Breaking Light

Avant Garden, Houston 12/28/11

2011-12-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

I'm always looking for venues to play down in H-town when I'm down there visiting relatives for the holidays, and when I saw my friend and mentor (whether she knows it or not!) Susan Alcorn was playing at Avant Garden, I looked into the place. An old two-story on Westheimer, Avant Garden houses a small bar with a huge patio and has a new and improvised music show on Wednesdays, in addition to other cool activities. The kind of place I wish I had in my neighborhood.

So I packed up mom (who just turned 90 a week before), my bro and my rig and headed out. Got there way too early, but Robert, who organizes the event was there. There had been some overbooking, with another band added to the bill, but ok by me because I would be the second set as planned. It was a bit cold inside, so mom stayed out in the car until I played. Seth Paynter was the first act. Looping sounds from a contact mike (scratching, breathing), he also played EWI (electronic wind instrument) and did a nice improv on sax. His pedal board resembled a guitarist rig, with a couple of Moog boxes I could have had real fun with. As I entered the bar at the beginning of his set I was struck by the silence. The small bar was full of patrons but you could hear a pin drop, everyone was focused on what was happening on stage. I knew then this would be a special night. Seth played for half an hour. Then I did my thing. Mom and bro got a table up front and I gave him a crash course on operating my camera, pix below. Also below, some edits from the performance. The recording got a bit saturated on the loud bits so I had edit those out, unfortunately. Nothing new here, but I decided to pull out the motif Hymn, which is a good show ender when there is a quiet attentive audience like this. Everything worked well, with a minimum of mistakes, and I think the setting had a lot to do with that. The audience was very kind and appreciative after the set.

Thanks to Robert Pearson, Susan Alcorn, Mariana, Mom and Duane.

Open Street/Roland AC-22

2011-10-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the Open Streets event in FW with the Tele and BL rig, and the new Roland AC-33 amp (more on that later). I was directed to an establishment with power at the start of the route, but seeing little foot traffic, decided to go up Broadway and set up across the street from the cathedral-esque Baptist church. This would be a good test of the amp with battery power in an outdoor public sitch. Played for about half an hour to bicyclers, cops, strollers, kiddies, skateboarders and a few zombies happened by. A beautiful day for such an event. I'm not sure how well the amp projected out into the street (it's only 20 watts on battery power), but I'm sure I didn't bust any eardrums. After that, packed up and strolled to the opposite end of the route on Jennings where Tammy Gomez was doing her poetry/dance/art thing in front of the Rainbow Lounge. She graciously implored me to set up and plug in from the Lounge. What a difference. The extra 10W in power was ample to blanket the surrounding street with my sounds. I jammed with Tammy for a while and packed and moved on, fearing sunburn. Headed back to the car. Only saw another small band of yutes jamming acoustic on the route, I expected to see more music types.

Overall I'm pleased with the AC33's performance, although it did distort a bit on the peaks coming out of the loop pedal. The amp has an onboard looper and some nice chorus and reverb effects (it's actually an "acoustic" amp). I'm hoping to rewire the Behringer foot pedal son Eric gave me to utilize these functions in the future. The big advantage here is it's very lightweight, supposed to be 10lbs but it feels closer to 5. Beats lugging that Carvin around if I don't need the 100 watts, which I usually don't. Or I'll use it in conjunction with the Carvin for stereo sound.

BL at the Hip 8/14/11

2011-08-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night at Hip Pocket was pretty cool, and I use that term figuratively. My acoustic stuff before the play, heavy on instrumentals and original stuff, seemed to go over well. I'm still a bit cumbersome with the refurbbed 12 string, with the action and frets slightly higher, I really seem to mess it up on the intricate stuff. Maybe just need to practice more.

During the play I changed over to my Breaking Light setup. The set went extremely well, less abstraction and more groove based noodling, if that's a good thing. I'm usually too engrossed in what I'm doing to notice the audience, but I did glance up a few times and catch people actually listening, tapping feet, and one gal was...dancing? She later performed a lap dance for her boyfriend (or whatever), right there in front of Hip Pocket and everyone. I chalk it up to the beer more than the music. But an interesting and fun night, nonetheless.

