The Odyssey of an Optimistic Pessimist

GroundSound: Currently writing their second album

2010-02-09T15:01:00.002-05:00

I have been really digging deep recently for untapped creative resources deep in the depths of my brain. GroundSound's next album is going to be something different, something new. I can't express how excited I am. Jon and I have been recording, putting together and crafting some ideas recently. Jon is going to have a huge input w/ the song writing and creativity which makes me stoked. Just that factor alone is going to take this album into never, never land. Stay tuned for an insane album!

Cheers!

Tuesday in Tighties

2010-01-26T11:14:00.004-05:00

Tuesday is upon us.
What is it that you want?
Well, go and get it.

Extremely excited and anxiously yet patiently waiting to record GroundSound's follow up album (yet to be titled) to Pay Attention. Ray and I have songs galore, but we just might take this album in a new direction. We're going to explore the space, and I am looking forward to doing some spontaneous recording, and developing ideas and crafting songs from that! Goal: Record all songs Ray and I have. Hopes: To develope such a cool, different and interesting sound outside of our pre-written/structured songs so that the songs we recorded and love so much just get put on hold for another album or some sort of B side edition. Shit is going to be sick, and challenging, and different! Carpe diem.

Update

2009-11-16T18:11:00.003-05:00

It has been almost a month since I've last updated my blog and for this I apologize to those who follow (recent studies show anywhere between 2 and 679 people read this blog on a daily basis). Busy, busy, busy. This weekend I traveled to Princeton, New Jersey and played a show w/ the TJay Trio, then headed up to Utica, NY for a gig Saturday night. It was good practice for the future road living that I will be doing while touring. Giggin' to get my name out there, also to make a living. Tjay keeps me busy, he is a good and talented man. My band GroundSound was on a brief two week break, while my brother Ray traveled to the south, spreading the good word about GroundSound. I have been writing a lot, writing some good tunes if I can say so myself. I've been contemplating starting a side project of my own, I mean why not? Finding the players is always a challenge in itself, for now I suppose I'll just keep writing tunes for GroundSound, and for myself, and hit up some open mics, and maybe even play some coffee houses w/ just my bass and I.

They found water on the moon. Pretty radical, man. Let the colonization begin.

To all, have a wonderful night, and I will be talking to you soon. Love.

Sunshine

2009-10-24T05:54:00.002-04:00

The sunrise crept in like an unwanted gesture upon her bosom. Vicariously she pondered; hesitant yet fulfilled. Destiny was painstakingly present in the advent of what was to be. "Alone", she cried.
"I am alone."
The gentle wind howled unforgivingly as it caressed her once unflappable lips. The element of clarity once present was no longer. Time was a frivolous theory that ceased to exist as she eloquently raised the blade to her throat. There, in the garden of good, she slept upon a withered rose.

Jade

2009-10-19T01:04:00.002-04:00

The mood was stale. Her inhibitions had faltered in the musk of yesterday’s aberration. She walked along a broken fence unable to escape the moonlight. He did not love her, though she was once his muse. The non-existent pendulum shed light upon her broken flowers. Yesterday was gone; tomorrow was further away. The brisk, late autumn breeze was nothing short of brilliant as her dark coal hair wrapped between her lonely lips. Eternity was a microcosm of some absurd parallel universe. Forever was now…alone.

It's Monday if You're Keeping Tabs

2009-09-21T15:38:00.002-04:00

GroundSound had a gig this passed Saturday @ South Side Inn in Yorktown. It went really well. There were a bunch of people in and out of there throughout our two sets, and I thought we played well. Unfortunately for whatever reason, our monitors were feeding back so we had to abort the notion of using them. It is always scary to think about singing without the ability of hearing yourself sing. This could be disastrous. In the end, The volume from the PA was loud enough so that my brother and I could hear each other sing, although it is not the best recipe for a comfortable singing situation. Other than that drama, it was fucking cool man. We had some killer jams. Jon (Carlucci) and I locked in so tight on some of the jams I convinced myself that we were proving telepathy in the moment, although the telepathy did not work when I tried to telepathically extend this theory to someone observing; go figure.

