Scott Scholz's year end list over at Words on Sounds mentions In White Sky, Many Arms, and Johnny DeBlase's Quartet album, with comprehensive links. Check it out over here:
As 2013 gets close, I just want to catch anyone who's interested up to date on what I've ben up to.
Last week I went on a short tour with Keir Neuringer around New England. When we stopped in at the Spotty Dog in Hudson, NY, my set was recorded for free103.9. Check it out here:
For the tour, I mostly played pieces from my album, In White Sky, but for this set I played a new set that I've been slowly working on. In April, I'll be touring the West Coast playing these two sets of material with Ryan Miller and Ava Mendoza's Unnatural Ways.
This year Many Arms released our self-titled third album on Tzadik (which was just included in SPIN's 20 Best Avant Albums of the Year). Starting on New Year's day, we'll be putting the final touches on a set of music we've collaborated on with Colin Fisher playing tenor sax. We'll perform at the Rotunda in Philly on January 4th and then head into Red Planet Studio with Eric Carbonara to record.
In April, we'll be working on another collaborative project with Toshimaru Nakamura where we'll be creating new music together, which will then be performed and recorded.
Archer Spade recently performed some new music and I'll be uploading some to our new site soon. Check it out if you haven't had a chance:
While you're there, check out the ASPS page, where you can see the schedule for the Archer Spade Performance Series, a new monthly series that Dan Blacksberg and I are curating at Studio 34 in West Philadelphia (and occasional other venues). We're really happy to be able to put these shows together and have some exciting bills planned.
If you're looking for guitar pedals that are hand made, priced really reasonably, and sound great, be sure to check out TSVG Pedals. The site features videos of me playing each of the TSVG pedals. It was a lot of fun getting to turn up and rock out for these videos.
Dylan Pecora made a great video for "Slowly Dark" off In White Sky. I am extremely psyched about this - I think it's really the perfect imagery to fit the song:
You can now buy In White Sky on cassette direct from me, by clicking below ($7, postage pd, US) and I'll have it shipped promptly:
I'm super stoked. It looks great and I can't wait for people to get to hear it. The official release show is October 20 in Philly at the First Unitarian Church, but The Flenser is selling it early so you can find your copy over on their site!
Dan Blacksberg and I started the Archer Spade Performance Series with a concert at the Rotunda back in June and we've got two shows coming up, one of which is the aforementioned record release show for In White Sky, which will also be the release of Superlith's Plasma Clusters. The other is on October 13 at Studio 34 here in West Philly. The headliner of that show is a group we're unbelievably psyched to bring to Philly, which is a trio of Joe Morris, William Parker, and Marco Eneidi. The info for both of those shows is over on the shows page.
Also, check out www.archerspademusic.com. We've still gotta add the ASPS page to the site, but otherwise, we're open for visitors.
Many Arms just got back from a short tour up north. When we were in Toronto, our good friend Colin Fisher sat in on tenor sax for our set and destroyed. We're going to be recording in January and we're SO STOKED to rock with Colin this time around.
I received my test copy of In White Sky today and it sounds awesome. No official release date soon, but keep an eye here and at The Flenser for some news.
Also, Haitian Rail, the album I did with Ed Ricart, Travis Laplante, and Ches Smith, will be released in early 2013 on Gaffer Records on LP!
I'm back from a 22-day Many Arms tour, which on every level was the best tour I've ever gone on. I'm looking forward to doing it again. The high point of the tour was probably our Chicago show at Treasure Town when a bunch of kids rushed the stage after the first song to high five us, but there were plenty of other really high points too so it's hard to decide. The weirdest point was probably in Athens, GA, when we played with these dudes:
We've got a mini-tour coming up in June based around the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival in Montreal and then in October we will be heading to Europe.
Our album is officially released on April 24 and we've been getting some press, which is all up on the Many Arms site. But a short re-cap:
A few other things have been going on. Rhymes With Opera premiered my piece for 3 singers in March, "Truth Will Lie Between." There should be video to this coming soon as I wrote some staging directions, but here's the audio. The text is based on something I really like.
Looking forward to the release of In White Sky, which will be released on Flenser Records. More info on that soon! Also, just got the final mixes of the album I recorded with Ed Ricart, Travis Laplante, and Ches Smith. Jason LaFarge did a really great job making it sound amazing, we're looking for a label now, so no details on a release yet.
