I've moved over to tumblr.

http://toby-driver.tumblr.com

enjoy!

From my recent newsletter

Fear of humiliating failure aside, I'm trying to prevent myself from becoming a lesbian-coiffed aging rocker by writing music for "classical," "fine arts," and/or "serious" contexts such as amazing creepy zombie-esque Japanese modern dance forms!

In April, I held a performance of such a piece, ICHNEUMONIDAE, as a trio (guitar, violin, and dance/percussion). I like to think of that performance as sort of like a flag along the road of commitment to a larger-scale and more intensive work. So, the time has now come to try to expand this piece for a larger ensemble and actually make some killer media (album, film, yes!!!) out of it that people can enjoy at home. Ergo, a Kickstarter campaign to try to get this thing going...!

I would so so so greatly appreciate it if you could take a look at the project page and consider donating to support the production of this movie. I'm super-excited to finally take this first step into the realm of combining intrinsic visual elements with my music, something I have always wanted to do. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tdriver/toby-driver-and-michelle-morinaga-ichneumonidae

It took me a while to decide which one of my running projects to try to fund this way. I've got a whole bunch of things on my plate, such as a handful of solo songs, as well as new Kayo Dot stuff (in the style of Gamma Knife and hoping to do a real studio recording, what!) But, I decided to do Ichneumonidae here because it seems like the MOST difficult to fund through other means. Just to be candid for a minute here, you know there is a whole scene of musicians who apply for and receive grants/commissions to do stuff like this. I tried to get into that world a bit over the past couple of years and have had no luck with it whatsoever. Can't get anything funded through those means. Really, that sort of thing makes a guy start to get pretty dark on himself, to be succinct. And labels don't want to fund Ichneumonidae, it's unmarketable. Anyway, you guys are the listeners. You're the people that actually want to put this stuff on your iPods and have it come at you during a rainy train ride, instead of keeping it on a shelf in an archive of all the classy shit your organization helped produce and only pulls out of storage when it comes time to apply for more funding. So if you're interested in hearing/seeing it, please consider donating to the kickstarter campaign, that's the only way it'll happen! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tdriver/toby-driver-and-michelle-morinaga-ichneumonidae

Yeah, I know it seems like summer is kickstarter season and everyone's doing it. I felt a little bit weird about launching this at this exact moment just because two of my closest friends have also just launched their own kickstarter campaigns for their own incredible music. Just want you to know that we are not competitive. You can check their projects out at the following links, and also please consider donating. Their music needs to be out in the world and it gets my highest recommendation.

Tim Byrnes/Hazel-Rah: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1158799759/hazel-rah-the-full-length-album

Jeremiah Cymerman: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1767687795/purification-dissolution

And, this one: http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/videos/portlandia-kickstarter

---

In other news, the Kayo Dot west coast tour has been moved to August 16-September 1. We have some if it booked already but are still looking for dates. If you can help, please get in touch!

And - our most recent album GAMMA KNIFE is having its vinyl and CD release and is available for preorder at http://antitheticrecords.storenvy.com/products/327764-kayo-dot-gamma-knife-12

And - I've just put almost ALL of my recorded output up for streaming, buying, downloading, whatever, at http://kayodot.bandcamp.com - check it!!!!

Thanks for reading. Your support means everything,
much love
Toby Driver

MAILING LIST ISSUE SIX

Hot on the hooves of everyone else's mailing list messages comes my very own mailing list message! March is mailing list month, after all. It comes in like a postal truck in DC at Christmas and goes out like a delicious bhuna gosht. Anyhow, on to the news.

Just yesterday (Feb 28) was the official release date of the CD & LP by a new band I'm in, called VAURA. We in the band have agreed that VAURA is like Van Halen meets The Police meets Queensryche meets Dysrhythmia meets Kayo Dot meets Religious to Damn meets Weakling meets Krull (the movie) meets Ukelele (the instrument), and a few other things that I can't really remember right now. In any case, I'm in this band with Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia, Gorguts), Josh Strawn (Blacklist, Religious to Damn), and Charlie Schmid (Religious to Damn). People have been psyched about the album so far, and can I tell you, goddamn, it's nice to be in a band that people actually want to listen to! The album, "Selenelion," was released by WIERD Records, and is available to buy at their store... I recommend the colored vinyl for its delicious resemblance to black raspberry hard candy and its superior sound quality.

