new music from theNEWDEAL, recorded fall 2014, mixed by Davey Badiuk

Sabotage the System

#ThisDealInHistory Live recording from Ann Arbor, MI 10/15/2010!

#TDIH Ann Arbor, MI 10/15/2010

Mercury Switch

This week's #ThisDealInHistory is from our show in London, ON on Nov 20, 2002.  The cut opens with what sounds like a classic Set 2 opening jam, circa 2002-era New Deal. Uptempo house music with a repeating electric piano lick and some stellar hi-hat work. Playing this style of house music requires a fair bit of restraint and patience in order to let the groove settle in. We seem to be doing a pretty good job of that on this night, throwing in some short Moog blips here and there with the bass providing rhythmic counterpoint underneath it all.  We open it up a little more around 2:40 w some longer synth phrases (still repeated lines, though) while increasing the intensity a shade - the chord changes hint at what will become the first harmonic gear shift at 3:50 which takes us to the intro jam of Deep Sun... 

We heard a 2004 version of Deep Sun in last week's TDIH (Ithaca 11/18/04) and it's fascinating to note the difference in approach within the span of two years. While the song was rarely the same twice (w the exception of the main "chords and melody" section), it's readily apparent that our sound and style evolved dramatically in the time period between 2002 and 2004, and one needs to look no further than these two versions of Deep Sun for proof of that.

Part of the reason for this evolution was our 8-month hiatus at the beginning of 2004 - that decision was based in part on the desire to step back from the style of music that we were most comfortable with at the time and to think about exploring other musical avenues while still maintaining that "New Deal spirit". That's not to say that what we were doing in 2002 wasn't interesting and fun - it definitely was - but we all felt that we could go farther and higher, and the break helped us to do just that when we returned in September, 2004.

I enjoy these types of sets because it appears that we're not trying to throw everything into the mix at all times, preferring to let the groove settle and speak for itself. The rest of this cut unfolds in a similar manner - restrained yet energized with a bunch of interesting ideas that breathe and develop over the course of the jam. -Jamie

#TDIH London, ON 11/20/2002

This week’s #ThisDealInHistory is another look into our 2002 concert in London, Ontario. 

Last week i discussed the restraint and patience displayed in our house grooves. This week’s cut begins with another example of that same restraint and composure, however it’s in a downtempo style.

Slower grooves played a big part in the 1998-2003 shows (they’re heavily featured throughout our first concert/record “This Is Live”) and this opening jam is a good illustration of our early-era downtempo style, albeit with the heavier approach that we began exploring in late 2001/early 2002. This shift stemmed from our desire to inject some heft and body into our sound as well as to veer our tone away from the more delicate rhythms and sounds so prevalent in our first three years.

Around this time these slower pieces began to feature repeated chord progressions and melodic lines, a definite development from our one-chord approach in the early years. This enabled us to further develop our song-creation chops and not simply rely on jamming on the groove for extended periods of time.

Around 3:30 we shift gears and bring up the tempo, following with harmonic changes at both 4:10 and 4:38 to lead us into an early version of “G-nome”.

“G-nome” was written on the fly at one of our 2002 Bowery Ballroom shows in NYC (its creation is documented on our Live: NYC 5/31+6/1 2002 release) and the song was still developing at this time (in fact, it continued to develop its basic body until around 2005!). In this clip you can hear us extending the intro and throwing different concepts into the mix, some of which would return over time in future shows, some of which would be thrown to the side - such is the way we write songs!

After three minutes of exploring the intro we finally hit the main head at 7:00. The astute listener will notice that in these early instances we only play the head once and go to an organ interlude before returning to the main melody for a second time (without the shots and stops that eventually found their way into the melody).

The jam at 9:00 is of a distinctly different nature as well - no key change, the same synth sound - but these ideas changed over time and performances. We would listen back to these shows, pick out bits we liked, discard ones that we didn’t like, and then try to remember them, all the while working on creating new bits to incorporate into the piece. Most tND songs were works in progress for a fairly long period time before they settled into any conceptual consistency.

