L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Six Channels My Ass

Balkanarama played at Experience Music Project yesterday, in the Sky Church venue (the largest of several live music venues in the complex). We’re making the rounds of the Seattle Center – the Center House, the Space Needle, the Vera Project, Now EMP. We’d better hurry if we’re going to play the Fun Forest before they tear it down.

The Sky Church is a 5,384 square-foot grotto-like space topped with jellyfish sculptures that gently undulate 65 feet overhead and backed with a 42 by 70 foot LED video wall. It’s a rock music venue with a 75,000 watt sound system in a ginormous, ultramodern Frank Gehry-designed complex dedicated to rock music. It holds 3,000 people. We argued with them. It simply couldn’t be true. It’s true, they insisted. There had to be more than that. Nope, they responded, ya got six. Well, can we bring our little board and slave a couple channels? No! We don’t want to do anything weird with our board. (WTF????)

We still didn’t believe it but what could we do? We made our plans accordingly: Drag two large amps along and hope they can move enough sound to fill the space.

Here are some pictures from the event:

And a video:

Oh, of course there were WAY more than six channels. Sheesh.

In These Shoes?

In these shoes? I don’t think so.

Another video from our show at the Laughing Ladies Cafe, June 12 2010.

Let’s do it.

Up to my neck

We played at Laughing Ladies Cafe Saturday night for a global audience of about twelve people. It’s the kind of thing that happens when summer falls on a weekend here. No one wants to come inside. They’re hypnotized by that mysterious glowing orb in the sky. What IS that thing?!?

I’ll share a few songs from the show if I can get my vision back after all that glare. Here’s the first: a newish one for us about the particular pleasures two people can share in a large tub of hot water.

Hot Water
by Eva Moon

Had an awful week. Roof sprung a leak
I’m a wreck, but what the heck
Fill the tub up to my neck…
Last penny’s spent. Can’t pay the rent
We got woes, that’s how it goes
Up to my nose, wiggle my toes… In hot water
I may be wasting time. A bath won’t fix my troubles
But how can I be blue when I’m up to here in bubbles?

Honey, lose that tie. Let your worries fly
Join the club, jump in the tub
Make time for some rub-a-dub-dub…
I’m slick as sin. Baby, slide on in
Take me away. Make my day.
We made waves when we play… In hot water
If water was champagne and I a strawberry
Would you dive down to the bottom and have a taste of me

If I ruled the world we’d all bathe day and night
Might not get much done but there’d be no wars to fight

Life is out of whack, face the facts, might as well just relax
So fine, when we recline. I’ll scrub your back, you scrub mine
What luck, got a rubber duck. Splish splash, we gotta… (Hot water!)
Think we oughta… (hot water!) Need a lotta… Hot water… now!

Extemporaneous

Yesterday, June 6th, I sat my virtual self down in a virtual easy chair in front of an audience who had come in from around the globe to hear me yammer for an hour about songwriting and the creative process. The workshop was part of a songwriters series produced by PonDman Haalan in Second Life. Each month a different songwriter takes the stage to deconstruct his or her own approach to creating something out of nothing.

Second Life has been a great platform for sharing and collaborating with fans and musicians and the Songwriter Series is no exception. It’s fascinating to hear how others approach the process. Below is an MP3 audio file of my session. It was an entirely extemporaneous stream of consciousness talk about creativity and inspiration and includes four songs, one previously unrecorded and never heard outside Second Life.

Click arrow to play audio:

Whinging in the Rain

Another Folklife has come and gone and I am annoyed with my camera. Below is the one song out of nine that I did manage to record from our set. But the damn thing shuts itself off every few minutes if you’re not standing over it issuing threats.

Folklife evolves and yet stays the same. When we first started playing there some 14 years ago, drums were shocking unless the skin had been recently scraped off a water buffalo. Now drum kits litter the walkways.

But some traditions are sacrosanct. One is the Summoning of the Hippies. You’d need a time machine and private pharmacy to see more dreadlocks and bright rags in one place. Where do they all come from? It’s like some weed-fogged flashback. There is a difference this year though. I think for the first time, young hippies outnumber the old ones and are taking over the show with their rainbow-patched jeans and their beads and their painted guitars. Goddamn kids! I want to shake them and yell “This is ours! We invented it!” But damn, they do it well.

Speaking of hair, I could blame the damp weather for the excessive volume of my own, but I’m wondering if it’s getting a little freakish. To vote, click the “vote” link below. (I guess I’m pretty addled by my own drugged out hippie past since it took me a while to figure that out.)

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Live Indiscretion

In case you missed it – or simply want to relive the glory…

Thanks to everyone to came! And thanks to Soulfood Books for putting us on your lovely stage once again.

Live, Friday, May 21, Soulfood Books, Redmond. In beautiful Soulfood Sepiatone.

Bad Dress Rehearsal

There’s an old theater superstition that a bad dress rehearsal foretells a great opening night. If that’s the case, our show tonight should be stellar.