The BL set was almost 2 hours long, but edited the best bits and joined into one 37 minute long mega-track. Here:

HPT081411
HPT081411 by Breaking Light

SDQ @ Hip Pocket/Silent Words in Wing Dust

2011-08-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

Never mind the heat at Hip Pocket Theater last night, it was downright pleasant (in a Texas way) after the sun went down. Another triumphal jam for Strung Drawn and Quartered last night. We ended up improvising so much, we didn't even complete the set list (we didn't get to Link Wray's Rumble, which was probably for the best). SDQ's sound is evolving, bringing in more use of loops and octave pedals. The second set after the play felt and sounded better, I think.

Darrin's clip here is a little oversaturated, but I include it here for reference. My clip is shorter, with the same reaggae-ish section, and tweeked in Logic.

Darrin's clip
01-reggae jam thing - Strung Drawn & Quartered by darrinkobetich

Kavin's clip

On an unrelated note, I put out a new Bandcamp release. I had several tracks gathered that I wanted to tweek and remix into one mega-track. Ended up just using three, but they seem to make sense in merging them.

So here:
Silent Words in Wing Dust by Breaking Light

The title is from something daughter Brit wrote, and photo art by William Shannonhouse.

FW Weekly Music Awards show/Hip Pocket 6/26/11

2011-06-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

Wow days like this don't come often. I had already booked the Hip Pocket Theater gig, my first one of the season, then the Fort Worth Weekly Awards showcase party sprang up. And I always jump at the chance to jam with Darrin Kobetich and Bill Pohl (as our improv guitar trio, Strung,Drawn and Quartered). We played to a packed house at the Magnolia Motor Lounge, to folks who were ready to drift away on some mind meld music.

Strung, Drawn and Quartered

Breaking Light set at Hip Pocket Theater

Arts Goggle 2011

2011-05-15T11:26:00.001-07:00

Played yesterday at this bi-annual gathering of artists and musicians on the south side of Funkytown. Lots of fun. I played in a cavernous, garage-like space, part of Landers Machine Shop, an art gallery/music venue/office space. There were some tech problems once I set up, due to the fire inspector requiring the stage to be placed far from the power source. Big thanks to Ken and Terry of Hentai Imrovising Orchestra for helping me move my rig to some reliable power.

As I was setting up and moving (for the third time), El Lobo and his drum people were jamming. I recognized them from the monthly drum circle at Feed Your Head. So an improptu jam ensued, for the first 15 minutes of my set they adjusted their rhythms to my shifting delay setting, bless 'em. It was fun.

After my set I stayed for Hentai's, in which they accompanied the Big Rig Dance Collective in a very effective display of improv and interpretive dance. Good job guys.

Thanks to Will Shannonhouse for taking some great pix. Great to see my good buds Glenn and Didi there.

Here's the the audio:

The Golden Age

2011-04-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Finally a non-music related post.

There was a time in my life when I devoured science fiction. I was about 10 years old and we had moved from the city to the country and I was bored shitless. My safe, secure childhood had turned to uncertainty, insecurity and, looking back, I needed some escapism. This is before the guitar became my main obsession.

I had just seen 2001, then read the book, so the stage was set. Joining the SF book club (8 books for 99 cents!) sealed the deal. The two volume A Treasury of Great Science Fiction came in the mail, and well, it was. It contained the novels The Stars My Destination (Bester) and Rebirth (Wyndham), as well as a pile of classic short stories, which I read, and my mind was blown. I was best buds with a cousin, who had similar interests and we bought and cataloged our paperbacks with glee.

In the space of a bright, molten summer in either 1970 (or was it '71?), I went from Heinlein juveniles and Bradbury to the out there experimentalism of the Dangerous Visions anthology. I read all the Clarke I could get my hands on, and, even though I really didn't care for him that much, Asimov.