Nextly, and speaking of Kevin Hufnagel, he was kind enough to hook me up with a show this coming Sunday, March 4, at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, opening for Eugene S. Robinson (Ox Bow, etc) and Scott Kelly (Neurosis). I'm going to be playing solo keyboard and singing at this show, and it'll be my first actual SOLO performance ever! So, I hope you can come and witness the spectacle. You can think of me as a gothier, smaller Kevin Hufnagel who doesn't play guitar or ukelele. Eugene and Scott are large, tough, and manly, so rest assured my set will pretty much be the polar opposite of theirs. I'll be like the pickle, if you ate the pickle before the rest of your meal (why would you do that, though??)

Later in April is gonna be CHIPPYFEST at the Stone, curated by the meticulous Heung-Heung Chin. It's so much later, in fact, that I may email you guys about this again. I'm going to be playing three times within two days, once with Vaura (unplugged!), once with Stern (the new live musical band rendering of Chuck Stern's perverted fantasies), and once more as a super awesome special premiere of something totally new:

A new trio for myself (on voice), Timba Harris (Secret Chiefs 3 violinist), and Michelle Morinaga, who's choreographing what's essentially going to be like an ultra-slow-moving half-butoh, half-percussion piece. Consider the instrumentation to be voice, violin, percussion, visuals, and manipulations of ambient reverb? If that makes sense? We don't have a title yet, but the piece is going to be about parasites. It should be really weird (and good!) - April 21st, see The Stone's website for the full calendar with times, etc.

KAYO DOT spring tour! This is still in the works. Sorry we don't have more information at this time... but soon! If you're interested in hosting (for May/June) please send me an email.

And - If you missed it last time, KAYO DOT released our new album, GAMMA KNIFE, via kayodot.bandcamp.com at the beginning of January. If you haven't gotten it yet, please head over to the bandcamp page and check it out and buy it if you like it! It's cheap (5 bucks!) and every single purchase helps. The CD and vinyl version are coming in April via Antithetic Records. I'll email you guys again when we have photos and pre-order info. Here are some comments that people have been making about GAMMA KNIFE:

"It's good, but it's no maudlin of the Well" - Internet guy #1

"It's back to the band's roots, reminding me of maudlin of the Well at times!" - Internet guy #2

"It's the most maudlin-ish Toby Driver has sounded in years" - Internet guy #3

"For the first time since maudlin of the Well, Kayo Dot sounds relevant again" - Internet guy #4

"Toby's screaming again. Is that Jason Byron I hear?" - Internet guy #5

"Blight of River Systems is amazing" - Internet guy #6

Those guys will all be happy to hear that the Finnish label Blood Music is re-releasing the old out-of-print MOTW CDs, BATH and LEAVING YOUR BODY MAP, plus also issuing PART THE SECOND on CD for the first time ever. Those CDs go on sale tomorrow (March 1st)!

MOTW CDs are going to press / repress

Some text from the label, Blood Music outta Finland

"
http://www.blood-music.com
http://www.blood-music.com/store

There will be 300 copies of each, if they sell well, then we will also press "My Fruit Psychobells"

Bonus tracks on the 2 re-issues, and 100 signed copies.

Discs will go up for pre-order on March 1st (Thursday) and release date is April 13th."

2012

Happy New Year to everyone. The new Kayo Dot album, Gamma Knife, will be out in a few days. I'll post again when it's released, with more specifics.

I'm redesigning my site to be a bit more simple and modern, as you can see. One of the main things I'm doing is organizing all my past work into the "Archive" section so that it appears more like those pieces are in the past and not current. The reason for this is that in 2012, I'm moving into a new and more focused path for my visual art and want to leave the other stuff behind, in a way. It has bothered me that pretty much all of the artwork I've done, and which has been displayed on my site, has been work that's been done really inexpensively and relatively quickly (relative to the work of "real" visual artists). Usually when I get hired to do some album cover artwork, the budget is so low that I can only spend a few days maximum on a piece. Likewise, with artwork for my own albums, it's always been limited by production deadlines. The result has been that what the public sees of my visual artistic vision is a super-compromised version, and I want to change this.

