Mothertongue is out on iTunes.  It is so amazing!! Esp. the actual composition “Mothertongue” will blow your mind.  Yay Nico!! Go to iTunes and buy it right now. Thank you!

Interview with Sam Amidon from David Star on Vimeo.

my onstage haircut (while singing a ballad) in Ã…rhus, Denmark, with my bandmates & icelandic assistant ladies sigga sunna, rebekka, and una. all of us, along with valgeir, claire, and paul, just wrapped up an awesome 2 week tour. thank you, friendly icelandic people!

hello from leuven, belgium.

the best autotranslation of my last name yet (i babelfished a belgian review of last night’s show):

Sam Starch A glucid

here’s “erased de kooning” from 1953:

our hero bruce greene was interviewed on the BBC radio. his soothing voice will calm you & he and loy sing with their granddaughter sophie in the kitchen. the audio stream will be available for about a week.

bruce greene on the BBC

I’m reading “The American Scene” by Henry James. I thought you guys might enjoy it, so I’m reprinting it here, with my illustrations. Enjoy.

Henry James
THE AMERICAN SCENE

CONTENTS

I. New England: An Autumn Impression [page 1] II. New York Revisited [page 72] III. New York and The Hudson: A Spring Impression [page 116] IV. New York: Social Notes [page 158] V. The Bowery and Thereabouts [page 194] VI. The Sense of Newport [page 209] VII. Boston [page 226]
VIII. Concord and Salem [page 256] IX. Philadelphia [page 273] X. Baltimore [page 303] XI. Washington [page 332] XII. Richmond [page 365] XIII. Charleston [page 395] XIV. Florida [page 422]

(v)

PREFACE

THE following pages duly explain themselves, I judge, as to the Author’s point of view and his relation to his subject; but I prefix this word on the chance of any suspected or perceived failure of such references. My visit to America had been the first possible to me for nearly a quarter of a century, and I had before my last previous one, brief and distant to memory, spent other years in continuous absence; so that I was to return with much of the freshness of eye, outward and inward, which, with the further contribution of a state of desire, is commonly held a precious agent of perception. I felt no doubt, I confess, of my great advantage on that score; since if I had had time to become almost as “fresh” as an inquiring stranger, I had not on the other hand had enough to cease to be, or at least to feel, as acute as an initiated native. I made no scruple of my conviction that I should understand and should care better and more than the most earnest of visitors, and yet that I should vibrate with more curiosity–on the extent of ground, that is, on which I might aspire to intimate intelligence at all–than the pilgrim with the longest list of questions, the sharpest appetite for explanations and the largest exposure to mistakes.

(more…)

This beautiful remix/cover of “Chemirocha”, performed live by kría brekkan on east village radio, brought back fond memories of my first hearing the original version of the song on Pat Conte’s “Secret Museum of the Air” radio show on WFMU many years back.

The original version of “Chemirocha” is performed by Chemutoi Ketienya & girls from her tribe, the Kipsigis of Kenya. It is a tribute to The “Singing Brakeman”, ’30s country singer Jimmie Rogers. Jimmie Rogers was worshiped as a demi-god by the Kipsigi tribe, who heard his singing on old some old 78’s. According to the liner notes of the compilation “Kenyan Songs and Strings:”

“Rodgers’ records were the first to be heard in this part of Kenya and the name came to mean anything strange or new. The similarity of his guitar sound to the local lyre meant that a whole legend grew around him: he was supposedly a friend of a local musician and also a faun similar to the god Pan, half man and half antelope.”
The EVR youtube posting adds that “young Kipsigi maidens are alleged to dance their most seductive dances and beg him to join them.” Here is the song:

[audio:Chemirocha.mp3]

Ever since the demise of The Tourettes (Joanna’s girl-band brainchild and the best extracurricular experience in college by far) I have wanted to start a conceptual band. If conceptual art is a whole genre with entire PhD dissertations written on it, there should at least be a little more conceptual music.

Obviously the first step is to blog a lot about what the band will be like. So here we go. The band is essentially made of Speak, Peppery members.

The confirmed lineup so far is:
Marian: drums, dancing
Sam: vocals, banjo, violin, electric guitar
Dawn: keyboard, vocals, erhu, bass

Any one else in Speak Peppery is welcome to join.

Conceptual gestures to during performances:
— One song will have us singing while roasting meat on a stick (performed)
– Dawn will sing with an Emmy Lou Harris accent. This is to comment on the fact that many white people try to sing like black people and no one thinks it’s weird. Will anyone notice if an asiatic person sings like a southerner?
– Sam will sing in Chinese.
– Oh and a vocoder.
– Oh and an erhu.
– Marian will play the marimba
– There will be a song about our love for big business
– Every conceptual gesture will devolve cacophonously into just plain rocking out.

Doesn’t this band sound great? Our next three practices will be over group email.