#danny paul grody

[dustedmagazine]

Danny Paul Grody Duo — Arc of Night (Three Lobed)

Photo by Ian Albert

The guitar-drums duo concept has produced a lot of good music lately, whether in Gunn-Truscinski’s abstract explorations (sometimes augmented with Bill Nace) or Jim White’s percussive conversations with Marisa Anderson. Like these outfits, the Danny Paul Grody Duo often allows the drummer (in this case Rich Douthit of The Drift) to range free form, using percussion as a color and a mood as much as a timekeeper.

Arc of Night follows the similarly titled Arc of Day by about a year, and it’s very similar in texture and vibe, though perhaps a little moodier and introspective.  Once again, the tracks foreground Grody’s lyrical guitar lines but this time, there’s more space for Douthit and other guests are kept to a minimum.  Only two tracks feature artists outside the duo. Trevor Montgomery adds some electric bass to eerie, hovering “Hawk Hill,” while Chuck Johnson joins on pedal steel for the slow-blooming, very nocturnal “Moon Garden.” 

Both of those cuts have their own appeal, but perhaps it makes sense to focus first on unassisted tracks. Grody and Douthit have an undeniable chemistry that comes through best when it’s just the two of them. Consider, for instance, the opening “Last Light,” which unfolds in a free-form, unhurried, unconstrained way. Grody unspools a thoughtful melody, his tone full of force and clarity, but with long meditative pauses between phrases. Into those gaps, Douthit inserts abstracted bits of cymbal shimmer, short drum rolls and unexpected thwacks. Their interaction sounds like a conversation, the guitar proposing, the drums answering with bursts of conciliatory or contradictory energy. There’s a fluidity to the piece, which moves as it will, without the guardrails of obvious time signature.

Later, the two extend their dialogue into a longer form in “Coyote Valley at Dusk.” The guitar licks flurry upwards from a single lingering low note. At first, the percussion simmers a barely audible jangle of bells. Then, in time, a rhythm asserts itself, first in the guitar line, later picked up in a minimalist cadence of cymbal and snare. The piece takes on purpose and propulsion; it sounds a bit like Chris Forsyth’s extended grooves with Solar Motel Band. You can hear the two musicians testing cracks in the repetition, finding ways to make a repeated motif fresh from measure to measure without violating its integrity. The addition of slide (or maybe e-bow?) in the second half infuses ethereal spirituality, turning the music from chug to free flight.

The music is quite beautiful in a somnolent, dusky sort of way. It can fade into the background if you let it, but there are details worth hearing if you take care and listen closely.

Jennifer Kelly

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Interviews 2024

Sometimes, I talk to musicians! This year, I had conversations with some great ones — Linda Thompson, Bob Holmes (Suss, numun, etc), somesurprises, Danny Paul Grody, James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg, Zachary Cale, and Crazy Horse's Billy freakin' Talbot. I always wish I was a little bit better at the art of conversation, but hopefully, these chats are entertaining/interesting enough.

You can decide for yourself over on Aquarium Drunkard — which as mentioned many times before, has gone behind the paywall this year. But as also mentioned many times before, your membership fee is worth it ... think of it as subscribing to many e-newsletters/substacks all at once? Beyond my own Q&As, there have been a ton of sweet talks this year, from Jeff Parker to Thurston Moore to Rosali to J Spaceman to The Necks to Guy Picciotto to Pat Metheny to Jessica Pratt and many many more. (And that's not even counting Jason P. Woodbury's always awesome Transmissions podcast). Sign up!

Linda Thompson

I just liked that kind of sad, keening music. I think keening is the word, you know? Most people hate [that kind of music]. I mean, most people hate the bagpipes. I love the bagpipes, so there’s obviously something very wrong with me. [Laughs]

Bob Holmes

The vibe is a big part of it—that big sky, open feeling, creating a musical experience that that is very open. The word inclusive shows up a lot. Inclusive of musical genres, yeah, but also men, women, transgender, different races. I always say that the thing about ambient country is that it’s a big country. There’s plenty of space. 

somesurprises

For me, it’s about trying to be someone who’s open to change — whether that’s personally, politically or globally. That’s the most centered reality. Cynicism and just believing that things have to be done the way they’ve been done in the past, or that someone else has to get the short end of the stick for them to benefit — those are actually twisted versions of reality.

