Prompted by a question in next week’s episode of Dat Fury Radio, I went back and reminded myself of the production timeline of my current massive project, “Jam My Wave / Don’t Jam My Wave / Jam Those Squares.” As I’ve been mentioning in passing for probably more than two years, “Jam My Wave” is my current full-production, rock songs, one man band project. I typically only have physical space to work on one live instrument project at a time (and within that, usually only one instrument at a time!).
Following the release of “Fight Songs” in November 2022, in late ’22 or very early ’23 I decided to commit to doing a big guitar album. (Before researching this I had thought there was a year where I wasn’t working on a guitar album, but it turned out there was no break at all, or a couple of months at most. Time continues to be weird!) I thought I had enough song demos collected to make it work, and I wanted to do something with huge, rich, bi-amped, detailed-sounding electric guitars (kind of as a contrast with or next step from the bass-focused and Motown-inspired sound of “Fight Songs”). The imaginary mood board included bands like Spoon, Smashing Pumpkins, and Tom Petty. I had one specific riff I kept playing over and over that I was absolutely sure I wanted to include, working title “Mid Phase,” that will be the first track of the whole project.
Drew recently released an excellent Night Mode solo album, “Mystic Places.” Check it out below. Here’s what he has to say about it:
Hello. Light a candle. Drink a potion. Close your eyes and see. Mystic Places is a soundtrack for watching the sun go down on a humid summer evening, dense as the warm air full of fireflies, and long enough to take you into the dark of the night. It is for conjuring good spirits. It was born in the purest moments of experimentation and naive impulse, as if the synthesizers and sequencers were ouija boards guiding my hand to a destination I didn’t know existed. It was carefully edited and mixed for long-playing cohesion, blending synth explorations with field recordings, singing bowls, and a 7 year old girl’s recorder. Put on the headphones and relax, or crank up your stereo and see who else shows up to listen.
This album is free, with beautiful cover art by my friend, Ethan Jones. I asked him to recreate the cover of a book that fascinated me as a child. I couldn’t charge anyone for this music, because I feel like it was just given to me to hold onto, temporarily.
We’re starting with a DARKER DIMENSIONS design combining elements from all of the album covers. It comes on a soft tri-blend Bella+Canvas shirt of the kind I personally wear almost daily, the design prints with a lot of nice detail, tons of colors and sizes are available, and I’m really pleased with the whole thing.
I haven’t done an update post because I feel like I do them all the time. Well, it’s actually been a year and a half since anything approaching an update! Weird times on many levels.
It probably feels like that because I’m talking every week on Dat Fury Radio, though I’m not really doing updates there, either. Coming up on six months, and we’re picking up listeners week by week.
So, great googly moogly, here’s the rundown:
Jam My Wave / Don’t Jam My Wave, the massive 22-song guitar-based project that is succeeding “V for Voice” and “Fight Songs.” Drums are done except for tweaks, bass is done, guitars are close-ish to done-ish; I have maybe six acoustic tracks and 4-8 electric tracks to go, depending on what’s a guest spot and what I do myself. Then keys, vocals, mix. 2026 release at the earliest.
I’m finishing rollout/promo materials for the three-album “Darker Dimensions” crossover event release, which I’ll start dropping in a couple weeks
I had the session for Drone Space Nine’s “Through the Eye of Destiny” open in order to make an excerpt for mr|signal, and noted down the sound sources for anyone who might be interested. In order of appearance:
Korg MS-20
Dreadbox Medusa
EarthQuaker Devices Park fuzz
Moog MF Drive
BYOC Triangle-spec Big Muff
Korg Monotribe
Dreadbox Medusa
Korg Monotribe
Arion SMM1 distortion (and EHX Russian Small Stone)
Brittany Howard, “What Now” (2024) – Cousin Brit set the bar for 2024 with her album full of deconstructed art-soul; bits bang, but she never luxuriates in any of the grooves for long, always moving.
High On Fire, “Cometh The Storm” (2024) – Matt & Co. are still dealing absolute heat even as the band is old enough for the good rental car rates.
Kim Deal, “Nobody Loves You More” (2024) – Simultaneously everything I could have wanted from a Kim record under any banner, and having enough distance from The Breeders to be distinct. Who knew that a low-key mariachi backing band would compliment Kim perfectly? (She did.)
Amber Mark, “Comin’ Around Again,” “Space & Time,” “Lovely Day,” “Loosies” (2024) – Amber casually drops torchy bangers like other artist post Reels (or whatever). Feels like she’s building toward something and I cannot wait to find out what.
Mr. Furious Records had our 20th birthday in September, and this week on Dat Fury Radio Cory and I began the belated celebration; listening to the entirety of the mr|signal compilation from the beginning.
