Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a new ice cream flavor out. No bullshit. Ben and Jerry is threatening her with legal action, as Ruth's flavor combination and packaging design appropriate a bit too much of B & J's. B & J have accused her of Judicial ice cream terrorism. What else is new? It's the mind boggling inane era that's making me report these things, not my sleep deprivation.
Ruth's hot cream iced will be sold in select car washes and by certain members of the pesticide tribe Orkin. Supreme Court candy dispensers. Look for a black gavel in a malaria yellow gum drop near you. Clarence Thomas is an ice cream scooper tepidly lounging in a sink of Rum Raisin water. That's my raison D'etre? What is Sid? Well, like I tell all the kids around here: "Existing isn't free.'
2. Jewelry-Pizza is huge in NYC right now, particularly with trendy Koreans. It's too messy-shiny for me, like the worse of REM and the best fluffy hits of Speedo Wagon Cramps, but I would rob one of these outfits using only a stick of gum and a cup of all purpose flour if I was under the suasion of the right predisposition. But you know what? Music can't be Valet parked.
You know what?
What Sid?
I will coil up the declivity of Black Bra Mountain. I will find myself a new camera tongue pinker than prom clouds in psychedelic milk, before Bruce Willis beats up the ancestors of Nostradamus in his next movie: " Beating up Nostradamus' family, before they start writing their own bullshit (23 Century Fix Films.")
Here are some photos of the string recording session for Exchange.
The first photo, from left to right, shows co-producer and engineer David Prior at the helm, and nearer the camera, violinist Ben Marquis Gilmore.
Here's Ben, kickin' it.
In this photo you have young Ben and his father Bob Gilmore, who created the string arrangements for the song. Also, on the right is violist Elisabeth Smalt, who was the other member of our string section. As a note, both Bob and Elisabeth are members of the ensemble Trio Scordatura.
Bob and David from the bridge.
Here's Ben considering a switch to guitar.
And Elisabeth just plain worn out after a long session.
For those of you that already bought the recording, and those of you listening to the samples provided in the Eschatone store, you’ll notice that some songs are recordings of me playing live in a studio, and other songs are multi-tracked (instruments recorded separately, then mixed).
Four of the ten songs were recorded here, where I live in the UK. The other six, as mentioned in the store blurb about the record, were recorded at Electrical Audio in Chicago while I was on tour.
I think I'll make an entry for each of the multi-tracked songs separately. Below, I sketch out a bit about the last song on the record, "nine point eight metres per second squared."
My friend David Prior engineered and co-produced the four songs in the UK. Later, the songs were taken to the states and mixed by another friend, Kevin Bartlett (who also engineered my first recording, puddleskinwaving).
For 9.8, David and I took a collage kind of approach. We had musicians playing everything from hand percussion to accordion, and of course the electric guitar. If I recall correctly, for 9.8, I put down some 10 or 12 takes of “lead” guitar. The idea behind the end section of this song was to get an “anti-guitar solo.” The song was performed live for some time with me doing a kind of extended guitar freak out (which was lots of fun and pretty cool sounding). However, David and I discussed it, and I wanted to make a solo out of the dirt, grit and mistakes that can happen with the guitar. So, we cranked up my Music Man amps and I did some absolutely howling stuff in the studio (oh, the feedback was effing great!). From there, we took the tracks and cut them down to the quirks and rough spots on the recordings, constructing the “anti-solo” that’s on the album. There is a lot of other sound material mixed into the track as well, such as the bellows of an accordion, reversed voices and some takes from an acoustic guitar, Peter Bingham on fretless electric bass and David on piano.
At some point, I may return to the “Kiss the Sky” solo thing for live shows. You can find a recording of a live performance of 9.8 with the guitar solo stuff on my Myspace page, but the studio version of the song is, at least in my opinion, weirdly beautiful.
What's up people. Notice the lack of a question mark at the end of the sentence. I know what's up. The Sugary Drinks.
I was just at Eschatone HQ trying to get a fucking quarter out of these people when I noticed a letter of intent with the name "Sugary Drinks" on it. I was shocked. Last time I checked, these guys flatly refused any kind of label involvement. A certain label that rhymes with “Harner Frothers” sent an A&R guy to sign them. The Drinks sent him back with a drumstick in his ass.
I had my first encounter with the Sugary Drinks 7 years ago when me and Kearns were playing the Jimmy Sturr Polka fest in St. Paul. We had just played our set and were looking for some after-hours activities. While polling the locals we kept hearing the name “the Sugary Drinks”. Apparently they’d been in town a week or so and had the whole city transfixed. I thought they were joking with the name, but there was something about the way these people were talking that sold us. Three hours and more than a few Zywiec's later, we were in this basement club listening to sounds I didn't even think were possible. It was insane.
At the center of it all was this one crazy dude. His fingers were flying up and down the keyboard yelling into the microphone, at the audience, at his band. He made the vibes player cry. He broke his sax player's hand for being flat in a bridge.
