"The Black & Violet Masquerade"

"The Black & Violet Masquerade"

Everyone who's anyone is here
And anything you'd ever want is near
One thing to remember let's be clear
It over if you show them any fear

Somebody told me it's only a game
But I feel so lonely inside of this place
While we're playing dressup on the stage
I wanted to tell you, I wanted to say

Don't ever fade, don't ever fade
Even if they offer you the world don't ever fade
Into the black & violet maquerade
Into the black & violet maquerade

Pomp and Circumstance is being played
Everybody wants to see you dance to the funeral serenade
Forget the empty promises they made
Death for decadence is an unworthy trade

Nobody told me the price that you pay
And they kill you slowly for talking this way
This isn't the hit parade; it's an open grave
Now everybody's watching, let's be brave and come what may
Don't ever fade...

Devils in every direction and no earthly protection
I turned around to find you ran away
You should have stayed

You should have stayed, you should have stayed
It was you and me together all the way
But you ran away, and I felt betrayed
You should have stayed

Everyone who's anyone is here
And no one knows if no one shows their fear
I know you're still out there somewhere
If you're listening, if you still care

Don't ever fade...

Into the black & violet maquerade
Into the black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade


This song probably makes less sense now that people can actually understand the lyrics but I like it and I enjoyed writing it:)

The Show 2.14

The Show was a success largely in part to Susan and Hutch over at The Well who helped get all the technical stuff worked out. Nicolette did a great set and helped out with my stuff as well. Niki sold some masks which was awesome and the show was good timing in and of itself because the next day I was too sick to move so I'm glad we got to did everything we planned to do for Valentine's Day before I got the plague. Don't worry about me; I'm still a little under the weather but I'll be just fine:)

This is the setlist. We were going to do "Sweet Dreams" with the cello and the keyboard but technical difficulties made it a little too much to ask for so I just did that one with the techno set:) Overall, I was really happy with the way things went musically and I'm looking forward to growing the whole synth-pop Dream Machine aspect of my music right now:) Also, I don't have a picture of it yet but I unveiled the Phonohedron which is this cool thing I made with guitars and keyboards and a big metal face in the middle of it but more about that later...

You can find out more about Niki's masks and other clothing at www.myspace.com/stretchercase and you can even comission a mask to your specific likings:) The next show will be bigger and better, I promise! I will leave you with some pictures I stole from Ann Kraynak Rodriguez's facebook page. She took some cool pictures that night and I want you to see just how awesome I looked and I will do that through the art of taking someone else's photos from the internets. Hopefully she won't press charges:

Exibit A=


and Exibit B =


I also promised the lyrics to the new song "The Black & Violet Masquerade" and I'll get those up on here in the next couple of days. Thanks to everyone who came out to the show and I hope to see everyone soon at the next gig which is yet to be announced!

Cheers and happy V-Day!

Hell Box

So I'm getting ready for the show this Saturday at The Well and I'm trying to get some things in order that have needed to be done for a while, not the least of which is an overhaul for Hell Box.

Hell Box is a small box that we kept a bunch of stuff in for the band like extension cords, quarter inches, tri-prongs etc., and it was named for the horrible, jagged, metal edges that would rip your flesh when you tried to move it. It wasn't always an evil box; it just took a lot of abuse and over time developed sharp metal spikes. It's predecessor, Hell Trunk was actually a pretty dangerous little trunk with pieces of rusty, spiky metal everywhere and we actually left it out for people to put tips in...very carefully.

Then there was Hell Box and now it's covered with black duct tape so it's looking better these days. I can't seem to find the lid which at this point is actually the bottom of the box. It somehow got turned upside down so the lid must be locked at all times or the contents will spill out everywhere. I honestly don't remember how that happened.

The best thing about going through Hell Box was looking at a few historical items of Seth Boulton & The Dream Machine that had been left behind in our trail of destruction. I wanted to share these with you now:



The first thing is a setlist from when we played Xhedos Cafe in Ferndale Michigan. I wasn't going to wear makeup for this acoustic show but Stacey, my drummer's twin sister's partner, seemed disappointed so I ended up wearing makeup.

Here's the other side of the flyer for the show.



Notice this was before the new logo for the band was done. I don't think Xhedos exists anymore. Although I'm pretty sure Laura and I had coffee at the same place under a new name last time I was in Detroit. They still have a stage and do acoustic shows.



This set list was for a show we did in Greenboro I'm pretty sure. Or maybe it was The Spot. Before it closed or course. We've played a lot of places that have changed names or closed. I don't think it was our fault but there is a disturbing correlation.




