Alan Licht
News
2017
After May 1, 2016 please go to http://alanlicht.tumblr.com
for current news and live events, which will be updated more frequently than this site.
Alan is doing a solo acoustic tour June 2--12, 2017
June 2: Yod Space, Florence MA with Chris Brokaw and Bill Nace 221 Pine St. #141
June 3: La Vitrola, Montreal, Quebec. Part of the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival
June 4: Ratio space, Toronto duo with Michael Snow
June 6: Trinosophes, Detroit
June 7: Empty Bottle, Chicago
June 8: Dreamland, Louisville
June 9: the Comet, Cincinatti
June 10: It Looks Like It's Open, Columbus
June 11: Brillobox, Pittsburgh with Saajtak and Landmark Tongues, 4104 Penn Ave.
June 12: Rhizome, Washington DC with Abstract Human (Mike Bernstein & Maya Miller) and Mt. Rainier (Matt Cohen) 6950 Maple St. NW FB page
Title TK 2010--2014
A book of transcripts of concerts by Title TK, the talk rock trio of Alan, Cory Arcangel, and Howie Chen, was published by Primary Information in January 2017
See an interview about the book here
Skip to the Solo, an album by Alan & Henry Kaiser, was released by Public Eyesore in late 2016. Copies are available from Alan via his blog
Alan writes, "This is a very special album for me - I was a fan of Henry's in the 80s when I was a teenager, and met and studied with him. We've stayed in contact and have been talking about doing an album together ever since, and this is it! Recorded in Santa Cruz with drummer Rick Walker and third guitarist Mikko Biffle, with revolving bass duties, it's an instrumental rock album but one with no melodic themes, just molten, passionate soloing over simple progressions of 2 to 4 chords. The rhythms come from rock, Afropop, reggae, blues, jazz, Latin, you name it; it's not avant-garde per se but decidedly off-kilter and trans-idiomatic. The tracks have deliberately abrupt beginnings and endings, with brief 10-second "tags" sandwiched between them, so the album flows together as one big piece, à la The Faust Tapes (it's also very much in the methodological lineage of Frank Zappa's Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar). The album's title and concept harks back to the experience of playing vinyl records and lifting the stylus ahead to the guitar solo. Although they're a generation apart, in their younger days Henry and I would both do this and then jam along with the winding modal excursions over vamps like "Light My Fire," "Down By the River," "Agharta Prelude," "Alice in Blunderland," "Dark Star," "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," and many more. During a 2015 duo gig at The Stone in NYC Henry turned to me and said 'Play a couple of chords that I can fuzz solo over.' A couple of days later it hit me--let's do a whole album of that! This disc is it, one where the artists provide a notable service to the listener: they skip to the solos so that you don't have to!"
Listen to Alan do a short acoustic set on Adam Downey's Test Press show on Little Water Radio here
Listen to Alan play various rare tracks from his career (Love Child, Run On, Blue Humans, etc) on Tyler Maxin's Termite Terrace show on WNYU here
Check out a dialogue between Alan and the Dead C's Michael Morley at BOMB magazine's site here
Alan did liner notes for Dan Joseph's Electroacoustic Works (XI) and The Double's Dawn of the Double
SPRING 2016
Alan & Tetuzi Akiyama are touring Europe this May in support of their Tomorrow Outside Tomorrow CD on Editions Mego. All dates in the LIVE section below.
Alan joined James Jagger, Lee Ranaldo, Don Fleming,
Sim Cain, and Sal Maida in several recording sessions
for the HBO series "Vinyl," making the music performed onscreen by the "Nasty Bits."
Read an article from the NY Times
about "Vinyl"'s soundtrack that he's quoted in here
Alan also recorded two Velvet Underground covers for "Vinyl," seen in Episode 2, with Julian Casablancas, Lee, Don, Sim, Tony Shanahan, and Karen Waltuch.
He was the featured soloist on "Run Run Run,"
watch a clip of it here
The WIRE posted an essay by Alan on the films of the late Tony Conrad here
Brooklyn Vegan posted several picutres of Alan's March 4 acoustic set at St. Vitus here
Out Now
Tomorrow Outside Tomorrow CD/Download
by Licht-Akiyama Trios on Editions Mego
Two side-long improvisations by Tetuzi Akiyama and Alan
Licht with guests Oren Ambarchi and Rob Mazurek
more info here
Check out writing by Marc Masters and Alan
about the Currents LP at the Out Door 200 Words blog here
Check out a recording of the January 6, 2016 show at Union Pool by NYC Taper here
and the March 4, 2016 show at St. Vitus here
News Archive
LIVE
2017
May 22: Alan solo and duo with Angela Jaeger (reading poetry) at Bowery Electric, NYC
March 1: "The Problem in NYC" Alan with Lee Ranaldo, Sarah Lipstate, Jessica Pavone, Kid Millions, and Brian Chase performing on instruments by David Shrigley, Independent Art Fair, Spring Place, NYC
February 25: Trio of Alan, Steve Gunn and Steve Shelley at Benefit for Bruce Langhorne, Brooklyn Music School, NYC
February 12: solo electric at Knockdown Center, NYC
January 6: Title TK book launch at Spoonbill & Sugartown, Bushwick, NYC
Live Archive
Recent Releases
Alan Licht
Currents LP
Aki Onda with Alan Licht & Loren Connors
Lost City LP
Alan Licht & Brian Chase
We Thought We Could Do Anything LP
Alan Licht
Four Years Older LP
2017
After May 1, 2016 please go to http://alanlicht.tumblr.com
for current news and live events, which will be updated more frequently than this site.
