New Madrid Faults

2009 OVER (THE JEMS)

2009-12-28T22:20:00.000-08:00

the year has come and gone and we couldnt be happier. well it could be summer...or our studio...our beautiful studio could use some proper heating! yes, yes we've been in the studio carving out some new tracks for some upcoming releases! we will be debuting these tracks at some of our jan-feb shows(TBA)...we will also have handmade copies of CSTA album on hand for a buck or 2.
we look forward to totally blasting through this year in one swift motion knocking out an album a few tours and maybe some fans. this all remains to be seen. an "ok" from the bosses and a proper tour vehicle...we will be good to go! i have traveled just about every way possible this year - tour car, tour van, tour bus, shitty prop planes and 737s....I have to say its good to be back in the studio with my boys because the we are pumpin out some epic songs for this next tour/album. keep your eyes peeled to the myspace page....we might throw some good stuff up there soon. will update from the studio w/ video and pictures soon aswell. in the meantime enjoy this list of MY FAV 2009
1. KAKI KING LIVE...stoll the stage @ WCL with here new band of bearded new yorkers. her new most recent jaunt is absolutely spectacular. http://www.kakiking.com/
2. Bibio - "Ambivalence Avenue" - Bibio blew my mind this year.... his latest got released on warp records and has since gained some well deserved exposure. You can tell he is torn by his interests on this one, but it still works...this is the perfect blend of melodic lo-fi folk guitar and glitch ridden instrumental hip hop tracks.
http://www.myspace.com/mrbibio
3. The Bad Plus - "For All I Care" - With the addition of Wendy Lewis this band took an interesting shape. The Bad Plus shook up the jazz world with this one... ive read reviews that praised it....but all to often motherfuckers be hatin. This is what its all about right here. The Punk/Jazz element of "for all i care" gives a forgotten meaning (to some) to both genres. To quote Mike Watt, "punk is whatever you want it to be." -the same goes for jazz...thanks for being "you" (reid ethan, david, wendy)!
http://www.thebadplus.com/
4. The Lymbyc Systym - "Shutter Release" - broken, bittersweet, open, longing for a place to call home, growing up, cut/paste, winter, being on the road too long, void of feeling, driving late at night, aftershow, running through raindrops of synths glitches, rhodes piano and cut up rim shots, not over thought, painful, warmth.
www.lymbycsystym.com/
MORE AGAIN SOON!

myspace.com/newmadridfaults

New Madrid Faults Guitar Rock To YERR NECK

2009-08-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

quite a run with the boys... looking back, it feels like some blurry childhood memory. 10 days in a rented SUV with no food or money can do that to you. but ill say we rocked some of the strangest places ive been yet. big props to seamus and his chapel hill rock opera. full choir, horns, vibes, strings, etc. it blew minds....oh and thanks to marc we got our tantric driade experience on. i will be back again in a month or so to zen out. HIPPIES HIPPIES HIPPIES HIPSTER HAM SANDWICH. Louisville threw us for a loop. what we thought was going to be a pretty radical show turned into a hilariously confusing acid trip by the end of our two day run. lets make a habit of seeing some more hairy ass @ nmf outings. very sweet people though, thanks myron and hideaway crew for taking care of us. hope to be back soon...with more funk under our belts. Indianapolis proved a more tame sit down audience. thanks everyone for being so attentive...especially during shark week...WAHT THE FUCK! oh and accordians, you make beautiful sounds rarely found in thiese fine states of amRRica...keep rockin' those auto harps and glockenspiels! ughh i have wiudvhwv to fly to denver in like 6 hours i must pack! thanks to everyone who helped us along the way... TIM OF CHICAGO, QUINN OF SOUTH BEND, SCOTT OF JOHNSTOWN. AND THE CROWD OF JOHNSTOWN FOR SINGING TTWGOODBYE WITH US!

