West Indian Girl

thanx to all of u who responded to the first installment of 2 with ten – the letter a. i ended up listening to every suggestion. at the very least i feel like i increased the depth of my musical knowledge – out of the bands suggested i enjoyed reconnecting with autechre and discovering american analog set. again, thank you for sending in these myspace pages or you tube videos. the letter b coming up on monday – video response will follow as well. keep it up people.

West Indian Girl – How wow ’tis now!!

Dropping in for a fine how-do-ya-do. The shiny new W.I.G. traveling gypsy troupe has been joyously slaving away in the studio until the wee hours of the morning. Laughing, drinking tea, eating brie cheese and making some superfluous-money-makin’ ass-shaking grooves. I’m pretty dem-darn excited to be a part of this beautiful group of people and to be able to make music that correlates to all of us and all of you…its quite a lovely thing. I know we all can’t wait to hand you a pristine copy of the newest album! It should be done around January so keep a look-out!

Also, on the radar: THE 2 SHOWS AS A NEW BAND!
Nov. 19th at the AC Supper Club in Venice!
Nov. 20th at Belly UP in San Diego!

Hope to see all of ya’ll there!!!!

Not to brag, but I’ve got the greatest new family in our band!
Brief Synopsis of everyone & their steeze.

Rob- My fellow jumping bean..Calls me Ms. Bean..Makes me laugh a lot, brings bottles of wine to our friends living on 4th & Wall. (Cla$$Y!) Gave me my new favorite knit beanie. Prays a mean guitar.

Fran- My nuzzle-bumpin-bass-bear. Between him and tony-balogne theres plenty of constant cuddle-fest goin’ on. Makes fun of me for sounding like a jello puddin’ pop. Takes me to fun events where we meet all types of fascinating & sweet people.

Amy- Never knew a keyboard mad scientist could be so good lookin’. We usually scale mountains, chase rainbows, and make buttons.  Suga’ how’d you get so fly? I love hearin’ her lovely voice in the new DIRGE. Gives me chills.

Nadia- Is an apple-pie-turnover. Keeps an eye out for when I try to start fires by leaving wires next to tea-pots and what not. Keeps the phatty keyboard in check & sings like the best type of angel.

Jesper- [yes-purr] Brings it all together. Drums make the world go ’round. Helps me get some type of rhythm when I’m workin’ my cow-bell/tambourine/shaker routine. Nadia + Jesper = cutest musician couple alert!!  Brings all types of snacks & vino & this horrible licorice stuff that everyone else seems to love. hahaha

<3
It’s bean a real treasure, pleasure.
Ms.B

-Made possible by Fab-Frankie & the lovely Miss. Jett-

yesterday i was thinking about how different most of my friends’ itunes libraries are. i think u can tell a lot about someone by going through their music library – to a degree it reflects ur personality. i thought a fun thing to do would be to go through my own library from A-Z and pick 2 artists that start with each letter and then play one song from each. im gonna play songs by artists that i think everyone should at least be familiar with. i’m gonna pretend we’re just hangin and vibin’ out. my goal here is to hopefully inspire and reinvigorate your music library cos we all could benefit from a little change and growth. i’m on a quest for new or even old music that i havent heard (thus making it new to me) that will add something good to my life. there are too many bands out there and no way to filter them all. i will usually trust my friends opinion before any publication’s. if i pick a popular band dont fucking rag on me…it’s in my itunes and hey, i like it and im gonna tell ya why. i might even attempt to have the names of the songs also begin with that letter but that might prove a bit too difficult. ladies and gentlemen, i give you the the first installment of 2 with Ten featuring the letter A

Astrud Gilberto. I first heard astrud when i was in the company of a pretty blonde in her downtown detroit dirty hell hole of an apartment. i have loved her (astrud, not the girl) ever since. astrud was married to joao (famous) gilberto and the song she’s best known for is the girl from ipanema. interesting fact – bebel gilberto (who tours now) is technically not her real daughter – same dad, diff mom. that might explain something that i have always wondered about. i have seen her live show twice (one of those times we opened for her) and both times she didnt play her “mom’s” hit. both times i remember being bummed out to the point of swearing cos i wanted to hear the girl from ipanema. i guess there might be some weird issue with her mom- that’s the only reason i can think of for her not playing that song – damn u bebel. without further adieu here is agua de beber and not the girl from ipanema.