Alan is doing a solo acoustic tour June 2--12, 2017
June 2: Yod Space, Florence MA with Chris Brokaw and Bill Nace 221 Pine St. #141
June 3: La Vitrola, Montreal, Quebec. Part of the Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival
June 4: Ratio space, Toronto duo with Michael Snow
June 6: Trinosophes, Detroit
June 7: Empty Bottle, Chicago
June 8: Dreamland, Louisville
June 9: the Comet, Cincinatti
June 10: It Looks Like It's Open, Columbus
June 11: Brillobox, Pittsburgh with Saajtak and Landmark Tongues, 4104 Penn Ave.
June 12: Rhizome, Washington DC with Abstract Human (Mike Bernstein & Maya Miller) and Mt. Rainier (Matt Cohen) 6950 Maple St. NW FB page
Title TK 2010--2014
A book of transcripts of concerts by Title TK, the talk rock trio of Alan, Cory Arcangel, and Howie Chen, was published by Primary Information in January 2017
See an interview about the book here
Skip to the Solo, an album by Alan & Henry Kaiser, was released by Public Eyesore in late 2016. Copies are available from Alan via his blog
Alan writes, "This is a very special album for me - I was a fan of Henry's in the 80s when I was a teenager, and met and studied with him. We've stayed in contact and have been talking about doing an album together ever since, and this is it! Recorded in Santa Cruz with drummer Rick Walker and third guitarist Mikko Biffle, with revolving bass duties, it's an instrumental rock album but one with no melodic themes, just molten, passionate soloing over simple progressions of 2 to 4 chords. The rhythms come from rock, Afropop, reggae, blues, jazz, Latin, you name it; it's not avant-garde per se but decidedly off-kilter and trans-idiomatic. The tracks have deliberately abrupt beginnings and endings, with brief 10-second "tags" sandwiched between them, so the album flows together as one big piece, à la The Faust Tapes (it's also very much in the methodological lineage of Frank Zappa's Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar). The album's title and concept harks back to the experience of playing vinyl records and lifting the stylus ahead to the guitar solo. Although they're a generation apart, in their younger days Henry and I would both do this and then jam along with the winding modal excursions over vamps like "Light My Fire," "Down By the River," "Agharta Prelude," "Alice in Blunderland," "Dark Star," "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," and many more. During a 2015 duo gig at The Stone in NYC Henry turned to me and said 'Play a couple of chords that I can fuzz solo over.' A couple of days later it hit me--let's do a whole album of that! This disc is it, one where the artists provide a notable service to the listener: they skip to the solos so that you don't have to!"
Listen to Alan do a short acoustic set on Adam Downey's Test Press show on Little Water Radio here
Listen to Alan play various rare tracks from his career (Love Child, Run On, Blue Humans, etc) on Tyler Maxin's Termite Terrace show on WNYU here
Check out a dialogue between Alan and the Dead C's Michael Morley at BOMB magazine's site here
Alan did liner notes for Dan Joseph's Electroacoustic Works (XI) and The Double's Dawn of the Double
SPRING 2016
Alan & Tetuzi Akiyama are touring Europe this May in support of their Tomorrow Outside Tomorrow CD on Editions Mego. All dates in the LIVE section below.
Alan joined James Jagger, Lee Ranaldo, Don Fleming,
Sim Cain, and Sal Maida in several recording sessions
for the HBO series "Vinyl," making the music performed onscreen by the "Nasty Bits."
Read an article from the NY Times
about "Vinyl"'s soundtrack that he's quoted in here
Alan also recorded two Velvet Underground covers for "Vinyl," seen in Episode 2, with Julian Casablancas, Lee, Don, Sim, Tony Shanahan, and Karen Waltuch.
He was the featured soloist on "Run Run Run,"
watch a clip of it here
The WIRE posted an essay by Alan on the films of the late Tony Conrad here
Brooklyn Vegan posted several picutres of Alan's March 4 acoustic set at St. Vitus here
Out Now
Tomorrow Outside Tomorrow CD/Download
by Licht-Akiyama Trios on Editions Mego
Two side-long improvisations by Tetuzi Akiyama and Alan
Licht with guests Oren Ambarchi and Rob Mazurek
more info here
Check out writing by Marc Masters and Alan
about the Currents LP at the Out Door 200 Words blog here
Check out a recording of the January 6, 2016 show at Union Pool by NYC Taper here
and the March 4, 2016 show at St. Vitus here
News Archive
LIVE
2017
May 22: Alan solo and duo with Angela Jaeger (reading poetry) at Bowery Electric, NYC
March 1: "The Problem in NYC" Alan with Lee Ranaldo, Sarah Lipstate, Jessica Pavone, Kid Millions, and Brian Chase performing on instruments by David Shrigley, Independent Art Fair, Spring Place, NYC
February 25: Trio of Alan, Steve Gunn and Steve Shelley at Benefit for Bruce Langhorne, Brooklyn Music School, NYC
February 12: solo electric at Knockdown Center, NYC
January 6: Title TK book launch at Spoonbill & Sugartown, Bushwick, NYC
Live Archive
Recent Releases
Alan Licht
Currents LP
Aki Onda with Alan Licht & Loren Connors
Lost City LP
Alan Licht & Brian Chase
We Thought We Could Do Anything LP
Alan Licht
Four Years Older LP
Henry Kaiser & Alan Licht at the Stone, Feb 7, 2015, Photo by Brandy Gale
Text of Light in Yverdon, Rigo
Text of Light in Brno by Miro Myska, March 4, 2008
Alan Licht with the Blue Humans at CBGB, early 90s
Alan Licht at Siltbreeze Festival, Philadelphia, 1994 Photo by Stu Lax
Run On live, mid-90s
Love Child by Michael Macioce