Has it really been two months already? Yikes - seems like two weeks (two very looooong weeks...)!

July 14th is now the official release date for "Pint Sized Spartacus," which is Charles Gocher's (Sun City Girls) solo concept project. It's an aural drama which transcends history, following the trail of a pint sized spartacus battling the Roman Empire, The Mafia, and mental illness. Can you imagine? This project has been great to work on, and I believe it will be received quite well! Charlie is an incredibly talented young man.

Dave Knott's handmade instruments are now featured on my web page, complete with RealAudio samples of each instrument (played by Dave). Perhaps Dave is the next Harry Partch - you decide.

Jeph Jerman and Doug Theriault came in recently for a prepared percussion/guitar improvisation. I'm not sure what will become of this hour-long recording, if anything - it might have just been for fun. I, for one, had a blast!

Eyvind "Choppy Waters" Kang was in the studio to finalize his "Dying Ground" CD for Avant one day and the next day he was off to New York to master it. I'm not sure when it will be out, but I will keep you informed. Eyvind also brought in Ed "Da Fingaz" Pias to do some percussion for Kang's next Tzadik release - Ed played on an Arabian pop number reminisient of Ananda Shankar at his best.

Climax Golden Twins (CGT) have been working hard on their live cassette series - four volumes of live show recordings from the past couple years. Included will be the WKCR (New York) Seattle/ New York simulcast from earlier this year, as well as the Sonarchy broadcast (KCMU) from last year. Fans will also find a "best of" Speakeasy Cafe's Other Sounds concert performances and various live jams from Gravelvoice Studios.

Those of you lucky enough to be in Seattle at some point over the last two months (this means you, 3 Day Stubble) were privaledged to see the Plywood Memories installation at the Bellevue Art Museum with a sound track by CGT. Much more obscure is the Brian Ohno Gallery installation of neon sculptures, also with a sound track by CGT. The work for this most-recent installation is known in the studio as "The Lovely Drone" - a lush drone created with a 12 string guitar and a top secret mixing technique, setting a docile mood in which to view buzzing neon sculpture. Of course, it was extremely well received! On it's own, it relaxes, it sooths, it relieves... it's practically prescription!

Sun City Girl masters are now being reviewed for the "Box of Chameleons" triple CD set. This particular compilation is due out September 1st, but pre-orders are being accepted now through Gravelvoice mailorder. The "Live in Japan" CD will also be out around September 1st - pre-orders are welcomed and encouraged, as you are well aware that these precious gems disappear quickly. We also finished another soundtrack disc to a Japanese film title "Dulce." The "Dulce" single (!?) CD will see the light of day near the end of this year.

As part of a product review process for Mix Magazine, I used the Steinberg WaveLab program to repair the AMM recording I did last year. ( I do not know when my review will be published, but I will keep you informed.) The AMM master required the syncing of two sources, running at two different speeds. Time Stretching was utilized to sync everything. After multiple hours of hacking 25 ms of sound out of the piano track every 5 minutes or so, it's finished and sounds great! We are awaiting AMM's approval before releasing it later in the year.

In other restoration news, the Bassholes Blue Roots LP (originally on In The Red) will be released on the Revenant label in a few months. I mastered this disc for CD using the TripleDAT system and WaveLab. Hope you like it! (For those of you whom are unfamiliar with this band, the Bassholes feature the guitar playing of Don Howland from the Gibson Brothers. If you want to hear a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion influence... here you go.)

The Brent Arnold Quartet also came in last month to record a demo. The Quartet features Eyvind Kang (Bill Frisell, Dying Ground, Secret Cheifs Trio) on violin, Teri Nelson Zagar (Pint Sized Spartacus, Black Cat Orchestra) on contra bass, Greg Campbell (Young Composers Collective, Brainstun) on drums, and Brent (Young Composers Collective, Project W) on cello. Seriously interesting compositions from a seriously interesting composer.

Speaking of Brainstun, Christian Asplund was in again to finalize his group's demo, which features Christian on viola and harmonium, Matt Sperry (Project W) on Contra Bass, Greg Campbell on drums, and Jessica Lurie (Billy Tipton Memorial Saxaphone Quartet) on Sax.

And last but certainly not least is Marc Olsen who has been writing new material every damn week and playing just about as much. We are planning to go into the studio again in the Fall. For now, his CD "Tunnel Songs" has been extremely well received.

As always, if you prefer not to receive these updates, just say so. I will do my best to make sure you receive no electronic transmissions from me whatsoever.