Wednesday, December 12, 2012

December California shows and stuff

We are playing some shows in California around our holiday travels. So far we have:

December 20th at the Hemlock in San Francisco with Venus Beltran and In Letter Form
Dec. 21st downtown LA TBA

Dec. 22nd at 5 Star Bar with Old Toy Trains, Heroes and Heroines, Nicholas Chacon and DJs


Dec. 27th Audie's in Fresno with Dia Del Astronauta and Between The Cities Are Stars

Okay that's about it for that.....our album is done, we just have to do the artwork and decide on a title. And get it pressed up or distributed in some manner. I'm already moving on to our next album but guess we need to get this one all dressed up and ready for a night on the town first, or whatever...but we already have the makings of about six or so songs, some more complete than others. Actually I want this upcoming album to be more like a satisfying meal than anything else. A nice familiar meal that somehow stays exciting. I don't know. Music is weird. I've been into drawing lately. I like to use these oil pastels, the greasy kind. Well I'm trying to do 30 days of drawings based off a 3-card Tarot reading. I've done two and I am looking forward to making another one tomorrow. We'll see how long until I lose interest! The one above is the one from today. I like that shape a lot. I used the Crowley Thoth deck for this one. I had already drawn the outline of that shape, and then I spread the deck over it and selected the cards. 

I feel like making a list of things that are good.
Dreams
Sleep
Or should I say good dreams and good sleep
Tacos, crunchy
Circles/dots
Adjustment, like to the temperature
All the colors/eyes
Feeling okay
Inspiration
Time and its layers

Ok I'm done. рдв़ whaaat 

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Nov. 3rd at Backspace! Nov. 6th at Ella St! CA tour! Album news, etc.

We are excited to be playing this coming Saturday, November 3rd, at Backspace in Portland, OR. It will be our first show at Backspace and I do like the vibe of the place, and also our drummer Mark from San Francisco will be here for the show!  We have been practicing a lot and we have also been practicing a brand new song called SunMoon that we might try to play. We're playing with Miss Massive Snowflake and The Blacklights!

We are also playing a few days later, on November 6th at Ella St. Social Club with Pinscape and Cober. It will also be our first time playing at Ella St., and I am looking forward to hearing the other bands. It was supposed to be with A Shoreline Dream from Colorado but they unfortunately had to cancel their tour. Bummer! But it happens.

We are also working on some dates in California in December. November will see the final mixing of our upcoming album, which will be self-titled. I am excited for my steel drumming and flute tooting to get the royal treatment. Not to mention the guitars, bass, drums, and singing!

That's it for now.. Links:
Space Waves
http://facebook.com/spacewaves
http://spacewaves.bandcamp.com

Miss Massive Snowflake
http://facebook.com/missmassivesnowflake

The Blacklights
http://facebook.com/the-blacklights

Pinscape
http://facebook.com/pinscape
http://www.pinscapemusic.com

Cober
http://facebook.com/cober92

Backspace
http://www.backspace.bz

Ella St. Social Club
http://www.ellastreetsocialclub.com

Sunday, October 14, 2012

More blahdy blah

Here I AM
Rock you like a hurriCAN
I just found out Scorpions are German. Who knew? Not me, that's who.
I heard that song on the radio today, and it made me fist-pump during the chorus, like my arm had a mind of its own. It was fun. Oh and I headbanged too. Duh.

whoa. this is amazing http://pinterest.com/tracieconley/rocks-stones-and-crystals/  

Friday, October 12, 2012

Blahdy Blah..

