Joshua Van Tassel

(on facebook?go to www.joshuavt.com and see things.)
The last couple times I’ve gone through a period where I really wanted to write some new music, I would intentionally stop listening to anything else. I wanted to try and keep my head clear and the ideas fresh, try to not rip anybody off and sound like “myself”. I realized this week that idea (for me) is some pretentious bull shit. No matter what I do or try to do I’ll still end up sounding like myself because it’s me doing it. It’s my own limitations and ego and fears that’ll get in the way, and it’s my own imagination that’ll hopefully pull me through into something interesting. I’ve been listening to TONS of music this week, and to be honest I feel like I’m doing some of my best work. Feeling inspired and having fun with the process. Taking lots of ideas from the things I’m hearing and using them in my own way. Regardless if I shut myself down from music or not, I still have 29 ears of hearing things built up in my brain, so thinking I can be free of outside influence is a bit ridiculous. Anyway. Here’s a couple things that have been getting me real excited -

Owen Pallett’s record “Heartland”. Really unique sounding songs with biiiiiig interesting orchestration.

And my norwegian love affair that I keep taking about to friends because their new record “One Armed Bandit” is a lumbering titan of muscle and musical intrigue…

….and Paul Simon just because it makes me feel good.

(on facebook?go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

…. Beck is prolific. Prolific enough that this is the second time I’ve blogged about him in the past few days. Part of his prolificness is his very expansive website and all the little treats on it. Like this, a super in depth interview with Tom Waits. Too long to cut/paste the whole thing here, but follow the link and scroll to the bottom for the 2-parter. While you’re at it you’ll pass by another interview with Will Ferrell. Here’s a quick part of it that made me laugh and think. – - – -

BH: I wonder, in a way, if it’s good to put yourself in those positions where you don’t have the equipment, you don’t have those crutches. But I think we’re so attuned to hearing it at that volume and having to feel that impact? There’s something maybe uncomfortable now to just hearing somebody’s voice in a room singing.

TW: I guess it’s like when you make dinner at home. You shove the bowl across the table and you throw a fork and you drop the napkin.(Laughs.) You make due. I don’t know if it’s all cosmetic. I guess you can tell when something is primarily cosmetic and lacks the structural integrity. I think we all have an instinct about that. Where does this “Best” thing come from? Is that human? Is that American? Is it all over the world? Everyone wants the best eye surgeon, the best babysitter, the best vehicle, the best prosthetic arm, and the best hat. There’s also the worst of all those things available and they’re doing rather well. (Laughs.) Denny’s is doing great. It’s always crowded. You have to wait for a table.

And here’s something I’ve been working on today. coming along but not there yet. I want a Paul Simon party vibe with some weird sounds that have yet to appear. Save that for late night headphone work. I’m having fun though, haven’t left the house in 2 days and am unsettlingly ok about it….

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com to hear the message)

I have a lot of wonderful and creative and slightly twisted friends, and for this I’m extremely thankful. Over the years they’ve left me my share of nonsensical and confusing voice mail messages, but this one certainly takes the top prize.

Key line (sung in a sultry r and b voice) – ” Do you have one of those fancy toliet paper rolls?

then a second voice – ” I bet you sampled it. I bet you sampled it!”

Thank you Ronley/Stacey/Willow.

(on facebook? go to www.joshuavt.com for some audio/photo)

roommates are away on a very romantic and completely awesome sounding trip to Thailand for three weeks, so that means it’s go time. I’m going to mess my apartment up in a good way. Had a great couple days writing, and my good friend Joel and I have designs about hopefully recording the bulk of a record in the next 2 weeks. Here’s a little clip of a demo of a tune we did, he on mandolin. Ended up being very godfather-esque so far which I’m into.

The idea with this project is that I wanted to write some very “folk” type songs with Joel that could stand alone on just acoustic instruments and be at least somewhat pleasurable, but then really beef them up in a studio setting, maybe to the point of over blown. I’ve been real minimalist lately, I think it’s time to indulge a little.

Here’s picture of two of my favorite people who took part in an epic all day brunch with me yesterday. Congrats to Chris Stringer on the right who produced Timbre Timbre’s record which won album of the year!! They’re both special as one can infer from the photo.

(on facebook? you’ll get no video love that way, go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

God bless beck for many reasons. Most recently for his record club project, where he gets a bunch of fun people that he loves, picks an album that he loves, and records a cover of the entire album in a day. Unimaginably fun, and the results sounds great. The most recent one was a Skip Spence record, and he brought in the legendary James Gadson ( most notably Bill Withers drummer), Jamie Lidell, all of Wilco, Feist and others. Check out a tune here……

Record Club: Skip Spence “Books Of Moses” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Also, go to Becks site for a great hour long interview with Gadson himself. Thank you Beck. And here’s a video that always makes me smile, mainly because James Gadson is smiling the biggest smile in all of smiletown throughout the entire thing. Is it because the shit sounds so incredibly funky or is Bill Wither’s turtle neck just too tight to keep a straight face? Probably both.

(on facebook? Go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

(on facebook? it’s not going to let you hear anything. Go to www.joshuavt.com)

A long while ago, maybe even 2 years now, geez, I started putting some music up called onepiecepieces. These little one minute vignettes are the product of me taking one sound or item and squeezing 60 seconds worth of entertainment out of it. I haven’t done it in a while, and just as thousands of people out there are making and breaking resolutions to exercise their bodies, I remembered that doing these are a great work out for my imagination. So, in keeping with a very organized and reasonable schedule modeled after the organized and reasonable Christine ( who covered the entire Beach Boys record Pet sounds at the Tranzac last night and it was fantastic), Tuesdays and Thursday I’ll be doing my damnedest to regal you with pieces that are short and hopefully sweet, and let u all hear things in a different way.

First up on the onepiecepiece block, I used a little clip from the sound of deflating balloons I put up last week. Here she is. Why is this one a she? I’m not sure.

(on facebook? Go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

(on facebook? Go to www.joshuavt.com for the full post)

beautiful wedding with beautiful people and the best pork products I’ve ever eaten. lots of love to my roommates who are legally and emotionally bound. …

(on facebook? Oh jeez, this won’t make sense. Go to www.joshuavt.com to be clarified)

I’m lucky enough to have a whole bunch of people in my life who are constantly recommending tons of good music to check out. Sometimes I get a lot of records all at once, and some sadly slip through the cracks in my cd shelf and hard drive. Here’s one that I pulled out this morning and had a great listen to, a Soundways comp called Nigeria Special. 2 discs of 70’s African craziness; it’s like late Beatles mixed with Tropicalia at 2am after a rum and coke. Best of all, it’s on itunes for $9.99. I’m a big supporter of buying actual records ( Soundways is great about giving you really comprehensive liner notes with tons of interesting history about the artists), but for those among us who are feeling the January-ness it’s an amazing deal.

annnnnnnnd if I lived in Brazil in the 60’s I would have done my damnedest to marry Gal Costa. I don’t understand a word they’re singing but man she looks fun. And super pretty. And she can get down.