Monday, May 11, 2020

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 13

Friday and Saturday had some interesting mini-festivals pop up on Facebook. Los Angeleno put on a Friday festival where everyone on the bill played about 10 minute sets. All the sets were pre-recorded. Litronix did a middle of the day set out in his backyard. He played his electric guitar with his pedals at arm length. A synth/guitar experimental set. The multi-talented Jess Joy did interpretive dancing while singing with artsy flair. One thing I noticed was that during this quarantine, she has certainly gotten some time out in the sun. Butch Bastard played on guitars and then shifted the camera so that he could play on the piano. Up on his wall was a Charles Barkley poster (Philadelphia days). Honey Child Choir played a darkened room with projected imagery flashing on the back wall while singing her opera solos. Eleni Mandell showed how working at home is for many in America. Towards the end of the set, her son came over and shifted the phone/video recorder. "Don't touch that. Don't touch that. That was my son. We got through 8 minutes." Closing out the festival and on a couple hours after Eleni Mandell was L.A. Drones. Their set was done in black outfits. One in dominatrix plastic. The other in black jeans and t-shirt.

Litronix

Jess Joy

Butch Bastard

Honey Child Choir
Eleni Mandell

L.A. Drones

Saturday was spent watching another series of brief sets on Living Room Sessions. Georgia Peach, Lauren Lakis, Christie Huff and Laura Levenhagen all played around 10- 15 minutes. I tuned in specifically for Lauren Lakis who played some tunes. Unfortunately, there seemed to be some strange pitch issues driven by her set-up. At times, it seemed like the sound system was on the verge of squeaking. It was still cool to catch her set as I do love her music. Christie Huff added some country flair. Georgia Peach had beautiful vocals the drifted through the speakers. Laura Levenhagen's vocals reminded listeners of Irish folk tunes.

Georgia Peach

Lauren Lakis

Christie Huff

Lauren Levenhagen

Quick Hit Band Interview: Milly

Milly at The House of Machines
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? It started as a solo recording project then overtime transformed into a collaborative live band.

What band/artist (past or present) would you most like to open for? Jawbreaker or Swirlies.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 12

On Sunday, Ariel Beesley did an Instagram Live interview on Ladygunn. I tuned in late, but did get on early enough to catch her sing a couple of her songs. She played a song on her keys and another on her ukulele. She had a huge smile and was full of cheer. It was nice to see on a Sunday.

Ariel Beesley
Wednesday was dedicated to WFNM. Disco Shrine opened the night with some dance moves. It got the blood flowing for the night. I've known Disco Shrine for years and she's always been so awesome with helping me out with various requests throughout the years. 19 and You dialed in from Australia. They did an acoustic version of their song Runnin'. Three members of the band our currently in Australia while the fourth is in the United States. Patrick Martin then did a set from, I believe he mentioned, Wisconsin. He left Los Angeles to write some tunes and then coronavirus broke out across the United States. I'm not going to lie, but the surprise was róisin marie. The set started off with Instagram Live focused on a darkened, slightly reddish room. I think it got Grant Owen (of WFNM) a little confused as he was wondering where she was. Without even a word, she walked into the frame and started her soulful-techno music. I have no clue where she comes from, but I do want to catch a live set. Tulliah ended my night on WFNM's Instagram Live. She's an 18 year in Australia. She has vocals that stayed in perfect pitch. Just wonderful.

Disco Shrine

19 and You

Patrick Martin

róisin marie

Tulliah

Thursday started off with Fiona Grey. She was doing an interview with Lauren Ruth Ward, but closed out the interview singing a couple of her songs. She sang a favorite of mine, "Saviour." And then she closed it out with the song "Kerosene." A couple hours later it was off to catch Livingmore on Jam in the Van. They didn't play in the official van, but did hang out in their own SUV on a very hot day in Los Angeles. Three of the four members jammed in the hot SUV. They made it clear that the three of them lived together. The fourth member wasn't there in order to practice social distancing. For the last couple songs, they actually had to close a couple of the doors, because a neighbor was hanging around and I guess they felt he was being a bit on the strange side. It must have gotten hot in the SUV for the last few songs. For the last couple years, Livingmore is one of the bands that I've seen multiple times. This year, oh well, I got to catch them doing an online set.

