Dear People of the Kitsap/Olympic Peninsula:

Your food is awful. Just awful. Should I have to fly East to get good Mexican food? I won't drop names, because I have not had any Mexican worth recommending since I got West of the Mississippi River. Not sure if it's the Scandinavian heritage here or what, but the people of this area like the blandest food in the universe. I can't even find a decent brewpub, the only one I have yet been to, Silver City, has an atmosphere like Applebee's and I can't stand it.
The irony of this is, of course, that I can jump on a ferry for 45 minutes and be in the center of one of the best food cultures in the world: Pike Place Market. I just don't know what the problem is with getting that food to come across the Sound.
There are four noble exceptions that do deserve mention on the Peninsula:
La Poblanita has great Mexican food. It's real, and includes a nice little grocery store attached.

Luigi's Baking has the best bread I've ever had. If you like the Jewish burnt bakery taste, you will love this.

Hi-Lo's I'm not even sure if it's the food or just the unbelievably good mood everybody is in when I go there.

New Delhi Restaurant I cannot tell you how thankful I am to have good Indian food in town.

Please, please patronize these people so that they stay in business and do well. If there was one of these on every corner, this would be a 100% better place to live!

This has been a public service announcement.

Free MP3 Album release: Sound That Can Kill or Cure

It's been more than a year now since I released Sound That Can Kill or Cure. It's clear at this stage that I've squeezed every dime out of it, but I still want as many people as possible to hear it. So here's a link to the entire record, encoded at 320VBR.

deltasleep- Sound That Can Kill or Cure

The record is offered under Creative Commons License, meaning that you have my permission to enjoy your brains out, and pass it around to everybody you want. But making money off of this record is not allowed under this license.

Sound That Can Kill or Cure by deltasleep, David Caudill is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I do accept donations, if you feel so inclined. You can click the button below to paypal me whatever you think it's worth.

Three Classic Records I Never Heard of

I've had a lot of those experiences lately where I wonder if I am dreaming or hallucinating them. Like the other day when I was driving by a hotrod shop/junkyard in the mountains that had a sign up advertising a concert.(my dream venue since watching Fat Albert) or when I first turned on the Chilton Talentmaker and wondered when I would start hearing the annoying beep of my alarm clock to wake me up from what was, in all honesty, one of the happiest moments of my life.
I picked up three records the other day from a super, super cheap thrift store, who mysteriously charged me 16 cents for them(do the math, how?). They were:
Hugo Montenegro Interprets the Genius of Stevie Wonder: Hugo in Wonder-Land
This record occupies a weird space in between prog-rock, jazz, Stevie Wonder, and moog records. That's no easy feat, and the record has its share of problems with pacing, most of which originate from the issue of having to make vocal pop songs into non-boring instrumentals. A lot of vocal pop is very repetitive, with the lyrics being enough of a driving element to hold the song together through repetition. Try making an instrumental of Heard it Through the Grapevine some time if you want to understand. So things get a little aimless, and a little too long in places. But this record is well worth your time if you are a fan of Moog records, because its sound is much, much more contemporary than any other Moog record I've heard. "Shoo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo-Da-Day" is the highlight- the "vocals" are just too much to miss. Lots of good ARP sounds on the record, and lots of good sample and hold work.

Ferrante and Teicher: How High the Moon
I'll confess to not being the best read on F&T. I know from years of digging through thrift store bins that they sold more records of their type than almost anybody, and that most of them are complete fluff- by my standards. But if this record is any indication, I should have been paying more attention. This is a much, much stranger record than the minimal Pickwick, public domain image cover would indicate. In fact, the only thing that attracted me to this record was the space theme. This record was an unexpected mix of tape loops, prepared piano, and the standard F&T fluff. Just imagine trying to make that concept sound normal while you cover The Mood was Yellow. The song is absolutely, positively one of the most interesting covers of one of my favorite pieces of music ever. A strange tape loop of pizzicato strings and tacked piano and whatever sounds a lot like a synth with a tuned resonant filter on noise.
Supersonics in Flight: Billy Mure:
I bought this because I thought it might be a teen beat record, and it mostly is. The rest is pretty flat, but the guitar tone is worth listening to. It's a good thing that Billy Mure's guitar and amplifier are "specially modified to produce extreme highs." There's a tagline you won't be hearing much on today's records.
But who cares about today's records.