And then the cops came. I don't remember much about what happened next. All I know is I spent my per diem on that show and I wasn't about to leave until the set was over. Apparently Bloomington’s finest disagreed with my departure time and I woke up on the floor of one of their economy suites the next day with some bruises and a broken rib. I was about to call Jed for a little assistance when I was told that I was free to go. Apparently I’d already been bailed out.
“Who?” I asked. In response, the cop shoved the receipt in my face. Written in an elegant script at the bottom of the form was “The Sugary Drinks”.
I tried to catch up with the men to thank them but they’d already moved on. It wasn’t until years later that I’d get a chance to thank them and repay the favor. That’s another story.
What this means for all of you is that you are about to hear one of the greatest musicians I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing perform.
If Eschatone wasn’t the greatest label already . . .
The Sugary Drinks. Holy Shit.
The Eschatone online store opened this morning. We've been working on it for months (and nonstop for the past two weeks, which is why you ain't heard much from me), and we're very proud of its interface and look. It's simple and clean for the user, and versatile for us. PHP guru Brett Brewer modded the crap out of this thing!
We've tricked out the catalog with a bunch of items that we've never offered before: posters, singles, stickers - and the crown jewel, our first full-length vinyl release, Michael Bassett's Soft Verges. It's a limited edition of 300 signed and numbered by both Michael and cover artist Justin Lloyd, pressed on 180-gram audiophile vinyl with a gorgeous foil-stamped sleeve, and it comes with a free hi-res MP3 download so you can listen to Mike's amazing recording right away, without having to wait for snail mail. In fact, all physical CD and vinyl purchases come with a free MP3 download (or lossless FLAC files for like three bucks more) - or you can skip the physical media altogether and just purchase an MP3 or FLAC download. In some cases, like The Valley Arena's "Kick At The Ceiling" single, the download contains bonus tracks not found on the physical record.
The store prices are ridiculously low (to buy the ENTIRE ESCHATONE CATALOG in MP3 form - nine releases - would cost ya 42 bucks). And there's even a search function, so theoretically you could type in "Jed Davis" and get all the shit I've worked on at once. Meow?
We'll also be experimenting with another kind of release very soon - something we haven't seen anybody else doing, though it seems pretty obvious to us. You'll see it in a month or two, when the next Hanslick Rebellion thing drops. Eschatone is still a nationally and internationally retail-distributed label, but having our own storefront gives us a new flexibility to offer music in formats we just sorta invent, with little or no lead time if we so choose.
And before the end of 2009, Eschatone will bring you vinyl reissues of Brian Dewan's The Operating Theatre and Brian Dewan Tells The Story (first time on vinyl for both classics!), and a record from a new signing in a most unexpected genre (doom metal!!!!).
It's so cool to finally see the release of Soft Verges, which was recorded on Michael's 2006 tour. A Chicago date fell through, so Mike booked the day at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio instead, cut an album's worth of stuff live to two-track tape, and KA-POW! Instant masterpiece. The sound quality is unbelievable - almost as awesome as Mike's performance. And the tunes are just fantastic.
Speaking of Electrical Audio, I was there the last weekend of July. I'm not as efficient as MB - it took me three days to finish a 14-song album that will be known as Shoot The Piano Player. In my defense, we also needed to mix down because there were drums; Joe Abba came with me. Joe and I did track everything - drums, vocals, and piano - totally live and raw in complete takes, all to tape, with only four overdubs on the whole record: an organ solo and three backing vocals. Steve Albini himself engineered and mixed. It was exhilarating and one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. "I'm On Your Side" took me roughly 30 takes before I got the one - I had a mental checklist of things I wanted to nail in each song, and if I didn't hit them all I'd go back and start again, regardless of how far into the take I'd made it. The record is raw but it's what I really sound like, 100%, and I'm proud of it.
Electrical photos are here, and in case you haven't noticed yet, a couple days ago I put four songs from the session in my MySpace player.
Right now I'm in a push for next April, just trying to stockpile albums upon albums. I want to do a few of the things that normal people do, like buy a home, and after one massive blowout project in April I'm gonna go on something like an austerity plan. But in the meantime:
- The Cutting-Room Floor is ready to go, just waiting on cover art.
- Shoot The Piano Player is in the can, ready for mastering.
- Zetacarnosa is ready to be pressed, complete with album art.
- We begin mixing Amy Willey's tracks next weekend.
- There is a new Hanslick Rebellion release recorded, mixed and biding its time.
- The Rebellion also has a full-length to record early next year.
- Failing Upwards is about three-quarters done, with one song already mixed, and will be finished before the end of the year.
- I'm working on something with Jerry Marotta called "The Colony" - half-movie, half-album, and best described as "Eschatone, the Band". More on that to come.
- This record in April... holy shit.
- Don't forget about Rise And Shine. Arty and I haven't.
CART
