Sun & Street Walker
Dimensions of Maybelline
The Sea & C’est La Vie
Wildlife is Coming Home
In the end, we are all a Live One
Listen to the Wind Go
The Seasons change, Nature endures in a Long Couple of Days
Fiery Earth of magmatic Highs & and cratered Lows
The Road Ahead envisions the world as a better place. This better place, like all human constructs, is only as real as you make it.
The song, Long Couple of Days, is about finding your groove. This, and other new songs, will be released as the Cosmic Cowboys.
The Road Ahead is like finding your way home. Coming Home.
See tags
The past is future
Positivity in motion
Cosmic cowboys ?
I can feel it in my teeth. The tingles gives one a feeling of both numbness and pressure. The rolling waves crushed me to the bones, but I was not afraid. From hammer to stone, it is my only feeling.
“Where will we go?” she asked as the canyons echoed.
Just then the phone rang…
When I dubbed this gig “Unplugged” I did not know that I would actually need to be completely “Unplugged.” I should’ve sensed that something was up when my home PA malfunctioned by making a repeating, alarming, sweeping, ascending tonal sound… like what you might hear during an apocalyptic scenario. What the fuck?
I’ve been singing about going High or Low in a yet-to-be-released track, and as I’m writing this paragraph I am laughing out loud at the idea of a malfunctioning low to high ascending tone.
What the actual fuck? Like I say in C’est La Vie, “Ain’t it funny in hindsight. Shake it off, such is life is life.”
Okay, whatever. We all find parallels in daily life if we are willing to look, and pay attention. Mindfulness helps, and even when we’re not paying attention shit tends to slap you in the face when you least expect it. Of course, even though I search for good and pleasant inspirational parallels, I don’t always pay attention, mindfully, because of the nature of 21st Century life and the human condition in general. Technological distractions, malfunctions, ramming, prodding, vying for space. I just glanced at my phone and read another scary, nearly apocalyptic, headline involving a “brain eating amoeba” What the…
Apart from scary headlines, fear-based news in general, and other distractions, what else is up with mindfulness and better ways to delve into creative communication, sort of the point of this blog, Perspective In Sound?
I heard my song “Maybelline” on the radio earlier. Fuck yeah!
Broadcasting Live from Shannon’s Corner on Pine. KLBP 99.1 FM Long Beach, CA!
Also, I heard Alyssa Nighswonger, friend and multi-talented artist, on KLBP 99.1 FM Long Beach, CA while writing… She asked, “What’s the point?” which is what drew me to say what the point of this blog was above.
This is how my brain works. Don’t eat me, amoebas! Please preserve my twisting, interconnected, multiple-outcome reality as blood pumps through my trillions of synapses to form growing positive connections!
What else? Well, making sense of all this in 2019 requires a high-speed broadband Internet connection and well-functioning CPU. My 2012 iMac has not been cutting it lately, but it’s not Mac’s fault… It is I, the master of my CPU, that is holding on to too much content. Lately, I’ve been sorting through old content since I started taking pictures of mostly nonsense from about 2000 (y2k, baby!) up until I moved to Barcelona, Spain in 2007 where I got a chance to photograph more creatively. Just before I left for Spain, I bought the re-popularized Holga toy camera made out of cheap components to give the user a flawed photographic experience that over-accentuates the natural beauty of the Universe. Colors, light leaks, overexposure, etc. all adds to what has now been replaced by your Instagram filter, or countless other ways in which you can manipulate the world around you to suit your liking.
When I was much younger, barely a teenager, I made a few time-lapse videos using legos, fire, a Santa Claus doll, whatever I could conveniently get my hands on. Later on, my sisters and I made a film, Killer In the House, Part 1 and Part 2…
The goal is to make it entertaining. For better or for worse, at the moment…
So as I’m cleaning up my Hard Drive, thereby improving my CPU, I am working on how to stay centered, mindful and patient…
Back to the gig on Saturday, the 14th after our Friday the 13th Full Harvest Moon Adventure into the Wasteland. I started noticing the pull of this rare full moon the night beforehand on Thursday the 12th as my PA was malfunctioning… then during our Wasteland Adventure, and up until the gig on Saturday I was still feeling as prickly as a Night Blooming Cactus. Of course, as I got on stage my guitar pickup malfunctioned… so we mic’d my acoustic guitar, Unplugged. It’s weird how the Universe does that to you.
Keeping It Honest is all about the stuff that is out of your control and you shall not fight, it is embracing the chaos around you so much so that you become the chaos, figuratively speaking, just so that you can see things from a different perspective, also known as Empathy. Courage helps…
It’s been a ‘fun’ summer, learning these lessons, and I’m ready for Fall, falling into my next release series, including new music later this month, Live One!
