G-RAD.net Blogg | Bay Area Music

I hope everybody celebrated a healthy and happy Independence Day holiday.  God Bless America, and all the citizens of the sovereign nations of the world.  And to all those who struggle to make ends meet day by day, a special prayer from those who are more fortunate, to you.  May you lend a helping hand today to someone in need.

This week I am excited to announce the second debut album by Xien.  It is Disk 2 of 3 in a triple threat sweep.  We’re going Triple Platinum, with a helping hand from you.

Both the first album, “Pride is a substitute for Confidence”, and this week’s record are available for free to download on our soundcloud.com/1sided page.  Please send this message to everyone you think would enjoy the tunes.  The first album is progressive rock, featuring Bill Miles on electric guitar and G-RAD on the drums.  Composed of three twenty minute cuts of free flowing experimental waves of emotion, it is a turbulent ride and a perfect match to a day at the beach this summer.  Or watching the fireworks on the 4th of July.

This week’s offering is titled:

“Uranus: You’re In Us” by Xien

I’m tired of people always mispronouncing that planet’s name, so I figured I’d set the record straight.  It’s pronounced the way you would pronounce the phrase on the second side of that colon.

The atmosphere is the static electricity that orbits that planet, and sometimes causes sudden lightening surges here on earth.  The energy of that planet is strong and unpredictable.  Some often wonder where all your prayers are sent when you are praying to God.  Well, I believe they are captured by this planet and store up over the years.  Both the selfless and the self-centered prayers are what form the double ring around that planet.  A perfect Sphere.

We are pleased to have channeled the waves of energy that evening in one live take spanning 9 consecutive songs.  Influenced by two of my personal favorite bands, Interpol and Radiohead, with a little Isaac Brock rip-off towards the top, Xien and One Sided Records are pleased to present, “Uranus: You’re In Us”.

The Nazi Jesus

Also, if you are interested in some leasurely reading, I just finished writing my debut novel.  It is a science fiction horror novel about ending the War on Terror.  It is a quick read and while I shop for publishers, I have posted the entire thing for free on my blog.  You can read it sequentially on nazijesus.com.  A direct link to Chapter One is provided below.

http://nazijesus.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/פרק-אחדkapitel-1/

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Bill Miles and Gerad Stemke a.k.a. XIEN

–
Gerad Stemke | Executive Producer
One Sided, LLC. | www.G-RAD.net

G-RAD’s debut album, “Hibernation“, available now at www.cdbaby.com/cd/grad

Greetings friends and fans from across the years. I am pleased to announce the release of the debut full length album by Xien. It is called “Pride is a substitute for Confidence”.

The entire album is posted below and available to download for free.

We recorded this live in 3 takes last Wednesday and are very pleased with the result. The first track lasted an hour straight, no breaks, just change ups. But unfortunately, due to a technical glitch in the system, it was cut off premature. We had to take a break and come back to round it up and finish it off.

The title is a motto I have long whispered to myself when I find myself in times of arrogance. Pride is fake. It is the ego speaking to you, and not yourself. One must remain humble at all times. I have learned the hard way all my life, that when I am proud, I fall immediately. Walk tall, speak softly, and carry yourself well.

Have a great 4th of July holiday.

Sit back, relax, and just watch the fireworks.

Sincerely,
Bill Miles and Gerad Stemke a.k.a. XIEN

–
Gerad Stemke | Executive Producer
One Sided, LLC. | www.G-RAD.net

G-RAD’s debut album, “Hibernation“, available now at www.cdbaby.com/cd/grad

Fuckya. Bill and I went to catch QOTSA at the Fox a few weeks ago. Took awhile for the show to sink in. Outstanding.

Josh Homme is the man. Period. The band is all there to support him. And he plays the guitar like it’s a toy. Just something to be batted around. Producing these awesome walls of sound with what looks like no effort at all. All the while singing in a totally different rhythm. The man can shred.

It’s the first show I’ve taken Bill to. We’ve been jamming a lot and started this band going. Seeing a show together is definitely a great bonding experience musically. The energy from the show seeps into your subsequent jams and you both get a renewed enthusiasm for the project. I remember the next day banging the drums like John Bonham and Bill was shredding like Hendrix. Don’t believe me?

I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been listening to Queens since “Songs For The Deaf”. And damn. That name took on new meaning at the show. It’s been three weeks and my ears are still ringing. ;^) Even had earplugs in (didn’t want to blow my ears out before Broken Social Scene the same week).

My favorite songs were all saved up for the encore. Go With The Flow is the last song they played, and my personal favorite. I’m really happy they played it. A lot of the earlier set consisted of extended jams and glorious walls of sound. They are a true rock band. Pure rock and roll. There was great energy in the room all night.

