SOOOO much going on right now. Trying to blow the dust out of Remy Zero’s circuits and create a little flow ahead of the October shows. RZ always draws a lot of my CPU, even when nothing seems to come of it. Old habits die hard I guess. Also keen to get new O+S music to Orenda before the Azure Ray tour kicks off. We’re way behind and it’s my fault. The wait will be worth it though! Have also been in the studio with Barrett Martin and Solon Bixler this past week and am very excited about the potential results. Not sure exactly what this music is going to be or what channels it will travel to reach people’s ears but I do know it’s going to be super cool. All this on top of finding the right living situation now that I’m back in LA, getting reacquainted with my people here and searching for chests full of coin with my name on them equals one helluva juggling act. On a tightrope. Over wildfires. In the wind.
My friend / collaborator / co-conspirator Michael Patterson calls his studio The Gloryhole. It’s ridiculous I know. So is he. But he’s also a bit of a mad genius and has become a touchstone in many of the projects in O+S world. He mixed O+S and toured with us; mixed the forthcoming Azure Ray album Drawing Down The Moon; will be releasing the Dead Snares album on his POPANTIPOP label in September; will be co-writing and producing music with me and others for a new collective project; and today is lending his ideas and assistance to the reactivation of Remy Zero. RZ is doing few club dates down the west coast in October (not officially announced yet but the word is already out, so there you go…) and we’ve decided that new music, new web presence, new ENERGY should go along with the shows. And since I’ve just moved back to LA and haven’t got my situation fully set up The Gloryhole is sort of our unofficial air traffic control center. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mike for that and for his many other valuable contributions, and also to wish him a Happy Birthday tomorrow! Here’s to you, Maestro… (S)
We filmed this performance for All Access Live at SXSW last year, but for whatever reason never got to see it. As far as I know it’s the last proper footage of Gregory playing. Thanks to Michael Patterson for stumbling upon it… (S)
Hard times bring people together, right? So it seems. Cinjun came to town so he, Jeffrey and I could spend some time together and reconnect after the events with Gregory. Now we’re beginning the work of putting together some music to honor Gregory’s memory. Some of it will be songs we all wrote together a couple of years ago, when we were considering reforming Remy Zero. Some of it will be songs incorporating musical pieces Gregory left behind. (He was very prolific, so there’s a wealth of material to explore…) I imagine some things will end up being called Remy Zero, some used on O+S and Dead Snares records, and some will come out in other unusual ways. How and when we’ll share it with people is an unknown because who knows what exactly will come of all this. But it feels like mended fences and magnificent ideas right now, so let’s see what we can do. (S)
This week we released an iTunes EP called ‘We Do What We Want To,’ which includes the song of that name and its video, as well as the video for ‘Permanent Scar’ and two cool remixes of it. One was done by Depressed Buttons, who are Todd Fink, Clark Baechle and Jacob Thiele of The Faint, and the other was done by FAFU of BLESTeNATION and our comrade in arms Michael Patterson. Do drop by iTunes and make this lovely little collection your own!
