natemusic

Black Prairie exists for real now

2008-06-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

After getting together for a few months now to play and write, Black Prairie is now a real band. We picked a name, took a picture in my back yard, and put up a myspace page. So it's official. Check out some pictures of our demo recording sessions.

Recording with Rebecca Gates

2008-06-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Gates was in town, and I was lucky enough to spend a couple days in the Masonic Hall near Jefferson High School recording with her and Ji Tanzer. Check out some pictures.

May Shows

2008-05-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, May 8 at the Crown Room
I'm playing cello with Matt Voth. Bob Dunham, Rich Landar, and Anders Bergstrom will play, too. Anders and Bob and I used to play together at Lincoln High School. This will be the first time I've even played cello only for a whole show.

May 17 at the Wonder Ballroom
I'm playing with Tahoe Jackson, we're opening up for Was Not Was

May 24 in Bend at the Les Schwab Ampitheatre
The Decemberists opening for Death Cab.

Recording with Ray's Vast Basement

2008-05-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

Jon Bernson from Ray's Vast Basement came to the Bass Mint in Portland, OR to put some bass on his new record. Pictures are from Jeff Stuart Saltzman's studio as well as my own bass mint.

Sunday with Shelley Short at the Someday Lounge

2008-04-10T16:25:00.001-07:00

Shelley Short is releasing her new record on Hush, and I'm playing with her this Sunday to celebrate.

The Someday Lounge
Sunday, April 13
9 pm $6
125 SW 5th Ave

Chris Walla Video

2008-01-29T12:14:00.000-08:00

Click here for a better version

2007-12-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

Who knows how long this will be up, but for now, you can see a man jump a car in front of my house at Nike.com. It's the house on the right, and it's about two thirds of the way through the video, right after the Lance Armstrong bit.
UPDATE: I guess it's on youtube, too. Of course.

The Party Project, Everyone's invited

2007-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I'm excited to be a part of the latest performance by Tahni Holt of Monster Squad. As part of the Artist in Residence program for the South Waterfront neighborhood, she has created a performance that's hard to explain, but it's a party. Saturday, Dec 22 at 4 pm. Follow link for details. It's free. Dress warm.

The Party Project

New Calendar of Local Gigs

2007-11-27T11:25:00.000-08:00

Now that I am a local Portland musician again, I made a calendar on ical and published it. Hope the link works ok...calendar

It should update automatically, and while it's pretty empty right now, that will change soon I hope.

Next show: Aimee Mann Dec 5 at the Aladdin in Portland

2007-11-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

A few of us Decemberists are going to be doing a couple songs at the upcoming Aimee Mann Christmas show in Portland.

First collaboration with Paul Myers

2007-10-13T09:28:00.000-07:00

Paul and I have dabbled for a while with combining his work and mine. Here's our first try.

Best of Flickr, Fall 2007 European Tour

2007-09-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

Live in Vienna

Live at Red Rocks Monolith Festival

Cologne, Germany

Not sure when...

Bobby Bare, Jr. and Shelley Short and Cat Power and Louden Wainwright

2007-09-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

I have a couple non-Decemberists shows coming up in case you're around Portland and interested.

Bobby Bare Jr. has invited me and a few bandmates to play some songs with him at a Nike/Musicfest NW event. Thursday, 3:30 at Audio CInema. 226 SE Madison (Cat Power is playing, too)

And in a couple weeks, I'll be accompanying Shelley Short at the Aladdin Theatre opening up for Louden Wainwright III. 8 pm September 17

Plenty of Decemberists activity coming up. If you can't find it yourself, I don't really know what to say.

Los Angeles, We're Yours

2007-07-09T15:07:00.000-07:00

I can't even explain how much fun our show at the hollywood bowl was. Nuts. And today we're doing Jay Leno. Everyone is very relaxed here, at least compared to the New York City TV studios. Hoping to meet Daniel Radcliffe.

For more youtube videos, go here, but make sure you take some dramamine first.

Happy Birthday Stevie Wonder

2007-05-13T10:25:00.001-07:00

All lead singers want to play drums.

Save Net Radio

2007-05-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

As much as I am a fan of Feinstein and Boxer, I am excited to move back to Oregon and be represented in the Senate once again by Ron Wyden. Today he introduced the Wyden-Brownback "Internet Equality Act", which is essentially a copy of a house bill introduced recently. Basically, the RIAA convinced the Copyright Review Board to drastically increase fees for internet radio stations like KEXP, KCRW, and Pandora. These new bills would create a more fair royalty rate so that these internet radio outlets don't go under. The effort to garner support seems to be going well. Let's hope so.

For more information:
KEXP
Save Net Radio
Wired

Call your representatives and your senators

Always Hungry food blog

2007-04-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out an idea I have been thinking about for a long time and was recently encouraged by a friend to actually start; a blog about finding food on the road. It's meant for touring musicians to know about good food near venues, but maybe it will be interesting to other people, too.
Always Hungry

gigwise zine tour blog

2007-02-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

I am currently on tour in Europe, and I agreed to spearhead a tour blog for gigwise magazine in the UK. That has sapped what little internet energy I have, but I may get to a tour journal on the Decemberists site, too. Colin put a video on our myspace site.
gigwise blog
Decemberists myspace
tour journal

Cheers!

Decemberists Pictures

2006-12-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

The Decemberists website now has new photos, including pictures from Chris's trip to the Colbert Report and pictures of the band with Mr. T.

no knead bread

2006-12-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

i love no knead bread. amazing.

Letterman on Tuesday Nov 28

2006-11-24T08:32:00.000-08:00

At the special request of George Clooney, the Decemberists will appear on David Letterman this Tuesday the 28th.

Michael Zapruder's Rain of Frogs

2006-08-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today is Tuesday, which means it's official album release day. And more importantly, today is the official release date for Michael Zapruder's new album. You can listen to some of it on his myspace page. I got my copy a few months ago (disclaimer- I played bass on four tracks), and have listened to it tons. I usually don't listen to albums I played on once they're finished, but I like it so much, I made an exception.

And for you lucky people in the bay area, his band Rain of Frogs will be playing at Cafe Du Nord this Thursday. The album features some really lush arrangements, and the word is that they will be performing this Thursday with strings and horns, just like on the record.

Decemberists tickets on sale

2006-07-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

Tickets for the fall tour are on sale now here. You can avoid ticketmaster's ridiculous service charges by buying now through this site. Tour dates are here

See you in the fall...

More shows with Ray's Vast Basement

2006-07-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

Now that the Decemberists record is in the can, we have a little time off. As if I am not tired enough of traveling back and forth between San Francisco and Portland, I will be doing it one more time for a couple shows with Ray's Vast Basement in Seattle and Portland. Then home again for a show in San Francisco.

PORTLAND Sat July 8
doug fir lounge
830 east burnside
w/ norfolk and western & loch lomond
rvb starts at 9 pm sharp

SEATTLE / sun. 7/9
s.s. marie antoinette
8 pm
1235 westlake
w/ feathers, johanna kunin, the lusty leaf

SAN FRANCISCO / tues. 7/11
the make out room
w/ white quilts for allah, anamude and
sandycoates (greg moore of moore brothers)
3225 22nd street

Decemberists in the studio

2006-06-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

For the last few months, the Decemberists have been mostly in the studio, but also in Holland, the UK, Bend, the Gorge, and Chicago. If I don't say so myself, this album is going to be great. We are all really excited about it. It can be odd to be excited about something that you by nature are unlikely to have much perspective on, but I like it, that's for sure. We have a few days of recording left, and then mixing and all that. It is expected to be released October 3.

This will be the recorded debut of my new bass Gyorgy (who I suppose might still have her name changed to Georgia, we'll see...) and of my playing of the cello. It's amazing how much smaller the cello is than the contrabass. And yet less than an octave higher. In fact, only a minor sixth higher.

Anyway, I offer a half-hearted promise to update this site a little more often. When this record is done, we'll have a couple months off before record release craziness sets in.