BRYAN JOHN APPLEBY – *THE SILENT SHEPHERD*

Seattle’s Bryan John Appleby and his band are quite the touring group. When their convoy came whaling down my street, I jumped in my car and led them to the top of Elysian Park. We set up with a top view of the rest of the park as well as Dodger Stadium, and the only sounds that could be here was instrument tuning and the cracking of jokes. That was until the police helicopters came roaring through the hills looking down on the Elysian valley. It was all these things that made this session special, especially the ending to *The Words of the Revelator*, when Bryan was forced to vocally go head-to-head with the helicopters circling above. That moment gave me goosebumps while I tried to keep my composure filming.

BRYAN JOHN APPLEBY – *THE WORDS OF THE REVELATOR*

Bryan John Appleby plays with…

Joe Ruppert
Kyle Zantos
Luke Messimer
Cole Mauro

Thanks to Kyle Zantos for setting everything up!

EULOGIES – SONGS FROM *TEAR THE FENCES DOWN*

Last June, I met up with Peter Walker and Drew Phillips of Eulogies in the middle of Griffith Park. I scoped out the spot a couple days before and loved the ambient sound that came from not only being in nature, but from the dome like sound held in by the crowd of huge trees. What I didn’t realize, however, was what passing hikers, families, and everything else in between would add audibly and visually. Peter and Drew laced these three tracks from their newest album “Tear the Fences Down,” and their performance, the setting, and the summer air gave the whole experience an amazing feeling.

In order…

*Tear the Fences Down*
*You Hide*
*Intimate Debris*

Thanks to…
Dangerbird Records
Peter Walker for handling the mixes

*Danelectric 3*

*Danelectric 2*

The B Side of the Saturday 10″ release from Yo La Tengo.

BANJO OR FREAKOUT – *I DON’T WANT TO START ALL OVER AGAIN*

Saturday morning began early. Alessio Natalizia, better known as Banjo or Freakout, and his tour mates Eric Feigenbaum and John Barrett had just rolled through the Satellite the night before, and were getting on the road to S.F. earlier than most touring bands can motivate with that jaunt.

There’s a couple of interesting bits to know about our early morning meet-up: For one, I had never met them. Never had talked to them. I didn’t even know if they knew what they were showing up for at Los Feliz’s Barnsdall Art Park!

Secondly, Alessio and company didn’t have any instruments. The difficulty and expense of bringing gear over from London (where Alessio is from) forced the trio to rely on their tour mates, Papercuts, for equipment. Not a rare occurrence by any means, but this meant I had to round up a couple guitars and a drum to make this thing happen!

With all this going on, I was kind of nervous for them to show up. Not to mention, I was setting up in a fenced-off part of the park decorated with gang graffiti. But, Alessio, Eric, and John rolled up on time, smiled and joked around with us, and played the beautiful *I Don’t Want to Start All Over Again* from their newest self-titled release. It was pretty amazing.

Banjo or Freakout is…
Alessio Natalizia // Vocals and Guitar
Eric Feigenbaum // Guitar
John Barrett // Percussion

Special thanks to…
Force Field PR
Rhonda Anjelly (photographer)
Allison Antonowicz
Hoppie

BORIS SMILE – *LIVING WATER*

I was lost and baffled in Long Beach, a city I lived in for 3 years. In a hunt for the Cedar House, I was doing suspicious circles up and down Cedar Avenue in a neighborhood recommended not to look out of place. This wasn’t because I didn’t have an address. It’s because the address Boris Smile mastermind Wesley Chung gave me didn’t exist. I realized this when I spotted a few of his band mates doing the same circles. Sometimes logistics are details to big thinkers.

BORIS SMILE – *HEART OF GOLD*

We finally all met up, entered the house, and pulled a ladder down out of the ceiling to an enormous attic that Clark Griswald would’ve been happy watching home movies in. We hauled all our gear up into the hot and dimly lit space on this Sunday afternoon in March. We laughed, goofed around a bit, and shot and recorded three beautiful songs from Boris Smile’s new album *My Love Powered By 10,000 Practice Amps*.

BORIS SMILE – *A MAN STANDS ALONE*

Wesley Chung // Guitar and Vocals
Seth Shafer // Tuba, Keys, and Vocals
Jon Carman // Drums
Abigail Davidson // Clarinet and Vocals
Doug Brown // Bass, Keys
Jonathan Morin // Violin, Vocals

Thanks so much to the dudes of the Cedar House!

JASON LYTLE (OF GRANDADDY) – *MATTERHORN*

It was basically a waiting game. I showed up to Brett and Mitch Erzinger’s house sometime in the early afternoon of a Saturday in February, and began to set up a situation that, if I was lucky, Jason Lytle would sit down at later and play a few songs. The session liaison and O’s and the Oculist front man Jeff Suri joined shortly after and we sat around, talked about music, and waited for his cell phone to ring. Formally of Grandaddy, Jason was in town for a show with his newest project Admiral Radley (formed with members of Earlimart), and we were hoping that he would indeed show up between sound check and AdRad’s set time at the Satellite.

JASON LYTLE (OF GRANDADDY) – *HANG TOWN*

Sure enough around 9pm, Jeff’s phone rang. We gave him directions, and he pulled a minivan up to the front of the house 10 minutes later. Jason came in from the rain with a smile on his face, sat down, and enthusiastically played a few songs — a couple of which were even unreleased. It really couldn’t have gone any better than it did.

JASON LYTLE (OF GRANDADDY) – *THE WEATHER GIRL*

Thanks so much to…
Jeff Suri (of O’s and the Oculist)
Brett Erzinger
Mitch Erzinger
Rhonda Anjelly
Geoff Barnett

Artist: Captain Number One
Venue: Clancy’s
Location: Long Beach, California
Date: 11.14.10

HOSANNAS – *ONWARD WITH BRAVERY*

A few months back, I saw a band from Portland called Hosannas play at the Smell, and I really, really liked them. I even signed their guestbook saying “let’s make things!”. I don’t know if they ever saw that, but when I noticed they were coming back through town, I knew I had to lock them for a set.

Luckily for us, the folks at Echo Park art gallery Machine Project were also into the idea. I walked into their gallery, which had been converted into a large wooden ship by artist Josh Beckman, and thought it’d be a great original piece to work around. (See a photo below pulled from the Machine Project website)

Brothers Brandon and Richard Laws, who had cut Hosannas down to just themselves, rolled in to Echo Park from their show the night before in Santa Barbara just before the Southern California golden light hour hit. And things from there just played out pretty perfectly.

HOSANNAS – *SONG FORCE CRYSTAL*

Thanks so much to…
Machine Project in Echo Park (machineproject.com).
Josh Beckman and his installation “Sea Nymph”.
Michele Yu at Machine Project for making it all happen.

Download MP3 versions of the songs from this set:
Hosannas on Anchortapes (MP3s)

Photo courtesy of Machine Project

Artist: STLS
Venue: Echo Curio
Location: Echo Park, California
Date: 09.12.10

Artist: Mimes of Wine
Venue: Hollywood Renaissance
Location: Hollywood, California
Date: 09.06.10