leftovers

2014 brought a lot of new music into my life, the return of some old favorites, and a lot of just really fun stuff!  First, the honorable mentions, which there were several this year: Lana Del Rey - Cruel World; Kylie Minogue - Into the Blue; Charli XCX - Boom Clap and Sky Ferreira - I Blame Myself. Also, although it may not technically count, one of the best musical experiences of the year was finally seeing Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins live, and hearing his new version of "If You Were Here," which he added a whole new verse to. ( 1/28/15 update ) SO EMBARRASSING, but I forgot to include "Chocolate" by The 1975 .  This would have been in the top 10 for sure.  Oops!!! 10. Air Balloon - Lily Allen   I really admire Lily Allen's sense of rhyming, lyrics and melody.  I wasn't that into her at first but I have grown to really love her.  Her previous album "It's Not Me It's You" was when I really got into her, and her latest albu...

Today my new single, "Tape," is released featuring a new video and b-sides. I had originally planned to release this last year in August (then pushed back to October), on a limited edition cassette tape format, with a video directed by Shawn Sagen of www.thestrangerpage.com who directed the "Alien Nation" video. I had been on a roll at the beginning of 2011 having released my debut solo album and single in April, and the follow-up single/video, "Winnipeg Beach," in June. Then I ended up just being too busy with other things, concentrating on my next album, and thinking no one really cared if I put out another single anyway so I just kind of forgot about it, and then resigned to the fact there would be no more singles off "It's Never The Way You Imagine It." It can be very difficult, and often discouraging, being an independent artist living in a commercial art mecca like Los Angeles. It's tough to get anyone to take any notice of you o...

2011 was quite a year for new music! Of course, the biggest happening was that my fave band of all time, The Human League, released a new album, "Credo," in March. But so much more awesome music was made too - Aqua dropped their comeback album "Megalomania," the full edition of "All You Need Is Now" by Duran Duran came out early in the year, Blondie's long-awaited "Panic of Girls" hit the streets, and Tiffany released her first country album, "Rose Tattoo" shortly after her SyFy movie "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid", co-starring Deborah Gibson, was aired. Several other past favorite artists of mine released new material too: Melanie C (aka Sporty Spice), Scritti Politti, and CSS. It was a difficult process to compile, but here's my top 10 of 2011! 10. "A Day Late And A Dollar Short" - Scritti Politti This song is great and sounds like a good mesh between the more poppy, electronic 80's Scritti and the more...

One of the things that most people love and hate about the holiday season is the music. When you're a kid, it's thrilling when you start hearing Christmas music being played on television and in stores because you know Santa's on his way. As we grow older, the repetition of the same old carols begins to grate on the nerves, and the inclusion of the newest batch of hoping-to-be holiday classics by the pop singers du jour does little to quell the nausea. Despite the seemingly ever progressively early arrival of these jingle-bell laden tunes each year and the familiar sense of pressure and holidayphobia that often accompany them, they often provide a calming, nostalgic feeling that - with the right ingestion of cocktails and reminiscing - can lead to slight euphoria on certain occasions. After all, love them or hate them, the well-worn songs are part of our lives, part of our family, and a symbol of all that is good and bad about the holidays. Being a musician myself, I per...

<a href="http://devintait.bandcamp.com/album/alien-nation-single">Alien Nation (Single) by Devin Tait</a> Tomorrow is the "official" release date (which gives me time to actually print up the inserts and burn the CD's tonight) but my debut single, "Alien Nation" is now available on the website Bandcamp ( devintait.bandcamp.com ). In my mad rush of planning to get everything done for this single and album release, I had gotten it timed down to the last minute of course. Once I had finished the album and mastered it, I sent it off to the factory and while that was happening, I finished up the b-sides for the single (mainly just recording new vocals as the instrumental tracks were pretty much finished) and creating the artwork. Thanks to Shawn Sagen, of www.thestrangerpage.com , who directed the video for "Alien Nation" which we filmed w...

This is my first blog entry of 2011 and it's something very exciting... I'm here to announce the release date for my debut solo album, "It's Never The Way You Imagine It." Brandon and I worked on the mastering last night and I'm 99% happy with it - there are just three small tweaks I want to make before I send it off to the plant. I've set the release date for April 19th to allow time for manufacturing and some pre-planning before the release. I'm going to release the single "Alien Nation" a week before the album... possibly in CD1 and CD2 formats with different bonus tracks and artwork on each one. This album has been a long time in the making. Going back to what can be attributed as the "beginning," I bought my Apple iMac computer in March of 2005 and that's when I began learning how to produce music on my own. Before this point, I had just sort of written songs in my head, or scribbled/typed out lyrics and ideas. I had e...

Tons of great new music this year! Here's my top 10. 10. Hunters of the Night - Devin Tait It might be self-indulgent to start my list off with one of my own songs, but at least I'm being humble by giving it the lowest position, right? This was a song that I quickly recorded to release onto YouTube for Valentine's Day, 2011, as an accompaniment to a slideshow of photos taken by my friend, Luther Orrick, to promote his photography company. The original song is by Mr. Mister, a group from the '80's who I still love. I remember when I was young, those guys were on the radio all the time but I really loved their songs "Broken Wings," "Kyrie" and "Is It Love." My friend Brad aka Swivek had introduced me to this blog called Bottom Feeders: The Ass End o f the 80's that examined all the Billboard charting singles from the 1980's which never cracked the top 40. It's a fascinating read. Anyhoo, "Hunters of the Night...

I sent out the December HED Newsletter, which was a big relief. We've decided that starting next year, we're going to do a print edition, on newsprint, so it will be a newspaper which is really exciting to me. I haven't worked on a newspaper since I was editor of the Leader my last semester in college. It was Dylan and I's turn to host Dinner Club this month, which I was really happy about because I hadn't planned any other type of holiday party at our house, and it would be a shame to have all those decorations go unseen! So, in addition to the regular crew of Robin, Michele, Aaron, and Mark, I also invited Brandon, Angela, Elene, and Jim. I made a sausage chili with fresh jalapenos which ended up being very spicy but just this side of being too spicy - it was perfect! Aaron had brought homemade tamales, his grandma's recipe, and they went perfectly with the chili. We all ended up having a great time and it was fairly late when everyone left but I was stil...

At work I finished the SV BID newsletter, which is always a great feeling. This was the best one yet, I think! Dylan had to work late so I had the house to myself. I did a lot of cleaning up, and then I started a big CD organizing project while watching Blondie “Behind the Music" on DVD. About 9 years ago when I lived with Denny, I was inspired to ditch my CD cases and put all my CDs in books, like Denny had done. I thought it was more organized, took up less room, and would make them more portable. Well, one day my car was parked in a NICE part of town, and someone smashed my car window and stole my CD book with all the CD's from the letter L to the letter S, which included all my Spice Girls CD's (all the import singles, etc), Kylie Minogue, Siouxsie and the Banshees... lots of my favorite artists. I would have been so upset, but it happened to be the day when I got to go meet the girls from Voice of the Beehive down in Laguna Beach (I had met them once before when...

I got up earlier than usual because I had my alarm set for Dylan and I got up when he was getting ready. I had a lot of work to do since I was gone last Friday and had left early on Thursday, and I felt refreshed from our mini-vacation, even though I didn’t get home until late last night. I did a lot of work on the newsletters, both of which I need to finish this week. After work, I did some work on a present for a certain someone, which was really frustrating because it was computer work and I was having a difficult time, but it’s turning out really great. I also tried to work on an arrangement of “Silent Night” for the Traitors but I couldn’t get it. It’s a version from a musical we did at church when I was a kid, arranged by Tom Fettke, but I don’t have the music and I only slightly remember how the accompaniment went, so I think I just have to let it go.

We woke up in the beautiful Star Light room and were immediately sad that we would have to be leaving. We got up early enough that we didn't really need a late check-out. We just took our time packing up and enjoying the last few hours there. The maid had left the door to the next room open, which was the room Tiger, Brandon and Angela had stayed in a few months back, so we had to go in and sneak a peak. Then we took a little video of our room so I could post it on YouTube. After we got all packed up, we checked out and then had brunch at a nearby Denny's before hitting the road back to LA. I drove since Dylan had driven on the way up. It actually went by pretty fast, and since it had been nighttime when we arrived, we actually got to enjoy some amazing scenery on the way home. Back in West Hollywood, I had to immediately get to work on arranging songs for the Devin Tait & the Traitor's acoustic holiday show which is coming up soon. "Paper Sea" is a son...

I'm in complete shock that we have finally reached the last month of 2010! What a year it has been. So many great memories, I'm so glad I decided to blog all of it. This is one of the first year's I've already had my decorations all put up before the month even started, so hopefully I can stay one step ahead of the curve and do the holidays right. This morning I had a street closure committee meeting, and then I attended the BID Consortium meeting downtown at the Fashion District. After work, Dylan and I went to eat at Anarkali, and Indian place on Melrose that we've eaten at a couple times before. Dylan had a groupon to go there so we got $40 worth of food for $20, which was a great deal. I love the food there, especially all the sauces they have that you can put on your food or dip your naan bread in. When we got home, I finished putting the tracks for my album together and burned a copy to listen to. I went to the living room and put the CD in the player and...

At work, I had my Marketing Committee/Restaurant Meeting with Cirque du Soleil today, and I thought it was a huge success! The whole table in the conference room was full, and lots of the restaurant operators showed up. The people from Cirque had a lot of information, and seemed really excited to be part of Hollywood and to work with all the existing businesses in the district. I got some really sad news in the afternoon, I learned through facebook that a good friend of mine had passed away. Heather Mercer, from the band Three Chord Whore, who we had played many shows with and had stayed at her and Shantell's house several times up in Bakersfield, is gone. I didn't really get any more information than that, just that something happened over the weekend, it didn't sound good. I was so sad. I had to tell Amy right away, which I felt horrible doing through IM, but I wanted her to know right away. Heather was such a great person, I liked her from the minute we met, which ...

J ournal Entry November 29, 2010 Back to work after the nice long holiday weekend. I was chatting with Adrienne on IM and she said she is coming out to LA soon! She has a case she's working on that will fly her to San Diego, and then she'll ride the train up to LA to see us and stay for a night. I'm so excited! After work, I came home and started working on the acoustic arrangements for the songs we'll be performing at the Traitors acoustic Holiday show in a couple weeks. I also worked a lot on the mix of "Digital Representation." NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 332 ...coming soon.

I got up and around shortly after noon. Dylan was rushing me around because he wanted to go pick his mom up and stop by the grocery before getting to his Aunt Renee’s at 2pm for our Faux Thanksgiving celebration. We ran a little late, but we got Robin picked up and stopped to pick up mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and champagne. We arrived at Mark and Renee’s just shortly after we were supposed to be there. It was just the five of us, plus Dylan’s cousin Shadaya and her daughter Michaela. Renee put out crackers, cheese and other appetizers that we enjoyed while we drank champagne and visited. Then dinner was served - Renee made a spiral ham, potatoes au grautin (we ended up not needing the mashed potatoes we brought), green beans, rolls, and of course more champagne! We had a lot of fun, especially with Michaela, she is so sweet and she is to the age now where she just likes to run around and be funny, to entertain all us “grown ups.” After Shady and Michaela left, ...