The devouring lasted a couple more years, through junior high (even more need to escape) and started to taper off once I hit freshman, too much time spent maintaining relationships with friends and doing what you do at that age to get grownup. All those paperbacks got packed away in a box somewhere, or donated to the library I suspect, so now I'm on a quest to re-acquire those titles, one at a time, volume by pulpy volume.

From memory, and by author, here's a list of what I read in that, my Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Arthur C. Clarke: 2001:A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, Tales from the White Hart, The City and the Stars, A Fall of Moondust Isaac Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy, I,Robot, The Gods Themselves Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Red Planet, Have Spacesuit Will Travel Ursula K. LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness, Rohannon's World Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man C.S. Lewis: Perlandra, Out of the Silent Planet, Edgar Rice Burroughs: Carson of Venus, A Princess of Mars Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination Frank Herbert: Dune, Dune Messiah

And numerous short story anthologies, The Hugo Winners, etc..

Splinters

2011-04-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

I've released a collection of (mostly) acoustic oriented improvisational tunes, realized on solo 6, 12 string, resonator guitars and koto. These were created while taking part in the weekly improvFriday events over the last several months. For the most part they are acoustic, one take creations recorded live with no overdubbing, however the last tune (Kneejerk) is a bastard piece with some electric guitar and some live looping.

Splinters by Breaking Light

what is music?

2011-04-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

Cave Street asked this at the listening party as it was winding down the other night (we were the only ones left)..he was extolling his own views on self-expression and was still on a high from seeing Akron/Family in Austin the previous night. I said, depending on who you are it can be a mode of commerce at one extreme, or a connection to spirit, love, God or whatever you choose to call it, on the other. Then there's always what Tom Waits said at his hall of fame induction that music (songwriting) is "just moving air around". I like that one.

improvFriday submission 4/1/11

2011-04-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about this one. Started out with some Harry Partch virtual instruments, filtered through Sound Doodle, which I had to abandon because the program was so unstable. Added some gtr thru the DL4 and some live looping.

In the Nanoforge

improvFriday submissions 3/11/11

2011-03-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Don't Fear the Forest

Kneejerk

Breaking Light and friends at Dunn Bros Feb. 19

2011-03-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

Live recording for the RPM Challenge

with
Michelangelo: didjeridu, wooden flute, percussion, guitar
Ross Reitzammer: flute, recorder

improvFriday submission 1/28/11

2011-01-29T05:11:00.000-08:00

Revelator

Psychography

2011-01-13T03:24:00.000-08:00

This is the new stuff. Well, relatively. Took my favorite live recordings from last year (Doc's, Super Happy Funland, Feed Your Head, etc.) and mashed them with some of my pieces I submitted to improvFriday. Thought I'd give Bandcamp a try. I think I like it. Alot.

Psychography on Bandcamp

thru a disc, darkly

2011-01-01T16:18:00.001-08:00

Super Happy Funland, Houston 12/28/10

2010-12-31T04:49:00.000-08:00

This was a cool venue, an art house in the warehouse district of Houston's Third Ward, Lightnin' Hopkins' old stomping ground. Unfortunately I was the last act, so most everyone there at the start of the evening had left, remaining were the duo Wasp & Pair (thanks guys) and the friend and bro I brung with me. It was a nice big room and it was a good move miking my amp into the house p.a.. Got a real BIG sound.

part 1

part 2

improvFriday submission 12/24/10

2010-12-25T19:04:00.000-08:00

I started with Norm's Afoxe'percussion track from alonetone, sped it up and applied some heavy filtering. The bass is gtr thru octave pedal, detuning the low string, no fretting involved. Then some heavily processed/delayed gtr. I like how this turned out and will probably include on the next BL release.

Psychedelic Sleigh

Psychedelacoustic #6 is now!

