April 27, 2009

Slept late today, we were up late, celebrating the release of the Cheval Sombre CD. Sunday night was the record release party at Mercury Lounge; Cheval Sombre (joined by Britta on keys and bass, myself on electric guitar and Sonic Boom on the Casio) opened for Psychic Ills and Spectrum.

Cheval Sombre is a pseudonym of course; it is French for dark horse. After sending the record out to press a couple of months ago, one reviewer asked me if Cheval Sombre was in fact just Sonic Boom under a different name (and Time Out NY suggested he might be Jason Pierce). No, he’s a real person, which was proven at the live show – there he was for all to see, playing his acoustic guitar and singing in his unique, and very American, voice.

The Cheval Sombre disc was several years in the making, the whole thing started when he sent some of his demos to Sonic Boom. Next step was a recording session at Nick Kramer’s studio in Jersey City, NJ. Then Britta and I were invited to play on a few tracks, a few songs were mixed for a few 7” singles (now out of print).
The album was finally completed late in 2008.

The self-titled (with great cover art by UK-artist Ben Javens) is available in stores, or direct from our website, and is also downloadable on iTunes and Amazon. I love this album; it reminds me more of the early recordings by Opal (the band that became Mazzy Star), and is one of those rare records that captivates from the first track to the last. Here’s a review from the people at 17 Seconds:

http://17seconds.co.uk/blog/2009/04/25/album-review-cheval-sombre/

Click here to order Cheval Sombre

Cheval Sombre will be opening shows for Dean & Bitta on June 4, 5, & 6 -

CLICK HERE FOR SHOWS DETAILS

Dean & Britta
PMB 303
341 Lafayette St.
NY, NY 10012
www.deanandbritta.com

April 20, 2009

Last week I visited the local branch of my bank (a bank with roots in the Pacific Northwest that has recently been taken over by a bank with roots in Manhattan) and deposited a couple of checks.

“We will be holding these checks for seven days before the money is released,” the teller informed me. “That’s our policy.”
“But how am I going to pay my taxes tomorrow if you’re holding my money for seven days?”

I walked out in a bit of a huff, and who should I run into by the ATM machines but comedian Todd Barry. We chatted for a bit about our summer plans. Todd is performing at some rock festivals, including Bonnaroo and All Points West. I told him that our drummer Anthony LaMarca is leaving our band to play drums with St. Vincent this summer, and they’ll be at Bonnarroo and All Points West too.

Turns out Todd, who is a drummer himself, is friendly with one of St. Vincent’s previous drummers. It’s a small world, we both agreed. I told Todd about my banking troubles.
“You need to talk to the assistant manager,” he said. “She can take care of that.”
So I followed Todd back into the bank and got on line behind him. Just then in walks Sean Eden (he has an account at the same branch).
“Dean looks angry,” said Sean.

I calmed myself, and asked to speak to the assistant manager, who kindly agreed to release those funds into my account after two days.

We are going to miss Anthony LaMarca, who was just a 19-year-old kid when he started playing with us (he’s a wise 21-year-old now). But we have a couple of people lined up to take Anthony’s place on the drum throne. Jason Lawrence (of the Caledonia Mission) will play our shows June 4-5-6, where we’ll be playing Dean & Britta songs and a bunch by Galaxie 500 too. And Lee Waters (who has played with Essex Green and Camera Obscura) will be taking over on the upcoming Screen Test shows.

April 14, 2009

Fedex woke me up early last week, delivering a box from Penguin – the paperback edition of my book had arrived! The paperback looks great; it has that distinguished Penguin logo right on the front, along with a quote from Liz Phair’s review in the New York Times Book Review: “Fast paced and memorable, peopled with characters you could only find in the music industry. . .  It’s as if a curtain were brushed aside and we all got to go backstage.” It almost makes me want to read it myself.

The book is officially available May 5, and it’s a whole lot cheaper than the hardcover. You can get pre-order from Amazon for $10.88.

I will be doing a couple of readings for the book locally:

May 8 – the paperback release party at Book Court in Brooklyn
June 17 – at the Cakeshop in Manhattan, with Nick Flynn and Chuck Klosterman