Hey so. About 5 years ago this week we released AFTER THE LIGHTS FAILED and to celebrate that, Abe snuck around behind Mike's back and coordinated with a bunch of artists to do an arrangement album of all of the songs.
Each band or musician took one song and made it theirs.
It's a work of art, and Mike cried a lot while listening to it. You might too.
Full lineup:
Travis Hayes, Petriform, Dogcatcher, [MONO]Stereo, Alexis Blair of El Gato Dice (and so many more), Ace Waters, Zen Zenith (of August Brings, Please Do Not Fight + more), Matthew Joseph Payne, and Gnarboots.
Because they're sneaky bastards, our drummer Joey, violinist Alan and bassist Josh feature on several of these covers but NOT playing their corresponding parts because I mean, why not.
Anyway - here it is. Style ranges from solo acoustic folk to elaborate analog synthtronica and banjo-driven horn sections. Listen to it. It's beautiful.
https://curiousquail.bandcamp.com/album/five-years-after-the-lights-failed
I want to take you all into a journey of the past. Dare I say, a Throwback Thursday?
It’s 2009, Curious Quail is braaaand new and I’m going with Jess to see our buddy Vincent Do play an acoustic set at a coffee shop in Mountain View. This guy Patrick I sometimes work with at Starbucks is in one of the other bands that Vincent is always raving about, "picture" something, and there’s some other bands on the bill I’ve never heard of.
After an interesting set from ‘The Sound of Orange’ (Young Science's previous project) this trio with a ridiculous name gets up there. The guy in the picture above, a dude with curly-hair and a telecaster and this short chick with two keyboards and a violin.
Not to be all Upworthy and shit but WHAT HAPPENED NEXT BLEW MY MIND.
The songs were masterfully crafted, the way the three of them interacted with each other, the harmonies between the vocalists, it was all perfect. Then they straight-up covered MIA’s ‘Paper Planes’ with the key/violin/vocalist rapping.
That band was Please Do Not Fight, and I think I speak for a lot of people in the Sf Bay Area that they were one of the most beloved local acts we had. It was hard NOT to like them since the music was great and their attitudes were so positive. They always helped out other bands and had yearly Holiday shows that were an absolute blast. They had a myriad of lineup changes, but Zen and Geoff (telecurls) remained constant.
The band announced a breakup and final show in 2012 and that was one of the most important nights in Bay Area local music. There were tears, there were crowd-participation lyric changes to reflect the sadness. It was a night of community that has been mostly unparalleled. While it was an awesome evening for Dogcatcher, Cold Eskimo and Picture Atlantic, all of whom were releasing new records that night, they were all overshadowed by the fact that most of the people were there to say goodbye to their favorite band.
With PDNF gone, we straight up snagged Erin for our band which as many of you may remember, was primarily on vox, keytar and extra violin (she’s our bassist now because holy fuck multi-talent- do remember she rapped, sang, violined and piano’d the first time I ever saw her play) and Zen has remained active solo (Hell, we played with him and Geoff last week at the Doctor Who show) and occasionally dropped a PDNF song in his sets but there hasn’t been any kind of official reunion. Until now.
On September 5th at that same coffee shop in Mountain View, that same trio are doing a Please Do Not Fight reunion as part of Zen’s Red Rock Residency before he moves to Southern California at the end of October.
And we get to play it.
We’re on at 8pm sharp, and once our set is over Erin is switching hats and performing with Zen and Geoff in a set that will likely incite more feels than I can possibly explain.
Since the show is free there aren’t tickets, but make sure you RSVP here if you are a Facebooker:
https://www.facebook.com/events/602047836574631/
Years later I still watch Ghostbusters annually. I threw a Ghostbusters themed birthday party for my 31st birthday. I played the Ghostbusters Video Game and brought the new Ghostbusters toys. Just a few days ago I was running around my house with my 5-year-old nephew busting "ghosts".
Ghostbusters is my favorite movie, still to this day. Why it's so great is a whole 'nother blog post but, needless to say, it has brought me untold amounts of comfort and joy over the years. It has greatly shaped my sense of humor, creativity and wonder about the world.
The actors and writers involved in Ghostbusters had personalities that matched on screen as well as off. Dan Akroyd - who played Ray Stanz - was the heart of Ghostbusters, birthing the original concept as an outlandish Sci-Fi film. Bill Murrary - who played Peter Venkman - was the face of the Ghostbusters, taking the material given to him and giving it his own amazing spin.
