Our first grant for Eigenvalues

Some good news came in the mail today: we've been awarded a small grant from the Puffin Foundation for Eigenvalues. We've got two other proposals pending for this project. We're going to create a new, fairly large-scale work built from texts taken from Supreme Court decisions. Particularly dissenting opinions from the court's worst-decisions-ever. That will include the ridiculous Bush v. Gore case in 2000, and we'll put that in context with other historical missteps made by the court such as Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, and a handful of others that may not be quite so widely recognizable.

In a few days, we're having a rehearsal for the Low End String Quartet - it's been almost a year since we played together, it will be very exciting to finally start playing some of this new music that I've been working on. It's always gratifying to actually hear music that previously only existed in my head.

Spring is here and I have the allergies to prove it. I spent yesterday like a good suburbanite working in the yard. Fired up the lawnmower for the first time of the season. Happily, it started right up. Then I spent about an hour doing my spring/summer ritual: the dandelion meditation. That's what I call it when I take to the yard with my weed hound and pull up dandelion's one at a time. It's, how-do-you-say, Quixotic? But I really don't want to use chemical fertilizers or herbicides so I stand out there for hours pulling up each little plant.

Yesterday, I timed my dandelion session by listening to the new Silver Mt. Zion record "13 Blues for 13 Moons." Despite what Pitchfork had to say about it, this is a fine fine recording. Pitchfork got all caught up in a discussion of political whatnot, but I think the album succeeds largely on the power of the instruments. The lyrics aren't necessarily the focal point (at least for me). In any event, the political content of the lyrics is cast mostly in metaphor - at least enough so that it doesn't weigh down the music. It's not like they're playing Billy Bragg songs or anything... If I wasn't so broke, I'd order the 2-disc vinyl version. They do a lovely job of incorporating strings (2 violins and cello) with loud electric guitars, no easy feat in my opinion. The last track, "BlindBlindBlind,"is especially awesome.

New piece for Low End Quartet

I'm chipping away at my goal of an evening length set of music for the Low End String Quartet. Here's a new piece, tentatively named "Grinder."

This mock-up version uses a sad MIDI organ sound for the bass part, and all the other parts are played on the guitar. The cello is in the left channel, violin on the right, and the actual guitar part is in the center.

The mock-up is missing one important thing: there's a cello solo in the middle of the piece. I didn't take a crack at that on the guitar, it's just missing. We have quartet rehearsal this coming week, so hopefully we'll get to record it and I'll be able to post something a little better than this wacky home version.

If you're curious, here's a link to the score: pdf

DCIC on the radio

I got word from a DJ on the Pacifica station in Seattle that we had a track featured on his program last week (the same track that's available for free download from the CityPaper).

And here in the other Washington, I was interviewed on "Metro Connection" on WAMU. The feature is over 9 minutes long. Quite generous of them, in my opinion. If you want to hear the interview, it's available streaming on their site:
[link]
or if you want an mp3, you can download from my site, it's under "DCIC Press Clips"
[link]

DCIC In the News

DC Improvisers Collective (DCIC) has a cd release show coming up on Saturday. A couple of articles appeared in local media today:
The Washington CityPaper did a "One track mind" review of the new album
The Washington Post Express interviewed Steve Lehman (who we are sharing the bill with)

Unrelated: Jodi Beder, cellist in the Low End String Quartet, is profiled in a feature story in the Prince George's County Gazette. Her band, Zen for Primates, is also performing on Saturday. Our quartet got a mention (although she is credited as being the group's "erstwhile composer" which is a little off... but so what).

Click here for details about Saturday's show.

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UPDATE: Friday Mar 21
We got another hit, this time in the Washington Post's Style section. Apparently the facetious headline that I put on our press release actually got some traction. Funny.

Guitar piece, work-in-progress

It's been a while since I wrote a piece that's notated from start to finish... so I'm unduly proud of myself for taking the time to write this one out.

I'm working on a guitar piece that's going to be adaptable for a few different uses. First, it's performable as a solo for electric guitar and laptop, next it's got a version for electric guitar and electric piano, and finally I'm going to arrange the piano part so I can do this with my Low End String Quartet as well.

