New EP: Real Ambient Talk

As we approach the one year mark for this blog and the parallel bandcamp site, there is an inevitable desire to try to keep doing exactly the same thing until this cycle is over, to cement some kind of overarching authorial intent and thereby add a sense of legitimacy to the proceedings.

Unfortunately, I didn't. So there ended up being an actual straight-up (if extremely restrained) version of "Just Friends" on here; I started playing, and that came out instead of some other crazy experimental jibber-jabber. Hope that's okay with everyone.

(Also, the Real Talk on here isn't a cover of the amazing R. Kelly song, but rather an interpretation of some real talk that was going on out on the street outside my window as I started recording. Which is a damn shame.)

New EP: Below the Mountain

Of course, there are many things future generations will say about this EP; groundbreaking in its uncompromising refusal to compromise, except when compromise is indicated, etc. But I'm sure it will always be known as the one where I cover "Filhos de Gandhi". I could write an entire book about all the things I love the Jorge Ben/Gilberto Gil version of this song from "Jorge and Gil": the way they are so clearly super high and making it up in the studio; the way they manage to get separated on even the super simple chord pattern and it doesn't matter; the way that they reach the point where normal people jamming would be like "cool, let's go ahead and end it here", bring it down, and then they decide to bring it back for like another five minutes. Probably nobody other than me who likes that version will like this version, but let the record show that it's done out of love.

New EP: Reflections in the Emergency

As Rakim said, it's been a long time. Although, and no disrespect to the God, not as long as he made people wait for The 18th Letter. This was only like two and a half months. That being said, I like to think of this EP as occupying a similar position in my own canon.

It also bears mentioning that, despite the release date, the title actually has nothing to do with September 11th.

New EP: Spectral Afternoon Embrace

Several weeks of traveling ahead, so this one will have to hold you all for a while. I know, I know, you're saying "John, how are you ever going to achieve your goal of being the Guided By Voices of prepared guitar if you keep slacking off like this?" To that I say, like Regis Philbin, "I'm just one man."

Unlike Regis, this EP has a tribute to Todd Warnock, featuring the sound of pedals when no guitars are being played. I win this round, Regis.

New EP: Denim Father

Most children today will never know how it feels to have a father clad in all denim, especially an entire suit made out of denim. Future historians can debate whether this is an advance, but until then there is this new EP.

New EP: Darling, Is It You?

One of my favorite things is when you can get sounds out of a guitar that people pay huge amounts of money for pedals to do, when actually it just takes an old bolt and a generic metal slide, like on the title track of this new EP. Limitation breeds increase, I suppose.

In the same way, one of the later tracks is, admittedly, sonically very reminiscent of "Let The Power Fall"-era Frippertronics, but with just a Rat pedal and a single delay, rather than a guitar synth and a bunch of tape machines. But, guilty as charged.

MXR Phase 90

For some reason the other day, I had a moment where I completely remembered the sensation of being transported out of the normal world by one of the first guitar effects pedals I had/borrowed, an MXR Phase 90. I can't remember if I actually owned it or if I just borrowed it from my friend Thadd, but the weird swooshing sound it made, which I can't really imagine even using now, was at the time completely captivating. God only knows where that pedal ended up, but I hope it is still swooshing away somewhere; it is also probably worth $600 now, with my luck.