Following their excellent Metroland cover story (yeah, hey MLand, fix your broken back issue, please!!!), the folks at B3nson Records have been posting some “Pocket Concerts” on their newly reborn website. So far, five “episodes” have been posted, including familiar characters from the Albany area playing in various configurations. Each video reveals the B3nson folks singing and playing songs in attics, fields, basements and other exotic locales. What a great introduction to a vitally enthusiastic troupe of musicians.

Above is my favorite of the batch, Swamp Baby’s “Mirror of Lavender”. In this video, Nick Matulis recruits Jen (from We Are Jeneric), Donna (from Scientific Maps and many, many more), and Francis (from Hop Along, Queen Ansleis) to sing otherworldly backup vocals that simply slay me. One has to ask what happened to the crew as the video stops abruptly mid-song. Did the ghosts in the house come to avenge the four souls who were calling to them?

Witness more videos at the B3nson website and the B3nson YouTube group!

This is the type of content I’ll be sharing; a little rough around the edges, a little crackly, but always new and / or unheard. I am looking forward to this project very much!

Enjoy!

Matthew Plays the Octave on Vimeo.

Thanks to those who made it to Caffé Lena last week! Sorry to those who were turned away at the door; apparently advanced tickets will be highly recommended for nights like this. Both Horse Feathers and myself were honored to perform in front of such an attentive, and in my case malleable crowd!

There are THREE(!) videos (’Helen’ is above) from Horse Feathers’ set available to view on the internet. I was lucky enough to be able to play five songs with these lovelies at Caffé Lena and in Burlington on Halloween. I hope to join them again for more in the future…

Links to the other two videos and my setlist below.

Horse Feathers videos:
‘In Our Blood‘
‘Working Poor‘

Matthew Setlist:
For Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(new instrumental)
Inside My Grin
Modest Birds
Right Behind You
Infinitely Red
Offering
Caramel Hands
Rebuild
“Tabatha”
Only Memory

When getting to work on this thing, I immediately painted myself into a corner by recording the tambourine / shaker tracks and then the repetitive octave mandolin part throughout the whole song. I had to figure out some logical changes to break up the monotony of the droning arpeggio. It was quite a relief to use an actual electric guitar instead of faking it with a mandolin.

The lyrics represent my mind’s eye in the point of view of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV show, specifically). She’s ready to battle any foe and this is her train of thought as she approaches the enemy. Apparently, my idea of “spooky Halloween-ness” is getting into the brain of a teenage vampire killer (and protector of the universe…).

I wondered how you knew the call was sent,
the call was sent from me
above the lightning looks,
the wilting woods,
the halting husks of trees
pouring in the fog you really are the ghost that has to leave
circling the hall, the perfect squall, the beast I have to beat

Without the might, the hooks, the hard-earned looks,
the coffin and the keys
I took to mining books, a silver bust,
a flytrap pulling heat
pouring in the fog you really are the ghost that has to leave
circling the hall, the perfect squall, the beast I have to beat

Would you settle down? Could you make this easier?
Better now to fill my heart with something
Settle down, could make this easier?
Better now to fill my heart with something wrong…

Stream the song here:
[See post to listen to audio]
Download the whole (FREE) compilation here (100+MB, .zip file) for now, until Sub-Bombin’ gets a chance to post the thing. Check out Ghoul Poon’s blog about it here.

There are tons of great bands and artists on here… check it out, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Luckily, I was able to call on some friends a mere three hours north of here. Tick Tick is a group of artists and musicians/music lovers from the Burlington, Vermont area that have banded together to make their own world sparkle, shine and… tick. Throughout the last two years, Tick Tick has put on over 100 shows and events in their area, and often created screened posters and t-shirts to promote these happenings. Read Burlington alt-weekly 7Days’ recent excellent feature on the group.

With the recent re-launch of the Tick Tick website, one can witness upcoming events, past parties, purchase limited edition signed posters, t-shirts and much more. The idea to use Tick Tick for the Horse Feathers posters came when the “printing” section of their site had prices for flatstock poster printing AND they happened to be bringing Horse Feathers up to Burlington for a very special Halloween show. (I’ve since been asked to join that bill — amazing!) A quick email last week to former co-worker and current Tick Tick business manager (and damned fine artist / musician in his own right) Graham Keegan proved that the idea to make a diptych poster series for the 10/29 and 10/31 shows was an excellent and doable idea. Five days later (including overnight shipping yesterday) and I have fifty gorgeous prints in my hands.

The image above slightly represents the image in this two screen print, but seeing it live in-person reveals much more detail and subtlety especially in the spooky buildings and bird head. You’ll have to see it yourself (ahem, tickets are available now)!

I am extremely pleased with Tick Tick’s expedient, efficient and excellent work. Please note that they will silk-screen any design, not only their own designs.

Stay tuned for the 10/31 half of the diptych as it is revealed…

Driving home in the rain alone listening to “Unbroken Chain” by the Grateful Dead on repeat somehow made me think about some of the other folks I’ve “sat-in” with throughout the years. I went ahead and updated the “ABOUT” section of this site with a slight third person bio and a brief history of some folks I have shared a stage with, literally.

