Recorded
November 6, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 223 - Banned Rehearsal
Participating were Karen, Aaron, and me in 1990. After about ten minutes of transparent chamber music, we call Anna in San Diego to celebrate the 6th Bannediversary. The rest of the session is 1/2 of a telephone conversation.
I Got Shit - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]
Check out the slow flange of the cymbal's sound rolling through the pounding rhythm. It is the antithesis of an 80's tight-ass production.
November 7, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 571 - Banned Rehearsal
My index only lists Karen, Anna, Aaron, and me, which would be an unusual grouping, in that Neal is not there. An error is always a possibility. A delicate session, and then raucous. But when raucous, raucous in detail and briefly.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 Track 10 - hosted by Keith Eisenbrey & Mike Marlin
The final mass improv of the evening.
BF Percussion Rough - Keith Eisenbrey
All the percussion tracks collected for eventual use in Blood and Fire Hallelujah mixed together. Seven minutes of kaleidoscopic rhythm wheels.
The Wagon - Ben Harney [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
Allen also includes this cut in his earlier collection That Devilin' Tune, so I'll get to listen to it again soon. Ben's voice, alone, sings a cheerful tale of woe.
The House Carpenter - Clarence Ashley [from Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music]
Milenburg Joys - Kid Rena [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
Trying To Get To You - Elvis Presley [from Sunrise]
Only The Lonely - Roy Orbison [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Until Roy comes in, this could be The Fleetwoods. It must have been something in the air. I guess we could always blame Sputnik.
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Who'll Stop The Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Born to Run (single)- Bruce Springsteen [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]
Bebe Le Strange - Heart [from Heart: Greatest Hits]
November 8, 2011
Trance Butchered Knight 3 - Keith Eisenbrey
A somewhat less than successful mix of percussion (#1) plus Funmaker Sprite (#2). The progressive loss of signal has tipped a tidge past the optimal garbage-y quality of the Sprite tracks alone.
Recitative, Aria, and Burlesque - Sergei Slonimsky - Paul Taub, Roger Nelson, Matthew Kocmieroski - [from Edge - Flute Music from the Periphery of Europe]
I must presume that composers from within the former Soviet block view the various techniques and attitudes of free-world post-war concert music from a perspective that is as difficult for us to comprehend as our view of their attitudes and techniques are to them. And so it is no surprise that to some extent what is picked up as salient from our culture is just what seems to us most superficial to it. Extended instrumental techniques are as easy to hear as new and weird as they are difficult to produce well, and so can give what is otherwise a fairly standard musical endeavor the sheen of open-to-western-ideas-ness, without necessarily engaging in the full decades-long dialogue that led to them in the first place. The performances here are top-notch, but the overall effect is more like a duct-tape skin graft. The glitz of the not-so-unusual-as-all-that-special-effects doesn't shine from within the musical fabric. Instead, it obscures and distracts.
Sonata - Pteris Vasks - Paul Taub - [from Edge - Flute Music from the Periphery of Europe]
This one gets closer. Paul plays magnificently, as always, and the piece doesn't spend much time being music-as-usual - though it doesn't exactly not do that, either. Somehow in the midst of it, the technique of playing the flute while singing, and of playing the flute, and of singing itself, all become part of the activity of inhabiting this piece.
Light Years - Peal Jam [from Rearviewmirror]
The vocal part studiedly narrow both rhythmically and pitchwise. A composer's performance.
Live
November 10, 2011
Solstice Quintet at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center Seattle
Ann Marie Yasinitsky, Keri E. McCarthy, Shannon Scott, Matthew Aubin, Ryan M. Hare
Wooden Miniatures - Gregory Yasinitsky
Three Little Fantasies - Oliver Knussen
Towns of Wood and Wind - Carl Schimmel
Mythos - Ryan Hare
Suite for Wind Quintet - Ruth Crawford Seeger
The wind quintet as an ensemble presents composers with numerous challenges. The instruments don't really balance dynamically all that well, each pairing has unique characteristics of blending-ness and not-blending-ness (which shift with the various pitch ranges), and unless you have five heroes of circular-breathing to work with you must always consider length of breath in every idea and at every moment. None of these are really bad challenges, and they are often met and vanquished to huge success.
