and what a delight
I have not visited this wonderful page in a few, and lo do I hear more recordings from a simpler time
I’m excited about our East Coast “Swallow the Vengeance” Fall ’09 Tour
I still don’t have a job, nor have I been evicted
please enjoy:
(to the tune of the third episode of Danny McBride’s seminal Eastbound and Down)
Got an email yesterday from someone asking to use this tune (aka “The Pickings Were Slim”) in a video for his job. My answer: of course! And thanks!
Never officially released, “Pickings” is an outtake from the sessions for our first album, Hardcore. I later included an unmixed version of it in our bootleg-for-the-fans release, Industrialjazzwerke, vol. 1. (This particular take of the tune, alas, can never actually be mixed, because the original master has been lost.)
Oh, the irony! “Pickings” is one of the prettiest small group pieces I ever wrote, and sometimes I am still bummed that, in the limited studio time we had, we didn’t get a performance that justified putting it on the first record. Ah, well. Maybe we’ll return to it someday.
Personnel: Evan Francis (flute), Mike Dodge (tenor sax), Aaron Kohen (bass), Drew Hemwall (drums), Durkin (piano, composition).
[photo credit: JasonRogersFooDogGiraffeBee]
Another one from the archives: The Job Song (version no. 2)
This one strikes out in a completely different direction from the original (version no. 1). It flirts pretty shamelessly with melodrama — an approach I would later abandon.
Recorded in the late nineties (I don’t remember exactly when) at a USC coffeehouse (I don’t remember exactly where), this may have been my first public performance of my own material since the demise of the Evelyn Situation (in 1995). And it shows. The performance is not the best (it was a one-off thing, not a regular version of the band). But a valiant effort was made by all: Jessica Klerks (vocals), Joe Tepperman (bass), and me (piano). If nothing else, this is an interesting document of a tune in transition (there would be one more version between this one and the Industrial Jazz Group version, which is my favorite, and which you can hear via the little ReverbNation widget in the upper right-hand corner of this page.)
[Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives.]
Another one from the same show as before.
The idea of the tune was to have everyone gradually shift from the written chart to free improv and back. Sorta like this:
1. Everyone plays the chart as written, loud.
2. Damon (soprano sax) plays free while everyone else plays the chart as written, a little softer.
3. Damon and Cory (alto sax) play free while everyone else plays the chart as written, a little softer still.
4. Damon, Cory, and Mike (trombone) play free while everyone else plays the chart as written, yet even softer than that.
5. Damon, Cory, Mike, and Oliver (bass) play free while Dan (drums) plays the chart as written, super-duper soft.
6. Everyone plays the chart as written, really loud.
The tune is called “Bounce.” (I dunno, it sounded trampoline-esque to me.) Click to hear it, you know the drill.
[Photo credit: Andy Hay]
Should I Play in the Industrial Jazz Group or in Christina Aguilera’s Band?
Being another excerpt from the aforementioned 2006 quintet show at Cafe Metropol.
The title is a reference to a well-paying gig that once came along to (understandably) sweep away a stellar musician on the night before a previously-scheduled IJG show.
[Photo credit: Naiani.]