"Awake the Day" by Kim Boekbinder

Happy New Year!

I've been meaning to share this tune for a few weeks now:



My darlin' friend Kim Boekbinder wrote this beautiful song and passed on the basic voice/guitar track to me with a request for a violin line or two. Instead, she got seventeen violin lines. Hee heeeee!

Hearing the longing and sweetness and vulnerability and love in her song and words, I wanted to try to create a full chamber ensemble arrangement to buoy the whole thing. My parts were composed and recorded over the course of a few days in the bowels of a magical building with a mysterious soundproof room that has since come to be called The Goblin Merkin Lab.

When I passed my tracks back to Kim and the engineer, Myles Boisen, I told them my hope was that the strings could be mixed in such a way that it sounded like Kim had an ocean at her back. Gentle, tidal. I think Myles nailed it.

Although "Awake the Day" was recorded and released late last fall, I still feel like it's a great "good morning" song to ring in 2012. This is one of my favorite musical collaborations of recent years. HUGE thanks and everlastin' limerence to Kim for inviting me to take part.

You can read more about the song and its corresponding comic by Juan Santapau over at Kim's website.

The Walkmen: "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone"

Oh, this is so neat! In celebration of their 10th anniversary, the Walkmen are finally releasing their debut record on vinyl.

At some point during the deep, melancholy winter of 2001, I took the subway up to West Harlem to record strings on the title track of that record at the band's own Marcata Recording studio.

Hard to believe it's been a decade. I remember Marcata like I was just there! The place just had enormous character. It was one of the last truly unique and vital analog recording studios left in all of Manhattan at that time; 900 square feet in a grimy industrial building, packed to the gills with vintage gear. Chill and booming, somehow untamed. (Don't hold me to this, but if I recall correctly, studio co-founder and Jonathan Fire*Eater/Walkmen band member Paul Maroon told me they'd inherited the 24-track mixing board that Pink Floyd used to record The Wall.)

Largely as a result of that space, the Walkmen developed a highly distinctive and atemporal sound; very deconstructed and gritty, yet anthemic, but old-fashioned, and all very New York, somehow! Thick natural 'verb. Sweeping atmospherics. Bright, dynamic drums, thudding bass, gorgeous tube amp guitar tonalities, the rasping elasticity of Hamilton Leithauser's vocals, and (my personal favorite element) the cold, shimmering fairy light strangeness of Paul's upright piano stylings. For the first couple LPs at least, I know Paul exclusively used this ancient, battered, hadn't-been-tuned-in-decades parlor upright he'd presumably dragged in off the street, or hauled up from his grandma's house or something. They even lugged that thing to live shows with them. No other instrument could hope to replicate the sound.

Those guys were a bunch of sweethearts, too. I had a blast recording in a trio for them. Sadly, I can't remember the cellist's name offhand, but Karen Waltuch --the violist from that session-- and I have been buddies ever since. The Walkmen were DIYing it at the time (having spent all their Jonathan Fire*Eater dough on building Marcata from the ground up), so by way of payment, they fed us some greasy Chinese takeout and covered our cab fare back downtown. About a month or two later, they signed some epic distribution deal with Warner Bros. Not long after that, "We've Been Had" was featured in this Saturn Ion commercial. I had such a cacklefit when I saw it.

Ten years later, "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone" still a highlight of my NYC session reel. Pick it up on vinyl, or mp3.

Vive le Walkmen!

Meredith Yayanos as drawn by Molly Crabapple

"Sixty Six Project: 17 Meredith Yayanos, Musician."

I adore Molly Crabapple. She's a fierce-as-hell go-getter who inspires me every day with her art (AND her work ethic), and a gracious, compassionate friend who leaves me feeling like a million bucks every time we talk.

This was drawn for her series "Sixty Six: Portraits of Sixty Six Friends Who Awe Me".

Right back atchyer, Molly.

View her entire lovely series here as it continues to unfurl.

Moe! Staiano and Surplus 1980

Click the image to visit Moe!'s Kickstarter.

