ENDED! WIN TICKETS to GANG GANG DANCE in SEATTLE! [10.14.11]
CONTEST HAS ENDED!
[scroll down to bottom to enter]
The first time that I saw Manhattan‘s GANG GANG DANCE perform was in 2005 at Chop Suey in Seattle. At the time, they were touring in support of their highly impressive breakout release, God’s Money. The set culminated in having their sound shut off by the venue and with the band, in turn, piecing out their drumkit to the audience members and encouraging them to take part in an impromptu moment of tribal defiance. Six cop cars showed up (a bit excessive). It was labeled a “riot” (a bit of an exaggeration). Three years later I was emailed a press kit for GGD by their then-label, Social Registry. The bio included mention of the, now infamous, Chop Suey show. The myth had grown. Much of Gang Gang Dance‘s notoriety and legend has snowballed in a similar manner.
When I saw them in 2008, their follow up full-length, Saint Dymphna, had just been released. They came back to Seattle, but this time it was in a headlining spot over Kill Rock Stars guitar tapping shredder, Marnie Stern and the show was held at the swanky Triple Door jazz club. It was a very different scene, but their energy was still the same. They have tons of it and their ability to adapt and shape-shift goes hand in hand with the metamorphic nature of their improv-rooted approach to music and creation. The release was solid, but it’s taken 4 years for the group to come through with their next -and most recent- follow up, the critically acclaimed, Eye Contact. A lot has changed. The band now has 5 members, instead of 4. Founding member/drummer, Tim Dewitt quit and was replaced. The group has transferred labels to 4AD. The album is a hybrid of the more polished sound that they’ve gradually been moving towards, while embracing the long extended build-ups that they explored in their earliest work. What hasn’t changed is the inability to categorize them. Electronic, tribal futuristic, experimental, noise jams? Another thing that’s remained is the constant mystery about what the art/music collective will deliver next.
If you’re a fan of Gang Gang Dance, you need to experience them live. If you aren’t, seeing them live very well might make you one. Beyond their work in the music game, the members are all accomplished visual artists; even performing a mixed media live performance as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial. When I interviewed keyboardist/founding member, Brian Degraw back in March, he expressed their intention of adding even more stimuli to enhance their live shows: “We really want to incorporate a more visual and theatrical element to the stage when we perform.”
On Friday of next week, GGD returns to Seattle. This time they will be performing at Neumos and, thanks to the venue, we will be giving away a pair of tickets to attend the show for FREE! Check out the details for the contest after this video of the group performing “Glass Jar“, the 11.5-minute epic lead off track from the new album.
(or just buy tickets here)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dacm6WPmdMM[/youtube]
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
THE CONTEST / GIVEAWAY:
*One winner will receive a a pair of tickets to see Gang Gang Dance, Prince Rama, and Stephanie perform live @ Neumos in Seattle on Friday October 14, 2011
HOW TO ENTER:
This contest will revolve around the fact that Gang Gang Dance has constantly been deemed as a “cursed” band by the media, despite their constant rejection of that label and a refusal to believe that they are doomed.
#1)
GGD original member, Nathan Maddox, was fatally struck by lightning in 2002. Former drummer, Tim Dewitt, was maimed by a gunshot wound, while drunk and exiting the bathroom of a bar during a random robbery. The band was forced to cancel a tour and delay their album after their equipment was destroyed in a fire at a club in Amsterdam. The closet that their gear was being held in -for safe keeping- was the only room in the whole place to experience any damage. Rumor has it that the fire was actually, and rather ironically, started by a faulty smoke detector. These are only a handful of the absurdly tragic scenarios endured by Gang Gang Dance over the years. Cursed or otherwise, they’ve had some tough breaks.
To enter the contest, all you have to do is come up with a hex or curse of your own that you could place on someone, some place, something, some situation, etc. Explain what you would do and/or how you would do it, and for what intention. Make your post as simple or elaborate as you want. [You’re also free to enter by stating that you wouldn’t create a hex or curse at all, because you don’t want to mess with destiny and the natural state of things, but keep in mind that you probably won’t win, because that’s a pretty weak cop-out]
#2)
Post your answer in the comment section below.
#3)
There is no part 3. That’s all there is to the contest. It’s pretty easy… but you should probably read the fine print.
The Fine Print:
All entries must be received by Wednesday October 12th at 11:59 pm to be eligible.
You can enter as many times as you want but, use a valid email so that we can contact you.