I use to get really down on myself when no one came to a show, or when no one was groovin' or feelin' a show. I have been a gigging musician for over seven years now and I finally understand that these things happen. With that being said, there are still occasions where I get upset at turnouts, it's just not how I use to get. I have learned a lot over the years. I have seen a lack of interest in live music for years now. This is more upsetting to me than anything. I dig electronic music, there is some groundbreaking, innovative and mind expanding shit that exists out there, but if I go to see that groundbreaking, innovative and mind expanding shit live, it better consists of someone doing something live. And I don't mean someone spinning some records (or perhaps clicking away on their lap top for the most part). I need a live drummer, or bassist, guitarist, anything. What's the point of seeing something live if the only element of something different happening within a song is a damn power outage? I dig spontaneity man, the element of improvisation, the element of Jazz, the element of taking something somewhere it wasn't necessarily suppose to go. That shit is why I can't stop playing music. I live to play live (due to the English language, that sentence may seem strange and can be pronounced in many different ways, but I'm sure you'll get it...I have faith in readers).

Jackie, my love, just accepted a job offer to teach at a Special Education School in the Bronx. This makes me as a happy as a homosexual watching a Catholic Bishop randomly stumble and fall down a steep hill. She is so smart, dude. I mean it. She keeps me on point, sharp, and fresh with my thoughts. I like to think I do the same for her.

I've made some stupid decisions in my life, in particular dropping out of College. If I could have only gotten over my damn complex with authority. I do plan to enroll again, it couldn't/wouldn't hurt. It should be known though, that not being in school should not be the end all to education. It is important to read everything, and understand that you should and will be learning until the day or night you drop dead. Now, having that damn piece of paper that proves you are willing to conform to the structure of how society should be structured, is going to make life a helluva lot easier. Believe me as someone who does not posses that enchanted ink on paper, because stating that it is hard without it is an understatement. Unless you are in on the family business, or have some sort of connection here or there; my friend, hopefully you don't mind doing labor and hopefully you are willing to bust your ass for a living.

GroundSound's next gig is Friday, October 9th down in Pleasantville @ Paulies Bar and Grill. The following day on Saturday, October 10th we will be playing a giant private college house party up at Marist College in Poughkeepsie which we are psyched for. We also have a radio interview on Monday, October 5th with more details to be released (please check official GroundSound website: www.groundsoundmusic.com).

Let it also be known that I will be gigging with TJay and the TJay Trio (www.myspace.com/tjaymusic) this Friday, September 25th for Meany Fest @ Connolley's Pub in NYC (check his site for more details). On Wednesday, October 7th, the TJay Trio will be opening for Blues Traveler @ the Tarrytown Music Hall (to purchase tickets: http://tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org/), so I'm stoked to meet those cats and looking forward to rocking out with my cock out.

Stay Funky Fresh, and I will speak to you in the morrow.
Love Always,
~nEko

...

2009-09-16T00:26:00.002-04:00

How free are you?

What if...

2009-09-10T14:40:00.003-04:00

This morning it was cool; I could taste the oxygen and I knew I was alive.

Everybody has a destination, even those that choose to be lazy, they will get somewhere...eventually. I am a firm believer that free will dictates one's destiny, hence, we travel the road by choice and what lies ahead is what lies ahead. However, if our lives were thought of as dots on a graph (perpendicular lines flowing into infinity), our journey is displayed showing a definitive ending. With this viewpoint, in a sense, means that our destiny is decided, whether we choose to go left, right, straight, etc. This certainly contradicts my statements earlier, for how is our destiny not pre-written or pre-decided with or without free will, if mathematically and perspectively it is layed out from the beginning? Whether it be God, the Law's or UN-Laws of Nature, or God's creator, we must acknowledge the presence of such a perspective. These happenings set forth the idea of a parallel universe, or parallel universes. If I decide to turn left at the intersection, all the while wondering if I should have gone right, only to find out later that right is the right direction, I turn around and head in that direction. What if I turned right to begin with? Although it doesn't seem like much, history would be changed. Have you ever found yourself wondering: "Man, if I only talked to that girl/guy at the bar", or" man, if I left my house ten minutes earlier, such and such wouldn't have happened". What if it did happen and these happenings were not only a figment of our imagination but reality somewhere else. What if there were an infinite amount of possibilities where split second decisions alter the course of reality, another reality, foreign to our own. What if I did not write this blog? What if you didn't read it? What if, what if, what if...

