Today, we’ll be talking about:
- Beach Boys Blast
- Our holidaze
- Getting ready to record
- Next gig: The Wooden Ball Jan 14th @ Plush
BEACH BOYS FOREVER
Wow, we worked our butts off figuring out the harmonies to various Beach Boys tunes for the Great Cover Up and it was such a (short) blast! But one of my favorite parts was when Jamie, Fen, Courtney and I snuck downstairs to the Green Room with Courtney’s guitar and did an a capella warm up. We were smiling, no, GRINNING, and hugging each other at the sheer sound of our voices. Brian Wilson is a genius.
And my brother and sister-in-law were in town and front row, cheering us on. There was a nice crowd by 11pm and we basked in the glory of the Rialto sound system. There’s just something about performing in a big proscenium theater – on like a REAL STAGE – with a balcony and huge curtains and backstage and everything. Anyway, we made it through to the other side – 20 minutes later – and it was over. Afterwards as Fen passed me on the stairway he said “So we’re doing this again tomorrow, right?” Sigh. BB will be missed but there are a few videos. Um, just so we’re clear, Jamie is dressed as Mike Love with the Hawaiian shirt and fancy baseball cap while Fen is dressed as Brian Wilson with the bathrobe and the extra shaggy hair:
good vibrations
in my room
wouldn’t it be nice
BACK FROM THE HOLIDAZE
So welcome to the new year, yall! Jamie and I had a sweet time having a Southwest Christmas at home including a Holiday BBQ on Christmas Eve. Because one of the awesome things about living in Tucson is the ability to stand outside comfortably in December without a parka! It really was cozy (and filling) as we snarfed up brisket, potato latkes, sausages and delectable fish (and tons of cookies!), washing it all down with mulled wine or pumpkin beer. Lil’ River DiDay looked awwwwful cute in his tiny Santa suit. And I think Jeff’s forgiven me for calling him “Lil’ River Band” on more than one occasion. I just found some photos from my phone. But for some reason I only took pictures of the aftermath when everyone else had left. I seem to only ever take pictures after the pretty is gone. But here you go:
Then for New Year’s Eve we headed down to Bisbee with a bunch of friends and drank and danced our way into 2012. I did a lil blog about it oer on this other website: http://www.cristinawilliams.com/hello-2012
But now the hangover’s dissipated and it’s time to hunker down and get some new music happening. Which is just what we’re gonna do – we’re priming the pump to create some new Modeens tunes for your apocalyptic pleasure!
GUITARS TO THE GRINDSTONE
Normally I keep things hush-hush until we have concrete dates to announce – but a lot of you are curious just how a record comes into the world. Well, there are endless ways this can go down but for The Modeens, we’ve had a sort of rhythm going the past couple of years: we start off the year finishing up some songs we’ve been batting around, churn out some new ones, practice-practice-practice and then schedule a day to lay ’em down at Chamber of Sounds (aka our living room). What happens afterwards depends on how far we get that one day – we usually take our time doing the overdubs and then Jamie mixes and masters. So we’ll probably go the same route for the third time around. And don’t hold me to this, coz artistic temperament can change on a dime – but we’re looking to include some more bluesy, acoustic-y numbers for the next album.
THE WOODEN BALL @ Plush Jan 14th 11pm $5
We were inspired to add more americana to our rockitude by some acoustic gigs we did last year AND an acoustic set we’re working on for The Wooden Ball next week. The Wooden Ball is a Tucson tradition that started in 1987 where local bands are asked to perform their songs acoustically. It’s a short set and here’s how it’s panning out: Jamie on the Taylor acoustic guitar, me on my Crown 60’s hollow-body bass, Dave on harp and the occasional piano sound (from his keyboard) and Jeff, well, Jeff’s still using his same drum kit, just kickin back a bit. We’ll do some of the usual tunes and then an old song of Jamie’s that you are gonna LOVE! It’s a sweet lineup, too. The festival actually starts the night before at Club Congress and if you’re in town, here are the deets:
Sat Jan 14th lineup: http://www.plushtucson.com/shows.html?band_id=58
Fri Jan 13th lineup: http://www.hotelcongress.com/2011/12/07/the-wooden-ball/
Have a rowdy rockin’ new year!
Love,
Cristina Modeena
http://themodeens.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/themodeens