Writing is funny, it's like the more I think about what to write, the lesser my chances of actually writing anything are. I really just have to go with it. Anyway tonight we played at the Star Theater in Portland with Io Echo and We Are Like the Spider. It was really cool, as in both of those bands were awesome...but the turnout was just not good.  I'm not complaining for us at all..we are used to small audiences after all!  But both those other bands were super good and I think Portland missed out on a great show tonight.  It's funny, after moving from California back to Oregon, and being able to compare the two...for us San Francisco seems to be the city where the most people come out.  I don't know why, but we have always had the best turnout there.  We live out in the countryside outside of Portland so it's not like we are right in the city, and if we were maybe we'd be able to flier/promote more...but I dunno, I feel like people here just like their gentlemen's clubs.  There just aren't as many people in Oregon as there are in CA.  But I think probably the best thing about playing out in Portland is that bookers don't seem to have near as many restrictions as they do in LA and SF regarding how often your band can play out.  I haven't come across any restrictions like that yet, but in LA and SF it is pretty common.  So we are trying to take advantage of that!  In fact we booked a show tonight on our way to the Star Theater for Nov 3rd at Backspace.  I'm not really convinced that our music could ever be very popular but I do enjoy the experience of playing out, and I am thankful for it!  Ohh anyway let me see. LA is weird bc there are so many bands (not to mention people and things going on in general) so it is easy to feel lost in the shuffle.  I mean I haven't even been able to get us a show in my hometown of Long Beach, so competition must be tough. We did have a show once lined up at the Prospector but got booted off the bill. Oh well.  Jeez it's 3am and I am up writing.  Been awhile since I've done that!  I keep finding dead snakes in our driveway and it bumming me out some. They are these little black snakes. I found a live one in the road the other day and it went off in the plants.  They seem to like the driveway.  Partly why I fantasize about existing on a different planet is precisely that things like this bum me out! I need to get over these things.  Every living thing dies, okay, and if it happens to all of us, and every animal, and plant...it must not be that bad.  I still have a hard time eating meat, even though I know my body likes it, I just always think about the animal that it was, and how it's dead now.  It is weird.  Ok I'm tired.  

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Star Theater

I took this picture of this flower at the Long Beach Community Organic Gardens this summer.
I am a terrible gardener.
I'm excited for this show. Mostly I am excited about all the monitors that should be on stage. Hopefully I will be able to hear things really well! I always hated being close to the edge of the stage but lately I figured out that the closer I am to the monitors, the better I can hear (duh) and that being near the monitors is worth the trade-off. But I can tell ya, there was a time when it wasn't. Or maybe I am going about this all wrong. That's probably it. And hopefully the microphone won't be too stanky. 

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Hollow Earth Radio debut of 'Turns'

HEllo
EArthlings
and beyond? is anyone or thing out there?
Garrett Kelly at Hollow Earth Radio will be debuting our song Turns from our forthcoming album TONIGHT, Sept. 30th 2012. His show starts at 8pm PST.
The song was recorded by Kelley in our studio and mixed with Larry Crane at Jackpot! and mastered at Treelady Studios and it sounds like musical butter (to me). Really it sounds great and I can't wait to hear the rest of our songs mixed and mastered in this way!

Here is a link to the show. We also might be playing live on the show at some point in the near-ish future.
Hollow Earth Radio the Getdown Goblin

