partyplants.bandcamp.com !!!!
we released these tracks finally. our new record is coming soon, we are getting back the mastered versions today, and we are gonna burn cd-rs right before our show in the green room in dallas :)
Friday, May 1, 2015
Party Plants "Paul's Antiques"
Thursday, January 8, 2015
whad i do anyways 2014
shouldn't i like have a record of what i did, n stuff?
Pizza Shop that was this year oh yeah, I had to have a job before that right? Workin hard or hardly workin? I really wanna pizza shoppe it again some in 2015, I really like it. I just get so excited for pie !!!
JAN
Least fun family vacation of all time. I dont remember what I did after that
FEB
Probably getting ready for sxsw?
MAR
We did sxsw big....7 Party Plants shows. There was an ESCAPES with 33 bands at 1808. Burger pool party at Julians, it was too cold to get in the pool, but the Fajitas were great !
APR
I think I started working at the pizza shop around here, it may have been May. East Side Pies on Airport I was so happy and proud and stuff to be working 33 hrs a week.
MAY - AUGUST
just doin band stuff, workin at the pizza shop. Towards the end started smoking weed before work too often, probably. Took up skateboarding. Tried to fit in with the guys but it just wasnt working out. Guys are like girls, you just gotta show up and not care, or something. Then they will fuck you, eww totally gross, NOT. So not into that. none of that gay shit. Also banging the coworker, what do you work at a pizza shop or something? Ive never done it, Ive heard its fucking commonplace as all hell, but all the girls that worked there had boyfriends, I didnt want to go head to head with anyone cause I got bigger fish to fry and plus I can get my own shit right? Have a little self respect !! Felt real beat down by the end of that tho, coudnt write good songs cause all the words I wrote sounded like they were written by a pussy, which sucked, but I kinda knew it was cause I backed down. But it all worked out later cause fuck that guy he sucks dick !!!!!! Bigger fish to fry .....
SEPT
I "retired" from the pizza game, with some chagrin, some time around here. Some dude didnt like me there and then the whole pirate ship turned on me. It was a smoke out.
OCT
Turned 29 !! That definitely happened. Sitting around feeling like blah blah blah or whatever. Had a lot of money saved up and felt really bad about spending it on just not having a job, that felt stupid.
NOV
November 7th big day, got picked up for SNOW WITE tour. That went from Austin at that point (the tour itself started in LA) to
DEC
Tour continued, went back to detroit for the best 2 weeks of my life, and then back to Austin for xmas. Played that Bill Baird show at the house.
JAN 2015
began work on Personal Art Project ZINE / SXSW ..... had idea to start a Label finally. Thats gonna be dependent on if I make money though I think. I have to sell some shit just to make it to march without getting a job, which is weird cause Im trying to get a job/?
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Snow Wite tour recap / odds and ends
Its been too long, fearless blog readers. I made the intelligent decision of not bringing my laptop on tour, but that is not helping me with my issues with the "l" key. isnt it annoying when you have to press down extra hard on one key all the time and it fucks with your flow?
Ok, so November 7th, 2014 was a cool day. We (Party Plants) played a show with Snow Wite and Period Bomb....well, we didnt actually play the show with them cause we got them hooked up with a $$ gig, which as we all know touring bands all need $$, and then there was a kegger at my place afterwards. That went really late, some shit went down with their drummer , who is the type of dude that does a lot of psychedelics, very psychedelic dude, Gus, and voila, we got tacos with our dates* (my date in this instance was my roommate Fernando) the next morning and then they went off somewhere random, no one could get in touch with them, and then I was the new drummer for Snow Wite tour. I was Snow Wite's 9th drummer, I liked to tell people it was kinda like Beethoven's 9th symphony, ya know? duh duh duh duuuuhhhh. duh duh duh duuuuuh. Anywhos, we crammed in the car (5 ppl in a Subaru Forester....it was tight) and headed up to a show in Ft Worth that night. I had only tried out on 4 of the songs, so we listened to the record on repeat on the drive to Ft Worth and I was trying to memorize where the parts change and stuff. Played there and Dallas and long drived it (7 hrs) straight to Kansas City, which is not actually a horrible idea if you wanna just get to the midwest, cause then boom you just went straight from Texas to the Midwest. Id never thought of it like that. I guess Kansas City was day 3 of shows. I didnt really have my sealegs yet, I faded with the night. Our hosts were in a band called Dated, who were fucking amazing, and amazing ppl, Brock and Erica. Brock gave me a sick recipie that is going in my personal art project zine for sxsw, which will not be on the internet, and probably cost me money to make, hopefully ppl will give me donations.
