the sun inside

the new record is finally finished. mastered by jeff lipton here in boston, it contains 14 songs recorded over the past year at space67. it also features a co-write with dan 'the automator' nakamura. it's total pop record--far more hi-fi than "aviating". a little bit syd barrett--a little bit prince paul....

a european release is slated for late may with a 12" vinyl ep/single preceding. one side of the single will contain the album version of smile on fire and two bonus tracks. one called she trips me out with the pink floyd and another called deny. originally there was to be a remix of a mama's and papas song called "twelve thirty" which samples the line "i used to live in new york city". incredibly haunting--especially post 9/11. anyhow, way too expensive. the other side will be a dubbed out remix of the abum track fm royalty.

*still haven't decided on a u.s. label so it looks as though it will only be available as an import for the time being.

*holland and belgian dates from april 2-8. these will be duo performances with blake hazard. just samples and electric guitars. a full band european tour is planned for mid- may.

OTHER THINGS...

*the jd produced BLAKE HAZARD record is mastered and will be out in holland and belgium in late march on a subsidiary of konkurrent. the u.s. release will be in april on the boston based label kimchee records. she will performing in jackdrag on the upcoming tours as well doing dates of her own.

*other works in progress: full length lp for the band FRANCINE for Q-division record. remix of the song "other side" by JOSH RITTER. programming and micellaneous tracks for the WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY song "soft hand". contributing weird noises and drum loops for the new FLY SEVILLE record.

way back when....

the "soft songs lp: aviating" (sugar free in the u.s.a. and shifty disco in europe) kept us wonderfully busy through out the year with four trips to the u.k. and europe. on february's tour we were invited to the bbc1 studios for a peel session which was a fantastic experience. it was really cool in that i used to listen to john peel on short wave radio during my boarding school days overseas where the show introduced me to so many bands that i still dig today. the latest trip, this past august. was to holland for the lowlands festival with tricky, eels, mogwai, among dozens of others. the touring band has been a sample based trio with joe klompus playing bass, guitar and triggering drum loops and blake hazard at the control center with keyboards/samples as well as singing and guitar.

THE NOW:
the holland trip was a true blast. we played two shows. the first was in amsterdam at the infamous and absolutely beautiful paradiso club, which was once a church, and the other show was at a festival called lowlands. this took place in a huge field in the middle of the country and draws about 50,000 people annually. we played in the india tent which was super wonderful. fellow bostonian and frank black guitarist, rich gilbert was there to check the set out as well. they played an hour later at another stage. all in all, it was two day's of glorious work and four days of relaxing in amsterdam. really, where else can one get stoned in a coffee house while doing laundry?

CMJ: as you probably know, cmj was cancelled due to the events that occured in nyc on september 11th. it has been rescheduled and jackdrag will be at brownies on saturday, october 13th. it should be a cool show and the first with a true live drummer since joe, jason and i played t.t. the bears in
boston about a year and a half ago. the fantastic steve scully will be sitting in for this show. he and joey k. last toured with nina gordon and are also blake hazards beat and bass. blake's shows for cmj have also been rescheduled. specifics to come soon...


NEW LP:
the original plan for the next record was to be a collaboration with my friend dan nakamura, aka "dan the automator". we're still planning to finish this project but due to scheduling impossibilities it won't be the next release. one song in particular, 'FM royalty', sounds amazing. the next album, tentatively entitled "the sun inside", is basically done but until i have a date for it's release i'll keep on recording. 23 songs so far but it'll probably get cut to about 12. still not sure who will be putting it out yet.

COMPILATION OF EARLY 4-TRACK STUFF: though the details are still being worked out, a compilation of the first two 4-track records is in the wings. this will contain not only tracks from the first two (impossible to find) lps but also u.k. and japanese bonus tracks, unreleased material, and home recorded versions of songs that were featured on a&m's 'dope box'. i'll be working with adam rabinovitz on this who will be releasing the cd on scientific records.

OTHER PROJECTS:

PRODUCTION: i spent much of my free time this past year or so recording blake hazard's debut. she's a really fantastic writer with an incredible voicee who is based here in boston--destined to be a super star. no scheduled release date yet.
another cool endeavor was collaborating with jesse blatz from the fly seville. the name we gave this project was "the first day of summer" and we'll be releasing the song "time machine" as a 7". also have been approached by dave gibbs and steve hurley from the gigolo aunts about producing their next record... we'll see.

COMPOSING:
did the music for the volkswagen micro-bus debut at the detroit auto show. a really tripped out vehicle that you won't be able to buy for some time. consequently, they manage to maintain my "indie rock" lifestyle. you can also check out the link to vw radio for a "round-table discussion" between myself, master cylinder, and ben neill that starts on august 13th.