Shout-out to Dan’s bass tone from 11:21 to the end. It veers from crispy and insect-like to downright dirty!  -Jamie

#TDIH London, ON 11/20/2002 pt 2

This week's #ThisDealInHistory is taken from our April 27, 2002 concert in New Orleans, LA. 

This gig was a late-night affair (3AM - 6AM) that occurred in the middle of our tour w Page McConnell and his "Vida Blue" band. We had already played an earlier set with them at the Orpheum Theater, so we were warmed up and ready to rock until sunrise, which we happily did. 

The cut opens in the middle of a melodic Drum+Bass jam. Darren must have called the cue for "Self Orbit" as we change key at 0:37 while Dan immediately launches into the track's signature bass part.

At 0:56 I start a sirenesque Moog bit consisting of two notes repeated over and over, creating an almost-hypnotic groove that's broken only when i intermittently add the third note of the "Self Orbit" melody. Sirens seem to be the theme of the night, as i return to playing them at 3:03.

Interesting tidbit - in "Self Orbit" and "G-nome" i tune the the Moog to two separate tones so that i'm simultaneously playing two different notes in the melody. You can hear me detuning the synth at 2:25-2:30.

Usually when the melody is finished i retune the keyboard to play just one note at a time, but i guess i was feeling frisky in this jam and decided to keep the board in the "interval tuning", thereby creating spacier, more harmonically interesting parts. Great drum groove at 5:15 and dig that bass line from 5:25 onward.

I like the spacey section at 7:49. The ambience is enveloping, but the insistent low-end rhythm keeps the jam moving along until the drums return at 8:28.

At 8:44 i trigger the cue for "My Head, My Head" and we waste no time getting into it at 9:03 - but the thing to notice in those twenty seconds is that Dan and I are playing (again) in completely different keys. In previous weeks I've talked about how we would often try and throw caution to the wind, harmonically speaking, and not get too tied up in the rules about harmony, theory, etc. - All of us are trained musicians and our knowledge of harmonic theory is fairly advanced, but we almost never apply any of that during our performances. It's fun to talk that language, but we tend to keep it locked up when it's time to play - it's just too restricting.

For those keeping score at home, I'm banging out a D-Major chord while Dan is repeatedly playing C-sharp and D-sharp in the bass register. So wrong and so good!

We kick into "My Head, My Head" at 9:03 and at 10:20 shift into this wonderfully sparse section. I love the groove that Darren's got going alongside Dan's one-note statement. I took a cue from that and just laid down some short Rhodes chords for a while, letting everything settle before we decide to busy it up a little. Dan's hauntingly melodic bass line at 11:20 sets up the next section beautifully while i provide what feels like a funk-guitar-picking synth behind it.

13:28 introduces what was a favourite sound of mine around this time - the short blippy Juno 106 video game tone. This became immensely popular in dance music a few years later, so i probably dialed back its prominence in response to that as the years went on. Still love that sound, though. -Jamie

#TDIH New Orleans LA 4/27/2002

Quattro

In honour of tND's Halloween throwdown last week at New York's Playstation Theater (available for download HERE: http://bit.ly/1NvAVa0), this week's #ThisDealInHistory is pulled from our 2002 NYC Halloween Special at BB King's.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in this cut, starting with this early take of "Gone Gone Gone". We were just beginning to get the tracks together for the GGG album and the title track was one of the first to develop. 

This initial version isn't fully fleshed out - it's missing the main synth melody (having not been written yet) - but it does feature Dan pitched way up and doublng the intro melody with me. We get into some neat counterpoint around 0:28 until we kick in to the next section at 0:55. It's weird to hear GGG without that signature synth melody, but since we were at our creative best in front of an audience it was never daunting to take a half-finished track and try and develop it live.

We seem to have the middle section worked out just fine, though. This section on the studio record was typical tND - take an idea and just jam it out in various forms while letting the tape run. We'd then pick the best version that we liked and edit it into the rest of the song. 