Mainly, I'm going to try to spend some more time and energy on visual art in 2012 so that what I can present to the public is a more accurate representation of my desires (within feasibility). I feel that I've approached music this way for so long, and it's time for the visual element to catch up. I've realized that visual art is actually a big part of my identity and I've been doing myself a disservice by approaching it as a hobby.

ISSUE FIVE

- New Kayo Dot album details!
- Kayo Dot spring USA tour
- maudlin of the Well: Bath / Leaving Your Body Map vinyl box set
- Spoken word split 7" for Aniseed Records
- Tartar Lamb 2 shipments!



NEW KAYO DOT ALBUM DETAILS

We've been keeping a bit quiet about this one ever since our concert of new material on October 5, which we recorded for the sake of turning into an official release. For all of you that were there, thanks for showing your support and participating! Here are the release details:

The album contains four songs, runs a little under half an hour, and is entitled Gamma Knife. It was recorded by Toby Driver and Jeremiah Cymerman. It's going to be mixed by Randall Dunn shortly at the end of November, and released IMMEDIATELY after mastering - so, mid-December. Let's say December 16. If you're one of those weird impatient types that makes your best-of-the-year lists before December is over, well, shame on you.

This immediate album release I mentioned is going to be the digital-only version, self-released by the band, without the help of a label. It'll be available on our own website, iTunes, eMusic, etc. etc. And the hardcopy version is going to come just in time for our May 2012 USA tour, possibly through a label. So, look for that sometime in April.

The lineup:
Live ensemble:
Toby Driver - bass, guitar, keys, and vox.
Terran Olson - alto sax.
Dan Means - alto sax.
Keith Abrams - drums.
Tim Byrnes and Ron Varod - audience direction.

with: Mia Matsumiya - violin.
David Bodie - percussion.

Once again featuring lyrics by the inimitable Jason Byron.


SPRING 2012 USA TOUR

We're currently in the process of booking a full-USA tour for May 2012! Yes, full US! It's being handled by our new booking agent Starbird Promotions out of Portland, Oregon. If you'd like to host us at your place, please email Carly at starbirdpromo@gmail.com


MAUDLIN OF THE WELL VINYL BOX SET

I occasionally receive emails from people asking about whether the old maudlin of the Well double album, Bath/Leaving Your Body Map is available to buy. Until now, it hasn't been... it's been sadly out of print on CD for years, and we certainly don't have any extra copies.

However, coming this winter, Antithetic Records (out of Florida) has teamed up with Blood Music (out of Finland) to re-release this legendary double-album on vinyl for the first time ever. This will be a box set, 4 LPs plus a 7-inch of "The Secret Song," (and of course, download codes for all the music) replete with extras such as a brand new poster, 10th-anniversary T-shirt, and maudlin of the Well logo guitar picks (what!!!). Most of these extra items are bonuses that accompany pre-orders only!

Also, we need about 150 pre-orders in order to be able to even go into production, since this is a box set and will be quite expensive to produce. The pressing will be limited to 300 copies.

So! If you're interested, please head over to one of the labels' stores (Antithetic for US and Canada and Blood Music for anywhere else in the world) and pre-order this baby!

BLOOD MUSIC -- Worldwide (except USA/Canada):
http://bloodmusic.bigcartel.com

ANTITHETIC RECORDS -- USA/Canada only:
http://antitheticrecords.storeenvy.com



SPOKEN WORD 7" FOR ANISEED RECORDS

I'm currently in the process of finishing up a very special spoken word track for a series of split 7" records to be released by Aniseed Records out of Australia. The series will also feature Eugene S. Robinson (Ox Bow), Mike Sukys, and others. I think I'm the one holding up production on this. So as soon as I get my track into them, we can expect the record shortly after! More news on actually buying a copy to come later.


TARTAR LAMB II SHIPPING!

Well, it's been almost a year since our kickstarter campaign to produce the Tartar Lamb II album, Polyimage Of Known Exits, and the production process was quite long. We've received a lot of emails asking about the status of the kickstarter and pre-order shipments, and I'm happy to say that the packages have begun to go out. There are a lot of them, so the mailing process will take several more days. Thanks for being so patient!

For all who are expecting the DVD in your packages - we aren't quite finished even making the DVD yet, so when we do finish, we'll send these out under separate cover.

A couple shows this week:

A couple shows this week!

Thursday, Nov. 10 at the Rock Shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn NY. Trio with jeremiah Cymerman and Mario Diaz de Leon... whoa!!!!!!


