This was not a show that catered to the uninitiated. Audience and cast members for an upstairs production of “The Vagina Monologues” clustered outside the doors of Hallowed Grounds coffee shop tentatively. The more adventurous peeked inside, but true fans made themselves known. This crowd—college age, mostly male, and largely bespectacled—almost looked ready to take a serious academic interest in the proceedings. Hallowed Grounds, while still open, was not selling much coffee.

Wyche was followed by Spanyurd and Preachy Preach, two local bands specializing in the kind of music that you feel more than hear. Spanyurd, a Chicago trio that jokingly fancies itself “nu-metal for the politically correct,” thickened the air with its manic psychedelia and heavy post-hardcore riffs. Preachy Preach played on its home turf; the band is comprised of UofC undergraduates Steve Balogh, Mike Splendore, and Josh Oberman. The trio has appeared over the years at both South Side and more northern venues, including the now defunct Moving Castle. On this night, they delighted in their own apocalyptic noise. Forceful riffs and deep grooves were considered by the audience rather than celebrated—many in the front row sat nodding appreciatively. One man lay on his back with a book. There’s a healthy contingent of Hyde Park devotees. But who else knew that UofC actually had punk bands? It’s a not-quite-rhetorical question that the show asked even in its promotional materials. Now, thanks to the efforts of TRIX operatives, the answer is “everyone who was on University Avenue between 56th and 58th Streets on Saturday night.”

Courtesy of the Artist

Whoever first decided to perform avant-garde art in a church was a genius. While the avant-garde is defined by its divisiveness and controversy, placing it in the context of such traditionalism amplifies the genre’s aims a thousand-fold. The illicit thrill that accompanies the gleeful irreverence of this ideological confrontation prepares the viewer for the challenging experience of the avant-garde. The midst of this tension is right where you will want to be when you witness the alien improvisations of Daniel Wyche and Forced Collapse at Bond Chapel this Saturday. Sponsored by the University of Chicago’s campus radio station, WHPK 88.5, this event brings together two musicians with little in common besides their axes of choice.

Daniel Wyche, who will play first at 7pm, is a PhD candidate in the Divinity School with an extensive history in the New Jersey post-hardcore/emo scene of the late-90s and early-00s. His New Jersey days heavily inform his current work, which is equally influenced by jazz and noise. In reaction to the his punk background so wrought with rigid composition, improvised noise music appealed to Wyche as a way to satisfy both his jazzier and more experimental interests while maintaining the bloodthirst of post-hardcore: “I really appreciated the types of layering that were going on, the weird time signatures and some of those harsher elements that ultimately came from the hardcore/post-hardcore influence.” Discussing his own approach, Wyche continues, “Probably the most important thing, and this may sound strange, was that ‘song writing’…especially in genres like post-hardcore…requires…an amount of orchestration that I find kind of boring, it’s too much like doing math, which I am terrible at.” Wyche, on the other hand, feels “a lot more comfortable, maybe safer taking a rough idea and making the exploration of that idea in real time the actual work or performance.” His music, which reapplies the effects pedals from his rock and roll days to a more extended jazz context.

Following Wyche’s performance will be Chris Riggs and Liz Allbee of Forced Collapse, a guitar and horn duo from Wesleyan University and Berlin, respectively, brought together under the tutelage of fearless free musician and educator Anthony Braxton. Riggs has played at the University of Chicago before as a guest musician on WHPK’s Friday night live showcase, Pure Hype. Riggs’ approach to guitar composition, in contrast to Wyche’s, utilizes the bare minimum of sonic resources, but at no expense to the scope of his music. His conceptual approach to music has always been naïve: “Music probably gained precedence over writing or visual art because I knew at a pretty young age what the basic ‘right’ and ‘wrong’s of those disciplines were.  Pictures needed to be representational.  Stories needed to make sense.  My ignorance lasted longer with music.  My parents never told me that…weird sounds…were incorrect.  By the time I started learning music in a formal setting, the damage was done.  No one was going to stop me from making my weird sounds.” As a child, his “weird sounds” were abstract mouth games overdubbed and layered on the computer. Nowadays, Riggs employs a literal catalog of extended techniques for guitar that can only be described as ingenious. Allbee’s musical vocabulary is even more difficult to characterize, as her work spans many instruments (conch, electronics, voice, trumpet), genres (“improvisation, noise, weird pop, minimalist/maximalist brawls….”) and collaborators. It suffices to say that the dynamic confluence of their respectively exotic contributions as Forced Collapse makes for a splendid spectacle.

