1KRECORDINGS.COM - NOTES-FROM-THE-ROAD

Goldbug photoshoot

Saturday, May 11, 2013 17:08:00 -700

Taking the opportunity to do a photoshoot at the Keswick Theatre with Theo Travis for the upcoming Goldbug album while he was in town on tour with the amazing Steven Wilson and band. GB drummer Eric Slick was playing the Greek Theatre in LA and couldn't be there but the 3 of us had a nice time.
Goldbug is Eric Slick, Theo Travis, Barry Meehan, and Tim Motzer. New album late summer 2013.

Barry Meehan bassist in Goldbug reviewing photos with photographer Dejha Ti.

Secret Rhythms 5

Saturday, May 11, 2013 16:59:00 -700

The new Burnt Friedman & Jaki Leibeziet album Secret Rhythms 5 (CDs and vinyl) arrived for Burnt in Berlin. I play on two tracks, and have been apart of 4 of 5 of the Secret Rhythms series released on Nonplace. An honour. http://nonplace.de

Ari Hoenig, Jonathan Levy, Tim Motzer @ WCL

Tuesday, May 07, 2013 11:57:00 -700

I had the pleasure to play with master drummer Ari Hoenig and bassist Jonathan Levy recently. We have another show planned for NYC June 13th at Nublu. It was an exhilarating set filled with massive sparks and burning playing from everyone. So many Philly musos, drummers, and old and new friends were there to experience this wonderful night. Our friends at MCD Percussion graciously videotaped the first song which I am sharing here. Enjoy!

My Music Year in Review

Wednesday, December 26, 2012 14:28:00 -700

Notes From the Road
My Music Year in Review 2012

It's truly been an amazing year of music. I've only now begun reflecting on my year. and in doing so wanted to share a few of the highlights. I've been working hard all year creating new work, scoring soundtracks, playing, touring, driving & traveling, hosting artists, and recording our live concerts, doing multimedia shows, and collaborating with dancers. I even had my first photography exhibition this year! It's an honour to work and collaborate with so many great artists and friends. It means more to me every year.

Below are links to audio and video clips from concerts, and new 1k music that you can enjoy. Dig deeper in if you like for more information. I am excited about all the new releases on 1k this year: Jeremy Carlstedt, Nucultures, Global illage, and Ilsar-Motzer. You are invited to listen, watch, enjoy, download, and buy some physical editions.

As always thank you so much for your support over the years.
Happy New Year!
Tim Motzer

Solo guitar+electronics

I have been playing more and more solo guitar shows; live scores with dancers; and some with visual installations. I plan on doing more of these shows in 2013 with one show already planned for May 2013 at the Rotunda in Philadelphia. In this light, please enjoy an audio clip from a 3 hour solo guitar & electronics recording from the Commotion Festival that included a 9 screen visual installation this past August. I am planning to release an album 'Live From Crescent Park' from that evening of wonder. Here is a track taken from that concert "may our dreams still fly'.

Beyond that, watch "Night Mosaic" live solo guitar + electronics with the amazing visuals of Dejha Ti.

Union Rags Documentary
In the summertime, I scored a documentary about Kentucky Derby Race horse 'Union Rags' owned by the Wyeth Family. It's a wonderful story. Enjoy.

Instant Takemitsu
In March of 2012, the result of meeting Dino J.A. Deane at the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, Norway in 2010, we booked shows and radio performances on the East Coast and played Roulette in Brooklyn, Sonic Circuits at the Pyramid Atlantic Silver Spring, MD, the Rotunda in Philadelphia, and at WPRB radio in Princeton, NY as well as an amazing 1k Session webcast.

This multimedia trio had instant chemistry, and we are shopping our first release, "Small Magic", to labels now as an audio release but more importantly as a multimedia release featuring Dejha Ti's improvised visuals. More on this soon!

Go to the Instant Takemitsu website and explore the video clips there from Sonic Circuits, the Rotunda, and Roulette concerts plus an entire 1k session webcast replay. We plan on doing festivals, and installations in 2013. Here's a clip from our performance at Roulette in Brooklyn.

Instant Takemitsu interview with Guitar Moderne August 13, 2012
Enjoy this in-depth interview with Dino J.A. Deane, Dejha Ti, and Tim Motzer
http://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/spotlight-instant-takemitsu

Instant Takemitsu website:
http://instanttakemitsu.com/

MST = MOTZER, SLICK, TI
i had the pleasure to tour with Julie Slick, and Dejha Ti driving down to Virginia and West Virginia in September playing 4 multimedia shows in Richmond, Charlotte, and Charleston. We had a blast! Some amazing music, visuals, and good times happened at these shows. Have a look at the website and check out 2 clips from our NorthStar date in Philadelphia. We have incredible recordings and video from our tour, so look for that surfacing soon, and hopefully some more tour dates in '13.
http://motzerslickti.com/motzerslickti.com
video clip : slo roast

Julie Slick-Terroir

Julie has an amazing new solo album 'Terrior' that i had the pleasure to write and play some music on. It was great to do and features some of my favorite musos Adrian Belew, David Torn, Pat Mastelotto, Marco Minnemann, Eric Slick, and more with amazing playing throughout—so I am thrilled to be a part of it and highly recommend you download or buy a physical edition ASAP! The amazing cover design, sculpture, photography is by Dejha Ti, and there's a limited edition signed poster available. A few remain. better hurry!
http://julieslick.com/store.html

The UMLAUT tour w Bernhard Woerstheinrich, Dejha Ti, & Tim Motzer
In early October electronic artist Bernhard traveled to Philly via Gutersloh, Germany to team up with me and Dejha Ti for an east coast tour that included Orion Studios in Baltimore, Stars End at WXPN in Philly, Music For Space at WPRB in Princeton, the Rotunda show in Philly, and finally the Nazareth Center for the Arts.

Check out this video from the Rotunda show, perhaps, our best performance of the tour.
We finished the tour with video and recordings from 5 performances, and look to release some of these in 2013.

Ursula Rucker RetroRewind European Tour 2012
with Tim Motzer and Gintas Janusonis

In late October i flew to Europe with Ursula Rucker for 9 shows. We've been at it for 12 years now. Quite amazing.
It was an intense tour as we played our first 6 shows in 6 days, flying everyday with about 3 hours of sleep per night, but such incredible and profound shows. Highlights included the Belgrade Jazz Festival in Serbia (SRO); our show at the Berghain Kantine in Berlin (where Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon wailed next door) with friends Kurt Rosenwinkel, Bernhard Woerstheinrich, hiphop legends Jeru the Damaja, & Sadat X in the audience, (we totally rocked!); in Vienna, Austria we played a special 2 set show at Porgy and Bess with trombonist Philip Yaeger joining us; and it was our first time in Madrid, Spain—a very special date. They all were very special shows, and we hope we can go back to Europe again very soon. We finished the year out with a full band concert at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

2012 Dance
I am totally enjoying creating music for dance. It's been wonderful collaborating with the dancers, musicians, and teachers/choreographers at uArts. I am very happy playing/composing there, and have been part of some superb works this year with choreographers Curt Haworth, Brian Sanders, Manfred Fischbeck, and the Group Motion Dance Company. I am looking forward to presenting my music in an upcoming work in Toronto with dancer/choreographer Peggy Davis early in 2013.

New 1k Recordings Releases

excerpt from 15 Questions interview with Anil Prasad (Guitar Player Magazine, Innerviews)
"Tim Motzer, a brilliant, adventurous artist based in Philadelphia, is someone all of your readers should know about. He’s a superb composer and guitarist who criss-crosses multiple musical universes, including jazz, fusion, prog, hip-hop, soul, electronica, and the avant-garde. He runs the 1k Recordings label, which has an incredible catalog of genre-defying releases that deserve a far wider audience."
http://15questions.net/interviews/

Ilsar-Motzer - Tales of the Blackwinged Bird

download: 1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=235
physical edition: 1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=238

Nucultures - Tai Chi & Ruby Red
download: http://1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=234
Accepting PRE-ORDERS for physical edition now:1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=239

Global illage - The Complete Portland Sessions (Volume 1, 2, 3)

Volume 1
1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=231

Volume 2
1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=232

Volume 3
1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=233

here's a video clip from Global illage July 4, 2012 record release concert in front of percussionist Jim Hamilton's barn—totally transformed by the visual team of Erik Silverson and Dejha Ti.

Jeremy Carlstedt - When I Wake Up
download: 1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=236
signed, physical edition: 1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=237

Along with Jeremy's new solo album that i produced and played on, we have been also been busy improvising as a duo, and enjoying the results immensely with Jeremy exploring electronics via controllers, iPads, electronic drumpads, hand percussion and me with an acoustic-electric & electronics…look for some 1k digital releases—a live record from The Stone/NYC, and a studio record later in 2013.

The Annual 1k Wintertime Bundle
includes 12 1k Recordings cd editions, 3 full colour art postcards.
All for $125 including free shipping.

Check here for all the details.
http://1krecordings.com/1kstore/shopexd.asp?id=216

Upcoming releases for 2013 include
Bandit 65 with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gintas Janusonis, and Tim Motzer
Goldbug - (tentatively titled Zwei) with Eric Slick, Theo Travis, Tim Motzer, and Barry Meehan
Tim Motzer-Live at Crescent Park
Ottokar (first studio release) with Wally Smith, and Jim Menesis
Instant Takemitsu-Small Magic
Burnt Friedman & Jaki Leibeziet-Secret Rhythms 5
Sonic Liberation Front - Poolshark (Tim Motzer Cosmic Funk Remix)
Tuner - FACE with Markus Reuter and Pat Mastelotto

A few other releases i played on recently you will enjoy:
Samora-The Unspeakable (Tim Motzer Remake) on PyschoNavigation (Ireland)
Markus Reuter featuring Tim Motzer - Stars End (Germany)
Guane Indians (UK)
Julie Slick-Terroir
Lee Fletcher - Faith in Worthless Things (UK),
Don McCloskey - Corporal Spirit,
Pat Mastelotto - Recidivate
Burnt Friedman-Jaki Liebezeit - Secret Rhythms 4 (Germany)

Monday, September 17, 2012 16:14:00 -700

Notes from the Road

many things happening concurrently and in syncronicity.

first up, new 1k releases.
digital downloads coming to 1krecordings.com, iTunes, boomKat, other music, and Thrill Jockey/Fina.

Global illage - The Complete Portland Sessions (1k023)
currently offered as a USB w wav files, a 20 min video by Dejha Ti,
over 3 hours of music recorded in Portland, Oregon in 2010.
Jim Hamilton - percussion Chris Cuzme-saxophone, bass, percussion
Danny Sears - trumpet Tim Motzer - acoustic-electric guitar, electronics

Nucultures - Tai Chi & Ruby Red (1k019)
After their critically acclaimed 2007 release, Butterflies, Zebras, and Moonbeams,
Nucultures enter another phase with profound new songs from Ellie Perez, Tim Motzer, and Barry Meehan.

Ilsar-Motzer - Tales Of The Blackwinged Bird (1k020)
Australian percussionist joins guitar Tim Motzer on a mystifying journey in sound and rhythm, recorded live at 1k recording studio, and with cameo's by trumpeter Bart Miltenberger, and bassist Barry Meehan, this long form piece takes the listener on an enigmatic ride.

Jeremy Carlstedt - When I Wake up (1k021)
The debut album by drummer and singer Jeremy Carlstedt.
5 brand new songs from the studio including the epic "Home".
not to be missed.

lot's of playing happening the next 3 months, and looking forward to the madness.
Tim Motzer Tour Dates:

4 dates upcoming with Julie Slick, & visualist Dejha Ti.
Sept 7 Charlotte, NC
Sept 8 Richmond VA
Sept 9 West Charlston, West Virginia
Sept 13 Philadelphia @ the North Star

w Bernhard Wostheinrich (centrozoon)
Sept 22 Orion Sound Studios Baltimore
Sept 23 Star's End on WXPN
Sept 26 the Spectrum NYC
Sept 29 Music For Space, WPRB
Sept 29 the Rotunda Event Horizon
Sept 30 Nazareth Center for the Arts, Nazereth PA

w Ursula Rucker & Gintas Janusonis
Oct 22 Frankfurt, Germany Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm
Oct 23 Vienna, Austria Porgy & Bess
Oct 24 Hamburg, Germany Mojo Club
Oct 25 Berlin, Germany Berghain Kantine
Oct 26 Antwerp, Belgium Co Sint Andries
Oct 28 Belgrade Serbia Jazz Festival
Oct 31 Stockholm, Sweden Fasching
Nov 2 Madrid, Spain Tempo
Nov 3 Sofia, Bulgaria National Palace of Culture

w Jeremy Carlstedt
Nov 20 New York @ the Stone

solo and duo w Burnt Friedman/Dejha Ti-visuals
Dec 02 Guetersloh, Germany @ Die Weberei
Dec 04 Innsbruck TBA

Instant Takemitsu interviewed by Guitar Moderne.

Friday, August 17, 2012 15:52:00 -700

Here is an in depth interview with Guitar Moderne on the multimedia trio Instant Takemitsu featuring dino J.A. Deane, Tim Motzer, and Dejha Ti.

http://www.guitarmoderne.com/artists/spotlight-instant-takemitsu

roulette, brooklyn

Friday, April 13, 2012 21:14:00 -700

march20

it's our first live performance proper in front of an enthusiastic audience at the beautiful new location of roulette in brooklyn. the 3 of us travel to new york, and arrive in time to have a nice indian meal before soundcheck. dejha modified a movie screen they have there with spandex scrims augmenting it. it became a giant origami projection surface. the setup was smooth with a great crew for stage and sound. our show was gnarly and haunting some amazing music happened there. musos butch morris and shelly hersh were there as was journalist michael ross (moderne guitar, guitar player magazine). it was nice to meet everyone. here's a clip from the concert.

1k sessions e15

Thursday, April 12, 2012 22:50:00 -700

march 18

setup and soundcheck goes very well. i record all of our soundchecks, and thus far, it seems that there's always some magic going on while we are slightly distracted by events around us. for this shoot, ahing will use a jib for one of the cameras...it add's so much. we also each have 'neck cams'. can't wait to see the results. the set and projections look fantastic. hard to believe it's from the 1k studio-the place is transformed. during our performance my 'vintage' drum throne that i am sitting on decided to break, and i am stranded without a seat, and deep in the music...down to my knees ala hendrix. dino was expecting some lighter fluid he told me later, wondering if i always do this sort of thing when i play...eventually, i had to walk off the set to steal a seat from one of our production assistants. A happy night after teardown, we introduced dino to the philadelhia-ethiopean chicken cheese steak at gojjo in west philadelphia. it was a memorable celebration.

the webcast is currently on replay at http://1ksessions.com/

1k sessions e15 setup.

Thursday, April 12, 2012 22:39:00 -700

march 17

today a late sleep followed by a nice breakfast and coffees. we center on setting up for 1k sessions and prepare video clips w dejha by binning them based on qualities of 'too literal' to impressionistic, and what we felt worked best with the music we are exploring. dejha is using modul8 for the video improvisations based on self created video clip archive. one of which is an ink in water that we all love especially slowed down and out of context.

philadelphia/princeton wrti-fm, wprb-fm

Thursday, April 12, 2012 22:23:00 -700

march 16

my friend and wonderful music supporter J. Michael Harrison of temple radio's WRTI invited us to his show 'the bridge' as well as his journalism class to talk about our new project and stories of how we got here. dino told some great stories of his time playing with ike and tina turner and his time working with a funk band in LA where he was triggering modular synthesisers with his trombone via pitch to voltage. it was a wonderful experience. bassist anthony tidd joined as well. Mike played some tracks from jon hassels power spot record which dino contributed to in the late 80's that was produced by brian eno and daniel lanois. he also played a 20 min section of music we recorded the following evening. after interviews, we jumped back on the road on 95N to princeton, nj to play our first performance at WPBR-fm one of the US oldest college radio stations. our set was our second time to play and was quite immersive and satisfying to us. dino utilizing his two small amps as 'a short stack'. we were self contained w mics, mixer, laptop to record everything, a very nice portable scenario. afterwards, a roundtable radio interview/discussion with host Mike Hunter, also joining 'the always amped' Darren Bergstein, he former publisher of ei and 1000 pulses electronic-head. a great night there, followed by a late night 'short stack' before heading back to philly around 4am. isn't always?

dino j.a. deane arrives

Thursday, April 12, 2012 22:13:00 -700

march 15

after airport shuttle action, dino has arrived to fishtown manor aka 1k world hqtrs. after an amazing dinner at kraftwork, we gravitate toward the studio to discuss our setups for our upcoming radio and live performances. it's very detailed and designed right down to the idea of both using small amplifiers for our rigs rather than go direct. for dino's rig he's using a fender mustang 1 (an impressive modeling amp) and my john martin RCA tube amp 10 watt class A. i am using my beloved fender vibrochamp. we also detail a flow for recording our shows multitrack, stereo, and to get a feed to FOH. afterwards, our first time playing and recording is an amazing 50 minute dialogue. we share a language that borders on soundscape, orchestral, gamelon, africa, and noise. our recording sounds wonderful.

Goldbug session: December 18, 2011

Sunday, February 05, 2012 19:51:00 -700

Goldbug Zwei session 2 (overdubs) 1k studio | Philadelphia

Barry Meehan and Eric Slick came to the studio today to add a layer of live overdubs to the original improvisations from session one. I prepared their work areas before they arrived; Barry has a Fender amp mic'd up w a sennheiser 609 and is using an old RCA crystal microphone; various acoustic and electric guitars, and a casio keyboard—lot's of found sounds, feedback melodies, textures, and lo-fi vocalizations. Eric has both a Shure green bullet mic and a Turkish contact mic running thru a kaos pad into a marshall mini-stack mic'd with a sennheiser re20. His toys and sounds include cymbals, turkish sazbus, thumb piano, echo regenerations, and Floydian madness. The contact mic proves to be very interesting on everything. For this session, I engineer mostly , but also have a roving sm58 that i move to various sources, or use on my own vocals. We generate a vast amount of new material improvising along to the original tracks—some fascinating accidents of sound occuring more often than not. Later Barry and I create the 'hieroglyphic choir' on a section of the music generating 6 tracks of double tracked vocals before recruiting Dejha Ti for two tracks of operatic female vocals. Two tracks of reductions are made for Theo Travis to play on and sent over to London via dropbox. Thus far terms like 'Kubrickian, primordial, heiroglyphic' are used to describe the feeling of the album. Theo responded that he loved what we sent over: "I sense a sort of 21st century Interstellar Overdrive but with a jazz depth, some serious playing and a sort of nujazz electronica. Very cool stuff." As we are waiting for Theo's parts to arrive (he's currently quite busy with Steven Wilson touring), we've been constructing an intro to the album using the source material, and bits of a 30 minute improvisation I did on a recently acquired 1950's Hammond chord organ. Exciting stuff. more soon.

Prague May 12, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011 16:30:00 -700

Akropolis.

Fantastic show tonight. with Phil Yaeger joining on trombone. He travelled 4 hours by bus from Vienna to Prague. On his bus in, they stopped and Phil left his horn behind by mistake, or perhpas the bus left without him. (I can't remember) He took a second bus into Prague and when he arrived they had his horn. whew! Phil is an amazing musician and good friend. it was great he was here.
nice venue. good sound. after soundcheck, Crowd was really with us, a very cool concert vibe here. The venue reminded me of the Trocodero in Philly. very similar. Afterwards interviewed for radio, then to dinner. great! Leffe in the house. back to hotel. sleep.

Ljubljana, Slovenia May 11, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011 16:25:00 -700

Slon hotel. I love this hotel. very feng shui. Queen size bed next to window that opens wide—wonderful fresh air. Slept upon arrival up until soundcheck. catching up on sleep. hot. sound check is fine.
Ursula does interview for slovenija tv. apparently the show is broadcast on the slovenija radio here.
dinner. slovenian trout! quite amazing. salad, veg. feel good. folks here very nice. hip.
after really great festival show back to hotel. it took 3 songs to get the audience. 'fuck you' got their attention. from there on it was way on. afterwards, walk to bar for wind down. extremely drunk people here. observe kids dancing to slovenian pop music. then, sleep.

London UK May 9, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011 16:14:00 -700

Hotel breakfast. walkaround music row. amazing gear here and v expensive. enjoy a late lunch and pint at a local pub. bus to venue. upon arrival, nothing is set up. all drums are still in flight cases, nothing mic'd up. now i find out there is no power transformer either to power my pedal board. upon inquirying i find all the backline companies are closed. for the next 3 hours we run about (on foot) in east London trying to buy a transformer for the show. all stores are closed. every place closes early here. no luck. finally our friend calls a musician who has a transformer. this will be delivered 10 minutes before showtime. there in no soundcheck. a quick line check only to make sure everything is working. just insane. we go on just after 10pm, and ironically, it is absolutely awesome sound. We have an incredible show. Transcendental. bad food afterwards. back to hotel. sleep in preparation for our travel to Prague tomorrow. good night.

London UK May 8, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011 16:06:00 -700

Travel day. Almost miss our train to Zurich due to a cab driver wasting time. crazy and creates anxiety for us. Swiss chocolate at airport. A nice flight into Heathrow. Upon arriving in UK, Ursula's hunch is right, we are held up at UK immigration. Our papers are not sufficient. The promoter did not provide work permit and as a result we are detained at 4:30pm. This turns into 7 hours. Our bags are searched, we are searched, finger printed, photographed, & interviewed. They went through all of our personal things, contents of wallet, luggage, etc. Finally we are held in a holding room until promoter gets it together. Finally all is worked out and we leave at 11pm. Exhausted and mad as hell. This was a first. On to the hotel to sleep. Tomorrow we play in London.

Bern, Switzerland May 7

Saturday, December 17, 2011 16:00:00 -700

Flight is fine. exhausted. lol. Sleep for one hour. (it was totally worthwhile to lose sleep while in Oporto. very necessary.) Sit in square. Ice tea and tomatoes mozzarella. soundcheck. Great to be back at Turnhalle. This is one of my favorite venues to play. Good show tonight although i wasn't quite happy with my sound. The audience loves it. Nice to hang with Christian. I gave him D, GB, B3 cd's. Talked about Turnhalle workshops/gigs. Stayed at Bern hotel. The slow motian dancer was at our gig tonite. Always such as pleasure to be here.

Oporto, Portugal May 6, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011 15:55:00 -700

Travelled by train (which we almost missed due to taxi craziness) to Oporto the magic city...so beautiful here. Words cannot describe. Playing Hard Club venue tonite. Capacity 850. Great sound here. Pedro our engineer for the night killed it! Once again, a magical night. The music is really coming together. "Call to Axiom" becoming my favorite of the set. Autographed CD's after show, talked to fans, tour guide by tatiana, 3 clubs, dance, djs. great ,music, the river, no sleep, breakfast at 7am. astounding.

Lisboa, Portugal May 5, 2011

Saturday, December 17, 2011 15:49:00 -700

On tour with Ursula Rucker:

Crazy street. James Rouse (drummer extraordinaire) and I shared a beautiful apartment here. We stayed near a food market, so after a nights rest after flying in, in the morning James bought tuna steaks, eggs, and cheese—that was breakfast.

Played Music Box (an old converted bordello). The street is crazy at night. Our first show was magical and the people wonderful (as always!). I have lost count, but i think this may be my 25th show (w UR) in Portugal over the years. Sound was fantastic. Late night hang back stage til 5am. Tonight's show we didn't know the material fully yet (as only one rehearsal), so lot's of improv was happening. it was truly amazing.

February/March 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011 00:00:00 -700

—1k Notes From The Road

Time continues to fly by…lots of amazing things still transpiring…trying to bring news up to date.

Most recently, a visit from Alon Ilsar, he the insanely gifted percussionist from Sydney, Austrailia. We had several days in the 1k studio improvising—yielding some amazing music. One piece, currently titled '30', will be released fairly soon on 1k as a digital download. It's essentially a 30 minute live duo improvisation for guitars and percussion. Afterwards, i invited my friends Bart Miltenberger (trumpet) and Barry Meehan (bass) to add some select bits to the work. We are very happy with it, so be looking for that soon.

more on Alon here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alon_Ilsar

Global illage: In August 2010—during a 10 year reunion at the String Cheese Incident Festival in Oregon—we recorded 5 hours of music in Portland engineered by Prince Strickland III at his brand new studio. Just this past January, we flew mix engineer Brian Boland in from Los Angeles to mix all the material. The outcome, listening back, thus far is staggering. Some amazing, amazing music featuring percussionist Jim Hamilton, Chris Cuzme, Dan Sears, and yours truly. Now we are sorting thru it all to properly frame up what could be 1 or several records. We are looking towards placing the music with some films as well. It's quite cinematic stuff. Some of the pieces are 20-30 minutes long…so lot's of different possibilities on how to release it. We are looking to collaborate with film makers, video artists, visualists, animators on some of this Global illage music. There's many ways the music can go these days.

On a related note, Jim Hamilton and i, recently, had a reunion of our own in Chestnut Hill, PA at the magical Mermaid Inn where we played duet-percussion and guitar. It was a stellar night of music,and we are planning to continue with some more shows in the next few months.

Back in the end of January, I traveled with poet Ursula Rucker to California, where we played two dates—promoting her new album 'She Said'—one at Kava Lounge in San Diego and one at Zanzibar in Santa Monica. They were very successful shows—also duos. We jammed also with a super dope beatboxer Josh Silverstein at the Zanzibar show. It was amazing. He sounded and felt like a drummer to me! Mark de Clive Lowe and Sy Smith followed our set with an improv based soul-club set. Wonderful to be back in Cali. We had the extreme pleasure of staying in San Diego with wonderful hosts Kristie and crew in her lair in the hills. Much needed sun, palm trees, blue skies, ocean waves, wonderful people, music, and fish tacos! more US dates and a European tour are in the works! Grab the new album at iTunes or other digital outlet! here's a link to a recent performance at TedX Philly at the Kimmel Center late last year. http://tinyurl.com/4kzmy7c

The Sister Gertrude Morgan Experience played New Orleans two nights (following the UR_She Said California tour) at the CAC there. King Britt hosted/dj'd along with the stellar band of Chuck Treece (drums), Damon Benet (keys), Barry Meehan (bs), Tim Motzer (gtr), Ben Jaffe (tuba, night 1). Two great nights there, although night two was the best sound-wise. The DJ mix was way too loud on the first evening we played, so lots of sound problems on stage as a result. Night two it was under control and we had a sublime night of Sister Gertrude music. We checked out Dumpstafunk there–Ivan Neville's mighty funk band (not to be missed!)…and two late nights at DBA w/ Galactic musicians, night one, and night two w/ Stanton Moore on drums, Skerik/sax, Marco Benevento/keys…insane night there. It was an incredible week of music and playing.

the 1k Sessions webcasts—produced by 1k Recordings and web.illish.us—continue to percolate with guest collaborators: in the last few months i've had the distinct pleasure to play/record with Markus Reuter (10/16/2011)—an excerpt from this performance is currently up at guitar player tv—Buchla synthesizer master Charles Cohen, and Swedish cellist wizardess Helena Espvall. These performances were all webcast live from 1k Studios and will be available sometime in the future for download or streaming. Sunday March 6, 2011 trumpeter Bart Miltenberger and Tim Motzer will have a 1k session of improvisations and soundscapes for trumpet and guitar. watch it here: http://1ksessions.com

The Tim Motzer & Markus Reuter-Descending record garnered wonderful reviews worldwide, was featured as top editor pick in guitar player magazine, radio performances, and interviews...and in this month's Guitar Player magazine (April 2011) issue is an article by Barry Cleveland on the making of Descending. GP is also presenting the video excerpt of Reuter & Motzer 1k Sessions webcast mentioned above! whew.

watch the Motzer-Reuter video excerpt here on Guitar Player TV: http://www.guitarplayer.com/video.aspx?bctid=791219450001&section=Artists

1k's latest release, hot off the presses, is the new live album by BASE3_Live From Earth (1k017)

Buy it here: http://www.1krecordings.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=221

Be sure to grab this cd—absolutely essential Base3. Transmissions of spark and heat from the Doug Hirlinger, Tim Motzer,
and Barry Meehan trio formation. BASE3_Live From Earth cover concept/design and art by Dejha Ti.

Meanwhile, recent 1k release Goldbug-the Seven Dreams made year end top 10 lists by innerviews Anil Prasad and UK Classic Rock Presents Prog!

On dance front, continuing daily improvs with dancers at uArts, ensembles, Group Motion's Manfred Fischbeck, and upcoming score for Curt Haworth's 'Either/Or' for late March 2011. Last week, I had the incredible fortune to improvise with Brazilian ballet dancers from Bahia. Also, rocked the nEW festival with Kathleen Hermsdorf for a week this past January.

On the cutting table:

Bandit 65, long awaited recording by Kurt Rosenwinkle, Tim Motzer, and Gintas Janusonus has been moving forward again with mixing happening in Brooklyn along with a chance meeting with David Torn possible to come on board to mix…more news soon.

The new Nucultures moving along 'Karma Guru', featuring songs by Ellie Perez, Barry Meehan, and Tim Motzer. Goldbug's next record is well underway with 80 minutes of music recorded thus far. Tentatively titled 'Zwei' and once again featuring drummer Eric Slick, Barry Meehan, Theo Travis, and Tim Motzer. This one turns up the heat quite a few notches. We may present some tracks-in-progress for those of you interested. Also, mixing an album of soundscapes created with an old Roland GR-303 system on Christmas day and the day after. Snow and ice scapes perhaps.

the music madness continues…

be well!

until next time,

tim

even more news, show updates at these sites below and
on-going photo galleries.

TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/timmotzer
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/timmotzer
FLICKER: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timmotzer/

recent records i played on:

David Sylvian-Sleepwalkers (Samadhisound)

Judy Dyble-Newborn Creatures

Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit-Secret Rhythms 4 (nonplace)

Bedouin Soundclash-Light The Horizon (Pirates Blend)

Ursula Rucker - She Said (Noizyboy)

Base3-Live From Earth (1k)

Goldbug - The Seven Dreams (1k)

Tim Motzer + Markus Reuter - Descending (1k)

True Blood Volume 2 - Music From The HBO Original Series (Elektra)

September 1, 2010

Friday, September 03, 2010 00:00:00 -700

September's here again" - David Sylvian

Time surely does fly, this being one of the most difficult times of my life, but also, wonderfully filled with new life, work, and art. It's a bit of a blur really but life in transition is quite disorienting to say the least. Music and photography has helped me continue to stay focused and sustain while attempting to get myself acclamated again. While trying to get this together, I've managed to release some new 1k albums which i am very happy with: Goldbug-The Seven Dreams, Tim Motzer & Markus Reuter-Descending, the (shortly forthcoming) BASE3_Live From Earth, and digital download: BASE3_Live@Northstar. I've played a Tilomo solo guitar soundscape show at Knitting Factory Brooklyn that was webcast (with more footage to be available soon), and numerous shows with BASE3, tours with Ursula Rucker, Dance choreography and improvisation workshops with Manfred Fischbeck, Video and bumper music for bammtv + webillishus, 2 live 1k Sessions webcasts (so far) featuring BASE3 and a brand new in studio Tilomo 90 minute soundscape performance (als o, coming soon!). Production-wise: Besides all the 1k stuff, I mixed/assembled/edited/coloured the forth-coming Grimace Federation album (a tour de force that logged many a studio hour!) Jeff Chestek also was on board for this one. "Heroes of Epic Proportions." Session-wise, I've worked on the new Tuner record called FACE with Markus Reuter and drummer Pat Mastelotto, logging in 60-70 hours of collaborating and tracking guitar and other instruments, on what is an enormous scale work by Markus Reuter. While I was in Salzburg, Austria, I was interviewed for the forthcoming film documentary: Older Than God, an art film based around Reuter's life and music making. As it goes, I was invited by UK-producer Lee Fletcher to track on 3 new songs on the forthcoming Judy Dyble (Fairport Convention) album. Canadian band Boudion Soundclash + producer King Britt invited me to add banjo, guitar, and ukelele on their upcoming record.

Last year, I collaborated and performed on the entire new Ursula Rucker album entitled 'She Said' (out in October 2010). It's a live in studio record feauring some of Philly's finest musicians, and the UK-bassist/producer Anthony Tidd. We created the music on the spot in the studio with Ursula's prepared poems, and recorded them live as they came together. It was an amazing experience, and is a beautiful album. The debut of the new material happened last night at Johnny Brendas in Philadelphia to a wonderful audience. Looking forward to more live performances this year!

Ottokar (TM w/ Wally Smith, and Jim Menesis)

I've been continuing to play with the band Ottokar with keyboardist/organist Wally Smith, drummer/percussionist Jim Menesis, and myself. I really love both of these guys playing. You'd be hard pressed to find guys that play like this, these days. Wally from the school of Jimmy Smith meets Keith Emerson(the Nice-era), Mike Ratledge (soft machine), Dave Stewart (egg, national health)... As I understand it, his father was an organist as well, and had a retail store that sold organs, and tape recorders and some of the first multi-track recorders...Wally and Jim are amazing to play with...We have been having fun with our bi-monthly sessions at the Tritone in Philly.

