Carp!

It’s been an extremely long time since I’ve posted anything, so let me make up for that now. Here’s what’s been going on…

  • January, 2007: played with Southerly at El Corazon, to a largely empty, freezing room. I could see my breath while playing, which was kind of neat.
  • February 1, 2007: co-released the Ball of Wax Volume 7 DVD with Levi Fuller, to great fanfare. Buy it, it’s good.
  • February 23, 2007: Released the Brent Amaker and the Rodeo album on J-Shirt. It’s also very, very good. Buy two, and give one to a friend.
  • March 2007: went on a two-week tour with the Rodeo, all the way to Toronto and back. See pictures on the BAR myspace site.
  • May 2007: released a new demo, available here. It’s 8 new songs of mine plus a Jeff Mangum/NMH cover.
  • June 6, 2007: Rosyvelt opened for the Handsome Family at the Tractor Tavern, and it was awesome.
  • June 23, 2007: played Ira Merrill’s CD release show. Ira’s band sounds great, as does his CD. The venue was odd though, not a good fit for me.

Let’s see, what else… well, you’ll recall Open Choir Fire came over and recorded two songs at my place, and one of them will appear on the next Ball of Wax (volume 9, at this point — go Levi!). Also sometime this year Seth Howard came over and recorded a song, which will also appear on BoW Vol. 9. I didn’t mix that one though, I just engineered, which is also fun. Speaking of engineering, I’ve now been the proud owner of a Teac 80-8 tape machine for a year, and it still doesn’t work. It’s been getting better incrementally, but the heads are still not aligned right, and it’s driving me mad. So it’s digital recording for me still, and what with moving out of my studio in September, I have a new deadline for making more recordings. So stay tuned.

And that’s the news.

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Video and Benefit

I lied in my last post — I neither finished recording nor making a video for “price,” as I’ve just not had enough time. But, I did ask my friend Tobin Wood to tape my performance at the Ball of Wax 6 CD release show, and a different song, “vacancy,” turned out ok for BoW7. I put it up on YouTube here.

Secondly, both Rosyvelt and the Rodeo, along with Herman Jolly, are playing tonight at the Mars Bar to benefit Loretta Kennedy’s breast cancer recovery. Read about it here, and come out to support a worthy cause.

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The Latest

Things have been very busy lately. First, I guess I’m in the Rodeo now. Last week I bought the uniform and played my first show with them, on acoustic rhythm guitar. Traditionally, each member of the Rodeo has to have at least one show where they’re too plowed to play correctly, and I got that out of the way right off the bat. Despite my messing up a lot, the band and the audience seemed to have a good time. I’m very excited to play with this band. I’ve been a fan of Brent’s songwriting for years, I love the Rodeo concept, and they’re also a great bunch of fellas to spend time with. I forsee having a blast and a half.

In other project news, last weekend I had Open Choir Fire in my studio to record a couple of songs, and that went extremely well. They’re a very tight band, and I think we worked pretty well together. The two songs are among their best I think, and have been stuck in my head all week.

Regarding the graze, I have until the end of the month to not only record a song (“Price”), but make a video for it as well, for Ball of Wax 7 (the DVD edition). I think I’ve almost got the drums done. It’s hard but I’m trying not to schedule any other projects, except for Seth Howard, who’s in the same boat and whom I’m helping record a song. Wish us luck.

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Rosyvelt & things

Hi, long time no post. Here’s the news: the long-awaited Rosyvelt album is all mixed and mastered, and we’re finishing up the artwork for a November 7 release date, and a November 3 CD release party. I know you’re not supposed to set these dates until you have the finished product in your hand, but what are you gonna do. This album will be on J-Shirt, numbered JS02, which is pretty cool. I like it. I think the album turned out well.

Speaking of music, today I listened to all the mp3s I could find on Matt Sheehy’s website, and I’m liking them a lot. A lot. I think his new songs are as good if not better than his old ones, and his old ones are very good. I can’t wait to hear the LP when it’s finished.

Oh yeah, there’s more. I’ve heard the Rodeo record we recorded in July and it’s even better than expected. It’s very short, only 24 minutes, but they’re a very entertaining 24 minutes. I can’t get enough of it. And finally, I submitted a demo of a newish song of mine called “Sheep” for Ball of Wax 6, so that should be appearing in a couple of months.

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Rodeo and HOB

I have a couple of things to mention that are new. First off, two weekends ago Brent Amaker and the Rodeo holed themselves up in a studio south of Seattle and recorded a bunch of songs, and I was invited to be the acoustic guitarist. From what I am told the results are really good, so a full-length Rodeo record is on the way and this is exciting because they are awesome. I hope it ends up on vinyl.

Secondly the graze is being featured on the House of Blues’ “Ones to Watch” website. At some point I was interviewed for a podcast which is supposed to appear on that site. If I recall I spent most of the interview trying not to say “uh” and “well,” so the result might sound, uh, well, dull.

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