June Of 44

*All events are 21+ valid ID required for entry*
*Attendees are encouraged to wear masks while not actively drinking*

7PM – Doors
8PM – Show

 

JUNE OF 44 (9:00 PM)

It has been written far and wide that June of 44 is from  Louisville, Kentucky and in fact founding member Jeff  Mueller is indeed a native of Louisville, yet June of 44 as a  band began existence in the fall of 1994 in New York City.  October and November of that year saw the band record  it’s first record “Engine Takes to the Water” at James  Murphy’s Downtown Brooklyn location of his Plantain  Studios as well as performing their first series of concerts.  Throughout the nineties Mueller with Doug Scharin, Fred  Erskine, and Sean Meadows would continue to make  records for Chicago’s Quarterstick Records and play  concerts in Taiwan, Guatemala, Europe, Australia, and  North America. 
 In 2018, June of 44 started playing select concerts  again, and is currently working on new music. 

 

DES DEMONAS (8:00 PM)

“The South will never rise again,” Jacky Cougar Abok intones in a manner that suggests he is looking straight into your eyeballs while singing the opening track on Des Demonas’ debut LP on In The Red Records. His hand may be around your neck as well! Sounding like The Last Poets acid tripping to 60’s Sunset Strip, Des Demonas drag you on a wild ride of fuzzy guitars and swirling Farfisa organ while the bass and drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain. And that’s just the first song!

Des Demonas hail from Washington D.C., and have been denizens of the byways and highways of the city’s musical underground for years. Jacky Cougar Abok is the six-foot-five-inch tall Kenyan punk singer who has drummed with Thee Lolitas and Foul Swoops. Guitarist Mark Cisneros has bent strings with Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, Deathfix, and Medications and pounded the traps for The Make-Up and Benjy Ferree, the latter alongside organist Paul Vivari. Joe Halladay (Citygoats) on bass and Ryan Hicks (Suns Of Guns) on drums round out this squared circle of sight and sound.

The songs on Des Demonas range from Nuggets-style snottiness on “Tuff Turf”, to the brash warnings of “Liez” (‘Lies… only seem to matter if you never wise up’), to the stomper “Psychedelic Soldier” and cool psycho creeper “Say You Tried”, to the hard boiled 70’s punk of Swahili-sung “ Golden Eggs”. When Abok sings “There are no vampires in Africa,” it may be a warning. It may be a fact. Or it may be a whole lot of unrelenting scuzzy fun. Dig the Des Demonas. Play it loud. Twist your wig.

– Kid Congo Powers

NORMAN WESTBERG (SWANS)

Performing throughout the night

Best known for his work with the seminal outfit, SWANS, Westberg’s output beyond that group is sprawling and restless. His name recurs and ripples through many interconnected micro-histories surrounding New York City’s music and art scenes. From appearances in film works associated with the Cinema Of Transgression, through to his participation in bands such as The Heroin Sheiks and Five Dollar Priest, Westberg’s name is woven deeply in to the fabric of NY, over the past three decades.