FolkLife 2014

Hey, just a quick update on Folklife 2014! I have my performance schedule this year so I just want to briefly share that.

Saturday

12:30pm — The m9 — busking nearish the statue between EMP and Seattle Center. We play Serbian Brass music. Lots of horns and drums.

6pm — Bucharest Drinking Team — at the Fountain Lawn Stage by the beer garden. We’re a party band, so be prepared for that. And then the Balkan Misfits showcase continues the rest of the evening!

9pm — The Debaucherauntes — afterparty at the Conor Byrne in Ballard, with a bunch more cool bands. We do Klezmer. There will be other Americana type music going on.

Sunday

3pm — The Debaucherauntes — We’re doing our thang again at Folklife, as part of a whole Klezmer showcase

Monday

3:30pm — The m9 — more busking in the same place!

So that’s the schedj. I have to say, this is the first year that I am more of a performer and less of a fan. It’s kind of a big milestone for me on a personal level, although I will seriously be sad to miss all my friends doing their thing. There is some amazing music going on all weekend, so I hope you set aside time to hang out for the whole thing.

What to check out all weekend

Songs of Maritime Disasters, Fabulous Downey Brothers, Garfield Jazz Ensemble, the Tallboys, Annie Ford Band, Country Lips, New Klezmer Army, Croation Showcase, Bakelite 78, Skitnik, EuroDancePartyU$A, Radost, Orkestar Zirkonium, Juliana and Pava, Onefourfive, Dunava, Balkanarama, The Bad Things, The Lonely Coast, and much more.

Busy weekend! I hope to see you!

New in 2014

Hey, so I’ve added a few more projects to the list. The new year is going to be awesome.

THINE

Stuart Dalquist and Joel R.L. Phelps were kind enough to invite me to join with them and a few other excellent people such as David Lutz and Jake Weller. We’ve met once already, and I’m really looking forward to the huge challenge in reproducing the whole thing in a live setting. Probably in a few months. Like Holy Cities, this is something where I was already a fan, long before I got involved. So this is dear to my heart. It’s the kind of music that sort of invents itself as it goes along–a concept that inspired me to be a musician in the first place.

UPDATE: The name has been changed to Dama/Libra.

The minor 9

We’re a Balkan brass band. No official recordings as of yet. We’ve been gearing up for Balkan Night Northwest, where you will hear our debut. This is a group of Balkan brass aficionados, who aren’t interested in being held back by the past. Yes, you can dance your butt off to us, but we don’t want our sound to require mothballs or a vacuum seal.

And I should also mention that Bucharest Drinking Team will be playing at Chop Suey for International Women’s Day, along with Kultur Shock. As per the usual, this party will be epic.

Holy Cities

So, the past year I’ve been working up a set with a new band, Holy Cities. It’s kind of an electro-pop post-rock thing. It’s pretty challenging for me because I have to think about all the nuances of playing: technique, dynamics, inflection, intonation, feel. That kind of thing. In the past with this kind of thing, I’ve thought about some of these things, but mostly it was about dynamics and playing a lot of notes and technically fast fills. With Shiplosion, I started bridging the gap–I wish I could have continued going with that, too–but I ran out of time. But with this band it’s about a lot of nuance, and I’m really enjoying it and really liking the music. The arrangements have an epic quality, my favorite, and it’s earnest. It’s pretty, but maybe also a little lonely and stark, and perhaps a little foreboding? We’re an odd bunch, from different contradicting background, but we’re coming together and it’s working.

The other day, we gathered some equipment, and borrowed a little, and then assembled in a warehouse in Sodo and recorded some DIY tracks. Hey, they are turning out okay! We are starting to put them up online. Give us a listen and tell me what you think.

We’re gonna play our first show on Saturday, at the Josephine. We’ll by sharing the stage with some friends. I hope you can make it. We could use your encouragement! Oh, and let me know if you have ideas for bands or shows to play with. :)

Trying to know when to stop

Stopping is lame. And the more we pour our souls into the art, the harder it is to stop. I’m not talking about knowing when to finish a song–that’s hard enough. But knowing when to end an entire project is agony. Looking back, there even were times when it was like I was brainwashed in a cult.

And early on in my life as a drummer, I let some things wind down rather than try to keep them going. I probably shouldn’t have let that happen, but I lacked perspective. And that was painful too. I look back on it knowing that things were actually better than I thought, and so I let others down.

