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| NEWS FROM FUN CITY
Jun. 13, '01: Three members of the Ensemble took part
in the epic world premiere of composer Glenn
Branca's "Symphony No. 13: Hallucination City" in the concourse
of the World Trade Center, part of an orchestra of 80 guitars and
20 basses. Wharton had a whole PA system to himself to be heard
over
the din, and made a lot of new fans with his muscular timekeeping.
There'll be a page on Branca's site documenting the event, but
in
the meantime here's a teaser. |
| Feb. 4, '01: The latest upgrade to the website is a gallery of photos of the WTE onstage at CBGB's |
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| Oct. 28, '00: Welcome the newest member of the Fun City
Posse: Sophia Tiers, born Oct. 28 at 7:40 am. |
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| Oct. 22, '00: The Wharton Tiers Ensemble is featured
on a new Rubric Records
compilation called 01 (coincidently it's Rubric release rub01). Our
track "Hi Lo" is included along with tunes by Bevis Frond, Mary Lou
Lord, Hippopotamus, Nick Zedd and others. Look for it Nov. 6! |
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| Sept. 16, '00: A couple of related notes: Wharton has been making short runs of limited-edition CDs for a while now, which until recently we've sold only at shows. We've decided to make some of these available through whartontiers.com as well, using PayPal.com to handle the credit card transaction. The first release in this series is the soundtrack to a dance performance that ran at NYC's P.S. 122 this summer. I, Rasputin features several brand new Ensemble tracks, plus highlights from the two previous releases, and some Aurora .23 material as well. Contact us for more info or to purchase I, Rasputin, and check back here or on our new recordings page for additional titles in this series as they become available. |
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| Aug. 16, '00: A sizzling live version of "Heatseeker"
from the Ensemble's appearance on The Stork Club
has been included on the limited edition CD More Music, Less Parking:
WFMU Live From Jersey City (here's
a somewhat out-of-date track listing). The CD is available only as a reward for donating to one of the world's great radio stations, free form WFMU-FM. Their Y2K marathon is over, but it's never too late to toss a few Big Head Jacksons their way...tell 'em we sent you! |
| June. 10, '00: There's a long interview with Wharton
in the latest issue of Tape Op
magazine where he discusses Fun City
and his views on tools and recording. Also included is a sidebar where
Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth
talks about Wharton's role in helping them build and record at their
Echo Canyon studio. |
| |
| May. 24, '00: We just updated the recording
projects list on the site, just in case anyone thought Wharton
hasn't been busy enough. It should be mostly complete, but if you
recorded at Fun City and don't see your record here just send us some
email. |
| |
| May. 12, '00: Sonic
Youth's new major release NYC Ghosts & Flowers is set
to be released May 16. Engineered by Wharton, of course. |
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| May. 12, '00: Fun City Studios
has played host to plenty of legends in its day, but nothing like
the magnitude of Star Power that will be generated when Wharton
records an upcoming collaboration between Glenn
Branca and David Bowie! |
| |
| May. 5, '00: The Wharton Tiers Ensemble has produced
music for a dance production by Dura
Mater based on the famed Russian "Mad Monk", Rasputin.
The show will run Thursdays-Sundays, May 25-June 11, at PS122
in the East Village. |
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| Apr. 11, '00: The big news is that we have our own domain
name now, www.whartontiers.com.
Your current bookmarks should work for the forseeable future, but
it wouldn't hurt to bookmark the new address. |
| |
| Mar. 14, '00: The revived Aurora
.23 played The Cooler in NYC last night with an extended lineup
that included Melissa from the Velvet Mafia and J. Mascis from
Dinosaur Jr., making a total of 5 old-school synthesizers onstage.
Watch this space for news of a forthcoming CD. |
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| Feb. 9, '00: Wharton was the man behind the scenes doing
the musical mix on those Priceline.com
TV ads featuring William "Wild Bill" Shatner! How cool is that? |
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| Feb. 1, '00: Wharton was interviewed for a long article
on his work and the state of "alternative rock" in the latest N.Y.
Press. |
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| Jan. 7, '00: The Ensemble will be
churning the airwaves over NYC on Sunday, Jan. 23rd, when we appear
on Live At The Stork Club
on WFMU! If you don't live in
the area you can still catch the show on streaming RealAudio. For
more info on how to access their live stream check here
for all the details. |
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| Jan. 3, '00: Happy New Year/Century/Millenium! We added some new video to the site over the weekend, a performance of the title track from Twilight Of The Computer Age, captured live at the Knitting Factory. Enjoy! |
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| Dec. 12, '99: Reviews are starting to trickle in for Twilight Of The Computer Age. CMJ's is one of the first, and as more come in we'll post them here. |
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| Nov. 2, '99: We're putting together some more sound and video files for the site. For starters, here's a nice grungey RealVideo clip of Spring Training, performed live at the now-defunct Tramps in NYC, opening for the now-defunct Dinosaur Jr. (If it doesn't work you may need a newer version of the RealPlayer). |
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| Oct. 21, '99: Wharton's all-electronic project Aurora .23 made a surprise appearance at CBGB's Wednesday, Oct. 20. Watch this space for further developments. |
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| Oct. 18, '99: The second Wharton Tiers Ensemble album should be arriving in stores on November 16th! Twilight Of The Computer Age features 9 more mega-instrumentals, including tracks that have become live favorites, like Rakshak, Sandy Rides Again, and the title track. |
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| Oct. 1, '99: The Ensemble is
featured prominently in the fanzine Pipeline,
which devoted a large part of the new issue to coverage of the bands
involved in the Glenn Branca Guitar Swarm at London's Barbican
Theatre, Halloween night, 1998. Copies should be available at See Hear in NYC, or by mail through
35 Poe Street Belleville, PA 17004 pipeline@mailcity.com |
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| Sept. '99: Wharton was recently written up in The Encyclopedia of Record Producers, and his work is in the corresponding online Database Of Producers. |
work in progress