This fine Palousian band was brave enough to travel from over the mountains, in November no less, to offer five largely successful assays into the field. I was especially taken by Oliver Knussen's little pieces with their surprising and imaginative textures and phrasings, Ryan Hare's subtle theatricalities, and of course Ruth Crawford Seeger's supremely slippery notions of parallel play. All said and done this was an attractive and well balanced program, and I enjoyed it immensely.
November 12, 2011
Curtains For You, Out On The Streets, and The True Bugs at North City Vintage Honda, Seattle
Neal had informed us that Mike Gervais's "other band", The True Bugs, would be playing in Lake City on Saturday night. Later we were informed that it was at a "used car dealership", and then at a "vintage Honda store" - "more of a party than a show". We had an intersection a vague time (8 or 9), and the instructions that the "entrance is on 140th". We drove by it twice without seeing anything even remotely lively, explored the other side of Lake City Way, and just before giving up and going home Karen happened to spot a van with North City Vintage Honda printed on it. It was parked in front of a dark commercial building. A "For Sale" banner covered its streetward sign. We wound back to the correct side of Lake City Way, parked a block off and, fortunately, spotted some folks heading in the right direction carrying instruments. We followed where they had disappeared into an unlit vacant lot. Hidden around the corner of a building a square canvas awning had been set up, with a fire-barrel in the middle for heat. We found Neal, and said our howdys to those we knew, finding out only then that not only would The True Bugs be playing but also Curtains For You. After an hour or so we wandered inside. Of course it turns out that the Hondas in question aren't cars at all, but motorcycles, with what I presumed to be a repair-shop garage space as the venue. The bands set up toward one end (with the restroom behind them), and we were surrounded by shelves of tools and motorcycle parts.
If I am not mistaken, the connection between all the bands and the venue goes something like this: Jeremiah, who I gather is the the proprietor of the venue, plays guitar in both Out On The Streets and The True Bugs. Mike and Matt Gervais, the respective singer and drummer of The True Bugs, are also the front end of Curtains For You.
CFY plays with an infectious bouncy beat. Their songs and arrangements are accomplished, gleefully professional endeavors. We'll be seeing them again next week - so more later. To my ear, OOTS was a bit under-developed. They play music reminiscent of early U2 with lots of skill and energy, but their sound hasn't gelled. I couldn't help thinking that it would behoove them to think hard about how much like U2 they really want to be. Why be a 300th rate Bono when you've got a shot at being a 1st rate Out On The Streets? I leave open the question of why anyone would want to emulate His Insufferableness in the first place, but to each their own. TTB is a fine specimen of second-generation Seattle Grunge, straight up and hard reckless driving beats. The moshing in the crowd got more reckless than I am comfortable with (being an old guy), but I suppose the young folks were having fun, and I didn't see that anyone got hurt.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Playlist
Recorded
October 30, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 222 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen, Aaron and I participated. This session got blatty and chatty discussing the word assuage, and went downhill from there.
Assembly Rechoired 45 - Banned Rehearsal
Pete Comley, John, Karen and me in April of 2000.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 Track 9 - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Meyer
Neal drags the washtub bass across the floor of Gallery 1412 to great effect.
Garage 100520 - Keith Eisenbrey
Five minutes of my neighbor tearing boards off an old garage.
November 3, 2011
All I Want Is A Little Spoonful - Papa Charlie Jackson [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
Cosmics - Frank Melrose [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
As though junkyard versions of Thelonius Monk and Art Tatum were mixing it up something fierce. Frank produces a whole suite of pieces in a four minute tour de force of pianistic touch.
Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
Mystery Train - Elvis Presley [from Sunrise]
Elvis the musician's musician. The closer the listen the more dropped the jaw.
Black Beauty - Duke Ellington [from Ken Burns' Jazz]
In 1960 Ellington drops in the sounds of 30's solos and ensembles.
Winter Potato 3 - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
Two minutes of folds and creases. Tiny but not exquisite. It's more like a wee but perfect construction of found objects.
Turkey In The Straw - George Childers [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]
Trance Butchered Knight 2 - Keith Eisenbrey
My second go at this, and by now I was using the score that I later re-named Lacrymosa. Once again I was overdubbing using an erase-head override switch. In this case it ends up sounding rather grandly horrible.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 31, 2011
Gradus 200 - Neal Meyer
Live
October 29, 2011
Carmen - Bizet - Seattle Opera
November 4, 2011
Seattle Composers Salon - Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Winds Go South - Yvonne Hoar
A short tango for woodwind quintet. For my part it seemed undercooked, and I wish it were more fully worked out. It just seemed a bit too satisfied to be what it was.
