Tag Archives: greg saulmon

CD RELEASE SHOW on May 28th at Apollo Grill in Easthampton, Massachusetts

Click to RSVP to the Facebook Event!

Head to one of the best places in Western Massachusetts to celebrate the release of Apheresis, Matthew Larsen and The Documents’ debut 12 track CD lovingly recorded in studios, living rooms, and hallways in Massachusetts, New York, and California. Daniel Lefkowitz, currently touring with The Low Anthem, will be opening the show. His recently released CD, Wilder Shores Of Love will also be available. No advance tickets necessary. There will be a suggested donation at the door.

Get to Apollo Grill early, have a bite/drink and grab a spot!

CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT!

Who
Matthew Larsen and The Documents CD RELEASE
When
Saturday, May 28, 2011
8:00pm - All Ages
Where
Apollo Grill (map)
116 Pleasant Street
Easthampton, MA
Other Info
Daniel Lefkowitz opens the show. More information soon!

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“Apheresis” available NOW!

Apheresis, the debut album by Matthew Larsen and The Documents, gets released into the world today. Featuring guest appearances by Dave Chalfant, Philip Price, Matthew Loiacono, Mark Schwaber, Ethan Tufts, Rebekah Dutkiewicz, and Julia Suriano, it was recorded in studios, houses, and apartments in Massachusetts, New York, and California.

Apheresis by Matthew Larsen and The Documents

It’s available here as well as iTunes, Amazon, and other online retailers.

The Day After: Thirsty Mind Show

Wow. What an amazing crowd last night. Seriously, you guys. That was great. We never imaged that so many people could fit into the Thirsty Mind! Hopefully everyone who couldn’t find a seat found a comfortable place to stand. That place is so cozy and great. We can’t wat to come back at some point.

Brie Sullivan and Mike Lacourse opened the show. Brie’s amazing voice and guitar was accompanied by some pretty sweet beatboxing by Mike. The crowd loved it.

We took the stage and played a set of originals and a cover of INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’. We didn’t have the iconic sax solo for this one, but maybe next time.

Our setlist:

SALT
MIRROR
STORM OF THE CENTURY
LITTLE BLACK BOXES
THE SPIRES
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
FOURTH FLOOR
NEVER TEAR US APART (INXS cover)
KINDRED (with Brie Sullivan)
HAPPENS IN STAGES
COMMITTED TO TAPE
YOU WERE A CYNIC
THE GATEKEEPER
FLOWERS ON THE FIRE ESCAPE
PULVERIZED

Thirsty Mind show with Brie Sullivan, November 13th

We’re excited to play a low key duo set (Matthew and Greg) at Thirsty Mind Coffee & Wine Bar in South Hadley, Massachusetts on Saturday, November 15th! Also performing that evening will be the lovely Brie Sullivan, a diminutive acoustic songwriter with an incredible voice that will stop you in your tracks.

Our mutual friend, Heather Rush, is showcasing her artwork/photographs at Thirsty Mind for the month of November, so we are looking forward to performing in this lovely space, made lovlier by being surrounded by Heather’s art!

Any Mount Holyoke students going?

Matthew and Greg play Sierra Grille, October 21st

Are you looking for something enjoyable to do in the evening on Thursday, October 21st? Well look no further! There is a duo show happening. Greg Saulmon and myself will take the stage area and play some smaller versions of our large songs. It will be grand.

Sierra Grille is one of Northampton’s greatest restaurants in which you can eat delicious food AND see great music. It is a classy, cozy, comfortable joint.

Thursday shows are part of the “Reanimate The Baystate” concert series. We’re looking forward to it! Show starts around 10pm. There are two other acts, but I’m not sure what order everyone is going in.

Fourth Floor single available for download on the iTunes, BandCamp, eMusic, etc.

We are happy to inform you that Fourth Floor is now up on iTunes, Bandcamp, eMusic, Amazon MP3, etc. for your downloading pleasure. Additionally, you can pre-order our new album, Apheresis here.

The song starts out with piano and cello. By the end, it’s a wall of sound extravaganza featuring David Chalfant, Rebekah Dutkiewicz, Aric Bieganek, Ethan Tufts, and Matthew Loiacono. Think “Hey Jude” without the na-nas.

