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.