One of the most memorable performances was a sludgy extended version of Better Living Through Chemistry, from “Rated R”. I always thought that song would be great to see live. I remember green lasers beaming into all of our skulls. Like that scene in The Stoned Age when Joe is at Blue Oyster Cult, and the eyeball is staring him down, straight into his soul.

Josh was equipped with a large plastic bottle of vodka on stage the whole time. Bill thought it was water. I thought it was real. By the end of the show, it became more apparent that I was probably right. He reminded me of my drunken frat boy days every time he took a swig right out of the bottle. Good shit.

At the end of the night, we couldn’t hear shit. Drove through Taco Bell on the way home. Ate a few dollar chicken burritos. Mostly speechless. Whether it was due to our full mouths, or the fact that we were still absorbing the wall of sound and potent energy, I cannot say. Probably a little from Column B and a little from Column A. Irregardless, I highly recommend catching these guys live. Wish they would play a show with Dave Grohl on drums. That would be sick. He wrote all the licks for “Songs For The Deaf” after all.

G

Artists discussed in this post:
Queens of the Stone Age
John Bonham
Jimi Hendrix
The Stoned Age (film)
Xien

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Interpol live twice in the last year. First time I ever saw them was at the Fox Theatre in Oakland. Amazing venue. Ornate concert hall, state of the art sound system. Was renovated and reopened a few years ago. Ever since, I’ve heard friends in San Francisco talking shit because the Fox was attracting all the popular bands away from The City to play in The Town.

Well, all you stuffy city whiners should thank Interpol. They played a show at the Fox in the fall last year, then a show at the Warfield in January. 2 times the fun. And if you’re not a city snob then you could have seen them twice. Like me.

The Warfield is where I saw my first concert, back when I was 16. My friends from high school went to go see POT USA (Presidents of the United States of America). Do you remember them? Played those three string guitars and two string basses. Had such hits as “Lump” and “Peaches”. Millions of peaches, peaches for me.

Well, it was a great place to catch Interpol too. The concert was three days after my birthday, so I invited my boy Fabian out for a night of fun.

There was a group of girls in front of us, one of which really enjoyed the band. At certain moments, she would break out into elaborate wrist dances. There’s a great example of what I’m talking about in the Jim Jarmusch movie The Limits of Control. This girl was a little unpredictable and I’d be standing there peacefully enjoying the show, when suddenly fingers were thrust into my eyes, knocking off my glasses. It was like this all night. Almost as bad as the headbanger standing in front of me at Alice in Chains. But that is another story.

My favorite song that night was “The New”. Toward the climax of the song, there is this awesome dueling guitar part where Daniel and Paul take advantage of their tuning pedals, and synchronously detune their guitars in unison, creating this eerie grating energy that is fucking awesome to see live. I never realized how intricate of a part that was when listening to the record all these years, but I thought it was truly innovative after seeing them do it live.

Other highlights include Daniel Kessler’s fancy footwork. You can tell he’s really enjoying himself on stage. Sam Fogarino is the animal on drums. You may not notice it because he’s not all in your face about it, but Sam commands the kit like a general. He made a “funny” crack at the SF show, “Thank you San Francisco, the city that share’s my initials.” Oh you witty New Yorker you. Go write a one panel comic strip.

Unfortunately, I was never able to see Interpol with their founding bass player, Carlos Dengler. I really regret that because I’ve only heard great things about his performances. Dave Pajo was a solid replacement, but I still wish I had gotten a chance to see the original spark.

The opening band was a snooze fest. Super arty over the top art school drop out bullshit. The lead singer was this model turned vocalist who also had a thing for wrist dancing. She was definitely attractive, but felt awkward on stage. Should stick to the catwalk. I just tried to google their name “Interpol Opening Act 2011″ and couldn’t find it. Oh well, any press could have been good press. I remember telling Fabian during the cumbersome set, “Interpol has a talent for picking out the worst opening bands of all time.” The opening act at the Fox was equally snore inducing. The girls in front of me were apparently offended by my remark, but by the end of the show we had all become friends. It was sweet.

I bought tickets to the La Jolla show for my brother and his wife for Christmas. They loved the show too. They both remarked about how talented Interpol are live and that they had moved up several echelons in their list of favorite bands. They also agreed about the opening band.

Interpol has definitely become one of my favorite bands to go see live. Radiohead used to be the band I would follow around like a Deadhead. Now that they’re older and don’t tour as much, I’m delighted to have found my next “Radiohead”.

G

P.S. Blackberry cameras suck. But here’s another picture.

Artists discussed in this post:
Interpol
Presidents of the United States of America
Limits of Control
Jim Jarmusch
Fox Theatre
Warfield

I am in the studio working on a new album. Tentatively titled “Maze of the Illumined Naughty”.

Things are going great. I have the skeletons of the songs all recorded. Working on basslines now.

Just thought I’d pop in and say what I’m up to.

Here’s one of the songs from the record:

This is going to be a bit of a concept album. There are a few main characters, wandering through an urban wasteland, sometimes running into each other, most of the time going their separate ways. It is dedicated for all those who have fallen through the cracks. Especially those who can’t come back.

There will be a track featuring the bum who stole my previous studio gear. Fortunately he was too stupid to realize what an external hard drive was and I managed to salvage one of our “demo” tracks. Not the best quality, but definitely worth hearing. He’s a fucking idiot. Junior.

Sometimes sloppy, sometimes loud. This will be a record unlike you’ve ever heard before.

Stay tuned for more progress reports.

G

P.S. One more song.

We did it. We broke our cherry. Xien performs at the Missouri Lounge.

Or should I say, Mr. Bill and Big Rad.

It only took 3 hours of waiting through a rollercoaster ride of talent. You get there and the sign up sheet is already full of all of the host’s friends, each writing their name on their own line, and all of them coming up together every time. Ya. That mic is really open.

Some cool acts were dispersed throughout. I especially enjoyed a Nepali group named Chandra Ba (I think, I don’t speak Nepali but they said it was their word for Moon. Anyone who may know better, please correct me, I’d like to know.) The singer had such a beautiful voice and they chose such a delicate song. It was a three piece group, acoustic guitar, solo female vocalist, and electric sitar player. Definitely one of the stand out acts.

Then there was some dude who “came all the way from the Peninsula” and to compensate for his trip up from San Jose, he was granted a two song set, instead of the standard one. He was pretty cool. He played a 1945 L series Gibson acoustic guitar and had a cool style, playing bass, percussion, and guitar all on the guitar. Used a lot of finger tapping and slap slap slapping. I kept thinking of the “I’m slapping the bass, I’m slapping the bass” line from I Love You Man.

Finally, after Girl George (seriously), it was time for (hey, what’s your guy’s name?) Big Rad and Mr. Bill!

And it was our moment.

Time to shine.

Your four to six minutes of fame, depending on how long you milk it.

We were stars. Since we only had one song, we had to scrap Turn Around and move directly to Fake Your Death, an intimate song for my brother. We jammed comfortably and were greeted with a hearty golf clap afterward. Maybe the previous act had scared out most of the crowd, but I remember the applause being much louder for those 8 guys who kept changing their “name” and coming up together.

Bill and I were happy though. It is a milestone every act must face. The first gig.

There will be no encore.

Artists discussed in this post:
Xien
G-RAD
Bill Miles
Chandra Ba
Missouri Lounge

I like a wide variety of artists, and sometimes I end up at a show by invitation that I would have never sought out myself. Last night was one of these occasions… my mom and her fiance invited me to see Lisa Loeb at Yoshi’s in San Francisco.

You probably all have heard of Lisa, but perhaps may not know why. I couldn’t remember what songs she was famous for and initially had her confused with Natalie Imbruglia. They were both promoted heavily in my dorm cafeteria when I was in college, making my own waffles and not really paying attention.

First of all, let’s talk about Yoshi’s. This was the first time I had been there and was taken aback by the atmosphere. The room is setup as a dining hall, reminiscent of some comedy clubs I’ve been to. And they serve fine cuisine throughout the evening with Japanese influenced dishes. My mom kept ordering the edamame and it was the first time she tried miso soup. I’m so proud. Wouldn’t touch the sushi though, there’s still room for improvement.

Clark (my mom’s fiance) is apparently a big fan of female singers. He had my mom listening to Lisa Loeb cds all the way to the concert. When the valet brought the car up after the show I laughed when the radio was playing a track she had just performed. Reminded me of that old saying, “Don’t ever wear the t-shirt of the band you are going to see”. You remember, from that movie PCU with Jeremy Piven. You remember, don’t lie.

Lisa was outstanding. I can’t really claim to be one of her fans, but I am now. She had great presence and was very comfortable with the intimate dining atmosphere. Broke into comedic banter between songs, toward the middle of the set I wasn’t sure whether she was talking more than she was singing. Apparently in the last few years she has started a nonprofit foundation, Camp Lisa, that raises money to send kids to summer camps. And accompanying her philanthropic activities, she has released a number of cds of children’s songs and campfire singalongs. She treated us to a number of them, and even though I cringed at the thought of being a part of a campfire singalong, I was surprised at the quality of the compositions. They are intended for kids, but just like Disney films, they appeal to all ages. I especially enjoyed a song about Grandma cooking waffles (common theme), but it turned out it was a Neil Young cover.

And her backing band was amazing. Especially the drummer, Ronny Crawford. Joe Quigley on bass. I’m an aspiring drummer and usually seeing a great drummer on stage motivates me to practice harder, but Ronny was so good, I just wanted to give up and hire him.

The concert ended early, around 9:30. Lisa had to go home and check on her baby. She’s a new mommy. Congratulations Lisa, and thanks for the wonderful show!

Stay tuned for more reviews. Interpol, Deftones, and Alice In Chains are coming soon.

Cheers,
G

Artists discussed in this post:
Lisa Loeb
Natalie Imbruglia
Neil Young
Joe Quigley
Ronny Crawford

G-RAD presents “hibernation”

Stream the album here:

This album was recorded live over two evenings with my good friend and talented engineer Ian Miller.  The sessions took place in Laguna Niguel, CA.

While the production is stripped down and intimate, the content and material is complex and luscious, even through the simple instrumentation of voice and acoustic guitar.  The material was written and refined throughout 2007 and 2008, recorded in August 2008, and finally available to the public.

I hope you enjoy the free stream.

More info on www.reverbnation.com/gerad

Beginning this year, my friends and I have decided to go on a quest for great local and independent music and share our findings on this blogg.

For our first post, we would like to present the band Zodiac Death Valley

You can find these guys here on MySpace: www.myspace.com/zodiacdeathvalley

My friend, Fabian, and I have been discovering great underground music in San Francisco Bay Area for many years now, and this is one of the first bands we have been following for a long time. They put on a dazzlingly energetic show. Lead singer Niccolo often stands in front of the stage, singing in the crowd, and the musicianship is top notch.

We first saw these guys in 2006. I can’t remember the bar, maybe Fabian can fill in, but what I do remember is pretty funny. Toward the middle of their set, the restaurant establishment came up to them and asked if they could turn their volume down. They agreed to his face, then proceeded to turn everything up. They were kicked out and banned shortly after. It was awesome. What a great first impression.

Recently, we were able to catch them at The Tempest, with supporting bands Preteen and Baby Talk. Show was awesome. We were especially impressed with Baby Talk, as we had never heard of them before. When we talked to the guys after the show, turned out this was their first show and they had just gotten together. And for a first show, as Fabian puts it, they killed it.

Took a couple shots of whiskey, had a few beers, lots of cute girls, plenty of hipsters, and a great vibe. Must say, it was a great Saturday night.

Stay tuned for more reviews.

G

Artists discussed in this post:
Zodiac Death Valley
Baby Talk
Preteen

Greetings g-heads and g-hads,

My, what a weekend.  My label was kind enough to buy me two VIP tickets to Outside Lands, and I took advantage.

Highlights of the weekend:  Wilco.

I have never seen Jeff so happy.  It almost made my cry (don’t tell my mom that I really did).  So wonderful to see them so happy.  He’s been through a lot over the years and it is obvious that he is in command of a superb line-up and the band is roaring to go.

Sunday was the best day musically, hands down.  I was fortunate enough to weave through the crowds and catch a close shot of Broken Social Scene and Wilco.  The top two of my top five must see list for the weekend.  They were playing at Twin Peaks stage, so the VIP tix did not provide the royal treatment you would experience at the main stage.  I just weaved and paused throughout the crowd, casually lighting up joints like cigarettes.  Would offer the goods to passers by, but none would take them.  Probably smart as I was playing russian roulette, and there was a 2 in 6 chance you would be completely annihilated by the hit.

Radiohead was glorious as well.  Got held up in Will Call and missed all of Beck and the first two songs of The ‘Head, but what I did catch was awesome as always (I think this was my 8th time seeing them).  Thom is confident and proud these days.  Not sure which outweighs the other at this point, but at least he’s not depressed.  These boys are in their prime and I was proud to be a witness.  And the light show was the best all weekend.  Even the crowd looked like part of the performance.

Other worthy notables would be Vegas, my bartender.  Nice manhattan bro.  Looking forward to your Old Fashioned.

Calamari, Gourmet (wasn’t that great the second day, but was worthy of noting anyway).

San Francisco’s lax marijuana enforcement (nuff said).

And the fact that the entire weekend was a complete success, which means we can anticipate future events of this magnitude in the park.  In my backyard.  The Outside Lands.

Thanks for coming over.  Come back again soon.  My place is yours.

Much love,
g

Artists discussed in this post:
Radiohead
Wilco
Broken Social Scene
Beck
Outside Lands