Ladies & Gentlemen... Dawes

As an ATO Street Teamer and big fan, it is my duty & pleasure to introduce Dawes. I know I have talked about them before but here is the lowdown on one of my favorite upcoming bands.

Left to right:
Taylor Goldsmith - guitar, lead vocals
Griffin Goldsmith - drums, vocals
Wylie Gelber - bass
Alex Casnoff - keyboards, vocals

Taylor and Wylie started out in a band called Simon Dawes (along with Blake Mills who you should check out.) Griffin is Taylor's younger brother who was always somewhat involved with Simon Dawes. When Blake and Taylor decided to go separate ways in their careers, Dawes was born.
Dawes recorded North Hills with producer Jonathan Wilson and Tay Strathairn (keyboards) from
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Alex Casnoff was added to the band in place of Tay, and has been a permanent member ever since. It was recorded in North Hills with no backing from a label and was recorded live to analog tape.

Delta Spirit asked Dawes to open for them on a major nationwide tour in early 2009. With their debut album hot off the press, and permission from Griffin's high school, they jumped at the chance and have been on tour pretty consistently since. It was their second show on tour with Delta Spirit that I first saw them. I thought Taylor was just the cute merch guy that Dillon was bugging before the show started. They kicked off the night and I knew they must be something special when Matt Vasquez was standing next to me dancing and singing along to most of the songs. (ATO Records snatched them up soon after this tour.) The lyrics are what caught me right away. Taylor writes the songs and then he takes them to the rest of the band to complete. They complete them with the harmonies and melodies of old pros. Their sound is years beyond their age, but no one is older than 25. They all come from a pretty musical background. Taylor and Griffin's dad was a lead singer in Tower of Power and co-created the band Sweathog. The band is also named after their grandfather (Dawes Lafayette Goldsmith) who played/enjoyed true old-timey country folk music.
North Hills is not an album you put on to have some poppy sounds in the background. It's an album you put on to dive into and appreciate true musicianship. I'm not going to tell you who they sound like or their major influences. Listen to them with a clean slate, then you can back track on some of that stuff.
The live show is something not to be missed. They bring an energy and comfort that has been earned these past two years touring this album as hard as they have. And your in luck because they have a fall tour scheduled for the next two months.

I will be seeing them on Sat. Nov. 20th @ The Independent if anyone wants to join me. The Romany Rye is opening and it's all for under $20!!!
Dawes just finished recording their latest album that will probably be coming out early 2011. They have been practicing some of the new ones at recent shows so naturally I'm already excited for the new album.

Other places to find them:
Blog
Facebook
Myspace
Twitter
A very early but very good interview

Hope you enjoy 'em because I think they're pretty great ;)

He's Back!

Mobile Chateau by Matt Costa Music
It's so great to see how those little demos I heard over 2 years ago have changed. He wasn't joking when he said he was going for the 60's era sound. It's really different but he has been leaning towards this sound for a while now. I'm impressed with his production debut. (Is that how you would even say that?! Well, you know what I mean :P ) Now I have 1 month to dig-in before I see it live.
Congratulations Mr. Costa!

Just Keep Swimming

The last two weeks have been hectic to say the least. There has been a birthday, 100 degree weather, overtime at work, painting, house hunting, babysitting, and a 3-day weekend. It's doesn't sound so bad but believe me it's been crazy. Work has been the hardest. With a manager gone, and then back, and gone again, a lot of weight has fallen on my shoulders and I'm not sure I like it. It's great having the responsibility of closing the store but the lack of planning & help has made things very difficult and unfortunately I will pay for that tomorrow.
Sorry to start off that way but I'm really feeling it right now, so that's what came out first.

