Thursday Jazz: new(ish) Inhabitants, plus Vandermark!

It was last July 1 that we went to Rime (now Lime) and saw Vancouver's the Inhabitants play a blistering set of skronked out space jazz/noise rock awesomeness. JP Carter's trumpet work is the centrepiece of this boffo combo, but Dave Sikula's guitar playing is nothing to shrug about either. Pete Schmitt and Skye Brooks are the rhythm section, and, y'know, they probably get short shrift, but they're awesome too.
It turns out that while I wasn't looking, the Inhabitants released a new album last November. I finally got my hands on The Furniture Moves Underneath and it kicks all kinds of ass. From loose, cosmic numbers to wild, kinda funked-over stomps, it's everything you want in an Inhabitants record. Even Downbeat loves it (4-star review in the May ish).
The Inhabs are gonna be playing at Ironworks in Vancouver on June 25 as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

mp3: "Kurt's Dirt" by the Inhabitants

Also part of the Jazz Festival, my Jazz Hero #1, Ken Vandermark is going to be here. And not just here, but he's got several Vandermark dates in the PNW. It looks like the 1999 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship is going to be in my general neighbourhood for about a week, and I plan on seeing and hearing as much of him as I can. Even if it means ignoring my job and my loved ones. I'm talking about Ken Vandermark, dammit. Cut me some slack.

Vandermark's key appearance at the Jazz Fest will be June 23 at the Roundhouse as under the billing The Thing with Ken Vandermark, who recently released the four-cut extended improv recording Immediate Sounds on the Smalltown Superjazz label.

mp3: "Immediate Sounds" by The Thing with Ken Vandermark

But he's also going to playing shows as the Ken Vandermark/Paal Nilssen-Love Duo, which sounds tempting (especially the show in Roberts Creek, since I know how to get there). In the spirit of all that, here are some of the Vandermark tracks ABWAWBA has brought you in the past.

mp3: "Late Night Wait Around" by Portastatic with Ken Vandermark and Tim Mulvenna

mp3: "Jack Kirby Was Ripped Off" by the Ken Vandermark Quartet

mp3: "Rip, Rig & Panic Suite" by the Vandermark 5