Ghost Mice Show

Dear god, was I blown away by these two talented girls Louise on guitar/vocals, and Ellie harmonizing on vocals, with their performance at The Che last night, their act is called Heathers. (Photo to left). I talked to the girls right before their set, and they said that they just had graduated from high school two or three weeks prior to touring back in Dublin, Ireland, and how amazing is it that their first tour was with Ghost Mice (an amazing folk/punk duo) The two groups met in Ireland when they did a performance together, and became friends and decided to host Heathers first US tour together. How amazing, that's amazing to me. I hope they weren't scared of California. .

Aside from their powerful performance, an amazing line up that the friends and I have been anticipating for a while was the famous Ghost Mice, which is a band composed of also a duo with Chris Clavin on guitar, harmonica,tambourine and Hannah Jones who used to bass, now prefers the violin and guitar. The band was born in Bloomington, Indiana, although the two came from two different states Clavin from Florida, and Jones from Indiana their lyrics tend to stray towards healthy living, bike-riding, and the adventures of traveling. Their song "Free Pizza for Life" got everyone shouting. Take a listen, enjoy.

Sani also made a performance, as well as Danny from Jehovas Fitness, always a joy to see these two local artists preform. Danny's 6 song disk is now out and ready to listen so make sure to see where he's playing next so you can get a gander at his show and pick up a disk. Which has a photo ahem by myself as the cover *PROUD*. He's got an upcoming show with Andrew Jackson Jihad coming up in Riverside. Check out his calender here.

Danny
Danny's snapping friends
Sani starting a great show on her ukulele :)

Ray @ Night

Went to this fun art walk in North Park last night, called Ray At Night. It's basically a monthly event with some amazing and talented artists. Met a couple of cool people, one being this guy named Jakin Vasquez, who has his own retail (clothing line) and is an event coordinator as well as promoter for his label called Black Thread Method Industries. I was talking to him for a short bit, but he caught sight of my camera and whipped out his card. He says he's assembled several commercial parties downtown, and they are just now starting gathering raves out in remote places. The last one he says was about 250+ people out in a place called Mecca, which is on the back side of Palm Springs. So I have his card and am pondering if I should email, and show my interest to
photo his events. He proposed that maybe I do some candid shots for some of his events to put up on the website. What do you think? Here's a photo of his brother who was playing some beats, in one of the galleries I walked through (he also plays at BTMI events)

Aside from that moment...much was to be buzzing near The Rubber Rose a sex shop, art gallery, venue for events and shows basically was the center for the gathering where a band played and this rainbow princess danced. Her hula hoop glowed! Check out the fotos :)

Recorder

So, yes, this is how I must roll. Tapes. TAPES. Not that it makes me any less...professional. Ahem. Uhm. So it was 12 bucks and a stack of 90 min tapes are only 3 bucks, so it works...for now. I got it from Fry's electronics on Aero drive near Qualcomm Stadium.

I dropped by work today to pick up a check that half disappeared by the time I left Fry's. Discovering that its more difficult to try and reassemble my Ipod from the inside out, was a rather depressing realization.

Now that I am fully equip for a sit down interview with the famous Jo-El Tapia, it will seriously be perused. Jo-El is a good friend of mine, with an amazing talent. You will be hearing more about her in the near future. We actually work together at the diner in Coronado and are planning on making a move together sometime in the next year. A great person she is for now I'll link you to her profile, so you can get a taste of her delicacy. Enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/joeltapiamusic

I love you all.

Normal Heights

Last night, I went to Lestats and drank a Milky Way thingy, and watched a show from outside the door since I didn't have the seven dollars it took to sit and watch the same view inside, from a chair. It was alright because I struck up a conversation with this guy named Mike who is an electrician and used to play bass for Silverleaf (the band that was up there playing as we spoke) as we stood outside the doors. Mike wanted to be a journalist, after he heard and was somewhat inspired by the work of Hunter S. Thompson (writer of the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Mike has convinced me to want to learn more about him, I want to go to go see this: It's a documentary tracing his life and forms of journalistic tendencies, techniques and styles. Which from what I here are totally original and out there. It's funny though as Mike was explaining this to me my memory remained totally unattached even though two weeks prior I found the flier for this documentary in Hillcrest at at bookstore near Flashbacks. At the time when i picked it up I was completely unaware that it had anything to do with anything since I was naive, not even knowing who Thompson was! Anyway, this post isn't really about the movie. Well, maybe it is, I don't really know. Anyway tonight wasn't that bad. I made a new friend, and also met a chef named Andrew on the 2 coming down from Adams Ave through South Park and into downtown, he lives in a $600 a month studio on 6th boy, he instantly became embarrassed when we got off on 5th and started walking to the trolley and I told him my age. Well if that isn't the 4th time this week...

