New 2018 Projects

Everyone’s doing their new year’s predicitions. Here’s my predicitons of what albums I will be involved in putting out into the world in 2018:

Stop Motion Orchestra – I play bass and acoustic guitar in this band for the last 3-ish years, including all the sessions for the 2nd album, due any minute now. The album has been done for a while and we’re just waiting on the label to release it. These are epic compositions, expanding on Mohadev’s already rich compositional vocabulary, established in 2014’s Instant Everything (which I’m not on). Here’s a song we played together one time:

Opposite Day – 14 mics, no plans volume 2 – (may contain actual plans this time). The second all-improved live recording session in August (the first one is here) contained new heights of creativity, but was not as consistent and listenable all the way through. I’m thinking about combining this with some other multi-track live recordings we have and releasing at as “various live” bandcamp album. 

Opposite Day – 5 song EP. During the short 10 months we were writing songs with Eoghan McCloskey in the band, we wrote 5 really good ones. Before leaving the band, Eoghan was kind enough to do our mini-tour and record basic tracks for an EP in November 2017. I finished guitar in December. No particular theme. 3 songs are about real science, one is about science fiction, and one is based on personal experience. Due to Eoghan, it’s both more jazz and more metal than earlier stuff, but overall, same ol same ol, just better. Here’s a live version of one of the songs which will be on this EP.

Suspicious Depths 2, even deeper and more suspicious. This album is pretty close to done. It has evolved very differently than the first suspicious depths. After starting with 10 more synth-based horror scores in the vein of Suspicious Depths, the addition of drums by David Hobizal and Eoghan McCloskey have provoked me toward all manner of guitar and bass overdubs to replace some fo the synth parts. And Greg gave me a Baritone guitar which is way too fun to play. It’s still basically a composed synth/soundtrack album, but looks like it’ll be at least 50% organic instruments, similar to Opposite Day’s Reindeer Flotilla. I’m trying to keep it from rocking too much. Too many grooves and riffs and solos might make it less suspensful and creepy, so that’s the line I’m walking. Fun to play versus affecting atmosphere. John Carpenter, Goblin, Secret Chiefts 3-influenced.

Omnectomy – Pyrophrenesthesia. This has been done for 3 years now. I guess I’ll just slap it up on the old internet and then think about it more after that, or stop thinking about it all together. Seems a waste to let it sit on a harddrive since it’s the most metal thing i’ve ever done and there is a real shortage of metal these days (sarcasm). Zach Hall said I could use this illustration of his. Leila Henley played sax on 3 of the 10 songs. The guitars and bass are real, but the drums were artisanally hand-programmed in the heart of Austin, TX. No vocals, and mostly standard tuning, so you can’t really call it “death metal”, but that’s what I was thinking about and listening to when I made it. Good thing I don’t have come up with a better genre name than “instrumental progressive metal”.

2 Plutos – Subsequent Attacks of the 75 Tracks. This is a bedroom solo instrumental album of 75 tiny songs that lasts about 33 minutes total. 80% of the songs are guitar/bass/fake drums and 20% total synth. It is meant to be listened to in the correct order once or twice and then mercilessly shuffled for all eternity. Wow this has been sitting in the cue for like 10 years. Occasionally I go back to it and think to myself “yep this is still done and I still like it”. And, generous as I am, I don’t want humanity to come to an end without full access to this towering masterpiece of gratuitous excess.

Steely Dan II – In July of 2017, David Hobizal came to town for a recording session and set up some time with me and Eric Roach and Peter Stopschinki to jam at Chico Jones’ Ohm studio. I played bass. We recorded almost 2 hours of totally legit listenable and interesting improvisations. I’ve been meaning to pare it down and edit it to the most interesting moments but it’s an embarrassment of riches.

Jazz from Smell. (working title) A super-unglued “Zappa’s Jazz from Hell”-type of project. Real guitars and bass played with impossible-for-humans-to-play drums and synths. Kind of like Suspicious Depths 2 but scary for different reasons. I sort of have 5 songs that will set the stage for whatever shape this takes. And I’ve done something that every good husband should: I made my wife’s murmerings into a drum machine.

Protruder (working title) I’ve got easily 11-13 songs demoed out of guitar-oriented instrumental exotica. I might be time for me to do an instrumental guitar-oriented solo album.

Also Opposite Day will write and possibly record some new songs.

Also i’ve got conversations/jams/track-sharing underway with several other genious collaborators, and surelely at least one of these will turn into something that can be recorded and unleashed toward the ears of the world in 2018.

Also Sam Arnold and the Secret Keepers may indeed ride again.

Well that’s all I guess. The world didn’t have enough weird music. In 2018, this problem will be solved by me and my friends. You’re welcome in advance.