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 ya-ya’s out — that’s an old ’60s expression — and then understand that coming back we’re going to have to work twice as hard as we’ve been working,” Mr. Obama said. “We’re going to have to be smarter, we’re going to have to be tougher, our game is going to have to be tighter.”

Before finishing, he included a self-assessment, adding, “I am going to have to be a better candidate.”

(via N.Y. Times)

After we released the film we screened it all over the country and were happy with the reception that the film received in the underground communities around the world.

Two years later the film is being featured as a free, uncut stream on Pitchfork.tv for “One Week Only”. Watch the film and pick up a copy either from Sounds Are Active or from Amazon.

Here, for example, is a short list of what has transpired in the last month:

Soon I will be finishing up an album with singer/songwriter Steve Gerstein. Then I will start mixing down the recordings from the first couple of sessions I had with Liz Janes and the band at the Compound a few months ago.

Then I will be jumping into the studio with LA-based progressive instrumental band Charts and Maps and will try to get I Heart Lung into the studio to record our side of the “Ecstatic Duos” series being released by Thor’s Rubber Hammer Productions.

All the while I will be working on finishing the score for an aforementioned video game project with game designer Nifflas Nygren.

I need to have my electric guitar intonated too.

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

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?

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.

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.

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 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

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.

New York Times
They have weathered the print to web storm and have come out as the clear victors of both content and style. With Khoi Vinh’s beautiful redesign in 2006 the Times became a joy to read online. Add writing from Jon Pareles, Mark Bittman and David Pogue and you’ve got one hell of a specialized team in music, food and technology.

The District Weekly
Comprised of ex-pat OC Weekly and Press-Telegram writers, The District is a powerhouse. The design of the paper (and Web site) is top notch and the writing from Theo Douglas, Chris Ziegler, Rachel Powers and Dave Wielenga is non-peril. All involved should be proud. Long Beach has never produced a finer paper, daily or weekly.

Daring Fireball
Before John Gruber began soliciting commercial sponsorships I happily paid to receive his full RSS feed. Gruber is the thinking man’s Apple advocate. His critiques are insightful, his predictions interesting (even if occasionally incorrect) and his hilarious screeds are actually fun to read.

Dodger Thoughts
With the state of local baseball analysis so anemic, I’m incredibly grateful for Jon Weisman’s careful, passionate and thoughtful writing about my favorite team (of any sport), the Dodgers. Here’s to Russell, Loney, Broxton and The Bison in 2008!

ESPN.com
Michael Weinreb has written the best “Where Are They Now” article that I have ever read. Along with Pete Rose, the article’s subject Bo Jackson, was a childhood hero of mine and Weinreb’s writing is insightful and deals with thousands of inherent cliches with ease. ESPN.com’s baseball writing is fantastic too: Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, Rob Neyer & Jayson Stark? Yes.

Magazines

Stop Smiling
I am almost at a loss for words when describing Stop Smiling. Really, it is the finest magazine published in America. In the last few months they have published interviews with Robert Towne, Jay-Z, William Eggleston, Robert Altman, Questlove, Tom Waits, Rickey Gervais, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Evans and so on. My subscription currently runs through 2009 if that is any indication of my unbridled enthusiasm. Did I mention that Dave Tompkins occasionally writes for them? Incredible.

Tape Op
Simply put, everyone who makes or loves music should subscribe to Tape Op. It’s smart, passionate, well written and ad supported. That means, FREE!

Esquire
You could continue being a mongoloid or you could read Esquire. Fantastic writing from Chuck Klosterman, A.J. Jacobs and Scott Raab and great black book issues with gold mines of practical advice. Again, one of the few subscriptions I hold.

Books

Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis
A facinating and occasionally dark (okay, off-white) look into the life of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Author David Michaelis obviously put years of research and time into reconstructing Schulz‘ life and experiences and although upsetting to his close family, the book strives for a deeper, objective understanding of who the man behind the brilliant art of Peanuts really was. Highly recommended.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
Esquire writer and “human guinea pig” A.J. Jacobs has a need to constantly put himself into rigid lifestyle experiments whether reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica or, as in this book, following all of the commandments of the Bible as literally as possible. Ultimately he finds is impossible but does his best and meanwhile delves deeper into the real words within the Bible than the most devout of believers.

