brought to you by:





The Woodland Acoustic Orchestra Presents: "An Evening With Butter"!:

Set 1A 35.4 megs
Set 1B 26.9 megs
Set 2 30.2 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Most of this show was an acoustic trio of Woody Frank (Custom-Tuned Acoustic 6-String), Donovan Raymond (Standup Bass) and Me Woods (Plank-Tuned Aocustic 6-String). Things started off beautifully and just expanded from there. Probably one of my favorite acoustic trios yet! Lots of open space and plenty of rhythmic and harmonic interplay. And at the end of the night, I was sure we could put together the same group on another evening and make radically different music. At the beginning of the second set, we were joined by Daniel (don't know his last name...?) on Vocals. Truly a fantastic voice! And great ideas. He gave me a CD of his two-piece (his guitarist also joined us briefly on vocals), which I checked out at work this week. Wow!! Hard to describe...hints of Mars Volta, Zeppelin, and even Ween. Very very cool. More of him in the future I hope! Also of note: Since there were no drums, I decided to record straight out of the board. You lose a bit of the audience reaction here and there, but *man* is it sparkly clean. I love how listening back to a board-recording is more like listening to a studio album and less like reliving the live experience from a distance. The music is less uniformly colored by the reverb-signature of the performance space and so seems to more easily join with the current listening environment -- becoming newly explorable with each listening. (Of course the best live recordings have both of these aspects, with clean tight micing, but also distant mics bringing in both the organic spacial and celebratory context of the venue.)



Juggler's Challenge Presents: "2Pac Tribute Night"!:

Set 1 40.7 megs
Set 2 54.8 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Another mighty-fine Juggler's Challenge experience! For this evening, the band was Todd Baker (Bass), Woody Frank (Guitar and Vocals), Bill Wolford (Guitar), Me Woods (Guitar and Vocals) and -- for the second set -- Patrick Lenon (Drums).

Set 1 is the group minus drums and includes the development of an alternate history for 2Pac as well as a love song and some other Juggler's Challenge elements. The newly recovered set 2 (thanks to Andy Martin for helping me repair the broken WAV) continues along this vein, with the addition of Patrick on kit kicking us into some pretty ecstatic movements. Momentum for this set came and went for me, but the good parts are crazy-good, and even the weaker parts are interesting on the recording.

Sarah came up with the name '2-Pac Tribute Night' for this one. It must've gotten printed in the Stranger or something (or maybe somebody just saw it on the Chai House calendar), because at least one guy came by hoping to hear stuff from 2-Pac's repertoire. Sarah played it off brilliantly though:
dude: "Is this the 2Pac tribute-night show?"
Sarah: "yeah, totally!"
dude: "These guys??"
Sarah: "Yeah, it's there, you just have to listen real carefully"
So, the guy ends up sticking around the whole night and checking it out. I never did get to talk to him to find out what he thought.

The Woodland Acoustic Orchestra Presents: "Music For Your Soul"!:

Set 1 44.8 megs
Set 2 38.6 megs


Set1:
Homes Can Be Fixed For Aging/Drinking --> Enhanced Driver Licenses Available --> Lice Can Sing, School Chief Wants Kids Challenged, County Budget Meltdown Waltz

Set2:
Music For Your Soul --> All That --> Pickin' Your Brain --> Chug, Chug!, Super Barista, Watch Your Behind --> Fat Cat, Jams --> Final Group Yodel --> Musician Introductions

Here's an absolutely top notch Acoustic Orchestra night with Woody Frank (Guitar and Voice), Ian ??? (Specially-Tuned Guitar and Voice), Donovan Raymond (Double Bass and Voice), and Me Woods (Plank-Tuned Guitar and Voice)...plus some brief appearances by Nate ??? (on my Dumbek and Claves and some other random crap in the percussion-box). The rhythm, harmonic interaction, and counterpoint are all stellar throughout the night on this one. Looking for lyrical inspiration, I picked up a copy of the Ballard News Tribune and just began sifting through for headlines and articles that struck me somehow in relation to the current current of sound. Most of the titles from the first set come more-or-less directly from those headlines. Before the second set, I got ahold of our friend Jumpei's English to Japanese slang-translation book and worked from that for most of the rest of the evening. A beautiful audience this evening as well!! The listener gets a brief sonic introduction to some of them during the 'Final Group Yodel'. (unedited clips)



