***

the weekend was sublime. work, and lots of it … but the best kind.

there was downtown chicago. the jayhawks in all their glory. the matchbox bar. the root cellar, where i had some kind of rabbit pate and cheese and fermented cherries and pickled fennel and brown mustard and wine at 1 am. chad and eva and hooch and denise and mary ann and todd.

***

three solid days of intense mixing with chad, finding squeaks and spikes and thunks and adjusting things up and up and up a little more and then down some and then back up and then deleting them entirely. notch filters. single-band compressors. surgical gain tweaks.

but we got it. cornered it. crept up on it. shot it in the fucking head. it’s the best musical project i’ve ever been a part of.

chad geiser is a fucking animal. he’s got a motor that will not quit. he’s got cage balls and bat ears and eagle eyes and a golden heart. he’s a champion. we couldn’t have done this project without him, and he’s a huge, huge part of it now. the guy’s fookin’ mega, mate.

mega.

***

it’s funny … mixing ‘the traveler’ reminded me that, to quote schmitty, i’m a traveler who can’t find a home. towns get small, people disappoint, days get stale. but put me on a trailways bus at dusk and i’m in my element. i’ll go anywhere. i’ve got rainclouds.

***

but i’m back down south with exam questions looming and a stack of bills to pay and it ain’t home. but this year is off to a great start. and there’s magic in the air off in the distance. lightening. or a car fire on the spillway, perhaps. but whatever it is, it’s slowing me down. turning my outside in.

and i’m so glad we made it here …

today is jayhawks. live. tickets. vic theatre. chicago. hollywood town hall. in it’s entirety. the best was yet to come. i know. for i was forsaken.

today is jay-z. y’all niggaz is sam bowie. and with the third pick i made the earth sick. m.j. hem jay fade away. perfect.

today is trouble. that’s what we had. and everything that goes around. comes around.

today is new orelans.

today is a little bit of truth in every lie.

today is sunny.

Olson And Louris – Ready For The Flood – EPK from New West Records on Vimeo.

there’s a great interactive article on neko case in today’s online nytimes. fucking brilliant piece. they’ve embedded audio files into a slideshow presentation that chronicles her career. lots of stuff i’ve never heard. this follows a really cool article they did on m. ward yesterday. fuck pitchfork … it’s evidently all about all the news that’s fit to print.

second off …

i bought this record at our incredible local record store called ‘eccentric soul: the capsoul label 001.’ from the capitol of ‘the most soulful state in the nation’, capsoul (there’s a short npr bit here about the label) thrived in the early 70s but never managed to get the traction of motown or stax. the numero group is putting out double records chronicling the label’s catalog (catalog is a word i can never, ever spell correctly … i’m always trying to crowbar in a few u’s, you know whu um sayin’, mate?) and they are (as the hipster working the record store stated in response to the question ‘how are these?’):

‘they’re fucking bad ass is what they are.’

seriously, people. there are a few tracks from johnson, dawson tatum & durr that are as good as anything the four tops ever recorded except they’re fresher and grittier. the production is first rate, they sound incredible on vinly (as compared to the production quality of the two gary louris records i also bought produced by my funk, soul brother numero one chris robinson … great records, and an effective, admirable, free-spirited approach that serves the art well, but compared to this capsoul stuff they’re just not nearly as slammin’). check this shit out if you got a record player. hand scratched onto the inner ring of the a side are the words ‘sock it to ‘em.’ if that’s not bad ass, don’t ask me what is …

speaking of the robinson/louris projects, the record with mark olson called ‘ready for the flood’ is an instant classic. raw, live, dark, vulnerable, fearless. sounds like they’re singing from beyond the grave. the last track ‘the trap’s been set’ made me burst into tears when i heard it the first few times. it’s the jayhawks, folks …

and like lebron james, who is throwing his hat into the slam dunk contest next year (btw, rudy fernandez got robbed last night. his first two dunks were the best dunks of the night, with the possible exception of lil’ nate robinson’s dunk over dwight howard), i am returning to a much less dramatic conversation by re-establishing my home studio over the weekend. had to spring for the new intel based pro-tools version and unpack all my shit, find my cables, etc. but i’m back up. started tracking some guitar scratch tracks last night and it felt really good. god help my gpa, i’ve got pro tools again.

and thanks to the stimulus package, i’m officially buying a house before november and taking my first time home buyer $8,000 tax credit. thanks for the deadline, big o. now i’ve got some motivation to get off my ass and stop renting my life away.

off to guitar center … this is how it starts. you get the studio set up, you need a mic stand, next thing you know you’re pricing hammond organs and pedal steels at a vintage music store just south of lafayette and are flunking all your classes. must remember to keep feeding the dog …