Dillon had his birthday at Driven Raceway in Rohnert Park. I went with my mom to help her with the boys. The place is ok but the glow-in-the-dark golf is kind of a joke. $6 a person for the same thing over and over. The whole place is pretty over priced in my opinion but I think all places like that are...I'm just more aware of it now. He had a lot of fun and gets to have a second birthday weekend with his mom so all is good. I can't believe he is 11 now.
I've been scouting Craigslist just about everyday. There isn't a whole lot out there that I really like but I think I need to not be so picky. (So hard for me!) I looked at two places and want to look at more I'm just working so much that it makes it hard. The 3-day weekend was nice though. Dillon has his party Sat. then I helped Crystal paint her room Sun. Mon. was a big chore day, boring I know but I just needed to chill out and catch up on some stuff at home.
Some awesome news today...I passed my Notary test! Now all I have to do is get finger printed for my background check.  That is going to take a while but I know I'll pass that. Well, there was that one time...no I'm kidding. This whole process takes forever but it's a nifty skill I can add to the resume. That sounded pretty corny. Moving on.
I pretty excited about the music coming to town this fall! There is always a slew of shows I would love, love to go to but I have to be picky most of the time. I'm lucky that bands I like play small clubs and have cheap tickets but I'm seeing that change for some of them. Some shows I can't miss are:
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival  Oct 1, 2, & 3- I want to go to this free show every year but don't for some reason. This is the 10 year anniversary and I have the weekend off so we shall see.
Jack Johnson Oct 5 @ the Greek Theatre - This will be quite the family affair.
Matt Costa Oct 15 @ Slims - He's Back!
Dawes Nov 20 @ The Independent - The have a great opener too...The Romany Rye
and rumor has it Delta Spirit Dec.7 @ The Fillmore - Holy Crap!
(If someone knows how to post mp3s on a blog without a ton of crap to do and download, I would be forever grateful if you shared that with me!)
Goodnight everyone! Wish me good luck for tomorrow, I'm gonna need it. One day off on Sunday then another full week. Here is an awesome little duet between Justin Townes Earle and Dawn Landes that was originally done by Chet Atkins and Dolly Parton. Enjoy

A New Place To Live

Today I went and looked at a little apartment/unit in Santa Rosa. I was pretty excited by the thought that this could be my new place. It's a one bedroom off Slater Rd. in downtown. Excitement quickly turned into anxiety because the sheer cost of living on my own is overwhelming. I figure it's not impossible and moving out is something I really want to do so I'll make it work and it will be good.
The place is really small, which is to be expected. The kitchen is really small. That was kind of a bummer but overall the place isn't bad. I'm going to apply just to see if they'll consider me. Having almost non-existent credit and no tenant history isn't going to help but we'll see.
A year ago I said I hope to be moved out by Aug. 2010. I can't believe that's almost a reality?!

Time to go to sleep so I can start another busy day...

I Really Should Be Doing Other Things....

...but I'm addicted to music. No seriously, I think I may have a problem!
Here are some great odds & ends to keep you entertained.

The hesitation and subtleties are what make this song so brilliant in my book

I can't say enough about how excited I am for this new record

Really enjoying these guys this last week.

I need to see these guys live again, and I new their album when it comes out

I need to add at least one chick to the mix. Amazing voice

I could sit here and do this all night but I need to pack for camping this weekend.
Until next time ;)

Sunday Night Boredom

First of all it's August and I'm freaking out a little bit. Does anyone know where summer went?
Moving on since I don't really have any choice in the matter anyways...
Babysitting tonight is not going well. Travis was overly tired at 5pm which wasn't good because his bedtime is 8pm. He ended up falling asleep around 6pm until he got woken up by Dillon. He woke up in the worst mood. After lots of tears and restlessness I tried to put him to bed but he would doze off then wake up screaming. It took an hour but he fell asleep for a while. He woke up again but fell asleep pretty quickly and that was 45 min ago so cross your fingers for me. My dad just brought me an ice cream sandwich to cheer me up, THANKS DAD!
Tomorrow starts a full work week but I get paid so that will be nice. I'm going to try and become a Notary. It will help us not loose business at work. It's a six hour class then I take the test. I then have to get fingerprinted, bonded and buy some gear. Kind of a big responsibility and I think some people will be weird about my age but whatever.
Outside Lands Festival was this weekend. It's the first one that I wasn't all bummed about missing. Probably because I got to see Dawes at a pre-festival event. They preformed at the CA Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. It was pretty great (except for the enormous line to get in)! Small crowd at the stage and they did a few new songs that are pretty amazing. They are so fun to watch and Taylor Goldsmith is easy on the eyes. I think they are coming back at the end of November! My friends bailed out on me again but I lucked out and Ashley wanted to come with me. She is nice to have around most of the time. I was pretty pissed but I won't go into that drama...won't make a difference now.
Speaking of drama, I got to see Mike Alix yesterday! It's been over a year since I last saw that guy. Seems like things are going fairly well for him although coming home is hard to do in more ways than one. We met up at his friends house (and after getting shoved into the garage door by a couple of stupid drunk people, which left an enormous bruise on my arm) his friends' girlfriend starting bitching out Christina. It's was totally out of the blue but that's what angry drunk people do. Apparently there is a tiny bit of hostility between the two that I knew nothing about... needless to say our visit got cut way short and now he is home in Florida. I wouldn't mind seeing Christina again soon though.
Camping to look forward to this coming weekend. Also, my dad knows a guy who owns a couple of units off Occidental Rd in Santa Rosa. Only $650 for a studio so I'm going to try and take a peek at that tomorrow. Oy vey, I'm tired, which is dumb because I did nothing today. Time for bed, goodnight!