Juggler's Challenge Presents: "Rubber Ducky Apocalypse"!:

Opening Jam and Introduction 11.5 megs
Chickens, A Lifelong Problem (a cathartic revelation with Tom Nelson) 8.2 megs
Won't You Come Round Again (with special-guest vocalist, ???...new at the Chai House...need to look up his name) 7.9 megs
The Deathly-Serious Love Song, End of Set 1 22.5 megs
Weird, Painful Burning Duckies, Poppy but Disorienting, Sarah 'n' Erin 35.1 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Even though there were only small bits of traditional Juggler's Challenge interaction in this one, we did have two fantastic guest-vocalists and at least the usual amount of energy-interaction with the Challengers, so I'm still going to call this Episode 11. The core band was Todd Baker (bass), Paul Turner (kit), Bill Wolford (guitar and wee bits of voice) and Me Woods (plank-tuned 6-string and voice). Great power and groove throughout the evening here. For the sake of the guest vocalists, I wish we'd had the one mic slightly closer to the PA, but it's still a decent mix overall and captures some of the richest electric textures in a couple of months. Bill in particular I thought was on fire for this one...amazing spaces and solos both. And Paul and Todd were both rock-solid, with the ever-present threat of adventure in their first ever appearance together. I couldn't hear more than a couple of words that Tom was saying at the time, but now he's totally cracking me up! Looking forward to next time, so I can pump up his volume. There was one slightly awkward patch after this, where Bill (always the trickster!) invited another guest-vocalist up just as we were heading into a funky version of 'the love song'. It didn't take too long however before we were back up and rolling and the guy ended up being great! I still need to track down his name, but hopefully we'll see him again soon. (unedited clips)



Neon Brown Presents: "Vegans On Parade"!!

Vegans On Parade (part 1) 20.9 megs
Vegans On Parade (part 2) 9.1 megs
Vegans On Parade (part 3) 10.4 megs
Vegans On Parade (part 4) 18.1 megs
Vegans On Parade (part 5) 34.2 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Now *that's* putting the "orchestra" in Acoustic Orchestra! This was a big one...hopefully the beginning of a tradition of increased bulk on these 4th Wednesdays. With Dave Foley on Electric Kit and Loops (totally breakin' the law!), Bill Wolford on Banjo and such, Patrick Lenon on Congas, Evan Strauss on Charango and Guitar, Woody Frank on Guitar, Dana Shinn on Dumbek, and Me Woods on the Acoustic Bass-Box, there was plenty of momentum in the madness. Some great stuff throughout, with an increasingly psychedelic vibe as the night progressed. Special props to Woody Frank for bringing the melody! Very nice. (unedited clips)



Juggler's Challenge Revival Episode 10: "Ambient Week"

Enlightened Suckatash 13.6 megs
The Boards --> Bill's Discussion of the MicroBrew --> The Key 13.1 megs
Chocolate and Wasps, Lars The Hacker Fox 28 megs
The Odious Love Song --> Lager and Killer Bees --> Tom Don't Forget Your Sunglasses 19.5 megs
BJs for Crystal Meth 10.5 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Featuring Todd Baker (Bass), Bill Wolford (Guitar and Vocals), and a second-set appearance by Donovan Raymond (Bass), this was a remarkable Juggler's Challenge for its lack of drums and its unusually small but effective group of Challengers. Most movements started and were grounded by some sort of simple loop through my guitar rig -- just enough to give us a little momentum and something to come back to. On top of that, all manner of surprisingly creative seeds were explored. In spite of the somewhat more ambient tone, the distinctive Juggler's Challenge energy flowed throughout and even built into some overt craziness near the end.



