 When the city eats, fight the city back. When the city eats me, have a drink forme. When the city eats me, play some At the Drive In. When the city eats me, give my guitars to some kids. When the city eats me, open up my note books, journals and listen to my songs. When the city eats me, the password to all my accounts is 4pl6ot9x. When the city eats me, have a pb&j.  When the city eats me, go to a comedy show.
When the city eats me, make a collage. When the city eats me, put on Acapulco Lips and play it loud. When the city eats me, listen to the Beatles catalogue. When the city eats me, pick up Leaves of Grass and read someone you love.
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 I've got glue all over my fingers because I stay up late at night with Elmers craft glue, an array of Italian Magazines, modern art photography and an overwhelming feeling that I should be alseep. Sleep has never been easy for me. In other news, there is a battle to be fought, our country is at risk of falling into fascist state, that weeds out the sick, and rewards the greedy, exploitative barons of the world. Listen, I'm no communist and I uniformly believe in products and work, but we have good reason to fight the political forces at play to keep our American spirit safe from those who will abuse it. Art is a weapon for fascism. That's part of why I don't sleep. No Walls. Man, I wish that wasn't a hard rock band from the 1980's, so I could use their band name.  I had fun doing a songwriting podcast called First Last Best Worst a few weeks back. I talked extensively about Blink 182, who I was dating in grade school, and discussed how annoying white guys with guitars are. I would like to do more podcasts like theirs. The feeling that it is necessary for a musician to put yourself out there in the world gives me great anxiety, but somehow having a conversation about music is painless and fun. Other podcasts get at me!  This Sunday night 3/12, I will be performing my first album "I'll See You in the Art You Love" in its entirety at Rockwood Music Hall. Chris Thile will be performing at the venue on the same day. His show unlike mine however, is sold out. I will be joined by stand up bassist Michael Feinberg, who performed on the album originally. I'm getting my fingers back up to speed because these songs require more finger style performance. I've been strumming these indie rock tunes a little too much lately, gotta get my hands loose again ;) See y'all at the show!   There is a killer show happening next Friday, February 24th at Fat Baby with some awesome New York bands on the bill. It will also be the birthday and the EP Release from Alethea Buchal, titled, “Light at the End of the Road.” The night will feature live dancers, David Rey Martinez (a comedian MC), singer/songwriters Jeff Jacobs, Rachel Zirkle, Light Warriors, Off the Turnpike, Amatory Murder, and the birthday girl, Alethea. The music will range from soft and pensive to a punk-rock insanity and close out with a dance party beginning at midnight. For more information visit Facebook. See ya there.   The world is in a state of peril: Americans afraid of muslims, Muslims angry with Americans, Trump in love with Putin, Trump in love with himself. Lies are truth, truth is irrelevant. Lady Gaga was in the super bowl with a backdrop of drones displaying the US flag. Is this progress? Who cares about the Super Bowl anyway? Digging the solid vibes of Real Estate in New Jersey, up and coming roster of artists from Los Angeles' finest Lolipop Records. Also, the enigmatic grind of New York City's subway system. Fact: Jason's dad engineered the new 2nd avenue subway in the Upper East Side. We are in rehearsals to track our new record. Exciting. In preparation, I splurged and got the latest from Strymon, a boutique pedal maker, called Riverside Multi Stage Drive. It sounds brilliant... just the sweet dirt we were looking for. Aiming to be one of the first bands to record a full length album with it @strymonengineering. Leaving you with the sweet news that David Bazan is releasing (what I assume will be) another cloying masterpiece. Already pre-ordered the vinyl because I'm a nerd like that. Investigate here, and dig his new single Care. Until later keep resisting...  After years of writing songs and not really doing much to get them out into the world in a professional way its time to own up to the life. We have some things planned for 2017, getting a photo shoot with a very talented photographer Shervin Lainez, recording at Mission Sound on the same Neve console that George Martin used with the Beatles. Rockwood the other night was killer. Looking forward to crushing the next year. Banana grams.    