Sunday Review: Shattered

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

The Road Ahead

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…

Measurable Words (wall posts)

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”

Keeping It Honest

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.

High Low

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.”

C’est La Vie

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!

https://www.rileyhodges.com/new-music

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.

Saturday the 14th @ Dipiazzas

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!

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.

C’est La Vie En Sevilla

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.


Playing on a new friend’s guitar at Luis y Luz (pron. “looth” in the Sevillian accent 🙂
My sister, Shannon, and new friend at the pre-wedding Paella and Ribs BBQ at Luis’
Maria’s son and Spanish father, Luis. He hosted the BBQ at his home in Montequinto, and selected a very special wedding venue.
Alex and Maria

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… 

Learning Piano, Overcoming Fear

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…

Organ lyfe

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.

My brother Darren at his hillside retreat in Hemet

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 . . .

Songwriting feels like…

Songwriting feels like a cozy couch with nowhere else to be. You are here and nothing else matters. Stories live forever and dreams do come true.

Often times I find myself jotting down notes when an idea strikes. Yet ideas don’t always strike first. To start off I like to go by feeling and touch alone…

I’ll grab a guitar and start strumming and humming. I let my senses guide me toward the discovery of something that sounds good.

Songwriting feels like the first bite of an excellent meal. Tasty, and there’s more to come! Where shall we go from here?

Our Story: Chapter One

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