I think the phrase “magnetic zero” is absolutely genius, particularly as a band name. Not self-deprecating as much as just… owning your shit. After spending a few years strongly involved with the music industry, either through touring, or promoting, or actually getting paid to work in it, the phrase really resonates with what I’ve observed, seeing a full range of folks on the spectrum of artist vs. entrepreneur. Now, I’m not implying that an artist isn’t an entrepreneur. In my brain, a utopian world exists where artistry and entrepreneurship, instead of often being polarized on a spectrum, would coexist, happily together always. It does for some, but not nearly enough for me to sleep well at night.

Anyway. I could write about this forever but I’d rather just post some fun photos of a show I attended recently.

AB & The Sea, The Watson Twins, & Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

At the end of their set, E.Sharpe invited a crowd of folks on stage. I was expecting an epic dance party to ensue. Instead, he had everyone (several hundred folk) in the ENTIRE venue sit down (amazingly, everyone complied). He then sang us a lullaby. What a way to end one of the most epic stage performances I have EVER seen.

I know I’m long overdue for some posts. More is on the way!

END!

Bowerbirds visit! Hooray!

Phil and Beth are homies from Raleigh, NC (the town from which I moved to come here). They were part of a wonderful friend group who made summer 2009 the best I’ve had yet. They play in a band called Bowerbirds, and they are good. Very, very good.

They were to play The Independent on Thursday, and I happen to live a couple of blocks from it. Perfect grounds for reunion sleepover time.

The show was lovely. Julie Doiran opened, and this photo does a good job of describing her. Her voice is absolutely beautiful and she is hilarious. She apparently got her boots from North Carolina. I am not one bit surprised.

The birds have a new addition – Dan “Yan” Westerlund. I had not met him before tonight, but I traveled around the country with his brother this summer, who is in Megafaun, who was touring with the Bowerbirds at the time. I have also stayed with his best friend in Tuscon, Arizona. Worlds colliding.

Will Hackney from Trekky Records also came along to tour manage and guest on mandolin and vocals. I had never met him before, but we both weren’t sure how this was possible, as we shared many many friends while I lived in NC.

We spent the rest of the night having a slumber party, drinking white russians and catching up on life. Come morning, we were up and ready for adventure.

All of us except Phil and Beth, that is. After a couple of hours of waiting for them to rise, we decided to greet them at the bedroom door with a morning song about breakfast. They finally got up.

We grabbed a tasty breakfast at Kate’s Kitchen, passing by Beth’s new favorite store – Silky Touch. Then we headed to Alamo Square, a block away from my house, to run around and reminisce about Full House.

We tumbled down the hill for a while.

As we all got back home, Beth and I went out into my jungle yard and I photographed her new dress and bonnet, compliments of artist Monica Canilao, while the boys packed.

With that, I reluctantly sent them off to continue their trek across the US. It was difficult not to jump in the van with them.

Seriously, go listen to them right now. bowerbirds.org. That is all.

END!

This has been the most interesting of weeks.

Some of you may know that one of my (many) life dreams is to tour the country teaching workshops about the new music industry and building your web presence to take best advantage of evolving technologies.

Some of you may also know that I’m a pretty hardcore believer of building preferences through experience, then focusing on what you want and things inevitably manifest themselves in some form or fashion to be exactly that.

Anyway, such thought processes worked again. I found myself teaching at the SF Musician & Promoter Workshop on Monday night.

Never did I expect that to happen so quickly… not because I don’t know my shit, but rather because I just moved here six months ago and didn’t expect to meet people with similar mindsets and creative intentions in such a quick time frame. That said, I also didn’t know I’d be working at a record label and flying around attending conferences + festivals and working with artists and creatives for a living so quickly either.

The workshop was led by industry expert Corey Denis, and taught by Corey, Dustin Mitchell, Ali Watkins, Jessica Zollman and myself. The turnout was great, and it was nice to see some faces in the SF music and tech industries, both new and familiar. I’m stoked to begin working on the next round of workshops and seeing how this develops.

The rest of the week’s excursions consisted mostly of shows. It was SO NICE to get out and actually see live music for a change! Sometimes I get so busy working on the business side that I forget to relax and go actually enjoy music. It’s nice to sit back and listen again.

It all started with a wonderful little solo act accompanying my dinner at Gracias Madre in the Mission.

