Bowery Boy Blue: Blog

Just wanted to post the link to "Now We Will Be Brothers" in the iTunes store, and tell you a little bit about this great new record.

This is a split EP we're issuing with Lesser Lights, Nate Baker's one-man San Francisco outfit. Nate's been a friend of ours for a long time (we played our first Three on the Tree show alongside an early incarnation of Lesser Lights, and Zeb & Nate only recently discovered they were on the same little league team when they were 8), and we've all had a great respect for his music for as long as we've known him. We were more than happy to back him up for a day in the studio last winter and help him explore some new textures in his songs.

We matched his two tracks with two we'd been exploring as a band as we have been developing ideas for our next full-length release. This next record certainly aims to capture more about what's been working in our live incarnation, and these two tracks were our first chances to arrange material together as a four-piece. We're really happy with the results, and we hope you'll enjoy it, too!

Tracking for the Lesser Lights tracks and "Now We Will Be Brothers" was done at the Looking Glass Studios in its waning days. As the place we all met as an ensemble, it was nice to track a few things there before it shut down operations. Tracking for "Give 'Em What They Want" was done at Farm Fresh Studios in Bloomington, IN, as well as vocal tracking at Brian Bender's space in Sunset Park. Special thanks to Jake and Brian for all their help with this project.

Here's the link. Enjoy!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/now-we-will-be-brothers/id335078436?i=335079094&uo=6

We've been having a great time out here on the West Coast so far. We've met a lot of great folks, played some really wonderful shows, and felt lucky to see a very beautiful part of the country.

The tour continues tomorrow with the special addition of an in-store appearance at Bop Street Records in Seattle. We happened upon this amazing store while traversing Ballard Street with our longtime musical cohort Andy Storms. Bop Street blew us all out of the water: an amazing collection of all things vinyl, an absolutely amazing archive of recorded music. Playing there will be something special, and we would like to thank Dave Voorhees for inviting us to play.

"Now We Will Be Brothers", our split EP with Lesser Lights is finally out and available either through us or on iTunes. This was a project a long time in the making: our friend Nate Baker first came out to NYC over a year & a half ago to record the basic tracks with us, and at long last the record sounds great. Please track it down; we're sure you'll enjoy it!

Finally, as we move on to this week's round of shows, enjoy this archived audio from our guest DJ spot with Stereo Steve on KUSF in San Francisco. We played an ecclectic mix of our favorite music (Karen Dalton, Tren Brothers, The Nils, Heatmiser...), chatted with Stereo, and Zeb even played a few acoustic numbers. Hope you enjoy it: http://www.kusf-archives.com/2009/10/kusf-101609-3-4-pm-guest-dj-live.html

Thanks again to Nate Baker, who has been instrumental in getting this tour together. We hope to see you all out and about this week!

Good lord it's been a busy couple of months. We had a great time at the Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, and it's always a fun time to head back to Bloomington Indiana to see some good friends and raise a ruckus. Special thanks to Jim Manion and WFHB for having us on the air to play some songs. And an extra special thanks to our amazing friends in the band Whippoorwill for sharing the stage with us at the Bishop, and for playing some old favorites - They brought a tear to my eye.

And now it's time to hit the West Coast for two weeks to spread the word about the Split EP we're releasing with Lesser Lights. It took a while, but it's finally here - Available on iTunes 10/13 with CD's being available starting on 10/16. If you live near the Pacific and you're within the continental US, there's a good chance we're coming to a town near you - Hope to see you at the shows!

(For details on where we're heading, check the SHOWS page)

 

Be the first to strut around town in your very own BBB T-shirt - Available Now on our BUY page!

That's the handiwork of Christian Rutledge on the awesome shirt design.  We've also got some other designs in the pipeline so stay tuned.