P.S. All I had today was a Kashi Bar and a milkshake. Ew. I left my bike at work (its locked at least phew.)

Steven Mertens: Once A Moldy Peach Always A Moldy Peach

Soulful psychedelic musician Steven Mertens, an artist who held his first performance inside his high school’s cafeteria, has now managed to renovate his stage and multiply his audience from his local hometowns Jersey and Westchester, New York into a fan base that extends to cities throughout the world--Siena, Vienna, Munich, Toronto, Philly, Tokyo, Osaka, London, just to name a few. It is safe to assume his love for music took root at a young age or as he explains it; from the early stages of fetal development. “My daddy tapped out psychedelic tabla rhythms on my mama's tummy when I was in there,” Mertens describes.

Later, much later, after the local shows and high school performances, Mertens found himself jamming with friend Adam Green. This led him to join Green's indie/ folk ensemble The Moldy Peaches, formed in early 2000, as bassist. He portrays his two year tour with Moldy as a sort of “traveling circus”, and continues to hold the “Once a moldy peach, always a moldy peach” motto somewhere close to his teenage heart.

Mertens describes his music career as a collaboration of several segmented projects. Versatile and interchangeable, he has become the ultimate take-home additional audio indulgence for any band.

“I'm always playing with a ton of different people. Right now I maybe have five things going on, but it's always changing. My new band is called Space Kamp. I play with guys from Adam's band mainly, but I play with the drummer, Chris Egan in like 10 bands…ha ha. He's a silent film producer. Adam is my hair stylist. When Adam gives up singing, he's going to open a salon. I play with an awesome kid named Luke Rathborne, too.”

One of the projects Mertens upholds is a band by the name Wild Bee, with fellow musicians, Nathan Brown, Dan Davis, Parker Kindred, Brian Geltner, and Mike Dirshell. What differentiates Wild Bee from the classic four man band set ups is indeed their secret weapon: two drummers. The two drummers create a powerful and unique sound. Their song “Me and David Lynch” carries this melodic and sort of entrancing feel to it. The double drumming not only amplifies the performance but the experience as well.

Mertens' close relationship with the members from Wild Bee stems way back to his younger, more menacing years.

“Wild Bee are like my brothers. Me and the drummer, Parker Kindred, and the guitar player, Dan Davis have been friends since we were three. We grew up together, when we were five, I lied to a cop for the first time. Parker and I were always getting into trouble; stealing candy and comic books, burning stuff, and breaking remote controls.”

Aside from his various collaborative projects, Mertens also is progressing as a solo artist. On his MySpace he assumes the name Steven Saint, where he has some of his tracks posted including both old and new songs like the 2008 release “The Lesser Side” , which combines his light yet easy lounge-like vocals along with rhythmic instrumentals that tell a story all their own. Along with “The Lesser Side”, he has just finished up a release track. “I just wrote a song called "Lost" that I like a lot. Kind of a tin pan alley/ floaty/ dreamy/ show biz kinda song. Very dramatic,” Mertens says.

Instead of recording his solo tracks in a studio he prefers to manage and produce his works from home. “The music industry is getting turned on its head by technology. I basically have a studio in my bedroom that can make records that sound like they were made at The Hit Factory, or Sunset Sound."

Although music has been his main focus for several years now, Mertens has managed to uphold his informal talent as an artist, which as he says has always been something to turn to as an expressive outlet for personal gratification. In other words his arting around has always been a casual pastime, a therapy if you will.

“I love to draw, it’s great to have a creative outlet that I have very little ambition attached to. Just for the pure pleasure of seeing itty bitty lines come out of my pen. I love to draw people on the subway. Some girl drew me yesterday. She was hot.”

Expect more from his class A-act and look for his emerging band Space Kamp. Steven Mertens' tracks from his band Wild Bee are now on sale on itunes and www.cdbaby.com.

I painted this awhile back.

I don't really know what to think of it.

I eventually turned it into a song.