42 - Scott Adams
A solo accordion piece literally at sixes and sevens with itself. The tunes are nothing special, but they are exactly all they need to be to make the rhythmic concept shine wonderfully. Nice job!
Eternal Silence of Infinite Spaces - Conan McLemore
Conan dips his hands and splashes with cups in this attractive little piece for baptismal font.
Two Pieces - Nelda Swiggett
Nelda on piano with her husband Cliff on trombone, which he claims to have just picked up a few weeks ago after many years of neglect. We were all in amaze at the apparent resilience of his lip. I ended up liking most the second, less finished, of the two pieces she played. It had some nice Monkish touches.
October 30, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 222 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen, Aaron and I participated. This session got blatty and chatty discussing the word assuage, and went downhill from there.
Assembly Rechoired 45 - Banned Rehearsal
Pete Comley, John, Karen and me in April of 2000.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 Track 9 - Keith Eisenbrey, Neal Meyer
Neal drags the washtub bass across the floor of Gallery 1412 to great effect.
Garage 100520 - Keith Eisenbrey
Five minutes of my neighbor tearing boards off an old garage.
November 3, 2011
All I Want Is A Little Spoonful - Papa Charlie Jackson [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
Cosmics - Frank Melrose [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
 | |
| Frank Melrose |
Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington [from The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
Mystery Train - Elvis Presley [from Sunrise]
Elvis the musician's musician. The closer the listen the more dropped the jaw.
Black Beauty - Duke Ellington [from Ken Burns' Jazz]
In 1960 Ellington drops in the sounds of 30's solos and ensembles.
Winter Potato 3 - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
Two minutes of folds and creases. Tiny but not exquisite. It's more like a wee but perfect construction of found objects.
Turkey In The Straw - George Childers [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]
Trance Butchered Knight 2 - Keith Eisenbrey
My second go at this, and by now I was using the score that I later re-named Lacrymosa. Once again I was overdubbing using an erase-head override switch. In this case it ends up sounding rather grandly horrible.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 31, 2011
Gradus 200 - Neal Meyer
Live
October 29, 2011
Carmen - Bizet - Seattle Opera
November 4, 2011
Seattle Composers Salon - Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Winds Go South - Yvonne Hoar
A short tango for woodwind quintet. For my part it seemed undercooked, and I wish it were more fully worked out. It just seemed a bit too satisfied to be what it was.
42 - Scott Adams
A solo accordion piece literally at sixes and sevens with itself. The tunes are nothing special, but they are exactly all they need to be to make the rhythmic concept shine wonderfully. Nice job!
Eternal Silence of Infinite Spaces - Conan McLemore
Conan dips his hands and splashes with cups in this attractive little piece for baptismal font.
Two Pieces - Nelda Swiggett
Nelda on piano with her husband Cliff on trombone, which he claims to have just picked up a few weeks ago after many years of neglect. We were all in amaze at the apparent resilience of his lip. I ended up liking most the second, less finished, of the two pieces she played. It had some nice Monkish touches.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Playlist
Recorded
October 22, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 570 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Anna K, Neal Meyer, and me participating. This session dates from April of 2000. We called it Gradus ab Parnassum in possibly bad Latin. It wakes itself mostly into the upper spectral ambit with low frequencies entering later. It settles after about 10 minutes into a place that just doesn't gel, but which is nevertheless a pretty interesting collection of sound. I got to thinking about some of the ways that our knowledge of the social history of an artifact affects our perception of it. Knowing that a recording was made on the spot without prior restraints beyond our past of social and musical interaction frees us from trying to discover the intent of its maker as a single utterance, and allows us to focus on how multiple utterances interact on the fly, without any of them knowing where it is headed. It ends with bells.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 - Track 8 - Jim Knodle, Mike Marlin, and Tom Swafford (I think)
Deliciously lyrical, warm and folksy
Man of My Dreams/Be Like You - Shaprece
Extraordinarily sophisticated arrangements that play with the sound and surface of sound. As lush as it gets it is always intricate and transparent.
