my songs and shows
At the end of two hours of improvising music today, we were tossing out name ideas when Darrel said Amen, Icy Cinema, which is a palindrome. To which I said, Icy Cinema and the three of us looked at each other as if to say, I think that’s it! And so it is, I think we have a name for our Ambient trio.
Here are a number of tracks from our last practice, Feb. 7.
[zoomsounds id=”icy-cinema-feb-7-2018″]
In honor of #InternationalClashDay I recorded I’m So Bored with the U.S.A. in the stairwell today on my lunch break. Long live The Clash!!!
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Yankee soldier
He want to shoot some skag
He met it in Cambodia, but now
He can’t afford a bag
Yankee dollar talk
To the dictators of the world
In fact it’s giving orders
An’ they can’t afford to miss a word
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
But what can I do?
Yankee detectives
Are always on the TV
‘Cause killers in America work
Seven days a week
Never mind the stars and stripes
Let’s print the Watergate Tapes
I’ll salute the New Wave
And I hope nobody escapes
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
But what can I do?
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
But what can I do?
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
I’m so bored with the U.S.A.
But what can I do?
For Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this year I thought I’d record this favorite from my Sunday singalong songbook, George Harrison’s Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth). So I took my Martin (guitar) over to one of my favorite stairwells on campus last week and recorded this song.
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Give me love, give me love, give me peace on earth
Give me light, give me life, keep me free from birth
Give me hope, help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to touch and reach you with heart and soulOmmmmmmmmmmmmm my my lord
Pleeeeeeaaaaaase take hold of my hand
That I might understand you
Won’t you please, oh won’t you…
[zoomsounds id=”cinescapes-2″]
I’ve come to love ambient music over the last few years, largely because I listen to it by default in the morning, meditating, and at work. So I was jazzed about joining Darrel in Gray’s music room a few times in December for ambient jams to improvise cinematic soundscapes.
Darrel and I are mostly on our guitars, thick with effects and tricks, while Gray floats from keyboard to kit, guitar to Theremin. These are four of the more magical moments from our second session. Here’s what Darrel heard:
Tunnel Vision – making me imagine walking the streets of Tokyo just before Dawn. Won Morn offers lovely weightlessness – dimensions and intrigue, a first spacewalk? But change is afoot with Won Too – with its unsettling fields, dark skies… and battering. And the journey into darkness concludes with a visit with Edvard Munch in Halliday Ja.
I started MANTRAS in 2013 when I chose four songs (#s 1-4 below) that have a reggae/ska feel. I dreamed of a horn section for these and contacted a great local trombone player and arranger (of Grupo Fantasma/Brownout fame) to write parts and produce a horn section.
We went into Tonehaus studio and laid down drums, bass, and guitar. We went back a few months later and laid down a three-piece horn section of trombone, sax, and trumpet.
I took all the tracks home, got lost in the weeds of editing it all, not knowing what I wanted. You know when you get your hopes and expectations up and then the details spin you around till you’re dizzy?
That was five years ago. Since then I have written new songs (and added two to the album that seem to fit nicely) but the unfinished MANTRAS has cast a shadow over my creative output. Now, as 2018 begins and I’ve got a bunch of new projects pulling me forward, my New Year’s resolution is to finish this album as an EP this Spring.
I’ll just keep repeating my mantra from I Have Arrived:
No more waiting for the stars to align
No more waiting, no more hesitating
Here is a rough-cut of the songs for the upcoming EP, MANTRAS:
