CLICK HERE TO READ AN INTERVIEW AND ARTICLE ON THE SHYS
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Music Video
Location- April 8th 2008 the five of us Shys took a short drive up the road to a place we consider our second home, The Ramos House Cafe in the historic Los Rios district of San Juan Capistrano. Its a part of town where I spent the better part of my childhood growing up and have many fond memories of the entire district. In 2004 the hand of fate intervined and we met the mastermind behind The Ramos House Cafe (John Q). He gave both Alex and I jobs at his place and we quickly realized we had a lot of common interest, perhaps the most common of them being music. The job he offered me was working in the garden looking after the home grown herbs and vegatables that they use in meals at the cafe. This job apealed to me for many reasons, I was outside, alone, in the garden listening to good music and free to take smoke breaks. So a few days a week from the early morning to the late afternoon we would spend our time working and listening to a heathly dose of Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, among many others. Sometimes we wouldn't work at all and we would sit around on the porch sipping pints, playing and talking about records. As the band became more busy Alex and I eventually stopped working at The Ramos but we really never left, in fact we started hanging around more than ever. John and all our friends at the resteraunt became very near and dear to our hearts and we could think of no better place to shoot the video than the place where we spend most of our free time natrually. Other locations in the video include the San Juan Mission and the petting zoo. For more information on The Ramos House visit www.ramoshouse.com
Director- Vern Moen, The Hobo Soul. You've seen his incredible work all over the place from popular short films, documentaries, to music videos (Delta Spirit, Cold War Kids). To learn more about this talented fellow check out his fantastic website. Vern is currently working on a documentary of the Cold War Kids making their new album as well as planning a trip to Africa to shoot a film.
Director- Vern Moen, The Hobo Soul. You've seen his incredible work all over the place from popular short films, documentaries, to music videos (Delta Spirit, Cold War Kids). To learn more about this talented fellow check out his fantastic website. Vern is currently working on a documentary of the Cold War Kids making their new album as well as planning a trip to Africa to shoot a film.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
LIGHTSPEED !!! Coachella
a play by play if you will...
Thursday- After one day of relaxing at home and taking a break from what has been a non stop sorta month Wulff called and said something to the effect of "hey man! what are you doing? lets go to coachella, we have a house." me "yes OK good lets go, I'll pack my swim suit". I packed a quick bag of what was clean and Wulff and I got in the car and Riley followed us as we drove through wine country and the mountains (basically the back way) to the house in La Quinta (less than a mile from the festival) that we felt so grateful to have for the weekend. We hit the store to stock the fridge and make sure we had enough goods to host at least a few BBQ's. Oddly enough the first thing we did when we arrived to the house was go for a quick round of golf. Just one hole, a par 5 I believe. It was very enjoyable and even more strange we all did a half decent job of it. The pool was perfectly desert heated and the incredible back drop of the golf course palm trees and silhouetted mountains made the sunset picture perfect as we ate our dinner. Afterwards we had plans to attend the annual Coachella kick off party at the nearby yatch club with some friends. Courtesy of our friends we drove right up to the party and were ever so easily ushered in through the back door. Does It Offend You?Yeah were Deejaying the party and Chris's Dad Willie (whom if you haven't met is basically a legend)hit it off with everyone. It really was a proper kick off party and we all enjoyed our free drinks by the water and catching up with old friends. Our new friend Simon so kindly sorted us out with artist passes for the weekend. When we got home that night Alex had just arrived and after a quick dip in the pool we called it a night.
Friday- I woke up to the phone ringing and Alex answered, on the other line was good news. Friends were headed down for a pool party/bbq and it was clearly the perfect setting for it. It was nice in the sun if you were in the pool but most of us preferred the shade and a cold beverage. Wulff cooked I made pitchers of margaritas and as the sun was dying down we decided to head over to the festival to catch some bands and meet some friends. We opted to take the golf cart and our drive took a little longer than expected. Jason our buddy from NYC was ejected from his spot on the back of the cart but managed to somehow hang on as his feet moved at a Fred Flinstone speed and we all laughed and Chris eventurally slowed down long enough for him to hop back on. Finally we arrived safely and we wondered around backstage and elsewhere checking out some music and meeting some nice interesting people. We watched The Raconteurs put on a pretty rad set that made it feel like it was 1976. It's always nice to hear a good loud rock n' roll band at a festival. Next up was The Verve whom we have been fans of for years and never seen live largely due to the fact the last time they played live I was probably 12. The band came on to David Axelrod's tune "Holy" and a lot of anticipation was in the air. I always imagined that they must be brilliant live. The stage was all lit up with cool looking lights and Richard Ashcroft came out from the darkness and shouted "This Is Music" and the band kicked in to the tune and from start to end it was one of the best live shows we've seen in a long time.
