ESOPUS MAGAZINE ::: Archive

ESOPUS CD #1: PUBLIC DOMAIN

For our first invitational, we gave a group of musicians the following assignment: Create a song based—directly or in the most oblique way imaginable—on public domain material. Some of the participants chose to work from public-domain recorded music purchased for this project, while others contributed unique covers of older traditional tunes.

TRACK LIST:

1. Wide Right, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum"
2. Haley Bonar, "Moonshiner"
3. The New Year, "Sinking Ship"
4. tre/molo, "El Ya Sabia"
5. Mark Eitzel, "From the Mind of M. Applegate, Beautician"
6. Phosphorescent, "Home on the Range"
7. DJ Afro, "Electro-Merengue-Clásico"
8. Jet Set Six, "House of the Rising Sun"
9. Parker and Lily, "Smashing Party"
10. Discar, "Somebody"
11. Pat Irwin, "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"
12. Dean Wareham, "Beautiful Dreamer"

MUSICIAN'S BIOS:

Discar is musician/deejay Pedro César Beas and vocalist Andréa Perez, from Tijuana, Mexico. Along with their musical collaborations, Beas and Perez have created and maintain the Spanish-language jazz website www.dijazz.com.

Born in Manitoba and raised in Rapid City, SD, 21-year-old vocalist, pianist, organist and guitarist Haley Bonar is currently based in Duluth, MN. She has released two albums: Haley Bonar and this year’s The Size of Planets, which features contributions from Alan Sparhawk (Low), Aaron Molina (If Thousands), and Charlie Parr.

Mark Eitzel’s solo albums include 60 Watt Silver Lining, West (a songwriting collaboration with Peter Buck), The Invisible Man and 2003’s The Ugly American. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Eitzel was front man for the San Francisco-based band American Music Club. He and the group are currently at work on a new album.

Pat Irwin has composed soundtracks for dance, theater, television and a number of feature films, including But I’m a Cheerleader, 24-Hour Woman, and My New Gun. He’s also produced recordings for Lydia Lunch, Love Tractor, and Deborah Iyall, and was a member of the bands The Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy. He currently plays guitar and keyboards with the B-52s.

Mixing pop, rock, swing and lounge, New York-based Jet Set Six is John Ceparano, Andy Burns, Josef Pelletier, Steven Gluzband, David Detweiler, and J. Walter Hawkes. The group has released two albums, Livin’ It Up and Life in the Jet Age, and has opened for the B-52s and Smash Mouth.

The New Year is Matt and Bubba Kadane, Chris Brokaw, Mike Donofrio and Peter Schmidt. It was formed by the Kadane brothers in 1998 after they disbanded their former group, Bedhead, following three acclaimed albums released in the ’90s. The New Year’s first album was 2001’s Newness Ends; the band is currently at work on the follow-up, expected in 2004.

Jose Luis Pardo [DJ Afro] is the guitarist for the Caracas, Venezuela-based band Los Amigos Invisibles, whose albums include The New Sound of the Venezuelan Gozadera and Arepa 3000: A Venezuelan Journey into Space (nominated for both Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards). Their latest release is Venezuelan Zinga Son.

Parker Noon and Lily Wolf first began collaborating in New York City in the mid-’90s on a series of film soundtracks (Winterland, Spectrum Red). In 1998, they formed the band Valentine 6, which led to their most recent incarnation (with Christina Campanella) as Parker and Lily
. The group’s albums include Hello Halo (2001) and Here Comes Winter (2002).

Athens, GA-based Matthew Houck is the founder of Phosphorescent, whose first album, A Hundred Times Or More, was released in the summer of 2003. Previously, Houck home-recorded a solo record under the name "Fillup Shack," embarking upon a well-regarded tour of the U.K. and Spain in 2000.

tre/molo is a side project of designer/musician Jorge Verdin, a member of the Tijuana, Mexico- based Nortec Collective. He collaborates musically with the collective under the name Clorofila, and visually as Cha3, creating many of the group’s in-concert visuals, album covers and posters. He is a full-time art director at Rubin Postear Interactive in Santa Monica, CA.

Dean Wareham was the singer and guitarist of seminal Boston band Galaxie 500 from 1987 to 1991. In the early ’90s, Wareham moved to New York City and established the group Luna, whose albums include Bewitched, Penthouse, Pup Tent and last year’s Romantica. This past summer, he and Luna bass player Britta Phillips released the album L’Avventura; Wareham also recently starred in Alison Bagnall’s film Piggie.

Gaining attention for its "power-pop with genuine power" (Chuck Eddy, The Village Voice), Wide Right is Leah Archibald, Brendan O’Malley, Dave Rick and Erica Stoltz. Based in Brooklyn, NY, the band recently released its first full-length recording, Wide Right.