2013 was a great year for recorded music, but we didn't record any and now it's 2014

Wow it's been quite on the blog for well over a year. Tap,Tap,Tap..... is this thing on?

You may wonder why I stopped writing the blog? Simple, the band wasn't doing anything, so the blog didn't do anything.

The band's problem was band members being sidelined by health issues.While we have been playing shows in Second Life, that is all we could muster and even that was hit &miss. We were by all accounts AMAZING, but I feel deep down inside we could... and have done better.

I'm not writing at this time to make some grand announcement,  Nothing is going on. We are living our lives playing some shows online and snatching a few moments of contentment from the jar.

However.......

Kinagree Smith isn't a BAND so much as a family, and the family doesn't stop with the band members. During the rough times there has be much needed support and frankly I have the desire to be very open and honest with you.

Not that I've been overtly deceptive, it's just that there are rules to writing a BAND blog. EVERYTHING MUST BE POSITIVE! Every thing is New, Improved,  Big, AMAZING Coming soon, Blah, blah, Yeah yeah yeah. The articles are full of useful information but FLUFFED up with happy words.

I don't feel good about fluffing stuff up and I think I'm going to try a different more lyrical approach to writing the blog. Not grim or gritty (gritty is the anti-Fluffy),but...more personal.

In my mind, this is the most logical extension of the  Band/family that is Kinagree Smith.

Okay, let us see if I do anything tomorrow.

2013... the best year for recorded music ever!!!!

I've got some news about recording projects for Kinagree Smith and the members of Kinagree Smith.

As you may know there have been lots of set back on the way to creating our opus magnum, “Ashes and Dreams”. But now it seems as a conclusion is in site.

On February 17^th we'll be entering Unipheye Music studios to actually record “Ashes and Dreams”. And while it has been a long time coming, I earnestly believe it will be worth the wait.

But wait.... there is more.

While waiting to get our “stuff in one sock”, Lexie and I have been writing more songs and some time during the year 2013 we should be releasing one solo collection each.

On Lexie's Solo collection you can expect....

Love Grows

Stay in the Moment

The Plot

When The Rain Starts to Fall

Bitter Sweet

When I Get Home

Where Do We Go from Here

Your Star

And more.....

On Jack's Collection you can expect.....

Why Can't I Hear Myself Screaming

I Sleep in Circles

Older

So Over Me

My Folk Music Want's to Kick Your Ass

I'm In Control

Andy Warhol Chic

And more....

Also, remember late Spring we'll be recording the “2 Big 4 The Internet” EP with Vinnie and Noma.

We've really gotten out of the habit of releasing recorded material, and frankly we need to change that. We are songwriters, we need to be writing songs and recording them so people can enjoy them.

2013 seems quite promising and as always, expect great things.

Broaching controversy

You know we do have a “Keep everything positive” sort of spin on this blog, and frankly it's been rendering me mute. I've got something on my mind and I'm kind of bollixed up until I speak it.

So.....

The following is NOT me being negative, but rather me being mentally hygienic. I feel the need to address this because frankly things are getting a bit out of hand.

Second Life has been commendably generous during times of need. Many large charities have major campaigns in Second Life. They seem to do well.

But frankly.... sometimes so smaller charities, so small you might even call them personal crop up. An example of this would be the “Save Beth's Brain” charity for a Second Life resident that needed a HUGE amount of money to deal with her medical situation. Now personally I don't have a problem with this kind of charity, but some do. Some feel the residents of Second Life are asked to be too charitable.

My personal feeling is, if you want to contribute to a cause, no matter how small that is up to you. I pitched in to “Save Beth's Brain” and I'm sure glad I did.

However, there seems to be yet another group people with hands out waiting for your money. I'm sad to report this group is.... musicians.

First up I want to say I'm not about personally bashing these people. I have nothing against them as people. However, I find their actions pretty messed up. To protect their identities I'll give them Fake/Fake names and not use their real/Fake names. Let's call one “Double Spooky” and the other “BoyLike Can'tDraw”.

