Tag: Los Angeles

  • lurk in the shadows

    lurk in the shadows

    Three or four years ago, not long after moving to Los Angeles, Joel and I hiked to the top of Griffith Park, the mountainous island of a park that rises out of the vast urban expanse of the city. Joel pointed out to me, as we walked in the coming twilight, that the park possesses…

  • hope. desire. destruction.

    hope. desire. destruction.

    Early this January, sometime after 3 a.m., alone in a rest stop bathroom, I walked along the wall of electric hand driers and, one by one, pressed each of the rusty metal buttons to turn each one on. A short minute later, when they had all shuddered to a stop, I did the same thing…

  • The Edge of the World

    The Edge of the World

    As I write this, Joel and I are on a westbound desert freeway some 300 miles outside of Los Angeles. We have played the final show on our tour and are headed back to where we started from two months ago. After being gone for so long and being so far away from everything familiar…

  • Embrace the chaos.

    Embrace the chaos.

    The Violet Lights play their first show in over four months tonight, and I can’t deny I’ve been hoping that it will go amazingly…and perfectly. But, as usual, what’s real is much harder to control than I’d like. Just a few days ago, my keyboard basically stopped working, and when it will be ready to…

  • miniature monster

    miniature monster

    For the past six weeks, Joel and I have been hard at work on our first music video for The Violet Lights. This being the case, our weekends and evenings continue to never be quite long enough for all that needs to be done. Sometimes amusing, other times frustrating, it seems that whatever project we…

  • sound it out

    sound it out

    Recording thirty station liners in one afternoon = gradually forgetting how to talk. Joel and I recording station liners for CMJ stations that put Sex & Sound EP on their top 30 lists during our college radio campaign with AAM Promo this summer.

  • ghosts

    ghosts

    Last week Joel and I gave our 30-day notice to move out of the rehearsal space we’ve rented here in Los Angeles since February. Although undeniably the wisest choice in terms of achieving our goals, there is no way, for now, that it doesn’t hurt. Over the past 8 months, Joel and I (mostly Joel,…

  • Scavenger’s Paradise

    Scavenger’s Paradise

    Scavenging often holds a place of ignobility in the natural order. Even so, the pragmatic organism willing to submit to such measures not only survives, but also fulfills a necessary role on the deconstructive arch of life’s circle. Adaptation, ingenuity and a stomach for humble pie, stuffed no doubt with carrion, define the scavenger, and…

  • Another New World

    Another New World

    There is a song by Josh Ritter that tells the story of a 16th century explorer who had spent his life sailing the world’s oceans in search of new lands. On what would be his final voyage, a quest to discover a new world in the Arctic, his beloved ship becomes irretrievably trapped in the…