Month: June 2010

Broad Strokes with Calypso Sally on WHFR

Last month, my radio show, Broad Strokes, streamed live off the web on  Washington Heights Free Radio (WHFR).  Despite my obvious nervousness,  the show went well.

For those of you that don’t know,  I have a radio show and it’s called Broad Strokes, and it streams live off the web every last Wednesday of the month at a new time 8:00pm.

I, Calypso Sally, that’s me, try to play a broad range of genres, stretching from indie rock, pop, alternative, noise rock, hip hop, reggae, dance hall, metal, calypso, funk etc.  It’s sort of a mixed bag.  I also have live acoustic performances.

Speaking of live performances, the indie rock trio Coyote Eyes will be playing a live set on Broad Strokes next Wednesday, June 30, at 8:00pm.  Check it out.

Last month’s Playlist, and listen here:

They Built a City In My Country Mind by Pet Ghost Project
I Don’t Love You No More by Kings Go Forth
Tigallo For Dolo by Little Brother
Promises by The Morning Benders
Tales of Stage Fright by Pet Ghost Project
Forced to Love by Broken Social Scene
Do it Again by Galactic
Electric Car, Gas Guitar by Dinowalrus
Chrome Depot Freestyle Blade Mix by Apathy
Medula Oblongata by Buke & Gass
Yellow Red by Coyote Eyes
The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade  by The Joy Formidable
Cataract by White Hinterland
Anyone’s Ghost by The National
See it All by Fink
Peripatetic by Pet Ghost Project

Bringing you stories, live events, and much more, WHFR tries and remains independent of any corporate sponsorship.  So, if you like what WHFR is doing, you can donate by contacting them at info@whfr.org.  DIY forever baby!

If you’re in a band or you know a band and or singer/song writer that would like to do a show, contact me at: roarplanet@gmail.com.

Subterfuge

I’ve been working with Magnetic Island, an exprimental, indie rock band based in NYC, on the single Subterfuge.  

This past week the single premiered on Gimme Tinnitus.  You can check it out here: Subterfuge. 

Not only did I play the drums, and the steelpan on the single, I also sang!

It was so great being back in the recording studio, and playing in general.  Even though at times it was a challenge, I learned so much from the experience.  

Working with Magnetic Island was really refreshing as the sound is completely different from my band Telenovela Star. 

I think the difference is that I was more focused on percision rather than power.  Less concerned with trying to prove how fast I can play or how much agility I have, but more concerned with how to bring out the song, make it tell the story that it’s dying to say. 

Working with these guys also gave me the opportunity to break out my steelpan, which has been sitting in my closet for sometime now, and as well as to sing.  Being brought back to my first instruments, my voice and the steelpan, reminded me of why I desired to be a musician.  I was blown away.  I didn’t realize that I was capable of expressing myself through these other mediums, especially singing.  I realized that I can do more than carry a tune.  I have a voice.  I can sing. 

All in all this was an eye opening experience for me, and I’m thankful to have had the chance to work with such talented, and genuinely remarkable musicians.  They brought out a side of me that was starving to be explored.

Here are some shots of us in The Fort recording studio:

 

Las Vegas

Las Vegas says she’s too afraid, too afraid
my dangerous touch on her delicate skin

made up with precaution, made up of rules to bend
because I ain’t got nothin to lose but the end

Las Vegas says she’s needing someone stable
yet she’s at my ramshackle table with those hungry eyes

with those sweet lips that I brush so, so gently 
tellin me I’m not the one oh Las Vegas

tellin me there’s no wedding moans
behind doors that only just groans   

she’ll leave me, leave me suddenly
my bed early in the dawn will howl for her trace

my danger, my dangerous love
recking reckless will grieve over her midnight kiss.

Folk

Success!!!
likes itself and it looks so good in the mirror
walking down the red carpet.

Success!!!
is a story you hear about in the news
this is our hero of the week

Success!!!
lies buried in little incremental shadows
that, won’t be seen by the um..hum New Yorker.

Success!!!
That’s all they, them, we care about
how can I align myself to this Success!!!

I can tell by the, our conversation
where on the ladder you’ve considered my climb
I know by your sincere pretense that you want nothing to do with me

but where were you when success seemed so fair, so equal
far out of reached, and yet like moths we’re starving towards its glow
and where were you when success was just a small room
a dying plant, no AC in the summer and freezing in the winter
where were you when I needed a friend.

Love Laws

Can you forget the love laws
and for one night feel the ache
in our curves? You’ll show me where
it hurts the most. Could you forget
about your tongue harnessed
in the Reason of the world? It draws
a rigid line our bodies refuse to bend to.
We’d forget how to construct a sentence
and listen to what is said in a moan
resonating in our eyes, lips, hands
from the pit of our stomachs; speak
a new nonsense. In a moment
we’d lose ourselves in a sound,
like that night, during awkward small talk
desire lingered in the space where
you and I begun. Knowing how to
hold each other, we danced.
We didn’t have anything
but skin, the salt from our eyes
the sadness in a kiss.