Douglas Witmer
Thursday, July 31, 2008
more landscape paperweight
Parallel Road, 1988 original. The video actually begins with the last few minutes of one of my new originals called "Come Around." "Parallel Road" was written by Daryl. Our recording of this is one of the most sonically sophisticated things we ever did (whether it worked or not), and lyrically I always found it compelling. It's easily my favorite song of ours. Back in high school I could barely play guitar. I mostly sang and "danced" awkwardly. Through the years I always wished we could have given this song a really good go in front of an audience. The highlight of the night for me was being able to front the band on this one, singing and playing guitar.
Wishes and Sand, 1988 original. This one was one of the few entirely written by me. I favored the tidily arranged, moody-chorded, melodramatic love song. It has a nice melody and was probably our most popular song. (Word has it some of our friends in the crowd were singing the back-up vocal parts.)
Labels: Landscape Paperweight, music
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
chinapainting package design
As it's obvious by now, I'm in a phase of musical involvement. My close friend (and high school band collaborator) Daryl's project Chinapainting has a new record. I did the package design. It was released yesterday. I think it's a terrific album, it rewards an open, slow listen. You can sample and order it here.
They're an interesting duo and you should read the story of their collaboration on their site. But essentially, Daryl met and exclusively performed with his bandmate Jim for more than a year over the internet. Their first album was recorded with a piece of internet software that allows musicians to play live together from remote sites. The new record was their first recorded live with them both in the same room, in this case a studio in Woodstock, NY, where during the course of the sessions, the night blooming cereus in the studio opened for it's one appearance each year. The cover art features the image of the cereus, layered with long-exposure photos of Juan illuminated by the light of those glowsticks you often see at street festivals.
Labels: design, miscellany, music
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more landscape paperweight
Photographic Memory, 1988 original. This one was written by Daryl and heavily influenced by Hüsker Dü. Our 4-track cassette recording of this song breaks down into some transcendently scorching feedback that ends with Daryl simply pulling the cord out of his guitar. That's how Side 1 (how I miss sides) of the album ended.
Labels: Landscape Paperweight, music
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Sunday, July 27, 2008
more landscape paperweight
Be With You, 1987 original. This was the opening song of our set.
In his blog post, our guitarist Daryl pretty much sums up my feelings about this one:
...Alec (our drummer) counted off. Man. The release of energy was palpable.
Tribute, 1988 original. One of my favorites of ours.
Labels: Landscape Paperweight, music
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Friday, July 25, 2008
landscape paperweight video teaser
Being that we were a band of the late '80s, I guess it was only appropriate that we recorded our show on VHS. But now it seems we're having a little trouble getting our footage transferred properly. Here's a little teaser, though, made by our bassist using the built-in camera on his laptop aimed at the TV. Hence the quality and lag time between video and audio. It captures the spirit. And the tune...New Order's "Love Vigilantes" from 1985...is kinda timely I think.
Stay tuned for more!
Labels: Landscape Paperweight, music
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Landscape Paperweight rocks The Fire
After nearly 20 years since our last show, we rocked a solid set to an enthusiastic crowd last night. Coming soon to a YouTube near you! (Photos: Jennie Noakes)
Labels: music
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
music : glenn gould plays bach
What can one really say about this?
Labels: music
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
music : colleen
When the musician who made your favorite album this year plays a show within 10 minutes walk of your house, you gotta go, right? In this case for me, it's the French multi-instrumentalist Cecile Schott, who performs under the name Colleen. (The album is "Les Ondes Silencieuses"...more Colleen here). The above video seems to be someone's found footage set to one of her pieces. The video below isn't great footage, but the sound is okay, and it's interesting as it was filmed recently and demonstrates one of Colleen's more interesting techniques, that of using a classical guitar as a resonation chamber for a music box (she was commissioned to write an entire album for music box), then fed into a number of looping pedals, one of which over time begins to repeat the pattern backwards.
Labels: music
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Monday, May 12, 2008
save the date to ROCK
Here's a really short version of a really long story. After nearly 20 years since we last played together, my high school band Landscape Paperweight has a gig...and a MySpace page.
Mark your calendars for Thursday July 9 at Philadelphia's "The Fire." We'll be playing a set featuring some of our late-80s originals, a few new originals, and a couple classic covers. Back then, I wanted to make serious musical art. These days, I just wanna ROCK!