God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
A provocative, seething book, Hitchens draws out all the venom and attempt to provide his own antidote. I’m not entirely sure that is possible in and of itself but this book helped to re-awaken my inner skeptic and for that I will be forever grateful. I wrote more about God Is Not Great earlier this year.

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
The book has now reached phenomenon status and although I can’t say that I’m currently able to put everything from its pages into practice, it has certainly reminded me that I must look at things askew and that hard work is no substitute for smart systems.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
It wasn’t particularly fun to read but it sure was thought provoking, emotionally searing and unforgettable. McCarthy’s bleak landscape turned the most mundane events into small triumphs and his prose was as beautiful as it was oblique. I’m not entirely sure what to make of the ending which keeps the story wonderfully unresolved in my mind.

10 (TIE). Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings- 100 Days 100 Nights (Dap Tone Records)
Why don’t more people have fun with music? 100 Days 100 Nights is solid, if not occasionally spectacular, from beginning to end. Three cheers for two and half minute songs.

9. (TIE) Joni Mitchell- Shine (Hear Music)
Not canonical but worth repeated listens. The drum machine sounds that made me cringe were later reconciled by Brian Blade’s live time keeping. The point is, even mediocre Joni Mitchell has more staying power than the best of the current crop of heralded singer/songwriters.

9. (TIE) Herbie Hancock- River: The Joni Letters (Verve)
I know this is cheating but it’s my list. There are moments of spine-tingling beauty on this record. Not everything works, however this is a more robust set of ideas and arrangements than the wobbly A Tribute To Joni Mitchell. Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Vinnie Colaiuta all shine as do Norah Jones, Mitchell herself and, in an adept bit of casting, Tina Turner.

8. 4Hero- Play With The Changes (Raw Canvas)
Another in a group of completely ignored releases, I don’t think I read one review on Play With The Changes anywhere online. 4Hero are masters of modern soul and dance music and on their first album in years they bring back their immaculate string arrangements, crisp upright bass and cutting drums. Oh, and a few British vocalists who can actually sing. Sorry America.

7. His Name Is Alive- Sweet Earth Flower (High Two)
A deep, moody collaboration between His Name Is Alive’s Warn Defever and NOMO’s Elliot Bergman, Sweet Earth Flower reminds me of the constant question of why “jazz” is so stagnant. Here we have a tribute to saxophonist Marion Brown that echos the openness of the late 60’s early 70’s jazz scene. What brings the album into focus (besides great engineering and sensitive playing by all) is the freshness of Defever’s simple electric guitar. He says more with a few sustained whole notes than others can say with hundreds of double picked 32nds.

6. ellul- s/t (Sounds Are Active)
I’ve heard a lot of records in the last twelve months but few give me both the chills and head scratching arrangements of ellul’s self titled debut. Bias aside, this album blows the sonic walls down on most records this year. A true artistic achievement that has been all but ignored by the current musical cognoscenti. My hope is that one day this wonderful record with find a wider, more appreciative audience.

5. Badun- s/t (Rump Recordings)
I don’t remember how I heard about Badun but I’ll never forget listening to them for the first time. A Danish trio who specialize in a kind of ambient-electro-jazz-scrabble, Badun’s debut is a fascinating examination of a near future where jazz musicians sublimate their chops and chop up their music into unrecognizable idioms.

4. Radiohead- In Rainbows (self-released)
What can I say? It’s a great record. And the first that I’ve purchased by Radiohead since OK Computer.

3. Robert Plant | Alison Krauss- Raising Sand (Rounder)
If there is a better, more considered collaboration between two vocalists released in the last few years, I haven’t heard it. For the first time Plant sings softly and from the heart. Krauss‘ gorgeous tenor is amazingly well suited to wrap up their harmonies. With arid guitars from T-Bone Burnett and Marc Ribot and perfect pedal steel from Greg Leisz the album is a collection of traditional folk, country and blues with a few surprises (Led Zeppelin & Tom Waits) thrown in. Burnett has produced the kind of masterpiece that will reward for years and years to come.

2. Strategy- Future Rock (Kranky)
Pick Dickow is a singular artist making singular music. The follow up to 2005’s Drumsolo’s Delight, Future Rock has a leaner palette of textures and a more aggressive selection of beats. As always Dickow allows his songs to develop naturally without ever feeling overlong, incorporating an incredibly subtle composition/production ethic. Although recently named on The Wire’s best of 2007 list Future Rock was largely unexplored in 2007 and that is truly a shame.

