Friends,

This morning I recorded a new album at St. Joseph’s Church in Albany, N.Y.

After two very personally eye-opening, mind-opening performances there (as a part of HEAVY), I wanted to document the music that came out of me during both occasions. The space and sound of the church allowed me to explore a more experimental side of my music that I have been longing to dive into.

Long-form improvisational loops, textures and samples for mandolin, voice and sampler were the method, while the room delivered the experience.

When the whole idea for REST FEST came to light, I had hoped I’d be able to visit the church when it wasn’t being prepped for this impending weekend.

So this morning, I reeled trusted sound-buddy Frank Moscowitz into showing up at St. Joe’s for a quick session before the B3nson folks were supposed to arrive for more cleaning and prep.

After load-in and a quick sound/level check, we were off and running. Two pieces were recorded — one from 9:15am -> 9:43am , and the other from 9:52am -> 10:07am.

The album is called St. Joseph’s Oblivion and it will be released (in limited CD form) tomorrow at Rest Fest.

If there’s some solid response, maybe I’ll make it available digitally and perhaps even a larger run of compact discs.

I’m proud of this one, and I hope you will enjoy it.

Myself included.

“Set For Weeks” is a brand new song that has a cousin in “Fit For Days” from B3nson’s LarkFest compilation from last year. It references an episode of Nip/Tuck, steals a melody blip from Dinosaur Jr. and musically nods to at least three of my older songs.

Download away, for free, and, see you this weekend at St. Joseph’s?
(I have $15 weekend passes if you need them…)

Reeling back the evidence that moved
I’ll be under here, trapped, leaving nothing much to lose
On these sides we’ve barely enough room
Stealing back all presence of the proof

Clean exact measures fairly over moons
Wishing for the star mine emptied prayer lives up to truth
Pour me out there’s barely enough room
Feel contented, pleasure must pull through

Set for weeks I am content with all the moves we made
Still there’s something in the way
And as we fill the days with obvious, engaging things
Still there’s something I should say

Daring back the trouble I’ll undo
Steering off the widest crescent moon
Star me out, there’s barely enough room

MASS MoCA, in general, is a playground.

It was built with the intent to become a “center that would both present and catalyze the creation of works that chart new creative territory“.

Since its inception in 1999, MASS MoCA has embodied just that; a hub of curiosity and wonder, set in a delightful, welcoming space.

This weekend’s SOLID SOUND FESTIVAL, held on MASS MoCA’s grounds, was an ideal setting for people to learn, discover and enjoy great weather, food and of course, great music.

From a spectator’s standpoint, this festival couldn’t have been set up any better. Short walks between stage areas, bounties of shade from the sun, $1 bottles of water, Intelligentsia coffee / espresso and tons of eye candy in-between. Most notably, the MASS MoCA galleries themselves acted as a palate cleanser if the music or outdoor activities ever became overwhelming.

Simply delightful.

One couldn’t discern whether it was the hunger of MASS MoCA fans to put on such an event or whether it was headlining/curating band Wilco’s fans who made this event a pleasure to be at. (OK, not everyone was a prince/princess). But seriously, despite the presence of copious amounts of beer, there was nary a bad / muscle-y / jerky / imposing vibe in sight.

MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS : (this human only caught Day 1 and most of Day 2; hardly comprehensive)

* Vetiver :: built a perfect set that moseyed slow at the top and ramped up feverishly through the end. It was ideal for folks such as myself who were having a difficult time easing into the day.

* Vetiver’s guitar player (who does not resemble Kevin Barker, who plays on some of the Vetiver albums) :: nimble, conscious, tasteful.

* The Books :: although I could complain that their set should have most definitely been outdoors and unencumbered by the trappings of the Hunter Theater, I am going to simply revel in the fact that we were able to hear songs such as “Be Good to Them Always“, “Take Time” and “That Right Ain’t Shit” were a real treat, if even from the hallway.

* Mountain Man :: spun circles around the late afternoon crowd gathered to hear the three lovely ladies sing. Despite sadness over Molly Sarle’s broken guitar, Andy from Vetiver kindly shared his Martin acoustic to play the spare parts that underpinned a few of the songs. Otherwise, it was otherworldly vocals only. A wonder, considering their rigorous UK / EU tour schedule and most recently, a week-long jaunt with Deer Tick which would leave anyone hoarse.

