Screaming Females performing at Primal Screams. Video work by Faye Orlove. Image courtesy of Walter Wlodarczyk for @TSqArts.

Primal Screams

Clocktower Productions and Times Square Arts are pleased to present Primal Screams, a raucous night of underground bands with strong female forces, featuring Screaming Females, Guardian Alien, and Priests, hosted in the AMC Empire 25 movie theater right in the heart of Times Square. Each defiant performance of howling, shredding, and polyrhythmic drumming is accompanied by the premiere of an eye-popping experimental video work, glowing on the theater’s monumental screen.

Click HERE to check out the Primal Screams Video.

Zine Fair + DJ Set: 7PM The evening kicks off with a zine fair in the lobby of the theater, organized by Paper Jam, a twice-annual small press, mini-comic, zine spread held at the Silent Barn in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Plus, a live set by DJ Cassie Ramone (of Vivian Girls). Show:

8PM Videos Screaming Females has collaborated with video artist Faye Orlove for a mischievous animation, signature to Orlove's style, while specially crafted to match the band's powerful sound. Guardian Alien's video selection includes footage of their epic trip to Antarctica, with serene long shots of blue glaciers and congregations of penguins. Priests presents a dreamy sequence of bedroom scenes, staged from props found around thrift stores in their hometown of Washington DC.

Bios
Screaming Females is an American independent rock band, from New Brunswick, New Jersey. They have released six full length albums. The band features Marissa Paternoster on guitar and vocals, Jarrett Dougherty on drums, and King Mike on bass. Their 2015 album, Rose Mountain - Don Giovanni, is a milestone in a number of ways. Screaming Females had such a clear goal for their new album that it became almost a mantra: they wanted songs that were concise, crisp and melodic. Not only does the album reflect a new approach to the band’s songwriting, the LP marks the first time Screaming Females have worked with an outside producer, and also marks 10 years of playing together. This ten year period has taken the band from playing basement shows in their hometown of New Brunswick to touring with the likes of Dinosaur Jr., Ted Leo & the Pharmacists and Garbage, who teamed with Screaming Females to record a cover of Patti Smith’s Because the Night. They have been featured on NPR and performed on Last Call With Carson Daly, building an audience without losing the focus and drive that inspired them in the first place.

Comprised of prolific New York experimental musicians Greg Fox and Alex Drewchin, Guardian Alien is an ever evolving, far reaching, avant-garde machine. With equal nods to 80s minimal no wave and mid 2000s skronk, the duo effortlessly fuses the old and new schools of musical vocabulary in their kaleidoscopic explorations. Moving past foregone conclusions, they arrive in uncharted territory, where new discoveries can be made.

Priests is a 4 piece band from Washington DC. They have released two tapes and first single, Radiation/Personal Planes, on their own Sister Polygon record label. Bodies and Control and Money and Power is an EP co-released with Sister Polygon and Don Giovanni Records. The band is currently at work on their debut full length.

Faye Orlove is an illustrator and animator living in Los Angeles. She is the co-creator of Fvck the Media, an online platform that covers alternative arts, culture, music, news, and grassroots activism. In 2015, she published her first book, Shrine, through Don Giovanni Records. She is the creator, director, and producer of animated music videos for artists like Mitski, Potty Mouth, and Downtown Boys.

Zine Fair Participants:
Paper Jam - http://paperjamfest.tumblr.com/
Mary Shyne - http://maryshyne.com/
Kat Fajardo - http://www.katfajardo.com/
Vreni Stollberger - http://www.stillvreni.com/
Hazel Newleavant - http://newlevant.com/
Stephanie Mannheim - http://www.stephaniemannheim.com/portfolio/
The Bettys - http://www.thebettys.com/
Mike Taylor - http://late-era-clash.tumblr.com/
Alabaster Pizzo - http://www.alabasterpizzo.com/
Robert Richburg - http://www.robertrichburg.com/
Suxy X - https://suzyx.wordpress.com/
AT Pratt - http://atpratt.net/
Suffragette City Magazine http://www.suffragettezine.com/
Fvck the Media - http://www.fvckthemedia.com/
Paper Cuts - http://clocktower.org/series/paper-cuts
O.K. Fox - https://twitter.com/roarlivia
G.W. Duncanson - http://cash-money-cartoons.tumblr.com/

Greg Fox: Before Te End

Clocktower resident artist Greg Fox is a drummer, a solo performance artist, and a self-taught student of Taoism and I Ching. Fox's work for this residency, entitled Before Te End , is the composition of music performance generated through I Ching divination, accompanied by diagrams indicating the interrelation of various aspects of the piece, along with other ephemera brought forth in the process of its creation. Fox also created a radio program in which he conducted and collaged together interviews with other percussionists, titled Drums and Drummers. For his residency performance, Greg performed the composition Before Te End in the context of its companion written work.