October 23, 2011
A Married Man's Blues - Wade Ward [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
The interaction between downbeat and pickup is to die for, like Schumann with a wicked twist.
Piano Breakdown - Frank Melrose [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
The vinylscratchysound provides a worthy and sophisticated percussion track to this.
Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
I Forgot To Remember To Forget - Elvis Presley [from Sunrise]
Tonight's The Night - The Shirelles [from The Shirelles Anthology, Rhino Records]
bump sh' bump. oh yeah.
Winter Potato 2 - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
Microphones up close to the action, all sorts of odd rumbly sounds exude from the piano's inner workings.
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain - Maude Thacker [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]
October 27, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 25 - Banned Rehearsal
Anna K, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer, and me participating. This session dates from March of 1985. If I recollect rightly I had rigged the space prior to the band's arrival by covering the floor with blue paper pup tents and inserting them between books on the bookshelves. My intent was to give the space a sense of otherness. All the sounds set themselves onto a vast wheel revolving through. A recording of a Bach Cantata finds its way into a tin can to explore the science of the beauty of bad audio. The last 10 minutes are a silly waste, but most of this is raw and interesting.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 24, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 801 - Banned Rehearsal
Present and making noise were Karen, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer, and me.
October 25, 2011
Your Mother Should Know - recording The Day You Deleted Me
Neal made an attempt at a cornet track, and then we got two vocal tracks. On to the mix!
Live
October 22, 2011
Lovesick Empire, Thee Emergency, Mudhoney, Hot Bodies in Motion - at Neumos, Seattle
Four extremely able bands put on a spectacular show for us. Both Lovesick Empire and Thee Emergency are straight-ahead driving local bands, with LE tending toward the solid beat style of Goodness, while Thee Emergency tends toward a more bluesy style reminiscent of Heart. I was quite taken by both of them, and I sure hope LE puts some music up for download soon, since I missed out on the free CD they were giving out. Mudhoney of course is well known and their set was loud, fast, non-stop, and loud. To my (ringing) ears it is as though The Sonics, The Stooges, and The Dead Kennedys were thrown into a paper bag and shaken vigorously. Did I mention that they were loud? Hot Bodies In Motion will forever after be known as "that band that came on after Mudhoney," which is unfortunate because they are tremendously accomplished musicians and they put together a fabulous funky set. The guitar player looks like Gunther from Greg Evans' Luann, and he doesn't move around much, but he sure can play that thing. The bass was matching him funk for funk, the drums were solid and the singer was all in. Great job guys!
October 22, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 570 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Anna K, Neal Meyer, and me participating. This session dates from April of 2000. We called it Gradus ab Parnassum in possibly bad Latin. It wakes itself mostly into the upper spectral ambit with low frequencies entering later. It settles after about 10 minutes into a place that just doesn't gel, but which is nevertheless a pretty interesting collection of sound. I got to thinking about some of the ways that our knowledge of the social history of an artifact affects our perception of it. Knowing that a recording was made on the spot without prior restraints beyond our past of social and musical interaction frees us from trying to discover the intent of its maker as a single utterance, and allows us to focus on how multiple utterances interact on the fly, without any of them knowing where it is headed. It ends with bells.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 - Track 8 - Jim Knodle, Mike Marlin, and Tom Swafford (I think)
Deliciously lyrical, warm and folksy
Man of My Dreams/Be Like You - Shaprece
Extraordinarily sophisticated arrangements that play with the sound and surface of sound. As lush as it gets it is always intricate and transparent.
October 23, 2011
A Married Man's Blues - Wade Ward [from Allen Lowe's Really The Blues]
The interaction between downbeat and pickup is to die for, like Schumann with a wicked twist.
Piano Breakdown - Frank Melrose [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
The vinylscratchysound provides a worthy and sophisticated percussion track to this.
Harlem Air Shaft - Duke Ellington [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
I Forgot To Remember To Forget - Elvis Presley [from Sunrise]
Tonight's The Night - The Shirelles [from The Shirelles Anthology, Rhino Records]
bump sh' bump. oh yeah.
 | |
| Cardew |
Microphones up close to the action, all sorts of odd rumbly sounds exude from the piano's inner workings.
She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain - Maude Thacker [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]
October 27, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 25 - Banned Rehearsal
 |
| Banned Rehearsal in 1985 |
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 24, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 801 - Banned Rehearsal
Present and making noise were Karen, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer, and me.
October 25, 2011
Your Mother Should Know - recording The Day You Deleted Me
Neal made an attempt at a cornet track, and then we got two vocal tracks. On to the mix!
Live
October 22, 2011
Lovesick Empire, Thee Emergency, Mudhoney, Hot Bodies in Motion - at Neumos, Seattle
 |
| Hot Bodies In Motion (standing still) |
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Playlist
Recorded
October 15, 2011
Too Sweet for Words - Lovie Austin [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune
Dear Old Southland - Louis Armstrong [from Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens on JSP records]
Perdido Street Blues - Louis Armstrong [from Jazz Heritage Series Vol. 7 on MCA records]
Greeting Prelude - Stravinsky - London SO, Michael Tilson Thomas
The biggest and solidest 40 seconds you'll ever hear.
How Long Blues - Guitar Pete Franklin [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]
Winter Potato 1 - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
October 18, 2011
Red Ink Blots - Benjamin Boretz, Jeff Presslaff [from Inter/Play]
At first first one then the other
Then the other then the first
Riffing jointly then in creative spelunkery
First in light then elsedown
Reminding myself: It isn't about weirdness or extremeness. It's about specificity.
Pastorale for Anna - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey
Aaron composed this lovely little piece a few weeks too late to be included with his two other Pastorales (for Keith and Helena), in Banned Rehearsal's first live performance in January 1986. But this home recording I made shortly after really gets somewhere as this dancing song emerges from shadows. I only wish I could play that well consistently!
Banned Rehearsal 221 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen, Aaron and me participating back in 1990. Starting with guitar, fiddle, and harmonica we focus on the sounds of a root music. Interestingly I can't be sure who is playing which instrument. Every time I think some part sounds like the sort of thing I do, or Karen or Aaron does, it moves to something distinctly like what another of us does.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 17, 2011
Gradus 199 - Neal Meyer
Live
October 15, 2011
The Slagg - Live at Cafe Racer, Seattle
Cafe Racer seems like it could be a nice place to hear music. Karen and I hadn't been there yet so we went to hear somebody we'd never heard of. The Slagg was apparently trying to play reggae, but they were pretty lame and didn't come across as all that excited to be there playing for folks. We left before they finished their first set.
 | |
| Lovie Austin |
Too Sweet for Words - Lovie Austin [from Allen Lowe's That Devilin' Tune
Dear Old Southland - Louis Armstrong [from Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens on JSP records]
Perdido Street Blues - Louis Armstrong [from Jazz Heritage Series Vol. 7 on MCA records]
Greeting Prelude - Stravinsky - London SO, Michael Tilson Thomas
The biggest and solidest 40 seconds you'll ever hear.
How Long Blues - Guitar Pete Franklin [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]
Winter Potato 1 - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
October 18, 2011
Red Ink Blots - Benjamin Boretz, Jeff Presslaff [from Inter/Play]
At first first one then the other
Then the other then the first
Riffing jointly then in creative spelunkery
First in light then elsedown
Reminding myself: It isn't about weirdness or extremeness. It's about specificity.
Pastorale for Anna - Aaron Keyt - Keith Eisenbrey
 | |
| Aaron Keyt - back in the day |
Banned Rehearsal 221 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen, Aaron and me participating back in 1990. Starting with guitar, fiddle, and harmonica we focus on the sounds of a root music. Interestingly I can't be sure who is playing which instrument. Every time I think some part sounds like the sort of thing I do, or Karen or Aaron does, it moves to something distinctly like what another of us does.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 17, 2011
Gradus 199 - Neal Meyer
Live
October 15, 2011
The Slagg - Live at Cafe Racer, Seattle
Cafe Racer seems like it could be a nice place to hear music. Karen and I hadn't been there yet so we went to hear somebody we'd never heard of. The Slagg was apparently trying to play reggae, but they were pretty lame and didn't come across as all that excited to be there playing for folks. We left before they finished their first set.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Playlist
Recorded
October 10, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 569 (Fritz with Fritz) - Banned Rehearsal
Participating in this session from April of 2000 were Karen, Anna, Aaron, Neal, Pete Comley and me. This was a dub of the recording Pete made using 'Fritz', a head-shaped binaural microphone.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 Track 7 - Keith Eisenbrey and Jim Knodle
Gradus: Three Rungs for Marcia Bellamy - Neal Meyer
One of Neal's overt practices since early in this project has been to leave prodigious gaps of not playing. Under certain circumstances these can stretch up toward 10 or 15 minutes long. Part of the reason for doing this stems from considerations surrounding Cage's 4'33", i.e. that the sounds leaking in from the environment are or should be valid parts of the performance, and that we should be attending to them every bit as much as we attend to the traditionally valued slices of sound. Underlying this notion is the assumption that a sound ontologized as an intended sound will drown out, psychologically, sounds ontologized as accidental to intention, or at least to the intention we are attending to, and that therefore the act of making a sound intentionally is an egotistical aggression and a violence upon Cage's silence, upon the goodness and purity of sounds just being themselves. A paraphrase of Neal's formulation might be: Do nothing that would substantially interrupt a performance of 4'33".
