Blog for Chainsaw Weasel

Working on a new song

2010-06-15T12:01:23-04:00

I am working on a new "song" to debut at Out of the Bedroom soon... its another poetry over music... I laid down the guitar tracks yesterday, used a very cool Upright sample sound for the bass line and programmed some simple midi-jazz drums... I hope that the story is compelling and entertaining and you love it...

Precious Studio Time with Michelle Patterson

2010-06-09T11:30:26-04:00

When my mother passed away it was a time of great sorrow and in many ways great joy. Her suffering had ended and the next life full of joy and absent of sorrow had begun for her. This painful truth, that we would not have her around to share our daily lives but that she was in eternity and pain free was captured beautifully in a song written by Michelle Patterson for my mother's memorial service.

Yesterday Michelle asked me and my sister to join her in the studio to record that song for her upcoming album, Swan Song. It was a beautiful and emotion packed day for us both. I brought in my upright and my sister joined me on the flute... beauty and pain...

I can't wait to share a link with you when the song is made available....

About Isolated Incident - FYI

2010-06-05T15:40:00-04:00

Isolated Incident is my 10th full length album and 11th release in 10 years. Chainsaw Weasel is normally associated with sci-fi tribal, orchestral techno and old school house/club/trance music but during every recording session, there has been a quirky vocal track that just never would thematically make the album. I have collected these songs for a decade and Isolated Incident is the venue for sharing them. Don't get me wrong, this is not a collection of discarded odds and ends that I just happen to have lying around. Each song was recorded specifically for this album and features a very new and unique sound for Chainsaw Weasel. The album opens with a high energy instrumental and then is followed by 6 alt-techno-rock tracks that cover themes from betrayal to Utilitarian Social Theory. There is a little three song break of my traditional ambient soaking music that leads to the last vocal track Alone. Alone is an interesting story, I wrote the main lyric for this song in the 80s, it was a Joy Division inspired vibe that has been hanging around in my head for nearly three decades now. With the completion of my recording studio in 2008, I was able to get what was in my head out, it was very cathartic and cleansing, and I hope you can relate at some level to the track. The album ends with a Jazz instrumental that features my good friend Aaron Strumpel. Aaron is a multi-instrumentalist genius and he loaned me his considerable talent to finish this song off with a wonderful trumpet part. His critically acclaimed album Elephants is a must have and I highly recommend it. There is a bonus track that you can only get by emailing me and asking for it! You can contact me through my website (www.chainsawweasel.com) or at my CD Baby page (www.cdbaby.com/Artist/ChainsawWeasel). The bonus track is the original live recording of Running Back to You. This was done acoustically and was an improv so it is a very different sound and a great insight into the song writing process for me. I think you will like it, but it really just didn't fit with the rest of the album.

Working to get Isolated Incident out there

2010-06-03T11:55:06-04:00

This last CD, Isolated Incident, was a real departure from my traditional electronica and experimental music. I dug in and returned to my alt-punk-electro roots, did some vocal work and even brought in Aaron Strumpel to play trumpet on a couple of tunes.

I am very proud of the eclectic mix on this CD and would appreciate your listening and providing me some feedback!

thanks

Tony V