Empty House Cooperative CD release show...

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4TH, 2004 AT 9PM
The Critique of Pure Reason presents:

CHRIS BROKAW - sountrack CD release for "i was born, but..."
and
EMPTY HOUSE COOPERATIVE - CD release of "painted plane" on Sedimental
Records.

at ZEITGEIST GALLERY - 1353 Cambridge Street, Inman Square, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
- hope to see you... tell a friend or two.

- DMC.

Thalia Zedek Tour of Northeast USA, November, 2004

Hope to see you in one of these locales... especially all our hometown buddies - come on out & tell yer friends, y'hear?

Sun Nov 14th - Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh, PA
Tues Nov 16th - Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
Wed. Nov 17th - Beachland Tavern, Cleveland , OH
Fri. Nov 19th - Piano's, NYC, NY
Sat. Nov 20th - North Six, Brooklyn, NY
Sun Nov 21st - IOTA, Arlington, VA
Tues Nov 23rd - The Five Spot, Philadelphia, PA
Wed. Nov 24th - TT the Bear's, Cambridge, MA

I don't think I'll be doing the "tour diary" thing, but y'never know... I've heard from a few people who enjoy reading it, but i'm far from a compulsive writer...

xox
DMC


.

First Review of Empty House Cooperative CD...

Thank You, Andrew Culler, for this thoughtful review at brainwashed.com...


Empty House Cooperative, "Painted Plane"
Sedimental

EHC started, essentially, as a casual outlet for an undefined number of active, Boston-area musicians. Boasting current and former members of the Thalia Zedek band, Willard Grant Conspiracy, The New Year, Molasses, and even Godspeed You Black Emperor, EHC enjoyed a humble genesis, organizing around brunch dates at the home of central member David Michael Curry. Since 1997, the group has attracted over 30 contributors in the creation of moody, improvisational music that bridges the gap between the potent emotional directness of its parent groups and the recklessness and vulnerability of the live setting. This session, selected from the many hours of EHC tape archives, is a particularly melancholic trio performance from 2000 featuring Boston guitar-champion Chris Brokaw, cellist Jonah Sacks, and Curry, who plays primarily viola, but contributes splashes of horn, guitar and live sampling to round out what is still a rather sparse affair. Curry's viola owns each of these six extended pieces, and his style will be familiar to fans of The Dirty Three or Godspeed, with enough of a studied, melodic base to cover for his frequent drifts into trance oblivion. He sets himself apart by rarely locking into a repeating structure or calling on too "easy" or explicitly emotive phrases. Brokaw's and Sacks' strings make up a grounding layer of droning interplay, a seamless shuffle between quietly plucked harmonics, tempered feedback, and swooning runs that rise to match Curry's more exultant moments. The songs borrow from the drifting, autumnal chamber style of Willard Grant, and from Godspeed's anthemic surging, but any references are never more than suggestions in the music, its intimate character leading always back to an unpredictable present. EHC's improvised doctrine places them in a territory as complex and difficult-to-reduce as anything I've heard from their closest comparisons. The feeling, throughout this disc, is an ultimate trust in the players' intuition, and when a track ends, miles away from where it began, never does a certain section feel neglected or the song led through aimless motions. This is a record for the new winter mornings, a treasure of golden amplification, rich string resonance, and playing that is powerful without wearing out its welcome; my hope is only that this debut signals more to come from what is surely an impressive stockpile of recordings.

- Andrew Culler

Thalia Zedek Tour Report #10, Final Days...

November 1, Travel day, Milan, Italy to London, UK.

This was one of the longest travel days I've ever had the pleasure of surviving...

It's raining in Milan, so we wait in the lobby for several hours. The flight to London isn't until around 9pm, so all day is spent half in the lobby and then the later half in the airport. The Ryan Air luggage thing cost the band lots of extra money... the shuttle bus and taxi ride and hotel reservation mixup all take way too long and finally, after midnight we are catching up on the pre-election coverage... not the easiest day.


November 2, USA Election Day. Venue: The Spitz, London, England.

Had a few hours sleep, then Thalia and I went to the BBC to pre-record a few songs for the show "Tom Robinson's Evening
Sequence". Everybody at the BBC studio was polite and professional, but the studio was also the tea lounge for staff, and the session was semi-acoustic, so Daniel wasn't able to set up a full drumkit, and met us at the gig instead.

After soundcheck, I went to the hotel for a while to watch BBC news about the election... it's early in the process, and Kerry seems to be leading, but it's still early. The show was totally charged with the energy and frustration of the election, with votes being cast and counted as we performed. We were louder than usual this night. Some friends were there, who say they loved the show (one said "stunning!" several times, but it might've been the Guinness talking). Nobody I know is happy about the idea of Bush being re-elected, except one guy back home at my regular rent-paying job.

