7/20/08

Jason Anderson

Good friend Jason Anderson has been playing bass in the Underpainting as available for a few years now. He does it with a perfect sense of the song and, like all of my mates, really cares for my compositions. Many things have and could be said about him but I think the best word right now is AWESOME. This year brought so much new Jason Anderson music. The most recent being the LP on K Records called the Hopeful and the Unafraid. His music is true and honest. Sneak out your bedroom window to pick flowers and sell them by the subway to get this record.

Also he is on tour RIGHT NOW with Jim and Gregg backing him up and Harry and the Potters on the bill too(!):

Jul 16 2008 8:00P
The Glass House w/HATP Pomona, California
Jul 17 2008 8:00P
The Troubadour w/HATP Los Angeles, California
Jul 18 2008 8:00P
The Bottom of the Hill w/HATP San Francisco, California
Jul 19 2008 8:00P
The Bottom of the Hill w/HATP San Francisco, California
Jul 20 2008 8:00P
Folk House w/GREGG PORTER PROJECT, TESTFACE, ADVRB Eugene, Oregon
Jul 21 2008 8:00P
Wonder Ballroom w/HATP Portland, Oregon
Jul 22 2008 7:00P
The Capitol Theater w/HATP Olympia, Washington
Jul 23 2008 8:00P
Neumo’s w/HATP Seattle, Washington
Jul 24 2008 6:00P
Ukraine Hall w/HATP Vancouver, BC
Jul 25 2008 7:30P
South Main St. Block Party Pendleton, Oregon
Jul 26 2008 8:00P
Kilby Court w/HATP Salt Lake City, Utah
Jul 27 2008 8:00P
Trunk Space w/GOLDEN BOOTS, GREGG PORTER PROJECT Phoenix, Arizona
If you've not seen the live scene, you must. If you have, you know.

7/11/08

Gregg Porter

In keeping with the new releases of band mates, I present you with word of the release of a wonderful (some even call staggeringly beautiful) EP from my good friend and Underpainting drummer, Gregg Porter. Less of the country of his former band Milkweed that I wrote about yesterday and more of the abstract awe of another of his bands Hotel Alexis. This EP is just bubbling with special moments and full of a cast of talented help. I am proud to have been a part of this recording. It is available for way cheap money from CD Baby:

Gregg Porter - Final, Final EP

Buy them all and hand them out at the airport for people to calm their fear of flying.

7/10/08

Milkweed

I met my bandmates Jim Reynolds and Gregg Porter back in 1993. It is rather unclear to me but I think they went to the same college as I did. Whatever their scene was, I knew they were very very cool. They introduced me to Lou Barlow's lesser known (at the time) side project called Sentridoh - yes, very very cool. They gradually disappeared from the crowd of college but I still knew of them. It was probably 3 or 4 years later that I saw Jim again and with a crazy mountain man beard. He told me he just got back from Oregon and that he was playing the banjo. Jim was the first peer of mine to play the banjo. Over the years I would run into Jim and Gregg or just Jim in the weirdest, most random places. I always hoped one day I could play in a band with them. In fact, I even had an imaginary country band dreamed up called the Rifles and they were part of the imaginary line-up.

One thing I was hearing around 1997 was about their band Milkweed. They made quite an impression on many with their drinking, drugging, stumbling country/folk/old time music. So Milkweed put out three CDs and their most recent one is thankfully now available. It is a lovely lump of country chamber folk-grass. I think maybe you should take a listen and scoop one up.

MILKWEED - Further to Fall

I consider myself very luck to have the good fortune to call these guys my friends and be able to play music with them. Cheers to Milkweed.

7/3/08

ANTONYM

When you get through with something you make a judgment in your own head. How did I do? How will it be perceived? How do I feel about it? This song is my definition of striving. We as people can ALWAYS do better and that sentiment is particularly prescient as commentary to this song. There are some sweet spots but overall I could have done it better. But then again, let's follow this to the chorus:

I don't need this any more
The sun that tans the skin
the bark that's broken in
No I don't need them any more.

These are the things I rely on:

My critical voice -ENOUGH!
My hindsight - ENOUGH!
My consistency - ENOUGH!
My aesthetic - ENOUGH!

I don't need them any more.

Production note: I sent this to DMC to listen to via email back when it was being worked on. He commented on it saying he liked the demo - I explained it was not a demo. Maybe I should have taken that comment more seriously. I think there are time when the demo approach works for the finished product: rambling notes (jazz notes as DMC calls them), distant misspoken lyrics, erased and replaced anything - I don't know for certain it does here.