In my opinion CM are one of the most unheralded pioneers of ambience in the past 10 years.

—from a new article about Chef Menteur on Beat the Indie Drum.

There’s also an exclusive download of “I Belong to this Plateau” —the very first mp3 from East of the Sun and West of the Moon to be leaked.

Electronic music has always been a part of Chef Menteur, and this early track is about as dub-acid as we got, playing with two 303s, a slowed down-drum machine .

“Terra Incognita” by Chef Menteur

Another track from the early days that benefitted greatly by a visit by our friend Mack—who, having returned recently from living and traveling in the Far East, provided the main vocal sample from his impressive collection of Chinese pop music. Perhaps our first attempt to ruthlessly pillage Asian sounds?

This one also became a live staple (for about a year) and was also the dancey-ist of all Chef Menteur tracks. It was certainly the first (and maybe last) that got someone dancing at one of our shows.

Recently, I showed this track to Phil, CM’s latest addition. He said it reminded him of Muslimgauze’s Abu Nidal.

chefmenteur-chun-li.mp3

Here’s another super early track from the ancien régime of Chef Menteur. This one became a live staple for many years to come. A simple drum beat, groovy bass line and a repeating four-chord progression alternating between Mellotron and Farfisa, overdubbed with samples from Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM radio show and a 1980’s Yamaha toy keyboard…. (the Alien Renaissance was in full effect and the X-Files was still on at this time).

“The Quickening” by Chef Menteur 

Dear friends, Chef Menteur’s Kickstarter project has only a couple of weeks to go. We feel like this is a good time to address the following question that some of you have asked us:

“What is Kickstarter and why are you using it?”

Because to be able to make this album, we need enough people to pledge to buy it in advance.

For both “proper” albums Chef Menteur has released in the past, we have made CDs — on the band’s record label Backporch Revolution. For these we recorded and mixed the music ourselves, took the songs to John Fischbach at Piety Street for mastering, got the art together,  then sent off the master disc to a plant in Canada to have them pressed into whatever number of shiny plastic discs that we thought we could sell. These numbers are always way too high or way too low, and you end up with a box of unsold CDs — or worse, a call from a record shop saying they need 100 more, so you reorder 500, and you still end up with 200 unsold.

It seems that from our point of view, our friends, fans, like-minded bands, we ourselves– almost no one wants CDs anymore. The vast majority of music listeners are getting most of their music virtually and digitally (as do we) without CDs, and so for bands that want a released product, and for music fans that want to have the best listening experience — vinyl is the only way to go. Because of the many, many months we’ve spent working on the songs on this album — much more than any of our previous material——this album is special and we’ve decided to go all out to try to make it happen. We’re committed to releasing this album on vinyl and not CD. Even if we don’t make our goal — we will not be putting out a  CD version of this album.

Shooting ourselves in the foot? Perhaps. Unfortunately the setup costs of doing vinyl are much more than CD. If you do 1000+ CDs or 1000+ records, it starts to even out, more or less. If you are doing a couple hundred, vinyl is much more expensive. Double vinyl: twice that.

But what if there were enough people that wanted to buy the album? Then we could afford to do it. How do we judge if there are enough people interested? Kickstarter seemed to be the perfect fit. It lets people commit to buying the album in advance — but only if enough people band together to make the project affordable for us to do. If not enough people commit, then no one’s credit card gets charged, not even one penny. 

So, we’re asking you: if you would like a copy of our record, please pledge at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chefmenteur/chef-menteur-east-of-the-sun-and-west-of-the-moon

Think of it as you’re buying it in advance. We made a spreadsheet and totalled up all the costs: mastering, manufacturing, shipping, art supplies, mailing supplies, and divided by 200 — and the $30 pledge for the double vinyl doesn’t leave us any room. We’ve never been in this for any other reason than for the love of the music, making it the way we envisioned it. If you have a record player, or a friend with one, buy the album — you’ll get beautiful hand-numbered block-printed artwork . There are only going to be 200 of these. They will be beautiful to look at and of course it will sound great.

Pledge to buy the album and you’ll get a free digital download of the album at very high quality mp3 or lossless (we’ll email you a link) so that if you just want to put the record on a shelf as a collector, and listen to the music on your phone, computer, or car mp3 player, that’s fine too.

But any amount helps us make it. We’d love for you to have the record, but a $10 pledge is also very gratefully appreciated. We are really happy to report the generosity of one long-time fan who pledged $350 and we cannot thank her enough. We’re also really psyched that 31 people have stepped up to support us. We’re halfway there. Kickstarter pledge drives usually make it in the final weeks — we’re hoping we won’t be the exception!

Three more things about Kickstarter:

1)  You can pledge at any level. The numbers for the rewards are just “minimum suggested” amounts. If you want to pledge for $500 and only take the $30 album reward, that’s your prerogative.

2) Your pledge amount is anonymous on the site. Only Chef Menteur can see the amount of your pledge, and we will respect your privacy. Several of the higher rewards include a “special thanks to” credit on the album, but that is your option to be included or not as well. The only thing that shows up on the site is your Kickstarter user name, and if you do not wish anyone to see your identity, simply create a username that doesn’t reveal who you are. Even we won’t get to see who you are unless the project is funded, and we use that info only to send you rewards.

