I have been excited about the projects I have been involved in recently. I just spent some time in San Francisco’s Tiny Telephone recording some great new material with Kacey Johansing and our band and we all agree it is some of the best stuff to date! Kacey’s second album which we recorded in late 2010/early 2011 is slated to come out this spring and there will likely be a follow up EP with more new material shortly after that. If you haven’t seen the band lately we’re playing on Valentine’s Day at Brick and Mortar with The Range of Light Wilderness and Alexi Glickman (of the Botticellis). These are some of my favorite musicians in town and it should be a very special night.

What else is new?

I can be heard drumming on a couple tracks for a new release from Sean Hayes featuring newer and older material appropriately titled Outtakes and Alternatives. So far this year I’ve played a few really nice shows with the awesome new band The Ponies , a sweet little church show with the powerful Kelly Mcfarling a few weeks ago who’s band was recently featured on CNN, as well as some great gigs with Kacey Johansing and Mana Maddy.

I will be playing on February 11 at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco with Chicago’s own Ezra Furman in honor of the release of his new album ”The Year of No Returning”. Two Ezra’s in one band, not to be missed! That same night I will also be accompanying Debbie Neigher along with the rest of her band. Also on February 3rd I will be playing a beautiful space at the First Presbyterian Church in Oakland with Heather Normandale (StichCraft).  Later in the month I will be playing a live, in studio video shoot for a new series called “Live From West Coast Recorders” with Singer/Songwriter Jeff Campbell. I met Jeff last year as I was brought in to play some tabla on his brand new album Stop and Go, but for this live in studio performance I will be back behind the drums where I belong.

Good stuff around the bend! As always thanks for tuning in and thanks for your continued support.

This week I couldn’t be more thrilled to be playing a handful of shows in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Chico with Sean Hayes, and sharing the bill is none other than the amazing Barr Brothers from Montreal, Quebec! This is very exciting for me as Andrew and Brad Barr of the Barr Brothers are some of my favorite musicians in the world and were undeniably some of the biggest musical influences of my adolescense (then seen in their now sporadically performing avant-rock trio “The Slip”).

As far as Sean Hayes, we had a great tour this September on the East and West Coasts and are all warmed up from recently spending a week tracking Sean’s forthcoming record. We will be playing newer and older songs alike in an energized trio performance with Sean, myself, and maestro Eric Kuhn (Silian Rail).

Sean Hayes with The Barr Brothers

Thursday November 3rd at the Independent in San Francisco, CA
Friday November 4th at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz, CA
Saturday November 5th at the Origami Lounge in Chico, CA

Looking ahead, I am also excited to be playing with Kacey Johansing and her great band at the New Parish in Oakland on November 20th, opening for Mirah!
As well as a special Ponie’s show, a new band which is the brainchild of wonderful songwriters Heather Combs and Elliot Randall at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco on December 1st.

Hopefully sometime soon I can fill you in on more details about fun things that have happened, recording projects, great shows I may not have told you about etc. But for now there is so much information going around, sometimes I just need to let things happen and not worry about recording or promoting every moment for better or worse. Thanks for your continued support!
Love,
Ezra

I will also be playing a few local shows coming up with great San Francisco song writers Kelly McFarling at SF’s Amnesia on Saturday August 27th, as well as the talented Debbie Neigher at The Starry Plough in Berkeley on Thursday September 1st, and at the Bottom of the Hill on October 28th.

Lastly just a quick update about music writing. The last few weeks have been really fruitful and creatively charged as far as composition is concerned. I’m very excited to share these new works in some capacity in the coming months as they develop! Stay tuned (but don’t hold your breath too deeply!)

Also coming up in July two shows with Sean Hayes (the only ones for the summer before we hit the road in the fall). July 14th at the New Parish in Oakland and July 23rd at Hopmonk in Sebastopol. These are always an absolute pleasure and blast.

Then on the 29th I will be playing at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord with the awesome Heather Combs! In May I played a show for the first time with Heather and her band it was one of the most rocking Rock N’ Roll playing experiences I’ve had. Did I say she rocks? Not to be missed.

Also for those of you who may be in the High Sierra region over July 4th weekend I am playing the Priceless festival in Belden Town with San Francisco’s own Tango La Melodia. Happy summer!

This 6 piece Pearl drum kit (which I would eventually strip down to a 4 piece) not only got me through college and all the music I made in that time but I pretty much learned to play the drums well on this kit. As my only drum kit until presently it has been an essential part of all the music I have made in the last ten years including the last 5 years I’ve spent playing professionally in California. I have much gratitude for these road warrior drums and it has been an absolute pleasure to have had them by my side for so long.

However, sometimes change can be a good thing and it is with this in mind that I would like to introduce a new cast of wooden characters that will soon become a central part of my music making present and future.

My very own new (old) drum set.

Aren’t they beautiful?

I recently bought this 3 piece early 70′s vintage Rogers kit from a Pastor/drum collector out of  Jackson, California. All maple shells with original late 60′s Rogers hardware. Along with it a 60 year old Gretsch marching snare that is 10″ deep! To put it in perspective for the non drum nerds that’s exactly double the depth of my main snare I’ve been using up until now (which is about average size) so it sounds very rich and full. Yum!!

These drums look, feel and sound wonderful and I am super excited about getting to know them and exploring this new sonic play station literally at my hands and feet.

Coming soon to a venue near you! Thanks for reading.

More exciting news promised real soon as well as a blog/writing/rambling on one or more of the following topics. My personal drum practice philosophies and love affair, earthquake/cell phone radiation anxiety/safety precautions, what really lies at the center of the Earth and why it’s bad for your business (assuming your business deals with primarily surface related organic materials), and why my new snare drum is so beautiful I now need a whole new drum kit to compliment it.

The following Saturday April 15th I will be performing with Kacey Johansing at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Definitely one of the other bestest and most beautiful venues in the Bay Area. This band has really been growing and evolving together this past year leading up to the tracking of Kacey’s forthcoming album last fall, and continuing presently. We’ll be sharing the night with Little Wings, The Blank Tapes, and Rad Cloud. Not to be missed!

First a few quick thanks to those whom this website could not have been possible. Simon Abramson and Ashley Beach for lending their web guru wisdom, often in “website emergency” situations. Meghan Dorian for helping me design the banner, as well as photographers Brittany Cole Bush, Andrea Alseri,  and John Chapman for providing some of the key photos that make up the content of this site.

But largely the site you’re looking at was created by yours truly, Ezra Lipp. I didn’t know anything about web design when I started, and I’d say I know about 6% more now, but with the help of concepts previously un-understood by me like “wordpress themes”, “plugins”, “html”, and “The Internet”, I now have my very own beautiful and functional place on the world wide web to call home and I’m excited to share it with you anytime!

There will be much to come and ezralipp.com will indeed only get better and richer as I have full control of my site and the content that is put up. In the meantime sit back, relax, listen to some tunes on the music player, browse my upcoming shows, bio, pics, videos, etc. Sign up for my mailing list if you wish to get periodic info on happenings  (*even if you already receive emails from me it would be helpful to sign up through the website*) and feel free to drop me a line at ezralipp@gmail.com and let me know what you think. Until next time….Ezra Zachary Lipp