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Back to the main Page! Some of the links in the following text may now be defunct. News: (from Andrew 2/15/08) With Adrian and I living in two-different states at the moment, the form of this group is definitely in a phase of evolution to say the least! :) While it might be a good while still before we'll be whipping out the classics again in a live-format, there are still quite a few exciting things afoot. The odds that 'Ocean Waves' will end up on a groovy N.Y. label's compilation CD this year is looking better and better. We've already delivered the agreement and the master-track to them and are looking forward to hearing more. Still, I'm wary of jinxing it, so I won't say any more at the moment. Our crazy friend Eric Peacock is putting the finishing touches on his third (and, I think, most-fantastic!) full-length 'neon brown' video. I got to see a rough cut the other day and was both technically blown away and deeply amused. To whet your appetites I've embedded the youtube versions of his previous NB videos into our myspace page. There's also a bit of long-distance studio-collaboration going on between Adrian and me (and others in the 'neon brown' circle), which is likely to manifest later in the year under another (or several) project name(s). More on that too as it develops. News: (from Andrew 8/4/07) While 'neon brown' is still on indeterminate hiatus from live shows, there's plenty of related activity going on. Adrian has been composing with live Chai-House material as he settles into his retreat in sunny Portland. Meanwhile, I've been working on some solo guitar-and-voice numbers and developing my new stereo-looping technique in a new secret duo...more on that soon I hope. I even finally managed to play a truly satisfying live set (after a few previous attempts that were more disappointing than inspiring, at least for me) of my guitar-and-voice arrangements at a recent show in Ballard that also featured sets by Woody Frank, Evan Strauss, and Five Philpin. In group-improv news, the 'Jam of the Week' page is continually chock-full of the recent endeavors of the increasingly successful 'Juggler's Challenge' (2nd Wednesdays) and 'Woodland Acoustic Orchestra' (4th Wednesdays) excursions at the Chai House during the regular 'Neon Brown Presents' slots. There's also a non-zero chance that one of Neon Brown's studio-tracks will end up on a cool N.Y. label's compilation CD this year. Flatteringly enough, they wrote us through our myspace page after listening to Ocean Waves, and have been in contact with Adrian about the project ever since. We'll let you know more if anything comes of it. News: (from Andrew 5/16/07) Recently I've been working on a new approach to playing with the loops which has been surprisingly satisfying. Fans of the Plank may be disappointed to hear that I'm working entirely with my 6-string semi-acoustic at the moment (though it's unusually simple to run just about any instrument through the same setup). I even got a chance to play with this setup down in Portland with Adrian last month -- a truly amazing show that was entirely improvised, but still managed to feature lyrics from 'neon brown' and even further back. Appropriately enough, the recording failed on that show, but I *will* post some short clips (and photos by Keith Bruns) from the second half of a party I played at All City Coffee (in Georgetown) celebrating the release of a comic compilation created by some friends of mine. The comic is called Atomic Lead. 
Photos by Keith Bruns Atomic Lead Clip 1 (4.6 megs) Atomic Lead Clip 2 (6.0 megs) ...this one isn't so good Atomic Lead Clip 3 (2.6 megs) Atomic Lead Clip 4 (7.7 megs) ...this is the best one!! Atomic Lead Clip 5 (5.1 megs) News: (from Andrew 2/6/07) Thanks to Oval League and everyone at The Brown Lantern and the new Stuart's Coffee House for a great weekend tour! Here's a shot from the new half of the Brown Lantern: 
Photo by Tina Scott Just a few quick reminders: You can still get a copy of the new Neon Brown CD 'Trouble' online at CDBABY, and you can still catch Andrew, sometimes Adrian and a plethora of special guests at Mr. Spot's Chai House every 2nd and 4th Wednesday, AND there's still a potentially infinite amount of time to become our special online friend while listening to selected tracks from our studio CDs at our myspace page. News: (from Adrian 1/17/07) Hey Everyone! I've got some great news and some other news. In the great news category, we finally finished our newest CD "Trouble". I think it's by far our best yet. It's got the great live energy of "Nice Feathers" combined with the studio experimentation and song-based approach of "Fiber". It will be available at all of the "Neon Brown Presents:" shows which occur on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month at Mr. Spots Chai House in Ballard. Additionally, it is available online at CDBaby. You can sample it, read a great review of it by Five Philpin and then order it HERE. Which brings me to the other news category. Unfortunately, due to my current situation, I will be unable to attend the shows we had originally scheduled as CD release shows at the end of January and beginning of February. I would say this was bad news, but I think they're going to end up being really cool anyways. Oval League will be playing as scheduled (you should definitely check them out) and it sounds like Andrew is in the process of putting together something really cool for those shows as well. So it won't be the official Neon Brown, but it will definitely be something that's worth