Introducing another angle to the evening, WHPK Program Director and showcase curator Eric Hanss hopes to showcase the coastal-Midwest, and academic-“scrapper” traditional crossovers in Wyche’s and Forced Collapse’s music. “I feel that WHPK’s ability to bring together both worlds, as a scrapper radio station with ties to the noise scene […] fits in with the trajectory of this body of work well, and gives us an opportunity to initiate some kind of dialogue.” The epicenter of this flurry of discourses, Bond Chapel, will provide the most unusual of entertainment this Saturday.

Bond Chapel, 1050 E 59th St. March 12. Saturday, 7pm. Free. whpk.org/things_to_do

Such ambiguities reflect the democratic agenda of WHPK’s annual collaboration with the Film Studies Center, “Pictures and Sounds.” With talent drawn from the deliciously obscure Midwestern avant-noise/free music scene, “Pictures and Sounds” revisited the live soundtrack tradition of early silent film. The musicians selected short films and performed to them live as they watched along with the audience.

Playing first was Chicago’s own Chris Bush, better known as Flower Man, who earned a name for himself as the proverbial better-half of the psychedelic retro-electronics outfit Caboladies, and later entered more minimalist territory with his solo work. Alongside the first film selection, a short from Midnight Star Media, Bush dealt out sparse blips and reeling peals, expertly punctuating the anxious, repetitious hallucinations caught on video. Daniel Dlugoseilski (Bodymorph) of Detroit chose to take his performance in the other direction: rather than trying to blend in with the abstract visuals, Dlugoseilski’s music was a visceral reimagination of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 film-noir, “Killer’s Kiss.” Accompanied only by agoraphobic saxophone yelps, even the most frantic chases and scenes of combat took on a new futile pallor. Next up was Frank Rosaly, perhaps the most renowned of the performers—if not for his percussive agility then for his numerous and wide-ranging collaborations in the world of noise. Although scheduled to accompany a new film by his friend Derek Welte, complications led to the screening of “Jeux des Reflets et de la Vitesse,” a French experimental film from the ’20s of first-person travel footage. Rosaly’s sound-barrage renewed the disorienting aspect of this otherwise age-tempered footage. The last act was Second Family Band, an offshoot/resurrection of famed Madison music collective Davenport. Weaving their characteristic tapestry of American psychedelic folk-drone, they achieved a remarkable, though not exactly harmonious, counterpoint to the excerpts from Sergei Parajanov’s 1968 tour de force, “The Color of Pomegranates.”

“Pictures and Sounds” was certainly a demonstration of some of the tremendous talent that the Midwest has to offer in the way of experimental artists. In the end, though, it was the fallibility of the performers that gave the presentation its charming, inspiring character. Great communion was made afterwards with the sharing of flasks, swapping of emails, and purchase of—what else?—cassettes.

“Spiral Jetty” by Robert Smithson (David O. Stevens/flickr)

The format updates the long-abandoned pairing of live piano soundtracks with silent films. The spontaneity and air of collaboration in the performance bring the audience into the creative fold as they, too, are a vital component of the artistic experience. Live performance simultaneously expands and explodes the self-contained world of the film, turning the musicians into co-creators of a real-time multimedia experience.

WHPK program director and showcase curator Eric Hanss sought to expand on previous years’ tradition by bringing in a more varied set of performers. “I wanted to use our resources to showcase what I find to be an increasingly fertile and dynamic, cassette-fueled outburst of Midwestern creativity,” Hanss said.

Hanss listed some elements of the local avant-garde music climate included in the show: “Sequencer worship, agile/understated creep improv, eldritch body hallucination, and sensory wobble.” “I think we’ve managed to graft a lot of countervailing styles into a coherent whole,” he said, “which is what is so great about this Midwestern thing in general, and I went with artists that I found to be crucial players in it. Four run cassette labels, many book local shows, etc. I’ve been familiar with them through the cassettes they release, and I’ve caught a few locally.” He further explained that the relationships between the radio staff and the local music scene are facilitated by Pure Hype, a weekly radio show that broadcasts live performances of local bands recorded in WHPK’s own record library.