I made a mock-up recording of the guitar / piano version, and the draft of the score is posted too:

Audio: mp3
Score: pdf

Any ideas for the title? So far I've just been calling it "Rondo for Guitar" since that's the form of it. I think that's a boring title, though.

DCIC rehearsal

A few nights ago, DCIC got together for a rehearsal. Sadly, it has been a few months since we played together, so there was much excitement.

I've been working quite a bit during the last several weeks on the business side of the group, trying to generate some media interest in our forthcoming album... hopefully we'll start to see some reviews in the next couple of months.

Well it sure was nice to get back into the music. Here's something we came up with. Be patient, the opening is populated mostly with skittery conversational stuff back and forth among the three of us, but wait for it... right about the three minute mark, a heavy rock thing comes out of nowhere and holds together pretty well for the next couple of minutes - up to the end of the track.

Political Song Cycle

I have an idea for a series of poems, possibly to be turned into some kind of song cycle or something? I'm not going to get to this for a while, so I'm publishing something here, now, so I can claim some kind of ownership of the idea. Mine:

So far, two poems to be written - titles:
1. "This is all Grover Norquist's Fault"
(probably about Republican's succesful strategy to win over working class by tricking them to vote against their own interests, especially by changing public perception of certain terms / language)
2. "Karen Hughes Blows my Fuckin' Mind"
(something about "how do you sleep at night" knowing that you are travelling the globe lying through your teeth, in order to support a policy platform of greed, inequality, and the weakening of actual democracy and freedom in so many ways)

As this takes shape I'll share what I've got...

Rejection Ritual: Year Seven Complete

It's that time of year again, when the Maryland State Arts Council's "Individual Artist Awards" are announced. The award comes with money, from $1,000 to $6,000. One of the few sources of unencumbered support for artists - there's no project that has to be done, no community outreach, nothing. Just an award in recognition of your previous work. It also happens to be the only source of funding for artists (as opposed to arts-organizations) from the state.

Every year I apply (since 2001) and every year I am rejected. This year's music category is "Solo Instrumental Performance." Next year will likely be composition - they alternate yearly. Every summer I submit my application and every January I get my rejection letter. I have quite a collection of rejection letters now. If only I could find some way of monetizing my collection ;-)

In other news, I'm in the process of mailing out copies of our new DCIC album, "Triangulation." We're working with a publicist who put together a list for us of around 150 freelancers and publications. Hopefully we get some nice things written about the new record... The official release date is April 1. We're doing a local release show on March 22nd (opening for Steve Lehman at Velvet Lounge).

Low End String Quartet article published

I was invited to write an article for "Bourgeon: Journal of Dance," a local publication covering the dance scene, for the most part. I'm not sure when the print version hits the streets, but it's online now. I wrote about the Low End String Quartet, specifically why I started the group.

More good news on the grants front

This month has been a good one for me... I just found out that the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund has awarded a generous grant to the Low End String Quartet to commission new music (from me). The kind folks at Argosy also funded a proposal from the American Composers Forum (one of my day-jobs) to launch a new small-grants program for local composers. There's nothing else like that in the area, so it will make a big difference, I think. But wait, that's not all! They also funded a proposal from Step Afrika to continue working with me. Exciting stuff. Looks like I get to start 2008 as a nearly full-time composer. Woo hoo!

Two "yes"es

Finally some good news on the grants front. I've written quite a stack of proposals this year and I've been batting exactly zero -- until now.

Back in October, I submitted two proposals for the "Small Projects Program" of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. One for DCIC (to hire a publicist to help with the release of our new CD) and one for the Low End String Quartet (to help pay for studio time to make a nice recording). I just found out a few days ago that we got both.

I've still got one more proposal pending for the Low End Quartet, keep your fingers crossed and let's hope the Argosy Contemporary Music Fund finds our work irresistible.

Nxt/Step

For the last couple of weeks, I've been working pretty much full time for Step Afrika. We started collaborating over a year ago, on a multi-media piece called "Nxt/Step." Slowly things have evolved and we've got a version of the piece now that's fairly stable. Earlier performances were marred by technical problems (mostly with the interactive video cues), but we're getting a handle on it.