Both these guys want to make a record.

Seems they feel it takes either 8,000$ or 10.000$ to make a recording.

They are quite wrong. But that is not really the point. The point is..... Drum roll please... they expect the charitable residents to Second Life to finance their dreams.

Some would argue if people want to chip in.... what is the big deal. I would agree if that were the case, but this is being treated just like a charity event. Yes... They are having benefits for Double Spooky and BoyLike Can'tDraw.

The problem I have with this is, it further fills the already crowded field of charitable events, with an event that dose no social good whatsoever. It doesn't even address someone's emergency need. It only strokes the ego of two musicians that feel their ticket to “The Next Level” should be underwritten by the generosity of Second Life residents.

And the utter travesty of this all is, even if they succeed in raising the money, they will ultimately fail. They seem to think if they make a wicked cool professional record in a real studio, it's just a hop skip and jump to “The Big Time”. But in reality, recording is the easy part. Selling your master work is always the hard, and costly part.

Mostly costly.

If their budget were ten fold larger they might have a slim chance at success. Frankly it's the promotion that cost money, but the promotion also sells the product.

Provided.... people want it.

To sum it up. Let's keep our charity events about actual charity.

Let's not beat the generosity out of our residents with constant hands out for grid wide philanthropy.  

Kinagree Smith Band House – Week Three; The Wind Cried Sandy by Ira Norman Segall

Week three came in like a hurricane…. no it really did. Hurricane Sandy hit on Sunday and while in our particular spec of land it wasn’t as fierce as we’d anticipated, it was nonetheless a pretty bad storm - we were out of power for nearly three days. We missed a handful of shows and although somewhat cliché, one seriously takes for granted all that one uses excited electrons traveling across a conductor for in one’s existence, both entertainment as well as practical. We were very grateful for its reinstatement.

During the outage, nights were candle-lit and interestingly, I began to get used to the softness of the candles. A brief visitation back to a somewhat simpler existence. Playing tabla by candlelight was part of this for me. I channel deeply ancient energy when I play tabla, so it was a synchronicity of energy and experience for me.

Also during the outage Band House Creative Lab occurred for me in a very interesting way. Jack and I did the only rational thing we could to keep sane and that was pick up instruments and play. We made fantastic music during the first of a few candlelight improv sessions and for me, a compartment dissolved away in that before Band House I would show up in time to set up for a show, Jack and Lexie would already be in show-prep mode and Jack and I may have a few moments of improv but it was couched in a very necessary sound-check or a moment or two of loosening-up, but we really always played songs – the repertoire. Up until this candlelight improv, if I wanted to play totally free, completely improvisationally, I would play with ether of two other musicians that I play with as side-projects. It wasn’t until this particular evening that Jack and I had the free, open, loose, relaxed time to just “go” – just play music; instrumental, no lyrics. I felt the freedom to switch up and play a variety of instruments; the ceramic/fish-skin dumbek, 30” frame-drum, the big udu and the riq. It was, firstly a remarkable experience for me to get to know him on yet a new, deeper level as a player, but it dissolved a compartment for me. A division of sorts between Kinagree Smith and my free-improv side-projects. This was significant for me.

Since then, Jack and I have “gone out” with tabla and guitar in a very, very cool way. Each being that I play with brings a synergy of a different fragrance of musical personality and textures, and it is a deep experience of spirit for me to meet the musical energy and heart-space of the individual I’m playing with as well as the music. I play with deep respect and generosity to the being I’m playing with as well as the music. This is part of what improv is for me and what it means to me in a very deep and significant way, and as much as Jack and I learn about each other when we throw variations into parts of the Kinagree Smith literature or the Jack Kinagree literature each time we play a show, meeting him in a free, instrumental improv environment is a much different experience for me. We grow and players, band-mates and friends.

Band House is a Happening, a creative occurrence.

Not related to Band House; a rediscovery of Barbasol….. next time. Stay tuned

Happy Second Anniversary Kinagree Smith

To some people it's Halloween, but if you are familiar with the lore of Kinagree Smith you know it all started with an impromptu Jam on October 31, 2010.

