We have our first Gato Loco Coconino gig in almost 3 months tomorrow night, Saturday March 3rd. It’s at the Living Room, at 10pm. It’ll be a good one.

Upcoming — next weekend will be the NYC PREMIERE of the Gato Loco-featured acrobatic musical, MUMBO! We produced this show in Baltomore 2 years ago, to 7 sold-out shows of enthusiastic fans. The reception was great…. but somehow it never made a 2nd run. Until NOW! I’ll have a longer posting on this later this week. But for now, check it out, and buy advance tickets. It’s a great show, and we’re excited to be part of it! (this will feature the compressed band, Gato Loco Cuatro, featuring stefan zeniuk, joe exley, clifton hyde & kevin garcia).

A big show coming up! On March 17th, we’ll be playing at the 92nd st. Y (tribeca). This is a great venue, and definitely THE place to hear us this winter.

Tours are in the near future as well — stay tuned for those! Lots on the horizon.

Week 1! A video that is an out-take from the upcoming Gato Loco music video for “The Mourning of Ginger”. This one features a beautiful poem by Krazy Kat animator & artist, George Harriman. Puppetry by Ceili Clemmens, animation by Stefan Zeniuk, and dying-cat trumpet by Jesse Selengut. Enjoy!

Saturday night I went to hear “Song from the Uproar: The Lives & Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt”, a new fully staged multi-media opera by Missy Mazzoli. It was staged at The Kitchen, an institution for hosting world premiers of challenging new works by ambitious young experimental artists.

To give a quick summary of the show, it follows the story of the young swiss adventurist, Isabelle Eberhardt, who, in the turn of the last century, following a series of tragic family deaths, fled to Algeria, alone. She dressed as a man; converted to Islam; roamed the desert; fell in love with an Algerian soldier; survived an attempted assassination; joined a Sufi order; and died at the age of 27 in a flash-flood. Her jounals were saved, and later published in Western Europe. This piece follows her story through a series of poetic vignettes and musical images, taken from the journals in a dream-like fashion that floats the audience through a strange and mystical journey.

This piece fits squarely into the modernist genre of “multi-media opera”, championed to death in NYC by such venues as BAM and The Kitchen. Established prominently in the ’70s, with such pieces as “Einstein on the Beach” (Philip Glass), and “United States of America” (Laurie Anderson). The genre seems to require video projections, in order to satiate modern man’s addiction to film/tv/etc. The orchestras/ensembles are usually incorporated into the staging. There is usually some extensive sound-design, involving pre-recorded sound, artificial manipulation of the acoustic instruments, and the use of electronically-based instruments (keyboards, etc).

Song from the Uproar had some very bright moments, and some others quite a bit less-than. However, one thing that made this piece stand out was the lack of sub-text. This was a majorly refreshing aspect — the story, environment, music, and experience was, without a doubt, singular and focused. There was no philosophical, theological, or political doctrine. It was merely a beautiful, dreamy, wind-swept adventure through the desert, one filled with the expansiveness of the un-bound mind, the independent soul, and the expansive imagination. This was a piece based on poetry, not on doctrine. The story was simple; the actions were clear; there was no muddying intention. It was straight and clean.

The scoring was beautiful, with a small ensemble (NOW Ensemble) of clarinet (bass & soprano), flute, electric guitar, acoustic bass, and piano. The lead role was performed virtuosically by Abigail Fischer, who sang almost consistently for the full 75 minutes, all the time weaving elegantly in and out of the highly-stylized and choreographed 5-person choir, floating props, and even joining the band for one number (for a lovely 3-handed piano piece). The sets (by Zane Pihlström) were simple and lovely. By draping 2 giant pieces of canves on both sides of the stage, and filling the sides of the stage with sand, one was immediately swept into a world of canvas tents, sand, and wind. The films, too, (by Stephen Taylor) were quite lovely — never adding anything of specificity, but always adding to the dreamy poetry of the environment. They evoked a constant flickering of the sun, an on-going presence of light, and time, and memories. They consisted of mostly black-and-white grainy images evoking photos of our grandparents, of another era, of memories, of reflection.

