Stereo Mandrax (FREE w/ RSVP): Council Of Foreign Relations • Excepter • Marcia Bassett + Taralie Peterson

Council Of Foreign Relations, Excepter, and Marcia Bassett with Taralie Peterson appear in New York’s rock and pop underground as a shifting bill of interconnected projects. Their work moves between song form, improvisation, and electronics, shaped by the habits of downtown performance spaces and nights like their sets at Pianos.

Stereo Mandrax is a rock/pop group heard in New York City rooms such as Pianos, often on bills that blur the line between club rock and downtown experimental music. Their recent appearances have placed them alongside Council Of Foreign Relations, Excepter, Marcia Bassett and Taralie Peterson, as well as Pink Must Animal, Surrender, Jeff Tobias, and Chris Forsyth’s What is Now.

Council Of Foreign Relations is a New York City–based rock/pop group heard in the Lower East Side circuit, including sets at Pianos. Their live history overlaps with downtown experimental peers such as Excepter, and with players like Marcia Bassett and Taralie Peterson, suggesting a scene built on shared bills and shifting lineups.

Excepter is a group working at the edges of rock and pop, often folding electronics and noise textures into live performance. In New York City they’ve appeared at venues such as Pianos, sharing bills with projects including Council Of Foreign Relations and Marcia Bassett with Taralie Peterson, as heard on lineups like “Stereo Mandrax.

New CD release on Yew Recordings, SUNVIEW, live recording of two shows documenting the duo synth pairing of Marcia Bassett and Chuck Bettis performing at the Sunview in Greenpoint, January 11, 2025 (track one) and March 23, 2025 (track two).

Taralie Peterson is a New York–based rock/pop performer whose work moves between songcraft and the city’s experimental music networks. At Pianos, she has appeared in lineups that also include Council Of Foreign Relations, Excepter, and Marcia Bassett, and she has performed in projects such as Stereo Mandrax and the Marcia Bassett + Taralie Peterson pairing.