I was recently in the small town of Bellevue, Iowa to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. Her family has been in this town for many generations and it was really humbling and eye opening to meet extended members of my family as well as the friends she has in her life and the strength you create and nourish in a true community. The birthday party was a blast, ham sandwiches, potato chips, and lots of cake. My father and sister sang to her and it is quite the tear jerker, I am honored and touched to share it with you:
You are your family, no escaping that. Keep in touch with them and hold them close.
Last night a great show went down at Lit Lounge. It was a fairly small crew that rolled out, but a lot of love in the room. And the music was great, we were all there to support each other and have a good time. Doom Trumpet, Mythical Legends, Thurlow. Here's a little taste of what you might have missed, or what you saw, or what you played. It depends on who you are I guess.
Doom Trumpet: Valya
I strongly suggest you watch this video all the way through, David is really doing some rad things with layering and he was singing last night in such an unrestrained operatic way. We were all stoked and I was like "whoa." Keep it up man, whatever the note is that's calling you, you are hitting it. Whoa!
Mythical Legends: Mermaid
This is the first recording we have of our new song Mermaid. It's about a Mermaid who falls in love with a sailor then accidentally drowns him. Because it's me I'm like "oh man, I don't like the way it sounds there." But ultimately, this song is one we are very very proud to call our own.
Thurlow: Invisible Eyes
Our new BFF's from Los Angeles by way of Virginia closed the set down beautifully. I was geeking out about a lot of their stuff, especially that old Casio that makes me drool. But they are lovely, this song really spoke to me as well. A true friendship was planted last night. Can't wait to see you guys again!
When I first met Joel I had only recently moved to Brooklyn. I was at a local bar visiting a friend of mine who was working. The DJ was having technical challenges with his equipment and was like "don't worry, my friend is coming to fix it." That friend was Joel. He walked in and pulled out a little flame torch, proceeded to break apart the equipment and use fire to do something magical then put it all back together again and there you have it. Wizard. He was. Then. We've been good friends since and I consider myself very lucky to consider us as such. He is truly an artist and the band he plays with, The Collected Works of Lenin have an intensity and approach to sound I choose to admire and have been honored enough to have a small taste of when playing with Wizard myself. We have jammed a couple of times and I intend to continue to do so. Without a further mention, this is Wizard. and me. hanging out.
A song we began to work on the first time we jammed, here's us playing it:
Lyrics: Wizard Cat Man. Wizard Cat Man. Do what you can. You're the Wizard Cat Man. I saw you. I saw you. You were over there. You were over there. I saw you. I saw you. You were over there. Over there cause you're the......... Then we just jammed. With Wizard, the typical interview format is unnecessary. We communicated through sound mostly. If you don't understand, that's ok. It's not what we're saying, it's how we say it.
