vosotros: music for you-all

y’all-

well, the roots remix contest finally came to a close…and while vosotros won’t be recording a new song with them, they did bestow my remix with an award  all its own-  Most Abstract!  There were over three hundred entries,  so i was pleased to be recognized at all…

have a listen here

g

p.s. thanks to everyone who voted for me in the first round, and ?uestlove and co. in the second…I couldn’t have not done it without you!

As the new year approaches, Palabra has been wrestling with time, which is to say wrestling with illusion. We know the past only by the things that represent it— by pictures, or stories, or recordings, or by our memories. We know the future only by the hopes and fears of what may become our present. In either case, past or future, what we experience is merely the production of our minds. The representations of the past show us “facts” through the lens of our personality; the hopes and fears of the future show us more about ourselves than about what is. If we think that we live “in time” we are living in a dream because the past and the future trap us in a reflection of ourselves; and if the past and the future are merely dreams then how can time exist? Furthermore, how do we escape the illusion of time, the house of mirrors that we live in when we think time is real? …Only by losing ourselves to the present. When life is at its best, there is no time because we are so swept up into the moment that there is no past, no future, no self. But when there is no time and no self, who or what is acting in these, our best moments? What is playing music, what is painting, what is saying words that are unplanned but resonant in truth? When we are not “self” but only present, what have we become? In The Odyssey, when Menelaus is wrestling with Proteus, he discovers that the “Ancient of the Sea” is a shape-shifter. As Menelaus tries to hang on, his opponent turns into a lion, a snake, a tree, a boar, then water… until eventually the contest is over. When it ends, Proteus gives up and tells Menelaus the truth. When we wrestle with time we must contend with illusions until at last we are left only with the present—and within the present we find the truth we are seeking—the truth that we are. The present isn’t for you all, it is you all.

-Palabra.

monday night vosotros bid Oscar Shedin adieu as he prepares to return to his homeland of Sweden- the land of beautiful people, free jazz, and nighttime. You-all may remember him from First Good Feeling, playing guitar and offering the vosotros plug—->vosotros musik feredalla

He is a wonderful guitarist and total sweedenheart and we wish him all the best.

On the morning of my eighteenth birthday I sang with the birds.  As the sun rose over my parent’s back yard I ran in circles with the perfect knowledge of why the birds were singing. It may be true that I had eaten a small piece of paper that completely changed what I heard, what I saw, what I smelled…but I don’t think I was living a delusion (and Aldous Huxley, who is deeper than anyone I know, doesn’t think so either). I sang at the top of my lungs knowing what the birds knew: that the morning was a miracle, that the dawn was god, that the air around me was a plenum vibrating with life and knowledge. Since then I have learned that the whole world sings. The music of birds follows inherent and predictable patterns; the songs of whales reach across the depths of the seas; the oscillations of the earth on its axis can be rendered into music and it’s beautiful! Our very speech is music and I believe that one day a genius will run a staff across the heavens and demonstrate that the stars are the notes to a symphony. Poor Prufrock cried, “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each./ I do not think that they will sing to me.” But that doesn’t have to be your fate. You choose my friends. Either the world is a silent cacophony, or there is song ringing through the soles of your feet, melody in the eyes of those you love, and harmony in the rhythm of your days. The music of the universe is for you all.

-Palabra.

Celebrate the holidays with Thrill Jockey - they’ve created an advent calendar (with some stunning snow flake graphics!) to give away an mp3 every day until the Christmas!!  TJ distributes a lot of great independent music … so you’re likely to find some gems.  vosotros listeners should be especially excited about DOOR #4.  The triumphant return of My Moon Boots … the perfect soundtrack for this holiday season!!!  [and while you're there, check out the vosotros catalog in their FINA download store]