Here is some good music to check out:
The Fling - new album out at the end of the month

The River, Work and Bread, Oh My!

It started last weekend when I went to Anthony's family 4th of July BBQ with Crystal. We hung out there all day. Lots of food, friends, alcohol and some karaoke :) (Crystal and I had no idea Marcus and Kelly were mean-muggin the camera!)

We camped out on the property only to wake up the next morning and get ready to float down the river. I had bought some tubes at Big O Tires in Healdsburg which worked out perfect. A friend of Crystal's came up from Monterey, so everyone had something to float on. We started on Fitch Mountain and went to Memorial Beach. That was an all day thing too. It was super nice except for the creeper who will not be named, and getting a little sunburn. The early part of my week was spent working, recovering, and babysitting.
I went to River Rock Casino on Thursday and doubled my money. Don't get too excited... I turned a $20 into $40. Then Friday night, at work, my UPS shipment system went down, then credit cards wouldn't work on the register and then the internet went out. We couldn't close out the day or shut the registers down completely. Lucky me worked this Saturday and had to deal with the craziness of all my systems being down. The general consensus is that our router went out, or maybe it was the modem...no I'm pretty sure the router. Anyways, it's UPS specific so they are the only ones who can really fix/replace it. The local tech guy just won't do unfortunately. We made things work, everything just took twice as long. It's still not fixed so Monday is going to be a blast. Just kidding....
Today I had a bread baking class with my sister in Healdsburg. I was watching crystal's dog too so I've been getting up super early, but I digress... The class was fun. We started at 10am and went until 2pm. Learned how to make foccacia bread, an egg bread, pizza dough, and ciabatta bread. There is a base recipe that all the breads branch from so there were a ton of other little goodies we made and/or got recipes for.

Lunch was sooo good. We had this creamy tomato soup with a grilled cheese made with multi-grain bread and white cheddar cheese. That's when we tasted all the other stuff we made. Lots of demos but lots of hands on too. The instructors were Costeaux owner Karl Seppi and head pastry chef Mairin Rossi. So yummy!
This coming Friday is Crystal's birthday. (She's getting a dog! I'm super excited for her.) I have to work until 6pm but I'm going to try and talk to Anthony about doing something fun that night. San Francisco maybe?!? In a dream world I would go to Santa Barbara the next day to see Delta Spirit's final show of this tour. Sunday I'm for sure going to see Blake Mills at Hotel Utah in SF. I think it's like $7, so if anyone is interested to just hang out and hear some decent live music, call me. I'm collecting a little list of shows I want to go to so I may be bugging you to come with me.
*Sat Aug 7th: Young the Giant @ Bottom of the Hill - This might not happen :( b/c I might have family over
*Thurs Aug 12th: Dawes @ CA Academy of Sciences Nightlife
*Fri Oct 15th: Matt Costa @ Slims
Oh man it's gonna be great! These are all cheap and SF local so yeah, good times!
Well, it's getting late and I have a full work week that starts tomorrow at 8am. Goodnight friends!