Why Chris Schlarb?
Here is a quick example: if you want to approximate an orchestra of instruments with a single keyboard, I am probably not the right one for the job. My best work utilizes any number of unique, real world instruments including tabla, euphonium, mandolin, marimba and upright double bass. I thoroughly enjoy working with real instruments, in real spaces, with real musicians.
If your film, video game or album requires texture and atmospheric depth, unique or unusual live instrumentation, and thoughtful arrangement, I would love to hear from you. For the last decade I have explored the ambient, jazz, folk, electronic and modern classical genres as a member of both the American Composers Forum and ASCAP.
I specialize in taking small and medium sized budgets and turning them into expensive sounding recordings. I operate my own mobile recording studio and engineer most sessions, saving time and cost.
My work can be heard on this site and read about in the New York Times, All About Jazz, Time Out New York, Chicago Reader and Pitchfork.
Record Labels
Asthmatic Kitty
Sounds Are Active
thoughts
PRISM index
What if you could buy an entire art installation for $22 and keep it on your bookshelf? Well you can, it’s called PRISM index. A few years ago, I was asked to contribute four interviews with Twilight & Ghost Stories collaborators Mick Rossi, Bhob Rainey, Parker Paul and Ray Raposa. These interviews, discussing struggle, inspiration, [...]
I Heart Lung Tour Texana
A year after I Heart Lung lurched out toward the East Coast we are venturing out for one week of Big Texas Fun. According to the Austin Chronicle: “I Heart Lung – guitarist Chris Schlarb and drummer Tom Steck – is a wily creature, jumping right to left brain with amphetamine grace.” Flattery will get [...]
The Year In Listening (2009)
If I’m completely honest, I will admit that I listen to far more music from the 70’s than any other decade. Between masterful albums from Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, The Isley Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Donny Hathaway, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, and Devo, I get most of my nourishment from music that was made [...]
Too Much Shredding
So I went to Guitar Center today. I wanted to check out a few Electro Harmonix pedals. I didn’t buy anything.
Schlarb Family White Christmas Album 2009
The response to last year’s Schlarb Family Christmas Album was so enthusiastic that we couldn’t wait to get another one out in time for this Christmas. Things got started in October when kids really dug into a few Paul McCartney tunes on The White Album. Soon, Elisha knew the melody and lyrics to “Rocky Raccoon” [...]
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 (!) [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Kickball Vs. Microphone
While I was out at a park recording playground sounds for a short film I saw a large group of older Japanese men and women playing kickball. Apparently they finished before one man had his fill. He proceeded to kick the ball by himself around a large field.
At 2 seconds you can hear him kick [...]
Song For Charles Rocket
“Song For Charles Rocket” is a piece of music I wrote for Destroyer of Brains, a free jazz ensemble from Los Angeles. For this demo recording I threw the Zoom H2 in front of my amp and looped the bass line while playing the lead melody over it. It should be fun to compare this [...]
We Scream: Voices From The Ice Cream Underground
For the last six years or so I have wanted to make a documentary film about ice cream truck drivers and paleteros (cart and bike vendors). Having spent years delivering newspapers, copies and organic fruit myself, I have always felt a certain kinship to these professions. What has interested me most about them, however, is [...]
Hoedown Throwdown
Summertime is almost here. The nights are getting longer and the kids are out playing after 9pm. I heard singing in the courtyard through the kitchen door and grabbed my Zoom H2. Apparently this is the chorus to Miley Cyrus’ song “Hoedown Throwdown”. There are five or six voices singing here including my son and [...]
I Heart Lung’s Deep Water Tour
A week after Interoceans received a rave review on Pitchfork, I Heart Lung depart for a two week Midwest and East Coast tour. Shows scheduled in Brooklyn at Death By Audio (with Opsvik & Jennings) and Chicago at The Empty Bottle (with Serengeti and DM Stith) on March 3rd and 8th respectively. Full dates and [...]
The Year In Listening (2008)
I am used to feeling a certain gaping remove from most things: society at large, the greater music listening public, their trends and so on. This year was no different in that respect; I saw names rise up out of the fertile ground tilled by publicists and float above the dirt just long enough for [...]
Why Obama
My wife and I volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign today. We made some calls out to the people of North Carolina gave them information on where their local polling location was. It was an honor to volunteer with the good people gathered together in Carson, California. Carson is a semi-industrial neighborhood made up of [...]
The Widow Babies- The Mike Watt E.P. (2008)
The first song I ever heard The Widow Babies play was “Mike Watt Created The Universe With A Bass Solo”. I was recording the group at the request of concert promoter and musical provocateur, Sean Carnage for a music film called Friends In Other Dimensions. Sean knew my musical leanings and said I might be [...]
Herbie Hancock + Joni Mitchell @ Fox Studios (3.20.08)
Were there wireless keytar solos, bass slaps, auto-wah drenched guitar scrapes and electronic sounds that harkened back to Burgertime-era arcade games? Yes, and it was worth every minute of it. A week ago I read about a special live performance for, get this: Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music which was to be filmed at [...]
Twittering
I don’t really have much desire, or time, to participate in most of the social networking craze but I did recently sign up for Twitter. I am still getting the hang of it and can see how it might supplement the the content of this site with small, so called, “mirco-blogging”.
What I enjoy most [...]
Up For Air
When I am able to look back on the frequency of posts on this blog I will, most likely, be able to track my own productivity. The more work I get done, the less I post and so on.
Right now I am in the final few weeks of one video game project that I have [...]
Obama Gets His Ya-Ya’s Out
Just one more reason, in a series of thousands, that I am voting for Barack Obama:
Three days after claiming the nomination, Mr. Obama, who makes infrequent visits to the campaign’s Chicago headquarters, offered his gratitude by way of a motivational pep talk.
“I want everybody to catch your breath. Do what you do to get your [...]
The Year In Listening (2007)
10 (TIE). Castanets- In The Vines (Asthmatic Kitty Records)
A difficult puzzle of an album, In The Vines boasts one of the best songs of the year in “Strong Animal,” and finds Ray Raposa allowing the sun to shine on half of his face. The record twists between hideous hiss and gorgeous texture. It may take [...]
The Rain Came
Photo by frinkianz
A few weeks back I was asked a question: would I like to go to Athens, Georgia in December and play some music. Typically, I responded with two questions of my own. One about transportation and one about a performance guarantee. Both of those questions were quickly answered in the affirmative and arrangements [...]
Feeling Quite Well, Thank You
So it has been over a month since The Great Information Implosion of 2007 and here is what I have to show for my time.
Liz Janes and I are working on a new album together. Some great melodies and lyrics from Liz. Some complex and painful chords and progressions from yours truly.
I Heart Lung [...]