Because the other band geeks' involvement has changed over the last 30 years (as they continue on in real trad. careers) and more & more I’ve been doing the albums and stuff (most of the 4 years making the meadowlands & then business stuff the years immediately after), I’ve stopped using the pronoun “we” and just relaxed into an easier & more accurate “I” just reflecting what things had evolved to. But now, with this next record, that’s become again, as it was a long time ago, no longer accurate - I’d like you to welcome (back) our newest productively recording band member, Kevin! (ha)…
Back at the end of November, On Record Store Day, our first album, Silver, was (re-re-)rereleased, and for the first time on vinyl (I think, who knows?). A number of folks had very sweetly tweeted etc. about it and although I usually try to acknowledge social media posts (out of a feeling of true appreciation that people’d still bother) with a quick reply (typically rife w/ dad jokes) or at least an easy ‘like’, I didn’t this time, for any of them, in part ‘cause I was sorta conflicted on the whole thing…
I’m doing a solo set of some of the songs from this finally-now-done album today, Wed., January 8th around 6:30pm at the Kate Werble Gallery (83 Vandam St., NYC), as part of the closing party for the artist Beth Campbell's own solo show…So a bit about my dumb art ideas, how I got to know Beth, originals vs copies, and our still-coming-together plan to collaborate related to this new album…:
If you wanna hear some of this now-done 10-year recording, I’m gonna be doing a solo set of some of the songs this Wed., January 8th around 6:30pm.
What makes this esp. nifty is that it’s for the closing party for the artist Beth Campbell's (an actual genius and just my favorite) own solo show, How Do You Know I Am Not A Liar, at the Kate Werble Gallery (83 Vandam St., NYC (Beth’s show runs through this Friday, 1/10/20)…
...for me at least though, the last ten years have been a funny almost holding-pattern, at least as far as music goes. Or maybe how time passed was just way different this last decade than it had been, partly due the never-ending album chore but also partly due the weird things raising children does to one’s perception of time. And from me, re: time, that’s really saying something…
Started a “here’s what I did in the last 10 years” post but almost everything that came to mind initially was from the previous decade. So typically hilariously late, here’s my 2000-2010 nutshell:
I had my first non-teaching-music office job - and so, my first health insurance!, regular payroll check, etc. - which was awesome…
Sometimes, when trying to explain why this recording’s taken so long, even compared to the four years of the meadowlands, or saying that I've worked on this pretty much daily etc. etc., it all seems bonkers (and it is) or at least doesn’t make logical sense…
This year (2019, depending when you see this), and July specifically, are wrenniversary-intensive. I’ll keep it brief, in the style of the bullets...
Being in a band, besides being comic past a certain point, is akin to running a very small family business, like say a hardware store (if you actually made your own hardware, weren’t actually family, were expected to tour after the new hammer came out, etc. [analogy collapses]. Ok, it’s not about the hardware, it’s about the ‘family' part)…
