Tag: Telenovela Star

Broad Strokes to Warm Up Your Holiday Spirit

As we near the close of twenty ten, there is a lot to reflect upon and be thankful for. Twenty ten was not an easy year for me, at the very beginning I felt troubled and lost, displaced would be the best word to describe my state of being. All it took was one phone call to change my gloomy direction. No, I didn’t discover Jesus, nor was it love or a new type of elixir…

I got a call from Magnetic Island (MI), saying that they wanted me to collaborate with them on a music project. I’ve always held MI in the highest of esteem as musicians, so much so I felt a tinge of intimidation after I had agreed to work with them.

They are great musicians, they passionately live and breathe music. I know that for a fact, because I witnessed this passion the morning that we were set to record Subterfuge, the MI single that I sang, played the drum-kit, and also played my steelpan on.

I had spent the night over at MI’s place, and the first thing they did the next morning, after breakfast, was grab their instruments: Lisa was on her guitar running through scales, and Sue was on her keyboards with headphones on. They taught me so much, or better yet they gave me so much hope…

Twenty ten brought me closer to my friends, family and also made me realize how important it is to have a really awesome boss: one who is generous and thoughtful, very rare and special.

At the curtail of this year, I was reconnected to how spiritual I am, thanks to a special lady, who probably doesn’t know how much of an impression she made. I’m so touched to have met her.  

These are all the things I’m thankful for this Christmas: friends, family, new beginnings… On and upwards!

I’d like to dedicate my last radio show for the year to all the peeps that made twenty ten a year full of laughter, growth and endless possibilities.  So prepare yourselves for a winter experience full of surprises on the next Broad Strokes broadcast!

During the intermezzo, you can listen to my show from last month HERE! showcasing most of the bands that played the Washington Heights Free Radio (WHFR) fundraiser/my bday party.

Playlist
The Shore by Magnetic Island formerly known as Renminbi
No One Cares by Object
Dr. Who by Telenovela Star
Clumsy by Coyote Eyes
Siren by Magnetic Island
End in Bender by Magnetic Island
Genius by Telenovela Star
Summer Phase by Magnetic Island
Yellow Red by Coyote Eyes
Fight Song by Magnetic Island
Subterfuge by Magnetic Island
Blue Chameleon by Object
BLMHYL by Telenovela Star
Just For You by Object

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 us at info@whfr.org.  DIY forever baby!

Also, if you’re in a band or know someone who is, and would like to be on the show, please email 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:

 

On Washington Heights Free Radio (WHFR) Tonight!!

I will be doing my radio show, Broad Strokes, tonight at 9:00pm on WHFR.  Check it out.  If you can’t, not to worry, I’ll be posting an mp3 of the show.  Btw if you’re in a band or know someone in a band and would like to be played on the show send me an email: roarplanet@gmail.com.

PLAYLIST

Bombs Onra
Everyone is Guilty Akron/Family
Big Bang Swati
What About Us? Mr. Lif
Dirty Loop Onra
Hey There Girl Yo! Majesty
Song 57 Goes Cube
Part Bloodhound Susu
Your Mouth Telefon Tel Aviv
Hold the Line Featuring Mr. Lex & Santigold Major Lazer
The Under Over Rob Sonic
Talking About Money Wye Oak
Winner Telenovela Star
High Road Deradoorian
Down In The Park Kirb & Chris
Fangela Here We Go Magic
Waiting for the Sun to Rise Lightning Dust

Telenovela Star Video

This is a video that Maggie, the guitarist from my band, created.  We were jamming in Jeff Byrd‘s living room, which was totally awesome.  It’s the weekend we recorded a couple of songs up in Gilboa.

Snippets

So a week and two days ago, my band went up to Gilboa to record a couple songs — hopefully we’ll be coming out with something new soon.  It was a lot of fun, here’s a few clips of me drumming:

Show

July 3 show pic

My band (Telenovela Star) is playing a show this Friday, and I must admit that I’m a little nervous. Nervous, because it’s been a year since we’ve played out in front of anyone. The feeling kind of reminds me of when I performed for the first time.

