There's a new review of "Adventures" up at Let It Rock. Great site by the way, check it out! I found it through an internet search which took me to a Dick Heckstall-Smith interview there.
Back on 12/5, Joe Mallon's "Shadows And Light" show at Delicious Agony featured "Bad Ground", the opening track from "The Old Familiar Place", as part of a 2006 year-in-review special.
Fans of "Asleep Or Somewhere Else" will want to check out this podcast of Eric Wallack discussing his development as an acoustic guitarist. Also highly recommended to fans of acoustic guitar, creative musicianship, and anyone who just likes good inventive music.
"Exodust", the collaboration I participated in with Bret Hart, Eric Wallack and Peter Zolli, can now be downloaded for free, in its entirety. Thanks to Bret Hart for posting this and making it available.
There's still a little under a week left to vote on the three GS albums in the Best Global Prog Release 2006 poll, so if you haven't voted and would like to, here's the link .
I got this message from Richard Bruland, former owner/operator of Be Bop Records, and wanted to share it with everyone:
"SOME GREAT NEWS REGARDING BEBOP RECORDS & FINE ART!
The Urban Archives, a division of the Special Collections department in the library at California State University Northridge, will soon be acquiring and archiving all papers, photos, documents, and existing materials relating to Bebop Records and Fine Art in Reseda, including the nearly 1000 posters I made for each show that took place there. There is also the possibility that in celebration of the establishment of these archives, there could be an exhibition and concert/performance on campus. If that happens, it would probably be early 2007. I'll keep you informed on that.
I would deeply appreciate the addition of any Bebop related materials you may have that you could contribute to these archives.
I am especially interested in including:
PHOTOGRAPHS - any photos; especially of performances at Bebop would be greatly appreciated. Originals or good quality scans or copies would be wonderful.
VIDEOS, or CASSETTES RECORDINGS - any documentation of any kind of performances, poetry readings, or eventsat Bebop.
WRITTEN RECOLLECTIONS - I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to write on what you experienced at Bebop - any recollections of specific performances, descriptions of events, unusual or interesting occurrences or just a general reflection on Bebop would be fantastic. A paragraph or two would be fine - more is O.K. too.
Any of these would really help in presenting a more complete and accurate portrayal of what Bebop meant to the people who experienced it. Your help in getting the word out to people you know who had been at Bebop and would want to contribute would be invaluable. Feel free to pass on my contact info to anyone you think might be interested in being a part of this.
I will be turning over most of the posters & papers to CSUN by the end of November, so if you would like to contribute,send or e-mail me anytime within the next two weeks; later is O.K. too as I'll be adding in stuff as it comes in.
Best wishes, and I hope to hear from you soon. If you have any questions or ideas, call or e-mail me."
Rich's email: richardbruland@sbcglobal.net
Happy birthday to ALlie and the ZEFOSV.
It seems that the three original solo albums I put out this year- "A Play Of Light And Shadow", "The Old Familiar Place", and "Tales Of Today Will Be Tales Of Long Ago"- are all in the running at a poll for best progressive album of 2006 (along with many others). If you're interested in putting your two cents in, here's the link. I'm listed alphabetically, under Segal.
Some of you may have received private letters from me raving about a book by Mo Foster called "17 Watts" (AKA "Play Like Elvis"). I recently had an email volley with Mo and he informs me that he's still got the hard to find hardcover version for sale through his site. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's interested in the history of British rock. It's not only informative, it's hilariously funny throughout, and includes anecdotes and stories from all sorts of players, everyone from Richie Blackmore to Vic Flick (the studio guy who played the guitar on the James Bond theme). Mo's site: www.mofoster.com.
Work is very nearly done on the CD with David McIntire, which now has a name: "Wonder, Doubt And Curiousity". Styles range from psychotic rock to punk to jazz to noise and more.
The Jugalbandi site now has even more nifty stuff for download: the full tracks of "The Madagascar Wombat" (from "Laydown Delivery") and "Checkered Synthetics, pt. 2" (from "Mount Pinatubo Sunsets"); plus, there are now clips (roughly 2 min. each) of the title track from "Laydown Delivery", "Purple Cabbage Moments" and "Fully Implemented" (from "Bid For Legitimacy"), and "Atmospheric Distortion pt. 1" (from "Mount Pinatubo"). Muchos gracias senor Hyam. (If you want to go directly to the sound files, click here.)