http://hollowearthradio.org/programs/27


Thursday, September 20, 2012

My Musical History, by Sarah

Being that I currently live in the woods and talk to animals more than people, and at one time really enjoyed writing and imagined it was something that my future self would do a lot of, what better time to put my ramblings and memories into some sort of form than now? Or try to, anyway. Since in the past year I've felt like I've become some sort of loser of the highest degree, I've been keeping myself somewhat entertained at times by traveling back in time through my memories. Just to be really clear on where this is all coming from; Kelley (my husband) and I moved back to Oregon a little over a year ago from Los Angeles. In LA I had family, friends, a job, in short, something of a normal life. Here in Oregon we live on 50 acres in the country. Any friends I might have live in Portland, a 30-45 minute or longer drive, I have no family around and don't see Kelley's family much, I don't have a job to go to (not for lack of trying), and I spend most days at the house playing fetch with the dog, rubbing the cat's belly, staring into space, burning incense, watching Netflix, getting frustrated, drinking coffee, you get the idea. Occasionally I will leave the house. In some ways I dig it, in other ways I'm just waiting to move on in one way or the other. I didn't particularly want to move back to Oregon but it happened, but that's another story. Anyway, this band, or musical project, Space Waves, is one of the only things I have going on right now. I have been thinking lately about music and the role its played in my life and the only way to really delve into it is to write, I have realized that so that is what I am doing. Because writing is like a linear unfolding of thoughts, memories and emotions and the only way to get anywhere with it is to just keep unfurling. So thinking back to when I was young, I seem to have some positive associations with music and my family. Like I remember hearing, or noticing that I was hearing, the Beatles for the first time when I was probably 6 years old in my parents' car. My mom and dad were in the car and we were driving back home from somewhere and were about to turn into our driveway and I really liked the song on the radio, so I asked who it was and my parents told me it was the Beatles. I remember we had this little Casio keyboard that had orange drum machine pads on it and at that age I really liked to play around with it and make drumbeats with it. My sister is three years older than me and she played, hm was it flute or violin, I can't remember. Well I remember when I was in second grade I started music lessons at my elementary school and I played violin for two days but didn't like it, so then switched to flute. The violin teacher was, to my perception, a grumpy old man, but the flute teacher was a nice lady. So I remember learning how to read music and all that jazz. I was in the all-district orchestra in either third or fourth grade, or maybe both, I can't remember. Anyway, this is actually kind of difficult for me to write out because I have had a lot of traumas/bad experiences related to music too. I had bad stage fright/performance anxiety and I was always terrified of playing by myself in class, and dreaded any moment when I would have to do so. At concerts I would get so nervous...but I would also be jealous of the other kids who seemed to have so much talent and seemed to really enjoy showing off their playing. I was really jealous of the first chair flautist in high school because she seemed so cool and collected. I don't know if I could have gotten further than I have with music if I didn't have these feelings. It is easy for me to think I just didn't stand out enough. All throughout high school I played in a steel drum group that was an extra-curricular activity. That was probably the best thing about high school for me. I was never in the 'really good' steel drum group, but being in that group with my friends was one of the things that I enjoyed about that time in my life. It also helped me realize how much easier it is for me to learn music by ear. While I know how to read music I never really enjoyed reading it and felt like it distracted from the playing itself, which is why I am really anti-music theory now, in a way. I would just rather feel it and go with my intuition, even if I make mistakes, it is just easier for me to approach it that way. In some ways that is why I like playing bass guitar, because it can be simple. After playing the melody parts of songs for so long (I played lead or tenor steel drum, which carries the melody, and flute does too obviously) I can really enjoy/appreciate the foundation of the song that the lower frequencies carry. In the steel drum group for awhile I played double seconds, which do a lot of strumming, kind of the equivalent of rhythm guitar in a rock band, but they also back up the melody at times. I enjoyed that too but later was switched to lead.
I find it pretty much impossible to be objective about musical talent because so much is in the eye or ears of the beholder. Just because someone is technically proficient doesn't mean I will enjoy their playing necessarily. But that is something that is kind of beautiful about musical expression in the first place. Yeah there might be millions of musicians on the planet but everyone has the right to express themselves that way if they choose, and if you don't like it well there's another thousand to pick. It's just there to be enjoyed and if you don't enjoy it then move on.
Looking back now, I wonder if it would have been better for me to have been held back a year in school. I did fine with the schoolwork itself, but I have a late August birthday so was a year younger than some of the kids in my class, and probably the youngest in my class, minus anyone who had skipped grades. I was also one of the smallest, especially in elementary school and middle school. Not so much high school though. But if I had been held back I wouldn't have the same friends I have now.
Continuing with the musical theme...I never had a lot of confidence in myself as a musician but I did enjoy it a lot. I took AP Music Theory in high school when I was a junior of 16 years. That class and Art History were some of my favorites. I somehow got a 4 on the AP, even though in my opinion I suck at sight-singing/sight-reading. Oh hey, I forgot to mention that when I was like 8 or 9, we had this awesome accordian that I loved to play, and then one day my dad sold it at a garage sale and I was so bummed. Because he didn't even know I liked to play it. Man that bummed me out! It was such a weird, squeaky, heavy dusty smelly instrument and I loved it. It had weird buttons for chords. It was a bluish greenish color and it lived in my closet. Obviously I should get an accordian to replace my lost childhood one. Hm what else. I remember having a couple of really cheap acoustic guitars in high school and I would try to play them and get endlessly frustrated. It's funny that I picked up bass guitar but my friend wanted me to play it in the band we started in my 20s and he was a good teacher. But at the time playing a stringed instrument was just too much of a stretch for me in terms of the different approach to music it brings.
