Bandtastic4 LIVE in New Orleans
the ride up was so much fun. we started the trip around 9:30-ish and pandora/youtube were our best companions along with our creative minds to dig up old 90s/early 2000s urban and pop classics to recite rhymes to lol…by far the best road trip in a minute! the moon was my guide along boring i10 but my riding partner was awesome in keeping me awake and alert. below is a BRIEF account of our NOLA IN ONE DAY experience
3:45am: arrived to the sleep shack where the computers denied access thus we couldn’t exactly get our rooms…we were to be stuck out for an hour or so…the consensus? spend our waiting time wisely
4:45am: strolling on canal st. Bought two wooden Jesus head pieces for $10…why?
5am: At sneaky Pete’s at 135 Chartres st enjoying an Abita’s Covington strawberry beer with my carmate.
5:30am: spotted “harrah’s” casino
5:45am: watching a craps table go live
6:20am: cafe du monde flow #’sugary’ crack
7am: damanique’s aslp. I head back to the hotel
7:15am-….: nabbing extra breakfast for when we wake up
8am: in bed updating this blog…
9:45am: woke up in such a painful way [#teamnosleep]
11:30am: all cleaned and fed…preparing to leave the hotel until i chat it up with some kentucky and louisville official affiliates. they wanted my picture so i obliged lol 🙂
1pm: parked and settled downtown. heading to canal and bourbon street for food and fun
7pm: arrive back to the car safely with willie’s chicken shack in tow
8pm: meet up with band
9pm: arrive to the dragon’s den
9:45-10:15pm: heading to the car, realizing that it has vanished :-s
10:17-:18pm Damanique flags down cops and they shuttle us to the tow yard
10:40pm: $200 dropped and car was released -_-
11pm: arrived back to the dragon’s den safely, and parked in a more secured area -_-
12:45am: @bandtasticfour puts on its first ever non-TX performance
1:45am-back on the road doin’ bout 100MPH #YEP
check out official pics of the showcase at dragon’s den #NOLA http://www.flickr.com/photos/pookeymalibu/7096473467/in/set-72157629496169058/
Now peep some of my random travelings in downtown NOLA…pretty much everything up to bandtastic4’s performance…
Jack Freeman at The Dream Lights Out Tour: Houston invasion
3/29/2012 was the day that I was to freebass it up behind jack freeman and the crew alongside Leelonn in opening acts at The Dream show at Fitzgerald’s [HTX]. We practiced at the drummer’s house as well as wire road studios and was ready to share this funky soul music with the crowd…but ill-preparation from the promotions team with logistics and the musicians were nitched from the performance…oh well, but that’s some dope music that you must add to your audiofix collection.
Strolling down memory lane
memory lane.
Latest stop.
My alma mater [HSPVA] highschoolforthwperformingandvisualarts
Spring jazz concert. Guests were PVA alums Andre Hayward (trombone) and Brandon Lee (trumpet).
I decided not to be a groupie and get a photo with Brandon but I did have a chance to chat it up with him. It’s been about 11-12 years since his senior recital in Alessandro Hall at HSPVA [hou:tx] and within those years he’s attained prestigious positions and has made incredible music. Check out B.Lee’s albums on iTunes.
Sxsw day 2, cont.
South by san jose, SoCo
Brought to atx by Shiner
edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros/Mumford and sons, the lawn of University of Texas, atx
Enjoying the scenery…
At my friend’s musician’s rehearsal at Windsor Village UMC [hou:tx]. there are plenty of bass worthy axes being played in this rehearsal-Ken Smith, MTD, Wyn, Performance…
MTD Grendel, owned by J. Johnson
Then after rehearsal I proceeded to study contemporary jams of chick corea and company…class stays in session.
[SXSW:ATX:day deux]
Stayed up til 6am watching Frazier/friends/I ❤ Lucy…also exactly 5 hours since I chugged a 5hr energy on i10. Woke up around 11am on st. Paddy's day in an apt inhabited now by 2/3 of the bandtastic4 (trust me my math is accurate). Parked on the drag and ate at qdoba (I thought they only dominated airport food courts…but this is ATX). Walked from 26/28/UT territory to SoCo (south of congress) and bought gorgeous jewelry from the artisan street kiosks.
Enjoyed good FREE “south by…” music showcase events along the way, and not to mention good food.
By 8pm or so enjoyed a free edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros and mumford and sons on the UT lawn.
Honestly I didn’t rock out on the urban tip like my friends and such but shoutout to those new cats I’m following on instagram; I was still abreast of the events that went down because of these new connections.
Next stop: New Orleans. Bandtastic4
[SXSW:ATX]
Not my first time at sxsw this week but this time I’m with good friends and fellow bandmates @bandtastic4. As planned, I enjoyed ATX on Wednesday for 1.5 days even though Me bassin’ for @_jackfreeman was canceled. Good times (photos and stories will be shared later).
Fast forward to the recently present…Friday night. After an interesting exit out of da H and a scenic tour to Austin I resided with my B4 bandmates (~2:15am Saturday) at a free hippy warehouse party. Around a small bonfire, horror stories, theremin inquiries (?) and my amazing imaginary story of me being a famous trianglist with B4 and Yanni were shared (yeah there were gullible people just eating it up). Enjoying this new leash on life [y0Lo|2012]
Bass thumpin’ hybrids: costly Sacrilege?
Musical heresy. Lifetime cardinal sinner. Sacrilegious bass modifier. The scarlet three letters (M-T-D). When does modifying go too far?
Making such altering adjustments to an already perfect beast seems damning to those stiffers BUT what if that “perfect beast” kinda lost the flair, that loving feeling (yeah that’s a righteous brothers tribute). Below is documented evidence that sometimes the costly beauty is not enough (I’ll wait til later to share the story of my beast). To some of my hardcore affiliate MTDers that’s how this bass vexes them so, but they need to open their minds and ears; it’s about how it sounds baby, it’s about how it sounds 🙂
Such a classic example is the MTDowsky: MTD tonal carcass with a Sadowsky preamp, and possibly more…
Well, here’s an early 90s MTD 635…now close your eyes…think of Jaco’s bass, the tone, the nonpresence of frets, and the overall appearance…now imagine a bass with an ash body carries that MTD USA tonal flavor with a MOSES graphite neck. Yeah I know! That sounds like a cardinal sin right??? To my MTD4lyferz of course but it growls and purrs as if no modifications occurred!!!! Paper and serials are underway (even for just the body right? Original neck has disappeared years ago).
Experiencing the Robert glasper experiment
Tonight I experienced the Robert glasper experiment. With Derrick Hodges on the bass, Casey Benjamin on the saxes and vocoder along with the drummer that is to be named after much sleep (sorry), they put on a show in Robert’s hometown that was a-long time coming. REALLY.
Together the mélange of musical elements thrusted organic beauty to the audience. With known covers and amazing originals such songs led by the vocoder and the offbeat rhythm section duo topped with sweet Glasper chords created eargasm after eargasm. Such a euphoric way to end my Saturday
On 2/28 he released black radio. A more popular PVA alum than I (of course) it was good seeing some of my PVA-mates along with local respected music friends. Cop dat album the right way if you haven’t already.
Derrick Hodge
@derrickhodge
www.derrickhodgemusic.com
Casey Benjamin graced our ears with a vocoder [via “Key-tar” contraption] and an alto and Soprano sax that looks like a mod that the famed sax mouthpiece makwr___ releases at NAMM
herbassfulness 