For someone who doesn't read books

If you know me you know I rarely ever read books. I'm trying to get better at it. But once I heard Robert Rodriguez the film maker wrote a book titled "Rebel without a Crew". It's about how he made his first film and did everything himself, I just had to read it. I've always enjoyed his films and the fact that he is the director, steady cam operator, production designer, editor and film composer is just awesome. Out of necessity and no money he did everything himself and continues to do that even his budgets are in the millions of dollars. In his book he explains about how he made his first film "El Mariachi" for..... get ready ..... $7000 dollars. Go see the movie it doesn't look like it was made for that much but more. The story on how he got it done is so inspiring. To raise the money he ended up going off to a medical center to become a lab rat for a month for $2000 and in that month he wrote the script, plan the shots and made friends with a guy who became the main bad guy. Well I can talk about the book all day but I suggest you read it yourself. Even if you don't like film making but are passionate about something and you always say you wanted to do it but haven't done it yet, go DO IT. Stop saying you are going to do it and just do it. And don't let not having money stop you from doing it. Be creative and always create. The great thing about what Robert Rodriguez explains is that he had no money so when he was filming he had to think of ways creatively to get the the shots he wanted. Anyways watch this video and you get the jist of what the book is about but pick up the book and read it. I swear that I could not put it down. I stayed up late hours until I finished it and now I'm inspired to follow my passions. I've always wanted to make films and do many other artsy projects. Now it's time to stop saying I'm going to do them and just DO IT!!!!

Red Truck Fly Fishing Rods

I composed the music for this video. It was a lot of fun and a new challenge for me. The clients wanted something very mellow and almost country bluegrass like so I learned slide guitar. It was the first time I ever played slide guitar and now I'm hooked. It's so fun. I have another song that's very bluesy and uses a lot of slide guitar which will hopefully be out in another video coming soon. Until then please enjoy this vid by Red Truck Fly Fishing rods. I don't know much about fishing but I now want to learn how to fly fish. I feel that these kind of videos are the new way of advertising a brand instead of shoving a flashy video saying "This fishing rod is only $100, please order online." The video tells a story of an adventure a group of guys go on. Camping, grilling, fishing and being with nature. It's almost like a short documentary or movie and the fishing rods are the product placement. I wouldn't be surprised if I see more videos like this. Practically all the videos my music has ever been in use this kind of marketing which I find to be very creative. You're selling the product but your showing the lifestyle with great cinematography and very sparse dialogue. If you want to know more about this company please check out their website at

http://www.redtruckflyrods.com

Take'r Easy

-Dan

Live Albums

Sometimes a band sounds great on a studio recording but even greater live. I've personally always love going to see a band I really like on a recording but being totally blown away by their live performance. What excites me most is seeing musicians extend, add, change differnt parts of the song to make it better. When I see a musician give new life to a song live instead of trying to recreate their studio recording, I'm sold. I honestly hate seeing a band and they sound exactly like their record. The band MUSE is like that at first because their changes are suttle but not really noticeable. But they do add some tasty jams at the end of certain songs and those I like. I sometimes would rather listen to a live album or a bootleg instead of the original because its that good. Some of my favorite live CDs are

Dave Matthews Band - Live at Central Park (Also on DVD)

Coheed and Cambria - Live at Starland Ballroom (Also on DVD)

Corinne Bailey Rae - Live in NY

Paramore - The Final Riot Tour CD + DVD

Dashboard Confessional - MTV Unpluged CD + DVD.

Probably one of my favorite album of theirs. I know the drums note for note in this.

Any Smashing Pumpkins Bootleg. (I have a bunch)

Crazy Drum fills as usual

There's tons of other CDs I can't think of right now. Some artists that don't have live CDs yet but I've seen live or have a dvd of are

Damien Rice

Watch the whole video. He loops his guitar and his voice to mimic drums and tons of harmonies. EPIC

Also the most epic build up of all time in my opinion.

Justin Timberlake - His songs are good but when I saw his DVD, this guy can perform and the live version songs sound better. I like Live musicians. They need to release this on a CD. Check out this song. Great singing, dancing and an awesome guitar solo.

There's so much more that I can't think of right now. I'll post them as I go along. What are some of your favorite bands you love live more than their records?

