Big news today: the new Explone album is finished, it's called Dreamers/Lovers and it's coming your way on June 15th!
Think fast, here it comes:
To celebrate the upcoming release, we're offering a free download of the first single "Michigan" to the web at large in exchange for a tweet. Listen and find download instructions here.
"Michigan" has already been added to regular rotation at über-cööl KEXP, which broadcasts both here in Seattle and in NYC, and globally across the web. It's already gotten a bit of airplay love, but it wouldn't hurt anyone if you were to, like, you know, request it.
I've been with the band for just over two years now, but this album is the culmination of five years of work by our heroic bandleader Patrick, whose vision of combining Cheap Trick-era melody with shoegaze melancholy, then arc-welding it onto the body of a very angry 1986 Hüsker Dü has finally come to fruition. Congrats buddy :)
More news surely to follow as we hurtle towards the release date...
Given all the activity around here involving Explone and Kirby Krackle, you might think that I've gone and dumped the whole singer-songwriter thing in favor of being a four-string sideman.
Ack! Thppt! Wrong!
In fact, I am working on a secret third project, co-writing songs with a talented friend. Some of you reading already know this. To you I say: shhh!
I don't want to give away too much, since we only started a few weeks ago. But I will say that it's some of the most meticulous songwriting I've done in a long while. We're jointly working on lyrics and melodies, and sometimes it feels like teaming up on a tricky crossword puzzle, trying to fit just the right words with just the right syllables to just the right rhythm, and pushing each other to do it better.
I don't think I've ever worked so hard on songs before and I feel obligated to step up my game.
The ultimate goal thus far is to get into a studio sometime this summer. In the meantime, I'll be dropping hints on this site leading up to the release of this project. Here's your first:
The Best Of The Rykodisc Years by Josh Rouse. This compilation is a pretty good introduction to his poppier/rockier stuff. I only started listening after a few people compared my sound to his. (Favorably, I suppose.)
The Globes EP by The Globes. Explone opened for them at the Crocodile in January. Proggy without the wizard robes. Bought.
The Dream Of The Blue Turtles by Sting. Rediscovering this one. His first and best solo record. More jazz-rock and less Sade-style romance and "soft favorites" arrangements. ("Mercury Falling" is where I fell off the bus.)
Starfish by The Church. A rediscovery! A band I used to sub on bass with back in college used to cover "Under The Milky Way," gotta go find that cassette.
Orgasmatron by Motorhead. This record came out when I was in high school but I didn't get into metal until college. If all you've heard is "Ace Of Spades," you need to hear this record. (Later: bought it.)
(N.B.: when I'm not working on my own tunes, I play bass with post-rockers Explone and nerd-rockers Kirby Krackle.)
I didn't actually get to C2E2. While Kyle and Jim went to work the booth on the tradeshow floor, Nelson, Patrick and myself decided to explore the city a little bit. If you're looking for pics of the conference, go check out the official Kirby Krackle blog. Or just Google "c2e2 sexy batman" or something.
Our hotel was the Essex, next to the Hilton on Michigan. There was some nice green space across the street and it was a pretty gorgeous day.
We took the elevated train up to Wrigleyville. I was super-excited to ride Chicago's famous loop, but nobody told me it went underground, too. I was prepared to be disappointed when we headed down into a tunnel station, but a few stops later the train popped out into the sunlight and we were gliding along at rooftop level. Awesome!
In Wrigleyville, we went to the Chicago Music Exchange, an absolutely fantastic store full of vintage instruments. Check this:
Oh man.
Hey, you like Rickenbachers?
No really, how much do you like Rickenbachers?
These are some beautiful Fender --um, Jaguars. Or Mustangs. I don't know the difference:
Tons and tons of vintage amps:
I don't even know what this is, except that I probably shouldn't mess with it:
And this is probably the most amazing one: a vintage Les Paul gold top, with original funky pickups and hardware. This guitar, I'm told, probably goes for five figures:
I think I just drooled out the side of my mouth a bit. There are more pics from the store on my Flickr account.
Pretty soon it was time to come back to the hotel, grab our instruments and head to the club. Reggie's is a pretty awesome punk dive.
Everyone at Reggie's was so cool. The soundguy, the security dudes, just about everyone was really cool. Except the bartenders.
Ready to rock.
We shared the bill with the Fuglees (who also loaned us their gear), a power-pop band that reminded me of Sugar, if Bob Mould wrote songs with titles like "David Lee Roth" and "(She's Got) Japanimation Eyes." Their bassist is comic illustrator Andy Kuhn.
We took the stage and rocked for about an hour. I'll just point you to the TON of videos of us playing the show at the Kirby Krackle YouTube channel, including some with Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, who is actually a really great singer. I did shoot some video during the show from the stage, but I need more time to get it off the camera and process it. Look for it next week.
Bye Chicago! Wish we could've stayed longer. The next full-band KK show is in Phoenix AZ for the Phoenix Comicon.
...and trying to bang out a post about our gig there before stepping onto another plane this Friday. In the meantime, here are a few orphaned photos I found from Explone's last recording session at Litho.
This is a bunch of really expensive equipment I'm not allowed to touch. I'm pretty sure the blue one adds more blue to the mix:
And here is drummer Josh and guitarist Kyle, killing time in the studio kitchen, while in the next room Patrick buries their parts under layers of guitar so dense even light cannot escape them:
(By the way, have you figured out yet that Kyle also helms Kirby Krackle? We assimilated him earlier this spring.)
And here's something cool I found on the kitchen floor (and how often does one get to say that, really):
That's "McCready" as in "Mike." Hope he doesn't need this back, 'cause I haz it now.
I'm headed to Chicago this weekend to play bass with Kirby Krackle at C2E2. Gig details are here if you're interested in attending. Twitter-spheric conditions indicate the new KK album is getting some hot n' heavy love, even from people who don't get all the geeky references at first. I haven't been to Chicago since I was a wee lad so I have no clue what to expect (I remember the Field Museum and, ummm, that's about it).
I'm going to try really, REALLY hard to shoot more pics and video, because hey, it's not everyday I get to step off a plane and play a gig in a big US city. Plus, apparently we're going to have some onstage guests in the form of Marvel Comics honcho Joe Quesada and an endless parade of cosplayers.
I don't know what that last thing means. (consults Wikipedia) Oh, okay.
Patrick has wrapped up the mixes on the new Explone album and we're now debating song sequence before the final mastering in a few weeks. This is a heart-wrenching affair for me because I can't help but think strategically about which song should open the album, which song follows what song, how does it all flow, etc.
Does it still make sense to spend a lot of time "sequencing" an album when it's just going to end up sliced and diced in iTunes playlists? I don't know anymore. All I know is that IMO there's no filler on this record -- every song could open the record, every song could close it. I call that a good problem.
It's looking like this record will officially drop in mid-June, and I'm hoping we'll have a pre-order period, because there's this one song called "Michigan" which I can't wait to put in yer ears...
