Hey folks,

Just a quick note to tell you all that the Red Favorite lp is up on the Drag City website for preorder...official release date is October 21:

Preorder page
The Drag City blurb (scroll down)

Local folks can snag a copy from me when it comes out, and it will be available through the usual suspects (Mystery Train, Forced Exposure, Mimaroglu Music Sales).

That's all...
Jeremy

Hey folks,

Hope everyone had a good summer...

Wickermania fest was great this year, hopefully the page will be updated soon with some new recordings, etc. I was pretty much the bass session guy all day, played with Jim & Sita, Jow-Jow & Sunburned & had a blast (though I really do miss playing guitar sometimes). There's more bass action on the new Predator Vision II cassette, released by Ducktails Tapes...haven't got my copy yet, but I was there jamming with Matt, Ben & Etienne & it was heavy...

The X-Pluralus Western Mass comp is out at last, & it's an amazing thing to behold...Josh really pinned down a different side of W.Mass sound(s) that folks outside the area might not be aware of...I'd suggest jumping on this quick, pretty sure there's only 500 of them floating around. Something I probably should have mentioned to Josh: my track was recorded at Mystery Train back in 2001, first song of my first solo show ever...

Our pal Troels is out here from Denmark, and if his friend makes it through the clusterfuck that is Homeland Security, they will be filming a documentary on W.Mass (& Vermont & Maine) music, which will hopefully clear up some questions I think we all have...

And finally, I'm going to be DJing at the following event this coming Wednesday (hopefully Conrad will get on the decks as well so folks can check out his "face one inch from the label" cueing style). Been acquiring some sick albums lately, psyched to play them out...

Montague Phantom Brain Exchange 8
Wednesday, August 27th, 9pm Five Bucks
at the Rendezvous
78 3rd St
Turners Falls, MA 01376

Crank Sturgeon
Cave Bears
Tarp
Black Sand DJs
lecture by Christopher Weisman on "Patterns for Nonmusical Sound"

read on:

Woah! NEXT WEEK!  a shitstorm of talent!  a tornado of shizzle!  i
usually send these out earlier - i hope you can still pencil us in. .
.

As Crank Sturgeon has cried from atop multiple altitudes, tears
streaming down his cheek, duct-tape on his crotch, "I am a cardboard
sturgeon every day of my life."  And thus it is spoken.  A high
caliber blackbelt master of the low and middle brow performance arts,
Mister Sturgeon artfully slices & dices, making a more digestable
bolus that has the nutritional entertainment value our audience
deserves.  One of Maine's strangest, he's been droppin his noise tapes
in the foulest waters the world over since the early 90's.  Spastic
Bags of Fun!
http://cranksturgeon.com/hngh.html

Leverett-based Cave Bears have been doing advanced research in
special-people music, and recently they have made startling
discoveries in counter-intuitive composition & non-listening
improvisation, presenting these findings in various odd encampments &
houseparties around the valley.   Currently touring the east coast
this august as a trio of Carrie, Mary, & Nick, the Cave Bears have
been known to pull various degenerates and nonmusicians into their
ranks, making for a very unpredictable, sometimes volatile
performance style.  Also, they have hosted two "Dubious LIftings'
Festivals at their Lab/Shack in the woods this summer, further
enriching the already fertile soil of this valley by pulling in wider
& lesser-known strains from the weirdo diaspora of new england.
http://www.myspace.com/cavebears
http://cavebears.suchfun.net/

Tarp is biscuits n' gravy for synthesizers.  They have a 7" record out
on Breaking World Records / Apostasy Recordings.  Conrad Capistran and
Joshua Burkett make up the two-man-riot of sweeps & boops.  Push a
boulder down a hill, wrestle without a mat.
http://www.breakingworldrecords.com/index2.html

Radical Readout Press author & charming popsong writer Chris Weisman
will be lecturing on "Nonmusical Patterns and Their Musical Use,"
something we've been wanting him to do for some time.

Black Sand DJs Jeremy Pisani & Conrad Capistran will load the decks
with obscure heaviness and as we rock out between sets, there will be
violet custard poofs of light and vines crawling out of the PA
speakers, up into the ceiling.  listen to their sick radio show online
here:
http://blacksand.podomatic.com/

Montague Phantom Brain Exchange is a place where bodied & disembodied brains
& nonbrains can safely gather to deconstruct solutions & create problems
while soaking in an envigorating bath of provocative entertainments. Last
wednesday of every month, 9pm to midnight, at the Rendezvous (bar with
food!) 78 3rd St Turners Falls, MA. A typical evening will include 2 - 3
performing acts, a 15 minute lecture and a DJ.

That's it, take care & all that
Jeremy

Now that our grueling summer mini-tour is over (2 shows in two weeks!), I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to check it out. We were both a nervous wreck for the Death Vessel/Chris Weisman show (compounded by having to push all our equipment down King St. on a handtruck), but the set actually went really well. I know this to be true because it wasn't recorded. Yeah!

Second show was promising - it was in the high 90s & humid all day, and the weather report said thunderstorms and hail (with chance of frogs), but it was actually very nice out at the yurt, and we were feeling more confident...as a result(?) the set was pretty crappy, with tuning & level problems, & some major blunders. This set was documented on video AND audio. Yep. So, a poetic kind of arc: playing live sucks > hey that wasn't so bad > playing live sucks. It really drove home the fact that YOU CAN NOT PREDICT HOW THESE THINGS WILL GO. On the plus side, Bells Without Sound, MV + EE, and Tarp all sounded great. Tarp being especially good - Conrad really filled up the yurt with his bottom end (soundwise).

We're both looking forward to doing some recording now that we're all practiced up, which can only be a good thing. You can do it over if it isn't. Call me a control freak if you want, I prefer to think of it as "artistic vision". Right.

The good news though, is that the Red Favorite cd-r that Spirit Of Orr released will be coming out on Streamline Records in a vinyl edition of 500. Mastering is done, and the tentative release date is in August. Streamline is distributed by Drag City, so it should be widely available at all finer record stores, and Dynamite Records as well (zing).

I still have a few copies of the cd-r, $10 postpaid in the US if you want one, and copies of the LP will be available from me as well when it comes out. If you have a turntable, I highly suggest the LP - Streamline does an amazing job on their releases, and it should be as nice to listen to as it is to fondle. If you're into that kind of thing, I mean. What? Why is everyone looking at me?

Wow, I had almost forgot I sent this to them...must have been close to a year ago...

http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/reviews.php?which=2838

The Iron & Wine comparison made me cringe a little (not really a fan), but the Haino reference was shockingly accurate...I was listening to him a lot when I recorded that song on Josh Burkett's 4-track, back in 1998? 99? Anyway, thanks to Franklin for the review...

So...the old website was sold out from under me (thanks ssl catacomb), so the new address is:

http://www.redfavorite.org

yeah, it's the same website as the old one...I'll be redesigning it soon, but until then you can hear samples of all the songs on the s/t cd...

Jeremy

Yeah, it's out at last in a handmade, numbered edition of 300...go to Spirit Of Orr if you want to pick it up.