checking out. And plus, you can pick up your shiny new copy of "Trouble" in the process. If you're on the mailing-list, you should get more details on those shows as things solidify. News: (from 10/12/06) 'Trouble' (our brand-new CD!) should go to press some time this week! So, it shouldn't be more than a couple of months before you will be able to get your very own copy at our Seattle CD-release party (likely sometime in early December). Meanwhile, you can check out a couple of the tracks on either Garage Band or our mostly languishing myspace page (where -- if you are already a myspace-user -- you can help make us look cooler by becoming our "friend"). One of the tracks is an already-acclaimed studio-capture of one of our live-favorites, "Ocean Waves" and the other is a brand new tune created with a relatively experimental recording process that originated at a multitracked Mr. Spot's show (produced and featuring lyrics and vocals by Adrian, and featuring the addition of James Whiton on standup-bass and James Campbell-Drury on Electric Guitar). Looking a little further ahead, we're currently beginning to put together arrangements for some of these more-experimentally-generated new tunes from the CD -- and trying to remember how to play the other ones -- in preparation for not only our CD-release party, but a giant 2-day world tour of Northwestern Washington over the first weekend of February. So fear not, we know it's been a long time since we've played live, but if you're willing to trek with us up to places like Bellingham and Anacortes, there should be a great opportunity for us to all hook up again for a big group hug in February! ( : { ) > News: (from 9/3/06) Our newest CD ("Trouble") is pretty much done. We're still assembling art, choosing a duplicator, and figuring out what the whole package is going to look like, but the music is all there! We're both beyond happy with how this one has turned out and have a suspicion that you'll decide it was worth the wait. ( : { ) > 
Meanwhile!!!!! Here's another in Eric Peacock's series of 'Neon Brown' videos: STATIC. If any of you checked out his video for "Tippin the Fridge" from a few months back, you'll be surprised at how different this one is -- other than the consistently stellar production quality. (Really, from what I've seen, each one in the series uses completely different techniques and has a correspondingly unique feel.) Made almost completely from small numbers of still photos of the band and ultra-low-res-show-footage, it somehow comes off as having shockingly high production values. Check it! News: (from 5/21/06) Still slowly cruising on the new CD. Oh man, are we excited to have you hear it!! It's looking like we'll probably have everything put together sometime in June, and hopefully have our hard-copies in time for a late-summer/early-fall CD-release in Seattle...with a brief regional tour to follow shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, our good friend Bart Kaufman recently finished some incredible new NB-related art -- which of course I immediately repurposed to beef up the marketing juggernaut that is our Cafe Press site. There's a fantastic new poster, and organic-cotton t-shirt (or two) and even our first ever ("back in") Black T-Shirt. Check it out now at www.cafepress.com/neonbrown! News: (from 4/25/06) Alrighty folks, this is definitely the beginning of something pretty strange: The release of the first ever 'Neon Brown' music-video!!! I hate to spill the beans, but the craziest part is this isn't the only one. Our good (and deranged) friend Eric Peacock has been silently working on a trio (+!) of videos for certain selected tunes from 'Fiber' (2002). Each of them takes a radically different approach to the material and is crafted to the highest levels of technical artistry and crazy-extra-somethingness that only Eric can bring to this sort of thing. But before I get ahead of myself, check this one out. It's for 'Tippin the Fridge'. A hypnotizing construction whose form nicely mirrors aspects of the musical structure, it uses looped archival footage to put a new tonal spin on what is certainly one of our most popular extended groove-pieces. (For now you'll need Quicktime 7 (and some decent bandwidth!) to view this...let us know if you want to see it, but can't get things set up right.)  'Tippin The Fridge' Video News: (from 4/9/06) Final production on the "Spring" CD is still moving along well (we promiss! :). It's just looking more like a Summer CD at this point... We're very excited about both the music and the incredible cover art that our good friend Matt Morgaine has been creating for it. Just a couple more musical morsels we want to squeeze in now. Still, while you're waiting for that, you should definitely download our First Ever Web-Only Studio Album and burn a disc for your car and a bunch of copies for your friends. This is the same production quality as our other studio CDs...definitely worth hooking up the good speakers or moving it off of the computer in whatever way you do. In instrument building news, I'm just now putting the finishing touches on a new acoustic "Bass-Box". It's a fretless neck with nylon round-wound strings built into a cajon (box drum). This truly feels like my most successful acoustic instrument yet...surprisingly loud and rich tone and easy as easy-pie to play! Here's a picture of it assembled, but with the wood still unfinished (...but perhaps I look a bit too serious in this photo, no?). Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version: 
News: (from 2/22/06) 
