Knower at the Bowery Ballroom

When the conventional corporations have no interest in your art, find your own path. That is what Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi did. Both studied jazz while attending separate universities in Los Angeles, California. They met in 2009 through a mutual musician friend and began experimenting in electronic funk and progressive art-rock. Both composed, recorded, and posted their songs onto their online channels, often collaborating on each other's solo releases. Taking the name Knower for their collaborations, the duo established a presence on social media with their videos of odd original songs and twisted pop covers (Britney Spears, Daft Punk, Lady Gaga). Knower’s videos featured science fiction and 1980s video game elements in both the sounds and the visuals.  In 2010, the duo self-released a debut album, Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi. In 2016, Knower added musicians for live gigs, leading to tours around the world. The band's fourth and most recent album is 2016's Life. All of these achievements were made on Cole and Artadi's own terms; Knower remains a DIY band.

Knower announced that its concert at the Bowery Ballroom tonight would be a "power trio" show with drummer Nate Wood, and that the show would introduce newly-created visual accompaniment. Knower lived up to its promise, performing a set of avant-garde music that interacted with stunning animation on the screen behind the musicians. Although the projections were shown behind the players (and on the players), they were not meant to be in the background. Instead, they were swirling art pieces that were genius in their own right. Meanwhile, the band's hard-hitting jazz-funk grooves throbbed and kicked as Artadi sang and danced. The soundscapes were often quirky yet explosive, brought back to earth with modulating melodies and colorful harmonies that conflated funk with electronica. Knower is an art-rock experiment that will attract fans of early Talking Heads and Deerhoof.