The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
Groundtone Day 2
“This meeting of punk and jazz heavyweights sidesteps contemporary trends; instead we’re treated to four players finding common ground as they slip between genres.” – Pitchfork
Groundtone weekend’s second evening is set aflame with this powerhouse group. Seamlessly weaving between punk rock to free jazz and funk, these masters of their respective genres fuse effortlessly and their chemistry is contagious.
The Messthetics, a fusion trio featuring the inimitable rhythm section from post-punk band Fugazi – Brendan Canty (drums) and Joe Lally (bass) – and Anthony Pirog (guitar), join forces with jazz saxophone giant and 2026 Guggengheim Fellow James Brandon Lewis (declared a “pathfinder in jazz” by the New York Times and “one of the fiercest sounds in jazz today” by The Guardian) to create a quartet that rips forward down new paths of adventurous fusion on their most recent album Deface the Currency.
The quartet was on tour in the summer of 2025 when Canty knew it was time to go back into the studio. “We just started recording things and getting them down in first or second takes,” Pirog recalls of the Tonal Park session. “I don’t think we were expecting to finish the record that quickly, but we were just so in the zone of playing together that it was pretty easy.”
The album as a whole — a statement of vigor, sensitivity and spontaneity — shows that Canty’s initial instincts were correct: through playing night after night, the quartet had reached new territory and is now bringing their unrelenting force to PS21’s stage.
Groundtone is PS21’s annual weekend-long celebration of adventurous music by an eclectic selection of today’s most original voices. Dazzling performances and immersive experiences take place across the PS21 grounds with concerts in our theater, fields, installations, and barns.
This year’s Groundtone features Sō Percussion in collaboration with Grammy-nominated songwriter Becca Stevens, pathbreaking harpist Parker Ramsay, and a full slate of artists who defy categorization. On June 21, PS21 will usher the globally-renowned Make Music Day to Chatham for the first time, with a sunrise musical procession created by Phil Kline; and Annea Lockwood’s Home Ground, a new site specific work spanning the PS21 terrain.
Groundtone is four days of audacious music, unexpected collaboration, sound, and community in the PS21 landscape.
The Messthetics formed in 2016 in Washington, D.C., drawn together by mutual admiration: Pirog had grown up listening to Fugazi, the era-defining post-hardcore band anchored by the rhythm section of Lally and Canty, while the bassist and drummer heard the genre-spanning guitar visionary play around town and took note of his unusually inclusive aesthetic. Pirog had played and bonded with Lewis before the Messthetics formed, and in 2019, he invited the saxophonist — whose massive, soulful sound has made him a star of the contemporary jazz scene — to sit in with the group live. The collaboration blossomed and eventually led to the quartet’s 2024 LP.