Labels: music
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Thursday, February 21, 2008
music : radiohead
Radiohead, performing "weird fishes/Arpeggi" live
After their brilliant records "OK Computer" and "Kid A," my interest in Radiohead waned sharply...as evidenced by the fact that I didn't even get around to purchasing "Hail to the Theif" (2003) until this past January. I came late to the game again with their most recent record "In Rainbows" released last fall. All I can say is get this record straightaway!
Need further coaxing? Watch the video...one of my favorite tracks on the album featuring beautifully layered shimmering guitar patterns.
Labels: music
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
my gift to you...happy holidays...happy new year
When I look back at 2007, I hope to remember it as the year I rediscovered my musical side. There was a time about 16-17 years ago when I consciously chose to pursue my painting over my music. Back then everything seemed so clearly "either/or" and not "both." In 2007 I finally released the album I'd been tinkering with for a few years. I strengthened a relationship with an old musician friend and musical collaborator. I produced a compilation album that was released through my cafe. I began to sing again, very privately, very naively. I performed solo on the drums in front of an audience just a few weeks ago and didn't totally suck. And for the past several months I've been recording myself when I play guitar. I've just had the impulse to press "record" when I sit down to play for my own private enjoyment. I did not and do not have any expecations when I do this. It has simply been in the same spirit as when one draws in a sketchbook--to record ideas for future review and reference.
Listening back to the recordings recently, I found some moments that seem worth putting together. I thought it would be nice to put them out there in the world. They're a gift. What better a time to give something than now?
I'm calling this six-song set "First Light." There are many references: dawn, a new day, new hope, a new discovery, light coming from the darkness, the idea of the Advent season. All of these recordings are just me playing electric guitar through a digital looping effects pedal. All the pieces are completely improvised, recorded in one take with no overdubbing. As such they are loose, tenuous, sloppy in parts, imperfect, and somehow way more clear than they would be if I were actually "working" on them.
They're my gift to you in hope that we may all work together for peace in the new year. Enjoy!
Listen
free player from mysplayer.com
Download
01-First Light : i 3:15
02-First Light : ii 5:59
03-First Light : iii 0:32
04-First Light : iv 2:41
05-First Light : v 4:30
06-First Light : vi 6:56
Labels: Consolidated Hand Mouth and Ear Institute, music
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Monday, December 10, 2007
BEAT, by lynne harlow at minus space
Over the weekend I had the privilege to be a participant in Lynne Harlow's performance/painting/installation BEAT at Minus Space in Brooklyn.
The all white drum kit was the nicest I've ever played. Having not performed on the drums in a few years (and always as the drummer in a band), I felt rusty and nervous. Plus, before I started playing I didn't think to take the time to adjust the kit to my body the way my personal kit is. Describing this to someone later, they said "you felt like you were trying to drive a car but your feet couldn't reach the pedals." Exactly. Nevertheless it was very fun. And it was terrific to see all the different kinds of approaches people take to a fixed set of instruments and the broad sonic variation that was produced.
Afterwards I remembered a dream I had when I was in high school: sitting behind a drum set in a painting studio drumming and looking at large paintings on the wall.
(cue the sappy string music)
Wow, I guess dreams really DO come true!
Labels: exhibitions, Minus Space, miscellany, music
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Saturday, December 08, 2007
songs on the green line
Here's news about a project (two projects, really) that I've been working hard on. The fifth anniversary of my cafe is coming up in January. Over the years we've had a lot of incredible musicians play at the cafe, and I thought it would be great to celebrate the anniversary with a compilation album. I collaborated with Rich Wexler from Sherman Arts, who books our shows. In the end we were able to get a terrific group of nationally-recognized artists and local up-and-comers to lend their songs to the CD. We named it, simply, Songs on the Green Line.
While we were at it, we thought it only fitting to make the CD a fundraiser, so 100% of the profits from the sale of Songs on the Green Line will benefit Cooperativa San Fernando, a worker-owned coffee cooperative located high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, where the Green Line's house coffee is grown.
The 13-song folk-rock compilation features songs by local and nationally known independent musicians: The Innocence Mission, Denison Witmer, Birdie Busch, Soltero, Red Heart the Ticker, Jack Ohly, The Corndawg, The Weeds, Fan of Friends, Devin Greenwood, Circles, Bird and the Buffalo, and Little Ocean. Cover art by West Philly's own John Overmyer. I'm biased, of course, but I think it's a terrific listen.