But Harold Ramis - who played the brainy Egon Spengler - was the guy who got things done. I can relate to that. He was the enabler. He helped assemble the story and plot and grounded Ghostbusters in reality. He wrote for Bill Murray and knew how to create space that Bill could use. Without Harold Ramis there is no Ghostbusters and his character - Egon Spengler - delivers some of my all time favorite lines.
Aside from Ghostbusters, Harold Ramis is of course also the writer and director of another movie I adore: Groundhog Day. The man wrote and created not only fantastic comedy but he was unashamedly supportive of the community of fantastic talent he found himself in and always created work entrenched in social commentary and spirituality. His work was fresh and he was hilarious.
I'm lucky that many of my heroes are musicians who are still alive today so this feeling of loss is new to me. I feel sad when anyone passes, but it's very rare for me to get overly upset, when someone I do not personally know it gone. The passing of Douglas Adams was the closest I have come to feeling personally affected. Until now.
I am not lying when I say that Harold Ramis passing brought tears to my eyes. It feels crazy to me, in a way, to feel so strongly for an artist and especially a single movie - but I do. I am a fan of the mans other work as well, but Ghostbusters has been a big part of my life and who I am. Harold Ramis was an amazingly huge part of that. He was a true talent who brought so much joy into the world.
So, thank you Harold Ramis. Thank you so much for making my very favorite movie. It always has, and always will, be a source of great joy and your career has been a great inspiration for me. You will be missed.
Thursday night I am going to drag my ass from work down to San Jose for the first ever Open Mic at the Art Boutiki in San Jose. For those of you not in the know, Art Boutiki is a comic shop / performance space and is my absolute favorite venue in the San Jose area. More on that later I am sure.
I am under no delusions that acoustic-guitar-Zen does not have the live performance chops or stage presence of full-band-rock-out Zen. I know that just because I may practice my little heart out in my bedroom doesn't mean that will translate to a live show. Likewise, I would be crazy to think that the songs I'm writing are fully developed and fleshed out until I have put them on blast in front of a real crowd. It's not even necessarily about getting crowd feedback (although that does help) as much as it is just about putting the song out there. Throwing a song into the void makes you think about it differently - feedback or no.
So Open Mic Nights are a great way to build up your performance chops and try out some new ideas. I, sadly, stopped hosting the Open Mic Night because I was feeling like the returns I was personally getting were not matching the energy I was putting into it. While it was a really fun event - and some evenings were indeed, dare I say it, magical - ultimately people could be jerks sometimes. Those jerks are the reason that Open Mic did not continue and are a perfect example of a few rotten eggs ruining it for the bunch.
So, without further ado, as someone who has hosted, organized and participated in Open Mic Nights, I present:
SEVEN WAYS TO NOT BE A JERK AT OPEN MIC NIGHT
1. Don't perform for longer than you're allowed.
Aside from being incredibly rude to the other performers it's inconsiderate to the audience and the host. What makes you feel like you are so much more important than everyone else? Often squeezing everyone in who wants to perform at an open mic is hard enough without people going over their time limit. Besides, haven't you heard that you always want to leave the audience wanting more?
2. Don't ask the MC to make exceptions for you.
You just wanted to do one extra song. Can't you? Please? It's a quick one! You're really putting the MC / Host in a tricky spot by asking this question. One exception can quickly get out of control, believe me, I learnt that the hard way. But it also feels lame to have to keep telling everyone "No". Just don't ask okay?
3. Be ready to perform when it's your time to perform!
It's amazing how many times someone is called up to go and they're not prepared and we spend the first 5 minutes watching them tune their guitar. Again, this shows a blatant disrespect for the time of everyone involved. When you're called, get up there ASAP and do your thing!
4. Don't try to trick or take advantage of the host or the event
I once had a musician who strung four songs together with no breaks so that he could get away with playing more tunes. I didn't find it clever or funny and neither did the audience. Everything just thought he was a jerk.
Another time a local guitar teacher tried to use the Open Mic as his own personal recital. He insisted on playing first, signed up for one slot, had four students perform multiple songs and refused to listen to me once he was on stage. Then, when they were done, they all left. They were not welcome back.
