Recording at Dub Narcotic, Part 2

I spent last weekend in ever-rainy Olympia, Washington, recording some music at Dub Narcotic.

It went really well, mostly because a rad guy named Bob Schwenkler was at the mixing board. Jacob Wilson from the band Kickball stopped by, and he laid down a a guitar track or two - you could say he really turned up the "rip" on saturday.

Dub Narcotic is real special place that has recorded some real special music. I got to peek inside the room where they store all of the original tapes from their recording sessions - it was like looking back in time at a huge imaginary mix tape I had made as the soundtrack to my life.

We really pushed some sonic something this weekend. This album is going to be crazy.

It's almost half done.

Armagnac Spice Cake

Armagnac Spice Cake

About 2 tablespoons butter for pan 3 cups white, all-purpose flour, plus some for pan
12 ozs. pitted prunes
2 cups water
1/4 cup Armagnac brandy
1 1/2 cups corn oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
5 large eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

2. Combine prunes, water, Armagnac in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce to low heat, and simmer about 15 minutes, until prunes are tender. Drain prunes, reserving liquid for glaze (below). If there is more than 1/3 cup of prune liquid left, boil until reduced to 1/3 cup. Coarsely chop prunes.

3. In a large bowl, beat oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well blended. In another, smaller bowl, whisk the 3 cups of flour with the other 7 dry ingredients; add to oil-sugar mixture. Add buttermilk; beat just until batter is smooth. Fold in chopped prunes. Pour into prepared bundt pan.

4. Bake on center rack in 350-degree oven until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean—about 1 hour and 5 minutes. Place on cooling rack and make glaze (below).

5. Pierce cake with a skewer 40 or more times. Slowly pour 1 1/4 cups of hot glaze over hot cake. Reserve extra glaze. Cool cake 30 minutes. Turn out onto platter and cool completely. Re-warm extra glaze and serve with cake as sauce. 10-14 servings


Glaze:

1/3 cup reserved prune liquid
1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/2 sticks (6 ozs.) unsalted butter
1/2 cup Armagnac brandy
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan deeper than you think you need. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring. Interaction of baking soda and lemon may cause sudden, rapid over-boil if you don’t watch pot carefully; lower heat and/or remove saucepan from heat briefly if necessary. Boil 2 minutes. Skim off and discard any “skin” that may develop when reheating glaze to serve as sauce.

saving up for that new national tricone

national guitar company in san luis obispo california makes, hands down, the best steel string guitars on the planet. i've played antique martins, worth many thousands of dollars, vintage gibsons, fancy new taylors and what have you...nothing comes close to the complex sounds of a national. most are made of solid brass and plated with nickel; how can you go wrong? i am saving to buy my second national guitar (i play a style N), a tricone. not sure on which style i want (a cutaway is enticing, but wondering how that cutaway affects the sound?) but i am going to buy one. a new one. asap.

warpaint, moonrats, and me in the portland mercury

(thanks andrew!)

read it here

more music and bicycle records

met up with bob schwenkler last night at the rose and thistle on broadway and 24th here in portland and talked a little business. he's a real cool dude who presently resides in olympia, washington. he works with bicycle records and does some record engineering too. anyways, bicycle records is going to pick up my cds for distribution (bad feelings and little two's), which is real cool - cause i forget to send them whenever anyone orders them online. also, he is going to engineer a few tracks for me. we talked about possibly recording some at dub narcotic in oympia, which would be cool too: i've always been starstruck by that studio since beck recorded his album one foot in the grave there back in the 90's.

for now, all of my tracks have been selected for the new album (i think).

little two's reunite for a minute

i played a show with warpaint and moonrats here in portland last july. i used to be in a band called little two's a million years ago with emily kokal, who plays in warpaint. i wrote a song for her to sing way back in the little two's days and on july 27th 2009 we shared the stage again for the first time in a long time and sang that song. it's called "i would not."

for a love my grace and inasmuch/nonetheless

right now i am finishing up two tracks for my new album, "for a love my grace" and "inasmuch/nonetheless." for these tracks i managed to acquire the musical services of a few friends: dave pulliam graciously offered his studio and engineering expertise, mike ronne played some drums, and jacob arnold, who plays music with dave and mike in their portland-based band cabinessence offered his ears for mixing. nate lumbard, a fantastic multi instrumentalist and all-around-rad-dude played the clarinet. he used to tour with jolie holland as her guitar player. susan riley played the cello (i used to be in a band a few years ago with nate and susan called oz st. fossils. oz st. fossils is headed up by kitchen syncopator and master composer felix manx. felix and i have not recorded together yet for this project but we have plans to: i am going to cover one of his songs and record it with him in his basement). i was also very fortunate to have john moen, from portland's hometown heroes the decemberists, on drums and bass. on "for a love my grace" john plays this cool, plunky, late 60's style bass arrangement. check it out here on my myspace page.

i only have a few more songs to record before the album is done. i think a am going to record more with dave and the cabinessence boys, and if things go my way, i will have cabinessence in their entirety as my band on a couple songs. i am also planning on doing some recording with bob schwenkler in olympia. he's worked with a lot of my friends, including kickball and love menu. he's also offered to help me out with my distribution problems by distributing my cd's for me through bicycle records.