Wow. What a few weeks it has been. Tom Steck and I have been working on wrapping up all things Interoceans and yesterday, our good friends at Asthmatic Kitty Records announced the signing of seven new artists to their roster, among them, I Heart Lung. Fine company indeed.

Now, we gladly leave for a week on the road. Beginning this Saturday, May 3rd, we embark on a quick West Coast tour with Sounds Are Active label-mates ellul. This will be the first trip up the coast for I Heart Lung, so come out and see us if you can.

All dates and times confirmed:

Saturday May 3rd at The Cocaine, Los Angeles, CA.
w/ improv set with ellul, Ars Poetria
8:30pm // $5 ($7 non-drinking)

Sunday May 4th at OPEN, Long Beach, CA.
w/ ellul
5pm (Matinee Show) // $5 (all ages)

Monday May 5th at Retox Lounge, San Francisco, CA.
w/ ellul, Dominique Leone
8pm // $3

Tuesday May 6th at Pearl Lounge, Eureka, CA.
w/ ellul, Brother Mitya, The Beat Nun
9pm // $5

Thursday May 8th at Helm Gallery, Tacoma, WA.
w/ ellul
8pm // $5

Friday May 9th at Towne Lounge, Portland, OR.
w/ ellul, buh-bLAM
9pm // $5

A much needed article (in the NY Times!) on Mad Magazine artist and Fold-In creator Al Jaffee. I remember looking for pictures of Jaffee, Jack Davis and Don Martin years ago and couldn’t find anything. Nice to see Al is still around and working with great flourish, whether he thinks so or not.

The Times also chimes in with a nice essay by clothing designer Marc Ecko.

I will mention my recent L.A. Record review again, only to recommend that you watch the live Herbie Hancock/Joni Mitchell concert on Yahoo!. There’s an audience shot during Joni’s standing ovation 32 seconds into “River.” I’m the tall German dude with the big head in the upper left hand corner.

More well researched, well written reportage from Long Beach’s The District Weekly. This time it’s Dave Wielenga looking into the state of the city’s lamentable daily paper, The Press Telegram. The article is called Dad Roasts Devil Tot. Interested yet?

Last Thursday my wife and I had the incomparable pleasure of watching and listening to Herbie Hancock perform live in front of a tiny crowd of 200 people. And if one musical legend wasn’t enough, Joni Mitchell made an unannounced three song cameo and brought the house down and, honestly, me to tears. I wrote a review of the performance for L.A. Record which you can read here. UPDATE: Yahoo! has now posted the entire performance online.

That Saturday I was in the studio with L.A. band The Widow Babies and we recorded a forthcoming E.P. of epic proportions. I will say only this: The Lamb Lies Down in San Pedro.

Monday saw a vocal overdub session for local singer/songwriter Steve Gerstein and his girlfriend Caroline. I have been working with Steve on his debut album for a few months now and things have been going really well. It’s not my usual gig but I am enjoying the back and forth of experimental and more conventional pop music that have sent me ping-ponging lately.

I Heart Lung gathered on Tuesday for a mixing/recording session for Interoceans. We are coming dangerously close to finishing the album (see Thursday).

Last night I had a recording session with Awol One who laid down a monstrous verse and two choruses for the upcoming I Heart Lung remix album. More on that much later.

Today, Thursday, I recorded with Anthony Shadduck who is adding the final upright bass touches to Interoceans in what I think will be the final compositional element for this fearsome record.

I also synced up and processed a killer vocal track from Serengeti for that aforementioned I Heart Lung remix project.

Not a bad seven days.

Just last week my fingers were numb from rehearsing and recording songs for the new Liz Janes album due out later this year on Asthmatic Kitty Records. Today, they are suffering from a slight frost bite thanks to a weekend trip to the mountains near Big Bear, California.

With focus returned, this week will see the mix down of the new I Heart Lung album, Interoceans with my other(worldly) half, Tom Steck.

I Heart Lung will also be performing a rare matinee show at OPEN this coming Sunday @ 4pm. Along for the ride are PWRFL POWER and Capillary Action. Suggested donation of $5.

I Heart Lung, PWRFL POWER, Capillary Action
OPEN // 4pm // $5
2226 E. 4th Street
Long Beach, Ca 90814

UPDATE: Long Beach Culture’s Greggory Moore reviews the show.

Bill Frisell is a unique voice in American jazz guitar, and for that reason alone he deserves to be listened to. His rhythmic counterpart and longtime collaborator Joey Baron is a musician of startling facility, equally capable tossing out be-bop fills or smashing in eardrums by playing blast beats, as he did with Frisell in John Zorn’s Naked City. On Friday night they appeared together at Culver City’s Jazz Bakery, thirty minutes late and a few experiments short.

