the Books

Hey All, 

Our first show is tonight in Northampton, MA at the Iron Horse.   Full tour dates below:

03/28/13 Thu Northampton MA Iron Horse Music Hall
03/29/13 Fri Hamden CT Spaceland Ballroom
03/30/13 Sat Middletown CT Eclectic House
03/31/13 Sun Montreal QC Il Motore
04/01/13 Mon Toronto ON The Garrison
04/03/13 Wed Grand Rapids MI Ladies Literary Club
04/04/13 Thu Evanston IL SPACE
04/05/13 Fri Iowa City IA Mission Creek Festival
04/06/13 Sat Minneapolis MN 7th Street Entry
04/07/13 Sun Northfield MN Carleton College
04/08/13 Mon Grinnell IA Grinnell College
04/10/13 Wed Cleveland OH Beachland Ballroom
04/12/13 Fri Columbus OH Wexner Center
04/14/13 Sun Red Hook NY Bard College

Some new surprises in store… Can’t wait to play!

Nick

Cyber Monday Sale and Euro Tour

Hey All,

Amazing deal on the Books Box today only.

And don’t forget, our European Tour begins this Friday in London:

Nov. 30 London, UK. Birthdays
Dec. 1 Utrecht, NL Le Guess Who Festival
Dec. 2 Brussels, BEL Autumn Falls Festival, Le Botanique
Dec. 3 Amsterdam, NL Paradiso
Dec. 4 Berlin, DE Kantine am Berghain
Dec. 5 Hannover, DE Feinkostlampe
Dec. 6 Schorndorf, DE Manufaktur
Dec. 7 St. Gallen, CH Palace
Dec. 8 Rennes, FR Transmusicales Festival

Can’t wait…

See you soon!

Nick

Hey All,

After playing about 70 shows in North America this year, it’s time to cross the ocean.  Here are our European dates:

Nov. 30 London, UK. Birthdays
Dec. 1 Utrecht, NL Le Guess Who Festival
Dec. 2 Brussels, BEL Autumn Falls Festival, Le Botanique
Dec. 3 Amsterdam, NL Paradiso
Dec. 4 Berlin, DE Kantine am Berghain
Dec. 5 Hannover, DE Feinkostlampe
Dec. 6 Schorndorf, DE Manufaktur
Dec. 7 St. Gallen, CH Palace
Dec. 8 Rennes, FR Transmusicales Festival

We are also playing a very special one-off performance in NYC on January 26th where we plan to debut new material in the works…  and maybe even some live sculpture:

Jan. 26 New york, NY Le Poisson Rouge

We had such a great time opening for Ultraista at LPR, we are honored to be invited back to headline.

On a more personal note, I’d like to thank everyone who came out to support us on our epic fall tour, thus far.  We were so heartened by the warm (and sometimes deafening) response to the new band, we are charged up to get started right away on a new record.  You all are an inspiring group of people, and it’s been a pleasure to get to know you better on the road.  As I’ve done before, I plan on opening up our studio process by releasing work in progress along the way, so please stay tuned.  I also plan on finishing the Books Blog Series; i’m glad there is so much curiosity… bear with me, i’ve got a lot on my plate.

Lastly, my deep thanks to the band… Mikey, Gene and Sean.  What a year!  You guys destroy every night.  My family and I can’t thank you enough for your selfless dedication and extraordinary talent while giving birth to this new project.  I look forward to years of productive music making and further hilarious adventures on tour.  You’ve brought this thing to life in a way that goes beyond anything I could have dreamed and hoped.

much love,

Nick

Hey Everyone,

The west coast leg of our fall tour starts today in Phoenix, AZ.  We’ll work our way up to Vancouver over the next week and a half, then fly to the Walker in Minneapolis for a very special one off.  Then Europe in December:  The band has become quite the well oiled killing machine, and we’re honored to have the amazing AU opening for us on all these dates.  Can’t wait to play for you.

