$12-$14 @
www.theyoungequestrians.com

"The Young Equestrians" is a band that I've been playing with for the past two years. We put together a recording called  "Beware of The Hurry Sickness". It's mostly Mikey Hart's brainchild because he was in charge of recording, mixing and mastering (and it's probably best to have one band member in charge of this sort of thing).  He did an amazing job.  The music on the album is based on semi-organized improvisations and is partially constructed with overdubs. Although the primary sound is Mikey Hart's keyboard/electronics, Chris Welcome's accordion, my upright bass bowing, and Rich Levinson's drums, other great things happen on this recording. Key points are Chris Welcome's melodic cello playing on "Swimmer Who Confused Himself With A Fish" and guitar playing on "Ran Tab's Balloon", Rich Levinson's patient beat entrances and sudden pulses on "Devil's Doorknob", Mikey Hart's use of looping, droning, distortion, reverb and tape sounds on nostalgic "The Flood Downtown", and I get to make long arcos on the double bass, sudden whale sounds, twinkling/acidic harmonic noises on "20 Foot Man on Gold Street". 


Mikey and Rich by a cool car outside The Bohemian National Home in Detroit, MI
The album is being released now because the band has been on hiatus since the summer of 2007. The reasons are: Rich Levinson took off for a European tour to play washboard in the well-known Dixieland band "Loose Marbles" (mostly based out of Louisiana) and Mikey joined Rich in Africa for an intense study of "High Life" music in Ghana for about 6 months. They have stories and Ghanaian folk songs out of the kazoo. I should know because I just spent a couple of months rehearsing, composing and touring a set of music that includes an African song "Abaqueme" an old Ghanaian drinking song. Not to worry Welcome and I have been busy composing and gigging with Septet "The E.R.A." and playing his quartet and Ben Miller's "The Push Pull Quartet" (now released on Tigerasylum.org). Welcome has also spent the year playing with various groups such as "Drummer's Corpse" and touring with "Mothguts". I worked a lot with multi-instrumentalist (mostly world music reeds) Bill Cole as a duo and in his "Untempered Ensemble" with William Parker, Warren Smith, Andrew Lamb, Atticus Cole and Billy Bang.  I also went on a awesome but short tour with Ras Moshe and Dave Ross, started playing with "Stars Like Fleas" and….you can check out my website for more info. All very different music than "The Young Equestrians", it feels great to work in this context again…especially after being on the road through Pittsburgh, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago's Avaerie and Heaven Gallery, and Columbus.


Playing at Mexicains in Grand Rapids, MI
Back to "The Young Equestrians" and what we will be performing this weekend. The set embraces drones and stretched out chord progressions, which was the primary reason for starting the band. I composed three conceptual pieces for the band dedicated to a lake I grew up by.  They are simply called "Long Pond Part I, II and II".  The pieces sound like songs but they are not so much lyrical or when you think they are about to get lyrical they abstract in someway.  I used serialism to pick the chords but I wrote the melodies to fit and the scales the chords are derived from. So it's really not serial music. I wouldn't have used anything I didn't like anyways. I used the concept of stretching chord progressions with time.  For example if the chord
progression is A7, B7, C7, D7 it would be 1 beat each then 2 beats each then 3 beats each. The music I wrote is more interesting than this example because they sound like songs and there are improvisations in certain places.  We also made some democratic decisions on arrangements.  On "Long Pond Part I" Welcome improvises with textural and percussive sounds on the guitar over a stretched out chord progression and then the ensemble is cued into a small melody (which we easily rock out on).  "Long Pond Part II", starts off opposite from "Part I".  It ends with an improvisation by Mikey Hart on a sampler, pedals, and harmonica.  For personal reasons I asked Mikey to sample the Dylan Thomas poem "I Have Longed To Move Away"
specifically the line "I have longed to move away but am afraid some life yet unspent might explode".  I strongly wanted him to manipulate the recording so it wouldn't sound cheesy. "Part III" doesn't stretch out in time but it is an 8 bar chord progression that resolves in several places but continues looping until it finally ends where written (could easily end in several places).  In this concept Welcome's piece is similar in having a melody that can resolve in several places but keeps circling.  Welcome's song sounds more stripped down because the melody is in unison between accordion, upright bass and drums and the drones don't kick in until the 2nd to last time the melody is played. The set involves 6 songs and has a lot of focus and diversity. We are currently looking for a label to release "Beware of The Hurry Sickness" and our new music. If you or someone you know is interested please contact me.

Come check us out since we're back in Brooklyn after being on tour. We'll be performing with video projections by Michael Lucio Sternbach (Windows Have Eyes, Harmonize Most High) at the Stone and the following night at the Cakeshop with Herulaneum (Chicago) and Talibam! Please visit www.theyoungequestrians.com. Below is more information of
the performances.

Sunday August 24th 8pm (get there at 7:45) $10
The Young Equestrians with video projections by Michael Sternbach (Windows Have Eyes, Harmonize Most High)
The Stone Ave. C & 2nd St. Manhattan,New York

Monday August 25th 8pm $5
The Young Equestrians, Talibam, Herculaneum (Chicago)
The Cakeshop 152 Ludlow St. New York

King of Ice Cream (or Ale) in Columbus, Ohio