Anyways, its boring to type this all out, and plus its all my gossip, you gotta ask me in person, I guess its all my info, which is shitty mainly because I want to write it out, but its not really mine to share, whereas ESCAPES i can write out everything that happens.
But it was awesome there was some good stories, totally would roll w that crew again.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Double Reverse Feminist Criticism
I saw an awesome video of an awesome band today, it was The Hysterics last show. I saw this band in Austin a couple summers ago, maybe only last summer. They are an all female hardcore band, and they were all very young. They rocked, actually I went to see them 2 days in a row. That said there was something about there last video that I wanted to get in on some feminist criticism on. Because while feminists, generally its stupid to criticise them, its a much better idea to just try and hang out with them because they are usually super cool people, an often times super cute, but sometimes they have a reputation for being able to dish it out but not being able to take it. You see, there is probably a feminist somewhere who would take that last line as crossing the line, and thats exactly what Im talking about. You gotta be able to swing both ways on that matter, imo.
Here's the video of The Hysterics trying an experiment at their last show. Its a song about sexual harassment called "Leave me Alone."
Ok so what do I think about that if I'm such a hotshot? Well, I think its fine, cause not only can i dish it out, but i can take it too (*no homo), but seeing as tho this is a blog and not my job I just wanted to take the liberty to do a little talking back. I feel on the positive side it created a special environment to get ppl pumped up and they got to say what they wanted to say. The chicks at the front dancing to that song were definitely major pumped up, and a band should be pumping up their crowd. I feel like its a sentiment that is heightened by what they are doing. They are creating the illusion of a "safe space" But I feel like on the negative side they accomplished that by putting people down, and I think people putting people down, especially people that came to see their show, I think that is very un-dude-like. I get the preface that it was an experiment, but having tried it for their own personal edification, I would say alright ladies you found out what happened, I hope you dont do that again. Us vs them is not cool. I dont think its that cool to put people on the spot about what their declared sexuality is. What if theres a closeted gay dude in the crowd, you are creating a potentially awkward (and undeserved) moment for that dude. As for the straight guys -- I dont think its cool to vilify the dominant hegemony in that way, because what about the individual? If I had been at that show, as a straight white male, trying to be nice, trying to be polite, fading into the background I would have had my buzzed major harshed, like i was uninvited from the group. If you are trying to do shows, I think one thing you are trying to do is get everyone more pumped up than they usually are. To take someone to that heightened state knowingly and then harsh their mellow based on something out of their control (that they are a straight white male), I think thats a little bogus. So outside of the fact that rock has these little allowances, and thats an essential part of the medium as a whole, strictly as a medium for the personal growth of the artist, I think it sends the wrong message by basically being divisive and judging people as a whole based on their sex, race, and sexuality, which i thought feminists were supposed to be against, and i think they can do better in terms of what they are expressing, as feminist artists. But also good job, double reverse.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
The Coathangers @ Fitzgeralds (htown) + Red 7, 7/25/14 & 7/26/14
Hard to find a starting point on this one....just got done seeing The Coathangers at Red 7. The Austin show was fine, there was nothing wrong with it, but I had a weirdly giddy sense of self-verification or something, because the Houston show was way better, and I had a feeling ahead of time that it was just a good idea to go see them in Houston, and that that was one of the reasons. It was perfect, because I got to see and actually chill with my friends in Houston, C Reed and Fernando and it was like something fun was going on that night. Fernando made a good point about the anonymity of Houston, how sometimes thats nice. He made the point that its cool to be a part of something where its like you are plugged in to people, like more how Austin is, and like how its kinda a boring life like you go to work and then you go home and then you go to bed, but he made a really good point that sometimes that's nice too. I missed White Fang both shows, the first time because we couldnt get band practice together until 4:30 PM, so i didnt leave Austin until after that, and then it turned out to be an early show ("doors at 8? does that mean these bands will play at 10?" why are only 2 bands listed? ... then the 2nd time I just got off work at like midnite and went pretty much straight down there. It sucked because the drinkin' vibe on the back stoop at work was really nice, a really good vibe, i just stayed for 1 quick small (16oz) beer. It was kinda hilarious to miss them that way, like it kinda sucked, that was half the reason i wanted to go to the show in Houston, but anyways, I just saw both their bands, and we listened to some of their cool old merch that I picked up on the drive back to Austin.
