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
Friday, July 11, 2014
Real Live Tigers // Airplane Mode @ CuCs, 7/9/14
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.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Flying Turns at Cheer Up Charlies
The post office just called to let us know that your Netflix won't be in this Thursday. So we're throwing an underground-disco party at Cheer-up Charlie's so that you suckers will have something to do before the weekend begins. And we know what you're thinking when we say 'disco'--if we play any Village People then you're free to come throw your drinks at us (as long as you tip your bartender).
We're bringing our crew to keep you dancing and drinking until your legs and lips fall off. DJsG&B, J Edgar Groover, Phillip Bluntly, and DJ Mike ZZ TopofthePops will turn you out, so come early and stay late for an evening of genre-smashing electronic music that totally beats Netflix-Instanting Starship Troopers just for that Felicity co-ed shower scene.
And, I made a little mix for the occasion, hope you enjoy it.
Flying Turns Mix by Flying DJG
22minutes17seconds
Tracklist:
Daniel Wang - Shadows
Earth People – Dance
Reflection – Cube Loop (Morgan Geist Remix)
Sugarcubes – Leash Called Love (“12 Dub)
DJ Platurn - Midas Touch (Inst)
The Strikers - Inch by Inch
Jacques Renault – Can't Nobody Love Me
Modern Romance – Can You Move
(divshare)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Switched On // No Mas Bodas Gets Married // Special Shit
hey yall
Its warming up out there, nightly temperatures now dipping down only as far as "bearable" and daytime conditions more along the lines of "perfect". And with that, we find our beloved fellow Austin scenesters out in full force this weekend for some very special events. The one last night was the opening party for Switched On, the new synth specialty store of Texas, located precariously near my house at 11th and Waller. I say precariously because I'm not sure the owners are ready for the level of annoyance they may experience when I go in there and play on every. single. one. of. their. synthesizers.
But the place looks incredible. There is a giant custom built video screen with their awesome logo in the front, a TV grid hooked up to a video synthesizer and oscilloscope (open for the public to dick around with last night), all your band needs such as drum heads and drum sticks, a ton of vintage keyboards, a specialty repair shop, and a well curated set of all types of synths. Its nothing short of fabulous. The opening was so well done too....bands first at the store and then later across the street at Victory Grill. It was my first time to get to see SURVIVE since their very first show, the dreadfully fated Pyramid in the back of Matt Schwaush's House Show, which we don't have to talk about here. They sounded great. Pataphysics played really well too, a ton of punk energy on Policeman especially sticks out in my mind.
Also earlier this weekend it was a great honor for Reverse X-Rays to get to be a part of the No Mas Bodas CD Release show at Cheer Up Charlie's (the old ms beas). Our set was perhaps not our best, but No Mas Bodas sounded good to me, and the wedding was fantastic. The 4 way knot was tied, shoes were thrown, gongs rang, aye-yay-yays enunciated like a room full of mad Poncho Villa's, and there was an overall quality dance party as well, not to mention What's Tappenin? a tap group that did a rather basketball halftime show performance at the end. 2 great evenings
Also, in the last couple months worth noting is the passing of The Pillow Queens, one of Austin's finest bands. They rocked extremely hard and their last show at Trailer Space was an emotional affair which I could have told you about in greater detail had I blogged about it at the time. No more misses like that, faithful readers, I pledge to thee!
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