Getting back to normal

So I've been going to work 3 days a week now. Driving myself. Running errands. Getting back to my normal life.

I stopped by the Shadow Lounge last night to drop off posters and flyers for the next show I'm promoting on June 20th. I ended up sitting in front of the lounge talking with 'Jmall$' for a while. It's good to start getting back out into the social, public atmospshere.

I then decided to go over to Kelly's Bar to see 'Meg F' but there was a sign on the door saying 'Closed for Private Party'. Figures ... I haven't been to Kelly's in well over a month and the night I decide to stop by, I'm not allowed in. I texted 'Meg F' only to find out that the AC was out and it was pretty miserable inside anyway.

I also stopped by to see a musician friend of mine to pick up some new music to work on. My friend is an internationally published artist on various record labels; Record Kicks, Freestyle Records, Vampisoul . He is leaving PGH tomorrow to go to NYC and then on to Europe to tour until September of this year. He has a new album he's been working on and he wanted to give it to me to listen to while he's gone and possibly add my musical touch to it. When he returns in the fall, he plans on recording and producing the album here in PGH and he has asked me to help out. Pretty freakin' cool. I had to pick up all of the individual music tracks last night for the 10 unfinished songs. Over the next few months I'll dissect the album, assemble and mix the songs, learn them inside and out to see what I can come up with. Hopefully, when he returns in September, I'll have come up with something he'll like and we can get moving on finishing the project.

3 Big DJs from 3 Big Parties

Just when I thought I was out of the 'promoting' game ... this happens:
A buddy of mine and I threw this little party together in less than 24 hours. It will be the official afterparty for the Unblurred First Friday event taking place on Penn Ave. this Friday (even got it cleared with the Penn Ave Arts Initiative). Nice to know that the connections are still there after being out of the club promoting scene for close to a year. Got the venue free of charge, convinced all of the DJs to play for free, got the flyer design donated and even managed to offer up a pretty nice drink special on top of it all. The money collected from the $5 'suggested donation' cover charge will all go to a local benefit that I can't reveil at this time.

The Budos Band

I went and saw The Budos Band play at the Shadowlounge last night. Wow ... yet another funky night in the 'burgh. The Budos Band is an 11 piece afro beat band on Daptone Records hailing from Staten Island ... and I'll just say that they blew the room away. The air conditioning definitely lost the battle last night against the heat radiating from the 100 or so people that crammed the lounge. At one point, I saw 'SMI' pushing his way through the dancefloor holding an industrial floor fan high above his head just trying to cool off the overheating crowd and bring some relief ... but hey, what's a good funk and soul party if you don't have a standing room only crowd of sweaty people all dancin' and groovin' ready to pass out from the heat?


and here is a video by them:

I ended the night by hitting up Kelly's Bar and Lounge for last call. 'Meg F' and I danced to some Sam Cooke played from the jukebox and then we closed the night out with a sing along to some Johnny Cash. Pretty good for a wednesday night.

Radio play ...

I also just got word yesterday that my last DJ mix is going to be aired on our local radio station 91.3 FM WYEP at the end of the month. A buddy who is programming director for the station heard my mix over at radiohypno.com (Thanks again to Hypnotyza) and contacted me about hosting it on his show called The Dubmission.

But it doesn't end there ... as well as getting radio play ... my mix will also be hosted as a podcast ... plus hosted and played on lastfm.com, beyondjazz.net and virb.com as well as in the giantstep.net forums and on radiopellenera.com out of Italy.

I'll take it.

The mix will be played here on our local FM between the hours of 2am to 3:45am on Sunday Sept. 2nd.

Jen Kearney & The Lost Onions

Caught a show at the Shadowlounge last night.

Jen Kearney & The Lost Onions

Sort of like a female Stevie Wonder with some Cuban Funk & Jazz sounds. Very souful. Loved the organ sound. A very intimate laid back show.

Here are two songs:
Pick Yourself Up
Patience Child

BTW

The Nomo show on Thursday night was awesome. If you like funky music then I recommend seeing them any chance you get. Their shows are full of energy and every performer (8 of them usually) is incredibly talented. They mainly play Afro beat but they don't strictly stay within that genre ...


They ended their show by coming out and playing in the middle of the audience. It was beautiful. Here is a clip from SXSW where they did the same thing:


I also caught the last 5 songs of the Souls of Mischief show. I wasn't that impressed (glad I didn't have to pay). It was a typical Pgh old school hip hop show. The rappers yapped too much in between songs about how old school they were ... then they all shouted their lyrics at the same time ... blasting the speakers and driving everything, mixer and amps, into the red. Sound was terrible but the sound guy couldn't do anything. I did get to see them perform their classic hit, '93 til infinity, though ...

The Big Throwback

Last night was probably the best Throwback party I have attended. They had to stop letting people in around 11:30 because it got so packed.