There are so many things to consider. The art, the fans, the business, your own happiness, the happiness of others…. And so I come to the point where I feel like I must quit Shiplosion. This is some uncharted territory for me, because I think that I need to clear up some time for future paying gigs. And I wasn’t feeling like I was inside the music. I love playing the drums on these songs, and have a blast at shows–so, yet again, this is painful and I am second guessing myself. Am I giving up too early? Is this the right long term choice? Am I quiting something on the verge of blowing up? Well, I think they need a drummer who is more at home with the music, so I hope it was right for me to step aside to give them a better chance. Frankly, I think I was holding them back.

I’m just grateful that they took it so well. We had a really good talk about it, and it seemed like we all understood what was what.

Well, I’ve been through this pain enough times now, having played in quite a few different situations, that I really hope this will turn out okay for everyone. As for myself, I hope this recent set of one-off paying gigs will continue to be a regular thing! And I hope that really is the right situation for me. Time will tell…

So the lesson here, is that I think that you need to play in a lot of situations with a lot of different people before you have enough perspective about what projects are really the right ones for you. And then the idea is that you will be able to justify walking away. Otherwise, you’ll leave far too early and regret it later, or you will just be spinning your wheels and wasting everyone’s time.

FolkLife 2013 — Monday

Here’s what’s going down today:

2pm — Klezmer jam, starting on the east side of Key Arena. We’re just gonna wing it with whomever shows up and play what we feel like or what you request.

3:30pm — Radost Folk Ensemble. Dance and music of Eastern Europe.

5:50pm — Zakuska. Vocal music from the Balkans

7:30pm — Fabulous Downey Brothers. Insane, frenetic new wave rock performance art.

… and then… sleep.

FolkLife Schedule

FolkLife 2013 — Sunday

Ooops, I’m posting this too late! On Saturday night, I ended up at a friends house and played music far into the night… then in the morning it was a mad rush to get to FolkLife–and my phone battery died. At any rate, here’s what all transpired!

3pm — Not on the online schedule, we checked out the Tom Lehrer sing-a-long! Some of the most snarky, sarcastic songs you’ve heard. Written ahead of their time.

4pm — Bulgarian showcase. Too much going on to mention it all. I was most impressed by Vladimir Mollov’s accordion awesomness. He started so very quietly, and then controlled our emotions like robots the rest of the performance with his mastery of dynamics and intonation. And it was pretty cool that Xti got to play darbuka with him! And we were all enthralled by the Bulgarian voices of Dunava.

7pm — Headed over to the Center House (now called the Armory??) for dancing into the night with Kef, Kafana Republik, more enrapturing Vladimir Mollov, and many others.

10pm — Afterparty time at the Sarajevo Lounge. Got to jam out and dance with so many folks from various Balkan bands in the area. This is a great, friendly community.

FolkLife 2013 – Saturday

Wow, tonight was insane. Looking forward to part 2 tomorrow!

Okay, here’s what we got for FolkLife Festival on Saturday, May 25, 2013.

 

1:40pm — Les Pamplemousses hit the stage to play music from the earlier part of the 20th century. Facebook. Video.

6pm — Balkan Misfits Party. I’ll be playing with Bucharest Drinking Team, and we get to share the stage with our good friends Orkestar Zirkonium, Erev Rav, and Chervona! FolkLife blog post.

10pm — The afterparties begin! First, the Klezmer FolkLife Afterparty at Re-Bar! Local klez artists The Debaucherauntes (fusion), and the legendary Nu Klezmer Army (trad), are proud to welcome special guests Fleet Street Klezmer Band, hailing all the way from Boise. Facebook.

 

… and then… ???

 

FolkLife Schedule

FolkLife 2013 — Friday

Okay, here’s the rundown for FolkLife tonight, Friday, May 24, 2013:

6pm — Check out OneFourFive. There is a facebook event. onefourfive will sing a cappella songs from Caucasus Georgia

7pm — Head over to DuBorziLanza. Indeed, there is a facebook event as well. They will play a set of sinister love songs and morose prison ballads from the south side of Italy.

8pm — The afterparties get started! First, I’ll be playing with Bucharest Drinking Team, and we’ll be joined by many of our good friends! Including Chervona and Erev Rav! Yes, indeed the facebook event is there for you.

Then… ???

Stay tuned for Saturday’s schedule!

Edit >> You can create your own schedule and see what your friends are doing this weekend. Cool stuff. See you there!