10-29 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom (w/ AU)
10-30 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar (w/ AU)
10-31 Santa Barbara, CA - Muddy Waters (w/AU)
11-01 Los Angeles, CA - Bootleg Theater (w/ AU)
11-02 Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place (w/ AU)
11-03 San Francisco, CA - The Independent (w/ AU)
11-05 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge (w/ AU)
11-06 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Biltmore Cabaret (w/ AU)
11-07 Seattle, WA - Barboza (w/ AU)

11-10 Minneapolis, MN - Walker Art Center (w/ Eluvium)

11-30 London, UK. Birthdays
12-01 Utrecht, NL Le Guess Who Festival
12-02 Brussels, BE Autumn Falls Festival, Le Botanique
12-03 Amsterdam, NL Paradiso
12-04 Berlin, DE Kantine am Berghain
12-05 Hannover, DE Feinkostlampe
12-06 Schorndorf, DE Manufaktur
12-07 St. Gallen, CH Palace
12-08 Rennes, FR Transmusicales Festival

We will be carrying large format home screenprinted posters of Zebra Faces and Butts, as well as the BOOKS BOX, and new shirts etc…

See you there! 

Nick

Hey All,

We are beginning the second leg of our immense fall tour tomorrow down in DC.  So far the shows have been EXTREMELY fun, and the band is getting scary tight.  See our remaining  tour dates below:

Also here’s a short (15 min) documentary about the band and our creative process made by our friend Matt Day as hosted on Pitchfork TV:

09-26 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
09-27 Brooklyn, NY - Williamsburg Park (w/ Givers, Gotye)
09-28 Boston, MA - Museum of Fine Arts (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-01 Nashville, TN - The Basement
10-02 Little Rock, AR - Stickyz Rock’n’Roll Chicken Shack
10-03 Denton, TX - Dan’s Silverleaf (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-04 Austin, TX - The Mohawk (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-05 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-06 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-08 St Louis, MO - Luminary Center for the Arts (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-09 Chicago, IL - Schubas (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-10 Cincinnati, OH - MOTR Pub (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-11 Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-12 Ithaca, NY - The Haunt (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-13 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse (w/ Lymbyc Systym)

10-29 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom (w/ AU)
10-30 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar (w/ AU)
11-01 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour (w/ AU)
11-02 Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place (w/ AU)
11-03 San Francisco, CA - The Independent (w/ AU)
11-05 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge (w/ AU)
11-06 Seattle, WA - Barboza (w/ AU)
11-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Biltmore Cabaret (w/ AU)
11-10 Minneapolis, MN - Walker Art Center (w/ Eluvium)

11-30 London, UK. Birthdays

12-01 Utrecht, NL Le Guess Who Festival

12-02 Brussels, BE Autumn Falls Festival, Le Botanique

12-03 Amsterdam, NL Paradiso

12-04 Berlin, DE Kantine am Berghain

12-05 Hannover, DE Feinkostlampe

12-06 Schorndorf, DE Manufaktur

12-07 St. Gallen, CH Palace

12-08 Rennes, FR Transmusicales Festival

Come out and support us on our maiden voyage and I promise years of music to come, See you out there!

Nick 

Hey All.

Wonder what the new band sounds like live?  Here’s 5 songs from our recent performance in Athens, Georgia.  It was a very spirited night, have a listen.  We’ll be embarking on a massive North American tour next week, so please help spread the word and drag all your friends to the show.  We promise a memorable night filled with amazing performances and hilarous videos (synched in classic Books style).  We’ve done everything we can to keep ticket prices low… and with our recent rehearsals we were able to add a bunch of new songs including some ‘Books’ favorites.  You’ll recoginze Gene and Mikey from the last Books tour and if you haven’t seen Sean Dixon play the drums you are in for a special night!  Dates below…

09-05 Charlottesville, VA - The Southern
09-06 Richmond, VA - The Camel (w/ Marionette)
09-07 Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Music Festival (w/ Built to Spill, Jesus and Mary Chain)
09-08 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
09-09 Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light
09-10 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
09-11 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder
09-12 Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree

09-14 Kansas City, MO - Richard Berkley Riverfront Park (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-15 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop
09-16 Cleveland, OH - Jacobs Pavilion (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-17 Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-18 Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-19 Hamilton, Ontario - Casbah Lounge
09-20 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-21 Montreal, Quebec - Jacques Cartier Pier (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-22 Burlington, VT - Signal Kitchen
09-26 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
09-27 Brooklyn, NY - Williamsburg Park (w/ Chairlift, Gotye)
09-28 Boston, MA - Museum of Fine Arts (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-01 Nashville, TN - The Basement
10-02 Little Rock, AR - Stickyz Rock’n’Roll Chicken Shack
10-03 Denton, TX - Dan’s Silverleaf (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-04 Austin, TX - The Mohawk (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-05 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-06 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-08 St Louis, MO - Luminary Center for the Arts (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-09 Chicago, IL - Schubas (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-10 Cincinnati, OH - MOTR Pub (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-11 Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-12 Ithaca, NY - The Haunt (w/ Lymbyc Systym)
10-13 Northampton, MA - Iron Horse (w/ Lymbyc Systym)

10-29 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom (w/ AU)
10-30 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar (w/ AU)
11-01 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour (w/ AU)
11-02 Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place (w/ AU)
11-03 San Francisco, CA - The Independent (w/ AU)
11-05 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge (w/ AU)
11-06 Seattle, WA - Barboza (w/ AU)
11-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Biltmore Cabaret (w/ AU)
11-10 Minneapolis, MN - Walker Art Center (w/ Eluvium)

Please support us on our very first headline tour, and keep this thing going.  Can’t wait to play for you all. 

Yours truly,

Nick

Hey Everyone,

I recently had a chance to master a beautiful record that I think you might enjoy…

It’s a Texas band called Twigs and Yarn (Stephen Orsak and Lauren McMurray) and this is their first release.

You can hear it on their Japanese label ‘Flau’ here:

http://flau.jp/releases/28.html

I fell in love with it while working on it,

Hope to see you out on tour this fall!

Nick

Hey Everyone!

Here’s my walk through of the Books Box…  strictly limited to 1000 copies.

Watch me drink my second beer ever!

The Books - The Box from Nick zammuto on Vimeo.

release July 24, 2012. Order while supplies last http://temporaryresidence.com/descriptions/trr207.php     temporaryresidence.com / zammutosound.com

Much Love and Thanks for all your support over the years!

Hope to see you this fall at a show,

Nick Zammuto

Home <http://www.zammutosound.com>

Twitter <http://twitter.com/#!/zammutosound>
Soundcloud <http://soundcloud.com/zammuto>

Hey Everyone,

Thank you all for the tremendous support so far.  We’ve loved our time on the road with Explosions in the Sky and are gearing up for our first big headline run this fall.  Hope to see you all at a show… The band has really gelled over the spring and we can’t wait to play for you.

If you live in the Western Mass / Albany area we are playing a show in Hudson, New York tomorrow night at Club Helsinki:

06-29 Hudson, NY - Club Helsinki

The rest of the tour starts in early september and covers most of North America:

And please remember, the future of the band depends a lot on how these first shows go, so please spread the word and drag your friends along. I promise you an amazing show filled with incredible musicianship and hilarious videos. If you’ve not seen our drummer Sean Dixon play, you are in for a real treat. He’s like a ninja behind a drum kit.  The live set will include songs from the new record, a bunch of Books tracks, and the crowd favorite ‘The Greatest Autoharp Solo of All Time’ which can only be seen live…

09-05 Charlottesville, VA - The Southern
09-06 Richmond, VA - The Camel
09-07 Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Music Festival
09-09 Knoxville, TN - Pilot Light
09-10 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
09-11 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder
09-12 Birmingham, AL - The Bottletree
09-14 Kansas City, MO - Richard Berkley Riverfront Park *
09-15 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop
09-16 Cleveland, OH - Jacobs Pavilion *
09-17 Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion *
09-18 Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre *
09-19 Hamilton, Ontario - Casbah Lounge
09-20 Toronto, Ontario - Molson Amphitheatre *
09-21 Montreal, Quebec - Jacques Cartier Pier *
09-22 Burlington, VT - Signal Kitchen
09-26 Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
09-27 Brooklyn, NY - Williamsburg Park *
09-28 Boston, MA - Museum of Fine Arts
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
10-01 Nashville, TN - The Basement
10-03 Denton, TX - Dan’s Silverleaf
10-04 Austin, TX - The Mohawk
10-05 Houston, TX - Fitzgerald’s
10-06 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
10-08 St Louis, MO - Luminary Center for the Arts
10-09 Chicago, IL - Schubas
10-10 Cincinnati, OH - MOTR Pub
10-11 Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Museum
10-12 Ithaca, NY - The Haunt
10-13 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Nightclub

10-29 Phoenix, AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
10-30 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
11-01 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
11-02 Santa Cruz, CA - The Crepe Place
11-03 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
11-05 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
11-06 Seattle, WA - Barboza
11-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Biltmore Cabaret
11-10 Minneapolis, MN - Walker Art Center !

^ with Explosions in the Sky
* with Gotye
! with Eluvium

Thanks everyone!

Nick

Hey Everyone,

The third post is up here, covering the making of ‘The Books’ first track, “Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again”:

Please follow the new blog here:

http://zammutosound.tumblr.com/post/23610046130/the-track-enjoy-your-worries-you-may-never-have

Best,

Nick

Hey all,

Here is the second post in the blog series, which tells the story of all the music leading up to ‘The Books’ first track. 

http://zammutosound.tumblr.com/post/23350759563/enjoy-your-worries-pt-2-the-prologue-continues

The next post will cover the making of the track ‘Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again’ in the spring of 2000.

Thanks!

Nick Z

Hey All,

Here’s the first entry of the new blog series.  It’s the backstory of how I got into music in the first place leading up to meeting Paul and making our first track “Enjoy your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again” 

Follow the blog and read the entire entry here.

More soon,

Nick

Hello Everyone!

Big news for ‘The Books’. We are releasing an extensive limited-edition box set of all our releases plus a lot of bonus materials, both visual and auditory towards the end of the summer. I can’t reveal any details until we get the first demo copies in a few weeks, but I am very excited about this. It will be the perfect way to wrap up a project that I lived and breathed for the first 10 years of my career.

Leading up to the release I’ll be doing an extensive series of blog posts here, where I’ll attempt to remember where and how all of ‘The Books’ tracks were made, and fill in all the detail I can surrounding the recording process and strange trajectory of the project. I’ve been threatening to do this for a while and now the time has come… I need to do it now or risk forgetting it all if I wait any longer. I apologize in advance for blog entries that sprawl and ramble. Once again, the blog is located here, and I will post occasional notes on ‘The Books’ blog, but I’ll be primarily writing at zammutosound.tumblr.com.

The first post will be tomorrow… covering the track ‘Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again’ and the story leading up to ‘The Books’ early days.

Yours,

Nick Zammuto

Hey All,

Today at 3PM eastern on www.xpn2.org, an hour long live session with the new band with interviews in between.  The host is the great Eric Schuman.

We stopped by the ‘World Cafe’ studio at XPN Philly on Monday and recorded five songs… (if my memory serves me) Shape of Things to Come, Too Late to Topologize, Zebra Butt, F U C3PO, and our version of the Paul Simon’s ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

It will be archived, as well (i think…)

enjoy!

Nick

Hey All,

I’m proud to say you can listen to the new ZAMMUTO album here at spin.com.

http://www.spin.com/articles/stream-zammutos-bubbly-self-titled-full-length

As David Bevan writes:

“The long-awaited debut from Books co-conspirator Nick Zammuto’s new project

Early last summer, after his adored found-sound pop collage outfit the Books ended, co-founder Nick Zammuto began sharing new songs meant for a new band he supposed would become a “three or four-piece” via his personal blog. Since then, he’s assembled that band for a spate of live dates (below) as well as a full-length recording, due next Tuesday via Temporary Residence. Though it’s a less conceptual and far more direct effort than anything we’ve heard from him yet, it still brims with the same implacable energy that garnered his previous work such a following. SPIN is premiering the full record exclusively here.”

Also, Molly and I are just finishing packing up the first shipment of Hand Screen-printed LP’s so if you ordered one, THANK YOU and they’re on their way.

It is a limited edition of 500 copies, signed and numbered and they look like this, as they are drying on our house (just need to trim and fold):

Please help us out in this early phase and order one before the tour starts next week. 

Love,

Nick

Hey Everyone,

Here’s another track from the new ‘Zammuto’ album being released on April 3.  It’s one of the last tracks I made for the record, and this is the first time I’ve posted it anywhere.  It features Sean Dixon on drums, who is playing a 6/8 clave pattern double time with his right hand and halftime with his left.  It’s a mind bending thing to watch.  Gene Back made the string part by multitracking his violin, then placing the samples on a Nord keyboard.  I’ll post a video of it soon.  Thank for listening!

