We had a great time at NuWu Cannabis’ 1-Year Anniversary Party last Saturday October 13th! Thanks to Tisha, Chris, Ethan and Tazia for reaching out to us and being so incredibly gracious and kind during our entire experience at NuWu! The carne asada fries were delightful, the stage and sound were fantastic and everyone was super nice to us! Some of our very best friends came out to support and hang - Bernalyn, Steph, Michael, DeAnthony, Jon, KC, all the vendors and familiar faces in the cannabis industry - we love you all! We played some brand new (for us) songs which were lots of fun and some may have even found a permanent place in future sets. It was a beautiful night, a slight chill in the air, but crystal clear and not a drop of rain to be felt. We essentially played two sets of material - from 8:30-10pm - almost past my bedtime but we held it together well enough to be invited back! I think that should always be the goal, if you play a show and the people that booked you say, “that was great thank you, we’d love to have you back.” that means you did your job, however if after your set they simply say, “okay then, bye bye now…” you know something may have gone wrong. So we appreciate the hospitality of the fine folks over at NuWu Cannabis Marketplace - and happy 1-Year Anniversary to you!!
SMOKE SESSION: Humble Pie
For today's SMOKE SESSION, I wanted to take a lighter approach towards the topic of "drugs" - but instead of the usual "say no to drugs" message you'd see on TV throughout the 80s and 90s, I wanted to take a celebratory pro-drug stance. I also intended to be a little blunt (no pun intended) and direct, no hidden meanings, just “I only feel good when I’m on drugs.” can’t get that confused. Despite the intentional humor/sarcasm, the song has a bit of a darker tone to it, so maybe things aren't all good in "Drug Land"?? You can hear the musical interplay back and forth; the up and down effect of being with and without substances as the song chugs along. I had fun making this one, I liked creating the different moods as the singer went through his "experiences." I enjoyed using weird chords in the verses, and then trying to pull it together for the choruses. The strain I smoked while creating this song was from Willie's Reserve called "Humble Pie" which was high in Caryophyllene - great for a creative, relaxing state. I figured if it was good enough for Willie Nelson, I could try it out for myself - and I certainly enjoyed it! I'm starting to like Indica hybrids a lot more for writing songs, Sativas are almost too anxious for me now. To be in a good state of mind to write a song, I feel you need to slow down a bit and be receptive to the messages being sent from all around you - that's when/how the ideas come. If you don't have your feelers out and you're not in a calm state of mind - you won't catch the ideas when they come. So here is just a fun little nugget called "(I Only Feel Good) When I'm On Drugs" - and don’t take the lyrics TOO seriously, I’m actually doing fine, thanks! Enjoy this HOME RECORDED TUNE, and be prepared for the upcoming release of our BRAND NEW EP “Celebrate The Imperfections” coming this FALL - and if you are near LAS VEGAS this Saturday October 13th, we are playing NuWu Dispensary’s 1-Year Anniversary Party - so come on down and hang with us!
Mixing with Vinnie at The Tone Factory
We had such a blast recording and mixing this new record at The Tone Factory here in Las Vegas. Working with producer/engineer/owner Vinnie Castaldo has been a fantastic experience - he turned our ideas into reality! He has a great ear, provided some excellent feedback on the songs and brought them into their fully realized form. Its been fun to hear the songs from where they started to where they are now, I really enjoyed the transformation and the process to flesh out the tunes in order to make them big, bad and beautiful. Which may be the next title to our album. For now though, I leave you with a cliff hanger - we have ONE MORE DAY in the studio to master the songs and then I will start leaking song clips out so listen up…
Donato & Vinnie at The Tone Factory
Hard At Work Working Hard
An extra full day of rehearsal yesterday…working on our setlist for NuWu’s 1 Year Anniversary Party in less than 2 weeks - Saturday October 13th at NuWu Dispensary in downtown Las Vegas, there will be music, food, prizes, games ALL DAY - so mark your calendars with permanent ink cuz you won’t wanna miss this one! We’re playing our favorite songs from the 60s, 70s, not much 80s, some 90s, a few 2000s and today’s modern hits! Well, to be honest we don’t play much Top 40 - Dick Clark would be sad, nothing for him to do. But whatever we do play will make you wanna shake your body and move your feet!
Meet The Band
I wanted to focus some attention on the band today - they are such great dudes and talented musicians, so why not put em in the spotlight a little?? Eliss is originally from Inglewood, CA and brings his OG attitude to the group which allows us to play some of the tougher parts of town. Dominic comes from a Drumcore background, which has given him incredible skin-slapping skills that he displays on a nightly basis with The Imperfections. Lastly, Donato is the singer/songwriter of the group and also plays a guitar or “axe” as some have called it. Donato shows equal love for Aerosmith, Green Day, Billy Joel and Foo Fighters and that can most certainly be heard on our upcoming EP “Celebrate The Imperfections” due in the fall of 2018. And now that you know the band, feel free to pick your favorite and fall in love!
