Tartar Lamb II

Writing with bass as the main harmomic content and noticing that my typical sense of harmony cannot apply. When falling into a phrase and then trying to pull away from it, I can really feel some kind of G-forces creating a little bit of nausea on the turns

Fall 2009

Home from tour!

It was, overall, cool. The tour started off on a sour note though, as the UK border guards denied Bodie, our drummer, entry into the UK, thereby basically ruining all of our UK shows. Kayo Dot saxist Dan Means stayed behind to keep Bodie company for the week, and the remaining three of us did the UK shows as Tartar Lamb, and threw in some low-key versions of gentler Kayo Dot songs (i.e. Immortelle and Paper Caravelle). I really loved the UK though and had a wonderful time, in spite of the problems. We really will try to come back properly as soon as possible.

Bodie and Dan rejoined us in France... and from that point on, Kayo Dot played as the full band. Super-notable mainland mentions are the Portuguese, the Slovakians, Valborg and the people of Bonn, and Radek and the people of Warsaw (Radek, I know you read this blog, so THANK YOU!). Wow!! You guys all had unbelievable enthusiasm and showed amazing support. We truly appreciate you treating us well and extend great love and well-wishes to you all.

A couple news items:

Firstly, a new Kayo Dot track has been posted online today at TIME OUT NEW YORK/THE VOLUME. Steve Smith (@nightafternight on Twitter) is the author of this awesome write-up. Steve has been supportive of us for years and we're happy that he is the one to premiere this track for the world. Check out the track here: http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/thevolume/2009/10/listen-now-new-music-from-kayo-dot-exclusively-on-the-volume/

Secondly, I was just reading some of the reviews of maudlin of the Well - PART THE SECOND at Progarchives.com.. and wow.. thank you guys! These reviews make me blush. They're really worth reading... Seriously, your sentiments are awesome and make it so worthwhile to continue doing what I do. I really appreciate it and am happy that the music may have affected you as powerfully as it has affected me. Read the reviews here: http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=23206

About to leave for Europe and some final thoughts -

So we are about to head out for a European tour. We'll be playing mostly all places we have not played before. I'm especially excited to play in Poland, which is where half of my family's heritage comes from. Should be interesting!
We're doing our best to bring as much of the merchandise that everyone wants the most. This tour, like all of them, but this one especially, is going to be financially hard on us in a potentially catastrophic way. All we ask is that everyone please, spread word of the shows, come out to the gigs, and buy merch. Then we should be golden and able to come back in the future.

Last Europe's tour was a Blue Lambency Downward tour.. so this time - we're turning it back a few years!! please come on out - my capo is READY!!!!

Some notes on "Part The Second"

Being an online release, I have been paying some attention to the response to this record just to see how people are taking it. Seems like people are pleased, which is great! Thanks for all the support and we (the band) are totally grateful for the positive response. There are a few specific things I want to address:

1) The issue of playing live. OK, so this band doesn't really exist anymore, being that all the members are spread out all over the nation and are not really "pursuing music" anymore, as it were. That said, let's imagine that some festival wanted to invite motW to play... if it was feasible, i don't think it'd be out of the question to re-organize the group.

2) There is a sample in the middle of "Rose Quartz Turning to Glass" that some people have been saying is some kind of "avant-garde" vocal trick of mine.. I just want to mention that it is a SAMPLE of something specific and not a vocal and not performed by me! There's more to it than that, as is the case with every layer of motW's music. You guys should know that by now.

3) Q: Why does Toby continue to release difficult-to-comprehend music like Kayo Dot when he could easily make another crowd-pleaser like PART THE SECOND?

A: I'm happy to take the opportunity to make non-confrontational records like this for the fans whenever possible. Really the only reason I don't is that doing a record takes a LOT of time and resources, of which there are currently only enough to focus on one real path. I choose the path which helps myself develop and grow, and for me that's to work with new ideas as opposed to old ones. However, if at some point in the future there is enough time and resources to make records and play music full-time and in the interest of supporting everyone involved, then yeah, of course I can make tons more music like this.

maudlin of the Well - Part The Second

available at maudlinofthewell.net

NOW!

Secret Chiefs 3

check it out!

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=5267768&blogId=485895739

not to be overshadowed by the motw release...