You can preorder the record here:  we’ll send it out next week:

http://temporaryresidence.com/zammuto/

Also, here are the dates for our tour with ‘Explosions in the Sky’ in April, plus a few of our own shows.  We just finished another round of rehearsals and the band is killing…  don’t miss it.

04-05 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater
 *
04-06 Grand Junction, CO - Mesa Theater & Club *
04-07 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *
04-08 Missoula, MT - Wilma Theater *
04-10 Seattle, WA - Moore Theater *
04-11 Eugene, OR - McDonald Theater *
04-12 Reno, NV - Knitting Factory *
04-15 Davis, CA - Mondavi Center *
04-16 San Francisco, CA - Palace of Fine Arts Theater *
04-17 San Francisco, CA - Palace of Fine Arts Theater *
04-18 Pomona, CA - Glasshouse *
04-19 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
04-20 Visalla, CA - The Cellar Door
04-22 Flagstaff, AZ - Orpheum Theater *
04-24 San Antonio, TX - Backstage Live *
04-30 Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands
05-01 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY - Bard College

* with Explosions in the Sky

Best!

Nick z

‘Too Late To Topologize’ (Album Version) from our upcoming self-titled debut LP ‘Zammuto’ Release Date: April 3rd on Temporary Residence.

Pre-order now (limited edition colored vinyl and CD):
http://temporaryresidence.com/descriptions/trr209.php
or Home-Screen-Printed Deluxe edition:
http://zammutosound.com/physicalstore.cfm

One month until release!

love,

Nick

Hey All,

We’re proud to see one of our new tracks ‘Too Late To Topologize’ in such good company on NPR’s ‘All Songs Considered’ this week.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/28/147561993/new-regina-spektor-radioheads-jonny-greenwood-does-avant-garde-classical-more

Also, Mikey set up a ‘Zammuto’ Facebook page (finally) which you can find here.

www.facebook.com/zammutosound

Thanks Bob, Robin, and Mikey!

Yours,

Nick

Hey All,

Here’s a video about what Jason (from So Percussion) and I are developing for our ‘Ecstatic Music Festival’ performance at Merkin Hall in NYC on Feb. 23.

ECSTATIC MUSIC FESTIVAL - NICK ZAMMUTO AND JASON TREUTING (with Janus, Daisy Press, and Grey McMurray) from steve taylor on Vimeo.

I’ve been in love with So Percussion since their incredible record ‘Amid the Noise’ came out in 2006. So I jumped at the chance to work with Jason Treuting. We’ll be doing a few new laser and video based tracks at the show, as well as the crazy 3/2 drum thing that he’s teaching me in this video. Right now I’m working on a video called ‘The Greatest Autoharp Solo of All Time’ which we will also debut at the show.

Also, I’m working with The Janus trio on a new video based song called ‘The Fig and the Finger’. I’ll post samples of all of these works in progress later this week.

Thanks for taking a look!

Nick

Hey All,

The new band is playing it’s first ever shows:

FEB 3: Mass Moca, North Adams, MA (Western Mass, our home town venue)

FEB 4: 92YTribeca, New York, NY (Downtown)

FEB 6: Brighton Music Hall, Allston, MA (Boston Area)

Don’t miss your chance to say you were there from the beginning! We’ll be playing mostly tracks from the upcoming Zammuto LP (out April 3 on Temporary Residence), along with some ‘Books’ songs, plus a few surprises. Before the set we will be screening ‘Achante’, a short film about Haitian Vodou that we scored last year.

We will also be at SXSW in Austin in March, for the whole week, playing everyday.

‘Zammuto’ (the band) is a four piece rock set up: Nick Zammuto (yours truly on vocals, guitars), Gene Back (also from the Books, on electric guitar, organ, keys), Sean Dixon (Drums), and Mikey Zammuto (aka Mikeybass, on Bass). We just finished our second week of rehearsals and we’re all feeling giddy with excitement. As Mikey says, ” This will be Epic.”

Happily, the project has picked up a lot of momentum in the last few weeks:

The track F U C-3PO was named best new track on Pitchfork, you can listen to the Make Mine EP here:

And Prefix magazine just named us among the years most anticipated albums! (no pressure).

