News
Well, here it's 2025, and apparently I've let 6 years go by since putting any "news" Ha ha, sometimes you just don't want to do the work. So. How about some news.
Feb. 2025
2025 is rolling in big, I already have 25 gigs booked between my 5 bands! Last year I played 68 shows, which was a record for me. I think I might be getting better as a player. Maybe.
I'm getting ready soon to head out to the Big Ears Festival again (my 9th time), as well as a second time on Cruise to the Edge, a prog-rock cruise. Between those two events, I'll likely see about 80 bands and ensembles. Big Ears is always a treat, filled with artists that you already know, and some you have yet to discover. Much cross-pollination occurs, with artists collaborating with other artists in performances that you'll never see anywhere else. One of the best things about Big Ears is that, rather than some big muddy field with multiple stages, it happens in a variety of venues Knoxville, TN, that are all easily walkable. In an average Big Ears day, I generally walk about 6 miles!Cruise to the Edge will sail out of Miami, and spend 5 days on the water with bands playing from late morning until 1am. Everyone I mention the cruise to asks me where it's going. I don't know. Somewhere in the Caribbean. I don't care where it goes, since folks are on the boat to hear the bands. After the "big" bands are done, the musician cruisers get together and play in "Late Night Live." Songs and positions are chosen ahead of time, and you rehearse your parts at home, then when you are called on the stage, you play the tune with people you've never before played with! This is very similar to "The Roadhouse" at Three of a Perfect Pair Camp (another yearly event for me, which happens in August). These sort of things are the most fun of all! On Cruise to the Edge I will be singing "Siberian Khatru" by Yes; and playing guitar on "School" by Supertramp; "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel and "Time" by The Alan Parsons Project.
Surplus 1980 went into the studio in Nov. 24, and recorded 5 tracks toward a new album. We will write some more and hopefully get a new record out in the next year or so.
Hyperdrive Kittens are also going in to the studio in March, to record six songs, some slated for a single split, others for perhaps our own album.
Flock of Seagirls are heading down to Los Angeles for a pair of shows in July.
Airwaves continues our second-Friday residency at Alameda's Cinema Grill, which is probably my very favorite gig!
GrrlzTalk is working up new material and looking forward to some gigs this summer.
In January I got back to doing my Rok Dove solo aCOOstic show, doing a couple songs between each band at the Ivy Room's "Bang the Bay" event.
OLD NEWS ITEM:
This coming Saturday, September 7, 2019 I will be one of 20 percussionists to play a piece by Hisham Akira Bharoocha called "Sonic Mountain" on a musical sculpture of the same name situated at the Donum Estate in Sonoma, CA. The sculpture, by artist Doug Aitken, consists of a 45 foot steel frame that holds 365 mirrored metal chimes in three concentric circles. Aitkins explains the work "I started thinking about this idea of, could we really make an artwork that's living? Can we really make something that’s changing continuously? At times there are these sounds that are like frequencies. You can't really make out where they're coming from because they're not really coming from one place. They're coming from all around you. In a sense it creates this kind of sonic field."
For the performance, we 20 percussionists will be placed in circles through the sculpture, and will perform three movements of music composed to pay homage to the elements of nature. The piece is described by the composer thus: "Humans can live in harmony with the power of nature, but humans can also be nature's worst enemy. We can live within it in peace, or try to control it, which sometimes results in large scale catastrophes. I would like to convey this musically in a few movements which are based on the notes and number of chimes existing in this sculpture. I will also be referencing the immediate environment surrounding the sculpture."
I am really looking forward to participating in this most unique event! I can't wait to see and hear how it plays out.
