photo by Helena Price

We return to Balliceaux next week with a special performance by multi-instrumentalist Joe Westerlund. The Megafaun man is in town recording his album for Spacebomb Records and will devote a night to playing us some ditties that will make you think Frank Zappa and Anthony Braxton composed a children’s rock opera together. Come hear for yourself and catch a glimpse of his original music before some of it even gets laid down to tape.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22
10pm, $5, ages 21+

Balliceaux is located at 203 N. Lombardy St. in Richmond, VA.

Joe Westerlund is best known for his work with the Durham, NC based, shapeshifting folk-rock trio, MEGAFAUN. Megafaun has toured the U.S. and Europe regularly since 2008, establishing themselves as adventurous musicians and creative visionaries, while paying tribute to the roots of American music. They have released three critically acclaimed records since their formation in 2006, born from the break up of Raleigh, NC via Eau Claire, WI folk-rockers DEYARMOND EDISON that included JUSTIN VERNON of BON IVER.

Joe returned to his life-long collaborators in DeYarmond Edison upon graduating from Bennington College in 2005. It was during those years at Bennington that he obsessively exposed himself to avant-garde jazz and classical music. He studied percussion and improvisation theory with the 1960s jazz guru MILFORD GRAVES, and contemporary compostion with mainstays of the NYC downtown music scene ANTHONY COLEMAN and KITTY BRAZELTON. These forward-thinking academic influences have carried over into Joe’s work in Megafaun, as well as his current GRANDMA SPARROW project.

Drawing from his interests in sound collage, guided improvisation, classically-based atonal composition, popular melodies, and non sequitur humor, Grandma Sparrow frames a zanier side of Joe as a composer. Grandma Sparrow immortalizes inside jokes shared by close friends and family, some dating back to his pre-adolescent childhood. “Grandma Sparrow and his Incredible Piddle Tractor Band” is an extension of a collaborative project between Megafaun and FIGHT THE BIG BULL entitled “Sounds of the South,” named after and inspired by the infamous compilation of American folk music recorded by ALAN LOMAX. “Sounds of the South” was first performed as a commission from Duke University in the fall of 2010.

When not on the road, Joe is busy relaxing in the sun and brainstorming his next musical adventure at his newfound home in Venice, CA, with his wife Carson Efird and their pug Dora.