2010-12-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

My annual end of the year multi-genre musical spew is ready for your perusal. Colabs, sit-ins, improvs and other bits from the past year's adventures in the sound lab. Grab it here (it's free) :
PA6

Feed Your Head 12/11/10

2010-12-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

I've come to accept the fact that no one really wants to come out and hear me play this stuff and I'm ok with that. Experimental music is always a dicey undertaking, and especially in the cultural mecca that is Texas, there's so much more stimulating musical fare to compete with. Anyway, I enjoyed playing for Chris and Elaine and hanging out in their cool hippie store.

FYH121110

improvFriday submissions 12/10/10

2010-12-13T18:50:00.000-08:00

handheld cassette recorder, chimes, koto, filtered. Definitely some HIO influence here.

SHARDS

And a miniature Breaking Light loop

BL121110

End of Year Projects!

2010-12-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

Ok its crunch time. In addition to the traditional release of my "holiday/end of year" cd, Psyche De L'acoustic (notice the new syntax), this year it's volume 6!, I have the Tonefreakin' Podcast #2 I'm shooting to have done and released on Jan.1 (2011 of course). As if that's not enough, I'm working on a new song for the RPM Holiday Challenge, which is a precursor to the big RPM Challenge thing in February. This song is inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's classic science fiction short story The Star, which is about an astronaut/priest who discovers the supernova remnant that was the Star of Bethlehem, and his resulting doubt in his faith. Obviously it won't be a traditional Christmas song of good cheer.

IF submissions 12/3/10

2010-12-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

I cut up snippets of a jam I had with a buddy last Tgiving weekend and laid them over a bleep!Box app beat, with some Paulstretch thrown in. What a mess! Cute title tho, huh?

Turtlenecktie

Then I dusted off the 'ol Multikord pedal steel, ran it thru loads of effects. Unfortunately that ps has a bad ground or maybe just the nature of the single coil pu, but the recording is a bit buzzy/noisy. It is what it is.

Riding Rails

IF submission 112610-Vortex/Jumbie

2010-11-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

A field recording/sound collage from last Saturday at the Fort Worth MOMA. Sounds inside the Serra sculpture Vortex, and the African percussion/dance ensemble Jumbie.

oMY

2010-11-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

I've just discovered one of the most beautiful guitar records, ever! Bill Frisell's In Line.
His first solo release, on ECM, has some great improvised guitarscapes, alot of deep delay/reverb stuff, and some fine bass accompaniment by Arild Andersen.

..."The distance traveled from his first solo record, In Line, until today is enormous, and Frisell has shown such a broad scope in his playing. But some of his trademark features were present then. The playing is kept deceptively simple, with so much attention given to melody and sound. His thoughtful improvisations are creating contemplative and impressionistic soundscapes, and the result is very beautiful music. And the unique sound leaves a lasting impression on your heart. "I hope I've made some progress since In Line. In some ways, so much of what I do now was already there then. The basic idea was there. I hope I've gotten stronger. I think I have more confidence now. I'm not quite as afraid to do what I want."

In Line

How nice...uh, New Age?

2010-11-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

I am grateful that I've been getting some mentions in the FW Weekly here recently. Here's an excerpt, describing the new BL album Proto-Sapien:

"What you may notice is that the album lies at that bloody crossroads of experimental and New Age — “bloody” because while we applaud experimental (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream), we look down upon New Age (Yanni, John Tesh, Vangelis). Who cares about labels, though, right? Listen without prejudice, and you’ll find that Breaking Light (né Kavin Allenson) creates music that while atmospheric is highly durable and pleasing. He achieves his sweeping, airy sonicscapes merely via guitar and some sampling wizardry. Quite a trick."

And this week in the FWW Turkey awards, I was mentioned as an example, along with some other fine local artists, of whom local clubs should be booking, instead of the standard "Texas Music" fare. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

improvFriday submissions

2010-11-19T19:47:00.000-08:00

I shall try to start posting these here every week, as time allows. ImprovFriday is a great new music site where participants upload, share and discuss improvisational recordings every week, from Thursday evening to Saturday night (the site is on Pacific time). Their link is over there on the right.