As if this wasn't enough, in August Global illage re-formed for the String Cheese Incident Festival in Portland, Oregon. The band includes myself, Chris Cuzme, Danny Sears, and Jim Hamilton. While out there, we were fortunate enough to have time to track at Prince Elwood Strickland III brand new studio, and have 5 hours of material recorded. I suspect at least one album, but perhaps two records to come from the treasure that awaits!

So a whole world of stuff going on in there, working towards new 1k releases still to come, including Nucultures - Karma Guru. You can find out more about all of the above elsewhere on the site, and as always, thanks for all the support of 1k and my gigs. It is much appreciated. more to come!

October 30, 2009

Tuesday, December 08, 2009 00:00:00 -700

October 30, 2009 1k world hq, philadelphia usa.
its been a wild whirlwind unfolding future...backtracking-visited Norway recently as guests of Punkt festival thrown by Norwegian luminaries Jan Bang and Eric Honore (both producers working with artists Jon Hassel, David Sylvian, and Brian Eno) the festival included Supersilent musicians Arve Henriksen, Helge Sten (aka Deathprod), Susanna and the Magic Mountain, Russell Mills, BJ Cole, Maja Ratjke, Guy Sigsworth, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, and so many wonderful artists...Fiona Talkington was the host from the bbc show late night junction. also, there was a world premiere of director Phil Hopkins inspiring film 'amplified gesture' exploring the improvising musicians that take part on David Sylvians new album 'Manafon'. i played with Ursula there, after our set Jan Bang, Dino Deanne, and Adam Rudolph remixed our set fabulously in the theatre below. I was invited to play the closing piece: Exits the following evening with Jan, Arve Henriksen, Adam Rudolph, Eric Honore, BJ Cole, Eiven Arset...such an amazing festival, and wonderful people. i've had a long love for music of Norway for years being a big fan of ECM records and RuneGramafon. wonderful to meet, hang, and play with everybody. A wonderful feeling at the Punkt Festival-very inspiring.
back to USA: a few shows with Ursula including one with the Roots at Brooklyn Bowl) that was plagued with sound and monitoring issues that unfortunately derailed our attempt at a great set...
Dance: scored a piece—Iroquois—for Manfred Fischbeck's group motion dance company which was previewed along the parkway and Philadelphia Museum of Art steps this past September and October called City Dances/Parkway via a grant from PNC Bank.
Currenly, deep in the studio finishing producing/mixing the latest Grimace Federation record; the new Ursula Rucker album; very excited about GoldBug-a new group and album featuring Eric Slick, Theo Travis, myself, and Barry Meehan in extended mutations and improvised orchestrations.
Working on a record with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gintas Janusonis-BANDIT65-and, of course, GOJJO, with Markus Reuter, John Swana, Doug Hirlinger...Finally!...Oscillations Quartet w/ Ari Hoenig, John Swana, and Anthony Tidd...two days of recording at Ant Tidd's studio here in Philadelphia. Some of these records should be available first quarter 2010...more to come....i will be posting some live BASE3 at 1k, and myspace soon...we are assembling a potential live album of our world tour in Philly from the last few months...some burning stuff...
Journalist to the creative: Anil Prasad has graciously featured me at http://innerviews.org/ this month. please check out the interview there.
Next week we head to Mexico City for a concert at Casa del Lago, back home for a few weeks with master dance classes with Peggy Baker (Toronto), and dance ensemble scoring at University of the Arts, and then off to Europe in December for a tour w/ Ursula Rucker.
Hope to see you in Brussels, Oporto, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, St. Polten Festival, Frieburg, Salzburg, and Istanbul! Dates are up at 1k and at myspace.
that's enough for now, cheers - tim

listening to:
tangerine dream-force majeure
michael oldfield-incantations
jan hammer-melodies
adrian belew-e
king crimson-40th anniversary 'red'
steve reich-music for 18 musicians
david sylvian-manafon
beatles-magical mystery tour re-master
supersilent 7 + 9

march 18, 2009

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 00:00:00 -700

it's once again been a great long while since blogging...oh well...too busy frankly to keep up with all the facebook, myspace, twitter, etc...networks out there...but wanted to update on all the music madness going on:

tim motzer 2009 upcoming dates:

every Monday @ Silk City/Philadelphia w/ Back2BasicsBand + dj King Britt + guests.

Monday March 30 @ National Mechanics-(Philadelphia Film Festival) BRAKHAGE films vs. Tim Motzer Solo Score

Tuesday March 31 @ Muhlenberg College/Allentown Ursula Rucker Band Live

Friday April 3 @ Muhlenberg College/Allentown w/ Ursula Rucker + Muhlenberg poets/writers

Sunday April 5 @ Tritone/Philadelphia w/ Pavel Fajt (czech republic) - part of drum trek us tour.

Sunday April 19 @ Gojjo Jazz Series/West Philadelphia w/ BASE3 (doug hirlinger, barry meehan, tim motzer) record release.

Saturday April 25 @ Mile High/Philadelphia w/ BASE3 + Grimace Federation.

Ursula Rucker European Tour April 27-May 17th [additional dates to be announced shortly]

April 30 @ Batofar/Paris w/ 4Hero dj's

May 1 @ Werk II/Leipzig

May 2 @ Moods/Zurich

May 3 @ Privat Club/Berlin

May 6 @ Fabrik/Hamburg

May 7 @ Karlstorbahnhof/Heidleberg

May 8 @ Watts/Rotterdam

May 9 @ Podium Mozaiek Theater/Amsterdam

May 10 @ Bee-Flat/Bern

May 11 @ WUK, Vienna

May 13 @ Tavernier/Brussels

May 14 @ Santiago Alquimista/Lisbon

May 15 @ Casa da Musica/Oporto

Tuesday July 28 @ Winter Gardens/NYC w/ King Britt Sun Ra tribute Saturn Never Sleeps.

recording

DoubleMoon Remixed 2 will be out in April. This is a remix compilation i took part in with the wonderful folks at DoubleMoon records in Istanbul, Turkey. The album features mixes of course from yours truly vs. baba zula, dj spooky, plaid, and huge assortment of wonderful mixers and mastermind producers. be sure to be on the look out for that one!

Markus Reuter (tuner, centrozoon, U8 touch guitars) was here in Philly at my studio for a few days of working on two of our on-going projects: GoJJo and our soundscape collaboration. We played live on Stars End(on WXPN)last August and some of those bits along with duo & solo studio recordings have been sent over to flautist/saxophonist Theo Travis (gong, robert fripp)in London to add some of his wonderful playing. The GoJJo session was a rough one for me...a struggle. but on playback of video and multitracks is quite amazing. everyone(doug hirlinger, john swana, markus, + tm) stomped it and destroyed it...and we verred off into alot of new territory. really exciting stuff, on the road to a record. we need to play more...some touring is in order.
contact: info@1krecordings.com

BASE3_DARKMATTER is out and about, and we've been getting great reports back from listeners. it's been getting airplay on some cool programs (wrti-fm 'the bridge' + wkdu-fm
'cosmic nuggets')...thanks. we've also been gigging out and had our first record release concert at Tritone along w. visuals. Mark your calendar for 3/19 @ Gojjo Jazz series in West Philly and 3/25 at Mile High Club w/ Grimace Federation...two more outings you won't want to miss!

URSULA RUCKER's latest album has been out for a few months (Ruckus Soundsysdom) and we're taking it on the road to Europe and Portugal in late-April thru May 17th. Tour dates will be posted here shortly and we hope we are coming to your town. please come out. thus far it looks like we will see you in: Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Brussels, Bern, Zurich,Liegzieg, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. more dates to be confirmed! We're also doing a full band concert at Muhlenberg College in Allentown on March 31.

BACK2BASICS is still rocking way into it's second year at Silk City every Monday Night. The last few Monday ?uestlove has been out on the drumseat holding it down with us:Damon Benet (keys), Anthony Tidd (bass), Carlos Izaguerra (percussion), Tim Motzer (gtrs)...be sure to stop in. band sets are 11:30 and 1 along w/ dj's King Britt, Dozia, RClarke.

We're readying our next 1k release FRACTURED REVERB UNDERGROUND. This is a 10th anniversary re-issue with a brand new cover design packaged in a mini-lp gatefold. This elctronic album went largely under the radar and was ahead of it's time for 1998...it still sounds fresh—like it could've just been recorded. produced by barry meehan + tim motzer. more news on this soon.

Currently i just tracked bowed and scraped electric guitars— on the upcoming Michael Mann film starring Johnny Depp— along with King Britt adding some soundscapes and textures and tensions to a few scenes. Looks like it's gonna be a great film....stay tuned.

Just finished up three intensive weeks of dance master classes with choregrapher Peggy Baker (toronto) and Dutch Dancers from Anouk van Dijk's crew: Birgit Gunzl and Philip Moritz. A wonderful 3 weeks of creativity.

Played a Hendrix tribute night with the band Elypsis led by keyboardist John Stenger. The band also featured Jason Fratacelli/upright, and Justin Leigh/traps. it was a fantastic night. i played 1983 and midnight (from war heroes). other guitarists on the night were tim conley, vic baker, and mike kennedy. live on jimi! you can listen on-line here:www.ellipsismakesmusic.com/hendrix.htm

Dance + Theatre classes at University of the Arts: you'll find me on campus 5 days a week creating scapes and live soundtracks for dance and theatre improv and composition classes with choreographers Manfred Fishbeck and Curt Heyworth. it's been an amazing and rewarding experience thus far as we continue...

Oscillations Quartet recently played a historic evening at Silk City/Philadelphia that was webcast and is now available as an archive at web.illish.us
be sure to check it out. The quartet features drummer icon Ari Hoenig, Tim Motzer on baritone guitar + guitar synth, John Swana on electronic valve instrument, and London UK bassist Anthony Tidd. Talks are in the works now for a concert/interview dvd that would also feature the Jef Lee Johnson Trio—a band featured that night as well. Oscillations will be back September 12th at Chris Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia.

NUCULTURES next album is also underway. so far have tracked 6 new ellie perez songs. we're pretty excited about the songs as the album continues to unfold. more to come.

HBO's True Blood is slated to use one of the Sister Gertrude/King Britt/Tim Motzer songs 'Power (Voodoo Version) on an upcome episode for Season Two. :)

Recording a new album project with Eric Slick (Adrian Belew) on drums,percussions, instruments; Barry Meehan on bass and other instruments, and myself on baritone guitars, pianos, rhodes, and other instruments...in the middle of it right now...amazing stuffs for the heads...overdub session was off the chain...cut up, mis-aligned and re-mixed for the wandering ears...stay tuned...!!!

suffice it to say...there's a lot going on, and a lot to try to keep up with!! wish me luck! see u soon.

((00))

kurt rosenwinkel sessions...

Sunday, January 18, 2009 00:00:00 -700

photos from bushwick sessions January 14th, 2009 and nautica sessions Philly December 30th, 2008
kurt rosenwinkel, gintas janusonis, and tim motzer

after meeting in Zurich Switzerland in 2007—we vowed to have a play—and it finally happened
this december/january. it was quite staggering the chemistry, communication and the language
we all shared. we've had two amazing sessions that yielded 6 hours of mind blowing music.
(boxset anyone?) we're looking forward to playing live sometime later this year. stay tuned.

kurt rosenwinkel - guitar, pedals, loops
tim motzer - baritone guitar, synth guitar, acoustic guitar, pedals, loops
gintas janusonis - traps, percussion, circuit bent thingeys

all photos: tim motzer

BASE3_DARKMATTER

Thursday, December 25, 2008 00:00:00 -700

just in to 1k...our latest release:

BASE3_DARKMATTER (1K015) January 2009 release.

visceral experimental avant power trio with doug hirlinger on traps, flute, mbira, and percussion: barry meehan on bass, and tim motzer on baritone and electric guitars, pedals, and loops.
fans of marc ribot and derek bailey will dig this one! an improptu session recorded in a day in November 2007. mixed by rich chychota.
featuring "Ninth Ward" a eulogy to the people of New Orleans_a beautiful abstract odyssey of beautiful sadness and hope...

"...an incendiary experimental power trio of the highest order."

this will be available for download in a few weeks, and will be in stores and at the 1k shop
in a weeks time. be sure to grab it, and look for BASE3 playing live dates soon.

New Orleans-2008 Voodoo Festival

Saturday, November 15, 2008 00:00:00 -700

{photo: L to R - Ben Jaffe, Dan Potthast, Damon Benet, Chuck Treece, King Britt, Tim Motzer
@ Preservation Hall, New Orleans October 2008}

SISTER GERTRUDE MORGAN TRIBUTE AT 2008 VOODOO FESTIVAL

from an email to the band:

"so much fun....and a journey....back to the beginning
of it all....new orleans...preservation hall....ninth ward...

four leaf clovers...great hangin and playin with

everybody....love new orleans...the last two songs

with clint and joe was feelin that n'awlins swing so hard...

a life highlight....thanks for the experience everybody

scientist -- king tubby hang....great african food---

belgians @ dba...great beers and bands...wwoz....'the station'...

sister G...morpheus....clover diner...st. louis cathedral...

13...snoopy(ben jaffe's dog)....thanks for the hang ben...all the great food

and times....walkin the streets of the quarter...crossin

on the ferry....caliope in the mornin...chartreuse liquer...

still buzzin" t

suffice it to say, new orleans was a wonderful experience!

we worked hard every day at rehearsals, putting the material

together. met wonderful people and musicians there. the best

radio station in the world: WWOZ. check it out. The festival

was great and according to the paper there was one of the

highlights of the festival this year. great stuff. hopefully,

more to come.

be sure to purchase 'king britt presents-sister gertrude morgan'

produced by king britt and tim motzer in the 1k online store today!

i can't believe you don't have it yet!!!! :)

original painting: by sister gertrude morgan (from the ben jaffe collection)

Ruckus Soundsysdom

Thursday, October 16, 2008 00:00:00 -700

World Cafe Live October 12, 2008

Ursula Rucker premiered her new album (almost) in it's entirety tonight....wow, what a show! If you didn't make it out
you really missed something amazing! 12 brand new songs/poems backed up by a phenominal band of tim motzer on
guitars, synths, and electronics; anthony tidd on bass; chuck treece on drums; carlos izaguirre on percussion; and from
baltimore - kevin gift on keyboards, laptop, turntables, and electronics...whew...and if this wasn't enough we also had
the talents of lady alma, vicki miles, fisheye, kufe, and sudan...this was all backed up by the dj'ing of king britt, ron clarke,
and dozia....what a night of magic, amazing textures, monsterous grooves and urgent words flying from the soul of ursula...hopefully, this was not a one-off and this amazing ensemble will make it's way to NYC soon!!!

Philly Record Shops + new 1k releases...

Wednesday, October 08, 2008 00:00:00 -700

2 BRAND NEW RELEASES FROM 1K

JAZZHEADS - AVANT WOT NOT (1k02)
NUCULTURES - THE ZEBRAMOON REMIXES(1k014)

AVAILABLE NOW AT THESE FINE PHILADELPHIA RECORD STORES:

A.K.A. MUSIC
27 N. SECOND STREET
PHILADELPHIA PA 19106

PHILADELPHIA'S MOST COMPLETE RECORD AND CD STORE...DEEP DEEP CATALOGUE, BOX SETS, NEW RELEASES, A TREASURE....GO SEE MIKE! THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST RECORD STORES ANYWHERE!

TEQUILA SUNRISE RECORDS
525 W. GIRARD AVENUE (BETWEEN 5TH AND 5TH)
PHILADELPHIA PA 19122 T 215.965.9616

THIS IS ONE OF THE HIPPEST AND, SO FAR, MOST SLEPT ON RECORD STORE IN PHILLY. DEALING MAINLY WITH VINYL (USED AND NEW) SPECIALIZING IN HARD ROCK AND PSYCH, AVANT GUARDE AND BEYOND, FOLK, BLUES,ROOTS, & JAZZ, DUBSTEP AND FUTURE DUB, HOUSE,TECHNO AND DISCO...A TRULY AMAZING COLLECTION RIGHT HERE IN PHILLY...
WITH NEW VINYL IN FROM CLUSTER, FUNKADELIC, SUN RA, RICARDOS VILLALOBOS AND--- IT' EASY TO GET TO!!!!

LONG IN THE TOOTH
2027 SANSOM STREET
PHILADELPHIA (IN CENTER CITY)
T 215.569.1994

ALSO, ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOPS...AN INSANE COLLECTION OF RARE VINYL -- JAZZ,COUNTRY,ROCK, PUNK,INDIE, HARDCORE,JOHNNY CASH, COLTRANE,ALBERT AYLER, BLACK SABBATH, VIDEOS, DVDS, MAGAZINES, BOOKS, MERCH...
GO CHECK IT OUT!!! LOVELY LOVELY!!!!

more excitement...

Friday, October 03, 2008 00:00:00 -700

excitement abounds in the land of 1k. two new records are out (jazzheads - avant wot not and nucultures - the zebramoon remixes) or about to be available in various formats, in stores, and in online shops...but what makes me the most excited is that for the first time, the 1k online store for our various releases will finally be a reality! pop the champagne cork! ouch! it hit the ceiling and bounced about the studio....! the cats are running in all directions...! nevertheless, we are excited, because for the first time you'll be able to get some 1k product delivered directly to your doorstep from us...and we'll also have some new goodies available for you that you can only get here...not to mention downloads! wow! we have an archive bursting at the seems of incredible music...some of which would not see the light of day otherwise....and many of the projects that i've been associated with should be available here as well...!! you'll also find the soundlab in a much more friendly state for students and scientists of music...and an updated gallery...a 1k music player...lots of music released and un-released...live and studio...available for your ears...and don't forget your credit cards...a world awaits you...and as always we appreciate and need your support incredibly...it allows us to continue...the next 1k next blog will be about 3 incredible record/cd shops in philadelphia...the treasure troves...gifts to the city of brotherly love...hold on tight...until next time!

1k releases are/or will be available online at www.cdbaby.com, www.amazon.com, www.dgm.com, www.burningshed and over a variety of download stores ie: itunes, emusic, etc...get busy with google!

ps: the hard work begins this week on ursula rucker's live project in support of her upcoming new album 'ruckus soundsysdom' ....wooo!...gonna be alot of work and fun, but mostly, be sure to come out and support independent music on october 12 at world cafe live as we unveil the new music...w/ special guest taylor mcferrin...with the fivesixmedia dj's. (britt, dozia, clarke)...the ruckus soundsysdom band will be a world renown crew of: kevin gift, tim motzer, chuck treece, anthony tidd, and carlos izaguirre.

photograph: taken by alex kidd at the foundation cartier exhibit where we played in paris, france

painting by tadanori yokoo

http://www.tadanoriyokoo.com/photograph/index.htm

music madness continues...

Sunday, September 21, 2008 00:00:00 -700

music madness...it's been a couple of crazy weeks of music....last week at the fire Fuzzbase played a nice night...eric slick (adrian belew, project object) joined us on drums for a great set...hope to do some more with him at some point in the not so distant future...in other news, the over a year strong back to basics party is changing a bit...king britt announced the band will play only one set instead of two for now...so, if you want to see that band play...be there at 11:30 for one big set!
i've started with manfred fischbeck doing movement classes at universtity of the arts weekly. have been enjoying that experience a lot...so i might see you on campus! played with bart miltenberger last wed, and a late night jam w/ tony catastrophe, elliott levin, and larry toft--funknastiness...and thursday yet another new chapter with fuzzbase...we've been working on new musics, and debuted a few new ones 'the light dies down' and 5matrix6, along with some of our regular tunes...an all instrumental affair this time, and i've added in some bits on the sampler...tyler lynch group opened...was a great night...ricardo lagomasino joined us on traps! finally last night played liberty lands with back to basics band: jafar barron, anthony tidd (rhodes!), tom spiker, tom clay, carlos izaguirre, me, and tanja dixon....great wonderful night outside to close out the festival...afterwards, hung with ari hoenig at chris's jazz cafe..also, met john ellis (sax, charlie hunter).where we were divising our reuniion gigs of jazzheads....there has been so many amazing musical nights at the silk city back 2 basics party featuring the live band of chuck treece, tim motzer, damon benet, anthony tidd, kevin arthur, carlos izaguirre, and jafar barron...a few weeks back a stellar jam with ?uestlove that blew the roof off the spot...and also jaguar wright sharing her vocal talents with us...amazing stuff...it's been 52 weeks and we're on our 1st anniversary of b2b.. stop thru every monday...some other exciting works in the can and process...

RELEASES: jazzheads avant wot not (1k) is now out on cd. you can get it at the moment at cdbaby.com....also, nucultures - the zebramoon remixes (1k) is on the cusp of release...coming on cd (next week) and digital (in november)...the new burnt friedman and jaki liebiezeit - secret rhythms 3 is now out...check at www.nonplace.de for more info. it's an amazing record that i collaborated on both in cologne germany last august and in philadelphia yielding a couple monster tracks 'morning has broken' and 'endsafter'....check them out on burnt's site. ursula rucker - ruckus soundsysdom will be out in early november, an amazing record, that i produced a track for 'she'...we'll be debuting tracks from the new album with live band at the world cafe on october 12...be sure to come out...taylor mcferrin is opening...

will let you know more news as i can catch up!!!!!!!!!!!!

(((00)))

september already?!!

Wednesday, September 03, 2008 00:00:00 -700

...summer flies on and september's here again...admidst hurricanes, political conventions, and lot's of challenges ahead! hang on!

recap: in August was visited by my friend Markus Reuter, he of innsbruck austria, and he of the 'touch guitar' and Tuner...a weeks time playing, recording, and making music--a live duo performance on chuck van eyl's Stars End program, and a Gojjo perfomance of the new quartet comprised of: john swana on evi, doug hirlinger on traps, markus reuter on touch guitar, and tim motzer on baritone gtr--a formidable group to say the least. our performance was well received and recorded. so will have a listen soon and let you know the results. while markus was in town, i was treated to not 1, but 3 king crimson shows compliments of pat mastelotto who we had a after hang both night one + two in philadelphia. night 3 in nyc at the nokia proved to be the show for me where the crimson showed up...a nice view of stage from vip balcony and a smiling laughing robert fripp - and a ferocious band...whew. lot's of highlights there, but one of my favorite shows of classic kc. they rocked. afterward, backstage met tony levin...and on to steak dinner with sid smith and markus reuter over some sobering chat about the state of the music biz...then, back to hotel where we ran into adrian belew, who promptly went out with us for a lemon drop martini at the w. discussions insued about the powerful king crimson, adrian power trio, the state of the music bizness, famous king crimson trainwrecks on stage live in rome...etc... what a fun time!

meanwhile, been working hard on remixes for stax (isaac hayes - the look of love), doublemoon records out of istanbul, turkey mercan dede and baba zula, the later, destined for doublemoon remixed 2 - a 2008 release. You can also check out my radiohead nude remix. It’s up at myspace.com/timmotzer. currently, deep in with a new one for brazilian girls --- it's a secret for now. hope your all doing great. be back sooner with more blathering.

(((00)))

a rare hello

Tuesday, July 08, 2008 00:00:00 -700

hello everybody....

lots of music happening. you can find most updates at www.myspace.com/timmotzer

new 1k website coming. complete with player and store. soon!

new burnt friedman and jaki liebeziet ep - unlimited edition out july 18 featuring tim motzer. check it out at www.nonplace.de. go to catalogue area. the full album release will happen in september 2008.

jazzheads - avant wot not (1k) being re-released in august! ari hoenig, chris cuzme, ben bocardo, tim motzer...the 1998 lost jazz-funk-drum n bass classic is coming back!

nucultures - the zebramoon remixes (1k) coming in august...remixes by tilomo, the man from no where, tlielaxu, jeff sharel, soy sos, the society, and enrico marani, ... new mix interpretations of songs from the album 'butterflies, zebras, and moonbeams'...

nucultures live on National Public Radio's ECHOES Living Room Concert hosted by John Diliberto coming soon to the airwaves...featuring brand new live band versions of songs from the album 'butterflies, zebras, and moonbeams' and two world premiere songs featuring ellie perez.

much more coming stay tuned!

COLOGNE GERMANY

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 00:00:00 -700

COLOGNE, GERMANY
Sept 1

i was invited to Cologne Germany in August to record for the next Secret Rhythms album with
drum master Jaki Liebezeit (can) and Burnt Friedman (flanger, nonplace). i contributed guitar and composition to the last Secret Rhythms 2 album from a few years ago. Those sessions famously went on to David Sylvian's studio and became a major part of the Nine Horses - Snow Bourne Sorrow album released by Samadhisound and featured one of my songwriting collaborations with Burnt and David - 'The Day the Earth Stole Heaven'. All of my guitar parts for those two records were recorded in my studio in Philadelphia. So it was amazing to finally play live in the rehearsal studio with Jaki and Burnt. This was a first. During the 10 day visit, besides two rehearsals in Jaki's drum studio for the Jazzsaalfelden Festival in the alps of Austria, I managed to track guitar parts and melodies at nonplace for two of the new tracks for the forthcoming record. Three more are now in my studio back in Philly in multi-track format waiting for me to add guitars this month. It was an amazing and fascinating 10 days working on the micro-rhythms in odd time, and delving deeper into subdivisions. Jaki was kind enough to share his 'system' of rhythm with me which is based on the morse code - the dot = 1 beat, while the dash = 2. all his beats can be notated using this system very easily. he feels this is the best system for notating rhythms. because of his system, it led me into seeking out additional information on the konokol system of indian music which i am now studying. there is a tremendous amount of insight to be found in both systems, as i feel they are related as well. the thing about konoko, is you can practice anywhere, and you don't need your instrument, as it's about singing the syllabic rhythms.
check it out.

meanwhile, our first performance together in Saalfelden was well recieved and was reviewed as one of the highlights of the festival. we are working towards touring in europe in 2008 after the release of the new album. more to come.
(((00)))

happy 4th!

Wednesday, July 04, 2007 00:00:00 -700

it's been a considerable time since the last writings. mucho has been going on. tremendous craziness musically and otherwise.
firstly, nucultures - butterflies, zebras, and moonbeams has been released...a vibrating double disc with 21 songs featuring ellie perez, barry meehan, and yours truly, along with some fantastic guests: jeremy carlstedt on drums, philly trumpeter john swana, helena espvall celliest from espers, and so many more. we're very excited with the album and hope you grab a copy for your summer listening on those warm hot summer nights...if you'd like a signed copy please email us here at 1k, or at any of the myspace sites (timmotzer, ellieperez, nucultures)...we'll get you all the details. in philadelphia you can pop down to A.K.A Music on 2nd st. near Market and pick up a copy with all of it's glorious artwork brought to you by Thomas Schmid! On line, you can also order it from CDBaby, or Robert Fripps DGMLive online store.
in the states, we're doing a massive radio/satelite/cable campaign to get the record out there and heard, so keep your ears open for nucultures...
next up the nucultures remix project is moving forward. i've been asking remixers/producers/friends from around the world for their take on the album, so this will be slowly evolving into what i hope will be a beautiful experimental retake on the record. more news on remixers on board soon.
in the studio: grimace federation has been living in the nautica studio for the last 3 weeks laying down 8 tracks even with yours truly getting in on some guitar playing here and there.
some nice stuff percolating which should see the light of day
in the on-coming months...w/ special remixes...a secret for now! sooon!
on the road:
this summer has been fun in the clubs. i've resurrected base3 for some jazz/improv/r&d excitements...played to an enthusiastic crowd at steel city phoenixville a few weeks back with ian vos and jeremy carlstedt, and again this past weekend in doylestown with jon wood substituting for jeremy...nice to keep the fingers limber and playing with the boys! next up
is sister gertrude live in central park summerstage july 28th...a week of rehearsals coming...following that (hopefully) will be flying to tel aviv in early august with ursula rucker to perform two shows there August 9th and 10th. upon returning, flying to cologne, germany to record with jaki liebezeit (can) and burnt friedman (flanger, nonplace) for their next album. be there for 10 days with a festival appearance. our first playing live together at jazzsaalfelden festival in austria. should be an amazing festival. will be playing with david torn's prezens as well as many other incredible artists. i'm very excited about this. upon returning to the states, i'm jetting again overseas to paris to play a festival with parisian saxophone legend julien lourau and electronic producer jeff sharel at the la villette jazz festival. sonic youth, wayne shorter, steve coleman are a few of the other artists on the fest. should be insane.
recording: somewhere amongst all this illness, i'm working away on new songs for next records, rehearsing nucultures for live shows, and the new power trio with barry meehan and jeremy carlstedt...tentatively called 'fuzzbase'...we'll be debuting the band and new songs at the Northern Liberties Festival on September 8th with a set a 8pm. we're looking forward to playing....that's all for now...run out a grab the nucultures album soon!!!!!!

MASTERWORK

Wednesday, February 14, 2007 00:00:00 -700

Developments: final days of mastering the new album project: nu cultures - butterflies, zebras, and moonbeams...21 songs over 2 cds...so understandably very time intensive. it's been an amazing few weeks finishing mixes and masters...and working with jeff chestek and pete humphries...thomas schmid (eneone) has been busy in los angeles creating stellar artwork for the package....the album should be out in March...more info coming soon...this weekend join the sister gertrude morgan experience live at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC...Friday night 8pm...more info:http:/www.carolinaperformingarts.org/...i'll be there with King Britt, Chuck Treece, James Lint, and Barry Meehan...rocking band with visuals...hope to see u there! next up a month of touring with Ursula Rucker...vancouver, seattle, singapore, germany, uk, paris, italy, portugal all on the horizon...looking forward to playin...been a long winter in the studio...

happy new year 07

Saturday, January 06, 2007 00:00:00 -700

hope everyone had a nice holiday and new years celebration. as for me i was in chicago visiting family there which was quite nice and made a trek to green mill to see my friend jeff parker play with his burning organ quartet...wonderfulness. an interesting time new years eve day in asbury park where all is being re-built (the casino, etc) and many condos going up seaside and new businesses, cafes, shops anticipating it's clients. new years came in quietly this year to what looks like a tremendously busy 07. as of today we are finishing up the nucultures record butterflys, zebras, and moonbeams...with so far some astonishing mixes from jeff chestek. the art dept. is also very busy. thomas schmid has been readying the package artwork and design, and we are all very excited here. amazing. wait to you see it. hoping for an early Feb07 release.
ursula dates
have more dates in for ursula ruckers tour of europe...we'll also do shows in vancouver and the region in early feb...with a possible hit in detroit at end of jan...very tentative. march through april this time in europe that will also take us to singapore for one show...and many new places in the UK that we haven't played before. we're also real excited to go to slovakia, and of course see all our friends in germany, italy, and paris....going to be a great tour and looking forward to that.
last week burnt friedman and jaki liebezeit invited me to come to cologne to do some recording for their next record on nonplace. when we recorded secret rhythms 2 i recorded my guitar parts here in philly in my studio...so it will be amazing to finally play with jaki and burnt in the same room!
sis gertrude show will happen in chapel hill north carolina in february as well...getting together all the guys to rock that out and finally working on some new film stuff with king britt...so as usual music madness pervails.
lastly: electric miles project will hit ortliebs feb 19th...hope to see you there!

philadelphia

Thursday, November 16, 2006 00:00:00 -700

Back home, rested, and studio bound as the follow up to the 1k recordings 2002 release: nu cultures is about to happen.
This second record seems to want to be a double cd because the hard drives are filled and burning with tracks from the last 4 years that would love to be heard -- so what better way to let them fly then to include them on nu cultures - butterflys, zebras, and moonbeams.
the past week or so since returning from west coast tour, we've been happily spending our time finishing vocals, and adding bits and pieces to the already 19-22 songs possible for the next nc-2. this philly collective--ellie perez, barry meehan, and i have been digging deep finishing, arranging, tucking and awaiting the arrival of jeff chestek to take away the hard drive for the final mixes. can't wait, but enjoying the process and the fun collaborations with good friends. this week finished up ' the shadow box' (a modern day heartbreaker), the psychedelic 'the universe is expanding', and 'all around you' (a song about spinning on impossible love while waiting in airports watching the tv screen).

tim motzer - punctured will follow this later in 07, as will the new album from ellie perez ...all kinds of surprises in store, we're also hopeful to squeeze a barry meehan solo record in 07 too...so stay tuned.

earlier this week, i recorded vocals for a waxtailor track (paris, france) with ursula rucker. really hot one...it'll be out soon...in a bit!

tilomo (((oo))

west coast

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 00:00:00 -700

marriot financial center room 909
our tour in california started in san francisco. for this trip ursula rented a van complete with gps navigator system. we named her HALlee (ala: HAL 2001)...she made our trip-- as we could be fearless with our driving. she always got us there. first day was a workshop presented to students by ursula rucker. evening rest and late night to a few pubs in celebration of gintas birthday...had fun even though it was raining...

