Let's Start Making A New Album!

It’s been awhile, to quote everyone’s least favorite right wing watered-down grunge act… been awhile since I’ve posted.

We just finished a month long tour and it was a lot of fun. Fun to hang out with my old friend Will Sheff, have long conversations on long drives. What looked like a punishing tour on paper just blew right by. Good company helps. A good time was had by all.

That’s my tour diary. I got back and jumped straight into regular life. I was at a bat mitzvah the next day. A good time was had by all.

Had to finally upgrade the computer I use for recording. Had it since 2013. Brill Bruisers was its inaugural journey, the champagne bottle we smashed against its hull. So to speak. The tech upgrade was a little scary. I dreaded it. Being a luddite, and not a proud luddite, I had a fairly idiot-proof set-up. Put in place by tech savvy friends many years ago. Now I was thrown into a new tech journey, which would have crushed me if not for the very small dose of venlafaxine that keeps me level.

I just do not care about the tech. I have no interest in it. It does not fascinate me. I learn it so I can navigate its streets and get to my destination. So now I’m routing input bundles and such, which is bullshit, but that is how learning works. If you’re learning anything worthwhile or new, it will probably frustrate you. Your brain is working out. It needs to stretch, it needs to develop good habits. I feel like I just bought a new car but I have to install the muffler from the old car, then I have to build and install the carburetor myself, then troubleshoot various ongoing problems with the engine. I just want to drive my new car, I do not want to be a mechanic!

I have figured enough of it out that I can work. I call John Collins a lot, waiting until around noon eastern time to call him in the pacific northwest. He is the only person I know that uses Digital Performer. I use it because he has always used it. It was simpler that way. Everyone on the same page, reading the same book.

Nothing makes me fly into a shame spiral and rage like tech issues. I have played terribly in front of no people, been mocked, ignored, celebrated, mocked, and ignored some more. I brushed it all off and continued my journey, but tech issues make me want to pack it all in. That’s why this text from John was perfect and hilarious. Funny because it’s true:

No I’m not going to quit music. To go back to paraphrasing and misquoting the words of William Gaddis: at this point it’s too late even to be the things I never wanted to be. I’m glad for that. Get a real job? That ship has sailed, friend. To go back to the ship metaphors. The shards of that champagne bottle are resting on the bottom of the deep blue sea. Because that ship was christened and sailed a long time ago. Also, it wasn’t an ocean liner, it was a trusty tugboat. I don’t want to go to your party. I don’t want to talk with your friends. I don’t want to vote for your president. I just want to be your tugboat captain.

Did I just unlock the poetry of the 1st Galaxie 500 single?

A lot of grunt work has been done to get back to the point where I can just sit in my studio and work on music, and now I am here.

Time to start on another record. It takes so long to make them that I can never really take a break. There is always something that drags it out. Some of it stems from being a weird creative type, questioning every decision, some of it is logistics, some of it from unforeseen disasters.

I was deep into ‘The Former Site Of’ when I started doing this Substack. I thought it was almost done but life went very dark for a while. All plans were off.

Now, however, now I can take you through the entire journey of making a new record. Now I can show you how the songs change, how the songs get abandoned, how they get brought back from the dead.

Show you the life of the mind.

(insert GIF of John Goodman running down flaming hallway, rifle in hand)

So come with me on the journey. These “word posts” (“sentence houses”?) will be free. The ones that have music will be for paid subscribers. The same drill.

What have I been listening to in the last few months? Where is my mind at now that I decide to make a new record?

Here, for what it’s worth:

Spray Paint ‘Into The Country’

Straight out of Austin and not together anymore. Like Devo or Thinking Fellers at their earliest and most primitive. Took a while to hook me but now I’m in. ‘Squeakers Theme’ and ‘Alcohol Surface’ my top tracks. All their albums are great, it’s all a vibe you love or hate.

Lower Plenty ‘Sister Sister’

Straight out of Melbourne. Been around as long as Spray Paint. Still together? I don’t know. Last album was ‘23. That’s in ‘still together’ territory. It sounds very Australian to me and also reminds me of Jacobites. Some Sudden and Kusworth in there. The most gloriously inbred music scene, they have members of Dick Diver, Total Control, UV Race, Terry (?) and probably ten other acts. Again, all the albums are great, it’s a vibe you want or you don’t want. ‘Bondi’s Dead’ is my current fave. Even some Bejar in there? Maybe by way of the Jacobites.

White Magic - entire discography

Mira Billotte, cover star of the Autoclave EP, collaborator with her sister in the band Quix*o*tic, is the center of this band. I believe there is a double album and 3 EPs, all on Drag City. When everyone was flipping over freak folk way back in ‘04 I thought WM would surely be the breakout band. If one cares about songs and lyrics and singing and originality and other trifles. Of course I was wrong. I’m always wrong. The ‘Through The Sun Door’ EP was classic after classic. So was the ‘Dark Stars’ EP. So was the ‘I’m Hiding My Nightingale’ EP. Another band with a vibe, a vibe that I will follow to the end.

Slant 6 - entire discography

You can’t listen to White Magic without becoming intrigued by the other Billotte sister, Christina. Slant 6 MUST have been an influence on Sleater Kinney, considering the cross-pollination between the Olympia and DC scenes. It is so similar. Not a knock on anyone, how could you not be influenced by a band with such effortless cool and minimal angular hooks? Their first album came out right around the time Carrie B and co started practicing together. The timing adds up. It is almost as if the 1st S-K record showed up the moment Slant 6 broke up (back in ‘95) to continue carrying the mantle.

Beak - entire discography

I was so blown away by them that I had to figure out who was behind it. Of course, it was Geoff Barrow, from Portishead. I am so far behind with so much music. Just trying to catch up here.

Eleventh Dream Day - ‘Prairie School Freakout’

I’ve had this record for 30 some years now and just started listening to it again. I do not say this lightly: one of the only records working this side of the street that truly approaches the greatness of Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

Exek - ‘Prove The Mountains Move’

More beautiful Melbourne music. A little Clinic? Some early Eno?

Will any of the music I write and record be influenced by any of these acts? Who knows? Influence is subtle. No matter how much I might love early Devo or TFUL282, I know it’s not what I do. It might, however, influence a decision I make along the way. It might influence me to choose the abrasive. It might influence me to take a hard left turn instead of taking the straightaway. We will see.