Pineal Ventana with swollen appendix

Pineal Ventana(1) are performing(2) at the Earl(3) on Saturday, September 9. It’s a CD(4) release extravaganza in honor of their new CD Axes to Ice(5). The CD is a soundtrack to the film by Chad Rullman called Kotoran Jiwa, in which members of the group appear(6).

Notes: ?
(1) PV’s brand of uncompromising noise-rock features continual shape-shifting: longtime guitarist Kim Chee has left, but she still administers the website (www.pinealventana.com). John Whittaker, the bassist-cum-fulcrum-behind-Ben-Franklin-shades has also left. They have been replaced by Lindell Todd on bass/drums & guitar and Brain “major damage” Ginn on keyboards and guitar. This shift has led the group to explore explosive percussive possibilities.

(2) PV have been known to “perform” by playing poker under a blue light; by splattering water-based paint on the crowd while operating on a patient and wearing satanic masks. There’s a spirit of post-Fluxus performance art to their work. A sense of invulnerability that copulates with a feeling of profound inevitability.

(3) The club/restaurant on Flat Shoals Avenue in East Atlanta. Local scenesters think it’s cool ‘cause most have never been to New York.

(4) The music on the CD is a collection of uncompromising, percussion-driven intervals of loud spaces, just sledgehammer rock with some odd string arrangements and a rather melancholy coda. PV integrates aspects of late ’80s tribal rhythms with post-’90s blitz-and-bang heaviness and the randomness that routinely attacks listeners.

(5) On Unit Circle Rekkids, produced by the legendary Martin Bisi at Brooklyn’s BC Studios (the same place where their previous Malpractice was recorded).

(6) Stills from the film decorate the record’s sleeve. Vocalist Clara Clamp holds a knife, the ritual cuttings of psychic youth while Mitch Foy (also a CL contributor) hovers in the background with a double-exposed mask. The film is an homage to Japanese filmmaking and will have its premiere screening at the performance.