drill mounted on a stand, a long spindle as "the bit" where the records were threaded thru and he manually applied 2 phonograph cartridges as the drill spun the records at 1000's of rpms, the sound was insane, he liked it that way. He also had a children's toy drumkit where the drums heads/skins being made of plastic he had cut round holes into and he bowed these openings and the resulting sound was amplified via contact mics attached to the kit.

He had seen performances of noise/experimental bands/projects I was in mostly because my friends/bandmates/collaborators had been either students/collegues in the Media Study Dept. at the University of Buffalo where he taught. And he would say things like, "...that was interesting in how you did that" or something of the sort...

The man was eccentric, but funny, real funny...

http://www.rhyschatham.net/G3ismylife/Buffalo.html
Part 1 of the Buffalo performance appears on Guitar Trio Is My Life! (CD - Table of the Elements/Radium #11813) Disc 1

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/...io-is-my-life/

[tesla69]

I was looking through my list of recordings,
I recorded Conrad twice.
This show I remember

TONY CONRAD/ARNOLD DREYBLATT/JIM O'ROURKE/ORCHESTRA OF EXCITABLE STRINGS #Tonic, NYC 19 Jan 01 17 VG+ COMPLETE, 2ND SET

I bought my advance ticket for the 2nd set thinking the 1st set would be the warm up
for the 2nd set, but Conrad played for like 100 minutes
the 1st set, we were waiting out in the hall shuffling on our feet, I don't think the venue knew what to do.
once they got the 1st set cleared and the 2nd set crowd sold enough alcohol
then the musicians played this quick brief set. I think I was relieved it wasn't 100 minutes.

I saw him in 1998 but I don't really remember much, I think he played behind a curtain
with lighting projecting onto it.
#Middle East(up), Cambridge 7 Aug 98 51 VG+

take nothing for granted

[Savage Clone]

Total bummer. I saw him play some years back and it was excellent. Made up for a very sterile venue; I forgot where I was, which says a lot.
I also got to meet and speak to him for a bit, and he was really kind and very easy to talk with. His contribution to music really can't be measured.

[scott v]

First time I saw him was the 'Ten Years on an Infinite Plane' tour with Gastr Del Sol (Jim O'Rourke & David Grubbs) in 1996 in Buffalo. My intro to live experimental/minimalist drone music, I was young and confused yet mesmerized. There was a video projection behind the players that resembled 'The Flicker' and a "partial"? sheet from what I recall obscuring the players to just shadows on stage.

[greenlight]

I was listening to a great, great tribute to Tony Conrad on WFMU's Strenght Through Failure with Fabio show yesterday, while doing some translations. I had to stop during the Tony Conrad with Faust & Jim O'Rourke -Outside the Dream Syndicate Alive, coz that piece just blew my mind. Here is a whole show:

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/66033

[Genteel Death]

RIP and an amazing musician/thinker.

[Bytor Peltor]

Dead-Air played tribute to Mr. Conrad during this past Saturday's What's This Called?

[greenlight]

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor

Dead-Air played tribute to Mr. Conrad during this past Saturday's What's This Called?

is dead-air still posting here by the way?

[Bytor Peltor]

Not actively, but I believe he may visit SYG every now and then. He last posted over two years ago when Adam passed......his radio show still airs every Saturday.

[greenlight]

Originally Posted by Bytor Peltor

Not actively, but I believe he may visit SYG every now and then. He last posted over two years ago when Adam passed......his radio show still airs every Saturday.

hmm, I see. I think he still posts on twitter. must tune in sometime actually. just checking his recent playlists...

[The Soup Nazi]

 

From The Wire:

Tony Conrad 1940–2016: Breaking The Frame
Alan Licht surveys the late composer and artist Tony Conrad's film work, which ranged from structuralist classics to public access TV

[pepper_green]

yeah he cool.