It was for a Carnival event that my elementary school put on. I was like six or seven, and I was competing in the Calypso Competition. I remember staying up late the night before practicing with my dad. He wrote the lyrics and the melody. I remember thinking that it was a really cool song. I had dance moves.  I even had back-up singers, awesome.  Most of all, I had my dad singing to me.  I’d look him in the eyes, while he sang the song to me.  That was the best part.

When it was my turn to sing, I was completely terrified. I was so afraid. When I got on stage, I totally froze up and couldn’t remember the song that I lived and breathed for months. Honestly, maybe a shot would have calmed me down.

Anyway, DJ Mojo is responsible for my band’s end of hibernation.  Our last show for ’08 was in celebration of his birthday.  And we’re doing it again, this Friday.  We’re playing July 3rd at 11:00pm at the Delancey.  If you’re in the city, come celebrate and see me freak out!

Back At It Again

Illustration by Bryan Bruchman
Illustration by Bryan Bruchman

Two Saturdays ago, I met up with the other members of my band, Telenovela Star, for the first practice in a long time. We went through our songs, which surprisingly wasn’t that bad considering it’s been like 6 months of not playing our set.

We  played some new songs and some not so, but in the sense that it’s taking on new directions. I’m talking about Death By Meteorite (DBM) that’s off of our full length, Love, Lust, Sci-Fi & Monsters (LLSM).

The genesis of DBM began like any of our songs, out of a long and quite possibly frustrating day at work (you know what I’m talking about), and then coming to practice, and some douche played with and may have broken or stolen our equipment. So, we quite possibly spent a good half an hour venting, calling around to find out who messed with our shit, and then finally we channeled all of this stress and DBM was born.  At which point, of course, we’re smiling because for the time being, we’ve forgotten about all of the ills inside and outside.

The first DBM recording was a total raw draft that was recorded on cassette tape. Feeling the vibe from that first draft, Maggie went home and started playing her acoustic. From there, she wrote the lyrics for DBM. I don’t know what made her decide to record what she was working on, but I’m so glad that she did.

Awesome was the first thing out of my mouth, when she shared the home-recording with Hanna and me. She did all of the recording for the DBM version on LLS&M by herself! Even the whistling, the effing whistling.

It was around the time when we were finishing up with the LLS&M album. So, we were so excited about including DBM on the album. It was the perfect ending piece.

After LLS&M came out, we hoped to come back to DBM with the whole band. And we so did last Saturday. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this song. Listening to it is like witnessing the sun about to set, you’re cruising down a road, and all you feel is this summer breeze. Maggie said it: DBM is very visual. You get the feeling of going across the country.

We can’t wait to share this experience.

The Love Lust & Sci-fi Monster’s Death By Meterorite version: Death By Meteorite

New Song for the New Year

Telenovela Star
Telenovela Star

A couple of months ago, I met up with the other members of my band, just to hang-out and play some songs. We’ve been on a hiatus from playing out and practicing, since we’re practically broke and looking for employment and better lives (the real, on-going telenovela).  This has been a really difficult year for so many, not just us.  So good riddance 2008.

Anyway, we’ve been needing some sort of release for some time now, and meeting up just to play, not our set or unfinished songs, just to play loudly like we didn’t give a shit anymore, and feel the frustrations, the beast, bleed out.  This release felt like the best sort of cure for the thwart that’s been illing, suffocating us for some time now.

Of course I was late on the day, which sucked, because it takes forever to set a kit that’s not your own up, especially when it’s a piece of shit kit.  If anything this is a good metaphor for life:  never set-up or play anybody else’s piece of shit kit. 

Anyway, Maggie was fooling around on the keyboards, and Hanna on her bass. I quickly tried to set the mouse trap of a kit up. It was my worst set-up time ever: half an hour! After doing a three week residency at the Delancey earlier this year, I could set-up in like 5 minutes, 10 tops. Well, that was mostly nervous adrenaline, mixed with shots of Red Bull.

We were just messing around, spur of the moment playing, and then we started talking about this metal band that shared the studio space next door to our old studio, and how awesome we thought their musical arrangements were (lately we’ve been getting into metal). Maggie started talking about how she wanted to write a grave song, and of course that just started it all. Hanna started jokingly singing about loving a lover from the grave, while Maggie was playing on the keys, a blues progression to match Hanna’s bass and vocals. I came in with a slow blues beat, and it went straight to hell after that. We were so excited.  We had to play it again, and this time record it. We were hooked on what we had made, it felt so good. It honestly felt like a drug rushing through my veins.

