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NOTES FROM THE ROAD
a rare hello
7/8/2008
COLOGNE GERMANY
10/2/2007
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!
7/4/2007
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
2/14/2007
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
1/6/2007
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
11/16/2006
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
11/8/2006
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.
10/29/2006
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...
10/23/2006
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
8/15/2006
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...
madness continues
6/9/2006
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
6/2/2006
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
5/18/2006
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
5/2/2006
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
back in philly
3/30/2006
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.
zurich
3/25/2006
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.
bern, switzerland
3/24/2006
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dortmund, germany
3/23/2006
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.
freiburg, germany
3/22/2006
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.
paris-the riot-foundation cartier
3/21/2006
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.
basel, switzerland
3/20/2006
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
3/19/2006
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.
vienna
3/19/2006
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.
vila nova de famalicao
3/18/2006
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.
alcabisso, portugal
3/17/2006
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)
lisbon, portugal
3/16/2006
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.
roma, italy day 2
3/15/2006
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.
roma, italy
3/14/2006
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!
firenze, italy
3/13/2006
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.
catania, sicily
3/11/2006
rome
3/10/2006
rome-bari
3/9/2006
hamburg
3/8/2006
cologne
3/7/2006
berlin
3/6/2006
brugge
3/5/2006
antwerp
3/4/2006
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
3/2/2006
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
3/1/2006
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
1/27/2006
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
1/17/2006
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
12/27/2005
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
12/23/2005
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.
lancaster, pa
12/17/2005
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.
london, UK
11/28/2005
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
porto, portugal day two
11/27/2005
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
11/26/2005
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
11/25/2005
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
11/24/2005
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 3
11/23/2005
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 - day of show
11/22/2005
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
11/21/2005
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
11/20/2005
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
11/19/2005
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
11/13/2005
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
11/6/2005
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
11/6/2005
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
10/28/2005
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
10/16/2005
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
8/22/2005
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
8/2/2005
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.
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071005 tritone
7/11/2005
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
6/27/2005
philly-nyc 061505
6/16/2005
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
6/6/2005
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
6/5/2005
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
5/7/2005
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
4/20/2005
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...
philly art museum
4/2/2005
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.
nikka costa
3/31/2005
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...
the hut, philly
3/17/2005
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
3/10/2005
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
7/8/2008
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 moonbeam remixes (1k) coming in august...remixes by tilomo, the man from no where, tielaxu, 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 GERMANY10/2/2007
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!7/4/2007
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
2/14/2007
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
1/6/2007
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
11/16/2006
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
11/8/2006
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.
10/29/2006
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...10/23/2006
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
8/15/2006
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...
madness continues
6/9/2006
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 vice6/2/2006
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 voices5/18/2006
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, tilomo5/2/2006
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
back in philly3/30/2006
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.
zurich
3/25/2006
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.
bern, switzerland
3/24/2006
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dortmund, germany
3/23/2006
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.
freiburg, germany
3/22/2006
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.
paris-the riot-foundation cartier
3/21/2006
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.
basel, switzerland
3/20/2006
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
3/19/2006
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.
vienna
3/19/2006
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.
vila nova de famalicao
3/18/2006
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.
alcabisso, portugal
3/17/2006
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)
lisbon, portugal
3/16/2006
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.
roma, italy day 23/15/2006
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.
roma, italy
3/14/2006
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!
firenze, italy
3/13/2006
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.
catania, sicily
3/11/2006
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...
rome3/10/2006
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....
rome-bari
3/9/2006
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.
hamburg
3/8/2006
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...
cologne
3/7/2006
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
3/6/2006
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
3/5/2006
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.
antwerp3/4/2006
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
3/2/2006
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.
02/28/063/1/2006
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.
nautica1/27/2006
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/mep1/17/2006
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, philadelphia12/27/2005
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
12/23/2005
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.
lancaster, pa12/17/2005
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.
london, UK11/28/2005
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
porto, portugal day two11/27/2005
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
11/26/2005
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, portugal11/25/2005
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, portugal11/24/2005
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 311/23/2005
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 - day of show
11/22/2005
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.
berlin11/21/2005
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 belgium11/20/2005
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
11/19/2005
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 @ worldcafe11/13/2005
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 gig11/6/2005
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
11/6/2005
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 bash10/28/2005
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 philly10/16/2005
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 word8/22/2005
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)))
gigs8/2/2005
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 tritone7/11/2005
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-nyc6/27/2005
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 0615056/16/2005
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
6/6/2005
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
6/5/2005
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.
nautica5/7/2005
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
4/20/2005
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...
philly art museum4/2/2005
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.
nikka costa3/31/2005
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...
the hut, philly
3/17/2005
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
3/10/2005
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