JDub Records

As many of you New Yorkers (hopefully) know, The Silent Barn in Ridgewood, Queens is one of our great treasures - a DIY, all-ages venue that has been home to some of the best indie rock shows the city has seen in the last few years (they also house a zine library, and have had numerous art shows). Perhaps you’ve even been to one of our shows there, like, for example, the Hospital Blossoms release show we played in June alongside Jason Anderson, Mountain Man, and Alex Bleeker and the Freaks.

What you probably didn’t know was that they recorded the whole thing. As it turns out, the nice folks who live and work at the Barn have microphones set up all over the building (in the show spaces, yes, but also in the hallways and even by the front door), and have recorded a handful of shows by having all of these microphones set at equal levels, going straight to cassette. The end result is less of a “live recording” in the traditional sense and more a documentary of the overall experience of the show (see G. Lucas Crane’s eloquent discussion of this “non-amoral surveillance” here).

And now, they’ve kindly posted a number of these recordings for your listening pleasure right here, including a good portion of our set from the release show! You’ll have to listen to a bit of Mountain Man to get to it, but that is totally ok because they are awesome (WW starts about a third of the way through the recording).

Now, I will be honest, I wouldn’t really recommend listening to this stuff unless you have a pretty high tolerance for dissonance, ambient noise, and extremely lo-fi recording technology, but if you do, this right here is a goldmine. On our recording, you’ll find one of the best WW lineups of recent memory (Jason Anderson on piano, Ted Gordon on bass, Dylan Clark on drums, and myself on electric guitar) blazing through one Hospital Blossoms favorite, a couple new tunes, and a sweet Tom Petty cover. You’d be wise to listen to Jason and Bleeker’s sets as well. If you close your eyes and use your imagination, it would almost be like you were at this awesome show in the flesh.

Of course, it might also help if you had a couple beers and danced until you were really, really sweaty.

This week, my good friend and past tour mate Dylan Metrano of Tiger Saw released his first book, All My Friends Are Right Here With Me, which documents his ten years of making music and being a part of the American DIY community. The book features interviews and first person accounts of tours and collaborations with such artists as Dirty Projectors, Kimya Dawson, Songs: Ohia, Little Wings, Viking Moses, and Castanets. The book also comes with a CD of Tiger Saw covers courtesy of past and future Saw collaborators, including Jason Anderson, Strand of Oaks, White Hinterland, Picastro, and yours truly.

To celebrate the release of the book, Tiger Saw and The Wailing Wall will be teaming up (alongside South China) for a northeastern tour this October! Our sets will all emphasize the spirit of collaboration and friendship that Dylan’s book describes, and certain performances will include readings from the book, accompanied by puppet shows (I will be one of the puppeteers). Check out the dates HERE.

On a personal note, I was a Tiger Saw fan long before I was a friend. Dylan is constantly collaborating with new musicians and reshaping his songs, and his doing so was one of the big influences on the way I chose to work in The Wailing Wall - I have known the Saw to be everything from a gentle acoustic duo to a horn-powered funk band to an eleven-piece ensemble with both electric and upright bassists (see this mind-blowingly impressive list of past Saw members). Check out the video above of Dylan performing “Postcards and Letters” alongside White Hinterland’s Casey Deinel and Dirty Projectors’ Angel Deradoorian (and watch at 3:30 for an awesome surprise ending)!

Before the weekend sets in, I wanted to hit everyone up with a massive list of all the upcoming JDub shows and parties. So, here is an up to the minute update of JDub happenings around your town!! Come support the artists and show some love!

Sun. 6/21 - Michael Showalter in Chicago @ Lakeshore Theatre, Tix
Mon. 6/22 - The Wailing Wall in Queens @ Silent Barn, w/ Jason Anderson Tix
Tues. 6/23 - DeLeon in NYC @ Mercury Lounge w/ Bedouin Soundclash, SOLD OUT
Tues. 6/23 - NY Press & JDub Present DJ Sabbo(of Soulico) in Brooklyn @ Spike Hill, FREE
Wed. 6/24 - DeLeon in Long Island @ Vibe Lounge w/ Bedouin Soundclash, Info
Thurs. 6/25 DeLeon in Hoboken @ Maxwell’s w/ Bedouin Soundclash, Tix
Fri. 6/26 - DeLeon in Westchester, PA @ The Note w/ Bedouin Soundclash, Tix
Fri. 6/26 - DJ Sabbo vs DJ Sabo in NYC @ Nublu, Info
Sat. 6/27 - DeLeon in DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel w/ Bedouin Soundclash, Tickets
Tues 4/7 - Sway Machinery in NYC @ Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival, Info
Wed. 7/15 - Michael Showalter in Brooklyn @ Bellhouse w/ Michael Ian Black, Tix

All the info and tickets available HERE
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Bonus: Here is a ridiculous piece of comedy that has been on repeat in the JDub offices. It’s a track called Kingston College from the lost and found State comedy album called, “Comedy For Gracious Living.” It features the genius of Michael Showalter, Ken Marino and Ben Garant.

