In other news, The Walkabouts DVD is almost ready. It will contain:
-the concert film from Prague with 80 minutes;
-docu-drama (Peter Braatz): 40 minutes;
-one extra full song from Belgrade concert: 8 minutes;
-9 video clips spanning the band's whole career.
We will provide more news as it becomes available.
Chris Eckman has provided an update on the next Walkabouts album:
"The album has been postponed again. The circumstances that brought us to that decision are quite complicated and personal so I am not going to go deeply into the specifics. I will say that ultimately the decision was reached because of how seriously we look at the task of making a new album. We want an album that is as good or better as anything we have ever done. There is no point undertaking all the hard work and toil if we don't think that is possible at the moment. We have too much respect for The Walkabouts legacy and too much respect for all of you. I am sure all of us would agree that just making an album is not good enough.....it must be a great one.
As plans started to come together for the new recordings it became clear that things were not going to go smoothly and that the timing of the recording was far from ideal. Like all of you, as we get older, our responsibilities and everyday lives become more complex and less flexible. We are now waiting for a time when things will stabilize and we can give this project the attention that it deserves.
This decision has nothing to do with band members' other projects. It relates directly to the non-musical parts of our lives.
No, the band has not broken up. I have often joked that The Walkabouts have been breaking up since 1994. Since then, we have agreed that we would commit to the group on a project by project basis (and obviously we have been very productive thinking that way!). We are still committed to making the next chapter in our story, but we are also willing to be patient and make sure that we find the right time to do that.
Besides Dirtmusic, I know that other members of the band are working on new recordings. I don't know if I have permission to talk about them, so I won't. Be confident that new music will come out of The Walkabouts extended family in the next months.
We will also be releasing our first DVD. It will be the complete live performance from Prague in 2005, plus a 40-minute behind-the-scenes documentary from that tour. The documentary was made by the acclaimed German filmmaker Peter Braatz (Harry Rag) who did the Blumfeld DVD from last year. Peter has also made great films about David Lynch, Lee "Scratch Perry" and Damo Suzuki. The DVD will also include ALL of The Walkabouts videos, including the early SubPop videos and the videos from the Virgin years. There will be eight videos in all."
2/19/09:
FIVE OUT OF SIX WALKABOUTS CAN'T BE BAD
The Walkabouts (minus Slovenian resident Chris Eckman) will be playing in Seattle on Saturday, March 7th, at the High Dive. The show is a benefit for the BF Day public school music program.
Bassist Michael Wells reports that the set list is likely to include the following, among others:
When Fortune Smiles
Buffalo Ballet
Come Along
Feast or Famine
Bordertown
Everyone Kisses A Stranger
Black Rope Tied
Gold
Harbor Lights
12/14/08:
MORE WALKABOUTS MATERIAL IS AVAILABLE FOR DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
The Walkabouts have released two more albums to digital stores: "New West Motel " and "Setting The Woods On Fire" are now available on iTunes worldwide, eMusic worldwide, Rhapsody and Amazon MP3 in US, and Napster. Additionally, these have been released to iTunes Japan and Canada.
11/11/08:
CHRIS ECKMAN ALBUM IS AVAILABLE FOR ORDER
Chris Eckman's new solo album, The Last Side of the Mountain (adapted from the work of Slovenian poet Dane Zajc), is available to order from Glitterhouse. You can listen to a sample, "Who Will Light Your Path," at Chris Eckman's MySpace page.
11/11/08:
WALKABOUTS LIVE DVD IN 2009
Chris Eckman reports that the Walkabouts concert that was recorded in Prague in 2005 will likely be released on DVD in spring 2009. Some extra features will also probably be on the disc.
11/11/08:
END OF TRANSMISSIONARY 6
Terri Moeller and Paul Ausin recently decided to end their Transmissionary Six collaboration. Chris Eckman reports, however, that Paul will become a full member of the Walkabouts and play on their 2009 album.
8/7/08:
THE WALKABOUTS GO DIGITAL
Michael Wells has announced new digital availability for classic Walkabouts recordings. "Through our own Fire & Skill Recordings label that we set up primarily to administer our digital catalog, the Walks have now released Acetylene, Nighttown and Devil's Road on eMusic, iTunes in the US and Europe, the Amazon MP3 download store, and Rhapsody. This should come as good news for US fans who have had limited access to Walkabouts releases other than to pay top dollar for import CDs."
8/4/08:
CHRIS ECKMAN SOLO ALBUM AND MYSPACE PAGE
Chris Eckman has a new solo album coming out on November 14th from Glitterhouse. The album is called "The Last Side Of The Mountain." Glitterhouse says, "The album is based on poems by Dane Zajc, Slovenian poet extraordinaire. It will come with the original poems, with the English translations/lyrics, lengthy liner-notes and plush digipak-packaging."