So yeah, they Houston show for Coathangers was way better. The main thing I would say was better was just the vibe. We got to that show right before the start of their set and you could just tell they had been drankin' and were loose and just in a good mood. Then the energy of the crowd turend out to be great, there were some older fans there, but also there was like a critical mass of people in their early 20s, and you could really feel the excitement of that crowd in the mosh pit. There was some pretty good moshing in there. It was the right energy, it made it fun.
The vibe of the crowd for sure felt like the main difference. also Austin it was outdoors, hot, and there was another band that was playing, which is always shitty. The sound was better in Austin, I will give it that. No moshing, it just seemed like ppl were bobbing their heads but like they were fuckin me up when i was trying to bob my head. Also I was hung over as shit all day today, I wonder if the band was the same way. Anyways I dont really feel about writing it, theres not much to say, it was still a good show, its just i felt like their je ne sais quoi that makes me like them was a lot more present at the houston show. where the fun is
Friday, July 11, 2014
Real Live Tigers // Airplane Mode @ CuCs, 7/9/14
peace out to max homie musical polyglot and seemingly permanent scene fixture Sean Padilla. Sean is moving on to future pastures with his family on the East Coast, somehow i forget if its Virginia or North Carolina. By my count, he was currently active in Real Live Tigers, Zest of Yore, SHMU, and his long running songwriting vehicle Cockerspaniels which was solo for many years and in recent years has a full band. Also he was a known dude in this town for having a sweet ass van bearing the inscription "sometimes you have to fight to get a little peace" with his afroed likeness on it, and he was a great community resource for recording and posting a shit ton of shows online which would have otherwise been lost to history. Also, he really likes Guided By Voices, somehow that seems like an important detail. :)
Scope his Youtube Channel
The dude was in the upper echelon of Austin musicians, and his departure ranks up there with that time Nick Hennies moved to upstate New York. I feel bad for all the musicians he plays with, because he is irreplaceable as a musician, and hes the type of dude that is irreplaceable as a dude. Those dudes are probably in for some dark months while time slowly heals the wound in their heart of not having their buddy around, but as they say "life goes on."
Anyways, last night was his last night in town. Hes been doing a lot of shows lately, I feel like pretty much everyone had their chance to go and see one lately. I was a little late on the train, working nights currently. I just went to the show last night, and things worked out for me super, because the bands where I know someone in the band were listed first but ended up playing last, so I got to catch him on stage, and also a killer Airplane Mode set. Sean was on drums in Real Live Tigers. They were good, Cheer Ups sounds really good up close by the stage, at least last night. Airplane Mode
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Priests @ Mohawk 6-25-14, last summer @ Casa Olander
This band. FUck yeah !!! Priests is an awesome band, they are from Washington D.C.. They played my house last year, it was an 8 band bill -- Spiked Punch / Priests / Andrian and Gabe doing double drums / Drider / Triangulators / Night Court / Reverse X Rays / Hunter Jones. Also Magia Negra was supposed to play like their 3rd show, but it barely didnt work out because the bill was overbooked and i fucked up the times that i told people when they were playing. I think Moron Mountain was supposed to play, or did play as well? Maybe it could have been slightly better if everyone played, but it was still yr classic 8 band house show -- my 2 bands got to play, 4 of my coworkers bands played (!), Night Court was awesome as always, and Priests fuckin slayed !!! The space is so small, it was loud and hot and sweaty and only so many people fit. Shout out to Indio Beer for fuckin hookin' it up and holdin' it down all summer long last summer. Yeah motherfucker!! A real hootenanny. Mainly with those parties at the house last summer the idea was just to get really drunk and be in the perfect environment where that would be ok, and then when i was wasted i could go back in my room whenever i wanted and just pass out. That was the jist of it. I think we did 3 shows at the house last summer, I should prob try to get at least one together for fun for this summer, its almost July already. Lately Ive been wanting to do some upper level summer shit so i feel like im not wasting my summer/life ... so far my list is I want to play D and D with my coworkers, go skating with them, go to the bar with them, record music. I dont even count playing shows, thats fun, but I need the hard stuff -- recording sessions that go all night n stuff. A show like tonight. And more swimming, didnt I used to go swimming at least every couple days when it was summer? ive hit up 3 different spots so far, Shhh beach, The Chimney Sweep, and I just hit up Barton Springs today for the first time, but thats it so far.
