Sat. Feb. 13

Asa Brebner has released the CD "Suellos De Los Muertos" and celebrates it with a gig at the Precinct Saturday Feb. 13. (His guitar art show is still up at Club Passim, too, see other item.) We asked Asa, a veteran Boston axeman, to ruminate on his new disc. He did that, and more. He e-mailed, "While I was up in the icy wilds of northern New Hampshire taking care of my mother in her long, slow 'decline,' I had my buddy Kevin Shurtleff come up for the weekend.  We did the basic tracks for 'Suenos De Los Muertos' in our huge post and beam barn. It was just me and him, guitar and drums with my friend and tenant Jay Janney working the controls on the Yamaha 12 track. A big woodpile waited rustically outside while we shook the rafters.
 "Some of the tunes had been kicking around for years and some were brand new. It's hard to connect the dots in that kind of situation. Kevin had never even heard these songs before and it was very bare bones but he always manages to pour enough passion into his playing that in the end result you can't imagine that there wasn't a live band feeding off of each other. I took those basics to Pat Wallace and his 'Imaginary Friend' studio to do overdubs and then to Ducky Carlyle's for mixing. I'm quite proud of the end result. I think it rocks.
  "This is the first project I have done totally in the digital format. I have some nostalgia for those huge tape machines that rely on centrifugal force to bring you to and from intimate recorded moments. But the digital world enables you to do things you could never have imagined possible. It's freeing, but to an old soldier like myself, a little troubling - There is a down side to it when you see that all things can be repaired in cyberspace. Things such as bad notes, bad pitch, bad playing etc. Pretty soon we won't need any skill whatsoever.
   "Somehow we seem to be closing in on distancing ourselves from the need for reality. Thank god we can finally get rid of that old nag!  Run the tape backwards to a huge jazz orchestra in the 30's where each player had to be spot on perfect for the one microphone that sat perfectly positioned to record 'I'll See You In My Dreams'
Less than great players got weeded out pretty fast under those circumstances.
 Nowadays things can be done at home with a few techno-doodads.
 Meanwhile we send drones to kill the 'terrorists' or wedding guests a world away in backwater Pakistan. Although, I have nothing negative to say about Lady Gaga.
 Back in the mezzazoic period that coincided with my youth we used to imagine that the future would be all buildings that looked like spaceships and shit. Everything looks pretty much like it did in the fifties but there's more of it.
  Idiots kill each other on the highways, texting each other, staring into tiny screens that blink while mangled bodies drip from twisted wreckage .
   "There's even more rockabilly cats with even better tattoos. There's more blues musicians. There are seas of super-fine poon tang.  In my day if you had one good looking girl in your whole 2nd grade class you were doing pretty well. What is it? Better nutrition?
  "But I digress... I have received the CDs from the manufacturing plant that, in the course of this e-mail, has become obsolete. You could download the contents of the music at www.Hi-and-Dry.net or if you want to be really adventurous and go super retro, I will be hawking physical versions of the same at Precinct. The show, with live music starts at 9:30. Doug Mcdonald, one of the best kept secrets in local music will open the night. Dave and Katy Champagne will perform a few songs as the Heygoods. around that my arch rival Dennis "Dendy" Brennan will  attend and will try to take the stage and steal some of my thunder as well as many other guest stars and celebrities.
   Precinct has a nice menu if you want real food and not cyber."
Cover: $TBA.

Having nothing to do with Asa's gig, the Precinct has a Get Your Beard and Mustache on competition from 3-6 p.m.

70 Union Square, Somerville, 617-623-9211 www.precinctbar.com