Monday, January 25, 2010

Synchronicity & the Hella Hipster Hoedown # 9!

Friday's show was ripe with synchronicity! Where Lucas Ave and Pizarro St. meet was the location of our show, the Perhspace Gallery. Lucas is the name of our boy, my girlfriend's son aka Joey the Dogg in our crew, the Chocolate Chips. Pizarro is my last name...love these little signs to keep ya going. Coincidence, I think not. Though these things happen often in the Love Bubble!

Elaine Layabout, whom I met at our last show at Grumpa's Merchants Mart in Venice, orgainized the whole event. I gave Elaine a CD and she loved it so she booked us this gig. Turns out we're also both huge Herzog fans. Fitting to have the spirit of Herzog in the air---his film career seems to be driven by bizarre synchronicity.

The venue was looming with hella happenin hipsters of the urban and hoedown persuasion. An honor to play with Elaine and the Layabouts, the Cobra Lillies, and Blackbird Raum. Hope to perform many more shows with these guys! Also turns out Zack, the accordionist of Blackbird Raum is old San Franscisco friends with Matthue Roth of By Ur Side and Circles in the Love Bubble. Blackbird Raum was wildly amazing, no mics! Back-home instruments like washboards, broomstick bass, banjo's, mandolin, etc...but in the spirit of gypsy punks! radness.

The Cobra Lillies were amazingly and funly superb as well! A huge group! like 10 or more instrumentalists. They were magical--poetry, personalities, dancing and a bit of brawling in display for all-- all in the spirit of Rock N Roll.

As for our show, those kids, the Chocolate Chips rocked it! Ava Flava and Mikyla had their best performance and brought so much energy showing off their chops. Even Lucas mustered up the energy to dazzle the audience with some improvised hoedown breakdancing. Words cannot describe his cuteness. And the Choco Chips all together have such overwhelming cute energy I have but the loveliest memory of the night. Even the banjo player/singer of Blackbird Raum called our act, Kidsploitation (that's in a good way). We also tried out our new Bubble Machine from Grumpa (the kids grandaddy). It totally kept chugging through out the whole show and left a nice bubbly drool on the floor which Ava and I slipped on in our love bubblity focus. It was grand!

Lastly, a big up to Jane Chen, who joined us as a member of the Chocolate Chips. She kept the kids organized and whipped into love bubblily shape on stage, doing little miming games and dancing funness. Mind you she's a CLOWN. An extremely talented clown of the old skool/classical sense--not the party clown/slipknot variety. Think Fellini's "La Strada" or even Harpo Marx. She's also a trained actress and has a 2 woman show with her mother called, Chinese Clown Cabaret. It received rave reviews and by the looks of the website and all the videos I've seen about it, the show seems fantastic. Check it out...its a definite MUST on my list.

One PS for Black Sparrow Press, who we didn't catch. The kids were way too sleepy and starting to fade in the Blackbird Raum melee. It was time to get these kids to bed! But my apologies for missing yallz show!

Thanks again to Elaine and for all those who came out! It was quite a lovely evening ;)

PICS COMING SOON! STAY TUNED

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Joey the Dogg on Dawen's Top 10 Asian American Tracks of 2009

Check it out gang! The second track off the Love Bubble, Joey the Dogg, made Dawen's Top 10 Asian American Tracks of 2009! Peep the article @ BiCoastalBitchin.com. Dawen says, "When I first heard CJ perform this song with guitars, djembe and children in tow, I couldn’t help but wish that I was a kid again. Regardless of whether you like kids or not, Mista Cookie Jar will bring out the kid in you."

Also, I got a lil shout out on Angry Asian Man's blog...! He says,, "That is some musical madness! And I like it."

If you haven't checked out Dawen's music, you should. I'm fortunate enough to have met him at the Tuesday Night Cafe performances. He's an amazing songwriter, singer & pianist as well. An honor to have made the list by such an accomplished performer. He also just happens to be a really swell guy. Check out his video for Wake Up here! Hella smooth yall...

One more thing, there will be a Joey the Dogg video coming soon! We're sewing up the costume for Lucas as we speak!