Update 1 of 2: it turns out that the reason my guitar didn’t work at the gig was because the backup battery I had on hand was indeed also dead like the one in my guitar when I first found out the pickup wasn’t working. So either there are powers conspiring against me (and also for me in terms of the creative potential that it creates through its resistance) OR I did this to myself. Both can be true, but also just one of these options can be true, alternatively. I love alternative music, too.
Update 2 of 2: Live One was eventually released on March 10, 2020, just days before the world shut down due to COVID-19. Again, either there are powers conspiring against me (and also for me in terms of the creative potential that it creates through its resistance) OR I did this to myself (I did in fact have a clairvoyant moment the week before ‘the shutdown’). Both can be true, but also just one of these options can be true, alternatively. I love alternative music, too. But not death metal typically.
Flowers a’bloomin’ under the moon and will you shape me now? For summer is rising and petals have fallen here on this cool ground …
Arriving in España reminded me of the time I spent here while studying abroad in Barcelona. We visited Sevilla at that time yet I could not really appreciate the city then the way that I do now.
For starters, our Airbnb was a great choice, and it’s exciting to be here for our friend Maria and Alex’s wedding!
Sevilla is beautiful, romantic, and cultured with a rich history of traditions like Flamenco and food like Paella and Iberian Ham. There are also stories of conquest, exploration of the Americas and stunning architectural design.
As we venture out into the city I am finding there are many parallels to explore as I am releasing my new single, C’est La Vie!
Sitting on our balcony with La Giralda in my view reminds me another time and place. Have you been to space?
Life on Mars is about expressing our best self while practicing empathy, courage and love.
Family is so important and I feel blessed to be able to spend time with them on this lovely vacation!
I’m excited to release C’est La Vie next Friday, June 28th! We are playing a release show at the Prospector the night before, Thursday at 10pm. Come say “hola” as I bring the Spanish vibes home with me to share in the LBC.
Upcoming notes:
it’s amazing you can perceive emotions so subtly on a living face. a face that’s alive, however far away or near you feel to it, can be detected by the viewer and in relation makes them feel alive, however far away or near you feel to it.
//
Rose petals are divine
Ancient
Eternal
Divine
//
Flamenco
Rumba
//
When the sangria and gazpacho becomes confused, it’s a good thing…
I remember first hearing The Beatles through my parent’s early 90’s Panasonic stereo. The basic speakers of the day were quite large and ours eventually got blown out. Removing the foam grill would reveal a soft and torn fabric cone. This gave it quite a breathy sound. Puhhh!
When I was 4 or 5 years old, my sisters and cousin and I started piano lessons with Karen. She was a psychic that worked on the Queen Mary. One day Karen showed me a bent key from trying to enter a door on the ship, but the spirits would not let her in. After our lesson I switched places with my sisters who were at our next door neighbor’s playing Ouija board. Karen did not approve…
When I turned 12 I became interested in drums. I’m sure this was because my much older half brother was a drummer. He bought me a CD of Led Zeppelin IV and thrashed my drum heads while demonstrating When the Levee Breaks. Thanks, bro!
Check out the original compared to Zeppelin’s version.
I played drums till I was 18, and then picked up a guitar though I did not make it a priority for many years because I was too caught up in silly social activities. Eventually, I managed to find time by playing late into the night as often as I could, sometimes drunk or half asleep. A friend of mine once told me to play every day for 1 year, regardless if it was 5 minutes or an hour and I would be surprised by the results. I was, and still am! Practice makes ppppppppuhhhhh… erfect?
The first songs I learned on guitar were Blackbird by The Beatles and Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin. Why did I choose these not-so-beginner songs to learn? Simple answer: my friend, Mark, shared his Tab music with me and I studied it with intention and focus like nothing before… and so my love for guitar quickly grew from there… I started printing music and for many years kept my songs in a 3-ring binder. Technology or nah?
Nowadays, I play mostly guitar and focus on improving my vocals. Yet I still fall back on piano as a useful guide for learning chord structure and theory as well as songwriting. It’s nice to be able to see the keys visually compared to using fingers on strings facing away from you. Generally, the more instruments you play the more you will learn the relationship of parts that make up the whole shebang of music as sonic energy! Or something like that…
Last year I learned Your Song by Elton John and performed it as the best man at my friend’s Kyle and Molly’s wedding!
Overcoming fear feels like love. Love feels like vulnerability and acceptance. Vulnerability takes courage and acceptance takes empathy. I love, therefore I am…
Annnnddddd here’s some cool pics of general music stuff . . .
T-minus 7 days . . . New Single: Street Walker . . . Friday, 4.12.19
I am thinking of a color across the spectrum and through the eyes of a child’s inflection of viewpoint of innocence for minds shut off to the world with happiness and lollipops for all the boys and girls because our streets are paved of gold for bigger interests than the walkers who labor and beg for some business but health in consequence limits their potential whereas our assistance can make or break their survival.
