Recent Music News

I never really expected to categorize a post as both “code” and “music,” but you know those “there’s an app for that” iPhone commercials? Well, apparently, “there’s a Ben Alman jQuery plugin for that.”

After I had gone to sleep last night, Jonathan Neal, author of the jQuery SWFObject plugin, jQuery sIFR plugin, CMS.txt and the creator of the yayQuery podcast theme song posted a new track into IRC…

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I’ve had a lot of requests for music recently, and it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any kind of music that even tangentially involves me.. but since I just had a really funky gig (that I recorded), I thought I’d post some tracks from the show.

So, without further ado, check out these tracks from my gig with Big Ben Hillman @ The Big Easy, and as always, let me know what you think in the comments!

I’ve got a cool gig next week that you should definitely check out.. I’ll be playing some funk with my good friend and long-time collaborator Big Ben Hillman at the Big Easy in Portland, Maine next Friday, November 27.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to jam with Ben, but he’s put together a great band, so I’m really psyched. And it looks like we’re opening for a band called “The Returnables” so be sure to get there early.. I think the doors open at 9pm.

Put this date in your calendar, and come out to the Big Easy next Friday! Don’t miss it!

Robyn scored us some tickets to see SMV (Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten) at the House of Blues tonight. the basses were thumpin' and the music was bumpin' - everyone took at least one killer solo, including Marcus on bass clarinet and Stanley on upright.. If you get a chance to see these guys, take it!

Also, check out my photos from the show!

I know I said that I'd write about my Christmas presents, but never did. I got some great presents, really.. but, see, I decided to make myself a few pretty serious New Years' Resolutions too. The first was to revamp my website, with an updated photo gallery plus music and code sections. The second was to finally put together an album.

Well, I've been working on the web redesign pretty much non-stop (in my spare time, of course) since January 1. I completely re-architected my Movable Type templates, rewriting them all from scratch and adding a whole bunch of custom macros and nav code. Since then I've been working on a handful of jQuery plugins, including a really cool flickr photo gallery. These aren't done yet, but they will be soon.

I've also been working on a few new songs. I'm not sure that the album will come out this year, but I'm definitely going to be making a lot of progress. I already have. Once the redesign is done, I'll get some music posted here.

I have no excuse for not updating the site in the last few months, but with the whole template re-architecthing thing, I was a little bit afraid that publishing new blog posts would cause me some headaches. Well, they will, but I'll deal with that later. In the meantime, take a look at some old art and graphic design stuff I just uploaded to flickr. I'll have photos from our recent Washington, DC trip up soon!

It's not that I didn't want to update my News, it's just that I wanted to wait until I had all my photos from our recent trips to Cancun and Puerto Rico sorted, tagged and uploaded. It just took a lot longer than I thought it would, because there were so many good photos (and because I took my damn time).

Robyn and I don't have any more vacations planned until next July, so I should have no excuse in the future to keep things updated. That being said, I've been busy lately..

Let's see.. I've been collaborating on some music with musician and friend Dan Abreu, I created a small corporate website for Viewpoint Lifestyle, and I've even found some time to play Little Big Planet on PS3, which by the way, totally rocks. And of course, with the holidays coming up, there are lots of presents under the tree, so Robyn and I are both pretty excited.

If I get any good loot from Santa, I'll write about it here. I promise!

Recently, Robyn planned a little weekend trip for us to New York City. We walked around Times Square, Central Park, saw Young Frankenstein on Broadway, and Larry Carlton at the Blue Note. Robyn took some photos too, so check them out (I especially love her Trump Tower shot).

Even more recently, we saw the Red Sox of Boston take on the Indians of Cleveland. And in the end, the Red Sox triumphed by hitting a spherical ball made of leather through a big field. It was a most ripping victory. Ok, it wasn't even close to a most ripping victory, but the first inning (and maybe a few other things) were entertaining.

Last, but not least, I finally upgraded my home music studio to a brand new machine running SONAR 7. The photo I uploaded to Flickr was, ironically enough, featured in an article on optimizing SONAR 8 for Vista. I don't even run Vista.. but shh–don't tell anyone, okay? Either way, I'm working on writing and recording music again, so expect more tracks from me, soon!

Robyn and I recently attended the Newport Jazz Festival, for our third year in a row. Let's see.. this year, we got to see Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Frankin, Ledisi, Chris Botti, Brian Blade, Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell, Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Christian Scott, Esperanza Spalding, Fred Wesley, Lettuce, Soulive.. the list goes on and on.