We're happy to announce that Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon will be hosting us for an In-store performance on October 23rd at 6pm.
Here's a link to their site:
http://www.musicmillennium.com

Friday evening, as a summer mist covered the city, I sat in a spacious old loft in Soho and watched two talented modern dance choreographers present their latest works. The show, 'Dear Peter, Love Nora', was mesmerizing. Each of the elements coalesced into an evening where my far-flung expectations about life in this city were met head-on, and in many respects, exceeded.
I will leave the detailed critiques to the experts, but I do know that Peter Chamberlin and Nora Petroliunas have bright futures as choreographers ahead of them. Special mention must be paid to Bowery Boy Blue's own Sam Crawford, who composed the music for Peter Chamberlin's works. Bias notwithstanding, both of Sam's pieces were extremely well orchestrated and perfectly complimented the movements on stage. (I especially enjoyed the slide harmonics and the whiskey-fueled falsetto vocals.)
And rather than single out any of the dancers, I will list them all below, as they each deserve recognition for their beautiful performances:
Tess Igarta, Julia Burrer, Lesley Garrison, Sarah Bodley, Shayla-Vie Jenkins and Hsiao-Jou Tang.

More shows are coming in for the west coast tour - We'll be playing at a great venue in Santa Cruz CA called the Crepe Place alongside the band Tether Horse.
Here's a link to their site:
http://thecrepeplace.com/
Hoping to finalize dates in San Diego, Oakland and Modesto soon.

Before I get to the rather downcast blog entry, a few upbeat notes about the west coast tour: Thanks once again to Nate Baker, we have confirmed shows in both LA and San Francisco. We'll be playing in an art gallery called Synchronicity Space in LA on 10/12, and at the House of Shields in downtown San Francisco on 10/16. They both look like great venues - Check the Shows page for more details.

Now for a few tributes.

I've lived in New York for a little over 312 weeks (give or take a few), and every one of those weeks I promised myself, "this is the week that I go to the Iridium and hear Les Paul", and every week I came up with a good reason to wait until next week - Usually it was the price of entry, but it seems like a small price to pay now that it's too late.
[insert Horace's famous phrase here].
The man was obviously a great guitarist, but he was also a great innovator. If you can track it down, I highly recommend this film: Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90

Also, a tip of the hat to the late Les Lye who played Barth Bagge, owner and chef of the local hamburger diner on the show You Can't Do That On Television. I loved that show as kid and I watched it religiously. Besides the slime (I loved the slime), it was the only show at the time where the kids had it all together and the adults were despicably evil dimwits. As a seven year old, it was tough not to appreciate that angle. And, of course, because of that show I've never been able to say 'I don't know' without wincing slightly.

Lastly, I'd also like to mention Mike Seeger, who passed away last week. I can't even count the number of instructional books and DVD's of his that I was exposed to growing up. And I'm sure there are thousands (millions?) of others who had the same experience. By contributing to culture in such a positive way, he undoubtedly had a profound impact on a countless number of lives.
And with that, I think we should all get up from the computer, find your way over to the nearest stringed instrument and pick out a version of Wildwood Flower in Mike's honor. If you miss a few notes, don't worry about it.

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of our own.
Happy Birthday Sam Crawford - We hope it's a great one!

For those who don't know, Sam is a multi-talented individual. Besides playing lap-slide, guitar, and singing in this humble little outfit - He's also an amazing Sound Engineer/Designer. If you've been to a Bill T. Jones Dance performance in the past few years, there's a good chance you've heard his work. As if that weren't enough, he's also enjoying a burgeoning career as a composer for several modern dance companies.

And once again, here's a link to his band's myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/thegoodwillorchestra There's a record in the works and it should be out sometime in the near future.

All of the other Bowery Boys hope you have a great day and a great upcoming year!

Viva Crawford

We're continuing to upgrade the website:

There's now a flash player at the top of the page that allows you to listen to our music as you jump from page to page - Don't worry, we'll never set it up to start playing automatically - You have to click on it to start it up. In addition, all of the songs from Stalk That Myth are up on the site now. Three of the songs are available for download - for FREE, that is.

We also have some more photo's uploaded from past shows, as well as pics from our recording session at Farm Fresh Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. I'm sure there are plenty of other photos floating around out there, which I'll add as they become available.

Additionally, there are XML and RSS feeds available for our schedule and our blog respectively - whatever that means.

In other news, the mixes are all finished for the split EP with Lesser Lights. We're reaching the final stages and a release date is near at hand.

I'm finishing up Herzog's Conquest Of The Useless. Recently, all of my analogies have to do with hauling a ship over a mountain. Not suprisingly, It seems appropriate in many circumstances.

