Theremina

"Awake the Day" by Kim Boekbinder

2012-01-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

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

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://music.kimboekbinder.com/album/music-for-stray-days"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Music For Stray Days by Kim Boekbinder and The Secret Knots&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

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"

2011-11-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

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

2011-07-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-06-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-09-14T04:46:00.001-07:00

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!

So busy I forgot to write

2010-08-29T23:16:00.001-07:00

Ack! Has it really been April since I updated this razzafrazzin' thing? Shame on me! Stay tuned for some huge updates on various projects, namely the Parlour Trick full-length album/scoring of the film Empty Rooms/music video starring my beloved Briceypants, some Theremina rumblings, performances and studio sessions with Beats Antique, the imminent Faun Fables full-length, and some other sssccchtuff.

Meantime, here's a sketch Suzanne Forbes captured of me back in May, donning my ever-so-understated Theremina cap at the Maker Faire w/Nathaniel Johnston's band:

Half Sick of Shadows, So I Stepped Into The Sun

2010-04-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hello, darlings. It's been a while. I'm blissing out. How are you?

On an extended trip home to the States. Heading back to Wellywood eventually, but not entirely sure when. Mid summer, maybe.

For the next few weeks I'll be holed up in my old 'hood in Oakland, working intensely on a couple of different albums, as well as sussing out some film scoring, and maybe recording a bit o' Flapjack to boot. Found a wonderful sublet directly behind the downtown Whole Foods that's a stone's throw from Lake Merritt, my old apartment, the palatial Oaktown YMCA, and Danny's recording studio.

Lately, life has been one long, lovely string of nourishing dinner dates, nurturing conversations, and intensive friggin' art therapy. When I find time, I hang out with the ducks down at the lake, or fly kites, or take joy rides across the Bay Bridge with music blasting, or sip iced dirty chais while perusing the stacks at Moe's or Amoeba's in Berkeley, or just lie on my back in the deep spring grass in Tilden Park and cloudbust. I miss my fella something fierce, but life is good. Life is jam-packed. I feel like a house plant that's been set out on the front stoop after a long, hard winter. I am very grateful for every single particle of light that hits my skin.

Still haven't been able to figure out how to embed mp3s on Blogger, so here's a Tumblr link to a rough, unmixed Parlour Trick track that Dan and I finished up recently. It's called "Half Sick of Shadows" and I'm rather pleased with it. A friend of mine had this to say: "Sounds like the melancholy dead singing to me but they haven’t got words anymore; they don’t know what they want. It’s beautiful and it makes me want to weep, a bit." How strange, to feel so alive, but be channeling this kind of stuff. Still, it works. Perhaps because I know what I want, what I need... and I have finally have it.

Well then. Off to take one of those aforementioned joy rides. G'night.

Top 20 Albums of the 00s (and then some)

2010-01-12T19:35:00.000-08:00

Joshua just tagged me to compile a Top Albums of the Decade list. I must be a masochist to take him up on it, because honestly, making definitive "best of" lists always leaves me feeling itchy and irritable and oddly remorseful.

Still, maybe I'll revisit this years from now and be glad I took a comprehensive stab at recognizing the music that was most stimulating, challenging, or comforting to me in the aughts. (Pfft. Aughts. Are we really calling 'em that?)

I'm sure that scads of albums are being overlooked/momentarily forgotten. Rest assured that since I'm a compulsive turd-polisher, this list will probably keep growing/changing over time.

I also thought it might be fun to make a gallery of the various sets of cans that helped me survive the Double Zeros. Sifting through these old snapshots brings back intense memories. For every pair a different season, for every day a different mood, for every photo a different city, for every song a different door.

TOP 20 (no particular order):

Scott Walker - The Drift*
Steven Osborne - Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus (Olivier Messiaen)
Sunn O))) - Black One
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History
Neurosis - The Sun That Never Sets
Joanna Newsom - Ys
M.I.A./Diplo - Piracy Funds Terrorism
Frankenixon - Amorphous
Zoe Keating - One Cello x 16: Natoma
Fugazi - The Argument
Iron & Wine - The Creek Drank the Cradle
Bjork - Vespertine
Sufjan Stevens - Enjoy Your Rabbit**
HTRK - Marry Me Tonight
Faun Fables - Mother Twilight
The Langley Schools Music Project - Song of Innocence and Despair***
William Basinski - Disintegration Loops
Fantomas - The Director's Cut
Melt Banana - Teeny Shiny

*I hesitate to call The Drift "a fave". That album made me suicidal. It still scares the shit out of me. It also arguably had the deepest emotional and intellectual impact on me of anything released in the past ten years. Sort of a sonic House of Leaves.

** Am I the only person on earth who loves this glitchy anomaly way better than Illinois, or fuckall else that Sufjan Stevens has done?

***Originally recorded in the 70s, but only released officially in October, 2001. Timing/context is everything with this particular choice. Someone gave me an advance copy a few days before 9-11. It was in my stereo when the towers fell and the only thing I could stand to listen to for several weeks afterward.

(very, very) HIGH HONORS:

Deaf Center - Pale Ravine
Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro
Mungolian Jetset - We Gave It All Away, Now We Are Taking It Back
Elf Power - The Winter is Coming
Unicorn - Playing With Light
The Knife - Silent Shout
Troum/All Sides - Shutun
Sport Murphy - Uncle
Stars of the Lid's entire catalog (for nap time/bath time)
Andrew Bird's entire catalog
Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go
Arcade Fire - Funeral (Bite me, cynics. I loved it pre-hype and I love it still.)
Baby Dee - Safe Inside the Day
Kronos Quarter - Nuevo
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Neurosis and Jarboe - Neurosis and Jarboe
Easy Star All Stars - Dub Side of the Moon
Man Man - Six Demon Bag
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
Dresden Dolls - Dresden Dolls
Tarmvred - Subfusc (perfect crunchy stompy gym soundtrack)
Bruce Lamont - Feral Songs
John Zorn's Electric Masada - 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol. 4
Lungfish - Love is Love
Edmund Welles - Agrippa's 3 Books
Beck - Sea Changes
Angels of Light - We Are Him
Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Missy Elliot - Miss E... So Addictive
Pyramids With Nadja - Pyramids With Nadja
Portishead - Third
Ethiopiques Volume 13 - Ethiopian Groove (most music in the Ethiopiques series is decades old, but that 2003 comp was my introduction)
Getatchew Mekuria + The Ex - Moa Anbessa
Secret Chiefs 3 - Book M
Songs in the Key of Z - Songs in the Key of Z: Vol I and II (Another aught comp of older music. Irwin Chusid strikes again.)

15 RECORDED COLLABORATIONS I'M QUITE PROUD OF

Faun Fables - A Table Forgotten
The Vanity Set - Little Stabs of Happiness
Pinataland - Songs From the Forgotten Future
Sport Murphy - Uncle
Love Life - Here Is Night, Brothers
Thomas Truax - Audio Addiction
Elegi - Varde
Dresden Dolls - A is for Accident
The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone
Parker & Lily - The Low Lows
Beats Antique - Contraption (Vol I)
David Garland - On the Other Side of the Window
White Hassle - Your Language
Revue Noir - Anthology Archive
My tenure as "The Intergalactic Gimp" on POX

TOP 14 MUSIC CURATORS OF THE 00s

Sport Murphy
Douglas Wolk
Joshua Zucker
David Garland
Jim Sclavunos
Irwin Chusid
Dawn McCarthy
Nils Frykdahl
Jesse Kaminksy
Warren Ellis
Charles Peirce
Dan Cantrell
DJ Dead Billy
Gooby Herms

(The lot of you introduced me to an incalculably high volume of great music over the last decade. You have NO idea how grateful I am for that.)

xoxox

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Vol. I

2009-09-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Young Flapjack embraces the carnage.

A while back, my talented chum Dan Cantrell landed a gig as the score composer for one of Cartoon Network's most popular new animated children's shows, and enlisted me to play violin. The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack is the cracked brainchild of Thurop Van Orman (previously a writer for Powerpuff Girls). I'm at a loss to describe Thurop's vision properly, but if you were to picture Ren & Stimpy and Spongebob Squarepants style shenanigans unfolding in a beautifully demented watercolor Treasure Island setting, you wouldn't be too far wrong.

Flapjack is an innocent young cuss with an unquenchable thirst for adventure on the high seas. He's being raised by a somewhat overprotective blue whale named Bubbie, and his best friend/partner in crime is a scraggly, no-pants-wearin' pirate with two peg legs who goes by Captain K'nuckles. Hilarity and high jinks ensue.

In addition to being gorgeously drawn and painted, Flapjack is rife with non sequitur, uncomfortable silence and gross-out humor, so I thought you perverts might appreciate a heads up. We've been working on --and giggling over-- this weirdness for months now. (Wish I could show you the Tentacular Lovecraftian Horror episode. So warped.)

Nothing says quality children's programming quite like a pair of hairy, floppy, tattooed man teats. Unless it's fart jokes. Flapjack has plenty of both.

The first season of Flapjack will become available on DVD on Sept 15th. Folks with children they'd like to irrevocably warp, as well as young-at-heart types with a hankering for "ADVENTURRRRE!!!" are highly encouraged to pick it up.

Carnivale Mechanique Gypster Jam at Maker Faire, 2009

2009-09-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, wow! I wasn't even aware there was footage of this:

The Deshret Dance Company, doin' how dey do. Musicking by Nathaniel Johnstone, Jean-Paul Mayden, Jes Brown, Melissa Mayden, et moi.

This was shot last May at Maker Faire. Musician Nathaniel Johnstone --colossal sweetheart that he is-- invited me to come and hang out with him and his buddies at the Carnivale Mechanique camp. We performed several mesmeric, serpentine ditties with the lovely ladies of the Deshret Dance Company. Such a blast! I finally had the chance to hug the stuffing out of a wide assortment of interwub buddies (interwubbies?) in person, and even got to serenade the sunburned masses with Augustus (my battered, beloved Stroh) while seated atop the glorious Hennepin Crawler as it honked and rolled its way through the fairgrounds! Good times.

Dr. Grordbort Dinner Music

2009-08-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

Click image for more readable size.

I'm providing a bit of retro-futuristic musical ambiance for this. Violin, possibly theremin if we can find me one in time. (Currently too broke to afford the horrific 6000 mile shipping costs for my own beloved Etherwave Pro.)

EDIT: Foster theremin found! Deep thanks to Melissa from The Crimson Club for the kind loan.

Tearing it UP at Nerd Prom with AFP, Fluffing Hobbits in New Zealand

2009-08-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to quickly put up this clip of a performance with my old friend Amanderrrr at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund part at the SDCC a couple weeks ago. We played the shit out of "Missed Me" if I do say so myself! (I don't usually like to boast... but seriously, duders. This is a rare and special bit of passionate hamming.) Check it out:

These past few weeks have been hectic to say the least, what with packing/shipping/storing/moving from Oakland to San Diego to New Zealand. My fella and I now reside in a cozy two bedroom flat not far from Weta Workshop. Landed in Wellington this morning. Sitting on a squishy couch by the window by the harbor with a cuppa tea. Feeling giddy and exhausted and very, very happy. Thanks for reading and listening, and check in soon for more updates on my music-related adventures.

Beats Antique: Contraption (EP Vol. 1)

2009-07-03T01:34:00.000-07:00

My friends Beats Antique have a dreamy new EP* out and I'm on it.

You can hear me playing theremin and a janky antique Stroh named Augustus on the opening track, "Oriental Uno" (also featuring Fanfara Kalashnikov).
Yeah! Come get some.

*Artist Andrew Jones' cover might remind some of you of my old Parlour Trick logo. One of those odd zeitgeisty coinkadinks. It would seem we're feeding off the same nectar.

Performing in "The Rootabaga Opera" at this year's Crucible Fire Arts Festival

2009-06-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is that project I've been feverishly rehearsing for these days. Not to be missed:

The 2009 Fire Arts Festival will feature the world premiere of Dan Cantrell's Rootabaga Opera, a narrative musical presentation inspired by the children’s stories of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and treasured American folk music historian Carl Sandburg. This one-act musical journey weaves individual stories into a narrative arc staged in a theatrical format. The material will be informed by the diasporic culture of American immigrants during the dramatic turning of the 19th century as seen through Sandburg’s stories.