We couldn’t get the melody out of our heads, even after our session at the studio ended. We kept humming this sketch, it was like a nursery rhyme. We just kept singing it over and over again, all through the streets of Manhattan’s Port Authority, laughing when one of us added a scandalous line to the lyrics.

I raced home hoping Hanna had emailed us the short recording of the song. I remember I couldn’t sleep that night, and for once it was for a positive reason. I kept giggling like a kid about our night, and the song. Ha! my poor lover, she puts up with so much. Luckily, she didn’t kick me out the bed that night. 

Anyway, we never had a chance to meet again before the holidays to flesh the song out, but Hanna did this incredible just keyboard version of it at home.

The name of the song is Carcass of Pleasure, our attempt at a metal song, well the lyrics are metal, but the melody is more blues, pop maybe? You decide.

After listening to Carcass, I suggest listening to Something In the Middle (see previous post) right away (on loud speakers, and dance around in front of a mirror, I do it all the time in just my underwear, and a broom as my microphone), since they sound so good together.

Enjoy, and as Yo! Majesty says, Never be afraid… Let the music set you free!

Listen to here: Carcass of Pleasure

Something in the Middle

Something In the Middle CoverMy band uploaded a new song on our myspace page. It’s called Something In the Middle.

I can’t remember the details which lead to  Something In the Middle. Maybe it was a day when one of us was so beaten down, that we just spilled all of our guts out.  Because that’s what we do when we’re together, we spill everything out, everything that is trying to kill us. We sing louder, play harder, speak in tongues. We joke that our band practices are really therapy sessions.

Anyway, Something In the Middle is probably one of our most political songs (other than our very visible presence as women playing rock music) on our line-up.

Oh wait, it’s coming back to me now, how it all began. I was talking about the issues surrounding gay rights, and Hanna (bass player and vocalist), or maybe it was Maggie (lead guitarist and vocalist), made a scathing remark which lead to a beat, to a riff, to a refrain…

The recording is homemade, live at our studio. It’s not as polished as our previous recordings, but I’m digging the rawness.  We used this really handy recorder that fits right in your pocket,  Olympus LS10.

You can listen here: Something In the Middle

Something also reminded me of a poem I wrote a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah!

when tomorrow is just tomorrow

when we know that our phenomenal experience

isn’t as immediate as the phenomena expected

where Yeah exists.

I hope that these impressions stay with you

like the scars dealt to me for being open

as long as you live

I hope you live with just that amount of fear

living, breathing, preparing yourself for an attack

as you sit calmly with someone’s else’s blood on your shit: maybe it’s your own

wishing they were gone

as you sit and wait for Yes

to magically appear?

I’m still going to have Metal beating through me tomorrow

I’m still going to text my lover, I heart yous, and still be under-represented

infected with insanity, perversion, illegality

until I’ve been completely molded into something accustomed

I, continues, growing into a form

a persuasion for pettiness

and oh, I thank you God for my nose, eyes, and ears

because I couldn’t have reckoned without them

I couldn’t have survived this Love.

On WHFR

I read (out loud) two Sundays ago on WHFR, which was really exciting.  I haven’t read aloud…for years.

It reminded me about how important it is to hear the words you’re speaking, the importance of pronouncing your voice, the completely unstable voice. 

I met some really uplifting artists at WHFR.  It was like an arts commune that ranged from reading excerpts from novels and poetry manuscripts, playing live music, comedy, improv…   It was an apartment full of breath, full of buds ready to flourish in this time of uncertainty, a room filled with togetherness. 

I read 8 of my poems, and played a couple songs off my band’s full length (Love, Lust, Sci-fi & Monsters), and our self-titled EP (Telenovela Star). 

Here’s the list: BackSpaced, The Season, Mania, Architecture of “You”, Soucouyant and Loupgarou, Vampire from Telenovela Star’s Lust, Love, Sci-fi & Monsters album, Elma, My Imaginary Margin, Brown Girl In the Ring, A Plum from Telenovela Star’s self-titled EP.

Listen here:  Reading on WHFR