Get ready! Tomorrow is the BIG DAY when the download for my band, Dimentia 13's 1989 album DISTURB THE AIR becomes available. There's a link to your left for the Amazon download.For those who want to hear a free sample of a bit of what the record sounds like click on the link below:
SAMPLER OF THE DISTURB THE AIR ALBUM
I put together a 5 minute MP3 containing samples of all of the songs on the album proper (but not the bonus tracks, which you also get with the full download).
Those of you who have only heard the hardcore punk noise of my other band, Zero Defex, may be surprised at the more psychedlic psounds of Dimentia 13. The idea of Dimentia 13 was to be a recreation of sixties rock but with a contemporary attitude. Psychedelia filtered through punk. My biggest influences were Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Byrds, Zappa's Mothers of Invention and a horde of obscure sixties acts nobody ever heard of such as Chocolate Watchband, Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock, 13th Floor Elevators, The Monks, Blue, Cheer and zillions of others that I had been collecting since I was old enough to buy records.
The sampler I put up today also shows off a few of the lyrics that had people guessing what sort of mushrooms I was ingesting when, instead, I was actually ingesting a ton of books about Buddhism. By the time Disturb The Air was recorded I'd had a daily zazen practice for about 4 or 5 years. So I was still a little new to it. But Zen was already a huge part of my life.
I suppose you could say I wasn't quite as committed to it because I wasn't even entertaining the thought of ever teaching Zen. It was just something I did that I mostly kept to myself about. But in another sense I was absolutely as committed as now because I was doing it each and every day and because I was devoting a lot of energy and effort to studying the philosophy.
I feel in a lot of ways that some aspects of Zen can be better expressed through art other than prose. Prose sometimes feels to me like it boxes Zen in a bit too much. Others in the past must have felt the same way. Dogen devoted as much, if not more of his energy into creating poetry as to creating prose. Unfortunately Japanese poetry doesn't translate well into English and so it's probably better to study his prose in translation than to study his poetry in translation.
Which is not to say that I set out to try and describe Zen practice and philosophy musically on the Dimentia 13 albums. I did not. But the practice and philosophy certainly informed my writing and playing in a very profound way.
Here's a bit more press about Dimentia 13, though most of it refers to the earlier albums and not specifically to Disturb The Air.
Also of note: I have updated the tour page! Yep! I'll be on the road again in 2010. Click on the link to your left (or on the words "tour page" in the previous sentence) to see where I'll be. There are only four dates confirmed so far. I'll be in Houston and Austin, Texas and at Southern Dharma Retreat Center in North Carolina in March, then I'll be at the Great Sky Sesshin in August. I am working on lots more dates. And, as usual, if you want me to stop by your area WRITE ME!!!!
