Let’s talk about Mike Donovan, who’ll be playing a solo show at Stage 33 Live on Monday, May 14 in Bellows Falls VT, with History Teaches opening (featuring members of Magik Markers & Sunburned Hand of The Man).
Mike’s been writing and playing and recording uncompromised lo-fi psych-folk&rock for a good while — sometimes soft and dreamy, sometimes more urgently garage but still dreamy, sometimes funny and dreamy. Almost always dreamy.
He founded Sic Alps in ’04 in San Francisco; that band lasted nearly a decade and was admired by the likes of Pavement and the Fall. In addition to his solo work he also formed the The Peacers, and has had fingers in The Ropers, The Church Steps, NAM, Big Techno Werewolves, Sounds of the Barbary Coast, and Yikes. If you know any of these, you know that’s cool.
His latest solo full-length, just released in April, is called “How to Get Your Record Played In Shops.” The vinyl pressing and cassette copies have both already sold out (yes, cassettes are still a thing), but digital tracks are available through Bandcamp. We don’t know whether or not the album title is a nod to being the sort of musician recognized as a creative original by people in the know — people like record store clerks — or if he just thought it was funny. Come and ask him.
Admission is a recommended $5 minimum donation, more if you can… all of it goes to the musicians for burritos and gas money to the next show. They’re out on tour. Show them love. We’ve got them the day after Montreal, the day before Greenfield, and just ten days before Mike leaves the country to play Germany / Belgium / Switzerland / France / UK / Ireland.
Intimate seating for 50, after that it’s standing room. This is an all ages listening event. No alcohol, but unhealthy snacks and soda by donation (whatever you think is fair). Doors at 6:00, show sometime after that. Best to aim for 6:00, probably.
We’ll be documenting for broadcast; by entering the premises, you’re consenting to being filmed, photographed, and recorded.
Stage 33 Live is at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls VT. It’s an ongoing celebration of humanities, science, spoken word arts, and music recorded during live listening events on a simple stage in a former industrial building in Bellows Falls, VT, and subsequently presented as a broadcast and web variety program. Stage 33 Live is a nonprofit endeavor run entirely by volunteers, and is infused with the best parts of post-industrial small-town rural New England come-together and can-do Yankee bootstrap ingenuity and hard work. We’re not a plush performance theater or a state-of-the-art recording facility. We’re just good folks doing this fine thing. www.stage33live.com