Air. i first heard air in the car of one of my gay friends back in 98. this guy had his finger on the pulse of what was some good electronic music back then. and no, his finger wasnt on the pulse of aything else if ya know what i mean. i was, and at times, still softly mesmerized by moon safari – their debut and easily my fav. i should play the song la femme d’argent which i consider the deepest and best track on that album but in efforts to play a song that begins with the letter A im going with alone in kyoto which is beautiful in its subtle build up psuedo chorus. this song was off a later cd…i think it was also in the movie lost in translation but i might be wrong about that and dont feel like fact checking it now. i havent been a big fan of their more recent stuff as i feel like it’s more of the same but not as good….that is the plight of almost every band. in an ideal world great bands evolve (ie the clash) instead of releasing watered down versions of their earlier records.

OK – please send me some music starting with the letter A – something u think is super cool and i would like…as well as Appreciate. Leave a comment – this will be good for everyone.

looks like im going to indie 103.1 tonight with josh to be on dave navarro’s dark matter show. i will report back. i think u can listen live online at indie1031.com. 10:30 is when it starts.

UPDATE: so, that was fucking fun – the interview went great. before we went over to the station josh and i had a few beverages at my local bar (el carmen). i have posted the show below. thanx to marcy liu for sending it to me. i gotta tell ya, dave navarro and his little crew were cool. you know how i love to call people out but i can’t in this case. dave was dope and has a real quick wit. i liked him even though people say i look like him – but i still get the prince thing all the time. it never ends – i even got it tonight from the lady behind the counter at cvs. i also get the occasional cornell thrown in there…which still blows my mind. then again, people say i look like my dog more than cornell so im not sure what to think anymore. im going with tony cos i love him. enjoy the show

oh yeah – speaking of radio interviews…i just got confirmed with halloran on 94.9 in san diego for another coup d’etat on nov 15th. awesome!

last night iwnbts played at spaceland. it went exactly like west indian girl’s first show at spaceland went…not incredibly smooth. given all the technical snags i was pretty happy with it though. it’s all part of the growing pains of a young live band because u need to learn how to play in some of the tougher conditions. the most common prob at smaller clubs is the stage sound. in a perfect world u have in-ear monitors and ur mix is great but often times that’s not the case and what u are playing (not what the audience is necessarily hearing) sounds like shit. bottom line, it was learning experience – the next time a band is in that situation the more they know what to expect and thus how to play through it without even blinking.

couple observations after the show: tony is the true rock god – it never ceases to amaze me how many girls this dog attracts. truly a man among boys. dylan, one of my star interns was there – we’ve decided i’m going to download my music business brain into his via ichat over the next few months. i’m looking forward to this because the kid is special (not in the retarded way). we had an interesting chat about data transparency while in route to the show.

noodles…so after the show we ended up at a house in the hills (see pic above). it’s been a while since i was at a party in the hills and it brought back many a terrible memory. this one was of the euro-transplants variety. the most in ur face feature of this place was the huge pool in the middle of the living room….yep in the middle of the living room. another strange detail was that the insides of all the doors were the same as the walls so as to blend in with them producing a sort of trapped dungeon vibe. not surprising quote overheard “ok, so where’s the coke?” add in the 5-1 guy girl ratio and we were gone in 15.