Danny Paul Grody

I changed so fundamentally when I became a parent. It impacts everything, every aspect of my life. You know, it was one of the greatest gifts I could ask for, just to take my focus off of myself. I didn’t realize what a gift it would be, but it’s taught me a lot. But it’s also taught me how to really cherish those things in my life that matter, that bring meaning, that bring me a sense of wholeness. Music is one of those things, obviously.

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg

I find that as I’ve made more records and written more songs, I’ve become a much more sympathetic listener. My tastes have only broadened as I’ve gotten older. My early records — both with Jim and without — were reflections of more limited influences, or the desire to only have certain influences present. That’s definitely changed. In some ways, we don’t have anything to prove to anyone anymore.

Zachary Cale

I got to hang out with Michael Chapman a few times and I asked him about that point blank. “Is that one of the reasons why you do it – to mark the span of time?” He said absolutely. I mean, it’s the art of it, too, but these records are how I mark my time. I’ve always been old fashioned that way. I think most musicians who are in it for the long haul think of it that way, too. 

Billy Talbot

It’s fate. And I don’t even really believe in fate. We probably make our own fate, as we move along in this life. There seems to be some kind of other plan for us that we latched onto. But I’m not sure about that. All I know is that it happened. And I’m grateful. Grateful to have been a part of it.

[thegentleways]

[hastioexquisito]

Danny Paul Grody "Light Blooms" (Official Video - 2023, Three Lobed Reco...

[awhirr]

Danny Paul Grody Duo - Hawk Hill

[noloveforned]

it's a holiday weekend here in the u.s.a. and i'm 'celebrating freedom' with my typical friday evening freeform radio on wlur. you can tune in from 8pm until midnight for the live fireworks. if you're celebrating elsewhere tonight you can always catch up with last week's show streaming on mixcloud.

no love for ned on wlur – june 28th, 2024 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label the double // dawn of the double (excerpt) // dawn of the double // in the red dom sensitive // r&d // leather trim // dinosaur city mope grooves // forever is a long time // box of dark roses // 12xu antietam // shively spleen // antietam // hoemstead surveillance // on my way // less than one, more than zero // celluloid lunch loose lips // here she comes // loose lips cassette // (self-released) laughing // easier said // because it's true // celluloid lunch hot tubs time machine // no thanks, google maps // fifty shades of marcus 7" // spoilsport moss lime // dreamboat // zoo du quebec ep // telephone explosion the pretenders // message of love // pretenders ii // sire birthday girl dc // house of cards // birthday girl ep // army brat oh, rose // that do now see // that do now see (remastered) cassette // antiquated future danny paul grody duo // hawk hill // arc of night // three lobed fuubutsushi // new flora // meridians // cached media kronos quartet and laraaji // daddy's gonna tell you no lie // outer spaceways incorporated- kronos quartet and friends meet sun ra // red hot organization yea big and tatsu aoki // the mind and the heart // the hand and the moon, pt. 1 // for practically everyone william parker, cooper-moore and hamid drake // processional // heart trio // aum fidelity joe henderson // afro-centric // power to the people // milestone rome streetz // what i'm used to // i been thru mad shit // bad influenyce previous industries // white hen // service merchandise // merge homeboy sandman // the place i want to be // rich ii // dirty looks maxo // same hoodie since '05 // smile ep // smile for me yaya bey // chrysanthemums // ten fold // big dada jimmie green // dance // eccentric soul- the shoestring label compilation // numero group the garment district // the island of stability // flowers telegraphed to all parts of the world // happy happy birthday to me advantage lucy // solaris // fanfare // eastworld smile too much // memorial park // ep two cassette // dandy boy lunchbox // heaven only knows // pop and circumstance // slumberland shonen knife // elephant pao pao // burning farm // oglio korea girl // under the sun // korea girl // asian man

[lflip]

Danny Paul Grody Duo "Hawk Hill" (Official Video - 2024, Three Lobed Rec...