Thursday we played at sf state university, and had a great show there, after a sketchy soundcheck. producer jonah sharp was there (airto, zakir hussein)...good to link up again with him after so many years. some really wonderful people at this show even met a sounddesigner from lucasfilms...discovered that brazilian girls were in town that night at the marvelous warfield, so called didi, got listed, and went to the show...packed had a nice time...after party at boom boom club were didi, and band did a live mashup...goodtime. good to see these cats again.

carmel hotel room 422/423
6am departure for los angeles...about a 6 hour drive...enjoyed the california weather and vegetation immensily.

soundcheck was great. we have a very talented engineer...but, we have to tear down the entire stage as we will play with two other bands tonight. off to hotel carmel checkin...in santa monica...met up with producer brian boland at sushi mon...an incredible dinner there, and much needed unfiltered saki (nigori), albacore sashimi, salad, sushi mix plate...so good. off to show. after 1st act, we have to reset the whole stage again and recheck. alls good after 30 min...our set is 45min...we are used to doing 2 hours...we did 7 songs ovasoul joined us for 'brown boy',
unfortunately we had to rush through our set, it was sonically good but unfullfilling...although most people loved it...after our show the 'headliner' came on who i will not name and presented such lame r+b soul music (to a mostly aged female crowd) that it forced me and my friends to get the hell out of an otherwise great club...so nice to hang here usually...but not this night...ouch...back into the night...late night: swingers diner w/ brian and gintas then to get some much needed rest....

Saturday a.m. breakfast next door at jinkys...fantastic. travel to san diego on saturday arrive at kava lounge...small but cool club. soundcheck is horrible...very fatiguing and loud...leave for lunch of fish tacos...rest before show. we stay in the san diego at the club owners house. beautiful relaxing setup high in the hills. you can see the lights of tijuanna from here.
show time: club is packed--we play to an extremely enthusiastic and vocal audience who are with us for all of the 2 hours plus set...such high energy here. was great to feel this. soundwise was tricky at times and very loud. i may have lost some hearing that night. not kidding. my ears are still ringing.
after show chatted with many fans, including the son of one of 'the byrds'...who said he'd been waiting to see me play live for 8 years....big fan of sylk130 and some of the albums i've played on...so that made me feel pretty good...you never know. people were so appreciative of the show...it was nice to hear. always is nice to reach someone. after show we sampled the 'arrogant bastard' by stone brewery native to san diego. very good followed with some organic wines back at kristy's home along with rice and bean burritos...mmmm...

travel day sunday...breakfast at the mission before hitting the road...amazing food here. coffee, juice, angus/eggs/pancakes...sufficiently fueled we're ready for the long drive back to san fran (8.5 hours)...5 hours later...a stop in between LA/SF for my first i IN N OUT burger...the best fastfood burger i've ever had...ask Bruce Willis.
enjoyed viewing the terrain desert, hills, palm trees, cactus...
final night out in SF...3 chimays...chicken burrito serves as dinner with dj blasting beats....w/ gintas and jonathan...

back at enterprise, we say our goodbyes to HALlee...flight to philly on monday. home again.

corcoran gallery d.c.

Sunday, October 29, 2006 00:00:00 -700

oct 27th jw marriot room 785 raining.

travelled to washington d.c. for a special gig with king britt nova dream sequence at the prestigious corcoran gallery art centric 06 where we shared the bill with indie band french toast and three video programs that included video and film works by matthew barney, the order from cremaster 3; takeshi murata, melter 2; cheryl donegan, head, 1993; among others...an interesting evening, a beautiful gallery, friendly folks, and some nice moments from the NDS...a windup at FIVE afterwards until 4am with King Britt spinning a definitive techno set there...finishing with room service for six in my room at 5am.

wakeup at 9am travel to bwi and then home to philadelphia. the ride yielded some wonderous photographs
of the enormous cloudy sky from van window.

it's been a while...

Monday, October 23, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hey everybody...it's definitely been sometime since i've written ...oh well, just too busy i think...today, my repaired MOTU 828mkII arrived, and is ready for installation back into the studio. this is good news, as i've been down for over a week...and not only that, but down with the flu as well...most likely the result of constant travelling and burning the candle at both ends as it were-resulting in exhaustion. backtracking: an incredible show from my power trio T300 w/ tone whitfield and tony catastrophe at the fringe caberet as part of the live arts festival...we had a high level improv there to a mighty vocal audience...really enjoyed letting it fly and dragged elliott levin on for the final freak out...wonderfulstuff...and recorded for the archives! the following friday played an ambient set at the rotunda w/ king britt, bora yoon, and dj spooky...also a nice chill but challenging set of music from us in a beautiful space...had a wonderful time travelling w/ king britt as part of the nova dream sequence where i lended guitar synth improvisations to his DJ cd-r sets...most fun...and some amazing moments in Cincinnati (stage outside in the chilly rain spitting night--not the best of settings, but hit some amazing moments here and did get to see some good friends and family there), Cleveland (an amazing show for a rave/drumnbass crowd...we hit some major highs...folks loved it...where we played w/ LTJ Bukem...nice to meet him...great guy), Ann Arbor (a tremendous disappointment, only a few showed, but they were treated to an amazing set), Philadelphia (where i debuted Tilomo to a small but friendly and attentive audience...i think they liked it...followed by a tremendous set w/ nova dream sequence...some of this was recorded, so it may show up sooner or later...), New York (at Cielo...some moments of inspiration here, but generally a strange gig for me, although King loved it...nice seeing all my friends there)...and then we flew off to Istanbul, Turkey...at check-in i told the nice lady from USAir that i had problems last week flying and my case was damaged beyond repair and locked by TSA costing me $70 for a locksmith to open it on stage in 10 seconds. she responded by upgrading me to first class for the flight to frankfurt. my flight was quite enjoyable and appreciated.

Turkey was an amazing trip...one of the more interesting places of i've been on this planet...need to go back there someday. first night to babylon for live music as part of akbank jazz festival...wonderful club...and met organizers of festival here...can't say it enough, the people here are marvelous. next day out to music stores to look at the multitude turkish string instruments...not enough time to spend...really need to come back. King is late getting in and we wait for him at soundcheck for 90 minutes...he arrives all is good...Psaap is opening for us. we meet them very cool folk. off to a turkish meal of white fish...the food here is incredible..turkish coffee...
show is good played to 1300 people...light show is amazing provided by daniel raphael...i have many moments of inspiration to drive the music performance...we even play 'sadness' from my tilomo album...as the winddown piece...

tired...while the others go out to rage on late into the night in the istanbul clubs, i gravitate back to the hotel, so i can enjoy the full day tomorrow early exploring the masques, towers, and waterfront by the palace. a day well spent. on our way to the airport we travel with guitarist Fred Frith, a wonderful chance meeting.
He's a super nice guy with a greet sense of humour who teaches composition in Oakland when he's not touring. I've seen him play with John Zorn and Bill Frisell. He was here at the Festival...his show was so enjoyable...i was thouroughly entertained by his remarkable avant garde playing. upon return, a day to rest then a 7 hour journey to Norfok Virginia were we played Crispus Attucks Theatre with Ursula Rucker...then a 6 hour ride back. I am wiped out. In the door at 6am to sleep for 6 hours...vinyl shopping at south st. in the afternoon yields ECM albums by Colin Walcott, Eberhard Weber, David Darling, Paul Motion, Jan Garberek and others, mostly from late-70s for around $3 each...we spend the evening meal listening to this incredibly beautiful music.
COMING UP: i'll be doing an interview Sunday night on WHRWfm.org...go to Events page for more info...tune in if you can...also, will be in DC Friday night with Nova Dream Sequence...more info at www.myspace.com/timmotzer...then off to west coast for a tour with Ursula Rucker...San Fran Nov 1 and 2...at SF State University; Los Angeles at Temple Bar Nov3 (930 set); and San Diego at Kava Lounge...looking forward to this adventure and seeing all my Left Coast friends...

SUMMER TOURING

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 00:00:00 -700

It's been pretty non-stop this summer...actually, this week is my first real break with great weather finally too! spent many days on the road with ursula rucker this summer all incredible shows starting with amsterdam at bimhuis part of a festival. incredible acoustics in this room - another incredible show for us...we opened the festival, and it was a great slot for us, a packed listening appreciative audience. we stayed at L43 an incredible artist living space with 3 unique apartments and wonderful staff on board that took such great care of us those two days.
after exploring amsterdam thoroughly we left for wroclaw poland for an outdoor festival there...where we met dean bowman(screaming headless torsos)...our show was very big...broad brush strokes...very rock-ish...they loved it...we had fun playing the massive stage there...drank 'mad dog' at after show which consisted of polish vodka, rasberry syrup, and tobasco...ahhh...5 of those is not a good idea on an empty stomach (didn't have dinner that night)...the following day flew to italy...drove to imola (a famous racing town)...where we played in a 600 year old castle...what a setting...an amazing show...

DUBAI turned into another amazing trip and show...we played in a club with a sub-par soundsystem that proved problematic during the performance but somehow we overcame it. we connected. people loved it. it was 110 degrees there...inside cold with freezing airconditioning everywhere. met so many amazing people here...we stayed at the kepinski hotel which was connected to a mall that housed a snow ski resort...haha...only in dubai. the sheer amount of wealth was staggering...on the way back to england was bumped off my flight (BA) so had an additional unexpected night over in london...that blew.....off to helsinki where we played the URB festival--a ten day festival at kiasma national art gallery there. we were scheduled for two nights of shows in their theatre, as it turned out, we could have sold-out two more nights, as many people were turned away from our two sold out shows. gintas missed his flight from new york, so the majority of our first day there was trying to find flights to get him there in time for the first show...as it turned out he made it 2 hours before showtime...helsinki is beautiful, a special place. kiasma's producers virve and riita where fantastic...we had a blast with them and the rest of their crew. we broke out 'loveless' for the second show for the first time in a bout 3 years...gintas killed the drums on this track...
both nights here went out to various clubs...the final night after doing the bars we went for a 330am swim in the freezing baltic sea. how cool is that...invigorating no doubt...600am lobbycall for flight to heathrow...where we connected with inga and david our drivers to big chill festival...
after a 3 hour drive, arrived at our hotel offsite from festival (17 miles away)...so this really was not cool.
off to festival...gonna be no soundcheck...we had to carry our gear up on stage between acts, set up, check, and play...it was a bit rough, really loud, and i had NO drums in my monitor...don't know what the monitor mixer was doing?...played to a packed tent of 1200-1500 people all on their feet with their hands in the air...we got them...we rocked it hard...a day off the next day at the fest where we met up with mix master morris, members of blueman group etc...saw some great shows...fink, tom middleton, andy gangadeens new band, and on and on...what a beautiful place especially if you can camp out on site...35000 people there...love to go back there next year...

alcabisso, portugal

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

travel a for 4 or 5 hours to Alcabisco at tiny club called Clinic.
it would have been nice to have a day off, but we have agreed to play this small gig. lots of problems as soon as we arrive. firstly, and most notably, the power converter does not have the correct plugs for me to be able to attach my equipment...this is a biggy...there are also sound wiring problems...the PA is phasing..so the first 3 hours or so of soundcheck was spent by the soundguy trying to figure out these problems and potential disaster. we break for dinner, and come back still issues. not looking like the show will happen. we are wiped out...very tired.
finally everything is resolved. we eventually play at 1:30am
to 35 people. -- fun gig. some really great moments...Rant is our best version yet...can you believe it? but, we are exhausted. travel is 2 hours back. mostly sleep.

dinner (steak,rice, potatoes,soup,red wine)

vila nova de famalicao

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

dom carlos 505
wake up at noon. i have a massage scheduled at 12 for my aching shoulder...my friend kalaf has so graciously arranged for benico tanaka to work on that for a few hours...afterwards, checkout and travel to oporto.

vila nova de famalicio
hotel here is very old and very 70's (in a bad way). finally get a good nites rest (10 hours)-- needed this badly. brunch at local restaurant (white fish filet, potatoes, salad, fresh oj)...then on to venue. a big modern theatre...casa das artes.
had a real nice sound check - long. not much bottom end here but we make do -- decide to stay at venue and pass up dinner, instead will devour catering and enjoy liesure time. chill in our own dressing rooms. 500 people for the show tonite...a really appreciative audience - good show - afterwards meet and greet, sell and autograph tilomo - soft lunch cd's and posters--drive back after show to lisbon. (4 hours) long drive in pouring rain. i was co-pilot (urse+gint in back) with jorge driving. he was very tired and occasionally nodded off. crazy. i was wired from the show, and had the task of keeping him awake...finally arrive at airport. checkin is a nightmare. excess baggage...so much stress trying to get through security, but finally make the flight.

vienna

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hotel stefanie room 239
arrive in vienna, greeted by a smiling peter schachinger.
to hotel for 3 hours of sleep before soundcheck. we have played Flex twice before and have always had great shows here. soundcheck is very difficult. can't get ursulas' vocal to pop out. it sounds very dead, lifeless, and flat on stage. after several hours we give up and leave it to chance. dinner (tuna, potatoes, salad, red wine)
to show: sound on stage is as we left it - horrendous. we feel disconnected - the audience is in it - but we are struggling badly--also a rude audient said some nasty things to ursula between songs - insults - this has never happened before - urse left the stage for a minute to get it together - it was bizarre. sonically very disappointing. it's difficult when you work as hard as we do traveling to make a great show and the sound doesn't fly. 2 encores anyway. nice winddown after in the inimitable flex backstage. to sleep by 5am.

basel, switzerland

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hotel basilik room 319
greeted by Urs (director of kaserne basel theatre) taxied to hotel after gathering gear and luggage. in bed by 11:30am for deep sleep until 3pm--walk to soundcheck. crew here is fantastic. really on point. sound (jonas) lights (christoph). have a nice soundcheck--the sound here is incredible. i am excited to play the show tonight - lots of bottom end. after check -- dinner (chicken and asian noodles, vegetables, beer) back to hotel. 1 hour sleep. shower. walk to kaserne. tired. really tired. drink one red bull and on stage.
show: a great one tonight. one of our best of the tour. our soundman was dancing at the mixing desk all night. great vibe in the room. 'broken' is exceptional, as is 'Rant'...encore: supa sista.
meet and greet after...load out...go to 'interesting' restaurant with dave a friend of gintas..to bed by 4am...sleep until 9am...to airport and off to paris.

munich

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

max emmanuel room 419
airport fly into munich.
check in at hotel - nice room. sleep 2 hours before soundcheck at ampere. when we arrive we are missing lots of backline. has to be sourced out. no power converter to 110v...missing stands...gintas is missing hardware as well. he has the biggest snare drum i've ever seen...loud as hell too...hahaha...sound is very weird in the room and in the monitors.
show: packed in audience. great turnout. lighting is bad. it's very bright, no changes of scenes..sound is horrible and my guitar sound is not happening..scooped out mids...on top of all this convert markus reuter (tuner, centrozoon) is here in the audience...so i'm dissappointed he can't hear a good sounding show...it was another struggle for me tonite...makes for a lot of work to play thru rather than joy--two encores--meet and speak to markus after for a while...then after teardown, out with ben mono for currywurst...(dinner 1am)...then to a nice dj lounge...bavarian breakfast at 5am...sleep for 1.5 hours.
check out and leave for airport.

paris-the riot-foundation cartier

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hotel dela paix room 31
airport is smooth. air france allows us no hassle, no overage fees--so we are happy! flight is good into paris. upon arrival ursula and gintas bags are missing -- will arrive in the evening they say. greeted by charlotte from foundation cartier -- todondori yokoo exhibit is there in the room we will play--drop gear there and check into hotel. gintas and i go out to find internet cafe and lunch...as we round a corner we are headlong into protestors running directly towards us...we literally dive thru a cafe door as they swarmed by us breaking windows and smashing things...including this cafe's massive window...smashed by flying chair. mayhem. riot police with full riot gear and shields come running from all directions to disperse rioters...it calms down eventually after 15 minutes or so...we watch the crowds marching...teargas canisters...crazy scene...back to hotel, and off to cartier for soundcheck. crew not together here at all. we are worn out, and wait for them forever it seems.we are rushed to get back to gig after soundcheck...a quick change...and back. it's sold out...line down the street. nice audience but inadequate soundsystem here. a disappointment, but we persevere.they love it -- urse has an exceptional show--especially running on no sleep or food--only interviews. at the stage after 3rd encore, alex kidd is with us, and helene from les nubians (big hugs) with rossy de palma (director pedro almodovar's muse) says i am 'a magician, not a musician...the sounds you have from the guitar are magic..." also, meet daniel (apollo heights) who is recording an album with robin guthrie (cocteau twins) producing...we wind down with champagne. head to catering for 'dinner'...then back to hotel. gintas and i go out for a nite cap...we find a small pub that serves chimay, so i'm happy...a nice vibe and a dancing girl. what more could you ask for.
this day was packed with adventure, art, and culture. now sleep.

freiburg, germany

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

inner city 419
college town.
early out of paris. arrive in straussborg--picked up in a nice van by lutz. lunch at truckstop-incredible. we finally have a warm meal-deli trays get old after awhile--check in to our hotel-nice rooms. we are happy. off to soundcheck @ jazzhaus. it has been home to jazz for years (miles davis, art blakey, don cherry, etc have all played here)...now it's branching out to all musics. the stage is blessed with all their spirits. sound check is good. engineer is on it. people are warm and friendly here. back to hotel for a rest until gintas locks himself out of his room wearing only his boxers! he borrows my jeans and has to go to lobby 3 times before his keycard would work. hilarious. walk back to venue. nice packed audience. we have a great show with an attentive listening audience. 2 encores. supa sister, and song 4 billy.
dinner after: margherita pizza, salad, red wine)
chill...take gear back to hotel with help from crew from jazzhaus...brief hang til 3am...london dj drum n bass party...sleep until 7am.

dortmund, germany

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

park inn 512
4 hours of sleep. yea! drive 2 hours to zurich airport - sleep and doze- nice. a very helpful air berlin checkin attendant helps us with excess baggage fees- we fly to dortmund. we are still pretty tired especially gintas who 'stayed up all night'. arrive in dortmund germany and can't find the driver. wait for a while, make calls..then finally do, bust our gear and luggage up to parking garage and find his car is too small! ridiculous. can't fit our gear or us in this tiny hatchback...ahhh...then, gintas realizes he doesnt have his computer bag and runs from parking lot garage to baggage claim (12minutes away). we're all worried and beat down at this point. after 40 minutes he finds his bag at airport security...thankfully! urse and gintas end up taking a train into town. i drive in car with gear and luggage. hotel is 5 star...pavaratti and stockhausen have stayed here. rooms are incredibly nice, but unfortunately no time to enjoy them. off to sound check. we are exhausted, wrecked test patterns. our travel day was 8am to 5pm (2 hour drive to zurich and flight to dortmund) issues, then a 90 minute drive to dortmund. upon arrival to domicil club, we munch on sandwiches, chocolate, fanta, coffee and setup.
sound is incredible...great room...rush back to hotel (shower, change, shave) then to venue...Packed! people are ready to rock! i have electronic issues during show. i think voltage wasn't quite right, and made popping noises intermittently...i was never sure if my sound was gonna go out...crazy, BUT
it was nevertheless, an incredible show...we rocked literally so hard...audience loved it...2 or 3 encores...really had a nice time tonight...spoke to so many guitarists and people after who said how much they enjoyed the performance...
to bed at 2:30 up at 7am. breakfast, then an hour drive to zurich airport (urse is a frantic...thinks she has lost a pile of money, but later finds it...the road) driven by fritz. airport is crazy. air berlin (excess baggage charges). a security line that takes forever (with 2 guitars on my back)...finally to plane...last to board...crew is helpful...sleep for a little while.

bern, switzerland

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hotel bern 331
greated at airport by christian krebs from turnhalle im Progr...
train into bern...taxi to hotel...meet christian there, and have a nice sleep for 3 hours while the others went to brunch. i was wiped out. off to soundcheck. turnhalle is an amazing place filled with cool folks and impressive crew. soundcheck is good. we are good to go. dinner is wonderful...such friendly great people here...
show: place is packed. we killed it tonight. sound is on.
have a great show...2 encores...the vibe in the room is fantastic. one of our best shows of the tour. we enjoy it so much we stay until 3am, way past their curfew, but no one would leave even though it was a sunday night and everyone had to work early the next day. a memorable evening. back to hotel. shower. and s l e e p!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

zurich

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

novotel 420
our baggage and gear goes by truck to zurich from turnhalle in prog while we take the train after coffees with christian krebs. nice journey. we travel with moods promoter christoph. upon arrival we walk to novotel and check in. nice rooms. after a long soaking hot bath...head to moods for soundcheck. our soundcheck engineer, willy, is exceptional. a liesurely check with the best catering spread of the tour.
dinner @ venue: (pork, potatoes, vegetables, salad, water)
show is another great one. a rainy monday night--we had a blast letting it fly. LOVE ending is a pullout. encores: supa sista and circe. after winddown with fans at bar off to novotel. really enjoyed working with willy. the sound was exceptional.

madness continues

Sunday, June 11, 2006 00:00:00 -700

nonstop madness continues...recapping...last night played a power trio hit with tony catastrophe and tony whitfield (bilal)... insane chemistry in this trio...we went everywhere from hendrix to brazil to dub to new orleans to funkadelic..so much fun...look forward to more hits with this insane group...king and i finished 4 cues for a documentary on selma march for the right to vote in alabama 1965...footage from cbs tv, malcolm x, mlk, jesse jackson...mind blowing...the music very heavy sad, distorted riffs and slide guitar..beats...the ghost of sister g was with us on these sessions...miami vice is getting closer...waiting to hear from michael mann how our music is all fitting...at this stage i think we've done 9 scenes...so we'll soon see...secret voices has been exciting as well...did final mastering session on tuesday...jeff chestek and pete humpreys, two scientists of sound here in philadelphia...the album sounds incredible...it's a heavy one folks...it feels like a deep dark movie...one for the heads no doubt...after the session, pete played us some out takes from the 'young americans' sessions that he engineered back in the 70's for some guy named david bowie...haha
it was incredible to hear this...luther vandrose sang back grounds on the record as well...his first recording session!
we heard an early take of 'young americans' which was alot different than the version we're all used to. now bowie is singing ' i'm afraid of americans' ... great stuff.

whitney, nyc, miami vice

Friday, June 02, 2006 00:00:00 -700

whew...continued craziness...but, just the way i like it...a few weeks back played the whitney museum with the sister gertrude morgan project...it was great to be playing that music again...hoping 2007 we will do much more...it's in it's potential stages...but for nyc...some really great moments...'god's word' and 'wound in his side' were two of my favorite moments...nice turnout and appreciative audience even though sound (due to the space), was less than superb. stayed the weekend in nyc with king's manager over in williamsburg...had the pleasure to enjoy that area and great restaurants for a few days...as well as catching allan holdsworth, jimmy johnson, and chad wackerman at the iridium for a tremendous show...back to philly...working towards the next 1k release SECRET VOICES...final mixes and tweeks have been completed with jeff chestik...fantastic mixes...last tuesday a mastering session with pete humphreys at masterwork...gonna probably have a tweek on one track...but sounds superb...will work with ben langsfeld saturday on digipak design with stefano ricci's excellant artwork for the cover...also, finishing yet another scene for the miami vice film...on sunday we begin scoring a new film as well dealing with the selma march for the right to vote from the 60's...alabama...heavy stuff...incredible footage...MLK...so a crazy week ahead...at the last minute yesterday we were able to secure tix to radioheads first us concert kicking off here in philly at the tower theatre. amazing show, sound, and production. one of the best sounding shows i've ever attended.
what a band. an incredible night at the tower.

rome,stockholm, miami vice, secret voices

Thursday, May 18, 2006 00:00:00 -700

as the miami vice scoring sessions rolled to a close, i flew to rome with ursula rucker to play le labbra nude festival there at the prestigious auditorium.
flight in-- missed our connecting flight in de gualle airport in paris...upon going thru security i here my name being called...strange...i turn, and it's josh abrahms (chicago bassist w/ prefuse73, sam prekop, on and on)...he'll be at the same fest playing with ernest dawkins chicago 12 and black earth ensemble. our show at the fest was broadcast live on rai radio...so our set was only 1 hour...sound was very ruff...monitor mixer was reading a book during our performance...some nice moments and some ghosts in the machine...disconnects...didn't really feel like we got there from my perspective, but as usual, it must've sounded good outfront...met jeff parker (tortoise), mike ladd, roy campbell, guiremo brown, ernest dawkins...really had a nice time there...festivals are the best...it was really great to hang out with so many of the chicago music community that i've admired for so many years. great food as always in rome,,,,next morning off to sweden-- after having the porter unlock gintas' room, he was deep sleeping...didn't hear his alarm, my 6 calls, or my incessant pounding on his door...haha...luckily we made the airport in time for flight to stockholm.
3 hour flight. arrived at 3pm to hotel, 45 min. nap, then to sound check. gintas has to rebuild drum kit...i'm good all my gear made it...show is nice with a very reserved audience...it felt good to run the entire show...afterwards sold some discs...the people loved it...gear back to hotel...out for some winddowns until 3am...no sleep tonite...off to airport at 330am back to rome...arrived in rome at 11am...thouroughly spaced.
sleep until 4. out for lunch and wine...so good. then off to festival with ursula and jeff parker. see mike ladd, and meshell ndegochello...wisdom intersects and i stay in my room afterwards to rest before the travel day tomorrow...flight out of rome to paris...miss connecting flight again!!!! it was f***ing ridiculous...terrible...stressful...re-book flight. now thru to montreal where we will have to then take jet to philadelphia...our flight is late there...all in all 24 hours of travel on mothers day...what a mother. our baggage and gear is lost as well, for another 2 days. when i arrive king britt calls to tell me we have another miami vice scene to do...so next morning up early, and we work on it all day. michael manns assistant likes it...so we send parts to la...looks like we'll have some music in miami vice the movie...next day...doing final mixes with jeff chestek for upcoming secret voices...it's something else. cheers. see you friday at the whitney in nyc...7pm...free admission. whitney live.

miami vice, kb, tilomo

Tuesday, May 02, 2006 00:00:00 -700

it's been a whirlwind. been in the studio scoring the new
michael mann film 'miami vice' staring collin ferril and jamie foxx...with king britt...very time intensive...also, managed to do 4 tour dates with the king britt experience starting in philly for a sold out back to basics reunion at world cafe live...then off to seattle...where my pedal board was promptly lost...so no pedals for that gig...no sleep the night before travel...so we were totally wiped out exhausted. i felt terrible..headache...etc. show went well - just guitar synth and a few pedals -- some sleep. after show pedal board delivered. now off to san fran. nice to be here at club 6. sound was horrible and loud. audience loved it. they went crazy. (me, chuck treece, doc gibbs, alma horton)...promoters were nice, but seemed not on it...dinner they provided was cold and not very good, so i went a bought a hot meal later just to feel right. sleep. 7 hour drive to ashland oregon. this ride is beautiful through the mountains. this gig is for earth day. massive auditorium...
great food here-all organic (salmon, salad, rice, white wine).
this town reminds us of boulder...so clean and beautiful.
great show...5 hour...feel like i really played on this one. me and doc had a ball...people danced all night...7 hour drive back to san fran...7 hour flight back to philly...home again.
working on a track for darren emerson...we will see...and back to miami vice....oh yes, tilomo is out. please tell everyone about it...you can check 2 tracks at www.myspace.com/tilomo it's available at discipline global mobile mailorder. go to dgmlive.com to shop, then to new to shop...or search....otherwise, it's in all the cool stores in philly and at other music in nyc. leaving for rome on tuesday with ursula...will play festival there, and to stockholm at soder teatern....should be a nice 5 days...ciao

firenze, italy

Thursday, April 13, 2006 00:00:00 -700

Hotel Dante room 302 Firenze
flight back to roma...baggage excess...
100 kilo minus 80 = 80 kilo = 140 Euro....we'll take it...being driven to Florence (firenze) as we understand it??
Picked up at roma aeroporto by paolo...driven thru the countryside to florence...so beautiful...
show is at Pergola teatro - insanely beautiful theatre.
sound is not so...as our sound engineer described as "like driving a bus from the rear"...very difficult.
a giant reverb chamber and lots of slapback to the stage. difficult show to a seated audience with bright white lighting. show is stopped abrubtly with one song to do (love) because of sound curfew--- we end up playing encore anyway - promoter will be fined. our good friend enrico mariani is in the house tonite, and of course back stage with us. fantastic to see him. we discuss briefly our collaborative album 'secret voices' which will be mixed in philadelphia for a summer release...great hang. a brief brisk walk around the city square after the show to dante statue with full moon. good night.

roma, italy

Thursday, April 13, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hotel ars roma room 201
9:30am
up early for a quick breakfast (expresso, cereal, croissant) before setting out to explore firenze.
this city is extremely beautiful -- everywhere you go, or look -- is quite staggering in it's wonderfulness.
today (and everyday i'm sure) is swarming with tourists from around the world. we see replicas of statue of David, neptune, and othres in the square--walk to Duomo and to the bell tower (which we climb as well)--out of breath with so much beauty. we take probably around 300 photos in 4 or 5 hours...haha.
2:30pm
walk back to hotel for checkout and drive to roma for a few days off...badly needed...sleep on first leg of drive until stop at an autogrille for lunch (pasta, salad, red wine)...arrive in rome to extreme traffik--crazy motorcycles everywhere--it is insane here!
the hotel is modern and very nice with internet...so i'm able to finally catchup on things...and rest...
10pm
out to dinner (seabass, salad, white wine)...prepared at the table. superb. a drive around the city to view the ruins, fountains, collesium---resonating...off to bed--collapsing!

roma, italy day 2

Thursday, April 13, 2006 00:00:00 -700

rome day 2
9:30am
a nice breakfast, then back to bed to sleep
until 1pm. nice to finally have a sleep in.
feel almost human again. laundry (self-serve nearby). cafe (cappacino, salami+egg sandwich)--a walk around.
3pm
back to hotel. rendevouz with ursula and paolo--head off to city center--walk around. try some amazing pizza. the pizza here is out of this world! find an outside bar in from of pantheon...chimays are here! properly fueled and happy. walk to ruins and colliseum--wow! then to dinner a few hours later...
(ravioli, salad, tomato/mozzerella, redwine). this was a wonderful time today--my first walk around to see some of rome. after dinner, taxi back to hotel
(15euro)...more sleep is in order. darren emerson (underworld, underwater) contacted me today about singing on a track for his new album. very exciting stuff. hoping it will work out. we'll see.
fly to lisbon tomorrow.

lisbon, portugal

Thursday, April 13, 2006 00:00:00 -700

dom carlos room 505
nice hotel. very comfortable.
terrible day--starting out with our highest excess baggage fees at rome airport--and it takes forever to sort it all out. once thru to security, they would not let me through with my 2 guitars. so i had to walk all the way back to ticketing counter for a special boarding ticket...which they didn't have. ahhh! run back to security, they let me in this time...all this for nothing. jumping thru hoops. finally on flight--stressful. flight is good to lisbon thankfully.
our promoter here, jorge, picks us up at airport--tensions arise concerning an extra gig, lots of mis-communications between label, promoter, agents, artists, band...which creates friction in our small travelling party...hope this all will disappate. off to soundcheck immediately...we run out of gas in the promoters car 3/4 of the way up a steep hill. he has no choice but to put it in park, and run around the corner to get gas, much to the dismay of 10 cars behind us. this takes 45 minutes...hilarious day...finally at LUX...such a great venue and crew here...one of my fav spots anywhere...sound is great and big...check is good...the show tonight is soldout...500 people...one of our best shows of the tour...just incredible...people here are so enthusiastic for what we are doing...4 encores...they wouldn't let us leave...after show we stay at bar upstairs until 6am, i believe. we are driven back to our hotel by a friend, but she is stopped by the police for a sobriety check. haha. just our luck on this crazy day. she doesn't have a licence with her. it seems like we are in a bad situation, but they let her go. we drive in the pouring rain through lisbon and try to find our hotel. we finally do. exhausted.

back in philly

Thursday, March 30, 2006 00:00:00 -700

awakening to a damp grey frankfurt day, but, alas, we go home today! yes. it's been an incredible tour...great perfomances in mostly soldout/packed venues...wonderful people and many adventures, but looking forward to not flying for awhile, getting some sleep, and just sitting in one room for hours, or as long as i please. haha.
drive to frankfurt airport is fine, and check in goes smoothly. flight to london heathrow is comfortable with plenty of leg room to boot,,,doze to ipod. upon arrival to heathrow everything changes...we are late, and held up forever at a security line that is terminally slow...only two cues for a thousand people! insane. upon arriving at the gate, i am told my 2 guitars cannot accompany me into the plane...arguments insue, as i've never had this happen before on a transatlantic flight...they assure me my guitars will be ok...but i am very upset...i've had both my guitars cracked from falls on this tour...the flight is ok, but with pathetic hollywood films that don't keep my interest...the ipod does, and i sleep. upon de-plane-ing at the aircraft they radio for my guitars to be brought to the craft from the hold, and once again reunited my worries are over.
looking forward to no airports, painful checkins, lugging gear, and luggage everyday for a month, checkin and out of hotels, but it wasn't really that bad...haha...the shows were well worth it.
in philly, exhausted but happy, belgian ales and food at my favorite hang Bridgids insues...then, a LONG sleep...................ahhhhhhhhhh.