A new album by The Walkabouts is to be recorded in 2009, most likely to be followed by European tourdates.
Chris also has a new MySpace page for his solo work. You can listen to songs, check tour dates, etc.
3/4/08:
CHRIS & CARLA INTERVIEW
Hans-Martin Gross alerted us to a video "soundcheck interview" with Chris & Carla made before the Essen gig in Germany for the Der Westen web site. They comment on songs by other artists as they are played by the interviewer. Click here.
2/20/08:
NEW ALBUMS FROM TRANSMISSIONARY SIX, DIRT MUSIC
"Cosmonautical" is the new release from Transmissionary Six (Terri Moeller and occasional live Walkabout Paul Austin). Their MySpace page has several tracks to sample.
Dirt Music (Chris Eckman, Hugo Race, Chris Brokaw) also released an album recently on Glitterhouse. You can visit their MySpace page, too, to sample some songs.
10/7/07:
NEW WALKABOUTS ALBUM IN 2009 AND OTHER RECENT UPDATES
Here are some recent items passed on by Chris Eckman to the Walkabouts news group at Yahoo Groups:
- The Walkabouts will begin recording a new album in 2009. The release date is unknown at this point. The album may involve a song cycle and strings.
- Chris is recording a solo album called "Last Side of the Mountain." He says: "It is ten songs (including one orchestral instrumental) and it is going to musically be quite simple: acoustic guitar, upright bass, minimal drums and string
quartet & choir orchestrations. The songs are based on poems by a Slovenian poet named Dane Zajc. Zajc passed away 2 years ago but his words have left a lasting impression on me. Somehow they remind me of
Townes Van Zandt if he had written poetry and of course had been from a small central European nation. So far there is no international release date for the album. It will come out in Slovenia in early 2007."
- The debut album from Dirt Music is being mixed. Per Chris: "For those not in the know, Dirt Music is a three songwriter project that Hugo Race and I are doing with the illustrious Chris Brokaw (who know plays with the Thurston Moore band!)... It was done essentially live in a big analog studio. It is the sound of three guys digging in and playing. Somehow it ended up
quite psychedelic even though our original idea had been to record mostly acoustic album of bluesy/folk songs. On the first day of rehearsals however, we realized only one of us showed up with an acoustic guitar(me). The album will be released by Glitterhouse this year (at the end of November). We plan to tour in late May thru July."
- Chris & Carla will have a short tour the last two weeks of February 2008. They are playing a festival in Barcelona on
February 16th and are in the process of filling in some dates after that.
- Chris is also working with Steve Wynn in Ljubljana on a new Wynn solo album, with Chris as "co-producer/songwriter/tour
guide."
6/29/07:
CHRIS & CARLA IN SEATTLE
Chris & Carla are performing in Seattle on July 28th at the Tractor Tavern. Chris & Carla are on at 6:30 followed by Robert Fisher from The Willard Grant Conspiracy.
5/29/07:
DIRT MUSIC PROJECT
Dirt Music is Chris Eckman, Hugo Race & Chris Brokaw. They are finishing a few live dates in Europe, performing material written by each of them individually and some cover songs. They are going to go into a studio outside Prague at the end of May to record an album. Hugo Race is a long-time resident of Glitterhouse Records and a one-time member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Chris Brokaw has been a solo songwriter for the last several years and before that played guitar with Steve Wynn & Come and drums with Codeine.
4/26/07:
MAIL ORDER-ONLY LIVE ALBUM
Glitterhouse has released "Prague," a live Walkabouts album that is only available by mail order. It was recorded on Sept. 5, 2005 during the tour for "Acetylene."
4/26/07:
SEATTLE AREA EVENT
For those in the Seattle area, there is a charity event next week where you can see some of the Walkabouts in their current "other" bands. It's a benefit show on Friday, 4th of May at Sunset Tavern. It benefits 826
Seattle, a local nonprofit center that helps kids with creative (and other) writing skills, to help them learn to express themselves and enjoy it. The organization also offers free help with schoolwork afternoons.
It is a night of Elvis Costello cover songs. It will include the
Transmissionary Six (Terri Moeller), Jon Hyde's band (Jon from the
Transmissionary Six, not Walkabouts but related from tour), and a band called "The Glow," reportedly featuring Michael Wells on bass.
1/3/07:
FLY HIGH BRAVE DREAMERS WEB SITE
There's a new Web site dedicated to the new Chris & Carla album, Fly High Brave Dreamers. (The album will be released in Europe on January 27th.)
11/24/06:
SAMPLE THE NEW CHRIS & CARLA ALBUM
You can listen to "At the Twilight's Last Gleaming," the first track from the forthcoming Chris & Carla album, "Fly High Brave Dreamers," at Glitterhouse's MySpace page. "Fly High Brave Dreamers" will be released in Europe on January 27th.