Struggling with depression is a long walk with nothing to look at. All you see is pain and a growning disconnection from whats around you, augmented with each passing day. The phone ringing is an alarm I can't handle, I look forward to going to sleep as there are many pyschedelic characters in my dreams. I find respite in the colors, chord and, harmonies the universe has to offer. Digging the sounds of Mystic Braves from LA. Moved by the heavy pysch pop of Post Animal from Chicago. Digging deeper to find our own sound and loving the B9 Organ Machine I just got from Electro Harmonix. Our last show of the year is this week at Rockwood. We will be playing a new tune for you, think Parquet Courts meets Frank Black. Jay wrote this one, I just had to polish it off with lyrics. The lovely Melody Stolpp will accompany us offering a sweet third harmony. Check out her page for some amazing tunes she's written. We are really excited to have her in the crew. We have been busy at work on preproduction for our next release. At this point we have so many tunes that we aren't sure whether its going to be an EP or a full length. Basic tracking will begin early 2017 and shooting to tour by spring. Figuring out agreements with someone who will become the bands manager who will help us make a plan to crush 2017. Always moving forward.    We've got a new music video out for Blackberry, and I am more excited about it than any video we've done. Our friends in Los Angeles, Sober Comedy, filmed and edited the piece, fusing our performance shots with eerie moments from an old independent American Horror film called Carnival of Souls. The graffiti on the brick wall was made by our friend Stephanie Williams, she is a wicked artist so check her out. The story goes that an ex boyfriend of hers came to the apartment late one night and spray painted a message on the wall outside of her window with the intention of winning her back. It read 'Does he still love her ? Always.' What he thought was going to be his John Cusack stereo over head moment in "Say Anything," turned out to be a failure and the next day Stephanie painted over the message with a striking face and eyes that carry the world. She added Wander, making it read simply, "Always Wander." We had the privilege to support the Honey Island Swamp Band in Williamsburg earlier this week. They were killer musicians and great people all around. After hours telling stories and passing around a big bottle of brown liquor a couple of the members in the band broke out in a wrestling match. It seemed fitting, like how a band from the swamp ought to act. I liked it.    Should life be transparent?
A couple things happened this week: I was finally able to dive in to Deerhoof's masterpiece new album, "The Magic," which upon listening is equivalent to eating Rocky Road Ice Cream for the first time. Also, NGAN was selected to do a showcase for Columbia Records at Pianos NYC. Two monumental things, all spinning and dancing in an orb over the water. I reached out to Greg on FB to tell him how rad the magic is, he said thanks. What a rad dude. I appreciate social media for its immediacy. It's a brilliant tool. We are rehearsing for a showcase in front of a rep. from Columbia Records. We are all excited to play this show because of apple pies. Dogs are people too, perhaps. Love you goodnight.  'Every day you wake up alive,' David Bazan said on the closing track, "Little Motor," off of his latest album Blanco. How simple sweet poetry effectively explains what is worth remembering. Simplicity is beauty. Life is simple. Simple, like how I was called into work today. I'd rather be sleeping off the virus that has caused me sickness for the last week. Money talks, or whatever. So now I'm here in a little booth, in the back of a saloon, spinning songs for the pride parade crew in the West Village. Michael Jackson is in queue, his sister too. We've got Rupaul on the list. ABBA will be sure to make an appearance. Lady Gaga has something to say, so I'll put her on in a bit. Kids and adults are roaming West 4th street, fashion forward, flaunting their rainbows and stick on gems. Even the hetero alpha-male bartender is wearing a rainbow bandana with glitter around his eyes. We gender free? I am grateful for my city. Grateful to ride on the tip of the arrow. Another day at the office. Without much, rich in other ways. In reverence of sound, pop, dance, hip hop. In awe of the code, sitting here in a dj booth, in the non-center of the universe. Spinning around the sun. #pride #rainbow #illseeyouinthebaryoulove  The band is at work on a new tune called "The Meantime." Written in a delirious flurry of summer madness. We wrote and recorded the parts late one night in May. Laid down the guitar and bass, programmed some drums. Turned a few nobs. The next morning I woke up, drank a cup of coffee, got on the train and listened to what we had done. Then I wrote the melody/lyrics on the Q train to up to Jason's apartment in Queens where we recorded the vocals on an SM7 Microphone.
The song is unlike anything we've done yet. Once finished we'll unleash a summer jam. For now here is the demo. |
The Next Great American NovelistA window into the life of a band in New York City. Archives
March 2017
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