Pocket Poem

ANTHONY PIROG - guitar and electronics MICHAEL FORMANEK - acoustic and electric bass CHES SMITH - drums, percussion and electronics While it might confound those fixated with an artist's niche in the marketplace, guitarist Anthony Pirog knows little of stylistic limitations-in point of fact, Pirog's latest opus brings to mind the beloved Duke Ellington adage: Beyond category. Initially based in jazz, Pirog's seeming objective is to be a "category" unto himself, embracing not only jazz but avant-garde and indie rock, noise, and ambient soundscapes. Pocket Poem, his second under his own name and his first since joining forces with 50% of DC's legendary Fugazi as Messthetics (with two releases on Dischord), is in a zone where stylistic "handles" matter little but the idea of music is vibrant, expansive, and kaleidoscopic. "Anthony Pirog's work is otherworldly - feverish in it's delivery and interstellar in it's complexity - but his feet have long been planted on the ground in Washington DC... But what's the most DC thing a DC musician can do? Well, they could start a band with members of Fugazi. That would do it... " - Guitar. Com "So this is what all the fuss is about... [regarding] Anthony Pirog's status as a Washington, D. C. area guitar god... and for all his technical prowess, Pirog possesses a skilled composer's knack for memorable themes and melodies. "