3-Way Singles Club Vol. 20 Released Today!

One of three 3-artist singles vying for release this summer, Volume 20 gathers together some of my oldest musical friends in one place!

[ click the pic to be transported directly there ]

Sam Corbin, whose song "Election Day" exhorts us to civic duty even while it underscores the corruptions and negligence that can frustrate us into complacency, also had the closing track on It Takes A Village's first-ever release, the 20-song CD-only compilation "First Hand Accounts, Theories, And Their Repercussions," which was released in 2006 (ltd. ed. of 1,000, sold out, sorry!).  Since then he's gigged and played consistently, dived deeper into Americana with his fantastic "Michigan Waltz" album, and gotten married.  I met Sam through my friend Daryl Dizon, who brought him by so I could do a little layout help on his first album and we've worked together periodically ever since.  Once again, he provides the musical punctuation mark with some elegant fingerpicking and a message that stays true.

By the way, TODAY August 6 IS AN ELECTION DAY, local stuff (the important stuff!) -- go vote!

Joshua Davis, whose solo career has blossomed alongside a longstanding engagement as the guitarist/singer of Lansing-based Steppin' In It, has released three albums worth of original material, including his latest "A Miracle Of Birds," which was written in Palestine during a long visit while he immersed himself in music and the challenges of helping forge peace in the region.  I have many memories with Josh, but here are a two of them:  1) The night of my graduation from college, I threw a party at my house and invited Steppin' In It to come play. They had a paying gig somewhere, so they let me know it was an outside chance.  The party wound down as it got dark outside and I assumed that their gig had run late or they were too tired to come... but I was wrong! About midnight the band set up in my side yard, with founding fiddle player Jonathan Price still along with them.  Bassist Dominic John (currently in Jack White's band) steadied his upright on a tree-ringed slice of wood.  Due to the late hour and the mixed nature of my neighborhood, they played the quietest set I've ever seen them play, mellow and magic.  2) It came time for my wife and I to move, somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly, from our apartment. We were not really financially prepared for it, and had lots of artwork and other stuff to deal with, so the Toyota we shared was not going to be adequate for all that we had to move. I called some friends, but with fuel prices rising and rising, it seemed no one owned trucks anymore! So I put out a general call for help, and Josh responded right away -- yes, we could borrow Steppin' In It's tour van, a big Econoline.  So we carefully moved all our stuff with the van AND with Josh's vintage left-handed guitars in hardshell cases still inside it, all for the price of a tank of gas.  Now Steppin' In It harmonica player/multi-instrumentalist Andy Wilson lives directly across the street from me, and I get to see that van pretty often.  Always makes me smile.

Generosity, friendship, and trust characterizes everyone represented on this Volume of the series.  I first met Carmen Paradise of The Marvins through some mutual friends, and later frequented her hair salon on Michigan Avenue.  It was great to see her and Peter Marvin (from a band called With Special Guest that practiced next to my friend Tom's house) fall in love and get married, become instructors at The School Of Rock in Detroit, and begin making music together as The Marvins.  Just this past month they pulled up their roots in Michigan and moved to Oregon, selling their house here and closing on a new one there the same day. I wish them tons of luck and happiness in their new home; but boy are we going to miss them back here.

I hope you enjoy the sounds of old friends making finely-crafted acoustic music as much as I do.  Please feel free to share these songs on your blog or social network, I think they make the ideal companions on soft summer nights!

New 3-Way Singles In The Works!

I've just finished the artwork for an unprecedented all-Indiana 3-Way Single, featuring The Lost Ambitions, '78 Camaro, and Drum Kit.  Expect indie rock in heroic doses!

We have a few singles in production right now, each vying for which will be released first: will it be the one described above (and by the way that "river" shape started life as a photo of a lightning bolt!), or will it be the contemporary americana and folk of Sam Corbin, The Marvins, and Joshua Davis?  Then again, could it be the ear-scarring dirges of American Gothic, BerT, and So Long Naota?

It remains to be seen. Drink plenty of water and get some fresh air so you'll be in tip-top shape when the next release drops.  And thank you for joining us for this musical hike.

Regardless of who gets out of the gate first, we've got some great songs lined up and are putting the finishing touches and final polish on a great collection of summer music that spans the gulf between endearing duo folk and paint-melting noise rock. Its a unique honor to curate such an open-minded (and open-ended) series, and I look forward to unveiling each installment as it comes to fruition.  This is an artist-driven project and nothing is more satisfying than hearing the results of creativity unfettered by the usual music biz bullshit.

Of course, I take special pleasure in doing the artwork (minus some occasional great guest artists like John Praw).  In my cluttered office garret in leafy Lansing, Michigan, I collage, I color, and I daydream of you out there beyond the electrons, stumbling across a song or an artist and finding in it a new best friend.  Music is a lifelong romance.

-- Peter

New GTG Records Compilation to drop on June 11!

