free download: deathly fighter “spanish fly”
i played drums in a session with my good friends mike, christian and brandon, of the band deathly fighter, sometime last spring @ the columbus discount records studio. we all got together and crammed into a small corridor and recorded a couple of songs. this one is entitled ’spanish fly’ and came out pretty nicely. long live dirge jams. i didn’t tell the guys that i was posting this but i figured it was ok since i found mike posting it on donewaiting. hope y’all enjoy!
free download: sinkane live @ wexner center
sinkane live @ the wexner april 9th 2008
this was the show we played with caribou on april 9th @ the wexner center in columbus, oh. the live band consisted of myself on guitar/vocals, evan richards on rhodes/baritone guitar, mike vallera on guitar, mike howard on bass, john also bennett on guitar and mat bisaro on drums. it was fun to play. every time i listen to this recording i hate how my voice sounds but whatever.
all songs from this recording will be featured on the next LP in some way, shape or form. the new album has been fully recorded and mixed by mark himmel, john fintel and myself at relay recordings in columbus, oh. it is self titled. mark and i camped out at relay for three days and tracked the entire record with little sleep. im very proud of the results. the album is an ode to my influences. track listing is as follows:
1. desert blues
2. blown
3. the glow/white light
4. apache beat
5. great ghost
6. ambient weeks
7. big sky
8. tan airplane
will be released on Emergency Umbrella records in 2009.
ill be recording a bunch of new songs for free downloads/7″’s/split releases/etc… once i get back to georgia this weekend.
white noise: electric storm
currently obsessed with this record. i was turned onto it from jamey from of montreal while we were driving around in athens several weeks back. i might be a little bit slow on this but sheesh. such an incredible record. super spaced out cosmic psych-folk. very easy to fall back and just lost in this. im in a really big reggae/dub phase right now but this, and the omnipresent pharoah sanders & alice coltrane, are the exceptions. like sanders and coltrane, white noise creates interesting sounds with layers. effected tape loops over drum rolls and delayed vocals create a subtle wall of sound… does that even make sense? whatever. haven’t been inspired by much of the new music coming out right now. it’s interesting that a record form 1968 can sound more fresh and exciting than something that has been released 40 years later.
current obsessions
i really hope to be able to tear it down like this when im sly’s age.
Sinisterals
this was the first piece of music i created as sinkane. i put it out on cd-r last year and kind of forgot about it. im really detached from it now and i feel like the only thing i should do with it is give it away for free. i really wanted to create a lush pulse with out drums on this song. something melodic, repetitive but somewhat lose and mind numbing. you can download it from the link below.
great women in music: betty davis
probably the most undeniably powerful women to ever play music. so raw. so emotional. so saucy. and so incredibly sexy. if anything else she needs to be applauded for how unapologetically honest she was. victimized by thre NAACP as being a ‘disgrace to her race’ and being banned from radio for her provocative lyrics. She hustled hard and didn’t let anyone’s opinion sway her from doing what she wanted. i still get chills when i listen to her voice. so raw! she growled! snarled! I am influenced by her endlessly.
Game is my Middle Name
great women in music: pj harvey
i’ve had this weird obsession with pj harvey since i was in high school. i never really talked about it to anyone. if you would ask any of my friends they would be surprised to know how obsessed i am with pj harvey. im coming out of the closet with it: i fucking love pj harvey. you all should love her too. she’s brilliant.
rid of me
big exit
the life and death of mr. badmouth
the hangman
my friend greg and i have this ongoing conversation about art. he recently sent me this youtube, the poem “the hangman” illustrated by Les Goldman and Paul Julian. Herschel Bernardi is the narrator. the poem was written by Maurice Ogden. it’s a children’s poem which is why i think i enjoy it so much.
The Hangman
by Maurice Ogden
1.
Into our town the Hangman came.
Smelling of gold and blood and flame
and he paced our bricks with a diffident air
and built his frame on the courthouse square
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door
And we wondered, whenever we had the time.
Who the criminal, what the crime.
That Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead:
Till one cried: “Hangman, who is he
For whom you raise the gallows-tree?”
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
“He who serves me best,” said he,
“Shall earn the rope on the gallows-tree.”
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land
And we breathed again, for another’s grief
At the Hangman’s hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow’s sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke.
Out of respect for his Hangman’s cloak.
2.
The next day’s sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town
And stark and black in the morning air,
The gallows-tree on the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business like.
And we cried, “Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday with the alien one?”
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
“Oh, not for him was the gallows raised.”
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
“…Did you think I’d gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That’s a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new.”
Then one cried “Murder!” One cried “Shame!”
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man’s place. “Do you hold,” said he,
“With him that was meant for the gallows-tree?”
And he laid his hand on that one’s arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm,
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman’s cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman’s scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
3.
The third he took-we had all heard tell
Was a user and infidel, and
“What,” said the Hangman “have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?”
And we cried out, “Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?”
The Hangman smiled: “It’s a clever scheme
To try the strength of the gallows-beam.”
The fourth man’s dark, accusing song
Had scratched out comfort hard and long;
And what concern, he gave us back.
“Have you for the doomed–the doomed and black?”
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
“Hangman, Hangman, is this the last?”
“It’s a trick,” he said, “That we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow.”"
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score:
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side:
And the monster cross-beam, looking down.
Cast its shadow across the town.
4.
Then through the town the Hangman came
And called in the empty streets my name-
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall
And thought, “There is no one left at all
For hanging.” And so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree.
And I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman’s tree and the Hangman’s rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap
And it sprang down with a ready snap.
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
“You tricked me. Hangman!” I shouted then.
“That your scaffold was built for other men…
And I no henchman of yours,” I cried,
“You lied to me. Hangman. foully lied!”
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
“Lied to you? Tricked you?” he said. “Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true”
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward’s hope?” said he,
“And where are the others that might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?”
“Dead,” I whispered, and sadly
“Murdered,” the Hangman corrected me:
“First the alien, then the Jew…
I did no more than you let me do.”
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky.
None had stood so alone as I.
And the Hangman strapped me, and no voice there
Cried “Stay!” for me in the empty square.
Spin magazine, future plans, et al
“Autobahn” is featured #3 of the top 15 songs to download in july’s issue of Spin magazine! You can download a digital version of the magazine or go to any fine retailer to purchase a hard copy of your own.
There are no shows scheduled in the near future but rest assured that I will be peaking back up this fall. In August I will be meeting up with of Montreal to start rehearsal with them for their next tour. I am very excited to say that I will be joining Kevin, James, Dottie, Davey and Bryan as one of their drummers for the upcoming tour.
In the mean time I will be recording a new record that is set to be released sometime next year! I will keep everyone posted on my musical adventures through this blog and myspace.