November 3, Travel day, London to Santander, Spain

The only flight from London to Santander is at 7:30am, that means no sleep, since we got back from the gig around 2am... then figure in the hour and a half to get to the airport and the 2 hours ahead check-in time. More expensive over-weight charges at Ryan Air... finally in Spain and met by Noemi of Acuarela Records at around 10 or 11am, then we all sleep for a few hours.

Later, I go for a walk around town, a hilly, oceanside, multi-architechtural old town. The bay is painted with sunset. The travel and election stress temper the light with darkness inside. Only a couple days before heading home, and many things have happened while we were away... the presidential thing, the Red Sox (not a sports fan, but the curse thing amuses me), and many changes among various friends back home.



November 4, Tanned Tin Festival, Santander, Spain. Venue: Centro Cultural Caja Cantabria

Today, more walking around and picture-taking... I feel like a tourist. Castles, cliffs and a mermaid to keep me company until the show.

The show is curated by Jesus of Acuarela records of Spain. Many friends are involved, organizing or playing... Claudia, Noemi, Tara Jane 'Neil, Migala, American Analog Set, and others... We will miss seeing Chris Brokaw in one of his bands "The New Year" by a day. Shannon Wright opens the show on our night. She is one of my favorite musicians, with a fierce live show. This time she has Ballard Lesseman of Athens Georgia with her, playing drums. The show is in a big fancy theatre, with all kinds of high-tech equipment... we can't see the audience because of the lighting, so that made things feel a little subdued for me... more like a presentation than an interaction, but it was a good show.



November 5, Travel day, Santander to London to Holland

This is another crazy travel day... 11am flight, with a 7 hour layover in London en route to Holland where our return-home flight is. In Holland we are met by friends Yuko and Kim for a goodbye party. Yuko has done a lot to help us on this trip with various organizational things and with a european cell-phone.



November 6, Travel day, Holland to NYC to Boston

Travel Haiku:
---------------

Nasty airplane food,
Remember the good meal tour.
And finally, home.



.

Thalia Zedek Tour Report #9

Saturday, October 30. Day Off, Bolgna, Italy.

We have a few travel days between Italy and our next show, far to the north in the Land of Queen Elizabeth. We stay at Francesco and Elisa's place in Bologna and what do we do on our day off from playing loud rock shows? We go to a loud rock show! It's the last place I want to be, but the band is a friend of Thalia's, the same friends that we visited at the countryside recording studio a few days back. One of the musicians is Sean Meadows, who is also the bass player in a band i like called Lungfish.

On the way, pizza with friend's from Francesco's band... Zeus & Lorenzo, and also Elisa and Claudia.


Sunday, October 31, Day Off, Milan, Italy.

We say goodbye to Francesco and Elisa, and take a train to Milan. At the station, we cross travel paths with Hugo from Turin's venue Hiroshima. He is travelling with a band.

The train station in Milan is huge and mostly marble. There are fountains protruding from the walls that are faces spitting water. Most construction in Italy and many other European countries uses very little wood. It's all cement, plaster, stucco, stone, ceramic tile and similar materials.

Thalia and Daniel go to a bar for dinner, and I go for a walk around the city.

Later at the hotel, we are able to catch up on the news with CNN. There is a lot of anxiety about the election. I'd love to see bush voted out.

Also causing anxiety are the new weight limit restrictions on Ryan Air, which is a cheap shuttle service, but they've changed the luggage weight limit, now extremely in their favor. Over-weight luggage costs a lot of money, and a travelling band usually weighs more than a tourist.




Happy Birthday Kim Jones!



xox
DMC

Thalia Zedek Tour Report #8

Wednesday, October 27th, Milan, Italy. Venue: La Casa.

This is one of our best shows. We have been used to playing big concert halls, so it has taken a little time to adjust to smaller rooms and to learn how to adjust out amplifier volume to suit the room. La Casa is a good place, run by the energetic and scruffy Roberto. We met some nice people... another Thalia, who helped put the show together, another Francesco, a writer for an Italian music magazine called "Blow Up", and Marica, who does publicity for the band in Italy. I met a musician named Giuseppe, who has music out on the same label as the Empty House Cooperative

www.sedimental.com



Thursday, October 28, Reggio Emilia. Venue: Calamita.

On the way to the show, we stop for an acoustic live radio show with interview at www.antennaunorockstation.it and Daniele from www.kalporz.com does the interview. Usually these are done in a small room with one microphone, so
We get the pleasure of playing with Francesco's band tonight, called the Juniper Band. Francesco has been very helpful navigating from place to place, and with translation and general tour stuff. I now know how to say "a double coffee in one glass with cold milk", but still, it's hard for me to say, so I hand cafe staff a paper with the words written out, like a mute person might do. Still, I got some strange combinations, like a large glass of milk with 2 single shots of espresso in 3 separate glasses, or today i got a large cup with one shot of espresso, instead of the usual tiny cup. The Italians that I know all say that americans drink way too much coffee.

