Guest Appearance on Central Standard

I had a great time chatting with host Jabulani Leffall on this morning's Central Standard on KCUR 89.3 FM — Kansas City's NPR station. Hear it as a podcast HERE.

Monday on Central Standard

Monday morning (8/29) I'll be on Central Standard (KCUR 89.3 FM) playing a couple tunes from the new album (with my buddy Matt Corder) and chatting about love songs with host, Jabulani Leffall. Listen in!

Stream Still Lost Bird's August - album out today

AUGUST featured on PITCH, the KC independent culture magazine/blog.

Stream Still Lost Bird's August - album out today

And Keep St. Joe Weird!

AUGUST out Today!

As most of you know, the new album, August, by my rock music project, Still Lost Bird Music, hits the web today! It's available on iTunes and pretty much everywhere else on the internet. Check it out, let me know what you think, tell your fwends, and let me know if you know someone else whom I should let know about this. Here's some info on the album and the important links.


Still Lost Bird Music home page: www.stilllostbirdmusic.com
Preview the album here: http://stilllostbirdmusic.bandcamp.com/album/august?permalink
Buy the album here: iTunes link or Amazon link



About Still Lost Bird Music

Still Lost Bird Music is the pet project of Simon Fink. Its latest creation is August, a concept album of mostly acoustic songs based on poems by various authors, forthcoming on DashGo Records. Sargent Egyptian Girl, SLBM’s first album, was released in 2008 (also on DashGo). The single “Chocolate Heart” was featured on the app/game Tap Tap Revenge.


About AUGUST

August is a cycle of love songs that are based on poems by various authors from various eras including Dunbar, Pound, Teasdale, Wylie, and Yeats. In classical concert music composers do this kind of thing all the time—that is, take previously written poetry and set it to music for voice and accompaniment—and have for centuries. It felt natural to me to carry the practice into the context of the rock album and, in this case, into a sound world especially steeped in the traditions of American folk music. I chose these poems first because they really spoke to me, but also because they were in the public domain. Most of them are about love, the loss of it, and the memory of it. (Special thanks to Jeff Kerr for co-producing the album.)

—Simon Fink

Wild Peaches Vid

Check out the awesome new "Wild Peaches" video that Becky shot and edited for me! The country scenes were shot out at the Weston Red Barn Farm. The tart uses a David Lebovitz French dough recipe. Enjoy!

August, the new Still Lost Bird Music album, drops in two days, 8/23/11.

Pedro Squella in St. Joe Live

Pedro Squella, an amazing harmonic who plays on a track on my new album, is featured in this week's St. Joe Live. 

Our mighty maple took a hit Thursday night during the thunderstorm. A giant branch fell on our neighbor's house, and we were lucky that the damage seems to be limited to their gutters and power line. I've never seen so much lightning or heard such sustained thunder. 

On a more cheerful note, we've got these end-of-summer blooms going:

Duke of...???

All this speculation about the Duke of Earl has made me think of the song "Duke of Prunes" from Frank Zappa's 1967 Absolutely Free album. This song cracks me up every time. (The direct reference to "Duke of Earl" comes just after the 3 minute mark on the video below: "You'll be my doo-chess, my doo-chess of prunes.") Absolutely Free—a send-up of 1960s music and culture—is one of the most hilarious, satirical, and weird concept albums every made. I think Zappa was one of the few musicians to carry the doo-wop torch into the psychedelic era. His 1968 album Ruben and the Jets is an amazing resurrection of the genre that spawned "Duke of Earl," "Who Put the Bomp," and other vocally-based hits about innocent teenage love from the 50s and early 60s.

Austin Update

I've been composing up a storm and getting all the installation and choreographical logistics together for the architecture/music collaboration in Austin. Just had a lengthy email message from the kind folks at UT who have been in communication with campus security and the workers who run the loading dock where we will be performing. Upshot? Because of safety concerns, the musicians will have to sign a waiver to play the piece. Hardcore!

Has AUGUST leaked in Poland???

I got a Google Alert the other day directing me to a random Polish (at least I think it's Polish) video on youtube featuring a tune from the new Still Lost Bird Music album. Since the album's not due out until next week, I thought maybe it had leaked somewhere. Turns out my label has just got a jump-start on promotion by featuring the tunes on Youtube Editor. 

Here's the video in question. It sets the song "Intrigue" to a beautiful shot of the ocean.


I'm flattered to report that there are actually hundreds of SLBM fan vids using songs from the previous album. It's so fun to see people use my music in creative and funny ways. Here are a few of my current favs. (I'll have to post some more in the future too.)

This one uses "Wet Paint" to demo their trimmed brush invention.


This dance group choreographed "French Lessons"!


This girl "walks like an Egyptian" to "Sargent Egyptian Girl":


Finally, this video re-enacts "Nobody's There (Seed of Doubt)" with Bratz dolls:



The new Still Lost Bird Music album, August, comes out next week! Stay tuned.

New Fool's Gold Video

Lewis Pesacov, a friend of mine in LA, has an Afro-pop-inspired side project called Fool's Gold. They just made this cool new video. Lewis is the guitar player with the long hair — sort of looks like John Lennon circa '68. He's a classically trained composer whom I first met at a festival with Pierre Boulez in New York in the summer of 2001. We both had wide ranging musical interests, and got into conversations about everything from  the Ramones to Brian Ferneyhough. He has a unique sense of rhythm and always comes up with the coolest guitar parts. His main band is Foreign Born.

