Today we played at Mosswood Park and did some more filming. Lisa, Molly, Steven, Angela and Noah were there, as well as Noah's friend Mulligan Rose.
Aug 31, 2008
Aug 28, 2008
Band Practice/Party, 8/23/08
Lisa, Molly and Steven had a little practice on Saturday at the Berkeley Farmers' Market. We added a new harmony part to "Picture" and some banjo to "Sylvia." We earned a peach and a pluot from one listener.
Aug 17, 2008
Aug 12, 2008
The Latest in Band Outfits
Discovered this on the Brooklyn Vegan randomly.
I love how Von Trapp family this is and I totally admire them for wearing what looks like orange and yellow cotton jersey shorts - and getting away with it.
I think every so often about band outfit aesthetics and designing clothes in general. I don't foresee this ever being our deal - you know, the matching outfits thing - but still it's fun to see what other people are doing. (Other people, in this case, being De Novo Dahl). And I'm always down with coordinating.
I also like having themes à la Arcade Fire with some kind of motif going through various people's clothes.
I kind of like the idea of doing a color theme party wardrobe coordination practice/party every so often. It does make for great photos...
Anyway, I won't turn this into a fashion blog heh, but I'll leave you to feast on this:
Aug 11, 2008
Aug 10, 2008
band practice/tea + croquet (birthday) party
Dang. Where even to start.
I can't even believe that not everyone is out there playing music in the park. For the life of me I don't think I could think of anything better.
We had the most best practice/party today, granted it was probably heavier on the party than the practice, but what are you to do when you're being swarmed by fans who also want to chat? I was a little worried that it'd be cold today after something of a chilly morning yesterday, but it was fabulously warm.
Steven, Russ, Liat, my mother and sister and I all arrived simultaneously at Mosswood Park and settled on a spot under a tree near Broadway where we layed out our blankets and quite a spread of food. There was also a bit of a goth party and twenty hipsters on bikes and Sri Lankan women sitting in a circle and a fancy kid's birthday party with face painting and a piñata and then later a bunch of dudes playing soccer and frisbee and another twenty people playing some kind of volleyball, so the park was brimming with life. and our party was hopping.
So many people came out. So, so many. It was amazing. It made the (birthday) part of the practice/party that much sweeter. Through out the day a series of kids (from that birthday party) with the Batman bat painted on their faces (maybe it was a Batman themed party..?) paused near us to see what our deal was. I'm telling you, kids love us.
But not only kids! This older guy came by after we played Laika - and our Arcade Fires were off the hook today, for real - to say that we should put out a cd and get on the scene because he knows.
And another woman who seemed to be just passing through stopped by us to ask if we were a band or just kids who play together. A little of both? I said. She explained that she has some kind of artist space and is looking for bands to come play in it and did we have any contact info. Awesome, yes. So, we pointed her to the good old fb page. Hopefully Jared can hook us up with a nice link like facebook.com/bandpracticeparty, now that he works for that king of social networks.
We even did a little bit of filming for our croquet/Marcher video. Dunno how the footage came out, but we started it and you can't really ask for more than that. I also heard Steven chatting up Aron about animating our Twenty-Five vid Schoolhouse Rock style. If we ever finish these things, we'll def share them with you all via fb/youtube/this blog. I also saw a bunch of cameras snapping photos throughout the day, so hopefully there'll be pics to post soon.
It was so great seeing everybody and playing music with and for them. I swear I could do this every day of my life and die happy.
ps. I also ran off a couple more posters and plan to print more soon. Maybe some day we'll start selling them, but for the time being, if you want one, just holler!
I can't even believe that not everyone is out there playing music in the park. For the life of me I don't think I could think of anything better.
We had the most best practice/party today, granted it was probably heavier on the party than the practice, but what are you to do when you're being swarmed by fans who also want to chat? I was a little worried that it'd be cold today after something of a chilly morning yesterday, but it was fabulously warm.
Steven, Russ, Liat, my mother and sister and I all arrived simultaneously at Mosswood Park and settled on a spot under a tree near Broadway where we layed out our blankets and quite a spread of food. There was also a bit of a goth party and twenty hipsters on bikes and Sri Lankan women sitting in a circle and a fancy kid's birthday party with face painting and a piñata and then later a bunch of dudes playing soccer and frisbee and another twenty people playing some kind of volleyball, so the park was brimming with life. and our party was hopping.
So many people came out. So, so many. It was amazing. It made the (birthday) part of the practice/party that much sweeter. Through out the day a series of kids (from that birthday party) with the Batman bat painted on their faces (maybe it was a Batman themed party..?) paused near us to see what our deal was. I'm telling you, kids love us.
But not only kids! This older guy came by after we played Laika - and our Arcade Fires were off the hook today, for real - to say that we should put out a cd and get on the scene because he knows.
