That virtual wolf thing sucks. Anyway, here are the lyrics to the first song, Caller Number Ten. Even if you hate concept albums and everything about them, maybe you'll find this groovalicious enough to get.
Free download: http://thepensaga.bandcamp.com/track/caller-number-ten
There is a girl
Who walked down the hall
She left the world
She held a letter
But she doesn't own a pen
There is a girl
There is a mask on the wall
In the room that she went in
The room that she saw
And she would be that animal
But she just wants a pen
There is a girl
And then there's the world
It's so gray, it's so gray, it's so gray
She wanted some color
But she didn't own a prayer
So, there was a fire
But no one knows why
I heard on the radio
Yeah, I'm glad no one really died
But please send my regards to caller number nine
This is the first installment in a story I have been working on for this whole year; I tried to tell it as ambiguously as possible for people to guess. The concept behind it is creating negative psychological space, which often leads to you creating more ideas about what it is you are thinking about than the truth can actually contain. I got the idea from Jandek. You will probably write better stories than me just guessing, but thats the idea. Also, this is one of those places where I'd say you can feel free to be as weird with your guesses as you want. Email them to: tvilgiate@hotmail.com
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
One more day
I'm releasing the first song tomorrow, which is really exciting. I hope you all like it. So, while, when the Pen Saga is going, this post would normally consist of the winning guess, I just thought I'd share some of the music that I really like right now. So, here are my five favorite songs at the moment:
1. The Beach Boys released their 50th anniversary career retrospective, and I got it at Walmart. It's one of the only CD's I think that we've bought lately, other than The Suburbs. Everything else has been on MP3. Anyway, I love the Beach Boys and I have this on loop right now, and I'm slowly learning how to play it. Emphasis on slowly. This song is brilliant, albeit never meant to be played on mandola. Love it.
2. Arcade Fire is my favorite band, and one of their songs will always be in my top five. Lately I've been listening to their earliest demos from 2001. I tried to find them online, and it was practically impossible outside of youtube. I think my favorite thing about them is the ambience, not too mention how the soul inherent in their music is preserved from album to album. This song might not be the best thing they've ever written, but there's something about it right now that I just find totally addictive right now:
2.5. Another song, that is tied with the other one...
3. Tyler Schad, from our band Cliff Letters, introduced me to this. They opened up for his favorite band in Denver. I am yet to actually pony up and buy the song, but I'm going to. I just don't have, "money", so that's forestalled. Anyway, Yellow Ostrich=great band.
4. Alameda is a band I have been addicted to since I found them in the Colorado Springs Independent, and I listen to them whenever I need to write. They use some truly gorgeous arrangements and instruments in some great ways. Check them out, and get their album: http://alamedaportland.bandcamp.com
5. Emery, The Movie Song. I don't think this is Emery's best song. But I do think Emery is yet another great band, with some great music, and since I'm drawing from music I've listened to this week, rather than in my life, I am sharing this one.
So, there you have it; the five songs that I am digging right now. First song is out tomorrow! I hope you're excited, because I am!
1. The Beach Boys released their 50th anniversary career retrospective, and I got it at Walmart. It's one of the only CD's I think that we've bought lately, other than The Suburbs. Everything else has been on MP3. Anyway, I love the Beach Boys and I have this on loop right now, and I'm slowly learning how to play it. Emphasis on slowly. This song is brilliant, albeit never meant to be played on mandola. Love it.
2. Arcade Fire is my favorite band, and one of their songs will always be in my top five. Lately I've been listening to their earliest demos from 2001. I tried to find them online, and it was practically impossible outside of youtube. I think my favorite thing about them is the ambience, not too mention how the soul inherent in their music is preserved from album to album. This song might not be the best thing they've ever written, but there's something about it right now that I just find totally addictive right now:
2.5. Another song, that is tied with the other one...
3. Tyler Schad, from our band Cliff Letters, introduced me to this. They opened up for his favorite band in Denver. I am yet to actually pony up and buy the song, but I'm going to. I just don't have, "money", so that's forestalled. Anyway, Yellow Ostrich=great band.