But the case could be made that imposing lengthy silences as a compositional decision preceding the hurly burly of the session is a too easy solution or penance for the aggression of soundmaking, is a way of having one's cake and eating it too. If the method is simply to spread out the soundmaking portions among vast stretches of doing nothing, stretches often much longer in extent that 4'33", so that one could quite literally overlay conjoint performances of Gradus and 4'33" in such as way as to have no actual interruption, then does this constitute a lack of substantive interruption? Are we attempting the classic aesthetic cheat of pretending that a fact trumps an image? Wouldn't it be a far more interesting and difficult challenge to make noise while not interrupting? What might it mean to succeed at this? To play with such transparence that it were as if no music had transpired - no notes played - no utterance uttered - no intention voiced - as though one had not been. . . ?
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 10, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 800 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer participated in this milestone session.
October 11, 2011
Your Mother Should Know - recording The Day You Deleted Me
Karen Eisenbrey, drums; Mike Gervais, tenor & alto sax; Neal Meyer, guitars & vocal
Neal's friend Mike (of Curtains For You - see below) was available to lay down some horn tracks so we had a grand time getting enough on the MR8 to make that feasible. We still need to record the vocal, and Neal also wanted to try a cornet track.
Live
October 8, 2011
Reverb Festival - Seattle
Mutiny Fires at the Tractor
Shaprece at the Sunset
Stephanie at the Eagles Ballroom
Less Than Equals at Conor Byrne
Tom Price Desert Classic at the Tractor
Curtains For You at the Tractor
Five out of six sets were musical dynamite, and the sixth (Stephanie) is a very young but listen-worthy up&comer group. Very quickly so that we have some idea where we are standing, Mutiny Fires is power-pop-punk-a-billy, Shaprece is up-to-date soul r&b, Stephanie is (I think) still in flux but tending toward pop-glam, Less Than Equals is echt-old-school, Tom Price Desert Classic is electric-bigsound-blues, and Curtains For You is pop, if some raucus combination of The Beatles, The Young Fresh Fellows, and Elvis Costello counts as simply pop.
I was struck by the different feels of each band's stage presence. Mutiny Fires was all friendly and loose lets have a beer but how the heck am I going to rock out at this hour. Shaprece and her backup band - nine people on the wee stage at the Sunset!! - were both scary professional and family warm. Her dad was playing keyboard and was easily in charge, her sister sang backup vocal, and the rest of the crew could have been a re-union of uncles and cousins. Strictly from a hair-style angle having Shaprece and her sister on stage at once was like having Sarah Vaughan and a teenage Ann Peebles standing there. Stephanie, a group of four or five guys topping out, to my old eyes, at about 20, was having some unfortunate technical difficulties (the trouble with pedals!) but they were doing their best to have a good time anyway. I look forward to hearing them under better circumstances.
Less Than Equals is a two piece with guitar and drum. Both gentlemen sing.They are there to put on a show, dressed in matching white suits and pastel shirts, trunks of bodies held still in space but vibrating with energy. Kurt is a wrecklessly effective drummer - nothing fancy but everything whang on. John Bamberg is one of those guitar players who doesn't sound fancy until you realize he's got an entire combo in there with him.Tom Price Desert Classic has an easy bluesy presence, late night at nearly any roadhouse anywhere in America any time in the last 30 years. Curtains For You is self-described as "happy shiny people". By the time we got back to the Tractor after dinner the place was packed. These guys are having a blast playing high competence rock & roll. But don't take my word for it, check them out on the November 19th at the Neptune on a terrific bill with Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs, and The Posies.