So in college I had no idea what I wanted to study or do with myself. But I did end up getting involved in the radio station and that was probably the best part of college for me. I love to DJ and I was Music Director for a year and I loved getting all the music in the mail and listening to it. And from there I started interning at a record label in LA, and that was great. At the time I really wanted to make a career of it, and become a music supervisor for films or TV or work in music publishing. I tried but nothing worked out. I remember in high school at one time I wanted to be a foley artist, those people in charge of sound effects, like shoes walking on a floor or the splat of someone being punched, or something. LA Times had a commercial about it that would show before movies in the theater.
Well after college was over I was working at this record label I had been interning at, and I thought to ask one of the other interns if he wanted to start a band. At that time I hadn't played any musical instruments in a few years. I wasn't playing anything in college. I remember being really nervous about asking him, haha. But he was excited about the idea. I wanted to play steel drum in it and he played acoustic guitar, and then like I mentioned before he got me playing bass guitar. We got two of our friends to join the band too. That was a lot of fun and I still really love those songs that we played. I think that lasted maybe a year or two, and then I moved to San Francisco and didn't really play much, though I brought my bass and practice amp with me. And it wasn't until I moved to Portland in 2008 that I started playing music again, and that was because Kelley got me to because he played his guitar all the time. In some ways he has really brought me out of my shell, but in other ways I am really terrified to leave my shell so it hasn't all been good. Ha. I was always terrified of singing in front of people, but he somehow got me to start singing, just by being encouraging. I didn't mean to start writing songs but it just started happening, I guess after jamming with Kelley for awhile it unlocked some sort of creative doorway into that sort of songwriting realm. While I love our music it has been a battle to keep it going. In some ways it is great, it is wonderful, in other ways it is endlessly frustrating and feels totally pointless, and a waste of time and money. I don't know how much of my frustration has to do with my own feelings of inadequacy and insecurities. I am trying, and have been trying, to work through a lot of my issues. What keeps me going is the small, dim hope that maybe if we keep at it, maybe someday something really great will come of it all, and maybe we will be able to tour regularly, and be a regularly functioning band. I don't know what it will take to get there but I'm willing to keep trying. I know that personally I have come a long way. I don't get nearly as nervous as I used to about 'performing.' I just think of it as something that I do. In high school I was in the marching band in order to get PE credits, and Friday nights we'd play the football games. Normally I doubt I would have gone to them, but playing music has been one thing that has forced me to be more social than I otherwise probably would be. Football is/was a huge deal at my school so there were thousands of people at the games. Playing rehearsed music with a hundred other kids in front of thousands of people was not nerve-racking to me. There was something enjoyable about it, and it did get me out, much like now, playing a Space Waves show is one of the only things that gets me out. Not that we play out much at this point. I always find myself thinking, if only I were _____. If only I were more outgoing, more passionate, more extroverted, happier. But then I wouldn't be me. And if I feel hardly anyone cares about our music, oh well. That all of the time, energy and money that we've put into it is all for nothing. Oh well. That we don't have the right 'connections.' Oh well. At least I have accessed a creative part of myself that I wasn't ever sure I would access this much. It's not like I expect great things but in some ways I feel, just from an objective viewpoint, that I have lacked in support and encouragement. But these feelings are probably normal, or maybe it is just my own inner demons going at it again. Maybe I prevent myself from receiving it, because it is easier for me to just stay in my wallowing, self-pitying, woe is me ways. It is hard for me to believe that I am worthy of anything really good, or that I am in any way special. Maybe I am due for a big psychic makeover. I am just me. I exist...for now. Unsurprisingly my thoughts lately have been rather morbid/depressed. I'm not really ashamed of that, though I know our society frowns upon it generally. I am considered a downer, a negative person, a creep, a sucker of positive energy, stay away demon. Well that is not really me. Maybe a part of me. Besides I never really trust people who are happy all the time. I mean, I get it, but come on. Life is life, it is work, it is hard. It can be joyous too. I get wanting to only experience positive things, and to be joyous all the time and to try to keep the mood up. But I also think it is important to explore other moods. They are not inherently bad. Death is not inherently bad.
The first time I had suicidal thoughts, in my 20s, I freaked out. I was living alone at the time, my first time doing so, and was scared enough that I started making plans to move (I moved to San Francisco from there). Lately I have been having them again, even more so. I don't think I would ever actually go through with it, but I do understand where they are coming from. And it does seem hard to get back to the place where I don't have them so much. But I am okay with it, and I am okay with exploring these thoughts. I think it can be good in a way, or important maybe, to think about it. If your life ended now, would you be okay with that? I think I would be. I'm not saying I want it to, I'm just saying I think I'd be okay with it. What color liner would I want for my coffin? I'm thinking a rainbow satin one.
Okay, maybe I'm getting a little carried away now. It's okay, I'll just go back to watching Charmed and trying to not feel like I suck at life. Ha.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Flier for Seattle show