Through a unique blend of early American, Chinese, and Eastern European music, this opera will explore the roots of the Bay Area’s musical and cultural identity. Compositions will be complimented by an interdisciplinary collaboration of fire arts, puppetry, dance and theater. The piece will reflect the ideas, characters and text found in Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories and his collections of American folk music while venturing into new areas of collaboration and musical exploration based on the interaction of the diverse range of performers.

The musical ensemble, directed and conducted by Emmy award-winning composer Dan Cantrell, will feature some of the Bay Area’s finest talent in a dynamic and ethnically diverse folk orchestra. Featured artists will include women's vocal ensemble Kitka, renowned for their specialized vocal technique, described as exotic, elegant and eerie. Co-directors, Larry Reed and Christine Marie of ShadowLight Productions will add another layer to the production with giant projected shadows featuring metal shadow puppets created by Mark Bulwinkle.

The commissioning and production of this world premiere is made possible by The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Emerging Composers 2007 Initiative.

Summer Solstice show at Amensia this Sunday, June 21st

2009-06-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

I'm very glad and grateful to be performing with two of my dearest friends --Dan Cantrell and Rachel Brice-- and some other phenomenally talented people this Sunday the 21st at a small, red club in San Francisco called Amnesia.

Danny and Bricey are bringing together percussionist Faisal Zedan, singer Lily Storm and myself for the first time to perform a little bit o' Greek, some Egyptian, a touch of French musette and some Hungarian and Roma-inspired original compositions.

We go on around 9pm. Bring your dancing shoes.

Season One of "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" Now Available on DVD

2009-06-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Playing "Bella Ciao" with HUMANWINE 3/09

2009-06-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Performing with beloved HUMANWINE at the Baxtalo Drom party in San Francisco, March 2009. These guys are old chums, but we only started playing together recently, in a decidedly seat-of-the-pants, fly-by-night kind of way. In fact, this is only the second time (in performance OR rehearsal) that I'd played "Bella Ciao" with them all the way through, and the very first time we EVER ran through "Intoxicated" with theremin!

For a classically trained monkey like me, it can be such a relief to just say "aw, fuggit" once in a while, and play things loose, raw and improvised without endless drilling and fuss. Especially with swashbucklers like Holly and M@. Thanks to Cindy Emch for capturing these.

"A Table Forgotten" music video

2009-05-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Directed by Lara Miranda. Cinematography by Joe Stillwater, Lara Miranda and Op D.A.S. Post production by Ri Crawford and Lara Miranda. Production assistance by Nicole Redden, Michael McCamish and Penny Allman.
(c)2009 Drag City Inc.

Faun Fables is the main project of musician Dawn McCarthy, a dancing, stomping, strumming master storyteller with one of the most unusual and haunting voices I've ever heard. She, her hubby Nils Frykdahl (of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), multi-instrumentalist Kirana Peyton and I toured the U.S. and Europe together throughout 2007-2008, and recorded "The Table Forgotten" EP for which this video (directed by Lara Miranda) was produced. We had WAY too much fun shooting this up on Mt Diablo over a series of weekend campouts in spring/summer 2008.

From a letter to a friend written during that time:

Imagine being on top of a mountain at dusk in a huge field of golden grass and ancient oaks. Sunset is a blazing pink and indigo. A thick fog rolls in underneath the peak you are standing on, so it feels like you are standing on cliffs overlooking an ocean of clouds. Night falls. Something is glowing under that ocean of clouds. A drowned city.

A huge, healthy pack of coyotes sang to us as we built a fire.

I slept on the roof of our RV and could see nothing but stars. Milky way band, the summer triangle.

Today I sat at the highest peak of a huge pile of boulders called "Elephant Rock" on a fucking naturally occurring stone THRONE. I shit you not. A throne. It was covered with lichen and moss and cradled me. I hated to leave. I have never felt so regal in my life and probably never will again.

