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January 2010
2010 - The Year We Make Contact
2009 was relatively satisfying as it saw the release of the
latest ZAO
album and a handful of shows, and the Emanuel
and the Fear EP, an album by a great band I played
with here in NY called Private
Income, and more of the covers I recorded with Austrian
Death Machine. I did a bunch of other recordings/session
work that have not seen the light of day (soon though, E&TF full
length being one of them).
On the live front I did some fun one-off gigs this year: A live
improvised soundtrack to Kenneth Anger's "Lucifer Rising" with
James
Plotkin. A drum/clarinet improv duo with Jeremiah
Cymerman, some beatnick/poetry jazz with Lee
Todd Lacks, played a handful of shows with the lo-fi
weirdness of Landofthesilverjets,
a Hallowe'en gig with NY metal-proggers HUNG
and even helped out as musical director on a DVD with Marky
Ramone.
It must be noted I also played two of the strangest gigs of
my life this year. The first was me taking part in a 25 person
choir with Stars
Like Fleas at the Museum of Modern Art. The other gig
involved me playing on a rooftop in the rain, eating a tarantula
and getting kicked out of the building by the Department of Homeland
Security. An all around success.
I am, however, growing consistently frustrated with the current
state of recorded music. While I myself appreciate the ease and
convenience of digital music (both in terms of finding out about
new bands and having it be somewhat portable) I am extremely frustrated
with the fact that the physical age seems to be dying. I've often
said that as a musician, when my "life's work" is reduced to a
series of nothing but format dependent 1s and 0s I would be out.
That's not true, but the thought of spending, time, blood, sweat
and tears (and money) on something that will just be thrust into
a crappy sounding digital format is not exactly making me rush
around to make recordings of my own music. The upswing of vinyl
is a push in the right direction though and makes me think there
are still old curmudgeons out there like me that still like to
sit down, with no distractions, and LISTEN to music, and take
in the cover art, obsess over the liner notes and actually feel
like I INVESTED in something. I still own the first record I ever
bought. I had a hard drive go somewhat wonky and lose a bunch
of music (but I still have the cds I bought as backup). Oh well,
come back in 5 years and I'll tell you all about the good old
days of going to the record store.
As of this writing, I'm being disappointed with NFL football,
smelling the home made bread baking in the kitchen and being very
optimistic about this even numbered year. More gigs and recordings
from Emanuel and the Fear on the horizon for this year and ZAO
is in writing mode again, but we're in no hurry. Maybe even some
new music from ME. Still wrapping up/recording a solo-percussion
album and working on some more jazzy type stuff.
Onwards and upwards!
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