...One thing I do know, what ifs are a burden in the reality we occupy, and for the sake of living, I beg you to let go of your what ifs if it is only causing you grief.

Random Thoughts

2009-09-08T22:53:00.003-04:00

Moving cars and shooting stars, the wind is calm upon my face. Funny how things work out, man. Life on the hustle is no easy chore, that's for sure. Although we bicker and have our moments, I am forever grateful of having a loving family. If it wasn't for them, I'd be on the streets, doing whatever would need to be done to keep my head afloat.

Finding work to make ends meet.
Finding gigs for the love of music, but also to make a buck. Unfortunately, there IS a business side to music. I suppose the business aspect of it is less prevelant when one rests comfortably in his big chair with his deep pockets under his big roof beside his cozy fireplace.

Buy the ticket, take the ride. Thank you Hunter S. Thompson for always entertaining my imagination.

Just found out I will be opening for Blues Traveler @ the Tarrytown Music Hall on Wednesday, October 7th with Tjay (The TJay Trio). I look forward to the experience and I look forward to rocking out on stage with my head in the cosmos while thumpin' a groove that can't be denied by the hearts of the occupants of the auditorium.

It is important for one to have a good work ethic. It is important for one to a have a full understanding of what needs to be done for the betterment of one's situation. Just remember, the more cents one possesses does not necessarily dictate the more sense one possesses.

Music in the Park

2009-09-02T23:15:00.004-04:00

As I look at the moon, the cool breeze dances with my face. Summer is over I suppose, and autumn is here to take it's place. Tomorrow is Thursday, and I am looking forward to going down to NYC. I will be accompanied by my bass, my battery operated amp, and a warm desire to play some tunes, some improv, for those who will listen. Where shall I go? Perhaps to Central Park? Perhaps somewhere in the village, or maybe even Times Square? The police will be after me, for it is somehow illegal to play the streets of NYC without a permit for amplified sound. What a shame. When the time arises, I will kindly gather my gear, my belongings, pleading not to be ticketed. I will promise the officer I had no idea of the existance of such a law, buy some time......and move a few blocks down and begin to play again. I am a criminal.

Jackie sleeps beside me, beautifully and peacefully. I am a lucky man to have such a wonderful woman in my life, and I am forever grateful. I only hope that I never let her down chasing such a lucrative dream. This is a capitalistic society. Can art and capitalism co-exist? Is that an oxymoron?

I'm looking forward to my adventures tomorrow, embarking upon the concrete jungle with peaceful intentions. I'm looking forward to meeting up with Pat after, a dear friend for about eight or nine years now. We go back. We go way back. We go all the way back to the Apollo Theater on 125th st., with the old band "Funked Up", where sky was the limit and the clouds were merely debris littering the road. Those times were great and I will cherish them forever.

Just another day, only now I am unemployed.

2009-09-02T13:21:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, oh, Wednesday! The day of humping I suppose. I quit my job on monday (after about 24 months of employment) because I had had enough of being pushed around by a nasty man simply consumed by vague ideas and a horrible compassion for other people. I am not interested in associating myself with people like him. I recommend the masses to not take shit from anyone, and to stand up for yourself when you are being oppressed. Unfortunately, in my twenty five years and just about six months of living on this constantly revolving sphere we call Earth, I have come to understand that everyone must eat a certain amount of shit in this life. Now, no human being I know enjoys eating feces; in fact it is quite disturbing to even think of.

John Doe: Have you had your shit today, son?
John Doe Jr: Dad, do I have too?
John Doe: Just eat the shit, son. In fact pass it over here when you're finished..........this is for your mother.

We all have to pay our dues, some more so than others. With that being said, if you can work hard and keep your sanity, that's half the battle. Good luck.

GroundSound is constantly making moves these days. Not playing as much as I would like to, but we are currently writing for our second Album, yet to be titled. It's not called "Yet to be Titled", I was merely saying that is yet to be titled. Our debut album "Pay Attention" is getting airplay all over the country and even overseas which makes me a very happy man.

Music is a beautiful and wonderful thing, and to talk about the art and beauty of it is almost nonsensical.

I encourage everyone to play music in one way or another.
I also encourage everyone to masturbate as much as possible.
Cheers.