Throat

Last night, Jeremiah, Tim, and I finished up our pre-mixes (we made reference mixes as close to the final product was as possible at home, then will send the ProTools sessions off to Randall Dunn for the final mixing) of the Tartar Lamb II record.

Today, I listened through the record from beginning to end for the first time - and then two more times after that. I have to say that I'm extremely proud of my bandmates in TL2 for bringing to life a music which was, at first approach, virtually impenetrable; which was very difficult to understand from an instrumentalist's perspective because of how the piece is notated and temporally structured; a piece which was very difficult to understand from an ensemble's perspective, everyone needing to know everyone else' part impeccably, and only being able to gel with one another when everyone knew all the parts, yet all of us being confused on how to rehearse with this requirement. And what these guys have done is turn these extraordinarily unusual ideas into a record that is beautifully listenable, deceptively simple-sounding, and perfectly evocative of its subject matter and intention. I'm so wonderfully fortunate to be able to work with a group of geniuses such as this, and can't wait for you all to hear the record, which is very much a studio project beyond the performance piece.

I've been noticing that my own vocal cords seem to sympathetically resonate to recordings of at least my *own* voice... and by extension, recordings of my own music. Since I listened through this record three times today, in a row, with basically a lump in my throat the whole time, I now have an intensely sore and exhausted feeling voice. I'm speaking with hoarseness now. And I'd hardly done any talking today or yesterday.

He gets it!!!

Highlights from a recent "Coyote" review at ProgArchives.com by AtomicCrimsonRush:

"...I hated it... I simply like to be entertained by music and this has the opposite effect."

"I was disturbed"

"The band just wallow in misery"

"depressing."

"At the end I felt depressed and I don't listen to music to feel depressed."

"Maybe this would speak to me if I were going through a break up or lost my job or a loved one passed away or I gave my soul away, but life is not like that for me. I can't relate to dark depressing sonnets and don't really want to subject my ears to hearing from the jaded warped minds of such musicians."

"The vocals are just miserable and despairing,"

"It is quite a feat of endurance to get through this."

"the gut wrenching music is nauseating beyond belief."

"it is simply not entertaining."

"As a parent I would cry if my children were listening to this."

"Coyote is drab and disturbing."

"sheer bleak atmosphere... I won't be returning to this."

Just wanted to tag this as:

The Second Sight

Hey all, just got a new webcam for the sake of trying to give lessons via Skype, but in the meantime i also thought I'd upload some casual guitar stuff to youtube as well. Here's a simple little tune I wrote just last night, with lyrics by Jason Byron.

Stained Glass at "D"

I'm a fan of a fan

I'm a fan of a fan and his name is Eric Laurin. Eric's one of the most supportive people my partners in music and I have ever come across; he takes care of all our bands and we wouldn't even have the strength to continue if it weren't for people like him.

I mention Eric because he's the one who encouraged me to start a mailing list, which I have just very recently done, after fifteen years of reluctance.

If you want to subscribe to it, send an email to me at eptaceros@gmail.com

!!!

Coyote, Stained Glass, Lessons, Artworks, Maps, Pictures, Dreams...

First update in a long while. Most of the relevant news has actually been appearing on the kayodot.net main page, as I haven't really felt the need to editorialize much. Coyote was released in April, right as I left for tour playing bass for Secret Chiefs 3 in Europe, so Kayo Dot didn't really get a chance to tour Coyote in the States. Initially, we thought Coyote was going to be released in January, so we had planned on touring around that time, but things got delayed, then our drummer, Dave Bodie, had a baby and I got another gig. Oh well...

We're going to play Coyote on tour in November and January/February though, along with some old material. Speaking of tour, the U.S. leg will coincide with the release of Coyote on vinyl, courtesy of TAIGA records, and our new EP, Stained Glass, on CD, courtesy of Hydra Head. Then, the January/February portion of touring will coincide with the release of TARTAR LAMB II on vinyl, with Tartar Lamb II and Jeremiah Cymerman opening the concerts in Europe.

Stained Glass was just completed a couple weeks ago, with a majority of the recording being done by me at home. Check out the Stained Glass page here at my website for some audio, when the time comes, as well as images, and more about the recording. Trey Spruance from Secret Chiefs 3/Mr. Bungle was kind enough to perform a late-nite guitar solo on this record for us!

In other recent news, our kickstarter.com campaign to fund a TARTAR LAMB II recording was a success! We're beginning recording on Saturday, Sept. 25 here in Brooklyn. We'll send updates via the kickstarter.com page shortly after that. Excited!

Finally, I decided to start giving private lessons (on guitar, bass, clarinet, and other stuff like composition, theory, gear tech, etc). I used to do this at a music store in Connecticut, and think the time is right to start again. Since most people that would be interested in this are outside of NYC, I've been encouraged to try to do lessons via Skype. Contact me if you're interested!