recording, now.

finishing all vocals, tonight. latest deadline for stupid first album - 2 weeks.

mark linkous.

i've tried to stop myself from saccharine public outpouring so far, what with the deluge of blogs and status updates that follow an event like this, or any other, and you can get sick of how quickly this tires. but fuck it i decided i want to pay tribute to mark linkous, as one of the most underrated songwriters of the last 15 years.
it's easy to write retrospectively about someone in sadness, as if things are suddenly put into perspective now that they are dead, looking for signifiers in lyrics, suddenly becoming interested in their lives because they are no longer here to answer for themselves.
mark linkous seemed a relatively private person, so i'm not going to go looking and dredging up personal details i didn't do whilst he was alive.
i would rather hail his music as some of the most genuinely great songwriting i have heard. it was a significant point in my life when i discovered vivadixies as a teenager, and that record and others still feel relevant to my life even now. he had a great ear for melody and composition, and still had a lot in him. the music is largely optimistic, very much so. but sometimes this kind is the most despairing.
it's affected me much more than i ever imagined. i'm glad to have seen him live.

here's a favourite.

some words, not too many.

first album to be completed by march 2010 at latest, to be released online and on cassette.*

i always intended the first record to be released on tape. i was delighted to find out that there has been a resurgence of cassette use in the last few years - i remember having a conversation with someone who ridiculed the idea, saying 'no one uses tapes anymore'. not true, it seems.

i became obsessed with them again a few years ago, after my mp3 player broke down too many times. i had a great personal stereo (that had to be taped shut) and used to go for walks listening to albums i had bought off ebay, mixtapes i had made, or, my favourite that stayed in for months - 'heart and crime' by julie doiron b/w 'haunt me' by tim hecker.

*i have found a great site that sells blank tapes. it's become a running joke, this first record. i laugh at myself setting deadlines, only for another year to have passed. anyhow, laughing away...

there will be an ep release by my kindly benefactor dave coleman, who runs noripcord.com
(check out his excellent music review site). i'll post details of availability on here. it'll likely cost a small amount (just to cover costs) and i might give a cdr of it thrown in with the package.


last piece of news - i will be using another church to finish off the record, the palatial polwarth church. if only i was religious and spent this much time in churches worshipping as i have making the record...

recording: 4th february. observatory road.

recent.