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
Howdy Friends, Fam, and all you Dreamers out there!
It’s a New Year, and I’ve got a proposition for you:
Listen…
Listen to the sound of the trees rustling in the wind, and the sun warming your skin.
Hear the Moon cry in the night, and the animals fight for their right.
It’s a menagerie of thoughts and ideas abound… a cosmic stage, round and round.
This Thursday you can tune-in to my Cosmic Soiree kicking off at 7PM for a listen of:
Listen, reflect, and engage… during my fireside chat with Life On Mars spinning on vinyl and yours truly to walk you through each song…
You can help us launch this thing the right way, with friends and family despite the distance we all share at the moment.
I'll also announce a release schedule where you can follow along, song-by-song and word-by-word, as we write the Story of "Life On Mars."
An album of loud purple sounds. Someone popped their eggnog on a fruitcicle and created a new dessert.
When you go looking for an album of magnificence in groove and the possibility of a meow style, you pick downtown for the bass line and uptown for the tempo.
All the guitars work together like a saddle fits on a horse. Everybody finds their way.
Of course the drums do all the talking when they say n”sp “sp “sp “tat “tat and that bass is walking like it don’t care none except right here.
When people say things about me, I’m the baddest mountain. Like a thunder rolled in and said “hey!” Where all my dancers at?
Track One starts out clean and keeps riding till it’s over, no stops, just a belly up slouching cruise with a clear wind carrying the salty coastal air.
Track Two begins calm, but then finds an off ramp and gets subdued when it seems to find a clearing toward the beach.
Track Three is like a reflection of your grandmother’s memoirs that jot down everything from cookies to coastal swims. Beach days are fun, and everyone gets along just fine.
Track Four is a little more calm except when it tends to escalate for a minute as if to say, “hey, I’m here.”
Track Five continues onward like a boat on an anchor, swaying in the sea. The world can’t help but to bring rain. It’s just life.
Track Six reminds us of our mothers and fathers of the world. Those who lift us up.
Track Seven reads like “a Day in the Life,” and sings like “Bitches Brew.”
Track Eight tells us when to be happy and it’s all the time. “Could you be loved?”
Track Nine has more to say. And it’s that “we want more wine, and whiskey, and a good night’s sleep as much as possible. Someone needs to remind us of this more often, and that’s what this song is all about. Funk layered with harmonies and horns and a laid back approach to life in general. Just finding connection and being willing to embrace it for what it is and to do good wherever possible.
Track Ten someone told me to write them a song and here it is. I’m here for you.
Track Eleven slow grooves and a soft voice with some percussive style, congas and hand drums. Where a groove gets locked in. We are here.
Track Twelve bring rain and birds. In no particular order, someone lights a fire in the sky. With no warning, a siren calls and tempts.
Track Thirteen there is always morning to freshen the mood. The warm sun brings a calm. It feels good to soak it in and feel whole. Cosmic guitars bring a groovy vibe.
Track Fourteen we live in a musical space. Sound is our friend. We know it when we heart it. Soothing, vibey, a tip of the hat. A step in my walk. It’s all the same. Just groove with it.
~ Just Groove With It
All Rights Reserved 2021
Release Date 1/21/21
Howdy Friends, Family, Seekers of Truth, and all you Dreamers out there,
“Live One” is live now, just live in the now, love one another, and stay a “Live One.”
Listen on your favorite streaming app, and check out the music video I made from my trip to Iceland.
“Live One,” is a new single from our coming album, “Life on Mars” that was written on a journey through Iceland.
“Life on Mars” represents our collective ability to create a better world filled with Love and Empathy, asking the question, “If we were to go to Mars, what would we want to do differently?”
Stay tuned for our Kickstarter launch 3.20.20 (update, links to Preorder on my website) and help support artists promoting a vision of love and empathy through inspired Americana Music and High Quality imagery from a journey through Iceland.
“Within this or that are those that seek nought in the shackles breaking.” Lyrics from “Live One.”
Thank you for reading and please stay in touch!
Riley Hodges – Vocals, Lyrics, Guitar, Hammond B3
Tim Bullock – Bass Guitar
Eric Hirschhorn – Saxophone
Antoine Arvizu – Producer, Drums, Engineer
FULL LYRICS for “Live One”
I’ve been waiting for a sign that I should’ve seen 10 days ago. Staring at a blue sky swirling into red again. Like a vibrational high, I contemplate that I’m not fading. Just purify your mind. We’ll tear apart a magnet, baby. The rolling winds bring life when they whisper bursts of nothingness. I wonder if it’s known that we can be the nothingness. Like a thousand year stone and they call upon the night, “A Live One! A Live One!”
Capture moments that are still and wish we were forever now. The mother of this world uttering divine to men. If One is a gift to the many, God is manifest in contemplating. Within this or that are those that seek naught in the shackles breaking. Stillness in your mind, and it feels just like a loving kiss. Pouring rain in this life will bring returns of genesis. What’s it like to be a stone that’s shot into magma bursting out? I’ve been waiting for a sign and they call upon the night, “A Live One! A Live One!”