Anyways, Priests are incredible. Theres like shit inside of them that they need to get out, and I'm all about that lately. I dont even want to write about them as a band, because I feel like it would be reductive. Im glad they exist. They speak with a voice that really resonates to me, like it reminds me of something important in my past. They are a hard band to want to write about because gender is pretty central to their music IMO, down to the level of who cues who when, but like me writing on the subject seems like a sure way to put a foot in my mouth. Generalistically, the point would be that if you compared standard 4 pieces to each other, I would say who is straight and who is gay and who is male and who is female are definitely strong markers in a very complex matrix that spits out what ends up happening and how the music comes out, and its cool to see what happens when you get more towards the margins of that matrix compared with bands more reflective of the social norm. I would be really interested to read anything someone in their band wrote about the subjects, or related subjects....one time I read a like Graduate School level essay on some pop culture show written by the drummer, i think just for fun. It was pretty amazing, even though it was a show I didnt watch ! I fucked up, I bought all their shit at the merch table pretty much, but didnt grab a free zine the singer made, which i really wanted, now i gotta try and figure it out.
i believe this is her singing in Chain and The Gang, her old band, maybe its the same drummer too?
*--------------*
Bill Baird told me something both obvious and profound today, which was that the point of a show is to win over the audience. Its pointless to just have a show.
Friday, June 20, 2014
2 shows: @ CuCs + White Swan, 6-11-14, 6-13-14, Snow Wite // Nu Depth // Michael Stasis // Party Plants // Jagerbumps // Airplane Mode
i started a recap of the last 2 shows Party Plants did and it became sort of arduous. Im sure there were some good points in there, I just wanted to start over and do a blah blah blah recap.
First show, last Wednesday 6/11/14 @ Cheer Up Charlies. The bill was Snow Wite (L.A.) // Party Plants // Jagerbumps // Nu Depth (9 pm, from Charlottesville VA, also played drums in Snow Wite). Free show, the bands (all $ went to the touring bands) got 100 bucks from the bar, which was fair for the crowd. It would have been nice to make something on the door for the local bands that put the show together and actually brought the people out, but I think Cheer Up's is a smart bar, the way they are positioning themselves among all the bars to have it always be free, so I dont really fault them. They are definitely valuable to have around from a booking perspective, exactly for a show like this, and I think theyve done a really nice job with the new spot, it still feels comfortable and fun and like the same place.
This show was interesting. Nu Depth was great in the space. We did a crowdsurf of him with 8 people in the audience or so. He went all around the whole place and did some shit with a concrete brick. it was engaging. Jagerbumps and Party Plants both played sets that had some growing pains, but I felt like it was a really gritty show. Its interesting being a part of the band where the band has ppl that come to the shows and have fun, but its also the shared energy between the ppl on stage and the ppl in the audience is completely integral. We played much better Friday. We practiced much better Wednesday afternoon than the show we played Wednesday night. There were all kinds of circumstances involved. Alot of ppl told us "good show", but really it wasnt. Our band has magic in it, and unfortunately that magic doesnt manifest itself every single time we have a show. It def didnt at this show, and it def did appear on Friday. It would be nice to be in a band where it was magic every night. If we went on tour we would have that, Im sure of it. Its mostly about practicing and then sleeping and then playing, otherwise you are trying to play a mimic of yourself. Snow Wite really brought it. The most exciting thing that happened was when we went back to my house and drained a case of wine after the show. Ppl in the audience can get all their haterade out, it still felt like a successful show to me based solely on the hangout afterwards. Really thats not true, its too complicated a show to write about. The cool thing is we are a living breathing organism. Im writing like nothing about the other bands, the other post went pretty in depth. Snow Wite has got "it", i love that dude. He is very genuine, and a fun dude, and very talented. i was playing Love You Like Limeade subconsciously on drums and guitar for days. Hope to see him again over south by.