And for the last few years, Robyn and I just went to relax and listen to the excellent music, and maybe get a sunburn or two.. but this year we went not only to listen, but also to take a lot of photos. And we did! Check out my Newport Jazz Festival 2008 photos, and also check out Robyn's Newport photos as well.

I just posted a few photos from our recent trip to Rockport, MA. Also, check out Robyn's photos if you have the time.

We went to the Newport Jazz Festival again this year, for both Saturday and Sunday. It was excellent, we had a great time, heard some amazing music, and took a ton of photos (I'm still sorting through mine). I should have those up sometime next week.

I'm also trying to get back into recording some of my music as well. I've been sitting on four or five completed songs plus a ton of ideas, and just need to spend some time working out the details. Hopefully I'll be able to spend some more time collaborating with Ben Hillman, since we've been exchanging song ideas here and there for a while now.

And finally, I'm looking forward to beta testing and then playing the upcoming MMORPG Warhammer Online with Robyn and some of my crazy "online" friends. We all used to play World of Warcraft together, but got tired of the end-game loot/rep farming grind (that's MMO-speak for "repetitive, boring crap") so this might be the change of pace we're looking for. We'll see.

I'd never been to Martha's Vineyard before, but Robyn, Jeremy, Kristin and I all took a trip down there together for the Memorial Day holiday long weekend. The weather was pretty much perfect, and we had an amazing time. I took a ton of photos from all over the island, so check them out.

And I actually ended up heading down there a day early with Greg Luttrell to do a friday night gig with Blacksnake at the Ritz Cafe in Oak Bluffs. The gig was a basic trio with Tony Hall on drums, and was a lot of fun. Normally, I'm just too busy to be able to find the time to do a Vineyard gig, but because I was already heading down there for the weekend, it worked out perfectly.

Also, if you're ever down that way, be sure to stay at the Clark House Inn in Vineyard Haven. It's a fantastic bed & breakfast run by Lisa and Bud Rusché. Not only was the bed super-comfy, but the breakfast was super-tasty. Good on both counts!

Playing to a sold-out Paradise Rock Club in Boston last night, The New Deal broke beats left and right. These guys are all about the groove. up-tempo, down-tempo.. mid-tempo.. They're tight and when they're playing, you can't not move your body to the music.

The drummer (Darren Shearer) beatboxes, plays kit, and percussion.. and is usually doing at least two of those three things at any given time. The bassist (Dan Kurtz) plays his Fender Jazz through the mothership's control board (apparently, since everything he plays sounds like it's from outer space). And the keyboardist (Jamie Shields) is surrounded by a half a dozen synths and god-only-knows how many delay pedals.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing these guys *live* on Red Bull. It's the new coke. And I don't mean -a-cola. Check out my photos from the show!

It was great to see Robyn play out with her drum ensemble at the Drum Connection's "Acacia in Kenya Scholarship Fundraiser" benefit performance last weekend. I've been playing music for a long time, and I've had countless gigs.. but it was a real treat for me to get to see Robyn having fun, playing djembe and dunun, on stage in front of people. I managed to get some decent photos of the group (ok, mostly of her) playing.. check them out!

This weekend, Robyn and I went up to Portland, Maine with Brian and Melissa Coakley to check out the Greyboy Allstars at Asylum. First things first: the opening band sucked, hard. But we weren't there to see them, we came for the Greyboys.

Simply put, they were awesome, playing a good number of tracks of their latest album along with some of their classics (including Soul Dream, the first song of theirs I ever heard). The best part for me was that Robyn really dug the show, and said she'd gladly see them again. Awesome.

If you'd like to read more, check out my photos from the show.

After missing Stevie Wonder at the Pavillion in Boston, Robyn and I jumped at the chance to go to one of his Mohegan Sun dates. The show was last night. We drove down from Boston, and we met Ben Hillman there - he drove up from Philly just for the show (and back again once it was over).

To all my friends who saw him in Boston and said that the show was nothing short of a religious experience - you were right. The show was amazing, the band was amazing, Stevie was amazing. And at the end of the night, we were hard-pressed to think of a tune he didn't play. Pretty much all the hits from the 60's thru 80's, plus a few new ones. He did a few duets with Aisha, a twenty-minute version of Ribbon in the Sky, he even played Giant Steps (!!) And he killed it - I had no idea he could play bebop like that.

And he played for almost THREE HOURS. We got home late. It's 9am the next day, I wonder if Hillman is home yet..

The Pollotronik All*Stars got together for our "annual gig" at Lizard Lounge last night, opening up for Organism at their CD-release party. We were damn funky, the gig was a lot of fun, and hopefully Yahuba will get us some more in the future!

Head on over to my Flickr page and check out the photos from last night!