L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Mashup

The highlight of Ananda Mela – a festival of Indian culture going on this weekend in Redmond, WA (http://anandamela.org) – was a performance by the Indian/Irish/Techno fusion band Delhi 2 Dublin from Vancouver, BC. They’ll be playing again Sunday night, June 27, so hurry over! I could try to describe the music, but why bother when I have video?

So Latha, here’s your blog post!

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!

BP Man: Drill, Baby, Drill

I was wondering what I could do as a followup to Boobquake and it finally came to me. This song was written, recorded and videoed in less than 24 hours. It’s in very poor taste, but what else would you expect?

Here’s a link to a high-quality mp3 – a free download from me to you (right-click to save).

BP Man (Drill, Baby, Drill)
by Eva Moon, 2010

I want a man who’s a deepwater driller
Oozing assurance and at his peak
I want a man with risky platforms
Who’s willing to chance an epic leak

Supply my demand, baby, drive it home
Sink it deep and do it quick
We don’t need no containment dome
We’re gonna leave a gulf-wide slick

Drill, baby, drill on sea and land
My million-barrel spill, you’re my BP man

I want a BP executive
Never crude when he makes a speech
Lowers the boom when he pumps the press
Slick as sand on a bayou beach

Give me a man who will suck it up B
I’ll let him think he’s in control
And he better not fuck it up
Never stop ’til he fills that hole

Drill, baby, drill…

Looking for maximum motivation
I’ve got a desperate situation
Drowning in natural lubrication
I want your mile deep penetration

Drill, baby, drill…

Performing on the song are: Eva Moon, Tym Parsons, Ferko Saxmanov and Mike Gordon. Also seen in the video: Sue Niemann and George Michael (Lyndon Heart). The video is used under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States

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.

Priceless

Red lace bra from Victoria’s Secret: $25

Lumix digital camera with HD video from Panasonic: $289

iMovie video editing software from Apple: $79

Appearing on CNN, Canadian National News, The Daily Beast, the Palm Springs Desert Sun, the Spokane Examiner and more in my underwear: Priceless

There are some things money can’t buy. Thanks, Interwebs!