Passion Pit Stop Annimation

This is the video and THIS is the band

Passion Pit - The Reeling from phantomcolor on Vimeo.

Dislocated Shoulder + The Baltimore Gig

Well, it's been a week since I dislocated my right shoulder surfing at Mission Beach in San Diego, the same shoulder which I'd had rebuilt in 1997 after back to back snowboarding accidents two seasons in a row. Knock on wood that the MRI next week turns out fine! 

The two homeless guys who had helped to clear out room in the Subaru for me to sit on the drive to the hospital, asked while we were pulling out, "Why wasn't I able to just slam my shoulder back in like Mel Gibson had done in Lethal Weapon?"  

Looking down at the bulge (my shoulder) sticking out of my wetsuit in the general latitude of my nipples, I opted not to answer that one and instead focused on breathing thru the pain not thinking about the two months of work I'd just lined up.    

Fast forward 4 days and I'm sitting on a plane headed for Baltimore for a  one off with Gabe from Cake, Pete and Max from We Are Scientists.  Thanks to Under Armour for having us come play.  

Pictures from the gig sans Mel Gibson.

Airports

Right off the bat, I want to thank Guster for having me out to support them on their 2009 Campus Conciousness Tour. Special thanks to REVERB, Gord, Seth, Scooter, Josh, Roger, Amy, Allyson, Elliot and Dalton at Nettwerk for making the whole thing happen. You make me feel like family.

It's Sunday night now and I'm just walking in the door from the LAX airport. As I write this, I'm doing laundry and unpacking:

Newly acquired thrift store scores.
Guitar cases.
CD boxes.
Cell phone charges.
Autographed concert posters.
Running shoes.

We closed out the show last night with a cover of "I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner. Ryan played keytar. I played synth. Brian sang.

Here's a shot Elliott took on stage mid clap. Note the concentration and dedication.

As reviewed this morning in the Reading Eagle

The show seemed to be all but over until Rosenworcel meandered down to the microphone.

"The people who run this theater have asked us to tell you that there are still tickets available for Foreigner's show Thursday night," he said. "But we wanted to take it one step further."

The group then launched into a tongue-in-cheek version of "I Want to Know What Love Is," featuring a larynx-tearing, not-even-attempting-to-stay-in-key vocal from Rosenworcel and a keytar solo from Miller.

Wilco Country

Chicago

Days Off

Hotel Rooms Right Next To The Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Buildings

Thai Food

Coffee

Hoodies

New Songs

Long Walks

Up All Night

Syracuse to Chicago

Rolling west out of Syracuse for Chicago on the bus (powered by bio-diesel) where we got the next two days off. Working on new songs with Pisapia at the Sax hotel.

I had last night off, since it was a co-headline bill for Guster with Ben Folds and Hotel Lights opening. Turns out that Tift's husband Zeke was playing drums in the band and we spent some time right before they hit hanging and catching up.

Fueling up our buses with bio diesel on sight at the Syracuse Arena


Elliott from REVERB pointing at close to 1,000 gallons of bio diesel






Zeke on the jumbotron






Guster setlist Syracuse

Luke + Brett on Ellen

30

It's 1 in the morning. The birthday is "over". 30. Feels big. Pete's just gettin back from Coachella. Brett leaves for Europe tour in 3 hours. The crew is tearing shit up.

Spent the past 3 days in Joshua Tree reeling, trying to make sense of everything comin my way. I got faith in life. Some things I can see clear, others, I couldn't tell you what color they were for the life of me.

This morning, got up early, long run, short surf, tacos, sound check, dinner with friends.

Played Ellen TV this afternoon with the roomie. I'm headed for the airport in a couple hours, running around the house packing guitars, boxes of cds, toothbrushes, jeans.

L to R Zach Rae, Luke Reynolds, Randy Schwartz, Brett Dennen, Sean Hurley

See you on the road.

xoLuke

Guster + Pictures And Sound College Tour Dates

Pictures And Sound is super excited to announce that we've been invited by our friends Guster to open up on their Campus Consciousness Tour for the last five shows starting the end of April.