catania, sicily

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 00:00:00 -700

catania novecento room 252

luxury hotel...very nice...flight to catania very nice except some turbulence at the end. ahhh. ursula is distraught a bit...upon landing, gintas cymbals are missing...still in rome, we find out. so promoter diego calls catanian drummers for cymbals for the show...sound engineer is fantastic (lou reed, peter gabriel) our sound is very good and very dynamic...we have a great show...audience is wonderful and seated (200)...my takamine guitar is damaged at airport (my fault) falls off trolly...cracked...not too bad...but lost finish showing the wood...shoulder is really hurting now (800mg advils) dinner after...(fish,potatoes,salad,broccoli, maredesous trappist, lemon cake)...folding at the dinner table...wiped out...communisto cubano restaurant on glorius beautiful street with 7 churches...400plus years old - catania is an amazing special place...mt aetna...must come back...

hamburg

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

hamburg nh room 251

everything goes smooth at cologne airport - no xcess baggage fees today...what a relief. so, a wonderful travel day is had. arrive in hamburg at 130 to nh hotel ( a real hotel..yea!) we actually have some time before soundcheck today. lunch at a bistro (pizza, bruchetta, mozzerella) soundcheck is great...we sign autographs when we arrive for some waiting fans...fabrik is an amazing space and design but a little difficult getting ursulas vocals to fit on top...finally work that out after adding a 3rd monitor for her...gintas programmed rhodes loop in rant...now that is slammin...show was good...packed in audience...weird sound though initially...it gets better as show continues...we do three encores tonight...circe, supa sista, song for billy...dinner afterwards...falafel at turkish rest with andy and katja..met rudi at titanic bar for 2 guiness...then collapsing to sleep. maintenance day tomorrow...90 min massage, steam, sauna...then a visit to our booking agent...his office complete with a 1959? mellotron, a vox jaguar, and a string machine...how cool is that? dinner later a nil...steak, green beans, salad, red wine...9pm. it should have been filmed like "dinner for five" (but) discussing music and industry...great time...but was folding by 11pm...we left at 1230...straight to bed...early check out at 9am...

rome-bari

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

bari, italy hotel federeciano

snowing today...in berlin airport incredibly stubborn supervisor would not work with us on baggage weight overages...very expensive...and depressing...fly to rome. leaving the cold grey for sunshine we hope. todays plan upon arriving is to drive to bari via van and straight to venue (4-5 hour drive)...as it turns out the car is too small. only our luggage and gear will fit plus ursula...gintas and i stay behind to fly to bari instead. wait in rome airport for 4 hours...finally arrive in bari, picked up at airport and speed to venue around 930pm...small dance club in basement...sound is ok...nice people here...dinner at 1130...(pizza, fresh tomatoes, potatoes, - wonderful and badly needed) then quickly back to hotel for check in, luggage to room, shower, shave, change and back to venue...we are exhausted...ursula was in the car for 5 hours in heavy traffic packed like sardines with gear and luggage, so she is fried...i think we had it a little better on the airport scenario...our performance in our sorry state was commendable...after show, i fell asleep in this loud club blasting hiphop jams...for 15 minutes...a power nap...4am...a few drinks back to hotel to sleep until 1230.

rome

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

rome villa san lorenzo maria hotel room 301

after a nice refreshing shower, feeling a little more human today. we drive to rome with johnny driving. the drive is gorgeous. slept for quite awhile to ipod music...stopped at an autogrill for lunch (steak, pasta, salad, red wine)...i wish it was like this in the usa...no such luck...final leg of trip chasing a beautiful sunset surrounded by breathtaking mountain ranges...a 5 hour journey into rome. roma: dropped at hotel. check in. 1 hour to lay on the bed. tiny room. even tinier bathroom. good luck fitting in the shower. haha...go to la palma to soundcheck. gintas drums are in bad shape...needs heads for snares and hardware...soundcheck is VERY LONG and wearing...to dinner...with VERY LOUD BAD POP music...so loud...we ask for them to turn it down...very disturbing...dinner was good (ravioli,salad, red wine)...show was recorded for rai radio for an april broadcast...great audience...our best show ever in rome...we played well but on stage sound was flat...a disconnect for us on stage...but we had the audience...ursula killed it! a couple of issues on some songs - a misque on punkass bitch, and broken...otherwise, show good. audience loved it. one encore: supa sista. afterwards hung with trumpeter corey from art ensemble of chicago touring here...drink mohitos, emails in office, and later enjoyed playing la palmas yamaha grand piano after dj finished his set as a wind down. back at hotel, fell asleep in my clothes with lights and tv on until 5am - off to roma airport with marco at 1130 to fly to catania, sicily....

cologne

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

cologne chelsea hotel room 33

beautiful hotel but a hell day at berlin airport. ticketing problems due to travel agency causes us to miss our flight. excess baggage is also a problem again and costly. ursula ended up making her flight finally...but gintas and i took next flight arriving in cologne at 5pm...of course, straight to soundcheck, at one of my favorite venues, stadtgarten. soundcheck is good. crew is on point. back to hotel to check in and get ready in 15 minutes (shower,shave,change clothes)...back to venue and walk on stage...great show, another appreciative enthusiastic audience that brought us back for 3 encores....remarkable evening. afterwards dinner (pumpkin risotto, corn soup, salad, red wine) then to stekken club to wind down to old soul and brazilian records selected by volker...hung with markus and khan and some fans from the show...a good night, it was. the show was filmed as well for fabrikx.com

berlin

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

berlin hotel imperial room 305

our rooms are small boxes but clean. no choice all hotels are soldout due to a convention here. dinner at thai restaurant with k7 crew (nicole,katja,juan)...and sleep. once again i awake at 5am! and cannot fall back asleep. breakfast at 9am...off to posdammer platz, underground, and internet. before soundcheck arrives i take a 2 hour sleep again (3-530). exhausted. i am a test pattern. went to club, but left behind gear at hotel...had to go back twice...ahhh. dinner at latino of tortellini, mozzerella & tomatoes....quasimodos was packed...incredible listening and vocal audience...what a great energy here tonight...our best show yet...we were on. 2 encores...circe and supa sista...aftershow...gintas and i walked to get curry wurst, snitzel, red wine, and baklava late night...to bed at 6am...still buzzing from a great show.

brugge

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 00:00:00 -700

brugge olympia hotel rom 115

nice drive from antwerp to brugge...slept w-ipod taking me away. loadin at cactus club a beautiful modern concert facility complete with an ace engineers and technicians...changed strings on both guitars...a ritual...what a difference...a good soundcheck. our hotel is around the corner from the venue...how nice! new idea on guitar sound, we are splitting the signal so bottom is on one channel, and top is on another...this helps tremendously. dinner and checkin at hotel...show was exceptional (best of 3)...opening with humbled - seated audience - signed discs afterward - i have my new soundscape release tilomo-softlunch available at all our shows...and the posters seemed to be a hit as well...there are not many, so get them while you can...went to republik afterwards...chilled down with wonderful people and westmalles - 6am soon arrived. morning drove to brussels airport - once again baggage overage fees...ouch...hoping this can be rectified...on to berlin.

antwerp

Saturday, March 04, 2006 00:00:00 -700

corinthian hotel room 333 antwerp
travel day from london thru the city passing st. pauls cathedral, the tower of london, docklands in the east end to city airport...we are hit hard with a baggage overage charge...ouch....flight is good...in to antwerp...soundcheck is tedious...the place (petrol) is huge cavernous...very hard to hear detail a giant reverb...back to hotel for 2 hours of sleep...only 2 hours last night...so we are exhausted...show is good. a great energy on stage, a terrible sound in general...was very difficult for me to play these tunes, no bass or bottom end...so the music takes on a differnent pespective. we play to the space...aggressive loud wild and wooly. the audience is very appreciative and vocal, and for that we are happy. afterwards we relax to a variety of djs and relax with westmalle's trappist ales...viva belgium. tomorrow in brugge for a show at cactus club.

jazzcafe

Saturday, March 04, 2006 00:00:00 -700

holiday inn camden 115
woke up really early 5am. thinking about the show tonight.
out comes the guitar to work on various chord progressions, and new voicings for l.o.v.e. couldn't fall back to sleep, 7am, a nice breakfast (sausage,eggs, beans, peaches, coffee, oj)...loadin at 1pm...work out pedal board speghetti...sound check sounds good...andy + julian join us for 'childrens' poem, and 'uh uh'...beautiful...the loop for 'rant' isn't working today, so we quickly recruit julian for the line...i trigger his foot (switch) for the live show...k7 is in the house, as is marc mac (4 hero)...
we get on very late at jazzcafe after having to completely reset and recheck everything before we play...the show is magic...our first showing of the new material as trio, after sundays' painted bride full band showing in philadelphia...people love the show...it works in all it's glorious dynamics...i initially had problems before playing, after the ac adaptor that powers my preamp, 'melts'...and dies. luckily, i had a line 6 adaptor that was the same voltage, and works fine...the show happens....
tomorrrow...antwerp.

02/28/06

Wednesday, March 01, 2006 00:00:00 -700

london
holiday inn camden room 115
a pleasant enough check in and flight out of philly to heathrow.
as usual, couldn't sleep at all on the way over, so watched a film starring al pacino, matt maconahey?, renee russo...it passed the time...and then a terrible film by steve martin as an over the hill
bachelor trying to score with a younger woman (claire daines)...please!!!! i finally fell asleep upon landing...driven to camden town by lee...slept 12-5...dinner a wagamama's...beers followed at scream, and some other pub (bitter pints)...accompanied by tank + friends...tomorrow, game face on...a huge show at jazzcafe and lots of musos comin down
theo travis, andy hamill, shri, steve lawson, etc....show one on the line...early rise tomorrow to practice...soundcheck 1pm...
more to come.

nautica

Friday, January 27, 2006 00:00:00 -700

12:32am
been some personal bumps in the road this week,
some major disappointments from colleagues, some hurtles to deal with, c'est la vie...certainly on the flipside, some really wonderful opportunites as well. A new 1k release - very excited about the upcoming tilomo - soft lunch release. today met with ben langsfeld (he is 1/2 of the mighty eneone design company situated in philly and LA - where the other half- thomas schmid resides-certainly both superstars on the realm) i saw the first re-glimpse of the cover art and design. i'm very excited. everything seems to be in place with design + manufacturing. thom's art is beautiful and inspiring, and i do believe the postcards+ 11x17 posters will be collectibles...haha...at least in my house! hoping to have product by mid-feb, so get those credit cards ready...this has been along time coming. yesterday, the mighty trumpeter john swana visited nautica and played some fine horn on new barry meehan (lead to gold), and ellie perez (world gone mad) tracks...a pleasure, as always, hanging with him. a post-session hit at my favorite place 'brigid's', and a wrap up in my living room listening to jon hassel, supersilent 6, kenny wheeler, radiohead, and alice coltrane. a nice way to end a wonderful day.
other news, we finally finished 'the doors' remix of 'i can't see your face in my mind' (peyote mix)...whew.
it's a journey - psychedilc tour de force...hoping the estate enjoy as much as we do...it was an honour to work on this track. on a totally different note, new territory for us, we've just finished music for a 40 sec commercial for ford uk...which we love...fingerscrossed that the creatives there will as well. the music business - a life of possiblities...keeps it interesting all the time.
tomorrow transferring SV files to begin the mix...
and continuing with final tracking and compiling of nu cultures 2.....looking forward to j davidson (he of steve winwood fame) stopping in to contribute some piano and audio advice...cheers.

nautica/thehut/mep

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 00:00:00 -700

studio sessions. finishing up the doors remix with king britt. going well. looking for the final mix this week...also, been cutting drum and percussion tracks for ellie perez + barry meehan songs with tony catastrophe...
a rare visit from philip charles to the studio...mixing madness...working towards finalization of 'secret voices' album (soon), tilomo artwork being finished for a mid-feb release on 1k...and!, at work with compiling the next nucultures (vol 2)...enough music for a double disc at this point...gonna be difficult to sort out...ursula rucker tour coming in march...looks at this point around 25 shows in europe,portugal, and spain...more news on this soon. her new album is out on feb7...ma'at mama (k7)...last night played with the miles electric project (john swana, dave pos, myself, chico huff, tom cohen)...great turnout...lots of philly musicians and heads...it was great to see everyone and play miles music its always a great pleasure to play with these musos...the philly inquirer did a small feature and photo on sunday, so that appeared to help quite a bit...february 6th-10th, i've been asked to do a week of master classes for ddww (dutch dancers work week) dancer/choreographer anouk van dijk will be in town with her dancers...should be an amazing week of challenging exchange. brought to philly by group motion dance company and susan hess modern dance. more info:215 387 9895

nautica, philadelphia

Tuesday, December 27, 2005 00:00:00 -700

sick again...the bug kept me down for the last few days...but staying busy in the studio anyway with new ellie perez tracks... finished up 'don't fade away'...and tracked vocals for 'rain'. we started a new track tonight that has some promise...we'll see how it rolls out...music madness continues...happy new year.

the doors

Sunday, December 25, 2005 00:00:00 -700

christmas eve-eve...at the hut
in the studio all evening with king. today we're working on 'the doors' remix- 'i can't see your face in my mind' from the album 'strange days'. i hauled my 70lb. pedal board case over and up two flights of stairs (with kings help!) for this one along with the telecaster. the hut floor is filled with pedals all over crammed in like sardines...haha...missed this photo op. just amazing hearing the original tracks: the psycho-surf organ + tremelo'ed clavinet of ray manzarek, robby krieger's slide guitars, and john densmore drum work, although we are creating all new music for this one. the original is quite trippy for its time (1967)...and of course jim morrison's incredibly seductive voice sets the vibe of the entire track. initially we worked up the arrangement and learned the originals' chord changes. so far, i've added lots of backwards and sample+hold guitars...king has put in some dub beats + basslines+synths...and used some of john densmores original hihat and drums with bleed, but altered and processed ....gonna be heavy and trippy. worked until we were exhausted. dinner break at eulogies (belgian)....happy so far with whats gone down. more tracking and arranging on wednesday.
merry christmas.

london, UK

Sunday, December 25, 2005 00:00:00 -700

london hyde park room 108
early flight out today...off to the porto airport after a quick breakfast. issues at check in. we are overweight. then a direct flight to london. flight is packed and the attendant kindly allows us to put our guitars+bass in the seat next to me. seat two. so helpful (for a change!). once into london we tube to liverpool station and take taxis to our hotel in hyde park. the rooms hear are the smallest rooms i've ever been in, especially with two guitars and luggage. absolutely no room to move. it's very marx brothers - total comedy. dash back down to lobby to meet king and dan. off to picadilly circus and thereabouts. had a nice asian meal, walked around quite a bit. went to tin pan alley to meet sophie delia
at her studio there. checked some incredible book stores...back on the tube...to our hotel. tonite rest.
watched the muhammed ali vs george frazier fight from nigeria on the bbc...and slept. tomorrow a big day.
photo: tim, chuck treece, king britt, daniel, barry meehan, mark boyce - porto airport

lancaster, pa

Friday, December 23, 2005 00:00:00 -700

cherrys upstairs
tonite playing with bassist barry meehan and mark scafidi in a power trio. we have a lot of fun in this band playing covers of some of our favorite rock tracks from the 70's up through now. we didn't know what to expect tonight at this club so we started with some blues like 'red house, and willy dixon's spoonful...as the night went on we moved into more rock oriented harder stuff: zeppelin black dog, dancing days,...etc crowd loved it, and in fact, we were pulling people up from the bar downstairs and kept them the rest of the evening ending with radiohead's the national anthem...it's really fun playing this material occasionally, and it makes me play alot of solos (haha) which i don't always do, except maybe in the miles electric project...so you get the rockside of tim motzer...haha everyone sounds great...mark is a john bonham junkie so consequently i love his playing.
we'll keep doing this occasionally so look for it - spoonful. we've worked up a nasty version of 20th century dreaming by sylvian and fripp that we love playing. the people in lancaster were great, and the drive was short and enjoyable listening to 'the lamb lies down on broadway - live' from the boxset on the way home. incidently, saw the musical box the other week perform this at the tower theatre. it was unbelievable. it might as well have been genesis. such an amazing work. they nailed it and had all the authentic gear from 75 tour, as well as staging, costuming, slideshow....see this performance if you can.

porto, portugal day two

Friday, December 23, 2005 00:00:00 -700

porto palacio room 1408
we all slept in until 3:30 this afternoon having been
pretty much exhausted from travelling and having shows at 2am the last two nights!!!! haha crazy...
it's dark outside now, and kinda strange missing an entire day. i have a massage at 6pm. my right shoulder has been giving me a lot of problems lately. at this stage i'm hoping i haven't damaged some tissue or torn something. it's a result of touring with heavy gear, and likely not lifting properly. solution: i need a roadie. any volunteers? haha
ana has phoned to arrange dinner this evening. we're going back to tras d. orelha. king, chuck, mark, barry, and i go there around 8pm for another incredible meal. salads, squid, sardines, meat, peppers...they kept rolling out such wonderful food there. we were treated like kings, i'd say. and plenty of portuguese wine. meal finished with a desert of flaming creme brulea. back to the hotel around 11pm, mark and i head out for a night cap
at a place that i know nearby. turning in early, for an early flight to london tomorrow. it's been a wonderful time here in portugal.

porto, portugal

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 00:00:00 -700

porto palacio room 1408
a long drive to porto. barry + nancy at the helm. after several hours of driving we reach the outskirts of porto. we manage finally to connect with antonio who we follow at high speeds, only to lose him at an exit. it's crazy and it takes awhile to find him again. we get to the club eventually...it's really a disco called the elitis club in pacos de ferreira, and the band will set up in an even line: king britt, chuck/drums,
barry/bass, mark/keys,and me/guitar. it's an odd setup and sounds somehow workable. the sound check takes forever. we are cold and tired. leave back to hotel (*****) for a little relax then dinner at tras d' orelha!!!!!! many courses later we are feeling quite fine. the two ana's are here, antonio, a singer from brazil (lost her name) and the entire band, etc...fish, salad, soup, and on and on. amazing!
we are all completely tuckered though...back to hotel for a quick shower, change of clothes, rush back down to lobby, then we speed off to the gig...we are following antonio and we are very late(it's 2am)...driving dangerously fast at times...the driving here is a bit crazy!!!!!! we make it though. club is packed to the brim. people are expecting king britt house dj, but what they get is sister gertrude experience...we play well...i didn't have as much fun tonite on a playing note...it felt a bit dis-embodied...but we rock it...people generally like it, media is here filming the show for a music channel. we are interviewed afterwards in the club shouting over blasting house music. it was hilarious. antonio is a rockstar here...haha...promoter of show...dj...very famous cat...and wonderful host... drinks are on the house so we stay and party until 6am. looking forward to our first off day in a while. gonna sleep in.

lisboa, portugal

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 00:00:00 -700

sheraton room 1205
i awake today with a pain in my right eye.
and everything is blurry. maybe in my sleep i've
scratched it. off to the farmacia...antibiotic eyedrops
and a long drive to lisboa. i have an entire backseat to myself and catch a long sleep. it helps to keep my eye closed. we arrive to lisboa, greeted by lux promoter jorge. the lux venue is amazing as usual.
sound system and crew are totally on-point.
tonite we're running the video on 2 walls, 3 screens. this place is perfect for the multimedia. soundcheck we square some staging issues away. re-string both guitars. sound is wonderful here. i can hear everyone. nice soundcheck jam and then off to dinner, then to checkin and a long HOT bath. my eye is feeling a bit better now. our rooms at the sheraton are first rate, and come equipped with an assortment of magazines. my copy of the portuguese Elle has a photo and review of nine horses - snow borne sorrow. nice one. showtime 1:30am.
we're all pretty tired and feeling surreal from lack of sleep. show is amazing. i always enjoy playing in portugal. people are dancing to the heavy beat of the sister gertrude experience. alot of joy in this room. barry killed it tonite...he may be mvp...but we all did...a great night of playing for everyone. one of our best on this tour yet. people loved it. jorge and maria and johnny are here. so good to see them. looking forward already to march back in portugal with ursula. we finish a bottle of wine as king spins a set...and then off to our hotel. it is 7am. lobby call noon, then off to porto for another show.

aveiru, portugal

Wednesday, December 07, 2005 00:00:00 -700

berlin suite hotel room 505
checked out early...basically stayed up all night...lobby call everyone is here except mark. cabs are loaded with gear. we all load in and there is some confusion if mark is in the other taxi or not. both cabs leave and we thankfully realize mark is not with us. the other cab goes back to the hotel for him. crazy. that would have been a mess. check in is crazy as we are overweight, but basically get everything slid by in ok without incident. we're all exhausted boarding the plane. sleep until lisbon. greeted by our wonderful hosts - the two ana's and antonio from heart and soul. drive to a nice place for seafood lunch and to our surprise, we are in fatima.
after lunch we walk there and see this sacred place.
more driving afterwards at high speeds trying to keep up with antonio. finally arrive at hotel and check in. go to sound check around 7...nothing is ready...mark doesn't have the keyboard he needs, they arrange for a rhodes and hammond to be delivered...i'm left with a marshall 1x12. so k. small pa. very intimate room. at first it looks like it'll be a mess, but after soundcheck realize it will work. show is good. a nice crowd who enjoyed. we had a nice encore jam as well...kinda spacy dub...a dealing heavily with echo on this one...chuck kills it. a nice show. afterwards antonio buys us rounds of port wine to celebrate our first gig in portugal with the sister. we all had too many glasses of port. a fun night. i leave all my cd's behind.
photo: chuck treece + king britt berlin check in

berlin - day of show

Tuesday, December 06, 2005 00:00:00 -700

berlin - suite hotel room 505

show day. game faces are on. our tour manager ruben arrives, as does electric chair booking agent soenke loehse. a beer and catch up with soenke before soundcheck at kapital. upon arrival, the place looks great. i'm greeted by a mesa boogie dual rectifier head and an 4x12 orange cabinet, on this tiny stage. we wait for mark boyce's nord electro to be delivered, so we can't check. the stage sound is loud and horrible. unbelievably, i can't even hear myself, and i'm in front of a 4x12 cabinet. this is never really rectified, part of the problem is the room itself - all cement and brick, no absorption. our only hope is that alot of people come. we're really excited to play after a great show in paris, but tonight is not to be one of those nights. we find out that this show was not promoted, nor was there any press on the record we are here to support. so turnout tonite is unimpressive, along with a terrible roar of a sound, and technical difficulties with live visuals. it made this night quite frustrating for us. many of the folks who listened felt that it was a good show, but we knew the difference. time to load out and back to hotel. a few beers at the hotel bar and to sleep.

berlin - day 3

Tuesday, December 06, 2005 00:00:00 -700

berlin - suite hotel room 505
a nice rest last night...and a long hot bath soaking my on-going aching shoulder. spent a wonderful morning at a local mall, for lunch sampled an incredible bratwurst w/ mustard, found a genesis live bootleg dvd for $7(1973 tour w/ peter gabriel!), and accompanied mark boyce to the national museum where we walked through an awesome pablo picasso exhibit. not a bad day. walked back to hotel and looked at the ruins of a former train station in potsdamer platz blown to bits in WWll. met up with king, barry, and daniel best and went to sonar kollective studios - home of jazzanova. met axel (engineer) there and marvelled over all the beautiful equipment. quite a set up. a 70's georg neumann board!!! insane outboard gear. unfortunately i didn't record it, but barry, axel, and i talked all about the gear and making jazzanova records. he played us a remix of lenny kravitz they are working on and showed us all the cool vintage neumanns and other mics they use. could've been a great piece for tape op magazine...haha. great pianos here too. they have quite a setup in an industrial warehouse. one floor for offices and studio, and one floor for bookings.
claas came in, as did, vocalist clara hill (who me and king did a track for her upcoming record). afterwards, back to this wonderful restaurant again (squash soup, salad, pumpkin ravioli!!!!!, two bottles of merlot)... we had quite the day. then daniel drove us to see some sites in berlin and then to hotel. some fotos for clara's new record, and then packing to leave for portugal in 3 hours.
what a day.

berlin

Sunday, December 04, 2005 00:00:00 -700

berlin suite hotel room 505
we have two legs on this train journey. first a short ride to cologne where i catch up with burnt friedman for the latest news on nine horses and secret rhythms vol. 2. we speak about the potentials of me playing some live shows with he and jaki liebezeit in feb or march. i really hope this can happen. he has forwarded a copy of the new record to my hotel. i can't wait to hear it. his studio is only 3 minutes from the station, but unfortunately our layover is brief, and we are onward to berlin. 5 hours.
we all try to sleep, take photos, listen to ipods, and read. books on this journey: kurt vonnegut, noah chomsky - upon arriving in berlin, we find out our promoter is not picking us up as was planned, but is leaving us to find our own way to the hotel, which we do. it's cold wet and rainy here. our hotel is a nice surprise with each room feeling like a scandanavian apartment.
we settle in await daniel best (jazzanova) to pick us up for dinner. it's a wonderful place, but its name escapes me (pumpkin soup, salad, whitefish w/ chili sauce). after dinner daniel, our multimedia guru, produces a bottle of absynth for all to have a shot of. this mellows the evening considerably and makes you fell warm and fuzzy...then to a reggae nite at daniels club. we're all feeling a bit tired from travelling all day so we head back to hotel for sleep.

brussels belgium

Sunday, December 04, 2005 00:00:00 -700

brussels novotel room 401
we are short two rooms upon arrival, so king graciously buys two more for these weary travellers. the train was a nice scenic ride, and short. it's very cold here, and after checkin we all search for a pub and some lunch. it is found, and leffe blondes, breakfast, and celery soup warm us a bit. back to hotel for relaxation and short sleep.
later that night we all walk to a fine belgium restaurant for seafood and duvels. heaven.
afterwards, we listen to the recordings from paris.
it's good. we're inspired.
tomorrow train to berlin.

paris

Sunday, December 04, 2005 00:00:00 -700

paris trebendo. hotel la tour d'auvergne room 104

a wonderful flight over through a degualle under construction, met by our driver patrick. off to the hotel, this our first day of our tour. we play tonite at trebendo...it's early. check in, deal with 18 pieces of luggage in a tiny lobby, elevator, and hallways. a so-so breakfast then off to trebendo for soundcheck. trebendo is seemingly very difficult to find and to get to. once outside, we find it is gated with security. at one point our driver actually is stuck between two gates - one in front and one immediately behind our van. it is an insane comedy of what it is like sometimes on the road.
check is good, the engineers and crew are on their game. it sounds great in here. biggest worry: the gig has had no support or promotion...hoping folks will come. afterwards off to shopping district where we drop cd's to colette (213 rue saint-honore) an amazing place full of collectible one-offs where we also encounter karl lagerfeld lounging with a photographer. racing through parisian streets back to our hotel off to an amazing french meal at carte blanche (6 rue lamartine) then to show. gig was great, but very lightly attended. king laid into naive, the distributor that didn't do any promotion, or even try to help promoter jonathan miltat with promo materials. steve from music and arts is here, and is blown away...a fine show, and recorded for a live broadcast of two songs on bonnaroo radio.
tomorrow to brussels by train and a day off.
we decide, against better judgement, to go out to seek food and, perhaps, a beer in pigalle (morlon rouge) after show. alls good. we find what we are looking for, and afterwards try to get a taxi back to our hotel, to no avail. finally! we find one, but he will only take 3 of us, not 4. i decide to be the odd man out, and mark boyce joins me. it was cold and we could not find a cab anywhere. we decide to walk towards the direction of our hotel (we think). bad decision. we are know walking down deserted streets except for small cozy places! called hot lips, or something like that. strange guys coming out and asking if we want to get laid...no, we are trying to get to the hotel. crazy. finally, we go back to pigalle, and after a long time get a cab back to our hotel. not really too much fun. sleep now.

sister gertrude morgan exp @ worldcafe

Sunday, November 13, 2005 00:00:00 -700

the last two days were spent mostly at wxpn and world cafe live. sister gertrude morgan experience (live band + live visuals) played for a national noontime broadcast on wxpn, david dye's world cafe interview with king + myself (broadcast date jan 13 2006) as well as the katrina benefit on saturday nite there, at world cafe live.
over 500 folks made it out to this amazing nite for philadelphia. i played with ursula rucker + gintus janusonis (drums), as well as Sister G later that night...from my perspective one of the finest collections of philly musicians on stage with the sister...it was a joy to play the music and even get to let the guitar fly...sister allows me to fly...everyone involved killed it....king britt (many props!!!),,,

whole lotta gig

Sunday, November 06, 2005 00:00:00 -700

this week i've been exhausted and with a nasty cold...unfortunately not much time to rest...the airlines managed to break another suitcase of mine...have to replace it for the next tour...argggh.
things are good though...slept 16 hours last night.
trying to make sense of the tracks for nucultures2.
tomorrow cutting drums with jeremy carlstedt in from new york city, actually brooklyn. weeding through all the tracks from my forever forth-coming solo vocal record...don't hold your breath...but it's being worked on...i played starship for an a+r guy in nyc friday, and he said it was a hit, and i said i know. haha
currently i've 14 songs to smash into one record...probably 8 or so will make it. with left overs for the live show, and next record...or maybe for nucultures...that's the direction anyway...mostly just tired...and i'm tryin to finish the cover for tilomo-soft lunch. no word back from labels...think i'm gonna self-release this one on 1k.
last weekend flew to las vegas for the vegoose festival...along the lines of the bonnaroo....at the stadium...sister gertrude morgan experience (king britt, tim motzer, mark boyce, chuck treece, barry meehan) made the LV debut opening for digable planets...a wonderful day there...our show was well received and just so bangin...looking forward to touring it very much. got to catch flaming lips doing
'do you realize' and 'war pigs'...fantastic, some of arcade fire, a bit of beck, and primus,,,and digable planets were killin it!!!!!!!!!!!!monday played with the miles davis electric project at ortliebs in philly...was recorded...it was also quite smokin!!! tuesday flew to columbus with ursula for a show there at brownstone...next up nov 11 noon day concert with david dye on wxpn, and nov 12 benefit at world cafe 3025 walnut st. philadelphia, live 8-2am ursula, bahamadia, sis g, plus djs....goona be so hot...don't miss it...all proceeds go to a great cause...! see u there...make a difference and show up!!!!
night night.

snow borne

Sunday, November 06, 2005 00:00:00 -700

woke up to a wonderful note from my friend and fellow producer enrico mariani from reggio emilia, italy:

Ciao caro amico

This just to say that “snow born sorrow” is a truly rare wonderful record. A small jewel to be listened during a winter afternoon.
I’ve in mind especially track 4 “atom and cell”.
“The day the earth stole heaven” is very bluesy and jazzy, so full of color than the last David solo album! I love it.

Sometimes the world seems so grey, so you take your car and drive through the city, enter in a record shop and buy a record like this, and the air change taste listening to it....

You’ve done a good work with a great artist.

