Category Archives: Music

Moxi On Vinyl – DREAM FEED

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Rocket Lady

This cover art speaks everything I’m feeling right now. Spring is happening in an electric way all around…and I can barely keep up. We have so many projects that are at various stages of growth – and we’re anxiously cultivating and coaxing and grooming them. If all goes well, I’ll spend the next year sharing new creations – beautiful sounds, visuals and spaces – a year’s worth of rebirth and renewal.

We are kicking off this new season with a tribute to our favorite dream pop band, Moxi, and to indie music’s coveted Record Store Day. A compilation of their first two EP’s – ‘In My Dreams’ and ‘Through The Dark’ – in one luscious pink vinyl LP, designed by Matt Champagne. Details below!

MOXI ON VINYL!
Record Store Day – SO CAL Special

Just in time for Record Store Day, 2017, Moxi is releasing their first two EP’s on collector’s edition vinyl.
Dream Feed is available now, exclusively, for the special price of $16.99 at our fave local record stores:

Crème Tangerine – Costa Mesa
Third Eye Records – Long Beach
Fingerprints – Long Beach
Amoeba Records – Hollywood
Permanent Records – Echo Park

Please pay a visit to one of these fine record shops and get some Moxi love!

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POSTED IN: Amoeba, Creme Tangerine, Dream Feed, Fingerprints Music, local band, Moxi, Moxi Nation, moxilovesyou, Permanent Records, Record Store Day, Southern California Music, Third Eye Records, Vinyl

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And Over Here In Project Planning Land …

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Rocket Lady

The first quarter of 2017 is such a blur.
But I gotta say, it was (and continues to be) a productive and rather focused season in the studio. We’re gearing up to release loads of new music with a bunch of fantastically talented artists – and we’re excited to share!!

Meanwhile, as Bobby’s been holed up at CatBeach – doing his thing, I’ve been in project planning mode (one of my favorite places to be). I’m still working on initial details on a bunch of plans, but I just can’t wait to get started…so, I thought I’d give a few sneaks…1) First up is this super fun shipping container retrofit that we’re installing on the side of our house, overlooking a huge canyon and the LA city lights. The container will be a multi-use space primarily focused as a writing room, complete with a set up to record vocals. Bobby and our friend Craig, of Rook and Render, dreamt up this whole thing last year. And I laughed. These two have LOT’S of ideas and this was just one that I figured would come and go. And then, I received this little mock-up. And I knew…this thing is happening. And now, here we are…fine-tuning some details and hopefully placing an order for a new shipping container this week!

2) Behind the scenes, I am working on a little re-branding of Catbeach Music. We love our hand drawings of Bobby and some of his gear, which is the mark in our logo, but we’re looking to freshen it up a bit with new lettering and color palette. And I’ve got a new website and catalog database in the works as well. I just love the way these little details can come together to launch our business to the next level.

3) If you’ve been following along here on Records, Rockets and Rosemary, you know that we’ve been working on a house remodel for a few years, which started with a dream to create an indoor-outdoor living space. This project got stuck in the city planning department, so we put it on hold for about a year. But our plans are back at the city, complete with a new drainage plan for the entire property. We’re hoping to break ground with a two-week demo schedule starting in May.

4) And lastly, I’m learning all about designing rooms for accessibility – making spaces comfortable and useable for everyone. “The Accessible Home” by Deborah Pierce is a great resource. We’re looking at ways to make my brother-in-law’s home a better fit for his lifestyle. We just installed this elevator lift and we have plans to modernize his bathrooms and kitchen. So fun!!

I’m just getting started on all of these projects. I’ll post details along the way, so follow here and let me know if you have any questions about the planning, process, or vendors!

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POSTED IN: accessibility, architectural drawings, interior design, logo redesign, patio remodel, planning, project management, shipping container remodel, website redesign

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Passion People: The Outlaw Roadshow

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Rocket Lady

outlaws

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I hopped on a plane last week. I was heading out to support my friend, singer-songwriter Kathleen Sieck, as she made her New York debut. I knew she would be playing at something called The Outlaw Roadshow, which I assumed was your basic lineup of Americana bands and artists. But what I experienced was so much more…

Started by radio host, Ryan Spaulding and Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows, the Roadshow describes itself as a family of fans and artists. And can I just tell you – this is not hype or an empty attempt at some ‘authentic branding,’ nor is it a big business, corporate-money-making festival for “independent artists, (ahem). No, this is truly what it looks like to build up and support a community of indie artists.

Logistically, it is a 3-day series of free live shows in 3 different cities each year, supported by a weekly radio show. But behind the scenes, I witnessed an actual community of artists in the flesh. During the day, they filmed live recordings of each artist performing an acoustic set in Adam’s loft – littered with an audience of other musicians and bands. The scene was like the day-after-Christmas-hangover – everyone was moving slow, eating bagels and leftovers, and sharing quiet stories amongst themselves, while the rotation of bands took their video stage. In the evenings the two-stage rotation of back-to-back performances at The Bowery Electric, was packed out with fans, and the other artists and musicians, (btw-this was not the obligatory, ‘I’ll stay to support my opening band’…this was musicians hanging out and listening and encouraging each other all evening long). And then, as the shows wound down somewhere between 1-2am, all the musos would find their way back to an afterparty at the loft, which basically turned into a boozy all-night sing-along and jam session. For three days.

Along with the support that the bands gave each other, I was struck by the overwhelming generosity and excitement of the crew of people who produce this thing. Ryan and Adam and their teams were there for each and every show, sitting right up front…listening, swaying, nodding, smiling… And then, there was this whole other cast of artisan characters – to name a couple – there was John Wright, a winemaker from Santa Ynez Valley, who also hosts a live music series in his barrel room – he provided the wine and swag and an overall show of support from the Cali Coast. And then there was the painter, Felipe Molina, whose beautiful artwork was a backdrop for the whole party. There were more…a whole crew of Passion People – doing inspiring things, living inspiring lives, helping others to do the same.

In the spirit of The Roadshow, we can all give indie artists in our community a leg up – go see a show, buy a cd, maybe even a t-shirt, throw out a post and a hashtag. It all helps. It’s all encouraging. And that support breeds more beauty, more art, and more creation. And. That. Matters.

So, with that, here are just a few of the artists who played this year. Take a listen to the clips below, check out their websites…

Kathleen Sieck:

K Phillips: featuring David Immurgluck of the Counting Crows.

The sultry and rock sounds of Brandy Zdan:

Kirby Brown – releasing the first of a series of 3 eps this week (October 28th, 2016):

Adam Duritz & Rob Thomas gave a late night secret show…here’s just a little bite from it:

To all of The Outlaw Roadshow, thank you for all that you are doing!

Click here for more stories about Passion People.

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POSTED IN: Adam Duritz, Brandy Zdan, Counting Crows, Electric Bowery, Felipe Molina, John Wright, K Phillips, Kathleen Sieck, Kirby Brown, Matchbox 20, NYC, Outlaw Roadshow, passion people, Rob Thomas, Ryan Spaulding, Standing Sun Winery

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The Beverly Hillbillies And The Outlaw Roadshow

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Rocket Lady

kathleen9 Work and creativity can flow out of even the most random, disordered and transient of situations. Bobby and I are living proof of this statement.

Being self-employed, we keep ourselves nice and busy with our publishing company, CatBeach Music. I generally work from home, with an occasional work day spent in a coffee shop with a view, a co-working space in the city, or alongside Bobby at the studio. My workspace at home, along with all of our furniture and appliances, have been emptied into the garage for the last 5 weeks. And the studio has also been in a bit of disarray while making upgrades to it.

Needless to say, working, as well as basic living, has been challenging the past couple of months. (First world problems…trust me, I know.) Anyway, we packed up our car with our two labradoodles, some gear, and whatever clothes we could fit – like a scene right out of The Beverly Hillbillies – and we drove up to the Santa Ynez valley. We happily left our empty, dusty construction zone of a house in LA, and moved in to a clean, quiet and fully furnished retreat in wine country. I spent the first few days setting up shop and creating a comfortable studio-workspace and we somehow found a new and different rhythm.

While we were there, Bobby got a call to write an earthy, melancholy ballad for a very specific scene in a TV show. He decided to call up a friend of ours, who lives in the valley, to co-write for this assignment.
We met Kathleen Sieck, an Americana singer-songwriter, a few years earlier at a festival that she was playing. Since then we’ve seen her play a number of shows, along with her band – The Paradise Road – at Standing Sun Live and other venues up north. If we have to do that thing, where we compare her to another artist, we’d say she is a cross between Allison Krauss and Rosanne Cash with a little modern Nikki Lane thrown in.

kathleen5 Over the course of 3 days, Bobby and Kathleen wrote a couple of tunes for the TV assignment and tracked live performances of 2 of Kathleen’s original songs. We recorded her songs in preparation for her appearance at the upcoming Outlaw Roadshow in New York City (October 20-22 at The Bowery Electric). We’re super excited that we were able to work together – and can’t wait to see what is next for Kathleen.

Looking back, considering that we felt like we were in a state of total chaos, it’s amazing that we had the space and mental capacity to actually create and produce. I’m not sure how it even happened, except by sheer determination and motivation. Sometimes that is when the best stuff happens I guess.

Oh…and stand by…I’ll post the tunes when they’ve been released into the world!

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POSTED IN: Beverly Hillbillies, Bowery Electric, Kathleen Sieck, Outlaw Roadshow, Paradise road, Santa Ynez Valley, Standing Sun

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Rewiring Our Creativity

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Rocket Lady

studiorewire3 Earlier this year, we decided that it was time for a major overhaul in Bobby’s recording space, CatBeach Studio. He was running into issues with software upgrades and hardware compatibility, not to mention the wiring throughout the studio needed some love and care. Bobby spent months researching gear and thinking through the right workflow for this particular space and his recording and producing needs.

The first piece of gear that Bobby decided on was the Neve 5060 Centerpiece Desktop Mixer. It’s analog, class-A circuitry definitely ups the quality of the monitoring signal path in the studio and gives great flexibility for summing audio in the analog realm. Just running the source tracks through the tried and true Neve transformers makes everything sound bigger and better. The board has a nice transport control for Pro Tools and also, can we all just note how ridiculously cool it’s design is!? To work alongside the Neve, Bobby bought two Avid Artist Mixes, basically providing hands on control with Pro Tools. For many producers and mixers, including Bobby, it’s important to have a nice tactile surface for fader and pan controls, without using a standard mouse. We decided to install two of these, which work together to give 16 physical faders that can be banked, allowing access to the maximum number of PT channels that each session requires.

After picking out the main pieces, we decided that we wanted to have a custom desk built that would accommodate the modules while giving them a built-in look. We found this incredible millwork artisan, Brandon at Monkwood Studio. He was game to come up with a solution to fit these pieces in to a custom walnut desk. I dropped by his shop in Fullerton, CA to get a sneak peak and saw the beautiful maple slab that he formed into the main desk unit. He showed me his plans for the custom pieces and how they would fit onto the main desk. And…check out his shark-shaped tool wall. studiorewire9 studiorewire8 studiorewire7 Brandon delivered the desk with two rackgear units that each have 6 rack spaces. Lot’s of room and flexibility to determine the best workflow, right at Bobby’s fingertips. studiorewire6 After playing around with configuration options, here’s what we put in each rackgear unit on top of the desk: 1) For recording guitars, the signal flow includes: BAE 512A mic pre’s and Chandler TG2 mic pre’s; 2) For recording vocals, the signal flow includes: Vintech X73 mic pre into the vintage UREI 1176 (in wall rack), into an Inward Connections Brute limiter. Also, notice how the two Artist Mixes and the Neve console can easily be removed from the desktop if needed. Thanks Brandon! studiorewire4 As we were determining workflow, we pulled up the flooring and pulled out all of the old wiring. We installed new patch bays and cable runs which allows for greater future flexibility and better overall work flow. It’s amazing how much wiring we ran under the floor to accommodate new gear, and even just to reposition gear in the room. studiorewire5 And finally, we made new cable runs from the racks on the desk to the new patch bays in the wall racks. The rack in the picture above features the Apogee Symphony – another new addition. This rack also features a mix of vintage units: Gates Sta-Level, old Telefunken EQ’s and pre’s, and an old Blackface 1176, with modern units: Manley Elop and Massive Passive, and an Empirical Labs Distressor. studiorewire10 studio2 studio3 At the end of this project, we sat back and marveled at the craftsmanship and beauty of the studio and recognized that the creativity of other artisans could breed creativity in us, if we let it. Rather than shying away from the change, or staying stuck in our own workflow and systems, we chose to embrace, and even encouraged, a new way.
So, all of the work that went into creating each piece of gear and fitting it perfectly together, is now all working to breathe new life into Bobby’s songwriting, guitar-playing and producing. This guy is inspired with new sounds and stretched to investigate new ideas. We can’t wait to start sharing the sounds and songs coming out of the fresh and sparkly CatBeach Studio!