Second Show , Last Friday 6/13/14 @ White Swan. The bill was Michael Stasis (L.A) // Party Plants // Airplane Mode, $3 show
I missed Airplane Mode, which felt especially shitty because Joey was at our show Wednesday. It was because I was trying to harangue my roommates into coming to the show. Its important to have the energy of new audience members. We played balls out dynamite. Sean Padilla was in the audience and he was rocking out. It is going to be a loss to Austin when he moves away. A very talented dude, and a nice dude, with a sharp perspective. It was really shitty when that shit with his van getting tagged went down. I was kinda surprised it didnt get repainted over, because I think a bunch of people were down to do so at the time or something, but i never really found out what happened with that. Yeah, anyways we played great. Everyone in our band knew we were gonna play good. No monitors, small crowd, we had just played, and we hadnt practiced since then. Its really at least 50% that we were just less underpractiiced. Sorry to our fans on the Wednesday show, if you could read between the lines, its obvious probably that we would play better Friday, but a lot of those ppl were def Jagerbumps' crew. Michael Stasis is a super dude and we played old guitars and went swimming and got bar-b-que twice. I was fucking jetfueled off the Party Plants set, and I was like rocking out so hard to his music, way more than anyone else. I just love music, if it sounds sweet, it is sweet, thats what youa re trying to achieve right, to be able to let yourself go like that? So if you already have it why roll it back because the music is meerly good and not great. Anways hes a swell dude, he was playing along to backing tracks. We booked this show super last second and managed to get him like 55 bucks from the door.
I think its funny enough that there exists a perception that how we are booking shows is in any way capitalistic, that's why i bring up the money part. It all went to touring bands. Anytime we have done a show where we have made money, its basically gone immediately to recording. The innerband vibe is always nicer if people arent being asked to pay out of pocket for that, so i dont really apologize for having a small band fund. People should have $3 or $5 occasionally to see their friends bands, or bands that arent their friends that are just good bands if they are music fans. Mostly im thinking of people so orthodox that they would find that too capitalistic or something.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Party Plants - Great Interplanetary Romance VIDEO
We made a video yall ! Directed and edited by the band ! Thx Courtney for letting us use your computer !
Party Plants
Great Interplanetary Romance
Party Plants EP
Pretty All Right Records
2014
If you are inspired, grab the whole EP here.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
BECK !! Live @ Austin City Limits TV taping 4-28-14
hey this episode is gonna air in October, I hope I make it !!
This was a great show, they played a 19 song set list, and then they came back to redo about 5 songs for TV that they like missed a lyric or a note on or something. I was on the front row for the whole show until the end i let this drunk girl in a hat be on the very front. She approached me before the show to try and tell me Im tall* (*uuh, yeah i know this happens every time im at a show) and that she should be in front of me, but I shut her down and then started harmlessly flirting with her so she could be in a good mood. I learned a valuable lesson thats kinda more a girls perspective thing, because there was definitely a moment where I should have dropped the "yeah my girlfriend blah blah blah" because instead like a gesture or 2 later she like tried to rub up against me and i just backed away so therefore it was awkward after that (i say girls perspective because id be willing to bet 98 times out of 100 this line is the "yeah my boyfriend" line, and hey the cool thing is now i understand it, yay for me.) If only life didnt have to be so deftly navigated. I forget how uptight your average person is.....like cant we just talk to each other and be random strangers who arent trying to bang each other ? but its not that easy, that's not how it works, and anyways I digress because this post is about the show... the BECK show.