The Galactic Gala

2009-05-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'll be playing theremin and possibly bringing some other goodies to this.

Also performing:

Zoe Keating
Bad Unkl Sista
Fou Fou Ha!
MC Lady Finger of Sweet Snacks
Copper Lantern Fire Theater
Mark Growden Trio

and many more luminous beasties.

********************************************************

The Raygun Rocketship crew invites you to San Francisco's exclusive Bently Reserve Intergalactic Assembly Hall for The Galactic Gala, a fundraiser to support the construction of The Raygun Gothic Rocketship, a fully-functional neo-futuristic rocketship to be exhibited and launched from Black Rock City, NV at Burning Man 2009.

Galactic formal attire encouraged.

Costume contest!

The Galactic Gala

A Fundraiser for the Raygun Gothic Rocketship

Friday, June 5th

Bently Reserve

301 Battery St, San Francisco

8pm-2am

General Admission $20

Exclusive VIP Access to the Admiral's Chamber $50

www.raygungothicrocket.com

TALES FROM THE VAULT: The Crappuccino Incident

2009-05-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

This diary entry dates back to early 2003, when I was still performing and recording in Jim Sclavunos' wonderfully warped music project, The Vanity Set. One of the perks of working with this luminary gentleman was scoring free tickets to see him perform with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. (Yes, Jim definitely has the raddest "day job" of anybody I know.)

I really wish I could listen to No More Shall We Part without the experience being sullied by recollections of their show at the Warfield last April. This poor girl standing right behind us collapsed and shat herself during (appropriately enough) "The Mercy Seat." There was a stampede, everybody gagging, shrieking and tracking crappuccino everywhere. Rock Med showed up and carted the poo lady away. One lucky Warfield aisle attendant was forced to come forward and clean up what he could with one of those little scoopy-handle thingummers. I felt soooo bad for him. Half the crowd must've offered to buy him a drink.

Meawhile, the Bad Seeds had no clue any of this was happening. During one of Cave's quieter, more tender piano ballads, I think a couple of them faintly heard the moaning and retching, but had no idea what was prompting it. The show went on. And on. And on. Three encores. (For fuck's sake, Jim took a triangle solo.)

Much later, having finally "caught wind" of the situation, Cave (exhausted from having just flown up from the LA session with Johnny Cash) folded himself into a tiny, angular ball on the green room couch and rubbed his temples while Mick Harvey fixed us groupies drink after drink, chortling "Well, now. I guess we really hit the brown note tonight, eh?"

I was smashed by that point, and behaving badly: "Thiiiis is the pooping song/the song in which we poooooop." Keyboardist Conway Savage tried to slap me, but he was even drunker than I was and couldn't quite manage it.

"And the Mercy Seat is waiting... and I think my ass is burning..."

No More Shall We Fart.

Sorry, I'm sorry. I'll stop now.

Ah, memories.

(Can't stop giggling.)

Shadow Circus Vaudeville Theatre

2009-04-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

2009-04-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

Theremina

"Awake the Day" by Kim Boekbinder

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

Meredith Yayanos as drawn by Molly Crabapple

Moe! Staiano and Surplus 1980

Empty Rooms

Faun Fables: Light of a Vaster Dark

New Beats Antique Album Drops Today!

So busy I forgot to write

Half Sick of Shadows, So I Stepped Into The Sun

Top 20 Albums of the 00s (and then some)

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Vol. I

Carnivale Mechanique Gypster Jam at Maker Faire, 2009

Dr. Grordbort Dinner Music

Tearing it UP at Nerd Prom with AFP, Fluffing Hobbits in New Zealand

Beats Antique: Contraption (EP Vol. 1)

Performing in "The Rootabaga Opera" at this year's Crucible Fire Arts Festival

Summer Solstice show at Amensia this Sunday, June 21st

Season One of "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" Now Available on DVD

Playing "Bella Ciao" with HUMANWINE 3/09

"A Table Forgotten" music video

The Galactic Gala

TALES FROM THE VAULT: The Crappuccino Incident

Shadow Circus Vaudeville Theatre

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

Anaïs Nin