Saturday- Coffee and breakfast put us back in the game pretty quickly and we had the gang over for another pool party BBQ. Brandon (Delta Spirit) came out and met us with his lady and even more friends from all over showed up. Our buddy Jeff came out from San Diego and brought his amazing RV which became a real ace up our sleeve. We drank margaritas, floated around the pool, ate and enjoyed each others company and eventually headed over to the festival. I personally didn't watch much music this day but I did catch most of Portishead who was pretty rad and Alex saw Mark Ronson and said it was ace. We missed Cold War Kids and MGMT went on too early. At some point everyone ended up on top of an RV watching Prince. We somehow got lost on the ride home in the RV but it was somehow more fun to be lost than home. I never hit energy drinks but to stay awake through the long day I drank about three red bulls and didn't notice anything strange until I layed down to fall asleep and my heart was pounding. Brandon his gal and I all fell asleep squeezed into the same bed and they woke up early to head back to Long Beach. I was still in bed when Brandon texted saying he was home and moving boxes in the sun.
Sunday- A nice lazy sunday. Took a ride on the cart around the golf course and sipped some cold beverages. Got a little antsy and we made our way to the festival early this day. We wanted to catch Does It Offend You ? Yeah. After surving the hear and dust all day we were pleased to see the sun going down. We caught about 30 minutes of Roger Waters set and the best thing about it was hearing Wulffs Dad talk about 1979. I'm a Pink Floyd fan but most of the stuff he was playing was really pretty borining. A few classic tunes were great but no one wants to hear the solo stuff and without David Gilmour its just not the same. Knowing this was our last night I couldn't in good conscience just go home so our friend Larissa brilliantly organized vans to transport us around to after parities. I Sat in a jacuzzi for about 3 hours and hung out with friends and had a relaxing night for the most part.
Monday- I stayed over at our friends hotel but really did very little sleeping, I made myself a little bed on the ground out of pillows and passed out for a couple hours and had to wake up and head back to the house. I got a cab back , sorta got lost and ended up walking about a mile in the sun. I must have looked like hell to all the senor citizen golf crowd as I staggered down the street in a festival beaten black suit and slippers. As soon as I got back I felt better and got in the pool. It was time to go back home. We stopped for coffee, stopped for sandwiches and stopped because we ran out of gas in the fast lane and ended up on the side of the freeway off ramp one exit from our house. Must be God's way of humbling us. Eventually we were rescued and back home for a quick nap and then headed up to the Detroit Bar for our the last night of our month long residency. Alex and I slept in the van until a few minutes before we were meant to be on stage. We got up there and gave what we had left to give and got off stage looking like we just climbed out a swimming pool. I said good night to all our friends from New York who came out and my brother took me home made me grilled cheese and I very happily fell asleep.
Thursday- After one day of relaxing at home and taking a break from what has been a non stop sorta month Wulff called and said something to the effect of "hey man! what are you doing? lets go to coachella, we have a house." me "yes OK good lets go, I'll pack my swim suit". I packed a quick bag of what was clean and Wulff and I got in the car and Riley followed us as we drove through wine country and the mountains (basically the back way) to the house in La Quinta (less than a mile from the festival) that we felt so grateful to have for the weekend. We hit the store to stock the fridge and make sure we had enough goods to host at least a few BBQ's. Oddly enough the first thing we did when we arrived to the house was go for a quick round of golf. Just one hole, a par 5 I believe. It was very enjoyable and even more strange we all did a half decent job of it. The pool was perfectly desert heated and the incredible back drop of the golf course palm trees and silhouetted mountains made the sunset picture perfect as we ate our dinner. Afterwards we had plans to attend the annual Coachella kick off party at the nearby yatch club with some friends. Courtesy of our friends we drove right up to the party and were ever so easily ushered in through the back door. Does It Offend You?Yeah were Deejaying the party and Chris's Dad Willie (whom if you haven't met is basically a legend)hit it off with everyone. It really was a proper kick off party and we all enjoyed our free drinks by the water and catching up with old friends. Our new friend Simon so kindly sorted us out with artist passes for the weekend. When we got home that night Alex had just arrived and after a quick dip in the pool we called it a night.
Friday- I woke up to the phone ringing and Alex answered, on the other line was good news. Friends were headed down for a pool party/bbq and it was clearly the perfect setting for it. It was nice in the sun if you were in the pool but most of us preferred the shade and a cold beverage. Wulff cooked I made pitchers of margaritas and as the sun was dying down we decided to head over to the festival to catch some bands and meet some friends. We opted to take the golf cart and our drive took a little longer than expected. Jason our buddy from NYC was ejected from his spot on the back of the cart but managed to somehow hang on as his feet moved at a Fred Flinstone speed and we all laughed and Chris eventurally slowed down long enough for him to hop back on. Finally we arrived safely and we wondered around backstage and elsewhere checking out some music and meeting some nice interesting people. We watched The Raconteurs put on a pretty rad set that made it feel like it was 1976. It's always nice to hear a good loud rock n' roll band at a festival. Next up was The Verve whom we have been fans of for years and never seen live largely due to the fact the last time they played live I was probably 12. The band came on to David Axelrod's tune "Holy" and a lot of anticipation was in the air. I always imagined that they must be brilliant live. The stage was all lit up with cool looking lights and Richard Ashcroft came out from the darkness and shouted "This Is Music" and the band kicked in to the tune and from start to end it was one of the best live shows we've seen in a long time.
Saturday- Coffee and breakfast put us back in the game pretty quickly and we had the gang over for another pool party BBQ. Brandon (Delta Spirit) came out and met us with his lady and even more friends from all over showed up. Our buddy Jeff came out from San Diego and brought his amazing RV which became a real ace up our sleeve. We drank margaritas, floated around the pool, ate and enjoyed each others company and eventually headed over to the festival. I personally didn't watch much music this day but I did catch most of Portishead who was pretty rad and Alex saw Mark Ronson and said it was ace. We missed Cold War Kids and MGMT went on too early. At some point everyone ended up on top of an RV watching Prince. We somehow got lost on the ride home in the RV but it was somehow more fun to be lost than home. I never hit energy drinks but to stay awake through the long day I drank about three red bulls and didn't notice anything strange until I layed down to fall asleep and my heart was pounding. Brandon his gal and I all fell asleep squeezed into the same bed and they woke up early to head back to Long Beach. I was still in bed when Brandon texted saying he was home and moving boxes in the sun.
Sunday- A nice lazy sunday. Took a ride on the cart around the golf course and sipped some cold beverages. Got a little antsy and we made our way to the festival early this day. We wanted to catch Does It Offend You ? Yeah. After surving the hear and dust all day we were pleased to see the sun going down. We caught about 30 minutes of Roger Waters set and the best thing about it was hearing Wulffs Dad talk about 1979. I'm a Pink Floyd fan but most of the stuff he was playing was really pretty borining. A few classic tunes were great but no one wants to hear the solo stuff and without David Gilmour its just not the same. Knowing this was our last night I couldn't in good conscience just go home so our friend Larissa brilliantly organized vans to transport us around to after parities. I Sat in a jacuzzi for about 3 hours and hung out with friends and had a relaxing night for the most part.
Monday- I stayed over at our friends hotel but really did very little sleeping, I made myself a little bed on the ground out of pillows and passed out for a couple hours and had to wake up and head back to the house. I got a cab back , sorta got lost and ended up walking about a mile in the sun. I must have looked like hell to all the senor citizen golf crowd as I staggered down the street in a festival beaten black suit and slippers. As soon as I got back I felt better and got in the pool. It was time to go back home. We stopped for coffee, stopped for sandwiches and stopped because we ran out of gas in the fast lane and ended up on the side of the freeway off ramp one exit from our house. Must be God's way of humbling us. Eventually we were rescued and back home for a quick nap and then headed up to the Detroit Bar for our the last night of our month long residency. Alex and I slept in the van until a few minutes before we were meant to be on stage. We got up there and gave what we had left to give and got off stage looking like we just climbed out a swimming pool. I said good night to all our friends from New York who came out and my brother took me home made me grilled cheese and I very happily fell asleep.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