It began when Ferko arrived sans tenor sax mouthpiece. We’re talking about a man you routinely shows up at gigs so well-equipped he could open a small hardware store. (What’s that? You lost the boom screw on your mic stand? Yeah I got one o’ those. Philips head screwdriver? What size? Male XLR to dual female XLR adapter? That’s in here somewhere…)

It continued when George’s brand spankin’ new guitar multi-effects pedal blew the power supply when he plugged it in. This is not the first time we’ve experienced exploding guitarist, but it’s been a while. Don’t tell George, but the band has a history of going through guitar players the way Spinal Tap goes through drummers. This did not bode well for our final rehearsal before the show.

Then Mike became convinced that the battery in his bass was shot. And despite having Ferko on the premises no screwdriver could be found.

The show should be stunning.

Eva Moon & the Lunatics
New show: “Eva Moon’s Declaration of Indiscretion”
Friday, May 21, 8-10 pm
Soulfood Books
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond WA 98052
Free, all ages (though parental discretion is advised)
If you’re not in the Redmond/Seattle area, you can watch live video at http://soulfoodbooks.com

My biggest fear now, is that we all got a little giddy and the boys learned half a dozen new tricks to make me crack up during a song.

I am so doomed.

Boobquake – the Song

This song is in honor Boobquake – the phenomenon started by Jen McCreight in response to the nonsensical ravings of an Iranian cleric blaming loose women for recent earthquakes. In the name of science, let’s see how many earthquakes we can cause! It usually takes a while for me to write a song, but here’s one conceived, written, videotaped and youtubed in a couple hours. If I had longer to do it, I might never have had the nerve. NSFW.

The Boobquake Song
copyright: Eva Moon 2010

It started with the claim from a cleric in Iran
Loose women bring on earthquakes. Do you think we can?
It wasn’t til he said it that we knew we had such power
And now we’re gonna use it to shake down your ivory tower

Boobquake! From Purdue to Pensacola
Bookquake! We’ll rock the Ayatollah
Boobquake! How is it a sin?
Boobquake! Show a little skin

If tits can cause an earthquake, how far should we go
To instigate the start of a Mideast volcano?
You taught us, Mr. Cleric, flaunting it’s the ticket
If you have a problem, let me show you where to stick it

Not above bribery

Facebook is big. Really big. It’s the giant drooling cthulhu in the living room that has managed to insinuate its tentacles far beyond any sane constraints. Did you know that there are more Facebook Farmville players than there are Twitter accounts?

So of course that means I want to insinuate a tentacle or two into that fat pie myself and that means I am promoting my Facebook Fan Page (or whatever they’re called today). And I’m not above bribery to do it.

If you go there and click the “Like” button by April 30, I will send you a brand new, unreleased Eva Moon & the Lunatics MP3. It’s a song we’ve performed live, but no one outside the band (and Jan) has even heard the recording. And it’s not available anywhere else.

If you already ARE a fan, just post something on the wall and I’ll send it to you too.

(And for the record, I have never ever played Farmville or any other FB game. And I never will. That road leads to true madness.)

When Songs Attack

It was a simple update. Really. Just a link and an image. And yet, that small act – a normal procedure for anyone with a website – turned into a day-long odyssey of IP blocking, quarantined pages, changed passwords and (shudder) tech support.

(A moment of self-promotion: the link was for my brand new Facebook fan page. Check it out and become a fan! I promise it’ll be fun and rewarding.)

Neither I, nor two different tech support guys could figure out why the server was choking on certain pages when I tried to update them, but it happened again and again.

Finally, the culprit was unmasked: The lyrics of my song “Cash from Nigeria” tripped every spam/hack/attack alarm in the system.

I wonder why?

Cash from Nigeria
© Eva Moon
Download the free MP3: Cash from Nigeria

I was broke. Ya know I had no dough
But an email saved my soul
Man says he’s got 40 mil
Needs my help, if I will
Wants to use my U.S. clout
To help him get the money out
If I consent to represent
I get 25 percent.

Cash cash cash from Nigeria
Cash cash cash from Nigeria
I’m gonna be a millionairia
With the cash from Nigeria!

I hear what you’re thinking, honey,
What’s she gonna do with all that money?

I’ll copy any DVD
Descramble my digital cable TV
Be my own boss. Get out of debt
That online casino will get my bet
Lose 30 pounds in 30 days
Get down with that hormone craze
Inside tips on red hot stocks
A genuine five buck Rolex watch
With herbal secrets from the east
Find old classmates… that’s rad
Look ‘em up on my new iPad

Cash cash cash from Nigeria…

Don’t need to use my imagination
Gotta in-box full of inspiration

Prozac! Xanax! Vicodin!
Viagra! Zoloft! Phentermine!
I guarantee a shopping spree
At a Canadian pharmacy
Learn anything ‘bout anyone
Get a credit report just for fun
Access to a treasure trove o’
Pix of Anna Kournikova
Low, low rates on a new cell phone
And the hottest MP3 ringtone
Buy a load of ink jet toner
And add five inches to my… what???

Cash cash cash from Nigeria…

To their credit, my host company, InMotionHosting, has always been very responsive – by phone or email, they’re always there. And they did eventually find (and fix) the problem.