Saturday, Nov 12 at Lulu's, Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY. Performing with HAZEL-RAH!!!!

maudlin of the Well - Bath & Leaving Your Body Map LP box set!

I occasionally receive emails from people asking about whether the old maudlin of the Well double album, Bath/Leaving Your Body Map is available to buy. Until now, it hasn't been... it's been sadly out of print on CD for years, and we certainly don't have any extra copies.

However, coming this winter, Antithetic Records (out of Florida) has teamed up with Blood Music (out of Finland) to re-release this legendary double-album on vinyl for the first time ever. This will be a box set, 4 LPs plus a 7-inch of "The Secret Song," (and of course, download codes for all the music) replete with extras such as a brand new poster, 10th-anniversary T-shirt, and maudlin of the Well logo guitar picks (what!!!). Most of these extra items are bonuses that accompany pre-orders only!

Also, we need about 150 pre-orders in order to be able to even go into production, since this is a box set and will be quite expensive to produce.

So! If you're interested, please head over to one of the labels' stores (Antithetic for US and Canada and Blood Music for anywhere else in the world) and pre-order this baby!

BLOOD MUSIC -- Worldwide (except USA/Canada):
http://bloodmusic.bigcartel.com

ANTITHETIC RECORDS -- USA/Canada only:
http://antitheticrecords.storeenvy.com

This Wednesday!

This past season, I had the pleasure of co-curating a special event - MATA's Interval Festival 5.1 - at Brooklyn's Issue Project Room with composer Ryan Lott (a.k.a Son Lux) to be held this coming Wednesday, October 26 at 8pm.

The gist of the co-curation was that Ryan and I were each to choose a young, early-career composer to present at the Festival (as is MATA's mission). I decided to present Terran Olson, whom almost all of my readers know from his longtime participation in my bands, Kayo Dot, maudlin of the Well, and more recently, Tartar Lamb II. Terran's a great composer, but most of my listeners probably don't know this, since his role in my bands always appears to the public to be a support role. However, Terran has written a great deal of horn and keyboard parts for Kayo Dot (the famous clarinet solo in "The Manifold Curiosity", for example, was penned and performed by Terran). I thought that Terran has not had too much of an opportunity to present his ground-up compositions to our fans, so he was one of my top choices to present here.

Terran's going to premiere a clarinet sonata he wrote for himself on piano and with Kayo Dot's Dan Means on clarinet.

Also performing in the same set will be Joshue Ott and Son Lux. Joshue is a programmer who designed a visual instrument called SuperDraw. With some of this text taken from Son Lux's blog, "During Wednesday night’s show [Joshue] and [Son Lux] will perform custom arrangements of Son Lux material, syncing superDraw with [Son Lux's] audio performance environment over a closed network.

Joshue also built the iPad app/audio-visual instrument Thicket with co-creator Morgan Packard, and he’ll perform 'with' it Wednesday, as well. Thicket will simultaneously generate sound and picture using a combination of custom algorithms, its own inscrutable whim, and Joshue’s guiding hands."

I also believe that Terran and Joshue will be performing a collaborative improvisation as well, using a quadraphonic SuperCollider patch that Terran wrote, processing audio input from Dan's clarinet.

Please come and check this show out if you're able. It's very exciting for me to be able to give Terran an opportunity to present some of his own music, and I'm sure it would mean a lot to him for his long-running fans in KD and motW to come check out some of this, his more personal work.

Issue Project Room at the Old Can Factory, Brooklyn NY, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 8pm.

Mailinglist Newsletter Issue #4 !!!

Greetings, all! Welcome to the fourth edition of our newsletter. As you probably know by now, I only send these out when terrifically exciting things are about to happen, so fasten your seatbelts and read on…

I. Kayo Dot's EP of this past winter, Stained Glass, has just, a few days ago, experienced its vinyl phonograph record release via Antithetic Records! The record's B-Side features a very special remix of the piece, and a poster is included in the package. It's on sale NOW at Antithetic's webstore and SOON at Hydra Head's webstore.

I'm considering not selling it on our own webstore just yet, and saving our copies for when we tour next (see below).