APRIL 24 UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND - RICHMOND, VA CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER
APRIL 25 FORDHAM UNIVERISTY - BRONX, NY CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER
APRIL 29 UNIVERSITY WISCONSIN - MADISON, WI CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER
APRIL 30 MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY - MILWAUKEE, WI CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER
MAY 2 ALBRIGHT COLLEGE - READING, PN CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER

I first met Guster at the Sound Emporium Recording Studio in Nashville TN in 2002, when Blue Merle was recording our first demos in the B room and they were working on Keep It Together over in A. They were actually the first band I ever toured with back in 2003 when Blue Merle went out for the first time proper. Three years later we toured for six weeks when I was playing pedal steel and lead guitar in my house mate Brett's band, also as part of their Campus Consciousness Tour.

Ben Moon photo


L-R Johnny Flower, Randy Schwartz, Luke Reynolds, Brett Dennen


Luke Reynolds, Adam Gardner

Long story short, I'm super stoked to spend some more time on the bus with the guys and to connect with a pile of new and olds friends and fans on the road. See you all soon!

New Phoenix Album - Free Download Link

The new Phoenix album (co-produced by the band and Philippe Zdar of the French duo Cassius) is fucking incredible! Do yourself a favor and go download the WOLFGANG AMADEUS PHOENIX EP on iTunes and while you're waiting snag their free single 1901, right off the front page of their site

CLICK HERE

I'm running out now to meet Bram for a beer. Catch you guys soon. Lots of news in our camp. Keep your ears open over the next couple days.

Can't believe how many times I've listened to the Jeff Tweedy Sunken Treasure live solo recordings the past couple days. Really, it's stupid.

Cabo San Lucas Orphanage

Guster tour manager Seth Loeser + a couple awesome kids

Scotty Southern hard at work patching the lines for my entire wall of Marshall amplifiers (note the mustache)

It still feels like I'm swaying and I've been off the boat a full day. I spent the past week along with Aaron and Gabe at sea on the Mayercraft Cuise, sailing with our friends Guster, Jessie Baylin and others from southern California down to Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

Thanks so much to all the fans who made it out and to the crew (ESPECIALLY SCOTTY SOUTHERN) and all the managers (Nettwerk, Redlight + Mick) who made it happen.

More pictures from the shows to follow. What I wanted to post tonight was the highlight of the trip for many of us, our day at the boys orphanage in Cabo. The kids there, all 22 of them, ranged in age from 6-14. REVERB (co-founded by Adam of Guster and his wife Lauren) helped line up instruments through Boston based First Act and coordinated with the staff at the orphanage to make our visit possible. Big shout out to Elliot!

Ryan + Joe of Guster + the kids on some new First Act Guitars

Ryan + Joe of Guster + the kids on some new First Act guitars

Stephanie, Ryan's daughter Leo + Ryan

Me + my homie

Ryan our other buddy and me working out the chord changes for Once Bitten Twice Shy

Images From The Work Space Tonight

A friend told me today, that "I know the grand scheme is working for you in ways you can't see".

You have no idea the rush of relief with which that wave hit me.

Thanks Tift.

Shadow Boxing + Sender Films

Banff Film Festival two nights back was super fun, I was hoping to meet some new kids in the scene out here, but everyone kinda shuffled in and out of the theater super fast. Everywhere else I've ever lived (MT, CO, TN, VT, WY, UT, OR), film events usual turn into pandemonium afterwards and I think that's what I was looking for or at least to stand on the edge of a tornado and feel the wind on my face.   

But that's ok!  I know there's a crew here into way more than just music, I've already met some of them!!!

This film The Sharp End made by my friends Pete and Nick at Sender Films, headlined the event.  Check out Shadow Boxing in Steph Davis' section.  

Pictures And Sound - Shadow Boxing

Listening to Clem Snide sing Me No, on KEXP's song of the day podcast.  It's St Patricks day, coffee's going, headed for a run, then back into the studio for the rest of the day.  Tear it up you guys!