Artist Pick Playlist on Spotify
We have put together a little playlist for your drive home today - The Artist Pick Imperfections Playlist has been hand-crafted from hours of digital digging and presented in a handy, portable package that anyone can enjoy! Take a moment to roll the windows down, crank the volume up and ENJOY the Imperfections Artist Pick Playlist on Spotify! And please follow us so you know the exact moment our new EP “Celebrate The Imperfections” becomes available.
SHOWS A COMIN'
Good day everyone - we’re excited to announce a few NEW SHOWS we have coming up
First of all, we are incredibly honored to have been asked by NuWu Dispensary in Las Vegas to play their 1 year anniversary party on October 13th. Its an ALL DAY celebration with a ton of great bands, delicious food, happy people, and possibly some cannabis?? We absolutely LOVE NuWu, they are owned by the Paiute Native American tribe here in Nevada - awesome people, amazing history in Nevada (my son just so happens to be studying Paiutes in school at the moment), awesome facility in Vegas, we couldn’t be happier to be involved! A huge thank you and shout out goes to Tisha and Chris Spotted-Eagle for showing us the love this holiday season! I tell you this [not my words] “happiness does not decrease by being shared” so come share the love on Saturday October 13th from noon to Midnight at NuWu Dispensary [MAP BELOW]
Another upcoming show is happening THIS TUESDAY at an unknown location. Mark your calendar, but leave your GPS blank…more info coming soon, but it is an exciting opportunity that we will share more details about as soon as possible. I know, why even bring it up?? Well, its called a teaser kids; you dangle something potentially sweet and tasty out in front of someone and then all of a sudden just cu….
First Friday LIVE @ The Bunkhouse Saloon 9/7/18
We had a blast at The Bunkhouse on Friday! Thank to everyone who came out and made it a fun time! Thanks to our new friends Vin A, Camden West and Kayleigh Foster for rocking the socks off the crowd - these guys (and gals) were super talented and it really was a pleasure sharing the stage with them! Vin A invited us all on stage for a sing-a-long to The Black Keys “Howlin’ For You” which was tons of fun! Be on the lookout for this line-up again, we all had too much fun not to do it another time soon!
Eliss fingers his 4-string Airline bass LIVE at The Bunkhouse Saloon 9/7/18.
Dominic slaps his Pork Pie skins LIVE at The Bunkhouse Saloon 9/7/18.
Donato vibrates his vocal chords and the strings on his custom Fredner guitar LIVE at The Bunkhouse Saloon 9/7/18.
SMOKE SESSION: Strawberry Cough
the rippin' and the tearin'
seattle power shredder
For this week's SMOKE SESSION I vaped some Strawberry Cough from GLP and started elaborating on some ideas I had recently come up with. First off, the line "You don't even have a heart to break" sounded like such a bitter concept, I wanted to see what I could do with it. Its something you'd have to be really angry to say to someone else. Also the title of the song "Kiss and Tell" to me has such a push and pull to it, the KISS is the sweet, wonderful part but the TELL is much more mysterious - who did you tell and what did you tell them?! I'm also working to simplify my musical delivery, and this is a demo but I'm intentionally not overdoing the guitars and other instruments during the verses and vocal parts. I can always add more later, but I like hearing some space in there every so often. I wish I sang this better but typically with demos the vocal melody is so totally new, that I'm honestly just not that good at singing it yet! The next version I'll have it locked in I promise!
As for the cannabis in today's session, Strawberry Cough from Green Life Productions is one of my absolute favorites! Years ago when cannabis first went legal in Nevada, Strawberry Cough was a strain I just HAD to track down, in addition to the incredibly sweet, fruity scent and taste, SC's effects are ideal for creative folks [check https://www.leafly.com/sativa/strawberry-cough] so I had to see what it was capable of. Immediately I felt the rush of euphoria and creativity that makes you just want to write songs all day! This one tastes great and feels great on the mind/body level as well.
So even tho this song is far from perfect, it IS what I was able to come up with today on Strawberry Cough, bruises and all. I'll have to post a remix soon. But for now I'm happy with the bitter love concepts in the lyrics and the guitars at the end are kinda cool. Hope y'all are having a great day - until next session...
Happy Monday!
Its just another day of the week, seemingly like the rest, but why does Monday feel so much shittier than the rest of the days? The weight of the week can crush you if you're not prepared to face it. So we here at The Imperfections headquarters challenge you to make the best of your Monday - its only going to get better this week! We are working up some fun new songs, and old songs from the 60s by a group of amphibious animals, a few rock classics from the 70s, and even some songs from as recently as the 2000s - which reminds me I think my computer is still susceptible to the Y2K bug - I gotta update my Windows 98 ASAP! Anybody have a vintage install disc?? Laserdisc preferred. Btw, I can't believe BluRay beat out HD-DVD. I had my money on HD-DVD all the way - if anyone wants to borrow my copy of Jerry Maguire lemme know - or if you have dial up maybe I can fax it to you.