There appears to be a lot of "food rules" here. Customs and traditions are well set. I heard about my friend Heather once asking for a Limoncella at the beginning of a meal and everyone was shocked. Limoncella is a dessert liqueur that signifies the END of a meal. It reminds me of what might happen if a bride wore black to her wedding.

Thalia did a song with Juniper Band. Francesco sings and plays bass, and wrote a song with her voice in mind, which was recorded with Thalia at a beautiful countryside studio called Red House Recordings in a small town called Senigallia.

www.redhouserecordings.com

We've started include an old song called "House of the Rising Sun", a New Orleans flavored rocker, currently my favorite song to play, because it is open to very loose interpretation.

We had a good show, and then stayed at the local promoter's house after a long winding journey at remarkably slow speed for empty Italian roads.



Friday, October 29, Gradara, Italy. Venue: Teatro dei Cinque Quattrini (Theatre of the Five Coins)

Today we play in a castle. Someone told us that it is the place where Dante wrote "the Divine Comedy". Daniel is exceptionally excited about this and we all hear a lot about Dante from him. Later we found out that it was a place where Paulo and Francesca lived. They inspired two Dante characters in "the Divine Comedy". She was known for poisoning her lover or something. Who knows if it's true?

We all tour the castle, starting with the dungeon and ending with a chapel for church service.
Nikola, who switched places with Francesco as our helper, thinks the dungeon is fake, for tourists, with a head-chopping block and chains on the wall, and a pit with prison bars covering it.

The theatre is in the small village within the castle walls. It's a small red velvet seats affair. Our hosts are a collective called "Pop Gruppo", and we are the first concert ever at the theatre in the castle. When we first arrived, they were playing the music of Chris Brokaw, our dear friend.

Daniel and I took a lot of pictures.

Thalia really liked the poster they made. It was a portrait of her with the face missing.

We sleep in a flophouse in the next town... I guess there were no vacancies in the castle.

Only ghosts live there.

Thalia Zedek Tour Report #7

Saturday, October 23, Bologna, Italy. Venue: Estragon

I get the pleasure of driving us to a Ducati Motorcycle shop to meet Francesco, who will be our tour helper and driver, and Elisa, who has a radio show. As usual in Italy, our directions aren't great. We have to drive around a bit to find it. The navigating is the hard part, but i find my personal driving style is well suited to Italy. Lucky me.

First, we go to a radio station interview and performance of 4 songs in Bologna. The local show is called Thermos. The interview is to be translated and rebroadcast on Elisa's national show, called Patchanka - on national Radio Popolare.

Another show with the band Sophia. It's a big black box rock hall. Very crowded and hot. The venue turns into a disco as soon the show is over, so we have to load our equipment out through oblivious dancers.



Sunday, October 24th, Rome, Italy. Venue: Circolo degli Artistri

Our final show with the band Sophia. I got to know the string quartet a little, and Davis, the crazy stage-hand.

Sophia is a complex setup, and their soundcheck is long, so I had a chance to walk around Roma for a few hours. Their was a round city park with thousands of black birds in the trees and flying through the air in great waves. The bird voices were like rain or TV snow-static... there were so many that their chirping became a wash of sound.

I saw a bunch of old stuff, crumbling aquaducts, statues of feet.

For our show, their were some troubles with the sound, but the show went OK, and it was good to see our booking agent friend, Pietro.



Moday, October 25th, Faenza, Italy. Venue: Clandestino

Morena is a ball of fire. She runs the venue, which is also a fancy restaurant. Loud and animated, stylish and wise, we talked about the music business.

The venue is in a ceramic tile museum. One of Faenza's main trades, historically.

It is a small, but comfortable room with balcony, but the PA is basic, and only used for vocals and the main parts of the drumkit. Our amplifiers don't get microphones on them, so we ended up turning them up too loud. We miss Maz, who is an excellent sound engineer.

The band stays at Morena's apartment. There seems to be a trick to turning on the water heater, because we could only get cold water. No showers today.

Telephones and internet are harder and harder to find... I write these updates using my portable travelling e-mail called Pocketmail. It works with regular phones and payphones, except for 70% of the phones in Italy for some reason.
www.pocketmail.com



Tuesday, October 26th, Pescara, Italy. Venue: Maharaja.

A good diner with Paolo and friends, including Julien from Nantes, France, where we had to cancel a show because the travel distances before and after were prohibitive.

Not so good sound in the room... flat ceiling, reflective hard surfaces get the ears ringing... but people seemed to like it.

Everybody except me drinks and smokes, and I'm at the point where it's hard to be around, so I get cranky. The next day's drive to Milan is very long, and we have to get up early, which makes me crankier, because somebody oversleeps. Typical tour stuff... it takes a lot of patience all around... even for really good friends.