Recently

Few news bits to share:

1) I'm thrilled to report that the second Craw Kickstarter campaign, complete as of June 2, has met and exceeded its funding goal. The good people at Northern Spy and Aqualamb, the members of Craw, and myself are already hard at work on the vinyl box set, which will be out later this year. (Above is a subject-to-change rendering of the 100-page, Aqualamb-designed book of photos and lyrics that will accompany the set.) A big thanks to any DFSBP readers who pledged, helped to spread the word or simply gave the campaign a look. Stay tuned!

2) On May 1, I spent more than three hours talking with Milford Graves, a longtime musical hero of mine, at his home in Jamiaca, Queens. A big thanks to Red Bull Music Academy—and my editor there, Todd Burns—for posting an extra-lengthy Q&A drawn from this conversation.

3) I've spent much of this past week on the road with Psalm Zero. Thanks to all bookers, bands (especially the unrelenting Massachusetts noise-rock quartet Livver) and friendly folks who helped to make this trip fun and fruitful. I enjoyed all the shows, but I'd like to single out BRIEFCASEFEST in Toronto on Friday as particularly great experience. Was absolutely floored by the local bands Godstopper and Ayahuasca, each of whom specializes in a unique strain of proggy, melodic post-hardcore that really struck a chord with me, as well as our NYC comrades Couch Slut (a stunningly intense and unsettling band; I'm still reeling) and Pyrrhon (a band that pushes technical death metal into a zone of pure info-overload mania).

Thus concludes my stint working with PZ. I'd like to thank the band's co-leaders, my friends Charlie Looker and Andrew Hock, for a challenging, rewarding experience. They're both extremely creative, prolific and uncompromising musicians, and I can't wait to see what they do next, both together and separately. For the curious, here's a video of a show I played with Psalm Zero in April. If you're not familiar with the band, I firmly believe that their 2014 debut, The Drain (which I wasn't involved in, to be clear), is a new classic of dark, heavy, forward-thinking rock.

Heavy Metal Be-Bop #11: Andrew Hock

The 11th installment of Heavy Metal Be-Bop is live. This time around, the subject is Andrew Hock, best known for his starring role in Castevet and costarring role in Psalm Zero, who are about to release one of the best records of 2014 so far. HMB moves to a new home yet again: Noisey, which hosts an excerpt from the Q&A, as well an exclusive audio clip of Hock improvising with pianist Leo Svirsky; you'll also find a related Spotify playlist there. As always, the director's-cut version lives at heavymetalbebop.com.

Andrew is an interesting case when it comes to the jazz/metal overlap, because unlike some of the subjects so far—who look at each of these styles as discrete disciplines—he's worked concertedly for years to find a way to reconcile the two traditions. I'm not sure I've met too many other musicians who spent time in college transcribing Eric Dolphy solos and playing them on distorted electric guitar. Also, Andrew is young enough to have been influenced at a formative age by musicians such as Mick Barr, Weasel Walter and Mary Halvorson, all key members of the current NYC vanguard, in which jazz, metal, improv, noise, etc. have started to look like different facets of a single polyglot aesthetic.