Winner will be chosen arbitrarily, based on our personal “favorite”, so try to be interesting.
If we are unable to contact the winner in a reasonable amount of time, a new winner will be chosen.
[If you have any intentions to post comments asking us to pick you, or asking when the winner will be announced… how about, just don’t do it? It’s pretty fucking obnoxious and it won’t help your chances.]
To everyone that elbows past me walking up the escalator instead of taking the fucking stairs and leaving us lazyasses alone: I bestow upon you a lifetime of burning, explosive diarrhea.
An active and widely used curse: Everyone who doesn’t tip at my work and doesn’t seem like they’re from a country that doesn’t because it isn’t custom: I will put an NT on your receipt standing for No Tip. Therefore your order is do what you will to my fellow commrades.
I’m from a part of Texas where the vast majority of grown ass adults literally believe, despite every possible indication to the contrary, that the Supreme God of the Universe is such a raging dickhead that he would condemn every human being on the planet who doesn’t literally believe the same cock-and-bull story they do to suffer eternally in Hell. ETERNALLY. For real, y’all.
So my curse would be that the people who really, truly believe this would be made to suffer in the Hell of their own imaginations. For awhile, like maybe a week or two. Not eternally, though. (The way I see it, the only people worthy of eternal damnation are the people who would mentally condemn other people to eternal damnation, and I don’t want to land myself in that camp!)
To my upstairs neighbor who ganked my wet laundry out of line while it was quietly waiting for the dryer to become available, and then attempted to complete 4 loads of laundry out of turn!: May your clothes never dry and always smell of mold, may your sweaters shrink to child size (even at the dry cleaners), and may every undergarment you wash become riddled with holes during the spin cycle.
I’ve always had a dream to be able to curse someone with a trivial prankster ghost. A ghost that would move keys, coffee mugs, favorite pens, make books and clothing disappear, wallets that always find their way to the freezer, toothbrushes floating in the toilet, tapping on the shoulders when in line, whispering their name while walking down the street at night alone. A whole mess of constant trivial happenings that would surely drive an otherwise sane person completely batshit crazy. (This curse is reserved for those who have intentionally made the daily life of others difficult.)
This curse is inspired by my downstairs neighbors who constantly have parties late into the night on week nights. This would be the shut the fuck up curse I would place upon them. The curse I would put on them would be that the first thing(s) they had to do before starting their day would be that they had to eat an entire bag of flour followed immediately by roller-blading up a steep hill while smoking a cigarette. If they were unable to complete this task they’d have to be locked in their apartment with only the voice of Gilbert Gottfried shouting lines from the Disney animated classic “Aladdin” at them in the tone of the beloved character/parrot Iago until night fell and they had to figure out some way to be able to down that flour and rollerblade up that fucking hill so they could resume their normal lives of keeping me up until 4AM blasting MGMT. FML.
A curse for people who don’t pick up their dog’s poop:
May a mysterious, terrible smell follow you around all day, even once you’ve taken off your shoes.
I curse all the small objects in my life that persist in disappearing, falling on the floor, falling on my foot, or jumping out of the cupboard in the morning when I am banging around in the dark trying to get ready for work or school. I curse them with a lifetime of imprisonment in or on the cupboards, drawers, and counters they are supposed to be in and on, AND I doom them to be replaced as soon as possible with better stuff that will magically serve my will as a good small object ought. Take that, small objects!
I curse I-90 in South Dakota, for trying to kill me in a blizzard 8 years ago! I will never forget, South Dakota! May your guardrails be ugly! May the semi that almost hit me totally empty its cargo over your gravelled shoulder, preferably a tasty cargo so everybody else gets some good free food! May flocks of migrating geese splatter your complexion with their white abstract paintings!
Oh, and a pox on whoever wins this contest that isn’t me! I just mixed together 5 random things I found on my floor (a price sticker, a seagull feather, a penny, an umbrella, and one hair) and made an evil Potion for the Affliction of Zombieitis. You will arrive at the show, and you will get a text from an ex who needs to talk to you, and you won’t want to respond, but you’re probably a pretty nice person, so you will, and as soon as you hit the send button all will go dark and you will be transformed into a crazed zombie until the curse is lifted at the stroke of midnight, and you will have totally missed all the good parts of the show, and you will feel a shiver as you look around the audience and wonder where I am (for I will be there, unluckily a few dollars poorer), and you will know my wrath.