4. Alameda is a band I have been addicted to since I found them in the Colorado Springs Independent, and I listen to them whenever I need to write. They use some truly gorgeous arrangements and instruments in some great ways. Check them out, and get their album: http://alamedaportland.bandcamp.com
5. Emery, The Movie Song. I don't think this is Emery's best song. But I do think Emery is yet another great band, with some great music, and since I'm drawing from music I've listened to this week, rather than in my life, I am sharing this one.
So, there you have it; the five songs that I am digging right now. First song is out tomorrow! I hope you're excited, because I am!
Monday, June 18, 2012
Acoustic Idol
So, I'm not just going to use this blog for the Pen Saga. No, I intend to keep you all at least vaguely entertained, or at least somewhat distracted, with a collection of ramblings/bloggings such as this. These ramblings/bloggings will likely be about different things in Woodland Park. Does enough happen in Woodland Park that I can continue blogging about Woodland Park without having to resort to talking about the weather and stuff? Nope. But I'm going to talk about the weather. Because there is a big, gigantic fire thing. Looking out the window, it appears rather calm, but I know that I could be subject to imminent doom at any second. I'm hoping this fire is slow moving, I mean, it's not particularly windy, but, I am not a huge fan of big, gigantic fire things.
But, I'm not going to ramble about how afraid I am that the trees around me will burst into flame as the sky is torn open in an awesome destructive fury and the world disintegrates into nothing but smoke and ash. No. I'm going to talk about music.
There are more than enough people in the world discussing music on the internet, but I'm pretty much just focusing on bands within this part of the state, mostly Teller County, because we have some pretty good music. That was ascertained for me at this Friday's Acoustic Idol competition.
The competition was sponsored by MAMA, and organized by Darren Thornberry. Yo' MAMA does some pretty cool stuff around here, like the monthly acoustic concerts and such, but they wanted to open up the association to a younger audience, to new blood. And I don't mean new blood in the trendy way, I mean it in the pleasant cliche way. Four other musicians and I were the competitors in Acoustic Idol this year, a few dropped out beforehand. Every single act I heard did an incredible job.
Dilated Mind was the first act, an instrumental duo, the only group competing, and they brought a ton of fans to the competition. With a fluid energy and a good, solid arrangement, they put on a great show and definitely fulfilled the anticipation they created for their music. I don't personally know them, but they definitely got me interested in their music, and if I knew where to buy it, I would absolutely post a link to it. Presenting the music instrumentally, without explaining it's intended meaning or anything of the like, they left it wide open for anyone's interpretation, echoing the sentiment of cerebral openness and widening expressed in their name.
Next was...me. And I'm not really going to review my own performance.
So skipping that, we come to Hannah Lara, who I had spent pretty much the entire evening with working with her on her and her friend Micaela Davidson's song, "Pouch of Bread". Hannah is a total freaking hipster, who plays baritone and concert ukulele, as well as guitar and banjo, but not really guitar, cause that's way mainstream. I booked her with Micaela and Benji Hobson at WaterAid Benefit Night, and they put on an excellent performance there, despite having an all-cover set. They are all just now starting to write their own songs. Pouch of Bread draws heavily on scripture as a song, musically directed inwards, speaking as apostrophe to the speakers own restless emotions, carried over a soft, and gentle finger-picked baritone ukulele, an instrument not unlike a guitar but with a sonorous, and relaxing vibe to it. I'm excited to see what Hannah and her friends do in the future.
Finishing the night was Matti Snow, who I graduated with, and have known since sixth grade. She comes from a country music background, her dad Bill Snow has released several albums, and gave a workshops on cowboy poetry at our school "back in the day". Just last summer, she used my dads studio to record "Sycamore Down", a cover song which I played mandolin for. Matti's voice is excellent; over the last year, she's gotten more and more involved with music, and Acoustic Idol was the first time I heard any of her original material. The two rows behind me were packed with people who had come to see her, the cheers when she came on were so loud, I think I saw Darren jump (memories are rather difficult to get specifics on, but unless they deceive me, Darren totally jumped, at least with his eyes). Matti's song, All At Once, boasted a powerful melody, and well constructed lyrics to match it.
