I wrote this is a slightly intense acoustic tune back last winter sometime … finally got a chance to play it with a band during rehearsals for the next round of GLASS GOBLINS shows … sounded so good I’ve posted the 1st and only rehearsal take:

Sweet Crazy Heart (1st jam) by 5-TRACK

That’s Scott Keil on the drums, Jennifer Ng otherwise percussing, and Voodoo Will momentarily on loan from the Voodoo Fix.

enjoy!!

5-Track

Hi theres,

I’ve suddenly picked up a few fresh and positive reviews which I will now share with you (in convenient PDF format, tho you can always follow the links back to the source) …

Here is Julian Cope’s review of my new cassette, “OBLATIONS TO A DIGITAL MUSE” –
http://www.5-Track.com/press/HEADHERITAGE_reviews_OBLATIONS.pdf

… and here is a review from TERRASCOPE ONLINE of “Lost Soul Island” by 5-Track & Glass Goblins:
http://www.5-Track.com/press/TERRASCOPE_review_GGLSI.pdf

You can dig them amongst the accumulating nest of other press hither:
http://www.5-Track.com/5/5press.php

hope you-all’s well,
5-Track

Hey hey,

http://5-track.com/mp3/FloatingOther/1stFloatingOther.mp3

here’s a little piece (60 minutes worth) from my creative music / improv unit, “Floating Other“. The name has to do with the geometric alliances of players within a given personnel and also with the inclusion of elements outside the ostensible set of performing musicians.

in this first recording, the role of the “other” is handed around between myself, bassist Jef Hogan Buffa, percussionist Jennifer Ng, and an acknowledgment of the mischievous presence (a floating other?) with which Jef shares his home.

Floating Other will be performing on Wednesday June 30th at the Echo Curio,
1519 Sunset Blvd, Echo Park, CA 90026,
9pm,
with additional performances by Jack’l, Stefan Scott Nelson, and Art Terry.

Matthew O’Neill has released his album “The Harbor’s Delight” as a free download through his website.

On the one hand, this is a gross injustice, as the album is wonderful and he should have his pick of labels and distributors and should be touring Europe and Japan (not to mention the United States) to wide acclaim and there should be Top 40 covers of his songs making him silly rich…

On the other hand, YOU can hear his album for FREE. And that makes you a lucky, lucky human.

“The Harbor’s Delight” was largely recorded on the east coast before Matthew migrated to the Los Angeles hellhole. The musicians involved had a delicate touch and also that northeastern sense of geological space that stems partly from the resonance of nearby mountains built on an almost human scale. The result is something like a truly global music woven from particular strands of human DNA, with elements of so many different things twined in that I hesitate to point to any of them. Matthew’s songwriting is rural-primitive/awesome, his electric guitar work is pristinely luscious and (sometimes) beautifully spazzoid, the band walks a fine and hitherto unwalked line between world-groove and country-rock … but again, maybe I shouldn’t say that, because I don’t want you trying to imagine what that would sound like and getting it wrong.

Tell you what, just go download it and listen. It’s free, like I said. Full-length album, hi-fidelity sound, wonderfully balanced performances of excellent songs by a solid talent you’ve never heard of. Isn’t that everyone’s definition of bliss?

(I’m on bass)

(scott keil on the drums)

click here for more matthew

In the last 3 weeks we have enjoyed a potpourri of climatic variation. We had a little bit of rain, but not too much. We had one or two blazingly hot days, but not too many. We’ve had a few days that merited an extra shirt – cool, breezy, bordering on chilly if you’re from here or just done got too used to it – but only a few… Though the evenings have been a little on the “cold” side as standing-around-outside-a-venue temperatures go. In the main it has been pleasantly warm, not too hot, not too cold, and a little more motion in the air than I expect to find here, which is especially nice cos it keeps the breathing a little easier.

Yesterday there was a raven on the next street up (Marathon?) making that sound like an African gourd xylophone that I never heard them make until a few weeks ago … And in a few weeks into the future we are moving into a house which will allow more cool in, keep more hot out, and be surrounded by more in the way of vegetation which means birds, squirrels, and lots of the color green.

