Everyone's favorite guitar/drum duo -- Tashi Dorji & Tyler Damon -- are heading to the Big Ears festival in Knoxville, Tennessee and for a quick hit in the Carolinas. Get at it.

– Saturday, March 23rd –  Tyler Damon, Tashi Dorji & Brandon Lopez w/ Paul Lytton / Brandon Lopez duo & DJ Xerox the Kidd @ Magnolia Records, Knoxville, TN

– Friday, March 22nd – Damon-Dorji Duo @ The Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN

– Thursday, March 21st – Damon-Dorji Duo @ Neptune’s Parlour, Raleigh, NC

If Ichida -- the debut collab between Eiko Ishibashi and Darin Gray -- did not make your Top Five of 2018, stop reading and go buy the LP now (via Black Truffle). It's a splendid, slowly unraveling soundscape of flute, upright bass, electronics, vocals, piano and more. It's damn fine and a perfect companion to Ishibashi's new experimental pop album The Dream My Bones Dream (Drag City). Now, these two are playing a show at Tokyo's Super Deluxe on Wednesday, Jan. 9th to bid farewell to the club (sadly, it's closing) and part of an ongoing celebration (not a birthday party) for Jim O'Rouke. Or so we've read. Wish we could be there. 

Tori Kudo of Maher Shalal Hash Baz and DJ Kayo will also perform.  

Photo: DG

What do you want to know about percussionist Tyler Damon?

Chances are, Tyler covers it in this The Free Jazz Collective interview with Tom Burris. This is the first long-firm interview with the new Chicago resident. He touches on his trajectory from drumming rock to free and playing with Circuit des Yeux, Dave Rempis, Tashi Dorji, Darin Gray and more. Check it out here.

Photo by Mink Oil

Loren Connors' first solo painting exhibit Wild Weeds opens Oct. 2 and continues through Oct. 7 at Blank Forms in New York City. 

"Wild Weeds features a series of new paintings and a selection of recent drawings. All of the works continue an ongoing series of flower images, drawn or painted in the past few years with an economical hand, a quality not unlike the impressionistic character of Connors’ guitar playing. Connors has explicitly considered the relationship between the paintbrush and the guitar throughout his career, on albums such as Blues: The “Dark Paintings” of Mark Rothko (1990), a musical response to the late painter’s final works, and by creating album artwork—often by hand, even since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1992—for his own, limited-release recordings....

"Wild Weeds is presented in conjunction with the release of Connors’ Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations Vol. 10, by Blank Forms Editions. The album, featuring archival material recorded at the Creative Music Studio in 1980..." -- Blank Forms

The exhibit closes with a performance by Loren and Tom and Christina Carter as Charalambides on Oct. 7 at 8 p.m.

You know this smokes -- the new trio Kuzu -- aka Tyler Damon, Tashi Dorji & Dave Rempis. Their debut LP Hiljaisuus is out now on Astral Spirits. You should buy it now.

They are also on tour now and in October and you should go...

– Monday, August 13th – Kuzu @ house show, Beaumont, TX
– Tuesday, August 14th – Kuzu w/ Dane Rousay @ High Wire Art Gallery (326 Josephine St.), San Antonio, TX
– Wednesday, August 15th – Kuzu w/ Carter/Smith/Ruth/Gonzalez/Gonzalez quintet, Espina/Daghighi/Butler trio + a screening of Milford Graves @fullmantismovie @ Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.), Dallas, TX*
– Thursday, August 16th – Kuzu w/ Soft Healer, Dane Rousay. DJ Gerard Cosloy @ Sonic Transmissions Festival, Sahara Lounge (1413 Webberville Rd.), Austin, TX

(Photo by Julia Dratel)