It was a night to remember for everyone who came, and I only wish I had some film of it that I could show you. Ultimately, the final ranking was:
1st. Timmy Vilgiate
2nd. Matti Snow
3rd. Dilated Mind
4th. Hannah Lara
I would sincerely say everyone was playing on the same level. Music is not inherently a contest, but something to build community with. It's a tool, and I think everyone there really came together, and had a good time on stage. I am getting ready to plan a few house concerts this July. If you come to all of them, you'll see new bands every time, and some bands twice, not too mention whatever crazy stuff me and Rachelle come up with asgimmicks decorations!
But, I'm not going to ramble about how afraid I am that the trees around me will burst into flame as the sky is torn open in an awesome destructive fury and the world disintegrates into nothing but smoke and ash. No. I'm going to talk about music.
There are more than enough people in the world discussing music on the internet, but I'm pretty much just focusing on bands within this part of the state, mostly Teller County, because we have some pretty good music. That was ascertained for me at this Friday's Acoustic Idol competition.
The competition was sponsored by MAMA, and organized by Darren Thornberry. Yo' MAMA does some pretty cool stuff around here, like the monthly acoustic concerts and such, but they wanted to open up the association to a younger audience, to new blood. And I don't mean new blood in the trendy way, I mean it in the pleasant cliche way. Four other musicians and I were the competitors in Acoustic Idol this year, a few dropped out beforehand. Every single act I heard did an incredible job.
Dilated Mind was the first act, an instrumental duo, the only group competing, and they brought a ton of fans to the competition. With a fluid energy and a good, solid arrangement, they put on a great show and definitely fulfilled the anticipation they created for their music. I don't personally know them, but they definitely got me interested in their music, and if I knew where to buy it, I would absolutely post a link to it. Presenting the music instrumentally, without explaining it's intended meaning or anything of the like, they left it wide open for anyone's interpretation, echoing the sentiment of cerebral openness and widening expressed in their name.
Next was...me. And I'm not really going to review my own performance.
So skipping that, we come to Hannah Lara, who I had spent pretty much the entire evening with working with her on her and her friend Micaela Davidson's song, "Pouch of Bread". Hannah is a total freaking hipster, who plays baritone and concert ukulele, as well as guitar and banjo, but not really guitar, cause that's way mainstream. I booked her with Micaela and Benji Hobson at WaterAid Benefit Night, and they put on an excellent performance there, despite having an all-cover set. They are all just now starting to write their own songs. Pouch of Bread draws heavily on scripture as a song, musically directed inwards, speaking as apostrophe to the speakers own restless emotions, carried over a soft, and gentle finger-picked baritone ukulele, an instrument not unlike a guitar but with a sonorous, and relaxing vibe to it. I'm excited to see what Hannah and her friends do in the future.
Finishing the night was Matti Snow, who I graduated with, and have known since sixth grade. She comes from a country music background, her dad Bill Snow has released several albums, and gave a workshops on cowboy poetry at our school "back in the day". Just last summer, she used my dads studio to record "Sycamore Down", a cover song which I played mandolin for. Matti's voice is excellent; over the last year, she's gotten more and more involved with music, and Acoustic Idol was the first time I heard any of her original material. The two rows behind me were packed with people who had come to see her, the cheers when she came on were so loud, I think I saw Darren jump (memories are rather difficult to get specifics on, but unless they deceive me, Darren totally jumped, at least with his eyes). Matti's song, All At Once, boasted a powerful melody, and well constructed lyrics to match it.
It was a night to remember for everyone who came, and I only wish I had some film of it that I could show you. Ultimately, the final ranking was:
1st. Timmy Vilgiate
2nd. Matti Snow
3rd. Dilated Mind
4th. Hannah Lara
I would sincerely say everyone was playing on the same level. Music is not inherently a contest, but something to build community with. It's a tool, and I think everyone there really came together, and had a good time on stage. I am getting ready to plan a few house concerts this July. If you come to all of them, you'll see new bands every time, and some bands twice, not too mention whatever crazy stuff me and Rachelle come up with as
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