Joshua Van Tassel

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Today is the first day in a while where I’ve had the apartment to myself and the time to start this new project. I went to bed early, took my vitamens, had some cereal, did some pushups, and was literally in front of my computer with a fresh bowl of ice cubes waiting to be coerced into giving me their sounds. I excitedly pressed record…..and the power went off. Is this a sign?

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in the studio with a bunch gentlemen whose names coincidentally all start with j. We’re recording what hopefully will “pay for new kitchen cabinets” as Dinsmore says. He also showed me this fancy iPhone camera app that takes us straight to the 70′s photo wise. I like it. Tomorrow the ep begins. No more drums for a couple days. I’ll keep you updated if you wish.

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The votes are in, here’s the ep track listing/what I’m using in no particular order

Ice cubes (including tray, Erin Parton is that ok?)

Bicycle

Clark’s Old Cell Phone

Full Box of Cereal

Beer Can

Thanks a lot for the suggestions; this is going to be super fun and hopefully listenable too….

Also, my roommate and good friend Sean Keith has unleashed his soulful sounds onto an unsuspecting world. Check out his myspace here and give love via cyber space..

also also, new Beck record club video – INXS this time, featuring members of St. Vincet and the legendary Os Mutantes …..

Record Club: INXS “Guns In The Sky” from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

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So here’s the deal -

I want to make a an ep in the next 2 weeks.

5 songs

I want all the sounds for each tune to come from only one item ( ex – a chair, mug, cat, bazooki) etc. I want to stretch my brain and ears a little bit, make me wring all the music out of an object that I can.

I want

you

people to pick the items for me. It’s more fun/challenging this way.

Leave your item of choice in the comments and I’ll get on it.

Don’t be shy, but try to pick something that I don’t have to spend money on? Maybe? That’d be great.

Once it’s done I’ll put it up here for whoever wants to download it.

Deal?

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In Wakefield, Qubec this morning and played a fun show with J Cockerill and NQ Arbuckle last night. It’s a super sunny, pretty day here and no one else is up so I’m exploring. Obviously I didn’t find too much adventure because I’m now blogging. Right. On a bench by some train tracks and a nice lake though, cool breeze in the air, birds singin me a tune that sounds familiar, maybe like spring? Let’s hope. Playing in Ganaoque tonight, there’s a lake there too! Yes folks, being a musician is this exciting,tell a friend.

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My friend good friend Stacey isn’t only a great blogger and excellent music writer but also a fantastic singer song writer. So many descriptive words.She and her friend Phil have a band called the i love you too’s, and they asked me to do a remix for them. I basically sat on it for 2 months because I liked the original of the song so much I couldn’t think of what to do, but it eventually worked out. Here’s a clip -

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The original is on their myspace page, it’s called “My Man”. A good honest song from the heart, love it.

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I love the tambourine, a whole lot. In the right hands of course. It’s a complicated instrument, one of the most audible instruments on the stage even in competition with a bunch of screaming guitar amps and screaming drunk people, yet it also has a lot of beautiful and subtle sounds that  you can only really get when you’re not beating it on your hand/thigh. I spent some time with one of mine this morning and made a really mellowing 2 minutes of tambourine music. I just wanted to do something with it that you generally don’t, let it breathe a bit and not be responsible for keeping time, you know?

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I’m trying to do more of this kind of thing, been playing a lot of drums which is great, but writing some really dreadful music in my opinion, hence the lack of stuff up on here. I need to get re-focused and doing these little imagination/sound exercises help get things flowing again. Sometimes you need to do like the gambler and know when to fold ‘em, just walk away from it for a while and do something else that’ll flip some different switches in your mind. Like reading this completely awesome book

Or listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.

Jennah/the Cameron house, post Dakota. For some reason I never break sticks, they just shed. And make a mess. Sorry.

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Well folks, it’s been a busy time and once again I’ve been a slack blogger. Only the occasional post of a completely awesome looking Bill Wither documentary and some rants. Things have been great in my world, and I figure today I’ll tell you about a couple random things that are happening or have made me happy or not.

Tinariwen - My good friend and great musician/writer Stacey hooked me up huge with tickets to see these guys at the Phoenix, which for once pretended it didn’t sound like a giant rock club bathroom and actually made the band sound great. Actually, it helped to show great the band sounded is a more correct way to phrase it. They played some crazy rhythms that I can only assume are straight out of Mali, like this one      ( sorry for the distortion, the H4 can’t handle the awesomeness of desert music…) -

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I left early due to a cold, but apparently shit got crazy in the best kind of African music way, and a dance party ensued.

Matt Anderson – I went to Glen Gould to see Matt play last night. and he absolutely destroyed it. He’s undoubtedly one of the best performers I’ve ever seen in my life. The perfect blend of humility, charm, raw talent, a vocal range that would make Bobby Mc Ferrin blush, and blistering guitar technique, he’s total package. And one of the world’s friendliest humans as well. It’s inspiring to see someone so deserving do so damn well. He just got back from Memphis where he won the solo category in the International Blues Competition. That’s huge. And completely awesome.

Debashis Sinha – I got lucky and saw a Peggy Baker dance piece a couple times last week, which means I got to get blown away by Debashis’s perfectly composed music twice as well. It was refershing to hear music that was so full of sounds, but that wasn’t totally ambient or devoid of harmonic content. It moved and shifted and came back on itself, and was the perfect sound track for what was happening on stage. I need to check out more of his stuff, maybe we all should? Try something new, go for it.

A new project! – I’ve been wanting to get back into some sound tinkering and sampling for a little while now, I’ve just been extremely lucky and have been playing lots of drums with fun people. I’ve got an idea for something that would be really Toronto-centric, involving some image work from the ridiculously talented Tara McMullen. She knows I’ve got something up my sleeve and I haven’t explained it to her yet, but I will, real soon, and then I’ll explain it here and you can tell me if it’s bullshit or not, deal?

March is a good month if you feel like enjoying some music featuring not one, but 2 Josh’s. I play with Josh Cockerill, and also a great band that JC plays in as well called the Long Haul. I’m playing with Josh C every Thursday in March at the Cameron House, 6-8, and every Friday with Long Haul from now til the end of summer potentially, 6-8pm as well. Come down after work and say hello.Or if the later laife styl suits your fancy, we’re playing with Josh at the Dakota on Friday night, and the Long Haul at Mitzi’s Sister on Saturday night. Whatever works. Or none of them at all. Take a night, call up someone you haven’t seen in a while, have drink, catch up, go home early. Wake up refreshed and thinking, ” wow, so and so ” is doing super well, good for them!. It’s your night, I merely offer options for entertainment…..

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If you don’t know, you’ll know after you watch this documentary. Let me know if you find it on video, they did one screening a couple months back and I missed it. A sad tale about one of the most soulful and important figures in music history. That’s a bold statement and it’s true.