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.
It’s unusual work, for me, lately. I am proof-reading a forthcoming book release for Tarpaulin Sky. I used to do this with my own work, with that of my friends, and once with a lengthy book in the true crime genre, written by my father, which is called Stalemate. But it’s been a while since I did all that. I don’t try to publish my own writing, when there is any, and besides I would probably ask Zinnia to do the proofreading if I had any that needed to be done.
I am enjoying the work. Partly, because it is interesting work. Editing. Spotting the flaws in something and getting rid of them so it can be what it set out to be. Partly, because it is an interesting book. More on that later, when it is out and you can buy it and find out for yourself. Let’s say it this way: I am not sure that I would have read this book were I not proofreading it. But I am glad that I am reading it, and I would recommend this book to anyone that likes innovative, strange, or offbeat short fiction that is not entirely abstract or deliberately nauseating.
But I’m not going to tell you what it is. Not until it is out, and you can buy it and find out for yourself.
*
Meanwhile, I am recording an album with a band called Rough Church. Rough Church is led by Greg Franco. Greg plays the guitar, writes songs, and sings. He’s been doing this for years. We met sometime last year and he asked me to play with his band and help record their new album. I said OK. The other band members are Jef Hogan (bass) and Jon Franco (drums). Jon and Greg are cousins.
We’re recording in Echo Park, which is where I live, which is very convenient. We rehearse in Washington Heights, which is further away but not prohibitively so. Greg has a nice place with a fine view and the air up on his hill is always clear.
The engineer working on the album, in whose studio we are recording, is brilliant. He is doing amazing work. I can barely think sometimes because my ears are so finely tuned and Andrew Bush (the engineer) has ears which are even more finely tuned than my own. But it doesn’t seem to bother him. He’s had his own studio for time which can be measured in decades (at least one-and-a-half of them, I believe) and he knows how to get great sounds out of it.
He also knows how to nudge sounds around digitally to make a better take out of a few not so good ones. This is probably a good skill to have, and he is applying it effectively with us, but I also feel that this is a good skill not to overuse. I am not saying that Andrew overuses this skill, and in fact his results so far with Rough Church have been brilliant. I have no complaints. But I am keeping an eye.
Greg thinks that Andrew made some minor digital changes in one of my guitar solos on one of our songs. I have mixed feelings about this. If I played badly but he liked the ideas and thinks he can make something good out of them, then I am all for it. But if I played something deliberately and well that just sounds a little off to finely-tuned ears (and I am wont to do such a thing as that) then I want to hear it the way I played it.
I have listened to the track where Greg says this happened, before and after versions, and I don’t hear the difference. I will ask Greg to point it out to me, and if I hear a problem I will make a note of it. But on fairly close listening I don’t hear it, myself.
*
So what Andrew appears to have done, if anything, is a bit like what I am doing: proofreading.
When a writer (or a guitar player) likes to work in a style that is not specifically normal all the time, then it is not always apparent where a comma should go, or whether or not a musical phrase is off-time.
Proofreading. A word which sounds to me increasingly like a stifled sneeze. I have to get familiar enough with the writer’s style to know when she meant to do things a certain way and when she just got excited and distracted by what she was writing and overlooked a few details.
With any luck, Andrew is doing the same thing with my guitar solos. And with any luck, he and I are both good enough at our jobs to know how to leave it alone when it should be left alone and also to make the correct changes when necessary to bring out the purest possible flowering of the artist’s original intent.
I am not used to having my guitar solos proofread. I would think that a writer would be more comfortable with this, as it goes with the territory pretty much from day one. Then again, even as a writer I have had my issues with proofreaders. I often feel that they do not understand me or my intentions. I don’t think there’s a good or bad to it, but regardless of whether I am writing or playing the guitar, I think one of my aims would have to be to do it well enough in the first place that proofreading is unnecessary.
Jon Franco said (words to the effect of) “Hey guys, you know what? Me and my roommate Josh were thinking we should have a benefit, you know? For, like, Haiti? Since we’re all musicians and this is a way we could do what we do and try to make a difference. You know? Guys?”
So we all said, “Sure, go for it!”
And Scott Keil said, “Oh, hey, you got it man,” and he went and found a venue (Los Angeles Music Academy, in Pasadena, where Scott went to school and where he is now employed) and some sponsors (Red Cross, Habitat For Humanities) and set up about twenty bands, who were generally amazing (I was in three of them, and I had friends in a few more, and then there were these amazing 70s-era samba-funk people from Brazil called “Muamba” and some great locals called “Big Moves” … and on and on…) and there was food and two stages in different rooms and … wow … what a solid cool day. Mad thanks to everyone who put it together.
I’m pretty sure John Boyd got Cricket’s and Amanda Jo’s sets on video, so those might show up online eventually. Amanda’s set included debut performances of her songs “Get It On Up” and “Ho Dogs Rocka Rocka Anybody See Them” and also guest performances by Jef Hogan (electric bass guitar) and Jym “Snake” Fahey (harmonica).
…and oh, look, here’s another video from the Breeding Ground at the Tribal Cafe, recorded later that same night (June 3 2009). It’s Greg Franco, Jef Hogan (bass), and Jon Franco (drums), and they’ve been foolish enough to ask me up to jam with them. Here’s the results:
In case it isn’t evident, I had never played these songs before. I do like what we played quite a lot, though - I don’t get to play total freakball on someone else’s tunes nearly often enough! Thanks guys!
And thanks to Volita Pearl for uploading the video - maximum coolness.
This past week, Marc Cantlin (aka The Other Half Of My Brain) has been in town. We have been playing music together since approximately 1992. I get to play music with him about once a year anymore, though that is starting to look like it may happen more often this year at least.
On the day Marc arrived in Los Angeles, we showed up at a jam night called The Breeding Ground which is held on Wednesday nights at the Tribal Cafe in Echo Park. I go there most weeks, if I am not busy elsewhere, and play guitar or bass (or sometimes drums - yikes) with anyone who needs it.
Typically the night is hosted by Jef Hogan and Joe Mullenix, but Joe is in Norway so Marc and I got to play with just about everyone, including John Norwood, Jasper Dickson, Jackie, Yuliya, Rough Church, and a friend of the Rough ones, Volita, who is here from New Zealand.
Greg took video of us playing bass (me) and guitar (Marc) with Volita (and Jon Franco, drums), and here it is:
