Thomas Comerford
The Pillowhammer, Jeff Harms
Thu, May 31, 2012
9:00 pm
The Hideout
Chicago, IL
$7.00
Tickets Available at the Door
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Thomas Comerford
Thomas Comerford is a musician and filmmaker who teaches film and punk history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born in 1970, Comerford originally studied sculpture, performance, and classical literature before turning to film in the early 1990s. He has been making a name for himself as a director of exquisitely quiet, meditative avant-garde and experimental films since 1997, and over the past decade he has explored the geographical history of Chicago and the Midwest in a series of films. His most recent film was 2010′s ‘The Indian Boundary Line’, a "landscape film" about the border that divided the U.S. frontier in Illinois from Native American territory.
However, Comerford is also the frontman for the band Kaspar Hauser. The band started in 1999 while Comerford was living in Iowa City. Upon moving to Chicago later that year, he began to assemble various lineups to do sporadic shows and recordings. After a few years Comerford began to devote more time to songwriting, recording and performing music, which ultimately led to Kasper Hauser’s release of 2007’s "Quixotic/Taxidermy" and 2009′s "The Sons".
By the end of 2009, Comerford felt he had enough material to begin working on a solo project aside from Kaspar Hauser. With the help of friends Seth Vanek (Roommate), Justin Petertil (Love Raid), Ed Crouse (Advance Base Family Band) and former Kaspar Hauser contributor Gregg Ostrom, he formed sessions to work on this unrecorded material, and after a few meetings the group recorded the older material and began writing new material. The cohesive collection of 8 songs that Comerford settled on became "Archive + Spiral", his debut solo recording that was released on his own Spacesuit Records label in October 2011. Since then, he has formed a loose-knit unit of friends called the Reels to play a number of shows in support of the record, including a tour in July of this year.
On Archive + Spiral:
"A dreamy, becalming LP." -- Jack Rabid, Big Takeover #69 (Fall 2011)
"Best Chicago Music of 2011 ..." -- Pete Zimmerman, Huffington Post
"Comerford show[s] off the breadth of his skill and ambition as a songwriter." -- Jessica Hopper, Chicago Tribune
"Songs that convince you of rock's enduring power and elegance." -- Peter Margasak, Post No Bills/Chicago Reader
"Beautiful, sad, moving, and genuine." -- A.C. Hawley, Little Village
"A true original, some of the best and most timeless songwriting I have ever heard." -- Chris Connelly, Reckless Records
However, Comerford is also the frontman for the band Kaspar Hauser. The band started in 1999 while Comerford was living in Iowa City. Upon moving to Chicago later that year, he began to assemble various lineups to do sporadic shows and recordings. After a few years Comerford began to devote more time to songwriting, recording and performing music, which ultimately led to Kasper Hauser’s release of 2007’s "Quixotic/Taxidermy" and 2009′s "The Sons".
By the end of 2009, Comerford felt he had enough material to begin working on a solo project aside from Kaspar Hauser. With the help of friends Seth Vanek (Roommate), Justin Petertil (Love Raid), Ed Crouse (Advance Base Family Band) and former Kaspar Hauser contributor Gregg Ostrom, he formed sessions to work on this unrecorded material, and after a few meetings the group recorded the older material and began writing new material. The cohesive collection of 8 songs that Comerford settled on became "Archive + Spiral", his debut solo recording that was released on his own Spacesuit Records label in October 2011. Since then, he has formed a loose-knit unit of friends called the Reels to play a number of shows in support of the record, including a tour in July of this year.
On Archive + Spiral:
"A dreamy, becalming LP." -- Jack Rabid, Big Takeover #69 (Fall 2011)
"Best Chicago Music of 2011 ..." -- Pete Zimmerman, Huffington Post
"Comerford show[s] off the breadth of his skill and ambition as a songwriter." -- Jessica Hopper, Chicago Tribune
"Songs that convince you of rock's enduring power and elegance." -- Peter Margasak, Post No Bills/Chicago Reader
"Beautiful, sad, moving, and genuine." -- A.C. Hawley, Little Village
"A true original, some of the best and most timeless songwriting I have ever heard." -- Chris Connelly, Reckless Records
The Pillowhammer
Bandleader, Jim Dorling, is the only musically inclined member of his family. He ran away from home at 17 to join Cappy Barro's Harmonica Band, later touring with vaudeville units assembled by Major Bowes and Benny Davis.
Sam Wagster has proved himself a better than average performer on guitar, bass guitar, and barrel organ, as a vocalist, arranger and bandleader--and as a professional ventriloquist!
Beth Yates hails from Detroit. she sings, plays flute and piano is a sitting Margarita and Bloody Mary shakeoff judge. At 16, Beth was jobbing with various kid bands and was hired for hired for jam sessions at the "Old Streets of Paris."
Ben Boye is master piano technician, who toured the borscht circuit with his dummy, sang ballads with a square band on Broadway, and worked with Les Elgart and Emmett Kelly.
Adam Vida took up the drum kit as a hobby. 3 weeks later he played his first professional gig. His ventriloquism, too, began accidentally at a party, where he borrowed a dummy that happened to be present.
Chris Erin enlisted in the army while in Hawaii playing in a harmonica act. He learned to play trumpet in a military band, performing throughout the Central Pacfic.
Sam Wagster has proved himself a better than average performer on guitar, bass guitar, and barrel organ, as a vocalist, arranger and bandleader--and as a professional ventriloquist!
Beth Yates hails from Detroit. she sings, plays flute and piano is a sitting Margarita and Bloody Mary shakeoff judge. At 16, Beth was jobbing with various kid bands and was hired for hired for jam sessions at the "Old Streets of Paris."
Ben Boye is master piano technician, who toured the borscht circuit with his dummy, sang ballads with a square band on Broadway, and worked with Les Elgart and Emmett Kelly.
Adam Vida took up the drum kit as a hobby. 3 weeks later he played his first professional gig. His ventriloquism, too, began accidentally at a party, where he borrowed a dummy that happened to be present.
Chris Erin enlisted in the army while in Hawaii playing in a harmonica act. He learned to play trumpet in a military band, performing throughout the Central Pacfic.
Jeff Harms
Site designed by Dan Mohr.
yes.I.said at mac dot com
Jeff Harms writes songs about human and natural disaster. He wrote his first album as a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, and continues to live and work in Chicago, IL.
yes.I.said at mac dot com
Jeff Harms writes songs about human and natural disaster. He wrote his first album as a student at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, and continues to live and work in Chicago, IL.
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