Featuring 14 previously unreleased songs, GTG's 2013 state-of-the-label compilation will be released digitally on Tuesday!  From San Pedro, CA pop-punk band Black Sparrow Press to Trenton, NJ's Honah Lee and Not The Bees to mid-Michigan favorites like Narc Out The Reds, The Hat Madder, Frank And Earnest, The Hunky Newcomers, Cat Midway, The Plurals, middleman, CrookedSound, and... Molly Rhythm (where are you from, Molly?), "It's Fine" also sports a layout by yours truly (retired from graphic design though I may be) featuring a lush and expressionistic photograph of the lovely... floor at the GTG House??  

That's right, the GTG practice/performance pad has a paint-spattered and scuffed floor that should be carefully removed and hung on the walls of the MOMA.  Jackson Pollock would blush. Willem de Kooning would quit!  OK, enough hyperbole about the inspirational and truly uplifting paint-encrusted worn linoleum at the fabled GTG headquarters compound, where so many bands have crafted their live sets, recorded profane Christmas songs, played gigs, stopped talking in mid-sentence, and eventually passed out.

You can invite yourself to the digital party via GTG's Facebook event or you can stay tuned here and we will be sure to link it up for you!

[ Editorial update 06/11/2013: here's the link!
http://gtgrecords.bandcamp.com/album/its-fine ]

...Oh, and that new Stargrazer track is on there too!

Upcoming Stargrazer Single on GTG Records!

Although radio silence is usually the indicator that things are busy here at ITAV HQ, I thought I'd stick my head up long enough to say that there will be a brand new Stargrazer song, "The Atavists," appearing soon on the forthcoming GTG Records "It's Fine" compilation!

"The Atavists" is a song that began as a scrap of thought quickly scribbled on a piece of paper.  The next day, I strummed out a descending series of 2-note chords on my bass centering loosely around a drone note.  I recorded this at home and it became the basis of the song -- but only after I moved the fast intro to the end, and the buzzing drone that originally ended the song became the beginning.  The rest of the song unfolded over the course of an afternoon, increasing in complexity and interlocking layers until a loose organic whole emerged.  Thus a lo-fi eastern-tinged chant was born: "The free-flowing thought, the windows are not the eyes that they seem / the doorways are dreams, running swiftly down drains / Evaporating again / The words are carried by winds to fall in fallow fields, and we'll be drenched once more..."

I'll post the exact release date for the compilation as soon as I know it... word is it will be the last week of May!  I'm really excited with how this song turned out, and I'm always looking forward to hearing what my label mates have cooked up.

Stargrazer (in case I haven't belabored this in the past) is my solo bass project, appearing live since 2001 as an acoustic act and recording feverishly at home with a wide variety of homespun and electronic sounds.  Stargrazer is also currently in the studio (with Eric Merckling of CrookedSound) completing a debut full-length album to follow up the "Trieste E.P." which appeared in late 2010.  Much more on that later.

GTG Records has been the home for Stargrazer since way back, along with brother and sister bands like The Plurals, The Hunky Newcomers, Middleman, The Break-Ups, CrookedSound, and Small Houses.

The last Stargrazer single, "Filestarter," was released this past June on 3-Way Singles Club Vol. 14 along with two really suberb tracks by Curent and Calliope.

And finally, Stargrazer will appear LIVE with The Stick Arounds and The Aimcriers on Friday, May 31 at The Avenue in Lansing, MI: a benefit performance for the Michigan Association For Suicide Prevention.

Here's a link to the Facebook event for your convenience. 

3WSC Volume 19 Has Arrived!

...and without further ado, we invite you to grab something solid and click on the album cover to the right of these words.  Brace yourself for three brand new tracks from the likes of Honah Lee, Language, and Decades!

Mega-Subscribers, your songs are cozily nestled in your subscription folder! (What's a "mega-subscriber?"  See the sidebar on the right of this page.)

Want to share a link with friends or on your own blog?  Here: http://music.itavrecords.com/album/3-way-singles-club-vol-19

Funny story, when I first posted these songs earlier today, I quickly got a note from Honah Lee's Tim Hoh indicating that their track was sounding wack.  Well, I don't pretend to know everything, and today that was brought into sharp relief as one of the great mysteries of audio mastering was made known to me:

Nearly everything we've put out in the last two years has been mastered at 44.1 kHz, a fact that had remained vague to me because of its very ubiquity.  But Honah Lee's track (clearly marked in sharpie on the CD-R, no less) was provided to me at a higher resolution 48 kHz.  Not really understanding the difference, I ftp'd the audio file over to Mohnish Das to master in the scrupulous manner that he's been doing since Volume 10.  I didn't include that vital bit of information, thus setting off the chain of events that led to Tim's e-mail.  A quick phone call to New Jersey brought the issue to light: the track was about 12 seconds longer, and slower, due to being mastered at 44.1 kHz along with the other two songs.  Everything was pitched down slightly.  The song's original breakneck tempo sounded like it had been enjoying some of Lil Wayne's fabled purple drank.

Mohnish immediately set to work on a fix, and since he wisely keeps notes of his mastering settings, we were able to have the corrected track back up by this evening.  Thus the disabled download for part of this afternoon, and I apologize for any inconvenience that may have caused.

