Old news...
February 2004
It's done.
More news and sound files to come soon. I'm having a release party the first Saturday in March, so if you'll be in SF and are in the mood for a beer, just give me a shout.
January 2004
Well, it's got a name: the redwood lounge & other places. My "dammit get it done" goal of December 31st was thwarted by a project that I'm all mums-the-word about at the moment, but hope I can tell y'all about soon. Oh, and there was that whole fondue thing.
Got the pleasure of returning a favor for longtime friend and bassist extraordinaire Tim Kingsbury by adding some dobro joy to a track on the upcoming album by his current gig, Kingstreet Crossing. Tim dropped by in July to lend me some low-end assistance on a track that oughta be ready any... day... now... arg...
Lastly, I'm happy to be back at the top of the news at Home Page Replica, even if the news is seven years old. Thanks, Justin, for making me feel older than dirt.
December 2003
Where oh where did my soundfiles go? I promise to update all the mp3.com links and move all my tunes somewhere new in the near future. And I've got to! What with a new release on the way and all... So in the meanwhile, let's sit back and warm off this winter chill a bit, shall we?
November 2003
Good gnus and bad gnus. First off, everybody and their mom knows about mp3.compost closing their doors on December 2nd, so I'm busy looking for some other space online to post my music. If anyone out there has any ideas, please let me know. The good news, however, is twofold. A new disc of tunes is in the final stages (teaser sample!) and will most likely be in the mailboxes of the many labels I regularly harass just in time for the holidays. Also, it looks like one of my older tunes has made it into the soundtrack of yet another extreme sports film. Which is funny, for more reasons than I care to explain.
Oh, what the heck, here's another teaser sample.
October 2003
And then I get an email from Roberto Zorzi that reminds me that (unlike what some people think) HFM ought to actually be more than the blog it's turning into. And with "sonny sharrock", "bill harkleroad" and "loren mazzacane connors" being the top search keywords for the site throughout the month, maybe it is time to get serious again. Oh, and thanks for the link!
Again, thanks for the link! Looks like some folks out there are feeling the HFM love.
September 2003
Oh well. They didn't understand me either, but damn was the beer good.
August 2003
Fuck it. I'm going to Europe where they *understand* the artistic mind.
July 2003
We, me, we, me. Let's be honest, it's just me right now. So, truth be told, "we" haven't recently been super busy, but "me" has.
Me have been working on a collaborative effort with Brent Kenji (The Fairways, Young Tradition) for an upcoming release for Matinée Recordings. Me have been in rehearsals with one of me earliest musical buddies Tim Kingsbury (King Street Crossing, Second Set) to prepare tunes for both live sets and the upcoming post-umami release. Me have been chopping beats for Screenblast and demo'ing hip hop tracks for my friends over at Dog On A Bike Films (who previously tracked some excellent footage to music from both gatto rubato and nerd operations, vol. 1. Me have been perfecting penne alla vodka.
June 2003
Ain't nothing like a heartwarming quote to take the chill off a typical SF June: "As artists like Rob DeNunzio have proven, just because an album was recorded in someone's bedroom doesn't mean that it must betray its humble origins, or that it needs to be anything less than a fully-realized, professional-sounding piece of work."
Of course, it's technically a closet.
Okay, this is just bizarre.
May 2003
How odd... First the Zoot Horn Rollo interview from 1997 resurfaces, and now this.
April 2003
News news new new n-news. There's a lot of love in this web.
Chris at tunefilter decided to add umami to both their recommendations list for 2003 as well as their online radio (see below).
Bless the Internet. Thanks to one amazing Hollander by the name of Theo Tieman, a wonderful guy who hosts the Dutch website Captain Beefheart Electricity, we're currently in the process of rebuilding an article which stands as the highlight of 20th Century Hi-Fi Mundo - the epic interview with Zoot Horn Rollo, aka Bill Harkleroad (to all y'all Eugenians). To the archives!
If you hate mp3.com as much as we do, why not go to some of the other spots on the Web where you can listen to Hi-Fi Mundo tunes, like the tunefilter radio or the Splendid boombox?
New crappy review of window music!
March 2003
Want a teaser for some soon-to-be-released, hyphenated-hyphenated works-in-progress? Enjoy.
From now on, we'll let you know if there are updates to the Sonny Sharrock project on the news page, but for specifics, y'all will wanna head on over...
February 2003
We haven't updated in ages, so here's the scoopie: we're on a serious Sonny roll now; you can go to the tribute page to get schooled on the updates. The current artist / track list has been posted, and some mp3 audio files will be added in the next couple weeks. We're confident enough that the album is in its final stages that we're now on the lookout for some original album art. Considering the mind-boggling generosity of the musicians that have come forth, we're curious to see what the world of visual artists might hold... drop us a note if you've interested.
Also, seems like someone over at SKYY Vodka finally realized just how much I drink while I write tunes, and it looks like we might be hearing gatto rubato on their site soon. And, someone recently asked me about the tune I made for some Adidas ad a couple years ago - ta-da.