yesterday night i met my friend anthony for a coffee before rehearsal. part of our discussion touched on blogs/sites that we liked. anthony by the way, is the founder and ceo of buzzmedia so it’s pretty safe to assume he knows what he’s talking about. not surprisingly, there was agreement across the board on the following three that were brought up. i have mentioned 2 of these in recent posts but let’s make this official – in no particular order here they are:

hipsterrunoff.com – this is a culture blog. his point of view, perspective and commentary is intelligent, comedic and very random. it never fails to make me laugh. worth the bookmark and the occasional check back.

buddyhead.com – just go straight to the gossip section – which speaks directly to my so called “hater” gene. there’s not a funnier music related commentary out there, period. musicians, like any other entertainer or public figure shouldnt be immune from ridicule – that’s one of the hazards of the job when you become famous and bh isnt afraid to tell it like it is. this site is performing an in your face ego deflating public service that as far as im concerned is way over due. never fails to make me laugh…a bit more gut busting than hipster runoff which i would describe as a chuckle more than an, eek, lol.

thecoolhunter.net – appropriately named this site is just plain great, it’s both inspirational and educational. it doesnt make me laugh but rather look, read and discover. i think the music section is a bit weak but u cant have it all. the art, design, fashion, lifestyle and ad sections are all pretty awesome. you can easily spend way too long here but at least u come away with ur brain activated in a good way.

honorable mention:
allmusic.com – as stated in my last post this is the best online music reference guide i have found. all the hard facts about a band that u could want. it’s a great resource to learn about the artists you might not know much about and subsequently get turned on to more of their albums as well as related artists. safe to assume that this site in conjunction with itunes and some weed makes for another good threesome.

no, im not talking about my present day relationships with my credit card companies. im talking about death in vegas – one of my favorite bands of all time. DIV consists of richard fearless and tim holmes. they started out sort of like we did….a 2 man studio project but toured as a live band. ten years ago they released an album called the contino sessons which i still listen to for inspiration – it’s hypnotically beautiful. their show in la in 2000 was easily the best show i saw that year. if you havent heard of them please check them out and educate urself here. by the way, all music guide is a great resource.

the first track posted is: hands around my throat off of the scorpio rising record. i recently rediscovered this while floating away in my bed the other night. the girl singing on this is nicola kuperus from the band adult. this track is fucking great.

the second track is: a remix of trip off of our first record by richard fearless himself. he actually had a band come in and record all the elements he used for the remix. it wasnt just a bunch of samples – he did it the right way. 2 years ago i was talking to richard about possibly producing a record of ours. i think it would be brilliant if it does indeed happen one day.

this past summer i started playing in a very good friend of mine’s band called i will never be the same. remember the opening track of “to die in la” off our double remix record by nynex? well that’s the dude…josh…he is mr nynex. josh is a big fan of my band and i of his so this was a natural evolution of us working together. add to the fact that west indian girl and iwnbts sound nothing alike, it makes it all work out perfectly. i have a fun time playing in this band as it’s a bit heavier and more aggressive … a nice change of pace – it makes me more of a well rounded player and inspires a new side of creativity when jamming with west indian girl. so why am i telling u all this? cos we will be headlining spaceland this upcoming friday night. if you’re in the la and want to go please rsvp to this address. this will put u on the $6 dollar ticket list. make sure u put your name in the subject heading with the # of guests. there is no free guest list for this show so don’t even bother asking. six bucks for 3 bands is a good deal. my friend marguerite’s (who used to be in the slow signal fade) new band called am vs fm is opening and vale has the middle slot. this is our 6th show…i guess we’ll see how much fog and darkness we can bring into spaceland. shit…i just remembered that both my ultimate interns dino and dylan are gonna be there! they might be fighting over who can press the fog machine button. general rule for that though is “when in doubt…fog it”