News: (from 12/21/05) Happy Solstice everyone! It only gets more brown from here. As the light slowly returns, Adrian and I will be polishing up our mixes for the new (as-yet-untitled) CD! More details as it ripens. For now, to whet your appetites, here's an excerpt from Adrian's truly-stellar vocal performance on 'A Place'. News: (from 11/08/05) Thankyou, thank You! Such a fantastic string of shows last week. Things started a little slow in Olympia, but quickly ramped up through the week, culminating in one of our best full nights at the Brown Lantern on Saturday and an incredible homecoming gig at the Rendezvous (with The Pop Logic) on Sunday. Perhaps for me the highlight would still have to be Corvallis, OR on Thursday. It was our first time there, playing in this intimate little coffee house (The Interzone) on a rainy night and attentive listeners just seemed to seep in through the woodwork all night! Stay tuned to the audio page for new live clips. News: (from 10/10/05) Oh man oh howdy, the new CD is sounding mighty fine. So far, some truly smokin' versions of many of the time-tested compositions. And the composed-improv experiments (some with guests!) have been unbelievably successful...really freaking me out beyond words. "When is it coming?", you may well ask. ...maybe early Spring?... Regardless, expect lots of music which you haven't heard before. We're really looking forward to whipping out two-piece versions of some of these new tunes at our shows. Speaking of shows, sorry it's been so long! A fall mini-tour is starting to shape up for the first weekend (and a bit of the next week) of November. Watch it develop and find out where to go on the shows page. News: (from 6/18/05) Hey everybody! We'll be back out on the road again in October, but look for slightly fewer shows to pop up over the summer as we begin to work on our next studio CD. Of course we'll be recording all of the new favorites, but you can also expect a few familiar guest-musicians on this next one as we explore some unconventional improv-based compositional approaches. Meanwhile, take a listen to Adrian's new studio mix of Cityscape#2 -- from way back in the 'Fiber' recording sessions -- on the audio page! I also just put a new T-shirt design up on our CafePress site...with two oblique graphical references to one of our most popular compositions. Check it out and get your very own now at www.cafepress.com/neonbrown! News: (from 4/17/05) What a tour! All solid (and very full) nights, with the Olympia show standing out as a particular highlight for me. A heart-felt thanks to all of the great listeners, old and new. No doubt some select audio clips will eventually show up on the audio page, but for now check out this time-lapse movie of most of the Brown Lantern show (minus the second set), shot from right in front of the "stage". mmmmmmmmm...vegggie-burrrger!MPEG-4 (8.6 megs)  Hey, speaking of CDs, while we were in Olympia, we sold out of our last 5 copies of 'Fiber'! That means they're all gone!! ...with the exception of a couple of copies still in stock at CD-Baby. So, if you've been waiting to come see us to grab one, give it up and order one online right now! News: (from 4/2/05) Less than two weeks 'till our Spring "tour"! It's not a ton of dates, but we *are* playing full nights at each of them. We'll be kicking things off with our (un)usual Wednesday night of improvisation at Mr. Spot's, and then bringing all of the 'neon brown' material (including our two newest!) to Olympia and Port Townsend for the first time ever -- finishing off at our old standby on Saturday in Anacortes. As always, we're very excited! So excited in fact that I might even manage to whip up a "tour t-shirt" to go with our swelling collection of merchandise at cafepress.com. Check it out...it's just ridiculous. News: (from 2/14/05) In addition to the regular "Neon Brown Presents:" action at Mr. Spot's Chai House, it looks like we'll be making another short regional run of shows during an extended weekend ending April 16th! Look for a stray Seattle show to pop up around that time as well. Meanwhile, in addition to various other projects, two brand-new Neon Brown compositions are well under way. This time, both ideas (a mind-melting polyrhythm/polymeter, and a tight, dark, high-energy funkster) originally sprouted from Adrian's twisted craw and have been growing all over the place at the Jambox. Finally, if you've always wished that Neon Brown were more of a merchandising juggernaut, look no further than http://www.cafepress.com/neonbrown to check out our slowly-evolving mini-store of band-branded items. At this point, with 0% markup, there's never been a better (or even *a*) time to pickup a fantastic 'neon brown' coffee-cup, bumper-sticker, or (eventually) t-shirt for your cousin in Sweden! News: (from 12/29/04) Stay tuned to the 'audio' page! While we're working on a more experimental improv-pop CD (featuring compositionally-refined multitracked improv-sessions with some of your favorite NBP guests), we're still doing our best to sooth your insatiable desires for more studio-quality recordings of your favorite 'neon brown' compositions. The plan is to post all-new mixes of the unused tracks from the 'Nice Feathers' recording session -- and even perhaps from all the way back at the 'Fiber' sessions -- only on the 'audio' page. In fact, there's already a rough mix of 'BaileyRog' up there now. And, of course, if you haven't heard 'Nice Feathers' yet, you can still get you very own copy at any 'neon brown' show, Sonic Boom in Ballard (supply replenished just today), and online at CD-Baby. (quick update (2/2/2005)) Hey check out this fantastic acoustic cover of Static recorded by Five Philpin! News: (from 10/17/04) It's been a smokin' fall so far!: In addition to busting out two really unique new 'neon brown' compositions (the second of which will likely debut at our next NB show), we've finally -- after years of overtures -- just gone ahead and assembled a brand new rockin' 3-piece group with one of our longest-standing musical collaborators (and great friends) TQ Berg! We're calling ourselves Indonesian Junk. It's an unusual powerful sound...some great new compositions with TQ and I both playing full-range instruments and switching off between treble and bass as the moment inspires. Adrian is grooving as hard as ever on a stripped down kit and the harmony is a bit thicker and more adventurous, with all three of us singing in many places. Our first ever show (which also happens to be the next true 'neon brown' show) will be a split-bill with 'neon brown' and another great new band, "Dumb Found Dead" at The Blue Moon Tavern at the edge of the U. District. Come hear what we've been up to!! News: (from 8/12/04) For those of you who haven't gotten your copy of "Fiber" or "Nice Feathers" and need some convincing, check out the reviews on the Leaked Albums website. Two great reviews of both CDs! (Scroll to the bottom of the page.) You can order copies of Nice Feathers and Fiber from CD Baby. Nice Feathers can also be obtained at Sonic Boom in Fremont and Ballard. News: (from 6/08/04) Thanks to Cracker Factory and all of the generous listeners who came out to celebrate with us at our June11th CD-release Party! Stellar sets of CF and NB were followed by a monster-truck-5-piece-jam, which eventually turned in to a 7-piece jam. We even managed to squeeze in the debut of a brand new 'neon brown' composition, "A Place". For those of you who missed it, there's still good news: 'Nice Feathers' (The new CD) is now available at all 'neon brown' shows! You can also order it directly from CDBABY.COM or pick up a copy today at Sonic Boom in Ballard or Fremont. News: (from 5/23/04) The new studio CD, "Nice Feathers", is now in replication! We're extremely happy with the mixes and are like totally stoked (dude) to hold a complete assembled copy in our hands. This time around, a great friend of ours, Dylan Sisson created a disturbingly beautiful new painting for the cover, opening a unique window into the music within. If all goes well, "Nice Feathers" should be available at local stores and online very early in June (if not before) with a big CD-release party/show to follow shortly thereafter. News: (from 4/22/04) We are just a few finishing touches away from sending our next CD "Nice Feathers" out to get replicated. It was recorded over the span of the last year in many different locations and venues and sounds FANTASTIC! (If I do say so myself.) We should be having a big CD release party sometime in June, so keep your calendar open for that month. It will probably be available at stores and on CD baby sometime in May. Also, we're going to release it to a few local radio stations before we make it available to anyone, that way you'll HAVE to call in and request it if you want to hear some of the tracks. Okay, okay, we might not do that. We wouldn't want to deprive people of Neon Brown and incur their wrath. At any rate, keep your eyes peeled over the next month and you should hear about the CD soon. News: (from 1/11/04) Thanks to all of the great listners/participants who came out to lend their energy (and their voices;) to the highly-successful experiment that was our December multi-tracking session at Mr. Spot's. After an unusually lengthy setup, we were able to cleanly capture a solid 90 minutes or so of live music to 8 digital tracks! Mixing is well under way and, without spoiling the surprise of which tunes from that evening will be used for the upcoming CD, I can safely say that we managed to get fantastic takes of 3 full songs and another tune's jam-section. (To ponder the possibilities, check out the 2003 setlists page.) We then spent a couple of evenings the following week holed up in Adrian's basement, capturing the instrumental tracks for the remaining tunes for the CD. This too was a highly inspired session, with takes going down quickly and freely. At this point, we've certainly got far too much material for a CD, so look for only the best assembled mixes to be released sometime later in the Spring. In live news, our two newest tunes ("Burn" -- possibly a temp title -- and "Bionic") were debuted in Bellingham on January 9th. Though both are still in their infancy, we're extremely excited about the possibilities. News: (from 11/14/03) Special thanks to Capitol Hill's 'Theater Babylon' for inviting us to play at their incredible 10th Anniversary party! What a very cool group of people those folks are. (They were even nice enough to move us into the heart of the main room when the temperature suddenly dropped and it seemed like our planned location out front might cost us our fingers in frostbite.) Amidst the food and drink orgy, the fortune telling (hot dog reading!?), and the general theatrical chaos, Neon Brown and the enthralling bellydancing 'Fuzzy Monkeys' swapped sets for over 4 hours. Check out Eric Peacock's smokin' flash-free photos from the evening on the pics page. In recording news, shows are being booked a bit more selectively over the late fall and early winter, as we attempt to finish up basic tracking for our next CD. Of course we'll still be doing 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at Mr. Spot's (with the exception