In my opinion, this whole TDIH excerpt really invites the listener into the tND creative process - at 5:00 we switch gears, move into some Drum+Bass and start working out another future GGG track - in this case it's "A Little While/A Little While Longer". Dan starts playing the "A Little While" chorus at 6:32, mixing in a little "Self Orbit" at the same time. I can be heard working out some early keyboard parts that eventually made it into the finished song, including the electric piano segments from 7:29 - 8:39 and the synth line starting at 8:02.

Settling back into "Gone Gone Gone" at 8:40, we stretch the intro a while with some more high-pitched bass from Dan at 10:28, some serious drumming from Darren at 10:41 and a build back into "Gone Gone Gone v.1.0"

PS: For those keeping score at home, we dressed up as the Dixie Chicks for this gig. -Jamie

#TDIH New York NY 10/31/2002

This week's #ThisDealInHistory is the first of a few clips that I've edited from our Feb 19, 2003 concert in Philadelphia, PA.

Philly is another one of those cities that took to tND very early on in the band's life. Somehow we managed to finagle a gig at the Khyber Pass back in early '99 and i think that was our first Philly show. Fifteen people probably showed up... Aron Magner from The Disco Biscuits being one of them, if i recall correctly. Love those guys...

This cut starts in the middle of an elongated "Moonscraper" intro. It sounds like we're just jamming in G-minor until 0:36 when i play the trigger for Moonscraper (in the key of D-minor, no less - sounds good, though). I start playing the MS chords at 1:08 (also in D-minor haha) and we keep the elongated intro going, slowly moving our tonal centre to F-major with dan playing a descending bass line that eventually lands on our target key of D-minor right on the drop at 2:30.

This intro perfectly demonstrates one of the key tND elements being developed in this time period: the use of shifting basslines over repeated chord progressions as a means to create meaningful harmonic structures and increased melodic tension. As the band developed its sound we slowly moved away from solely utilizing fixed chord progressions over static basslines and started to incorporate varying basslines over fixed chord progressions (as well as varying basslines over varying chord progressions) - all done, of course, without prior planning. Sometimes the random bassline changes clashed with the random keyboard chords, but more often than not the sum of the parts created a fresh musical statement that we never would have arrived at had we kept to some pre-planned agenda. 

With that in mind, listen again to the Moonscraper intro and hear how the bass shifts underneath the familiar (and not-so-familiar) keys lines, thereby creating something that we had probably never played before (and have never played since). It's these types of things that, in my opinion, keep the New Deal musically interesting to both listener and performer.
The jam starts with Dan playing the MS keys rhythm on bass underneath some new blippy chords played on the Juno. Somewhere along the way i turn that Juno patch into a distorted guitar-type sound as we shift keys into a dirtier exploration in A-minor. The chords that start at 8:20 are part of a favoured progression that may or may not have been regularly incorporated into the Moonscraper jams in those years (i can't remember specifically - it's been a few shows since then...).

At 9:13 we double back to the original Moonscraper key with an eye towards returning to the second half of the song, but as is our wont we take our sweet time getting there, preferring to explore the outer limits of the Juno-106's pitch and mod wheels in combination with MSG's effects. A patient but intense build eventually gives way to the Moonscraper reprise at 12:17. Somebody clearly calls the "hard-stop" cue at 12:44, at which point we play out the ending melody. -Jamie

#TDIH 2/19/2003 Philadelphia PA

Welcome to the return of theNEWDEAL's #THISDEALINHISTORY series! 
Once a week tND releases a clip from a past show and Jamie walks us through it, all the while pointing out interesting musical tidbits and bringing us up to speed on what was going on inside those three pretty little heads on stage!

This week's #TDIH clip is taken from our set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival on June 15th, 2003. It's the first half of what appears to be a 40-minute jam. The second half will be posted as another #ThisDealInHistory clip at a later date.

I remember the following from this show: drinking Budweiser at 11:30 AM (the 11:30 beer isn't so surprising, but Budweiser?!), getting blown away by the North Mississippi All-Stars, and me and Dan modelling our new bucket hats that we bought at Wal-Mart the day before. We had decided that it was going to be Bucket Hat Day at tND Central, for some reason. I never wore the hat again, Dan didn't stop wearing his until 2007.

The clip starts with some jazzy synth chords accompanied by the classic Dan Kurtz "super-octaved" guitar-style lines played on the bass. I always loved when Dan dialled in that crazy tone and started funking away like Ray Parker, Jr. circa '76. As far as I'm concerned he never stayed with it long enough, but i guess there was a need for some low-end because we quickly jump into a full-band groove. Note how we're treated to three signature Dan Kurtz bass sounds in the first 45 seconds of this clip. There's the high-octave tone, the standard bass tone and his awesome sub-synth bass sound. 

Around 1:05 I switch over to the Juno blip and we jam away until i play the trigger cue for VL Tone at 2:10. Clearly there was some on-stage hand communication because we also change keys. We were in the process of recording the "Gone Gone Gone" album at this time, so we were for sure interested in getting these tracks some onstage service time in case any interesting ideas popped up mid-set.

Without much delay we end VL Tone and dive immediately into another GGG track, in this case Homewrecker. Darren rocks the beatbox as only Darren can while Dan lays down some more funky mid-1970s lines. This set has an "afternoon performance" feel to it, which is probably because we were indeed playing an afternoon set. Those types of sets are a little heavier on the funk and a little lighter on the crazy Techno and House. That's because we know what it feels like to be listening to music in the afternoon on the third day of a festival - at that point your brain and ears are looking to get into a groove and not just get electrified with fast dance jams. Homewrecker leads into a smooth house jam which, following Dan's trigger cue at 12:37, slowly develops into "Deep Sun". As discussed in previous #TDIH's, just because a certain trigger gets played doesn't mean that we'll get to that song any time soon. In this instance it takes us another four minutes of development before we play the first note of "Deep Sun" proper. There are many instances where a cue might get triggered but we end up never getting to the actual song because the jam that followed ended up taking us in an entirely different direction. 
We kick into the main part of Deep Sun at 16:47 (spot the "Inca Roads" micro-tease from 17:50-17:53?) followed by a key change and some drum+bass exploration at 18:10. The beatbox section also features what sounds like a theremin solo but is probably me rocking the resonance filter on the Moog Prodigy. 

At 21:17 I play the trigger cue for G-nome (don't blink or you'll miss it). Clearly the band didn't blink because we immediately start making our way into G-nome.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the New Deal Bonnaroo #ThisDealInHistory!

TDIH Bonnaroo 6/15/2003 Pt 1

This week's #ThisDealInHistory is the first of two excerpts from our 08/10/2002 set at The Berkshire Mountain Music Festival (Berkfest) in Great Barrington, MA.

With the possible exception of our very first concert as a band (which begat our This Is Live album) there is no gig more important in the history of theNEWDEAL than our first Berkfest show in 1999.

For starters it was our first real gig in the U.S. as theNEWDEAL - that itself would make it an important venue to us - but it's the circumstances surrounding our set that cement Berkfest near the top of theNEWDEAL gig list.

Rewind to '99 - somehow we had managed to wangle our way on to the Berkfest bill. We had been passing out This Is Live to anyone who would listen and I think that The Wetlands' Chris Zahn had forwarded it to Andrew Stahl, the man behind Berkfest. Andrew decided to give this weird instrumental trio from Canada a chance and offered us an afternoon slot at the festival.

What we didn't know was that our afternoon slot would be INDOORS on one of the sunniest days of the summer, in a lodge tucked away from the main stage and far apart from all the other bands. The chances of people hearing us were slim and, with zero name recognition, we were preparing to play to nobody. We were pretty depressed about that - we knew that all we needed was for people to hear us and they'd be hooked... but with an indoor gig at an outdoor festival, your odds are tough.

Until three minutes before our set when it started to rain.
I mean POUR.
Thunder, lightning - the whole bit.
Huge summer storm.

There were only a few covered venues where all the festival goers could seek shelter - guess where they ended up?

Five minutes into our set the place was jammed with people and every single one of them was still there 90 minutes later when we finished, despite the fact that the rain had stopped 30 minutes earlier. 

If it hadn't been for that rainstorm, who knows what would have happened to tND?

That experience always seemed to give a little boost to our Berkfest sets. This one from 2002 is no exception.