Also Matt Day made a short film about my life and artistic process which you can watch here: (Incredibly, it’s been viewed more than 20K times in the last week!)

Sorry if you live outside of the Northeast, we will be coming to your area by the fall if all goes as we hope…

Yours,

Nick

Tonight ‘Bar Hopping’, a collaboration between myself and (ex-Kronos Quartet cellist and composer) Joan Jeanrenaud will premiere in San Francisco. The seven-movement composition is for one or two live cellists, pre-recorded sound and video. Joan will play the performances in San Francisco and I will join her on stage for the shows in Los Angeles next week on the 27th and 28th. Info below.

Here is the third movement (without the live cello parts), called ‘Hanuman’.
Regards,

Paul

http://vimeo.com/35311257

Performances will take place:
January 20 & 21  @ 8 pm (Joan alone)
Southern Exposure (SoEx), 3030 20^th Street (@ Alabama), San Francisco
(415) 863-2141
http://soex.org/index.html

January 27th and 28th  @ 8 pm (Joan and Paul)
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SciArc),
960 E. 3^rd Street, Los Angeles
(213) 613-2200
http://www.sciarc.edu/

Kaleidoscope of Pacific Standard Time http://www.k-pst.org/

A Day With Nick Zammuto from Matt Day on Vimeo.

Hey Everyone,

Here’s a stream of the new EP…Now available for presale at Make Mine.   My heartfelt thanks to all who have listened, reposted, blogged and written about it this week, it was quite the showing!  We’re very excited to debut the new material live next month… 

best,

Nick

Hey Everyone,

I just posted a new photo album here:  http://zammutosound.com/photos.cfm

These are all pictures from our little homestead in Vermont this year.  The small building with the woodshed attached is my studio where ‘The Way Out’ and the new album were written/recorded/mixed/mastered… My wife, Molly, is the pregnant gardener in all these photos, and this year the farm was incredibly productive.   Thanks to Molly, and her uncanny ability to grow things, we all ate like kings this year.  Also pictured are my boys Sepp, Asa and the newest one Cy, who was born in October.  As you’ll see, they play hard, and crash often.  The new band appears here and there, too.

Best wishes for the new year from our family to yours.

Nick Zammuto

Hey Everyone,

I’m happy to announce that the new band is playing it’s first shows in early February!  You can get tickets here:

FEB 3:  Mass Moca, North Adams, MA

FEB 4:  92YTribeca, New York, NY

FEB 6:  Brighton Theater, Boston, MA

We had our first rehearsals in November, and it made us all quite giddy.  It’s coming together better than we had ever hoped.  Please don’t miss your chance to see these first shows: my brother Mikey has used the word ‘Epic’ more than once to describe what’s about to happen…

Here’s a (somewhat goofy) photo of the new band:

From left to right that’s my brother Mikey (Bass), Sean Dixon (NYC, Drums), yours truly (vocals, guitars) and Gene Back (From Brooklyn, who you’ll recognize from the Books, Guitar and Keys).  And yes that is a bonfire, made of branches from the great ice storm of 2008.  We lit it up last sunday:

The new show will focus mainly on the tracks I’ve been writing over the last year, with some classic and never before played ‘Books’ songs thrown in, plus a couple surprises.  The show will have some video synched with the performance (as the books show did) although the band is so fun to watch, the video component will be more contained to short bursts and set peices, to allow eyes to be on the band most of the time.  (Sean is one of the best drummers you will ever see.)  I’m working on video now, based on the vast collection of stills and vhs i’ve put together over the years, along with a few commisions, and i’m not sure how much i’ll have done by February…  but I think the show will fly either way.

And, before the show we will be screening ‘Achante’, the short film about Haitian Vodou that I scored this year.  Here’s the trailer

Achantè Extended Trailer from Mazibel on Vimeo.

Really hope to see you there!

Nick

Hey All,

My old friend Manish from London runs a 7” Label called Make Mine, and we decided to release three of the songs from the upcoming LP this December, gearing up for the full length release next year.   (about 10 years ago ’The Books’ were his labels first release!)

Side A will be Idiom Wind

Side B will be F U C-3PO

And the bonus ‘digital only’ will be Weird Ceiling.

In fact Pitchfork was kind enough to post ‘Weird Ceiling’ today.