Which brings me to ...
5. Be supportive of the performers
Here is where I go against everything I said in my prior blog post about being unconditionally supportive. An Open Mic is NOT a show and the performers are mostly NOT professionals. This is not a space for egos or your judgement. Criticism - unless solicited - should be kept to an absolute minimum and whenever someone gets off stage, you owe it to them to clap whether they were good or not. Because, when you get up there, you will be playing to same people and you will want them to clap. They are not your fans. They are not people who paid for a ticket. They are your peers and you are all there with one mission statement: To get up and perform, no matter what. Treat it like a recital: Getting up there at all, in a lot of ways, is worth celebrating.
I'm not saying some people aren't going to be awful and that you won't want to drive your head through a wall from time to time but I do think this is a circumstance where you need to crank the supportiveness up a notch. Nothing is worse than finishing a performance to a silent room or seeing people whisper about your in the back of the room.
6. Stick around.
This kind of sits into 'Be supportive' but I think it's worth it's own spot on the list. While I do think it's fine to 'Drop by' an Open Mic and just play a song or two I also think it's important to spend a little time watching the other performers - even if just for a little bit. Again, it's about respect. You want an audience when you play, so provide an audience when others do as well.
7. Be supportive of the venue.
In a city like San Jose in particular, it is hard to find performance space, especially as a beginning performer. Every once in a while, when I hosted my Open Mic Night, a crew would roll in and just trash the place. Just to be clear: This is why we can't have nice things. Don't be those guys. Please make it so that events like this can continue as they are oh-so-intregal to the community you live in.
Sometimes I feel like I have writers block but sometimes I think it's more a case of there just not being enough hours in the day to squeeze a creative thought out of my exhausted brain.
Not feeling creative is bad but I think feeling creative and not having the time, or appropriate outlet, for that creativity is far far worse. It leaves a lump in your chest and sucks the wind out of your sails. Sometimes inside screams "Let me out!".
Double worse-terrible-doom points for then suddenly not feeling inspired once you're finally able to carve out that time for your creative expression. It never wants to work on our schedules, does it?
Guys, I hate Valentines Day. I'm sorry, I just do. Logic brain wants me to be a reasonable mature grown up who understands that this is 'Just a stupid Hallmark day' but emotion brain can't help but get a little down in the dumps. Almost of my big relationship breakups have happened in the month of February so this month really drills home the reality of being single for me.
This blog post is here is say: That's okay! I'm allowed to hate it. And so are you!
To be honest I don't feel like writing my thoughts on love or relationships in the modern era so in the meantime, if you're sitting at home single - or simply alone - on Valentines Day, here are four things that have been making my evenings a little brighter this week.
Two of my favorite, but unrelated, things from the past - Ben Folds Five and The Fraggles - return in one awesome video and they're even joined by Chris Hardwick! I know this is old hat at this point but I haven't been able to stop listening to this song this week. Do it anyway!!!
Gargoyles on YouTube
If you missed Gargoyles as a child, you now have no excuse as we have a long weekend and the entire first season is up on YouTube. Gargoyles is one of those too-good-to-just-be-a-kids-show kind of shows like Avatar : The Last Airbender. It features a compelling story and some amazing voice acting from some notable actors, including a couple of familiar voices from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Field Medic releases 'A Book Worth Reading'
Kevin Sullivan is by far one of my favorite songwriters. He's known as the front man of San Francisco's high energy trio Rin Tin Tiger but his side project - Field Medic - is just as compelling to me. For Valentines Day he has released a short and sweet - but mostly sweet - EP for free and if you like folky introspective goodness you should definitely check it out.
Download it for free here.
Finish Ticket signs to Atlantic Records
Once upon a time a small band from Alameda known as Finish Ticket opened for my band, Please Do Not Fight, at Blakes. Now, years later, here they are signed to Atlantic Records on this very day.
These guys are the real deal: Awesome songs. Talented musicians. Fantastic people. Hard workers. I couldn't be happier for them. Make sure you check them out on-line.
How does being unconditionally supportive serve you and your local music community?
When you're a musician - as with any community of people - figuring out how you want to interact with your 'music scene' and fellow musicians can be a strange journey and somewhat overwhelming at times.
When you're part of a community there are certain people who seem like they are friends with everyone.
