We stayed over at my mom’s house overnight to be closer to work for the last day of the week. We forgot that she doesn’t have anything even remotely close to the Adobe Creative Suite and after a moment of what will we do?!, we settled in and watched a movie.
We’ve come to depend quite a bit on Mixtape Masters every week – we sit together at the computer and put together our playlist and crack up at all of the memories we have for each song.
So instead of sharing some new music: A brief history of our band days and some of our music.
Isaiah was in a rock band for years called Radial Bloom. They were awesome. Someday, he wants to talk really in depth about the dynamics of guys in a band together, how there’s an unbreakable bond, almost, when it works. How he’s had the same friends for more than 10 years and most of them are once-upon-a-time bandmates of his.
Every time I ran into Isaiah at Ernie’s, he was passing out flyers for his band. I wasn’t 21, or even 18 yet, and I didn’t want to tell him that I couldn’t make it past the door to see him play. He sent me tracks online and I, kind of like a groupie, freaked out a bit that “Isaiah from Radial Bloom sent me some tracks from the cd!” Yeah. HUGE nerd.
They weren’t a nationwide known band, no. But they were well known around Aurora and he was always promoting. They toured. Bands that are famous now opened for them. They rocked. I dug it.
I was in a small music project at the time as well. I’ve played classical piano for 18 years, but wanted to venture out into jazz and indie music. I played around the Aurora-land area at coffee shops and bars until I landed at (what used to be) One East Wilson. I played an open mic night at One East once and the organizer, Dana, part out of potentially creepy attention paid to the only (yet underage) female in the bar at the time…offered me a weekly spot and eventually a showcase at the bar. It was becoming a hot spot in Batavia soon enough – not because of me, jeez, because of the music scene there in general. They got a new chef and people sucked down oysters and mussels in a city bar in the ‘burbs.
When I left for college 2 hours away, I played a few coffee shops and one wildly controversial night at a Christian coffee shop. Some friends from high school came down and we started jamming together and practicing. We only got to lay down two tracks together and I only semi-professionally recorded anything, but it was a blast while it lasted. Of course being two hours away from each other doesn’t make for awesome practice times.
Anyways, if you want to listen, use some serious discretion that these were recorded five years ago and with nothing but a Mac and Garage Band. My recordings are much messier than Isaiah’s and his band’s, which we still listen to together on a regular basis.
For my birthday this year, Isaiah got me a USB-powered keystation and I love it. We’ve been playing again, recording, playing with sound…I couldn’t be happier that we can play together and, moreso, that he wants to play with me. Him, Isaiah, of Radial Bloom. And then I feel like such a nerd.
For
actual mixtape master madness, check out these peops:
Hi-Fi Weddings,
One Cat Per Person,
Tylre,
My SF Budget Wedding,
Fashion Under 100,
Dead Flowers,
Jo Rooting,
Craft My Life,
Another Damn Life,
Casa de Kaloi,
Bunnies’n Beagles,
Something Different,
Savoir Weddings,
Existing Between Reality and Dreams and
Fancy Notion.
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