DJ Supa C was on top of his game last night and led the crowd into a frenzy with his DJing and MCing skills. Here is a taste of him on Youtube.com to get an idea of what he can do.

I need to take a break from going out ... after I go to the pirate game tonight and one more DJ event this evening, I'm staying in for a while.

At least until next Tuesday. ;)

(Photos courtesy of 'J Malls')

Aphex Twin

Click picture to Embiggen.

Those familiar with Richard D. James should find this amusing.

I find it hilarious ... especially the musical cues like,

'light explosives now ... and ... now'

'gradually become agitated'

'insert peanuts'

'play ball!'

and 'duck'

... brilliant.

Thanks to 'trout' for showing me this.

3 Rivers Arts Fest

My friend, 'Plum Crazy', sent me this photo that she took of me listening and watching intently as Wokova performs at the 3 Rivers Arts Festival on June 4th. There were more than 7 people there watching the show ... seriously ... this angle is deceiving ...

Back Story: I write music under the name Eastsidesoul for Jack Wilson who is an artist in the group Wokova.


It was exciting to hear my music on the main stage at the 3 Rivers Arts Festival. The sound was booming and the crowd was very eclectic.

The Ring in my Ears

Two Nights ... Great Music ... fun with tons of friends and the weekend isn't over yet.

Friday night after the gallery crawl we all headed to the restaurant Trilogy for an outdoor all house music DJ event. It was so nice to be down in the city listening and dancing to music while being surrounded by the skyscrapers. Some good friends of mine pulled this party off successfully. Hopefully they can turn it into an on going thing. The weather was beautiful and the vibe was tight. Too bad my pictures don't do it justice:





Saturday night was the Shadowlounge's 7 Year Anniversary. I was in no shape to go out to this party after Friday night plus I spent 6 hours working on my backyard Saturday afternoon and had dinner with a friend visiting from out of town ... but I was on the guest list (thanks 'Jack') so I had to check it out. The flyer alone should give you some indication of how this party went off:

You know what I like the best about the shadowlounge? The fact that they have a no smoking policy. I don't reek of smoke after coming home from that place.

My ears are ringing though ... and I'm beat ...

Battle of the Album Covers

Thanks to 'Vince Deadly' for showing me this classic.

Native Tongue

... and I wasn't even going to go out last night ...

I thought about staying in. I started to watch my BBC Planet Earth documentary on HD DVD that I recently received from Amazon.

One word. Wow.

I only got about an hour into it (it's a 4 disc set containing over 9 hours of material) and was amazed at the filming, the content, the picture, etc. It is truely amazing regarding the shots the filmakers were able to get for this documentary. My brain was certainly teased as to how they acheived some of the elaborate shots ... Crane? Helicopter? and there are some shots of places on this Earth that had me asking myself, 'does that really exist? it looks like something some Sci Fi Nerd dreamt up in CGI!' Again, wow. and the HD quality just knocks it out of the park ... Too bad they didn't give the disc series a 5.1 channel surround sound mix on the audio ... only dolby stereo here. But eh ...

I gave Evil Genius a call so we could do some catching up then I headed out to the Brillobox for a friend's party he was hosting:

Another crazy dance party at the Brillo ... huge attendance. The second floor of the place was bouncing with the weight of the standing room only crowd as usual. Tons of friends , all smiles, singing along and nodding heads to the beat. This party featured music from the Native Tounge Family; De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, Leaders of the New School, etc. All 1990's Hip Hop. The stuff I grew up on back in highschool ... Yo MTV Raps!

Very nice indeed.

Funk and Soul

Too many Franzeskainers have me feeling a little groggy this morning. Oh and one Hoegaarden and two shots of Jameson. But before all of that ...

A few of us checked out two bands at the 3 Rivers Arts Festival last night.

Earl Greyhound and the Ike Reilly Assassination. Both were just okay. Earl was a power trio sounding like a less polished Wolfmother. Ike was too 'americana' for me ... too many songs about truckstops and lost girlfriends.

We jetted early and went to Kelly's Bar and Lounge in East Liberty for our ritual Funk and Soul Night. Attendance was strong. Mostly the usual suspects but I met some new people too. We commandeered the back patio since there were about 14 people in our group. Around Midnight, we all ventured across the street to the Shadowlounge for Open Mic Night but the place was already shutting down due to the fact that no one was there. Too bad too, our friend 'Vince Deadly' was going to get up on stage again and improv another song*.

*Back Story: The last two weeks in a row, 'Vince Deadly' has brought the house down at Open Mic Night at the Shadowlounge. Last week was an impromtu Funk song made up of grunts, groans and the word Chaka Khan and the week prior he made up an R & B Ballad featuring all the sad parts in Classic Disney Cartoons ... "you know ... like Bambi's Mom."

Tonight I take the parents to a Pirate Baseball Game for my stepfathers birthday. Let's hope it doesn't rain.

Hello there ...

Welcome to the sound and light show.
The backstory is irrelevant ... you will catch up eventually.