The State - Kingston College Download

The Wailing Wall - Hospital Blossom

The Wailing Wall - Sister, I

In the Line of Fire full

The Wailing Wall - Nails and Wood
 

JDub is proud to welcome The Wailing Wall to our roster! We know everyone loves free music and discovering new artists, so we are releasing his debut LP Hospital Blossom for FREE on June, 9th.

The Wailing Wall is 23 year old multi-instrumentalist and ex-theology major Jesse Rifkin. Born in Los Angeles, Jesse was raised in Annapolis, MD and now resides in New York City. Hospital Blossoms is The Wailing Wall’s first full length LP, and his first release for JDub Records.

The Wailing Wall is a solo project that fluctuates between 1 and 38 members, sometimes including K Records’ Jason Anderson

, So So Glos’ Matt Elkin and Thanksgiving’s Adrian Orange. Jesse likes to invite any and all musicians and curious onlookers within earshot to join him in the studio or on stage. The Wailing Wall’s DIY community creates a certain vibrancy that stems from Jesse’s belief that a band’s spirit only burns as brightly as the sum of its parts.

Hospital Blossoms is a narrative about the search for spiritual meaning and fulfillment.  It  contains a patchwork of simultaneously scratchy and lovely sounds: banjo, fretless bass, glockenspiel, gamelan, grand piano, viola, harmonium, girls laughing, trumpet, drums, shakers, hand-clapping and knee-slapping. Jesse recorded the album across 3 states and on a variety of recording machines with different fidelities. The very first sounds heard on the album are lifted from a field recording of a thunderstorm outside a boathouse in Stone Lake, Wisconsin—a location Jesse sought out to record the majority of Hospital Blossoms. Jesse and friends pieced together the rest of the record between a workshop theatre, a dingy basement and a Colonial mansion converted into a college music building.

We don’t want commerce to get in the way of you hearing a record this good, so we’re giving it away for FREE. Listen to Hospital Blossoms, pass it along to your friends, and be on the lookout for more great things from Jesse Rifkin and The Wailing Wall.

The Wailing Wall  
Hospital Blossom

Land of Plenty rip

 LP
FREE download available June 9th

Bullitt movie download

at jdubrecords.org/wailingwall
Pass it On!!! 

The Wailing Wall on  Myspace  
The Wailing Wall on Facebook
The Wailing Wall 7″ for sale

Truth be told, I probably should have written this before I played a show with him on Monday night, but regardless, it is never too late for me to tell you a little bit about my amazing friend (and sometime Wailing Wall contributor) Jason Anderson. Jason is a constant source of inspiration to me - he is the rare performer without a shred of self-consciousness, for whom every show is an opportunity to create a meaningful, positive experience for everyone lucky enough to attend. That almost always means Jason getting the audience to form a circle around him as he strums his guitar and leads them in a series of alternately tender and triumphant singalongs.

The experience that always pops out in my mind was a show we played together in March 2008 at a now-defunct vegan pizzeria on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Jason played for over two hours, covered at least two R. Kelly songs that I can remember, made up a song on the spot about how “pizza is awesome,” and then led everyone outside, where he crowdsurfed down first avenue. As a fan, it was an beautiful and invigorating thing to be a part of, and as a performer, it was a reminder that no matter what, I can and should 1408 video always give more of myself.

American Psycho hd

Jason has a number of fantastic records available (under his own name and as “Wolf Colonel”) from K Records

; he also has a bunch of free albums for download at his website. He is also an accomplished humorist, responsible for this ridiculous record and this stroke of unspeakable genius.

You should really watch these videos:

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The Wailing Wall
Hospital Blossoms LP

Hospital Blossoms (128 kbps, 38.1 mb)
Download from JDub

Hospital Blossoms (192 kbps, 57.5 mb)
Download from ZShare Download from JDub

The Wailing Wall on MySpace
The Wailing Wall on WNYC

The Wailing Wall, as it appears on this record, is:

Luke Bace – bass, sound effects
Holly Fulton – viola, grand piano
Alixandra Macmillan-Feidel – vocals
Natalie Mirsky – accordion, vocals
Taylor Pavlik – trumpet
Jesse Rifkin – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, harmonica, harmonium, accordion, electric piano, glockenspiel, violin scratches, drums, shakers, tambourine, wood block, field recording of gamelan musicians
Chris Roush – drums, cajon, darbouka, bass synth, shakers, vocals, sound effects, field recording of a thunderstorm outside the boathouse

Recorded by Chris Roush at the Boathouse in Stone Lake, WI and at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, except for “Floral Park,” “No Wind,” and “Morning #2,” which were recorded by Jesse Rifkin at his parents’ house in Annapolis, MD (Chris added all sorts of awesome sounds to “Morning #2” later on though).

Mixed by Chris Roush. Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper.
All songs copyright Jesse Rifkin, 2006-2007.