II. NEW Kayo Dot material!!! We have a very special concert lined up on October 5, 2011 at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY. At this concert, we're going to play a full set of all-new material and record the whole thing. Afterward, we're going to take these recordings home and do a million overdubs. This will be our next album. We hope that as many of you as possible can come to this show, especially because there will be some audience participation, which will be crucial to the sound of the record! That's at Littlefield, Brooklyn NY, October 5, 2011, 7PM, openers TBA.

III. Kayo Dot touring! Yes, we do have more tour plans, and yes, the United States is included this time! Firstly, we're planning a short Western European thing in early December. Secondly, we're planning a U.S. thing (Southeast to West coast!) for May 2012. Anyone interested in helping us with a show, please contact me at this address. Additionally, we need to get a new van for this tour, so if anyone out there has any leads, also please contact me here or at my regular email address, toby@kayodot.net

IV. We also have a couple other shows coming up soon besides the very special October 5th show.

Sept 8 - Boston, MA at Brighton Music Hall - opening for Secret Chiefs 3!!!

Sept 13 - New York, NY at Le Poisson Rouge - opening for Secret Chiefs 3!!! Le Poisson Rouge has a REAL PIANO which we are totally going to fucking use... real pianos at venues are always very special and exciting for us. There is one new song we have that has lots of piano, too. Just sayin'

V. Speaking of Antithetic Records, they are doing a box set of vinyl phonograph record reissues of the classic MAUDLIN OF THE WELL albums, Bath and Leaving Your Body Map! The box set will also feature a 7" of "The Secret Song" as well as some other goodies, and is slated for a winter release this year. Antithetic Records needs only a little over 100 preorders in order to go into production, so please check out some more information about this at their blog.

VI. Speaking of Bath and Leaving Your Body Map, I am finally able to put these albums up on iTunes, eMusic, Spotify, etc. I'm doing it today, and the official digital release date will be this coming Monday, August 8, 2011!

VII. The Tartar Lamb II kickstarter-funded album, Polyimage of Known Exits, is finally here. We're sorry that it took sooo long to produce these vinyl phonograph records. Seriously, an almost five-month turnaround time. Anyway, they have arrived, and we'll be packing and shipping them in the next couple weeks! Check out this purty photo!

VII. Myspace - it sucks! Please DON'T use our myspace page as the definitive source for info about us. Instead, please use our official site, http://www.kayodot.net

New artwork up, new music, MOTW live!?!?!

Hey all, I've been slacking on this blog for a while - sorry! Guess my head's been in other places.

I returned home just a few weeks ago from a really great (mostly Eastern) European tour with Kayo Dot. It was definitely the most positive European touring experience for our band yet... a good sign!

For our homecoming show in NYC on March 15, our former guitarist Greg Massi sat in with us, and we played, as a very special surprise, an old maudlin of the Well song - "Stones of October's Sobbing" !!! It was enormously enjoyable for us, and to make it even better, this was a song that we were never actually able to pull off back ten years ago as maudlin of the Well. We tried a few times, but just couldn't do it! Not sure why, as it's not too difficult, but it's an encouraging thought to think we must be growing as musicians.

I just updated the site today with some recent artwork, and links to some of the more recent recordings. The TARTAR LAMB II album, Polyimage of Known Exits, has been released digitally (listen to it at http://tartarlamb.com), and the vinyl version will be out in about 6 weeks from now.

For all who didn't know, I play bass in another band called VAURA, which is kind of a goth/pop/black metal thing. The band also features Kevin Hufnagel from Dysrhythmia and Gorguts. We begin recording our first album next week with Colin Marston, which will be released on WIERD Records this fall! Vaura plays regu7larly around NYC, so come check us out sometime.. next one is May 22 at Death By Audio.

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!

Wikipedia

I wanted to add some info to Kayo Dot's wikipedia page, specifically regarding the new album. Wasn't really sure how to cite references to all the changes I made, so I figure if I put all the text here, maybe this blog can serve as the reference point.

---------------

Kayo Dot is an American avant-rock/experimental music group that was formed in 2003 by Toby Driver. They released their debut album Choirs of the Eye on John Zorn's Tzadik Records label that year. Tzadik's descriptive label on that album reads: "Kayo Dot powerfully integrates elements of modern classical composition with the layers of guitars and vocals more common to rock and metal. With a compositional map that is strict in form yet malleable in execution, Kayo Dot uses a vast array of instrumentation to create an exciting convergence of violence and serenity."