1. Sam Yahel Trio- Truth and Beauty (Origin Records)
Truth and Beauty is the first recording on which I truly enjoyed Joshua Redman’s playing and saxophone sound. Drummer Brian Blade is, as usual, thoughtful, inventive and propulsive. But it is organist/leader Sam Yahel who has channeled the spirit of the classic Bill Evans trio (with Paul Motion and Scott LaFaro) writing six very strong originals while tackling three interesting and obscure covers. Together they have produced, by far, the best jazz record of the year.

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 were made for me to perform at Next To Last Fest.

After confirming I then wrestled with the idea of what to perform. The festival organizer, Will Donaldson, was a fan of Twilight & Ghost Stories and I assumed that I would be performing that composition in some fashion. But how? I thought about incorporating large sections of the album recordings interspersed with live playing but this was ultimately a hedge against the possibility of putting a mediocre group together. Eventually a sense of abandon took over and in the last few days prior to the festival I shored up an ensemble:

Daedelus- monome, electronics
Lars Gotrich- acoustic guitar, voice
Liz Janes- voice, ukelele
Aaron Jollay- trombone
Chris Schlarb- acoustic guitar, electronics
Drew Smith- drums and percussion

From the beginning I intended on using the original recording of rain and street sounds as the background for the live performance, just like the album. A funny thing happened on the way to Georgia though. I forgot it.

I spent Friday afternoon down by the bank of the Oconee River recording sounds to use as a replacement. Unfortunately Athens is in the midst of a well publicized drought and the water ran quiet and still. The most exciting event of my riverside visit was the impressive bellyflop performed by a rotund beaver. It sounded like a bowling ball dropped from an airplane.

Again I resolved to use the original sounds and thought intently about how to accomplish this when it dawned on me: The Twilight Variations. I downloaded the zip file with the original four minute excerpt and via looping and crossfading I stretched it out to the thirty minute performance time.

The sounds outside a wet Long Beach apartment playing in the background, I conducted the Athenian sextet with a custom made light box that allowed me to create combinations of musicians on the fly much like the assembly of the album. I met with everyone collectively an hour prior to performance and, with no rehearsal, we took the stage.

Somehow it all sounded just as I thought it would: silence, texture, tension, melody and stillness commingling. Moments converged and dissipated naturally, one idea manually transitioning into another. The light box worked great and I got some solid ideas for future performances. Both the musicians and the audience seemed happy and shared the feeling that it was over too soon. Just the way I like it.

Soon Daedelus performed and, monome in hand, slew the crowd. His facility on the young instrument was inspiring as was his ability to inventively juxtapose melody, context and rhythm. Finally, in an enthusiastic act of quid pro quo, I accompanied Liz Janes on three songs that we have been working on over the past six months. Frozen fingers aside, I think it all went really well.

On Sunday Adam (Doseone), Jeff (Jel) and I watched former Dirty Projectors guitarist Spencer Kingman perform with nothing but a bright red Tokai electric. His guitar and vocal music is delicate, considered and beautifully written. Goosebumps and head shaking ensued.

Later the tables were turned as Spencer and I gleefully listened to Themselves vamp on George Washington’s teeth and generally rip during their set. Later on the ride back to our lodging I had the pleasure of playing Spencer his first taste of Steely Dan. I choose the Odyssey inspired track “Home At Last.” He loved it.

Meanwhile in Long Beach, my wife Adriana (along with sister Pita and friend Sancha) plied her culinary genius for benefit of all who attended the quadraphonic listening event at {open}. Many thanks to Shea Gauer (the store’s co-owner) who enthusiastically sponsored this event. Not only is {open} a great book store but it also happens to be the best place in Los Angeles to listen to music. During the listening event, my wife told me later, a fresh rain came down quietly outside.

Chris Schlarb- Twilight Athens [mp3]
Recorded in Athens, Georgia
December 8th, 2007 // 192kps

UPDATE: Lars Gotrich has posted On Performing Twilight & Ghost Stories on his blog National Public Viking. Poseidon’s Wake indeed!

To celebrate the album’s release, listening events have been organized throughout the country. They will feature a special quadraphonic mix of Twilight & Ghost Stories, food and drink, as well as a performance from one of the album’s contributors. These events are free and you are welcome to invite as many friends as you would like. The more the merrier!