For this week, my focus was on son Eric's Line 6 POD XT which he let me borrow. The POD really opens a wide range of sound colors for the electric guitar (here I'm using the trusty Squier Tele).

PT's Groove utilizes Peter Thoegersen's 10/8 drum groove which he submitted to improvFriday last week.
I edited down to 2 minutes from the original 4:09 length, because jamming to the whole thing would have taxed the listener a bit much, being improv....I wish I had written down the patch I used, a nice distortion tone that worked well.

Pod Mind- used the Octave Bend setting on the Pod for this one, the pedal used to modulate the pitch bends. Using some slide and ebow, got some pretty wild sounds. Some live looping, reverse and half/double speed looping on my delay modeler (line 6 DL4).

PT's Groove

Pod Mind

And Then...

2010-11-03T19:12:00.001-07:00

new one from

Joe And the Sonic Dirt from Madagascar

"And Then.."

Proto-Sapien

2010-10-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

This can be considered the THIRD Breaking Light album release, and it is available only on the internet. No more of those shiny plastic discs for me, uh uh. As always, it's free. If you like it, come to a gig. Seems I have yet to find an audience..

Latest tracks by Breaking Light

Kayo Dot

2010-10-20T02:58:00.000-07:00

This review of a Kayo Dot album on eMusic made me laugh. Then I realized he's describing most of the music I listen to these days.

"There are some recordings that people rave about that I hear and think “it must be a big joke”. Just because something is unconventional does not make it genius. Post-rock? Post-metal? How about post-post-post-rock. Or better yet, post-music. This CD does not have songs, it does not have compositions (which implies some structure or, at least, intention or forethought). It barely has anything resembling musicianship. The “songs” typically start imperceptibly quiet and impossibly slow and (sometimes) build to a climax of sludgy noise (or sometimes they don’t). Track 4 would have been almost appealling if it stopped at the four minute mark, but it winds down and then inexplicably restarts with a droning repetition of noise for the next....14 minutes. Which brings to mind another description for this CD: Pretentious. You know what it really sounds like? It sounds like a bunch of stoned guys screwing around on their instruments in someone’s basement with the lights turned out."

To be fair, here's a KD track from a different album ("Coyote"):

Kayo Dot_03_III. Abyss Hinge 1 Sleeping Birds Sighing In Roscolux.mp3

the rig for tomorrow's gig at Doc's

2010-10-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Rc20XL loop station
DL4 Line 6 delay modeler
Ibanez DE7 delay/echo
Boss Super Octave OC-3

iPod touch running Aura Flux app
paintbrush
slide (regular)
long slide (aluminum)
portable cassette recorder/various tapes
ebow

Epiphone Dot Deluxe guitar (not shown)

Exercise for Buchla and Nagra

2010-10-07T17:12:00.000-07:00

Ok seems I've become a bit too self-absorbed with this blog so here's this.

Exercise for Buchla and Nagra from Giorgio Sancristoforo on Vimeo.

2010-10-05T02:20:00.001-07:00

Breaking Light set at Hip Pocket

2010-09-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

I've been performing the BL thang in the post-play set at Hip Pocket Theatre lately. (my standard acoustic set before the play). I figure what the hell, as I'm usually background music then anyway, unlike before the play where people actually listen and applaud. But I do get some encouraging comments here and there.

Petrichoral

2010-08-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

Petrichor is a word used to describe the scent that rain produces when it saturates dry soil.

Another improvFriday submission.

improvFriday

new toy

2010-08-10T03:32:00.001-07:00

It's a monophonic electronic device you play with a stylus on a keyboard grid.
Hear it here, combined with a synth app and police scanner, the stylophone is the buzzing sound that bounces between your speakers:

BL @ 806 in Amarillo, 7/10/10

2010-08-07T15:12:00.001-07:00

This gig was the culmination of a 1700 mile road trip around Colorado, so I was a bit burnt out come showtime. After a xanax/chai latte/Dead Guy Ale pick-me-up, I was ready to go. A very laid back ambient set, more so than usual.