handful of escorpions

2009-06-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

in a warm tub

new jams marching, swimming......whatever..around our towns + up in the space..we're getting some of this all over the map shit recorded. hot, fat tape machine ready to split currents and a ferrous inch into sixteen sparkle parts and 3rd zine ready to sssplode. so many new songs are toddlers and in a few weeks we're on tour with an in-hand copy of "concerning small town aberration". still don't know if we want to spell 'aberration' incorrectly or maybe make fake names for the Itunes versions. At very least i'm going to start using twitter as a completely fictional outlet. maybe creative non-fiction. nah, purely for lies.

check this out---john's dad's band (steve kimock crazy engine) covered "to the west goodbye" and "the girls" pictured above sang it(my lyrcs...fucking weird), this apparently becoming the most downloaded and requested track by the techie/hippie community--peel away the layers of irony as we tour in a covered wagon.

john got a snakebite: lose three days, new madrid faults!

.......oregon trail.......anyone..........

talking wire hiss to the camera

2009-05-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

on recording an album

2009-04-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

we wrote and recorded this album primarily in a basement then a garage and surrounding grassy areas--used loud amps, played at the same time, sweating, mics sucking up all the bleed, hit crashes some people would say are too big, and sang through guitar amps, didn't always use a bass guitar. switched instruments, dug each other, and kept going.

fuck it.

words for time

2009-04-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

here we are. bethlehem. 2nd zine out and about and our first album, Concerning Small Town Aberration, spreads its little wings monday, april twentieth. this feels like warm fuzz and joy. there's so much music happening around us and a new album worth of demos being accumulated down in the basement. above ground audio labs is pretty much a constant stir of musical work, projects lined up, ease up on the shows for building sounds and wooden things. this is matt...the curlyfuzz one. sentiment is universal for all of us. just different words. here's a video of the serious hard work that went into recording Concerning Small Town Aberration....

love love love !

oh here's another where kass goes wild city..

CHAPEL HILL - NASHVILLE - FAYATTEVILLE -AUSTIN SXSW

2009-03-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

climb down the coast; jump to austin

2009-03-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

Our friend billy rented a cobalt blue transformer-looking wagon/suv thing on the morning after our going away show at wildflower with accordions and jupiterhead. weird night before. great show but late night for such an early morning and long drive to manassas virginia to the garage. good people came out, some of whom were at the above ground audio labs show a week before, some of which i never met. bethlehem is growing and we're all stoked. i'm most stoked about writing and recording a new album, especially with the old and new dudes from memes moving into above ground with us...

so Manassas, VA....
i'm about to describe the garage in a special new way. instead of saying "sick" or "awesome", "sweet" or "killer"(which i'd never write or say anyway), i'm going to say "wolf-hour".

wolf-hour is like a wolf having not just a half hour radio show, but a full hour. guessing what the life of a wolf must be like, that's a pretty fucking intense imaginary radio and/or t.v. broadcast.

so the show at the garage was totally wolf-hour. got it? the kids there were rabid--rabid like the bacteria on your face after rubbing it with honey. the best day of your face-bacteria's short lives! we had a blast and met some cool bands from D.C., Richmond, and Manassas prop. who wanna hook it up again.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina was rainy for the first time ever(for me). Every time i'm here it's been perfect weather--the place is a xanax. i just melt in my chair outside. rainy this time---we still went out during the day to check out some record stores, book stores, and burritos(which is one of the most telling measures of a town), then returned to the Snmnmnm house with three of their members and Kaitlin from "Lost in the Trees" for rehearsal with us. Seamus from snmnmnm wrote out charts for two of our songs for trumpet, trombone, tuba, violin, and cello and it was almost tear-inducing pretty. we worked out the parts and played with all of them and it was a wonderfully messy wall of sound. here's a video from rehearsals and the show:

more soon as we head to south by...

War & College Towns

2009-03-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Pictures

if you didn't know, east coast winters are painful

2009-02-08T18:15:00.000-08:00

until this past late march/early april, i was in los angeles where the seasons creep along and subtly change; that is NOT the case here. fall is all beautiful and before you even think to replace your old shoes, white cold shit is falling from the sky and your bones hurt as your outlook on reality suffers. it's rough. but we got through the worst of it i think and in a good way. the zine and collective, bethlehem above ground, we've been working on has been doing shows at above ground audio labs, our studio space, secret art space, the wildflower, hard bean, and the burners, all with great turn-outs and with tons of new faces from the valley getting involved. it's a lot warmer when we're all out there together fo sho. i got to record trouble city all-stars, a spacey garage-reggae band over a snowy weekend, the first thing i've worked on since finishing up "concerning small town aberration" in december. we did it at a crazy warehouse over a hazy, snowy weekend with great results.

our album is now mastered and slated for release online in about a month--pretty exciting as we head to austin for sxsw right after its release. it's going to be so nice and warm then--like in the upper 50s. upper 50s is massively relieving at this point.

i kind of feel like this is a seasonal blog but i'm sure that will change. for now, we look forward to how the last of winter and the coming warmer weather affects all the new music we've been working on. that and the dose of california i'll be getting late may and june. maybe we'll go mariachi. who knows...

STOPPING FOR NO ONE

2008-11-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

This week our album "concerning small town aberration" will be mastered. It should be out on Jan. This is big for us. To everyone involved in helping make this a reality we would like to thank you. We are already brain storming/ writing for the next record! Here are some pictures from our wildflower show + a video i shot of trevor exter backstage at the mercury playing one of his new songs for his next record. its a little shaky in the beginning but it really gets cookin'.

Trevor Exter + Company from Backstage Music on Vimeo.

long times, short roads

2008-11-13T21:05:00.000-08:00

august through october were pretty ridiculous. recording mixing, rerecording, remixing, taking a break to play a tour, recording remixing and touring again while building a recording/art studio, scraping the pavement and helping build our local scene, and finishing up our first real album has left us....in boston at 12:08am on a laptop at berklee friend's place after opening for tea leaf green. great venue, great show, cold and cool town--anywhere that can make your body ache more than our hometown with weather alone gets props.

i blogged further about what's going on on MY myspace page which will explain a lot...especially if you pay some mind to Bethlehem Above Ground, which is a blog and quarterly zine highlighting all the exciting shit splattered throughout the valley...lots of art shows and spaces, fucked up music and great all-ages show, and underground happenings not being adequately covered by local media.

we're busy but our album is done as of tomorrow. i think. vocals and all. off to mastering in california while we all run around in the cold poor and happy as hell.

better duos than john's

2008-07-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

i agree with "no age" being a great new honest cool hip cute duo but john missed some important ones:

The Dagons (LA) - a band who list their genre as "other other other" on the space of my... gertie fox played with them years ago at the knitting factory the band was mesmerizing. dreamy guitar and drum duo, brutal and beautiful, creepy and fragile. all things i love about the most fucked people i'm drawn to. they made me think marriage isn't that bad. They're in france right now and i'm jealous.

The (motherfucking) CARPENTERS - brother sister duo featuring the late Karen on drums and one of the most smooth, honest, and full of matronly affirmative charmed voices ever; she could tuck me in, sing sweet songs about killing me in my sleep, and i'd dream about having warm tea with milk with her in the morning. we've only just begun.

The Kris Special (LA) - started as a duo, nick and ann. they grew over the years into a full band with full releases, longer tours, and complications but seeing them sing their ragged songs through the miserable, dry post-torrential cry throated angst-howl of ann on a monday night at mr t's bowl left a beautiful scar forevz. i love them and feel everything they sing. if elliot smith grew up in the desert and still managed to be miserable yet beautiful, he might have ended up being a third member.

there are my groups of twos that impacted me...