A big problem that I had was the sound. I’m not sure if I can even point to the sound designer — but there seemed to be a complete disregard for sonic aesthetics.
1) What is UP with electric guitarists in new music ensembles? I feel like many young composers decide to incorporate electric guitars into acoustic chamber-style groups. Having grown up on Led Zeppelin and Hendrix, there is certainly a room for this aesthetic in today’s contemporary composers’ voices. But respect the electric guitar, and what it is made to do. Do NOT put a digital distortion on the instrument!!! The electric guitar was made electric so it could be LOUD. The distorted guitar was a natural outcome of playing SO loud that the amp was blown. The blown (broken) cones created a natural buzz and fuzz, one that was unique to each amp. It’s a beautiful thing, when it’s big, and loud, and BRASH. It’s common now to use pedals and effects to recreate that cracked, distorted tone… but it must be PLAYED with that original intention. There are ways to do this within a quieter setting, such as in a venue like The Kitchen, playing among a chamber ensemble. One such concept is to play through a tiny amp, one which “breaks up” (i.e. “turn it to 11″), while still remaining at a quieter over-all volume. There was some very beautiful writing for the guitar, involving plenty of lovely harmonics, and beautiful clean-sounding lines. However, when Mazzoli wrote for big, nasty power-chords, it sounded flacid. New Music guitarists/ensembles have a LONG way to go with incorporating the electric guitar into their sound worlds. I find this to be a common problem that drives me nuts.
2) In a medium-sized room like the Kitchen (roughly 300-400 seats, I’m guessing), all of the singers were miked with clip-on lavalier-type mics. It was sad, bordering on tragic.. The voices were strong and dynamic; hearing them through a PA system was not a good decision. There was a lot of nuance and dynamics that were lost, and in general it felt like the whole sound design was EQd poorly. I’m sure that a much better balance could have been struck between the singers’ natural voices and the “sound support” that was needed to compete with the room and the band.

This was a multi-media opera — the sound design should be CRUCIAL to the over-all experience. Instead, I found myself focusing on problems with the over-all sound of the piece. This, ultimately, distracts from the music itself, and removes your attention from the sweeping dream that this piece is supposed to take you on.

How Low Can You Go? Gato Loco De Bajo is getting some low-end love on a New York City institution. Jon Schaeffer’s “New Sounds” radio show, on WNYC, will be featuring some of our music. You can check it out HERE. We will now also be streaming the entire 2008 album, “Malditos Besos” for a limited time. We’ll be playing this saturday, May 28th, at our favorite spot in town, Barbes.

Farewell To Normal Scene — It’s official, our US album release party is being held on June 18th, at Littlefield. Joining us will be some of our favorite bands, New Beard, Yula & The Extended Family, plus many special guests, free food, the works. Check it out HERE.

Other festivals — we’ll be playing at 2 other great festivals in the New York region. The Music Frees All Festival, on June 2nd, and then a trip up-state for the 2nd annual Beacon Riverfest on June 25th. Join us for a day in the sun along the historic and beautiful Hudson River!!!

There are a few other special announcements, which we’ll be unveiling over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

We found a review of our show in Paris 2 months ago, that somehow we had skipped over. Getting unsolicited reviews and articles is an interesting experience — it’s always fascinating to see what other folks get out of our music, and this review was more of a surprise than usual! Extremely positive though it was, it went into depth about the relationship with Krazy Kat, the cartoon strip. Though it’s something of a distant inspiration, and a convoluted mascot at best, George Herriman’s art shares some rather deep similarities to our music and our ethos. I won’t get into those details right now, but perhaps soon I’ll share my extended thoughts on that.

On a similar note, our friend Daniel Gerstle over at HELO magazine is working on a full-on documentary on the band. It’s almost done, and Clifton, Joe & Stefan finished up one last round of interviews this morning. Very excited!

One of the real pleasures of living in New York is that pretty much every group throughout the world at some point comes through the city to perform/make a pilgrimage to what seems like the live capital of the world. This week was no exception, with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas performing 3 sold-out nights at Symphony Space. It had been a decade since this legendary cuban flame-bearing group of traditional rumbas and afro-cuban music had been here, and they brought every bit of deep, thick, complex afro-cuban performance that I was expecting. With only drums, vocals, and dancers, the performance was BIG — overwhelming the senses for a packed room of New Yorkers? WOW! The rhythms and vocal parts were miles deep, and combined with an almost 3-ring circus of graceful, forceful, and agressively beautiful dancing, was truly transcendental.

A few other notes — I recently discovered an incredible composer/arranger/clarinetist, Lucho Bermudez. Very interesting and beautiful arrangements and compositions. Definitely worth checking out. Also, Rich clued me in to a posting from one of the band’s favorite composers here in NYC, JG Thirlwell. Known for his compositions for the cartoon The Venture Brothers, as well as his long standing bands Foetus and Steroid Maximus, here is a GREAT collection of videos from his live show in Prospect Park last year. This was happening while we were in Bordeaux — otherwise we would have all been there at the show checking out this madness!