Since that history making moment, Lexie and I have had many madcap adventures, like joining up with Ira Norman Segall.

While we aren't rich or famous yet, we sure are having an interesting time. Heck, we've managed to survive the worst hurricane in a century to reach this mile stone.

While I could drone on retrospectively, I'll save that for next year. You've been warned.

Kinagree Smith Band House – Week Two; Creative Lab by Ira Norman Segall

 Things are already shaking out and tweeking in as goes the physical layout here. There’s still much to be done but the space is informing me as to what it wants to be so it works best for our shows and also for not our shows. In my case particularly, I have so much stuff, and much of it is large; gong-racks, singing bowl set, wood-block set, more hand drums and frame-drums than you can imagine. I need space for it all so I can have all my fragrances and textures close to me to make immediate choices in the moment of a musical phrase. It’s not like just grabbing a guitar and I’m done – it takes up a huge amount of space and I don’t even have room to keep it ALL up and immediately available. My father once said of my playing drums that I should play piccolo, it’s easier to carry - there was some logic in that.

Having Jack’s energy here has been an absolute joy for me. He’s such a peaceful being with such a huge and wonderful heart (hating to do any myth/image-breaking here). And when Lexie’s here it’s just “us”; the three of us, beloved friends and cherished band-mates. It just really seems correct. Jack seems very content here and that makes me very happy. There’s still a ton of stuff in boxes on my bedroom floor to find a home for, the kitchen needs more tweeking in. I just can’t do much on school-nights, need to save it for the weekend – it’ll be another month of these couple-of-tasks here-and-there weekends while still allowing enough brain-stop time for recharging from the work-week.

In the category of a wow and wonderful occurrence, I played with Steve Kuzmicki Thursday night. We played “electric”, which for us means Steve plays electric guitar and I, full western drums-and-cymbals kit (+ a few things). Jack meandered down to the studio after a while with apparent piqued interest. Once we took 10, Jack eagerly grabbed the bass guitar, I shook a few webs from the bass stack and a new trio was born. Jack was so excited and so delighted, it was a joy to witness, no less participate in. Then, an extremely cool thing occurred when I switched to Balinese gamelan and a new FLAVOR was born. Wow, was THAT beyond interesting; Gamelan, electric guitar and bass – YEA! I so need to be stretched and challenged all the time when I play and so light up with fresh and unique exploration. I so exist in the stimulation, the danger of improve and exploration that this just lights me up and gets me absolutely crazy. See! It gets me to a place where I violate the writer’s rule of not using the same words in the same or adjacent sentences!

The laboratory that is band house is already proving totally stimulating!

Visit again for more from Kinagree Smith Band House!

Kinagree Smith Band House – Week One by Ira Norman Segall

As if it hasn’t already been apparent, my beloved friend and band-mate Jack has moved into my house (now our house). And as inseparability goes, Lexie is almost always here in the evenings as well. This has created a community that can only best be described as Band House.

A remarkable amount of planning and work to prepare, now behind us is giving way to an atmosphere of creativity and comradery. I gotta say that the convenience of the streaming studio now here is beyond wonderful for me and many of the toys I have including room-acoustics treatment are proving very useful tools in creating the sonic Kinagree Smith product.

Having been in recluse/hermit energy for many years, this has been something of a stretch for me, although each day has gotten easier for me in accommodating and adjusting and in fact, it is proving not to be quite the level of upheaval that I’d anticipated. This feels like the natural progress both for my personal growth and moving forward as well as for the energy that is Kinagree Smith and the various side-projects that want to happen around it. I’m still watching it within myself, but it really feels correct thus far. On the other hand, it really is only week one. You could still read about it in the papers; “Percussionist kills guitar-player from same band.” On yet another hand, we’re not 20 years old any more either and we bring some more life experience here to Band House.

Please check back often in the days and the weeks come for continuing Band House updates.