It's finally over! The Dorothy Heralds' release party for our new CD 100 Unnamed Things was last night. We pulled out all the stops for this one. Lights, sound, VIP party and free admission for the first 100 people. Aside from a longer than planned setup time, everything went off without a hitch. Attendance was high as were spirits. We took a lot of chances with this show and I think they paid off well.
We started the night with retooled versions of "Inverno Rosa" and "Now" from our last album Projections. "Inverno Rosa" was made moodier by reducing the instrumentation to piano, guitar and voice. Kevin's keyboard line didn't change much, but the addition of some Frisell-ian swells really ornamented the beauty of the melody. Gary actually sang the high harmony which is still amazing. "Now" was rescued from the noise/improv excesses of the past. Gary and Tim wrote a Medeski, Martin and Wood sounding groove. Kevin and I chose a more minamalistic, Massive Attack style ambience. Then we performed "Angel" by Massive Attack which we combined with our song "I Don't Care" from Projections.
Next came the album in its entirety. Everything was played pretty much the way it is on the CD, with the notable exception of "Play" which we've combined with Björk's "Hyper Ballad". It's one of my favorite pieces to perform. We superimpose "Hyper Ballad" over the bridge of "Play" and then end with the chorus of "Play" being sung over the chorus of "Hyper Ballad". It's an emotionally powerful piece for me, and I think that comes across to the audience.
After performing the songs on the new album, we performed "Interiatic ESP" by The Mars Volta, "Synchronicity II" by the Police and "Sunless Saturday" by Fishbone. Those have to be some of the more challenging and enjoyable covers we've done. It's been a dream of mine for quite a while to perform "Synchronicity II" on stage. We were actually asked to do an encore which was a pleasant surprise. We did "Beautiful" from Projections but improved around it a lot. Thanks to Tim, we've actually gotten to a place where we can improvise as a group. It's so very refreshing!
DJ Anonymous spun some great stuff to close the night. And for those of you that couldn't stick around a spontaneous jam with Anonymous and the band occurred at the end of the night. I really hope that we'll get to work with him more in the future. His remixes of our album sound incredible.
Thanks to everyone who made last night possible and to all the people involved in the production!
12.10.2006
10.07.2006
New CD Soon!
The new CD is done! The artwork is done! The release party is booked!
Yes, that's right! Just a few months behind schedule, The Dorothy Heralds new album is in the can! Entitled "100 Unnamed Things", the CD is a really good representation of who we are, where we're going, and what we sound like "live". I'm listening to the final masters and they sound great! We'll be going to press by the end of October. The Madison release party will be at the Café Montmartre on December 9th. We're planning something really special. A bit of theater, a lot of music, and maybe a few unnamed things. DJ Anonymous will be spinning. He's in the process of remixing some tracks from "100 Unnamed Things" so you may hear some of that also. I've heard it and am quite impressed!
In other news, I've moved to the east side of Madison yet again. Technically it's Monona, but it's only a twenty minute bike ride to work so I still consider it Madison. (As opposed to the twenty minute drive from Middleton) The place is pretty nice. Living in a place with an actual backyard and a deck certainly is nice. I'm still unpacking some things, but hopefully it'll be all done soon. Biking to work has also been really nice. The weather has been perfect for it!
This week I was finally able to recover some data I thought I'd lost from the hard disk that died earlier this year. I was thankfully able to recover all of my arrangements and scores. This means that I should be able to get my portfolio together on time for CalArts and The New School. I just sat down and went through the recovered scores last night. I was pleasantly surprised to hear some good things. I may actually be able to finish the string quartet project I was writing at the time of the crash before the end of next month.
Yes, that's right! Just a few months behind schedule, The Dorothy Heralds new album is in the can! Entitled "100 Unnamed Things", the CD is a really good representation of who we are, where we're going, and what we sound like "live". I'm listening to the final masters and they sound great! We'll be going to press by the end of October. The Madison release party will be at the Café Montmartre on December 9th. We're planning something really special. A bit of theater, a lot of music, and maybe a few unnamed things. DJ Anonymous will be spinning. He's in the process of remixing some tracks from "100 Unnamed Things" so you may hear some of that also. I've heard it and am quite impressed!
In other news, I've moved to the east side of Madison yet again. Technically it's Monona, but it's only a twenty minute bike ride to work so I still consider it Madison. (As opposed to the twenty minute drive from Middleton) The place is pretty nice. Living in a place with an actual backyard and a deck certainly is nice. I'm still unpacking some things, but hopefully it'll be all done soon. Biking to work has also been really nice. The weather has been perfect for it!
This week I was finally able to recover some data I thought I'd lost from the hard disk that died earlier this year. I was thankfully able to recover all of my arrangements and scores. This means that I should be able to get my portfolio together on time for CalArts and The New School. I just sat down and went through the recovered scores last night. I was pleasantly surprised to hear some good things. I may actually be able to finish the string quartet project I was writing at the time of the crash before the end of next month.
9.27.2006
Principles of Art
Tonight the Dorothy Heralds did an interview for the show Radio Literature on WORT here in Madison. The interview will broadcast this Thursday, September 28th at 7PM Central. For those of you not in the Madison area, you can listen via the Internet here For those of you who don't know, WORT is a community supported radio station here in Madison. No, not "Public Radio" in the PBS, "All Things Considered" sense. It's actually a non-profit, publicly owned radio station. You may be confused about why we'd be spotlighted on a show that focuses on "poetry, fiction, non-fiction and children's literature from Wisconsin". A fan of ours, Keenan, is one of the hosts. The tie-in is that Keenan, who is a writer himself, has a lot of ideas about how work in different disciplines not only influence each other, but how they work from the same universal principles.
He's also a friend and co-conspirator of Jess, a local filmmaker we're working with. Jess is producing (and directing and all that other stuff) a film and has asked us to contribute to the soundtrack. This has, of course, been very exciting for the band as we've always looked to film as one of our main inspirations. To finally be involved in the medium has been a bit of a dream come true for us.
During the interview, we talked about the growth of the band and how we write. One of the ideas that came out was that in the process of developing as an artist, you begin to trust your "instincts" shall we say. You're presented with an idea, or concept, and instead of working out a response, or "solution", by analyzing, you react in something of an emotional way. As time goes by, those responses become more appropriate and poignant. They become the "correct" responses, or the ones that make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. I can't help but think of this as the response to the touch of a lover. Instead of calculating a response, the response is immediate and "true". Almost in a Zen sense.
He's also a friend and co-conspirator of Jess, a local filmmaker we're working with. Jess is producing (and directing and all that other stuff) a film and has asked us to contribute to the soundtrack. This has, of course, been very exciting for the band as we've always looked to film as one of our main inspirations. To finally be involved in the medium has been a bit of a dream come true for us.
During the interview, we talked about the growth of the band and how we write. One of the ideas that came out was that in the process of developing as an artist, you begin to trust your "instincts" shall we say. You're presented with an idea, or concept, and instead of working out a response, or "solution", by analyzing, you react in something of an emotional way. As time goes by, those responses become more appropriate and poignant. They become the "correct" responses, or the ones that make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. I can't help but think of this as the response to the touch of a lover. Instead of calculating a response, the response is immediate and "true". Almost in a Zen sense.
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