The Glitterhouse web page also includes this note about the album:
Recording and mixing for CHRIS & CARLA's new album "Fly High Brave Dreamers"
is finished. The third album by The Walkabouts' duo Carla Torgerson and Chris
Eckman "isn't a grower," Eckman puts it. Instead, "it comes with guns drawn."
"Fly High Brave Dreamers" is somehow quite different than the past CHRIS &
CARLA albums, overall a bit fuller in sound and certainly a more upbeat one.
Very uplifting. It is also a mix of "folk-tronica" fashioned on the laptop with loops
and more modern sounds, and a session that included Al DeLoner (ex-Midnight
Choir) on piano and Jason Victor (Steve Wynn & The Miracle Three, Willard
Grant Conspiracy) on electric guitar. A European tour is scheduled for
February/March 07.
10/29/06:
CHRIS & CARLA TOUR DATES
Chris & Carla will begin a European tour in mid-February to support their forthcoming album. Check
here
for dates.
10/29/06:
CURRENT TRANSMISSIONARY SIX ALBUM
The Transmissionary Six, Walkabouts drummer Terri Moeller's other band, have a new album and are currently touring in Europe. You can learn more on their Web page.
5/29/06:
A NEW ALBUM FROM CHRIS AND CARLA IS PLANNED
Chris and Carla will start recording a new album in late July, and they hope to tour in the spring of 2007.
2/9/06:
CHRIS & CARLA TO PLAY LEONARD COHEN FESTIVAL IN AUGUST
Chris and Carla are playing a set as part of a three-day Leonard Cohen Event. They will play on Saturday, August 12 in Berlin-Kreuzberg at the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche. Here are more details.
1/4/06:
WALKABOUTS TO PLAY OBS
The Walkabouts will play at Glitterhouse's Orange Blossom Special 10. OBS takes place from Thursday, May 25th through Sunday, May 28th 2006. See the Glitterhouse Web site for more details. (Dates in Greece surrounding OBS are also planned.)
10/19/05:
GLITTERHOUSE CD OFFERINGS
Glitterhouse is selling the limited-edition tour CD, No You Won't, as well as Novi Svet, Chris Eckman's TV-soundtrack album.
10/6/05:
TOUR PHOTOS
Some photos from the recent tour are available here.
You can also see more on the Web, both from fans and the press:
* German review and concert photos from Amsterdam at Gaesteliste.de
* Photos by Ingo Valentin from Krefeld, Germany
* Photos from the Wiesen Festival in Austria, August 31.
* Photos by Christian Stock from the Bielefeld, Germany gig on Sept. 11th.
* Photos by Thorsten Rudigier from Munich, Sept. 15th.
8/3/05:
ACETYLENE UPDATE
You can read new information on Acetylene.
You can also order the CD from Glitterhouse.
6/9/05:
TOUR UPDATE
Most of the fall tour dates are in place. Transmissionary Six (with Terri Moeller) will be the opener on all dates. The CD single of Devil in the Details is available from Glitterhouse.
3/7/05:
NEW WALKABOUTS ALBUM UPDATE & FREE DOWNLOAD
Glitterhouse has announced that the upcoming Walkabouts album is titled Acetylene. It will be released in August, with a European tour to follow in September/October.
One of the songs on the album, Devil in the Details, will be featured in a TV commercial for outdoors-outfitter Jack Wolfskin. The spot will run on German, Austrian, and Swiss TV, on several national channels, during prime time, from February 12th through October. Dutch and British TV may be added later.
Glitterhouse will also be releasing a "promotion only" cd-single with Devil in the Details and an exclusive dub-re-mix of the album track Northsea Train. You can download Devil in the Details
here.
9/15/04:
CARLA'S SOLO ALBUM, SAINT STRANGER, IS AVAILABLE
From the Glitterhouse Web site:
After almost twenty years of recording with The Walkabouts, singer and guitarist Carla Torgerson recorded her first solo-album. Many people have suggested this to her over the years, but she waited for the right songs and the right musical partners to come, before she started this project. In the Greek composer and arranger Akis Boyatzis a.k.a. Sigmatropic (responsible for the wonderful "16 Haikus" album that you may remember) Carla finally found the right person to give her songs the musical treatment and the "fresh air" she wanted them to breathe. Be prepared for one of the strongest voices in contemporary rock music surrounded with songs and arrangements of class and beauty, full of surprises.
Glitterhouse also offers a free MP3 download from the album here, and you can read more about the album here.
6/14:
WALKABOUTS MEMBERS APPEAR ON STEVE WYNN TRIBUTE
From A Man Of Mysteries: The Songs Of Steve Wynn includes one song by Transmisisonary Six and one by Chris Eckman. You can get information on the tribute at
Glitterhouse.com.