Grazie e.

elliot levin b-day bash

Saturday, October 29, 2005 00:00:00 -700

i was invited earlier this week to participate in an improv group of gravy, tony catastrophe, t spiker,
and myself...playing to film clips..as part of opening for elliot levin's group with sun ra arkestra members
marshall allen and tyrone hill, ed watkins and others.
an amazing nite. two incredible sets from each band.
the final set comprised of both ensembles and additional wind players, something like 5 horns,
guitar, electric bass, upright bass, drum kit, and percussion. it was an amazing moment that i'll never forget. sitting playing a funk from my guitar chair and watching marshall allen and crew weave their magical music. to me, this was a moment in life suspended. in london, a show like this would have been sold out with lines waiting outside. in philly, 40 or less lucky souls smiled, bobbed, and danced in ecstacy.

back in philly

Sunday, October 16, 2005 00:00:00 -700

it's been an amazing 3 weeks in australia and new zealand touring with ursula rucker + drummer gintas janusonis...and finally recovering after a week. lots going on still, the sister gertrude album is doing well and was the most added album to college radio last week evidently. the npr piece that was done also got out around the world. while i was in perth some one told me they heard the piece on the bbc. this is good. tomorrow king and i will be on radiotimes for
a live hour broadcast discussing the making of the record and sister gertrude.
yesterday, upon returning from a bike ride, i saw a 3inch praying mantis walking across our blacktop parking lot. i couldn't believe it. i rolled my bike up to
him and asked him what he was doing. he climbed up my front tire, as i rolled it back toward me, i out stretched my arm. he climbed up, and i rode
back to my backyard. he walked behind my head and down my left arm. i then placed him in a bamboo tree, in the high branches. he seemed to like that.

helsinki gets god's word

Monday, August 22, 2005 00:00:00 -700

flow festival helsinki finland
the world premiere of king britt presents sister gertrude morgan
flew thurs on lufthansa to frankfurt and from there to helsinki, finland. completely burnt. no sleep (as usual)...upon arrival to hotel...some initial trouble with room availability but eventually sorts itself out...then on to soundcheck (a coke is keeping me propped up)...alls well...off to dinner...and a brief 2 hour nap...up and to the show...we go on after a great soulset from omar (it was good to finally meet him, as i was scheduled to play guitar with him last year...and the tour fell through...i found the reason why) our set was really well received, especially that no one has heard the record yet...they were a wonderful audience very open and listening...they freaked out esp. on 'god's word' and 'healed by the wounds'...and we were called back for an encore...a philly funk jam...the band was banging...chuck treece/drums, barry meehan/bass, mark boyce/keys,
king britt/turntables, efx, + yours truly on guitar. josh
on visuals - heavy + highly effective...
day two.
after a wonderful sleep, a nice walk about helsinki-incredible lunch, then off to m-bar beer garden for a rest (nearby an amazing exhibit of photographs on kiosks by yann arthus-bertrand-profiling our world in ariel photography-incredible! check him out at www.yannarthusbertrand.com) onward to a record convention at the venue...great stuff over here! ...thai for dinner + rest...fueled by chimays, later checked mark murphy with 5 corners...it was like a rock concert but jazz was being played...people were going crazy for this music. fantastic. mark lives in scranton, pa... a wonderful time in helsinki we loved it there. would love to go back someday. flight was jam packed from frankfurt to philly, pretty uncomfortable. 560mph @ 35000ft for 7.5 hours....ouch......
other news:
a great review in esquire magazine this month on the sister gertrude record...put us in there with some heavyweights (ie: herbie hancock, sheryl crow, etc...)...check out the ropeadope site for more info. www.ropeadope.com
you can also check out the story on the making of the record in this months (sept05) REMIX magazine...a nice article, the gear we used, and the famous security guard photos taken at the fleishman gallery in philly.
(((oo)))

gigs

Tuesday, August 02, 2005 00:00:00 -700

weather's a bit of a heatwave again...hoping for a bit of relief this weekend...have played some really nice gigs the last few weeks...a tribute to miles electric period with trumpeter john swana...he's amazing...and a jewel in this city to be sure...he's mostly in the bop + hard bop jazz area, but really great with the evi and effects as well...check him on the philadelphia experiment (ropeadope) and his own releases on criss-cross jazz...it was interesting laying some on the corner and in a silent way at ortliebs jazzhaus, where usually the jazzmusic stops somewheres around 1966 or so....flew to toronto with ursula for a festival at the harbour front center...a beautiful outdoor pavillion on lake ontario...a wonderful show...we debuted 3 new tracks from her forthcoming album...last night in nyc with king britt at cielo for francois kevorkians' deep space...i played guitar synth and effects along to kings mixes...it was a great night...packed...people loved it...we should do more of these...it really worked and blended well....drove home to philly at 440am....exhausted...630am head to pillow. up at 9am to play choreographer sean feldman master class...still exhausted.

071005 tritone

Monday, July 11, 2005 00:00:00 -700

it's been awhile since i've played the tritone, but decided to bring in a new quartet 'organism' for a show which we shared with a solo ellie perez and animus. the nite was stellar. animus opened and brought their mediteranian funk, followed by an aired out ellie perez debut of 4 new songs, just acoustic guitar and voice. she had the audience captivated.
wonderful set. her voice grabbed everyones ear.
my ipod also debuted many new and underground songs from david sylvian, king britt, curtis mayfield, fuzzbase, and sister gertrude morgan...to name a few....around midnite, organism hit the stage
(barry meehan-bass, gloria justen-electric violin,
tim motzer-guitar synth, and tony catastrophe-drumkit) from this players perspective, one of the single best gigs i've ever played. superlative. the audience was supportive and with us seemingly every step of the way. had quite an enthusiastic community of dancers as well which added to our energy on stage. 2 outrageous sets, graced by elliot levins' poetry and saxophone at the final 10 minutes before a 2am encore. superlative. i was totally mesmerized by the godin multiac steel/midi guitar i was playing all night. i was able to travel anywhere.
barry meehan moved to the next level on the muff-bass, and the rapport i felt with tony catastrophe's drumming was simply stunning. nuff said. i'm praying the recordings support my inner perspective on this amazing nite. these kind of nights are very rare. it was superb that so many wonderful folks were there to share it. blessings.

other wonderful news.

finishing the artwork and limited edition covers for
the tilomo-soft lunch project. will be 100 limited edition pieces of this ambient glitch laptop guitar set.
i'm blessed to be able to work with thomas schmid of eneone.com to complete these artworks.
be one of the lucky ones, if you can. email me.

david sylvian. burnt friedman. steve jansen record:
i'll be playing on 4 tracks on the upcoming david sylvian record 'snow borne sorrow' coming out in september...sure to be an incredible record, collaborating with burnt friedman, and steve jansen...as well as support from ryuichi sakamoto.
can't wait to hear it. it's being mastered this week in london. peace until next time. ((("))) tilomo

philly-nyc

Monday, June 27, 2005 00:00:00 -700

they are building the towers and stage in front of the art museum this week, readying for the live8 event...they expect somewhere in the ballpark of a million plus people...should be insane in these parts. meanwhile, been working with anthony tidd @ the studio mixing two tracks for ursula's new album...sounds fantastic...we had a sneak peak at all the tracks last night...mmm...gonna be a groundbreaking record...track finished for kinkysweet record as well...king britt mixed it...will prob be remixes as well...i have loads of traxx of guitars on there, vocals, and an ellie perez mantra...this week cutting a new track for burnt friedman-jaki liebizeit record secret rhythms vol. 2....and a guitar overdub on a track for vik duplaix...friday played the aids awareness benefit at the artmuseum w/ ursula rucker and saturday my power trio spoonful played chuckfest...a benefit for chuck d. it was a wonderful day...great to see chuck. he's doing great...blessings.

philly-nyc 061505

Thursday, June 16, 2005 00:00:00 -700

it's been a whirlwind for the last several weeks
of mostly recording...lots of sessions...had a blast
in ny last week w/ king britt...went to this amazing record shop 'other music'. it's near nyu around the corner from the tower records there. amazing vinyl and cd's there...stuff you won't see anywhere else.
after that great food and a wind up at kraftwerk at the hamerstein ballroom....unbelievable show...later we went to the afterparty at hiro ballroom...martin gore from depeche mode was spinning...crzy in there...the kraftwerk guys were there as well...plus lots o' label honchos and the usual surreal madness that accompanies these events. haha...it seemed like a movie set...the following friday played an amazing gig at Joes Pub in nyc w/ ursula rucker....just an amzing venue...the best sound+lights of any clubs i've played in nyc...we had a blast there...since then finished tracks for ursula's new album-set to mix this week. working with king britt on a remix of roy ayers...and a new scuba track that features ellie perez for the kinkysweet mix cd coming out soon...upcoming: chuck d's benefit next week saturday june 25 - 2pm-12am brewery on american st. philly...i'll be rockin w/ spoonful 4:30-5:15pm....come out and party and help chuck out...please....another benefit on the art museum steps friday june 24 w/ ursula rucker....wonderful news today from cologne, germany...some of my guitar contributions will be on the new david sylvian album...including a track called 'the day the earth stole heaven'...i believe with the release date in September....I haven't heard any of his mixes yet...but hopefully soon....don't forget to pickup the Burnt Friedman-Jaki Liebezeit vinyl 'out in the sticks' on non place at your local hip music retailer.......i'll see y'all at robert plant on wed at tower theatre............................................(--)

052805

Monday, June 06, 2005 00:00:00 -700

session today was crazy...as Ursula showed up with
her 4 boys ages 10yrs-3months...a major storm was just about to whip threw philly...haha...it was insane here, but the session proved to be magical. Ursula and Sonja both loved the music, and amazingly, their poetry fit in the track like it was supposed to -
ready made. always blows me away, when things work out like that. will be doing backing vocals soon, probably just on ursula's section and a bit at the end.

takamine (us/japan) + godin guitars (montreal) have recently helped me out tremendously with new instruments: a takamine ef341sc and godin multiac steel w/ midi. i'm using these with ursula rucker on tour, and in the studio...thanks to kristin at takamine and mario at godin for these amazing instruments!

052705

Monday, June 06, 2005 00:00:00 -700

mostly studio stuff goin on...cut tracks for
V2 single for King Britt featuring Ivana Santilli on
vocals...working away in nautica on the intro to Ursula Rucker's next album ma at, mama. she's had no time to come by to hear it, so tomorrow we are cutting vocals with Sonja Sanchez and Ursula...it's a beautiful track with lots of guitar layers, live drums,
glitch piano. i want to add a layer of backing vocals as well...fingers crossed that she likes it.

nautica

Saturday, May 07, 2005 00:00:00 -700

it's been a busy few weeks...lots of studio stuff going on...finished tracking for the new secret noises ep...collaborating again with enrico marani from regio emilia, italy (2blue, duoZero, Secret Voices)
for release later this year...loosely aimed at the clubs...featuring ellie perez on two tracks...i've sent along lots of abrasive guitar and noise...just feeling that way lately.....hahaha....also, been tracking with ursula rucker...a new song...'for women'...for her new album on k7 + played guitar on an anthony tidd track as well along side my old buddy james poyser...gonna be an amazing track...tried out my new godin multiac guitar on that...kinda fun groovin in 9/8...haha...

did a couple gigs with ursula at columbia university, and at fletchers baltimore...a good weekend...crzy in new york...when we arrived at our hotel it had been oversold by one room...so i had to negotiate with getting another room in another hotel 25 blocks away...it all worked out...it's amazing...one room $330 for a night...but there you go...a really nice gig in baltimore over top a biker bar...haha...baltimore is funky funky...some great people there...james from fertile ground, and hosted by olu butterfly.

been checkin lots of live music: saw prefuse 73 @ unitarian church, the weeds @ tin angel, james blood ulmer with jamaaladeen tacuma and autechre at the troc....lot o great diverse music here in philly if you seek it out...did a gallery performance with superviolinist gloria justen and daniele strawmier friday nite. really fun improvisation...guitarsynth+violin...and dance.

lastly, the burnt friedman+jaki liebezeit (can) record featuring david sylvian is coming out in about a week(may17)...called 'out in the sticks'...i finally heard my copy...it's a beautiful record w/ dense layers...and an incredible david sylvian track on there...it's a real pleasure and honour to be a part of this wonderful album and work with such stellar players. check it out soon...a vinyl only release...distributed to US through forced exposure...
ask for it!!!

spoonful rocks cincy

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 00:00:00 -700

really fun weekend in cincinnati,ohio...the new power trio spoonful made up of barry meehan(bs.voc), marc scafidi (kit) and myself (guit,voc) rocked the river city quite hard on friday and saturday nites...nice to be back there too...our old stomping grounds back in the day...we had a blast at mikes music acquiring some vintage gear, and my favorite record store 'shake-it' on hamilton ave...we grabbed alot of great vinyl out of that store...check it out...citybeat had a nice feature on us which helped tremendously. lots of friends and fam came out as well...fantastik...and bassist bad bob nyswonger (the bears, psychodots, raisins) came out with his wife and friends and stayed for 3 rockin sets...we freaked him out with our version of king crimson's 'the great deceiver'. he said "i never heard any band cover that song!!" haha
made us feel good let me tell you...great to re-connect...lots o fun...look for more spoonful dates this summer...we're gonna try to get around a bit...

nikka costa

Saturday, April 02, 2005 00:00:00 -700

worked with king on a new remix for nikka costa(sp?) last night...the original track reminds me of lenny kravitz...very rock...but we went funkadelic/jamesbrown direction...i added 2 tracks of skank guitar...chuck treece on the bass, junius bervine-keys and king on perpetual rocking beats!!!! gonna be another crzy classic...

my takamine guitar is in the shop in a bad way currently. trying to see if takamine will help me out
to get a new guitar this month...the ef325 has served me well...been all around the world japan-russia, london-montreal, stateside, planes trains and autovehicles...so hoping this can work out...it was my main axe!!!!!!! here's to good guitar karma...

philly art museum

Saturday, April 02, 2005 00:00:00 -700

yesterday and last night i took part in the massive
undertaking of the arts in motion Dali extravaganza...featuring dance, visuals, live classical and experimental electronic music...it was a great success with much work from everyone. we
(tm + gloria justen) had a world premiere of a new 33min composition set to visuals by ricardo rivera (klip) and daniele strawmyer choregrapher...it went quite well our first live performance of it in the great hall of the philadelphia art museum. a nice turnout and a receptive crowd. we hope to perform this piece again this year...stay tuned.

the hut, philly

Thursday, March 17, 2005 00:00:00 -700

at king britt's studio for the last two days...cutting guitars for the "what are you afraid of" remix for the band 'west indian girl' from california for astralwerks. the band is named after a high powered strain of LSD from the sixties...so there music is like you might expect trippy but beautiful. our remix of 'what are you afraid of' is even more trippy, experimental, and heavy at the
same time. it's gonna be a hot remix!!! final mix in a week or so. re-mastered two tracks off of sister gertrude...they came out so much better this time around. so that album is finished and sent off to ropeadope....also, working on the 'dali projeckt' which i am composing music along with violinist gloria justen. we're working with video artist ricardo riveria (klip collective, W hotels) and dancer/choreographer danielle strawmier as well...gonna be amazing, and of course very trippy. show is friday april 1st at the philadelphia art museum.

masterwork

Thursday, March 10, 2005 00:00:00 -700

it's a crazy time. images of michael jackson in pajamas showing up for court late, iraq's continued crisis, saudi threats by us, bush ok'ing to pump oil out of alaskan wildlife refuge,...it goes on and on...and it's all just insanity. well, here in my small world in philly, the music goes on. yesterday we finished up the sister gertrude morgan album - king britt + i with mastering guru pete humphreys...amazing day that left me drained.

glad we can be putting together some music with sister gertrudes messages aimed at the world. our world needs to hear her. i think these original songs were recorded in mid 60's...and reached a very limited audience then...and even with the release of the original voice and tamborine songs - a very small market...but with this new re-interpretation release a chance for her voice to find a much wider audience to resonate and fill with hope. this beautiful important soon to be a classic record will be released in may 2005 on ropeadope records. and we hope it can do it's own little part to bring some light into the world, all from a voice that created a ripple in new orleans in the 60's. and this ripple still hasn't stopped because of the preservation hall jazz society, andy from ropeadope's belief, and king britts'+ my musical vision to lend to her voice.

this record also includes a song 'lets make a record' written by me and my longtime musical cohort+bassist barry meehan. i'm really happy
that barry could be a part of this amazing project with us!

(((oo)))

the black cat, washington d.c.

Saturday, February 19, 2005 00:00:00 -700

ursula rucker and julie dexter

last night we travelled to washington d.c. for a show
with julie dexter (uk)...a cool show at the black cat.
it was also being filmed for a documentary (more on that later) so we were surrounded by cameras during our entire performance...guys crawling around the stage, to our sides and behind...haha....luckily, our
show was a good one...highlights: This ( this song has evolved musically over the last 2 years to its present heavy version. last night was the one!)
what a woman must do, untitled flow....a good set.
people were really nice...said they loved our music etc...we evidently made our mark last night.
julies show was nice...and back in the van for
4 hours home...an extremely uncomfortable ride in the back seat...no room to stretch...ahaha....in the door at 5am, then to bed. exhausted.

feb09 the hut, philly

Friday, February 11, 2005 00:00:00 -700

just finished recording with king britt the final tracks for the upcoming sister gertrude morgan re-interpretation coming out on ropeadope...9 tracks that will get you shouting hallelejah!!!! ...with king britt, g. love on harp...lots of swampguitar blues grunge bouncing psychodelic hiphop spirituals w/ afrobeat workouts, and more...a louisiana/philly stew...i had a few of my old dusty vintage guitars out for these recordings...on one track 'gods word' i was feeding my danelectro thru an mxr distortion+ into a dod preamp pedal into a pod then into an avalon preamp...unbelievable tone and distortion...and the guitar would takeoff and feedback on it's own...at the completion of the tracking...the high gain was pulling in a radiostation from north carolina....i told king you better record this just in case...after that an organ solo came through...and can you imagine? it was in the key of the song!!!! amazing sessions...amazing special record....the record should be out this summer...and tour dates should be happening as well...more to come. king is going to nawleens next week to gather fieldrecordings for the record....

i've also just completed a remix for italian electro group Duozero...that 12" will be out in Europe in March...
tilomo remix - september - duozero

been continuing on my solo album, with nyc drummer jeremy carlstedt tracking this past sunday...it's coming along...slowly but surely. this friday in dc, catch ursula rucker + me rocking the audience as opener for julie dexter...gonnna be hot!
the black cat, washington, d.c.

music madness continues...

jan28 brooklyn academy of music

Saturday, January 29, 2005 00:00:00 -700

marriot brooklyn rm711 ursula rucker @ BAM
a travel day to nyc for our show tomorrow as we have a 9am soundcheck...head out to 55bar where my pal ari hoenig is playing with bassist victor bailey
and wayne krantz...an enjoyable extrapolated funk stomp...great to see ari+victor....3am back to marriott.
early rise@7am...super coldday...brrrrr. soundcheck is plagued with problems from union soundcrew confused about patching my samplers up...finally success...but only a brief but ample amount of time for ursula, doc gibbs and me to run some things down....a union stage means there a lots of 15 minute coffee breaks and we have to clear the stage...strange....anyway rest of the day was spent at k7 raiding the vinyl collection, on to lunch at elmo, then took the f train to 63rd+lexington and caught arakidocumentari at theimaginasian theatre. interesting look at japans' most controversial art photographer...a very inspiring film...f train back to brooklyn...dinner...then to our soldout show...tonight we are playing with poet sonia sanchez and guitarist vernon reid (living colour, masque)...
as does happen sometimes when we do multi-artist theatre shows, my gear is unplugged and pulled off stage, meaning that later we'll have to repatch everything, reload programs, and hope all will work...seemingly at the beginning of our show i thought it was, but as we went forward i realized my guitar sound was not full, kinda frazzy, so while we played our set i was trouble shooting trying to figure out the problem...during 'untitled flow' it actually started cutting out...really disturbing...which left me no choice but to kik various pedals and cables trying to find the issue...i finally found the source of the problem on our last song...but we all
kicked it out with all we had anyway...it still came off...audience went crazy...they loved 'what a woman must do'....the bam is a beautiful place to perform....off stage greeted with unexpected wonderful hugs from sonia sanchez and vernon reid...wonderful people and their set was beautiful as well....an amazing night here even with the equipment problems.... (((**)))

photo: tim motzer, vernon reid, doc gibbs

studio jan 18, 2005

Thursday, January 20, 2005 00:00:00 -700

hello all...sessions continuing....just finished a remix
for italian electro group duozero....ala tilomo....a phillyafrobeatbushdeephouse of guitarghosts inspired romp with french female vocals soon to be in a club near you....world premiere spin @ cielo nyc jan31st king britt + francois k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
been hashin + thrashin it out with king britt on latest collaboration for ropeadope records, a re-interpretation album of sister gertrude morgan check her story + paintings out via google...we're doing 10 tracks for this release, me amongst a multitude of slide guitars, distortion boxes, blown up amps plus a special appearance on electric harp from G Love....swamp grooves drums keys and samples from king.......gonna be insane...a divine project....talk of tour dates on the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lastly, the italy/philly/lisbon collaboration continues with enrico marani and myself collectively known as secret voices featuring guest artists; elliot levin (poems+saxphones), rich medina (poem), ursula rucker (poem), kalaf from lisbon, portugal (poem), adriano from italy (poem+viola), myself (guitars+sonicmayhem), barry meehan (bass), gloria justen (violins) and enrico (electronix)....we're excited for this amazing project...looking for final mixes at end of february 2005...shopping labels for world distribution...any inquires, hit me at: timusic@bellatlantic.net
that's all for now...see you soon....for ursula heads,
catch us this friday in brooklyn at the brooklyn academy of music...also vernon reid and sonia sanchez will be perfoming together!!!!!...the BAM festival.....cheers!!!!

a day in new york

Friday, December 17, 2004 00:00:00 -700

a wonderful crisp blue sky new york day....up in nyc
to hear some world premiere spins of new remixes
that i've recently completed with king britt at cielo...
but early on...checked out the 'new' MOMA...very
inpiring...amazing architecture...enjoying being in
nyc again...it's been awhile...saw a strolling vincent
gallo on 5th avenue...checked out the amazing iranian vocalist sussan deyhim...incredible night with will calhoun(drums)...later to 55bar w/wayne krantz....met pat metheny group drummer antonio sanchez there....it was drummers nite there as anton fig, jojomayer,steve from manhattan transfer, and others were there...only in nyc!!! then on to cielo...and home by 5:30am...tonite the MOOG movie at rotunda....then back to the studio.

studio sessions

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 00:00:00 -700

typing away in my new update area by phil gracie of
triagency...been continuing to be busy with new
songs and remixes...collab with ellie perez, king
britt, and myself has produced the beautiful 'la vida'
ellie sings in spanish on this one...she being
cuban...what a vibe...soon to be released...also,
yesterday finished the chic remix of warm summer
night....beautiful...nile rodgers and company with
chuck treece on 'the history of dance' bass, me on
spanish guitar, and king britt manning the beats and
mix....!!!!!!!!!!

in the studio

Wednesday, December 01, 2004 00:00:00 -700

the weather has been amazingly warm and nice for this late into november...out on the bike everyday...but today it's extremely windy and it rained all night...which freaks me out...thankfully no water in the studio this time but water in on the second floor...damn....called the roofguy again!....meanwhile, been recording lots and lots...new songs with ellie perez 'run4cover', and a collab w/ king britt as well ' la vida' which is extremely beautiful...ellie sounds amazing...continuing on tracks for my album....and starting tracks for the forthcoming 'sister gertrude' remix album w/ king britt for ropeadope...finished tracking for a collaboration with italian producer enrico mariana (2blue, duozero) bringing together a surprising collective of poets, musicians and artists from around the world...more news on this soon...as the audio files go flying around the globe in the post!!!!!gonna be the bomb....oh, a disaster!, my PC crashed this week - the hard drive was corrupted...it's wild when this happens...cause it's like losing a big chunk of your memory...lately i feel like i need to defrag my own mind as well...hopefully it'll all sort itself out...cheers!

viseu, portugal

Wednesday, November 17, 2004 00:00:00 -700

after leaving moscow we have two flights. first into zurich then on to lisbon...this of course always concerns me when it is not a direct flight. i'm perpetually worried about the gear making it to the next city....the flights were fine and i passed out for the journey...once in lisbon, i found that my flight case did not make it in...and, in my tired state of mind i lost it...i was very upset, thinking that it was still in moscow....our show was in 6 hours and we had a 3.5 hour van ride to the theatre...the person at baggage claim was very nice and helped me find the bag was in zurich and would be here in 90 minutes...so we had a glorious lunch outside by the waterside in the warm bright sun of lisbon...later we picked up my case - all intact...the road will make you sweat, let me tell you.

so the journey begins...we end up finally in viseu...

i go directly to the theatre to set up...we soundcheck...then back to hotel for a 5 minute shower and change...the show is ok...for me it was terrible (better than how i felt inside)...aside from not sleeping in a bed for 48 hours, the production really annoyed me...really bothering the vibe...mix wasn't happening in my monitors throughout so that made it a struggle for me and the lighting consisted of bright white landing lights and spots....no colouration that i can recall...always bright...so no vibe on stage really....but, we made it thru the show...but i wasn't too happy with my playing that night....not a great way to end this short tour...but 3 out of 4 to me were really great fun with london being our best....tomorrow we travel back to lisbon in evening then depart back to philly in the am.....as always, jorge and crew here in portugal are absolutely wonderful...they continue to make our stays our home away from home...now time to sleep in a bed.

moscow, russia

Thursday, November 11, 2004 00:00:00 -700

moskow state gogol's theatre

today rest late as our time zones are upside down by now....then off to red square...just an amazing moment to stand there by the kremlin and look across....so much history...kinda breath-taking..never thought i'd ever be here...but there you go, life is an amazing journey...you never know where you'll go.....

gig worries: the promoter has let me know that he can't find the akai mpc2000xl drum machine that i need for tonites show...but has some other beat machines, so i will have to do some programming at soundcheck...but everything works out eventually, even the power transformers, that almost didn't happen...it was a funky show with live visuals. the crew there loved it and participated by clapping along and dancing...the vibe was wonderful...show ended and we left the theatre at 3:30am....back to hotel to check out and on to moscow airport to fly to portugal....first to zurich and then into lisbon where jorge janela will be awaiting our arrival in about 7 hours....sleep only in the plane.

thanks to konstantin for the amazing fotos from our performance in moscow!!!

moscow, russia

Thursday, November 11, 2004 00:00:00 -700

ukrainia hotel north tower rm 9627

nice flight in to moscow airport...and an uncomfortable wait around there while our promoter was busy stuck in the ridiculous (at times) moscow traffic...eventually, we piled all of our luggage and gear into a small van and headed on to our hotel...built in Stalin's time...a massive 850 room skyscraper...with around 1500 hotel guests...this place was like a small city, complete with a sizeable group of prostitutes at the hotel bar available for your every want and need. it was a trip. it seemed like the content of radio and tv here was still fixed in the 1980's as Whitesnake was still big here...same with tv programation...after settling in we went for a late dinner and then back to the hotel for more sleep....tomorrow showtime 12 midnight...

watch tv here in horror as GWB wins the US election...quite bizarre watching this from russia...
this is big news everywhere we go.. and no one seems too excited by the re-election results...

london, UK

Thursday, November 11, 2004 00:00:00 -700

jazzcafe
a late flight out from brussels airport to heathrow...
heavy traffic makes us late for soundcheck...then
a tasty meal at our favorite spot - wagamama's...
tonites show was one of those magical moments
of performing where everything is quite blissful.
almost like the music played itself and to such an
enthusiastic vocal audience...it just made you play
even better...andy hamill (4Hero) joined us on upright bass for '4 minutes of fun' along with julian
ferraretto on violin...this night was perhaps one of the best shows that ursula and i have ever performed....an aftershow meltdown with andy, julian, and friends at an ex-vicarage with red wine, water, and fresh dates....tomorrow off to russia...

brussels belgium

Thursday, November 11, 2004 00:00:00 -700

mercure royal crown rm. 310
back to a hotel in brussels that we always stay when we are here...located near the center...our time here
is to rest before going on to london for a show at the jazzcafe.
downtime included seeing concerts by lonnie liston smith and bebel gilberto...some great restaurants and of course the wonderful belgian ales....
mostly still jetlagged. it's cold here...so alot of sleep
is in order.

brugge belgium

Thursday, November 11, 2004 00:00:00 -700

concertgebeow brugge
tonites show was in a beautiful new concert multiplex with several theatres where the 'music
in mind - a festival of imaginative music' was being held. this festival featured an evening of bands from denmark (most notably: under byen) a cinematic band that was reminiscent of mum and bjork, nitin sawhney, xploding plastic, and a tribute to nick drake amoung countless acts...our show was quite nice...very relaxed to a seated audience...a successful evening...and enough time to see some other music.
brugge is quiet an amazing city and we spent a good part of a morning exporing it's streets and shops....next stop on to brussels for some days off.

silkcity

Saturday, October 09, 2004 00:00:00 -700

krass bros. live at silk city....last night was a loud
noise from us...shrapnel and shards of octavia drenched guitars, jacked out wah pedal, feedback
blooze,funk, blownout b-3s, enough bottom end to shake your brainloose...and all with an unrelenting rapturous drum assault...40 minutes later it was over...we found a place in all this high volume energy and we rode it...a few clams...but mostly success for those who could stand the intensity and roar of the great noise it was...personally, this was an area of sonic experimentation for me deploying various treatments of fuzz, octavia, boosters, and amp feedback....a rare place for me to be...but a whole other world...the drawbacks: severe ringing in my ears...a hangover from the loudness...for the audience: they got what they wanted. they revelled in their drunken excitement stumbling around the dance floor...the life of a musician continues...

wednesday october 6

Wednesday, October 06, 2004 00:00:00 -700

late last night finished yet another remix collab with king britt...this time a remix of everything but the girl and the classic rollercoaster...it received quite a makeover...a bit darker...lots of synths, cocteau-esque guitars, and the scuba beats!....another highlight: king asked me to sing some backing vocals as a sort of bed for the guitar solo...and i must say it turned out quite nicely...not a bad day when you get to share vocal duties with tracey thorne!!!! an honour.

tuesday october 5, 2004

Tuesday, October 05, 2004 00:00:00 -700

king britt's five-six sampler is out today...look for the
brown cover that says ' this is what radio should sound like'....it features exclusive new songs from Tim Motzer
-littlestarship, and Ellie Perez- in so many ways...and so many great tracks by SYLK130, Scuba, Jody Watley, Michelle Shaprow, Spacek, DJ Dozia, Capitol A, and many others...go out and pick it up...it's at a nice price and so much great music...check it at tower, virgin, borders, and your favorite indie record store!!!!!

check under electronic compilations or king britt.

SKYBOAT philly september 24

Friday, September 24, 2004 00:00:00 -700

SKYBOAT w/ Byard Lancaster
last night the Tritone's feeble PA system got in the
way of what could of been a stellar evening...as it was...it resembled more an unstable atom...musical chaos at times coming together for moments of beauty and then collapsing again. this is not necessarily a bad thing...not what one would have wanted, but what a frustratingly peculiar feeling battling an antequated soundsystem and trying to enjoy a performance with such luminaries of this philly improv/electronic/jazz scene as john shenk, mark boyce, barry meehan, byard lancaster, harold smith, elliot levin, j davidson,...et al....
right people, wrong location, wrong PA....after playing on so many wonderful soundsystems around the planet, it pains me to no end how clubowners presenting music still don't get it...
hey guys! get a new system. great for business, the audience. and the performers....my rant ended. that's how we felt on stage...might not have been as bad as that......cause the energy itself was good.....
anyway, a festival of noise and some beauty...thanks for coming out...thanks to craig for recording, and to daniella for film+fotogs....

philly september 18

Sunday, September 19, 2004 00:00:00 -700

it's been busy the last few weeks working the studio and feeling the summer turn to fall...an interesting show with ursula rucker in pittsburgh at the shadow lounge....great people there...mostly....some craziness happened, but all is good...stayed at dr. smalls...an amazing venue owned by members of rusted root....pburg an interesting city...unfortunately didn't get to go to the warhol museum but will next time......sessions: most recently tracked guitars on more remixes with king britt...
the ojays-for the love of money...so hot...and the first remix of all time for philadelphia international records...home of gamble and huff...look for this!!!!
also...some spanish flavoured guitar for the plantlife
scuba remix...gotta check this...the fringe fest held my attention all week...an amazing gathering of artists and an impromptu performance friday night with dancer danielle strawmyer....an improvisation
for guitar/loops + dance on the notion of dreams...it came off quite well...i enjoyed this kind of collaboration....you get to a different kind of music as a result....lastly, a major gathering of wonderful musicians to honour the spirit of john coltrane coming up this thursday september 23rd at the Tritone in Philadelphia.....9pm....byard lancaster +
skyboat (elliot levin, tim motzer, barry meehan, mark boyce, john shenk)+byard lancaster with robert kenyatta, harold smith, elliot levin...both groups will play together 3rd set....can't wait!

Seattle Bumbershoot

Tuesday, September 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

sheraton towers room 523
nice flight in...no troubles...all gear arrives intact.
as we arrive at the hotel, it is teaming with fbi, secret service and police...the president of uganda is staying here...along with all the bumbershoot artist which makes for quite an interesting crew of folks...pretty entertaining seeing a lobby packed with ugandan people and watching flavor flav with his clock scoping out the scene...haha...this past weekends 4 day musicfestival in seattle,
bumbershoot, was a beautiful time...incredible weather...great music,food, art, photog, word, etc...you name it...it was all here...our set at the northwest stage saturday night was great with so many appreciative folks....highlights: ursula and i rocked untitled flow, this, release, and what a woman must do..... a flock of seagulls (literally) join me on my solo on release...synchronicity....several people told me we were sharing the same notes...
how cool is that?...but then again, maybe u had to be there.
sunday i took some time to explore the jimi hendrix museum (emp) and catch public enemy's global conscious presentation..."we are not only united states citizens, we are citizens of the world...not 3 worlds, not 2 worlds, we are one world...." chuck d inspired a stadium filled for hiphop to get out and vote but not for george w. bush...

sounds page
new: i'll occasionally be putting up video clips from tours or performances,,,various rare bits as well as music clips and rare tracks from the archives...so be sure to check in from time to time...

for a limited time, check out some unfinished promo footage from the fractal ark's last performance at silk city in philadelphia....more soon.

photo: jimi's 1983 lyric

2003-04 past tourdates

Thursday, August 19, 2004 00:00:00 -700

here's a smattering of places around the globe where we've performed in the last year and a half.........i'm hearing now there's more action in the works for fall, so stay tuned for more news in the update section of this site.

