Legible Harm
Blood-scrawling and ascerbicism from Leigh Marble.
Velvet Underground-"Rock & Roll" from "Loaded"
Every year around this time, I listen to this song to remember what summer should feel like. Unbridled, electric excitement; a life-affirming exuberance that manages to kick even Lou Reed’s gruff voice up into a wiggling falsetto. This song smells like going to the beach in an old beater station wagon with the windows down.
Despite all the complications, there is still mystery and magic in the world, and this song helps me remember that.
The Twister EP
The remix EP Twister is now up for free/name your price on Bandcamp:
https://leighmarble.bandcamp.com/album/twister
This EP featured six remixes, from four collaborators, of songs from my Red Tornado album. The digital download now includes an extra remix of “On Your Way”, as well as the full-length video for “Lucky Bastards (King County Jail Dub)”.
Although doing an EP of dubby remixes was a perhaps a surprise turn after the rock/alt-country tinged Red Tornado, it was still well-received. The Portland
Mercury had this to say at the time:
“Darkly hypnotic… heavy doses of dub permeate the mix, with Marble’s wavering vocals drowning spookily in and out of balance.”
So, apropos of nothing, I’m now making the Twister download available for free. Handsome CD copies still in stock as well!
Peep turns 10, you get a present!
Good golly Miss Molly! This Sunday, November 9th will mark ten years to the day since I released my first CD, Peep.
The making of that album was truly a solo endeavor – I produced and engineered while playing nearly every instrument myself. It was also during that time that I first worked with Jeff Stuart Saltzman, who mixed Peep, and whose fine ears have helped improve every album I have done since. Somehow, I managed to stumble my way through the whole process, and came out on the other side with an actual record.
In honor of this anniversary, I’m gifting you a free copy of Peep. From now through this Sunday:
Peep is on Bandcamp as a free download!
So go ahead, try a shot of Peep 10-Year. This one’s on the house.
I got to check out a preview of the new Daniel Lanois record today, and I’m loving it so far. His all-instrumental Belladonna album is one of my favorite listens, and I can see growing to like Flesh and Machine to that degree as well.
One borrowed melody jumped out at me on first listen – whether consciously or not, the Lanois track “My First Love” uses the melodic line from Elliott Smith’s “No Name #3” (for those like myself who can’t remember all the numbers for Elliott’s “no name” songs, it’s the one that starts “We arrived too late / Our mouths were opening”).
Have a listen here and see if you hear it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BTwyln23iY
If it was indeed borrowed, I can’t blame Daniel… that beautiful earworm of a melody has been stuck in my head going on fifteen years.
Building and Hacking
So, I’m pretty into music-making gear, and I build or modify a lot of the gear that I use. In the newest issue of Performer Mag, my homemade PBA-1 Filterbox gets a full-page writeup… messy wires and all! See page 18 here:
http://performermag.com/the-builders-hackers-issue-has-arrived/
I used the PBA-1 on a few tracks of my last record. Some of the guitars in “Jackrabbit” were processed with it - definitely the high electric guitars that first come in at 00:16 were DI’d through it, I think with the Crash Sync circuit engaged.
