SILO

The most beautiful and fantastic musical event of my year is called Chillits. It's a gathering of folks who love the following three activities:

1. Listening to music
2. Camping
3. Chilling

With the notable exception of 2006, I've played at Chillits in one capacity or another every year since 2003. Twice with t.vs.T and twice as, well, me. Chillits is also the singularly most challenging event of my year because for some reason (and I largely blame Gilmore from T Spigot for this) I feel as though I need to compose entirely new material to be performed live. I think it's because I am such a huge fan of chillout music and I so rarely get a chance to play it anymore now that I'm so firmly entrenched in the funk breaks movement. So it seems appropriate that when invited to do so, I welcome the urge to express myself in every auditory artistic capacity available.

My set at Chillits this year was inspired by an unlikely source, my favorite band of 2007: Crippled Black Phoenix and their tales of woe at sea. There's actually a whole musical movement around this romantic notion of English woe. The plush velveteen of inconsolable British sadness. But then I realized something (aside from the fact that as much as I want to, it's too late for me to be English. I am an American valley man):

This isn't me. It's music I like to listen to, but it's just not me. My life is about warmth, happiness, and optimism. That's what I enjoy exuding. I'm not the deep thinker, I'm the well wisher. But melancholy music, especially of this whole "woe is me" Bristol variety draws me in like a moth to a lamp and I'll never understand why. I think it's the overwhelming sense of comradery we share when sadness strikes.

So I recruited my friend and Hotness bassist John Bertrand to help me put together 90 minutes of chill music that would run a gamut of emotions. With John on team, I also asked DF Tram to step in collaborate with us on some music because I've always wanted to work with him. If you haven't checked out his music, I highly recommend it. I dare say I think he is the next big thing in chillout music.

At Chillits, John came up with the idea of calling ourselves Silo after the Billy Walsh concept in Entourage of turning the Clouds script in a movie called Silo; "Blade Runner meets Field of Dreams'' was the Hollywood-speak used to describe the story of farmers in the future discovering a race of underground people. That was us. We were the farmers. We dressed in yellow suits and cowboy hats. My friend Sean called us the Hazmat Cowboys. In our 90 minute set, we only played four non-original songs:

Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Baxter Dury - Oscar Brown
Mazzy Star - Look On Down From The Bridge
David Alan Coe - You Never Even Call Me by My Name

It was a very unique experience to play, and although at times the whole thing was hanging on by a very loose thread, we managed to keep it together, and I think people dug it. At least the chill police didn't arrest anybody.

Also, my new 12" - That Ain't No Mermaid is out. It comes highly recommended. By me. Tal says, "Go on and buy my new record. If you don't like the funk, you can always use it as a very fragile frisbee. Live dangerously!" I'm celebrating by going out to VA and throwin' down with the boys from Boogieburg and Frank & Rusty from AGFA. How much trouble could I possibly get into?