A brief investigation of the bands themselves yields quick verification of Hanss’ claims. Mist, comprised of Cleveland noise/drone stalwarts Sam Goldberg of the Pizza Night Tapes label and John Elliot of drone torch-bearers Emeralds, deal in burbling, synth-based technicolor. Appropriately, they’re scheduled to play to the vibrant, playful animation of Canadian Norman McLaren. Pictures and Sounds will be their first Chicago performance. As Dog Lady, Detroit’s Mike Collino summons a dynamic range of lurching wasteland symphonies with heavily processed violin loops. He will perform with the film “CAST” by Michigan video artist Alivia Zivich. Trauma y Nate Wooley, also of Detroit, bridge the sensibilities of free jazz with chaotic electronics. They will play to Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty,” a film of his famous earthwork sculpture. Last on the roster is Chicago’s own Brett Naucke, cornerstone of the local scene and the man behind the Catholic Tapes label, who will present the debut of his new synth project along with a film made for the occasion by Chicago’s Nathan Young. With such an accomplished, heterogeneous set of performers and films, Pictures and Sounds’ live soundtracks seem guaranteed to provide a reeling synesthetic pilgrimage to the roadside temples of the Midwestern avant-garde.
Film Studies Center, third floor, 5811 S. Ellis Ave. February 20. Saturday, 8pm. Free. whpk.org

Brackman describes the Chabad House, part of a network of Jewish centers often based on or near college campuses, as “a home away from home, a place where students of all backgrounds and levels of observance can feel comfortable.” He got the idea for the radio show from colleagues at other universities. The show will run for an hour and a half every Wednesday, starting with a test show on June 3 from noon to 1:30 and continuing at the same time from June 17 on. Brackman’s target audience is the Hyde Park Jewish community, as well as University alumni and Internet listeners via WHPK’s online stream. He says the show’s appeal is “Jewish radio with someone you know,” as opposed to the hundreds of anonymous online stations for other genres.

Brackman’s plans for the show are vague, but he plans to include Jewish holiday celebrations, callers, news, and music. “When people think of Jewish music, they think of klezmer,” he says. “But with the arrival of people like Matisyahu, there’s a whole variety of Jewish music.” He’s not too nervous about filling an hour and a half every week with a loose mix of content, although he admits he has no background in radio. “Except I know how to talk,” he adds.

I’ve been that chump before. There’s really no way of rationalizing the completely fleeting motive behind interim volunteering. I have, however, benefited considerably from the perk of free concert tickets provided to WHPK DJs. Perhaps in my mind’s flawed logic, it’s a way to balance radio karma.

These all-night sessions are a haze of caffeinated semi-lucidity. Sure, college students have no circadian rhythm to speak of, but being confined to a space housing records older and worth more than your life can be draining. I have downed cans of sodas and consumed diabetic shock-inducing amounts of candy to keep awake. In retrospect, I marvel at the fact that I retain the motor skills needed to press buttons.

The first hour starts off great. Then you drop the enthusiasm and dream of bed. DJs quickly learn to cut corners. It is not uncommon, therefore, to hear FCC regulations flagrantly disregarded. I will be the first to admit that I don’t dwell on the rich discourse of copyright infringement when spinning the entirety of an album (by law, you can only play three or four songs, max, from an album in a row). This may sound lazy—and it arguably is—but come 5am, no such qualms remain. Abrasive screeching of hardcore vocals can keep you alert. If a quick nap is desired (necessary), thirty-minute noise tracks are a boon. But the world is really only made good again when the next DJ arrives to relieve you.

In the years before they started recording LPs, Fucked Up released nearly a dozen singles (compiled on the wonderfully-titled “Epics in Minutes”) while fanning controversy through cryptic lyrics, obscure symbolism, free tattoos, and most shockingly in the ossified punk community, scary references to Ezra Pound, the Romanian fascist mystic Mircea Eliade, and acid house art weirdos the KLF. Suffice it to say that nobody ever called their early arrangements lush. Two double albums later, they’ve got three guitarists, dozens of collaborators, and fat contracts. Case in point: the twelve-hour party they played a few weeks ago in a New York designer jeans store where Akon made a cameo. But if it’s fair to say Fucked Up has been co-opted—take the essentially symbiotic destruction of an MTV Canada bathroom last month that climaxed in the archly ironic graffito “RIP KURT” —they’ve become more exciting musically.

