MP3 Audio Tracks
Electronica with gogoLab
The dance research team at GogoLab has published it's first full report, entitled "The Stakeout". This is now available at the gogoLab website. Check out the site for sample tracks. It's a concept album featuring a b movie script to which the album serves as an underscore. The plot is about a seasoned Private Eye working at the edges of the law who seeks to settle a score with his arch-nemesis, a big-time drug dealer.... The album is chock full of my far-out farfisa playing as well as liberal doses of screeching sonic mayhem.
Also, here's a fun new lab track that appeared on a Led Zeppelin compilation late last year... The Ocean [5.2 mb]
Roots Rock with Jeff Finlin
Late last summer, Jeff took the band into NFA studios, with engineer Colin Bricker to record an album of songs. We cut 15 tracks in one afternoon, with virtually no overdubs, but I'm really happy with how it came out. Here are a few numbers from the resulting CD, Live and Retrospective (available on Jeff's site I believe.) Delta Down [5.4 mb] has some gritty fender rhodes, and Waitin on a Flood [6.8 mb] and Nothing's Enough [6.2 mb] feature the majestic upright piano at NFA. On Postcard from Topeka [6.8 mb] I got to tear into Colin's awe-inspiring Hammond A100 organ.
Ambient with David Reid
Although most of the stuff I've done with Dave (who is not a "professional" musician) appears on the musical ramblings page, I'm putting this little piano improvisation, for which he created a gorgeous and haunting background, on this page. It's really a gem. Owl in Silhouette. [6.0 mb]
Folk with Kreg Viesselman
Okay, here are a couple the tracks I recorded a year ago in Wales. Aileen [3.5 mb] features a classic wurlitzer electric piano lovingly recorded by Martin Levan at Red Kite Studios. Lonely People [4.4 mb], a song I co-wrote with Kreg was recorded on a tiny spinet piano and Honey of the Vine [4.6 mb] has some nice Accordion work on it. Trot on over to Red Kite, or Kreg's website and pick yourself up a copy. I think it's a spectacular set of songs, and I'm delighted with the way these recordings came out.
Jazz and R & B with Rhian Ayanna
Rhian is a tremendously talented singer and songwriter, now living in New York. Time [5.8 mb] placed at the John Lennon Songwriting contest a couple of years back. I co-wrote the music to the song with Rhian, and played the piano and the ambient pedal steel. Let Go [6.9 mb] is just about the only recent example of straight-ahead jazz piano I have on record. Eric Thomas played the percussion on these sessions. The rhythm section on both tracks is Eric Thorin on bass and Monty Thorin on drums. Beauty [6.2 mb] has more of an R & B flavor, and adds Jon Rassmussen on guitar. Both were produced and engineered by Greg Heimbecker at the UNC recording facility in Greeley.
Country with Sally Shuffield
Sally Shuffield: is a fine songwriter from Durango. All the tracks for her new album "Something in the Water" were recorded by Colin Bricker at NFA, including Lost Highway [3.9 mb].Check out this accordion sound! Wow, that's FAT! I think this is the session that was recorded with a broken mic (correct me if I'm wrong, Colin) and is definitely my favorite recording of accordion to date, both for the sound and for the performance. Also from these sessions, Solace [3.9 mb] features some nice grand piano and Something in the Water [3.4 mb] shows off NFA's righteous hammond organ.
Alternative Rock with Andy Monley:
Andy Monley:, longtime frontman for the Czars has finally released his solo album "Triplight" which I recorded with him three or four years ago, also at NFA. All the songs are great, but the ones with notable keyboard work includeKites [3.1 mb] with its celluloid circus strings, and Satellite [5.1 mb], which features a moody piece of sound-design I did way back in my L.A. days using an old dictaphone. It found the perfect home in this song.
Punktronica with Jane Fontana
Next are three songs from my LA days, working with Singer/Songwriter Jane Fontana. Head [3.9 mb] is a masterwork of sexual innuendo, and also features the hardest hitting guitars (courtesy of Chris Redmond) I've managed to get on tape. All that sound came out of one 8-inch speaker! The drums on this track were played by Scooter Powell, and recorded by my old friend and cohort Mark Fuller, who also did the mixing.
Close Your Eyes and Drive [7.3 mb] is one of Jane's most spiritually challenging lyrics. Transcendence, detachment or just suicide? I don't know, but I love this lyric:
The bridge is out. But I believe
I close my eyes and I can see
The other side, the other me
I fall but I will know my way
I know my will, I will my way
Guitars again courtesy of Chris Redmond, saxophone by Jane, drumming by Blair Sinta (now with Alanis Morriset--rock on, dude!) I did the keyboards, bass, sound design and drum programming. Chris Furman, known for his work with Critter's Buggin, mixed this track and engineered the drums, bass and vocals.
Another Moon [4.2 mb] is that rare thing, a science fiction song. This track contains my favorite instances of appropriation from my old vinyl collection, and a piano track recorded on one of those uprights that has the little felt strip that comes down between the hammers and the keys.