It was a dark and stormy night.....

Rain, hail, high winds and 4 musicians barreling down the highway towards the Boars Crossing in San Diego with no time to spare. Thud...thud...knock...thud, "you guys here that?" I ask as the a fore mentioned noise grows increasingly louder and annoying. "yeah I hear it", Doug says from the passenger seat. "I'm pulling over at a gas station"... I say as i take the mighty van off of the next off ramp.

We pull in to the Mobile station and begin to do some tests like the expert mechanics we all are. We check the oil, look under the hood, rev the engine and determine we can make it to the gig safely so we load back in and take off. As we pull out on to the street something is amiss.... NO BRAAAAAAAAAAKKKESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

I just got the Van out of the shop that day for an unrelated unfixed issue and now this. We make it to the gig via pickup trucks and ditch the Van in Carlsbad... I go back 2 days later and get it towed... So Annoying.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thats not Reggae.....!!??!!??!!

OK for a long time now I have been so frustrated by the type of music spawning all over the country that people are calling Reggae. I have gotten frustrated to the point that when interviewed by the Reader I proclaimed "White Boy Reggae is Dead!"... So I had a few drinks during the interview and low and behold to my surprise Ken Leighton put the comment on the cover of the magazine. Let us say this was during angrier times and I have since come to terms :)

I did however want to address this topic as I think it is good food for thought or at least a good conversation starter.

Sublime... God bless them, God love them, but for fucks sake are we not over it yet? I can't even listen to one of the bands, if not the only band that shaped my life. I was lucky enough to see them at the Fox theater in Boulder Colorado by accident and it changed my life. Sublime was genius, they were magnetic and they were totally drunk. This powerful 3 piece followed no rules and created an entire sub culture of music. If you live in So Cal, it is not just a sub-culture but it is the culture. How could such an innovative band spawn off a nation of imitators?

Sublime dug deep, they listened to the roots of music and drew from it. Hence all of the standard rhythms that they used to create their own songs. This is part of Reggae culture and it is rooted in the necessity of poverty. The basic idea here is create one rhythm have 20 singers sing on it and the producer controls the copyright (if any copyright at all)... It is about recycling, getting the most out of everything and I guess you could consider it "green music". What I am trying to get at here is that Sublime knew and understood the culture of Reggae music and that is why they were able to stitch in and out of the genre without ever being considered a Reggae band. Where they the first to do this? no, not even close, but they are arguably one of the most successful.

This is where my annoyance comes in. The nation of followers produced hundreds of bands calling themselves and combination of the descriptors... nation, irie, dub, 'ion, massive...etc. here is an example... band name: "dub massive"... "irie nation" ..."irie dub massive"... "massive dub nation"... get the point? (disclaimer... i am not talking about any band specifically but just illustrating a point as for sure there is a band out there called "dub massive":)) The funny thing here is the lack of creativity. How could such a innovative no holds barred band spawn so many imitators. I was happy to hear Miguel from Skunk in an interview call this out and basically say that he gets tons of demos from bands wanting to be on Skunk but they are all just imitators.

So what was my turning point in attitude? Well I had this whole argument crafted about how this phenomenon of imitators is actually Babylon working. My argument circled around the fact that this is a classic example of Babylon taking culture and turning it into fashion and having the privileged profit. I mean come on... you can get lion of Judah bracelets at the mall.. and by the way... Red Gold and Green does not stand for Bob Marley. I took this argument to my boy Boomstyler and he basically shut me down and told me that this has been going on since the beginning of music and is nothing new. He cited Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis as obvious examples and basically told me to focus on something positive.

"that's the way it is" he said.. and all the sudden it was so simple.

Really? Really? Living with Trolls an Observation and Rant

I love Ocean Beach, I have been here ten years and I must say that I really do love Ocean Beach. I love the fact that I am footsteps from the ocean, enjoy incredible weather, live in a community of musicians and non-conformists and I love the people I have met here. In all of this wonder that makes up this wonderland, you would have to expect that there are some negative sides as well. You are right, there are some negative sides and those sides unfortunately are growing or maybe I'm just noticing them more...could be I'm growing up.

Enter the Lurker Trolls.... ughhhh, how i hate the fact that taking a simple journey down to Rite Aid can turn into this obstacle course of street kids that I avoid in fear of confrontation, disease or just annoyance. I don't care how clever you are at begging for change. "family killed by ninjas need money for Kung Fu lessons" heard it... "Why lie? I need a drink" saw that one too... "Im on the road and...." blah blah blah blah. I am not giving you money!

It would not be so bad if these people were truly just down on their luck and looking for some help to get back on track...., but this is far from reality. What we have here in Ocean Beach is travelers that come and come but almost always outwear their unwelcome, welcome. They bring crime and trouble. Hiding behind garbage cans, living under my house, digging through the trash and just sucking it up in general. Again to clarify, I am not talking about your average homeless family here... I am talking about the kids walking down the alley begging for change and staring at everyone with entitlement. The punks who stumble around drooling with glazed over eyes, filthy bare feet and a stench comparable to what I imagine a bag of dog poop left in a sauna for days smells like.