So what of the set itself? Though mixing and time were an issue, the band seemed to enjoy their four songs, including three from their newest double LP, “The Chemistry of Common Life.” Bassist Mustard Gas churns out catchy riffs like nobody but Kim Deal’s business, and Pink Eyes growls like a champ. But the main attraction was the pedal-philic guitar section, which bridged any number of gaps between punk, twee, emotional hardcore, krautrock, and heavy psych. In some ways, it’s only the logical progression of their efforts to subvert punk. When amorphously defined hipsterdom subsumes all subcultures, what else can you do but synthesize the rock canon? If blending Can and Negative Approach is the answer, I’ll stay excited.

WHPK’s concert is headlined by New York’s Talibam!, who plays improvisational free noise jazz (or whatever they’re deciding to call it nowadays). Also making an appearance are ‘HPK stalwarts Bird Names, whose psych-y tunes always make an interesting show. Wolfden and Dead Luke do garage material, and Animal Law creates sounds that are remarkable and truly singular. Don’t miss openers the Smith Westerns, Chicago high school students whose demo record has made them a favorite of the WHPK rock format.

MAB’s show, as always, tends towards more commercially viable acts. After all, they have to sell tickets. Their headliner, Cake, may remind you of middle school, and they haven’t released a record with new material since 2004, but who really cares about all of that? After all, they can still whip out talky songs with catchy hooks. Brooklyn’s Talib Kweli, who began his career in Black Star, now releases thoughtful, well-produced albums of conscious hip hop with diverse guest artists. Chicago’s Andrew Bird and the Cool Kids round out MAB’s roster with orchestral pop and old school hip-hop. Hope you like aural dissonance. (Rose Schapiro)

Andrew Bird

Next to recycled survivors like Cake, Andrew Bird will strike many as the obvious nod to the indie crowd in the Major Activities Board’s Summer Breeze lineup. Bird can be conveniently—and accurately—placed among the swollen ranks of multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriters favored by naïve undergraduates and the horn-rimmed set, where mediocrity marches alongside true talent. The complex layering, the pompous symphonic arrangements, the allusive lyrics that come dangerously close to overreaching: all of them can be found in Bird’s music. Yet Bird avoids the embarrassingly contrived cuteness of Sufjan Stevens and the monotonous nightmares of other Americana aspirants like Grizzly Bear thanks to honest-to-God musicianship. Something of a paradox in the autodidactic, DIY world of the music underground, Bird can make even the worst songs from his last full-length “Armchair Apocrypha” and recent EP “Soldier On” sound fresh by dint of experience and training. He was trained on violin and piano as a child, and his popular music grows out of his classical proficiency. Any popular musician can have an ear and every singer-songwriter requires one, but few have the kind of talent Bird evinces in pairing the lowest mellow tones of a bass with the whirling, melismatic cadences of his violin. Execution makes it all catchy and listenable. This kind of creativity makes Bird interesting on his records. How he reproduces it live is enough to make you want to see his show.

The best part of Bird’s appearance, however, may simply be its sentimental aspect. Along with the Cool Kids, Bird represents a hometown presence. Prior to the release of “Armchair Apocrypha,” he was something of a Chicago secret. The record was released during a spate of Americana-themed releases from the Windy City, including the spectacular “Roots and Crowns” from Califone. In the same vein as Califone’s record, Bird’s music carried a certain gravitas whose sincerity beat aside any possible accusation of melodrama. The evidence of its power lay in its reception: like Califone before him, Bird was thrust into indie stardom. Unlike the pale imitations from its Brooklyn cousins, instrumentalist American music from Bird seethes with the kind of transcendence born of bloody-lipped discipline—emotional release through technical prowess—you would only expect to find in America’s prairie metropolis. (John Thompson)

The Cool Kids
Think back to a time when MySpace didn’t have over a million profiles and when rapping about BMX’ing wasn’t “cool.” The rappers Antoine “Mikey Rocks” Reed and Evan “Chuck Inglish” Ingersoll from the Chicago and Detroit areas, respectively, met through MySpace in 2005 when Reed wanted to purchase a beat that Ingersoll had produced. The rest is pretty much history: the duo, dubbed The Cool Kids, generated so much buzz from the music they released on their MySpace page, they garnered a television commercial for Rhapsody and went on tour with the artist MIA even before their debut studio album was ever released. Although they’ve already made a handful of EPs, the duo’s highly anticipated EP “The Bake Sale” is due out on May 20th, 2008 by the independent Chicago label Chocolate Industries—once the label of Lady Sovereign.”The Bake Sale” will feature two of their biggest hits on MySpace, “Black Mags” and “88,” along with a handful of new songs.