December 7th- Indianapolis, IN. @ Harrison Center for the Arts w/ Michael Kaufmann
December 8th- Austin, TX. @ End of An Ear w/ The Weird Weeds
December 8th- Long Beach, CA. @ OPEN w/ Languis
December 8th- Chicago, IL. @ Heart of Gold w/ thearmorclass
December 8th- Brooklyn, NY. @ Monkey Town w/ Inlets

I have also been invited to perform at the Next To Last Festival in Athens, Georgia on the 8th of December. I will be putting together an ensemble to perform a version of Twilight as well as performing alongside Liz Janes. Others performing at this festival include Daedalus, Themselves and Circulatory System. If you are in the area, it would be great to see you out there. At only $20 for an entire weekend of music it really is an amazing event to be a part of.

Many thanks to Jessica Suarez at Paper Thin Walls and Dave Cantor at Stereo Subversion for deftly sifting through all my words.

I had only been home for three days when Pitchfork published Joe Tangari’s tag team review of both Twilight & Ghost Stories and the new I Heart Lung album Between Them A Forest Grew, Trackless and Quiet.

A number of kind people dropped me a line to wish me congratulations. I also read more than a few vociferous comments about the “mediocre” review. Honestly, aside from the fact that the review is a month early and only featured one album cover I have nothing but positive things to say about it.

That Mr. Tangari reviewed the albums came as a pleasant surprise as I hold him in high esteem as one of the more contemplative, contextual writers working (Douglas Wolk, Phillip Buchan and Ned Raggett also come to mind- heck, so do Ian Patterson, Brandon Stousy and Jon Pareles). Although the scores (7.2 and 6.0 for Twilight and A Forest, respectively) might not incite the kind of rabid blog buzz that anything north of an 8.0 does, the review was sensitive, thoughtful and free from histrionics. I rather enjoyed it and am grateful for the time spent really listening to the albums. It’s too bad that a rating (numbers, stars, thumbs) can, on occasion, upstage such relevant writing.

Twilight & Ghost Stories, by the way, is now available from Asthmatic Kitty Records via pre-order for $10. I have a feeling that if you order the album now, you’ll receive prior to the December 4th release date. Between Them A Forest Grew, Trackless and Quiet is also available now, you get an immediately mp3 download while you wait for the CD in the mail.

I’ll be home for another few days before flying out to Indianapolis to work with Liz Janes on our forthcoming album. When we last got together in July we knocked out five solid demo recordings. Now that I’ve listened back to them I am both surprised and enthused. I’m looking forward to recording them with a full band early next year.

There’s much to be done between now and then.

The simple answer is that I am obsessively goal-oriented. I also happen to be obsessively software-oriented. Undoubtedly this is because I own a Mac and its operating system is home to an astonishing software development community.

Back to Taskpaper. It’s a simple notepad like program that effectively bridges the gap between Merlin Mann’s hipster PDA and something like the Ta-Da List widget. It looks and acts like paper but is easily searchable and organized. It’s also handsome and simple, much like WriteRoom, the other flagship program from Hog Bay Software.

Taskpaper works within David Allen’s Getting Things Done framework but if you’re not familiar with GTD, don’t let it scare you off. I’ve read Allen’s tome to contextualization and productivity and the bottom line is write stuff down and do it. No other program allows you to do that any better than Taskpaper. Within minutes I was off to the races. Pouring out all the big and little things that needed doing. It helped me knock out a few of the mental blocks that saw my flagged emails piling up. In one afternoon after using Taskpaper they went from thirty to five and I’m feeling pretty good.

On the surface Taskpaper uses nothing more that text and symbol based prompts. A name or title followed by a semi colon creates a project. A dash followed by a space creates a new item within that project. The item also gets a clean little circle in the far left column and once you complete that project you mark it as done with a simple “Command + D” keystroke. You can create “contexts” or groups by adding an “@” followed by a simple word or phrase. Currently my most popular are “@audio” and “@write” which means I have a lot of music to work on and a lot of things to write.

Under the surface however, Taskpaper allows you to create and organize tabs based on either groups or projects. It’s a deceptively simple program that is perfect for obsessives and goal oriented folks alike. Thankfully I’ve accomplished enough in the last few days with Taskpaper that I had no problems sitting down and writing this post (in WriteRoom by the way). If things keep up I just might talk about TextExpander, Quicksilver, Coda and MarsEdit too.