In This Issue:
*Paint EP’s “Clear Vinyl” backing old-school skater Rodney Mullen!
*Stars On My Ceiling LP out now!
*Chocolate Industries’ Urban Renewal Program on the way…
*Caural featured on Apartment B’s New York artist compilation
*Songs from Stars On My Ceiling in an independent film, “Firecracker”
*Who is that singing on Longshot’s album?
Hey Everyone. Here is my little newsletter of sorts to keep you
updated about what’s going on in my little music world. I put this
together for friends and music heads once or twice a year; this is
issue 2, and issue 3 won’t materialize until this winter sometime… If
this frequency of information is too much, or if you just don’t give a
shit (which is fine, too!), please reply to this email with the word
“remove” in the subject heading and I swear I won’t be too offended.
Now- on to the news…
> I am excited to say that the closing track of my Paint EP, “Clear
Vinyl,” was used in On Video’s Winter 2002 skate video. The video
features many new and old skaters including Rodney Mullen, whose
influence more or less created freestyle street skating as we know it
today… I was more comfortable providing a soundtrack for footage of
him than I was skinning knees and elbows like I used to do back in the
day. For you skate fans, this video can be picked up in skate shops
everywhere… I’d recommend Push Skateboards (40 E Chicago Ave, right
near the red line: 312-573-9996).
> My second full-length album- and first for Chicago’s Chocolate
Industries- was released domestically June 11th. It contains songs
written over the course of last summer, and definitely fits the
season! You can find it most anywhere; online purchasers should visit
amazon.com, cdnow.com, etc. The Japanese version released on Tokyo’s
P-Vine label back in March contains an extra song for all you die-hard
collectors. Anyway, here’s what XLR8R had to say:
“In a genre where accessibility is often regarded as suspect, I almost
hesitate to tell you that there’s absolutely no one who won’t love
this; electronix heads and b-boys, four-year-olds and grandmothers.
OK, maybe I’m overstating by a smidgen, but Caural’s gossamer guitars
and shirred hip-hop beats are quite simply undeniable, carrying the
feel good appeal of the Avalanches, the melancholy of Four Tet, and a
happy-sad nostalgia for a time and a place you can’t put your finger
on. Over cracked mudflat breaks, technicolor tumbleweeds kick up
whimsical jigs and dust devils morph into fantastic, ecstatic
whipporwhils. It’s a beautiful place in the country, and I’m buying
property there now.” – Philip Sherburne
> After almost two years in the making, Chocolate Industries is releasing
the first installment of its Urban Renewal Program this coming August-
a compilation including myself, Prefuse 73, Mos Def, Miho Hatori of
Cibo Matto, Souls of Mischief, Tortoise, El-P, Aesop Rock, DJ Food,
Mr. Lif, RJD2, Diverse, While, and Themselves (Dose one and Jel). The
first single (Aesop Rock & El-P) is out now, with the second (Mos Def
& Chicago’s Diverse) to follow this July. I have contributed a remix
for the next single- Miho Hatori’s song “Night Light”- originally
produced by Prefuse 73.
> Another compilation coming soon is on a New York label called
Apartment B. Its title “Various Artists: New York” explains it all;
ironically, many of the featured artists (including yours truly) have
since left NYC! Regardless, snippets of songs by Blitter (Hrvatski),
I-Sound & Daniel Raffel, So Takahashi, Zammuto, and others are on the
website for your listening pleasure:
http://www.apartmentb.com/releases/aptb003
> Songs from Stars On My Ceiling have been chosen for an independent
film entitled “Firecracker,” built around the Los Angeles nightclub.
Other artists on the soundtrack include Moodyman, Klute, Calibre, A
Tribe Called Quest, and Bernard Wright. Stay tuned to PBS for its
premiere!
> Longshot, a new emcee coming out of Chicago, is dropping his debut
album later this month, featuring guest artists such as Diverse,
Juice, myself, Freebasic, Claudia of Family Tide, and Vicious da
Canibal; production by DJ Lok, k.kruz, DJ Anomaly, & Ted Sirota. I am
truly excited about this album, and you should absolutely keep your
eyes open for it!
I am busy working on new material for release later this year,
collaborating with some folks and getting excited for some summer
changes! Thanks for reading, and happy listening!