The extended vosotros family got some serious love on Indie 103.1’s “check one, two” on Sunday evening.  Mark Sovel played “Messages” from B.R.A.M. and “A Window”, a song off Learning Music’s “The Greatest Hits So Far EP” [out now on vosotros - available from FINA for $5  and AmazonMP3 for $4.45! ].  Pick up this EP now - and catch Learning Music in full force on December 20th at pehrspace…

As you-all may remember, Gabe advanced to the finals of The Roots Remix Contest (thanks to your voting!!).  Well the final round is coming to close - you can listen to our submission on Indaba’s site - and please vote if you’re so inclined - but the winner of this round is up to the judges.  Gabe’s mix once again features The Years (gene coye -drums, sam barsh - keys, gabe - bass).

What’s up with cash only restaurants?  Taco truck … I get it.  Sit down restaurant that serves booze?  Not okay.  The other day I picked up a roll of quarters to do my laundry (it was so overdue that I was taping into the archives … clown pants, my smash mouth t-shirt, the whole 9).  Anyways, I was driving home from work and had a serious craving for some Pho … they’ve got no love for the visa/mastercard … but their soup is soooo good.  I decided I could rock the clown pants for one more day ….

:: JohnG

(ps. bruno is coming)

gabe I and saw the smashing pumpkins tonight at stööniversal citywalk - after driving around for a while, we were lucky to find a space in jurassic parking …

a little vosotros trivia for you … my first rock concert ever was the pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Tour at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago!  my dad took my brother moo-daddy, my friend ceck cennett, and I.  epic evening … one might say it launched my music career…

my friend gingger was playing violin tonight and was nice enough to introduce me to billy corgan after the show - i told him the story of my first concert - all he said to me was “1996″

but i wanted more closure than that … on the way out, i walked up to him again and extended my fist for a fist bump … as he reciprocated the bump with a bump-back, i looked him in the eye and said “rosemont horizon” … hell ya

in other news, the grammy nominations were announced tonight:

Thank you so much for voting.  The polls have closed - and we finished in 3rd place!  The top 25 remixers move on to the finals - which start December 2nd.  Stay tuned…

[Listen to the top 25 remixes]

Gabe, Gene, and Barsh get back from China today!  Join vosotros this Monday evening for our first show in the States in over 2 months! Thanks to jess (aka cellogirl) for putting this together. Donation at the door. BYOB. Directions. Call Laura at 323-839-8894 when you arrive … she’ll let you in!!

Vosotros - 8pm

WeYou - 8:45pm

VOCO - 9:30pm

Calder String Quartet - 10:30pm

B.R.A.M. was just interviewed by Kevin Bronson on his new blog, buzzbands.la.  Check it.

hey you-all.

im still in hong kong until tomorrow, where the internet dips in and out, so i haven’t been able to surf, let alone check my email…but i finally got online, and checked this remix contest I entered for the roots…and im in 2nd place!  it features a sample of a song from the upcoming vosotros release, The Years.  This particular track features Sam Barsh on keys, Gene Coye on Drums, and myself on bass.  I took a day between shows to create the remix, only to find in the fine print that it couldn’t contain any samples…so i had to take them out.  so i decided to post the original here: criminal_vosotros_remix

it features samples from michael jackson, KRS-1, Public Enemy, and Biggie…

hope you enjoy it, and i’ll see you-all back in LA on sat.

gaib

roughly translates to Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! In China…

it’s a well known fact that it is my favorite show on the illuminated box… 

anywho, eric wareheim, of TAEAS,GJ! is directing music videos now, and they’re awesome!

like this one of “the youth” by MGMT

and this one of “polite dance song” by Bird and The Bee (i’ve posted it before. i like it so much!)

ssooo, here comes the IC, or in china part of this blog.

I happened to get to our gig kinda early and decided to hang out and check out PHILLIP.  He is from South Africa, lives in HK, and sings karaoke in Cantonese and Mandarin. And I shot a music video…Eric, if you’re reading this hit me up. i could probably get his number.  phillip-rocks!!!