Fire in the Forest

We burned an old oak that was downed by Hurricane Ike.

Wise Words

"To me, improv is a metaphor for life, it's not just a way to play music. It's a way of thinking about everything."
- Ken Shimamoto

from the HIO write-up in the FW Weekly

Trinity Arts Christmas show at Backbeat cafe in Dallas

A bit of a disappointment. My stage time was cut short, due to setup time and I had some sound problems. Too bad, it was a nice venue and a good sized crowd.

Lessons learned: No more playing short sets at these kinds of affairs, I need at least half an hour to get the juices flowing and develop ideas. Also need a proper sound check before hand.

On the upside: sold a couple cds and I preceded Doug Burr, who is a somewhat well known up and comer in these parts. So it may look good on the EPK. I was so frazzled I left without hearing his set tho, which was a mistake.

@1919

Last night at the Hemphill was cool. Thanks to Ken for inviting me out to play. Zeitmorder reminded these ears of the Andromeda Strain soundtrack, with a hint of Larry Fast. Interestingly, when I tried to look up "Hentai" at work yesterday, it blocked me due to obscene content. Searching at home, now I know why. The Orchestra put out a wild, chaotic noise, with the most diverse collection of electronics and homemade instruments I've ever seen. That is a complement.

Here's a 17 min. excerpt of my set, I had to chop out 6 min. of the loud stuff because the gain was set to high on the 'corder. So what remains are the sleepy parts.

photo by Kat Shimamoto

Got me an octave pedal!

BL opening for Hentai Improvising Orchestra

I have been invited to precede Hentai at their performance at 1919 Hemphill on Saturday Dec. 19. I am very excited about that but I refuse to use exclamation marks to convey this. I start at 8pm. Come out and hear sounds you have never heard. See their virb page below.

HIO on virb

Psychedelacoustic volume 5

Well my traditional annual end-of-year musical spew is assembled and ready for yer perusal! Doing something a bit different this year and instead of distributing dozens of shiny plastic coasters, I 'm offering the album as a zip file for you to download (or not). Note: THIS IS FREE. Instead of sending out Christmas cards or taking part in the yearly feast of consumerism, each year I assemble what I think is the best of my recorded output from the year, for better or worse.

Go here to download

Psychedelacoustic volume 5:

http://www.box.net/shared/cy0z78my1h

Poor Boy, then again.

I recently recorded and posted on alonetone a version of the traditional blues tune "Poor Boy", which has been covered by Kottke, Fahey and many others. Matt "Sandbags" Mower picked it up and ran it thru a Steve Reich looper, as he calls it. Both versions below for your aural stimulation.

"Poor Boy" (traditional, composer unknown)

"Poor Boy Reiched2"

Breaking Light at Gallery Art Cafe 11/21/09

I enjoyed playing here, but the evening was tempered by the news that the place may be changing hands soon, or closing. Ross sat in on flute for a good bit, and that was fun. A few customers made positive comments and one bought a cd! Enjoyed talking music with Bruce after, hope we cross paths again.

I hope I can play there next month on third Saturday. We'll see.

Here's one of the more experimental bits from the evening:

Dweezil Zappa Plays Zappa House of Blues in Dallas 11/20/09

Although the slightly different title is a bit cumbersome (optional: DweeZeePeeZee), the Dweez definitely deserves kudos for keeping Frank's music alive in a live setting and taking it out on the road every year since 2006.

This one was better in many ways to the Nokia show where I saw them last: smaller venue, better band and presentation, didn't miss the absence of Steve Vai or Terry Bozzio. But I DID miss Napoleon Murphy Brock and alot of the instrumental numbers, they concentrated more on SONGS this time.

Early in the set were some obscure numbers I could not identify (and according to DZ had not even been released from the vaults yet), but this is the set list as near as I can recall. Hearing RDNZL, Apostrophe and Zomby Woof were highlights for me.

ZPZ set list HOB 11/20/09

More Trouble Every Day

Broken Hearts Are For Assholes

Jones Crusher

You Never Tried To Call Me (Schiela Gonzalez lead vox)

Wonderful Wino (?)

San Bern'dino

My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

Crew Slut

Keep It Greasy

Purple Lagoon

Apostrophe

RDNZL

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

Cosmik Debris

Zombie Woof

Muffin Man

Strung, Drawn and Quartered at Gallery Art Cafe last Saturday.

I love playing with these guys, even if I can't keep up. S,D&Q is BIll Pohl, Darrin Kobetich and me, Kavin.

Played Welcome to the Machine, Locomotive Breath (Ross sat in on flute!), Naima (Coltrane) and Link Wray's Rumble, but the rest of the night was just Grateful Deadish guitar improv.

Witch's Night Out live recording

WNO at First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church in Fort Worth Oct. 24,2009. My first opportunity to do BL in a large room. tech: recorded with Edirol R09 to wav, then to Logic, up volume, some compression, add Church space setting.

"Above the Clouds" by We Are Ribbons

Here's a nice ambient piece from my favorite music website, alonetone.

theme song "Breaking Light"

The concept started with this.

Here we go

My first entry into this thing. I usually don't have much to say to anyone, unless it's about music. So that's what I'll probably concentrate on hear (sic). Peace thru music.