The Sacramento Electronic Music Festival is looking to be the best yet with a great lineup this year including ISO50 favorite and Ghostly label-mate Mux Mool and my good friend and collaborator Dusty Brown. If you’re anywhere near Sacto you owe it to yourself to make it out. This is always a really fun event and it’s being held for the first time at Harlow’s, my favorite venue out there. Details follow.
The 3rd Annual Sacramento Electronic Music Festival – May 3rd, 4th and 5th
Harlow’s & Momo Lounge in midtown Sacramento. 21 and over – Tickets
2012 Lineup:
Shlohmo, Mux Mool, Dusty Brown, Death Grips, Light Year, Lorn, Salva, B.Bravo, Starship Connection, Jantsen, Raleigh Montcrief, DJ Nobody, Dibiase, D.A.M.B, Giraffage, DJ Whores, Yalls, iNi, CrookOne, Doombird, Satellites, Favors, Melee Beats, Little Foxes, Tha Fruitbat, El Conductor, James & Evander, Dolor, Bad Looks, adoptahighway, Chachi Jones, Young Aundee, Paper Pistols, Ryan Lindow, Eames, thriftcar
Sister Crayon (who I just played with at SEMF, great band, be sure to check them out) put together a mix for Dublab. A bunch of cool stuff going on here and a couple Dusty Brown and Tycho tracks to round it all out. Enjoy.
In case you missed the latest newsletter (sign up here), there are two new prints available at the shop. First is the Dusty Brown poster featuring artwork from their This City is Killing Me EP. It’s a limited edition giclee available in four formats. More info / purchase here.
There’s also a very limited run of prints from the Ghostly 10 year show at Seattle Decibel Fest. This edition is limited to 200 pieces, 11×17″, $15. More info / purchase here.
Now that you have the free EP, you need to check out Dusty Brown live. Lucky for you it just so happens they’re playing a show as part of the CD release event for This City is Killing Me this Saturday. After attending countless Dusty Brown shows I can tell you it’s one of the most entertaining live sets around. As good as the recorded stuff is, they really take things to the next level with the live set and I think it’s where the music really shines through. You’ll also be able to snag a limited edition CD version of the EP which won’t be available anywhere else.
I’ll be making the drive down from SF, hope to see some of you out there.
Dusty Brown CD Release Show
Saturday, July 17, 2010 10:00 PM – 1:30 AM PDT
The Townhouse
1517 21st st
Sacramento CA 95814 Gain Directions
Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through the process of putting together a live band for the Tycho show coming up on July 9th here in San Francisco. Those of you who’ve been to my past shows will know that I usually play solo and the focus is on the visuals and some light synth work. But this recent break from playing live (been working on the new album) has given me a chance to re-evaluate what I want the performances to be about and it’s also afforded me some time to put into developing the whole thing a little more. The visuals will still be a central element of the show, but I also want to try and bring some of the instrumentation to the forefront as well.
This upcoming set at Mezzanine will be my first show back in a while — and one of only a few I’ll be playing this summer as I wrap up the album — so I wanted it to be something special. I’ve been working with some other musicians on the new material so it sort of made sense to try and incorporate them into the live stuff. I spent the past couple weeks deconstructing a lot of the songs and working them into live versions that sort of bridge the gap between electronic and traditional instrumentation and have been rehearsing with the band at Ira Skinner’s studio in Sacramento. Zac Brown (frequent collaborator and guitarist for Dusty Brown) will be handling bass duties while Matt McCord will be on drums. I’ll be on some guitars and synth and Dusty and Jessica Brown will be joining us for a couple songs as well. We’ve got a few more practices but things are sounding really good and I’m excited to bring it all to life on the 9th. Hope to see you there.
Dusty Brown - This City is Killing Me - Artwork by S.Hansen/ISO50
I’m very pleased to announce that the new Dusty Brown EP, This City is Killing Me, is now available. I’m even more pleased to announce that Dusty was generous enough to give it to us for free. If you like it (which I am sure you will, just have one listen to “Back to Back” and you’ll be hooked), please consider supporting his music by making a donation.
For the uninitiated, Dusty Brown is an insanely talented Sacramento-based producer and musician who, along with his eponymous band, creates a sort of beat-centric clash between raw ambient-electronic and synth-driven indie rock. Dusty got me into the live music scene when I was starting out in Sacramento and over the years we’ve collaborated on all sorts of projects. I’ve learned more about music from Dusty than anyone else; his production style and methods are truly awe inspiring. People who have been following along for a while might also remember that Dusty did all the flash work for both the original versions of the ISO50 portfolio.
I’ve really been anticipating this EP so it was great to also be able to create the album artwork for the release. The artwork is based on the photography of another incredible talent from Sacramento, photographer Raoul Ortega. The front and back covers feature various images from this set which Raoul shot with the Canon 5D at Dusty’s Harlow’s show last week. It’s so inspiring as a designer to work with talented photographers; images like this are just begging to be treated and make the whole process such a pleasure. The EP download includes print sized versions of the front and back covers.
Dusty Brown will be playing live this Friday (May 28th, 2010) at Harlow’s in Sacramento. Their shows are always worth checking out — few can match the intensity and raw emotion they exude on stage — but this one promises to take things a step further. They’ve put together a full band and reworked all the songs with fully live arrangements for this set. It’s always interesting to hear how predominantly electronic music works in a live context, particularly with a drummer. I saw Caribou and Toro Y Moi last night here in San Francisco and that was certainly a treat to hear how the songs had changed between the studio and the stage (more so with Toro Y Moi as Caribou’s records are essentially rock at this point anyways). I’m looking forward to the same from Dusty and co. on Friday. Hope to see you out there.