The lyrics were written on Dec. 24th, 2005, when Matthew was a patient at Brigham & Women’s hospital, waiting for one final blood transfusion before getting released back into the world on Christmas Day. It had been a rough month-long stay in the hospital.

Session #20: Greg’s Living Room

Using a laptop to record some extra elements in various locations has been really fun. Tuesday evening, Greg, Steve, and I decided to give this a shot over at Greg’s place in downtown Holyoke. Greg’s place is great… A nice loft with lovely views of the awesome buildings in Holyoke. I really love my city.

So after some delicious mole, pupusas, and pork burritos at El Guanaco in South Hadley Falls, Steve, Greg, and I headed to Greg’s to put some finishing touches on The Spires. Steve had to download the driver for the Tascam US-144 interface we’re using, but we were up and running in no time.

Session 20: Greg's Apartment
 



Down the street at city hall, a chicken ordinance was being debated. There was quite a turnout! Parking on the street was a little busy.

The other thing that was happening was a lively service at the recent storefront church that opened down the street. What was great was that Greg’s amp was picking up some of the signal from it (maybe they had a wireless mic?). The person giving the sermon in Spanish can actually be heard towards the tail end of Greg’s guitar track on The Spires. It’s awesome.

I am getting really excited to start promoting the record, and am pleased to tell you that I’ve decided on a title!

More about that soon.

Session #17: Greg's Living Room

Got together with Greg Saulmon in his swanky downtown Holyoke loft to listen to the record all the way through. Back on Friday, March 12th, my cousin Steve went up to Sackamusic without me to add some acoustic guitar, tambourine, snare drum, and chorusy vocals to The Spires.

Between Greg moving to Holyoke, my grandmother’s death and a wedding to go to, the month slipped by with not much thought given to the album. It was nice to get together with Greg again and take stock of what we had. We shared thoughts about the cohesiveness of the album and schemed up a couple guitar parts to be added. Despite being worried that everything had become so stalled, the record is sounding great as a whole, and I think we got the sequence pretty much nailed down.

The record is likely going to start with Fourth Floor.

Session #9: Sackamusic

So after the end of June, I decided to take a little break from recording and sit with the songs for a little while. Kristen and I went on vacation to Provincetown, Massachusetts for the first week of July, which was much needed.  I was hoping to get back to music soon after, but the remainder of July and August was spent doing some renovations to the downstairs apartment in our building in order for us to be able to rent it out to our next tenant.

Then, at the end of August, my appendix ruptured while we were visiting with Kristen’s family in Pennsylvania. I needed emergency surgery and wound up spending a week at Hershey Medical Center. When I got home, I had some complications with my incision that weren’t so great. Needless to say it required me taking it easy, because abdomen surgery kinda hurts I discovered. I was out of work for about 5-6 weeks… So here we are the first week in November and I’m able to finally get back to the music, which is what I love to do.

I headed up to Conway Rock City in the afternoon, and Dave Chalfant and I snaked wires out a window, through the garage, and into the main house where his beautiful Baldwin upright piano lives. I recorded a few songs: The Spires, The Gatekeeper, and Whatever Happened. Later, Greg Saulmon and Mark Schwaber came up to record some guitar and drum parts for The Spires. That song in particular is sounding amazing.

I took some pictures with my cell phone of the setup madness. I also had an old Canon film camera with me and snapped some photes, but I haven’t gotten those pictures developed yet.

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Session #8: Sackamusic

Well, I love a rainy night. Especially when there is music-making going on. Last night I picked up Greg Saulmon and Mark Schwaber in Easthampton. After a stop at Local Burger for a quick meal, we headed up to Sackamusic in Conway, MA in order to Schwaberize and Saulmonize two songs, Flowers On The Fire Escape and Fight Or Flight.

I recorded a scratch piano track and some vocals. Then for Flowers On The Fire Escape, Greg added some pretty eerie guitars and Mark added some harmony melody guitar too. For Fight or Flight, they both worked out various guitar parts, culminating with a wall-of-sound noisy guitar finish that blew me away. Greg wound up using a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale for part of the scratchy slide guitar stuff. Mark also played bass on both tunes.

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I’m taking a little break for the next couple weeks while I celebrate my wedding anniversary, head to Cape Cod for a week’s vacation, and sit with these songs for awhile to come up with vocal arrangements.