God, I can’t even think about how to begin this correctly. My beautiful, wonderful mother, Faye Houston, has passed on after a long illness. I know that those of you who knew her already know this, but to anyone that doesn’t she was the absolute best. She took me to see Star Wars in 1977 and we were absolutely obsessed all of our lives, she said that I stood up in our row the whole time ( I was ..2?) staring in awe-filled silence with my mouth open haha.. I never was allowed to miss school for like any reason but in 1983 The World Science Fiction convention was here in Baltimore and she pulled me out to school for the whole week! We met Jim Henson! And talked to Gary Kurtz who produced Empire Strikes Back, met him on the skywalk over Pratt street oddly enough, and he graciously nerded out with us for 5 mins..she turned me on to Bloom County, David Lynch, Rachmaninoff, and Handel( she sang in the Handel choir for 30 years) .. Murder By Death, Mel Brooks, Alfred Hitchcock! Took me to the Kennedy center to see Lawrence of Arabia and the Wizard of Oz! (Double feature I think) we read all the Far Side stuff there was to read and bought all the books and would even to this day howl with laughter as we read them for the 1000th time. We were huge Michael Jackson fans (off the wall especially) and she used to sing Shining Star by Earth Wind and Fire to me as a small child. We LOVED (and I still do) the Muppets and we taped every episode off of television that we could and back then that was a big deal! Being one of the baddest librarians on the planet, she instilled a love for reading early in in me and we read everything, I ran wild in the stacks at the main branch of the Baltimore Pratt library my whole childhood.She collected Old Time Radio cassettes that she listened to in her childhood and these were also the soundtrack to our evenings Sam Spade, the Shadow, Chandu the Magician, Inner Sanctum, Rocky Fortune! She loved me, so much, even when I didn’t love myself, and believe me there were some years there where I was really really down on myself. I can’t believe she’s gone. She was the best of us. I’m so grateful for you mama. I love you so much. Thank you. ❤️
Thanks Wilmington for a great first show! Night one at the @greenfieldlakeamp ! Couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day and evening! God I really needed it, it’s been so long since we’ve played shows and the last few months have been just so depressingly heavy, thank you all for bringing your energy and sharing your joy! It was so cathartic. I mentioned yesterday how it was the first show since my mom passed and I feel her with me but it felt a little strange, like all “firsts” after someone you love deeply passes on. Bittersweet for sure. I’m grateful to have a lot of love and support around me, and I’m stoked for night 2 tonight!
14 years sober today. Sad times here in Baltimore as of late. I was going to say “I can’t imagine” but I can imagine exactly what it would be like having to go through the pain of losing my mother, I’d 💯 be drunk right now or so hungover I couldn’t move, full of those hangover fears, shame, anger, regret self-pity.. oof… the anxiety?! Jesus it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it . I’m really sad, appropriately so, but so grateful that I’m able to meet life on life’s terms ,that I was able to be there for my mom. Y’all.. it’s so SAD. I miss her sooo much. Especially with Christmas coming up .. whew. It’s not easy. I never thought I’d appreciate being able to feel and process difficult/complex feelings and emotions.. I never thought I’d appreciate just not having to drink over it. But I can say it’s become the biggest gift of this journey so far!.. allowed me to love more deeply and fully than I ever thought was possible. Thank you all for your love and support over the last couple of months. I’m so grateful that I didn’t have to face this all alone.
DRUMS OF LIFE IS OUT TODAY.
Happy Bandcamp Friday! Drums of Life’s Live at Metro Baltimore CD is out today. This is the April 2024 concert at @metro_baltimore featuring the core trio of drummers Lowry/Bergander/Kuhl along with several other heavy hitters, those who’ve been making this community scream and shout for decades now, gliding through a tunnel of improvised bliss. Lovingly mixed by Jason Willett across dozens of sunrises. Liner notes by @deeleegee
#bandcampfriday
DRUMS OF LIFE - taking preorders now!
...and here we see the crest, the collective mind slamming stretched skins into a hot froth, shaking the very earth, to rarify the very air we breathed in the Metro gallery in the warm relief and possibility of that evening in the spring of ‘24. Strohmeier’s Farfisa could drag the sea, Dave Heumann’s guitar like droplets off coniferous branches, Ami Dang’s sitar taut and sinewy, the sleek and wild heads of Jason and Katrina in some manner of devotional focus, and Dierker wailing away as if he could scare a Nor’easter back into the Atlantic and spare the good people of Nantucket. These are lives navigated together, in various levels of familiarity of course, but they share these low streets and a common high path. This album comes on slowly and pulls you under with the mercy of some Potomac undertow. I usually release 20/20 stuff just because but, to me, this album documents something more than a totally rad hour of improvised music: the long road, the laughs, the ardor and play.
Thanks Montreal and @osheaga for a gorgeous day , wonderful food, and thanks everyone who came out one last time and rocked out with us yesterday! This was officially the LAST show of the People Who Aren’t There Anymore album cycle which started really in January 2024!! And it’s been an incredible 18months! Better than I could have possibly imagined in so many ways and you all have made that so!! From the bottom of my heart thank you thank you thank you! It’s been an absolute joy travelling the world and meeting you all what a ride. Wow.. kinda can’t believe it’s done for a while! My heart is really so full I gotta shout out my brothers in @futureislands .. our awesome crew @noprofile2see@soul_claw@jerkfromneptune@andrealonardibass@wanderingchopper@cracker.control@idiot_room the one and only ocdj.. everyone who played with us over the last couple years @pearl_drums for the tubs! @tcymbals_official for the plates and @vicfirth for the sticks!! Time to make another record! Thanks everybody! See you soon! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌
What an incredible way to end such an awesome tour!! Portugal @nos_alive you were absolutely incredible I was totally blown away..thanks everyone so much! This tour has been really great thanks everybody for coming out to all the shows it was such a wonderful start to the summer!!!! Have a safe fun rest of the summer! See you when… we have a new record I guess haha! It’ll be a minute! Take care of each other until then! Thanks to our awesome crew for the killingest of killing it @jerkfromneptune@cracker.control@andrealonardibass mister OCDJ @noprofile2see@idiot_room couldn’t have done it w/o yall.. and @jaybuim always a pleasure having you around my friend!
Thanks for an awesome show Madrid, thanks everyone who came to check us out! @madcoolfestival thanks so much for having us back! One more to go, tonight at @nos_alive Portugal we go on at ..1:15 ooof!! 😬but let’s goooooo!
Thanks @plagederock for having us and everyone who came out! I didn’t really know what to expect bc it was quite the family vacation spot but it ended being great even managed to get a swim in! Thanks @alicecostelloe for playing with us! Lovely to meet you all, safe travels !🙌🔥🙌🔥🙌❤️
Before and after the sunset! Thanks so much Milan for an incredible evening thanks @triennalemilano for having us it was just an amazing day, beautiful weather , such a special venue in the middle of this great park, I had the best day walking around 🙏.. You don’t often have these kinds of experiences on the road so it’s really special when you get to do something like this!! Grateful we got to experience it!