Opening with a ring-modulated guitar sound reminiscent of his early ‘80s album Smash And Scatteration, Frisell stood almost motionless stage left, a bespectacled cactus. With a thinly strung, light blue semi-hollowbody Telecaster in hand and a small set of pedals at his feet, Frisell asserted himself as the best country-folk accompanist in jazz. He displayed little fire and took fewer chances, fretting through improvisations and back catalogue tunes.

Opposite him, beater Baron whittled away on oversized chopsticks, mallets and overturned cymbals, once going so far as to strike the underside of a drum after wedging his stick between it and the ground. Baron was consistently sensitive and rhythmically dense when not forced into the ‘you play a chord, I’ll play a beat’ dichotomy.

An oblong interpretation of ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ fermented a few genuine surprises, unfortunately the final eight minutes of the set consisted of Frisell playing a repetitive four-chord progression as Baron and the audience were forced to work the rest out for themselves.

Originally published in L.A. Record

A peculiar run of duos began last week as Tom Steck and I ventured out to Culver City’s Jazz Bakery to watch a fellow guitar/drum duo in Bill Frisell and Joey Baron. You can read my review of the event as published by L.A. Record here.

A few days later trumpeter Kris Tiner and I performed as a duo at L.A.’s Dangerous Curve. The audience was small but kind and, although fighting off a nasty cold, I truly enjoyed the experience. I think the next time Kris and I get together for a duo we’ll be walking on some interesting sonic territory. The performance was recorded and, pending my editing and Kris’ approval, will posted sometime soon.

On Wednesday, well written local paper The District Weekly published an interview with Orlando Greenhill and I in anticipation of tomorrow’s Create (!) performance at the Prospector in Long Beach. It was great to eat great Mexican food at Los Compadres and talk music with Orlando and Chris Ziegler for a few hours.

Last night I drove down to {open} for the inaugural 3rdthurs event and recorded both smgsap and guitarist Jeremy Drake cellist Jessica Catron performing as Missincinatti. Both duo sets were measured, considerate and appropriately timed. I always enjoy watching and listening to musicians who have respect for the attention and intelligence of their audience and both groups, while markedly different, have said respect.

To wrap up, there are a two Twilight & Ghost Stories related audio treats for the rabid or casual listener. Firstly, I put together a streaming playlist which contains one track from almost everyone on the album. This so-called Twilight Radio playlist is available for streaming at the Asthmatic Kitty site, just look for the “akradio” link in the top menu bar. Secondly, I have released a 13 minute excerpt of the recent Twilight performance in Athens, Georgia at the Next To Last Fest. Both are ready for your two ears now.

Chris Schlarb- Twilight Athens [mp3]
Featuring Daedelus, Lars Gotrich, Liz Janes, Aaron Jollay & Drew Smith
Recorded in Athens, Georgia
December 8th, 2007 // 192kps

As of today Twilight & Ghost Stories has been out for exactly a month’s time. In the days that have passed since its release I have been surprised by the reactions that people have had to the album. Honestly, it has surpassed the expectations that I placed on it and I can only thank those who have listened and written about the record as thoughtfully as they have. I have gathered more than a few of the press reviews here for further perusal.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by a few fine writers, Ian Patterson from All About Jazz and Chris Ziegler from The District Weekly, and both of those articles have now been published online. Both writers asked questions that provoked in me new reflections on the creative process that went into Twlight. This week also saw the online publishing of a print feature with Josiah Hughes of XLR8R Magazine.

In late November I was canonized alongside a great many number of artists who have contributed to Dusted Magazine’s Listed column and a few days after that was featured on NPR’s Second Stage with Robin Hilton.

And so to wrap up this densely assembled post I am asking for a little help from anyone who has enjoyed listening to Twilight & Ghost Stories. A few people have already posted very thoughtful and kind reviews on iTunes and Amazon.com and I would ask that if you have a minute or two, perhaps you will consider leaving short review there. It really does help encourage people to check out the album when they see others have enjoyed it as well.

Again, here are links to the album at Amazon.com, iTunes and even eMusic.com

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your reviews!

If it is possible to bribe my small (but intelligent) audience in some way, perhaps a previously unreleased I Heart Lung performance recording will persuade you?

I Heart Lung live at Pehrspace [mp3]
Recorded in Los Angeles, California
August 27th, 2007 // 320kps

Disclaimer: No reviews are required to listen to or download the above recording.