climb down the coast; jump to austin

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

Pictures

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

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

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

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

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

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