We’ve posted more links more concise links to videos from our recent show in Paris this last March.

This last week has been a busy one for the Gatos, in many contrasting and complimentary forms. Last friday, Jackie Coleman & Ric Becker premiered an excellent new group that they are co-leading. Playing all new compositions of theirs, the music was a cross-section of grooves, with strong horn melodies and stabs overtop and throughout. They’re still looking for a name for the band, so if you have any suggestions, let us know! Meanwhile, across town Joe Exley was playing at the 10-year anniversary for Anti-Social Music, a great new-music group that many of us Gatos have been involved with at various points in time. They fuse new-music classical styles with a sorta rough-and-tumble punk vibe. Always fun, and great folks.

The following night (saturday), Tin Pan played at a lovely new spot, The Way Station, out in the increasingly gentrified Prospect Heights. It’s a very nice new spot, loosely based on the Barbes aesthetic, and I look forward to playing there again. After the gig, Jesse and I raced back to manhattan to play a late-night set with Benjamin Ickies’ Ambitious Orchestra, an orchestra that plays rock music….. or a rock band that plays classical instruments? anyway, Stefan was playing English Horn, Clifton was playing French Horn, Joe was on tuba, and Kevin Garcia was on the drums….. it was a fun and DIFFERENT set of music, albeit even more crowded on the stage than usual.

And thanks to all the friends and fans that came out to our show Sunday night! After such a busy week for the band, it was refreshing and relaxing to play our music…. everyone was extremely comfortable and having a great time. a very special night! Thanks to Daniel Gerstle, of Helo Magazine, who videotaped the whole performance, so we look forward to seeing pieces of that online in the coming weeks. And of course, Jackie’s incredible band, The Chase Experiment, for opening up the evening. Always great to hear them!!!

One more great piece of news — if you’re in New York City, go to the Strand bookstore (on 13th street & Broadway). Back about 20 feet, next to the “sell your books” table, there is a beautiful set of Krazy Kat cartoons, that have recently been released. 4 books in the set, at a mere $8 a piece!!!!!! They comprise the complete full-color sunday supplements of the legendary cartoon, spanning from 1933-1944 (when Herriman passed away, and thus the strip ended). This is the first time that these beautiful strips have been made available in such a collection — the breath-takingly gorgeous coloring of Herriman was, alas, only awarded the full glory in 2 magazines (1 in Chicago, and 1 in NYC), and many of the original prints had been lost. Fortunately, an animation collector had painstakingly saved ALL of these cartoons in his collection, and they were able to compile them into this beautiful series. This is worth every penny. Highly recommended from all of us here at Gato Loco central.

It’s always great to see fan footage posted online — but then Alex sent me an email with a very exciting little nugget of youtube-ness. In the below links, start playing “Cat On The Town”. At exactly 45 seconds in, begin playing “Mourning of Ginger”. The 2 videos seamlessly interloc, Pink Floyd/Wizard Of Oz style. Pretty awesome!!!!

-George Herriman, June 17th, 1917

But — what a RIDE! Our first night we performed in the gorgeous Bimhuis (pronounced “Bim House”). A gorgeous room that overlooked downtown Amsterdam with beautiful, large windows. The space was acoustically great, and was videotaped/broadcast by VPRO Jazz, throughout all of Holland. The show was preceded by the humorous Albert Van Veenendaal, who, backstage, told us of an amazing project he’s working on. Jazz Trio + Elephant. I hope he makes this group a reality, as I will DEFINTELY go see that show!!! He also played a very fascinating and beautiful set on prepared piano.

The next morning we were in a van by 9am, headed to Paris, desperate to make our 5pm sound-check. On paper, we were going to be fine, but I was terrified of the infamous Parisian traffic. Luckily, everything ran smoothly, and we made it to the club by 4pm, walking in to a flurry of opening-night Festival activity. We had met the director of Banlieues Bleues, Xavier, a year and a half previously, while doing a De Bajo gig at Tutuma Social Club, in NYC. He loved the group, and brought the 11-piece Coconino to his club in Paris last July — on the night of the final game of the World Cup. Low attendance at that gig was an understatement, but he loved the group so much that he brought us back for the gala opening-night of his late-winter festival — quite an honor!

Entering the beautiful L’Espace 1789, there was a huge film crew for Arte Live, a great PBS-type organization that broadcast our show through all of France & Germany. They were incredibly professional, nice, and easy to work with. It was the kind of film crew in which, during the show, you never really realized there were 3 guys with giant cameras wandering around the stage. Their job was to be ghost-like — to be invisible, while still capturing the live energy and on-stage joy — and WHAT a success! We’ll be posting videos from this show shortly.