[burlveneer-music]

Danny Paul Grody - Sunrise, Looking East - ambient electronics + acoustic guitar; lovely (Longform Editions)

Danny Paul Grody is a solo musician and founding member of San Francisco based bands Tarentel and The Drift. He is a self taught guitarist, and the melodies at the core of Danny’s songwriting bring to mind his love of West African Kora, Takoma style fingerpicking and all things minimal, repetitive and hypnotic. Artist notes: Until recently, early mornings have been an elusive time of day. I've never considered myself much of an early riser so catching the sunrise was a rare occurrence. When I became a father earlier this year, my orientation to time (among other things) has changed profoundly. One of the unexpected joys in this shift is waking up early enough to appreciate the transition from night to day. The nursery room happens to face east where the sun rises here in California. Getting the chance to share this moment with the little one has become one of my favourite rituals of the day. This piece is my attempt at capturing the experience. It was recorded in two phases. First, I tracked a drone using layers of electric organ, synthesizer, field recordings (captured at sunrise) and bowed twelve string guitar. Then I improvised alongside the drone using an acoustic twelve string guitar tuned to a variation of the open B tuning. The arc of the piece approximates the time it takes for the sun to move from a soft glow to being fully visible above the horizon. When I think of deep listening, my mind immediately goes to composer Pauline Oliveros, often credited as being the founder of Deep Listening. In her own words Oliveros simply describes the process as "a way of listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing." Her spirit of wonder with sound is something I connect very much with and have drawn inspiration from. For me, deep listening is opening my ears to sound with curiosity regardless of the setting. It is a practice I engage with on a daily basis, be it on the bus commute, strolling through the park, or in how I listen to and create music.

[givetimsomerest]

Danny Paul Grody – “Hope’s Refrain”

Written at home the day after women's march on Washington. I went to the concurrent march held here in San Francisco. Thousands upon thousands peacefully gathered in the spirit of unity, love, and equality. Every walk of life. It was amazing to witness and incredible to see the countless other marches taking place all over the world. It was the first real sense of hope that I've felt in a long while. This music is an attempt to capture this feeling as it lingered. Let's resist fear, spread love, and fight the good fight!

[dustedmagazine]

Michael A. Muller — Mirror Music (Deutsche Grammophon)

Ten independent artists — largely from the improvised, jazz-adjacent ambient side of things — venture into Michael A. Muller’s glowing, swirling soundscapes, each finding and bringing different textures there. Muller, a founder of the Texas minimalist music collective Balmorhea, sticks to long-toned, keyboard-based instruments: a Mellotron, an Oberheim Two-Voice Synthesizer and a Rhodes organ, creating luminous auras of tone. His collaborators play a variety of instruments — guitar, percussion, voice and cello — populating these edgeless, serene sonic spaces with melody and rhythm.

Muller himself plays the guitar, and he seems to have a particular affinity for its devotees. Bay Area finger-picker Danny Paul Grody scatters sparkly chords and meditative runs across synthesizer washes that surge and swell and ebb. Without the guitar, these tones might be too unreal, too grand, too beautiful to catch, but with these slow-blooming, organic figures, the music makes sense on a human scale. Chuck Johnson is a different case. His silvery sustained pedal steel music contains its own uncanny valleys, and so he slides like a ghost between shimmering, vibrating curtains, carving aching arcs of longing into a chilled, cerebral landscape. Douglas McCombs, of Tortoise, Brokeback and Black Duck, picks a clean, reverberating, almost surf-toned melody across an oscillating, shifting, reverential backdrop; he cuts right through it, emphatic and sure.

Women artists make a mark, though mostly with their voices. Vestals float eerie, altered sighs and caresses over the clear tones of Rhodes, a piercing descant one of this disc’s most gorgeous sounds. The Polish composer and pianist Hania Rani also sings, in a whisper amid shivering ambiences, in a way that reminds me a little of Mia Doi Todd. But Clarice Jensen, who sometimes plays with Balmorhea, brings her instrument along, threading rich throbs of cello through a landscape of widely spaced piano chords.

In the mirror game, budding actors stand face to face, copying each other’s expressions and gestures in real time, in a sort of synchronized dance. Here, the interaction is more oblique, with each artist staring into a foggy reflection and finding some element of themselves there. The music that arises is hardly synchronized, but the players find a way to react and build on what the other is doing. Oh, and it’s lovely. That’s important, too.

Jennifer Kelly

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Danny Paul Grody :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

I've been a Danny Paul Grody superfan since hearing Between Two Worlds, his 2013 release on Three Lobed, so it was a privilege/pleasure to speak with the Bay Area guitarist a couple weeks back for Aquarium Drunkard. The occasion? Arc Of Night, the masterful followup to Arc Of Day. A full collab with drummer Rich Douthit (the album is rightly credited to the Danny Paul Grody Duo), Night is a total wonder, expansive, spacious, moody and downright gorgeous. One of the 2024's best records, full-stop! Not only is he an insanely gifted musician, Danny's also a thoughtful and sweet guy to talk to — hopefully that comes across in our conversation ...

[boonesfarmsangria]

Ben Howard returns to OpenLab with Find Me Love, a brand new selection of some of his favorite music, including tracks by PJ Harvey, Robert Wyatt, Arthur Russell, Aero Flynn, and Field Works ✨

episode 3 - Find Me Love

openlab

Tracklist:

Robbie Basho - Orphan's Lament

Aero Flynn - Find Me Love

The Corries - Tiree Love Song

Field Works; Stuart Hyatt; Danny Paul Grody; Fadi Tabbal; Bob Hoffnar; Tomás Lozano; Dena El Saffar - La’āli’

John Martyn; Beverley Martyn - Go Out And Get It

PJ Harvey - We Float

Hedy West - 500 Miles

Devonté Hynes - Love Theme (Dance)

Roy Harper - Forever - Remastered

Valerie June - Starlight Ethereal Silence

John Francis Flynn - Bring Me Home, pt. iii: An Buachailín Bán

Blaze Foley - The Moonlight Song

Jimi Hendrix - One Rainy Wish

Rachika Nayar - The Trembling of Glass

Robert Wyatt - Memories Of You

Myriam Gendron - Go Away From My Window

Arthur Russell - Words Of Love

Elizabeth Cotten - Till We Meet Again

|| Ben Howard’s new show on OpenLab showcases some of his favourite music, poetry and influences from across the musical spectrum. ||

[auralthicket]

episode 53: semi-precious stones of 2021 (12.29.21)

set 1:

Joanna Mattrey – Tryst – Dirge (Dear Life, 2021)

Sage Alyte – Ombragée de noyer – Paume de pierre (Vlek, 2021)

Danny Paul Grody – Wanderer – Furniture Music II (self-released, 2021)

Thom Nguyen – Leaning Towards Dementia – Exits (SIGE, 2021)

Hali Palombo – Loop 10 – Cylinder Loops (Astral Editions, 2021)

set 2:

Matt Evans – Touchless – touchless (Whatever’s Clever, 2021)

Rob Noyes & Joseph Allred – Avoidance Language – Avoidance Language (Feeding Tube, 2021)

set 3:

Johnny Coley – Golden Light – Antique Sadness (Sweet Wreath, 2021)

Helen Svoboda – Greyscale – dormant, I lay. (self-released, 2021)

McKain / Murray / Radichel / Suarez / Weeks – That Wretch Comparable to Mirrors – The Running of the Bulls (radicaldocuments, 2021)

[thestillnessandthedancing]

September 26th 2018

Oh yes! We have a fresh batch of elegance for your cloudy days and cooler nights. Autumnal atmospheres and folk musings.

-hour1- Lake Mary & Talk West - Leaving Morning (from.. ST - 2018 - Cabin Floor Esoterica) Slow Fade Sailors - Earthly (from.. While the Soul Slept In Beams of Light - 2018) Gaetan - The Experience of Nothingness (from.. First Light - 2018 - Epoch Tapes) Cultus - He Knows How (from.. Potential Energy - 2018) Kj - ex (from.. Ex - 2018 - Dronarivm) Danny Mulhern - Perpetual Motion (from.. Safe House - 2018 - 1631 Recordings) Jessica Moss - Fractals (Truth 4) (from.. Entanglements - 2018 - Constellation Records) Western Skies Motel - Passage (from.. Buried & Resurfaced - 2015) Aaron Martin - A Hand that Reaches, A Branch that Sings (from.. Touch Dissolves - 2018 - IIKKI)

-hour2- Nicholas Szczepanik - Nostalgia (from.. We Make Life Sad - 2012 - WeMe Records) Leyland Kirby aka The Caretaker - M1 Stage 5 Synapse retrogenesis (from.. Everywhere at the end of time - 2018) Grouper - Living Room (from.. Man Who Died in His Boat - 2013 - Kranky) Celestino - Lovely Hermit Phased (from.. Kindling - 2013 - A Guide to Saints/Room40) Ezekiel Honig - Antique Paper (from.. An Antique of Paper & Distance - 2018) Celestino - Peaceful Tigress (from.. Lived In - 2012) Roy Montgomery - Clear Night, Port Hills (from.. Scenes From the South Island - 1995) Danny Paul Grody - On Leaving (from.. Sketch for Winder VI: Other States - 2016) Caleb R.K. Williams - Mustang (from.. Horses Look Behind the Sky, And All Is Wild - 2018 - The Eagle Stone Collective)

*Photo the cover of kj's ex out now on Dronarivm

[noloveforned]

i'm back on wlur tonight from 8pm until midnight after taking last week off to catch a show at the garage from scivic rivers (aka bryce randall bickford fka the strugglers) and ned oldham/jordan perry.

in other news, i'm no longer able to embed my radio shows to stream within my tumblr page. they transition to a new post format and my long, self-hosted mp3s don't seem to play nicely. in the meantime, i've posted last week's show on mixcloud for you to listen at your leisure!

no love for ned on wlur - june 9th, 2023 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label plumtree // scott pilgrim // predicts the future // cinnamon toast morgan and the organ donors // so dark // m.o.d.s // perennial body type // tread overhead // expired candy // poison city good looking son // glitter everywhere // confirmed bachelor // feel it thank god for astronauts // danica // bring us meat // needlepoint night court // chokehold vs. karate kick // humans! // debt offensive guardian singles // ground swell // feed me to the doves // trouble in mind moth // automated stock // modern madness cassette // marthouse pinch points // pave me // mechanical injury ep // roolette cloud nothings // fridge rock // (bandcamp mp3) // (unreleased) the toads // tale of a town split in two // in the wilderness // upset the rhythm aquarian blood // i never lied to you // i never lied to you digital single // paradise design blue roof // shit yeah // shit yeah digital single // (self-released) whitney's playland // i'll keep it with mine // a day at the fair cassette // paisley shirt maxine funke // oblivion // river said // disciples danny paul grody // california angelica // arc of day // three lobed kate nv // walk // bouquet // rvng intl abdul wadud // expansions // by myself // gotta groove sun ra // my world is the space way // space is the place soundtrack (expanded) // modern harmonic steve lehman and sélébéyone // zeraora // xaybu: the unseen // pi georgia anne muldrow featuring josef leimberg // nuke's blues // red hot and ra: nuclear war- a tribute to sun ra // red hot organization beyoncé featuring kendrick lamar // america has a problem (remix) // america has a problem (remix) digital single // parkwood stimela // mind games // fire, passion and ecstacy // tidal waves vivien goldman // my bestie and my bff // next is now // cadiz entertainment à trois sur la plage // bonjour tristesse // à trois sur la plage // gone with the weed pretty in pink // pressure socks // pillows // little lunch park // decided to go // trento cassette // lil' lion maria t // near wild heaven // afternoon destroyer cassette // (self-released) 3 a.m. again // end it here // cherry street ep (expanded) // subjangle craig salt peters // jubilee // stuck in the present tense cassette // lost sound tapes