Thanks to Rene', Stephanie and Julianne for coming out.

improvFriday

2010-06-27T09:56:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was my first time to participate in this weekly event
improvFriday
and this is what I submitted:

Tempor2

And another participant took that and mashed together with another artists piece to get this:

La Strut

What a Killer

2010-06-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

There was one song Neil Young played last night at the Meyerson in Dallas which really hit me. The occasion when a live performance really impacts me emotionally is rare, but this was one. His solo take on Cortez the Killer was incredibly powerful. As I listened to the feedback washes and ringing harmonics of his electric guitar, and his plaintive vocal, I had the feeling that this was the last time I would see Neil live. That, and the subject and beauty of the performance itself left me teary-eyed.

For an inkling, listen to this:

Neil Young-Cortez the Killer live at the Morton Meyerson in Dallas June 7, 2010

BL on the ballot

2010-05-28T03:21:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly (to me) I've been nominated for the Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards this year in the "Experimental" category!
If you'd like to vote, go here:

FWWeekly ballot

Kavin.'s tonefreakin' podcast!

2010-05-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yea, my first podcast. Compiled from musician friends whom I know personally. Great stuff here. Some salty language on one song, so beware with the kiddies. Here's the track list:

Hentai Improvising Orchestra "Track 8" background
Brantley Allen "El Paso, Friday"
Harper "Shots of Tequila"
Sean Martin "Blue Whale"
Carlos the Non-Prophet "Lunatic Fringe"
Fingerz Freinemy (unkown track name)
Hentai Improvising Orchestra "Track 4"
Darrin Kobetich "Twin Falls"
Woodbilly Jugband "Me 'n the Snake"
Michael James "Unsent Letters"

Download or listen:

Kavin.s tonefreakin podcast 1

Other Hentai

2010-05-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

I really dug the Hentai Improvising Orchestra's set at the Other Texas Music show May 1st. So much so that I decided to tweek (er, remix) it! Ended up half as long and almost twice as dense. Mostly heavily editing, some looping passages, and using pitch shifting and tape delay effects.

"Listen with your THIRD ear"....

Breaking Light at Other Texas Music 4/30/10

2010-05-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

What a joy. I love these opportunities to play BL to an attentive, appreciate group, such as that that assembled in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center last Friday night. Herb Levy did a fine job of assembling an amazing group of sound and performance artists in a very short length of time. He's one of my local heroes now, for promoting "uncommon" local music artists.

photos by Ross Reitzammer

performance excerpt # 1

performance excerpt #2

2010-04-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'll be doing a set during the Friday show--->

Friday, April 30, 2010 at 8:30pm
and
Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 8:30pm
Location:
Sanders Theater in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center
1300 Gendy Street
Fort Worth, TX

Performances by Breaking Light; Tammy Gomez & Ramsey Sprague; Hentai Improvising Orchestra; SWIRV; James Talambas & Paul Thomas; Paul Unger; and others.

Final schedule imminent; please check back early & often.

Tickets available at the door: $10/one concert; $15/both

An Other Arts event, produced with generous support from the Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County; Linden Realty; & Periplum.

RPM Challenge Texas listening party

2010-04-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

As the lights slowly go out at rpmchallenge.com, the Texas cadre had our last gasp, late (the world-wide party was on March 27) but great, at the Burleson Borders Books last night. Attending were:

Dennis Coble (Love Light Shine/Bad Dr.)
Kavin (Kavin.s Acoustic Church/Breaking Light/Love Light Shine)
Michelangelo
Lyndell Brown (Fist Full of Java)
Jonathan Rippe
Samantha Wrinkle (A GIrl Named Sam/Clever Things)

The range, quality and creativity these folks put into their albums during last February is nothing short of amazing.

Here's a video of the jam we had to close the night.

the iPod app project

2010-03-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

My original intent for the RPM Challenge this year was to do a non-guitar album using only apps on the iPod Touch. That didn't work out, I ended up just doing a "live" album (see below).