Fiona Grey

Livingmore

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Quick Hit Band Interviews: Kid Eyes

Kid Eyes at The Hi Hat
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your music? Perfectly imperfect! :)

What thrills you about performing live? For us, the live show is everything. We love the unknowns that come with playing live - we love not knowing what's gonna happen next! Sometimes those unknowns can feel a little scary (like if your singer falls offstage ;)), but that feeling of living on the edge (literally) makes you feel alive.

Own final thoughts: Honestly, we're just grateful to be doing this.

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

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

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Coronavirus Diary: May 3rd

For a few days there, I was taking breaks from work to rearrange my apartment and toss things into the garbage. After going through part of my closet a couple weeks back, I've stop that home chore. I really should get back to it. My apartment is way too crowded and there are a lot of things I could probably toss. I should go through my desk drawers and such and see what I can toss from there. Take this period to just downsize just a little bit, I say. I hope I move out of this place someday in the near future (near future probably meaning 1 to 3 years). And the less I need to move, the better.

I finished reading a book called "The Feather Thief" by Kirk Wallace Johnson. It is a true story about a college student named Edwin Rist. He was a fanatical fly-tier. For those who don't know (and I surely didn't know this), various designs use feathers from exotic birds. (SOME MINOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.) Well, this college student decided to break into the British Museum of Natural History and stole hundreds of dead birds that dated as far back as 150 years ago. The first half of the book was interesting. The writer discussed the history of how many of these birds went extinct or nearly extinct. He looked into the crime and how for awhile it looked like Edwin was going to get away with it until there was a random chance encounter encounter that led police to Edwin. The second half was boring. The author decided to do further investigations on his own into the missing birds as not all birds had gotten tracked down by the police. (Edwin had sold many of the birds to other fly-tiers.) To me, it didn't add anything to the story. In fact, if felt like the 2nd half of the book was really meant as a guilt trip to anyone who might still be holding these museum birds. Well, I definitely don't have any of those birds and didn't really feel like reading the author's guilt trip attempt.

Having finished that book, I've switched over to "Revival" by Stephen King. I've only gotten through the first chapter so can't really give my thoughts on that book.

In my last post, I mentioned I was binge watching HBO's Ballers. Well, I did do a whole lot of binge watching, because I finished up the 5 seasons. I obviously enjoyed the series as I watched it so quickly, but I also found it irritating how minor characters just disappeared and then story lines just ended without a clear resolution. I'd say this especially occurred in Seasons 3 and 4. The coolest thing was watching Reggie mature as a business person.

In terms of real life, I try to take daily walks. I don't go out every day, but most days. I'm always wearing a face mask. I'd say only about 25% of the people in Glendale are wearing face masks.

Also, I'm finding that I often forget what day it is. This happened pre-coronavirus, of course, but it seems to be getting more of an issue now. The problem is that there aren't specific time stamps anymore. Like I used to always go out on Monday nights to catch the various band/artist residencies. That's not there anymore. I can't say, "Hey, this is my Monday."

Finally, I do believe I used my car only twice during the month of April. Both times I went to the grocery store.


Friday, May 1, 2020

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 10

Molly Moore had what I'd call an unanticipated series of slap stick comedy during her Buzzbands set. She might not have thought so, but I have to think the audience found it amusing. First, she started her set on her own Instagram site versus Buzzbands. Buzzbands must have pinged her, because after she finished her song, she apologized and asked everyone to head over to Buzzbands. In the middle of her Buzzbands, she did a Britney Spears cover. Then she moved over to her own song with lyrics that kind of went like, "My friends say I should cut you off." Well, as she was in the middle of the song, her set got shut down. She popped back up on Buzzbands a few moments later. She must have gotten a warning from Instagram about singing a Britney Spears song. So I guess you're not allowed to do covers of artists on Instagram? What was so spectacular about her set was that there was a light/halo that just shined across her face throughout the set. Not sure if that was due to the video quality, but I did love that special effects.

Molly Moore on Buzzbands

WFNM had their Wednesday extravaganza. Up first was Sophia Gripari playing on guitar with her roommate on drums. As the set was coming to an end, a third roommate came over with the house pet, a dog. She's a Brit who decided to pursue her career in Los Angeles. Her vocals had that perfect British accent that made the music unique. Tory Ruperto came up next singing tunes and playing chords on her piano. Sleeping Lion closed out the night for me. There was melodic duo singing going on during their set. The pianist was wearing a WFNM t-shift. Their set was played under the pink-ish lights of their living room.

Sophia Gripari

Tory Ruperto

Sleeping Lion