2011 In Retrospect

Posted on January 1, 2012 by the drift

Greetings and Happy New Years to you all!

A list of what made this year memorable – enjoy!

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Adopting our little feline companion named Eli. What a dream he is!

Music (in no particular order):

Grouper – AIA: Alien Observer / Dream Loss
Talk Talk – Laughing Stalk (reissue)
Mark Hollis – s/t (reissue)
Gillian Welch – The Harrow And The Harvest
The Psychic Paramount – II
Leyland Kirby – Eager To Tear Apart The Stars
Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces
James Blake – s/t
Peaking Lights – 936
Golden Retriever – Light Cones
Bombino – Agadez
Tim Hecker – Dropped Pianos

Live:

Tinariwen @ Yoshis, SF – can’t remember the last time I danced with such abandon!

Solo set’s by Neil Young & Bert Jansch (RIP) @ The Fox Theater, Oakland – woah!

J.D. Emmanuel @ Brava Theater, SF – absolute blissssss!

Hearing Kenric sing his heart out with 30 person choir IOCSF (International Orange Choral) at the lovely St. Marks cathedral. It was an Eastern-Block themed program – so amazing!

Playing solo more than ever, and in so many wonderful non-club venues with such great musicians; The beautiful SF Zen Center w/ Barn Owl & Date Palms, St John’s w/ Myrmyr and art spaces like Subterranean Art House w/ amazing guitarists Chuck Johson & Alexander Turnquist, both of which put out excellent releases this year.

Getting back on the road with my band The Drift and touring Europe supporting our good friends Explosions In The Sky. So grateful for the experience and a nice anecdote to what had been some very challenging times – Rest In Peace Jeffrey! Your still with us.

Recording and releasing the Moholy-Nagy debut, my second solo album, and The Drift’s fourth full-length all in the space of one year. Here’s to 2012 being just as fruitful!

Film:

Nostalgia For The Light – hands down one of the most achingly beautiful documentaries.
Arbor – find this doc and see it. it will blow your mind on so many levels.
Midnight In Paris – Woody’s best in years.
Bridesmaids – LOL!
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – great Herzog doc. see it in 3-D for maximum effect.

Wine tasting with the family…

Becoming an Uncle to my third nephew Charlie.

All the best to you in 2012!

Love,
DPG

First Friday concert series at the Sanctuary, Oakland

Posted on December 25, 2011 by the drift

Thrilled and honored for the invitation to be a part of the first in an ongoing concert series in conjunction with Oakland’s First Friday’s!!

The show will take place in a large beautiful historic neo-gothic cathedral called The Sanctuary located on Broadway, just walking distance from many participating galleries and venues. The series is brought to you by the folks from Mission Creek (Oakland) Music and Art Festival and Macarthur B Arthur’s founder Kevin Clarke.

Line-up:

DANNY PAUL GRODY (solo guitar)
THE DIRTY SNACKS ENSEMBLE (vibraphones)
JAMES & EVANDER

*Plus classically trained musician HILARY GUTER will perform on the amazing 32-foot tall pipe organ!

Doors – 7:30p
Show – 8p

Sliding Scale – $5-15 (no one turned away for lack of funds!)

ALL AGES

Hope you can make this special event,

Happy Holidays!

DPG

Winter Is Here

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Seasons are definitely a relative thing when it comes to temperate climates like San Francisco’s. Markers of cold here are more associated with the light, longer nights, and adding a scarf or gloves, but without a doubt our modest version of Winter seems to be in full swing these days and I’m loving it. The light hangs low and golden and the sunsets have been particularly epic, especially on a clear night. All are perfect ingredients to make music to. I’ve been working on a couple soundtrack projects, both of which are for documentary films. They are unfinished so I’ll spare the particulars until they’re done. I thought it would be nice to periodically share some of the ‘works-in-progess’. This track felt like a good one to start with considering the recent cold weather and how it always seems to take hold of me and inspire. Hope you enjoy what you hear and wishing you a very happy holiday and New Year! As always, thanks for taking the time to read and listen.

More to come…

Love & Light,

DPG

Show recap & News

Posted on November 30, 2011 by the drift

I had the pleasure this past weekend of sharing a bill with friends and excellent guitarists Chuck Johnson of Oakland and Alexander Turnquist of Hudson NY. We played in Berkeley at a lovely little art space called Subterranean Art House. It was an intimate room with nice acoustics, perfect for delicate music. I definitely recommend folks in the area to check it out. The turnout was modest, but you really felt that people came to listen. I opened the evening with a set of electric pieces I’ve been toying around with as of late. Material I hope to record soon. Next up was Alexander on acoustic 12 string. As soon as he began, the room was immediately under the spell of his intricately picked guitar webs. Hard to believe all that sound could be generated from just two hands on one instrument. Very beautiful and deceptively complex music, despite how relaxing it was to listen to. Closing the night was the always elegant work of Chuck Johnson, who played many of the pieces from his recently released debut album, ‘A Struggle Not A Thought’ released on the Strange Attractors Audio House imprint. His set was pristine in every way. Each note, scrape, pluck, and strum was played with so much intention and finesse. What sets Chuck apart from so many finger-style players to me is his ability to marry formal technique with real feeling and nuance. His melodies linger and often have an aching beauty to them without ever feeling forced or saccharine. So nice. It was really a treat to be a part of it. I highly recommend you pick up both Chuck and Alexanders excellent new albums, both of which are available on LP, CD, and for download. Click on the album art below for links to purchase them.

In other news, I’ll be slowing chipping away at recording some new songs for an album to be released in 2012 on the excellent Three Lobed Records! I’m very excited to be working with them. More details on that soon to come. In the meantime, I’ve still got copies of my recent LP ‘In Search Of Light’ on the Students Of Decay imprint – hit me up if you’d like to grab one! For those of you without a turntable, I’m happy to say it’s also now available for download via Morr Music digital distribution at Boomkat and Emusic, with more retailers forthcoming including iTunes.

As always, thanks for reading and listening! Till next time….

Love,

DPG

Zen Center recap & pics …

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Last weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of playing some songs at the very lovely San Francisco Zen Center with friends Barn Owl and Date Palms. Artist David Wilson also did a beautiful temporary installation collaging colored gels onto large windows. I can’t believe it took me 16 years living in SF before entering this sanctuary! I was surprised to find out it was built in the 20′s by the amazing architect Julia Morgan who’s designed some of my favorite buildings around… Chapel of the Chimes, Hearst Castle, Berkley bell tower to name a few. Before it became the Zen Center it was a home for single Jewish women. Amazing history. The event was presented by the good folks from The Bold Italic and was co-curated by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma of Root Strata. It was a really great coming together of worlds. Everyone at the center was incredibly gracious and open to essentially a bunch of strangers taking over their space. Good times.

The first two pics were taken by the always smiling Shundo from the center who wrote a nice little bit about the show on the Zen Center blog. I took the second two, one is of Barn Owls set up and the second of David Wilson’s installation.

Enjoy!

DPG