Some more dates have been confirmed - Live spot on KUSF in San Francisco, and a show at the Ella St. Social Club in Portland. Apparently, the Ella St. Social Club used to be a mortuary, which adds a nice sinister element to the evening.

Like programmed drum beats? Cowboy Robot Love Songs? Shakespearean references and warnings about eating too much sodium?
Then find your way to this address:

http://www.myspace.com/thegoodwillorchestra
Helmed by Sam Crawford, the Goodwill Orchestra is gathering steam in preparation for a record release this coming Spring. I know the myspace page says the record is coming out in 2007, but that's just how we do things around here - build suspense to a fever pitch by moving as slowly as humanly possible. In all honesty, a mere two years late on a record release is not too shabby for the likes of us. Don't worry, we're getting our acts together.
In other words: This time, we mean it.

Lastly, the prior post was written in a haze of over the counter medicines at 4 in the morning, which should explain the Judge Wapner reference. Trust me, I was just as perplexed as you were.

(Editors note #1: The original title of this post was, 'It's Called Civil Discourse, Asshole!' However, after some outside input, we all agreed that Jerk Face was funnier than Asshole. Much funnier.)

(Editor's note #2: Apparently, Zeb has only managed to maintain this blog on the sole, comforting thought that no one was actually reading. Unfortunately, and much to our dismay, someone at Space Photo Records let slip that there were, in fact, a few folks out there with enough time on their hands to follow these "informative" posts. Although he tried to make a break for it (we found him curled up beneath the off ramp to the Vince Lombardi Service Area on the NJ Turnpike), he assures us that he will continue, despite the added pressure of "the public". In closing, if you happen to see Zeb looking dazed, hungry, and a little sleepy - DO NOT APPROACH HIM! Merely call us at Space Photo Records, give us his location, and continue on your way. Do not, DO NOT, try to feed or shelter him. Thank you.)

Band Business: Another show has been confirmed, this one also in Eugene, OR where we'll be fresh off the Tupelo Honey radio show. Seems like there are some really nice folks in Eugene and we look forward to raising a ruckus with every last one of em.

Before I go (I promised myself I wouldn't use this as a soapbox, but what the hell), what has happened to the level of discourse in this Country? You know who I blame (besides some of the obvious choices)? All of these shouting TV judges. Where's Judge Wapner when you need him? I don't remember any shouting on the original People's Court. Disagreement, sure - shouting, no. Come on people!

For those interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wapner Did you know He used to date Lana Turner? It's a judicial fact!

Show in Portland has been confirmed - we'll be posting details soon.

For those of you from the 'Oregon Trail generation', here's a fine link:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/6oregontrail.html
That takes me back to grade school circa 1986. It was always the damn river crossing that got me. Always.

Don't get me started, it's a slippery slope that ends with Carmen Sandiego, and tears.

Some more dates are being confirmed out west including a stop at Shotgun Majors' show on KRVM in Eugene Oregon. Can't wait to head back to the Northwest.

Got some new mixes done this week, including the new version of Give the Kids What They Want (you may remember it from the original lo-fi EP of the same name.) It features some classic Casio keyboard and a Sam Crawford falsetto track - Look out!

West coast dates are being sorted out - Looks like we'll be traversing the entire coast, so if you live within proximity of the Pacific there's a good chance we'll be appearing in a town near you.

Friday night we snuck into a preview performance of Life and Times Episode 1 by the excellent Nature Theater of Oklahoma at the Austrian Cultural Forum. All I'm giving away is that it's, like, Opera fully realized (and, um, amazing.) They premier the piece (which will eventually be ten episodes and span a full twenty-four hours) in Austria this September. (Like, you'll understand it, um, once you've seen it. Um, um, um, What-ev-er.)

Today we floated on inflatable tubes down a stretch of the swollen Delaware River. Normally the trip takes about four hours, but with all the recent rain we sailed through in about an hour and a half (not counting a lunch stop at the mythic and much fabled Hot Dog Island.)
And we met a bug named Mortimer.

