Mary Kelley's latest song, “One Last Moment,“ was released recently and is now available on all the usual outlets for digital music, including iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. The song is part of an audio triptych Mary and I have produced on the subject of the earth’s impending ecological crisis. Fear not, for we have endeavored to avoid pedantics in favor of pithy drama…
It was a beautiful grey day at Ocean Beach last Thursday, when I participated in a beach cleanup with the Metallica crew and some folks from the S.F. Giants, sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation. Kirk and Robert of Metallica were there, as was Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija. Met the CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, Chad Nelson, who had flown up from SoCal for the celebrity-studded janitorial opportunity. The Surfrider Foundation does great work – check them out.
His Master's Voice was my first serious band in New York City, active between 1982 and 1986. After numerous ups and downs, personnel changes, and landing and losing a record contract, we were all ready to move on. Before we did, in the summer of 1986, we went to a serious 24-track studio – Chung King House of Metal – to document some of our better material. We recorded five songs, and got no further with the recordings than some rough mixes. But I saved the tapes...
Just completed a fun project for a "smoky alcoholic blues" combo, the Jam Messengers. Their new CD, entitled "5 Kinds of Bad", will be released shortly by Sour Moon Records, an indy label out of Bath, England. The tracks on the CD were recorded at various times and places, with recording equipment that ranged from live television sessions to iPhone field recordings. My job was to engineer the masters for the CD, making sure the final tracks would provide the needed kick…
Last week we finished printing the latest So What! magazine, issue 22.4. The issue features a cover illustration by Tony Squindo. Editor, Steffan Chirazi, conducted a round table interview with the band, and wrote and edited an article for this issue, but the band decided against publishing it. The decision was made to produce a photographic retrospective, using choice photos encompassing the entire run of the magazine, from 1994 to the present…
Mary Kelley's song "John Donne's Song" was released on November 4, and is now available on all the usual outlets for digital music, including iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. We had some fine contributions on this recording: from regular collaborator, Dave Lebolt on harmonium, tiple and dulcimer; Factrix guitar ace Bond Bergland on mandolin; vintage instrument aficionado Edmond Badoux on hurdy gurdy; and from harmony vocalist Katherine Wethington…
This song was recorded in 1986 by my band, His Master's Voice, which was active in New York City between 1982 and 1986. This song was recorded during the same session as the song I posted last month, "Steal the Sun." It is the only song we recorded that featured second guitarist David Lee, who was with the band for a short time in 1986, on loan from another stellar East Village band, Tongues on Fire…
Yesterday, we finished printing the latest issue of So What!, the quarterly magazine of Metallica. We print So What! in Los Angeles, at Color Graphics, just across the LA river from the Japan-town neighborhood next to downtown LA. Their plant is really well situated, not least because of the proximity to some world-class ramen spots in J-town. But most importantly, the guys and gals at Color Graphics do a great job for us, and for Metallica and their fans…
This song was recorded in 1986 by my band His Master's Voice, a group which was active in New York City between 1982 and 1986. This is the first of a number of posts meant to announce the release of some of the better recordings I have in my archives. These recordings will date from the 1980s through to the present day. The release order will be somewhat random, depending on what I get inspired to finish first…
The latest issue of So What!, the quarterly magazine of the mega-metal band Metallica, is now complete and in the mailboxes of the band's myriad devotees around the planet. This particular issue gives fans a closer look at lead guitarist Kirk Hammet's penchant for collecting horror movie memorabilia. Kirk discusses how sharing his interest in these artifacts has brought like-minded hobbyists out of the woodwork. We also included 8 pages of outtakes…