thoughts
Collecting Spirits
In mid-July 2011, I started producing a new album for prolific singer/songwriter/composer Paulie Pesh. We spent the first four days tracking inside of Downey First Presbyterian. The 84-year-old sanctuary, with its vaulted ceilings, and sun-filled, stained glass windows was perfect for tracking rhythm section, strings, and brass. The environment, the music, and the people involved have made for an unforgettable experience. In the above photo, I am using an AKG D112 on the cello, a pair of AKG 451 EB’s in an XY pattern to capture the viola and violin, and a Sennheiser 421 on the flute running into the Allen & Heath Zed R-16. Many thanks to my assistant engineers, Jet Elfman and Jason Chavez.
Through The Looking Glass
Photo by Ben Collins, taken at The Smell on February 13th, 2011.
The last few weeks have been important, if muted, to the Psychic Temple Continuum. On July 7th, 2011, we assembled 10-strong, at the Long Beach Museum of Art and, against all odds, attempted a mass inversion of sea, air, and sound. Our vantage point was obscured and it was difficult to tell when and if we succeeded, but there were many kind words when all was said and done.
A few days prior to the performance Ian Patterson at All About Jazz reviewed Psychic Temple: “It would’ve been difficult to imagine a follow-up recording more beautiful or conceptually refined than Twilight and Ghost Stories, but Psychic Temple achieves just that; for 33 minutes, this sublime meditation sees Schlarb work his minimalist magic as never before… Psychic Temple seduces with its unrelenting beauty; the perfect antidote to an increasingly noisy, hectic, and often senseless world…”
I also had the pleasure of discussing Psychic Temple with musician, journalist, and arts champion extraordinaire, Sander Roscoe Wolff of the Long Beach Post: “Psychic Temple is far more composed. In four movements it is expansive, restrained, but always beautiful. It is melodic, with arrangements that feature strings, horns, voice, pedal steel guitar and more traditional instrumentation. Although the musicianship is excellent, it never favors athletic playing, instead focusing on the aesthetics of the whole Idiomatically, it feels elusive, but it is engaging and something any lover of music can enjoy.”
The Expanding Coterie
Five topics related only in as much as these friends are doing good work, deserving of your time and attention.
1. Erik Loyer, the creator of, and my collaborator on, the iOS app Strange Rain talks childhood trauma, softball (also a form of childhood trauma), and the Apple II with Kill Screen Magazine.
2. Josh Ottum‘s Like The Season, is one of my favorite records made in the last 10 years. His new album, Watch TV, comes out July 19th. Read a review by the venerable Ned Raggett and listen to excerpts via OC Weekly.
3. New York Times illustrator and Twilight & Ghost Stories cover artist Grady McFerrin gets the Grain Edit spotlight for his gorgeous, ageless, hand-cramping typography.
4. In addition to producing, engineering, and teaching, Ronan Chris Murphy also hosts the fantastic, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-studio-shorts Ronan’s Recording Show. You can watch all the episodes online or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes. One of my personal favorites involves a visit to Sound City in Van Nuys.
5. Critics Leigh Alexander and Kirk Hamilton examine L.A. Noire from unique vantage points (practical and post-modern, respectively) and come to a similar conclusion: in attempting to be something more than just a video game, it fails at being a video game altogether.
God, The Devil & The Diamond
Here’s a classic for all the baseball lovers. Especially 80′s baseball.
Steve Wulf, writing in March of 1988 for Sports Illustrated:
One current struggle bears watching. It began in 1983, when Jim Gott, then pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays, faced second baseman Tim Teufel, who had just been called up to the Minnesota Twins. Teufel hit his first major league homer off Gott. Later in the same game he singled off Gott. In German, Gott is God and Teufel is Devil.
Theologians should not lose heart, though. In an exhibition game the next spring, Gott hit Teufel with a pitch. They didn’t face each other again until last summer, when Teufel, playing for the Mets, grounded out twice against Gott, who was pitching for the Pirates. So far, the Devil is 2 for 4 against God.
Says Gott, “You know, as a Mormon, I feel a tremendous amount of pressure facing Teufel. Just kidding. Actually, Tim and I kid each other a lot about it. His name may mean the Devil, but he seems like a great guy.”
Says Teufel, “I don’t know about Gott being God, but he does have a great fastball. To tell you the truth, though, my nemesis is Steve Carlton. Struck me out four times in one game at the end of his career. My god, what was he like in his prime?”
Fallin’ Ditch
On December 17th, 2010, Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, passed away due to complications from multiple sclerosis. In 1969 he released the song “Fallin’ Ditch” on the album Trout Mask Replica. In 1996 he released this powerful reading of the song’s lyrics. Listening to this new version while thinking of his passing, I felt as though I understood the song for the first time.
Fallin’ Ditch
When I get lonesome the wind begin t’ moan?
When I trip fallin’ ditch?
Somebody wanna’ throw the dirt right down?
When I feel like dyin’ the sun come out?
’n stole m’ fear ‘n gone
Who’s afraid of the spirit with the bluesferbones?
Who’s afraid of the fallin’ ditch
Fallin’ ditch ain’t gonna get my bones
How’s that for the spirit
How’s that for the things?
Ain’t my fault the thing’s gone wrong?
‘n when I’m smilin’ my face wrinkles up real warm
’n when um frownin’ things just turn t’ stone?
Fallin’ ditch ain’t gonna get my bones
’n when I get lonesome the wind begin t’ moan
Fallin’ ditch ain’t gonna get my bones
Download it here. Rest in peace Captain.