In purity of mind does choice bring moral prominence? Does our manifest deserve One and serve the greater good, or is it like the stone blessed by divine metamorphosing? When do we satisfy ourselves and have compassion on doors closing? Are we doomed to befall the consequence of our own bliss? I wonder if it’s known that we can be the nothingness. I’ve been waiting for a sign and the horse brings a gift. “A Live One! A Live One!” Echoes through the night and I am alright. “A Live One! A Live One!” I’ve been waiting for a sign and they call upon the night, “A Live One! A Live One!” © 2020 Riley Hodges
Riley Hodges is a musician from Long Beach, CA, and is the lead singer and songwriter for the Cosmic Cowboys. The music has roots in Americana with each song distinctly all its own.
“Street Walker” is the opening track of “Life on Mars” that recites the exclaims of pedestrian life through bouncy beats, clean guitar riffs and a padded saxophone, while “Maybelline,” a dreamer wanting to sleep among the stars, follows a laid-back funk-rhythm that is supported by uplifting vocals and a Hammond B3.
Riley grew up in his families bar business in Long Beach, CA and credits his parents for introducing him to good music. His mom had the hippest collection of music among his friends, and Riley’s uncle Roland, lead singer and keyboardist from the Elm Street Band, would play backyard parties at their house and events in the neighborhood while Riley was growing up. Riley began piano lessons at a young age, eventually switching to drums for a few years, then as a teenager picked up a guitar and learned to sing. Fast forward to adulthood, Riley operates Shannon’s bars, restaurant, and entertainment venue with his family, and as those businesses have grown, Riley intends to focus more on writing, recording, and playing live music. Over the past several years, Riley has written and recorded 20 original songs with growing commercial success. Listeners describe his music as catchy, upbeat, thoughtful and enjoyable.
Before the Cosmic Cowboys, Riley met and formed Taste of Red with his friends, John Capito and Tim Bullock, and they were fortunate to play their biggest venue to date at The Observatory in Orange County, CA. Fast forward several years later and John is now the lead guitar player for the Cosmic Cowboys, and their next biggest performance is scheduled for March 14, 2020 where the Cosmic Cowboys are ready to play to a large crowd of festival attendees for St. Pat’s Party on Pine hosted by Shannon’s Corner in Long Beach, CA.
Thanks again for reading! We appreciate your support, and we hope you enjoy the release of “Live One.”
P.s. If you haven’t seen our Kickstarter teaser, check it out here and consider making a pledge when we launch our Kickstarter on 3.20.20 for a cause that stands for Love and Empathy! Our goal is to raise $10,0000 so we can release “Life on Mars” on “vinyllll, vinyllll, vinylll!” in the Fall of 2020. With a little courage you too can experience this inspired vision through a beautifully produced Americana music album by hardworking humans just like you! Together, we can change the world through positive vibrations 🙂
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…
Referring to these wall posts of late, scroll down the feed and make your date:
Poll feelings and followers and those in need
My wall is open for those to seed
But in the end there’s always you
My wall grows so continuously too
To top and shallow for weak and hollow
For strong and old and bored and bold
For young and hound n’ passion’s loud
For any other of many sold
For most of all a creative crew that sees me wallow in this stew
A poll will show results of many
My ideas flow in words a’plenty
Your words I write and think and brew
Your word inspires a creative mood
Stay tuned for more “wall posts”
An ooze appeared like a viscous red soup that drips when you tip it and plumps with more bread, a delicious red soup that will get you in the end. Where do we go and who do we follow, and will there be garments provided at the gallows? I’m sure we all know that siphoning is silly, but are we sure now that we’ve not gone too silly? A temper teem strut is like a thick board of white sashes, and I’ll let you know when I’ve got my own ashes.
Guys, guys, GUYS!
It’s red all over… the world is red!
Our world, this life!
Where will we go? What will we do?
Panicking won’t help…
Hellllppp!
HELLPPPPP!
Please someone, help us all!!!!!!
He screamed as he drove through the night.
The fires had been burning for some time now, so long, in fact, that he hadn’t realized it was 12pm the next day.
Safety was nowhere to be found except while always moving and driving the obstructed roadways in his 4×4 Jeep Wrangler. He knew it would come in handy one day, like for real, a bonafide challenge vehicle.
What he didn’t expect is all of this.
Where did this come from?
How did we get to this point without realizing sooner?
Why is it so hard to reach people these days?
I’m going through pain, and I can’t even begin to express what it feels like, least not without a long period of grief, and all gamut of other emotional positions I will soon sequentially occupy.
Time, the real currency.
So how am I supposed to convey to someone out there watching this unfold that I am in distress, like for real – bonafide!
How can I even begin to imagine what it’s like for someone else with a traumatic experience . . .
People mock you, in their little bubble half a world away . . .
I also think this outward pouring of love and charity has been amazing.
What I would like to see is a spiritual shift.
Spiritual meaning presence of mind.
Shift meaning collective presence of mind, or mindfulness.
Our Story is a way for you to help create the story of Life on Mars, the same name for music releases by the Cosmic Cowboys.
Next up: a topic on Emapthy
Comment below, or on another social platform. DM, MSG, EMAIL me, etc. LMK your thoughts as I write the next post . . .
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.
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 . . .
Perspective In Sound 