Eartheater

Alexandra Drewchin, who performs solo under the Eartheater moniker, seeks on a daily basis to upgrade her mental software. As the frontwoman of the ecstatic avant-psych ensemble Guardian Alien, Drewchin dives into extended improvisations in pursuit of the fearless release of emotions and sounds beyond the capacity of premeditation. On her debut solo full-length Metalepsis, Eartheater traces the opposite trajectory: the deliberate distillation of voice, synths, guitar, and electronic production techniques into short-form compositions teeming with crystalline details. Recorded at Outpost Artists Resources, the gallery and production center in Ridgewood, Queens on 24 June 2015 and presented as part of their Fire Over Heaven Music Series curated by Greg Fox.

Guardian Alien in Times Square

On the eve of their performance at Primal Screams, Clocktower Founder and Director Alanna Heiss and Program Director Joe Ahearn host the band Guardian Alien for a fractal discussion of global travel, the Antarctic, Nico, women-fronted rock bands, and experimental metal. Band members Alex Drewchin and Greg Fox relate their recent trip to Antarctica and the unique soundscape of such a desolate and beautiful place. There, the band collected film footage which forms the basis of their projections in the AMC Times Square theatre for the Primal Screams Event. Plus, a bonus story about Nico and the Velvet Underground, recounted by Alanna Heiss, and Drewchin and Fox's take on the evermore socially inclusive underground scene in Bushwick. Including excerpts from the band's 20-minute epic Spiritual Emergency.

Guardian Alien Live at Primal Screams

A live concert recording of the experimental sound artist duo Guardian Alien performing kaleidoscopic vocal exercises and humming drone accompaniment in a massive movie theater in Times Square as a part of the multimedia event Primal Screams on March 15, 2016. Primal Screams was a raucous night of underground bands with strong female forces, featuring Screaming Females, Guardian Alien, and Priests, hosted in the AMC Empire 25 movie theater, in collaboration with Times Square Arts. Each defiant performance of howling, shredding, and polyrhythmic drumming was accompanied by the premiere of an experimental video work, glowing on the theater’s monumental screen. Comprised of prolific New York experimental musicians Greg Fox and Alex Drewchin, Guardian Alien is an ever evolving, far reaching, avant-garde machine. With equal nods to 80s minimal no wave and mid 2000s skronk, the duo effortlessly fuses the old and new schools of musical vocabulary in their kaleidoscopic explorations. Moving past foregone conclusions, they arrive in uncharted territory, where new discoveries can be made.

Priests Live at Primal Screams

A live concert recording of the Washington DC band Priests performing their bold, danceable, and playful punk tunes in a massive movie theater in Times Square as a part of the multimedia event Primal Screams on March 15, 2016. Primal Screams was a raucous night of underground bands with strong female forces, featuring Screaming Females, Guardian Alien, and Priests, hosted in the AMC Empire 25 movie theater, in collaboration with Times Square Arts. Each defiant performance of howling, shredding, and polyrhythmic drumming was accompanied by the premiere of an experimental video work, glowing on the theater’s monumental screen. Priests is a 4 piece band from Washington DC. They have released two tapes and first single, Radiation/Personal Planes, on their own Sister Polygon record label. Bodies and Control and Money and Power is an EP co-released with Sister Polygon and Don Giovanni Records. The band is currently at work on their debut full length.

Screaming Females Live at Primal Screams

A live concert recording of the New Brunswick band Screaming Females, playing an epic roster of songs filled with wild vocals and shrieking guitar solos, in a movie theater in Times Square for the multimedia event Primal Screams on March 15, 2016. The show spanned the group's whole musical career (including tunes from their 2015 album, Rose Mountain), and was accompanied by a video animation by Faye Orlove projected on the theater's massive screen. Primal Screams was a raucous night of underground bands with strong female forces, featuring Screaming Females, Guardian Alien, and Priests, hosted in the AMC Empire 25 movie theater, in collaboration with Times Square Arts. Each defiant performance of howling, shredding, and polyrhythmic drumming was accompanied by the premiere of an experimental video work, glowing on the theater’s monumental screen.