These are reworked ‘finished’ versions of the demo tracks I’ve posted in the past, so have a listen for the changes…

Once the EP is available for sale I’ll repost

And thanks for the slew of recent orders from the store, you all, it is extremely helpful in getting this project off the ground… and remember you can preorder a Home Printed LP to further help the project along. (design coming soon)

Also, I finished two more tracks recently, called ‘Zebra Butt’ and ‘The Shape of Things to Come’, as well as revisited/improved/mastered a lot of the older songs, so stay tuned…

Thanks! 

Nick

Hey All,

This is more on the personal side of my blog posts, but I wanted to share with you the birth of our third son, Cy:

He was born here at home in Vermont, in a big tub in our living room, on October 23.  Molly’s water broke at around 4:30pm that day, and her contractions started in earnest around 6 pm. The boys, Sepp (5yo) and Asa (2yo), were busy messily painting their halloween costumes, so we let them finish. I put them to bed at around 7pm, as usual, and then went downstairs to set up the tub:

By then our incredible midwives, Tanya and Lucinda, were arriving and we started filling the tub.  Also, Molly’s Mom, her sister, and our dear friend Libby were here to help. We got a nice fire going in the woodstove and had the house up to 80 degrees pretty quickly.  We quickly ran out of hot water, so we put every pot we had on the stove to heat more.  By 9pm Molly’s contractions were getting very intense and she decided to take a stroll outside.  It was a particularly clear and dark night, with the Milkyway crystal clear and Jupiter brighter than I’ve ever seen it. (i’ve always loved stargazing so it felt particularly meaningful to see the sky so clear.)  By the end of our walk around the house, with frequent stops for contractions, Molly was ready to get in the tub.  By then it was full of hot water and ready to go, and we got in around 10pm.  From here her labor progressed very quickly and intensely, and she gave birth to Cy at 10:22pm, catching him herself and scooping him up to the surface of the water.  With barely a sound he looked up at her as if to say “Hi, Mom.”  It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.  Here’s a picture of them just two hours after he was born:

They are both remarkably healthy, happy and seemingly unfazed. 

This was our second homebirth.  Asa was also born at home, up in his bedroom.  After Sepp’s birth in a hospital, Molly was adamant that we have our children at home.  Sepp’s hospital birth, although it wasn’t traumatic per se, was offensive to Molly on a number of levels.  Her own birth experience and studies of midwifery and the birthing process has lead her to the realization that birth is not a risk-frought medical procedure as we are lead to believe by well meaning yet fearful OBGYN’s.  It is a natural rite of passage for both mother and child; a sacred time to be experienced as fully as possible.  From my limited perspective, it took me a while to see the truth in this, but having just witnessed what I can only describe as perfect, we highly recommend homebirth.  Be sure to find an experienced and warmhearted midwife.  As someone once said, “Locals are born in the hospital, ‘natives’ are born at home.”    

Just finished track #3. I will post at midnight east coast for 48 hrs…

best,

Nick

This is a brand new film I did the soundtrack/sound-design for, and the origin of ’Groan Man…’  Here’s the trailer:

Achantè Extended Trailer from Mazibel on Vimeo.

It’s a 35 minute, image and music driven look at the vibrant, and often misrepresented, religion of Vodou (or Voodoo), native to Haiti.  It’s directed by Emily McMehen, and also produced by Emily along with cinematographer Geoffrey Sautner (Mazibel Films).  Last year, they invited me to score the film, and after seeing some of the early footage I was immediately enchanted. 

You can read Emily and Geoffrey’s description of the film ‘here’, but to summarize: 

The team arrived in Haiti just weeks before the devastating earthquake of January 12th, 2010, to begin researching the film.  After the earthquake struck, they resisted the urge to document the devastation and relief efforts (or lack thereof), and instead spent time getting to know people within the Vodou community in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding countryside. As they gained the trust of the local Vodouisants, Emily and Geoffrey invited them to contribute something to the film (as they write):
 
