Tonight’s the night. The Wick has been teasing us since 2012 but tonight the 4,000-square-foot beer hall and concert space will finally have music! Check out Keiji Haino at 260 Meserole Street in Bushwick:
Keiji Haino (Haino Keiji) born 1952 in Chiba, Japan, and currently residing in Tokyo, is a Japanese musician whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise, singer-songwriter, solo percussion, psychedelic, minimalism and drone styles, and covers. He has been active since the 1970s and continues to record regularly and in new styles. His main instruments of choice have been guitar and vocals, with many other instruments and approaches incorporated into his career’s work. Haino is known for intensely cathartic sound explorations, and much of his work bears an insular singularity, but his output has been so varied as to not always be recognizable as him.
Haino’s initial artistic outlet was theatre, inspired by the radical writings of Antonin Artaud. An epiphanic moment came when he heard The Doors’ “When The Music’s Over” and changed course towards music. After brief stints in a number of blues and experimental outfits, he formed improvised rock band Lost Aaraaf in 1970. In the mid 1970s, having left Lost Aaraaf, he collaborated with psychedelic multi-instrumentalist Magical Power Mako and film soundtrack composer Toru Takemitsu.
His musical output throughout the late 1970s is scarcely documented, until the formation of his rock duo Fushitsusha in 1978 (although their first LP did not surface until 1989). This outfit initially consisted of Haino on guitar and vocals, and Tamio Shiraishi on synthesizer. With the departure of Shiraishi and the addition of Jun Hamano (bass) and Shuhei Takashima (drums), Fushitsusha operated as a trio. The lineup soon changed, with Yasushi Ozawa (bass) and Jun Kosugi (drums) performing throughout the 1990s, but returned to a duo with Haino supplementing percussion with tape-loops.
Get tickets here.
Other shows at Bushwick’s the Wick:
4/5 Unsound Festival at The Bunker w/ Porter Ricks, Vladislav Delay, Miles of Demdike Stare + more (Tickets)
4/17 & 4/20 New York’s Alright 2014 w/ Hank Wood & The Hammerheads, Dawn of Humans, DiE, Contingent + more (Tickets)
5/2 Egyptian Lover and Mark McGuire (Tickets)
5-8 Marnie Stern (Tickets)
5-9 Liars and Jana Hunter (Tickets)
5-10 The Men, Obits, Nude Beach, DJ CB Radio (Tickets)
6-7 O’ Death, Vietnam (Tickets)