2003 URSULA RUCKER + TIM MOTZER ON TOUR
02.21 Montreal @ La Salla Rosa
02.22 Burlington, VT @ Metronome
02.28 Venice, ITALY @ Marina Club
03.02 Paris, FRANCE @ La Scene
03.04 Stockholm, SWEDEN @ Soder Teatern
03.05 Gothenberg, SWEDEN @ Neffertti
03.07 Oporto, PORTUGAL @ the Hard Club
03.08 Lisbon. PORTUGAL @ San Luiz municipal
03.15 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar
03.22 Philadelphia, PA @ Transit
03.20 NYC @ SOB's
04.04 Philadelphia @ Freedom Theatre
04.18 Philadelpia @ Tritone w/ vicky miles
05.04 Washington, DC @ the Black Cat
06.13 Hultsfred Festival, SWEDEN w/ massive attack, etc...
06.14 Rotterdam, NETHERLANDS @ Luxor
06.15 Rimini, ITALY @ Cocorico/MorphineRoom
06.16 Modena, ITALY @ Caffe Concerto
06.20 Rome, ITALY @ Herzz Summer Stage Villa Ada with Dego of 4HERO
06.21 Catania, SICILY @ Mercati Generali
06.24 Naples, ITALY @ Lo Squardo di Ulisse Festival
07.12 Cincinnati, OH @ festival for change
09.18 Barcelona, SPAIN @ BAM festival w/ mad professor and lee 'scratch' perry
09.19 Brussels, BELGIUM @ Les tuits festival w/ alex kidd
10.08 London - JazzCafe
10.18 Philadelphia - poetry + music workshop
10.18 Philadelphia Painted Bride - theatreshow
11.05 Washington DC @ the Black Cat
11.07 San Francisco - Studio Z (www.studioz.tv)
11.08 Los Angeles - Temple Bar w/ Saul Williams
11.14.Graz, AUSTRIA @ BBC
11.15.Mannheim, GER @ Enjoy Jazz Festival w/ marc mac of 4 HERO
11.16.Stuttgart, GER @ Manufactur
11.17. Hamburg, GER @ Fabrik
11.18.Berlin, GER @ Quasimodo
11.19.Cologne, GER @ Stadtgarten
11.20.Liege, BELGIUM @ Soundstation
11.21.Brugge, BELGIUM @ Cactusclub
11.22.Frankfurt, GER @ Nordisk Club
11.24.Munich, GER @ Atomic Cafe
11.26.Lisbon, PORTUGAL @ Lux
11.27.Lisbon, PORTUGAL @ Lux
11.28.Rome, ITALY @ La Palma
11.29.Reggio Emilia, ITALY @ Maffia Club
12.05. Transmusicales Festival, Rennes,FRANCE
12.06. Oporto, PORTUGAL @Teatro sa da Bandeira
12.14. Chicago, Illinois @ Little Funky Buddha

2004 URSULA RUCKER + TIM MOTZER ON TOUR

01.24 Brooklyn, NY @ the Five Spot
01.29. Philadelphia, PA @ Beyond
02.04. Los Angeles, CA @ UCLA (tentative)
02.11. New York, NY @ the Knitting Factory
03.17 London, UK @ the JazzCafe w/ the Society
03.18 London, UK @ the JazzCafe
03.20 Zurich, SWITZERLAND @ Moods
03.23 Karlsruhe,GER @ Tollhaus
03.24 Berlin, GER @ Quasimodo
03.25 Vienna, AUS @ Flex
03.27 Warsaw, POL @ Iguana Lounge
03.28 Aachen, BDR @ Jacobshof
03.29 Paris, FRA @ Tryptique w/ marc mac of 4 HERO
03.30 Brussels, BELGIUM @ Botanique
03.31 Oporto, PORTUGAL @ Rivoli
04.02 Lisbon, PORTUGAL @ Sao Luiz Theatro
04.03 Fideruera da Foz Centro, PORTUGAL @ de Artes e Espectaculos
04.06 Stockholm, SWEDEN @ Södra Teatern
04.11 Capetown, SOUTH AFRICA @ North Sea Jazz Festival
04.23 UC Berkeley California w/ umar bin hussan of the last poets
07.16 Skytop, PA @ skytop (poconos)
09.05 Seattle, WA @ bumbershoot arts festival
www.bumbershoot.com
09.11 Pittsburgh, PA @ shadow lounge
Sat 10.30. Brugge, BELGUIM @ CactusClub
Tue 11.02. London, UK @ Jazz Café
Thu 11.04. Moscow, RUSSIA @ tabula rasa
Moscow State Gogol's Theatre/ Livestage
Fri 11.05 Viseu, PORTUGAL @ Teatro Viriato
2005
Fri 01.28 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Academy of Music
co-headlining with Vernon Reid + Sonja Sanchez
Fri 02.18 Washington,DC @Black Cat w/ Julie Dexter
Sat 04.30 New York, NY @ Columbia University
Sun 05.01 Baltimore, MD @ Fletchers
Fri 06.03 New York City, NY @ Joe's Pub
Sat 06.24 Philadelphia @ Art Museum 4 Aids Awareness
Tue 07.12 Brooklyn, NY @ Ft. Greene Park Concert Series
Mon 07.18 Providence,RI @ Exxodus Cafe
Fri 07.29 Toronto, Ontario @ Harbour Front
Amnesty International Australia-New Zealand Tour 05
Thu. 09.22 - Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Fri. 09.23 - Platform One, Melbourne
Sat. 09.24 - Civic Hotel, Sydney
Sun. 09.25 - Tilley's, Canberra
Thu. 09.26 - Above Siren's Restaurant, Hobart
Fri. 09.30 - The Zoo, Brisbane
Sun. 10.02 - Matterhorn, Wellington - New Zealand
Thu. 10.06 - Tris Elies, Katoomba
Fri. 10.07 - The Rosemount Hotel, Perth
Sat. 10.08 - Crown & Sceptre Hotel, Adelaide
Sun. 10.09 - Opera House Studio, Sydney
Sun 11.01 - Brownstone, Columbus, Ohio
Sat 11.12 World Cafe Live, Philadelphia

photo from lo Squardo di Ulisse Festival - Naples, Italy (from digital video frame)

northsea jazzfest capetown

Saturday, August 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

morning: showday.
travel with ursula and derek to waterfront + greenpoint market - acquired some beautiful artwork and a handpainted t-shirt to wear on stage tonite...i was superstressed tonite cause generally at festivals there is no soundcheck, just a line check...so i only have 30 minutes to set up all my gear and make sure it all works before playing the show...my nervous system is pretty much wrecked upon going on stage...we had to rush a bit to get all the songs played in the 1:15 slot @ 11pm...as it turned out it was a great set although i felt destroyed inside....we played to 1000-1500 people - and it was absolutely amazing!!!! highlights: what a woman must do!!!, adventures, freepoem, q+a...
watching this enthralled audience listen and respond to ursula's words with loud cheers and applause and screams of delight...this was ursula's night and i'm not sure she even introduced us...upon reflection...it was a stunning set and probably one of the heaviest sets on the entire festival...if only from my perspective. so many of the artists there TY, tumi,
soweto kinch etc expressed how blown away they were of our performance and also amazed at the guitar and all the roles musically that i played in ursula's project...it's always good to hear this after such hard work of trying to make something original and lasting...many new friends were made here - warm beautiful people -
aftershow wind down:
checked femi kuti (awesome) then off to hotel to the afterhang jam on the 3rd floor. hung with femi temono, david okumo, dr. phil from TY...all my new london homies 'at the door'. we were the doormen...haha..david okumo was hilarious like an old soul brother i've known for years...we laughed for hours messin with people...he reminded me of Foley (bassist from Miles)...many laughs and good times...lots of wine tonite. no need to sleep as we leave tomorrow. better to crash out on the airplane flights...stayed up til 7:30am...met alot of people who saw the show that came up to me to say hello and say how much they enjoyed the performance...slept for 2 hours then went to mountains (table rock) with some performers from TY...it was beyond breathtaking...no words to describe this really...first time i ever felt vertigo. we were so high up in the cable car and close to the edge...ahhhh....only a few hours before we leave back towards the states after being away for a month...it's gonna be strange bein back...here's how it all broke down goin home:
2 hour wait at capetown airport
11 hour flight to heathrow airport, london
2 hour van drive to gatwick airport
2 hours layover in gatwick airport
8.5 hour flight to philadelphia international airport
2 days....
exhausted, burnt, wrecked, and home.

capetown, south africa

Saturday, August 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

holiday inn capetown room 2608
what a view from this room. next door are the dancers from femi kuti's band. all the musicians
from the northsea fest stay at the same hotel...so
you never know who you may run into...

arrive early am...greeted by festival hosts for northsea...ursula has some passport issues so we wait for awhile before moving on to hotel. as soon as we arrive we head for cafeteria to have some breakfast cause we are starving and run into dr. lonnie smith, james moody, and lou donaldson who will be performing later that evening...a long sleep
after breakfast until 4:30pm...head to venue and see casandra wilson perform, soweto kinsch and TY...

stockholm to south africa

Saturday, August 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

our tickets somehow are wrong and as it is such we have to stay at stockholms airport for 5 hours....so boring...any airport is...heathrow is a bit better cause at least there's shopping and restaurants...finally arrive at heathrow (for 1 hour)..then a 10 hour flight into capetown....i watched 'raging bull' - i hadn't seen it in a long time...what a brilliant film....try to sleep

stockholm sweden 2

Saturday, August 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

sun is shining. blue sky. and much warmer today.
a wonderful day to walk around stockholm
tonite (wednesday) will see Granada and Tiny
play at soder teatern where we played last night.
it's nice having some time off here in sweden...i really love stockholm...went and picked up my gear
at the theatre...checking on ebs pedal...airport says
my case has arrived and will be at the hotel that night...yea!!!!!!! all is intact!!! 6pm i have a swedish massage (whadya expect?)...really wonderful...and relieving all that stress from travel, lost gear....spent day alone at various cafes and walking the city...sitting at the window watching the street and life on it pass me by - lots of baby carriages - must of been a bit of a baby boom here - with smiling and some not smiling mothers - tall blonds in motion - lots of kids here -
concert is good - tiny is very bjorkish or iceland-ish...enjoyable...granada - very byrdish and after awhile sounds monotonous so leave and have beers at soder bar...then off to a swedish hiphop club...tomorrow we leave for an exhausting journey to south africa for the northsea jazzfestival in capetown...we'll have a 5 hour layover at heathrow before continuing onto s.a.

stockholm sweden

Saturday, August 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

hotel sojfartenhotellen room 450
i like this hotel alot, we've stayed here before...the
people here a great...cozy...nite 1 relax after all the
travel...and try to calm my nerves from losing my gear...day two: scramble to replace gear so we can make the show happen tonite. hokan hooks it up...and finds most of the essential gear i'll need:volume pedal, looper, octaver, etc....i'm a bit worried but the show goes great really. i was missing certain sounds that i had developed but
it came off great anyway. the audience was fantastic.
this was our fourth time playing to the swedish and they are all so warm and open minded towards our music...just amazing. highlight: time, damned if i do...afterwards a hang at the soderthetern club. it's reggae night...beers with jeremy, catarina, and rob...nice hang. spoke to many people who loved the show and asked many questions about how i achieved certain sounds...it seems even though i was missing half of my gear, it still reached them...
i'm still worried about my gear...will call airport tomorrow again to see if they've found it yet...

philly 1kstudio july-aug2004

Thursday, August 05, 2004 00:00:00 -700

it's been both hot humid and wet wet wet = flooding conditions in philadelphia...what gives with all this moisture? anyway...my studio did indeed take water from overstressed sewer drains and a week later a blown hotwater heater, but happy to report things are back on schedule....projects, projects, projects::: lots on the recording plate at the
moment...finished some hot remixes with king britt that will be released soon: george duke's tzania which i was enthralled to play two tracks of acoustic and bwds electric guitar...check it out soon...yesterday completed tracking for the curtis mayfield reworking of little child running wild from superfly...5 tracks of guitar parts to be sent to king britt for some scuba-fying....gonna be a great one for the headphones,,,,next up some more collabs with music friends from overseas, and continuing on
many of my own songs and compositions....if you're around philly in august and are a dancer...check out
susan hess dance co on 2030sansom street. i'll be accompanying these master classes mon-friday until
september3rd with polish choreographer jacek luminski.....lastly, the burnt friedman + jaki leibezeit album that i tracked guitars on should be mixed this month in cologne germany at nonplace...and japan vocalist david sylvian has contributed to the album as well...it's becoming a monster of a group...more news to come on this exciting project and collaboration....liveperformances: aug25thphilly, i'll be joining fractal ark at silk city, sept 5th w/ ursula rucker at bumbershoot festival in seattle, and sept11 in pittsburgh pa....more to come.....

teatro municipal, lisbon portugal

Thursday, May 27, 2004 00:00:00 -700

hotel borges - my room is so small! jeez. i can't even sit on the toilet. no room for my legs!!! haha...
we traveled all day...listening to 'house of the holy'- bonham is amazing-great album-(i recently played this record for dominick of stereolab and he had never ever heard it!!!! loved it of course)...it just keeps getting better...i don't know why....
3-4 hours in the van - arrive for soundcheck time at this beautiful opera theatre-opulent-alex and crew are all here ready. i set up and restring my guitars for tonites show...i find out tonites show will be recorded and filmed for a possible dvd later...6 cameras...take it all in....show's superb- our best yet!!!! only a couple of minor mistakes/accidents::::: highlights: adventures, loveless, innocense lost - the end loop was gorgeous and sad and our soundman let it run as music to walkout to....it was actually really nice to hear it as a long piece - hoping for good results on the recording/filming. very happy tonite. buzzing! signed cds and then hooked up with johnny and kalaf who joined us for dinner - then off to lisbon nitelife, some bars for mojitos to wind down...then to a nasty drum n bass club (loud as shit!) a long walk around - ate soup and bread mmmmmm....6am it is.
good nite.
morning: hungout at area cafe waiting for derek to arrive back from his mountain biking adventure...leave late to figuerra da foz...LLLLOONNNGGG drive...i sleep in backseat to ipod soundtrak...tired today (whad ya expect) and lack of food- arrive at auditorium - nice place (charlie haden and pat metheny played here last year)....acoustics are really bad though....horrible!!!major slap echo off back wall that really plagues are set- good show- my equilibrium is off tonite...brown boy is fast!! song 4 billy is nice....afterwards sign cd's...all three portugal shows are incredibly. the people here are so warm and friendly...just a blessing....
afterwards we go for food....place is aaahhh ok.
everyones food is kinda bad...hotel IBIS tonite.
whatever. shower breakfast and leave for drive along the countryside coimbra - stop for lunch amazing!!! chicken potatoes fish cakes flan....the food here is so good...damn! a walk around this tiny village - loud motorbikes, lemontrees, tiled roofs,straydogs, a studio (where they were recording fadu music). i must acquire a fadu guitar someday - what a sound! in a different tuning agdadc 12 strings
bakery - drive more-countryside, castles, farmland,forests with tall giant straight trees-3-4 hour drive back to lisboa...ready to get out of the van but listening to incredible ipod mix - back to our 'favorite' hotel borges haha....this time a bigger room and a GIANT bathroom- but this place makes you itch. cant wait to leave. crash to tinderstix.
airport: over wgt baggage again!!! 360 euros...ouch.
flightsconnects in copenhagen then on to stockholm
6 hours...arrive at 4:30 pm - my red case containing
my pedal board is lost as is jeremys clothes...fucking stressed as they don't have my bag in the computer system....catarina (promoter) wants a list of my missing gear so i supply her so they can try to find some of it..... they find line 6 dl4, eb vol, ebs octabass, a/b switcher, boss tuner...cables...yes...there will be a show!!!

teatro rivoli, oporto portugal

Thursday, May 27, 2004 00:00:00 -700

show: at a moderne theatre here in oporto.
gorgeous. show is great tonite...we're on a roll.
seated audience...highlights: adventures, loveless,
release, brownboy - so funky....
04012004 day off oporto
laundry day. first one in 15 days...it's time!
good to have clean fresh clothes again! - raining - to lunch with jorge janela + crew to seafood place
amazing: barnacles/shell fish then cod soup+rice
ahhh...mmmmmmm...fruit salad cake for desert...and all this with a superb oporto white wine...!!!!
down to the seaside for a bit of a foto op and hand at seaside cafe for some hot green tea...back to hotel...some billiards next door. jorge has skills! he taught me alot about spin + touch....chilled evening
to donatos place for some food...then sleep...leave tomorrow for lisbon...

le botonique - brussels, belgium

Thursday, May 27, 2004 00:00:00 -700

peter from jazztronaut picked us up at the train...a really beautiful train ride in....back in brussels...what a picturesque city...walkaround a bit...the venue tonite is in the round with magnificent sound...wow!
my kind of place...haha...show was really good as well, but paris better somehow i think, or just different...sound was exceptional here....aftershow sold alot of nuculture cds + autografs...etc...great people here....just wonderful. yep. i really love brussels...jp kalonji (unbelievable artist/cartoonist/painter) was here and we reunited after initially meeting in montreux switzerland a few years ago...
he showed me his recent sketch book of his travels in africa!!!!!! nice hang tonite...in search of belgium brews...leffes and chimays it is! topped off with belgium fries and chocolates...ouch! stayed up until 4:30am until we had to leave for airport to fly to lisbon...slept on the plane...connection in oporto...

le tryptiche, PARIS, fR

Friday, May 14, 2004 00:00:00 -700

twas a marvelous train ride from AAchen to Paris where we are met and driven to our OKhotelbutVerySmallBut=OhSoCozyandit'saBlockAway from theVENUE....cool!!! check in...and we are out in Paris - montmatre!!! ahhhh. so good to be back here...beautiful day....walking around...filming a bit...some crepes to go....soundcheck is hard....not working for urse or us at All......alex kidd is here...and calls his soundman to come down to replace the other guy...and we RE:soundcheck....alls good now!
cristoph is amazing.....in the zone!!!
packed house...greatsound...our best show yet...groovin so hard...urse is in rare form tonite...she's feelin it for sure...audience is fantastique!!!! 4Hero crew (marc mac) spinning afterwardss...gives me the new 4Hero remix cd...which i find out i'm on (9x9 king britt remix) but
without my credits!!!!! shit!!!! can't believe it...oh well...but that's me on guitar and kevin arthur on bass on that trackk....check it!!!!!!!!!
nice hang to marc's vinyl magic...and grimbergen beers.....SLLLLLLEEEEEEP.....i'm happy tonite!

iguana lounge, warszawa, poland

Friday, May 14, 2004 00:00:00 -700

vienna train station: wait, wait, wait, and WAIT!!.....around the cold as hell train station for an hour...killin time at the magazine stand reading all the music mags....dani siciliano is on the cover of straightnochaser....cool!
finaally board the WARS - an overnight train into Poland....it's like going back in time...old train...old sleeper car...very coldwar vibe....really cool though...i chill with my iPod and texmessages....
7am: arrive to warsaw...greeted by 7 people who help us with gear and baggages......4 cars....to sheraton hotel......rest for a few hours...then jeremy and i check out the city....cafes...soups/perogies/////
very grey here....and cold.....
show is great but in a weird venue, where we are on level two and the audience is downstairs (looking up) and on the stairwells.......great show....sold cd's
afterwards/signingsetc...biers---polishVodka with a carrot chaser...really good!!! afterwards: singer with the djs - awesome....sonyPoland...late Hang tonite...
sleep. niceRoom and shower..........tomorrow leave for AAchen....

jacobshof, Aachen, Germany

Friday, May 14, 2004 00:00:00 -700

after a crazy day traveling to warsaw airport...ahhh...mixed up messages as to what terminal we were in...finally, then wait, wait, wait...then off to cologne:::a flight in....picked up by car and driven about 2 hours? to Aachen (a small little college town-beautiful)...but there will be no time to check it out ...we travel all day...after checking into hotel we go immediately to club aat 7:30....show's at 9pm...so we have NO TIME FOR ANYTHING! and we're tired as hell....damn....(and sick, cough).....actually we're exhausted...no food. no shower. no change of clothes. i'm feeling badddddd.
after soundcheck crwd comes in...and then we start...fucking sound is horrible...but we continue...the show is nice and intimate...we connect...audience loved it.....
afterwards: food! soup!!chicken+potatoes+biers!!!!
really helps me feel so much better....now to SLEEP
ggggggg-nite...sppppppppp!

Flex Club, Vienna, Austria

Friday, May 14, 2004 00:00:00 -700

fly in to vienna airport and transported to 2 different hotels because a convention for urologists from around the world are here...i'm really sick now...weather is cold and rainy...all i want to do is
lay down and sleep...which i do upon arrival to hotEL acceptable....drinking water, taking aleve,
coughdrops, cargling...ahh...more rest.....
6pm: girl comes from club to take us to flex, but no
taxi...she wants us to walk 15 minutes in the rain...of course, i'm carrying 2 guitars as well and am sick as hell!!! fuck this!!...so....she understands and we tube
....upon arrival...i ddrink lots of HOT green tea and honey....eat some delitray....fruit....redBull...greenTea...
Flex is an amazing club::: a true unique venue....
a long soundcheck both for sound issues and more
time to rehearse...we've dropped loveless from the set for now and add adventures in wonderland...
2nd time here...i like this place:::
showtime: we are finally back on track...show's bangin....and amazing from my perspective...!!!!
audience dancing singing and screamin - !!!!
phil yaeger (from philly) joined us on trombone for
q+a-great to see and hear him here in Vienna-
still sick though - dealing- saw wolfgang mitter...
good to see him again - show fantastic!
i said to urse backsstage, "we're back baby!!!!"
off to merch booth to move some cds+signstuff...
back to hotel to crash hard + sweat some mo......

quasimodo, berlin germany

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

artotel:berlin
so good to be back in berlin. one of my fav cities.
staying at the andy warhol themed artotel....very cool.
show: i'm disappointed. bad show for us. not coming
together...a massive struggle, but the show still comes off...it feels incredibly flat playing to a seated audience...highlights: release, damned if i do, soundscapes ...lots of people asking me after show how i do the soundscape/looping thing...i show them my gear....the rest is up to them....hung out with k7 crew+sonke from electric chair (fucking cool cat!)...met fat jon finally! an ohio boy as myself...this was cool...i'm very sick...the k7 folks (stefan, deitre, katja, claudia, are incredibly gracious as always! )back to hotel to sweat...sucks to be sick on tour.....no hang tonite.

karlsruhe germany

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

a train ride in...the vibe in this city feels good...nice people here...really nice venue...intimate...great sound...(yea!)...i feel like tonite is our first really good show or at least we are on our way!...i'm feeling terrible though...sick.sick.sick. back to hotel to rest.

zurich switzerland

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

at novotel still. just killing time.i'm kind of buggin.
looking forward to moving on to berlin for next show.
i'm ready to leave - tired and feeling a bit ill...i think
i'm getting sick...karlsruhe germany is the next stop,
then berlin....we gotta crush...a nice walk around zurich today...shopping...it's quite beautiful here...

zurich. switzerland

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

heathrow. flew to zurich in am.
show is questionable...sound on stage absolutely
sucks...monitors are blown - some missed cues..but
all is good otherwise...crowd loves the show...
we really gave it our ALL...in spite of the adversity.
i'm a real stickler...it was probably ok outfront....but
we need to work on 1. loveless 2. this 3. brownboy
show intro is working...oh well. a few beers, teardown, and back to the novotel.

london 031804

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

grey and raining. sleep all day pretty much. evening
out to a party with andy hamill + crew at a french theme party in the basement of a restaurant in leceister square...fun...met so many cool folks and
uk musicians - nice walk around - clubs...
cabbed back to hotel for more sleep.

jazzcafe,london 031704

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

breakfast at a wonderful cafe here in camden just over the lock. spent the day looking for an AC adapter that i left behind in Philly for the roland sampler...so tubing to oxford circus for a walk around all the music shops...and lo and behold i finally found one!! problem solved! cafe+tube. really focusing for tonites show#2...at soundcheck we have very little time - and ursula is pissed!!! ouch!!! show is much better tonite thankfully...i play much better...thomas haas joins us on saxophone for Q+A - damn!!!! really nice...later on, i break a piano bench midway thru the show - oooppps!! it just collapses and is quite hilarious actually...name droppin time:: the 4Hero crew is here andy hamill, m.a.d.,
dego and seals brother james (who urse just worked with for his new album) ...show is good! a nice hang upstairs after show with andy hamill, m.a.d. etc.....a nice wind down...then it's off to the HOTel afterward a crazy lobby party at the H-inn w/ a rock band from aberdeen (driving blind)...crazy...until 4am...a good hard days night.

jazzcafe,london 031604

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

soundcheck 4pm with the society (thomas haas)
+ crew...tonites show is really our FIRST REAL
rehearsal!!! urse really wasn't available too often
for our planned rehearsals in philadelphia so we'll have our first go...show has some good intuitive moments - but not great by any means - still coming together, cues, etc...friends here to take us out for some guinness on st. paddys day afterwards for wind down.

london 031504

Friday, May 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

nice flight in to gatwick...2 hour drive into camden.
stay at holiday inn camdenlock...very adequate...
sleep for awhile...lunch at wagamama's...wonderful.
some guiness in the eve. relax. still spaced from flying...

mixtape@700club

Thursday, May 06, 2004 00:00:00 -700

it was really an enjoyable evening for me to be given
the keys to the decks, so to speak, and play some musics from my collection from home...a fun nite fueled by Yards ESA....thanks to ivan ross.

playlist below:

the beatles - tomorrow never knows
adrian belew - she's not dead
chris squire - lucky
can - sing sang song
radiohead-the gloaming
meatbeatmanifesto-intermission
elvin jones - ascendant
roy ayers - a tear to a smile
brian augers oblivion express - happiness is just around the bend
led zeppelin - the crunge
pole - slowmotion feat. fatjon
sea & cake - traditional wax coin
tortoise - the lithium stiffs
dani siciliano - same
david bowie - starman

rehearsals for euro tour 2004

Sunday, March 14, 2004 00:00:00 -700

rehearsals have begun...creating a brand new show and sporting a brand new drummer and friend this time along - jeremy carlstedt - along with ursula and i...expect a lot of surprises this time around...
we will be in london wednesday and thursday at the jazzcafe in camden with society from denmark (our friend thomas haas)...to kick off the tour quite rightly!

jamaaladeen tacuma dna

Monday, March 01, 2004 00:00:00 -700

a last minute call from jamaal to play with his dna gallerie young flamethrowers series at tritone proved to be a screamin evening...jamaal with his brand new vintage 2x15 kustom stack...drum dynamo webb thomas..(yft) - daud el-bakara on trumpet...and me with the trusty 66 epiphone + pedals galore!!!...just an amazing spontaneous evening of music from this unit....it was good playin again in this vibe and letting alot of deep stuff fly...hope to do some more stuff or a cd w jamaal in 2004...we'll see...had a good time experimenting with various fuzz tones tonite....i'm still buzzzin from all the fuzzin......of course, it's a real honour to play with these great musicians..and, to play with mr. tacuma is always a blessing....years ago before i moved to philadelphia, i used to listen to his records and read his interviews in musician magazines...so it brings me special joy to be able to perform with him in philly...!!!!

jamaaladeen tacuma dna

Monday, March 01, 2004 00:00:00 -700

a last minute call from jamaal to play with his dna gallerie young flamethrowers series at tritone proved to be a screamin unit...jamaal with his brand new vintage 2x15 kustom stack...drum dynamo webb thomas.. yft - duod on trumpet...and me with the trusty 66 epiphone + pedals galore!!!...just an amazing spontaneous evening of music....it was good playin again in this vibe and letting alot of deep stuff fly...hope to do some more stuff or a cd w jamaal in 2004...we'll see...had a good time experimenting with various fuzz tones tonite....i'm still buzzzin from all the fuzzin.......peace.

knitting factory, nyc

Thursday, February 12, 2004 00:00:00 -700

another trek into new york city to one of our favorite venues, the knitting factory, which was actually the venue where i played first with ursula back in 1999, i believe...along with king britt, doc gibbs, rob life...an amazing magical nite back then...and tonite: happy to say it was a warm homecoming for ursula and a special performance for us...the main space at the knit has an amazing vibe and we honoured it tonite.
set list:
free poem
supa sista remix
keep falling
womansong
this
q+a
soon
damned if i do
time
untitled flow
what a woman must do
return to innocense lost

philly february 7th

Saturday, February 07, 2004 00:00:00 -700

in the 1kstudio: been working a daily routine of coffee and guitar tracks for friedman + liebezeit project...deep in as they say...but, have been having some interesting results...as the days have been going on i'm relaxing into the trax more and starting to take more chances letting things fly spontaneously fully allowing accidents to happen. when this happens i'm finding my way...and my mind is shut off...better art is coming...sonically i've been finding some interesting glitch architectures, afrofunk smears, lapsteel clouds, and fuzz ambiences....so far each track has 3-4 takes of interlocking guitar parts or not as the case may be...so a take can function as it's own piece by itself or in tandem with other guitar parts.....as far as what happens with the material when it reaches germany is another matter all together and i'm just hoping there's lots of dope and fuel to ignite burnt's imaginations even more...so, hopefully it'll be some stuff he'll find on the vibe...so on with more tracks tomorrow...then the compiling begins...fingers crossed and more to come...suffice to say, i've really been enjoying this project and process.

philly 1-30-2004

Saturday, January 31, 2004 00:00:00 -700

finally home for a stretch and am taking all my time to be productive in the mighty 1k studio...feels good!
after being lost for a week somewhere in scotland, the scottish dance theatre received the digital masters for my new 25 minute composition for their 2004 tour and evidently are very happy with the results...i spent many hours eq-ing and generally mastering the sound files...i was happy overall with the results and can't wait to
see their performance as they are designing lighting and costuming now for the UK debut in February...next project will be starting tracks for Burnt Freidman and Can's Jaki Leibezeit for their next record on non-place. i'm very excited about this, of course, and will try to find some new sounds and areas to explore in their music...and, finally, i've been putting finishing touches on a collection of my solo/vocal tracks this weekend "sad songs of the future man"...more to come...

scottish dance theatre in dundee scotland

Tuesday, January 13, 2004 00:00:00 -700

room 2 grosvenor hotel dundee, scotland

it's been an amazing process working here at SDT. a wonderful daily routine of rising @ 8am to breakfast then taxi to SDT where i played a dance class everyday for an hour +1/2...then into working and developing individual musical ideas along with sean feldman exploring his choreographic approach. this went on daily for 7 days more or less...with some late nights editing and arranging on the laptop...saturday was a break through day as 2 of the 9 pieces that were troubling me came around.
wind-downs: solo outing on thursday nite around to a few pubs, dca, and the reading room for indie band soundtrack...friday out with the sdt crew...ales and then an incredible italian meal for 10...saturday to the artbar then dancing at the reading room until 3am...topped off with chips,cheedar, and coleslaw...
sunday: dca then to jackie anderson's studio to check her amazing paintings: www.jackieanderson.co.uk (check her out)...with a finish at jackie's house with a wonderful homecooked meal...it does'nt get anybetter than this...wonderful new friends all around...i'll miss these guys....cheers!

scottish dance theatre in dundee scotland

Thursday, January 08, 2004 00:00:00 -700

two planes, a train, and a cab...and i'm in dundee...working on a composition for their 2004 tour...gonna be an amazing process to work with dancers of this calibre and a wonderful coreographer sean feldman...more to come.

krass bros @ the tower theatre

Thursday, January 01, 2004 00:00:00 -700

happy new year!!! last night we (the krass bros)
mark boyce, barry meehan, ulysses, and myself
rocked the tower theatre as part of the insomniac tour featuring hilarious comedians lewis black and dave atell...quite a party...brought in the new year with james brown's have a funky good time...too much fun....afterward winddown with the crew at warehouse party dj's playin 60's70's80's - dance floor was packed...the right party!!! off to scotland
tomorrow...more soon....

jazzheads experiment @ franklin + marshall college

Monday, December 29, 2003 00:00:00 -700

well it's been awhile, since the jazzheads have played their brand of music...the original idea for this gig was to have a reunion and see if we still have something to say...some chemistry...as it turned out bassist ben bocardo couldn't make it...so we decided to do it as an experiment and as a trio. the verdict from the bandstand is this is an extremely exciting trio and we're hoping to continue with this lineup and explore its incredible musical possiblilities....the night was made up of some tracks from 'avant wot not', but also lots of new stuff w/ chris cuzme doubling on bass and saxophones, myself on guitarBass, guitarsynth, loops, keys, and ari hoenig just pulverising the drumkit with mathmatical mutations.
from my end, a joyous reunion that we hope to take over to europe in 2004...some recording will certainly have to happen sometime in there too...prayers to the promise.

bluespot festival in oporto, portugal

Sunday, December 28, 2003 00:00:00 -700

it's a sad day...still raining...we fly to portugal from paris...it's a very turbulent flight as the plane sways from side to side and at times drops rapidly...crazy...looking out i view the portugese landscape below, hold on tightly, and think of my father who is passing slowly away on the other side of the world in hamilton ohio. one more show and we will return to the states where i will then join my family. they believe he will gently pass sometime tonite...ursula and i say our before show prayer to lou w. motzer and dedicate our show to him...a passionate performance and final 16th show of our eurotour....after our show peaches takes the stage for some stooges style crotchNroll...she's cool...a wind down with friends backstage and then back to ipanema hotel where upon entering my room the phone is flashing and ringing...i can't answer i know what the call brings...i will call home tomorrow.........................

