Guerilla Toss. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk.

Playing Hooky 2016: Guerilla Toss

The high intensity band Guerilla Toss performs brutal and inventive rock and roll dance music in a one hour set performed live and broadcasted as part of the Playing Hooky radio event series. Streamed live on clocktower.org straight from a shipping container/recording studio in the idyllic garden at Pioneer Works.

Tune in at 4PM to hear Guerilla Toss live. To stay updated click HERE

Ecstatic, vital, and brilliantly unhinged, Guerilla Toss promotes positive energy and twisted spirituality through brutal, intelligent, live rock and roll dance music. A Guerilla Toss concert is more of a ritual than a performance; it is the unique pairing of musical voices and backgrounds that makes them such a special party band. But they are more than that – Guerilla Toss gets real when you pay close attention. Their music is inspired by drug addiction/mental illness and the re-birth of the soul through spiritual practice and psychedelic drug healing – helping the listener overcome these mind-fuck hardships.

In 2015, GT released their acclaimed DFA debut Flood Dosed, which cemented support from folks ranging from punk icon Henry Rollins to Busy P of Justice’s Ed Banger Records. The band also relocated from Boston to NYC. “We felt like it was time to move closer to our favorite active bands and artists and they all just so happen to live in NYC!” This didn’t slow the pace of their live performances – between road trips to universities and DIY Festivals, they have a de-facto residency at Brooklyn’s premiere underground venue Palisades and scored opening slots for The Juan Maclean and Mission of Burma.

Playing Hooky 2016: Horse Lords

The Baltimore band Horse Lords performs a symbiotic clash of minimalist experimentations and rock, in an ecstatic one hour set performed live and broadcasted as part of the Playing Hooky radio event series. Streamed live on clocktower.org straight from a shipping container/recording studio in the idyllic garden at Pioneer Works. Tune in at 4PM to hear Horse Lords live. Grafting the relentless repetitions of modern minimalism onto the propulsive engine of rock and roll, Horse Lords create an ecstatic forward thrust driven by dueling polyrhythms that curve endlessly past one another. The Baltimore quartet, consisting of saxophonist/percussionist Andrew Bernstein, bassist/synthesist Max Eilbacher, guitarist Owen Gardner, and drummer Sam Haberman, employs arcane tuning systems to achieve their otherworldly harmonies, made possible by guitars refretted by Gardner. The resulting sound is at once stark and lush, tightly interwoven and threatening to fly apart, making their live performances spellbinding and utterly thrilling affairs. Listen in at horselords.bandcamp.com.

Playing Hooky 2016: Ava Mendoza

The ecstatic guitar virtuoso, Ava Mendoza stops by the studio for a Playing Hooky broadcasted live set. Streamed live on clocktower.org straight from a shipping container/recording studio in the idyllic garden at Pioneer Works! Tune in at 4PM to hear Ava Mendoza live. Ava Mendoza plays guitars and stompboxes, and writes music. Mendoza is based out of Brooklyn, NY. She has played guitar for most of her life, and for the last decade has been actively playing her own music as well as with different groups. She has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe, and recorded or performed with a broad spectrum of musicians including singer Carla Bozulich (The Geraldine Fibbers, Evangelista), Fred Frith (Massacre, Henry Cow, Art Bears), Nels Cline, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Weasel Walter, Tune-Yards, and more. She has played on recordings released by labels Weird Forest, Tzadik, Clean Feed, NotTwo, ugEXPLODE, Resipiscent, New Atlantis, and others. She was named one of Guitar World‘s “10 Female Guitarists You Should Know”.

Playing Hooky 2016: Bob Bellerue

Experimental musician Bob Bellerue exhibits an unhinged noisy soundscape in a one hour set performed live and broadcasted as part of the Playing Hooky radio event series. Streamed live on clocktower.org straight from a shipping container/recording studio in the idyllic garden at Pioneer Works. Tune in at 4PM to hear Bob Bellerue live. Noise composer, experimental musician, and creative technician based in Brooklyn NY, Bellerue has been involved in a wide range of creative activities for over 25 years – experimental electronic music, junk metal percussion ensembles, Balinese gamelan, sound scores for dance/theater/video/performance art, and installation sound and video art. His recent sound work is focused on resonant feedback systems, amplified instruments objects and spaces, electronics, and Supercollider programming. He was formerly based in Los Angeles, where he ran the sub-garde experimental music/performance space the Il Corral, and curated the Beyond Music series and festival. He is an audio engineer and event producer, working presently for Issue Project Room and a dozen or so regular clients in the NYC area.

Playing Hooky 2016: James Brandon Lewis Trio

The free-jazz James Brandon Lewis Trio stop by the studio for a Playing Hooky broadcasted live set, with Luke Stewart on bass, Warren G. Crudup III on drums, and James Brandon Lewis on saxophone. Streamed live on clocktower.org straight from a shipping container/recording studio in the idyllic garden at Pioneer Works! Tune in at 4PM to hear the trio live. James Brandon Lewis is one of the modern titans of the tenor. He hass received accolades from mainstream cultural tastemakers such as Ebony Magazine who hailed him as one of 7 Young Players to Watch, and earned the respect of a diverse cross section of esteemed artists. Lewis attended Howard University and holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. Clocktower Radio's Playing Hooky is a bi-monthly, live in-studio performance series, streamed live on Clocktower Radio at clocktower.org. The programs are offered as a distraction from the work-week blues, and recorded, collected, and posted to this page alongside insightful interviews with the performers. Past episodes include performances from Frankie Cosmos, Helado Negro, Ikue Mori, Ned Rothenberg, and many more. Media sponsorship from Arts for Art