el deth

Posts Tagged ‘Dane Hill’

This version of “Cute Little Echo” is from the immediately aforementioned Pilot Light Rehearsal session. The video was recorded the day after Moogfest 2011 in Asheville, North Carolina. Hence the clipping of the wrist bands, and also Tapeface, my carefully crafted Halloween costume.

I feel this video gives insight into Tapeface’s real life. Just because he has tape on his face, doesn’t mean he doesn’t practice good hygiene. It does apparently make him emotional, though.

download an mp3 of the track here:

“Cute Little Echo” by Never Sorry

photo by Maurita Roman

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Pilot Light for Kishi Bashi and Never Sorry last Thursday.  I’m really really glad that new people were exposed to Kishi Bashi’s music.  And thanks for sticking around for Never Sorry, also.

If anyone has pictures or video they would like to share, holla at me.  You can check out some video of the Kishi Bashi set on Maurita Roman’s YouTube account.

There is a massive interchange of energy going on in America right now.  Why fight it?

Never Sorry will be full of strange surprises as ever it has been.

Please listen to the Room for Dream EP by Kishi Bashi by clicking here.

Click to download the tracks:

unidentified art, New York City, NY

“Edge of Memory”
“Mouse”
“Be My Baby” (The Ronettes)
“Sell it on the Weekends”

In our second Never Sorry session without Katie and Megan, we decided to forget all our songs and start from scratch, at least for this one.  We also abandoned the full instrumentation to go acoustic once again.  The aim was something of a brainstorm.  The result is off the cuff improvisation that sometimes veers into straight dialogue.  There is also a Ronettes cover.

I almost didn’t post this one because I thought it might be just a bit too loose.  The subject matter also ranges from questionable to offensive.  Enough to make me chop out a good chunk of “Sell it on the Weekends.”  I realized it was going to have to be done before we even finished playing the song.

This is us at our most carnal and immature.  It is also riddled with confusion and a little frustration.  Sometimes, though, it just works.

Dane Hill – acoustic guitar, kick drum, vocals
R.J. Hill – auxillary percussion, vocals
Arrison Kirby – acoustic guitar, vocals

Click to download the tracks:

“The Suffer Dance”
“Don’t”
“Blue”
“Moments”

I think Consolation Prize is a fitting name for this session in so many ways.  To be a consolation prize, one must serve as a remnant of something that never was.  Consolation prizes, by name, are there to soften the blow when you ruin your chances of winning.  So here is a tender, melancholy set to help cope with losing.

This is Never Sorry with no Katie or Megan.  The funerary softness celebrates that (surely temporary) loss for sure.  The set also came on the heels of a dumb break up I had and there is plenty of therapy, musical and otherwise, being passed down from the Hills to me.  “Don’t” would be the most evident of this, with Dane making up the lyrics as we went.

The beat oriented songs act as bookstands around the soft inside of the session.  “Moments” was written precisely about that aforementioned break up.  The vocals are iffy at times as I try to sort through them, but whatever.  Some cathartic life force runs through this session all the same, as we dive deeper into this fresh minimalism.

Dane Hill – bass, glockenspiel, vocals
Rachel Jae – auxillary percussion, vocals
Arrison Kirby – guitar, beats, programming, keys, vocals

These are possibly the best versions of “Laundry” and “Michael in the War” recorded so far.  We used beats on both of them, allowing Dane to jump on the bass.  I’m particularly fond of the break down in “Michael.”

“Moon Rest Over Trees” was our opening jam, but I felt it better positioned where it is in the line up.  The other improvisational piece is “Succumb When it Counts” and it features me on drums, Dane on guitar and Katie on the drums.  These are also the same play positions used for the session closure, a slowed down cover of Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon.”  This cover was Dane’s idea.  He lead us through it and also sang.  I like it a million billion times better than the original.

Katie Collins – omnichord, bass
Megan Driscoll –  flute, tambourine, vocals
Dane Hill – drums, bass, guitar, vocals
Rachel Jae – auxillary percussion, vocals
Arrison Kirby – guitar, beats, drums, vocals

Click to download the tracks:

Trimper Rides, Ocean City, Maryland

“President Elect”
“Trimpers (Beach)”
“Dead”
“House of Satan”
“Until I Die (Rum Blues)”
“Laundry”
“Fuck City”
“Michael in the War”
“Trimpers (Ocean)”

This was the first session we had with this many people since Le Carnival des Autres.  In other words, this was our first slide back into our beloved full on electro rockin’ sound.  Samuel didn’t make it to this one, but Michelle Sanders joined us for an amped up version of “Until I Die (Rum Blues)”.

There are a couple of jams, “President Elect” and “Fuck City.”  The latter being the looser and more amusing.  There are also a couple different versions of “Trimpers” here.  Both incorporating synth bass, but two very different styles.  Also, note the new song, “Laundry.”  I began writing that one about [some chick] but wasn’t able to finish it until it became applicable to [a different chick].  I think it has a Talking Heads feel to it.

Katie Collins – omnichord, ukulele
Megan Driscoll –  flute, tambourine, vocals
Dane Hill – drums, bass, vocals
Rachel Jae – auxillary percussion, vocals
Arrison Kirby – guitar, keys, beats, vocals
Michelle Sanders – vocals

Click to download the tracks:

“Untitled as Yet”
“Undershots”
“Kiss Me On My Dick (For New Years)”
“8.16”
“Blue”
“Moo Year” (Wesley Wyrick solo set)

So we decided to have a very last minute, quietish but open New Years session. I was really really sick and also got drunk. I stayed awake and played music as long as I could stand to. Wes Wyrick [American Panda, Soulbot, Star Mountain] joined us with his sound as well. Eventually the night culminated into a viewing of Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers.

“Untitled as Yet” – I know I’m playing drums on this one and it’s totally way different than any way we’ve played it before. I think Dane and Wes are both on guitar maybe? I don’t know. I can’t pick this apart. It’s really bad ass though.

“Undershots” – This is a pretty full on Never Sorry / Wes Wyrick collaborative track. Possibly my favorite among these all. There’s something foreign and playful to it. Wes is definitely on his electronics for this one.

“Kiss Me on My Dick (For New Years)” – I had no idea about this song until we were playing it. Apparently, though, it had some preliminary attention focused on it by Rachel and Dane. So I presume they wrote it, and I can say with certainty that they introduced it to me. In any case, this was what we were all doing when we crossed into 2011. Notice it’s only got false countdowns. This was intentional.

“8.16″ – This is apparently me solo. We weren’t running through our normal set up. We were all plugged into a single board, which was plugged into the recording board, plugged into a receiver, which was carrying the music to speakers upstairs. So when I played this shit through that set up, it came out like this. All jitter water or something.  Normally this is the song called “Sarabeth.”

“Blue” – I guess we couldn’t resist the old standard. Good job on it, really.

“Moo Year” – This is Wes Wyrick’s 23 minute continuous set from that night. He called it something else initially, but I forget what it was. Then I saw him somewhere recently and he said he wanted to call it “Moo Year.” So cool. It is.

Katie Collins – omnichord
Megan Driscoll –  flute, tambourine
Dane Hill – guitar, bass, vocals
Rachel Jae – auxillary percussion, vocals
Arrison Kirby – guitar, words, beats, keys, drums
Wesley Wyrick – electronics, beats, guitar perhaps