Supremely Unlikely Event

Take a look at what Victoria found in our door jam a second ago. What are the chances of this? (If you can't tell, a big fat fly has been smashed by the closing door!)
Had a great time this weekend going to Bainbridge Island two days in a row. I can tell already it's going to be a regular weekend destination- lots of good restaurants and things that Victoria likes to smell.

A Little Music

I've been listening a lot lately, since I haven't really had time to make a lot of music. Working as a technology educator has kept me really happy and busy with computers. Having Victoria home all the time has kind of kept me busy once I get home. So I grabbed a little time yesterday to DJ a quick set of music I have been enjoying. Soulseek has been withering away to nothing lately, and I have been trying to scramble for a way to get access to the kind of music I enjoy in mp3 lately. Torrents are great for more popular acts, but they are pretty void of older material or obscurity. Most of the LP Sharity blogs I was frequenting have either gotten lazy or just faded. It's kind of renewed my drive lately to keep
the sharing alive.
Lately I've also been enjoying KEXP Seattle a little- if you catch the right show, they are great. So I'm kind of facing the problem that a lot of working adults do- I don't have the hours upon hours to sift through records that I used to, and I need a quick easy way to get introduced to lots of music that's new to me.

It Works!

So, I got my new needle for the KLH in the mail today. Even though I know I shouldn't have, I put it back together from it's state of partial disassembly to give it a try. And it works- it sounds fantastic. So now I need to clean the boxes out of the basement so I have room to sit and listen to every record I own! Right now, it's Surf Party by the Astronauts.

Most Wonderful Summer Weather Keeps Me from Working on Music or Blogging

I know I've been a little absentee lately, but the weather has been so amazing that I have to be outside any chance I get. The woods right now are full of wild salal, red huckleberries, black berries, marionberrys, rasberries, and oregon-grapes. The stuff absolutely carpets the forest floor. I found at least a full acre of salal, and the blackberries grow so aggresively that the state has a hard time keeping them off the interstate. I grabbed mine from a school parking lot. They're not quite in yet, but the sunnyside edges are starting to be ready. I also found the awesome diner that the crazy lady down the road told me about when we moved in. It's called "Hi-Lo's 15th Street Diner." She's just kind of slow and told us it was on 13th street. Apparently they make their biscuits in a waffle iron and it's a real walk in and choose your own mug kinda place. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks great! It's right next door to what is easily the best bakery I've ever eaten from: Luigi's Baking. It's a really, really simple place on the good side of a lousy block. Victoria walked in to get bread from the place and realized they don't take debit. They told her to just take it and come by and pay "one of these days." Everything we have thus far eaten is unbelievable, with a fantastic just barely burnt but moist taste. Far and away the best bread I've ever had- Europe included. I consider myself a pretty harsh bread critic- I had actually given up on bread because I'd rather not eat it than eat grocery store bread. But seriously, this is some genius bread.
We got it at the Bremerton farmer's market first, same night we got fresh marionberries and rasberries, black kale, baby yukon golds, fresh beets, dahlias, summer squash, and carrots. Luigi's apprentice actually gave us a flower sack that he had made into a grocery bag.
Also discovered a great beer: Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Ale. It's a strange and delicious orange blossom wheat ale. All the things I like about a Hefeweizen with orange, but with a little floral note. Citrus flavors don't mix well when bottled with beer, so this is a rare find, in my opinion. Really nice orange bitterness. Great summer beer, I think it's a seasonal west coast beer. And it's dirt cheap here.
So yeah, I've been busy here. I love it, I feel like every day is an adventure full of wild bounty, beautiful scenery, amazing food, and bald eagles. I'm most impressed that none of the things I'm most enjoying aren't costing me much money. Once we get stabilized financially and can start paying down our debts, I think I'll be permanently hooked here. Once I get some free time, I can't wait to get back to music. And the can't wait feeling is always good for music!