The current popularity of The Cool Kids is hard to ignore when they’ve mixed and mingled with established DJs like Diplo and A-Trak. The story behind The Cool Kids’ fresh sound can be traced back to their mutual love for 1980s hip-hop. Citing the hip-hop duo Eric B. and Rakim as their main musical influences, The Cool Kids have established a strong musical identity of their own. Sometimes oddly referred to as “retro-rap,” some would say their music has a sense of nostalgia attached to it, but what their popularity comes down to is that The Cool Kids skillfully sample songs and mix beats in memorable ways. Their lyrics can be playful or educational and there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to their performance style. Their live shows are colorful and energetic—neon lights shine everywhere and the duo’s outfits stand out on the dim stage. It is apparent that both Reed and Ingersoll love to perform and to keep the crowd entertained. For instance, when the duo was on tour with MIA this past fall, they had a graffiti artist on stage drawing on an easel while they performed. Their love of music and the stage is easily channeled into the audience, which makes this hip-hop duo a must-see. The Cool Kids’ fresh style and fun beats will keep the crowd hanging on for more. (Tiffany Kwak)

Talibam!
Bursting from Brooklyn’s sprawl of experimental noise, art, and improvisation, Talibam! take their name from a New York Post headline about Afghan airstrikes and their sound from a simultaneous mixture of free jazz, prog rock, and tape hiss. But that description only begins to flesh out the duo’s uncommonly focused approach towards spontaneous music. Kevin Shea’s drums take an ecstatic, meticulous walloping, and Matt Mottel’s keyboards warble and suffocate in time. The results defy easy comparison. Sun City Girls’ globe-spanning influences and insatiable appetite are an obvious start, but there’s only so much mania that can fit in practiced songs. Or perhaps a multi-instrumental Sun Ra without the Pharaoh schtick or the Arkestra, though it’s hard to imagine Talibam! anything but reveres him. Maybe Minor Threat’s unrecorded drug album? The DIY spirit, exuberant attitude, swirling textures, and absence of psychedelia are all there. Gnidrolog gets haircuts and tries PCP? The harsh noise scene goes soft and makes friends while sewing matching neon jumpsuits? Talibam! makes a racket that speaks for itself. So does their pedigree. Shea and Mottel have played in plenty of zine-worthy bands, including Storm and Stress, Coptic Light, Mostly Other People Do The Killing, and Shadowmaps.

But they aren’t the only ones responsible for the diversity of their noise, if only because they haven’t enough hands. Talibam! has collaborated prolifically, and to that end they’ve pulled a hefty chunk of New York’s avant-improv scene, including trumpeter Peter Evans, saxophonist Ed Bear, and Swedish guitar abuser Matthu Stull aboard their flood of releases. 2008 will see seven more, released on a variety of labels (Azul Discografica, Pendu Sound Recordings, to name just two) and formats (lovingly hand-packaged CD-R, cassette, 7”, 10”, 12”). Previous years have been no less fruitful—since 2005, they’ve put out another ten releases, with equal diversity in format and label. Though they’ve regretfully dubbed their structured clatter “shitstorm skronk”, the most popular of current “noisy” bands are the ones that Talibam! is furthest from. Hella’s scree comes in one nubby, sax-less flavor, and while equally native to sweaty basements, only rarely does the Load Records catalog inject prog noodling and cheerful new wave synths to the usual guitar squeal and percussive rioting. With a Summer Breeze lineup heavy on the garage rock and indie pop, Talibam! promises to be a raucously welcome blast. (Michael Joyce)

The Smith Westerns
An interview with Chicago’s own garage rockin’ teenage troublemakers, the Smith Westerns.