Also, make sure you're signed up and following along on Twitter!

twitter.com/picsandsound

Film Scoring On A Sunday Morning + Surf Breaks

Luke AKA Pictures And Sound here, checking in on a amazing cloudy Sunday morning! I got coffee water boiling and am listening to the new Jorma Kaukonen album River Of Time produced by Dylan's multi-instrumentalist, Larry Campbell. Do yourself a favor and go download A Walk With Friends. The pedal steel is beautiful and loose, just the way I like it!

For the past several weeks, I've been scoring a documentary in the studio, using loads of old gear. The tracks are all coming along well and I got another week and a half to go till final mixes are due. It's exciting to be doing all the music and it feels like a big step forward, having taken a million smaller ones these past few years in the soundtrack department.

When I was little all I wanted to be (besides a pro snowboarder or member of the US downhill ski team) was a professional hunting guide in Alaska, a marine biologist in Maine or someone who wrote film scores like Ry Cooder. Maybe at least, the later of the three isn't so far off the mark!

UPCOMING SHOWS

In another ten days, I'll be heading out to perform on the Mayer Craft Carrier cruise headed for Mexico with Guster, Jessie Baylin, Martin Sexton + Erin McCarley.



Playing with me on the cruise (I'm proud to say), are Gabe Nelson on bass from the band Cake and Aaron Refield on drums from the bands Greyboy Allstars and Fiction Family. Watch out!

Cake


Greyboy Allstars onstage Aaron Redfield on drums + Mike Andrews on guitar

In other Pictures And Sound news, Pete, Wilder + Jacquire are all in Nashville cutting a record together and in a couple weeks, Pete + Kirby head back out on the road with French pop musician Sebastien Tellier.

Bram, who we've been collaborating with the past couple months, is headed to Japan with Beck tomorrow morning for two weeks of shows. I'm happy the guys have so much good stuff going on. Tear it up fellas.

Took a break yesterday from recording to get some of this. Malibu was going off way tighter and longer, but felt a little swamped with too many surfers so I drove south and caught this.

ALBUM REMINDER

Please remind your friends who shop at Whole Foods, that Pictures And Sound is still available in over 220+ Whole Foods locations across the country for only $4.99 and to pick up a copy for themselves or someone they know. You can help spread the word!


(In this case, our album appears next to Celine Dion + the definitive Rod Stewart collection. Wow awesome!)



Big changes happening in our camp happening right now so please keep me in your thoughts as I hold you in mine, cus nothing's gonna hold us down! All it's gonna do is make us stronger! I have too much faith in life to feel like I could ever be denied.

Go do good out there today. Talk soon and keep working hard. Thanks for supporting this music!

xoxo Luke

Morning Work vs Night Work

Today I re-discovered that not only do I enjoy different parts of my job at different times of the day, but also that I'm more productive at certain tasks at certain times, in this case song writing productivity peaking at different hours than proposal writing, than composing, than recording.

I typically do my best song writing first thing in the morning (although "mornings" usually last me 8-9 hours) and because of that, have developed a very strict routine which I stick to, especially when I'm full on writing mode.

Lately though, I've been working on a film I'm scoring for Jackson Hole based producers KGB and have found that even though I'm cranking from breakfast till the early morning, the composing is only really turning up for me after 11PM.

Maybe it takes 12 hours of preparation to really knock out a great pedal steel part in 3 minutes?

Oh also, everyone go download M Wards new album Hold Time. Mike Mogis from Bright Eyes, as well as Lucinda Williams and Zoey Deschanel appear. Watching the first video makes me miss my fair city and all our amazing friends in Portland Oregon!

xoxo Luke

Back In The Saddle

I'm back in the saddle and it's been a insanely sporadic ten days chock full of sessions, expedition proposal edits, showcases, film scoring, traveling back and forth between the coasts, snowstorms and meetings (not to mention that I got the new studio wired) so thanks for bearing with me while my blog fell to the wayside.



It feels like I got a whole deck of cards up in the air. I got X's scribbled all around my feet and sooner or later one of them cards is gonna land and start the whole thing 'a rollin! It has to happen soon!!!

So I pulled an 22 hour all nighter scoring a documentary I'm working on about trail building and downhill mountain biking Thursday + Friday and then hopped a plane to go see Em + our dog Tractor in New York for 3 days. I arrived on the front end of a New England blizzard, with just enough time to stock up on food and hunker down for the storm.