transmusicales festival - rennes france

Saturday, December 20, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a new day...slept too late...overslept, in fact!!! with ursula telling me the driver is waiting for us down stairs...missing breakfest...a quick italian expresso will do...and we're off to the venue...but when we arrive the ac converter isn't there...and the sound guys have to order one...so we wait...and wait...and wait...eventually, it arrives after an hour and we do check...everything is cool...fantastic crew here...on point!...off for brunch of more crepes (unbelieveable!)
then to press area where ursula had a press conference, radio, and magazines to contend with...myself, i wondered around checking out various bands playing at the fest: most notably mix city...which i saw the previous nite...great!....
showtime: show starts ok...some minor gawaffs on my part...in get ready...weird...then the mpc freaks out on This and changes programs...fucking hell...
set me off balance...ahhh...i hate that...but c'est la vie...so we continue ....show gets better and higher...with 2 encores...incredible audience...of listeners....finale with song for billy...my favorite...!
so a wind down...then to see gangstarr and beth gibbons...which insued a crazy party hanging backstage with beth gibbons, kaziah jones, and other 'star' types until 5:30 am...one of the best parties i've ever been a part of...then run to hotel just in time to check out and get in the van to paris for our flight to portugal....along the way...i'm told my father is dying...the 3 hour ride to charles de gualle is bitter suite...it's raining.

transmusicales festival - rennes france

Wednesday, December 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

after a few days sleeping back home in philadelphia...ursula and i are once again flying back to europe - this time transmusicales fest - an amazing fest featuring gangstarr, beth gibbons, cody chestnut, dani siciliano, and so many more...we're excited about playing here and visiting this cool city.
upon arriving in paris, i find once again that TSA our us security team at airports has broken a latch off my new suitcase...left it open gear hanging out taped into a clear plastic bag...what a drag. this is not a good way to start the day...then we find out our drive to Rennes is 3 hours...ahhh...oh well go with the flow...within minutes we find we will be sharing our van with leela james a gospel/soul singer from LA...this is not a problem except she comes on the van with a superstar attitude to match her massive afro...oh well...that's america fo ya...3 hours was enuff. it's all good...we're all just REAL tired.
finally into our cozy hotel...then off for some lunch of crepes......later, at the fnac if found a dvd of pink floyd at pompeii...and jonny greenwoods album bodysong..then sleep...walked down to liberty to see what was happening...just a punk riot...smashing door glass etc...a kinda flashback for me...walk around the city...a wind up at small pub elsa where mix city was playing jazzfunk organelectronique style...great...back to the room for more sleep...more tomorrow...

reggio emilia, Italy @ maffia club

Wednesday, December 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

today we traveled by train from rome with our friends from 2Blue...a most enjoyable ride...thru the beautiful countryside of tuscany...florence...bologna...and on into reggio emilia. luggage was handled by maffia crew giving gintus and myself a much needed break. on to soundcheck...after some minor problems with pa things seem on...and! thankfully, my line 6 is now working! hurrah! an incredible meal at la tortuga ristorante...our favorite in reggio emilia...unbelievable! pizza, pumpkin ravioli, anitpasta, salada, red wine, and lemoncello...!!!
a meal like this means a great deal when you are out on the road...so we are energized once again for a great show...and it is!!! audience is happy and dancing and digging ursula and the music...our last show of 14 with drummer gintis janusonis...they'll be more i'm sure...as this group has a wonderful chemistry and vibe together...tomorrow back to philly for a few days before ursula and i leave out for transmusicales festival in rennes france...more to come...time to hang with our new friends and drink some italian wine...cheers!

rome, Italy @ la palma

Wednesday, December 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a pleasant flight into rome from lisbon...airport was no problem for a change, although we had to run around to a few windows to find our e-tickets....we were greeted by our friend paulo who took us to the hotel and then on to soundcheck...once there we found out the show would be recorded for italian public radio, and that our friends rocca and enrico of 2Blue would be opening for us. our show was real high energy and happening but virtually no response from the rome audience...we were never sure...why. this was the most quiet crowd we've played to...very strange...i had a few continuing problems with the line6 (tomorrow on the train i'll have to take it apart a see what happens)....after show...back to hotel for some needed rest...

lisbon portugal @ lux nite2

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

after a refreshing sleep we go out into lisbon to check out the city before soundcheck after sorting out airline issues...lisbon is so beautiful...one of my favorite places in the world...so gorgeous...and the people here are amazing...soulpower...soundcheck is odd...as everything is differnet from last night...weird...showtime: sound has def changed...not as fat and bottow oriented...sold out again tonite...audience is feeling the show...but i'm not - a real struggle - with looper giving me trouble again tonite...ahhh....still a good show (filmed and recorded)...some wind down upstairs at the disco with miguel and kika...

frankfurt germany @ nordisk club

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

day 9 of 9 shows.
train from brugge to brussels then driven by peter to brussels airport - then flight (more overweight chrges) to frankfurt - we haven't really eaten today...jusst crazy traveling on train, car, and plane - with all this luggage (13pcs in all) we are really draggin...show is at a big theatre space - sound is loud and hollow like a hockey rink - so it is a hard one tonite plus a strange vibe as the 500 or 600 people kind of do their own thing during the performance - talking in groups, smoking, walking around, etc...a bit distracting for ursula - during what a woman must do the loudness of talking was crazy...but again the people loved it anyway...we do 2 encores...a day off tomorrow finally...we will sleep deep deep deep deeeeeepppppp.....

brugge, belgium @ cactusclub

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

train to brugge-beautiful scenic city - small tiny hotel room reminds me of being in a submarine - soundcheck is a nightmare! unable to get ursula's sound sorted out - her vocal simply would not cut through - couldn't figure it out - play 5 songs at show before leaving the stage for them to try to correct this - large appreciative audience waits for us - finally sorted we hit the stage again and lift the show high - it was all about not giving up - and giving a little bit more - afterwards a meltdown with cactus crew next door at a pub over delicious chimays and talk of music and belgium...i love belgium.

http://www.urgent.fm/beyondjazz.net/viewtopic.php?p=5729

liegge, belgium @ soundstation

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

we are fried. no doubt about it. day 7 of 9 shows...brain is starting to breakdown...tonites show is in a converted subway station...soundcheck yields a battered drum kit and no ac converter for me...so we wait around for 2 hours (when we could have been sleeping)...oh well...finally things get sorted out...back to hotel for 60 minutes of sleep then to show...sound is pretty good...and we have a great nite...played well and felt good about our performance...2 encores...wonderful audience again! afterwards hung at lounge compliments of promoter fabrice - we drank chimays and munched on dark belgium choclates to a wonderful dj mix. i love belgium.

cologne germany @ stadtgarten

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

back to stadtgarten in koln felt great to return to after 2 years...although i'm totally exhausted tonite...a good show for us, but i'm shot with little clinkers here and there...4 minutes of fun has become one of the highlights of the set along with q + a...unfortunately my line6 looper has begun to act up...and is becoming unrealiable...wish i had a second one...but it came off...i was out of my mind...bernd friedman was there...and we are hoping to do an album project in 2004 with drummer jaki liebeziet (can)...this would be incredible...backstage dinner...then off to bluenote for latenight winddown with amazing dj set of 60,70,80,90 mix....perfect.

berlin, germany @ quassimodo

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

this is more like it!! sound is superb tonite! an audience hollering and clapping for us before we even hit the stage!! i was on tonite - we all were - our best show thus far..gintus and i were really connecting and ursula's mix was superb - audience of berliners + k7 crew packed soldout show - 3 encores tonite...it felt good after last nites disappointment...afterwards to cookies for dancing to techno until 6am-chinese dinner earlier hooked us up...

hamburg germany @ fabrik

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

trains planes vans and autos - tonite show was in the huge warehouse like fabrik....very loud...and terrible sound issues on stage for me as guitar lost its body 2 songs in, never to really return...so for me it was like playing the show literally on an acoustic guitar not the sub bass oriented sound i normally have...so a dissappointment tonite...good show otherwise...and 2 encores...an appreciative crowd...latenite dinner at an italian restaurant with k7 and electric chair crew...

lisbon portugal @ lux

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

started our day at 9am leaving Munich to get to airport early - so as to keep things not rushing at checkin - as it turned out, it was good we were there early as we continue to accrue overweight baggage charges - this time 100 kilos overweight and the fee was 14euro/kilo!!! 1161 euros!!! finally an hour later k7 was able to pay this for us so we could move on to portugal...really getting jacked on this tour...never in my professional touring career have i encountered this kind of issue. every airport we go to is a major dilemmna...flight into lisbon is cool and on to venue for soundcheck....everything is great...
show: after an amazing sushi dinner, we hit stage around 11:30pm to a packed house. amazing focused energy tonite...the audience is beautiful...2 encores - tremendous - immigrant song coda ---

lisbon portugal @ lux

Tuesday, December 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

schorndorf, germany at manufaktur

Monday, November 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

hotelbaur room 12

todays travel was insane. the promoters have us on 2 trains to get to schondorf...the problem is we are always squeezed for time...and we have 13 peices of gear and luggage for 3 people to move...not a good scenario...let me tell you...we are seriously working...crazy...and we missed our stop because we couldnt get the train doors open fast enough, so the train departed to next location...silly silly...finally picked up by werner from manufaktur...the show made up for the insanity again...superb sound in an intimate warm venue and wonderful audience...so appreciative...we had a great show again....werner informed us later that it was the best show manufaktur has had in 3 years!! signed some posters and had late italian dinner and back to the warm cozy hotelbaur...good nite.

enjoy jazz festival at mannheim germanz

Monday, November 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

holiday inn room 435

a pleasant ride to graz airport, but the day took an abupt change when lufthanza informed us that we were 90 kilos overweight and it would cost 400 euros..or we could would not fly...ursula, was of course, furious...and after heated discussion i finally negotiated 165 euros and paid for it on my amex card so we could get out of there...the airlines have been shaking us down for a while...its crazy to be touring this way...not good.
meanwhile when we finally arrived our driver discovered that we had 13 pieces of luggage to transport and had to hire a van...then on to the autobahn at 100mph...to our hotel, then sound check. this festival is amazing with many great artists - meredith monk, john scofield, living colour, charles mingus big band, jack dejohnette,......tonite we conclude the festival sharing the bill with 4 Hero....showtime: our show is fantastic tonite...sound is superb...and wonderful audience...who call us back for 2 encores...we are buzzing tonite...after a crazy day it was good to have this performance...afterwards we stayed to listen to marc mac of 4 Hero spin it was a pleasure...and so, a very late night for us...time to sleep...

graz, austria at ppc

Monday, November 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

grand hotel rm 205

flights here were good...lufthanza lost my flight case though for a few hours...but it all finally worked out...show is presented by vipers where we played w 2 years agó...our first show of this tour adding Gintis Janusonus on drum kit and percussion...this new trio has immediate chemistry and we are already making wonderful music...tonites show was plagued with monitoring problems for us...but the audience loved the show and danced all night...a good first show for us...afterwards nightcap at volker sernitz new restaurant where we viewed the ursula rucker supa sister world tour 2001 dvd that he produced. it is a beautiful document of that tour and hopefully will be released at some time in 2004.
tomorrow a flight to mannheim for a show for the enjoy jazz festival...more to come....

photo of gintus janusonis, ursula rucker, tim motzer
courtesy of katja ruge @ www.plasticodia.com

los angeles @ the temple bar

Thursday, November 13, 2003 00:00:00 -700

carmel hotel room 322
this is more like it. we're in santa monica tonite at one of the most beautiful clubs i've ever been in.
and it's a harmonic convergence...everything is aligning...we're sharing the stage with now prophet Saul Williams...a truly high spirited moment tonite...and we follow that with our brew...it's sold out and successful evening and perfomance from us, but usula and myself feel somewhat hollow...not sure what it was...the lighting...really felt on display...like in a zoo...or something...but audience loved it...and after show, we were rushed for cd.s and autographs...etc...kinda of bewildering...also, tsa (the government security in u.s. airports made up of 'city' workers)...destroyed one of my road cases. couldn't figure out how to open the latches, so they broke them completely off...such a drag...cost me another $250...like i have it...so there you go...life on the road...sound was wonderful in this venue...had lettuce wraps for dinner!!! hotel rooms were scary...glad to go home...such a terrible experience with United Airlines(?) and TSA at LAX...it's just not that much fun traveling under these conditions...kinda resembles hell and belzebub.....ahhhhhhh....its' only a dream...
or is it? hellzabub...readying for europe now...

studio z, san francisco

Thursday, November 13, 2003 00:00:00 -700

best western room 311
a wild ride this time in san francisco. we were never really sure who was running this show...as far as sound it was kinda sub par..but we made the show happen...and people that were tuned in loved what we did...but it really wasn't the venue for us...lifts from airport and to show were fine and pretentious, but after show no one to take us back...so we rode with sound man in his 'vintage'
convertible...top down...all three road cases in back seat with guitars on top and ursula smashed in the bucketseat...if only i had a camera...no such luck. hopefully tomorrow LA will be on the vibe...

studio z, san francisco

Thursday, November 13, 2003 00:00:00 -700

gear report

Tuesday, November 04, 2003 00:00:00 -700

i've been getting questions about my setup from quite a few people through email and at concerts around the world...although my setup is always in a state of flux due to endless experimentation my current guitar setup on Ursula Rucker tours and Global illage, Base3, and Jazzheads are relativelyr similar.

with UR: Godin Nylon digital electric to a Roland GR33 guitar synth and
Takamine acoustic-electric thru Morley A-B switcher to EB volume pedal to Boss tuner to Digitech Whammy pedal to EBS Octave to Boss Phaser to Line 6 Delay Modeler to dbx mini preamp (di) to house.
with other bands: i add distortion with Danelectro Overdrive, Vox wah, Alesis air efx, and Korg kaos pad. i also use my 1966 Epiphone Granada still as well. i'm hoping as computer technology moves to smaller boxes that some day i can shrink my rig to a smaller more manageable size...but so far to get the sounds i'm hearing i'm relying on the standard tuna boxes out there...i'm still finding new stuff all the time experimenting and trying to use my imagination...hope some of this info helps you out...any questions email me.....ok..... see you on the next tours....

painted bride philly

Tuesday, October 21, 2003 00:00:00 -700

ursula's theatre-esque show for the divine woman perfomances was very different utilizing the stage and lighting and dance featuring heidi cruz and myself creating the music...a very interesting night...a new creature is born...this is an unique experience with much room to grow...ursula's new album silver or lead is now out on k7...check it out.

fractal ark @ 5 spot philly

Tuesday, October 21, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a interesting but strange reunion of the fractal ark on wednesday night with myself, dj jolah, barry meehan, mark boyce and elliot levin...we didn't get all the stages off before we had to back up some mc's...so twasn't really the reunion we hoped for.
but, nevertheless, good to get back together and feel this wobbly music again...more to come for sure.

fractal ark @ 5 spot philly

Tuesday, October 21, 2003 00:00:00 -700

london, uk @ jazz cafe

Wednesday, October 15, 2003 00:00:00 -700

just back from 4 days in the camden area of london where we played a very wicked special show at the jazz cafe. all gear functioned perfectly thankfully for an enthusiastic sold-out audience and blessed with incredible sound by jc in-house sound engineer kevin...it was a busy week bustling around london to robert elms bbc london show with a live performance of 'time'...then on to a lengthy soundcheck and back later for our show which featured many new tracks that we hadn't performed live before from ursula's new album silver or lead...many highlights and re-arrangements as per usual
but based loosely on the album:: this (with beating heart via mpc2000), soon (featuring my first attempt of playing piano on my digital guitar to astounding effect), untitledflow (some folk-hop for the masses), and 2blues track - brainstream. ursula and i were at one of our highest moments of live performance here and the BBC was on-hand to record the entire show for an airing later this year. aftershow: met many wonderful folks...especially enjoyed watching the BBC engineers crawling around my gear to see how i was getting all those different sounds... eventually, after packing up, i took to the streets of london for some site seeing through soho, tralfagar square, downing street, big ben, the houses of parliament, and a wonderful sunrise on the thames near the milinium wheel...an hour cab ride back to hotel for 1 hour of sleep and then off to the BBC to record three acoustic tracks for the radio show the breeze sessions...further bustling around london afterward...to puma headquarters...then off to a guy called geralds flat where ursula recorded a new track for his upcoming release...back to hotel for some sleeeeep finally...but the lack there of was well worth it...brilliant as they say.

london, uk @ jazz cafe

Wednesday, October 15, 2003 00:00:00 -700

just back from 4 days in the camden area of london where we played a very wicked special show at the jazz cafe. all gear functioned perfectly thankfully for an enthusiastic sold-out audience and blessed with incredible sound by jc in-house sound engineer kevin...it was a busy week bustling around london to robert elms bbc london show with a live performance of 'time'...then on to a lengthy soundcheck and back later for our show which featured many new tracks that we hadn't performed live before from ursula's new album silver or lead...many highlights and re-arrangements as per usual
but based loosely on the album:: this (with beating heart via mpc2000), soon (featuring my first attempt of playing piano on my digital guitar to astounding effect), untitledflow (some folk-hop for the masses), and 2blues track - brainstream. ursula and i were at one of our highest moments of live performance here and the BBC was on-hand to record the entire show for an airing later this year. aftershow: met many wonderful folks...and eventually after packing up took to the streets of london for some site seeing through soho, tralfagar square, downing street, big ben, the houses of parliament, and a wonderful sunrise on the thames near the milinium wheel...an hour cab ride back to hotel for 1 hour of sleep and then off to the BBC to record three acoustic tracks for the radio show the breeze sessions...further bustling around london afterward...to puma headquarters...then off to a guy called geralds flat where ursula recorded a new track for his upcoming release...back to hotel for some sleeeeep finally...but the lack there of was well worth it...brilliant as they say.

jazz cafe - london, uk

Sunday, October 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

just back from 4 days in the camden area of london where we played a very wicked special show at the jazz cafe. all gear functioned perfectly thankfully for an enthusiastic sold-out audience and blessed with incredible sound by jc in-house sound engineer kevin...it was a busy week bustling around london to robert elms bbc london show with a live performance of 'time'...then on to a lengthy soundcheck and back later for our show which featured many new tracks that we hadn't performed live before from ursula's new album silver or lead...many highlights and re-arrangements as per usual
but based loosely on the album:: this (with beating heart via mpc2000), soon (featuring my first attempt of playing piano on my digital guitar to astounding effect), untitledflow (some folk-hop for the masses), and 2blues track - brainstream. ursula and i were at one of our highest moments of live performance here and the BBC was on-hand to record the entire show for an airing later this year. aftershow: met many wonderful folks...and eventually after packing up took to the streets of london for some site seeing through soho, tralfagar square, downing street, big ben, the houses of parliament, and a wonderful sunrise on the thames near the milinium wheel...an hour cab ride back to hotel for 1 hour of sleep and then off to the BBC to record three acoustic tracks for the radio show the breeze sessions...further bustling around london afterward...to puma headquarters...then off to a guy called geralds flat where ursula recorded a new track for his upcoming release...back to hotel for some sleeeeep finally...but the lack there of was well worth it...brilliant as they say.

jazz cafe - london, uk

Sunday, October 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

just back from 4 days in the camden area of london where we played a very wicked special show at the jazz cafe. all gear functioned perfectly thankfully for an enthusiastic sold-out audience and blessed with incredible sound by jc in-house sound engineer kevin...it was a busy week bustling around london to robert elms bbc london show with a live performance of 'time'...then on to a lengthy soundcheck and back later for our show which featured many new tracks that we hadn't performed live before from ursula's new album silver or lead...many highlights and re-arrangements as per usual
but based loosely on the album:: this (with beating heart via mpc2000), soon (featuring my first attempt of playing piano on my digital guitar to astounding effect), untitledflow (some folk-hop for the masses), and 2blues track - brainstream. ursula and i were at one of our highest moments of live performance here and the BBC was on-hand to record the entire show for an airing later this year. aftershow: met many wonderful folks...and eventually after packing up took to the streets of london for some site seeing through soho, tralfagar square, downing street, big ben, the houses of parliament, and a wonderful sunrise on the thames near the milinium wheel...an hour cab ride back to hotel for 1 hour of sleep and then off to the BBC to record three acoustic tracks for the radio show the breeze sessions...further bustling around london afterward...to puma headquarters...then off to a guy called geralds flat where ursula recorded a new track for his upcoming release...back to hotel for some sleeeeep finally...but the lack there of was well worth it...brilliant as they say.

jazz cafe - london, uk

Sunday, October 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

just back from 4 days in the camden area of london where we played a very wicked special show at the jazz cafe. all gear functioned perfectly thankfully for an enthusiastic sold-out audience and blessed with incredible sound by jc in-house sound engineer kevin...it was a busy week bustling around london to robert elms bbc london show with a live performance of 'time'...then on to a lengthy soundcheck and back later for our show which featured many new tracks that we hadn't performed live before from ursula's new album silver or lead...many highlights and re-arrangements as per usual
but based loosely on the album:: this (with beating heart via mpc2000), soon (featuring my first attempt of playing piano on my digital guitar to astounding effect), untitledflow (some folk-hop for the masses), and 2blues track - brainstream. ursula and i were at one of our highest moments of live performance here and the BBC was on-hand to record the entire show for an airing later this year. aftershow: met many wonderful folks...and eventually after packing up took to the streets of london for some site seeing through soho, tralfagar square, downing street, big ben, the houses of parliament, and a wonderful sunrise on the thames near the milinium wheel...an hour cab ride back to hotel for 1 hour of sleep and then off to the BBC to record three acoustic tracks for the radio show the breeze sessions...further bustling around london afterward...to puma headquarters...then off to a guy called geralds flat where ursula recorded a new track for his upcoming release...back to hotel for some sleeeeep finally...but the lack there of was well worth it...brilliant as they say.

brussels, belgium @ les tuits

Wednesday, October 01, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a nice time here in brussels...of course, i'm looking forward to sampling all the incredible beligian ales here...we are opening for Alex Kidd from Paris and his band promoting his new album ' mint'...great show with a different flow but cool all the same....audience def was feeling it...
also had a nice jam with alex + chris over ursula's soon...magical...it was.

for a show review check this link::

www.pleij.com

finally was able to get a chimay at the cafe after much searching...later, we went to an afterparty for peaches at another pub...with fantastic Duvels...but
terrible music....ahhhhhh!.....can't understand this.
a great time...tomorrow back to Philly...time to sleepppppp....good night.

brussels, belgium @ les tuits

Wednesday, October 01, 2003 00:00:00 -700

we had a nice time here in brussels...of course, i'm looking forward to sampling all the incredible beligian ales here...we are opening for Alex Kidd from Paris and his band...sound is great...and we have a great show...a different flow...but great.
for a show review check this::
http://www.pleij.net/bj/viewtopic.php?t=1750

finally was able to get a chimay at the cafe after much searching...later, we went to an afterparty for peaches at another pub...with fantastic Duvels...but
terrible music....ahhhhhh!.....can't understand this.
a great time...tomorrow back to Philly...time to sleepppppp....good night.

barcelona, spain @ BAM festival

Wednesday, October 01, 2003 00:00:00 -700

an amazing flight into barcelona via paris france to avoid the hurricane decending on the east coast of america...weather here is spectacular...but i'm wiped so off to bed at the H10 for a few hours...the rooms are moderne with 2 way view of the city.....and then
to exploring barcelona with salvadore from k7 our host for the night...beautiful!!...salads, fondue, wine,
etc...discussions on the fate of the music industry,
mp3 - a choice - then on to the festival - checked out
Spacek - nice show - drummer was amazing - hung out and met everyone after show...then back to HOTel for more rest....on saturday toured around barcelona but were, unfortunately, unable to check out any Gaudi architecture...but, hoping for next
time we are back in November...so...on to soundcheck:::: i was freaking out because various cables were not functioning and my air efx unit was broken...lots of mayhem and sweaty palms, but finally everything came together. after check hung out with none other than the Mad Professor (neil frasier) who most notably remixed MassiveAttacks Protection album...we had a blast talking about recording and studios...etc.....back to hotel for chill, change, beverage, and food in H10 bar....off to show. just before we went on stage, i told Ursula lets just go up and have a great time...unbeknownst to me there were 20,000 barcelonians in front of the stage...we Rocked this show!!! one of our best performances...and the audience was with us! i will not forget this show anytime soon...one burnt in the memory banks....after us lee 'scratch' perry with Mad Professor and robotics took the stage for some amazing dub experiments....until they blew the soundsystem sometime 90 minutes into their set....afterwards couldn't leave due to the overflow of people...finally back to hotel @ 4am...for 3 hours of sleep until we have to leave for brussels...just incredible insanity here....i must say i blew it by not bringing my video cam down to the show...too many amaZIng foto ops...............more to come......

barcelona, spain @ BAM festival

Wednesday, October 01, 2003 00:00:00 -700

an amazing flight into barcelona via paris france to avoid the hurricane decending on the east coast of america...weather here is spectacular...but i'm wiped so off to bed at the H10 for a few hours...and then
to exploring barcelona with salvadore from k7 our host for the night...beautiful!!...salads, fondue, wine,
etc...discussions on the fate of the music industry,
mp3 - a choice - then on to the festival - checked out
Spacek - nice show - drummer was amazing - hung out and met everyone after show...then back to HOTel for more rest....on saturday toured around barcelona but were, unfortunately, unable to check out any Gaudi architecture...but, hoping for next
time we are back in November...so...on to soundcheck:::: i was freaking out because various cables were not functioning and my air efx unit was broken...lots of mayhem and sweaty palms, but finally everything came together. after check hung out with none other than the Mad Professor (neil frasier) who most notably remixed MassiveAttacks Protection album...we had a blast talking about recording and studios...etc.....back to hotel for chill, change, beverage, and food in H10 bar....off to show. just before we went on stage, i told Ursula lets just go up and have a great time...unbeknownst to me there were 20,000 barcelonians in front of the stage...we Rocked this show!!! one of our best performances...and the audience was with us! i will not forget this show anytime soon...one burnt in the memory banks....after us lee 'scratch' perry with Mad Professor and robotics took the stage for some amazing dub experiments....until they blew the soundsystem sometime 90 minutes into their set....afterwards couldn't leave due to the overflow of people...finally back to hotel @ 4am...for 3 hours of sleep until we have to leave for brussels...just incredible insanity here....more to come......

UR studio session

Monday, September 29, 2003 00:00:00 -700

i've been working the past two + half days producing a hiphop inflected new b-side for ursula rucker's next k7 single - tempest - along with hawkeye phanatic...a very fast moving experience this time...as we only had 2 days to write, record and mix before we have to leave for festivals in barcelona and brussels...great work from hawkeye and ursula (as per usual)...my newly acquired 1906 story + clark upright piano got the call as well...as i had to use it for this song...look for this single as I believe it will be the flip side of 'this' produced by jazzanova....leaving later today for spain for the BAM festival...because of the time spent on this recording, no time to rehearse for our upcoming shows...see you in barcelona...time to pack...

global illage trio @ tritone

Saturday, September 13, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a 9/11 performance with improvisations for our people and our planet. global illage hasn't played together for about 3 months so it was a complete joy to create with this smaller version tonite with the amazing chris cuzme on fenderbass, saxophones, and mbira and the ever wonderful jim hamilton on percussion batterie augmented by myself on guitars, basslines, and sampler. another night of profound journeys took us around the solar system and then some. elliot levin joined us in set 2 with his poety and saxophone. we love this band - it's time more people here feel it' sublime
music.

synthesesia @fringe festival - cec, philadelphia

Wednesday, September 10, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a collaboration of some wonderful musicians: josh robinson (percussion), monica mcintyre (cello,voice),tania alexandra(keys,voice,loops,perc) and myself on fender guitar and efx boxes infinite....
as live soundtrack to jim lafferty's films. tonite a beautiful seemless flow with audience participation.
nights like these remind you of why you play music or why you are an artist in the first place. the performance was recorded, thankfully, and hopefully will surface sometime down the pike. an warm afterglow with the crew at the white dog to stories of cuba, fellini, hiphop, comedians, and clave. cheers.

base 3 v.2@F+M

Tuesday, September 09, 2003 00:00:00 -700

base3 v-2 reared it's crazyhead tonite with a 3 hour plus marathon of warped parliament-esque funk, jazz from the netherworld, noise symphonies, and quite a few blistering guitar solos. claudio rochat-felix, tim kennedy (tk) and myself explored the edge all night long...it was a struggle - as always is - but a good one. some of the highlights: tk programming beats on the fly against live drums and manipulating them thru d12's and delays...amazing...claudio's beats through effects and never knowing where they'd settle...it was a bit of the off road...never the easy path...but very rewarding non the less.the crew at f+m is always the best and we gave them all we had. afterpary at the f+m international house. we made an impression there...too much fun. a nice wind down for our ride back to philadelphia. bliss.

edinburgh, scotland

Tuesday, August 19, 2003 00:00:00 -700

an amazing week during the fringe festival here in edinburgh. what an amazing city. here working with the scottish dance theatre - scotlands principle contemporary dance company - and they are incredible. i have been commissioned to do a 30 minute composition for their 2004 premier and tours. amongst this work, managed to stay out on the town seeing numerous performances: culberg ballet from sweden, keane,
tom baxter, kevin tate...incredible restaurants, edinburgh castle, the vaults, recordshops....the only downside was british air and heathrow airport managed to lose our baggage both going to edinburgh and returning to philly. when flying - try to bypass heathrow or fly direct...if you must connect - try flying through frankfurt.

union terminal, cincinnati, ohio

Saturday, August 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room1908 crowne plaza hotel
a wonderful 3 days spent in my old haunts of cincinnati ohio...a reunion with the past...and new friends were to be made. a wonderful reception awaited us at the home of tamara our wonderful hostess for this festival of change. the first evening i gave a clinic on the various uses of all the incredible gear available to those who are aware and want to produce music: live or in the studio. it was well received by 'the heads'...the others probably wondered what was going on...improv performances with napoleon maddox (dj spooky, iswhat?), and a duo from nyc of poetry + bari sax...some enjoyable moments...and some moments of tremendous laughter. afterwards, visited the r+b cafe with my nephew jef and played some pool...not a bad evening. next day played an in-store at shake it records - one of the best record stores that i've ever been in - period. a night off to visit my sister and then to the cincy pubs to celebrate my nephew dan's 30th which ended somewhere around 4am, as i recall. day 3: a visit to a local breakfast hang with genius author Kathy Wilson at the over the rhine hot spot - alot of action here on the street - and then the market nearby. cincinnati is struggling to keep their fine city together. it has many many rewards. the evening- a very late performance by ursula and myself - and special in that my family was present to witness this beautiful duo that i am apart...and citybeat magazine called me an " astounding Hamilton-bred guitarist"..not sure what they mean by that, but thanks all the same!

montreal jazz festival

Tuesday, July 08, 2003 00:00:00 -700

rm. 809 wyndham hotel
a short flight in to montreal for our show this evening...hotel is very comfortable. beady belle from norway opened for us at clubsoda...funky norwegian music w/ vocalist beady belle ( annette peacock meets kate bush)...a real nice show...it was cool to hang out them...check them.... doc gibbs
joins ursula and myself for this show tonite...although not much rehearsal time, a very successful show...doc added some talking drum to philadelphia child to great effect...we def had some great musical moments...would like this trio to develop if we could...we shared the bill with vikter duplaix who was djing after us...eric benet and halle berry also showed up back stage before our show...kinda surreal seeing halle here, as i had just seen the new x men and swordfish films the night before...sound on this gig was superb as well as production - flat screen tv's adorned the stage with lo fi images and collages...this is an amazing festival. everyone is playing here...wish we could stay longer. so much to check out...maybe next year. wind down with some fine french wine afterwards.

www.beadybelle.com

catania, sicily

Saturday, July 05, 2003 00:00:00 -700

had 3 hours of sleep and one great shower. left for rome airport passing ancient monuments of the past. a nice flight into catania, hassle free. juris our promoter is there to greet us and deliver us to our hotel valentino tucked away on the 3rd floor and alas, no elevator here. thank god for derek and juris who helped me up a considerable amount of steps with 3 flight cases, luggage, and guitars. the rooms are quite nice, and have a great vibe. the hotel is situated at the edge of the shopping district which we take full advantage of.
beautiful stuff here. the citys architecture is dark via trace amounts of lava from mt. aetna nearby.
tonites show is in the country (kinda) at mercatti generalli. another outdoor show at beautful club. the weather is absolutely perfect and all the gear seems to be functioning fine. no worries tonite. lush vegetation and beautiful friendly people here. the show is very good. ursula and i are very strong tonite, i had my best show here so far. wonderful.
and finally! had a blast...after our set dj jacomo spun a wonderful dance set for all the smiling faces. note to self: careful with the mohito's!