Kelley took this picture of one of the tigers at the Portland zoo. Both of the tigers are in the original but I think I cropped one out for this. Or maybe that's it in the background. Anyway he thought it would make a good flier and I did too, so I added the text and whatnot. I think the white spots on it look like an alien that is projecting themselves down from the sky. It's really just the flash off of the plastic I think but you know.

Monday, September 17, 2012

New album, first Seattle show 9/22

Well I guess I am way long overdue for an update/ramble.
As far as band news goes, there is a lot on that front. We are finishing up our second full-length album. It is pretty much all recorded, and Kelley is going into Jackpot! Studios this week for a mixing session with Larry Crane. I think I want to call it either "Idiots" or "Inzbarbnatto," or maybe something else entirely. The tracklisting, which is subject to change (i.e., I can't remember the order, exactly), is:
1. Turns
2. Surprise
3. Stealin Time
4. Bud's Theme
5. In the Shadows (steel drum version)
6. Shadowtree (marker version)
7. Underworld
8. Snakestone
9. Eat the Shadow
10. Blue
11. Vuelve

Whew. And also Kelley has been writing some new new songs which we recorded last weekend with drums. I really like them...some remind me of Galaxie 500.
We are playing our first Seattle show this weekend at the Rat and Raven with Kingdom of the Holy Sun and the Purrs. Yep definitely excited about that!
And...what else. It is pumpkin milkshake season now, that is what!


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Upcoming tour and monthly nights

We are joining Grimble Grumble on the NW leg of their West Coast tour in February! Here are the dates:
2/15 Hemlock in San Francisco. w/ Soft Bombs
2/16 Backspace (all ages) in Portland. w/ Sundaze and Souvenir Driver
2/18 Lo-Fi in Seattle. w/ Black Nite Crash and Atomic Bride

This will be our first time heading up to Seattle! We are also planning another tour with Sundaze in April.

And...we are starting a monthly themed night at the Ash St. Saloon in downtown Portland. It will be the third Wednesday of every month starting in March. We'll have DJs and bands playing covers of the theme bands. The first night is Joy Division/New Order night. April will be Smiths/Morrissey night. Should be lots of fun!

Here's a clip from our 25 minute song called 'Eat the Shadow'! http://spacewaves.bandcamp.com/track/eat-the-shadow-clip