Precipparration / A Few Shows

Hey there! Glad to see you here.

I got back yesterday afternoon from a quick and lovely adventure to Salt Lake City. Despite several showers since, the cloying blackish mud from the bottom of East Canyon Reservoir there continues to dwell under my toenails.

Some photos and thoughts from that trip below, along with the standard procedure “this is what I have coming up” type fare you’ve come to expect from artists here in the late attention economy. One of those shows is one that I am kind of in shock being able to announce today!

I visit Salt Lake City about once a year because my musical brother, Chaz Prymek, lives there. It is close to me here in Colorado, but also far enough away that it feels like a just-more-than-casual adventure to go. A 55 minute flight over a jagged swathe of the Rockies connecting one isolated medium sized urban center to another. Close is relative when gauging distances in the Mountain West.

I really like Salt Lake. There is great food and drinks, amazing books and records, and Chaz and his community there are warm and gracious and funny and lovely.

Chaz and I played a show at the UMOCA as “local” support to Frances Chang. Her new record is marvelous. Her set was enchanting. Give the album a listen!

Chaz will probably take you swimming if you hang out with him for any extended period. This trip was no different.

This time he and Nora took me swimming at East Canyon Reservoir. The body of water is reduced to near skeletal proportions because of the historic drought that much of the Mountain West is facing. We waded out, me only up to my chest, almost 100 yards into the water, our toes digging into the silty black mud that is usually deep below gathered snow melt.

We passed the locations from the photos that Chaz snapped that grace the cover of Shelter. On the drive back to town into the valley it rained and stormed, and we talked about that profound feeling of relief that is specific to living in a drought and witnessing a rainstorm. I think there should be a word for that. Precipitation + Appreciation = Precipparration.

Chaz and I often go into playing a set with very little directive apart from kind of having a key/changes; this trip we spent a few hours in his 98 degree garage jamming and ended up having a more structured — albeit still loose and full of pockets for improvisation — set. I played congas (not bongos) for a while during the set (??!?) while we got lost in a Terry Riley / Bitchin Bajas style arpeggio phase pattern trance jammer. I think we are working on a live record collecting highlights from our sets during this string of Prymek and Sage Shows we’ve been doing (more on another one of those below!!).

Always thankful to feel a sense of musical community anywhere, and it is thick in Salt Lake. Speaking of (Chaz and) Nora… check out the info about upcoming shows below…

This weekend is Ghost Canyon Festival. The whole fest runs Thursday - Sunday. A huge contribution to the Rocky Mountain music community that I am thankful for and with a line up that’ll rattle your windows for sure. Onestraw is help co-present a showcase on Saturday during the day, with doors at 12:30. Four amazing acts at the Bug Theater. It is sold out… but I mention Nora above because her group Nora Mal is playing! Along with claire rousay, Daniel Higgs, and Shane Parish. The buds are here and it’ll be a special weekend!

In a multi-music-fest-weekend move, I am playing at Tulagi | Boulder Roots Music Festival in Boulder that same evening. I am playing at Paradise Found Records on Pearl Street at 8:15pm. Get your pass at that link! The line up is huge and its weird and cool to be playing the same festival as Bighead Todd and the Monsters. My set is going to be weird and mostly improvised and I’m excited to get a little loose for this one.

I was invited by Analog Salon to be a speaker at their September 3rd event! My ol’ pal DJ Ladybug is spinning records before and after, and I will discuss some of my favorite songs and how they fit into “musical seasons.” Analog Salon is an amazing series building an awesome community in Denver! Check it out and get your ticket here!

Lastly for today.. but shared with the utmost anticipation! Chaz and I are headed to New York in October to play at Public Records with the one and only Loren Conners. Loren is an icon for many artists of my ilk and I am beyond honored to share a bill with him in such a beautiful space. Get tickets for that one here.

Alright! That is all for today! Thanks for looking!

I hope you can find a storm and feel some precipparration if, like us, you are in the scorn of a drought.

For now, from the tall grass.

-Matt