Tickets are running low to the Azure Ray / Destroyer solo show this Friday…

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

This morning I got a “low ticket warning” about this Friday’s Azure Ray / Dan Bejar (Destroyer solo) show at the Bemis Center Okada Sculpture & Ceramics Facility in Omaha’s Old Market (723 South 12th Street). “Just a few $25 tickets remain” they’re saying.

The concert is part of the Bemis Art Auction and Concert 2018. Get your tickets online here.

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Speaking of Azure Ray, a video for “Palindrome,” the first single off their upcoming EP Waves, dropped last Friday and it’s a hoot. It’s directed by Alan Tanner, who you might remember from the band Artsy Golfer (he also played guitar for Maria Taylor). Waves comes out Friday, and I must tell you, it’s sublime.

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And speaking of The Bemis, Simon Joyner has been named to head The Bemis’ Sound Art and Experimental Music Residency Program. This is a MAJOR deal…

Here’s the Bemis press release, which went out last week:

“Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts has received a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a new Sound Art and Experimental Music Residency Program. This funding will support the first three years of a specialized track within Bemis Center’s international Artist-in-Residence program for artists pushing the boundaries of sound, composition, voice, and music of all genres. National and international artists participating in the program will receive the same level of financial, technical, and administrative support as their fellow artists-in-residence at Bemis, along with dedicated facilities for rehearsing, recording, and performing new works that expand the field of sound art and music. The program will officially launch in 2019.

“Omaha-based musician Simon Joyner will join Bemis staff to lead the program. Local sculptor and past Bemis exhibiting artist Sean Ward and local architect Jeff Day of Actual Architecture are collaborating with Joyner, and sound experts Phil Schaffart, Thorin Dickey, and Ben Brodin to design the program’s performance venue and rehearsal and recording studio in Bemis Center’s 25,000 square foot basement space. Under the guidance of Day, graduate-level architecture students in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s design-build program, FACT, are developing conceptual designs for the build-out and will begin construction in October 2018 with completion in early 2019.

“The fully equipped artist-designed performance space will offer free live shows to the community. When artists in the program are not utilizing the venue, it will be programmed with local, national and international sound artists and experimental musicians. Free public access to these performances aims to not only build greater appreciation and new audiences for sound art and experimental music but also to liberate the artists on stage to take risks and present avant-garde work.

“An international advisory committee comprised of artists, curators and other leading experts in the field will assist with the curation of the Sound Art and Experimental Music Residency Program for 2019 and 2020. Beginning in 2020, Sound Art and Experimental Music residencies for 2021 and beyond will transition to Bemis Center’s regular annual open call for applications.”

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2018 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.