World Citizens

2008-07-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Last night a wildflower cafe collaboration-
Gina Ferrera - Jyil (jeel), Kalimba, Percussion
Rene Uzzardi - Tabla
Elliiot Levin - Flute, Saxaphone, Assorted Wind Instruments
Lil' Kim - Trap Drums

This was a remarkable night and I love all of you!. Not everyday do you get to be apart of something diverse and eye-opening in good ol' beflum. Its a testament to how powerful music can be. I had never met Gina in my life and it was the type of night where it didn't feel like work at all. On set break we all sort of went our separate ways to talk to our friends. We saw each other and instantly embraced. Its not everyday that i feel like ive known someone a lifetime without verbally speaking to them. It felt rather refreshing to feel so close to someone musically without any extra baggage. Also feeling very close to Elliot and Rene strictly on musical terms, it was hugs all around!

Some video footage of last night

myspace.com/tablarenee
myspace.com/ginaferrera
myspace.com/elliotlevin

Urgent Information about the Jyil from Gina's site -

The gyil is made from fourteen wooden slats that are suspended on a frame of gourds (calabash) resonators. Each gourd can have anywhere from one to three holes. A spider egg sack casing is stretched over these holes. This process is what gives the gyil its distinctive buzzing sound.

Originally the keyboards were played over a hole that was dug in the ground. The “earth” underground (rather than the gourds) would produce the resonance for the keyboard. This process called “Kpa Pol” is still practiced today by gyil players (especially beginners) in many villages in the north of Ghana.

The gyil music in its beauty and virtuosity demands as much respect as might be held for any classical music. Mastering the vast and extensive gyil repertoire will be a lifetime commitment of ongoing cultural exchange. Ferrera is an American delving into the music of far removed cultures. She is a woman and a percussionist, an ethnomusicologist, and educator making creative, historic and cross-rhythmic demonstrations by recording and blending various cultural music with the gyil.

Here's a serious mother fucker and his Gyil

pretty world

Duos and such

2008-07-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

We cut 2 new songs the other day. As bare as drums and guitar can be, we managed to make it work. A house party minus matty love is reasoning behind the duo configuration. Trying to sound as big as possible with out bass is an interesting challenge. Its parallel to being naked in front of a crowd people that are maliciously judging your every imperfection(that is if it doesnt work). There are some groups that pull it off with ease.

Hear some of my favorite duo configurations -
1. Hella - Spencer Seim (guitar) and Zach Hill (drums) reside in Sacramento CA. Genre - Avante Garde Math Rock. I like the early recordings. They have now expanded to a larger band. Check out "hold your horses."
2. Death From Above 1979 - Toronto based duo Sebastien Grainger (vocals, drums) Jesse F. Keeler (bass, synth). Genre - Dance Punk Check out "your a woman im a machine"
3. Lymbyc Systym- Jared (Keyboards) & Michael Bell (drums, glock, sampling) By far my favorite duo. Check out anything by these guys!
4. Benevento Russo Duo - Marco Benevento - (keyboards, circuit bent toys, etc) Joe Russo (drums, guitar, loops, etc.) Genre - Rock Check out "Best Reason To Buy The Sun"
5. No Age - L.A. based noise punk recently signed with sub pop. These guys are on there way to giving the mainstream a nice taste of organic honest music that bites.

Wildflower-All Good Festival

2008-07-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

Our first bona fide wildflower show went off like a massive explosion. People finally showed there faces at that place after a bout with poor attendance for at least a few months (with exception to metal night. It was nice for us to see old friends and have them enjoy your music. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Next day we rolled into Masontown, WV in our post-wagon to play the AllGood Music Festival. Lots of great music at this one. We had to drive through seas of people to get to the ropeadope stage which was conveniently placed at the top of a mountain. Before our set I slaved over handmade flyers to pass out. This obviously went over very well considering the infinite number of people at our set. We stayed for a while, I played some glockenspiel for To Be A High Powered Exectutive, and then left at a reasonable hour to our combined 17 gigs in 9 states the next day.