We worked intensely for about two weeks, culminating in three performances in an unfortunately named show, "Winter Heat." This was a mixed dance program featuring three african-american dance companies from DC: Step Afrika, Washington Reflections, and Coyoba Dance Theater; presented by WPAS and Dance Place, held at the Lansburgh Theater (a.k.a the Shakespeare Theatre, but now they have two venues so it has a different name).

After those performances wrapped up, we flew to New Orleans for the National Performance Network conference, where we have a showcase performance coming up on Saturday. We've been in New Orleans for two days now, and it's been kinda crazy. We had our tech time last night and it was, um, not so good. It seems to me like the showcase performances are beyond the means of the venue and it's production staff, but we'll see how things work out. I guess we're spoiled, having done the piece at two large theaters with union crew. This one's going to be a little rougher around the edges - which is too bad since the audience will be performing arts presenters from around the country. We'll just have to wow 'em even if the lights, sound, and video aren't implemented quite right.

First impressions of New Orleans: (second impression? I was here for a couple of days a few years ago) It's beautiful, and the "vibe" is quite unlike any other American city I've been to. It feels much more European, with people sitting at coffee shops, sidwalk cafes, and generally being more laid back than us East Coasters. I guess they don't call it the Big Easy for nothing. Also seems to be more interest in going out at night? Not just the tourist trap places in the French Quarter; it seems like there are restaurants and bars everywhere, so people must be out and about much more than in DC (which has plenty of restaurants and bars, but people seem much more focused on work than socializing).

So far it doesn't seem like New Orleans is a veg-friendly city. Since I'm here for a week and have to live on the cheap (but in a plush hotel, life is tough) I took a bus to Whole Foods and stocked up on all sorts of stuff. I asked the hotel for a fridge and they brought me one, so I think I'll be ok nutrition-wise. Last night I found a cool (and cheap) hybrid Thai / Vietnamese restaurant not too far from the hotel: Hipstix. They didn't have loads of veggie options, but easy to get tofu instead of chicken, beef, or seafood on the noodle dishes. The "Siam Street Noodles with Tofu" were delicious, so maybe I'll head over there again during the next few days. Dinner with the company tonight was at a touristy place in the French Quarter - only vegan option was a salad (iceberg lettuce and one slice of tomato) and french fries. My carnivorous companions didn't seem to fare so well either - everything in the place (other than red beans and rice or jambalya) was deep fried. The steppers must burn through a million calories a day, so I guess they can eat that stuff? Before I left home, Cameron helped me look up a yoga studio that does Bikram, so I'm going to try to squeeze in a class tomorrow. I just have to figure out the bus routes to get there...

Comissioning Club

Over the last two years, I've used the "commissioning club" concept to raise money for two projects: first was for writing a piece for the ensemble Fireworks - that was recorded during a reading at the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium in 2005. In the fall of 2006, the club matched a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for DCIC to make a studio recording. That turned into "Triangulation," our forthcoming CD. It's at Oasis CD Manufacturing now - we should get 500 copies delivered later this month.

The idea of the commissioning club is to aggregate gifts from a group of donors, at all levels, in order to commission new music, an opportunity that is typically only available to very wealthy individuals. Bang on a Can uses this model very effectively, they call theirs the "People's Commissioning Fund." My nonprofit, Improv Arts, hasn't come up with a catchy name yet.

For 2007, the Improv Arts Commissioning Club is collecting money to develop new music for The Low End String Quartet. In addition to this high-falutin' pan handling campaign, I wrote a bunch of grant proposals for the project. I already got rejected by Montgomery County, but haven't heard yet from the Argosy Foundation's Contemporary Music Fund or the DC Commission. Hopefully at least one of those will come through. My batting average for grants this year is pretty low. Zero, actually. So I'm due for a "yes" one of these days. It's discouraging to be rejected so many times, but that's the way it works.

For complete info about the commissioning club, click here.
For more about the Low End String Quartet, click here.

Pange Lingua

I started working on this song / recording a few weeks ago. Again, it's another project that I've started and I don't know where it's headed.

