Scene from NM practice

Part of our cover of Bobby Charles' "Street People":

The first New Mexicoe CDEP will be out NEXT WEEK! Four songs, recorded on a dictaphone at rehearsal June 24th. The clip above should give you an idea as to what it sounds like.

RIP Sky Saxon

Sky Saxon was my favorite singer. He died today in Texas.

Here are two clips of him on American Bandstand:




...his only big hit, "Pushin' Too Hard":



...and Jess mixing drinks to the tune of "Travel With Your Mind":

Rest in peace, Sky Saxon.

New Mexicoe Tumblr

Scott, New Mexicoe's bandleader and former titular member of The McDowells, has set up a Tumblr blog for the band. We will not be using social networking sites for promotion, so either look here or there for info on shows/records/MP3s/etc.

I've put a link to the site in the list on the right.

New Mexicoe, rehearsal #2

We had rehearsal #2 with New Mexicoe last night, and all agree: it felt more like rehearsal #8. Things are really coming along! We hope to play our first show some time in July-- I'll post the details on that front as soon as I have them.

Also worth mentioning is our string of good-luck in finding rehearsal spaces. We had our inaugural practice at WFMU; this time, we were in the Clap Your Hands/National/Radical Dads (Lindsay from NM's main band) space which had not one but two DX7s in it:


One more time, with a flash... there they are!

RAST hack, pt. 2

Picked up another one:

Yet another new band from the Portland trip

Gaia, Maya, Freya and Stigg-- a neo-New Age band made up of people from Thee Iran-Contras-- was something that we had been talking about starting for a while but couldn't seem to get the wheels moving on.

We managed to have our first rehearsal/recording session when we were out in Portland, in-between Contras takes. Here's about two minutes of a much longer "song" called "In the Fifth Dimension":



There's a proper full-length in the works, but it won't be finished for a while. I'll post updates as it comes together.

Another new Contras song!

Also from the upcoming "Thirty-Thirty-Thirty" album by Thee Iran-Contras, recorded last week in Portland, OR.

New Contras song!

This is a song from the upcoming album "Thirty-Thirty-Thirty" by Thee Iran-Contras, recorded last week in Portland, OR. Should be out late-July.

New records!

Three new Shamblers-related CD-Rs! Out now!!

The Speers "November 29, 2008"



The Shamblers "Third Album"



John and Benjamin with The Shamblers "First Rehearsal"


$5 each from Colonial Recordings USA.

Here's the video for "Count Freaky," from the Shamblers disc:

RUMBLE!

Link Wray's Rumble was added this year to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. And with good cause. Link Wray is THE MAN!

Update from Portland: Tuesday

Caroline had the great idea to start a master cleanse a few hours before flying home:


She also used three tablespoons of cayenne, instead of three teaspoons. Whoops:


Later, we went to the beach from Goonies!


We saw killer whales, too, just past the surf. I can understand why everyone is moving here.

Update from Portland: Monday

Some time in the afternoon, we left the house to go birding on an island just north of town. While out there, BP spotted a bald eagle, which none of us had seen before:


Terry, Luke and Lou--who were part of the team that represented our college in the National Tournament, 2002--decided instead to play croquet in the field under St. John's Bridge. We're told it was a close game:


While on the island, JP started yet another band--a German electronik outfit called Nature's Techno--this time with Caroline. Here are their promo shots:




Later in the night, while the Contras were recording, JP kept sneaking in hastily made dictaphone recordings of the band into a room mic, hoping no one would notice:

Update from Portland: Sunday

Ben, Bennet and Kellie came into town and, within an hour, we were playing a show!




JP and Luke started a new band on the walk home, too:

Update from Portland: Saturday

We arrived safe and sound and, after the first round of food and drink related bets that start every Contras get-together were made, we started recording!



An ongoing thanks to Terry and Lindsay for hosting us while we're here.

Stepping out for a few days

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. We've been busy!

Scott McDowell asked us to play in his new 70s folk obscurity cover band called New Mexicoe (named after the Rick Danko song). Kyle from The Shift and Lindsay from Radical Dads are in it, too! We had our first rehearsal (AT WFMU!!!!!!!!!) this past Tuesday, while The Best Show was doing its 6-hour marathon double-shift two floors below us. I don't think we'll get to practice there again, sadly, and while I somehow forgot to bring both a dictaphone AND camera with me, Scott recorded everything, and when I've got something to share I'll post it here.

What else...

We've skipped a couple pegs of geekery and are now building our own synth modules from PCBs. This one--a 5-channel bi-polar mixer/attenuator from Fonitronik in Germany--is our first attempt. We bought two boards and cannot wait to burn ourselves soldering them together.


Next up: the Master Divider and the Pulse Divider circuits from Cat Girl Synth. Woo hoo!

On to more important matters: we are leaving for Portland, OR tomorrow to record the new Iran-Contras record! Even if it's a "bad" Contras record, it's going to be an album of the year contender. Believe that. News, stories and tabloid photos when we get back.

Also happening when we return to Bay Ridge:

NEW CDs FROM THE SHAMBLERS, THE SPEERS AND JOHN & BENJAMIN WITH THE SHAMBLERS!

Have a great week, everyone!