fans. fans are an interesting bunch. sometimes fans are just fans, sometimes they’re really freaky, most of the time however, west indian girl fans are just plain nice people. yeah they can be a bit odd but i’m pretty odd and strange if ya think about it. with that in mind, it shouldnt come as a surprise that i end up becoming “friends” with some of our fans…some of the more…um, eccentric ones. take dan for example. i think i met dan via email after our first record came out. he was living in prague but was originally from san diego. dan now lives in paris. anyway, just so happens after a few years of exchanging emails we finally met. it was the afternoon after st scene at a wave house on the beach. since that bonding moment i have become the lucky recipient of dan’s late night famous drunk dial voice mails. you see, this guy gets hammered, calls me and rambles for sometimes 10 minutes. the shit he says on my voicemail always makes me laugh and at times it’s strangely profound. yesterday he called me from an indian wedding in memphis tn (with some really bad rap music on in the background) just to tell me he was sweating his balls off and wanted some random people in the wedding party to say hello. tonight during his diatribe he asked… “dont u want to live the love story without the back story” which i thought was a great line. it goes without saying that i never answer my phone when i see dan calling because i would never want to miss the wit and drunk wisdom that is “dan paris via sd” (as he is labeled in my contacts). anyway, thanx for the laughs dan…i save the really bizarre ones for weeks just to play back for laughs every now and then.

this past thursday i spoke on a panel at the digital music forum that focused on music blogs. i’ve been blogging since 2004 so this topic was one i felt could really sink my teeth into. why was i invited you ask…well, i was there to provide the artist perspective/point of view and that, as u know is something i relish…speaking out for the artist (and by “artist” i mean hard working blue collar struggling musician).

an interesting observation after speaking at 2 digital music conferences this year was the under representation of artists (and managers!) not only as audience members but as speakers. now more than ever is it time for the artist to be present at any forum centered around digital music. i know this isnt earth shattering news but there’s a huge disconnect and feeling of confusion among musicians when it comes to all the music tech stuff. digital music is just one piece of a complex puzzle that needs to be processed and understood as it’s changing faster than it ever has. musicians that dont understand what’s going on are going to find themselves in the same boat that most managers are in these days…and by that, i mean the completely clueless boat. anyway, technology isnt going to slow down so you either adapt or die – just ask the peppered moth about adapting.

ok, i’m getting way off topic here. blogs – by my definition a blog is more or less a singular point of view. any band blog would fit that definition but any site that is reviewing music from multiple authors (especially with paid advertising) is crossing over into music mag publication territory. what’s ur favorite blog? my current fav isnt even a music blog, its called hipster runoff and it’s an oddly funny breath of randomness that always seems to make me laugh. i was thinking about listing all the la blogs that i like but that’s gonna have to wait. my next few posts will get back to some music blogging basics and center around some of the music that has been inspiring me lately. fyi i listened to blonde redhead while i wrote this.

this is a total drag but it seems like we wont be playing the shows in santa cruz, berkley, and san fran in early nov. the shows are being rescheduled and i will post when the new dates get confirmed. this news is indeed a drag and leaves me with the same feelings i had the other night after i saw a screening of where the wild things are. that would be a not so warm and fuzzy feeling.

i couldnt help but call attention to the fact that today, october 4th is the feast day for st francis of assisi. if you don’t know much about st francis…the very short version is this: rich guy renounced his his life of luxury, became a beggar, restored churches, received the stigmata, and most importantly thought all animals should be treated as people. there’s a bunch more but u can google him if u want a lesson on catholic saints. anyway, why mention this…well i was named after st francis and i also have an amazing tattoo of him on my forearm that the brilliant mark mahoney gave me. if you’re ever in rome making the short trip out to assisi is well worth it. one of the most memorable places i have ever been to. speaking of saints…ever see the movie things to do in denver when you’re dead? it’s a movie worth netflixing – there’s a saint in there. jimmy the saint tosnia played by andy garcia. boat drinks. here’s a random badass site i found when i was looking for the correct spelling of badass. click on it, you could waste a few more precious moments of your life surfing this randomness.