Record Stores

If you want a CD, go find it. Make it an adventure. It's easy to just click away, have your credit card charge and have it right away but what's the fun in that. Yesterday I wanted to buy two CDs. The White Stripes first album and the Black Keys Attack and Release album. The first place I went to was Freakbeat Records on Ventura and Woodman. This is a small private owned record store where they buy and sell new + used records. Support them! They didn't have what I was looking for but I ended up buying

The Babel Sountrack $7

Scored by Gustavo Santaolalla and which has my favorite song by Ryuichi Sakamoto called

Bibo no Aorzora / 04

Check that out.

Kaki King new album "Junior" $7

Chick Corea Akoustic Band $4

These are some of the most talented musicians I've ever heard. This album has no electronic instruments. Just Drums, Stand up Bass and Piano. I think it's recorded live. Just ridiculous amazing Jazz

I ended up finding The Black Keys and White Stripes album at Second Spin Records. Pretty good record store. Huge selection of used stuff. I also bought the new Dr. Dog Album "Shame Shame".

So please support local businesses. I know it's tough right now to do so and it's easy to just click away and download songs but there are pluses for buying CDs and Records. You can find them used, there's awesome artwork. It's fun to read the liner notes. (Chick Corea was good friends with L Ron Hubbard) and THEY SOUND BETTER!!!

Hiking at Stoney Point

Had an amazing Hike today at Stoney Point in Topanga Canyon with my wife. We climbed up as high as we could and saw great views of the valley. We saw little squirrels, bunnies and lizards too. Also there was a lot of graffiti and broken bottles. I don't know about you but if you tag a rock in the middle of a hiking trail then that's not really graffiti. Thats lame graffiti because you are unlikely to get caught. And you are ruining the land. Destroy man made structures and leave natural land alone....GOSH. I now want to try to hike around all the trails in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's just so fun and a big challenge. What are some great trails that you know about?

Since this is a music blog too, here is the musician of the day. Thaddeus Tribbett from the Tye Tribbett gospel band. I've been playing drums at St. Bridget church since I was 15 and as players we were always pushing each other to do crazier and crazier things but still make it work musically with the song. Not just show off our skills all the time (Hey but you got to do it sometimes). Well Thaddeus is the bass player and he is just ridiculous. That bass player is just on a whole different level and I enjoy watching him play. He's still not as good as Jeremy Milado who I've played with at my church because I think Jeremy plays more musically but Thaddeus is still good. A bit showy but I like showy sometimes. This whole band in general is amazing and for some reason I have a huge obsession with gospel music because it is the epitome of musicianship that I've seen in a band but keep it entertaining and emotional. These musicians are the ones pushing the limit of their craft in a way I've never seen. When you start watching gospel bands it's like watching a bunch of musicians friendly competing with each other. They all push themselves and each other to do weirder and weirder things. Just watch Thaddeus on bass and see how he is almost making up stuff as he goes to see what fits. It's just epic and beautiful. If anything you should pick up Tye Tribbett's live album VICTORY. I have it and it's inspiring. I think anyone can enjoy this music and the level of musicianship these people choose to play and you don't have to be christian. Hope you enjoy and just see how this guy kills it!

Fried Fish

Just made an amazing Fried Fish at home today. I used tilapia instead of catfish which is what the recipe said to use but tilapia is super cheap and really tasty. Just thought I'd share this recipe with you.

Click here for recipe

Here are some photos

Also I wanted to post this video which is totally unrelated to food but it's great music to listen to while cooking, taking a long drive or just being with your baby girl.

Anthony Green is just one of those artists that I can't describe with words because I can never write something that will do him justice. Lets just say that this song and this album "Avalon" changed me so much musically and this album is a summer, fall, winter and spring album. I can listen to it anytime of the year and it'll be fitting. It's even great for road trips because the album puts everyone in a peaceful mood. I know most of you who will read this already know him but if you don't, please check him out.

Pick up this album if you don't have it.

Downtown Music and 5th of July Fireworks

So last night my best friend David and I went to downtown to take some pictures. David got a new Sony camera and is obsessed with photography and we like scouting out for cool locations for photos. So I thought of taking the Metro Red Line to the Civic Center where the Disney Concert Hall is. I also brought my HD video camera to film the area. So I made a video of the whole night. I got in trouble outside the Disney Concert Hall for using a tripod. Sounds stupid to me but I don't want to get arrested haha. What made this night awesome was the fireworks at Dodger stadium. I didn't get to see any fireworks for the 4th of July because I was working on some music but I'm glad I got to see these fireworks (and for free too). Had lots of fun roaming downtown at night. Something about the empty streets of the area makes it a bit erie but awesome.

here are some photos

Photos by Me

Photos by David