((( echo magic )))

November Spawned a Monster

Hi. Its been almost a month since I wrote on here, so I wanted to explain what nonsense I have been up to that has put more important things, like blog posting, on the back-burner all November.

First of all, I have been cranking away sound design and mixing on one short film after another, as the festival season is here. Some of these films include a short starring Elijah Wood for Last Pictures, a hilarious and talented film company. Its called Boobie. I also worked on a film starring James Franco and Holmes Osborn called Solitary/Release, directed by the brilliant Holden Osborne. Finally, of note is a film called Signal From Shore, a film by kind bud Peter Flaherty written and directed in South Korea.

On the musical tip, A new Hiss Golden Messenger record is brewing. It will be a vinyl and download only release. Inspired by such live masterpieces as Europe '72, the record captures a creamy live performance from a stellar personnel line-up at the top of their game at the WNYC studios on Varick St. in NYC.

Family Band is playing a few shows also this December, with the first one on the 5th at the Petri Space in Brooklyn, details here.

Also- I am in the process of uploading a bunch of my own jams to soundcloud. Do yourself a favor and take a mellow listen.

Finally, some images to inspire:

I love T-Day

my zone

dream bug

union st. procession

Labels: adventures, autumn, jamz

Then play on

October is almost gone. One last breath before the plunge.

Labels: magic

sleeping magic

This is a collection of songs about sleep . Its been a while since the last echo magic mix, so here it is! Sleep tight.

Directions for best results: double click to unzip the sleep.zip file. Drag and drop the sleep folder onto the word PLAYLISTS on the left column of your iTunes. Enjoy.

Labels: autumn, mixtapes, sleep

Are you ready for Waylon?

Do you know how much I love Waylon Jennings? In every genre of music there is a defining group of musicians who invent a style, a beat, a rhythm, a groove. In reggae you have the Sly and Robbie school, and you've got the Carlton and Aston Barrett combo. In Krautrock there's the Klaus Dinger beat and the Neu! shuffle, or you have the Germanic Africanisms of Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay. Each band has their own particular rhythmic subtleties and when you get really into the specifics of each genre, you fall in love with how different crews can put their signature on any tune, cover or not. And the more you get into it, the more you realize that nobody can do it better than the way these guys do it. Because they invented it.

Waylon Jennings is no exception to this rule. I fell in love with the peculiar rhythms and grooves of Waylon's band even before I heard the most appropriate name ever for it: "The Honky Stomp," as coined by drummer extraordinaire John Hofer, who can muster up just about the best imitation of the "Stomp" I have heard.

So what are the ingredients of "The Honky Stomp"? The feel is so unabashedly straight that it is somehow the funkiest thing you've heard. At the foundation of the whole thing is the simplest stripped down kick and snare drum dumbshit beat, Richie Albright is hitting the kick drum on all four. And the drums are always loud in the mix with a ticking hi-hat on the offbeats. Locked in there along with them is a bouncing fifths bass groove that never steps off the chord root, not even for a second. Two notes is all you need- you'd be a pussy to play three. The glue that binds it all together is the ever present phased out sticky icky guitar played by the man himself. I wouldn't be surprised if Waylon had a phaser permanently installed in his guitar because he never turns it off. It is the perfect final ingredient to fuel that mid seventies quaalude and whiskey haze. Riding high on top of it all is a far off strummed cowboy chord acoustic guitar and of course Ralph Mooney's insanely brilliant pedal steel, also usually phased out.

If you haven't heard Waylon's prime era Honky Stomp records, you really should to check them out. Just pull them right out of the dollar bin and take a listen. I'm talking about "Lonesome On'ry and Mean", "Honky Tonk Heroes", "This Time", "Ramblin' Man" and my personal all time favorite, "Dreaming My Dreams", produced by Jack Clement.

On offer here is a new gem I found recently, "Are you Ready for the Country" from 1976, toward the end of the prime Honky Stomp era. But he has still got it here. Waylon's Neil Young cover is straightened out so much it sounds like a Kraftwerk record for a second, but then you add in the wah-wah clavinet and it gets all Burning Spear somehow too. Rad. The other favorite on this is Waylon's self depreciating "So Good Woman". Its the laziest groove ever with far out My Bloody Valentine synth middle sections and a rambling Wurlitzer to boot. Amazing.