There are several reasons for me to devote an entire entry to the great state of Oklahoma. For starters, it's the birthplace of Mr. Michael Trepagnier (It's a French-Canadian name, but they added the 'g' after they left the northern region - I learned this during a congenial conversation between Michael and the Canadian Customs agent who let us through en route to Toronto.) Michael will be headed back to the homestead for a while, but this just expands our home-base across half of the U.S., which should make that tour of Texas a little easier (They love my voice down there.)
Having mentioned Karen Dalton in the last entry I should point out that she too is from OK (Enid), though I don't think she stuck around too long.
Lastly, my favorite Theater Company in New York is the Nature Theater of Oklahoma. For the uninitiated, here's their link:
http://www.oktheater.org/ 'No Dice' is a damn hit, and they're in previews on a new piece called 'Life and Times Episode 1' that I'm hoping to sneak into this weekend.
Okay that's it. I said 'several' but I actually meant three. Three can be several, right?

Looks like we'll be doing some radio shows while out on the west coast - maybe even some guest dj spots? Time to work up some interesting on-air personalities.

"I went to the radio interview, but I ended up alone at the microphone."
Name the artist/song/album attached to the above lyric and win a prize.

Eight water mains burst at various points around Jersey City - All the streets were flooded with rust colored sludge. At sundown an old Vega banjo floated by, made an abrupt right at Palisade Avenue and went straight for the Holland Tunnel. Heard that Banjo went on to become pretty famous over there in the big city - doesn't come around here anymore.
Listened to Karen Dalton's recording of Something On Your Mind over and over again today - Afterward I couldn't do much.

Recording Session at Electrical Audio in Chicago is set for September 22-23. Time to get the Coles 4038's out (and the Josephson e22s.)

Christian has informed me that our friends from Lawrence Kansas, Drakkar Sauna, will be playing a couple shows in NYC - Cake Shop on Thursday, and Union Pool on Friday. If you've never seen them before, they are highly, highly recommended. And if you have seen them before, then you already know how awesome they are, and I'm sure you'll be at the show(s) - Here's a link:
http://www.myspace.com/drakkansasauna
Downpours all night and all day. Heat. Humidity. Wet pavement. Sirens.

I need winter.

Groundwork being laid for potential shows in Europe (Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland and Spain.)

And, for your enjoyment:
The Minnesota declaration: truth and fact in documentary cinema
"LESSONS OF DARKNESS"
1. By dint of declaration the so-called Cinema Verité is devoid of verité. It reaches a merely superficial truth, the truth of accountants.
2. One well-known representative of Cinema Verité declared publicly that truth can be easily found by taking a camera and trying to be honest. He resembles the night watchman at the Supreme Court who resents the amount of written law and legal procedures. "For me," he says, "there should be only one single law: the bad guys should go to jail."
Unfortunately, he is part right, for most of the many, much of the time.
3. Cinema Verité confounds fact and truth, and thus plows only stones. And yet, facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable.
4. Fact creates norms, and truth illumination.
5. There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.
6. Filmmakers of Cinema Verité resemble tourists who take pictures amid ancient ruins of facts.
7. Tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue.
8. Each year at springtime scores of people on snowmobiles crash through the melting ice on the lakes of Minnesota and drown. Pressure is mounting on the new governor to pass a protective law. He, the former wrestler and bodyguard, has the only sage answer to this: "You can´t legislate stupidity."
9. The gauntlet is hereby thrown down.
10. The moon is dull. Mother Nature doesn´t call, doesn´t speak to you, although a glacier eventually farts. And don´t you listen to the Song of Life.
11. We ought to be grateful that the Universe out there knows no smile.
12. Life in the oceans must be sheer hell. A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger. So much of a hell that during evolution some species - including man - crawled, fled onto some small continents of solid land, where the Lessons of Darkness continue.

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota April 30, 1999
Werner Herzog

West coast shows being arranged for October.

The Great Jones Cafe is my favorite place in the city - Gram Parsons, Norman Blake, Buffalo Springfield and Mance Lipscomb all came out of their Jukebox this afternoon.

Watched Stanley Kubrick's Lolita. The Hays code really gets in the way, but Peter Sellars makes it worthwile.

The entries get shorter by the day...

Coming Soon: limited edition shirts for sale exclusively on this site and at live shows.