So now I'm gonna do it, for betters or worst. I may add some stretched guitar here and there but it'll be mostly app driven. Here's the playlist. Will be adding to this over time.

Breaking Light - Appstract, sounds and songs from the iPod Touch:

BL @ Backbeat Cafe in Dallas 3/10/10

2010-03-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

Trinity Arts Live! at Backbeat Cafe in Dallas 3/10/10

I had reservations about doing this, given the disappointment from the last time I played there, but Gary offered me the "featured artist" slot, so I could play for 30 min. and develop a good set. The only downside of the evening was of course driving to Dallas (but traffic was cooperative) and the lack of attendance.
But I like playing there, it's a nice warm, medium sized room with a high ceiling and good acoustics. If I lived in big D, I would probably visit frequently.

Once I got onstage I was able to drop into the zone fairly quickly. I tried a different kind of intro, layer/looping an ebow drone, then chord washes over that, and away we went. Not so much off the cuff improv, mainly vamping on tried and true motifs, like Blue Hour and Up the Chupacabra, and ending with an abbreviated version of Hymn. I was pleased with how it went, and apparently it touched a lot of people there, got some good feedback afterwards.

The "treehouse" folks are so nice and supportive, I love being around and communing with all of them. Discussing with Gary afterwards about how different people deal with or approach music like this. In a listening space, when "ambient" or improvised music is being played, the audient must choose between letting the music take one over, or get up and do something else, which is all dependent on the disposition of the listener, and what intention or agenda they have brought to the performance. Most people just prefer a song with emphasis on melody, structure and usually lyric content. What I play has almost none of that, relying on a rhythmic and tonal center and letting "found" electronic effects suggest the overlaying SOUND.

Intitial listening of the live recording sounded pretty good, thanks to the aforementioned attributes of the room. Didn't need to add any reverb or much else, just boost the gain a bit and compress slightly.

Here's the first six minutes, which was my favorite part of the set.

RPM Boogie

2010-03-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

Song from the Love Light Shine RPM Challenge project. Fueled by whiskey, cookies and pie. They let me play washboard....

Dunn Bros. in Keller, Tx. 2/26/10

2010-02-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Apparently nobody in my acquaintance wants to trek to North Tarrant to see my little guitar show. Frankly I can't blame them, the traffic sucks on 35 on Fridays. Thanks to Ross for sitting in on flute and bringing half a dozen of his peeps. Made the evening very enjoyable in spite of starting late (due to said traffic). Several patrons who were there stuck around too, I must be slacking on the weirdness factor. But there were several compliments which made me feel fuzzy. I think Ross' playing does add a different dimension to my meanderings, makes it a bit more accessible to some folks.

As always, recorded the proceedings. Sending the result in as an RPM Challenge album, why the hell not? After alot of eq'ing, compressing and denoising, it's almost listenable!

RPM Challenge 2010 a success!

2010-02-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yessir I'm done. Yesterday I finished up the last tune and did a rough mastering job. I'll sit on it a few days for tweeking, then send it off. It's an instrumental guitar album, ended up with five acoustic fingerstyle pieces, 2 kinda jazz pieces, 2 ambient things and a psych-blip tune (the obligatory filler track). The lowdown:

The Standing Baba - The melody here came to me in a waking dream the morning of Feb.1. I wanted to do something along the lines of Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross", a slow instrumental with dual lead lines.

Running Past Minor - I've played alot with DADF#AD guitar tuning but never dropped the F# down to F to make it a minor unitl this.

Roko-Kun - Used Michelangelo's free rhythm track "Roko" and ran it through some filters to make this shortie I've had described as Barry White meets Santana.

Much is Seen...Nothing Revealed - Open tuned improv, with some live looping and ring modulation. The "clean" track is in the left channel, and the "effected" track in the right.

Cloud Gate - Trying my hand at some tapping. Lots of Patrick O'Hearn influence here.

Ofelia Comes Home - About a kitty cat we recently adopted.

Jack's Gone - Primitive American guitarist Jack Rose passed away suddenly last December. He was only 38.

Sun on Snow - It snowed here on Feb 11 (my birthday!) and broke all the records. A deliberate attempt to sound like Doug Sparling, an RPM/alonetoner whose been a big influence this past year.

My Flimsy Valentine - a "psych-blip" track using an iPod sequencer app for the foundation. Layered guitar weirdness over that.

Dinardo's Nails - This is the only tune I did not compose this month. Been playing this for many years, but never properly recorded. Probably still not....
Dinardo was a high school buddy who grew his thumb and index fingernails long, and it weren't for guitar picking.

Darrin/Kavin jam 2008

2010-01-31T15:12:00.000-08:00

Cleaning out the musical attic, so to speak. This is a long acoustic jam from back in 2008, over at Darrin's house. I'm glad he had his recorder running. The first few minutes are a bit rough, but once we got our bearings, there was no looking back. Probably some of my best resonator playing ever.

Dunn Bros. in Keller, Tx. 1/29/10

2010-01-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

The gig last night at the coffeeshop last night came off well and I managed to drive away the patrons who were there in short order. But the coolness factor in the room went way up when RPM Challenge conspirator Michelangelo arrived. Had not seen the dude since the 2008 listening party, so it was a pleasure to see him and his friend. My buddy Ross lent some beautiful flute work to some of the proceedings.

If i submit an album this year for RPM Challenge as Breaking Light it'll be a live one, sounding much like this:

Another year, another RPM Challenge!

2010-01-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

Starting to think about getting ready to prepare to make plans for the RPM Challenge, 2010 edition. Record an album (10 songs and/or 35 minutes of original music) in February. 28 days of mind bending creative stress. Forget lengthy self-editing, perfection or a decent night's sleep. I've done this thing for the last two years, two albums as Kavin.s Acoustic Church and one album as Breaking Light. It is now becoming tradition. Make it one of yours!

Jan. 15 - My plan for the challenge is, again, multiple album projects. A colab with buds Glenn and Dennis. Either an album each of acoustic guitar instrumentals and ipod app tunes, or a double album of just anything goes, with lots of short improvised ditties.

Jan. 17 - I can't believe most of January is already gone. I've got the arrangement and lyrics worked out for two new songs for the colab;
"Downwind From the Waxahachie Cement Kiln" , a depressing blues tune of redneck despair and "9,9 & 9", which is about what happened on 9/9/09 last year. Well it was daughter Brit's birthday for one thing.
Also reviewing/arranging some drum loops, I don't think that's cheating....

RD posters

2010-01-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

My bro has a massive collection of concert posters from the 60s & 70s. Started to catalog them this weekend. Fillmore, Armadillo WHQ, various Houston venues. So far have only scratched the surface.

This will be a long, ongoing project.
See what we've shot so far here.

Dunn Bros. in Spring Tx. 1/2/10

2010-01-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

What fun. To sit and play alongside two of my favorite pickers was a total blast. Sean Martin (r) and Robert Stallard (middle) are accomplished musicians and purveyors of harp guitar.

Sean blew me away by playing Michael Hedges "Because It's There" and John Fahey's "Last Steam Engine Train", two of my favorite all time acoustic pieces, as well as his own harp guitar originals. Robert rocked out on some harp guitar also and did some great looping!

Check both of these amazing artists out:

Sean Martin

Robert Len Stallard

Fire in the Forest

2009-12-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

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

Wise Words

2009-12-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

"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

2009-12-23T04:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-18T02:59:00.000-08:00

BL opening for Hentai Improvising Orchestra

2009-12-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-08T17:42:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-26T05:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-19T15:21:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T16:33:00.001-08:00

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

theme song "Breaking Light"

2009-11-15T07:13:00.000-08:00

The concept started with this.

Here we go

2009-11-15T06:19:00.000-08:00

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.