Playlist

Live

October 2, 2015
Macefield Music Festival
Seattle

at Conor Byrne Pub

Scott

Scott Yoder has a lovely acoustic 12 string and a pleasing baritone voice that veers more toward a dylanesque than a country twang. In contrast to some he-minstrels he seems to have picked up strength in a shared vulnerability that is more commonly the province of she-minstrels, such as

Shannon

Shannon Stephens, (nice boots!) whose lightly wrought alto/mezzo vocals never soar to anthemic heights, but are always finding exquisite paths through the transparent open weave of sound provided by her ever so musicianly band, reminding us not to be blinded to what is there by what we think ought to be there, or such as

Mindie

Mindie Lind, with her face's active performance role, commenting on the songs in progress with a leer or a wink, edging cabaret-ward, her forward voice given plenty of space, her deftly composed set beginning with just her and her keyboard, after a few songs adding an understated electric bass, then a backing vocal, and ending with an a cappella duet. Music for grown-ups, in some (unfair) contrast to

at The Sunset Tavern
Full Toilet, who were just finishing their last song as we forced our way into the swampy press, and whom we had heard several years ago, or in contrast to

Gaytheist, who, judging from the knuckle tats on a nearby fan must be "prog-core", are a three piece Portland gang of mostly brawny 30 somethings whose very fast, very loud, and, admittedly, ably accomplished set triggered all sorts of pathologizing impulses in me. To be fair, their reasons for doing what they do are likely so alien to the reasons I might do a thing myself as to be outside my critical ambit. But if there is a crack through which I might begin to hear this music sympathetically I imagine it lies in its very narrowness, in the tightness of its expressive corset. There are only so many moves possible here, and it is yet to be discovered whether the possible resultant configurations of those moves are swiftly exhausted or might yield to the infinite.

Recorded

September 29, 2015
Banned Rehearsal 412 - January 1996 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Anna K, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Some of my favorite moments in BR sessions are those that shift between getting ready to prepare to do and spilling over the edge into doing.

These sounds are not made, they are released, making themselves if given half a chance.
energies of the body's muscles || energies of harnessed industry

At first it is an essay in reed harps.

The sound not so much recorded onto tape as stuffed into every cranny of magnetic media, the drums overcramming the violin scribble until it sounds like it is coming over a bad radio connection.

At nearly our noisiest, full of episodes variously narrated or chaperoned by electric guitar, each episode worked at intently even if not (though often) successfully.

As though collectively arranging massive objects on the floor.

Falling Still - Emily Doolittle - Seattle Chamber Players (Maria Mannisto, Paul Taub, Laura DeLuca, Matthew Kocmieroski, Mikhail Schmidt, Joe Kaufman)

A vertical sonority appears, suggested by a single tone, a vertical sonority flowers, allowing melodic prolongation, spilling out in a narration of a flowered vertically suggested sonority.

Santa Claus - Freak Outs [from The Funhouse Comp Thing]

". . . is gonna eat your brain."

for Milton - Christian Carey - John McMuretry, Ashlee Mack

a careful arrangement of fractured stones, garlands of lichen and dried grasses, ramekins of brimming liquids. Love the hints of walking bass, and how the tones of flute and piano wrap around each other or fling themselves apart across their own discoveries.

October 1, 2015
Deh, coprite il bel seno - Gesualdo - Academy of Musicke, Anthony Rooley

So many sides and asides, so many second thoughts, so many testings of tensile strength. He pokes and prods his own creation.

Konzert in G BWV 1049 - Bach - Festival Strings Lucerne, Rudolf Baumgartner

One imagines the glee with which he seems to be inventing or re-imagining composition as a learned profession rather than as a merely tasteful servanthood.

Petites Pieces "La Journaliere" Wq. 117 #32 - C.P.E. Bach - Miklos Spanyi

Late in the evening enchambered diversions for cultured friends. One could imagine 4 in the room, but not 6.

Keyboard Sonata in G Hob. XVI:8 - Haydn - Christine Schornsheim

In contrast, Haydn sounds like he might have been out-of-doors now and then, understands sunshine.

Symphony in D K. 504 (#38) "Prague" - Mozart - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter

Starts cloaked, hidden in shadow. His second thoughts are spun out over great distances within a world that holds them steady in social community. We know where we. Our ideas can spread out safely among the parts. For now.

In Session at the Tintinabulary

September 24, 2015 (inadvertantly missing from last post)
Demo Sessions 150924 - Your Mother Should Know (Karen Eisenbrey, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Acoustic takes of 8 songs so that their new bass player can practice remotely: Distracted Driver, Don't Black Out, Quiet Girl, Rebecca Marina, See You At The Next Show, Shed a Tear, Yellow Line, You Ruined It. 4 tracks: an old Sony dynamic mic inside the kick drum, a horizontally aligned stereo condenser mic to pick up Karen's vocal in one track and her drums in the other, and a mono condenser to pick up Neal's vocal. I figured the guitar would show up on everything anyway.

September 27, 2015
Trio 150927 - Keith Eisenbrey
Three overdubbed tracks: autoharp, snare drum, transverse flute.

September 28, 2015
Banned Telepath 37 150928 Seattle - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Aaron intimates that his portion will arrive anon.