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.
