http://www.theluminaire.co.uk/cnt/events.php?month=September&event=568&year=2007

Doors 7.30
£12.50 via WeGotTickets
£15 door

Giant Sand's Howe Gelb presents a very special and exclusive solo show, based around the songs of his new album, and he's written to us to tell you what it's all about.

"Hello. I have put off putting out a tour-only type CD because I didn’t want to stock it with out-takes or scrapheap supplement. After 'Sno Angel' it seemed like a bar was raised, or I just finally got too old for wasting any time, mine or yours.

Thøger Lund sat in on upright bass and Joe Novelli stopped by the house to slip some slide. The Room was built out of adobe blocks, always a sound design. I played an old 1959 Martin 00 E that my wife got me for my 50th birthday. It feels like I always have had it, which might have to do with the notion that we were both made in Pennsylvania in the '50s and ended up here in the desert.

For the second session, Jim Blackwood suggested we try going back to where Rainer Ptacek recorded a record 15 years ago; the San Pedro Chapel. It is also the place we held his memorial 10 years ago just after his death. I had not been back since. Being in there again made me dizzy. I could not really think in terms of this world. The walls are also made of adobe, which is a substance I have grown to favor for making any kind of sounds.

Here we were back at San Pedro. The air was thick was Rainerism. First I picked up my old national Duolian and let my heart slide out for him. On that one, Thøger just played a sound he came up with on his new-old-cheap-tiny-Casio-sampler-thing from a thrift shop. It reminded me how Rainer used to loop himself while playing way before there were real loop pedals. That song was The Burning of The Sonic Sage', I suppose, then it was back to the Martin for other songs that were still arriving.

Thøger is my favorite bass player ever. That boy breathes music. He can’t help it. We locked into some grooves that were impossible to conjure without percussion or drums. But they happened anyway.

Some songs were old and desperately wanted a dusting off. Other songs happened to just be there waiting for a bus. And some others wanted “in” even though they had not been written yet. I tried to pick the ones with the most ‘event’ in them. I suppose at this age it’s good to hear something just acoustic and drumless. Some days it gets very hard to play music. There is a tragedy that gets attached to it all that tends to weigh down the process. Other times we bust on through that gravity and thrive on its buoyancy. Busting a hole though gravity is always a good idea for as long as it lasts.

Upside Down Home 2007.

It’s just a hole in the donut of gravity.

A desert dessert.

The end."

Lonna Kelley supports.