Parcematone

I’m in the middle of jobs, coordinating album things, more to get to soon.

After months, nay years, of talking about this record, it is in the final stages and due for release in two months.

We are previewing a track here.

I am handling all aspects of the release except promo to print/web and radio, which DIY aside, is still a huge (and, unfortunately, expensive) part of putting out a record. It’s all very exciting and very overwhelming. I still have a lot to do.

The one thing I am not doing is covering the manufacture, release and distribution of the vinyl LP. The marvelous 12XU (12xu.net) has stepped in to manage that format. Gerard’s involvement means a tremendous amount to me. He’s run amazing record labels releasing great records I’ve admired and enjoyed for years. (Homestead, Matador).

Though we are in this late stage, after putting everything I can into the process, and trying to avoid online fund-raising, I will be kicking off a Kickstarter campaign next week. 2012!

In the meantime, enjoy “& & &” .

rebecca

The new record was recorded in Wakefield, Chicago, Montreal, Portland, Townsend and Dallas. Engineered by Howard Bilerman, John McEntire, Ethan Rose, Kendra Lynn, Mark Greenberg, Stuart Sikes, John Askew, Adam Selzer, Jim Brunberg, Graeme Gibson, and Rebecca Gates.
Players include : Joe Adamik, Thierry Amar, James Becker, Steve Berlin, Joanna Bolme, Rebecca Cole, Becky Foon, Mark Greenberg, Gary Jarman, Benny Massarella, Doug McCombs, John McEntire, Jessica Moss, Sonja Myklebust, Nate Query, Tim Rutili, and Ji Tanzer.

Confluence of activities: unpacking boxes; artwork for The Float; gathering photos, sounds and videos for the Kickstarter campaign. It’s a strange combo of surfing memory lane and slamming into the current moment as wall of water, asking how does this past relate to what needs to happen now? Albums become markers for time, both in the making and in listening. This Heat’s first album is forever linked to a certain room, a group of people, as is Rush’s “Hemispheres” (boyfriend) and Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” (solo). Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” conjures up a moment standing in the Tower Records store on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, talking with a friend about…hearing records for the first time. Why albums? Why not singles?
When I first met my friend Ben Walker (who does the amazing Too Much Information podcast on WFMU) it was 2004 and we were talking about Ipods, which were just entering the marketplace.
I said, “It’s the same as an old Victrola. You listen to one song at a time. Or maybe it’s like the way 45s are stacked on a turntable and drop down to play…”
He stared at me and asked “Why didn’t you say that when I was recording?”.
All formats at all times. It’s about listening, what a musician wants to make and what suits a user best. I grew up listening to singles. I listened to “Young Blood” by The Coasters over and over. “Honky Tonk” by Bill Doggett (Pt. 1…never getting around to flipping it for Pt. 2) was another favourite. But I make albums, I love the length, the format, the arc. I also make sounds and music and songs that aren’t albums, which I adore, but it’s only the albums that each have their own notebook, their related photos, movies and tours, working titles and cassettes. I have so many cassettes. They’ve been shipped across the US twice, waiting for this moment, of 2012 digitization opportunities, for culling, posting, selling and tossing.

We didn’t play enough in 2011. It just kind of happened. The shows we did play were great (for us anyway), including a set at the Sasquatch Festival along the Columbia Gorge. Joe Adamik (Califone, Iron and Wine, + all over my new album) joined us for a song, many friends stood in the crowd and when I would look offstage I could see the gorge for miles. In October I played Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Built in 1998, it is the home of the Seattle Symphony and the acoustics are intimate and transcendent. During the show I sang one note off-mic, listened and then heard, from a waaaay back balcony somebody sing the note back to me. Sound check sounded like this: http://snd.sc/wmvHOT
I spend a lot of time thinking about listening, voice, translation, and sound as sculpture. It was a complete thrill to be able to sing in that room.
At the Northside Festival, I was fortunate enough to help plan the bill and see, start to finish, a great show: Ted Leo, Ida, Spectre Folk and Eleanor Friedberger. There were other nights, other cities, it was a pleasure to play and have you all swing by when you could. This year is shaping up to be much more active. We are playing in Portland and Paris in April, looking forward to SW and West shows in May, and then as much of the country as the country will take during the summer and into the fall, I’ll be playing solo in Spain in June, the band is due to be in Europe late fall. Specific dates announced as they are confirmed.
Big news is that the new album will actually (really) be out May 15. The vinyl is due to be released by 12XU Records and will be available on their website, from us, and in fine stores everywhere. I am releasing the CD and managing digital distribution myself, with the amazing, inspiring folks of Cash Music allowing us to be one of the first releases to showcase their full-fledged, robust, open-source-non-profit-shaking-s**t-up-0s-and-1s coding masterpiece. More on all that later. There is a Kickstarter campaign in the near future. I am hoping to make it interesting for us and others. One good thing about making this album is there’s plenty of demo versions and odds and sods. As we say on twitter: #premiums.
It will be great to have the record out. Then I can get to making the next two, both already partially written.

