As a listener, the only modern music I have passion for is death metal. It's so competitive, and the bar is so high. Some of this stuff is earth-shatteringly amazing. I can actually +hear+ it, so there's a lot to wrap my head around. I think death metal comes across as one-dimensional to people who don't/can't hear it, but the ambition and creativity is so insanely high, it constantly keeps me intrigued. So much other current music just seems like a weak rehash of things done way better in the past. Dunno. Lots of half-assed "style" not so many great ideas. Oh well.
Other wormholes I fell down in 2024: "The Line" on Youtube (channel featuring Atheists destroying Theists' tired-ass scripts with blistering logic, and sometimes, cold fury), The Frogs (again), White Flag/Bill Bartell (again), Carla Bley (again), Cardiacs (again), The Sweet (again), late Henry Cow (again).
I somehow managed to play 59 gigs in 2024 . . . That's not exactly spectacular for me - wish there were way more, of course, but that's how it is at the moment. I'm waiting for the next wave, and I will be ready . . . Being a noncommercial, non-trendy musician is a very long game. I still have things to say, so I will say them, and luckily some people listen. I might be making less quantity of work right now, but I believe staunchly in the quality of the output. Why else do it? I don't "provide content" for the sake of it. I never did.
I digitally mastered a lot of other people's music for work this year, as well as mixing a bunch of albums for folks as well. I do that, you know? I'm the best deal in the business. Fast, communicative, detail oriented, and have serious chops. Keep that in mind. I don't really push this part of my industry too hard, but the work keeps finding me somehow. Long game, again . . . I try to always do quality work from a very well-considered aesthetic. Some people recognize that and I'm glad.
If you haven't listened to this year's Flying Luttenbachers release "Losing the War Inside Our Heads", you need to stop hiding under a rock and get on that. EVERY RECORD IS DIFFERENT! Some people think it's the "best one" . . . The jury is still out on that, but it's definitely a tightly composed and executed doozy. There's also a live-in-studio EP "Spectral Warrior Mythos 2" if you need more wire brushes shoved into your earholes. The band did a string of shows in Florida, was direct support on tour with Melt-Banana for a week-and-change, played a few low-key Chicago shows, and toured out to the East Coast and far regions of the Midwest. The current line up is strong, maybe even the strongest ever? I know most musicians tend to give us diminishing returns . . . I don't believe this is the case here, folks. Give it a try. It's not 1995, or 2005, or even 2015. It's almost 2025, so, onward, not backwards!
Not as much call for me as a drummer in improvised music lately, but when I did, I definitely took no prisoners. Highlights with Ravi Coltrane, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Roscoe Mitchell, Sandy Ewen, Damon Smith, James McKain, Michael Foster, Brandon Lopez, Seth Andrew Davis, Andrew Scott Young, Alex Cunningham, and Chad M. Clark went down. A studio release of the quartet with Roscoe, Sandy and Damon came out and I'm working on some stuff by the trio with James and Damon.
Drunks With Guns wantonly cleared many rooms in Texas, the East Coast, and Midwest this year, including one sick evening with Eye Hate God. Lots of 'drunk', not so much 'guns', but maybe we will rectify that in 2025. Who knows . . . maybe the threat of new recordings looms? (Also, don't pee in the alley. You'll get a sty in your eye. )
Other than the Luttenbachers and Roscoe Mitchell releases, in 2024 there was a very limited 10" lathe cut picture disc featuring a side of my solo drumming, some brutal noise with Tim Burkland and Zona Zanjeros, and duos with Chad M. Clark or Rick Eye (featuring the sick video art of Adios From Elsewhere!). I'm working on a Hatewave anthology for Mortville Noise right now as well as a release of Takayanagi-style freak-out stuff with Henry Kaiser and famous guest stars. I went to L.A. earlier in the year to track guitar parts on a post post-punk record John Dwyer is making and hopefully we play some gigs in 2025. It's extra exciting since Dave Barbarossa (of Adam and the Ants/Bow Wow Wow) is the drummer!
YES, I still do mailorder. If it's available, I will sell it to you CHEAPER than Bandcamp or Discogs or a record store. Cut out the middle people, sales tax, Paypal fees, all that red tape. You message me, I give you the price, you pay, I send. Not that hard. The post office is 3 blocks away, no biggie. You might even get bonus swag! I get that everybody looooves to support corporations, but how about rogue, uncompromising hobbiests? LOL. Open your wallet, pal. The price of eggs isn't going down, despite what some pathological liars say.
Next year, Encenathrakh will play at Maryland Deathfest, the Luttenbachers will tour Europe all of April, the trio with me, Martin Escalante, and Tete Leguia will do shows in Japan in June, hopefully a full US tour of the Luttenbachers in the fall (probably with a new album) and who knows what else?
My youtube channel has sick shit on it.
Subscribe and investigate: https://www.youtube.com/@weaselwalter666
Spotify is dumb, Bandcamp is less so: https://weaselwalter.bandcamp.com/
Subscribe and investigate: https://www.youtube.com/@weaselwalter666
Spotify is dumb, Bandcamp is less so: https://weaselwalter.bandcamp.com/
THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS - ME,
the weez