The cut begins with an interesting Drum+Bass version of the "Homewrecker" intro. What I like about Darren's drumming here is that he's managing to play quite minimally in a style (D+B) that usually screams for maniacal drum fills. His tasteful grooves eventually lead us into the regular "Homewrecker" beat at 1:00 or so. Note Dan's meaty stabs throughout the main melody section - he would often combine the main bass part with innovative "soloettes", each one different than the last.

The jam at 2:16 displays some interesting elements - we were, as mentioned in previous #TDIH's, focused at this time on maximizing the hypnotic element of repeated musical lines slowly morphing over time (through tempo or harmony) until they would no longer resemble the original musical statement. I always enjoyed listening to Steve Reich and I was attempting at times to mimic that same slow sonic metamorphosis.

We shift this motif via tempo and tone, eventually landing on a filtered bass/organ/Moog/Hi-NRG drum build that leads us at 5:26 into a super-abrupt shift (have I mentioned before how much I love those?) featuring Rhodes and Moog.

Sounds to me like Dan's playing the trigger cue for "I Feel Love" at 7:56. We might have been heading in that direction but the music took us somewhere else and we never looked back. 

We hit a pretty cool break at 9:48 - me on the Moog Prodigy and Darren and Dan NAILING it at 10:01 with a balls-to-the-wall two-pronged attack. Dan is WAAY up on that neck.

I play the trigger for "Glide" at 10:50 and again at 11:02 (this time w/Dan joining in) but, as is our style, we don't get to the track for another three minutes or so, preferring to let the music breathe a little with a short ambient jam (note the bass providing a repeated muted rhythm underneath). From there it's into "Glide" and the end of this week's #ThisDealInHistory. -Jamie

TDIH Berkfest MA 8/10/2002

This week's #ThisDealInHistory is one of three clips selected from our 10/15/2003 concert in Kingston, ON.

Kingston became a regular concert destination early in the band's life. Its relative proximity to Toronto plus the large student population at Queen's University were key ingredients in helping to develop our sound through regular (and increasingly well-attended) shows there.

The track starts with a repeated two-chord keyboard line played over an ostinato bass pattern and a minimal-yet-driving drum+shaker groove. This section typifies our attempts to, through the course of a jam, explore a variety of interpretations via a single core musical idea - in this case the opening two-chord statement. It seems like I'm also trying to mess with the positioning of these two chords (particularly at 0:48 and 0:55) but eventually decide to stick with what we originally had going. Either that or I'm reaching for my drink and lose my place...

At 1:16 Dan switches to a descending bass riff as Darren moves into a slightly swung beat that we use to grow into a grander rendition of the original theme with the inclusion of an electric piano line at 2:49.
Dan lays down the trigger for "Deep Sun" at 3:43 but we either shake it off or naturally allow the music to take us elsewhere, using that electric piano theme (and key changes at 4:44 and 5:20) as a new departure point. A hand signal must have been thrown up because we build our way into "Glide" at 6:20 with no audible evidence of a trigger being played.

Last week's #TDIH also highlighted "Glide" but, as most of you know, our songs are never the same from night to night and, apart from the 90 seconds that feature the main theme, these two versions could just as easily be two completely different musical pieces.
The same goes for most of the tracks in our canon. While the setlist on paper may sometimes look similar, try playing two shows simultaneously and see how long it takes before they stop sounding identical!

Things get interesting around 7:45. I'm giving the Juno pitch-wheel a workout while adding a minimal Moog line on top, but Dan's creating the chord changes underneath as we slip into a half-time downtempo jam. At 10:37 we start messing around with the tonal centre - again I'm laying on one chord (albeit a different one than before) as Dan creates new changes which I complement via the added organ melody. 

At this point I'm totally following his lead - a role switch that we developed through years and years of playing together. At any moment in the show one of us either steps back and follows the other one's direction or takes the reins and directs the jam into new territory, usually with zero advance notice and nary a hint of preparation or overt communication. 

