Category Archives: Shows

11/11 | BC Grimm (prepared guzheng) , Def Sonic, & Hunter Nicholson @ Common Sage! (Madison, WI)

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Check out this incredible poster art by @assortedpsychedelia Andrieu Todd!!! 😍😍😍

Saturday, 11/11/2023
Common Sage
934 Drake Street

BC Grimm
Def Sonic
Hunter Nicholson

Potluck @ 7pm
Music @ 8pm
$10 suggested donation

I’ll be performing the title track from my 2014 album of experimental zither music called, “The Ideating Knell”. It’s a long-form piece for a ‘prepared guzheng’ Chinese zither, exploring all of the non-traditional sounds you can make on the instrument. In the spirit of John Cage’s groundbreaking solo prepared piano works, this music prepares the guzheng with shell necklaces, clay pottery tools, mixing bowls, small gongs, bows, dulcimer hammers, clay teapot shards, and more! I would describe the 21-string guzheng with its spine of bridges and large coffin-like resonating chamber as a “cathedral of sounds”.

I’m very excited for this opportunity to perform at Common Sage, hosted by Tim Russell and Liz Sexe! An experimental musician and dancer couple who I’ve known nearly the entire time I’ve been in Madison! What they are cultivating with these monthly experimental house shows and potlucks is in kindred spirit to what Ka Baird used to do in Madison before she moved to NYC. It is helping to rekindle a sense of community for the experimental and improvised community here in Madison. It’s something that’s been missing in our scene for years now, and I’m so glad it’s back!! It’s been really hard for Tim and me to schedule a month where I’d be around and available to perform, and we finally got one! Hope to see some of you tomorrow night!

I’ll be taking the new sounds that I’ve been creating for this updated version of the piece and working on a new album of prepared guzheng music for another label soon! More details to come in the coming months, but I’m very excited to release a new album of prepared guzheng sounds on the 10th anniversary of the original release of this concept!

From a performance of the piece at an outdoor festival back in 2014, photo by Audre Rae Photography
Picture of the setup from a recent performance of The Ideating Knell in Cleveland, OH at the Cleveland Institute of Art

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“The Ideating Knell” composition for “prepared guzheng zither” ↘︎

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“The Ideating Knell” (2014) full album on Signal Dreams label ↘︎

Fri 02/10/23 – Adult Swim: Winter Weirderland

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5:30-9pm at Madison Children’s Museum
Tix: madisonchildrensmuseum.org/event/adult-swim-winter-weirderland

Though the wind may howl and yetis prowl, Adult Swim is keeping it warm, wacky, and weird!

Brennan Connors & Stray Passage + Laminal Animal double trio from 6:30-8:30pm!

click on image for facebook event details!

Laminal Animal, a Madison-based trio consisting of Luke Leavitt (piano and electronics), Tim Russell (percussion and electronics), and Ari Smith (bass, percussion and electronics), utilizes improvisation to investigate emergent, complex social interactions in order to create and navigate new sonic landscapes.

Adult Swim at Madison Children’s Museum honors the public pool tradition of kicking the kids out so adults can have the space to themselves (without the water or need for a swimsuit). This 21-and-up event series offers adults the opportunity to play like a grown-up for the evening—crawling, sliding, crafting, and dancing their way through the museum.

Adult Swim is presented by the Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co.

Closing Weekend for “The Wanderers” at The Overture Center!

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Presented by Forward Theater Company
Thursday, September 8th through Sunday, September 25th (TICKETS)
@ The Overture Center for the Arts Playhouse Theater (Madison, WI)

a play by Anna Ziegler
Directed by Mikael Burke (Chicago)
Wisconsin Premiere!

Esther and Schmuli are young Orthodox Jews whose future is written in scripture. Abe and Sophie believe they can write their own destiny. On the surface, these two couples couldn’t seem more different. But when a Hollywood actress upends Abe’s world, the hidden connections between all of them start to appear. This funny and mysterious drama explores the question of whether happiness lies in what we have, or on the road not taken.


“As perfect a piece of theater as I’ve seen in many years. The script by Anna Ziegler is a revelation, touching on family truths, marriage, and personal histories…Go see this show. It’s magnificent.”
– DC Theatre Scene

Buy Tickets here

With Cassandra Bissell, Elyse Edelman, Alanna Lovely, Paris Hunter Paul, Greg Pragel

Featuring Special Local Guest Musicians YID VICIOUS Klezmer Ensemble!

Scenic Designer: Sarah Ross
Lighting Designer: Brad Toberman
Costume Designer: Karen Brown-Larimore
Sound Designer/Composer: Brian Grimm
Props Master: Pam Miles
Technical Director: Kevin Zimmer
Stage Manager: Kira Neighbors
Asst. Stage Manager: Abbi Hess

I had such a blast recording music with Madison’s own Yid Vicious Klezmer Ensemble for the score of “The Wanderers” by Anna Ziegler! I’m so honored to have collaborated with such fine musicians & friends and can’t wait for you to hear their beautiful playing in this production!

Pictured members of Yid Vicious:
Matt Appleby – guitar
Kia Karlen – accordion & horn
Geoff Brady – vibraphone
Greg Smith – flutes & clarinets

Also pictured:
Brian Grimm – composer, cello at the playhouse theater
Zelda Brethauer – sleeping studio assistant

Lovely Socialite releases new singles, podcast & music video ahead of “The Drift” album release show 7/30 @ Cafe Coda!

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click for tix

The Drift album release show 7/30/2022 7pm live at Cafe Coda (buy tix $10) presented by BlueStem Jazz, featuring interludes by DJ o2

New Music Video for our second single “Experiment One”!


…Report 2-6z.11, anura, suborder heleioporus australiacus …Dermis level permeo-turbine sequences complete. Calibrating microbiome fueling ratios. Metatarsal elongation – 84.3%. Initiating final flight of F.R.O.G. … 

Lovely Socialite, Madison’s omnivorous mutant of a band, has returned with a vengeance. Following three years of show hiatus, puddle-muck lurking, jazz-gland regeneration, and zoom meetings, Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps’ very own sextet resurfaces with a brand-new full-length album, a renewed penchant for “toxically consonant” performance, and a highly-enriched class of aerial amphibian, known only as F.R.O.G.

Ben, Corey & Brian of Lovely Socialite met up with Michael Brenneis of BlueStem Jazz to discuss their history and release of the new album, check it out!

THE DRIFT is a return to form for Lovely Socialite; a 50-minute opus of their unpredictable, occasionally mordant, oft-funky sound. The album displays an impressive range of compositional concepts – blistering sprints, patient groove journeys, exploratory landscapes of timeless texture, and the mean brooding stomp of a many-tentacled monster. Now in its 11th year as a collaborative project, Lovely Socialite’s unmistakeable musical character has matured into a rich sonic world for listeners of all ponds to enjoy. 

F.R.O.G., tentacle-monster, Socialite, and all lovely guests take flight at Cafe Coda on SAT, JUL 30 at 7 PM. Mrs. Phipps’ lads will perform new music from THE DRIFT. In addition, the event will mark the 10-year  anniversary of Socialite’s debut album, Mrs. Thomas W. Phipps Registers her Delight. Guests will enjoy fan-favorite Socialite tunes from this classic recording.

Tickets are $10, available at the door and online at Cafe Coda’s website.

Check out our first single from the new album “The Final Flight of F.R.O.G.” plus a behind the track podcast with John Praw & Corey Murphy!


No tadpoles were hurt in the making of this album.