antony and cleopatra, belle and sebastian, caetano veloso, dead kennedys, elfquest, french horse shamans, georg groddeck, moby dick, i and i, nepalese sauce makers, kings of convenience, lawrence durrell, henri lefebvre, minutemen, new order, youssou n'door, the dodo, ranking ranqueen, smiths, rumi, tsuki no wa, leonard cohen, velvet underground, lorca, yo la tengo, the zombies. tino, zadie smith, borges, the wide sargasso sea, grand lake, the awakening. george michael, frank sinatra, chef henri, galicia. the picket line coyotes, illus the dead meskin, jeremy cox, kenzo saeki, the big boys, TDF and JK gibson-graham. oh, and ingmar bergman.
eric sarmiento once broke his arm by falling off of a rain-soaked slide. deterred from skateboarding for several weeks, he began tormenting those around him by playing left-handed songs on an antique pump organ. when his right arm healed, he returned to skating, but only for a little while, until he got a driver's license and a bass guitar. he drove, he played bass in a punk band.
later, he played guitar and sang in what was called by a local writer a "new hippie disco" band, the new tribe. in this period, he often drove an old vandura for touring purposes. once he slept on the roof of a handmade trailer full of gear at a desolate lake near lawrence, KS in the summertime.
later still, he started a band called a suncrush for sweethearts, with whom he played guitar and sang some more. with this band he moved to NY for a spell, played around there and got acquainted with many nice and interesting people. there he did little driving, aside from the occasions when someone needed help moving and couldn't drive a moving van.
this band broke up, and eric eventually started another one, the pistol arrows, who recorded some albums for small indie labels. one of them was called "look!" and was played on the radio around the country, but eric never heard it on the radio while he was actually driving.
yet later still, the pistol arrows became the candles, and this band started their own microlabel, alchemist records, based on the idea that anyone who produces surplus should get to keep it, unless they choose to part with it for some greater good. after making one EP, the candles disbanded and eric moved to tokyo, where he definitely did no driving. before leaving, he recorded, with stalwart friends, a mostly acoustic album called "moonlight is sunlight." this record has a song on it called 'senseless things,' which eric was later to play on a surreal tokyo TV show. but that's getting ahead a bit.
in tokyo, he played many shows, met many nice and interesting folks, and in general had a swell, transformative time. he ate good food, visited many public baths and hot springs, watched penguins and monkeys in the zoo across the street, wrote many songs, read many books, and watched what he called the dancing elvises of yoyogi koen. among other things.
at some point, he returned to the united states and started working on recording the many songs he had written in japan. this took quite some time, but the final product, "the declaration of interdependence", was ready in 2008 and is now being distributed to many online purveyors of music. alongside this record, alchemist records is releasing an internet-only single, 'alejandra told me,' consisting of a song by the same name and another song, called 'hypnosis.'
to purchase these recordings, or to listen to other very cool artists, please visit: www.alchemistrecords.com.
eric is now at work on new recordings, living in new brunswick, nj, and planning to start playing live again soon.
awesome to hear from you too. I am always pleased to see you out there still creating your musical magic, you always had the gift. Are you in New Jersey? I live in LA, have for 8 years. Lots of music here, been really getting into House, Dubstep, Break Beats DJs. Check out Bassnectar if you want some good shit, especially the collaboration he did with Michael Kang from String Cheese Incident. I have a gig next thursday, in Ventura, doing Front of House mixing for Cliff Morrison and the Lizard Sun. Cliff is Jim Morrison's son. If you like the doors, then you will like this too. He channels jim over a modern version of doors music. Think Doors with a Bass Player!!! You should definitly check it out. He won a LA Music Award in Nov. for Producing the Break Through Album of the Year. He sound like jim as only his family could (and of course Val Kilmer) Nice to hear from you...
dude! alejandra sounds ace... really like the lyrics, really like the instrumentation, the atmosphere... the vocal melody remains in the consciousness too... (ermm, do i mean "catchy"?) and yeah, cool vid too!
Everyone at indiecater records would like to wish you a happy summer and let you know that there is an indiepop song from the Very Most available to download FREE from our site!
hi, thanks for accepting the request. like your music too, especially Alejandra told me. great song! no plans so far, sorry. if so, I'll drop you a line.