In other news, time flies when you're getting screwed by mp3.com. Their new policy of charging a monthly fee if you want more than three songs available to listeners means that half the links to audio tracks on this site are worthless. If anyone has any recommended spots to host tunes, please let us know.
November 2002
Well, dammit. More reviews of window music. Maybe I should take a hint and record more guitar music, instead of trying to be Mr. Fancypants electronic downtempo artist.
October 2002
Nothing! Even my offers to buy charred beef product for the staff of the Splendid e-zine have gone unanswered. Ho-hum, on to November.
September 2002
I'm buying the guys at Splendid a steak.
New songs: "cricket" + "velvet dandy". Both can be downloaded for free here, but if you'd rather just get a sample of what they're like, you can just go click and click. They're part of the 2mami (newmami? ubermami?) batch of tunes I'm working on - expect some more, soon-ish.
Finally, as promised, we have a page up to start documenting the progress of the Sonny Sharrock tribute. We're still debating just how much information ought to go public, however, so clicking on that link will probably disappoint you massively.
August 2002:
In a bit of a departure for the old home studio, we recently recorded a short demo for a talented Australian singer/songstress passing through SF named Kelly Morris (and not a shabby string-slinger at that), and hope to post some of the tracks online once we get her kind permission. Since it was our first time recording live vocals here in the closet, we christened the studio with a fresh bottle of Cutty Sark (christened = drank).
Also, in boring site news, there are even more new reviews on window music, and a few new audio samples up on the umami page - but still no reviews, sadly. Anyone?
July 2002:
More good news regarding the Sonny Sharrock tribute - longtime SS collaborator Bob Musso has submitted a cover of "Many Mansions", a tune which he himself recorded Sonny performing on the Ask the Ages release. We're planning on adding a special section to the site about the project, Sonny, and the artists who are being generous enough to contribute their works.
In the personal music files, post-umami work continues to develop in the studio, including a project to re[record]mix a pair of tunes penned by bass maestro Chris Gustafson (aka Chewie). The groundwork for a very promising version of "marrownut" has been laid - have yourself a listen, won't you? Also, I've posted some new (very kind) reviews of window music here. Huzzah!
June 2002:
Even as the ink is still drying on the umami press release, work is underway on its successor, an EP tentatively titled more umami (original, no?). As a teaser/proof that the new work is nearing completion, I've uploaded a sample from one of the tracks, (also tentatively titled) "cricket".
Things are looking good for the return of the Sonny Sharrock tribute album. Single-handedly redefining the guitar as an instrument of true free improvisational expression, his legacy will be honored by such amazing artists as Henry Kaiser, Bill Frisell, Elliott Sharp, Thurston Moore, and more. Much thanks and credit goes to Henry Kaiser for helping make sure that this release gets its day in the sun.
Bryan Day over at public eyesore has been doing great things for the window music disc, including getting it reviewed in the AMG All Music Guide. I'm hoping to record another collection of improvised guitar pieces for Bryan soon - check here for details.
Just for fun, started posting some work from the previous incarnation of HFM in the archives section, starting with a comprehensive look at the guitar work of Gary Lucas by W.C. Bamberger. And on the subject of retrospectives, I recently uploaded a recording from '98 of a guitar duet I performed with Anne Holt entitled "Lucky Shards" (which you can download here), a mellow little number based off a theme by Marc Ribot. More to come, soon...
May 2002:
Meanwhile, back in the closet - I mean studio - the work continues. A track for a forthcoming tribute/cover album is available for download here entitled "nixie on the fritz", in respect to the great German film composer Peter Thomas. And two other full-length CD's are available (only through me at this point, email me if you'd like a copy) entitled nerd operations vol. 1 and umami. The former includes some wonderful playing by my all-time favorite bass playing buddy, Chris Gustafson (who you can check out here and here), as well as some great Rhodes work by Paul Brady, trumpet solos by Todd Grady, and the inimitable Keoni Yu on didjeridoo. Sample tracks from either disc are freely available from mp3.com. And again, the folks at MTV asked the nerd to help tighten up their dramatic "whose turn is it to do the dishes?" scene.
Even older news...
Well, "hi-fi mundo home studios" may just be a fancy term to describe a bedroom hazardously crammed with gadgets, instruments, hundreds of feet of cables, bins of vinyl, and some bottles of single malt scotch, but it's the most we've ever needed to make some immersive and compelling music. The first couple weeks after New Year's of '00 produced a noisy bit of jumbledelia titled ugmo - noise/groove/noise. After the spitting, hissing and bottle-throwing had subsided, I figured I had people's attention. So, a few weeks later, another full-length project was released under my name, titled window music. At a completely reckless speed, gatto rubato - il brutto e il rubato was produced as a house party mood enhancer, with the altogether unexpected result of making an appearance on a DJ Magazine compilation presented by Yesmamma and gaining the attention of MTV's The Real World. Sadly, not owning a television, we didn't get the chance to see if any of the tunes were featured during major breakup scenes or terrifying acne scares.
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