amsterdam, the netherlands

Saturday, July 05, 2003 00:00:00 -700

the traffic in naples is bananas. absolutely no rhyme or reason. insane. but it keeps moving and somehow all the trucks, cars, buses, mopeds, motorcycles, cyclists, and pedestrians seem to make it. we fly into munich for a brief layover and then into one of my favorite airports....by the time we reach our hotel ibis it's nearing 11pm and we are all really tired. i am on my own again to explore amsterdam by late night...be the time i arrive in center it's real late...most establishments are closed or closing but i wonder around anyway and follow all the people...this eventually leds me to an area of dim glowing red lights...what a site to stumble up on...scattered around are the famous coffee shops, galleries, retail stores...i head back to bus station for ride back to airport around 2:30.
cabs back to ibis hotel are 20euro for about a 7 minute ride...i opt to wait for hotel shuttle @ 430am
so much for sleep on this trip. we leave for philly at 11am.

lo squardo di ulisse festival

Saturday, July 05, 2003 00:00:00 -700

arrived at venue an abandoned metal factory near the sea and mountains...really interesting. lots of found art just lying around here...quite a setting.
this festival is film, concert, and djset ...fontella bass, pole, and many interesting world artists will appear here over the next 10 days...not to mention amazing cinema. i opened roadcases to find broken line6 pedal and an mpc boot error which took awhile to figure out in the desert like sun...i'm dripping with sweat. finally everything is set after rebuilding the line 6. it's been a wild tour for gear craziness and all with no tech support. dinner is superb mussels, swordfish, gnocci, salata mista...

the show: after '25th hour' screens we take the stage to an awesome backdrop of special efx lighting and projections. we were banging right out of the gate with 'get ready'. sound is superb and consistent. highlights: supa sista, 4 minutes of fun, what?, and return to innocense lost. the audience was great with everyone by sets end hanging at the stage. a big success..and we are invited to return in the winter. so this is the end.
a good tour, no doubt...beers consumed, back to hotel...tomorrow we leave for a layover nite in amsterdam. i'm planning to go to the city for a walk around since i've never been.

naples, italy

Saturday, July 05, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a day off. shopping district is the call. we taxi across town and begin. saw the nuovo castle and many architectual wonders...vesuvius looms in the distance. no time to see pompeii this time or the sunken city but hopeful to come back someday.

catania/naples

Saturday, July 05, 2003 00:00:00 -700

my mohito of a headache this morning led me to expressos and breakfast on the outdoor balcony of this unique hotel. jacomo is downstairs to take us to the sea for some r + r...and what a beautiful drive. after many winding turns we make it to the beach made up of giant lava boulders that all beach goers throw their towels on for some fun in the sun. the water is so clean here. what can i say.
back to hotel for shower, packing, and on to catania airport. another comfortable 1st class flight courtesy of our alitalia stewardess sitting next to a seat of my guitars. greeted by fabrizio and bused to our best western hotel napoli style and then off for some napoli pizza...it's good! ursula and derek rest and i leave with fabrizio to go to opening nite of the festival. romanian brass band plays...sounds bulgarian to my ear. the smell of morrocan hash is in the air here as well. dj spins afterwards some brazilian music...and i'm back to hotel for some napoli tv...lo and behold, some fellini is on to wind me down.

rome, italy @ megahertz festival

Wednesday, July 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

tonite in rome, we are playing as part of a 3 day festival, much like summerstage in nyc, a beautiful outdoor setting for the megahertz festival. dego from 4 hero is here, as well as omino stanco who
played an amazing set. trouble started early for me as i was mildly being electricuted and the mpc was shutting off...crazy. a bad grounding problem with this electricity and transformer. finally had seemed to correct everything. soundcheck went fine. skip to showtime: mpc running for our intro, and as i began to play - no sound!!! two of my devices were off including the preamp powering my guitar!!! show promptly halted as i had to figure out a work around, but not before i was electricuted again touching audio cables...really bad grounding here...and it freaks you out, let me tell you. finally, the show went on without a hitch although not up to our usual high standards. people loved it though, especially supa sista....a bad show for us, but not as bad as rotterdam. tonites performance was upsetting and off balance. the sound on stage was bad, not full. a disappointment for our first concert in rome. fucking hell.
dego was on after us, and spun for 10-15 minutes until the rome polizia shut him down. a very weird day here...afterwards, paolo and i got lost in rome taking in all the historical ancient landmarks. unbelievable. tomorrow to catania, sicily.

reggio emilia, italy

Wednesday, July 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

the home of parmagiana. fantastic rest here at the home of frederico (president of the maffia club). we were able to spend some days recuperating and walking around the centre of reggio emilia. while here, ursula was invited to do a session with 2Blue for their upcoming release. enrico and rocca are the 2 producers that make up 2Blue and they invited me to do some ambient guitar on a different track. a nice session and two nice tracks.
the last day here ursula and i took a trip to bologna and saw this wonderful city. amazing must come back here again. incredible hospitality from our hosts...and a visit back to modena to see the astounding paintings of local texturalist stefan ricci...you'll be hearing alot about this amazing artist sooon...tomorrow we fly to rome.

modena, italy @ cafe concerto

Sunday, June 29, 2003 00:00:00 -700

we traveled by car today to Modena w/ our wonderful tour manager pauolo franti. modena is the home of pavarotti, i'm told,and what a setting for a concert. it's situated in the centre of this historic square of 14th century cathedral and leaning tower of duomo modena. we played outside after an amazing dinner of filleta di monaco, pasta, and lambrusco. good sound tonite with angelo our soundman and the maffia club crew were all here as well. show went well. our best show yet and ursula seemed to really enjoy this show as well as the beautiful setting. hung out for awhile afterwards...we will have a few days off here in reggio emilia to rest after some fairly strenuous travel days and no sleep. looking forward to rome our next stop in a few days.

rimini, italy - morphine room

Saturday, June 28, 2003 00:00:00 -700

flew from amsterdam into munich airport where we had a 4.5 hour layover. dealing with extreme exhaustion i collapsed over 3 chairs at our gate listening to hail to the thief on repeat oblivious to the outside world. the flight was very good into rimini and our first really comfortable one at that.
rimini is kinda like ibiza i'm told - a real party town -beautiful people here but it's all too much after awhile. no time for more rest. soundcheck at cocorico's morphine room - a small all white chillout lounge nestled in the back of a giant technodisco firetrap. PA is very bad. can't handle any lowend...clipping badly. but we will make the best of it. bad hum too.
show: after a long wait for dinner of a mix of fish back to morphine. 1600+people overpacked. scarey. show is very raw and very loud, but comes off as well as to be expected. after show a few beers and back to our hotel to sleeeeeeeeep.

rotterdam, the netherlands

Saturday, June 28, 2003 00:00:00 -700

After returning to hotel after festival to pack up i had the pleasure of meeting the violinist for sparklehorse (one of my favorite artists)...so it was really cool to make this link (so to speak)...hopefully some music down the line...so, left hotel for the 3 hour drive to stockholm past amazingly mythological viking burial grounds...a beautiful drive here...an amazing countryside to gaze at during the long drive. 5 hour layover at stockholm airport (due to our plane breakingdown)
finally into amsterdam and on to the train to rotterdam with 11 pieces of gear and luggage...
rotterdam show was a disappointment for us.
sound was lousy...an inexperienced monitor person and feedback all around us...i was practically playing off stage...but, we made it through this struggle. back to hotel...slept for one
hour before leaving for amsterdam airport for our flight to rimini, italy....yawn.

hultsfred festival, hultsfred sweden

Friday, June 13, 2003 00:00:00 -700

vimmerby stadthotel room 103
some major traveling getting to this festival...flight into manchester england 2 hour layover then flight to stockholm sweden followed by a 3.5 hour drive by van into vimmerby where our hotel was. long exhausted night sleep then off to festival. a frantic setup during soundcheck as i discovered my zipdrive was malfunctioning...finished seconds before showtime...wonderful show with a shakey start due to lack of soundcheck...show was filmed for swedish mtv...this day we shared billing with massive attack , dave gahan of depechemode, catpower, raveonettes, schneider tm, and many others...massive attack were incredible...dont miss their show when they come to your city.
next headed to amsterdam then on to rotterdam for theater show...more to come.

off to sweden

Tuesday, June 10, 2003 00:00:00 -700

crazy busy with rehearsals and packing too much
gear...looking forward to this new tour covering
festivals, theatres, clubs, and who knows what else...should be beautiful...stay tuned for updates from europe...off we go.

krass bros. @ bar noir

Thursday, June 05, 2003 00:00:00 -700

night 3. it's been a busy weekend of playing
and such diverstiy of musics. tonight with mark
boyce, barry meehan, and ted johnson at bar noir.
a quite loud show but blazing none the less. we covered, in our own way, 'dig a pony', waterloo sunset by the kinks', some old sly stone, and a few
boyce originals...it was a great night. i was buzzing after the show...still working out the inner workings of my new guitar amp and it's relationship with my trusty '66 epiphone...i like it!!
this week has been music madness...picked up all the zeppelin dvd + cds, saw lou reed at the tower theatre, and checked out denmarks raveonettes at the northstar...really loud...rock is back folks. here it comes. i'm glad too. it's time for bands to be back in the forefront...but, of course, we still need some good ones...krass bros. are ready to wipe the floor with anybody...see you next time at pontiac june 26th...next stop Hultsfred festival in Sweden with Ursula Rucker...more to come.

photo: mark boyce action figure by tim motzer

base3 v2

Monday, June 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

night 2 at tritone.
an interesting first set of late night improvisation with TK,
claudio rochat-felix, philip yaeger, and doug hirlinger sitting in on two pieces...second set failed to ignite into any great moments or direction...kind of waffled...but happy for the first set...and it was recorded...night was weird at the end...but had a cool wind down at ruba...all good.

jamaaladeen tacuma @ DNA galleria

Monday, June 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

it's been a fun weekend so far, starting with a
rehearsal at jamaaladeen tacuma's sound genetics studios where we did an off the cuff recording...19 minutes of exploration...which
kinda ended up as a wonderful piece of music...
we then burned a cd and ran down to WRTI
studio for michael harrison's show "the bridge"
for a sorta world premiere all in promotion of our show at the Tritone on saturday with Jack Walrath.

jump to show:: a wild and wooly ride...much like speeding in a jaguar around monaco curves with the pedal to the metal::: an astounding night though. two sets
of blistering musicmeltdown and it succeeded. bluenote recording artist jack walrath was amazing on trumpet..and many ridiculous moments
all night from this quartet which also featured tony
catastrophe on drumkit. looking forward to playing more with jamaaladeen and crew....it was quite an
honour being invited out to play in his on-going DNA galleria series. cheers.

jamaaladeen article
www.jackwalrath.com
www.tonycatastrophe.com
wrti 90.1 fm philadelphia - the bridge
friday 10-2 with mike harrison

photo: lost in space model at jamaal's studio

BASE3 v2, bar noir, philadelphia

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 00:00:00 -700

the chemistry is kickin in the B3-v2 trio. tim kennedy (phenixorgan, moog, beatbox). claudio rochat-felix (drum kit)and myself(guitarbass,electronix)... interesting things tonite...my amp blew up duringsoundcheck..and by the grace of the king.
my good friend jolah showed up and hooked up an amp for me to use...as it turned out...i am now the proud owner of said amp...a beautiful flow of events. as for the music!!!! this trio
is hot...place was packed tonite with dancing patrons and we played some shit!!! we'll be back
in july and some dates in nyc soon too. effortless
music tonite. it just flowed out...good friends joined us tonite as well...dj jolah let loose 3 new pieces, and phil yaeger adorned us with his trombone...
thanks to everyone that stayed and partied so hard with us. we had a blast.

NU CULTURES @ 5 Spot, Philly

Thursday, May 15, 2003 00:00:00 -700

quite an interesting evening of music last night
with the hauntingly beautiful vanishing peoples of the earth and our very own
Nu Cultures featuring Ellie Perez...this group hasn't played since last summers concert in the park at Rittenhouse Square...we're in the middle of mixing the new album and this was a great opportunity to try out some new songs and a few older ones with this phenomenal band...the show came off well, but soundwise on stage really bad...couldn't hear vocals, or instrument mix..the 5 spot needs to seriously upgrade their monitors and soundsystem if they're gonna continue live music...show highlights: ellie perez bjork-like stage vibe, monica mcintyre cello on 'nowhere', 'on the rise' live sailed up w a great mark boyce rhodes workout...definitely a struggle
for us soundwise...but the dancing audience really dug it... so there you go...Helene from Les Nubians was here and it was wonderful to reconnect with her...new Philadelphians, y'know! Lady Alma also was in the house checkin things out... a really nice turnout for our performance...thanks to everyone that came out and showed support!! thanks to ivan ross + crew for putting this great nite together. hope to do it again.

ILLAGE, tritone, philadelphia

Friday, May 09, 2003 00:00:00 -700

since our mighty batterist, jim hamilton, was out of
town on a well deserved holiday, we had a few guest players last night at tritone for the illage
global inversion band...with tim kennedy (tk)
on his vintage phenix, moog, and beatbox; and from nyc on
drums claudio rochat-felix (the keith moon of jazzimprov!). another tremendous evening of music
here at the tritone. the sets were amazing especially the moments of surreal alice coltrane, funk, secret agent rock, dub, noise experiments, fuzzswing, phat basslines, nasty organ soul,
collective free improv and amazing solos + melodies by the esp-like horns of chris cuzme, dan sears, and phil yaeger...another brilliant night...great to be apart
of all this...and hope we can do some more hits with this mighty lineup...recorded noisily to analogue cassette for posterity. snippets sure to
come on the 1k sounds page...mp3 style...soon!

URSULA RUCKER @ the black cat, washington dc

Sunday, May 04, 2003 00:00:00 -700

phoenix rm 316

dave grohl and the foo fighters played here last night as part of a surprise aol live broadcast, and as a result our soundcheck is pushed back to 8pm with doors opening at 9:30...with 3 bands to soundcheck, there's not much time for me to set up all the gear and to get a good monitor mix for the show...as a result, ursula and i make the best of it during our hour set at the black cat. not one of our best shows soundwise, but some stellar moments: four minutes of fun with it's arabic workout and what? (which ursula, as usual, turned the crowd inside out on)...but folks here were great as usual and seemed to feel the show as is.
thanks to marc and vickey (as usual) for setting a great vibe.

NEW WORLD TRIO, rotunda philadelphia

Sunday, May 04, 2003 00:00:00 -700

for those lucky enough to be there, myself included, this night was one of those rare pure moments of musical bliss. rick iannacone, notable! guit-artist with jamaaladeen tacuma, myself, and jim hamilton explored new worlds indeed. 90 minutes
of beautiful grooves, static loops, noise and feedback morphing into moments of asian-esque
soundscapes, ringmodulated afro-cuban workouts,
sonic metal shards splintering...and the iannacone guitar work! RI - one of the guitarworlds true innovators + explorers. (along with myself, of course!)...this trio is ready for the worldstage. as jim put it during load-out, " we should take this gear to philly airport right now and fly to japan." we need to make more gigs happen with this electrifying band. i'll be buzzing from this show for a long time. amazing. hopefully, we can do a record and some touring. this one is ready to go.

the krass brothers, bar noir philadelphia

Tuesday, April 29, 2003 00:00:00 -700

last nights show at bar noir re-set the bad vibe
there from a week ago. i played with mark boyce's
new band the krass brothers, along with chuck d
on percussion, ted johnson on kit, and b meehan on da bass...this show rocked! and the chemistry
is def happening in this band..lotsa great music:
some gene ammons, curtis mayfield reworkings,
some ole sly stoneflower tracks, some latin vibes, and many funk
improvs::crowd was hollerin for more...a great night..alot of energy...mark killed the rhodes and organ...and i had to pull out all the stops on the guitar too...made me work hard and dig deeep. the rhythm section is so funky...pocket all night. look for
more shows from this soulrockfunk discharge unit.

UR - MACLA, San Jose,CA

Sunday, April 27, 2003 00:00:00 -700

United Airlines 8am (est)
flying to chicago then on to San Jose.
not much sleep last night so pretty exhausted
already.

1am(pst) 7 hours later:
arrived to San Jose airport greeted by K.
both Urse + I are kinda ill and i'm fatigued
from lack of sleep. dropped gear at the macla
venue and on to have lunch with Flo Brown, Urse,
and Macla crew at a thai spot. soundcheck is scheduled at 4pm so gonna go try to sleep for
an hour.

4pm
ramada room 214
one hour of deep delirious sleep.
arrive at soundcheck but no sound here yet,
so back to hotel. they will call when ready for us.

6pm
two hours of unconsciousness. then
a call for us to come down. when we get there
sound is still not ready...so we drove to a cafe for
some expresso to try to wake up...i'm really spaced.
cafe server talking about books by hermann hesse
and frank herbert. back to venue. so set up gear
and finished while doors are opening...no sound check for us...just line check...

8pm
really great west coast poets here tonite...i haven't
heard much originality lately in this area...our show
was on at midnight...it was really good to play after
waiting around all day...set: inspiration, get ready,
philly child, four minutes of fun, keep falling, song for billy, what a woman must do...
macla is an amazing organization of creative individuals; the gallery was incredible. if you are
in san jose be sure to look up this place...lots of
live performances and fantastic message laden local art...
i will try to post some in the galleries soon.

2:30am
back to hotel ramada for a few hours sleep before
7 hour flight back to philly at 7:54am...gonna be burnt tomorrow but that's rock n roll 4 ya.

base3 @barnoir, philadelphia

Tuesday, April 22, 2003 00:00:00 -700

3:35am
from a highpoint performance w/ global illage on saturday in lancaster where all the magic that is music was present to the lowest of all points as artists at barnoir tonight and all in the presence of an attentive audience. not a happy feeling, let me tell you. i must say one of the saddest gigs of my professional career tonite...everything sagged badly.. we struggled poorly...makes you wonder what happened? we attribute it to chemistry...
chemistry cannot be created or formulated.
it's an enigma. it's important to recognize when
chemistry is present...and give it full attention and
respect. but not tonight. B3v1 R.I.P. and...
it's amazing how much insanity, thoughtlessness, and rude interuptions frustrated our playing. they
were all hanging out with us this strange
evening.

thanks to everyone that came out and showed
support and enthusiasm...unfortunately, this was not the desired result. numbed by bass ale and lorenzos pie(s).

global illage @ f+m college, lancaster

Sunday, April 20, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a beautiful drive into the land of farms and amish
folk...and the usual ecstatic f+m crowd and vibe that always makes these shows phenomenal
experiences. what can i say...this band can go
anywhere musically and does often. tonite from my
position...this was one of our best nites ever.
some highlights: chris cuzme double sax debut;
a lanquid romp in middle eastern overtones with
phil, dan, and chris landing somewhere between
klezmer and ancient arab melodies; heavy metal
blietzkrieg with radiohead horns, and dare i say
the drumming of jim hamilton was enthralling as ever...and a sample + hold mistake that became
a full out drum and bass electronic trigger fest...
some video and audio recordings tonite...some
excerpts sure to pop out some where soon.

UR and friends @ tritone, philadelphia

Saturday, April 19, 2003 00:00:00 -700

tonite our last philadelphia performance for
awhile...it was a special pairing of ursula, vicki miles, myself, and cellist helena (from sweden)..we played an acoustic set of mostly
new ursula poems (25000, 4 minutes of fun,
inspiration, secrets, plus some favorites) and
the captivating vicki miles (sylk130) sang gorgeous (from 'when the funk hits the fan'), and letter to a sister friend...a rare treat to have vicki perform with us. the addition of cello and especially helenas beautiful interpretations, shadings and etchings over this music really added some new dynamic terrain to explore... so we hope to do this lineup again in the future.

global illage @ tritone, philadelphia

Friday, April 11, 2003 00:00:00 -700

weather is still cold and rainy...seems like the last
four shows at tritone have been this way...tonite,
started late 11:15...played two sets ending at
1:40am...nice audience here as well...we travelled
to some interesting musical territories ala - sonic youth, billfrisell, africa, reggae, metal, free jazz,
asia, out swing...kind of free associations happening...another enjoyable global illage session....really great playing with chris, dan, phil,and jim...what a band...we've got quite a special chemistry...i've come to really look forward to our
performances...and don't take them for granted.
this is as real as music can get, when it decides
to show up...hopefully, we'll be getting some more music out on CD soon for some of our listeners
out there................of course, hopdevils fueled the evening.

freedom theatre, philadelphia

Tuesday, April 08, 2003 00:00:00 -700

if you live in philly and haven't been yet to the
freedom theatre you must go! tonite's show
with ursula was part of poetry month and featured
many incredible philadelphia poets like
mama with da drama, aisha, and many other original talents...russel simmons take note...!!
we did a quite a few new pieces live tonite and
walter bell joined us on flute...a nice intimate evening here...meanwhile down the hallway from us
was a special dress rehearsal gig from the funk brothers (ie: the motown session musicians) who
star in the film: standing in the shadows of motown.
i only saw the beginning and end, but i must say from
'aint no mountain high enough', maxi priest covering the marvin gaye classics from 'what's goin on', a little bit of stevie wonder, and joan osbourne! made me
feel alright...an added suprise bonus for
comin out tonite...catch these guys on tour in a city near you in the next two weeks...peace until next time.

kyber pass, philadelphia

Monday, April 07, 2003 00:00:00 -700

mark boyce invited me to play with a one-off band
tonite at kyber that also included brendan and art
from the photonband, and jamie (bassist from marah)...first show i've played at kyber since firecode violations made them cut the stage to
2/3rds of it's original size...crazy. show was real!
my first marshall 4x12 experience...i didn't know
what i was missin!!!! quite a rock band...we need
to do this again...the crowd was blown.
hop devils provided flavour tonite.

sob's new york city

Saturday, March 29, 2003 00:00:00 -700

ursula + I drove to nyc today for our 3rd show at
SOB's...sound was good this time around...
groove collective opened for us and it was
cool to meet Jonathan, Ben, and all the cats...
we played a pretty mean show tonite plus a
world premier of a new poem 25000 with a rock vibe to the music...it was well received...good
show...SOB's is always hard for some reason...
hard to feel the audience...kinda feels hollow...but
people say they loved so....there you go. the show
was recorded as well...so perhaps some stuff will
surface at some point in the future....beverage: 2 guiness for a wind down...we grabbed some falafels, and spinach pies with gamall from backspin promotion, and then, hit the road back to philly...pit stop at one of the nastiest dirty rest stops of all time....gotta love the NJ turnpike...always great to be nyc again though...

transit, philadelphia

Saturday, March 22, 2003 00:00:00 -700

tonite's show in philadelphia was part of the
ladyfest - and quite a show it was with us double
billing with bahamadia...quite the diverse audience
and i believe partly an all ages show...our set tonite
made up for last weeks struggle in baltimore...we were flying tonite...properly fueled by abbeys' leffe blondes...highlights tonite: philadelphia child,
what??, time, + supa sista...and it was great finally meeting bahamadia and hear her live performance!!! great sound by barb adams from electric factory!!!

TO PEACE IN THE WORLD. STRANGE CRAZY ALIEN TIME. PEACE.

sonar, baltimore md

Monday, March 17, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room 2901 tremont hotel

our first show in a dance club, sonar. a nice
venue housing two separate rooms for djs...great
hosts...but we ended up competing with the
house dj's in the other room unfortunately...
our music + beats colliding with raging sub bass + house tempos pounding thru walls ...alas...we had to drop our quiet pieces from the set...maybe one of the hardest shows we've done...we really rocked 'time' and 'supa sista' though...old school philly style...we gave it our best shot.

postshow, gently numbed and staggered courtesy of duvel. afterwards grooved + sushi'd at kobe to dj kevin yost.

lisbon, portugal

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room 213 borges hotel, lisbon portugal.

the drive from porto was long with very beautiful
sea and country sides to gaze at....made it to lisbon just in
time for soundcheck at the sao luiz municipal theatern...again,,,an incredible sold-out royal opera hall...
we had another amazing show...and standing ovations...the lisbon newspapers reviewed the shows favourably,,,as well as various tv and press...we were
really taken by the kindness, thoughtfulness and generosity by everyone we met along the way of this tour...everyone here were wonderful..many new friends....after show, kicked it with jorge, kalaff, cristina, and friends at a seriously grooving club...spent next few
days chilling in cafes, exploring lisbon, and of course eating amazing food...ahhhh...it's gonna
be hard going back to philadelphia after this!!!!
i will upload some photos from our journey soon..

porto, portugal

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room 411 porto carlton hotel.

we had a brief layover in paris in the new terminal...an architectual wonder...and then on
to portugal...greeted by marianna and jorge
at the airport...the trip was quite fun as our drivers
promptly got lost in the portugal streets for an hour
before we arrived at our hotel carlton...the rooms are really nice, very tired from travel and little sleep...took opportunity to soak awhile in this marble bath.....wonderful meals here...(you could often hear me saying "it doesn't get much better than this!")...the weather is beautiful...reminds you of LA nights, but better...the sun is bright here...but they tell me even brighter light in lisbon where we will play our last show...at the san luiz municipal theatern....porto is on the
douro river near the sea and is known for its amazing port wines and wineries...a most incredible city on the water, beautiful bridges, and
old architechture keeps your eyes buzzing...and the people here are the best!!! we played the hardclub across the river from our hotel...built into
the side of a mountain...the club gets its name from
all the stone and wood construction...the show and
sound here were superb...the way i like it...with subs really kicking..philly style...packed empathetic audience...paparazzi was here too...
after the show...checked out some porto clubs with
my new friend kalaf (mc, poet, dj, bulliet) - including
a drumnbass show in the hull of a docked boat....!!!
talk about waves....ahhhh!! as per usual on this tour the food, deserts, and wines were superb!!!

beers were provided by super bock. also, must
say the euro tv news is much superior to US tv
coverage...you at least get to see reporting from all sides...and it doesn't come at you with such hyper anxiety driven hyperbole...in your city check
out public tv for world news for a broader spectrum
of coverage.

neffertiti gothenburg sweden

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room 404 victors hotel skeppsbroplatsen 1

more cold gray weather here in sweden...the land
of frozen lakes and rivers where snow stays on the
ground for months...quite a site to behold.
a wonderful train ride into gothenburg where we were received by staffan who took us to the club
neffertiti for soundcheck...this is a very hip spot
known for having many of the ecm and u.s. jazz artists
like joe zawinul, jack dejohnette, don cherry...as well as
various electronic artists...although our soundcheck
was perfect...once the show was underway...our mixer decided to cut the mid's from my guitar leaving me to struggle with a sound with no body...
a very difficult show for me and ursula...still well received, but we knew the difference...hung out afterwards talking politiks, culture, and linguistics...
although i can't remember the names- the beers were czech + a certain strong belgian to gently numb my memory of tonites struggle.
tomorrow we fly to portugal...where i hear the sun is shining...

UR setllist::
watch your step intro
get ready
womansong
philadelphia child
circe
fear in flight
what?
what a woman must do
keep falling
time
supa sista
song for billy or
innocence lost

soder teatern stockholm sweden

Wednesday, March 12, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room 405 sjofarthotellet scandic - nice + warm.

after spending most of the day in charles degualle
airport terminal 1, our mixed-up flights were finally re-scheduled and we had good flights to amsterdam and into stockholm...while in amsterdams airport i sampled the very yoko ono-esque 'watch your step' during our escalator ride...this eventually appeared as the opening ambient piece in the beginning of ursula's show
for the rest of the tour....the following day
arrived at soder teatern for soundcheck...an amazing opera/dance/music theatre dedicated to all artistic expression...expert sound by daniel...
musician/producer/engineer/moog theremin-ist...when ursula arrived she was greeted by
a scandanavian television crew who filmed our
soundcheck and subsequent interview....our first seated audience...was ecstatic for our show...even a clap along during 'supa sista'....again wonderful people here...and high hopes of returning to this beautiful gray frozen city...maybe in the summer...when its
warmer...and thawed out.

la scene paris

Sunday, March 02, 2003 00:00:00 -700

paris bastille hotel....room 303...no elevator here.
gear was promptly transported to club for tomorrows show...thanks for your help arse....

flight into paris was cool:::our show at la scene was possibly our best show yet!!!!:::an incredibly diverse parisian audience was really
with us:::soundsystem there was the bomb::::
capacity audience really responded to ursulas poetry + messages and my music:::alot of newfans::::guitar synth; airefx, massive guitar/bass
were really effective at this club::::::alex kid was there and wants to do a clubremix of our live version of what?:::so we will see::::really really great show::::we killed it::::carried gear back in the rain to hotel after show (5am) up 3 flights...no joke....today
ursula flew back to new york to tape a spot for hbo::then she will meet us in sweden for the next
show in stockholm:::spent some of the day at
des palaise de tokyo at the hardcore exhibition:::
incredible:::and of course many cafes:::::paris still resonates me...an amazing city....next
stop sweden:::::bon voyage::::

paris radio: 103.5 nova radio
www.novaplanet.com
heiniken is all they had.
photo: jan pham huu tri - la scene, paris.

viva venice italy

Friday, February 28, 2003 00:00:00 -700

two beautiful flights in to madrid and then to
venice...arrived happily with gear intact,
have been recording a new project with
ursula with producer-composer roberto rusconi-
ursula has written 3 new poems -one entitled
25000 - soon to be a classic! ive added guitars
and guitar synths to 3 tracks as well to be arranged,
chopped and morphed in logic....the food
here is nothing short of absolutely incredible...
hosted by the legendary valentino (mr.v) and roberto."nothing but the best"...bonnicimo!! last night we played our first concert here at marina club-(near the adriatic sea)-beautiful space and people...and of course the food was off the hook not to mention the wine...ahh!!.....bravo venizia...historic villas, beautiful architecture, capicinos, gallani, fashion...tonite we leave for paris...more soon...caio.

snow trip back to montreal

Monday, February 24, 2003 00:00:00 -700

before we left vt, we taped a radio
show - interview + performance...
performed 'damned if i do', "philadelphia
child", and 'supa sista'...free radio burlington::
then the race to get back to montreal - in a
blizzard:::ahhhh::::it was a bit stressful in 3 1/2
hour drive back, but we finally made it, in time
to catch our plane back...arrived in philly @ 9pm
waited for 2 hours for our bags and gear to finally
show up...philly international...keepin it real.
it's a glamourous life...tomorrow pack and leave
for italy...stay tuned...

metronome- burlington vt

Monday, February 24, 2003 00:00:00 -700

a trip to burlington vermont:::home
of phish, jazzmandolin project, ben+jerrys
ice cream...etc..a bitterly cold grey day
here in montreal as we leave to drive
to burlington with mauro, bassist with
gsybe, some great discussions about
his band- a kind of post-rock tortoise
9piece including violin, cello, 3 guitars,
2 bass players, and two drummers,,,recently
with new disc on cranky out of chicago produced
by steve albini...can't wait to hear this!!!!
entrenched in our conversations on traveling
in europe, icelandic touring experiences including
the famous sulphur baths and music scene there:
sigor ros, mum, bjork, etc...and a band from
montreal called goa which harkens back to
early 70's synth kraut rock (neu,can,etc)...great stuff to sustain the 2 hour journey....the show in
vt...was at the metronome club above nektors
sound expertly handled by our new russian friend
serge:::great thai at the five spice:::a new audience
for us here and a good set::: i've been enjoying
our new arrangement of 'what?' by 4 hero off of
the supa sista record...guitar synth plays a heavy
roll-string pads, pulse bass + rhodes and middle
eastern reeds all figure heavy into this poem about
the mediocrity of black radio...we flipped this one.
audience def dug our show...met jazzmandolin-ist
jamie mansfield...common connection ari hoenig-who we've both played and recorded with...so it
was great to finally meet after hearing so many
great things....it's def a small world out there.
after our show, checked out burlington clubs...a good evening and introduction to this fine town and
people...looking forward to next time.

montreal - la solla rossa

Monday, February 24, 2003 00:00:00 -700

room 504 le appartmente montreal, quebec

we played an amazing place tonite -in montreal::
la solla rosa owned by the bass player
from godspeed you black emporer...
more on that later..packed house tonite
and audience thoroughly engrossed in
the words and music...mid-way through
the show you could hear a pin drop...it was
amazing...beautiful people there...many highlights
tonight...but the big surprise of the set was
performing "return to innocence lost"...
everyone recognized the opening toy piano
sounds from the roots - things fall apart disc...
an emotional ride for everyone there....also
great food at the cafe:::ah...um::

new tour to start Friday

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 00:00:00 -700

it's been a few days of digging out of 2 feet of
snow dumped all over this region...but finally
done...the roof, the deck, and driveways...my
back is wrecked...meanwhile, getting excited and
ready for the next shows with ursula...starting
friday in montreal...should be an exceptional
tour and show..rehearsals were snowdelayed abit...but getting underway today and tomorrow...
and then the big pack of clothes, gear, and guitars.
and then the inevitable dealing @ da airlines...
more to come...t