1.14.2013

January 2013


I have wrestled for a while with the notion that yearly activities tend to alternate between “recording” and “release/tour.” I don’t claim to have an answer, but I can say 2013 is on track to be a release year.Upcoming releases for Dylan Ryan Sand, Rainbow Arabia, Harmonize Most High, Icy Demons, Michael Columbia, and Ether Feather should send me back in the van pretty quick.
Looking back on 2012 amidst some supremely pleasurable Cursive adventures across North America, South America, and Europe, within the cozy confines of greenrooms, hotel lobbies, quests for coffee, and befuddled observations of a world passing by through a van window, I really don’t recall too many nights of coffee and bourbon fueled recording sessions…But the evidence suggests that they happened somewhere in there.

During two days in April I did make a record with Timothy Young and Devin Hoff and I’m happy to say that it is available on Cuneiform Records as of Jan 15, with California dates next month in February.

Of course, how could I ever stop making ambient pop, not so much songs, but rather declarations and affirmations of the human spirit?  The upcoming Ether Feather song will be released on the project’s bandcamp site alongside the other four singles from 2012.
It’s hard to say what will happen regarding the Michael Columbia release…and perhaps a little review to conclude…

Michael Columbia is the band I started with Dave McDonnell in 1999 when his baby, Bablicon, wasn’t touring.  We toured across the country a lot in the great tradition of our predecessors, i.e. in a Volvo station wagon with no cell phones and an atlas.  Chris Kalis from the wonderful man/machine band Chandeliers joined on Synth and Guitar in around 2007 and we did an amphetamine filled session in a gorgeous wood paneled basement.  I’m not totally sure what format the release will take, or even what songs we’ll do, but the stems (and drum sounds) will hail from those sessions.  These partially finished songs have lingered about in our lives for a few too many years now, and just to treat ourselves, we thought we’d do up the songs we wrote for the Pitchfork festival in Chicago in 2009.  So in a couple of months, I really do hope there are some wonderful prog tunes for those who lay awake night after sleepless night wondering about the big issues: what would it have sounded like if Yes and Black Sabbath jammed out in one giant monster jam at the end of their tour together in the mid-seventies.   What would have been if Wakeman had joined Sabbath? What is my favorite tune off Steve Vai “Flexable?”  Either way, I do hope to have a little something to share, and as I always say, two tracks in the can are worth four in the mind.