Since then, Kayo Dot's music has undergone several identity shifts, largely influenced by the band's constantly-changing lineup and instrumentation. One predominant element of Driver's compositional voice which remains consistent throughout all of Kayo Dot's output, however, is the band's use of abstract timing and performance cues. This lends to the music the element of "malleability" mentioned in Tzadik's description above.

The music of Kayo Dot exists outside of market-oriented genre classification, being most succinctly described as "modern composition with a rock background." Their songs involve complex instrumentation (composed by singer and frontman Driver). They are substantially longer than typical rock songs, usually ranging from 8 to 18 minutes in length.

Kayo Dot's albums are musically thematic (see individual albums' links for details), being conceptualized as full albums rather than as collections of disparate songs, and are invariably intended to be listened from start to finish.

Kayo Dot was formed after the disbanding of maudlin of the Well, a progressive heavy metal band which formed in 1996 and dissolved in 2003. Many past members of maudlin of the Well – Josh Seipp-Williams, Sam Gutterman, Terran Olson, Andrew Dickson, and Toby Driver – studied at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1996-2000, where My Fruit PsychoBells...A Seed Combustible was recorded. At Hampshire, Driver, Olson, and Dickson were students of jazz musician Yusef Lateef, whose theories of autophysiopsychic music may have influenced the bands' output.

Driver has gone on to say on their website: "Some members of this project worked in the progressive-metal project-band maudlin of the Well from 1996 - 2003, at which time motW dismembered. Kayo Dot isn't much different from maudlin of the Well musically - rather it's more like a continuation in the direction maudlin of the Well had been progressing."

and has also said: "People are too preoccupied with whatever connection there may be between maudlin of the Well and Kayo Dot."

In May 2005, Tom Malone joined the band as their new drummer after longtime collaborator Sam Gutterman left the band in March 2005. Kayo Dot then signed to Robotic Empire Records and released its second album, Dowsing Anemone with Copper Tongue, in January 2006.

In 2006, near the end of the fall tour, four members – playing guitar, bass, drums, and trumpet – left the band for personal reasons. On the tenth of December, Greg Massi also left Kayo Dot on good terms stating he was going "to try and figure out other aspects of my musical life and take some time to figure out where I want to be going." (Massi has since completed his solo album, "A Time for Rust" under the moniker Baliset. Massi also temporarily rejoined Kayo Dot in January 2010 as a guest for the purpose of one performance of Choirs of the Eye at The Stone in New York City on February 6, 2010).

After Massi's departure, Kayo Dot, consisting of only two members, Driver and Matsumiya, began working on their third album, Blue Lambency Downward, which was released in May 2008 by Hydra Head Records. Kayo Dot used several session musicians on this recording (Skerik on tenor and baritone saxophone and vibraphone, Hans Teuber on clarinet, Charlie Zeleny on drumset), and enlisted Randall Dunn as their producer and recording engineer. This album marked the first time one of Driver's recordings was not produced by Driver himself. After Blue Lambency Downward's release, Driver relocated from Boston to New York City, and for the purpose of touring the woodwind-abundant album, put a new lineup together whose new members were: Patrick Wolff on woodwinds, Daniel Means on woodwinds and guitar, David Bodie on drums, and original member Terran Olson on woodwinds and keyboards. Patrick Wolff has since left the band, and Daniel Means has added bass guitar to his duties.

In April 2008, Driver began working on a new long-form composition with his partner, Yuko Sueta, a NYC-based writer, filmmaker, and video artist (with Driver as the composer and Sueta as the author, intending to create a film to be projected along with performances of the music). A first draft of this piece was premiered at The Stone in September 2008 by The Kayo Dot Auxiliary Unit (Bodie and Means of Kayo Dot, Yuko Sueta, and Tim Byrnes on trumpet). Shortly thereafter, Sueta, who had been fighting breast cancer, became incapacitated by the disease. Driver re-drafted and adapted the piece for Kayo Dot (along with Byrnes), toured it in May 2009 on the road with Secret Chiefs 3, and recorded it with Randall Dunn in Seattle during June-July 2009. Sueta passed away while the record was in post-production, and the band has dedicated it to her. Coyote_(album) is Kayo Dot's fourth studio album and will be released on April 6, 2010 by Hydra Head Records, once again featuring a surprising re-configuration of the band's instrumentation and sound.

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