So, I haven't updated this in a while... What has been going on this summer?  Ratdog, Phil & Friends... I hung out with Derric Trucks at a vintage guitar store.  I went to see the Sadies, from Ontario, who were amazing.  

I've played some solo acoustic shows. I went and recorded an album in a recording studio, Holt Studio, in Western New York.  That was great, but I still think that the music needs some touch ups, percussion mostly, before I put it out as a CD.  I think the music is very Byrds-ish.

Art school started again. I'm the gallery assistant for the upcoming John Wood retrospective. I've been working on a lot of synthesizer music and short films.  I did some music for a short film my friends from Brooklyn made, called The Last Great American Folk Tale. They used my song Void and one of my synth compositions. Here it is:

Tonight I went to see Bloody Noes, Clan of the Cave Bear, and Science Vs. Witchcraft.  

The first band was performance art, in my humble opinion, a human sized slinky pupa with some weird percussion.  Fuckin' groovy shit, if you had seen/heard it you would have felt the love.... 

Clan was crazy for me, two piece metal band, sort of like Hella except more metal....

Science Vs. Witchcraft was noisy and then angsty once the vocals kicked in. 

 Bad ass might beat down... A girl got her head bounced off the window by a passer-by and violence/ peace making occurred../ 

...what kind of fuck up decks a girl, whatever she said... 

Psychedelic Therapy goings ons and it was soulfull.... Made me want to dance even though I didn't... Yeah, there were some classics, stuff out of left field you wouldn't anticipate unless you had that mellow zen happening... Whatever, Maybe ///

Old Time Relijon at Bug Jar

Yeah, so I had Old Time Relijon the band over for dinner on Sunday.  I knew Arriongton from my internship at K Records a few years ago, so I dropped them a line and they came over for dinner before their show.  I made collards and rice, guacamole, and chicken.  It was fun, they brought wine and talked about their tour of Europe and Jane Austin and George Forman and all sorts of fun stuff.  

We went over to the Bug Jar and played pool before the show.... The Greviances and Ian Downy Is Famous played first, both were rocking.  Old Time Relijon's set was so high energy and funky and danceable and indescribable.  I talked to the bar owner tonight, and he said he couldn't describe it, but "it was fucking awesome".  I must say I agree. I rarely dance at shows, and while I wasn't totally gettin' my freak on, I was moving.  They are great people and great musicians. 

There are so many ways to reach a certain point. There are definite transformations that lead to some where, but the basic feeling is to keep keepin' on!!! At times I find I have soooo much stress, but out of that debacle comes the action of creation.  I am like a kettle whistle, working up steam, the only idea is to keep my heart and  mind in tune with the skills... suffering is no fun, let me tell you what... I have hope in salvation and artistic creation even though I have been exposed to so much of the modern... Sort of a contemporary slant on nilhlism.... a paragraph of words can not capture my clarity or my fog.

April 16th, '08 at Bug Jar

I played last night at the Bug Jar in Rochester, NY.  

My friends Hooda Thunk!? played, they are kind of a folky jam band.  2 acoustic guitars, fender bass, keyboard, and snare-n-hi-hat drums.  They were loose and textural, a great listen. Some of those guys are the reason I got into playing guitar in the first place when I was 15. 

My other buds No Shears Ted (a play on no tears shed) played too. They were funky and laid-back.  I used to play with the bass player, Mike. No Shears Ted was a lot tighter than Electric Organic was when Mike was in it.  I totally dug their sound, it reminded me of Beastie Boys' In Sound from Far Out or whatever that album was called. Any how, dig it man...

I played solo, no band until next month due to some problems.  I used my Seagull acoustic/electric, my cheap-o harmonicas and holder, a loop station, violin, sampler, and drum machine.  I had some sequences for songs, other ones I just improvised the instrumental parts.  I had my violin tuned to an A chord so I could just bow/ wail on it with out fingering and play harmonica at the same time, with a guitar progression looped harmony.  It was fun, while I was doing that I was thinking "this has gone beyond folk music into the realm of performance art", which is a good thing.  My friends Sarah and Marta were video taping it for me so I can edit the show into a nice lil' video... The sound wasn't the best, I was quiet enough that you can hear a steady din of the crowd on the tape(there were about 40 people there).

When I started using the sampler and drum machine, the crowd dialed in.  It was louder and way more funky with the big bass sounds.  The tunes was "Joyful Mile" and I seem to play it different every time even though I always have the same sequence as bedrock.... I like it, it gives me a chance to improvise without the band, which seems to rely on improvisation as a major part of its vocabulary (which makes every show an adventure...).

Overall, a good show, I felt all of the music was well received by the crowd.  

Set list:

Blood Dust

Winter Rain

Gone Again

Here For You

Poem From The Road

Joyful Mile

Glistening Trees

Decidedly Beautiful

Void

Wherever I go, there I am...

Yeah, 

so I went to the Monotonix tonight, from Tel-Aviv.  Great show, high energy Sabbith stoked rock... There was a guy who kept getting naked, during all of the bands' sets, Monotonix put a snare drum on his crotch and played it... Wacky wild stuff... This is my first blog.  Good God!