Surplus 1980 - Relapse In Response by moestaiano1

My description of Moe! Staiano in this Coilhouse post celebrating Viggie and other EPIC DRUMMERS):

“Dada Percussionist” Moe! Staiano is that proverbial storm-in-teacup; a spring-loaded, anarchic sprite whose wildly improvisational style summons the spirits of Einsturzende Neubauten and Raymond Scott in equal measure. Spontaneous, mischievous, and always in earnest, Moe! is one of the most delightful live performers around. You’re never quite sure what’s coming next, but you know it’s going to be FUN.

Considering who he is and what he's trying to achieve artistically, Moe! has long deserved a more fully fledged writeup from me. With mere days left on a wonderful Kickstarter project that hasn't quite reached its funding goal, now's the time.

The first blip of Moe! appeared on my radar around 2001: he was touring through NYC as a member Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and his frenetic energy, sharp intellect, and feral performance instincts were a revelation to watch. Over the past decade, the Oakland-based experimental drummer, percussionist and composer has continued to enrapture audiences worldwide with his strange and beautiful approach to noisemaking.

As his Wiki states, Moe! works in a "variety of found sounds and prepared trap set as well as massive orchestra conductions of his own scored compositions." Here's some edited documentation of one of his huge group pieces, "Death of a Piano":



...SICK, right?

Over the past year, Moe! has been working feverishly on his Surplus 1980 recordings.

"[A project that] rose from the ashes of my old former band, Mute Socialite, which split up in 2009. It is a collection of songs that were former ideas that were meant to be used for Mute Socialite, but never really made it, as well as three cover songs."

"Surplus 1980 is a post-punk band of a rotating line up of some fine musicians*, many extending from great bands to be heard on this project including members from the Ex, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and Faun Fables, among others, including Mute Socialite. The album in its entirety has been recorded by Dan Rathbun and is completed and ready to be pressed for a limited edition vinyl LP and CD run. The funds to complete the release are the only thing needed to get it done."

Surplus 1980 - Excellent Girl (Bogshed cover) by moestaiano1

The funds raised for Surplus 1980 will be used to press the LP (a gorgeously designed limited run of 250 copies, with 100 on colored vinyl) and additionally be pressed on CD ("I still believe in CD's", insists Moe) as well as a download coupon. All funds will go 100% into this pressing. Any additional funds raised will be used for the next studio time for recording the next album.

*Full disclosure: along with a gobsmackingly awesome roster of other musicians, I am featured on this record. It would really thrill me to see this unique, inspired material get the lavish DIY print run it so richly deserves. Please make with the Kickstarter clickies if you love frenzied, toe-tapping post-punk joyfulness as much as I do.

Empty Rooms

Congrats to my steadfast and irrepressible old chum Adam Lamas, a brilliant director who, as of today, has officially finished his first feature-length film after three long years of blood, sweat, tears, and the occasional crap-in-the-pants... namely mine. Apparently, my first feature-length film score for it, recorded MacGyver style over the course of several cold, dark, occasionally terrifying months, while hunched over my battered laptop, has now been engineered in Dolby 5.1 Digital Surround Sound and is "OFF THE HOOK!!!" according to Adam. Woot.

More info on the film's release to come. Meantime, here's a preview:



And you can listen to some low-res, unmixed clips of my score on Soundcloud.

Faun Fables: Light of a Vaster Dark

The Faun Fables record Light of a Vaster Dark is out today. You can hear my violin (as well as auxiliary background singing, stomping, and yipping) through most of it.

I spent several remarkable years touring, recording, and healing with these folks. We came to many crossroads; we danced and sang and laughed and feasted.

Words won't convey how honored I was, or how grateful I remain, for that experience. So I will just say thank you, Dawn. Thank you, Nils. Thank you, Kirana. Thank you to everyone I met and befriended through this music.

Love always,
Mer


Standing in front of Half Pint the Winnebago. Salt Lake City, 2007. Photo courtesy of Mattson and Stefanie.

New Beats Antique Album Drops Today!

Hooray! The new Beats Antique album drops today. It's a gorgeous record. I'm very proud and pleased to have contributed violin and theremin work to several of the tracks.

Get Blind Threshold here:

beatsantique.bandcamp.com/album/blind-threshold

or ITUNES here:

itunes.apple.com/us/album/id382219884

Or, if you want to buy the CD, order it here:

www.cdbaby.com/cd/beatsantique2

Huge love and hugs to Zoe, David and Tommy. Congrats, you guys!