Joshua Van Tassel

Halifax airport has a really big revolving door. And it’s completely silent as it continuosly revolves. Where does such a wonder come from? Trickery by the fast talking magic men of this seaside city no doubt.
I’ve arrived safely, am waiting for a shuttle downtown, and am clearly bored.

…is through giving me the gift of a mini steel drum. Amazing. A very sweet little lady brought it back from a far away land for me and I love it. No time for music making on it today, but believe me, you’ll get some soon enough.
I’m off to NS for some shows with Mr. Myles, so if you’re there and reading this, give me a holler. Or come spend Valentine’s day with me and the boys in Cape Breton. Blog activity will be to a minimum for the next couple days, but as usual I’ll try to get something up whenever I can jack a wifi connection. Happy V-Day to all you lovers out there if I don’t talk to you before then.

I look like a giant monkey when I try to play this and it makes me happy.

Today is a gray day, and I have a feeling I’m going to get nothing inspiring or productive done. That’s never a good feeling to have at 10 am. Not at all. I’m going to fight it, I swear. This will help.

So last night was Grammy night, and much like the Superbowl, I never know it’s happening until the day after. This year I was pleasantly surprised to read that the album of the year and 4 other awards went to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s “Raising Sand‘ record.

I have a small system that I use when it comes to buying records that friends recommend to me, which is once it gets to 3 people telling me to buy it, I just go buy it. I figure if 3 people who know me personally and musically each think there’s something out there I should here, then they’re probably right. What happened with this record is that about 10 people told me about it before I went and got it. So. I bought it, brought it home fully expecting to have my mind completely blown and…………..nothing happened. It sounded pretty, the harmonies between the 2 were nice, but I just didn’t get it. So I listened again, and again, and again, and all of a sudden I realized it was the only record I wanted to hear. EVER AGAIN.

This record crept up on me like no other recording has before. The production from T bone Burnett is so deep, subtle and seamless that I’ve spent the past 3 months buying everything I can that he’s worked on and trying to cop and outright steal every sound trick he has. The rest of the band is amazing, Marc Ribot on guitar brings a real life and edginess to the record, Jay Bellerose is playing god knows what in terms of percussion, but somehow has picked the completely perfect drum sounds for everything. I could on go on but you get it. Even though it’s technically an album of covers, each tune is so well picked to either compliment or challenge Krauss/Plant’s styles that it becomes after a few listens an undeniably good album.

So. Well done Grammys in my humble opinion. Also, I congratulate you on letting Radiohead a) play a song, b) use a marching band super effectively, and c) letting that song be one in 5. challenging and fun for the whole family.

Which means it’s time for another melancholy little ditty of the ilk that always seem to come out on this the day of rest. I hope your weekend was fun filled.

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About 2 weeks ago I went over to my friend Dean’s house to start work on a project that we’ve both been talking about for about a year or so, but due to both of our schedules have never been able to really get into. We decided that the time had come and I was very excited. Dean isn’t just an amazing guitar player ( he tours with Sarah Slean, Royal Wood,and Jill Barber to name only a few) but also is an amazing producer and engineer. His record Dream at Harmony Motel is still one of my favorite to date. That makes it sound like it’s only my favorite now, because I haven’t heard anything better yet, but it could be usurped from that position. Not true, I’ll always love it.
Anyway, I packed a bag of gadgets and noise makers, got to his place, and we ran up the stairs like small children after your best friend’s mom’s super strong Kool aid that our mom would never let you have, eager to start. I plugged in my Kaoss pad, heard a loud pop that I didn’t make, and to my great dismay noticed a wisp of black smoke come from the pad along with the smell of torched GI Joes. Turns out there was some faulty wiring and not only did it go after my kp but also gave Dean a hearty shock.
To make a long story as short as possible, Dean felt super bad about what happened and called me yesterday with the news that he had bought a new kaoss pad for me. So nice, he deserves to be blogged and a public thank you to this out standing musician and human being. Thanks Dean.
now I can continue to use my little contact mic a make beats like this…..

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I can tel you’re all very excited. Thank you for your enthusiasm.

I was driving home last night which I often do, and for the first time had the somewhat romantic notion that I should just keep driving. The Gardiner was pretty much empty, the Festiva was full of gas, I was listening to Bill Withers tell me about his grandma and her hands, and I thought why not? I came up with a bunch of good reasons why not, but technically I could have forgot them all and kept driving. Maybe for days. Maybe I’d hit Cape Breton and turn around and go the other way. having a car in the city, or at all for that matter can be a completely expensive pain in the ass, but every so often it feels really really good to know that I’ve got some freedom waiting to go if I need it. As long as it’s not to cold and my freedom’s engine will start.

Spent the day doing a few different things musically. I’ve been trying to record drums really quietly, then over compressing them with lots of distortion. I like hearing quiet sounds loud and out of context. Here’s one of them –

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In other news, one of favorite bands to play in, the Outlanders, are doing their second show of our Orbit room residency. It’s this coming Monday night, starts at 8, and it’ll be a lot of fun. I promise. How can I be so sure? Because I’m a positive guy. real glass half full type thing, you know? The rest of the Outlanders are too. So come feel good about yourself.

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Like right now. Here’s a picture I was looking at from Christmas time. One big sigh.

here’s an intro from the ep, and it sums up what I’m thinking tonight.

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….but this caught my eye on Nunc Scio today and I wanted to share…..