Some of these people try too hard, forcing themselves bluntly into your world because, hey, they're 'Networking'. These 'Networkers' can usually be spotted a mile away. Then you have the people who are just really really nice and easy to get along with. They're supportive of most everyone and everything going on. They're talking to you because they want to be, not because they're trying to get something. The 'Networking' they do, the connections they make, seem like a nice bonus - a side effect if you will - of who they are and their natural enthusiasm.
Other musicians don't network as much. They stick to their own circles - sometimes interacting only with small pockets of the local music scene, if they choose to interact with it at all. Sometimes this can come across as arrogant, or even anti-social, seemingly bypassing the 'local band' stage of the process altogether.
On the surface the 'friendly communal well connected musician' seems like the ideal approach but, I think there are some pitfalls when that turns into being unconditionally supportive. Who you associate with matters and the quality of someones music and the quality of someones character are not always things that align. There are some artists I know - artists I really love - who's shows I will not go to. Why? Because the bands they choose to share the bill with are just not good and I don't enjoy myself.
Being not good isn't a crime and everyone needs a space as a musician to grow and learn, but if I - a teacher, a fellow musician and a peer - am unable to sit through the other acts you're playing with, how is your regular show goer going to? There's no easy way to say this: In a way, you become bad by association and bad shows repel music fans rather than attracting them.
Look, I don't want to shit on enthusiasm and positivity. I love those things. But shouldn't we be putting more effort into supporting the acts we really really like? Isn't it possible that by spreading the love so much we're giving people less of a reason to get better? Are we potentially encouraging mediocrity? We keep telling people "If you want to see more local music, you've got to support it!" "Support local music or it will go away!". How can we expect people to come out and support something that, sometimes, is just not that great?
So if you're not into the music coming out of your town, or maybe even the people, should you get out there anyways? If you're not naturally a social butterfly should you force yourself to network because it's what's you're supposed to do? Should you just suck it up?
Honestly, I don't have clear cut answers here. This is a bit of a brain dump and a bit of playing devils advocate. To be honest my instinct is usually to be the nice guy, who's friends with and supportive of most everyone. I think having a strong supportive music scene is integral to any strong community and I think a lot of musicians - and non musicians alike - benefit from it.
But that devils advocate in me wants to say, hell no, don't network if you don't want to. Don't go see bands you don't like just to be supportive. Don't be part of anything you genuinely don't want to be part of. As long as you are making music you truly believe in, honing your craft, getting out there and playing shows as much as possible and not being a dick, just keep doing what you're doing.
I guess I have two main, and slightly unrelated, points here.
1. It seems that forcing yourself to network with your local music community, if you don't feel like networking or aren't a fan of the music coming from that community, isn't something you should be doing. (Or at very least, you need to find a way to do it that works for you).
2. Quality of music is important and I worry that being unconditionally supportive doesn't serve that, or you, in the end.
Musicians, I would love to hear your thoughts. How can we do better? Is there something to all of this or am I just being a big jerk? I would love to get some feedback as I feel like there is something here.
On Sunday I felt tired. Like, unnecessarily tired. Now, here I am in bed three days later, home from work and all the things I wanted to get done today.
It's funny how quickly we are to ignore the things are body is telling us. No, I can't get sick right now, I have a show I want to go to. No, I don't feel like I want to die every time I eat baked goods, because they are delicious and I love them.
Being someone who has a super jam packed schedule, having a cold and taking a day off feels pretty frustrating. I had things planned that I now can't reschedule until weeks later. I get overly exasperated with myself for skipping a blog day on Monday or for not writing enough songs on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy being busy and I'm happy for everything I'm doing right now, but these are the times where it kicks me in the butt. Even now, as I stay home from work to try to get better I find myself having to force myself to not do work. Or clean. Or something.
Sometimes it's important to remind ourselves that it's okay to take a break and that, just because we've broken whatever routine we had in place, doesn't mean we can't just pick it right back up.
Here are some things I have been doing while sick, instead of working:
Playing Hearthstone (It's grown on me)
Watching Game of Thrones (It has also grown on me)
Sleeping
Eating lots of veggies
Drinking lots of water
Playing with a new toy I got in the mail
Writing this blog
Do you have any sick day routines? Do you overly schedule yourself until everything falls apart? Are you bad at picking things back up? Please, share your feels.
