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out, handling crowd control and sales. Shows include alternative, rock, reggae,
hip-hop, blues, jazz, country, funk and beyond -- there's a show for everyone. Concert Committee Meetings: Tuesdays @ 7pm | The Cabin
EAU CLAIRE -- Industrial rock band Savage Aural Hotbed will present a concert of "found sound" Saturday, Feb. 20, at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Doors will open at 7 p.m. for the show in the Council Fire Room of Davies Center.
Savage Aural Hotbed's precise, percussive music is inspired by Japanese taiko drumming and the -- literally -- cutting-edge innovation of industrial sound. The band creates its compelling sound using conventional and found-object percussion instruments, bass guitar, electronically modified horns, vocals and power tools. With up to four people drumming, they provide visual and aural excitement with high-energy rhythms, flailing arms and flying sparks.
"The Minneapolis quartet has made a name for itself by banging out a wall of sound with such found objects as barrels, pipes and power tools," Minnesota Public Radio reported on "All Things Considered" last February, when its reporter toured the band's found instrument workshop. "The place looks like an indoor junkyard, but nearly every object is wired for sound."
"We started in 1988 and added found objects right away," said drummer Mark Black. "We all enjoy and get artistic satisfaction building these weird contraptions."
"From the classical end of things, you can sit there counting the numbers and the rhythmic patterns that they must be thinking about," says Philip Blackburn of the American Composers Forum. "And if you're not good at arithmetic, just sit back and watch the sparks flying and admire the ingenuity of the whole thing."
Blackburn's Innova Records produced Savage Aural Hotbed's 2006 CD, "Unified Pounding Theory." The band's most recent recording is "Wreckquiem" (2008).
National Public Radio's Scott Simon described Savage Aural Hotbed's music as "the sound of steel and rust, oil drums and hubcaps, screeches, sparks, grinders and gears finding new fury and energy. ... It's also fun. It makes you smile to see a man make music with an electric saw."
Tickets are $5 ($3 for UW-Eau Claire students) at the Service Center in the east lobby of Davies Center, and will be sold at the door. The show is open to all ages; proof of age is required for alcoholic beverage purchases.
Patrons may also charge their tickets to MasterCard, Visa or Discover when they order by phone. Call 715-836-3727 or, outside the immediate Eau Claire area, call toll-free 800-949-UWEC. A $3 handling fee will be added to all telephone charge orders.
The concert is sponsored by the University Activities Commission of the UW-Eau Claire Student Senate.
EAU CLAIRE -- OK Go, the band that created the decade's most-viewed music video -- the treadmill-choreographed "Here It Goes Again" -- will appear in concert Nov. 12 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Doors will open at 7 p.m. for the show in Zorn Arena, with a special guest to be announced.
Tickets go on sale to UW-Eau Claire students Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 a.m. Sales to the public will begin at 7 a.m. Monday, Oct. 5.
OK Go is touring internationally in support of their upcoming album, "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky," to be released Jan. 12 on Capitol Records. Produced by Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT), the record is the long-awaited followup to the acclaimed "Oh No" (2005), which included the song that became the 2007 Grammy Award-winning video hit, "Here It Goes Again." So well known that it was even parodied on "The Simpsons," the viral music video has been viewed more than 48 million times at YouTube, which OK Go helped transform into a household name.
"OK Go is the polymath band who -- with only five bucks and a camcorder -- did what none of the giant record labels could, inventing a new way for a band to connect with fans and changing the way people think about music and the Internet," wrote Ira Glass, host of Public Radio International's "This American Life."
"A few years ago, OK Go performed at some live shows our radio program was doing onstage across the country," Glass wrote. "They were like human catnip. We had huge crowds and people of every age -- high school sophomores to senior citizens -- just loved them. The band simply overwhelmed the audience with this exuberant buzz of fun and happiness and youth and rock 'n' roll. ... Thanks to the videos, that exuberant buzz has spilled across the globe. But don't let that distract you, the best part of OK Go is still the music."
"Of the Blue Colour of the Sky" gets its title from a 19th-century book promoting the erroneous theory that blue light has healing power. A dance record with songs largely about hope in the face of hopeless situations, "it embodies contradiction in a way I feel connected to," says lead singer and guitarist Damian Kulash. "It's both the saddest and the most hopeful music we've made, and both the danciest and most thoughtful."
"It's not so much that we headed in a new direction," Kulash says. "I think we've just expended the guitar-rock ideas from our teens and we're starting to get at more root-level influences. There's a lot of 'Purple Rain' on this record -- an album I haven't stopped listening to since I got it when I was eleven."
The year Kulash got Prince's iconic recording was the same year he met Tim Nordwind (bass) at summer camp. They formed a band called The Greased Ferrets and used folding chairs as drums. They met Dan Konopka (drums) in college, and finally formed the band OK Go in 1999. Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards) joined them in 2005.
OK Go is also known for its activism. In March 2008 Kulash was invited to be the lead witness before the House Judiciary Committee's Task Force on Competition Policy and Antitrust Laws Subcommittee. He testified in support of Internet neutrality, and wrote an op-ed for The New York Times.
He and bandmate Andy Ross met with Congressional leaders and then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama about the specter of access-limiting online practices, leading to the band appearing in ads supporting Obama. OK Go also took time from their non-stop touring regimen -- 31 consecutive months over five continents -- to raise money in support of New Orleans' music culture in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The band's efforts with trombone band Bonerama, including the 2008 EP "You're Not Alone," raised more than half of the money for soul legend Al "Carnival Time" Johnson's new home in New Orleans.
OK Go Ticket Information
General admission tickets are $15 ($10 with a UW-Eau Claire student ID card) at the Service Center in the east lobby of Davies Center. Public ticket sales begin Oct. 5, with a special advance sale Oct. 1-4 for UW-Eau Claire students only. The Service Center is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Patrons may also charge their tickets to MasterCard or Visa when they order by phone. Call 715-836-3727 or, outside the immediate Eau Claire area, call toll-free 800-949-UWEC. A $3 handling fee will be added to all telephone charge orders.
The concert is sponsored by the University Activities Commission of the UW-Eau Claire Student Senate.
EAU CLAIRE -- Minneapolis pop-rock band Hyland will headline a free outdoor concert Friday, Sept. 11, at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Special guest In Harbour will open the show at 7 p.m. on the Central Campus Mall.
Hyland features dynamic guitar work, soaring melodies, clever piano hooks and a driven rock sound reminiscent of the Foo Fighters and Sanctus Real. The band's new EP, "Quotients" (2009), was recorded with Ben Kasica of Skillet and Nick Rad of Acceptance.
Also based out of the Twin Cities, In Harbour started writing and playing music together in the fall of 2007, and released its first single, "Storm Clouds Break," on Christmas Day. After an impressive debut live performance in February 2008 the band started landing bigger shows with names such as Sleeping at Last and The Graduate. The group's debut EP is "The Hardest Part is Learning to Swim" (2008).
In the event of rain, the show will move from the mall between Zorn Arena and Schneider Hall to the Council Fire Room of Davies Center.
The concert is free and open to all ages and is sponsored by the University Activities Commission of the UW-Eau Claire Student Senate.