Photograph of myself and some of the other participants in Christof Migone's piece Hit Parade as performed Friday October 7th 2011, part of Send + Receive v.13, as well as an excerpt from a festival synopsis re-posted form Uptown Magazine.
"Josh Rose performed using streets, walking, running and talking. Inspired by Vito Acconci’s pre-digital performance — for which he placed a call from a pay phone every 10 minutes as he travelled 100 blocks to the gallery — Rose’s updated version saw the non-runner run 70 Winnipeg blocks, detailing buildings he passed (his deadpan descriptions of Rae and Jerry’s and The Palomino Club drew laughs from his remote audience), people on the street and the condition of his body on his cellphone. A quiet and conceptual counterpoint (lacking even the rhythmic gasps I had expected) to the force of nature that is Double Hook, Rose managed to keep his audience — patiently seated facing an empty stage — entertained for the full hour it took him to complete the run."
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The post festival edition of Send + Receive Radio is now available to stream at the CKUW website. This edition features 3 of the S+R radio hosts and festival organizers including the Send + Receive Program Director Crys Cole in conversation discussing the festival's performances, talks, and exhibitions.
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Photograph of my performance at Clamour & Toll February 17th, 2010. Re-posted from The Or Gallery blog.
Live review re-posted from From Blown Speakers blog, June 2008:
Sick Buildings were amazing. I'm bummed that I missed them at Wolf Eyes, as their "set" was completely different at Pat's (it involved eight people amongst the crowd blowing on rape whistles while Josh Rose fired sampled whistles back at them).
I knew Josh ran Run Down Sun, but beyond that, I only recognized him as the very polite, soft spoken guy at Zulu, so it was a bit of a surprise to see him looking rather surly on stage and then spitting out, "I call myself Sick Buildlings... this is the last harsh noise set I'm going to do, so consider yourselves lucky."
And then he did what was, quite frankly, the most "punk rock" thing that you could do at a noisy, avant garde, punk rock show, and jumped into a monologue about a plane ride, keeping things going long enough to illicit a fair amount of groans, calls of "you suck," and "play some fucking music," before leaving the story hanging with "and then she said..." and launching into the sickest, nastiest sounding "music" I've heard in ages. The contrast made the latter half of the performance sound even more powerful.
I sincerely hope that the "last harsh noise set" admission was just stage banter, and if not, I hope he reconsiders. If you're a fan of this type of thing, and you see "Sick Buildings" on a show poster, do yourself a favour and get your ass to wherever Josh is playing.
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Live review re-posted from Pop Dr(((O)))nes blog, June 2008:
Sick Bulidings played a controlled set of noise that involved half a dozen rape-whistle blowers ( I was one of the few) who, while scattered across the room, let blow while Josh hurtled an army of pre-sampled rape whistles back at the crowd.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Live review re-posted from Discorder Magazine, June 2008:
Opening the night was local noise purveyor Sick Buildings, who brought an innovative set of harsh shifting electronics. Before he began, rape whistles and alarms were distributed throughout the crowd with accompanying instructions. Halfway through the 10-minute set, there was a short pause followed by an assault of high-pitched whistles from the crowd. Sick Buildings then hurtled at least a dozen pre-sampled high-pitched whistles back at the audience for an intense, disorientating effect, and quite possibly marking the first time a rape whistle was used to assault rather than protect.
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Review of Valastro Cassette, Cipher Productions re-posted from Pop Dr(((O)))nes May 2009:
BT. HN. “Valastro” (Cipher Productions)First of two new collaborative efforts by Vancouver's Sick Buildings and THE RITA. This cassette, which was released on the Australian label Cipher Productions, starts off with a jarring shot of white noise that fire out like a cannon (this writer actually flinched) and is followed by what sounds like a a gathering street mob. Later, a man speaking French for several moments isinterrupted by a familiar blast of harsh noise that could only be the doing of THE RITA. The speaker's voice is then interspersed with the same shots of noise that started the tape off, sounding like speaker happens to be under siege. The explosions are eventually wrenched into blow torch-like blasts and are backed up by violent feedback and teethgrinding vocals. This is perhaps the most visual release I've heard from either of these fellers, and brings to mind urban warfare happening well out of ear shot from these cozy Canadian shores. Apparently it has more to do with dynamite fishing than anything else. Go figger.
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Review of Vancouver Double 7" 45 rpm, Ketchup Cavern, re-posted from Mimaroglu Music Sales :
...(my personal favorite would have to be sick buildings’ gestural stop/start burner - listen to the sound-sample for a taste) ...
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