Tag Archives: new york city

John Halo: Strings and Things

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On this episode, John Halo of the hard-rocking NYC quartet Downtown Equipment is here to work on his Les Paul Standard, while our host, Patrick Grant, changes the strings on an old friend, his sea-foam Fender Jaguar. 

We’ll find out how many guitars John actually owns and how he names them, and of course, he and Patrick will boot up and plug in for a special year-end jam.

John handles guitars, composition and vocals in Downtown Equipment, and the band is working on a follow-up to their most recent EP, Calls for Chaos, which you can listen to right here:

By day, John molds young minds as a program coordinator in the New York City public school system. He creates courses and projects for junior high students in the science and the arts, from 3D printing to aeronautics to producing musicals. He also teaches a lot of math and music theory, which was the focus of his post-graduate studies.

This is our last episode of 2016! A huge shout-out to all of the guitarists who have joined us this year and a big thank you to all of you who have stuck around and listened to the show.

Happy New Year!

James Moore: Strings and Things

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Above photo by Isabelle Selby.

The podcast goes unplugged this week! Our host, Patrick Grant is in the front parlor with James Moore of the Dither Guitar Quartet. They’ve got National and Ovation acoustic guitars and they intend to use them. We’ll find out how James made it from the San Francisco Bay Area to the new music scene here in New York. He’ll tell us about the strange playing techniques he uses on his recent album of  solo guitar music by John Zorn, and we’ll hear an exclusive rendition of a Chet Atkins ballad.

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Dither is an electric guitar quartet that includes James,  Taylor Levine, Joshua Lopes, and Gyan Riley. They specialize in an experimental mix of “composed music, improvisation, and electronic manipulation.”  They’ve performed across the United States and overseas since forming in 2007, and produce a yearly festival of music and art called Extravaganza!.

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As a multi-instrumentalist and composer, James juggles a number of musical projects aside from Dither, such as The Hands Free, an acoustic quartet, and a rock band called Forever House. He recently put out another album of violin and steel-string resonator guitar called Gertrudes, with Andie Springer. The pair formed their duo when they were on tour with playwright Richard Maxwell’s “Neutral Hero”.

The CD for James’ version of the guitar etudes by John Zorn called “Book of Heads” includes a film featuring the crazy techniques involved in the making of the album. Here’s a sample of what you’ll see on the DVD:

James Moore plays John Zorn: The Book of Heads, Etude 13 from steve taylor on Vimeo.

Find out more about James at his website: http://www.jamesmooreguitar.com/