Shaprece is knock-out sensational.
October 10, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 569 (Fritz with Fritz) - Banned Rehearsal
Participating in this session from April of 2000 were Karen, Anna, Aaron, Neal, Pete Comley and me. This was a dub of the recording Pete made using 'Fritz', a head-shaped binaural microphone.
Sounds of the Underbrush 2/28/2005 Track 7 - Keith Eisenbrey and Jim Knodle
Gradus: Three Rungs for Marcia Bellamy - Neal Meyer
One of Neal's overt practices since early in this project has been to leave prodigious gaps of not playing. Under certain circumstances these can stretch up toward 10 or 15 minutes long. Part of the reason for doing this stems from considerations surrounding Cage's 4'33", i.e. that the sounds leaking in from the environment are or should be valid parts of the performance, and that we should be attending to them every bit as much as we attend to the traditionally valued slices of sound. Underlying this notion is the assumption that a sound ontologized as an intended sound will drown out, psychologically, sounds ontologized as accidental to intention, or at least to the intention we are attending to, and that therefore the act of making a sound intentionally is an egotistical aggression and a violence upon Cage's silence, upon the goodness and purity of sounds just being themselves. A paraphrase of Neal's formulation might be: Do nothing that would substantially interrupt a performance of 4'33".
But the case could be made that imposing lengthy silences as a compositional decision preceding the hurly burly of the session is a too easy solution or penance for the aggression of soundmaking, is a way of having one's cake and eating it too. If the method is simply to spread out the soundmaking portions among vast stretches of doing nothing, stretches often much longer in extent that 4'33", so that one could quite literally overlay conjoint performances of Gradus and 4'33" in such as way as to have no actual interruption, then does this constitute a lack of substantive interruption? Are we attempting the classic aesthetic cheat of pretending that a fact trumps an image? Wouldn't it be a far more interesting and difficult challenge to make noise while not interrupting? What might it mean to succeed at this? To play with such transparence that it were as if no music had transpired - no notes played - no utterance uttered - no intention voiced - as though one had not been. . . ?
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 10, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 800 - Banned Rehearsal
Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Steve Kennedy, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer participated in this milestone session.
October 11, 2011
Your Mother Should Know - recording The Day You Deleted Me
Karen Eisenbrey, drums; Mike Gervais, tenor & alto sax; Neal Meyer, guitars & vocal
Neal's friend Mike (of Curtains For You - see below) was available to lay down some horn tracks so we had a grand time getting enough on the MR8 to make that feasible. We still need to record the vocal, and Neal also wanted to try a cornet track.
Live
October 8, 2011
Reverb Festival - Seattle
Mutiny Fires at the Tractor
Shaprece at the Sunset
Stephanie at the Eagles Ballroom
Less Than Equals at Conor Byrne
Tom Price Desert Classic at the Tractor
Curtains For You at the Tractor
Five out of six sets were musical dynamite, and the sixth (Stephanie) is a very young but listen-worthy up&comer group. Very quickly so that we have some idea where we are standing, Mutiny Fires is power-pop-punk-a-billy, Shaprece is up-to-date soul r&b, Stephanie is (I think) still in flux but tending toward pop-glam, Less Than Equals is echt-old-school, Tom Price Desert Classic is electric-bigsound-blues, and Curtains For You is pop, if some raucus combination of The Beatles, The Young Fresh Fellows, and Elvis Costello counts as simply pop.
 |
| Shaprece |
Less Than Equals is a two piece with guitar and drum. Both gentlemen sing.They are there to put on a show, dressed in matching white suits and pastel shirts, trunks of bodies held still in space but vibrating with energy. Kurt is a wrecklessly effective drummer - nothing fancy but everything whang on. John Bamberg is one of those guitar players who doesn't sound fancy until you realize he's got an entire combo in there with him.Tom Price Desert Classic has an easy bluesy presence, late night at nearly any roadhouse anywhere in America any time in the last 30 years. Curtains For You is self-described as "happy shiny people". By the time we got back to the Tractor after dinner the place was packed. These guys are having a blast playing high competence rock & roll. But don't take my word for it, check them out on the November 19th at the Neptune on a terrific bill with Star Anna & The Laughing Dogs, and The Posies.