Listened to Marquee Moon today several times. Did you know I own Tom Verlaine's old Wurlitzer electric piano? I bet you didn't. Well I do. Maybe someday we'll do a live cover of Venus. That would be fun (and hard as hell.) Maybe the Cinnamon Girls will run out of Neil Young albums to cover and we'll move on to Television. I'd better start practicing those kick ass guitar solos now, just in case.

New show confirmed for Sunday September 27th at Jupiter Studios in Alliance OH. Looks like a great art space/venue run by great people - always a nice combination. Here's a link:
http://www.jupiterstudios.org/
Watched the sun set over Jersey last night from a beautiful rooftop in Manhattan - A friend of mine, (let's call her Caroline A. no, that's too confusing, how about C. Alonzo. Yes, that's better) invited some folks over to have drinks and look at the skyline. Everyone talked about what a "great idea" the blog was, and how "informative for the clamoring masses" it would be. Yep, that's exactly how it went down. Thanks for hosting us C.A. (if that is your real name.)

Sam Crawford received a nice mention in the New York TImes Review of the Colleen Thomas Dance Performance. Check it out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/arts/dance/21colleen.html?emc=eta1
Herzog continues: Tonight, 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God'. Orellana and Pizzaro couldn't find El Dorado, but, by god, we will. I've decided that Bowery Boy Blue is going to set off this fall for the Amazon in search of the Great City. Along the way Michael and Christian will try and convert the savages, I'll go crazy and declare myself the great traitor, and all the while Sam will be the pan-piper who plays a happy tune in an attempt to keep us sane - We'll post videos and blog the whole time. It'll be great!
Maybe it's time for a break from the Herzog.
Finally had a chance to listen through the new Magnolia record - Josephine - Beautiful as always. I enjoy the heavy wash of reverb.
In the realm of 'things of actual interest', we're getting closer to confirming the Electrical session. Just a few more kinks to work out.

It's no wonder I dreamed of Herzog and Kinski the other night as I'm in the midst of 'Conquest of the Useless' - The newly released journals Herzog kept during the filming of Fitzcarraldo. Reading a fever dream sometimes produces a fever dream. Additionally, I'm slowly working my way through his mountainous filmography. This evening I screened, The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, which may be the most beautiful film I've seen in a long while. Tonight I will dream of the Caucasus.
The time has come to track down an old Bell and Howell and start shooting some images to go with the songs we'll be posting to the site. Maybe If we dig way back into the archives we can post the student film I made featuring Sam Crawford in the lead role - The Alfred Lunt of Bloomington, as he was known.
Recording session at Electrical Audio is in the works for the end of September - awaiting confirmation from all involved.

the weekend: Friday, I took a trip to the Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea to see a performance by the Collen Thomas Dance troupe where Sam Crawford, performing with Chris Lancaster's excellent music ensemble, accompanied the dancers on his lap-slide. There were some really beautiful moments of just slide and dance that were very effective, and there was plenty of humor in the choreography (including a fine roller-skating duet), and in the music (a Journey cover). After the performance we crammed ourselves into a bar downtown and drank some expensive beer.
Saturday is a bit of a blur I'm afraid, but I managed to get to a "Secret Show" at a loft in Tribeca to hear Huff This (Alison Clancy and Chris Lancaster) perform. They overcame a weird sound system and a noisy room to put on a great show. Afterward, we crammed ourselves onto a tiny fire escape and met a guy named Frank.
Sunday, Sam and I dragged ourselves over to Michael and Sara's apartment in Brooklyn where we nursed some drinks and enjoyed some of his homemade tzatziki. Around 4pm we drove to Williamsburg to hear our friends in Magnolia Electric Company perform at the East River Park - these summer outdoor concert series are great (and free). It made us smile to see our good friend (and fellow Cinnamon Girl) Jason Evans Groth rocking out with the Manhattan skyline looming in the background - Oh, I wish I'd remembered my camera. It was a good set and I was glad they played 'Hard To Love a Man'. After a quick hello to the guys in the band I slunk back home, wrote a song, fell asleep and dreamed I was cutting my way through a Jungle with Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski - and that they were both terrified of me.