Now that you know - more reissued music

Another old record, on the internet for the first time! Going in chronological order so far, I recorded this one in Murfreesboro, TN. No drum machines here, but some samples and other interesting touches. I think this record has a dreamy feel for a folk record - loose performances, hazy keyboards and electric guitars. Some decent songs, too - Crying in the night might be my favorite thing here, but maybe other people won't think it's as funny as I do.

she hate the war - old music from 2003

I'm putting my old records on the internet, where a lot of them have never been before.  This is the first one, and the first record I made by myself on a computer.  I started working on this right after moving to Nashville in 2002, recording in the small nearly furniture-free apartment I shared with a roommate.

I still like some of these songs a lot, while others are a little hard for me to listen to.  I won't say which are which, though - maybe you'll like the ones that I can't handle.

There are about eight more records where this came from, plus Hotel Universe records, and maybe some others, so keep an eye out.

Noise folk - is it a thing?

Sometimes I think of the music I want to do as noise folk, but is that even a thing?  I spent a little time today listening to the noise folk tag on band camp, just to see if other people think it's the same thing I do.  There's some intense stuff there, but I wanted to draw what little attention I can to two records that are pretty great, and have a real connection to what I think noise folk might be.

Grab bag reviews: Fairweather Currents

So I'm going to try something new: record reviews!  Starting with something I'm going to call grab bag reviews.  Once a week or so, I'm going to go look at the new records from Boston in Bandcamp, find one or more thing that I like, and do some kind of review.  I'm going to write out my ground rules here, since this is the internet and that seems to be the kind of thing people do:

• Positive reviews (why write about things that aren't good?)
• Focus on genres I care most about: home recording, singer-songwriter, hip hop, maybe some experimental or electronic stuff if I'm in the mood
• Local!  Extra points if there are songs are about Boston, because that will make me like them.
• Obscurity.  If it feels like no one else will review the record, that is a good reason to review it.

And so: Grab bag #1: Urban Forestry by Fairweather Currents

Five wordy, hushed, self-conscious, charming, home recorded songs.  The narrative that emerges is of one more college student new to Boston, trying to make sense of a new environment,  The cover is the Huntington Avenue Y.

Dylan Citron sings in a voice so gentle it can seem androgynous and strums on a dry, thin, acoustic guitar.  Crowd noise from parties, distorted drum machines, vocal samples, and slow, melodic piano lines all take their place in arrangements that are familiar but not stale or derivative.

The last song, "The Times Are Never-A-Changin'" drifts slowly over a piano arpeggio, punctuated by the crunching up and down of the piano's sustain pedal.  The lyrics suggest a young narrator grappling for his own relationship with the violence in the world around him, and the song ends with a brief sample of a gospel recording.  As the title suggests, it's a protest song that doesn't know quite what to say, and it's one of the highlights of a really nice EP.

radio radio

A song from how it left me blind may be playing this afternoon on the amazing Outlaw Roadshow radio show on WEMF!  You can hear it live from 4-6 PM today.

new record is new, sad record is sad

Hey!  The new record is here.  I wrote a long, self-indulgent post about it below, so now I will just announce it.  Go to the bandcamp page to stream, download for free, or even download for money.  Leave a comment (ok, that is a pain to do unless you have a bandcamp account).  Rock out to it or let it make you cry - it is entirely up to you.

Also, there is a new version of hoteluniverse.org, which you can check out.  It is like this blog, but prettier.  I hope.  Not sure what else to do with that page - maybe more experiments in the future.

New record! Coming soon!

I'm almost done with a new record.  The new record is called “How it left me blind”.  It is distinctly a break up record, which won’t be surprising to people who know me.  People love break up records, so I’m hoping it will be hugely popular.  That’s a joke.

The record is more folky than the last few things I have done.  It was recorded thusly: the acoustic guitar and vocal are all live takes, with no drum machine or click track to guide them, and then the rest of the stuff was overdubbed over those takes.  More than half of the songs have backwards guitar parts.  There is a lot of electric guitar, and a fair amount of synthesizer.  And harmony vocals.

One of the joys of recording like this is the inevitable imperfection.  Imperfection is probably the wrong word, since it implies something close to actual perfection.  The inevitable chaos.  The timing is perpetually off, especially compared to the perfect symmetry we now expect on recordings.  My timing on acoustic guitar is unsteady at best, and overdubbing on those tracks feels like throwing darts from a moving car while the driver pumps the gas.  Counter-melodies shift uncomfortably to find their place in the measure, like a rider taking the last seat on the subway.  The rhythms sound right to me, after living with them, but I worry that they will sound wrong to other people, at least at first.  The decisions are arbitrary, the arrangements almost taking shape by chance. 

The backwards guitar helps – it’s a little like drawing with your eyes closed, or writing in a mirror.  Like cutting your own hair.  It’s not chance, but it is a lack of control, a disconnect between action and results.

Maybe the record doesn't sound as chaotic as I think.  It is a folk record after all.  It's hard to say, from where I sit, which is so close that everything blurs together.