Q. Just for the record: what are your names, and who plays what?
A. My name is Cullen and I play guitar and sing in The Smith Westerns. Cameron, my
brother, plays bass and Michael drums and Max plays guitar.
Q. You guys are all still in high school, correct? What are your ages? Do you all attend
the same school? What school(s)?
A. We’re all in high school. I’m 18, Max is 17, and Cameron and Michael are 16. We all
go to Northside [College] Prep together.
Q. When did you guys first get together to create the Smith Westerns? Where does the
name arise from?
A. My dad played guitar for a long time and was good and he got me a guitar. I played
a few chords for him and he said I sucked. So, I made a band to make him shut the
fuck up. We thought guns were really loud and can kill—which was what we wanted
to do to everyone; so I called it the Smith Westerns thinking that was what the name
of the gun was.
Q. How would you describe your music?
A. Todd Killings from Horizontal Action said we were a ‘randy and voracious slap-take
on modern punk, ran through a teenage meat grinder, and slathered with crazy
sauce.’ We agree.
Q. Your Demos disc received a good amount of airplay here at WHPK. When did you first “release” your demos? Also, I don’t remember, but did you ever play “Pure Hype” here at WHPK? If so, how was the experience?
A. My brother Cameron wanted to mail CDs out ’cause he plays bass so he doesn’t really
do anything. This way he got something to do so we all drew crayon pictures and sent
them out. We played WHPK and it was fun but Cameron got nervous and made a really
lame joke and we all make fun of him about it now cause he doesn’t do anything
but play bass.
Q. Inevitable question: what are some of your influences?
A. Inevitable answer: teenage punk fuckdom.
Q. What are some of the songs that you plan on putting on the HoZac [label] single? (and
don’t just say “the bad ones”) When is it going to be released? (ditto with a
full length…?)
A. ’Irukandj’ and ‘Crabman‘ are gonna be on the A side and ’Spiritus Sanctus‘ will be on
the B side. It’ll be coming out real soon cause we just finished the art work and
test pressings are going on now. We would like to make a full length album but
don’t know what to do.
Q. If it were a type of food, what would your music be?
A. I’d be a silly slice of pizza playing the piano and Michael would accompany me as a
hot hamburger playing on a haphazard harp. Cameron and Max would be dicks and
they’d suck each other.
(Sean Redmond)

College was supposed to be a land of both social and academic opportunity. To a large extent it is, even at a work-intensive school like the University of Chicago. But how exactly these opportunities present themselves, and how ardently we protect them and involve ourselves, is a more complicated tale.

As a forlorn first-year, one sometimes feels like a worthless fish, adrift in a gigantic, somewhat hazy sea. For the first week or so of college, the opportunities that arise are forced, nonspecific group outings, rather than anything truly exciting or necessarily compelling. Anything extracurricular is also intensely communal. This is not to say that a little bit of forced bonding is an awful endeavor, but it is one that can make a new student feel as if among a herd of cows munching on free cud (in addition to feeling like a worthless fish). And while I like Michigan Avenue, community service, and John Hughes movies just as much as the next person, the first week of college can certainly leave one feeling stripped of anything resembling individuality. Even once we all get our placement test results and end up enrolled in some liberating and/or numbing combination of courses, that first autumn at the UofC is an experience of lumping, not separating.

But when the RSO (Recognized Student Organization) fair comes around, a small bit of freedom is offered. The cows and fishes all scatter to various tables, lured by eager, smiling faces. Students brandish a pen to sign up for dozens of mailing lists, pick an identity, join a club.

Of course, at this point, classes start, and after the free pizza offered at the initial meetings of many RSOs runs out, attendance tends to dwindle. It could be any number of things; nobody can actually be expected to show up at a dozen weekly meetings, or sit through rehearsal for a handful of different shows. At some level, RSOs tend to offer students a grasp at identity as they meet their first casual or close friends outside their dorm, students who share their interests. Yet for some reason, RSOs at the UofC often have a lifespan only slightly longer than those fake clubs that groups of friends would make up in high school, just so that they could have a picture in the yearbook together. Even RSOs that are generally successful can fade as leadership shifts, or attendance or submission lags. By one’s third or fourth year, even minimal RSO involvement is often left to a few hundred hardcore individuals, who run meetings and bring dozens of reimbursement receipts to the basement of the Reynolds Club.