The Jugalbandi site now has three complete tracks from the "Night Crazy" CD for free download: "Night Crazy", "The Lost Transit Center", and "Beanwater Junction, Part 1". Hyam (who now runs the site) tells me he will be posting more things there soon.
Check out the new issue of Aural Innovations, which includes three new GS-related reviews: one for "Tales", and one for two Jugalbandi discs, "Bid For Legitimacy" and "Mount Pinatubo Sunsets".
On 8/16, Drug Music played "Bad Ground" from "The Old Familiar Place".
The word from Eric Wallack on the podcast interview is that at last count, 123 people had downloaded it. Welcome news! That was over a week ago, hopefully the numbers have gone up even further since then. (As Tom Lehrer said in "Smut": "More, more, I'm still not satisfied!")
Don Campau (listed numerous times below) now has new site info: www.doncampu.com . And speaking of Don, he's just put out "Rewind And Pause: Cassette Culture Compilation Volume One", a 2 CD set which features vintage tracks by a whole bunch of home tapers, including one of mine, "Life In Gameland" from "A Man Who Was Here". For more information on this CD and how to order it, click here.
Work continues on the project with David McIntire. There's already a lot of stylistic variety on this one.
Eric Wallack has interviewed me for his podcast show. He asked me all sorts of musically related stuff. Click here to check it out.
Bryan Davis, who some of you may know from his writings about Jugalbandi, has now got his website, Mutating Echoes, up and running. Bryan does visual art, specializing in the surreal, the grotesque, the fantastic- you know, fun stuff. Go check out his art and if you like it, tell him so!
Announcing a new compilation covering albums from 2002-2006: Phase Two. It features a track each from the 14 CDs of new music released on Phantom Airship in this period. Anyone who has all of these (Bruce in Korea, attention!) probably doesn't need it, except for the sake of completeness (although the cover turned out spiffy if I do say so meself). However for anyone else who is either new to my music or has just heard tracks off one or a few albums, this should serve as a very effective sampler. (The initial plan was to do a sampler of the '03 series, but there was room to include tracks from the preceding 3 PA releases so it got rethunk and well, here we are.)
Of course new work continues even now: the David McIntire/GS CD is still underway.
Some news on airplay and review:
Melo's Progcast #27 included the title track from "A Man Who Was Here", and was posted back around 6/23.
Drug Music's 6/26 show featured "Dreamtime" from "Tales.
And, proving once again that if it's new to you it's still new, Tim Burness did a great review of Jugalbandi's "View" for Progressive Ears.
There's a bit of airplay to recap on.
Way back on 4/29, Gagliarchives played "The Haunted Pool" from " A Play Of Light And Shadow", followed by "Checkered Synthetics, Pt. 1" from Jugalbandi's "Mount Pinatubo Sunsets" CD.
Don Campau's 5/28 "No Pigeonholes" show included "A House With History" from "The Old Familiar Place".
"Moist Earth" from "An Awareness Of Frameworks", was spotted on Delicious Agony's automated overnight stream back on 5/29.
Also on 5/29, Hal McGee posted his "Alien Air Music 7" show, this one featuring a track from the 1985 Paper Bag cassette "Victimless Crime".
Joe Mallon's "Time Warp" show on Delicious Agony included Jugalbandi's "Pleasure Circle", from "Night Crazy", on the 5/30 installment.
Jugalbandi was getting airplay the following day when Drug Music's 5/31 show included "Successfully Assimilated, pt. 2", also from the "Night Crazy" CD. (A popular one, it seems. No complaints here!)
Drug Music was at it again when on 6/7 they played "Summers, When They Counted", from "Tales Of Today Will Be Tales Of Long Ago".
Delicious Agony's automated overnight stream included "The Knowing Eye pt. 2" from "An Awareness Of Frameworks".
And Don Campau's 6/11 "No Pigeonholes" show included "Growing", from "Tales".
In other news:
My tracks for the Bret Hart/Eric Wallack/GS/Peter Zolli project have been finished and will be on their way to Mr. Z soon.
The poetry recordings of David McIntire have been set up in multitrack files and are ready for me to begin work adding the music, pending word back from David as to whether he has suggestions about the music on any of the pieces, or whether I should just go for it and interpret/compose at will.
Announcing the arrival of "Tales Of Today Will Be Tales Of Long Ago", the last CD of the 2003 series. The official description: "A musical look backwards and a farewell as what is becomes what was. Elements of blues, jazz, hard rock, soul and Segalian musical textures season the sonic stew."