The album is due December 13.
Preview and pre-order the album HERE.
Then there's the other project. (I won't toot my horn too loudly on this one...but it was a big project and it is finally finished! ) If you want some terrific coffee, or an interesting T-shirt, or need a new insulated travel mug, you might like clicking HERE.
If you're in Philadelphia, come to one of the CD release shows this week at the cafe:
Thursday December 13
Soltero
The Corndawg
special guest Amy Pickard
Friday December 14
Birdie Busch
Jack Ohly
Circles
Saturday December 15
Fan of Friends
The Weeds
Little Ocean
www.greenlinecafe.com
Labels: Green Line Cafe, miscellany, music
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
the album is finished & available!
The Consolidated Hand Mouth & Ear Institute's debut album Condensery is now available.
A hand-numbered, limited-edition CD is available for order via PayPal ($11.00 US includes shipping). The album is available for download as well; either as individual tracks or in its entirety. You can sample and purchase the music right from this post! Read on...
The record is primarily instrumental and the arrangements are highly repetitive. I describe it as a blend of electronic and acoustic instruments arranged in spacious ambience with shimmering percussion, mellow chording, and heavy slow bass beats. But hey, you can listen for yourself!
Much of the record was composed in the summer of 2004 in a cabin outside of a little town called Onekama (oh-NECK-uh-muh) in northwestern Michigan, just off the shore of Lake Michigan. The spot has always been a special place for me; much of my fundamental creative thinking and action seems to happen there.
Lorine Niedecker, Milwaukee, 1967. Photograph by Jonathan Williams
The seeds of this project were planted years ago. In 1996 at a neighborhood yard sale I naively picked up a book called "The Granite Pail--Collected poems of Lorine Niedecker." Lorine spent the majority of her life across Lake Michigan in rural Wisconsin developing a body of work known for deep expressiveness despite it's spare use of language. I can't explain why, but her poetry and the story of her life have haunted me ever since that day. Working hard on this music back in 2004, I'd stand at the edge of the water looking west, and imagine the things Lorine might have seen, standing on the opposite shore. The album title "Condensery" comes from a line in one of her works.
The album art features a few (from my collection of several thousand) photos of Lake Michigan, taken over the past 13 years.
Below are samples of each track, in their album sequence. They are approximately 1 minute (1mb) each.
I hope you enjoy the record, and let me know what you think! This is very new territory for me.
AUDIO SAMPLES
DOWNLOAD--Click Here
or
ORDER THE CD ($11.00 US includes shipping)
Labels: Consolidated Hand Mouth and Ear Institute, music
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Thursday, January 18, 2007
my new internet girlfriend
[If only I could be paid for this advertisement.]
Me-n-Pandora...we are in love...free, free love! Click above or check out one of my mixes using the buttons in the right-hand column. You won't be disappointed.
Labels: music
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Monday, December 18, 2006
last minute gift (for yourself & others)
I've plugged my younger brother Denison before. He's my musician brother, and, having myself nearly chosen to make my way in music rather than art, we've always been close. In fact, I often tell people that he's making the records I would have liked to have made had I continued with my music. But better of course. I'm happy to have been involved, giving a lot of critical listens, and also adding bits here and there over the years.
Denison turned 30 back in November, and came up with the brilliant idea to record 30 songs to give away from his website as a vehicle to raise money for two important charities. [UPDATE: Denison plays live Wednesday night in Philadelphia at World Cafe Live for the "Musicians On Call" benefit...more details here] The songs were recorded live, just him and his guitar, in a studio utilizing only one extremely sensitive microphone. He re-documents material from the last 8-10 years of his albums and there are also a few covers including a fantastic version of Nick Drake's "Northern Sky."
It's all here at: happybirthdaydenison.com
You can just listen, or download as well.
There are two things about these recordings--first, there are Denison's performances--his singing in particular is about the best I've heard him in recorded form. Second, there's a wonderful sense of intimacy--simultaneously you feel Denison playing these songs only for himself, and only for you.
Denison has also started to do some podcasts, and they're becoming available. The first one, about the impact of Nick Drake's music in his life, is excellent.
Give yourself a great gift: visit the site, download the songs, make a donation, and feel great.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Labels: miscellany, music
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