A few notable aspects of this one:

• It's a song. Like, with words and stuff.
• It's got a steady pulse and chords and other trappings of "song" in the common usage of the term. It's got loud guitars and even a short shred-y solo.
  
• Text is from a latin hymn. It's one that you encounter during music history class because the plain chant became the basis of various polyphonic pieces... so you run into it first as chant, then as organum, and eventually as the basis for a mass by Josquin. I didn't use any of that music, though. Just swiped the first three lines of the text:
  

Pange lingua gloriosi
Corporis mysterium
Sanguinisque pretiosi

in English:
Sing, my tongue
The mystery of the glorious body
And the precious blood.

I tried to take this religious text out of context and get at the strictly physical / sensual side of things. That's probably why I'm stuck and don't know where it's headed - I'm not sure what comes next. Maybe a related (musically) song with original or found text? Maybe something that has spirituality and sex and love all tangled up nicely. If it's going to be a found text, I need something public domain. Preferably really old. But then I don't want something that sounds stilted, since I want it to be visceral and sensual. Or maybe I get away from text altogether and just write some instrumental music?

Maybe I just leave it in the "incubator" for a while. Suggestions welcome.

Death Slug rears its Forgotten Head

I almost deleted an email yesterday, assuming it was spam, but luckily I read it first. Turns out it was an honest-to-goodness online order for five copies of "Death Slug 2000," a CD I made with Ty Braxton when we were both in school at Hartt.

This was pretty surprising, since the only place you can order a copy is this very outdated page at Metatron Press.

Ty has become something of a rock-star (deservedly so) now that his band, Battles, has become a favorite of critics and hipsters alike (deservedly so). Maybe it figures that as more people get to hear him, a few brave geeks venture far, far down the Google search results and find our sad, forgotten web page about dear old Death Slug. (Maybe it helps that I added it to Ty's Wikipedia entry a couple of years ago... come on - wouldn't you add yourself to the entry of an up-and-coming celebrity that you happened to make a CD with many years ago? Oh, you're too cool for that... Humbug! I'm sure you'd do the same. You're not fooling anyone, you smug imaginary reader of my blog that I am addressing in parentheses)

So last night I had to dig around for left-over copies of the DS2K packaging and I burned the discs, and now I'm on my way to the post office to mail them out.

Here's a link to a funny YouTube video of Ty's feet during a Battle's show. And here's a short snippet from their show last spring in DC. I had the good fortune of being there - it was a very good show. If you're curious, or just too cheap to buy their album, hype machine scours the blogosphere for you and finds free mp3's.

UPDATE (Aug. 11, 2009): Death Slug 2000 is now available online via our bandcamp page. You can listen to the whole thing, or download your own copy for only $3.

Romance of the Surveillance Machines

I made this recording a couple of weeks ago. It's been a while since I did any ambient guitar music, so I thought I'd revisit some familiar territory. I think this might be the opening section of a larger scale composition, although I'm not exactly sure what that's going to look like yet. For now, it's just a 7 1/2 minute piece of ambient-electronic-stoner-rock (maybe?).

It's all guitar, except for the electric piano and sampled french horns (horns enter around 5:30). I'd love to replace them with real horn tracks -- if you know a good horn player in the DC area please let me know...

bizness

Today was the deadline for a local grant program (the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' "Small Projects" program). It's one of the few funding opportunities in our region that accepts applications from individual artists (as opposed to nonprofit organizations).

There's one catch: to be eligible, you have to be a D.C. resident. Fortunately, both projects I proposed involve residents, so the applications came from them (technically).

First, I wrote one asking for money for studio time to record a demo for the Low End String Quartet. Fortunately, our violinist lives in D.C. Unfortunately, she is out of the country at the moment, so getting her signature on the forms was a little tricky. Fortunately, she had access to email and a scanner, so we worked it out. I sure hope this one gets funded... I feel like this group has great potential, and if we can get some good recordings, we'll have good work samples to use for other grant programs and then we'll be well positioned for suckling at the teat of institutional arts funders. Oh right, as the economy tanks (which is imminent) arts funding will be the first slice of the nonprofit sector to dry up. Fantastic. Anyway, maybe the recordings will help us get some gigs... part of the idea behind this group is that we're designed to play in "alternative" venues (that's highbrow-speak for bars and clubs, you know, like the places I'm usually playing in).