Ok, one thing you gotta know about Beck and one thing I learned about pro music as a commercial artform is that Beck is the Boss (like Springsteen, or Wayne Coyne) and its not about the band, its about the Man, thats what people are watching. Just cause Im watching the other musicians thinking "the keyboard seems like a cool guy and reminds me of my friend Matt in L.A." doesn't mean that's "Where Its At" (<----beck .....="" 0-60="" 80="" a="" able="" actually="" also="" and="" are="" as="" ask="" aspect="" at="" band="" be="" because="" beck="" best="" between="" big="" buddys="" but="" can="" confounding="" could="" couple="" didnt="" diehard="" difference="" different="" do="" ediocrity.="" energy="" essentially="" ever="" experience="" experiences="" f="" fans="" far="" for="" freaked="" getting="" go="" gonna="" gonnna="" great="" have="" hes="" hey="" holy="" hose="" house="" i-love-rock-and-roll="" i="" im="" in="" into="" is="" it="" its="" just="" kinda="" know="" known="" let="" life="" like="" little="" ll="" me="" milwaukee="" mushrooms="" nbsp="" nd="" night="" nights="" not="" of="" oh="" ok="" on="" one="" or="" out="" p="" people="" play="" point.="" probably="" question:="" question="" really="" refined="" rock="" rockstar="" same="" say="" saying="" share="" shit="" show="" similar.="" small="" some="" something="" songtitle="" splat="" star="" strangers="" tell="" that="" thats="" the="" them="" then="" time="" to="" totally="" tour....="" tuesday="" up="" wake="" way="" went="" what="" whatever.="" why="" will="" with="" would="" you="" your="" yourself="">
But contrast that to playing a venue a standard deviation or 3 larger. The crowd is gonna be made up of regular people. Theyre not all musicians, or musicians girlfriends who are also musicians, or college radio djs or whatever. They just like the music !! So when Beck is playing with his band (they were a 6 piece), the other 5 guys are like the pinnicle of hired guns. They are guys with a gig and they are getting paid and they are getting to express themselves fully in terms of their capabilities, but they are not writing music as a band, so they lack that sense of ownership, but they are all prob super chill dudes. From watching their show I felt like I could get into a conversation with 3 of the guys in the band and feel like i had met someone super cool and that that feeling was recipricated, because I felt like I was sharing energy with them. Why? Well its a pretty intimate venue and I was on the front row, but besides that the main factor is that out of everyone on the front row I was probably the only musician, and I like to listen to music in a way where I am playing along with the music even tho its not my show cause of course a guy like me would imagine that. Thats what musicians all feel when they first see a Jimi Hendrix video when they are 13 or whatever, so it would be only natural for those guys on stage to catch my vibe out of the corner of their eye, and since unlike in Milwaukee where everyone is on the same page, everyone else is having a good time but is basically a layperson, there is gonna naturally be a focus on the only dude who is a musician's vibe. And that is quite dangerous because if they dose out and get into it with me, we might get lucky (totally random) on some changes, but I dont know the music so I am probably going to give them a number of bad cues and fuck them up. So thats kinda ironic isnt it? So thats my question to Beck, who is The Boss, because he did some professional shit by asserting his dominance in a weird way that would to a layman seem like a rock star and to a lower level musician seem like an ego trip like the classic "oh why does this guy....etcetc" but I wonder what a rockstar acts like, because how cool is it to fuck up your buddy's show, or to not make it about him, when the making it about him is what ties it together. And ultimately when you have musicians that good (def including Beck, who wrote the shit, and his new material is great btw, even tho its slower tempo) its mega worth checking out what they come up with even if its mainly one guys shit and the other guys are just guys getting paid (((as opposed to a band where the band members are contributing more equally, or maybe not that so much, as that they are more vested in the compositional process <---main 150="" a="" able="" about.="" actually="" all="" and="" at="" band="" be="" been="" biggest="" combine="" crowd="" doesnt="" escapes="" even="" exist="" for="" get="" grail="" had="" has="" have="" holy="" huge="" i="" im="" in="" is="" ive="" level="" like="" max="" megaparentheticals="" more="" musicians="" nbsp="" of="" on="" p="" point="" ppl="" pretty="" quite="" rock="" roll="" seen="" shit="" show="" shy="" situation="" so="" sure="" talking="" than="" that="" the="" think="" those="" to="" ultimately="" ut="" was="" we="" what="" where="" which="" with="" you="">