I want you all to know that

Longtime collaborator of mine, and original motW and KD lead guitarist, Greg Massi, has just released his 10-yrs in the making album. The solo project is called BALISET and you can hear the album thusly:

http://www.baliset.net

events coming up very soon!

As some of you may have heard via Mia's posting on myspace, facebook, etc., our very close personal friend Yuko Sueta has been severely debilitated over the past few months by metastasized breast cancer (in other words, it spread). As a result she has found herself unable to get up out of bed, which means she's unable to work, pay bills, etc. So her friends have put together a few benefit events for her that are coming right up.

The events are really cool - the first is an art auction with works supplied by friends of Yuko. There will be original works by big names including Richard Kern and Satomi Matsuzaki (the singer of Deerhoof), and some contributions by myself as well. Check out the flyer for the full list.

The second event is a rock concert!! the lineup will be Apollo Heights, Nymph, and Kayo Dot. We'll be playing new material from our upcoming summer 2009 Hydra Head album and one killer old song that many of you have been asking us to play for a while.

Check out the flyers below for more info and please pass along. Thank you!


(click images to view larger)





http://yuko.2020project.com/

KD.net front page

reposting this new KD info!!

We are in the process of finishing up the writing and rehearsing of a new album for Hydra Head Industries, to be recorded this summer with Randall Dunn! This album will feature Toby Driver on bass guitar, Terran Olson on keyboards, Dan means on sax, David Bodie on percussion, Mia Matsumiya on violin and guitar (gasp!), and special guest Tim Byrnes on trumpet (whom you may know from Tartar Lamb, The Friendly Bears, Hazel-Rah, or Candiria). We'll be touring out to Seattle and back for the recording in June and July, premiering this new music (and also playing old material).

and

We now have Blue Lambency Downward vinyl LPs available in the buy stuff section!

and you probably already know this:

We have also just completed the recording/mixing of the brand new, maudlin of the Well fan-funded reunion record (to be released for FREE online within the next couple weeks)! "We" meaning almost all the old members of MOTW (Toby Driver, Terran Olson, Sam Gutterman, Greg Massi, Josh Seipp-Williams, Jason Byron) along with Kayo Dot members Mia Matsumiya and David Bodie! So it's like a combo record of the two bands, cool!!!! Look here for the release info very soon.

motw news!

We finished the MOTW recording last weekend! It still has to be mastered, but that will happen over the next couple weeks. In the meantime, I'm building a website for the release. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough funding to make any hard copies, so we're going to release online. Our plans are to release as high-quality mp3s and also as 24-bit .flac files for audiophiles, all at the same download site.

The album sounds amazing and we are very happy with it! We felt like there wasn't any reason to put out "promotional info" like titles, or clips, ahead of time since there's no CD to buy. So all that stuff will become apparent at the actual release.

Someone was asking about gigging for the record - some of the band talked about it a little. I think if we got invited to do a festival date, we would do it. But definitely no touring will happen.

Terran's Article on Audio Fractals online

https://rainrecording.co.uk/pro/experimental/audio-fractals/

by Terran Olson (a frequent collaboratist of mine)

BLD Vinyl and special items now available for preorder!!

http://www.bluecollardistro.com/hydrahead/product_info.php?products_id=2820&cPath=4_137&store=

Along with the vinyl, you can preorder a t-shirt and/or even better, an extra-special, triple-poster set which features a Blue Lambency Downward story comic starring and also designed by yours truly. They're super-limited and will only be available for two weeks or less. Check out the link for more info and images!!

some new pictures added

I just added some newish images to the Artwork section. I'm going to be adding one more awesome one on Monday when the Blue Lambency Downward vinyl preorder goes up at Hydra Head!!

Another recent interview with TD

http://www.vinylnetwork.com/content/kayo-dots-toby-driver-interview

this one was done via AIM, so it came out much more casual-sounding than the Sputnik/Greer one.

Sputnikmusic.com did a feature on me - check it out

probably a lot of my blog readers overlap with sputnikmusic.com - but just in case not, here are the links.. enjoy!


http://www.sputnikmusic.com/feature.php?id=5617

and

http://www.sputnikmusic.com/feature.php?id=5615