The new single, Street Walker, is from my upcoming album, Life On Mars. I wrote this song after an experience I saw on the streets of Long Beach. A guy walks by and grabs a drink from a bar table that we put in place for guests, not the dirty street-walkers. But this guy grabbed and sipped a Vodka Soda and set off a chain reaction. I intervened to tone down the ensuing battle and a regular named Wild Bill was there just in time to hand the streetwalker a cigarette to keep his moving and grooving on down the line.
I’m listening to the song now with earbuds at home. I just walked over to pet my black cat, Jeep, and as the song was playing I thought it would be cool to shoot a video that has a kind of first person POV of me getting up in the morning, petting Jeep, do a little this and a little that and I’m out the door off to the streets. I guess I’d have to hit the bar for this one.
Will explore further. Until then, I’ll quote the first verse:
Coming up like a shadow in the night. Gotta get high before the dawn. The morning sun don’t care about me. Where’s my next opportunity?
Riley Hodges is a musician from Long Beach, CA.
Hi Friends, Family and seekers of truth,
Life on Mars represents our collective ability to CREATE an ideal world.
My musical virtues focus on empathy, courage and love.
The album is set for release on vinyl later this year.
Here is a sneak peak:
Thank you for reading!
For more information:
Bio
Having grown up in the bar business, Riley operates Shannon’s bars, restaurant and entertainment venue with his family.
Over the past few years as the Shannon’s businesses have grown, Riley has endeavored to focus more on creating and playing music. His latest project is Life on Mars.
Life on Mars is an alt-rock album with eclectic elements that was inspired by a journey through Iceland in 2016. The song Live One writes about this experience, asking, “What’s it like to be a stone shot into magma bursting out?” From there the album took shape as a metaphor for life on Earth, what we’ve done here, how we’ve grown, our follies… and if we went to Mars, what would we want to bring and do differently?
The album conjures a utopian dream where virtues like Empathy and Courage are held in high regard. The songs chat an earthly tone with the opening track, Street Walker, reciting the exclaims of pedestrian life through bouncy beats, clean guitar riffs and a padded saxophone, while Maybelline, a dreamer for equal rights wanting to sleep among the stars, follows a laid-back funk-rhythm that is supported by uplifting vocals and a Hammond B3.
© Riley Hodges 2019
RILEY HODGES·THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2019
Riley Hodges is a musician from Long Beach, CA. Having grown up in the bar business, Riley operates Shannon’s bars, restaurant and entertainment venue with his family.
Over the past few years as the Shannon’s businesses have grown, Riley has endeavored to focus more on creating and playing music. His latest project is Life on Mars.
Life on Mars is an eclectic-rock album that was inspired by a journey through Iceland in 2016. The song Live One writes about this experience, asking, “What’s it like to be a stone shot into magma bursting out?” From there the album took shape as a metaphor for life on Earth, what we’ve done here, how we’ve grown, our follies… and if we went to Mars, what would we want to bring and do differently?
The album conjures a utopian dream where virtues like Empathy and Courage are held in high regard. The songs chat an earthly tone with the opening track, Streetwalker, reciting the exclaims of pedestrian life through bouncy beats, clean guitar riffs and a padded saxophone, while Maybelline, a dreamer for equal rights wanting to sleep among the stars, follows a laid-back funk-rhythm that is supported by uplifting vocals and a Hammond B3.
C’est La Vie reminds us that such is life while drawing the listener into a world of psychedelic and bouncy rhythms whereas Coming Home brings us back to solid ground by expressing the simplicities of passionate love with a pedal-steel, rocking solos and female backing vocals to support words like, “That old house feels just like a smile sittin’ on a summer night, and maybe we’ll smile while we’re rockin’ on a ‘lil baby porch swing.”
Next up, Live One takes aim at the god within us all, rooted in the evolving chaos of actual rocks and forms of matter underlying the processes behind life on earth: “If One is a gift to the many, God is manifest in contemplating. Between this and that are those that seek nought in the shackles breaking. Stillness in your mind, it feels just like a loving kiss. I wonder if it’s known that we can be the nothingness…” Expect 2 minutes of soaking and frantic saxophone to convey the messages further sonically as the song finales.
If the first half of the album is dreamlike, the second half shows that reality has finally set in. Let It Go stories the simple wisdoms of attachment as jangly strings quickly turn to screaming guitars, wet vocals and apoplectic lyrics, and Long Couple of Days follows a more balanced path using folk elements and a classic line, “Shoo fly outta my way.”
Finally, High Low culminates in energetic fashion with heavy drums and heavy distortion to make a statement anthemically that given a choice of high or low, “we can go high” and “when you’re ready to come we can light sparks.”
Check out the promotional release of Live One, and full album release in May 2019.
If you like my writing, please check out more where that came from.
Special thanks to Antoine Arvizu at The Compound Studio, and to Eric Stoner for use of the album artwork, APOCALYPTICUS ROMANTICUS.
Perspective In Sound 