‘In some cases the Vodouisants contributed stories of the Lwa (Vodou deities), but more often the participants preferred to be ‘mounted’ by the spirit they chose. In other words, they preferred to be possessed on camera…  The concept of spiritual possession, perceived by most other religious groups as being dark or demonic in nature, or naive, is in fact a key component of the Haitian identity that draws Vodou’s practitioners together. Its theatrical elements are directed towards connecting strangers and resolving conflicts among friends and family, as demonstrated by elaborate handshakes and expressions of love. The possessed person will often seek out and confront another person with whom they have conflict, and the spirit reaches out and resolves the conflict uninhibited by pride or willfulness. (The film) invites us into the peristyle and treats us as familiars…’

As the composer I was awestruck by these images of ‘possession’.  They are EXTREMELY intense, but instead of being dark or scary, I found a palpable sense of humanity and joy: a truly honest expression of deep-seated emotion (which, unfortunately, seems exceedingly rare in our culture).  You can imagine the challenge of writing music for these scenes!  After a lot of trial and error I found a few threads that could unify the soundtrack… first were the incredible audio recordings (made by Erik Southey) of the singing and drumming that take place during the rituals, which i could use to recreate a pulsating rhythmic atmosphere.  Second is the odd, and sometimes conflicted relationship of Christian and African influences in the music, where tight poly-rhythms can give way to hymn like chords, which helps describe the syncretic origins of Vodou.  And the third is the ‘otherworldliness’ of the possessions, which I was able to reflect using tweaked synthesizers and groove-boxes.  It makes for a very odd mix, but somehow it works.    

The film will be in shown in festivals worldwide this year, so please seek it out.  Also, we plan on releasing the soundtrack as an LP on Temporary Residence (our label), along with some of the amazing field recordings and songs they recorded on location.

I’ll write more about that when it’s ready…

Thank you all for your interest!

Nick

Check out the Books Daytrotter session here!

Hey All,

This will go live tomorrow, leading up to our giant free show in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park tomorrow (Friday) night.

We stopped by the Daytrotter studios during our fall tour to record a few tracks. Strangely, it was one of our first ‘real’ recording studio experiences, since we make all our music at home. It was a blast, the session had a great feel. Along with Paul and me, you’ll hear Gene Back throughout, my brother Mikey Zammuto on Classy Penguin, and our tour manager/ FOH extraordinaire Brendon Downey on drums during Smells Like Content.

Enjoy,

Nick

Hey everyone,

I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve been having in the studio recently.  I’m just finishing the first tracks of the new project and wanted to share the very first one with you.  It’s called ‘Yay’ and you can download it here:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/dkJvWGJIQzNGOFR2Wmc9PQ or http://soundcloud.com/zammuto/zammuto-yay

It will be a three or four piece band, hopefully playing shows by the end of the year… 

I’ll only be posting this for 48 hours, then after that I’m counting on you to distribute it to your friends and loved ones however you can.  I’ll be working on the new record throughout the summer (and for however long it takes), and whenever I have a ‘working draft’ of a new track, I’ll post it for a couple days.   These won’t be ‘finished’ versions, when I have a solid albums worth I’ll revisit all the tracks to pull album together as a whole.  Hope you like it!  And be sure to download your copy now, since you won’t be able to get it from me after Saturday.

Thank you all so much for your support over the years.

Yours,

Nick

Hey All,

Nick here.  Sorry for the recent lull in my posts,  but you can expect a flurry of activity over the summer, as I’ve been very busy in the studio:

Firstly, I’m going to start writing about all of the tracks on our first three records, as I did with ‘The Way Out’.  As some of you may have noticed, I had a chance to remaster and redesign the records for our move to Temporary Residence, and revisiting those sounds really brought me back to the headspace I was in while working on those records.  A lot of great, and hilarious and/or difficult moments that I’ll try to recount as I write about the tracks. 

Also, I just put together a new website that archives my past work, and will be the central home of my new work:

www.zammutosound.com

I recently posted a huge amount of rare and ‘lost’ audio from my archives.  Mostly it’s the music I made before the Books existed, and the soundtrack work I’ve done over the years for various productions since then.  

And I’m just about to announce the birth of my new band, which will be focused on live percussion, keys, guitars, vocals, samples and video.  I’ll be producing it here in my studio over the summer, rehearsing the band and blogging about it heavily.  I’m just finishing the first tracks which I’ll share with you soon…  here are all the related sites:

www.zammutosound.com

www.soundcloud.com/zammuto

www.zammuto.wordpress.com

www.twitter.com/zammutosound

Thanks in advance for visiting!

Nick