recordings
Haunted House Soundtrack
All the way back in 2005, my good friend Orlando Greenhill and I were asked to record the soundtrack for a haunted house at Martin Luther King Jr. park in Long Beach. We were given an auditorium to record in and enlisted two teenagers from the neighborhood. As usual, we recorded under the Create (!) banner and the teenagers chose the name Chaos Theory. What we ended up with sounds equally hilarious and frightening: demonic screams (by Orlando), free jazz drums (by yours truly), plenty of doors and windows slammed shut and all manner of feedback and acoustic piano abuse. We tried to include as many scary/Halloween sounds as we could with the meager equipment at our disposal.
In the last few years, the recording was featured on Boing Boing and downloaded thousands of times. I recently went back to the original recordings, added some EQ, a little reverb and generally remastered the whole affair. The original recording was only 7 minutes long but I have looped it and crossfaded it into a 33 minute beast that begs for many Halloween listens. Enjoy!
Orlando Greenhill- voice, electronics, electric bass, percussion
Chris Schlarb- drums, piano, percussion, electronics, voice
Chaos Theory- electric guitar, voice, percussion
Produced and Recorded by Chris Schlarb
IN TRANSIT presents: 16mm
On May 19th, 2008, I Heart Lung went into Matt Wignall‘s Tackyland Studio in Long Beach and recorded music to accompany a series of colorful short films by Canadian visual artist Jonathan Dueck. Jonathan has designed album covers for Soul-Junk, Rafter Roberts, Liz Janes and many others, he is also responsible for bringing West African artist Hermas Zopoula to the attention of the Asthmatic Kitty record label. For the past few years Dueck has quietly scratched, painted and stamped over repurposed 16mm film. Eventually he wound up with 20 short films each running 1 to 2 minutes in length. He then asked four different artists to compose soundtracks: Chad VanGaalen, Son Lux, Deneir and I Heart Lung.
After four years of work, Jonathan Dueck’s 16mm project is ready. Well, almost… All he needs now is to raise enough money to package the booklet, DVD and CD together and he’s doing it through Kickstarter.com. You can help make it all possible for only a $10 pledge. Just so you know, pledging now will not remove any funds from your account, if Jonathan does not reach his goal of $2,600 in the next 60 days, you don’t pay anything. I cannot recommend your support for this project highly enough. Check out Jonathan’s video and Kickstarter page here.
The Widow Babies- Jetpacks
In January of 2009, The Widow Babies and I began recording Jetpacks. Our first album together, The Mike Watt EP, was recorded in a single day. Jetpacks, however, consisted of three days in the studio with additional time for tracking, mixing and overdubs. To my ears, Jetpacks sounds different than anything coming out of Los Angeles right now. The lazy ear could settle for Abe Vigoda-like connections but the drumming is too dense, the vocals too piercing, the guitar too afro-pop and the bass too muscular for that comparison. I also happen to think that Tabor Allen is one of the best lyricists working today. Whereas most bands treat words like the throw away fluff needed for people to sing along, The Widow Babies sing humanist anthems wrapped in surrealist sunshine pop.
The Widow Babies are an incredible group and I could not be more pleased with the work we did on this album. The songs are short, smart, angular and catchy as hell. I also think the production is pretty great too but maybe that’s just me. Jim Smith, who runs the venerable L.A. underground venue The Smell, has released Jetpacks on clear 12″ vinyl on his olFactory Records label. The one-sided record comes with screenprinted art on the B-side and a digital download of the full album. Pick it up soon because these won’t last long.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Chris Schlarb
The Widow Babies are:
Tabor Allen- drums
Neal Marquez- electric bass
Elise McCutchen- vocals
Danny Miller- electric guitar
September Fortnight
The next two weeks look to be unexpectedly busy. In addition to sound, foley and composition work in the studio I will be performing twice and engineering three live events. For whatever reason, I don’t play all that often in Los Angeles or Long Beach anymore. If I’m not on tour, I’m usually at home in the studio working on a reason to tour.
Sometimes I get invitations that are too good to pass up and it seems that a lot of them came within a 14 day span in the middle of September.
Here’s the quick run down:
Sunday September 13th, 2009
Eagle Rock Center For The Arts
2225 Colorado Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA. 90041
Nels Cline + G.E. Stinson
Hans Fjellestad
Starts at 7pm // $10
Nels and G.E. are celebrating the release of their new duo album, Elevating Device. I will be recording the performance and running the merchandise table. Come out and say hello!
Sunday September 13th, 2009
Part Time Punks
1822 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90026
The Widow Babies
Blue Jungle
Starts at 10pm // $5
I’ll be heading straight from the Elevating Device album release show to The Widow Babies Jet Packs album release show. In January of this year, the group and I began recording Jet Packs and I couldn’t be happier for them. They have taken a massive step forward in songwriting and performance and their new songs are just incredible. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up recording this show too.
Monday September 14th, 2009
The Santa Animals Sneak Peak Party
533 Havana
Long Beach CA 90814
Starts at 9pm // FREE
In August I started work on the independent short film, The Santa Animals. I have been recording everything from the sound of bacon sizzling and dogs barking to wind blowing softly through bird-filled trees. One of the last things I need is to record is the sound of a party for the film’s final scene. That’s where you come in. There are worse ways to spend your Monday night: free food and lending the sound of your voice to a movie.
Thursday September 17th, 2009
Slow Sound Festival at {open}
2226 E. 4th St.
Long Beach, CA. 90814
Chris Schlarb plays Night Game
Albert Ortega
Catherine Lamb
Starts at 8pm // $5
This is a very special event for me. I have worked on the music for Night Game for almost two years now. The funny thing is, almost no one has heard it. Night Game is scheduled for release on the Nintendo Wii in coming months and this event will feature music and projections from and inspired by the game.
Monday September 21st
Fingerprints
4612 E 2nd St
Long Beach, CA. 90803
Nels Cline + G.E. Stinson
Starts at 7pm // Free Instore
I was on the phone all day yesterday putting this together. Nels flies out to New York the next morning but he was looking forward to coming back to Long Beach and performing at the best music store Southern California.
Wednesday September 23rd
Jimmy’s Lounge
6202 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood, Ca. 90038
I Heart Lung
Omid
Emily Hay Collective
Brother Mitya
Screwtape (featuring Bizzart)
DJ ESP
Starts at 9pm // $5
This show, in honor of John Coltrane‘s birthday, is almost a miniature festival. I Heart Lung will be throwing down a few Coltrane tunes (with DJ ESP) and will also be sitting in with Brother Mitya for the night. An unbelievably rare performance. Don’t miss it.
Unboxing Nels Cline and G.E. Stinson
As many of you may know, I run the Sounds Are Active record label in what doctors and psychologists call my “spare time.” Today, I am very proud to hold in my hands, the label’s 50th release: Nels Cline + G.E. Stinson’s Elevating Device. Nels and G.E. are long time friends who have both accomplished a many great musical thing over the years. With Elevating Device, they finally sit down together with their guitars and conjure up the sounds they’ve always wanted to. It’s an honor for me to have them on the label.