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I'm a musician currently living in Boise, Idaho, and I'm looking to move elsewhere for several reasons, one of which is to find a music scene that's more to my liking. I'm interested in creating instrumental music that utilizes rock instruments but is experimental, meaning that it would contain elements as "out there" as 12-tone serialism, musique concrete, structural complexity, stylistic fusion, and exuberant lead lines. I haven't been able to find anyone here who has even remotely similar ideas and tastes, and I've long felt like an alien in Idaho anyway.
I've had my eye on Portland, Oregon for a while now, for both musical and non-musical reasons. I've even looked through their music ad section on Craigslist and easily found a few people who I would definitely consider jamming with. However, I'd like to know if Portland would be good or if there might be better "avant-scenes", so to speak. I'm especially interested because I really like sunny weather and am not sure if I could get used to the rainy weather over in Portland. I know that the mega metropolitan cities like New York have at least pockets of musical quirkiness, but I'm trying to avoid really crowded/choked places if possible. Maybe I'm just being picky and whiny, I don't know. :3
It's hard to determine which music scenes would work best for me because the music I'm envisioning has a limited appeal in general and there are seemingly no lists/resources for "best avant-music scenes in America".
It's a long shot, but any advice or guidance on the matter would be appreciated. Thanks!
You might check out Nashville which maybe on the surface seems one dimensional, but actually has a very diverse music scene. The size of Nashville and weather certainly seems more a match so it's worth looking at.
Every major city has a noise/experimental scene. Nashville doesn't have a particularly noteworthy one. Twin Cities might actually be a decent move for you, unless that's too big...Austin? Detroit would be good if you could handle...Detroit. ATL actually has a pretty good scene in that vein, as does Columbus OH.
Providence has an active scene based around the known/popular avant-rock label Load. More details, and I can probably help you out a bit more...
You must have a legit music background, tossing around those music theory terms like that
I personally don't know where the best place to be is, but Austin came to mind and with the very reputable music program at UT-Austin you should be able to find other musicians with similar interests.
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. I've been doing some more research, and I'm wondering: How good do you think San Diego would be for what I'm doing? Although it's one of the bigger, denser cities, it has a lot of other alluring aspects about it, and I've been there a few times before (my grandparents used to live there).
There is a reason for this, it is not obvious. It is called the no-audience underground for a reason (there is an audience, but it's small). There is no list for what is best, the community of people who like this type of music, and do it generally finds themselves. But you are right, you are in a proverbial black hole being in Idaho. Go for the East or West coast. Seattle, Portland, or SF are all good Choices, but the NE corridor, Asheville, New Orleans, and Nashville are also good choices.
I will tell you from experience, and the acts I have seen (which are numerous), most of these acts come from NYC, DC, Baltimore, Philly, Boston, SF, Portland, or Seattle. NE/NW corridors seem to have the largest concentrations inside the US. With that being said Chicago is always good for the weird stuff. The problem with Chicago/NYC is the size of the city does not make for the best community.
I am sure it exists in every city, but the reality is you are probably looking for not just performances but a solid community.
The reality is the NE coast has a strong experimental music community, and it is pretty contiguous. It is what I am familiar with, the red room in Baltimore is well known for example, but there are other places.
New Orleans and Nashville are both music cities, but they both have a solid community of experimental musicians from what I have heard. But no Anthony Pirog's. I have not seen many acts come out of there though the same way I have seen acts from the coasts or europe.
I mean from what it sounds like you really should just move to a name brand city. Oh. Asheville, NC should be high up on your list too. The presence of Make Noise Music and Moog, and a generally strong music history helps that small city.
The reality is you should be moving out of Idaho. You need to live in a city. You have developed esoteric tastes, and it is time to find like minds.
I am not sure San Diego or Boulder are the best places either, maybe Denver.
CU-Boulder's music is pretty good and definitely will give you a built-in community for this. But it will be small...since it's not much more than a college town. Although I have no personal experience with SD music, I imagine UCSB and SDSU offer some semblance of a community in this regard.
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone. I've been doing some more research, and I'm wondering: How good do you think San Diego would be for what I'm doing? Although it's one of the bigger, denser cities, it has a lot of other alluring aspects about it, and I've been there a few times before (my grandparents used to live there).
San Diego is an awful music city for its size, bands/artists skip it (due to location and audience size), and it has little history of notable experimental bands.
Not sure what the person is talking about above in the long post - I disagree that it doesn't matter what city you end up in, as some do have large noise scenes, while others do not. These are not concentrated on the coasts at all, as the Midwest has a long tradition of noise and avant rock right up with any coastal scene you can mention.
Also, it's untrue that there isn't an audience for this stuff. I don't want to name the band (probably wouldn't get through the filters here anyway), but a couple friends of mine are in a long-time noise band that's toured Europe, opened up for Sonic Youth to thousands every night, and so on. Most of their sets are a few minutes of noise and destruction, no melody lines in sight, so we're talking true abrasive noise, not "noisy" rock. They said that some of their best shows over the years were in OK City, of all places. Go online and talk to people actually into the same stuff as you (there are message boards) and find recommendations there - this forum is too general for an esoteric question like yours.
Also remember that some countries have larger noise scenes than others, most notably Japan, though I wouldn't recommend moving there and trying to break in, as while they are very supportive of Western bands on tour, they're fairly xenophobic when it comes to the local scene.
San Diego is an awful music city for its size, bands/artists skip it (due to location and audience size), and it has little history of notable experimental bands.
Not sure what the person is talking about above in the long post - I disagree that it doesn't matter what city you end up in, as some do have large noise scenes, while others do not. These are not concentrated on the coasts at all, as the Midwest has a long tradition of noise and avant rock right up with any coastal scene you can mention.
Also, it's untrue that there isn't an audience for this stuff. I don't want to name the band (probably wouldn't get through the filters here anyway), but a couple friends of mine are in a long-time noise band that's toured Europe, opened up for Sonic Youth to thousands every night, and so on. Most of their sets are a few minutes of noise and destruction, no melody lines in sight, so we're talking true abrasive noise, not "noisy" rock. They said that some of their best shows over the years were in OK City, of all places. Go online and talk to people actually into the same stuff as you (there are message boards) and find recommendations there - this forum is too general for an esoteric question like yours.
Also remember that some countries have larger noise scenes than others, most notably Japan, though I wouldn't recommend moving there and trying to break in, as while they are very supportive of Western bands on tour, they're fairly xenophobic when it comes to the local scene.
There is noise and experimental, the scenes are pretty different at times. If you want a more diverse avant garde scene outside of just noise, I would say the coasts are better unless you are talking about Chicago. It is an important distinguishing factor that they put forth. The typical experimental show in DC for example features usually one synthesist, a music concrete performer, somebody doing avant jazz. Then another night it maybe a noise artist, somebody using loops with performance artists, and then an atonal instrumentalist. Diversity is something I caught onto, not just a noise scene. The noise scene in some ways is kind of it's own thing. I have seen noise acts, but they don't dominate on the coasts. There is more diversity of acts in the avant garde scene.
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