OK THIS HAS BEEN A SWEET RAMBLE !! I have nothing to say about the show, watch the video when it comes out, seriously its fucking sick. Becks material is sick, I love seeing such an advanced musician. Actually, OK, I have critiques....i guess i should spill the beans while I remember the show. The bass player was super sick and doing some sick ass shit. I liked where the chord went from major to minor on the same chord and he played the root--5th and then root an octave higher. He was doing some really incredible shit just getting around the neck, it was very smooth, never harsh. I thought his Gibson bass (some weird super rare 70s model) sounded the best thru his amps, but for playability I noticed when he was playing the more light blue surfer one, I think it was actually a Jaguar bass. I couldnt figure out if the amps were daisy chained, or if one was a backup amp, he had an Ampeg and an Acoustic Rig. I laughed to myself because he could have gotten the sound I wanted him to have out of my bass rig HAHAHAHA (Sunn 2000S thru 2x15). The EQing could have been a little better IMO, that room sounds incredible, gotta give The Black Angels credit for how they actually sounded sonically for their set there, the only other show ive seen there) so it still sounded good, but I would have liked to have a good ol fashioned tweak at it. Beck should have used his Fuzz Pedal more, he used it like 2 times the whole show, and that was really an energy and volume that I thought was essential and underplayed and should have been more tapped into. It sounded like Cherry Glazarr. The guy on the bolo tie is pure gold. I feel like there should have been a pedal steel in the show, with all the other shit they had going on. The Hohner Clavichord should have had more high end, and "Where Its At" (the encore) IMHO should have been played faster. It seemed that they had the slower tempo of the other material in their head, which I totally understand. I also feel like they didnt peak out on that song like they should have because of the showbusiness aspect where the show had to be about Beck, because that show starts with the Keyboard, but the keyboard player wasnt allowed to get funky with it in a way that would attract attention to him. Commercial Concerns IMO. Maybe Beck should have gotten up there and played the riff to start the song or something, and then come down later and done the part where he is just straight up rapping. Oh yeah, there were hints of Neil Young, serious ones, but also pretty subtle. The boom boom -chick beat on the one with the banjo, and on that "never never never never never never blah blah" song there is a sweet Em7 chord. Not saying Neil Young owns that chord but I did lean over to the guy next to me after that and say "Sweet Neil Young chord," so there is that. Thats all the really pertinent stuff I can remember. It would have been cool to have a little more faster material....it was cool the way they were pimping the new album....it was definitely a promotional show in that regard, and everything they played off that album was super sick (the one where they play in 3 for a while and then go back, I really loved how that worked, there is like a dropped measure in there, but I really felt like one could follow the music, like if you focused on the melody it would all make sense and the momentum wasn't harsh at all, therefore since it was so weird, it was really awesome). but at one point Beck was like "were getting the slower material out of the way now" but then they went on still really fucking long with that, like most the show was slow material it felt like.
Ultimately it was really fucking badass. Im the tall dude on the front row in the Sleep Good shirt, which is a hammerhead shark with some diamonds on it, V neck style. Hope i make TV, hi mom and dad!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Party Plants // Shiny Voyage // Jagerbumps (first show) @ Scoot Inn 4-9-14
yo.
I have to skip a lot of the drama that went on with this show, because i want to follow my own rule of "rock and roll cool" which is that the cool thing to do is to cover someone elses faux pas so that we can all have a good time. There was some things that happened at this show that made me feel really low. To speak in vague generalities, I will only say that when ppl play shows, if they are doing it right, what happens is they are bearing their soul. George Harrison slyly said it best, i dont think i could find the interview, but basically he pointed out that people aren't their corporeal beings, which is what its standard to mistake them for, what people really are are souls. Everyone gets pent up from, well you know how it is, you're a human who ever is reading this, going to work, monotony, responsibilities, running out of money, trying to sign up for health care, etc. Getting caught under the gears of life. Whenever I play a show, especially whenever the band I'm playing in is good, which is def the case with Party Plants right now, by the end of the show i am very exposed emotionally. Its just naturally what happens. And I am a very emotional person, and Ive been accused in the past of always being in a hurry, or being uptight, and you know what, theres some time in my past where I was super uptight, and to the point where I couldn't even have regular interactions with other people, so if anyone is reading this that feels the same way or ever has, solidare! The release of emotion that happens to me at a show is kinda sacred, or at the least, essential to my being, and I dont think Im alone in that, I think thats universal for anyone who gets seriously involved in doing music or art or really any creative pursuit i guess, the whole having an outlet thing. At the end of a night when I have played a show, its like being in a wave in the ocean like I am forced to accept not being in control, and thats also a solid metaphor for life, because, really if we end up in a WWIII scenario or something, or theres an earthquake, I mean, its worth taking a cue from Alcoholics Anonymous that there is a higher power than us. Shit happens way outside of our control. And that's why I'm comfortable putting myself thru a itinerary (playing a show) where the end result is I'm not going to be completely in control, because that's more true to life than thinking you can control everything. So that's what my rant has crystallized into, I think it obliquely captures the essence of why I think its important not to harsh anyones mellow, especially right after they played a show --- because it isnt a corporeal thing you are fucking with, its a soul.
