This band was from Sacramento, or Portland or S.F. or something, wonder what ever happened to them.
Monday, March 31, 2014
What's Up @ Treasure City SXSW 2009 -- proto escapes "coffee + grilled cheese"
Friday, March 28, 2014
How Party Plants did for SXSW 2014
uuh, we kicked ass duh.
Our schedule:
SHOW 1. Previous saturday, a show at Swan Dive .... backlined we played to about 70 ppl. we played at 8 or 9 PM and the Goodhearts played after us. It would be nice to do another show with them, they were good and we liked them. Definitely the juices were flowing, it felt especially good as a first show, but our approach to it was more like just playing a local show in the sense that we were playing for a new crowd in a new venue and we have really been trying to play around town.
SHOW 2. Tuesday night 11:30 @ Club 1808. I was pretty worn down by the time of this set, having already run over 20 bands that day, and couldnt play my parts perfect but we gutted thru it. Lots of guts. Guts everywhere. Take it to the limit.
SHOW 3. Wednesday morning -- Burger Records thing @ Trailer Space. We played at 11:30 in the morning. We played a clean set. I thought we sounded raw as fuck, like as in that would be a selling point, especially to someone interested in bands as a long term nurtured growth type scenario. I like being in a band that sounds raw. There were already people there, ready to drink and to party.
SHOW 4. Thursday @ Sammi and Burgers' House. This was a sick house show, we played around 3 PM. I got there early to set the PA up and stayed til the end of the show to take the PA down. There was a secret path down to jack in the box, and i took many urinations nearby. This show was outside. We played a lot of material that we hadnt played at any of the shows up until that point, and were kinda going in blind as far as we didnt have a dedicated practice to remembering how they went or anything. I think we really won over the crowd, like they could tell something cool was going on, and being ppl in bands they are naturally supportive of looking at certain processes in a particular light, but it was our first open air show and I think the guitars could have been a little louder. Its hard to tell from where you are standing sometimes. I felt like I was overplaying on the bass a little, but all and all this was a great show, in terms of the ppl who saw us and liked us and also in terms of getting experience playing outside the first time.
SHOW 5. Thursday Night @ Willard's House. This was the best set we played, by a mile. If we could perform at that level for all the shows we will have cracked some kind of code. That house has good vibes for us and also for me.....in different bands i may have played there 5 times by now! That was Party Plants' 2nd or 3rd time. Our set was follwed by killer sets from Cloud Becomes Your Hand and Killer Bob and also they had a friends band play who killed it.
SHOW 6. Friday @ Julian's parents house, aka Burger Pool Party. This show was dank. I thought we played well, I dont particularly remember playing anything out of the ordinary, and so it must have had some momentum. It was the right time of day for us to play. I think we took a second shot at a couple songs we had done from our "B" set. Our alt fakey kickslider.
SHOW 7. Saturday night @ Up Collective. We actually had a show at Club 1808 that day that we dropped off because the show was running late and we were getting burnt out, but we prob should have taken it because some ppl would have gotten to see us that in hindsight, I was like assuming they would have seen us at some point, but they didnt and this would have been the show where they did. But we were still playing that night. We were slotted for like 11 or 12 and ended up going on at 2. The party went til 6. Advaeta's set was transcendent. Carol Ann wore something that I didnt know was in her closet. I think it was a good show, ppl really freaked out for Big Bill. We pushed ourselves pretty late in the bill, I think its a sign of respect, or a way of peacing yourself to book yourself to play late and to do a show for less people, not only just so the other bands can play to ppl, but beacuse thats a time when ppl are more bondy. Mercer used to do this all the time, probably still does, but I used to love seeing bubbly mommy gun at 4 am, that was like their favorite time to play.
We got a shit ton of nice offers for April and May, so I guess some good came out of it, or we are now on ppls radars or something
Rock and Roll Cool
yall may have heard about "rock and roll cool", i wanted to write a little ode to it. Rock and Roll Cool is probably one of the most important philosophical points of rock and roll. Not cool like Obama is gonna keep his blackberry to keep from getting stuck in the bubble gutter, real rock and roll cool, like the Ramones, or the Beets, or Lou Reed. NYC has always had the market on rock and roll cool a little more firmly gripped by the balls than the rest of the country. I think just because how it is there. If you sound like you are going thru your personal journey, and you are at an earlier stop, ppl just tune out.