Then progressed to Hemlock Tavern a few days later…

Silian Rail

Boomsnake (I love everything about what this band is doing – go to their website. Now.)

Worker Bee

I just noticed that every single subject that night was wearing red. I knew something seemed more repetitive than normal…

Next – Family Folk Opry w/ Kyle Field (Little Wings), Matt Adams (The Blank Tapes), Kacey Johansing, Moomaw, and Mark Matos (Mark Matos & Os Beaches).

There are plenty of photos from Thursday’s Bowerbirds show as well, but that’ll wait until the next post. To tide you over, here are some typical orphan photos from the week:

That’s enough photos for one post. END!

It finally happened.

The event I’ve been working my tail off for, along with producer Will Chase, Porto Franco Records, among others.

Mark Growden‘s CD Release was Friday. The sponsorships were secured, the programs were designed & printed, the last promotional waves were complete. I could relax… sort of.

Relax enough to go receive my mother and her boyfriend, Barry Barrington (yes that is really his name) into town, as they were flying in from NC to visit for the weekend. I figured I could grab a quick fabulous German dinner with them at Suppenkuche, then head to the venue with time to spare before showtime.

(PC: Barry Barrington. Yes, I am aware that she looks like she should be my sister, not my mother. Let’s hope those genes translate.)

Well, I knew something ironic was bound to happen before the night was over. It just came sooner than I expected.

Long story short:
Head toward bus stop
Receive text message requesting that I find metallic sharpie pens for show
Ponder where the hell to find metallic sharpie pens
Run to Walgreens, find metallic sharpie pens
Return to house with pens to meet mother and Barry Barrington
Head to bus stop
Wait for 15 minutes at the wrong bus stop
Wait 15 minutes at the correct bus stop
Decide to call a cab, walk away from bus stop
Watch correct bus pass us as we walk away
Wait for cab in front of house for 20 minutes
Call to check in, as said cab is nowhere to be found
Receive information that cab has forgotten about us
Finally get cab 15 minutes later.

I arrive at the venue at 7:56. The show starts at 8. I still need to find my sponsors and give provide them with their well-deserved treats. This should be interesting.

Fortunately, I managed to find my sponsors prior to the set starting, and I settled down in time to catch the whole show.

The set was beautiful. The 350-person crowd knew every word. John Law (oh, you know, just the founder of Burning Man & renowned pioneer the SF arts scene as we know it) hopped on stage and gave a kind speech about Mark’s talent and quality as a musician and human being. It was definitely a notable night in the San Francisco arts community.

I happened to snap some photos from my seat.

Oh, and as for the sort-of-major career updates – I have been offered a position by Porto Franco Records. For those of you who already thought I was working for them, I wasn’t. I happened to be working on the same team as them for this event, which was a contracted freelance gig that I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on. But Porto Franco seemed to dig the work I did, and want me to join their production team.

I don’t think I can begin to explain to you how perfect this job is for me. I will still be doing freelance stuff here and there, but this is a project I know I’ll be putting 200% into, because I absolutely love what they’re doing. My brain is on fire. I can’t wait to get this rolling.

So yeah, things are good. Really freaking good.

I’ll have more photos from this weekend coming up later.

For now… END!

So yesterday marked the birthday of my friend and neighbor Mark Growden. Mark happens to share a backyard with me, making this easily the most convenient gathering I’ve attended thus far in San Francisco. The yard was abound with wonderful, interesting people. I spent the afternoon reveling in the general human awesomeness surrounding me, and snapped a few shots in the process, as a birthday gift-of-sorts.

A few fun facts about Mark – He’s an internationally-acclaimed composer, director, and multi-instrumentalist performer. He has toured the US many times, playing venues including the Fillmore and Great American Music Hall in SF and Tonic and The Knitting Factory in New York. He has composed award-winning scores for films, dance and theatre productions. Long story short, the guy is talented. I’ve spent many hours discussing tour stories, music PR/marketing, and classical music with him (I’m a classically trained pianist, by the way), and we’ve quickly become bros.

You can read more about Mark and listen to tracks from his newest album on his website – www.markgrowden.org.

Anyway, here are some photos from the backyard.

Another fact worth noting – His backing band (pictured with him at the top) also happens to be the backing band of Tom Waits. Fun facts indeed.

END!

5/29/2007 – From Austin.