CALEB BURHANS, SUPERHERO OF SOUND

with the amount of street cred that caleb has acquired in playing with people like paul mccartney and on things like saturday night live, you'd think he'd be one of those cocky buttface turds that lesser musicians too often find themselves at bars trying (and failing) to schmooze with. but he's not, he's totally the opposite. and i knew it immediately a bazillion years ago when we did music for 18 musicians ​and i was being a fan girl over the fact that i was playing right next to him and caroline and martha and mellissa and before i could muster up the gumption to just go and express my admiration for them, it was caleb that came up to me ​and said something to the effect of we have interacted on twitter before. and then he emailed me some pdfs of pretty marimba songs. 

over the years, it has been so lovely to catch his concerts and hear his music and run into him around the city. he is one of the nicest human beans i know, he always has that wonderful midwestern friendly vibe, and eggboy has a big man crush on him. ​

and, and he has an album and a baby coming out on the same day!​

it's a big deal. the album is called evensong and it's his first album of just his stuff. and it's beautiful, with unexpected turns, and rad instrumentation. and cool percussion bloopity bloops by our favorite chris. 

so i had him over for coffee and interviewed him about it. look, here it is!​

is this album more like an omelet or a taco? ​

definitely like an omelet. an omelet with avocado, mushrooms, onions, goat cheese, and maybe a little bacon. 

using only onomatopoeia, can you please tell us about your process for writing the pieces on this album?

buzzing, murmur, flutter, gush.  

how come you decided to wait this long to release an album of just your works?​

the world wasn't ready for my music until now. that's totally a joke. it wasn't so much a matter of deciding but rather a need to wait for everything to fall into the right place at the right time.

​your daughter is due the same day as your album! did you plan it this way? ​

hell to the no. ​

are you going to let your daughter dye her hair blue just like you?

if she's feeling it, it'll probably happen.

what’s your most personal track on the album?​

The Things Left Unsaid.  i've been in love with the cello octet as an ensemble since i was a kid. that, and the piece itself is about personal relationships and how they can either benefit or be hindered from a lack of dialogue between two humans.

​it appears that chris thompson is playing percussions on some of the tracks. are you aware that he makes a mean hot cross bun?

i'm aware of his love for spicy food and airport chili's but i didn't know about chris' mean hot cross buns. the more you know... ​

​thanks, caleb!

preview caleb's track, ​oh ye of little faith... (do you know where your children are?), below. evensong will be out july 30th on cantaloupe music. catch caleb performing with fifth house ensemble in chicago on june 2nd and with alarm will sound in new york on june 15.

YONKERS ADVENTURE

contrary to what i believed this time last week, there are more than zero reasons to go to yonkers:

1. you get to ride the choo choo, and within a half hour of leaving grand central station, you can be in a cute little riverside town with bridges and a main street and a... 

2. seafood restaurant that is also a secret korean restaurant (!!!!)*. if you go there and disregard the seafood menu and smile and ask the owner for korean food, she will make you amazing korean food with black garlic and homemade kimchi. and she may even pour you a little cup of mushroom tea. everything about it is delicious and sweet.

3. line c3 might be there at a really awesome studio playing percussion music until the wee hours of the morning. and it is fine because you are fueled on thin mints and hot cross buns and yes, that korean food.

*ok, after further research, it doesn't look that secret, so here it is.

so if you're looking for a quick and easy little adventure out of the city {and your private jet is in the shop...} yonkers, i'd say, is a fun option!

 -yeh!

I WAS HOME

ok hi, hi!!! i'm back from a stupendous long weekend home of little lunches around my favorite suburban restaurants, george gershwin being camera shy, finally finding a dress for stoop's wedding, and stoop obviously getting drunk at brunch.

oh and then johnswik, my future brother-in-law, rolled in to sing: when i say afi, you say komen. it only took (formerly little, now really tall) jake about two hours to find it. i think he won a high five?

being home was just so much awesome stillness, like sitting on the couch and watching girls and spending five hours in the spice shop with mum smelling every single spice thrice and painting my nails purple and watching melissa down a robicelli's cupcake on the television with katie and jaclyn while we drank cider. nothing i'd ever be able to do in new york without feeling guilty for not being at this album release show or that new opera or catching up on my new yorker. 

and so now i'm back and pondering my existence as a half-way to new yorker brooklynite and mostly i just want to be eating kale in the kitchen with mum as she brushes gracie's teeth. oy vay. 

-yeh!

TWO BIRTHDAYS

this week two beings in my immediate family celebrate a birthday: mia is 7, george gershwin is 6. 7 years ago today i watched mia gracefully exit the womb and somehow got it all on camera. and a year and a little while after that, a fluffy ball of dreadlocks tumbled into my home in illinois for a life of playing, eating shoes, and regularly being called some variation on the most annoying word not in the english dictionary: rasta-dog. 

it is weird that i've been watching from afar as they grow til tall and every day i wonder if, now that i'm out of school, it's worth it to still be in new york and not where they are.

luckily i'll be going home this weekend for {among other things}: lou malnati's, stoopie's bachelorette party {i've never been to one of those, should i be scared?}, delivering american girl stuff to a birthday girl, eating doggie sherbet with a birthday boy, making one million macaroons for passover, and hopefully judging at the big mustard competition.

happy birthday, mia and george gershwin!

-yeh!