UMM....ok so the show itself. Jagerbumps played first, they went on at 10:20, and holy shit, i did a headcount there were EIGHTY PEOPLE there. For a 3 band local bill on a fucking Wednesday night. Chris Smith brought out a shit ton of people. I was too scared to be up front for their set because I thought I would in some way get pancaked, or something would happen. Jager bumps is a 6 piece --- 3 guitars, 2 members of Basketball Shorts, playing instruments they dont play in that band, Casey on bass and Ben on drums, and then Chris singing and just generally being a badass frontman. I liked some of the genre fills Ben was doing, it gave the band the right flavor. I didnt realize hes a badass drummer, he had a beat like he has a kit set up in his house he can practice on or something. Yeah so 3 guitars, super loud, and . My favorite part was the alternating guitar intro on the last song ("who you gonna fuck tonight? / nobody! nobody!") Chris Smith had good menace and just a good loosing your shit look and was a great frontman. He knows how to rock out from his Dark Meat days, probably before that, but as a guy whose seen a lot of bands, I definitely felt like I was watching a guy with pro level experience, thats a good vibe for their band. Him and me were kinda going at it during the Party Plants set, I tried to lock him in the bathroom by dragging a big ass monitor or subwoofer or something in front of the door. Oh yeah, the soundguy was a super chill dude, he totally thought it was funny and just put the thing back where it went and I went back on stage, and Chris didnt ever see any of it happen, b/c he was in the bathroom, and then I talked a little shit from on stage and hopefully he knew it was a joke too and I wasnt trying to hurt his feelings because he's one of my FUCKIN BESTIES.
The Shiny Voyage set in the middle was cool, they have new songs. A lot of their set was instrumental, which I didn't remember from the last show we did with them at Willard's house. They had some songs that utilized the very highest part of the guitar neck, and also they are doing a thing with an octaver pedal because they play 2 guitars (and a drum kit) but sometimes they make one of the guitars play a bass line. Someone remarked that they raised their game --- personally I remember them being really fucking good at Willard's too, that's why we wanted to do this show with them, but this show was tight as well. They are a hard band to compare to anyone...they had a couple songs that used acoustic guitar that was cool. I was talking with Tessa from that band about Broken Water, I'll bet thats a band they would like, also a 3 piece, but not really that similar in sound to what they are doing. I was just saying I feel like the grunge sound is coming back in vogue or something (even tho Broken Water has been around for a while).
Our set was good. We didnt need to play all of our songs, I think we went on around 12:20, 12:30. Its cool just the different vibe of the 3 band bill, I think people appreciate going to such a show, just to mix it up. I actually like that all the shows at Trailer Space are 3 band bills (mostly, I think). If it had been a 4 band bill I would have felt like the urge to rush the other bands, but for a show that "starts at 10" if people are still showing up, and the bands set is 25 minutes, whats wrong with not starting until 10:20? Some bars will be adamant that you start by 10:10 at the very latest. But just in terms of how the night goes....
More on our set that I can remember, not much in particular, i remember really rocking out, viscerally, physically convulsing while playing the bass. I thought of P-Bo, aka Patrick Boseman the bass player from Quiet Hooves. Something about the bass, i think its cause its less technical in the sense that you only have to play 1 note, but it really lends itself to going nuts with your entire body. I did some singing too which I normally don't do. We didn't play Electric Bill, which was nice, actually I dont like to sing on that one anymore because i think it slows the beat down, takes the other singers out of the moment. I think i sang harmonies on songs that it was like brand new harmonies. Chris was upping his pedal usage pretty significantly. I rolled off a lot of the high end from the bass on the EQ on the amp after playing a few shows with Naked Pictures over sxsw (Louis uses a J-Bass, mine is a P-bass style, thats what most ppl play on IMO), but I think i found a spot where I added back just a little of high end in a particular place, and it was doing good. Finding that sound tweaking it. I think we sounded EXCELLENT at the Chain Drive show, we had a show the night before that was fun, but as far as playing in top form, it was cool the way it was a warm up show for the Chain Drive show. Also I got a girl now, and I met her at that show, thats tight. She didnt actually see us play, she got there right after.....wished she could have been at the show tonight, prob would have made it a lot more fun of a show for me (not that it wasnt already hella fun), but the audience people are like a seed bank buried deep underground, they are really the holders of the vibe keeping everything cool.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
What's Up @ Treasure City SXSW 2009 -- proto escapes "coffee + grilled cheese"
This band was from Sacramento, or Portland or S.F. or something, wonder what ever happened to them.
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.
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