The Unspeakable Practices is a project I put together with writer Rick Moody. We started talking about this kind of thing a few years ago. . .initially it would just be Rick telling me that he wanted to do a project with me. It would end there. I wasn’t sure if I needed to push. . .but eventually I did. He started off by telling me he’d like to create something in the spirit of the debut Golden Palominos record. I happened to have the album so I revisited it. . .and it’s pretty cool. . .but definitely of it’s time. I think we were intrigued because there were two bassists on this album – so we had to get two bassists for this release. . .Richard Hoffman from the sadly defunct Sightings and Brad Truax from many great projects over the years including Home, Broke Revue and Jah Division.

Then we needed some horns – Rick suggested Nate Wooley who I didn’t know at the time and I suggested the young sax player Michael Foster. Then I insisted on Shahin Motia on guitar and Rick wanted David Grubbs on organ. . .so we had our group.

We improvised over the course of 4 rehearsals – if I remember correctly – maybe Richard Hoffman and I were the only people at all of them. . .maybe Shahin as well? We recorded everything and Rick identified the moments that he liked the best. We kind of recreated those in the studio – out at Menegroth in Queens. . .and perhaps improvised a few more tracks.

After we finished the record I must have pitched it to 30 labels and even though the music is really strong – it does fall between the cracks of genre. Is it a spoken word album? No. Is it a rock album? No. Is it a free improvisation album? No. . .

It’s kind of it’s own thing – The Unspeakable Practices!

Order it here.