Back in '06, DCIC put in a similar proposal, and that paid for 2/3 of our studio time used in making our forthcoming CD. Since we're self-releasing the album, I wrote a proposal this round for help with marketing. Our drummer lives in D.C., so this one is in his name. I sent out a barrage of emails last week searching for marketing help. I got several good referrals and lots of good ideas. Eventually, I was referred to Riot Act Media, and David really seemed to "get it" in terms of what we're doing and what would make sense given our limited resources. This doesn't seem like as much fun as a trip to the recording studio, but I've never had help with publicity before, so that actually is kind of exciting.

In other grantseeking news, I found out recently that my proposal to the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County was rejected. I don't live in Montgomery County, but Dan (bass player for the Low End Quartet and sometimes DCIC) does... I was able to "observe" the review panel as they discussed our proposal. That was surreal, and I get a little taste of vomit in the back of my throat every time I tell the story - so I'm not going to type it all up here, but anyway, it was frustrating - and also hilarious, in a dark-comedy kind of way. I wasn't surprised we got rejected having observed the proceedings, but that still sucks. We submitted a really solid proposal for that one (for Dan and I to collaborate on new material for the Low End Quartet, rehearse it, do two "in progress" performances at small venues in Montgomery County, and then do a recording session). I haven't seen the list of who got funded yet, but from what I saw of the panel, I'm pretty sure our local chapter of Sweet Adelines got the money they asked for.

Station ID's for your MP3 Player

I made a few little snippets, in the style of radio station ID messages - only but for your iPod (or mp3 player of your choice). Here's the idea:

1. Download this zip file.
2. Unzip and load the mp3's into your player.
3. Add them to a playlist or two, or perhaps just leave them to be found while you're shuffling everything in your collection.
4. As your player shuffles through things, once in a while one of these little messages gets played.
   
5. You may be amused.

There are seven of 'em in the zip file. Here are a few as individual mp3's, in case you're too lazy to deal with unzipping....

• iPod Station ID no. 1
• iPod Station ID no. 2
• iPod Station ID no. 6
• iPod Station ID no. 7
  

Soda Can Mambo

I just recorded the number one jam of the summer. A bit late, so let's call it the number one jam of late September 2007. It's a dada-esque pop song. That may sound like an oxymoron at first, but have a listen to "Soda Can Mambo" and try to tell me it's not stuck in your head for days.

The number one jam of late September 2007 is missing one thing: Dance Craze.

That's where you come in:

1. Invent the "Soda Can Mambo" dance
2. Make a video of yourself doing the dance
3. We all become internet superstars for a few minutes

The headline of this post is a link to the mp3 file. The blue play button plays it in your browser. If you're curious, download the lyrics (pdf)

Shoot me an email when your video is done. And don't be mad at me when having this song stuck in your head for days and days drives you crazy. Trust me, I've had it worse. Now let's get cracking on that dance craze...

Quarry House wrap-up

DCIC played last night, opening up for Chris Black. It was the first show I put together at the Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, MD. It was a unique evening in many ways. In no particular order:

1. Quarry House is a neat little venue. It's a nice bar with great atmosphere. The ceiling is almost high enough for an upright bass. The staff that I've met so far have all be super nice and laid back. And how can you go wrong at a joint where they serve tater tots with Old Bay on them?

2. Cameron and Jen invited many friends, so we had a nice audience. Not huge, but nice. Which is much better than huge.

3. Mike, our sax player, called in sick. I made a few calls to try and get a sub, but it was short notice and that didn't pan out. So we played the show as a duo - guitar and drums. Chris joined us on bass for our last number. Lately, I've been playing without effects and gizmos - just my new guitar and amp (with distortion pedal and volume pedal, but that's it). The thought of doing a set of improvised music with just guitar and drums (and none of the looping and gizmonics that I used to use) was actually kind of terrifying. I think it worked out ok, actually. The music was quite different from what DCIC typically sounds like, but I think it was ok. We didn't record it though, so I only know how it sounded at the time, and while I'm in the midst of it, it's hard to judge.