December was spent focused on a project that left little time for anything else. Friends knew I’d be scarce, I knew I wouldn’t play guitar for 6 weeks or spend a minute working on the records or other endeavours close to my heart. Twitter checks, when accessed, provided a nice link in and out of the work at hand, but those moments were rare.
A week ago I started reading the feeds again and was aware of the intensity of the scattered chatter. When working at home, it’s welcome to step into a noisy room, do some tracking, listening, learning and dip back out. But this time I was just tired. I longed for longform. I bought books. I turned off the radio. I borrowed books from the library, pulled pencils out of drawers, wrote letters. I thought about how much I’d like to write short essays, long questions, but try and then don’t and wondered why.
I’ve some ideas I won’t share here, it’s just process…but I think it’s time to try again. If a reader wants more informed, traditional, cunning, snarky, earnest, funny, casual, accomplished, there are plenty of options. Prettier pictures, more illuminating, ok. And plenty of what I want to work through I’ll do offline, privately, or in sound. There’s much in this all everything all the time online world that I prefer to keep in the realm of the corporeal or just keep to myself.
That said, there’s stories from travels and questions at hand, conversations to be explored, the need to learn. So onward, again, for now, until……

A big thank you to Casey Jarman for profiling the work I’m doing with the Future of Music Coalition. Here’s the article in Willamette Week’s Swag Rag column. There’s also a nice piece on the effort by Ryan White on Oregon Live.

It’s nice to have the local press be supportive, I don’t take it for granted. There’s many cities where the interest would not exist.

If you are a musician, I encourage you to take the survey and please do forward the link to any musicians you know.

via the amazing Alabama Chanin: La chicas de Longboard Girls Crew
facebook.com/​longboardgc

From Willamette Week “Scoop”: September 14, 2011

ARMISEN WATCH CONTINUES: We weren’t actually going to mention that Portlandia’s Fred Armisen was hanging out at the Rebecca Gates and the Consortium/Ted Leo show at Backspace on Saturday night. But when he got behind the drums and played a song with Gates during her MFNW set—quite ably, we might add—he kinda left us no choice. It’s not the first time the former Spinanes frontwoman has played alongside the SNL vet: He joined her during a NYC residency five years ago and, according to Gates, actually filled in as a Spinane in the ’90s. Weird? It gets weirder. Ted Leo was also a Spinane.

No offense to WW but I find the concept of Armisen Watch a little creepy. Scoop does make the point that the membership of The Spinanes could use a little reviewing. It’s a mighty talented group. Here’s a list of touring members and their bands since their Spinanes/RG Ruby Series duties:

Scott Plouf: 1991-1996: Built to Spill

John Moen: 1989, 1996: The Jicks, Decemberists, Boston Spaceships, Maroons, Perhapst

Joanna Bolme: 1996-1998: The Jicks, Quasi

Fred Armisen: 1997: SNL, Portlandia

Jerry Busher: 1998-2002: French Toast, Federico Aubele

Ted Leo: 1998-99: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Kendall Meade: 1998-99: Mascott

Mikael Jorgensen: 2000-2002: Wilco, Pronto

Noel Kupersmith: 2000-2002: Brokeback, Extra Golden

I’m doing a lousy job at writing here. Not caught by fear much, but I would rather not write stupidly. Also, as much as I like reading what other folks have to say and show, I’m more keen on making things and keeping quiet. Is that the world we live in is it? I think perhaps no. Still trying to figure what to hash out in public. Should I be more trusting? Not give a shit? Be more refined and professional? More abstract and linky? Figuring.