EDIT: The mockingbird is DEFINITELY back. I was playing along with him on the guitar yesterday.

I had the opportunity to play two wonderful shows this week, both with Amanda Jo Williams.

The first was held at a place called the Echo Country Outpost, which co-owner Chris insists is “not a venue”! What it is, is, is a funky little store on Echo Park Blvd (corner of Duane, out past Chango a ways) that I couldn’t tell exactly what they sell but I am certain it is cool, whatever it is.

For the occasion (perhaps the first show held there? perhaps it will be a monthly event from here out?) a stage existed at the back of the main room, on which played first a group (in this instance a duo tho sometimes they are larger) called Verb The Adjective Noun. Originally from Boston, temporarily not living in their bus, they were very tight and propulsive, not just for a duo but all around. One of them played guitar and sang, and the other played guitar, banjo and lap steel with equal and impressive facility. Good vocal harmonies. Rootsy without spilling either too far into tradition or too far into singer-songwriter ickiness.

The headliners, Abilene of whom I believe set up the show, were called Sundays Soundtrack. They had a wonderful upright bassist and two wonderful women and they were vibey and moody and harmonistic and bouyant and I enjoyed them a lot.

We played in between.

So, a little show in a little store, but there were at least 60 people in there which made it FULL, and I don’t think I’d ever met more than a half dozen of them before. We had a rough set, new bass player (he did a fine job, but it was his first show with us) and tuning issues for me and Amanda, but the people really dug it, they laughed with us not at us and by the end we had a wonderful energy going, the best energy I’ve felt in a room yet at a Los Angeles show. Score one for Echo Country!

…

OK, and then last night we played at the Echo Curio, which is very possibly my favorite in-town venue to play at. It’s run by the awesome Grant-and-Justin dynamic duo, there’s an amazing stream of art that passes across the walls and a room full of weird records for cheap, we played at the top of a bill of ridiculously talented women (which was a new and wonderful context to hear Amanda’s music in) and once again a room full of 60 total strangers and a few good friends just dug us to death, kept us going for an extra tune or so past what Amanda had intended to play. Let me tell you, we felt GOOD. And the new bass, upright Jef Hogan (with one ‘f’), really makes it.

Also on the bill last night were Fort King (who I didn’t get to hear cos I was eating a burrito next door, but they were very nice) … Beliss, a duo of sisters (I am told) whose vocal harmonies are unusual and beautiful and who feature lush acoustic guitar voicings and electric-upright bass-playing to die for. Or at least to swoon about … and Ora Cogan, who might be a cosmic parallel to Elizabeth Cotton or Karen Dalton, who sings like no one else I’ve heard (beautifully, swoopingly, in a round and full voice) and who coaxes lovely rich tones from an electric hollowbody Gibson tuned in an array of unusual manners.

Solid week.

Tune in later for the weather!

featuring Woody (acoustic guitar) and 5-Track (acoustic guitar)

1A

3

1B

click here to listen:
http://www.archive.org/details/5-Track2010-03-05.VientoYAguaglassgoblins

For the evening of March 4 we assembled a group including Jef Hogan (electric bass), Jon Franco (drums), Jennifer Ng (percussion), Woody (acoustic guitar) and myself (acoustic wah-wah guitar).

I had one rehearsal with Jef and John (who also play bass and drums for Greg Franco’s Rough Church), one run-through with Woody, and a loose jam with Jennifer, in the few days before the show. Many of the band members had not met each other until they arrived at the venue. This is less unusual for me than might be suspected.

Viento y Agua in Long Beach is a “coffee house” with wonderful energy, constantly changing art on the walls, the occasional model skeleton, many books, and a warm and inviting stage (and sound system) which was conceived and assembled by Angie Evans. I’ve played a few shows there, by myself and also with Cricket and with Amanda, and every time I’ve felt good and played well.

This was the first time I’d played some of this material in a long time, and the first time I’d ever played some of it with a band. The two acoustic guitars kept the energy closer to the ground than usual, and the songs and improvs worked together for a change instead of fighting for space. The existence of dual percussionists also contributed to the effortless momentum of this group’s sound. We had momentum without frightful velocity.

Good show. Hope we do it again.