Over the weekend we got to see several exhibits at The Met, The Museum of the American Indian and the New York Historical Society although the show that stood high above the others, was the John James Audubon painting exhibit, an exhibit that's only shown every 10 years or so because of the frailty of the paintings.



Not only was Audubon an unbelievable naturalist, hunter and artist, he was also an unbelievably hard worker who met adversity with fierce determination and who at the age of 27 had over 200 of his paintings (years worth of work) destroyed by rats and responded by redoing all of them better than he had in the first go round.



His life goal became to complete the paintings and field descriptions for what would after 12 years become "The Guide To: Birds Of America", a book still considered "the standard" consisting of his results from a period of world exploration consolidated in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The Recharge

Made one big push to finish up a bunch of projects, proposals and new sketches last week in anticipation for a visit from my mom the past 4 days who flew in from Vermont. We hiked all up the coast and spent time doing the same out in Joshua Tree National Park.



She flew back east this morning and I spent the rest of the day in meetings with my manager Randy. Right now I'm feeling good, focused, recharged and right on the edge of something good. Now it's back to film and trip proposals, song writing and the band.

Floating In Space

I've been working on this one song constantly for almost two months now.  Sitting at the kitchen table with a victory beer, not that finishing a song is to be considered a "victory". Knock on wood.  

I'm paranoid, even when I'm on a tear, that the mystique surrounding their arrival, might vanish, should I say something inappropriate about them.  

To even talk of the process of songwriting, feels like walking thru a graveyard of your ancestors or what I imagine walking blindfolded thru a museum of glass statues to be like: something done with the utmost caution, respect and a healthy dose of fear.   

That all being said, I've earned my beer.  Here's a taste of a middle eight and a chorus for you, look for it in the set this spring.  It's a shuffle and it has vibes, pedal steel, cello and maraca in it.  I'm crashing out.  

As usual I post these lyrics in good faith 

All lyrics music and melody Copyright Luke Reynolds, Bram Enscore + Pete McNeal 2009

What moves the earth 

Around the sun

What is my purpose here

Is it enough

Along the way

Our path unfolds

We'll never know 

Unless we go

Cus when I look in your eyes

I know anything is possible 

And if we make it thru this 

Than I know we'll be unstoppable 

When you've run out of reasons

And you question your faith

Turn your eyes to the sky and remember

That we're floating in space 

New Friends + The Belle Brigade

Driving home with a car load of guitars, pedal steels, keyboards + water bottles

Having dropped off a car load of guitars, I'm just now gettin in the door after a super fun day in the studio. Today me and Bram played on a really cool record: A brother sister duo named The Bell Brigade.

Bram cutting Wurly tonight

Our friend Barbara (sister Belle), is an amazing drummer who I'd been hearing about forever thru Pete. We finally connected earlier this week when she was playing with Bram up north of town.

L-R Barbara Gruska, Jenny Lewis, Jonathan Rice

You can also catch her on tour with, or hear her drumming on, the new Jenny Lewis record, "Acid Tongue".

Pictures And Sound in NAU Blog

Ben Moon photo (Tractor on right checking out rocks in Joshua Tree Nat'l Park)

CLICK HERE to read the new entry my friends over at NAU posted on their blog "The Thought Kitchen". Thanks you guys for your continued support!

Emilie and me first worked with this awesome Portland Oregon based company when we made a short film called "Finding Balance". It was during this period of my life when I met a handful of people who I now look to for much of my inspiration. Alpinist and survivor Julia Niles, film maker David Gonzales and photographer and survivor Ben Moon.

Ben Moon

David Gonzales

Julia Niles

THE DIFFERENT WAYS TO SPEND A SUNDAY

At Hollywood Sound Saturday night recording banjo

It's Sunday morning in the kitchen, mid winter and I'm waking up after another long night in the studio. As I type this, sunlight falls thru the window across my hands and outside I can hear birds singing to one another even over the hum of the washing machine in the other room.

The door out into the backyard behind me hangs open and every so often I'll feel a slight breeze wash over my back, the same way that summer lake water lazily laps up against your legs hanging out over the gunnels of a canoe.

Still haven't put a shirt on yet. Getting the coffee water going first this morning was much more of a priority.

Depending on where you are in your life, the word Sunday (typically reserved as a day of recharge) will conjure up different images, thoughts and smells.

For my parents, Sunday is a day to be spent in the mountains together with a wicker backpack, some matches and a pot of tea.



For my friends up north in Jackson Hole, Canada and Montana, Sunday is catching the first chair at the ski area, headphones deep in your ears, eyes hidden behind tinted goggles.

In the past for me, Sunday has been everything from a day to catch up on chores around the ranch, to my long run of the week. Airing out sleeping bags on the clothesline in the back yard and waking up early to fulfill morning radio and press obligations in Milan Italy with The Gotan crew.


L-R Me and Philippe Solal of The Gotan Project onstage in Paris


Emilie Lee photo Brighton Utah

What does Sunday look like to me right now? I'm not exactly sure. Alot of what I plan to get done, depends on what the creative process demanded of me during the week with of working with the guys.

My new proximity to them (them being the main reason I'm out here), has allowed us to collaborate faster, easier and looser, but it's also given me a new cityscape to adjust to. I'm still finding "my" trail running spot. "My" breakfast taco spot. "My" routine for recharge.


Pete McNeal


Dave Wilder


Gabe Nelson


Bram Inscore

This past week for example, I've been in writing mode, walking in circles around the sun room, my eyes open, their focus soft, the thoughts behind them shifting like a rope swing extendeing way out over a river rushing fast.

Bram and me worked together at his spot in Echo Park, but I've also been shuffling between studios in Culver City, Hollywood and Santa Monica, my sleeping schedule married to phrases I've been farming, each laid like train tracks out in front of the other, gathering speed towards their shared destination: the end of a song.

My schedule has been all over the place, which is maybe why this Sunday feels slightly anticlimactic. Each day, I get up in the morning and catch up on the news via podcasts while I'm eating breakfast.

I have a NO INTERNET rule before for the mornings until after my pen has hit the paper for my preparatory writing routine so THAT MEANS NO facebook, myspace, craigslist or hotmail. Adding this rule has had a HUGE impact on my output. Don't think I'll ever own a Blackberry.

Immediately following comes 4-6 focused hours at the bench with my rhyming dictionary, notepad, laptop, what ever book I'm reading and water bottle, then a quick break for lunch, and another 3-4 hour push till dinner.

By then, I'm playing well and my voice is warmed up having sung all day. Hopefully I've snuck a 30-60 minute workout in there somewhere (crucial to the process). All of this, lays the ground work for the nights work.


Main writing room guitar L-R 1964 Silvertone Jupiter, Gibson 335, Collings 000, Steve Reynolds 17" Archtop

If there happen to be roommates in the house during the day (which because of our rotating tour and recording schedules there haven't been) than I work outside in the garage, the doors closed. I can't work around anyone accept for Jacquire, Harris or my dog Tractor. Around my writing spot in the garage are empty boxes, piles of book and Christmas lights strung across the ceiling. Lime trees brush against the outside windows.


The outside of the garage my backup writing spot



If noone's home than I work in the sun room which sits adjacent to our kitchen. Plants sit on the floor, along the walls stand rows of guitar, conga drums, paintings and candles. I keep this room sacred, no eating, "inter-netting", DVD watching, so that when I enter it, I know my purpose for what I hope to achieve between those walls clear as day.


My main writing room

By now, the street outside is picking up, my coffee cup is cold, time to get going. I wish more than anything that I was with some close friends who understand my jokes, bundled up on a ridge somewhere the back country, skis and snowboards all skinned up, sweating beneath our layers of down and polypropylene running errands around town to pick up lumber or return a piece of gear Paczosa lent me, staying long enough to try out some of his newly roasted coffee beans.

I know that day will come though it may seem a long ways off and that what I'm doing now, is helping to turn the dream into a slow motion reality. Between now and then there are so many adventures to be had, so many faces to know, places to go.

Think I'm going to go drive down and check the surf, do hang the laundry out to dry, pick up some groceries, go for a road bike and make split pea soup.

It is winter after all.

Luke


Laura Crosta photo