I imagine what families raising kids here think about this huge minority of the Ocean Beach population. I mean, god forbid you want to take your kids down to the seawall at anytime close to sunset... I mean this would be a good idea of you wanted to be surrounded by heroin addicts and tweakers. It really is a sad thing.
.
Again, I am not against homeless and i have admiration for the lives of travelers, but I hate Trolls. Trolls drink 40's under the pier, start fights and cause trouble in my lovely town. They are negative and spread negative energy in our otherwise positive lives. They make it seemingly unsafe.....

The WATCHLIST

Recording the Drums for the song Mississippi in the studio right now working on the WATCHLIST album. I like the process we are taking in this recording, although there are plenty of moments of second guessing our direction. It's all about laying down the foundation and putting gravy on top of it.

Brings up the age old question of do we try to record exactly like we play live or to we explore his record as it's own seperate art form? I believe the latter... Recording a record can be an emotional process and it is crucial to keep the vibes positive even when recording sad or negative songs.

Excited!

Making a difference one person at a time. Want to help?

So i wanted to write something about what truly makes a difference when talking about fan support.

With the falling of the major record labels due to their own negligence and ignoring the the basic economic principle of supply and demand, the power of promotion and marketing has once again been brought down to the grass roots level (although i recognize the irony that technology has allowed us to become even more grassroots). So many artist have made a successful living due to aggressive street teams and clever online marketing campaigns that consisted of nothing more than people that believed in the music and had a little drive to share it with their friends.

The end goal for every musician i know is to survive off their trade, but many musicians do not want to get involved with the working end of the business. I understand that artists want to be artists and not hustlers and I am sad to say that I do not have that luxury although I embrace the hustle. So whats my hustle?

I wanted to put a resource together that includes some easy tips that make all the difference in the world and hopefully you will feel inclined to share one of my projects with your friends. These little things when done consistently can seriously make a huge difference and they really take no more than a few minutes.

I know there are a lot of people out there that want to be involved with the music industry but don't play an instrument and have no idea how to get involved with a band. My advice is pick one you like and contact them. The only thing to be aware of though is bands do from time to time get people blowing smoke up their ass and may be hesitant to get involved with new people, but i swear to you if you are a person of your word and live with integrity they will listen.

Here are some relatively passive approaches:

1. Facebook has taken over social media for now and it can be so effective. If you just simply share the profile of your favorite band with your Facebook friends it can instantly increase that bands audience. Take it a step further and suggest to your friends that they also share that same profile. You can imagine how quickly this could spread.

2. Bring performances home with you and share. Nothing is more flattering than to log on to Youtube and see people uploading footage of your shows. Youtube is such a powerful tool because it allows people to really check bands out and decide if going to a show is worth it. Take pictures at shows of the crowd, the band, the merch girl, the bar tender, the sound guy, the venue, the bathroom (be careful :)) and anything else that shows the "vibe". Post and tag these suckers.

3. Blog about shows and talk on chat boards about your favorite bands.

If you are a little more aggressive here are some other ideas.

1. First of all if you want to be as effective as possible contact the band and let them know you want to help. Any band worth supporting would jump at the chance to arm you with promo and outfit you with free merch.

2. Bands always need help putting up fliers, calling radio stations and booking shows.

Staying Inspired - Staying Positive

With the amount of performing and rehearsing I have been doing with my projects it is very difficult to stay inspired and "in" the moment. I think the best thing to do is when you know you are just going through the motions, take time to step back or just stop what you are doing all together. At rehearsal tonight the WATCHLIST felt this collectively and we called it a short night. We know the songs, they are tight.... we will kill it at our show on Saturday so there was no need to "power through" the rest of rehearsal. I think sometimes that what makes a  band a band is going through ups and downs and coming out stronger. What is cool about the WATCHLIST is that we can talk about these things and there is no weird vibes in the air... makes a huge difference.

I have been thinking a lot about my career as a musician and the legacy I have left behind and I have more importantly decided what my future will be in this industry. Full steam ahead! Not to toot my own horn, but I have accomplished so much in  the recent years and sometimes i forget to sit back and live in the moment of accomplishment. Everyone should celebrate success in all levels! I finished reading the book "Music Success In Nine Weeks" and it talks about writing down the little success you have day to day as a way of forming your positive attitude. This idea is not exclusive to this book, but for some reason this book made it resonate with me. Write down what you accomplish daily even if it is something as small as "went to the grocery store" and you will begin to construct your life of positive attraction.

I think a lot of time Artists beat themselves up.... Time to Feed! 

Recording right now

For some reason we are dragging in the studio.... I'm getting impatient and want to start singing... DK is laying down some drums, jay is about to crunch some guitars and then I get to sing....

We are in little Italy at Strat's pre-production studio taking a different approach than normal to recording a record and I am excited and curios to see the outcome... Maybe nervous as well.

I would say our approach tonight was to come in with a skeleton of a song and write and record the same night.

Look at the pod vocal booth which looks like a trailor.

Rest - Goodness - Music

Here I am at the begining of another recording and I feel like I am being flooded with inspiration. Sometimes I would rather not be a cliche of life, but I am amazed at the turning points of life and the predictability of growth which is a common thread that holds this diverse population together.

With that being said I feel a change of energy that surrounds me from negative to positive. I am a true believer in the law of attraction and 2010 is going to be a year of action for me and I will manifest my dreams into reality. I welcome this positive change and will forever embrace it.

Here is to a year of growth and consistant firsts.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Coffee

Test

Test


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone