The Westerlies re-imagine the chamber music experience through boldly personal performance, recording, collaboration, education, and outreach. Since their inception in 2011, they have cultivated a new brass quartet repertoire featuring over 50 original compositions as well as adaptations of Ives, Ellington, Bartok, Ligeti, Stephen Foster and numerous traditionals. Their music exudes the warmth of their longstanding friendships, and reflects the broad interests of its members. The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family folk ensemble. The Westerlies have performed at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at University of Maryland, The Festival of New Trumpet Music, Juilliard in Aiken Festival, The Juilliard School, Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO), the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Constellation Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum and Earshot Jazz Festival. Active collaborators, they have worked with artists in a variety of disciplines, including Vieux Farke Toure, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, visual artist David Foarde, Choreographer Garth Johnson, and Juilliard Dance. Their debut album, Wish The Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz, was released on Songlines Recordings in May 2014, and was immediately met with praise: “One of the more remarkable albums to cross my path this spring... an impressive feat from almost any angle... Take note of these players. You’ll be hearing more from them soon.” — Nate Chinen, Jazz Times __ Anders Parker is an American singer-songwriter, guitar player, singer and multi-instrumentalist with a career spanning two decades. He has performed and recorded as a solo artist and as a key member in bands such as Varnaline and Space Needle. Parker has been involved in various collaborations over the years including Gob Iron with Jay Farrar.

Jonah Parzen-Johnson is a saxophonist living in Brooklyn, NY. He writes lofi music for solo saxophone and analog synthesizer. Imagine the raw energy of an Appalachian Folk choir, tempered by a lofi, minimal aesthetic inspired by the music of Bill Callahan. His carefully assembled analog synthesizer breathes with his saxophone, building independent melodic layers to support his sound, or soaring above his extended technique driven saxophone playing. All performed live, without any looping or recorded samples. A Chicago native, Jonah’s circular breathing, multi-phonics and impossibly nimble vocalization owes a debt to the Chicago saxophone legacy, but his devotion to a quirky almost vocal style places him in new territory for the solo saxophone. He has meticulously constructed a world of warm memories remembered in a cold present, as he melds the evocative nature of folk music with the chilling power of experimentalism. In addition to relentlessly touring as a solo saxophonist, Jonah is a co-leader of the nationally touring afrobeat ensemble, Zongo Junction, and an active part of Brooklyn’s ever-expanding independent music community. __ A truly unique musical product of both Brooklyn and Chicago, Dave Miller, who "plays with refined restraint of someone twice his age" (Time Out), has once again redefined his parameters with the improvisational psych-folk of "Old Door Phantoms". Out 4/1/16 on ears&eyes Records with a national tour to support!

The Lost Letters of Montelvini is a quarterly poetry zine assembled by artist Ron Ribant and poets Vladimir de Saint and Gregg Japhy. The three met hopping trains, each with only a partial copy of The Dharma Bums, and one can of stew between them. Join us for a reading from the first volume.

The Spotty is excited to host a book event with Barney Hoskyns the British music critic and editorial director of the music journalism archive Rock's Backpages. Hoskyns resume is loaded. With an Oxford degree in English, He began writing about music for Melody Maker and New Musical Express, before publishing his forst book Say It One Time For The Brokenhearted: Country Soul In The American South (1987, reissued in 1998). Hoskyns has written for British Vogue, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer and Arena magazine. He has also contributed to Harper's Bazaar, Interview magazine, Spin, Rolling Stone, and Mojo Magazine. During all of this time, he's also written and edited a carload of books, listed below. In 2000, he co-founded Rock's Backpages, an online library of rock journalism. Hoskyns' newest book, Small Town Talk: Bob Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix & Friends in the Wild Years of Woodstock is available now. "...a pitch-perfect East Coast corollary to his Laurel Canyon classic Hotel California". --Jim Farber, Mojo Other books by Hoskyns: - Say It One Time For The Brokenhearted: Country Soul In The American South - Glam! Bowie, Bolan & The Glitter Rock Revolution - The Mullet: Hairstyle Of The Gods (with Mark Larson) - The Sound and the Fury: A Rock’s Backpages Reader (Editor) - Into the Void: Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath: A Rock's Backpages Reader (Editor) - Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters & Cocaine Cowboys In The L.A. Canyons - Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits - Montgomery Clift: Beautiful Loser - Across The Great Divide: The Band & America - The Lonely Planet Boy: A Pop Romance - Waiting For The Sun: Strange Days, Weird Scenes & The Sound Of Los Angeles. The book event will be followed by a partial screening of David McDonald's first Hudson showing of Woodstock: Can't Get There From Here. David is a filmmaker based out of Hudson, NY. He has recently provided video content for The NY Times, among others. He is currently working on a screenplay about artist Marc Chagall's time in the US during the 1940s.

Fron North Bend, WA, the DiTrani Brothers play original tunes and traditional tunes with influences in western and eastern-European folk music, Roma swing,(gypsy jazz,) and American jug-band music. Bobby and Walker DiTrani, originally from North Bend, WA, began writing songs together in 2013. Having both played separately in the past, they found that the sound they created together suited their vision in a more poignant way, and they began writing songs while traveling and living in the East and West coast. ___ Dana Hubanks plays dark country folk music that is best enjoyed when you're safe and sound. But if you're moving on in a sudden and unplanned way down an open country road--running toward or away from disaster--you could not have a better or more beautiful soundtrack.

Seasons change, Volume changes. We have a wonderful lineup this month. Jenny Offill is the author of the novels Last Things and Dept. of Speculation, a finalist for the Pen Faulkner Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and one of the New York Times 10 Best of 2014. She teaches at Syracuse University. Shira Dentz is the author of black seeds on a white dish (Shearsman), door of thin skins (CavanKerry), and the chapbooks Leaf Weather (Shearsman) and Flounders, coming soon from Essay Press. Courtney Maum is the author of the debut novel I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You, rated a book of the year by Real Simple, Bustle, and Flavorwire, and book of the month by Amazon, iTunes & Library Journal. She’s currently working on a second novel. Volume is a reading & music series featuring prose, poetry and a DJ set. Find them monthly--every 2nd Saturday at The Spotty Dog.

They were here earlier in 2016, and the place was packed for their unforgettable event. You have to be here to believe it. Arrive early--space will be limited! Bibbe Hansen is a performance artist, actress and musician. She is the daughter of Fluxus artist Al Hansen, and the mother of artist Channing Hansen and the pop musician Beck. A longtime participant in avant-garde contemporary art communities, as a youngster Bibbe made films with Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas and participated in her father’s “Happenings” and Fluxus performances at such historical venues as La Mama, Circle in the Square and the Living Theater. Currently a member of the virtual reality performance group Second Front, Hansen is writing a memoir and teaches and lectures on art and the creative process. __ Lydia Lunch is passionate, confrontational and bold. Whether attacking the patriarchy and their pornographic war mongering, turning the sexual into the political or whispering a love song to the broken hearted, her fierce energy and rapid fire delivery lend testament to her warrior nature. Queen of No Wave, muse of The Cinema of Transgression, writer, musician, poet, spoken word artist and photographer, she has released too many musical projects to tally, has been on tour for decades, has published dozens of articles, half a dozen books and simply refuses to just shut up. Brooklyn’s Akashic Books have published her anthology Will Work For Drugs, as well as her outrageous memoir of sexual insanity Paradoxia, A Predator’s Diary, which has been translated into seven languages. She performs in a variety of mediums, is a rabid collaborator and continues to release new music as well as re-issuing classic material such as her spoken word indictment against patriarchal idiocy, The Conspiracy of Women through Nicolas Jaar’s label Other People.

Pal Shazar will play songs and sign copies of her new book of portraits "You Don't Know Me" on Sunday, April 24th at 4:30 PM. Pal began writing in the late 70's, inspired by artists Patti Smith, Television, and Iggy Pop, all of whom she illustrated for the local rock fanzine Back Door Man while working nights as a ticket girl at the famed Troubadour nightclub. With Andrew Chinich she created the band Slow Children and went on to release eight solo albums. Time Out/London praised Pal's album Wild Thing as "a coolly crafted work of mysterious power, invention, melody and emotion.' Shazar is also a painter;; an example of her work is featured on the cover of the Waterboys Dream Harder album, and she self-published a book of lyrics and art Pal Shazar The Illustrated Lyrics in 2008 and La Strada, a collection of 42 paintings inspired by the 1954 Fellini film (2013). She has toured with Giant Sand and last performed in Hudson with her husband Jules Shear in duo Shear/Shazar. The Spotty Dog is proud to present this legend in a rare live solo performance.

400 Bookstores, 16 exclusive books & art pieces, one day only – join the party! The Spotty Dog is is one of 400+ stores participating in Independent Bookstore Day on April 30th, 2016 by offering exclusive merchandise, fun, and special promotions all day long. First, the merch: The big buzz so far is surrounding The Neil Gaiman Coloring Book with art by Chris Riddell. That’s right – the one Neil himself tweeted about. That said, there are other really cool items, but we need to make the IBD merch rules clear: – we can’t reserve exclusive IBD merchandise. – you must personally come to the store on Independent Bookstore Day to buy it (we open at 11:00 all you Gaiman people). – one to a customer until after 2:00 pm. – we can’t discount IBD merchandise. – once it’s gone, it’s gone! These are exclusives, folks – no chains will have them! Other cool items worth a look-see: Out of Print pouch featuring Bookstore cats, Anthony Bourdain perfect burger poster, signed exclusive Raymie Nightingale by Kate Di Camillo with extras, $6 stories from Ann Patchett, vinyl (!!!) featuring rad women reading from the x-chapter of Rad Women A-Z, and Draw Me, a book to teach you how to draw some of your favorite book characters. Also new versions of the old favorites from last year: tea towels and literary stencil. Come see our IBD exclusive Curious George “Read With Me” plush and enjoy story hour at 11:00 with temporary tattoo and sticker giveaways to all curious readers while supplies last. Bell’s Oberon (for all you beer & Shakespeare lovers) will be on tap and on special all day. Oberon is a wheat ale fermented with Bell’s signature house ale yeast, mixing a spicy hop character with mildly fruity aromas. The addition of wheat malt lends a smooth mouthfeel, making it a classic summer beer. Come see guitarists Tashi Dorji & Marisa Anderson at 8:00 because they are lucky enough to have a show with us on Independent Bookstore Day. Bargain cover charge of $5 goes to the artists. And finally – enjoy 15% off your book purchases all day (sorry folks – IBD merch can’t be discounted, remember? But that still leaves plenty of awesome at bargain prices). Thanks in advance for coming by!

Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese guitarist now residing in Asheville, NC, Tashi makes meticulously crafted sounds that conjure spirits, wrestle demons and tame wild beasts. As beautiful as they are cerebral , his acoustic works are reminiscent of Derek Bailey`s free improvisations, flamenco and Fahey`s Americana. Marisa Anderson’s guitar playing is fluid, emotional, dexterous and original. National Public Radio says Anderson’s playing “exposes and hides the mysteries of American music”. Pitchfork calls her recent record, ‘Mercury’, ”Brilliant” and Wire Magazine says, “Her sound has strength in restless variety…Anderson’s playing is heartfelt and utterly American, free from grandstanding and steeped in respect for the old tradition.”