So…I arranged and recorded Scott Joplin’s “Elite Syncopation” for electric bass and 3 electric guitars. All direct! Check it out, if you please.
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I recently had the great pleasure of playing bass with Mike and Ruthy for two weeks in the greater Northwest. Almost every show was great, like the St Francis School in Bend, or the Edgefield Winery just outside of Portland, or Robert Blake’s Subdued Stringband Jamboree. But for me, the most special and memorable was Pick-A-Thon, which was held on a farm just outside of Portland. There was so much incredible music at this festival, such as Mavis Staples, Lee Fields, Sonny & The Sunsets, Vetiver, Lonely Islands, Joy Kills Sorrow, and many, many more. I actually left this festival with a very optimistic feeling about music. It was alive here. Playing with Mike and Ruthy is always SO fulfilling. They’re great friends and beautiful people making real music. Getting to spend time with their three-year old son Will is a pleasure for my soul. Can’t wait to do it again! Oh, and look out for a Mike and Ruthy 7″ and EP on Media Blitz Record Co.!
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I’m pleased to announce the release of the second 7″ record on my label: Jefferson Hamer, “This Ragged World We Spanned”. This is a very intimate performance of Jefferson singing his original song, and the b-side is an Irish ballad called “Barbara Ellen”. The record was recorded by yours truly, and was mixed and co-produced by Jefferson and I. The artwork was beautifully created and letterpressed (is that a word?) by Carly James at Bison Bookbinding, and it sure looks beautiful! I’m quite proud of this one. If you’d like to purchase a 7″, please go to this link. As always, your purchase includes a digital download, so you don’t even need to own a record player to enjoy this release!
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These next four shows are going to be the best. Bookmark to:
First of all, let me say that the wordpress app for iPhone sucks. I wrote a big long post with super detailed information about the start of our tour, and everything we ate on our way up to Portland, and it all got totally lost. Pissed. We just played at a super cool venue called the Ella Street Social Club. Supposedly this place used to be a mortuary. Spooky! We ruled, as did Ray Villalobos, who opened the show. I think the reason we ruled was because we had Mexican food beforehand. I had a chicken burrito, Bret had the enchilada/chalupa combo, Rob had tortilla soup and a taco, and Miller had a combo plate. $2.50 pints of negro model on draft. Stoked. Bookmark to:
Howdy Folks, I’m on an airplane right now, headed to California to begin the Shalants tour! Check back for a daily tour update, with very entertaining and insightful commentary about music, life, and food. Thank you.
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It’s always a pleasure to get to play with Bart Davenport. However, last weekend was particularly great, because we got to play in Calgary at a killer festival called the Sled Island Festival. The other extra bonus was that Sugar and Gold was also playing. This festival had a pretty amazing bill. Some of the bands playing were Dinosaur Jr., Deerhoof, !!!, The Posies, and The Melvins. For me it was a real treat to play at a festival like this, because (not that I’m complaining), I normally play at folk festivals. This was one of the only real “rock” festivals I’ve ever really played. I actually felt a little out of place some of the time! I sorta felt like the new kid at school…Needless to say, it was a wonderful time, and all of the new friends we made in Calgary made this festival truly special.