Dan introduces the trigger cue for the "Glide" reprise at 11:38 and, via some hard-tremolo electric piano lines, we end up back there to close out this week's #ThisDealInHistory. -Jamie

TDIH Kingston ON 10/15/2003 Pt. 1

This week’s #ThisDealInHistory is taken from our Oct 18, 2002 performance in Whistler, BC.

Nobody in the band fancied themselves much as skiers but we always had a great time in Whistler primarily due to the fun vibe that permeates the town twelve months a year. This gig seems to be infused with some of that good-time energy.

The clip begins with one of our “standing-start” jams - basically a familiar progression that we would pull from our grab-bag and use as a stepping-stone into less-familiar territory. This particular one usually started with electric piano and featured Dan letting loose with some low-end melodic lines. The interesting bass patterns continue when Darren kicks into the main groove at 0:43. I’m holding back for the most part and repeating some short shots while letting Dan lead the way both rhythmically and melodically.

Subtle changes start occurring around 1:11 as I bring the piano chords down an octave and introduce a Moog line while Darren adds some bongo licks at 1:40. The bass shifts into a support role and the Moog starts driving the jam by upping the rhythmic intensity. It’s becoming clear around 1:53 that we’re straightening things out in order to begin transitioning into something else. Darren kicks it up a notch with his hi-hat work while Dan turns to his trusty filter to help change the personality of the jam. Things are now less bouncy/more driving and we’re moving into more of a 16th-note machine-gun groove.

At 2:31 I trigger the cue for “Ravine” and we subsequently shift to the appropriate key at 2:47. However, note that it actually takes until 3:15 for the proper tonal centre to become evident. Until then Dan and I are buzzing around it, referencing the Ravine rhythm but never solidly landing on it. Even when we do get there at 3:15 I’m still jumping around, adding new chords that drift away from the “usual” Ravine harmonic structure (3:58 - 5:07) until we jump in to the main melody at 5:08.

Things get slightly darker at 6:42 with a minor key change and Darren introduces another interesting hi-hat idea that features a neat little stutter.

At 7:52 we start morphing into a new section that includes a new chord structure played on the Nord complemented by a blippy sequence on the Moog. We move along in this style until 9:14 when we drop into a unison 16th-note motif (somebody must have given a hand signal) that builds and develops using the same progression (but now on the organ and Juno). A long-note Moog melody floats above the busy pattern at 10:18 until we start breaking down the structure with a tension-filled development section at 10:51. I like the random computer-style vibe that’s going down here. It’s a bit uncomfortable but still driving. 

Darren triggers the “Glide” cue on the hi-hats at 12:23 and we take the trigger and run with it, culminating in the main section of “Glide” from 13:30 until the end of this week’s #TDIH. -Jamie

TDIH Whistler, BC 10/18/2002

#TND3

Jamie Shields - Keyboards
Dan Kurtz - Bass
Davide Di Renzo - Drums

recorded 11/13/2018

Halo Drive

Jamie Shields - Keyboards
Dan Kurtz - Bass
Davide Di Renzo - Drums

Dorado III

Machina Electrica

GLIDE - ARCADIA

REDISCOVERY

TRIPLE OR NOTHING

HOMEWRECKER

VL TONE PT 2

TECHNOBEAM PT 2

OCTOBONG

OUR HOUSE

CHERRY STONE

TECHNOBEAM PT 1

ISTANBUL

MOONSCRAPER - VERDIGRIS JAM

VENETIAN RED JAM

Composed, performed, arranged, recorded and mixed in isolation 
by The New Deal
Mastered by Phil Demetro

Davide Di Renzo - drums
Dan Kurtz - bass, sax
Jamie Shields - keys

Isolation: Cycles I

Isolation: Cycles II

Isolation: Cycles III

Composed, performed, arranged, recorded and mixed in isolation 
by The New Deal
Mastered by Phil Demetro

Davide Di Renzo - drums
Dan Kurtz - bass, sax
Jamie Shields - keys
Brendan Bayliss - guitar

Isolation: Cycles IV

#TND3

Management
Mike Polans - 7S Management
thenewdeal@7smgmt.com

Booking
Hunter Williams & Logan Handelsman - CAA
booking@thenewdeal.com

theNEWDEAL

Popular tracks