Clifton and I also had a short but enjoyable interview before the show with French jazz radio entrepeneur Alex Dutilh. The show was incredibly fun, and afterwards we hung with alot of friends. Many of the folks we met down in Bordeaux last summer were there, and it was great to see them. We also saw some friends from NYC — Chad Parks, an early fan of the group who has recently relocated to Paris; our buddy Alex “Frenchie” Auffrey, who took the cover photo for the first Coconino album; and Saskia Gruyaert, who had filmed a bunch of our shows while she was living in NYC last year. It was also great to meet Nicolas Ragonneau and Djouls in person — thanks guys for all the help!

The next morning we bustled out of Paris at 10am. It was too bad not getting to spend ANY time properly in Paris — drive into town, sound check, run around dealing with details, play show, talk to friends and fans, go to sleep, wake up, jump in van. Oh well. Arriving in Rotterdam at around 4pm, we got to a beautiful building — the World Music & Dance Center. The show was certainly the wildest of the trip — everyone, from the downbeat, was dancing and flailing, and just having a great time. It was refreshing to see such an animated and engaging audience.

After the show, we hung out with the crowd for a few hours, meeting dozens of extraordinarily interesting and excited people. Clifton, ever the sniffer of the after-party, said he wanted to find “an after-hours bar that has great scotch, is open all night, and plays 70s funk on vinyl”. 20 minutes later we were deep in the heart of the Rotterdam underground, at a bar that was slinging really good scotches, blasting The Meters (on Vinyl), and was packed til 6am or so. At one point, (around 4:30am I think) an obscure instrumental Kool & The Gang track faded seamlessly into the bass&drums intro to “Mourning of Ginger”. It was truly a surreal experience, and it was great to hear the song in such a magical environment, with everyone in the bar dancing and swaying. It held it’s own, too, I must say, which was an extremely relieving experience! (side note: nobody in the band prompted this; someone who had been to our show slipped him the cd, unbeknownst to us). The album will have a Vinyl release soon, as well, and I can’t wait for all-vinyl DJs to start spinning it!

Travelling back to Amsterdam, we all craved one last good meal and a bout with our old friend, “Tangerine Dream”. The return home was fraught with the inevitable tuba crisis, when the British Airways baggage people wouldn’t let the cargo case on the airline without a $150 “overage” charge (despite the fact that we’d flown with that exact case on 6 previous BA flights). Their “policy manual” was outdated (2009), and they had no internet access anywhere (?!?!?!). When we tried to pay with cash, they couldn’t accept THAT, because it was “too dangerous” to have cash in the airport. Despite it being the safest place in the world, with armed guards and security EVERYWHERE. Other than that (and the food on the plane), the ride home was smooth and easy.

I’m sitting here in a hotel room in Amsterdam, officially on Day 2 of our 2nd European tour. Day 1 went very smoothly. This can be stressful and sometimes disastrous when travelling with alot of musicians and their instruments. But everyone loaded their horns and cymbals into the overheads just fine…. and the Tuba, for the first time in Gato Loco touring history, made it to its final destination on the flight that it was intended to do so. (I know…. lose a giant tuba flight-case en route? it’s happened to us MULTIPLE times!)

Once in our hotel, we were faced with the uncomfortable situation of jet-lagged musicians. It was 8am, (2am NYC time). We decided to wander the streets looking for a good, big, hot breakfast. We wound up wandering through old Amsterdam for nearly 5 hours. We never found that mythical breakfast.

Amsterdam is a beautiful old town. The inner city is laid out along waterway canals, and the old buildings (many of them are 400 years old or more!) are elegant and tilting. Throughout the day, everyone splintered off into sections, some taking naps to combat the jet lag, others wandering through the city aimlessly til late at night. 4 of us went to the Concertgebouw, one of the most famous concert halls in the world. We heard a favorite of mine, Charles Ives’ “The Uanswered Question”, followed by a beautifully orchestrated piece by Hanz Werner Henze, that really showed off both the orchestra and the magestry of a good-sounding room. Every note, every attack, was perfectly blended, sonicly distinct, and round. It was a real pleasure.

At the Concertgebow, Amsterdam

We are extremely excited for tonight’s performance. The Bimhuis is a GORGEOUS room, and we look forward to making full use of the space. The event will also be recorded and broadcast on VPRO Jazz, and it will be streamed live, as well as being archived on the website for a month or so. Our set will include music from both our first disc, “Coconino”, and our newest album out on Winter & Winter records, self-titled “Gato Loco”.