With The River and the Thread, Cash has added the next chapter to a remarkable period of creativity. Her last two albums, Black Cadillac (2006) and The List (2009), were both nominated for Grammy Awards; The List—an exploration of essential songs as selected and given to Rosanne by her father, Johnny Cash—was also named Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association. In addition, her best-selling 2010 memoir, Composed, was described by the Chicago Tribune as “one of the best accounts of an American life you will likely ever read.” (read more here)
 
photo credit: Clay Patrick McBride

Whoever thought when “Know Your Chicken” came out in the mid-90s it would make such a mark on the culture? We’re talking about a surrealist pastiche about magenta chickens set to boom-bap breakbeats and muted trumpet, rapped by a pair of grinning Japanese girls so obsessed with eating that they named every song on their first record after food. It doesn’t exactly spell commercial success, especially for a then-unknown avant-pop act from New York City who’s name is Italian for “Crazy Food.”
 
Self-produced over a two-year period by Miho Hatori and Yuka C. Honda, Hotel Valentine is their most impressive release to date as it finds them constructing a rich concept album, a love story amid the ghosts traversing the hallways of a hotel. Underneath the lush sonic palate, they have created the soundtrack to an invisible film as they’ve continued to refine their sound and remain fully committed to an ethic of fun.
 
Unlike most pretenders, Cibo Matto’s music is an entirely self-contained world, a look into the fantasy lives of Hatori and Honda. Both women were raised in Japan, but met in New York’s vivid 90s Lower East Side art scene that included John Zorn, Sean Lennon, the Beastie Boys, and Marc Ribot, a brief period of colorful experimentation at the outset of the Giuliani administration. Soon after they met, the pair formed a punk band called Leitoh Lychee (frozen lychee nut), which eventually morphed into the post-genre freakout that Cibo Matto would become. Within six months, David Byrne came to see them at a show and Warner Brothers picked them up off the strength of one self-released cassette tape.
 
This initiated one of the most colorful careers of the 90s. Cibo Matto exploded internationally, touring worldwide and releasing two classic records, 1996’s Viva! La Woman and 1999’s Stereo Type A. Their live shows and albums were marked by wild experimentation, incorporating hip-hop, Brazilian music, African and Latin jazz, and pop into their unclassifiable mix. They collaborated extensively with Yoko Ono, as well as the renowned French director Michel Gondry, who lent his visionary style to cement them in the budding consciousness of the MTV generation with his legendary video for “Sugar Water.” They sold over 100,000 of both of albums and graced seven magazine covers. Then, in a bizarre twist of fate, many fans discovered Cibo Matto performing in an infamous scene on an early episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Spin magazine included the debut album in their “100 Best Albums of the ‘90s” list, and Time magazine picked it in their list of the “Best Hip Hop Albums of All Time.” Their adoring fanbase grew until 2001, when the band announced an extended hiatus.
 
During that 10-year interval, both women worked on numerous interesting projects. Yuka Honda released three solo experimental albums on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records, recorded albums with jazz great Dave Douglas and Yoshimi (of the Boredoms), meanwhile producing a number of Japanese pop artists and acclaimed albums by Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band and Martha Wainwright. Miho Hatori released a solo album, two Brazilian discs with Beck guitarist Smokey Hormel & percussionist Mauro Refosco, guested on three Beastie Boys songs, and sang the role of Noodle on the Gorillaz first album, including lead vocals on the hit “19-2000.”
 
Says Honda, “Having spent some time apart, we became more aware of our magical chemistry, our magnetic bond. We both realized we had unfinished business.”
 
On February 14, 2011 a Cibo Matto light bulb flickered and they struck upon the idea of an invisible film, a score without motion, an album called Hotel Valentine.
 
Hotel Valentine is a metaphor, a question, an answer, an idea, a feeling; A strange and vivid scene.
 
“Hotel Valentine is the cinematic bricolage of Yuka and me,” Says Hatori. “Our medium is music. For me, making an album is like raising a child. We don’t know what kind of person (story) they will end up to be.”
 
Photo Credit: Sean Lennon

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Born and raised in Moscow, the traditionally trained classical pianist’s story reads like a twisted soap opera of self-discovery and narrowly escaped disasters. After being attacked by a sex trafficker in China during her travels and enthomusicology research, Tessa left China and began a fresh start in the US by starting a band dubbed Schizowave in Chicago, working with Ian McDonald of King Crimson and Foreigner and drummer Alan Lake, who has played and recorded with Madonna, Brian Ferry, Julian Lennon, Ministry, Brian Wilson and Sam Moore from Sam And Dave.
 
Accused of espionage in Chicago during the Bush administration, Tessa spent a month behind bars in Wisconsin, and fought the charges with eventual success. Following her stint in jail, Tessa moved to New York in 2008 and met an operatic teacher with whom she trained over the course of 3 years. Experiencing little progress over the first 2 ½ years, she became frustrated until achieving a breakthrough that continues to produce increasing vocal advancements.
 
In 2012 Tessa started a new band, Tessa Makes Love, along with regular collaborations by Ian McDonald. In 2013, her music video “Spente Le Stelle” received over a million views on YouTube although the jury is still out on how many people realized that the video was a satire.
 
The most recent lineup (as of June of 2014) includes Mark Greenberg on drums, Jonathan Levy on bass and Kane Mathis on oud. (read more here

Marc Ribot, who the New York Times describes as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device,” has released over 20 albums under his own name over a 30-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. His latest solo release, Silent Movies (Pi Recording 2010) has been described as a “down-in-mouth-near master piece” by the Village Voice and has landed on several Best of 2010 lists including the LA Times and critical praise across the board. 2013 saw the release of “Your Turn” (Northern Spy), the sophomore effort from Ribot’s post-rock/noise trio Ceramic Dog, and 2014 saw the monumental release: “Marc Ribot Trio Live at the Village Vanguard” (Pi Recordings), documenting Marc’s first headline and the return of Henry Grimes at the historical venue in 2012 already included on Best of 2014 lists including Downbeat Magazine and NPR’s 50 Favorites.
 
Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985’s Rain Dogs, and since then he’s become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots-music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” Additional recording credits include Neko Case, Diana Krall, Elton John/Leon Russell’s The Union, Solomon Burke, John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards, Marianne Faithful, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Medeski Martin & Wood, Caetono Veloso, Susana Baca, Allen Ginsburg, Madeline Peyroux, Nora Jones, Jolie Holland, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, and many others. Marc works regularly with Grammy® award winning producer T Bone Burnett and NY composer John Zorn. He has also composed and performed on numerous film scores such as “Walk The Line” (Mangold), “The Kids Are All Right,” and “The Departed” (Scorcese).
 
“…he can sit down with just his guitar and simultaneously confound you with technique, beauty, and surprise.” – John Garratt and Will Layman, PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2010 for the album “Silent Movies”

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SHADOWS CHOOSE THEIR HORRORS
2005, 16mm to Digital Beta, 31 minutes
Directed and Edited by Jennifer Reeves
Live score by Marc Ribot
Written by Jennifer Reeves with Winsome Brown
Starring Winsome Brown, Tanya Selvaratnam and Ariane Anthony
 
Shadows Choose Their Horrors is the dark and melodic diary of a necromancer living on the edge between the mortal world and the realm of lost souls. Sinister forces surround Madame G (Winsome Brown) as she tries to bond with her favorite undead. Using magic and ritual to give them new life and pleasures, Madame G is shocked by the devastating outcome. This camp and experimental reworking of early silent horror was inspired by both the un-staged Aaron Copland ballet Grohg, and the film that stirred the young Copland to write his ballet, Nosferatu.
 
Shadows Choose Their Horrors was originally created for a live performance of Grohg by the American Symphony Orchestra at Bard Music Festival, with Leon Botstein conducting.
 
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Jennifer Reeves (b. 1971, Sri Lanka) is a New York-based filmmaker working primarily on 16mm film. Reeves was named one of the “Best 50 Filmmakers Under 50” in the film journal Cinema Scope in the spring of 2012. Her films have shown extensively, from the Berlin, New York, Vancouver, London, Sundance, and Hong Kong Film Festivals to many Microcinemas in the US and Canada, the Robert Flaherty Seminar, and the Museum of Modern Art. Full multiple-screening retrospectives of her work have been held in recent years at Era New Horizons Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, Kino Arsenal in Berlin, Anthology Film Archives in New York, and San Francisco Cinematheque. Her most recent film COLOR NEUTRAL premiered at the New York Film Festival in October 2014.
 
Reeves has made experimental films since 1990. She does her own writing, cinematography, editing, and sound design. Her subjective and personal films push the boundaries of film through optical-printing and direct-on-film techniques. Reeves has consistently explored themes of memory, mental health and recovery, feminism and sexuality, landscape, wildlife, and politics from many different angles.
 
Since 2003 Reeves has collaborated with some of the finest composer/ musicians today, including Anthony Burr, Skúli Sverrisson, Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins, Marc Ribot, Erik Hoversten, Pitt Reeves, Hilmar Jensson, and Dave Cerf. As the daughter of a trumpeter, gravitating toward film and music collaborations was quite natural for Reeves. Her most ambitious film and music performance, the feature-length double-projection WHEN IT WAS BLUE (2008), premiered at Toronto International Film Festival with live music by composer/collaborator Skúli Sverrisson.
 
Reeves has also made a number of experimental narratives, most notably her highly acclaimed feature THE TIME WE KILLED. The Village Voice Film Critic’s poll (2005) honored THE TIME WE KILLED with votes from six film critics for categories including: Best Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Performance.
 
Reeves also teaches animation part-time at The Cooper Union.
 
Jennifer Reeves official site

“Phenomenal tubist Marcus Rojas” (Whitney Balliet, The New Yorker) is a native of New York City. Considered one of “the best all around tuba players in the world” (Harvey Pekar,Jazziz); among the diverse groups in which he has played are the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, American Symphony, American Ballet Theater, Joffrey Ballet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York Pops, EOS, Radio City Music Hall, Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis, ensembles led by Gil Evans, George Russell, Jim Hall, Lionel Hampton, Dave Douglas, Wayne Shorter, David Byrne, and P.D.Q. Bach. He has also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Today Show, Saturday Night Live and The Grammys from New York City.

Marcus has played on over three hundred and fifty recordings, from CDs of his own groups (Spanish Fly and Les Miserables Brass Band) to Reggae stars Sly and Robbie and the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed and/or recorded with such diverse artists as Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Dawn Upshaw, Queen Latifah, Donnie Osmond, Sting, Dr. John, Harry Connick Jr., Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, They Might be Giants, Arto Linsday and Rosie O’Donell among others. He has recorded for every major film, television and record company in the United States as well as countless commercial jingles and over 60 film scores including Wolf, Interview with the Vampire, Mission to Mars, Muppet Christmas Carol, Ed Wood, You’ve Got Mail, The Spanish Prisoner, Fargo, Snake Eyes, Primary Colors,101 Dalmations, Shaft, S.W.A.T., American Splendor, Everything is Illuminated, Sleepless in Seattle, Sin Nombre and Across the Universe. He can be heard daily on Nick Jr’s. Oswald and the Backyardigans.