Today's the big one! 1/25/11...Oscillate Wisely sees the light of day. You can find it available for purchase pretty much anyplace that's worth anything, that sells music that is, thanks to the fine folks at Flannelgraph & St Ives Records.
In related news, I'd like to thank the fine music editors at AMAZON.COM for making us one of their "Editor Picks New Releases" today. How about that?!
In unrelated, sad news, David Grubb, the Indiana Outlaw, was found dead yesterday in his home, just down the street from my own place, after a house fire. Rest In Peace.
As of yesterday, the brand new video for "I'm Not Worried", the first single from Oscillate Wisely, has been posted to the internet.
I didn't get to see any of it until it was unveiled yesterday morning, and I think it came out great. Mondo thanks to Nathan Vollmar and Will Claytor from the 19th State Film Collective, as well as Jared Cheek from Flannelgraph Records for making this happen.
A couple of interesting notes...This version of the song is actually a different version than the one that appears on the album. All of the audio you're hearing during the video was recorded during the making of the video. That drummer is playing the drums you hear, the bass player is playing the bass you hear, and so on and so forth. The idea is that it would serve as a "live" recording...sort of, i guess. This whole thing was also taped in my backyard in one evening between eating cheese-less pizza and watching Everything Is Terrible The Movie.
i just found out today that Jeff Jacobs, trumpeter and keyboardist for San Francisco jazz/rock/surf/dub/ambient band The Drift, passed away earlier this week. very sad news.
The Drift are sincerely one of my favorite bands. perhaps they took me by surprise or came along at just the right time for me, but i think i love them so much because i heard the music and developed an attachment to it before i even knew a single thing about the band. and i essentially grabbed their record at random from a pile of 100s of other CDs just to try something new at work one day. It's one of those pure kind of music experiences to be introduced to a band that way and turn out to really love them. No outside influence, just music good enough to speak for itself. i love it when that happens.
I was lucky/silly enough to get a chance to see the Drift live once in Louisville, KY (with Jeff Jacobs) before it was too late. It is one of my favorite concert memory experiences.
What do Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Scorpions, and I have in common? We're all being advertised on PITCHFORKMEDIA.COM, right now!
That's right! Even the fine folks of Pitchforkmedia.com recommend that you pick up Oscillate Wisely on or around it's release date of 1/25/11, and you had better mind.
in other news, we had the first full-band practice for the OW release show (1/16/11, in Bloomington) last night, and it went great! Loads of fun, f'sho. here they are: Mike Adams - singing Captain Bfox - guitar, singing Zae Canale - guitar Snack Mountain - bass guitar, singing Kurtis Friedrich - keys Benlums - bendrums
...lots of work to do yet, but i'm really looking forward to this!
we'll have the LPs available at this show, as well as some great shirts and tote bags and other things that jared has slapped my face all over. bring your spending money!
I'm not really familiar with this game show, but it seems kind of lame to me. I would, however, love to see a list of "secrets" that the guests brought to the show. I'm guessing there were some real interesting characters in those seats.
I've been learning a bit about John Cale lately and getting excited about his music. Specifically, his pop music. More specifically, the albums Vintage Violence, Paris 1919, and Fear. I'm a pretty casual student in situations like this, and I definitely wouldn't consider myself a fanatic or anything, but this stuff feels really good to me at the moment.
I also really appreciate the way he combines the elements of his experiences in minimalist composition with simple, traditional pop rock elements. Probably my favorite thing about writing music (and I think this is because I'm an untrained ignoramus) is combining a few simple things to create something really complex and beautiful. There's no shortage of folks who are really, really good at that, it's just I think John Cale is one of them.