of Dec. 24th). We're even hoping to turn one of our upcoming dates there into a recording session for the new CD (likely with some extra audience-interactive elements ;), so stay tuned to the shows page for details. While we're on temporary haitus from the Seattle bar scene, in addition to playing a few more out of town gigs, we'll also be putting the finishing touches on two whacked out new tunes! Look for one or both to debut at a show very soon. News: (from 9/13/03) Thanks to Denali, RL, and Shane of Cracker Factory for setting up an amazing two day run east of the Cascades last weekend! Cracker Factory blows us away more and more each time we see them, and this time we even managed to sqeeze in an hour of incredible freeform 5-piece groovin' at the end of the first show. (Those of you who made it out to this past Wednesday's 'NBP' at Mr. Spot's got a taste of what I'm talking about!) More 'neon brown' and 'Cracker Factory' collaboration is inevitable. :) Thanks also to the fine folks at the B-side (Spokane) and especially to Jack (from Walla Walla's "The Underground"), for the unexpectedly warm hospitality! Due to some really good news for our expected October tour partners Frank Jordan, it's looking like we'll be postponing our tour South just a bit (likely until Spring), as they'll be playing a string of CD-release shows (celebrating their new CD on their new label!) on exactly the dates we were planning to be down there. Fear not, though, we'll get down there eventually! In recording news, we've finally started mixing the first two tracks from what will be our second full-length CD. Look for some possible live-recording dates, and a slightly more intensive production schedule on this one as we tentatively shoot for a late Spring release! News: (from 7/29/03) There's a whole mess of stuff going on in the Brown world right now. If you look at our shows page, you will see that we have a bunch of shows coming up over the next couple of months. There's some local stuff and some out of town stuff. We'll be doing a short jaunt with Cracker Factory (formerly Otis P and the Jive Funk) out to Moscow, Idaho. And on top of that, it looks like we will be doing a tour down the west coast and playing some dates with Frank Jordan in the middle of October. So there's no excuse not to show up at a show! Also, if you haven't already gotten a copy of our CD "Fiber", and want to, you can buy it from CD Baby. Or you can go there and write up a great review of us, so that other people will buy the CD. ;) Plus, be sure to check out Hotbands.com and mp3.com for some updated mp3 action. Hope to see you at one of the many upcoming shows! News: (from 6/14/03) If you were there at Mr. Spot's on that 4th Thursday in May, then you already know what I'm shouting about, but DOLGUMMIT that was a lot of sound!! Twelve (12!!) of the regular cast of Neon Brown Presents musical-characters showed up to celebrate the release of 'JOTW compilation CD Volume 5', and we since we lacked the foresight to think of anything more clever, we all just tuned up and went at it. (see the photos below, courtesy of David Estrada!) |
Occasionally, Adrian or Andrew would do some directing or temporarily remove a group of players, but mostly it was just a huge beautiful wash of sound. Thanks to you all! (Look for some select mixes to appear on the JOTW page soon.) Of course, this means that the fabulous JOTW 5 compilation disc should henceforth be available at all shows, so feel free to bug us if yer interested. Sneak Peak at the upcoming JOTW 6 Compilation cover: 
Hope to see you soon!
News: (from 5/13/03) We can't stop playing! JOTW compilation Volume 5? HA!! We're well past Volume 7, we just can't find the time to mix it all down. No problem though. We're loving it. Thank you, thank you for your ears...both musicians and listeners. Really though, 'Jam of the Week Compilation 5' has a great vibe. If you've been enjoying the type of jazz that's been overtaking us at Mr. Spot's, you should check it out. We'll have a few copies at our very next show, and we'll be doing an informal CD-release party very soon at one of the upcoming "Neon Brown Presents:" shows. We've also done a first raw-tracking session for our next studio CD. It's looking to be tighter. It's looking to be looser. More on that as it develops. On the live front, in addition to the usual local-ish shows, we're hoping to swing South for (a minimum of) a week of non-stop rolling and jamming early in the fall. With any luck, we'll be making it at least as far as SF and playing with some friends along the way. News: (from 3/3/03) Well, so far 2003 has been a blur of shows and an unexpected fountain of new tunes (with many of the newest structures arising fully formed in less than half a rehearsal ( : { o > ...what in tarnation! There's some wicked magic in that there Jambox!). Thanks to all of the incredible musicians who continue to breath life into the ongoing experiment that is 'Neon Brown Presents:' at Mr. Spot's Chai House. Thanks also to Robert Kirkpatrick for his continued recording support. This compound situation has yielded such an abundance of great 'Jam of the Week' material, that we're already over a month behind in getting them up on the page! Still, if improvised groove is your bread and butter (as it is ours), then this is not a bad thing. Stay tuned to the jotw page as the edited selections continue to trickle in. Speaking of shows, The Old Pequliar really is! Check out this quicktime slideshow (artfully authored by King Media Geek: Eric Peacock). Click here or on the image below (requires quicktime 6). 