There are a few pieces left from the '03 sessions that I want to release, but they will probably come out mixed in with new pieces and older pieces, possibly over the course of several CDs. (Example of something older: there's a piece from the "In Search Of The Fantastic" sessions that got finished after that CD was released. It's an alternate version of "Sahara 1909" that got built into something very different, a multi-part piece in the same format as "The Fourth Of The Three" variations.) These CDs are lower priority right now but they're definitely on the "to do" list.
Next up: I'll be adding my tracks to Hart/Wallack/Segal/Zolli CD, followed by finally getting down to business on the GS/Dave McIntire CD.
Airplay news: Drug Music's 5/17 show included "The Tracks Of Ancestors" from "A Play Of Light And Shadow".
Don Campau's shows are now being podcast, and on what I believe is the most recent one is the title track from "A Play Of Light And Shadow".
In dovetailed linguistic image territory, Joe Mallon's "Shadows And Light Show" up at Delicious Agony has just included "Bhoga" from "In Search Of The Fantastic."
Work continues on "Tales", hope to be done soon. I've also received the existing tracks for the Bret Hart /Eric Wallack/ GS/ Peter Zolli prog project, with the first two fellers having done their bit, now waiting for me to add mine and pass it on to Peter. Next up will be a CD with Paper Bag poet Dave McIntire.
Show #148 of Aural Innovations Radio includes "Hidden Falls" from "Rivers" and "The Haunted Pool" from "A Play Of Light And Shadow".
The 4/6 installment of Drug Music includes " A Journey None Knew Where" from "Rivers".
A while back, Bret Hart contacted me about doing what he called a "retro-prog" CD with him, Peter Zolli, and Eric Wallack. Hard to refuse that lineup, so I agreed. I have recently received word that Bret's tracks are done, and Eric is nearly done with his, so the project's on its way to me next, and will be finished by Peter.
Work is continuing on "Tales".
As most of you probably already know, Doug Walker of Alien Planetscapes fame passed away last week in his sleep. He was a friend of all the members of Paper Bag (he stayed at the band house for a month back in '87, I did a lengthy duets show with him, he did a great solo set up at KXLU, and of course he came to every show in that period with us). He will be missed.
The latest issue of Aural Innovations is up, and in it is a page with three great reviews of "Rivers", "A Play Of Light And Shadow", and "The Old Familiar Place". Check it all out!
On 3/22, Joe Mallon's "Epic Compositions" show over at Delicious Agony played Jugalbandi's "Gidget Goes Canine" (all 25 minutes of it), from 2000's "Yellow Star Mailing List".
A couple of little "Night Circus" related tidbits:
I recently had a pleasant shock of recognition when I spotted Marilyn Moon (who did guest vocals on NC) playing John Cleese's nurse on his installment of "Monty Python's Personal Best" on PBS! I haven't had contact with Marilyn since the late '80s, so it was cool to see she's very active and doing well.
And recently, just for fun, I thought I'd look up the Hammond Chord organ online and see if I got any hits. (This instrument is the main keyboard sound on "Watcher" and "I Hold The World For Ransom". I had to leave mine in L.A. when I moved.) I found some excellent pages, so for those of you curious about the instrument, check these out:
http://users.rcn.com/clonk/ChordOrgan/ ; http://www.organhouse.com/chord.htm ;http://www.hammondonmymind.dk/Orgelinfo/hammond_s6.htm ; http://www.electricearl.com/BlueJay6.html
Work is continuing on "Tales".
Speaking of which, the Cassette Culture website and the Experimental Musical Instruments site have now been added to the links page.
Some airplay updates: "The Mind Knows No Country", from "A Play Of Light And Shadow", was the closing track on the 3/8 edition of Drug Music; and the current edition of "Drool Trough (#45)" features "Into Flux Passage" from "Rivers" and "Revolving Doors" from "A Play Of Light And Shadow". Thanks guys!
Work is about to commence (or more properly, recommence) on the last of the 2003 solo CDs, "Tales Of Today Will Be Tales Of Long Ago". There is no word yet whether the album will be longer than the title.
Announcing the arrival of "The Old Familiar Place", the latest GS CD. The official description: "More musical impressions of hauntings, this time all centrally based around "a house with history". Elements of jazz, musique concrete, classical avante garde, deranged chamber music, and heavy prog combine to paint aural portraits of a bad place, its spectral dwellers, and its ongoing quest for new company. Part 10 of the 2003 solo sessions series. "
The title track from "A Play Of Light And Shadow" was featured on Don Campau's 2/26 No Pigeonholes broadcast.