Shaprece is knock-out sensational.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Playlist
Now Music in New Albion is now one year old.
Recorded
October 4, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 24 - Banned Rehearsal
Participating were Keith Eisenbrey, Anna K, Aaron Keyt, and Neal Meyer. In early 1985 I moved into a little house in Greenwood. This is the first full session made there, and also the first full session after our debut performance at Brechemin. Long bowed drone tones on acoustic guitar, plucks and high bell dings interrupted by low-fi images of the just recently passed soundscape. The overall effect is of careful composition holding steady and true for about 35 minutes, after which microphone silliness begins and the energy sags. A rule to remember: Cleverness kills music.
A Cat's Life Act III take 3 - Keith Eisenbrey
The last take from 1992, reasonably well played but marred by radio bleed of some horrible pop song.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 3, 2011
Gradus 198 - Neal Meyer
 | |
| Fungus, White River Valley, Mt. Rainier National Park, September 24, 2011 |
Recorded
October 4, 2011
Banned Rehearsal 24 - Banned Rehearsal
 | |
| Banned Rehearsal, Little Greenwood House, 1985 |
A Cat's Life Act III take 3 - Keith Eisenbrey
The last take from 1992, reasonably well played but marred by radio bleed of some horrible pop song.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
October 3, 2011
Gradus 198 - Neal Meyer
 |
| Neal Meyer, The Man Who Plays A |
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Playlist
In Session at the Tintinabulary
September 26, 2011
Rehearsal - Banned Rehearsal 799
Participating were Karen Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer, and me.
Live
September 29, 2011
Benaroya Hall, Seattle
Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Ludovic Morlot, conductor
Le Sacre du printemps - Stravinsky
An American In Paris - Gershwin
Ameriques - Varese
We had a fabulous dinner at Juno, in the revamped Arctic Building (1914) on the corner of 3rd and Cherry. From our booth the only buildings visible either existed at the time of the programmed works or were built contemporaneously to their composition, emphasizing how much of what we tend to think of as the old Seattle is quite literally a city born of modernism.
It is a small thing, or it should be a small thing, but I applaud Morlot for programming these three works in this less than obvious sequence. A more usual approach would have been to reverse the halves - starting and ending with the ultra-popular and hiding the crowd-chaser in the middle where fewer would be able to escape it. Instead we were presented with an ordering that entwined them into each other. Gershwin holds his modernist own remarkably well in this company of giants, matching car-horns to air raid siren, dance to dance; and never does Stravinsky sound so tunefully populist and rhythmically straightforward as when we hear his primitivism foiled by Varese's war-poet sensibility. Here is what that music is like with the folk tunes shelled out of it and no dancing to get in the way of rhythmic imagination.
September 26, 2011
Rehearsal - Banned Rehearsal 799
Participating were Karen Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, Neal Meyer, and me.
 | |
| Fungus, White River Valley, Mt. Rainier National Park, September 24,2011 |
September 29, 2011
Benaroya Hall, Seattle
Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Ludovic Morlot, conductor
Le Sacre du printemps - Stravinsky
An American In Paris - Gershwin
Ameriques - Varese
We had a fabulous dinner at Juno, in the revamped Arctic Building (1914) on the corner of 3rd and Cherry. From our booth the only buildings visible either existed at the time of the programmed works or were built contemporaneously to their composition, emphasizing how much of what we tend to think of as the old Seattle is quite literally a city born of modernism.It is a small thing, or it should be a small thing, but I applaud Morlot for programming these three works in this less than obvious sequence. A more usual approach would have been to reverse the halves - starting and ending with the ultra-popular and hiding the crowd-chaser in the middle where fewer would be able to escape it. Instead we were presented with an ordering that entwined them into each other. Gershwin holds his modernist own remarkably well in this company of giants, matching car-horns to air raid siren, dance to dance; and never does Stravinsky sound so tunefully populist and rhythmically straightforward as when we hear his primitivism foiled by Varese's war-poet sensibility. Here is what that music is like with the folk tunes shelled out of it and no dancing to get in the way of rhythmic imagination.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)