6/14:
NEW CHRIS ECKMAN PROJECT WITH THE BAMBI MOLESTERS
"The Strange" is new side project between Chris and the Croatian instrumental "surf" rock band the Bambi Molesters. Their first album, Nights of Forgotten Films, was released by Dancing Bear at the end of May. They're also filming a video for the single called Tonight I Will Say Anything. The album was produced by Phil Brown.
As Chris writes, "The band is a new project that we debuted at the Glitterhouse festival in 2004. I am primarily the singer (though I do pickup the guitar on occasion, and I have written or co-written, most of the material). For now "Nights Of Forgotten Films” is only available in Croatia and Slovenia, but we are pursuing several European licensing partners for a 2005 release."
5/4:
NEW WALKABOUTS RECORDING SESSIONS IN SEPTEMBER
Chris Eckman reported to the Walkabouts discussion list that a new Walkabouts album will be recorded soon. Here is an excerpt from his message: "We have studio time booked in September, and we will be signing a new contract with Glitterhouse. We are damn excited about the new record, as it will be a definite departure from the still and quiet of the past few years. We will be joined on the
album by cellist Nancy Wharton and Al Deloner of Midnight Choir. The album will be engineered/co-produced by our friend Tucker Martine who
just finished up the new Transmissionary Six album, and has done recent projects with Jim White, Joe Henry, Jessie Sykes and Laura Viers."
4/22: UPDATED DISCOGRAPHY BY PETER SJÖBLOM
Peter has finished updating the amazingly comprehensive discography-with-reviews that he first put together in 1996. It covers all the Walkabouts recordings, as well as those of Chris & Carla, solo efforts, and side projects.
4/14:
INTERVIEW WITH CARLA
The Fear
of Speed site has a new interview with Carla.
You can hear more about the solo album she's currently recording. (You'll find many other items of interest while visiting the site, too.)
2/25:
CHRIS
ECKMAN SOLO ALBUM IS OUT
Glitterhouse has released Chris Eckman's new album, The Black
Field. It includes eight originals plus a cover version of the
Buzzcocks' "Why Can't I Touch It?" Collaborators on the album include
Terri Moeller, Paul Austin, Terry Lee Hale, Al De Loner (Midnight
Choir), Kevin Suggs, Tony Kroes, and Anda Eckman.
1/13:
TOUR
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL WELLS
Walkabouts bassist Michael Wells has posted personal photos taken
during the tour on his Web
site.
11/30:
ANDRE
HELLER TRIBUTE IS AVAILABLE
The Walkabouts perform three songs on "Ruf und Echo," the three-CD
set by Austrian singer, impressario and conceptual artist
Andre
Heller that was
released on November 17th.
10/2:
FALL TOUR
HAS ENDED
The fall European tour is over. We collected a few set lists and
personal review highlights on this
page.
9/11:
SHIMMERS:
EUROPEAN "BEST OF" CD
Shimmers, the "best of" collection for the European market,
has been released. Here's the track
listing and liner notes.
You can buy it, of course, from Glitterhouse.
8/8:
NEW CHRIS
ECKMAN INTERVIEW
The PennyBlack Web site features a new interview
with Chris.
8/1:
THE
WALKABOUTS RECORD ALBUM OF NINA SIMONE
SONGS
The Walkabouts have recorded Slow
Days With Nina, a
tribute to Nina Simone. It was released by Shingle Street in July.
Chris Eckman says, "It was never meant as a traditional 'tribute'
project. We use her songs and ideas as a starting point, and then
move into some more personal, 'Walkabouts' territory with them." It
will be available from the Glitterhouse Web site starting in early
August, and it is also available from other online sellers.
LIVE CD
AVAILABLE THROUGH ITALIAN MAGAZINE IL
MUCCHIO
The Spring 2003 issue of Italian arts magazine Il
Mucchio includes a
live Walkabouts CD: "Emona/Live in Ljubliana, January 26, 2002." The
show was originally recorded for Radio Slovenia. (Note that some
copies of the CD are also turning up on eBay.)
LIMITED
COPIES OF A LIE OF THE MIND AVAILABLE FROM
GLITTERHOUSE
Mark Nichols and Carla Torgerson recently wrote and performed music
("songs and atmospheric pieces") for a Seattle production of Sam
Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind." Glitterhouse
has 170 copies available via mailorder, all signed by Mark and Carla.
They probably won't last long...
INTERVIEWS
CONDUCTED BY PETER SJÖBLOM
Peter Sjöblom did some detailed interviews with Chris &
Carla, as well as Terri Moeller and Glenn Slater. He's kindly
allowing us to post
them here.
INTERVIEW
IN BUCKETFULL OF BRAINS
Chris and Carla are interviewed in issue #61 of Bucketfull of Brains,
a UK magazine. You can order copies from their web
site.