WEBR's "Obscured By Clouds" host Ken Rostkowski also gave airplay to that track on his 2/25 show, and said he'd be playing something from "Rivers" on his 3/4 show.
C. Rice Goff III informs me that his soundclick page has featured most of my version of his "Composition 3" for some time now. Thanks, CRGIII!
Hyam Sosnow's drum solo from "King Of Illusion " on the "Cold Sky Live At Be Bop Records 2/8/89" CD has now been posted up at the Hyam pages on the Jugalbandi website.
There's a new review of "Rivers" at Psyche van het Folk. They also played "Frontiers" from that CD on their radio show on the 8th.
Drug Music's 2/10 show concluded with "Speed Drifting", also from "Rivers".
Overnight, I had a chance to check out some places online to see if I could spot any airplay/activity I'd missed. And I found two biggies in the same place: Gagliarchives. The 12/17 show kicked off with over 20 minutes of Jugalbandi, in the form of the tracks "Night Crazy" and "Pleasure Circle", both off the "Night Crazy" CD; and the 1/28 show featured "Frontiers" and "A Journey None Knew Where" from "Rivers". Thanks much! And sorry I didn't catch this sooner. Hard to keep track sometimes.
Two newsworthy bits from the rapidly expanding cybermatrix that is Melo's ProgBazaar : there's a review of "Rivers" in their "Close To The Edge" zine; and the most recent of their Progcasts features Jugalbandi's "Night Crazy".
Speaking of Jugalbandi: "Mt. Pinatubo Sunsets", the last of the '03 sessions CDs, is ready to go and can be purchased through Phantom Airship for $6. The page with full CD info and notes should be going up at the Jugalbandi site soon.
Work continues on "The Old Familiar Place", which should be ready to ship by the end of the month.
January 8th had some nice airplay: The Prog-Rock Diner played "Looking For Paradise" from "In Search Of The Fantastic"; and Don Campau's No Pigeonholes played "Ornith Gate" from "Rivers". And Don also played "Difficult Beginnings", once again from "Rivers", on his 1/22 show.
Speaking of Don, he's been interviewed by Eric Wallack for a new podcast feature, "E-ssential Sounds", that Eric's started off his website. Eric has asked me if I'd like to do one of these in the future and I of course have said yes. Aside from this obvious link, I mention this because Don and Eric blow me away in their never-ending capacity to both produce plenty of quality music and actively support other artists. Thanks guys.
Work continues on "The Old Familar Place", the next of the nearly finished '03 solo series.
Hyam Sosnow called me from L.A. the other night to tell me that the master for the final '03 sessions Jugalbandi CD, "Mt. Pinatubo Sunsets", is finished and should reach me by early next week. We should have a page up for the album soon at the Jugalbandi site, complete with the ever popular CD notes.
Announcing the arrival of "A Play Of Light And Shadow", the new GS CD. The official description: " Frequently dark progressive world rock with influences of jazz and musique concrete, based on the No plays, Japanese myth, and kwaidan right here in the US. Part nine of the 2003 solo sessions series. "
Movimenti Prog has put up a review of "Adventures Of Forever And Nowhere". It's in Italian, but judging by the numerical rating it got at the site and the automated Google translation I got, it was very favorable. (But I'm sure it's not nearly as funny as the translation. If you put that back into Italian using the same program, the author probably wouldn't recognize it.)
I recently received this message from WEBR's "Obscured By Clouds" host Ken Rostkowski: "Hi Greg... it's Ken from WEBR Fairfax Radio. I have been playing 'Adventures of Forever and Nowhere' quite a bit on my show this year. Good stuff... 'Corriente' recalls one of my old faves, Phil Manzanera. Also have played 'Time Ghosts', 'Frequency Riders', 'The Positive Technology' & others. I'm on Friday 10-midnite ET. WEBR is live at www.fcac.org/WEBR. Happy New Year! Ken". Thanks, Ken!
The next Jugalbandi CD, "Mt. Pinatubo Sunsets", should be available very soon. This is the last of the 2003 series, and Hyam is already egging me on to come down so we can record some more. I'll keep you posted! By the way, Hyam has now taken over as webmaster for the Jugalbandi site. The page for "Bid For Legitimacy", last month's release, is now up there, complete with the ever popular album notes.