best experiences 2024 list - incomplete, out of order

good morning ~

(click the blurry chapel link to listen)

Drone Sleepover ArchivesDrone Sleepover Volume 6

today’s track comes from the StretchMetal Drone Sleepover, an overnight concert I played in Chicago earlier this year. they recorded the entire evening including my entire hour twenty sleepy set of vocal loops, whispers, and keyboard plinks. one of the best gigs I’ve maybe ever played! you should totally pre-order the whole thing, it comes out december 30 and there are a couple of other sets from that night available for streaming now, too

also - - if you’re looking to commission a tone zone for a holiday gift situation, you should probably do it now, or actually better yet do it tomorrow on Bandcamp Friday ;)

it’s been kind of a brutal week in one particular corner of the music world - best of lists getting published, so many valiant efforts going unnoticed. it’s also kind of a brutal week in my own life, so I wanted to do something that made me feel good and grateful - - to that end here is…

best experiences 2024 list - incomplete, out of order

sledding in our driveway for the first time, my sides split from giggling

incredible gig with Maeve at the Camp Saint Helene house, the upright piano rumbling

Shara sitting in during my set at the DJ Stepdad release show at Baby's All Right - no plan, just right

perhaps the coldest I've ever been over one weekend in Montreal but having so much fun anyway, one of each, one of each, one of each

cold air walks on the road behind our house, the view from the shale pit

that one weekend when Ged and I booked two great shows right back-to-back - the experience of playing at the rave in the rain was incredibly taxing in the thick of it (he called it "our 'nam," lol) but looking back now I love that we did that, slopped through the mud, the music got extra gnarly, we knew people were out there in the rain but from our position wedged up against the subwoofers it felt like we were in a cosmic void, got a proper shot at it the following day at Opus 40, I could hear his modular bloops echoing off the monolith

eating food that Gracelee grew in preposterous abundance, more beans than I ever thought possible

getting to be a part of the Tiresias Bacchanal at 3 Dollar Bill and singing shirtless to the crowd from high up in the loft while the gogo dancers did simulated (?) sex acts up on a platform, Evan is perhaps the most charismatic person I have ever heard talk into a microphone

24 HOUR DRONE worked so hard and so long and made something so aggressively beautiful happen, watching Ana Roxanne play at 9am hurt my heart in a permanent way, witchcraft stick-and-poke tattoo of a frog on my arm, alone in the sauna after 36 straight hours of work, I emerge to see my friends presenting me with a Celine Dion hat, good job they said

playing "power zone" with Dan Kleederman on guitar at the Stone Circle Theater, that was an amazing show and he's so good at guitar

various highlights of being in Paris - all the sweeties we met who gave us air kisses, watching gracelee's shoulder cat be photographed by literally every single person in the room, funicular train, pink clam soup at the farmers market, incredibly hungover at Versailles, catching the Eastern Margins showcase at that venue on the canal, falling asleep gently at the avant garde opera, giant crock of mousse and everyone crying, going to church and hearing the mechanical pipe organ

doing sound for David Liebe Hart at the Avalon Lounge

hanging out with Material Girls at Storm King, and also eating Leah's food at the Storm King gala

allora release week with my family in town watching my niece operate the fog machine during the YAI set at Jupiter Nights taking them swimming at Leeds and then everyone so excited at the show at Avalon, Marion hopped on stage and was such a champion, we sounded great and so loud, so many people wearing those goofy t-shirts, makes my heart feel so good to remember that room filled with people, reunited joyously with my Italian boys, Emily tattooing people upstairs, forcing my way into the crowd and off the stage to play guitar solos with various hands reaching out to touch me

various highlights of being in Mexico - going absolutely insane and screaming our heads off at Dani & Ari's wedding, listening to ambient music in the public park, the incredible day we got a very detailed walking tour of Parque Quetzalcóatl, breakfast with Eamon and Becca before they left, lakeside chapulines, waking up in snake house

picking up the CSA for us and our neighbors - not that I liked actually picking it up, but rather I savored doing something nice for them, proved we cared every Tuesday

getting to swim so often at Barton Springs, free wine in hilarious quantities at the fancy rooftop restaurant with Jana and Virginia, watching Seinfeld with Enzo and getting to make both recorded and live music with Thor, perhaps one of the coolest people to ever live

awe inspiring candy store after the museum opening in Connecticut, Gracelee's work looked so incredibly good

drone sleepover weekend in Chicago insanely joyous korean spa twice new york times mention beautiful slumber under beautiful music chinatown bakery super early check-in at the hotel walking around so much desperate burgers at the metal bar truly profound sleep

the sweetest of all days, crying under the bean arch with my favorite person who is now legally my wife

swimming often at Leeds, every time an affirmation of life

playing in the Lea Thomas Cosmos Forever band, nourishing stuff when I needed it most, so nice to be back at the Owl with all the south brooklyn sweeties

the motherfucking eve of destruction at the Lebanon Speedway just the sickest shit in the world

pumping my little harmonium and singing my little song while Lydia's grid of flowers erupted into flames - when I stopped playing you could hear the fire crackling, charred sunflower on my dashboard for weeks following

two raves in the woods, still an important rite for me, helps to lose your mind temporarily among a group of freaks

drinking touchy coffee

new york city weekend for Hiliary opening felt like friends saved my life plus dim sum

alex bachelor party weekend then alex lucy wedding, I loved singing Paul Simon for you, I also loved the unlimited guacamole, back room secondhand smoke watery hot dogs, sharing a room so amicably with Tat and Shar, watching hotel TV in our two queen beds

filling the gallery with clouds of guitar in Detroit

was SoundScape a highlight? too many nightmares about ticket sales and collapsing stages. pulling it off felt like robbing a bank and you can interpret that in a few ways

meeting up with Boicut and Zara for the second time this year and getting to watch them paint the asphalt in downtown Brooklyn

taking Clara the dog to the Tugboat Roundup

but what about you? what made your top ten? is your life also preposterously abundant, more so than you could ever enumerate? one highlight I omitted from the above list - sending this email to you every time I had the chance to :)