Quarantine Online Sets: Version 11

Wednesday's work at home got interrupted between 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Moses Sumney popped up on Seattle's KEXP's Live at Home Youtube show. I missed his Bootleg residency due to work, illness and a fear of crowds. His Lo-Fi, minimalist music rang true during his set. He'd record his vocals and then allow those recordings to back up his singing. His set ended with his song "Doomed" that just had these sonic echos. The KEXP host also conducted an interview with Moses. Unfortunately, my laptop computer's speakers couldn't pick up his interview very well.

Moses Sumney

Then up on Buzzbands' Instagram site was Trapdoor Social. Well, it was just Skylar. His set went the full hour with him shifting from guitar to piano to a harp. Yes, a harp. A lot of the back half of the set was with Skylar multitasking. He'd start singing and at the time reading the messages that were being left on Instagram and then mid-song, responding to the messages. It was fun. He ended the set singing his song, "No Regrets." He mentioned that he hadn't sung the song in years and had written it ten years ago and had forgotten how it started. Some fans did Internet searches or something and wrote down the opening lyrics to the song. With the memory help, he started up the song.

Trapdoor Social

Thursday was a similar situation where work got interrupted again. This time between 4 p.m. and 5: 30 p.m. Up on Buzzbands' Instagram site was Sam Marine who played a couple of his country-western tunes in a sideways manner on Instagram. Some folks on Instagram started to message that he was sideways. He sort of chuckled. I'm not sure if he was playing sideways on purpose or thought folks were making a joke. Anyways, his wife came into the room (off screen) and told him to turn his phone 180 degrees.

Sam Marine

Then 30 minutes later, I jumped over to Cuffed Up's interview with Emily Kinney. Actually, I was interested in finding out how the two of them knew each other. They never got to that point, but they have an interesting conversation about music in this time of the pandemic. Emily mentioned that initially she didn't find it all that unusual to be stuck inside her house. Since she's also an actress, she's used to not working for a period of time. Then at the 30 minute mark, the video for Cuffed Up froze up though one could still hear his voice. They decided to end the conversation at that point due to the technical difficulties (which if you read one of my previous posts, you know that Emily is used to suffering through).

Cuffed Up/Emily Kinney

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 9

Weekends start on Thursday afternoons, right? Maybe in this new virus world it does. Thursday thru Saturday was spent with Buzzbands. Thursday brought Hamis Handerson. He hooked in some 70s guitar rifts from Australia. YIP YOPS were up on Friday afternoon. Just like their live shows at venues from The Hi Hat to Echo Park Rising, they had the lights flashing bright. The drummer was slamming those sticks. The lead singer left everything out there. Saturday was spent catching a short 15-minute set by Starcrawler. It was lead singer Arrow's birthday the previous day. Two members of the band kicked it in what seemed like an industrial setting. Both wore masks with Arrow wearing red gloves. It was a laid back and yet in your face type of set. I'm not sure if that sentence makes much sense, but it seems like a good description.

Hamis Handerson

Yip Yops

Starcrawler

Saturday was a busy day in terms of watching online sets. Prior to Starcrawler, I caught Emily Kinney. First on Facebook, which resulted in technical issues. Her vocals kept cutting out. Her fans convinced her to switch over to Instagram so to Instagram we went. She said something like, "This feels like me telling everyone that we should just jump to the venue across the street." She handled the Facebook vocal problems with a very cool and calm outlook. Personally, I would have thrown up my hands and said, "Sorry, we'll have to meet up on another day." Over on Instagram, around the same number of people tuned in so everyone did jump from one venue to the other. A couple years have passed since I last caught a set from her. I realized that the next time she plays Hotel Cafe, I'm there.

Emily Kinney

Closing out Saturday was spent catching Mara Connor's record release party on Zebulon's Instagram page. She did a round with her favorite musicians. She would do a song and then pass it off to a friend. Sam Outlaw was up first playing from Nashville. Desure played from Los Angeles. There were a number of Internet glitches. Somehow he kept dropping off of Instagram. On one occasion, someone off camera whispered to Mara, "He's dropped off." Maybe there was an Android vs. Apple familiarity issue, because Mara shut down Instagram Live and came back on using a new phone. Cale Tyson joked about hanging with friends on the patio of Zebulon. He then let on that he was hanging out in Texas with his parents. (Honestly, what's up with Texas. I know a handful of people who have left California during this pandemic and are in Texas.) Ryan Pollie played his set from his car after he'd gone grocery shopping. He bought toilet paper, coconut milk, and wine. Ryan and Mara admitted that this was the first time both of them played Zebulon. It was so amusing watching cars driving pass during his song. Leeann Skoda played in front of a rather futuristic metal backdrop. Amusing moment was towards the end, Mara accidentally starting clapping while Leeann was still singing. The problem was that Instagram froze for a few moments so Mara figured the song was over. Will Fox closed out the guest with some pink/blue room lights.

Mara Connor

Mara Connor with guest Desure