But you didn't know that about audio mastering either, did you?  Or, maybe you did?  Looking at It Takes A Village's subscriber list it strikes me that some of you probably did.  You're an erudite lot.  Well, now I do too.  I have to admit, I mostly understand now, it's all still a little fuzzy as to what the difference is.  And I even read Tape Op!  I apologize to Honah Lee for almost releasing a compromised version of their song, they were very gracious about it.  Tragedy narrowly averted.

People could assume that because I'm behind the scenes, I know how to do everything involved in putting professional quality music out. The truth is, I couldn't do it without a lot of help.  I'm good at organizing projects and bringing them to fruition, but without all the talented musicians and engineers that have taken part in the 3-Way Singles Club none of this would happen -- at least not at the level we've been able to maintain.  Today we released the 55th, 56th, and 57th singles in the series -- that's as many songs as Heinz Ketchup has varieties of pickles.

Learning is a process, we are never experts.

Rather than crippling, I find that epiphany inspiring.  There's no reason that anyone can't make great recordings if they are starting with the most important ingredient: great songs.  My own flounderings in my home studio recording as Stargrazer with my 4-track and Garageband have evolved from "unlistenable" to "charmingly lo-fi" in a relatively short amount of time.  With continued good fortune, good teachers, and yes even hiccups and mistakes, I hope to improve my personal skills and knowledge; and I'm grateful not only for the vast supporting cast that makes It Takes A Village Possible but also for the people who listen and for those who eagerly anticipate our next offering.

More about that later.  Go rock out to the new single.

3-Way Singles Club Volume 19 drops April 2nd!

We have a tendency to seemingly go dormant, and then come storming back as projects come to fruition.  "Storming back" is perhaps the perfect description of Volume 19 of the 3-Way Singles Club, which will be released Tuesday April 2nd!  Featuring brand new tracks from Trenton, New Jersey pop punkers Honah Lee, moodier post-punk propulsion from Lansing's Language, and a rocking self-dissection from the increasingly hard to pigeonhole indie punk band Decades (also from Lansing), Volume 19 of the series is a rush of energy that never lets up.

My own contribution to things is often in the form of artwork, which I usually complete in advance of receiving any of the songs, sometimes as a spur to bring the project to completion and sometimes as a teaser for those of you out in the internet hinterlands -- a sort of flier tacked to the weathered telephone pole of this blog, on its own little patch of street corner in a backwater of the world wide web.  In the case of Volume 19, I took some visual cues from PiL's "Second Edition" version of Metal Box, using a blurred photo of something vaguely resembling a face made of smoke (it may actually be the pull-cord of some venetian blinds) that I snapped the very day I got my first new digital camera, maybe 10 years ago.  I still have that camera, even though these days my wife's phone takes way better pictures.

What the photo truly is, I don't remember, but I walked around the house I shared with 3 roommates snapping away at lampshades, plastic skeletons, wallpaper textures and closeups of paint cracks.  I took nearly a hundred shots, and I still pull from that batch of photos frequently for abstract fliers or digital collages.  On reflection, maybe the art is a little dour for the music within? But these are the risks of creating cover art in advance, as my own visual "song" to add to the proceedings, and I accept those risks.

Without any communication between bands, as is (surprisingly) often the case, a loose concept develops over the arc of this little three song mixtape.  Honah Lee's "The Accommodator" offers to shape to any of the listener's desires, a hyperspeed offer of complete (and quite probably, disingenuous) codependency replete with gang-choruses through what sounds like a taxi dispatcher's microphone.  In fact, a second listen proves that the song has nearly the opposite meaning.  A friend of Honah Lee's described the overall sound of their newest songs as "Green Day being butt-fucked by the Foo Fighters," which may be more crass than the measured prose we typically use here at It Takes A Village To Make Records, but, oh well, it fits.  Language responds with "Limits," a metaphoric landscape of guitar chime, speed limits, and dissolving boundaries.  Musically, it's a churning diorama of motion-blurred headlight rivers and cities streaming by, while Christopher Minarek sings "who knows where the city goes when I'm with you?"  Beneath, it melts away into disintegrating guitar textures and a galvanic bass line.  Decades caps the three songs with "Piling It On," a personal and impassioned inspection of experience as the greatest teacher, and of physical and emotional distance as a tonic to past relationships.  From frank and confessional, conversational singing to a throaty howl, "Piling It On" moves on in a crunching and melodic way that steps through several mutations of its song form before gently landing on a slightly resigned, slightly relieved note. 

So there it is.  A preview in words of what you can expect in sounds, and we're excited to post the link for you to hear it in its unvarnished glory one week from tomorrow!

Artwork For Upcoming Releases!

Here is the artwork for our next three releases in the 3-Way Singles Club.  Over the last few months we've transitioned the series out of being on a strict monthly schedule and into a project-by-project schedule.  Each of these releases is well underway, and they'll all be dropping late winter/early spring!

BerT
American Gothic
Unworship

Joshua Davis
The Marvins
Sam Corbin

Honah Lee
Language
Decades