Little Chunks of Audacity

30(ish) days, 30(ish) albums. a month-long expedition into a full sonic life.

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Giant Sand live at Primavera Sound!   Streaming: http://concert.arte.tv/fr/primavera-sound-live-du-28-mai-2015-scenes-rayban-et-atp

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Every Now and Then, behind the scenes by Peter Triest. Joy, love and introspection to all!

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Tomorrow Heartbreak Pass comes out on New West Records!

From the Oxford Dictionary of English:

Syllabification: tran·spon·der Pronunciation:  /ˌtranˈspändər/ noun A device for receiving a radio signal and automatically transmitting a different signal.

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RETOUR À SONORA par Nicolas Moog. (Duotone in progress). Guest : Howe Gelb

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A little lesson in Giant Sand history.

We started Giant Sand Worms in 1980.  We put out a couple of 7 inches and right away we became popular here—we couldn’t have been bigger.  Tucson back then was so empty!  So it was time to go try our luck elsewhere, and see what was going on out there.

So we left for NYC.  Lower East Side.  There was this great scene that came out of there in the late ‘70s…Talking Heads, Television, the Ramones, Patti Smith Group…But by the time we got there it was already all over.

By then what was in then were drum machines, casios, and this awful reverb on vocals…

We were there for a year.  We lived in this really sketchy place.  You have no idea what the Lower East Side was like back then.  Cab drivers wouldn’t even go near our street.  Cars on fire, houses burning down, drugs everywhere, Puerto Rican mafia…Billy, who was already on cocaine before we left Tucson, went a bit further and onto heroine.  We played right and left and after a year, I left.  I joined a country band in the South Dakota Black Hills…

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Lost Love In contrast with the Pickathon version.

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From Giant Giant Sand's Belgian tour a couple of weeks ago: Cariñito.

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Every Now and Then Pickathon 2013

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Lost Love Pickathon 2013

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Running Behind Pickathon 2013

The videos from the KEXP session at Pickathon have emerged!  Here's Howe in the Bunny Glade.

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The Coincidentalist is out!

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Retour à Sonora - Nicolas Moog.

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Billy talking about Dairy Queen and Eloy.

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RETOUR À SONORA - Nicolas Moog - Septembre 2013

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Feel like dropping by to hang out with ole Howe?  Easy: you go to where Armory Park meets the Barrio Viejo and head for the blue house.  This morning Howe greets you, introduces you to his dog Rosa and plays a little tune on the Wurlitzer that sits in the hall.  You head to the backyard with a good cup of coffee and you’re off to a good start!

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Retour à Sonora, 2013. Quelques éléments de travail sur la couverture.

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Some of the cover art process.

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EN LIBRAIRIE ! Retour à Sonora par Nicolas Moog Comment définir la topographie musicale et sonore d’une ville ? Comment résonnent les tambours au milieu du désert ? Et les cuivres et les violons ? Et comment l’Amérique d’aujourd’hui traite-t-elle ses musiciens ? Le meilleur moyen pour le savoir est d’aller y poser ses valises et ses crayons quelque temps, d’infiltrer les vapeurs de bière et de tequila dans les bouges de la ville et de dresser un état des lieux taché de sauce piquante, au beau milieu des cactus, des enseignes de motels rouillées et des panneaux électoraux, parfois troués de petits plombs. Tucson, Arizona, posée en plein désert de Sonora, est bien connue pour engendrer les meilleurs auteurs-compositeurs du moment, dont les noms sonnent comme une tempête de sable : Howe Gelb, Gabriel Sullivan, Chris Black, Brian Lopez et Billy Sedlmayr. Tous les détails ici : http://www.pastis.org/jade/2013-07-12/retour_a_sonora.htm

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I still don't know if there is an English edition planned, but for now here is this.

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Greetings from Tucson, Arizona! 

How do you draw the soundscape, the musical topography of a city?  What do drums sound like out in the desert?  What about brass and strings?  And how does America treat her musicians these days?

Well, you set up your tent and brushes there, you soak up the beer and tequila fumes in the local dives, and you sketch out a map of the situation—salsa stains and all—right there, surrounded by the cacti, the rusting motel signs and the political publicity (sporting the occasional little bullet hole).

Tucson, Arizona, cradled by the Sonoran desert, is well known for giving us some of today’s best songwriters, whose names ring out like sandstorms: Howe Gelb, Gabriel Sullivan, Chris Black, Brian Lopez and Billy Sedlmayr.

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Last year French artist Nicolas Moog spent some time in Tucson drawing and talking to local musicians.  The result is Retour à Sonora, something of a cross between a travelogue, a comic book and an inquiry into the lives of professional musicians in the US today.

This September Retour à Sonora was published in France by 6 Pieds Sous Terre and will hopefully be heading this way soon.

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Howe Gelb in a stairwell: music, interview and video.