News: (from 12/26/02) If you like Ballard, we're your band!! At this point, each and every scheduled Neon Brown show for the next several months is at one of two great locations right in the heart of bussling downtown Ballard. Look for the hugely successful 'neon brown presents:' series (at Mr. Spot's Chai House) to continue to supply a taste of 'neon brown' followed by a set of unpredictable freestyle groove (with all of the regular culprits, plus a steady stream of brand new guests) every second and fourth Wednesday. And, as if that wasn't enough for one neighborhood, we'll also be playing quite a few shows at 'The Olde Peculiar', a cozy little joint just a couple of blocks east on Market. And just so there's no confusion: Hot beverages at Mr. Spot's. Cool beverages at 'The Olde Peculiar'. Of course we will also be setting up some shows a little further into the outskirts of Ballard very very soon. really! Speaking of that 'neon brown presents:' thing and freeform music and the like, anybody who's been following the recent deluge of new additions to theJam of the Week page might be suspecting the approach of another compilation CD (or two!). Yes indeed! As soon as we can whittle our selections down to about 80 minutes worth, 'JOTW Compilation 5' will be available at shows (a disc of mastered CD-quality versions of the best improvised morsels from the past 6 months). And on the composition front, this recent 'post CD release' period has seen the sudden emergence of three new tunes (each continuing to evolve as they're tested and expanded at shows.) 'Keychain' (an oddtime shuffley changes-based ballad) and 'Neo Burn' (a high energy anthemic looper) have already become welcome regulars over the late fall. Look for a third brand new -- as yet unnamed -- tune to debut at an upcoming show in all of its incomplete Floydian, funktacular, 4-part vocal harmonizing splendor. News: (from 10/15/02) BRAND NEW NEON BROWN CD "FIBER" NOW AVAILABLE!!! That's right, the brand new CD "Fiber" is now available!! The official copies are finally back from the presses, and they look and sound GREAT!! (In our own humble opinions of course.) We are -- needless to say -- extremely happy with this CD and can't wait for YOU to have it. Of course, you can get it at any of our upcoming shows. But for those of you who can't wait, it is now also available at these fine locations: Sonic Boom in Ballard. Sonic Boom in Fremont. Cellophane Square in Bellingham. With many more stores to carry it soon. Plus we have given copies to both KEXP in Seattle and KUGS in Bellingham, so if you find yourself without Neon Brown, you can request the new CD from either of those two stations. If you want to preview some tracks online, check out our CD page. News: (from 9/16/02) Hey, jamfans! Special thanks to the many gracious listeners -- and of course the fabulously bold musicians -- who have poured their attention into the first several "Neon Brown Presents:" events at Mr. Spot's Chai House. Even with A & A alternately out of the state, the first three gigs have seen some radically funky risk-taking musical exploration. This is definitely a tradition to continue, AND -- especially if you haven't been to one yet -- an event to check out! AND: While you're waiting for that 'oft-promissed' and 'not at all yet delivered upon' threat of a new CD, check out some choice tracks (in MP3 form) on the newly updated CD-tracks page! (There, you can also get a glimpse of a teeny tiny version of the cover art.) More news on the actual release (in disc form!) very soon (at least in geological terms). News: (from 7/17/02) The CD is done!!! Holy crap! We really couldn't be more excited. The current plan is to have a limited special edition -- with a bonus second CD of live collaborative improv -- available at shows (possibly as early as the very next one), with a final pressing and a more officialish CD-release party to take place in the fall. Keep your eye on the shows page and the announcement mailers for news on the new CD's ominously impending availability. Speaking of, in the name of bringing you even MORE spontaneous musical covorting for your hot-beverage-buying dollar, 'neon brown' and Mr. Spot's Chai House have created a brand-new recurring event: Neon Brown Presents!:. Starting in August, head down to Ballard's finest Chai/Music emporium every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month for an unpredictable evening of 'neon brown' and/or some of their unusually talented musical friends as they throw out the book and revel in the now. News: (from 5/29/02) As promised, with only a few weeks of work left on the CD, we've been gradually ramping up the show frequency and have really been enjoying it! Not only have we gotten some great 2nd-set opportunities to stretch out with some amazing guest musicians, but it seems like the listeners just keep getting better and better. All of your attention and enthusiasm has definitely been helping to move the music into some exciting new spaces. Special thanks to Brendan Wires and Brian Kenney Fresno for an incomparable evening of music and mayhem down at The Matrix in Chehalis. Speaking of, what an amazing venue! ...truly worth the trip! (Great people, great food, and one of the best feeling rooms we've played.) Anyway, the CD really is just about there (we mean