One enemy of rock and roll cool is the vibe rollercoaster. You feel real great like you played some cool shows or whatever, and then there is an emotional drained period before you build yourself back up again, potentially fraught with self-doubt and lack of perspective. This is the perfect time to send some emails where you dont say what you are trying to say, or at least you are gonna send something counter productive. Being cool in all circumstances regardless of position in the vibe rollercoaster is an indication that you are getting there. Smoothing out those rough edges. Resistance against the dark arts.
My advice for rock and roll cool --- dont ever get mad at ppl except your bandmates in private. someones gotta hold the line, actually its best if you can pawn this responsibility off on another bandmate so then you dont have to deal with it and you can save your vibe capitol for doing shit you wanna do rather than keeping your bandmates from fucking up, but if thats not possible sometimes someone has to be the field general. Obviously good ol fashioned butt chewings should be used as sparingly as possible, that is not rock and roll cool at all and it can easily lead to built up bad vibes, which is your enemy. But definitely dont get mad at bands if they cancel off your shit. Save that existential why for another day. That's what its all about right, the existential why? Its understood. Oh yeah dont bring up stuff thats understood. If I see a girl and her band just played, personally I like to tell her good show, but not with the first comment and also its kinda a joke, bc ppl never tell each other good show, its just a convention that its better to get the conversation going rather than start in on anything mechanical.
Rock and Roll cool exists because the energy of the music is a real thing. Existing simultaniously to commercial considerations, music has the ability to bring out peoples souls a little bit and get people a little closer to each other on a real level. Thats whats up. So if you wanna be cool, remember flash photography and video recording devices kill the vibe, just get in the moment and get on board with whats goin down.
Thus sayeth my ode. Also, there was a reason why Nirvana and everyone liked Neil Young so much, that dude is a badass.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
ESCAPES 2014 // SXSW RECAP pt 1, preface
Yo.
I like to do a recap every year on what went down, mainly so I can remember exactly what happened and save it for posterity, since its all such a blur, but also for other people interested in what is going on with this weirdo rock thing and sharing perspectives, but I think I am going to do it a bit differently this time. SXSW is a major vibe bomb for everyone. Without going to far into it, it was really sad what went down in front of Mohawk this year, and I do think it weighed on everyones conscious a little bit. Before that happened, i noticed people driving like batshit crazy style (as Thor would say "drunk driving is for rich assholes", well sxsw is pretty much the largest rich asshole magnet known to man). Then afterwards it seemed like people were driving with more courtesy. I couldn't help but think of the short story "The Lottery" which like any good middle schooler I read. Basically the town sacrifices one random person to "ensure" a good harvest because they are superstitious or something. At least thats how I remembered the story going.
But yeah, I am very tiptoey, because the whole vibe bomb thing casts a pretty wide net. For example, someone left a mini-Korg at one of the shows I did and I posted it on facebook "is this your mini-korg?" yet I couldnt help but wonder, actually I thought it like this, "probably someone is going to see that post and think i am bragging about what a great guy i am getting ppl their gear back, and they are going to hate me for it." Because people do think like that, trust me. Its weird the ways you can inspire hatred, and its worth being tiptoey about. Some of the best advice I have gotten recently, or maybe it wasnt the best advice so much as it was the advice most applicable to my life, was sort of second hand......I was at dinner with my dad and 2 of his business associates (he is a wine importer) and this dude who is now like the #1 salesman in Austin or Texas or something, his bullshit is real good ol' boy style, but I have met this guy enough times to know its an act, he said something about this woman in the business and he said, authoritatively "she needs to keep her mouth shut." The way he said it sounded real chauvy, but it was a little more nuanced then that --- actually I had been looking over at my dad cause i got confused what to do in this situation (I have no business with these guys obviously, i am just sort of at dinner) and the answer was, hey everythings cool, you just need to keep your mouth shut. Thats what I should have been doing, just watch, learn, and be comfy while these guys do their shit. So I took it to half-mean the guy was talking to me, and actually telling me something really helpful. But also, in a way, this is the liquor sales business in Texas we are talking about, not the fuckin friars club or whatever, this guy would have no trouble saying some other male needed to "keep his mouth shut", it actually is important business information and probably appropriate in a weird way, and he is actually doing his job to talk about this other business actor in the same way, be that actor male of female (as well as being convincing as a salesperson by talking authoritatively in that manner). double edged sword of equality.
