Blog

Merry Holiday, Happy New Year!

Hope you’re having a nice a holiday as I am. We had an awesome time down at Closer to The Sun in Mexico, made it home for some family time, and now getting psyched to party in 2015 with my friends The Motet here, then hit the road - 6am flight New Years Day, boom! Nothin’ like getting right too it.

Twenty fourteen was a great year for me - getting back to touring has been super fun. There are some sweet trends in the business - not the least of which is the vinyl revival. I recently fixed a small thing with my tone arm and so have been getting into some vinyl again myself.

I got some rare 45s including First Born - man, that was a cool band. It’s actually a 7” ep, with four songs. Chicken Platters CP001. That’s right, put out by G. Love and his first manager back in the mid nineties. First Born was the funkiest thing you ever heard, coming out of Athens GA. They were friends with Jasper and always jammed with us when we were down there, so finally Gar had them come to New York and record. We toured with them as I recall (through a haze of debauchery.)

I was honored that my buddy Ruvane had me play on his release Undercover. He’s put out several records and digs the warm phat tones, so works great on on the analog. It’s a sweet package with that awesome colored disk.

And then there’s the other disk I played on last year. Also colored vinyl, this one is that crazy blue though. I just put it on. I was studying with tracks on my computer for tour but it’s really fun to hear it from the turntable. I must say, probably due to the superlative production and engineering by Robert Carranza, but this is the best bass sounds I’ve ever recorded.

I’m not sure what it is about this time of year but holiday time means record time to me. I guess it’s part of the nostalgia and reminiscence of the season. Anyway it’s a good time to slow down, check out the music one side at a time. Appreciate the physical aspect of the music, the artifact as well as the sound - the experience of putting it on and seeing it going around. I think the surface noise can provide a sense of place, or connecting your place to the place of the music.

It’s a fine ritual to bring in the New Year and have a moment of solace, before diving head long into the future.

Portland OR, Sunny and Cold.

Comments