it!). Hopefully, we'll be setting up some sort of CD release party within the month where you can get a copy of your very own and decide for yourself if it was really worth all the work :) . Stay tuned to the shows page for that and more as we break out of the studio and get back to playin' like never before. News: (from 3/24/02) Special thanks to the many good friends and great listeners who gathered at Mr. Spot's last night for an absolutely smokin' opening party! We had a great night. Please stay tuned to the shows page as we wind up our months of CD-obsession and start "taking it back out of the house" again. One of our main goals will be finding small havens for adventurous listeners that are further out of the city (in order to complement the great in-town venues we've been lucky enough to frequent), so let us know if you know of the right place for us. No? CD update: Pretty much all of the basic instrumental tracking is now complete, and a few of the tunes from the second recording session are even nearing completion. Thanks to a generous donation of studio time and engineering expertise from Scott Finholm (of Rubberchicken Productions), the instrumental tracks for 'Tippin the Fridge' and 'Cityscape #2' were captured direct to digital with a full 16 tracks of separation. Adrian and Andrew are now entering the final vocal tracking and mixing stage on those and a boatload of experimental jam/compositions, so the CD still seems to be on track for a late spring release. (And of course, expect some special guest appearances by a few of the regular Jam Of The Week celebrities!) Finally, those of you who might remember a little 3-piece band by the name of 'hEEnD' and a scary bit of improv-theater called 'Ghidra vs. Godzilla' might be enthused to note that Andrew has been extending the black and white 2d-animated version during his bus commute to and from work. Check out an updated (3/24/02) clip of the "fruits" here. (requires quicktime...send us a note if you're interested and can't view the movie.) See you soon! News: (from 2/2/02) CD update: The first session of song tracking for the upcoming CD is now in its final mastering phase! The five tracks (Blue Fiber, Static, The Riddle, Lost Baggage, and Get Round) are all frequent live-setlist mainstays that were selected for the first session either because they had been consistently inspired at shows or because the band felt they were likely to really shine in the studio setting. So far, not only have the captured performances been top-notch, but the resulting mixes are viewed as a huge improvement in Woods-brothers recording craftsmanship. For the most part, the first session has been focussed on defining the tighter, punchier end of the CD, with a second session -- exploring some of the more extended improvisation-heavy material -- to begin basic tracking this week. Additional 'live to 2-track jam' edits and experimental compositions are also in production, so stay tuned!! Live shows: A 'n' A will still be venturing out of the recording closet as often as they can during the upcoming months, so keep your browsers pointed to the shows page. With a new show at 'Cafe Solstice' already on the calendar and the promise of a March date at the new 'Mr. Spots Chai House', there should be at least a couple of good opportunities to check out some of the funky new breed of neon brown instrumentals as well as revel in the developing range of the old standards. Also, with such a successful night at The Blackbird in December (special thanks to both the old friends and the great new listeners met there!), you can definitely expect more dates in Portland soon too. News: (from 11/8) Here it is: The first session of tracking for the upcoming Neon Brown CD is now 'on the hard-drive'. Adrian and Andrew spent the last few rehearsals of October stringing miles of cord-spaghetti across the rehearsal space in the hope of close-mic-ing (sp?) enough of the instruments to screen out some of the rumble from neigboring bands (not that it wasn't adding just the right element of unpredictability to the mix. It's just that we fear inadvertant copywrite infringement ; ) ). Five tracks were successfully recorded (boosting the brothers' sound-engineering confidence to such a degree that the vocal session is tentatively planned for Boeing Field! ( : {o> ... ; ) ). Adrian and Andrew have divided up the songs and are each in the process of editing the best pieces together to create complete instrumental takes. Vocals will then be added (at one of their apartments), with the final stage of sonic-tweaking to follow. Meanwhile, new tunes continue to emerge... perhaps ripening a little more slowly, as the band moves to dig in and really find and expand the soul of each of the existing pieces. News: (from 9/27) Announcing: the first ever web-posting of a full 'neon brown' show. Robert Kirkpatrick (our trusty live-recordist/info-archivist) has posted about an hour of live music from our one-set opener on September 9th at the Rainbow. Go to spiralcage.com's AV club for set-info and the tracks (160 kbps mp3s) New tunes in the works: 'Hunkasaurus Junior' -- a slow deep funk instrumental -- and an as-yet-unnamed high-energy context-shifter (you might have caught some brief peeks of this second one as soundcheck material at the last couple of shows). Recording sessions intended for a second (full-length +) 'neon brown' CD are so close you can smell 'em. ...stay tuned for more info. News: (from 8/19/2001) Special thanks to 'Frank Jordan' (the band, not the guy) for a great night of music in June at The Central. If you were there, you know that of which I speak. If, for some reason you HAVEN'T been flattened and then buffeted around by this particular group, perhaps you should at least visit their website and check out some of their live mp3s here. Hopefully, we'll be hooking up with them again in the near future. Also, special thanks to the fine folks at the Arlington Garlic Festival for having us out to groove and severely dehydrate in the sometimes painfully beautiful weather of August 11th. Not only did we get to play for two or three-hundred gracious listeners who had never heard us before, but we had Garlic! Adrian's got his new G4! I ask you, can a new 'neon brown' CD be far behind?! New tunes in the works: 'get round' -- debuted in all its funk-tastic glory as the Garlic Festival opener (after a brief warmup jam, of course) -- and 'glass turtle' -- a strangely hypnotic looper with climbing classical interludes. News: (from 6/4/2001) Hallo! After a brief retreat to the new rehearsal space to dig in and finish off some new material (and log some smokin' jam-time with some of our best musical buddies), we're aiming to spend a lot more time playing live. Look for plenty of opportunities to check out new tunes (a jazzy instrumental called "lost baggage", an unnamed reggae/punk-funkster and a smooth, soulful revamp of 'the riddle' -- which might be vaguely familiar to anyone who saw 'falling down time') as the new shows are listed. It's been almost exactly a year since the recording of the basic tracks for our debut/promo CD, and we're getting the itch to document some of new stuff. Most likely, a full-length CD will be recorded in several short (3-4 song) sessions...allowing us the time to really baby each piece and to gradually refine our basic-track capturing and general production process. Look for a finished disc to appear at shows sometime within the next 24 mos ( : { ) > . (tech update: I believe adrian is now calling his new two-stringed instrument "the sticklet".............and he's getting some weeeeiiird-ass sounds out of it. He's also been doing some experimentation with a technique called 'no-input mixing board' where he creates feedback within one of the effects-loops of his mixer and then sends the resulting 'controlled-squeal' through some other effect on the way out. It can end up sounding like anything from space-bubbles to a constipated elephant grunt and has been supplying amazing new musical textures at recent live shows...just thought this knowledge might help in case you hear any mystical warbling in the high-end.) News: (from 3/25/2001) Zoinks! It's been a while since we've updated this here news, but with Adrian soaking up humid heat and sweet jazz in the deep Southeast for a week, it looks like I've finally got a moment to write. If you've been out to any of our last few shows, you'll know that we've been spewing out the new material at a feverish pace. Even still, it seems like we're forgetting more grooves and arrangements than we have time to develop -- of course, this certainly isn't the worst problem one could have. One improvement in this area has come from our recent move from our long-term rehearsal house (thanks to Colin, Tim, and Russel, for being such gracious hosts and smokin' jam-partners for so long...don't worry everybody: If we have any input in the matter, you'll be hearing plenty more collaboration with those guys in the future). Now, with a shared room in a big faceless industrial buttrock rehearsal facility (; {)> , we're able to get in twice as much playing time a week. So, with so much time between shows for at least another month or so, you can expect plenty of new material and whacked modifications of the old stuff. Speaking of shows, things look to be getting more busy again quite soon. Look for 3 shows in one week at the beginning of May, as well as sporadic out-of-town engagements to begin popping up soon after. News: (from 11/20/2000) mmmmmmmm...chai. Over the last couple of weeks, new tunes a plenty have been birthed and paraded around on wobbly legs in front of small, friendly crowds at Ballard's favorite mellow groove spot: Mr. Spot's Chai House. More still to come on selected upcoming Monday's. See the shows page for more details on that and other appearances...INCLUDING a sweet spot THIS COMING SATURDAY, opening for KILGORE TROUT (as far as we know, the first chance to see them locally in quite a while) and the mysterious APES OF WRATH. Hey, if you haven't checked out the 'Jam of the Week' page in a while because you think we haven't been updating it, then MAN are you sadly mistaken! GO THERE NOW OR SUFFER ETERNAL 'NOT FREE-FORM JAM HAVINGNESS'! Holy cow...I'm really sorry. News: (from 10/8/2000) With a great NXNW experience and our first Seattle show behind us, we're more excited than ever about the musical possibilities of this 2-piece format. (Take, for instance, the new clips from the Rainbow show on the audio page. Also, check out new pictures from the NXNW music festival on the updated Back to the main Page! |
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