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The duo form of Stone Document got a little press from the last gig (the one I participated in at a distance). The review can be read here:

Rocking Out PhD Style: A Stone Document Quickie

A torrential e-mail flurry regarding the next steps. There seems to be a lot on the immediate horizon.

Well, the good news is Stone Document is now officially a trio. I got voted partner! As much as the music veers from commercial, and the distance seems prohibitive everything else about this collaboration just feels right. Our backgrounds, taste, abilities and enthusiasm all gel better than any other band I’ve been in.

The bad news is SD has been asked back to Fat Baby again but it’s a sudden booking and on a date I have to be in Vermont. So the duo version of SD will be back and making it’s Fat Baby debut and I will participate “at a distance”. <- Guitar Craft term

Again, parking/load-in – easy. Soundcheck – smooth. Crowd – supportive. Recording – we’ll see.

From my little corner of the stage it seemed like it took much more effort to connect. With the last FB show there was a lot of testing and abandoning – in other words as different musical ideas were presented they either worked and were used or they didn’t work and we quickly moved on. This time there was more determination (at least it appeared on my part) to try things out and make them work, adjusting, exploring and refining before being abandoned. Hopefully this didn’t make it a set of long meandering attempts to chase our own tail. Still, the audience seemed to like it.

Got the word from Doc that Stone Document has been asked back to Fat Baby just after Christmas and I’m invited along again. This is reassuring. It also sends me scurrying back to the pedalboard to fine tune my rig. I’ve replaced the ART TPS preamp with a pair of ART V3 Studio pres (which are essentially the same thing in a different box but don’t take up as much space and are easier to see in a pedalboard setting). And I finally have my Adrenalinn III up and running. Seems the upgrade chipset was wonky and Roger (Linn, creator of the Adrenalinn and much of the technology that has been at the center of popular music in the last 30 years) sent me out a new set. He seems to be an amazingly nice guy. Now I just need to reprogram the thing and I’m set.

I got the mp3 of the Fat Baby gig and I’m sure I recognize many of the sounds but …

Tony was right – this doesn’t sound like a first gig. I am stuck by just how much of what Dennis played sounds like what I would play. That is if I were playing guitar in addition to my usual tasks of playing both sides of the Stick, looping and remembering to breathe (if only through my mouth). But it’s all clearly Dennis and it’s nice that it is instantly recognizable as him.

Confirmed my belief that the V-Drums + Mike = an integral part of what makes this combo tick (literally and figuratively).

The only thing I can compare the sound of this band to is some of the King Crimson side ProjecKts – notably ProjecKt 2 with the line up of Robert Fripp on guitar and soundscapes, Trey Gunn on Warr (touchstyle) guitar and Adrian Belew on … V-Drums. We could be ProjecKt ADHD maybe.

The other really exciting thing is that the performance is full of moments/grooves/hooks that could be developed further. A lot of bits and pieces that already sound like sections of songs and I think could be developed further. I’m excited by the prospect that there may very well be 2 bands coming together at the some time with the same people: Stone Document with the ambient/prog/improv/muso stuff and another rock/song/potentially vocal song-oriented band that could end up sounding like the offspring of the 80’s version of King Crimson. Maybe we should call that band Stoney Levin. 8^{/} Not that I am officially a member of Stone Document to begin with, but the future will present itself… eventually.

If I find the time and have the blessing of the other 2 I’ll try and post a snippet or three somewhere here on the blog so you can hear for yourself.

Speaking of time, my day job’s busy season is about to rear it’s ugly head so I’ll be taking a quick break from this blog-type-thing. I’ll be back before Christmahaunakawanzadan.

My brain is still trying to gather together the flashes of last night’s gig.

Our gear on the Fat Baby stage.

Me, Mike Roze and Dennis Tirch

Tomorrow night (Nov 21st) is the debut of the collaboration between myself and Stone Document, the duo of Dennis Tirch (guitar and electronics) and Mike Roze (V-drums). The plan is to do a quick set of entirely improvised music at a club on the Lower East Side called “Fat Baby”.

But first – some history:

Dennis and I met in 2005 at a Guitar Craft course (check my links) in New Jersey. We hit it off immediately as we had very similar musical backgrounds and almost identical musical tastes. And so commenced the almost unstoppable stream of prog rock nerd-speak. We played together a lot that course and even collaborated (with Daniel Reyes, Scott English, Adam Handler and I’m a total putz if I forgot anyone) on a piece. We were charged with the task of working in small groups and composing a piece to be performed the next day. Over the course of 2 hours we put together “En la Corte del Rey Hamburgessa” (trans – “In the Court of the Burger King”), the title a tongue-in-cheek homage to King Crimson’s debut album. It turned out to be one of the most effortless and rewarding music-making experiences in my life. We all brought something different to the table and all meshed together really well. And then of course the performance the next day in front of a bunch of Crafties and Robert Fripp (the driving force of the afforementioned King Crimson) was one of the top 5 musical experiences in my life. Oh, and the title did get a laugh.

So since then Dennis and I have kept in touch and did the usual “we gotta do something together one of these days” dance. The distance between us (me in Vermont, him in New Jersey) did seem a bit of a hurdle. Then, after hanging out with him in early October when I was in NYC for the Audio Engineering Society conference an idea presented itself. I was going to be down in the NJ with the family for Thanksgiving so why not do a small informal coffee house type gig of improvising? The wheels were set in motion and in no time Dennis had secured a venue and enlisted his collaborator, drummer Mike Roze. DT and MR were finishing up the work on their Stone Document CD (which I was lucky enough to contribute to) so worlds seemed to be colliding quite nicely.

This then snowballed into a club date that was to be the release party for the Stone Document CD. A club in SoHo. A considerable step up from a coffee house in Northern New Jersey. A challenge and an opportunity. At the same time it transpired that the family was not headed to New Jersey after all and so I was suddenly really traveling just for the gig, though there was the perk of getting to stay and spend a little time with some of the family in New Jersey.

And so I hit the road.

So, after a remarkable amount of time obsessing and waflling over what to reduce my gig rig to, I think I have it.