Working Title

Category: Music

  • Open mics

    I’m getting into open mics again, partly to prepare for the epic 2-hour show I’m doing in Union, WA in three weeks — not to mention Toorcamp the week after — and partly because it’s fun and you get to meet strangers. I played Shadowland in West Seattle last night, and Molly Maguire’s pub last Monday. I’m going to keep this going: Seamonster Lounge next Monday, Hopvine or Skylark the next Wednesday after. Let’s hang out.

    If you’re into open mics this page is priceless: openmikes.org. It lists open mics all over the country. Many thanks to Paul Roub for setting it up. You used to have to look in a newspaper. One for every city. Stacks of them. So wasteful. Life has never been easier.

  • New old song

    This is an old song (~11 years) and old recording (~4 years) but a new mix. I’m never quite satisfied with the mixes I do of this song, but this one is pretty good with headphones. I’ll keep at it.

    In other news, I set up a Facebook page for Sun Tunnels. Come on and like me. The Facebook corporation will use the fact that you like me to display personalized ads for related goods and services. I wonder what they’ll try to sell you? What says “Sun Tunnels?” Deodorant? Major appliances? I can’t wait to find out.

  • New demo and love for SoundCloud

    Hi there, check out this demo:

    It’s the first finished song for an album concept I’m working on and the first thing I’ve published on SoundCloud.

    I’ve been shilling SoundCloud to my friends a lot lately because I’m so impressed with it. When I first heard about SC I tried to ignore it — I figured it was yet another way to do music stuff on the web, among hundreds, probably to be short-lived, and didn’t want to bother with it. It’s a couple of years later now so I’m late to the game, but after trying it out I think it’s great. The interface is intuitive, a bit crowded with some redundant elements but still easy to use. I like that you can keep tracks private and share them with other SC users (or email a link to someone outside SC) before you make them public. I like how it keeps stats and gives you lots of options for downloads vs. streaming, etc. The iPhone app is very good.

    Their dashboard “stream” is interesting philosophically — you see new tracks by the people you befriend as they share them. It’s like the old days of trading CDRs or tapes, only instant, less tactile, and more single-oriented as opposed to collections of related songs. So, it tracks with how music is now experienced in the mp3 age, which makes sense. People go back and forth as to whether that’s good or not, but in any case their developers have done a great job and I like it.

  • Nice NMH cover

    I just heard this:

    http://www.covermesongs.com/MP3s/News0412/30Quickies/EverythingIs.mp3

    on a site devoted to covers, via Brent Amaker, who also has a song on there. It’s really well done by an Albuquerque band called Sad Baby Wolf. Their recording is very close to the original, but just different enough to be worth doing.

    Last week I posted some thoughts about NMH and seeing Jeff Mangum at the Moore and then made it private because I’d rather keep (most of) it to myself. The short version is that I’m kind of over it. NMH felt more meaningful when I was younger, which is a bit sad to realize but there it is. Hearing that cover though brought a bit of it back. I used to cover “Everything Is” a lot during the summer as it’s a good summer song, and one of NMH’s more cheerful, Tall Dwarfs-ish sounding ones.

    Coincidentally enough I just went to Sad Baby Wolf’s website and, in addition to the band having former Shins members in it, also has Sean McCullough on bass, whom I met that fateful night in Albuquerque when Jeff Mangum was in the bar and overheard me cover “Engine.” I hung out with Sean that night and the next year when I came through Albuquerque again. It’s good to see he’s still active in the ALB scene, and damn I quite enjoy these coincidences.

  • Ball of Wax Volume 27

    I have a song on Ball of Wax #27, the quarterly audio comp (and, more recently, blog) my pal Levi Fuller has been putting out since 2005. This is my ninth appearance on the series, making me exactly 1/3rd committed to the project.

    As with every BoW release there’s a show, and I’ll be playing it, tomorrow (the 23rd) at the Sunset Tavern, starting around 9pm. Here’s a Facebook invite.

    As for the song, I submitted an old one that was initially meant for a different friend’s homemade horror movie. That was four years ago and he either never finished the movie or didn’t want the song, so there it is. You can listen to the comp and even (gasp) buy it right now at Bandcamp.