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I can’t even explain how excited I am to announce the very first release on Media Blitz Record Co. It’s been a long time coming for Media Blitz to actually start releasing records, and shortly we’ll have the vinyl in our hands. SO STOKED. The first release is by our dear friend Aoife O’Donovan. The two songs on the 7″ were recorded over here at the studios at Media Blitz East in 2006, and just sat around in the vaults for a few years waiting to be released. An incredible cast of musicians and friends were involved with the making of this 7″, including such Media Blitz regulars as Nico Georis, Ryan Scott, Rushad Eggleston, Aoife (of course), and (obv) Robin MacMillan and me, Jacob Silver. A few relatively new friends were also involved with this record: Brittany Haas, who played violin, Alejandro Venguer, who mixed the record, Brian Turner from Cricket Press, who did the artwork, and Aaron Schultz, who runs a great record label called Bastard Jazz. Aaron helped facilitate the actual production of the vinyl itself. Each step in this long process was as crucial as the next, and each person’s incredible contribution is what has made this project turn out so great. We will be having a record release party at the Rockwood Music Hall in NYC on Tuesday, June 22 at 8pm. Click here for more info. As of right now, the only way to get the record is to buy one at one of Aoife’s shows (click here to see if she’ll be coming through your town anytime soon), but that will soon change. In a few weeks we will have online ordering set up, so you’ll be able to purchase a record from anywhere in the world. Each record purchase also includes a free download! Even if you don’t have a record player, it’s totally worth it to buy one of these records. The artwork is absolutely stunning. Pretty enough to frame and put on your wall. Please check back soon if you’d like to order a record, or email me and I’ll let you know as soon as it’s available. The concept of Media Blitz Record Co. is simple. To release high quality music that was recorded at Media Blitz, and at least co-produced by me or Robin MacMillan. All of our releases will be on vinyl, and will all be recorded on analog tape. Stay tuned for upcoming releases. We’ve got some INCREDIBLE stuff on the way. Jacob Bookmark to:
I’m currently in an airplane, flying home to NYC after another wonderful tour with the Shalants. We went as far north as Portland, and as far south as Santa Cruz. It was an epic adventure, filled with many exciting stories, tons of laughs, and some fine music. As always when traveling with the Shalants, mexican food was abundant, as proven by this picture taken at Ocean Taqueria in San Francisco:
As a matter of fact, a new thing I like to do at the end of each tour is to do a bit of a “food recap”: Aurally chronicalling all of the fine and not-so-fine cuisine that was eaten over the course of the tour. While I won’t do a meal-by-meal rundown in this particular post, I will say we had some great In-N-Out, some decent Thai, INCREDIBLE blueberry muffins made by Mona, Miller’s stepmother, and Bret really seemed to like the tuna melt at the Apple Peddler, which can be found on HWY 101 just north of Eureka. What I will do, however, is give a little rundown of each show, hopefully accompanied by a few pictures along the way. May 15:
May 16:
The headlining band that night was called The Caps. They were pretty cool. May 17:
After that we played to a very enthusiastic crowd. We even got Mister Moonbeam to come up and freestyle when we played Moonglow. The third band of the night was called Straightjacket Striptease. I believe this band was all students from Humbolt State. The band was led by a female guitarist and singer, who really reminded me of someone I might have seen playing in a band in Monterey in 1994. The drummer of this band was also particularly awesome to watch. We finished the night staying at a friend of Miller’s in Eureka. Nick snapped a winner worth sharing:
May 18:
May 19: The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz, CA May 20: Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, Davis, CA
My mother’s partner, Mary Anne O’Shea, made a surprise visit to the show and snapped some good ones of the Shalants. May 21 – Chief Crazy Horse, Nevada City, CA May 24 – The Knockout, San Francisco, CA
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Colin Schiller is one of my first friends I made when I moved to NYC in 2003. I went to the now defunct Stinger bar to sing some karaoke. Colin was hosting the night, and we instantly hit it off and became good friends. Colin is an exceptional drummer, and since 2003, we’ve played in a few bands together, and even did a tour together opening up for none other than David Lee Roth. Recently Colin made the wise choice of going solo, and I’ve had the pleasure of co-producing his record. We’re still a long way from a full-length album, but we’re almost finished with the first single, Dizzy, and early Monday morning we starting shooting the music video for the song. The video features Kenley Collins, Project Runway alumni and karaoke host-extraordinaire. Stay tuned for the song and video. It’s going to be great! The whole project has a very 80′s feel to it. We’ve incorporated lots of DX7 synthesizers… Here are a few shots I took from the video:
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