Mike Gordon - Inside In

SOLO TOUR SETLISTS

Click here for setlists from the solo tour.

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS FROM THE TOUR

PICTURES

VIDEOS

MIKE ANNOUNCES SOLO TOUR

Mike announces his first-ever solo tour. The 9-date run will be in support of his solo debut Inside In, released last month on Ropeadope Records. Kicking-off October 5 at the Fillmore in San Francisco, the tour will stop at 8 cities, playing theatre and clubs in most major markets throughout the United States before concluding on October 16 at New York's Irving Plaza.

Marking his first outing as bandleader, the tour will feature a seven piece all-star group handpicked by Gordon that is eclectic in its instrumentation as it is in personnel. Comprised of longtime Phish collaborators James Harvey on keyboards and Gordon Stone on pedal steel and banjo, as well as trombonist Josh Roseman (Dave Holland, Charlie Hunter), guitarist Scott Murawski (Max Creek), tap dancer and vocalist Jeannie Hill, flutist and vocalist Julee Avallone and drummer Doug Belote (Anders Osborne, Tony Furtado), the band will perform songs from Inside In as well as other material from within and without. more info »

XING SWIMS

Xing, our website mascot / engineer's cat, beat the heat with a dip in the pool.

JULY 20, 2003

First, let me say: Esse quam videri! To be rather than to seem to be. That was our recording process. Epsom ipsum de cressum blessem tipsum upsum datum mustum ratustum stepsome postum blestum drinkum crustum postum pemum ankum partunkum spikerstum batum sparkurtakustum dankom upcoming release date goltum pakeum peukum lighthousdum percussiondum stardum verbatum parcheesum craydum shakum blankum hydoratorium rotundum undundum paralegalum. And this led to "heart".

When you sink your heart into an album there is a moment during the project when that album takes emotional flight. You realize it's resonating. It was lying in bed with headphones on when I realized I really like Inside In a great deal. And, sealing the deal, it was riding in a rented Mercedes sportscar and driving around the perimeter of Manhattan when I realized the album is clearly better than Abbey Road. Honestly, I think Abbey Road is top notch, and tough to beat, but at that moment Inside In felt like the whole world blooming.

It all started when I built a studio to record the soundtrack for Outside Out. I created 150 little "vamps" - bass and drum jams, looping guitar vignettes, whole band songs, etc. After Outside Out was Out, Jeff Lawson and I started hacking away at those vamps to create new songs. This project was way fun, but I had to take a hiatus from it. When I picked it up again, Jared Slomoff and I took older vamps to newer levels. Jared sang, played, and engineered. As Jeff had, Jared rocks the Cactus Unlimited world, big time. Perhaps it was the Lanois influence that led us to work with Malcolm Burn. I'd loved that Acadie album, not to mention some other stuff Malcolm had done. While Rupert was being cared for by Simon™, the other Cactus Employee, we were playing fetch with "Xing" (pron: Ching) at Malcolm's house. A 22 lb. Persian, Xing was feisty. Push kept coming to shove. Some final mix choices were made by Jared and I in an inlet along the Hudson river, western Tribeca. Later Ropeadope came along and showed a huge pile of creativity and enthuziasm. Not just a record company, but the recipe for adventure, these guys took the ball and ran with it. I had phone calls with an "AC" to revamp several cover ideas. My favorite three ideas became the three images in the packaging. Now I have phone calls with Grace™. We talk every day about new ideas. This website was one. I find it fun.

The album is slated to come out soon, real soon. Look for a special promotional offer involving a collaboration with Marj Minkin, my mother. We've always wanted to mix sound and light for a duet installation, and now Inside In is becoming the forum for that. Esse quam videri.

Thanks for reading this
Lots of Like,
Mike

A DOZEN RECENT FAVORITES FROM MIKE

Albums - Gillian Welch/Time (The Revelator), That new Ry Cooder album from Cuba, The second half of David Lynch's new album.
Stores - Clotherie in Phoenix, Lark in the Morning (exotic instruments) in Seattle and SF, Lords (Melrose St.)
Colors - shiney silver, bright aqua, deep grey
Gadgets - The Segway, Apple Ultralite drive, Casio Exillim camera
Fruit - Papaya, fresh fig, watermelon
TV Shows - Crank Yankers, Seinfeld reruns, SNL
Restaurants - Gobo (NY), Carmelita's (Seattle), Fontera Grill (Chicago)
Animals - Owls, Penguins, Rupert
Artists - Dale Chihuly, Marj Minkin, Leo Villareal
Cool Books I haven't read - Magical Child, Tao of Physics, Labyrinths
Wood - Ash, cocobola, king's pine
Fonts - Verdana, techno, parisian

MIKE'S MOM by Andy

working with mr. gordon is never boring. calls from nowhere about another great idea (and they usually are); free rides on his segway; and of course, the pleasure of meeting all of the crazy cartoon characters that make up the people in mike's world. yesterday, I spent an hour on the phone with mike's mom, marjorie minkin.

in the world of marjorie minkin, she is just as successful and talented an artist as her son the rock star. To marge, mike is just…her son mike. marjorie has been an accomplished painter and sculptor for the past 4 decades in addition to the mother of two amazing humans (mike's brother is an attorney who works in environmental justice).

marge is an artist. it was in her blood, always was. she had a studio in the house outside of boston where mike and his brother grew up, and she always went to paint as soon as the kids went to bed. when mike and his brother started elementary school, marj went back to the school of fine arts in boston to get a degree in fine arts.

painting was always marj's primary medium, but in the mid 80s she started to overlay her canvas with plastic for a layering technique. it was a "eureka moment" that laid the foundation for her free form work with lexan – a plastic of sorts that has now become her dominant medium.

having had the pleasure to hear about her influences (nature, landscapes, light and color), her showings both here and abroad (including doing the early backdrops for phish before they "became so popular") and her work ethic ("I still go to the studio everyday and create"), I couldn't help but to ask her about what mike was like as a child:

m.m: intensely creative. mike always had projects and his mind was always turning. at 18 months he was doing intricate designs with blocks, I still have slides of them, by 3 he was doing puppet shows and other performances for the family….., he was just always creating and always making projects. by 6 or 7 he was doing videos and films, and he was always doing music, inventing things (he built a ham radio by the time he was eleven) and in high school he built a huge cabin in our backyard".
andy: he built it himself?
m.m: actually, he was the big organizer and got the whole neighborhood behind the project.
andy: did mike do well in school?
m.m: (proud mother tone): oh sure, he did very well in school, everything came easy to him, ap. language classes, a.p physics.

and so it went, my conversation with mike's mom was actually more touching than I planned. she sounded so sweet and proud and the love for her family was contagious. it transcended music and art and brought everything back to the basics – love.

VISIT MARJORIE'S WEBSITE:
http://www.marjorieminkin.com/