This American Lyfe

City Center has a song of the day moment on National Public Radio! WHAT THE HELL???

PNW Days

Just back to Michigan for a minute from a highly productive end-of-summer stance in the Pacific Northwest. I was there for a few months and Amber came out for the last couple weeks. Apart from Damned Dogs doing a few really incredible tide-turning sets, we got to spend some time at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia working on some songs with Chain & The Gang. Not sure where these sounds will end up or what they're for, but we put down about three tracks and also finished up a Swimsuit session that we started there on tour. Our ode to a 12-year-old girl in the 80's who made the best no-wave/outsider disco record of all time, "Chandra" is a big-beat danger jam in the style of Bush Tetras, Lizzie Mercier Descloux and Chandra herself. I think it may be a 7" on K at some point, and it's one of our funnest live jams.

In Olympia by night there was a gig at Dumpster Values with Broken Water & Grass Widow. I'd never seen Broken Water before, though my friend Konako plays drums/sings, and jesus, they were amazing. I'd heard them described before as "all the good '90's bands at once", and that might not be too far off. Heavy MBV/Sonic Youth guitar bend dream vibes, and this show was oddly emo in spirit.. heaviness and family members in attendance. I was trying not to cry for a lot of it and it felt great. Grass Widow was cool, too and closed their set with a Wire cover.

Damned Dogs also did a gig in Portland with Joey Casio and others, and did some recording for a tape that I'll post something about next. There was also some pretty amazing nature to be seen, and we slept in the woods near a river and on the beach where the Twilight movies were filmed. But more about that next time. For now, I am back in the mitten trying to catch up with the airport blues.

Advrb

"Aloud" is the new record by Advrb, my friend Andrew Barton's songs, fleshed out and made strange, glowing and expansive by a host of different players and collaborators. I met Andrew in 2003 when he and some of his friends came to a Saturday gig in Eugene, Oregon. Thing is, they were all underage and the place we played was 21+ and not having it, so we arranged it so we would play right by the door instead of on the stage so the kids outside could see and hear the show as well without actually entering the bar. Sticking it very softly and politely to the man. Over the years 'Drew and I kept in touch and he would share some of his releases with me sporadically. He's done a bunch, and they've come fast and furiously, but "Aloud" he's spent a long long long time working on in various locations and states of life. It's one of those many-year-diary/spiritual journey kind of jams, and it turned out really shimmering, dense and beautiful. I mastered the record, and got to know it inside out, and I hope anyone reading this will check it out. The whole thing is streaming over here on the group's bandcamp, and you can buy a cassette version there until it sees a wider release.

The Crossettes

The Crossettes are a new all-girl Portland band that rule all schools. My friend Jenny & I played together when we both lived in Brooklyn in a band called World Atlas, but her main jam was a duo called Ribbons. Relocation sadly ended Ribbons, but when she teamed up with this crew, good things came together really quickly. Fate found us both in the Northwest at the same time, and a week or so ago I was lucky enough to work with the band recording a sweet demo at Alex Yusimov's Northeast Portland 92% analog studio The Pool (see photo to the right, me looking like a haggard drifter pretending to be Brian Wilson, as usual). The band did three songs and man, they sound great. Here's one that I did a slightly more dub-inflected mix of, but search out the real deal and most importantly the band's shows, which is where the shine shines brightest!

DOWNLOAD: The Crossettes "Coming Alive" (Reverbed-Out Mix)
 
ALSO: "Crossettes" is a pyrotechnical term for when specific fireworks cross trails of sparks. There are still good band names out there!!!

Not good band names: "Skeleton Diamonds", "Luther Can-Dross", "Consenting Dinosaurs", "Beavis & Bartholomew", "The Gimlets", "Lucky Lucifer Twins", "Branch".

We Live By Night

Me & Erika at a Make*Up show, circa 1996. I don't remember ever rocking the collar/sweater/circa 1996 look so well as this photo exemplifies. Must have been a cool time. Photo by Ian Svenonius.

Puppathon Number One

This is my new blog. The old one is fading, the new one is crusading. Next post will most likely be a list of movies I have been watching while in Portland all summer. Thanks for paying attention to me!