Pretty Boys In Outer Space

Pretty Boys In Outer Space (Set 1) 57 megs
Pretty Boys In Outer Space (Set 2) 39.4 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Here's the full night's recording of 'Pretty Boys in Outer Space', starring the boyishly handsome Mark Wolford on the Kit and the irresistibly cherubic Donovan Raymond on Standup Bass. I was playing my semi-acoustic with the humbucker plugged straight into my amp and the piezo straight to the PA and had forgotten the adapter for my vocal effects, so other than a tiny bit of adjustable distortion on the amp, we were running about as dry and simple as we get. Somewhat ironically, this setup really seemed to serve us well as we blasted off on the evening's theme (provided as always by the mischievous minds at the Chai House) in Semi-Acoustic Power-Trio format. The crowd this evening was sparse, but engaged, occasionally lying down to dream along with us as if passing the time on a true space voyage of 33 months and 11 days. (unedited clips)



Juggler's Challenge Revival Episode 9: "Bacteria Underneath My Nails"

Juggler's Challenge Revival Episode 9 (Set 1) 66 megs
Juggler's Challenge Revival Episode 9 (Set 2) 29.1 megs


(Andrew's notes:) This was a little different from your usual Juggler's Challenge night. Except for a couple of solid Challenges towards the end of the first set (The "Obliterated" Love Song, and a fish-out-of-water character piece set in 420 B.C.E), Jugglers and Challengers alike seemed content to let the music take its own sweet natural course. This group -- Anders Burggren on Bass, Jay Jaskot on Drums and Zane Williams on Guitar (and me on plank-tuned guitar and vocals) -- had done another one of these together a half-year-or-so ago. I'm not sure how else to put it except that this seems to be a super-strong combination of forces. Starting very open and low, things built smoothly to a dense grooving tumult, which was sustained throughout most of the evening, seemingly expressing a broad, high-energy space in hundreds of shades and values. I briefly tried to get some Challenger-action on the whiteboards at the beginning of the second set, but nobody budged...perhaps not understanding my words and gestures above the din, or perhaps too content with the groove to redirect it. (unedited clips)



The West Seattle Quintet Presents: "Turtles and Life After Death"

Theme From Juno 3.3 megs
Carry On 1 meg
Adrian Arrives 1 meg
Be Dominant --> Egg Roll vs Freezer Burn 11.6 megs
Instrumental Jam --> Bill's Great Snake/Football Creation Myth 11.1 megs
Hey Dude, We Should Grab Some Lunch Tomorrow 16.7 megs
Chocolate Lovin' Gremlins in a Home of Physical and Mental Abuse 11.1 megs
Slug Rider --> Dave's Drink 8.8 megs
(Adrian on the Kit) Beer and Donuts 3.8 megs
Pacman vs Skinheads --> Countup 9.7 megs
A Pair of Jingles 1 meg
Inside Jokes 1.8 megs
Random Words --> Yeti Kink 7 megs
There's A Recession Goin' On 8.4 megs
Amen (Chai House Gospel Revival) 3.3 megs
Waking Up to Last Call --> Introductions --> Declining the Encore 15.9 megs


(Andrew's notes:) I had a lot of fun at this show, and even though I think we were all a little disappointed with the lack of strong musical direction here, there was plenty of really enjoyable goofiness and -- listening back -- even a few of places where the full momentum of the 5-piece casually grooves us all into some interesting instrumental territory. (Todd Baker on Bass, Dave Faigin on Percussion, Mark Wolford on Mini-kit and Jingle Vocals, Bill Wolford on Strings and Vocals, and me on Semi-Acoustic 6-String and Vocals...plus a brief appearance by Adrian on Mark's Mini-kit.)



Untitled Song (Instrumental only so far) mixed down from "Vampy the Dental Wizard" 6 megs


(Andrew's notes:) Here's an instrumental mix of a song (still evolving) that I spliced together from our October show with Anders Burggren (Bass) and "MonkeyBrainz" (Guitar) at Mr. Spot's. The full evening appears directly below as "Vampy the Dental Wizard". I was making good progress on the lyrics for this one for about half a week, but then the concept seemed to crash under its own weight. Still very excited about laying down some vocals -- it should be a really heavy tune -- but I wanted to share this instrumental mix in the meantime.



Click here (or send email to neonbrown@neonbrown.com with the subject line "Add to Web Audio Mailing List") if you want to receive a short announcement whenever the Neon Brown audio page or the Jam of The Week page is updated.

For really old Jams of the Week and an mp3 archive of the works of jazz/buttrock-fusion giants 'hEENd', check out heisenbug.org's archive page.