Back in June, Nathan Hubbard assembled Dan Clucas and myself to record nine tracks of obnoxious avant-jazz a la Naked City or Universal Congress Of. You’ll hear that album eventually, but if you had made it out to Sun Space in north LA last night you could have heard it all twice.

Nathan and I met up in Old Town at 1:00 to start the drive up to Sunland, accompanied by more Joan Armatrading than I expected. On our arrival in town Nathan insisted we make a stop at Apex Electronic Supply, a massive warehouse full of discarded electronic scrap. Why doesn’t San Diego have an oscilloscope and contact mic depot?

After wandering the warehouse a while we still had lots of time to kill and started perusing our dinner options. I have no idea why this poke from MP Sushi was some of the best I’ve ever had but props to them.

When we finally decided enough time had elapsed we could head to the venue we headed back out into the downpour. No one was around to unlock the doors, so we alternated shooting the shit in the car and shooting the shit on the sidewalk in the rain.

Once the doors opened up we tried to keep dry while unloading our gear and ran a quick practice since Nathan and Dan had both brought in new tunes for this gig. The audience continued trickling in, though they didn’t seem to mind the spoilers for our set.

The mythical Evan Pincus rolled up to the show with his Kiss Hello bandmate Matt. Evan’s one of my oldest Letterboxd mutuals — and if you know me you know that’s for some reason an important relationship — but we’ve never had the chance to meet in person. No surprise, he’s cool as shit and we rambled a long time about John Hawkes, Don DeLillo and the constant changing of the situation. Next year I’m booking Kiss Hello in SD.

Hal Onserud drove down from Santa Barbara in the pouring rain to play in a trio with Richards Walker and Wood, but shortly after his arrival began expressing doubt as to whether Walker would make it out. Unwilling to play solo, he mentioned possibly turning back.

“So what happens when Walker shows up?” asked Nathan.

“He’s not coming,” we were assured.

And so Hal headed back to Santa Barbara. You already know who walked in the door literally minutes later.

“They’ve been talking about this all week!” exclaimed Richard’s wife.

And so we became our own opening band, alternating duos with Richard with group improvisation as a quartet. I actually ended up loving this set and really wish it had been recorded. Alas.

Finally we played our real set, with a dozen tunes of skronky, obnoxious avant-jazz leaping from free playing to bossa nova to blues to punk. Our band still doesn’t have a name, but Clucas and I are pulling for ʜᴏᴛꜰᴏᴏᴛ in honor of the legendary Santa Cruz Hotfoot, the hilarious prank in which you light your friend’s sock on fire while he sleeps. (Clucas’s invention, I believe.) Every time we play together Nathan asks when we’re touring and I can never tell if he’s joking. Just know if it’s not happening it’s not because of me.

Nathan told me on the drive back Joe Baiza of Saccharine Trust and Universal Congress Of had been at the show. Wish I could have met him! Steuart Liebig came out too and told Nathan after the set “that last tune was pretty Naked City.” Mission accomplished on both counts.

After checking out Summerdata, the new album by the aforementioned Kiss Hello, we listened to about half of #RICHAXXHAITIAN mostly to marvel at the truly terrible guest verses (I’m convinced Mach intentionally courted bad features from otherwise good rappers to make himself look good. It’s the only explanation for Roc Marciano using the phrase “go potty” or YOD’s “dog in them” verse.) before I introduced Nathan to Leo Diamond’s Skin Diver Suite. Somehow in his travels through exotica he had never heard it!

More Hotfoot on the horizon next year, whether it’s our album release (January, most likely?) or maybe the long-heralded tour. In the meantime, Hubbard and I play together again this Saturday at the Jazz Lounge in La Mesa for the album release show of Nathan’s cross-border quintet Territory Games: