a trainwreck of an mp3 for toi

I believe that line was in the last email I just sent John with my latest attempts at a song that I've been hacking away at while he's been in Virginia for the holidays catching big fish that don't quite warrant a citation, but are impressive nonetheless.

Yes, I'm aware that I dropped off the blogosphere for like a month. We were, in fact, getting a lot done, and I just got distracted and wasn't sure there was anything fantastic to update people on. Well, there is this song we are almost done arranging, tentatively titled "Never See." After a few runs under the mill by us, it seems to have taken its shape and we should be putting the finishing touches on it tomorrow. We are slowly but steadily getting a fair number of songs under our belt, and figuring out the next steps we need to take and walls we need to hit our heads against in frustration. Should be fun. I'm excited.

Oh, and we caught an awesome Friendly Fires show at The Annex some weeks ago. They sounded great and the place was packed. Have I mentioned how much I hate going to shows in the wintertime and dealing with people's (and my own) coats in a standing room only area? Yea, not so great. The only good thing is it is a protective barrier against overly excited fans and their wayward elbows.

Welcome to my playlist

Just updated our blog with a new fangled playlist, and currently John has had zero input in the songs, but that may change in the future. Or, he may have to upload a dueling playlist and we may start taking votes on whose is better...recounts may occur, chads will be counted, voter fraud will be investigated, and I will win regardless. Behold the democracy of Syvia :P

Note: The songs are not supposed to be played in a specific order, nor is there any meaning behind their arrangement in the list. I am merely lazy and started to compile all my favorite tunes. I am not finished yet (even picking these songs were tough because I didn't know when to stop and just upload the damn player before I kept adding more).

And the beat goes on

I know, I know, it has been a while, but you will be psyched to hear that we are still alive and kicking. Last weekend we managed to write and arrange a song within about a week and a half, which we are thrilled about. It began with a little idea I had laid down, and then we worked on all last weekend. The song is tentatively called "Because Really You Should." Tonight we are doing pre-production with our buddy Dan, who is going to lay down some drum ideas on the tunes that we have arranged. We also have a number of exciting possibilities that are evolving but I'm going to keep mum about them until we are further along.

Quick show review: Sunday we hit up the free No Age and Titus Andronicus show at Santos Party House. It was my first time seeing No Age live, and from what I heard, they weren't "themselves," which I guess was a good thing since I wasn't blown away by the performance. I wish I had caught them when they played Bowery Ballroom, because that was supposed to have been off the hook.

JUSTICE rocks the house that is Webster Hall

Had a great time at the Justice show last Thursday night. Despite the one hour wait outside in the cold and the fact that Justice didn't start until around 2am, it was still worth it. They put on a slamming show. The kind of show where the music is so loud and awesome that you can just close your eyes and let the sounds wash over you and clear your mind, because there is no way you could get a clear thought through that kind of entertainment. I especially love how Justice does a bang up job of teasing a song out until you absolutely can't take it anymore because you know your jam is about to drop, and then when it finally does all you want to do is jump around and go crazy. The strobe lights, thumping beats, and packed crowd even at the wee hours of the night made it one amazing dance party.
Check out the photo of the disco ball that dropped around 3am (thanks for the pic Angela!).

The Second Coming of the Paper Lamp?

It may just rise again from the dead. Word on the street is that we are very very close to getting another studio space to work in with some buddies, which means that there is a good chance that a new and improved paper lamp mascot will make an appearance in our new and improved space. I am looking forward to freeing up our weekend evenings a bit for some proper shenanigans, rather than having to ask forgiveness from my friends for being so MIA these past few months. This weekend John has gone fishin' but he did leave me a nice little beat idea to work on, so i've been messing around with that in addition to taking these past few weeks to revisit some old drafts of previous tracks i had written and see if I was inspired after having let them sit for so long.

Wondering why you got no update last weekend? Well, let's just say it was a washout. A combination of mutual tiredness, a Diesel party that we ended up not even getting into b/c we arrived too late, and a delivery of RAM all conspired against us. But hopefully with our new space, we will be able to make up a bit for lost time.

Weezer show at Madison Square Garden

John and I caught Weezer at MSG last Wednesday. At first I was surprised at how thin the crowd was for the opening bands, but then it got packed as the witching hour approached. I have to say, even though my euphoria could have been due in part to my state of intoxication by the time Weezer took the stage, I haven't had a nostalgic live show like that in a while. It brought back high school to a tee, and I thank Rivers Cuomo for allowing me to relive my teenage years where I listened to the blue album and pinkerton on repeat during car rides. Oh the days of compact disc players, where have you gone? I love the whole "we're dorks and we embrace it" thing that they've got going on. And, I'm not going to lie, any show where I can bond with fellow music fans and complete strangers by collectively screaming out the lyrics to every verse of every song is a damn good show in my book. Say it ain't so. 'Tis so. 'Tis so.

The final arrangement of "Port City" has come!

No, I didn’t take another trip to Alaska. I have just been very delinquent with my blog posts for Syvia because it necessitates me signing out of my gmail account (and by default, my gchat) to upload a new blog. Kinda annoying…wish someone at blogger would tweak that (*hint, hint).

So, a quick summary. Basically, we thought we had finished arranging our song (which was originally entitled “Skagway Boy” only to have the title nixed by some grumpy bandmate of mine, to be replaced by a mutually agreeable title of “Port City”). In its first incarnation, it was a very dance-y electronic song, which was good, but John and I both came back to it after a week and agreed that it was good, but it wasn’t the best that it could be. So, we scrapped practically everything except the vocals and some really basic instrumentals and beats that we felt made the song. First, we tried a more folky, bossanova style on the tune, but we ended up settling on very ethereal, atmospheric instrumentals and bumping up the beats in the background (bongos!), which fits it perfectly. So, after I finish laying down new vocals to go with the new instrumentals we have for the track, we will be finished arranging that song and can fully sink our teeth into the next one…which we’ve tentatively titled “Like A Sea” and I am already crazy about even though we haven’t spent a ton of time on it. It’s one of those songs that is so addictive you just want it to keep going on and on. And on that note, I will end this post here and promise to be better at keeping you all in the loop. Soon the day will come when you will be able to put a sound to a Syvia song. But not yet. Not yet…

Damn writer's block and deceased mascots

R.I.P our paper lamp mascot. Someone threw it out. It will be remembered for the life it lived and not for its unfortunate, unnecessary demise.
Enter John's new purple shades, worn mostly inside.

I guess the trip to Alaska wasn't that great in terms of the music making. As often happens, the break I took put a bit of a damper on the groove that John and I had gotten into with regards to writing new songs (I also blame it on the untimely death of our mascot). We both agreed this past week that neither of us were feeling the "Take Me As I Am" song we had started working on pre-Alaska (as in, we would play back the part we had so far over and over and over again and still not feel what the song was and where it should go next). So we returned to my Alaska song about the boy I met there.
At first the mojo wasn't really there for that song either. We literally sat for HOURS playing the part we had worked on earlier in the week. We both agreed on the one part that was really great, so we didn't want to scrap the entire song. It was just that the first part was bringing the song down (not that depressing is a bad thing, but this was 'fall asleep depressing,' not, 'wallow in sorrow with a stiff drink depressing.'
There were numerous times that we were going to just call it a night and give up, and then right in the last half hour something just clicked and I came up with this melody that felt just right--like it was the next step the song needed. So, I guess we will just have to wait and see what the coming days hold in terms of us both playing around with it until we feel content with the arrangement.
The search for our own studio space continues. I refuse to replace our mascot until will do.

All Points West Takes the Fun out of Fest

I meant to write this before, since it is kind of two weeks late, but I caught the first half of the All Points West Festival in Liberty State Park on Friday August 9th. I only saw the first bit because I had to run back to my place and grab all my stuff to hop on a Chinatown bus to Boston by 8pm (I had a 6am flight out to Vancouver from Boston for the Alaska trip).
I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but I was really shocked with the way the festival was handled. For instance, their puritanical drinking policy. You go up with your ID and receive a wristband that limited you to 5 beers (5 beers!! for an event that lasted from 12pm to 12am! I'm not saying I'd drink more than that, but I don't appreciate being limited to a certain number of brewskies at an all day festival. And it wasn't even like the beer was free! They just allowed you that much). It gets worse, though...So, part of why I love watching live music is the pleasure of drinking as I watch my favorite bands play out. Well, tough luck doing that at APW. All the drinkers are penned up with their beers in a gated area and not allowed to bring their beers outside of it (Now, granted, it helped me quickly spot my buddies who were also at the festival, but come on!) And you weren't allowed to hand in tabs that were broken off--the bartenders had to break it off for you--ostensibly to prevent people from getting more tabs from their friends' bracelets (I figured out a way around that by simply buying my friends drinks with my bracelet so they didn't use their's up).
The sound on most of the stages was also a travesty, and I'm surprised that a festival that size could get away with a sound system that was so unbalanced and crappy. Maybe they bumped it up a few notches for Radiohead, which I regretfully had to miss in order to catch my bus. Let's not talk about it.
All I can say is, it wasn't worth the 100 bucks I dropped on the ticket, and I spent my lonely solo ferry ride back to NYC wishing I had finished up all 5 of my precious drink tabs instead of giving them to my friends.
[Thanks to my girl Angela for the photo. Did I mention they banned umbrellas and it poured on and off throughout the show? Yea. Awesome. Thank god I smuggled one in anyways.]

Mr. Majer's Mandolin

As yet unnamed, this new addition to our musical family is welcomed with Leffe beers into the studio on the eve of August 19, 2008. John breaks into joyous country riffs in between recording tracks, much to the dismay of his partner in crime. Ruthy makes hollow threats to leave the mandolin in the car on Thursday...

Glacial Getaway

Sorry for the brief hiatus from blog writing. I was off in Alaska on a cruise, checking out the glaciers with my surrogate family before they melt into the ocean from global warming (the glaciers, that is, not the family). I definitely couldn't ever afford a trip like this being unemployed and all (I'm working on that part), so I let myself relax a little and just enjoy the break. Even though I brought my computer to work on music, of course, I spent more time hitting the buffet and scheduling midday trips to the jacuzzi with my pina coladas than actually getting any work done, but now I'm back and ready to dig my heels into the music again.
I was inspired to write one song while I was away, though, and John and I hit the studio last night and I played him the really rough draft of what I had written up. Rather than return back to the third song we had been working on pre-Alaska getaway, we started playing with stripping away some of what I'd done on this new tune and changing the tempo and feel of the song to see what fit...it kind of went from an emo-pop love song to a rock and roll love song, but i really really like the edgier direction John took it in with the guitar bits he added. I guess we'll have to see what we end up keeping and scrapping when we get back into the studio on Thursday after attending a doom metal concert in a location yet to be determined. Should be interesting :)

[Updated] DJ J. MAJ what?

John will be guest "DJing" as Nurse Bettie this coming Thursday for Anti-Mag's Thirst Fursdays on the Lower East Side, which I think will mainly involve him scrolling through his iPod, but who knows. So look for the tall dude with the iPod and ask him for his autograph. It will make him beam with glee. I will be setting up shop at the bar and trying to get as many drinks into the happy hour time slot as I can muster.

Check this out for more deets: http://www.anti-mag.com/events.html

[Update By J. Majer] - I am very flattered that I am a subject of a Syvia blog post. I am excited to get my DJ on. Even if it is just pushing play on my iPod and walking away. However, for the record, when I am DJing, I am no longer known as John Majer. I am known as "with Bacon." Go forth and tell the world. Believe It!!!!

[Updated] Recap on the weekend

[Updated By J. Majer] - Behold! The Light Of Inspiration!

We got a ton of stuff done this weekend, which was awesome and a relief considering how tough it had been last week for either of us to get any good work done on the songs. "The Rain" is now finished THANK GOD, and it sounds fabu. On Sunday, we were even able to slip in a few hours starting on our next song, "You're On To Me" which we had some basic beats and melodies drafted up from months ago. I even remember exactly how the song transpired. I was walking back from the gym, grooving to my iPod as I've been known to do, and these two lyrical lines just popped into my head. What to do? I wrote it down in my trusty little black notebook intended just for these moments, since often I think up great melodies and lyrics in random places while doing random things.

Then, in one of our early studio sessions John started fooling around on the guitar and I was going through my notebook seeing if there were any lyrics that would fit what he was playing (or that I still liked, because I tend to write a lot of stuff down and then come back to it and cringe at the idea that at some point I actually thought that sounded good). I sang the lyrics and John liked them well enough, so *poof!* a song was born. Or at least, the seeds of a song were planted. We played around with some really groovy beat ideas, and even sampled some 'negative space' in my vocal track that sounded cool. Who knows if we'll keep anything but it's fun to mess around and just see what we come up with.

Oh. And here is our lovely mascot, the broken paper lamp in all its glory is still going strong.

Tag! You're It

The dawn of the tag cloud has come. Behold the right hand rail in all its glory. I laugh in the face of HTML failure. Victory is mine!

Looking forward to getting some work done in the studio tonight. I've come up with some better lyrics for The Rain that I want to bounce off John, and I'm hoping we can finish our last little tweaks and start working on a new tune. Fingers crossed.

Bon Iver at Bowery Ballroom

Ok, I wanted to give a quick review of the Bon Iver show I went to last night (if you haven't heard of him, definitely check him out at http://www.myspace.com/boniver).

The Bowerbirds opened for Bon Iver. They were good--the lead vocalist Phil Moore's voice was pleasant--kind of like if Rufus Wainwright got caught in boon country with a couple of bottles of French wine along for entertainment. I couldn't get over how unhappy and discontented the backup vocalist Beth Tacular looked onstage (which was compounded by the fact that when she wasn't straddling a drum kit like she was milking a cow, she occupied the most prominent place on the stage right up front, which seemed a bit odd considering her disposition, but whatever...

As for Bon Iver, all in all I thought the show was fantastic. The songs from "For Emily, Forever Ago" were even better live than they were on the CD. Justin Vernon has an uncanny ability to conjure an ethereal intimacy onstage, exuding both confidence and humility in the same breath, not to mention having some kick ass harmonies that make my skin crawl. The melodies are pretty basic, but when he sings it's coming from somewhere authentic and I totally dig that. And hey, "Skinny Love" and "The Wolves Act 1 and 2" are just damn good songs. The only things I would mention would be that there were times, like in "Creature Fear" when there was a lot distortion added to the songs that seemed unnecessary and even jarring. Also, the final song was a total let down, with all the band members from both bands standing in one line in front of the stage and singing a cover of some song I've never heard (that didn't seem incredibly compelling to begin with, although I'm working on a rendition here, so that might be unfair). I'm gonna go ahead and say it. In theory it sounds like a nice idea...in reality it was kinda painful and overkill in its intimacy.

Oh, and more thing, as a New Yorker I would like to just say that that unlike other parts of the world, NYC fans are not big into collective sing alongs. Especially not when we are instructed to participate with guilt trips about how great some crowd in San Francisco sang the hook, and huge bright stage lights are turned on us. Bon Iver learned that the hard way last night, when they tried TWICE to attempt to cajole the crowd into a sing along. But bands shouldn't take it too hard, it's just not our style.

All in all, an awesome time and some really amazing music. I hope Bon Iver gets all the attention it deserves. The picture above is credited to my awesome buddy Nellwyn and her trusty iPhone. Danke Nell!

Chats Part 01: i'm just a me, not a blogger, read my lips

John: done
John: yeah
it's done
yup
sure is
uh huh
Ruthy: haha
ok man
going to grab dinner but i will check it out right nw
haha
it's funny
i would maybe even just say "a blog about a girl and boy making music"
Ruthy: i will post responses after the show tonight
John: you should bring your camera to the show
take some pics
and thenm write a review
and then post that and your pictures
Ruthy: arghh
i guess you're right
me: you don't have to
just a thought
Ruthy: no it's a great idea
i should do it
i
am looking for camera now
John: OMG
you are a hipster blogger now
Ruthy: no i'm a lameo blogger
John: you blog
dude
Ruthy: my camera isn't charged
John: you blog?
Ruthy: i can't use it!
John: use your smart phone
dude
Ruthy: i have a crappy chocolate
John: every blogger has a smart
phone
Ruthy: DUDE
John: dude
like
Ruthy: i'm not a blogger!!!!
John: due
Ruthy: like
John: dude
Ruthy: duddddddde
John: blog that shit
Ruthy: i'm just a me
not a blogger
read mylips
John: dude
Ruthy: no blogger here
John: like
Ruthy: dude like
go for your hipster run
and blog baout it
John: OMG
Dude
so
Like
I went for this run
and like
saw some graffiti
and like
dude
blogged that shit
blogged it I tell you
bloooooooooooooooooooged
Ruthy: DUDDDDDDDDDDDEEE
k man
i'm outtie
ttyl

----Post the posting----
Ruthy: I would just like to note for the record that 1) I had no idea John was going to post this last night while I was at the Bon Iver show and he was wishing he was there and hatching nefarious plots of posting our gchat convos. 2) This is the least funny and interesting gchat we have had lately, so I don't know why he posted it. 3) I literally was running back and forth getting ready to leave my house pre the show at Bowery Ballroom and was trying to kindly respond to his chats without getting side tracked. So if I come off like a dumb ass, that is why. Thanks John!

Get Your Tom Waits On

NPR is now streaming a full 2 1/2 hour Tom Waits performance recorded July 5, 2008 at Atlanta's Fox Theater. I love me some Tom Waits. A true artist with vision and integrity. A Classic! Mr. Waits' humor is a treat as well. To promote his current tour aptly entitled Glitter And Doom he released a press conference vid (it's recommended to watch to the end) and an interview which, was conducted by none other than Tom Waits himself. Get your link on:

Tom Waits Performance Stream on NPR

Tom Waits' True Confessions Interview

Stop Rubbing Off On Me! I'm having an outer body experience

This somehow became the mantra for this weekend. Don't ask me how or why, but it seemed hilarious in the midst of working on our tunes this weekend. After returning to our song "The Rain" on Saturday and playing it for a friend of mine who stopped by to see the space and hang out, both John and I realized that what had sounded rad to us in the studio the night before didn't sound as great with a third person in there (and especially in juxtaposition to the other tune we played her that we finished arranging called '212'). So, after she left John turned to me and said "I think we need to overhaul the song. It doesn't feel right anymore," and so that's exactly what we did. We stripped away bits that didn't add anything to the tune and took out everything that we thought didn't add anything to it. For example, we had this sample that we manipulated to sound like a crashing thunder ball of rain, which we ended up dialing down a lot in volume and just using as a subtle build up to the chorus.
I really think that part of the joy and challenge to making music is being willing to completely disassemble a song you think you've finished, and start from just its barest bones to create something even more cool and bizarre.

Speaking of rain, on Sunday we caught MGMT's show at Mccarren Pool, which--I'm not going to deny it--was even cooler because of the downpour you had to endure to watch the show. Granted, I wore cowboy boots so I was semi-prepared...can't say as much for my friends with flip flops. Too bad we got too drunk to work at the studio after. I guess it was a pipe dream to think we'd be productive after an entire day of imbibing. I blame it on the free shots at brunch. We should have known.

John's Update: After listening to the new track it really didn't snap. I have always stuck to the mantra of taking away rather than adding to make something better. Yeah man, I was exhausted after the show. Should have known: Drinking all day lowers productivity.

Fond farewell to WWW

It saddens me to announce the demise of our other band What What Where, the electronic dance rock band that John and I formed with our good friend Dinesh back in 2006. This week we officially decided to disband the project to pursue our other musical paths. Dinesh will continue DJing and manning the board at his Sweet Sounds Studio in NYC and John and I will continue our hell raising with Syvia.

And just to show that I can also offer visual stimuli on my blog posts, I'm attaching a photo from one of our last shows in late June 2008, when we opened for Mindless Self Indulgence at Terminal 5.

To all of you lucky fans who somehow managed, despite our best efforts to remain somewhat elusive when it came to merch, to receive a rare piece of WWW flair and/or demo, I would hold on to that stuff because you never know what it may be worth in a few years. Someday you may count yourself among a rare breed of music fans who own a piece of "vintage WWW."
I, for one, have already locked mine in a time capsule and buried it under the corner of the new monstrosity of a condo that's being built next door. Just saying.

First Post With A/V

Hi There -

John here, this is my first post to the Syviamusic blog. It's very exciting I must tell you! I wanted to share a video with everyone. The vid is appropriately entitled "Bert & Ernie tries Gangsta-Rap." The song in the vid is from one of my fav Hip Hop artists of all time: M.O.P.

These dudes don't fuck around. When they say they are going to kill you, I really think they mean it. I saw them live once and it was like a punk / hardcore show. People were moshing and going nuts. Producer Extraordinaire, DJ Premier, was up front moshing along with everyone else. Shit was bonkers.

So here it is, Bert & Ernie doing "Ante Up" by M.O.P.:



How's the spelling and grammar Mirsky?

When sickness strikes, the music suffers

So Sunday was a wash out, not because of rain, which would have been a godsend because I literally melt just sitting in my living room surfing away on the internetz, but because John got deathly ill on Sunday and had to cancel our session in the studio. The upside was I got some chores done that I've been putting off (like...laundry! and...watering my dad's roof plants so he doesn't kill me! and...filing away receipts! Yay!) I wished we could have finished up tweaking "The Rain" tune, but it's cool. C'est la vie and you gotta move on.

What sucks is that I started trying to work on this song that has popped into my head, which I have lyrics for but I haven't quite settled on a melody or figured out the emotion that I want to convey in the song, so it is sort of in music purgatory right now, continually shifting between being a random lyric idea and an actual part of a song. Right when I think I've got the melody that feels right, I try to recreate it or I listen back to it recorded and it doesn't work. I think I just need to spend a little more time batting around with the lyrics in my primo creative spots--which I will someday reveal. Someday. They really aren't that interesting, but I'm trying to create some degree of mystery here. I'm also trying to cut down on the amount that I end up writing in these blog posts, but it is just SO HARD! Once I sit down and write I can't stop, but I am tryi n g t o f i g h t t h e u r g e t o c o n t i n u e , s o y o u a r e n' t b o r e d.

Hmm. If I tried putting a space after every letter it would definitely make it a lot harder to write as much. Hmm... interesting.

Can't talk now! I'm in the studio!

This weekend has been a weekend of catching up on all the music writing that we missed out on last weekend, when John went fishing at some lake and I went to Massachusetts to visit my family. It was a relief to get out of New York, which can be deadly in the summer--something about the buildings trapping in heat and lots of pissed off New Yorkers planning their days around finding their next air conditioned refuge. Oh, and John's car's AC totally conked out on the commute over to the studio on the hottest day ever, so now our commute to the studio in Brooklyn is AWESOME (note my sarcasm). Man, you gotta get that fixed pronto.

In terms of the music, we had already passed what John likes to refer to as our "first hurdle"--namely, arranging our first song from start to finish, which we are tentatively titling "212." In a future blog post yet to be determined I will spend a little more time talking about my own writing process (and John will hopefully chime in with his own personal take on writing music), but for that song, I basically just started with two or three lines that popped into my head with this catchy little melody, which I tried to expand into a larger melody with a story behind it (basically, that sometimes I get anxious being alone in the apartment at night and nothing freaks me out more than weird late night phone calls from numbers I don't recognize).

Anyways, this weekend we arrived in the studio to work on our second jam "The Rain." I had thought up this song on some rainy days in June and we had already laid down some ideas around the verse and chorus melodies I had thought up. Listening back to it the past few weeks in the comfort of my own home, I just wasn't feeling the chorus anymore. It just kind of seemed like the verse was rad, but then the chorus would hit and it was a let down, so I muted the vocals and tried to think of what I heard in the music that we had already constructed for the previous chorus. I came up with some ideas and tossed around some new lyrics for the verse, recorded them at home and sent the mp3 to Johno for his take on the new ideas. He liked them, so this weekend we returned to the tune with the new ideas and started to nail down the entire song.

When we arrived at the studio I was kind of bummed to find that someone had accidentally broken the paper lamp I had brought last time. We try to set the 'mood' when we write, and the bright lights in the Brooklyn space can sometimes feel like we are in a mall rather than a studio. So I brought this paper lamp in to the space--a remnant of my brother's July 4th rooftop party--and suddenly we weren't getting frustrated or antsy about writing music. It's amazing how the little things can effect the creative process. Clearly, I was somewhat attached to this paper lamp. Perhaps you could even say that I thought of it as some kind of mystical good luck charm. Perhaps. Keep in mind that I also consider beer a mystical good luck charm. Whatever works to get the creative juices going, you feel me?

Anyways, we played around with some samples of sounds I had to create this super weird beat that sounds like an industrial explosion of water that runs through the entire song. Basically, we just would listen back to the song after doing each arrangement or test of adding/dropping out instruments or beats and then figure out if we thought it worked, and if not, what it needed to achieve the effect we wanted.

Today we will be back in the studio to finish up arranging "The Rain" and maybe even start on tackling some of the other half tunes that we have drafted up. There is talk of bringing a camera to the space and/or maybe even filming us working on stuff so we can upload it to the blog, so keep your eyes peeled for an exclusive photo of our paper lamp good luck charm, which despite being mauled by some other band's gear, still works!

A stint at rehab

Ok, so technically not "Rehab" a la Lindsay Lohan and others, but almost as entertaining. Our band What What Where performed last night at Rehab in Alphabet City (formerly Club Midway) and had one of our best shows ever. We all let loose and just kind of ran with it, while still staying in sync. Maybe it was the energy we still had from the craziness of our previous show, when we opened for Mindless Self Indulgence at Terminal 5 to a sold out crowd of 3,000 people that made the Rehab feel so intimate and let us just let go and have fun on stage. There is something hilarious, however, about going from VIP rooms and backstage riders demanding hummus and coconut juice for our Terminal 5 gig to waiting on St. Mark's Place, alone, at midnight on a Wednesday for the M103 bus to come. And of course, I'm in that middle zone where I've drunk just enough to be pleasantly buzzed but not too much that I'm going to pass out the minute I see a soft surface, that I adamantly refuse to fork over cash for a cab. Quitting my job in the late spring when I decided to try to become a full time musician means I got zero moolah coming in, and I know I can wait it out until that damn bus comes because it's 'the city never sleeps' NYC so it has to come at some point-- maybe not in five minutes or ten minutes, and I may have to bear the sight of numerous M101 and M102 buses ending their routes right at that corner before the magical M103 emerges like a beacon of hope from the onslaught of traffic barreling down 3rd avenue, but it will come. Besides, at that point I was still kind of high on adrenaline from the show, and lugging around my vocal effects kit, and I sort of wanted that time alone waiting for the midnight bus to think about the gig we just did and watch the late night antics of New Yorkers.
Even though my vocal effects mic somehow didn't turn on when it was supposed to, and we started late due to a missing band member, it was altogether a really sweaty, awesome show. God, I wish I could do that every night.
(And for the record, I drunkenly lost my willpower and gave in to indulging John in his stupid "Knock knock" joke, although I really don't think it is as funny as he thinks it is. John, care to share?)

Saul Williams at C-stone, what?

Last night I saw Saul Williams (http://www.saulwilliams.com/) perform for a small gathering of folks at Cornerstone Promotions' offices in NYC to celebrate the release of his new album The Inevitable Rise and and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! He performed three spoken word pieces and debuted a music video. It had been a while since I have watched a spoken word performance, and I was blown away by the passion of his delivery and his remarkable grasp of word play. I almost felt like he was a Shakespearean actor in the way that he molded and delivered the consonants and vowels from his mouth. And sure enough, I checked his website and he is also an actor. It all comes full circle. Full circle.

More importantly, John and I had a chance to chat it up with Williams post-performance and find out more about his writing process, which I personally found very provocative as a lyricist and songwriter so I thought I'd share it with all y'all. He described how it starts with the music, and then listens to that and does his first pass just trying to find how he wants the lyrics to be delivered, so he will literally record a track of just sounds of consonants and vowels and how they will pop in the relation to the music with an occasional word here and there. Then he listens through that and starts doing a pass at writing actual lyrics that will create that auditory effect in those particular places in the song. It's always nice to see intelligent, creative people get the attention they deserve and I hope Williams continues to get cred for his art. I, for one, and going to take a crack at writing some songs the way he does and see what I come up with. Who knows, maybe next show I'll be getting all up in some spoken word...

John, I elect you to bang on the steel stool for the beat. It's either that, or we duke it out in a battle of words on stage, and you better hope they don't ask you to spell out your verses. Just saying... HA! :)

[Insert rousing/inspiring/uplifting first blog title here]

So this is how it really begins--no reality t.v. show, no American Idol fanfare--just a realization that the only thing I want to do each day is make music and learning exactly how to use the software for that on my computer. "Get some instructional manuals," you say? Puhlease! This girl doesn't do instructional manuals. It's all about the thrill of trial and error, and learning through experience. And then when all else fails...asking for help from the pros, and bartering software knowledge for brewskies.

I decided nothing good comes out of life without plunging in and taking risks, so I quit my job, embraced living with my parents for a little while longer. I knew that if I didn't give singing a shot now, it would never happen. And you know what? These days with all their ups and downs will never come again, so I thought, what the hell, why not start a blog and record the process. It will be a hodge podge (Great word, huh? Almost like 'porridge' but not :P) of random thoughts, video clips, pictures, and actual hilarious/interesting/

educational chat conversations between me and my bandmate John Majer.

SYVIA is a labor of love born out of a great friendship that is all about the ying and the yang. To be completely frank, this blog will finally give me the chance to show the world once and for all that I'm in fact a hell of a lot funnier than John.
Because I am. They've done studies and everything.

/Ruthy