The mystery of student organizations is a difficult one to unpack. There are six RSOs that receive funding separately—WHPK (radio), University Theater (drama), Major Activities Board (huge concerts), Council on University Programming (large parties), Doc Films (cinema), and Fire Escape Films (making movies), and they tend to involve a lot of students and get a lot of money from the college. These RSOs are also some of the oldest on campus. WHPK has been broadcasting from the Reynolds Club for over fifty years, and Doc Films is the oldest continuously screening student film society in the country. Yet contributing in a leadership role to either of these organizations can be a huge time commitment, and on top of a stressful class schedule, having to commit a serious amount of extra effort to a large organization can be both rewarding and draining. But for the most part, the continued existence of these RSOs is rarely in jeopardy.

Not so for the smaller schools of fish. The most visible casualty of this tends to be publications. If a magazine or review can’t produce enough content to fill an issue, or if they don’t have an editorial board (or even a single person) willing to trudge through submissions, they often fall apart. Some, such as Sliced Bread (formerly Aubade), have re-branded and re-energized. Others’ publishing simply dwindles, or ceases entirely. Their registered organization status is switched to ‘inactive,’ until an eager or entrepreneurial student attempts to revive or resuscitate the cause. RSOs don’t really die, you see. They simply retire quietly and wait until someone new finds them.

When one searches for a list of all RSOs, active and inactive, on the Student Activities website, 456 organizations are returned. The first is the undergraduate chapter of the American Medical Student Association, and the last is the Zombie Readiness Task Force. The Zombie Readiness Task Force was only established as a registered organization within the past year, whereas pre-med students have existed since the dawn of the university. Between these groups, both intellectually and alphabetically, exists hundreds of other options for students.

But the question of what fails and what succeeds has to do as much with zeitgeist as anything. Despite the fact that the Zombie Readiness Task Force received thousands of dollars of funding from Student Government’s Uncommon Fund, they still need to keep an active membership to survive. Maybe when the apocalypse does come calling, there will be no one to protect campus from a gaggle of flesh-eating beasts because students have joined the Anti-Cyborg Coalition, or the Alien Invasion Support Group. All facetiousness aside, the possibility of a continuous student life is often undercut by us students ourselves. After all, we graduate.

Of course, a live performance needs performers; Fortieth Day, Ghost Ice, Mykel Boyd and Mac Blackout will provide the music. The performers each bring their own background to “Pictures and Sounds.” Fortieth Day is a duo made up of Isidro Reyes and Mark Solotroff, both originally from the band Bloodyminded. They create a dark, dense style of music using guitar, synth, and bass. They are interested in expanding the scope of their performances and they often collaborate with other artists to add film and visual media to their performances. Ghost Ice’s music falls into a very different genre—he is a rap and reggae artist—but he shares Fortieth Day’s interest in multimedia experimentation. One of the idiosyncrasies of Ghost Ice’s approach to music and performance is that he has refused to release any recordings of his music. Event organizer Sam Henry says, “He’s turned down offers from every major noise label…It’s a special treat to have him up here for this show.” His music is something that can only be experienced live and in person. Mykel Boyd is a solo experimental musician whose work uses sounds made by everything from metal bowls to chirping cicadas to produce a droning ambient noise. Mac Blackout’s music is informed by his long-standing interest in visual media; he is a painter and printmaker as well as a musician.

Each performer chooses one or more short films and improvises a score to accompany it in his or her musical style. Of course, the scope of possible combinations of films and music is vast; performers have the whole history of cinema and every genre of film to choose from. The performers’ exact choices for films have not yet been determined. Event organizer Sam Henry reports that Ghost Ice will choose the film “Radiodynamics” by the mid-twentieth century German avant-garde filmmaker Oskar Fischinger. Films chosen for previous years of “Pictures and Sounds” have included both contemporary experimental films and old silent films, which, appropriately enough, were meant to be accompanied by live pianists when they were first shown in the early twentieth century. The result of all this mixing and matching of numerous styles and periods will be an unusual multimedia tableau that should appeal to anyone interested in film and music, or even just the senses of sight and hearing.

The result will likely be cacophonous, but original. The event’s hosts differ markedly, too; WHPK is a student-run radio station, while the Film Studies Center is an academic department whose programming often tends towards the obscure and highly intellectual. The collaboration of these two organizations will set the stage for the performers and films that make up 2008′s “Pictures and Sounds.” Come see it—and hear it—for yourself this Saturday.

Film Studies Center, 5811 S. Ellis Ave Rm 310. February 23. Saturday, 6-9pm. www.whpk.org