Work on the studio

Our studio is on Bill’s property in the Santa Cruz mountains. It is an old artist’s shack / crank lab (we think).  Basically, one of the charms is that it really is not more a “studio” than it is a shack with power in the middle of the mountains. On La Guitarra, occasionally you can hear frogs, dogs, and the occasional goat — all of which ads to the charm. (Listen to Solitude and Bookend #2 for good examples.)  However, there were times that we would be recording and I would do the perfect vocal take, and right as I was hitting the last note, we’d hear his neighbor (who doesn’t live that close to him) start some sort of power tool and we’d have to wait for him to stop and re-do everything (I don’t like to cut and paste too much in pro-tools… I’d rather get the whole song in a take or two).   Well, because the artist studio / crank lab was not really built for recording in mind, we have started to rebuild it.  Yesterday, we replaced the frame on one wall. When it is done, we should have a more soundproof experience. Don’t worry though, we can always open the door if we want more frogs in the mix.

Absinthe Glow in Santa Cruz…

The show last night was fun… very small turnout (not unexpected for a Wednesday).   We played pretty well.  We were down one cellist (Steve).  That’s cool though.  Ruth more than handled her own, including having to deal with me saying “hey, by the way, can you play Steve’s cello part on this song?” 3 seconds before we started L’enterrment.  Tom, Bill and Joe sounded great, as always.  We played the Muchachos again, which is probably my favorite part of the set right now.

Our next show is December 20th at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco.  I hope to have some new materiel to play by then.

Absinthe Caberet last weekend

Last weekend was pretty rad in Monterey.  Ledbetter’s set was awesome (as usual).  Also, the debut set from Indianola’s finest Andrew James Baldwin  was nothing short of amazing.  The Absinthe Glow played  on several songs with each act, which was a blast.  As we (finally) went on at 1AM, most people were music’d out, but thanks to those that stuck around.  We got to play the Muchachos for the first time, which was awesome, so I was fulfilled.

Here is a great photo from the set taken by Alanna Risse:

We have another show at the Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz this Wednesday.

Don Quixote’s show was rad

The Absinthe Glow show at Don Quixotes was lots of fun.  We’ll be putting up some photos and videos sometime soon.  We played the same set that we played at our release show - 8 songs off La Guitarra, 1 off of the self-titled record.  I’d like to start bringing in a few older ones at some point, and maybe even some new ones.  One step at a time I suppose. One very cool addition was the use of the Grand Piano in place of the keyboard.  It gave Chaos and Bookend No. 2 a very different feel.  Julie Bonnie played violin on 3 songs (L’enterrment, Hangover and Last Words of Padre Soledad), which was a treat as always.

LA Guitarra release show ruled

Thanks to everybody for coming out as well as to the Bye Bye Blackbirds for playing with us.  Alanna took some photos of the event (I’ll post more soon).  The Make-Out Room was quite filled.  I hope we get to play there again sometime.  Awesome venue.

We did 9 songs, 8 from the new record (Matchbook was the only track we did from the first disk).   I was quite nervous beforehand as the sound guy didn’t show up until about 15 minutes before the door opened, leaving us with no option for a  sound check.  In a normal rock band situation, this is normally fine, but when you have 2 cellos (celli), 2 guitars, bass, keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel and drums, it can be a little more tricky.  Regardless, the sound guy did a great job and I really had nothing to worry about.  The strange thing was that the Make Out Room’s stage has two levels.  Right behind my head was my guitar amp, which meant, I was able to hear my guitar drums and that’s about it.  According to those that were in the crowd, it sounded fine, so I am satisfied.

Next show: July 13th at Don Quixotes in Felton, CA.

Final album release show rehearsals were last night

They went well.  We rented at studio for the evening at Lennon Studios in the SOMA district.  The first half of the rehearsal was pretty rough, most likely due to all of us getting used to the room and getting warmed up.  The second half sounded great though.

We added one song at the last minute that none of us had ever played (and I had not played since it was recorded actually).  I think, assuming I can pull off my guitar part decently, it’ll be a great intro to the set.

OK, now I just wait until Friday…

 

 

La Guitarra album release show this Friday (6/6)!

The CD release show is all set for this upcoming Friday at the Make-Out Room in San Francisco (22nd in between Mission and Valencia).  The Bye Bye Blackbirds will be opening.  The show starts at 7:30.  The Make-Out Room is probably my favorite small venue to see live music in the city.  It should be a fun night.   We have two rehearsals left until the show… tonite it will just be myself and the two Cellists.  Tomorrow night will be the full band.  After that, hopefully, we’ll be ready for action.

Incidentally, the release show is doubling asJoe Finlaw’s birthday party (more on Joe here).  The actual date of his birthday is today (6/2).  He is turning the big 3-3.   Today, he is celebrating by staying at home and listening to one of the best albums ever, This is Hardcore by Pulp all day in all sorts of different formats (I am curious if he’ll play the cassette version).  The concept of the album has to do with an aging Casanova turning 33 (perfectly conveyed by lead vocalist Jarvis Cocker), hence the all-day celebration.  

Here is a great video from said album:

 

 

This cello goes to 11.

This is some serious celli.  Ruth sent Steve the below notes this AM for L’enterrment.  Looks pretty good to me. 

We are talking some serious business folks.

 

Album comes out on Tuesday.

I’m stoked.  Last step = waiting for it to be available on iTunes before really promoting it (I guess it will be there any day now).  It is available most other places, which is cool.  

This week, I’ll be sending the record to radio stations and to blogs/websites/magazines for review.  Hopefully people will give it the time that (I think) it requires to get the record.  If not, it’s OK.  I am happy with it, and that’s what counts (of course, it is always nice if others enjoy it too, but you can’t have everything).

We started rehearsals for the album’s release show this past week.  Things went smoother than I thought… they are still very rough, but I think it’ll shape up in no time.  It was great to be playing again and to see Joe and Steve again… it had been too long.  Our next rehearsal is Tuesday. 

The set will consist of mostly songs from La Guitarra, with a couple from the first record.   

Absinthe Glow – La Guitarra album release show confirmed

 We’ll be playing on Friday, June 6th at the fabulous Make-Out Room in San Francisco.  Opening up with be Oakland’s fabulous Bye Bye Blackbirds.  The show starts early a 7:30.  If you haven’t been to the Make-Out Room before, I highly recommend it.  It is possibly my favorite place to see shows in the City.  More later on this…