It's kind of hard to read but this one's pretty funny, it's a list that Nicolette made of all of the songs we did. I don't think we ever played all them at once but we might have. We never played "Cannon Ball" more than a couple of times and there are some covers on there that I'd kind of like to work up again.

Also in Hell Box was some electrical tape, a bunch of Underground CD's, a copy of The Cure's greatest hits, some sunscreen which we always tried to never be without and the best item of all:



This is the emergency stick of Secret deodorant from the bottom of Hell Box. It's been everywhere from Detroit to Nashville and I'm pretty sure everyone in the band has used it at least once although I'm not positive and I don't know how you'd prove something like that. Still, that's what I'm putting in the description when it goes on eBay.

Well, Hell Box is looking good, things are a little more organized and I feel like I've really accomplished something today. Plus I've had lots of fun with the new scanner today. Today was a good day.

Sucks

I was going to write one more blog for 2008 but I'm pretty sure the calendar on this blog is set to some Lithuanian time and date because I have to be cute and do stupid stuff like that so I'm pretty sure my blog is already thinking it's 2009 even though I've still got a couple of hours.

That sucks.

And I'm currently working on a dance pop cover of a Nirvana song.

Happy New Year:)

Dwarf Hamsters

I didn't get any sleep last night. Dwarf hamsters kept me awake with their incessant wheeling about in their cage. And the cat chased some plastic piece of crap around the house for hours. She won't play with you for five minutes. You can throw one of her toys and she just stares at you like you're crazy but last night it was on. She was all over the kitchen with something that wasn't even one of her fancy little catnip toys or anything. It was just something that's really freaking loud on the kitchen floor at 4 in the morning. Anyway, okay I think I'm done. I'm in a coffee shop listening to Johnny Cash and everything is better now- even if it is in a rather fuzzy, slightly surreal state of being at the moment. The kind that only comes with a colossal lack of sleep.

I'm working on some new lyrics for a song called "There is No Success Like Failure".

I've nailed down the chorus first which is something that doesn't normally happen for me until much later in the evolution of a song. Maybe I'm starting to get the hang of this songwriting thing. No, it's a nice thought but no:)

Anyway, the chorus:

"There is no success like failure
There is no success like loneliness
And there is no love like no love at all
And yes we love to watch you fall
Yes we love to watch you fall"

That's about it. It sounds good in my head. It can sound good in your head too. Just pretend like The Beatles are singing it or something like that. It always makes me feel better about my stuff to pretend like really awesome people are singing it:)

So there are the lyrics for the chorus. I expect everyone to be able to sing along at the next show...Which will hopefully be at The Well in Pineville soon...

Christmas Eve

So this year I've had to participate in trying to explain to a 3 year old the concept of Santa Claus and I realized something. You can't explain Santa Claus to someone who's never heard of him without sounding high...

Santa? Well he's this guy who lives at the North Pole...with elves...and they make toys...and then he uses reindeer to fly to the roof of your house...and he comes down the chimney and gives you presents...no, really...no, I haven't been smoking anything...

And so on and so forth. Next year I'm just going to tell her about the birth of Christ complete with teenage pregnancy and mass infanticide. Because that's what Christmas is really all about. Yay, Obama!

I haven't played any shows lately and I really think it's having an effect on me...

Anyway, have a Christ-y, Christ-y Good Time!

Speaking of which here is the clip of Jim Carrey on Conan talking about the whole Christ-y Christmas thing and you've got to watch it till the very end with the song and all because that's what Christmas is all about:

iDogs

Have you seen the iDog?? It's a little dog that plugs into your stereo, MP3, what have you, and dances to the music that's being played. It's like one of those flowers with the sunglasses from the 80's except it's like, 5 times as expensive. Or like one of those dancing Coke cans also with sunglasses and headphones...Having said that, my Christmas list is pretty short this year. I want an iDog Dance. And I can't help but feel that the reason has something to do with some kind of consumerist denial of the impending financial crisis that even now is affecting our economy in a very scary way...oh well, I'm sure if I just close my eyes and buy things and hum really loud when I hear there's a problem it will surely go away. Or instead of humming I'll just sing "iDog Dance, iDog Dance..." to the tune of "Jiggle Bells" or something equally as festive. Is that even the way you spell it? With the little "i" like in iTunes?? Anyway, I'm sure Santa will know what I mean in my letter.

I rant about the weirdest crap...maybe I need some kind of medication for Christmas...

And that's another thing! It's CHRISTmas, ok? Jesus was born, a bunch of stuff happened and YOU get presents so say His name in the title you bunch of ingrates.

And yes, that's the note I want to end on. It's my prerogative...which I just spelled correctly because I checked. Merry Christmas to all!