3) We have had several friends who’ve said they’d prefer to send a check, or cash directly to us. We appreciate all kinds of support of course, but we’d much prefer that you pledge to Kickstarter, because that helps us meet our goal — and Kickstarter is all or nothing. (Again: if we don’t make the goal, nobody gets charged.) We want to use the money to make records, and the only way we can do that is if we make the goal. Please help us!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chefmenteur/chef-menteur-east-of-the-sun-and-west-of-the-moon

Finally, a little aside: I (Alec) met Perry Chen, one of the founders of Kickstarter, back in 1995 when I was talking to Piety Street Recording about mastering our first CD, We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire. We ended up waiting for our original first choice, John Fischbach, as Perry was about to move out of New Orleans.

This is mostly a coincidence, but when mastering our latest album at Piety Street, I talked to John Fischbach about Perry and Kickstarter, as well as several of our other friends who have successfully funded their projects using Kickstarter, and all of these have given me utmost confidence in the Kickstarter model and company.

If you have any other questions about Kickstarter, please take a look at their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq

You can read more about the music, the vinyl record, and the artwork…. check out our latest videos featuring music from the album, find out about the additional reward levels — and make your pledge — on our Kickstarter page, which is, of course, at:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chefmenteur/chef-menteur-east-of-the-sun-and-west-of-the-moon

Another great way to help: forward this to all your friends who love music!

Thank you for supporting our art,

Chef Menteur
Alec, Dan, Brian, and Phil

For more info, go here.

As part of our campaign to raise awareness for our Kickstarter project (only 2 weeks left!), we’ll be playing one final gig at another really cool and unique location.

The show is next Friday, July 15th, at the Eiffel Society, the glass and iron building that rises above St. Charles Avenue like a steampunk UFO, and was apparently built from parts of the Eiffel Tower restaurant, relocated from Paris.

We’ll be playing in front of the epic film “Blade Runner,” which is based on the novel “Why Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick — a futuristic writer that’s been no small influence on our music.

Opening will be our friends in The Beams — a fun and lively power-punk band with echoes of the Pixies, Pavement, and Velvet Underground. We’d like to thank them for setting up this show with us!

This is an early show (8pm)… and it’s free. Thanks to everyone who’s supported our Kickstarter project to release the new album, and in advance to those of you who are about to. We’re getting down to the wire, please share the link with your friends!

This is the last gig to raise awareness for our Kickstarter campaign. Don’t forget to check it out, pledge, and tell your friends!

Over the past few weeks Dan has been dragging the rest of us around different parts of New Orleans. Without knowing why, we were told to drag our equipment through the streets, ruins, and parks of New Orleans.

Parts of City Park, the French Quarter, New Orleans East (by the abandoned Six Flags amusement park) and of course a certain rooftop in Mid-city figure in this video.

With no further ado, here is the second video featuring a song from our upcoming album. The song’s called “Il obstrue ma vue de Vénus”:

Il obstrue ma vue de Vénus from Chef Menteur on Vimeo.

“Venus” will be song 2 on side A. Get your copy of the new double album by pledging $30 to our Kickstarter fund.

The last minute or so of the video was shot at the rooftop party on June 11. Thanks to our good friends Court Batson and Carl Moller for contributing their camera work.

Big thanks to everyone who came to our rooftop show on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, the weather was beautiful, the food was great, and the beer went down good. We really appreciated the support and hope you had a good time if you were able to make it.

And of course, our extra special thanks to those who made donations to the Kickstarter fund online.

We have still got a LONG way to go in terms of raising funds… but if this project is successful, we promise to put on another rooftop show to celebrate. Maybe it will even double as our album (p)release party….

But don’t forget, we won’t have anything to show for any of this if we don’t meet our goal. Kickstarter is all or nothing. Please help us spread the word, and tell your friends. Hope to see you next time, with vinyl on the way!

Meanwhile, if you missed the show, here’s a couple bits from folks in attendance — thanks to the folks who took and posted these:

Chef Menteur perform “Narconaut” by bunnyman

Chef Menteur Rocks Past My Battery Life by editorb

Here’s the brand new video for “The Forest,” one of the tracks off our upcoming double album “East of the Sun & West of the Moon.”

The Forest from Chef Menteur on Vimeo.

Dan made the visuals. No digital effects used!

Special guest on bass: B. Aubrey Freeman (Geisterfahrer, Sketches of an Amorous Window, Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?).

Last minute reminder: Don’t forget the “secret” live show/bbq/beer bash tomorrow on Saturday, June 11. To get directions, connect with us via Kickstarter, or go to more info on our Facebook page at and click “like”… or just contact one of us directly, or via Twitter.

Check this Kickstarter update for exciting news about the new limited edition artist’s print available (suitable for framing) and the free secret show (on a rooftop! with beer!) we’ll be playing for our friends and supporters.