Here’s a video of their set closer, an un-named folk traditional:

This past weekend saw the opening of one of the most impressive displays of art Albany has ever seen, HEAVY.

The event lived up to its name, completely transforming St. Joseph’s (and the surrounding neighborhood, even!) into an art playground.

Pal Sébastien Barré covered all kinds of bases with this blog post and photo set from HEAVY.

Here are a few images from the weekend that don’t necessarily overlap with some of the other images I’ve seen; including a few from the Dwell/OneUnit “Fireflies and Night Skies” room (that you had to look to find…) and a few outside shots.

As far as music goes, I feel lucky to have been able to perform a sixty minute improvisation featuring looped samples, vocals and affected mandolin. There were two moments during that time where I felt terribly connected to the space, despite being completely insular and uncommunicative with beings in the room.

If you had to miss the opening weekend; well, you’re in luck! It was announced yesterday that HEAVY will once again be open starting this Friday (7/30) at 5PM (again on Saturday as well) with no less than 10 new installations/artists collaborating on more work!

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be performing a similar set of drone/improvisation on Friday along with Sean Rowe and Pete Edwards. Much more music to be added…

Albums:

Emeralds – Does it Look Like I’m Here?

The Brother Kite – Isolation (pre-order bonus mp3s!)

Pale Blue Sky – Shades of Grey

Greg Mol mp3s – sadly, unsharable

Nils Frahm & Anne Müller – 7Fingers

new Winterpills songs

Websites:

Vinyl Lust:

Pirate’s Press – “Record of the Week” Blog

OMG Vinyl

Other:

Summer-y beers! (Southern Tier Hop Sun, Boddington’s, Honey Moon and Dogfish Head Festina Peche)

Croquet

Things to Look Forward to:

Playing on the roof of the Tang. (This Friday).

A new Peter Broderick album on September 6.

New Rick Moody book (The Four Fingers of Death) on July 28.

More summer.

A few weeks ago, Bennett V Campbell caught this pic of Adam Muro (of Sgt. Dunbar & the Hobo Banned fame) whispering something to me outside of Valentine’s in Albany, NY.

In an effort to continue to reduce my bloated physical music collection, I thought it’d be fun to run with the idea that Sébastien Barré had to hold a “Caption This” contest with this photo.

In the comments below; leave your (Safe For Work) version of what you think Adam is saying in the photo. The funniest response between now and Friday, June 25th will receive TEN CDs from my collection, handpicked just for you. I may even throw in some surprises…

You must comment with a valid email address (will not be published) for your entry to count!

Thanks for entering, folks! Winner to be announced next Wednesday, June 30.

I’m proud to present my next album – Community Balloon which will be released on June 1st, 2010 by Collar City Records!

The album is filled with songs based on ideas and creative input from the lovely folks on my Weekly Email List. (Are you signed up?)

Last fall, I sent out a note to the list asking folks to send in their feelings, ideas, sounds, lyrics, thoughts, pictures, challenges, or whatever they’d like to hear translated into a song by myself. I needed fodder for songs, since I have offered a new song and/or video of new song to the list each week for seventy-five weeks now without fail.

The ideas that people sent me were amazing! As I worked on the songs, I realized that the arc of the music was turning into an album. Despite having enough songs written to make an entirely new full-length album of my own work, I felt compelled to finish this batch of “Community” based songs before moving on.

There are many other “Community”-like contributions to the completion of the album (like the gorgeous photography by Bennett V Campbell that adorns the cover) that will be unveiled as we inch closer to the release of the album.

Next Wednesday April 28th will see the launch of a pre-sale which will allow you the opportunity to purchase the album or the (limited-edition) “Community Bundle” in advance of the release date.

The aforementioned album and bundle will be available at the Community Balloon CD Release Show on Sunday, May 9th at Caffé Lena in Saratoga Springs. Tickets are going fast, so please click here to secure yourself a seat!

Thanks to the folks at WAMC and CRUMBS, an audio document of the live performance I put on at the Linda Norris Auditorium on February 25th, 2010 is now available to email list members and Facebook Fans. Please sign up for the email list or become a fan on Facebook if you would like to listen to this recording!

Selections include songs from Kentucky, Penny Riddle, Community Balloon (to be released in May!) and a few from the next-NEXT album I’ll be recording over the summer.

Enjoy!

Thank you!