And the winner is...

Jeff won! (Next Food Network Star) Congrats, dude. Huge!

Jeff liked to sing a smokin version of this with the Interociter (my old band in Chicago):

Cool Crest Mini Golf

Just had my first Cool Crest experience (thanks to a couple of comp tix from my friend Anita — her family owns it). Awesome vintage mini golf experience on beautifully landscaped grounds with fun, creative hole designs. They have three different 18-hole courses. We did the one furthest back from the entrance. It has a sort of an old, southwest desert theme going on, complete with cactus gardens and mission ruins. A very unique place. And of course, we had to follow-up the golf game with a dip cone from Kris and Kate's just up the Belt!

 

New Old Photo

Old band photo of The Interociter; circa 2003, Chicago. I think this pretty much captures what we were all about.

Bloggie No Good

Sorry. Haven't been able to post much this week (or at all).

I'm currently doing double duty in the composition studio. In addition to my piece for t-bones, percussion, and electronics for Austin, KcEMA (Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance) has asked me to present an electronic work at a concert they're curating during September's Electronic Music Midwest Festival in Kansas City, KS! So I'm working on a new, short piece for 2-channel sound as well.

(So I've successfully managed to disguise a braggart post as an apology/bellyache.)

But I have a few things to post about, and hopefully will get back to it in the next few days!

Sneak preview of posts to come:
-My friend Jeff makes it to the finals of Next Food Network Star. Will he win the whole shebang?
-Has the forthcoming Still Lost Bird Music album gotten leaked in Poland?
-Becky and I got Season 1 of Joey on Netflix. Is it as bad as you think?
-And plenty of other craziness.

COUNTRY CUPBOARD Restaurant in Jamesport, MO

Becky and I ventured out to Jamesport, MO yesterday, just over an hour NE of us, out in the country. I first heard of the town when I saw a commercial for a nice-looking wine store there. We read that it was in deep Amish country and had some cute shops. The drive was lovely, with views of blue sky and expansive green pastures polka-dotted with hay bales.

The road sign for Jamesport says its population is in the 500's. Pretty small for a town with several touristy shops and at least 3 B&B's. They pipe bluegrass music out on the street, which gives the shopping area cool ambience. The antique stores are relatively good — decent prices, interesting stuff.  One of the shop owners recommended we eat at Country Cupboard, and said it as def the best place in town.

We were amazed to see a line of several people waiting to be seated at 11:45am on a Wednesday. It seemed to be a mix of regulars, workers, old folks, out-of-towners, and Mennonites. We didn't have to wait to long before we were seated at the large round table up front, which we shared with a couple and a couple singletons.

The reuben was featured on the menu (and I'd seen a good-looking one come out of the kitchen while we were waiting), so that's what I ordered. It was good. It was served on marble rye and had an extra slice of bread in the middle, club-style. The Thousand Island came on the side, and no slaw. Becky had a salad with grilled chicken served in a big bowl that wasn't bad either. Ice water came in mason jars.

The daily special was Tater-Tot Casserole! The guy next to me got it. It looked like tater-tots, ground beef, and cream of mushroom soup (perhaps?) mixed together into a big pile. Not my thing, but cool to see someone being creative with tater tots. Most people were ordering the tenderloin sandwich, the specialty of NW Missouri which I still have not tried!

Their cream pies looked great, but we were too full. After our experience, I would guess that Country Cupboard is indeed the best restaurant in Jamesport. Definitely good local ambience. If you go, know that they don't take credit cards (cash or check only) and that its located just out of the main commercial area, near the red caboose just as you get into town.

AUGUST Preview — A Garden by the Sea

This track has a killer harmonica solo at the end by my friend Pedro "Chili" Squella. Pedro lives here in St. Joe and plays blues with a few groups. I first saw him play at Magoon's with Bugsy Maugh's band — Bugsy was actually the guitar player in Janis Joplin's band when she played at Woodstock! — and I was blown away. I think his solo takes the track to a new level. I'm so glad he agreed to do it! (Pedro and his wife have completely rehabbed a historic brick home here in St. Joe, and Becky and I actually first met him when the home was on a house tour a little over a year ago. He has a room full of vintage mics and tube amps that he works on. He also fixed up a badass black Cadillac—his "bluesmobile.")


The song is another one about lost love, this time about going back out and seeking that love — out by that murmuring shore — the one past the purple hills of fragrant-less heather, way out there, to where the birds are silent and the flowers are colorless (or maybe contain all the colors at once). Seeking that unforgotten face (that unforgettable face). Seeking within the jaws of death and possibly ending up in the sea...

("A Garden by the Sea" will the the 9th track on the forthcoming Still Lost Bird Music album, August.)
 

poemstore

Last week at the Nelson-Atkins in KC, Becky and I saw a really fun installation, poemstore by Oakland artist Zach Houston. In a large room, surrounded by his drawings and poems, Zach sat at a typewriter and offered original poems made on the spot, your topic, your price. Seeking some inspiration for the sight-specific composition I'm working on for a loading dock, I asked if he could write a poem about a loading dock and slipped him a 10. This is what he came up with. I think it's pretty great, and very relevant to what my cousin and I are working on.  After his torrent of inspiration and typewriter noise, Zach explained that much of San Francisco has been built on top of waste that was thrown into the bay and built up over time to form solid ground (hence the SF reference at the end).