And I do have something to say a little later about what women face, especially being in bands, cause I didnt really notice it before this year, but women do have it harder in certain basic regards --- harder getting the soundman to do his fuckin' job, harder because x number of ppl you meet are all trying to get in your pants (at all levels of industry), and if you do you are slut shamed and if you dont they just all get mad at you, and its difficult. like, wow. Or maybe i should say its tricky. As a guy, I face certain things too, but I think all and all humanity would be better served if the average guy had a better understanding of what the average woman goes thru in certain situations.
Peoples gear getting stolen is a major fucking vibe bomb. Its happened to me in years past. This year, miraculously, I lost nothing except my computer charger (who knows, maybe its around here somewhere). But Cloud Becomes Your Hand and Moonsicles definitely got gear stolen and it just puts such a bad taste in your mouth. Moonsicles was down to play this art gallery show I had set up for them at 5 AM, and they had to cancel because they had their gear stolen --- I cant imagine they would have agreed to play at 5 AM unless it was something they were excited about, so think about that for a second. Cloud Becomes Your Hand, I exchanged with those guys this pissed off sideways knowing glance because "its always at the best shows that your gear gets stolen, isn't it?" you let your guard down for one second because you are having such a great time, and the vibe of the place seems legit like you are welcome and at home, etc, and boom, that show just cost you $1000 to play. Fucked up shit. And that aggregates and it matters. CBYH has really nice gear, they are serious musicians from Brooklyn and they have an electric vibrophone and a violin player and a lot of electronics -- some people would probably see all their fancy gear and assume that they are rich or something, but I see it a bit differently -- I assume all musicians are basically broke, so if they have more money invested in their gear it probably will make it even harder for that band to replace. "oh theyre rich, they have all this nice gear, they can probably afford to replace this." bullshit.
SO that was some of the negativity. There was a lot of positivity too -- MAJOR positivity. I met a lot of cool people and psychedelically bonded with some people who stayed at my house. There were some people who legitimately get what I am doing, and why, and that means the world to me, because the status quo basically feels like you do all this shit for other people and then you get misunderstood and people treat you with suspicion. I will say, that when it comes to the Major League Baseball of Rock and Roll, you need to punch your own ticket, and there is no way around that, unless you want to be at the mercy of someone else's beck and call. as Jerry Jeff Walker says, "if you want to be free, you have to be your own boss." So I have been trying to do that, and in a weird way that could be considered an expression of the will, or of the self, but the way I do things is really about other people, thats actually a trick that I think is what makes the whole thing work, and what other people by and large miss.
I got to book a lot of my friends bands and I got to see a lot of my friends from out of town all at once. I got to see my friends in Austin lose their shit on a number of occasions, and I personally got to lose my shit (i mean this in a good way of course, as in "i just saw the most awesome band and the whole crowd was losing their shit"). I had this thought towards the end of the pool party like about the absurdity of the situation is the sense that I was asking myself the question "so is this what it takes to get me off?" Like why should it be going to Herculean lengths, planning something for 3+ months, dealing with a mountain of bullshit, etc, .... why cant i just be a normal person?! ha. But it all works --- the best things that happened to me over sxsw are weirdly mundane in a way --- my parent's told me they loved me, my best friend's dad called me a man, and I went on a sikk ass date, which I have no idea how that happened, first of all people dont even go on dates any more, and second of all I am typically retarded when I try to talk to a woman I am attracted to.
The thing about rock and roll is it really expressed the peak of what humans are capable of, the individual and also as an aggregate, and most people dont have that much of a reference point with peak experiences. Anyways, more blogging recap to follow but I am going to keep it brief to the point of being curt and also not really talk about Austin bands since that would turn into a circle jerk real fast, obviously I only went to see or booked Austin bands that I really like and also that I want to support their music because I believe in it.
PEACE
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