(Image courtesy Nicole K.! Thanks!)

On September 23rd (in the US and various other release dates and labels throughout the world), HUSH Records released Home, Peter’s second full-length album to come out this year. The album differs drastically from his previous solo efforts with the noted absence of violin and piano, which drove everything up to this point. As per the liner notes, Peter wished to channel the folk and vocal music he’d grown up listening to with his parents for this album. He certainly achieved that goal while filtering these influences through his dynamic abilities as a composer and arranger.

From start to finish, Home glows with acoustic goodness. There is a careful sheen that washes over glassy steel string guitars, inventive percussion, heavily tracked choral vocals, and tasteful organ/keyboard pads. For someone who has spent years lending his violin voice to records, he sure can invent some unique guitar parts. The album’s ten tracks carry a perfect balance of instrumental passages and vocal moments.

The lyrics read like shards of postcards and notes from what one could guess has been Peter’s experiences traveling around Europe for the past year performing with and opening for the band Efterklang.

“Not at Home”

I’m not at home, I have no instruments.. no instruments…
I’m using yours, I’m throwing pillows on the floor

“With the Notes in My Ears”

And my bed is on the floor
yes my bed is on the floor
of the ones I often dreamt of
with the notes in my ears

“Maps”

You settled down in the wrong place
Pack up your bags and move away again

SPOILER ALERT - “Maps” features a climax of epic proportions after the first two minutes and fifty seconds of the gorgeous song itself. You’ll hear the guitar’s low-”E” string drop down to a “D” and then enter toms and chanting… it’s breathtaking, to say the least.

MP3 - Here is “And It’s Alright” (option-click / right-click to download) from Home. If you enjoy this, please support the label and musician by purchasing the album at one of the links below.
[See post to listen to audio]

BUY -
HUSH RECORDS
iTunes
eMusic
Amazon

Friday night saw the close of the Albany Public Library’s “Garage Band” series with Swamp Baby and Sgt. Dunbar & the Hobo Banned taking over the library garage for a spell. Swamp Baby took their set time to get their Zaireeka on with each of the four band members setting up in each corner of the garage. The harsh acoustics of the opposing concrete surfaces were rendered useful, finally with their amplified guitars, violins and affected Casio keyboards filling the room equally and beautifully. Our “hike guide” for the evening, Nick Matulis, lead us through some careening forests and scary stories (see Bryan Thomas’ excellent pics of the event over at The Hidden City) with some gorgeous free improv percolating below and above throughout. I won’t spoil the magic ending, but let’s just say it was quite magical indeed. Sgt. Dunbar impressed quite a few people with a few new/rarer songs including a Tim Koch original to kick off the night, and the “bluegrass version” of their song “The Weight” (the original version is available for free download here).

Saturday began with a long-overdue trip to the Troy Farmers’ Market, picking up some local buckwheat honey and some breakfast treats from the Mrs. London’s booth. From there, we attempted to catch some of LarkFest which seemed to have the largest attendance I’ve ever seen due to the absurdly beautiful weather. Our music consumption was a bit stunted, missing all but two victorious final notes from Aficionado and taking forever to get back to the “Hometown Stage”, missing the end of MotherJudge & Mitchy, but catching much of (now 8 year old)Christo Lewis winning hearts left and right.

After a monumental late day nap, it was off to see Dinosaur Jr. and Wounded Knees at Revolution Hall. I’ll never forget hearing Dinosaur for the first time covering the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” as the background to Rudy Johnson’s part in Blind’sVideo Days skate video. Certainly in my “heavily impressionable” stage in 1991 at age 14, this music stayed with me for years. J’s moody drawl mixed so well with the unique chord changes and highly melodic guitar parts. It was heavy without being overbearing, it was memorable without being overly poppy, it was perfect to me. At the time, their album Green Mind was the only readily available cassette (!) to me (as a shopper at Tape World. While initially sounding different from the song in the skate video, the album grew on me and I was eventually able to fill in the gaps in their discography with their earlier albums. Apparently I was a magnet for rare vinyl in high school as some of my favorite gifts I’ve ever recevied were a copy of “The Wagon” 7″ from my pal Jennifer Sullivan and an etched one-sided 12″ of “Just Like Heaven” from my long lost buddy Darren.

These moments of youth came barreling back as the newly-reformed (as of 2005 - I’m late to the game getting to see them) original trio of J, Murph and Lou kicked into “Tarpit” from You’re Living All Over Me, a clear favorite that I’d never expected to hear live ever. It was hard to believe that a song written and recorded nearly 22 years ago could sound that fresh and elicit such a crowd reaction. Even though I’d caught J live solo a few times and with the Fog, it was nothing compared to witnessing Lou bang out those bass chords and Murph hitting those precise fills so flawlessly. The setlist leaned a bit heavily on songs from the reunion album, Beyond for my taste, but once those songs were out of the way, there was no stopping the onslaught of sounds from every era of the band. From Dinosaur to Without a Sound we were treated to the best of the best. Even a song like “Feel the Pain” from the latter sounded re-energized with Lou’s bass playing and Murph’s adept handling of the peculiar tempo changes throughout.

A most excellent weekend capped off today with some eggplant, beets and garlic from the farm.