And another woman who seemed to be just passing through stopped by us to ask if we were a band or just kids who play together. A little of both? I said. She explained that she has some kind of artist space and is looking for bands to come play in it and did we have any contact info. Awesome, yes. So, we pointed her to the good old fb page. Hopefully Jared can hook us up with a nice link like facebook.com/bandpracticeparty, now that he works for that king of social networks.
We even did a little bit of filming for our croquet/Marcher video. Dunno how the footage came out, but we started it and you can't really ask for more than that. I also heard Steven chatting up Aron about animating our Twenty-Five vid Schoolhouse Rock style. If we ever finish these things, we'll def share them with you all via fb/youtube/this blog. I also saw a bunch of cameras snapping photos throughout the day, so hopefully there'll be pics to post soon.
It was so great seeing everybody and playing music with and for them. I swear I could do this every day of my life and die happy.
ps. I also ran off a couple more posters and plan to print more soon. Maybe some day we'll start selling them, but for the time being, if you want one, just holler!
Aug 3, 2008
Live at Lake Temescal
I wasn't even really aware that there was a lake at the top of Broadway, but we carted our battery of acoustics up there today and rocked it lakeside.
There were lots of us today - enough to throw a real practice/party. Steven, Vijay, Russ, Devin, Molly, Angela and I played through most of what we're calling our setlist. Devin also brought a magical little book of every American folk song ever sung and then some. I insisted Russ do Ciana's birthday song and if I'm not mistaken he was playing some of his old ep stuff in between songs over on his edge of the blanket. We're playing Grizzly Bear's Knife more regularly now, which makes me happy. I love that song. Still need to work out how we want to fill in the atmospheric layers they do, but even our impromptu covers sound pretty decent.
We're all way into Steven's new song Picture - which I always want to call Picture Yourself. We played Siki Siki Baba twice and relived Diggin' a Grave. Angela somehow managed to bike all the way up the hill with an accordion in her bag (and a clarinet, a fancy harmonica and I don't even know what else) and worked her clarinet magic on Twenty-Five. I think the musical highlight for me was Russ covering Idea in his big band voice while I did a pretend singing saw. We really need one of those things. I don't know how our band has gone so long without such an essential instrument.
There was some serious partying going on around us too - a very intense group badminton game with this really deep grunting and yelling, a little smash ball, and a couple birthday parties. We were joking on the way over that we should play kids' birthday parties since kids love us and today was no exception. Three or four kids wandered over to watch and touch things.
Really though, we should have been playing at this one birthday party next to us. These people really went all out. They had the clown, the face painting, the caricaturist, the works. Both the clown and the portrait artist showed a little love on their way out. The portrait guy asked if we were a real band or just kids who get together. A little of both? We pointed him to our Myspace/Facebook page. I hope he checks us out. It would be rad if at some point we were together enough that we could just post up where we'll be for the day on our site(s) and people could swing by to enjoy if they so pleased.
All in all, good times. I even managed to score a slew of pirate songs that I am loving. Thank you, Russell.
There were lots of us today - enough to throw a real practice/party. Steven, Vijay, Russ, Devin, Molly, Angela and I played through most of what we're calling our setlist. Devin also brought a magical little book of every American folk song ever sung and then some. I insisted Russ do Ciana's birthday song and if I'm not mistaken he was playing some of his old ep stuff in between songs over on his edge of the blanket. We're playing Grizzly Bear's Knife more regularly now, which makes me happy. I love that song. Still need to work out how we want to fill in the atmospheric layers they do, but even our impromptu covers sound pretty decent.
We're all way into Steven's new song Picture - which I always want to call Picture Yourself. We played Siki Siki Baba twice and relived Diggin' a Grave. Angela somehow managed to bike all the way up the hill with an accordion in her bag (and a clarinet, a fancy harmonica and I don't even know what else) and worked her clarinet magic on Twenty-Five. I think the musical highlight for me was Russ covering Idea in his big band voice while I did a pretend singing saw. We really need one of those things. I don't know how our band has gone so long without such an essential instrument.
There was some serious partying going on around us too - a very intense group badminton game with this really deep grunting and yelling, a little smash ball, and a couple birthday parties. We were joking on the way over that we should play kids' birthday parties since kids love us and today was no exception. Three or four kids wandered over to watch and touch things.
Really though, we should have been playing at this one birthday party next to us. These people really went all out. They had the clown, the face painting, the caricaturist, the works. Both the clown and the portrait artist showed a little love on their way out. The portrait guy asked if we were a real band or just kids who get together. A little of both? We pointed him to our Myspace/Facebook page. I hope he checks us out. It would be rad if at some point we were together enough that we could just post up where we'll be for the day on our site(s) and people could swing by to enjoy if they so pleased.
All in all, good times. I even managed to score a slew of pirate songs that I am loving. Thank you, Russell.
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