buddyhead just came out with a best and worst of list for 2009. it’s stuff like this that reminds me why i love buddyhead. sometimes brutal honesty is the best policy. this site is worthy of a bookmark because it will make u laugh. and u guys think im harsh?
for all of those who missed it, i will never be the same played a free show last night at pershing square in beautiful cosmopolitan downtown los angeles no less. i love playing outside in cold weather – ever since west indian girl did a show in sub zero temp at sundance i have longed to do one again. last night wasnt quite as cold but it still counts. check out more pics and news about iwnbts here.
check it out..the other band i’m in (IWNBTS) just did our “first” live video interview after our last show. it’ pretty funny – the added bonus is you get to hear the band that went on after us play their whole set while we talk.
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!
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.
i’ve had the pleasure of working with and training a few interns this spring and summer. all of them (dino, dylan, steve, curren, michael, esther) have done great work for west indian girl but two of them deserve special mention and gold stars. these two infamous characters would be dino santino borling and dylan neves-cox. both of them kicked fucking ass and in the process not only helped me, but helped “west indian girl”, helped “i will never be the same” and in the process gained more real life experience and education than any music class or school could teach you. yeah they did their share of grunt work but they saw every side of business that the normal fan isnt exposed to nor realize exists. they listened, they learned, they executed, took initiative when the situation called for it, and never complained. so yeah this thank you is not only from both bands but also from the bottom of my heart. thanx again guys and i look forward to the day when i make u both quit school and go on tour with us. dylan, the pic below is from outside lands – sorry u had the poly sci class and just couldnt make it…jeez. 
special thanx to chad leblanc and simon lee from alternative apparel for giving us some great clothes at outside lands. i ended up wearing that shirt for the next couple days. love it. love you guys. i need to go to mom and son cleaners to wash it now. oh yeah, that’s brendan buckley in the pic with me – he was our fill in drummer for the summer and i have yet to officially cyber thank him….i guess that’s the next blog.
in case u havent heard the news, mariqueen got engaged. everyone in the west indian girl camp is super excited and happy for her. q’s an awesome person, friend and bandmate and she couldnt be marrying a cooler guy. talk about analog and digital love – their kids might all have moogs for arms.
speaking of the future…this song title seems apropos – plus it’s off the fragile which i still consider the best record released in 1999. it’s actually one of the cds i would take with me on a deserted island..along with prince’s 1999 and the clash’s london calling …hmmm come to think of it those are all double cds…guess i should include our last double remix record to that list as well. shit…can’t forget kruder and dorfmeister’s the k&d sessions too – my choice for record of the year in 1998 btw
with a heavy heart all of us in the band would like to send our thoughts and prayers out to maggie de alwis who tragically lost her boyfriend ryan ingram to a brain hemorrhage. we met ryan in sept of 05 at our first show at the roxy. since that show ryan not only became a huge champion of the band but a friend of mine who was always trying to spread the word about our band. the last time i spoke to him was on the phone after our last show at the roxy in jan. i thought i was going to see him there but as it turns out he got busted by the door people for trying to smuggle in a recorder to bootleg the show – sadly he never made it in. ryan, thanx for all your positive support and wonderful spirit – we love and miss you.
for some reason this track comes to mind right now. remember…every band hopefully has at least one super great song. this is theirs and it fits with how i remember ryan
update…5/2 – went to the funeral today and it was gut wrenching. people shouldnt die this young. stay strong maggie.
we’re very happy to announce our relationship with blue microphones. these guys have been fucking awesome to deal with. here’s a little page about us that they put on their site. it goes without saying we love their mics. thanx tyler!
i hope the title of this post wasnt lost on anyone. a little jazz is good for almost anyone… even though it’s not off the aforementioned classic…it’s title is apropros. mellow out and enjoy this.
we’re gonna be playing san fran, sacramento, santa barbara, and solana beach this june. details about each show can be found on our tour page. ashkahn rolled out the poster for the sf show and drew newbold took care of business with the sacto poster. thanx guys…great work. both of these shows are headline shows. in santa barbara we will be playing with los amigos invisibles and in solana beach with bebel gilberto.
Crazy when u think about it but we are playing in malibu for the first time ever next week. we’re playing with a cool band called film school. kampy designed the poster for the event which is pretty rad. nice work kampy – glad to have you on the creative team. im personally looking forward to this show…im planning on checking out the view at el matador beach at some point that evening and depending on how crazy it gets i might end up checking into one of the posh rehab centers just to kill 2 birds with one stone and save on gas
The rock poster god must be smiling on me because yet another fucking fantastic poster was given birth today by long time friend/artist/remixer, mark sgarbossa. this poster announces our triumphant return to the casbah in march. we’ve had some great shows at the casbah so it will be good to get back there and tear it apart again. tight room, sweaty people, saturday night – sd has always treated us right.
i love tour posters. it seems like a forgotten art these days. that said, it wouldnt surprise you to see how geeked i was to meet john mavroudis who unbeknownst to me designed and silk screened the poster for the show at the independent. wow, minimal and strong – how i like it. in conjunction with john i will be selling these signed and limited poster in our online store. get them before they’re all gone. they are awesome. you can check out more of john’s work here. um…the dude just won 07 cover of the year award for his work on the new yorker. that’s impressive.
Dear mark sgarbossa – how many times can we tell you that we love you? once again you have helped the cause by designing our july tour poster. I’m not sure where your inspirations come from but i’m glad that we still visually inspire you. keep the black X hearts coming. thank you once again.
