My Orchids are Crafty.
We have been having a lot of fun making zines and handmade goodies to be available for you to get at our shows. The zines and cds are free - donations accepted - but now we are getting ready to share some of the handmade creations we made when we have some free time.
We are in the process of moving into a house with some friends near USC. We are psyched to have space to make things (and sometimes destroy things). We recently used one of Champ's design to create fabric on Spoonflower and we got it in the mail yesterday! The design can be seen on our myspace page
I've been coming up with wallet ideas to sew. We hope to turn a lot of Champs artwork into things you can buy at our shows. We already sell a few things on an Etsy store we call Shared Madness. We really really love to trade things, so if you ever wanna bring something you made to our show we would love to trade you some goodies in exchange.
Keep the Magick Alive!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Neu Sound. Neu Songs
We are looking forward to unleash our new songs/ new set-up. We have decided to stick with this one.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Magick Orchids "HEXES" West Coast Tour
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Its still all tentative and flexible but if you or know anyone that can help us book shows in these cities, it would much appreciated and we will make you part of the fun if you want to do it together with us. Its just not about Doing It Yerself but also Doing It Together! If you don't know of any venues and decide to have shows where you live, we would be more than happy to play for you and your friends if you don't mind letting us crash on your living rooms. Anyways, email us at: magickmagickmagick@gmail.com or send us a message on myspace. Any info that can help us get this going.
August 07 SANTA BARBARA, CA
August 08 SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA
August 10 OAKLAND, CA
August 11 SAN FRANCISCO, CA
August 12 SACRAMENTO, CA
August 13 REDDING, CA
August 14 EUGENE, OR
August 15 PORTLAND, OR
August 16 PORTLAND, OR
August 18 OLYMPIA,WA
August 19 OLYMPIA, WA
August 20 SEATTLE, WA
August 21 SEATTLE, WA
Friday, February 6, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Digital Delay (delay....delay....)
I went to Seattle last week and went through a tiny sliver of my dad's immense accumulation of pedals and gear. I had some fun with space echos, analog and digital delays.
Our song Passionista has layered vocal and harmonies that I love love love to do, so the digital delay pedals were the most fun for me. I made some spooky, Pocahaunted style sounds that I love so much and pretended I was Laurie Anderson for a second. Then i sneezed for an hour from allergies. I'm not sure how a cat lives to be 20 years old....skin and bones that my childhood pet cat Bruce is now....but I'm just as allergic to his bony old man self as I was when he was a fatty.
On the way to the airport, my dad and I stopped at a pawn shop and grabbed a Boss DD-6 for me to mess with. One of us was able to bargain to $35 for the thing. Fine, it wasn't me. The pedal doesn't do as much as Champ's mount rack of effects, but we are spring cleaning in the winter time!! This is much more economical. Perhaps I will upload a sample of what I've done with it. Back to work!
Our song Passionista has layered vocal and harmonies that I love love love to do, so the digital delay pedals were the most fun for me. I made some spooky, Pocahaunted style sounds that I love so much and pretended I was Laurie Anderson for a second. Then i sneezed for an hour from allergies. I'm not sure how a cat lives to be 20 years old....skin and bones that my childhood pet cat Bruce is now....but I'm just as allergic to his bony old man self as I was when he was a fatty.
On the way to the airport, my dad and I stopped at a pawn shop and grabbed a Boss DD-6 for me to mess with. One of us was able to bargain to $35 for the thing. Fine, it wasn't me. The pedal doesn't do as much as Champ's mount rack of effects, but we are spring cleaning in the winter time!! This is much more economical. Perhaps I will upload a sample of what I've done with it. Back to work!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
WHAT IS DIY?
From the wikipedia article:
The DIY ethic (do it yourself ethic) refers to the ethic of being self-reliant by completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are likely more experienced complete them. The term can indicate “doing” anything from home improvements and repairs to healthcare, from publication to electronics.
DIY questions the supposed uniqueness of the expert’s skills, and promotes the ability of the ordinary person to learn to do more than he or she thought was possible.
In the punk subculture, the DIY ethic is tied to punk ideology and anticonsumerism, as a rejection of the need to purchase items or use existing systems or processes. Emerging punk bands often perform basement shows in residential homes, rather than at traditional venue, to avoid corporate sponsorship. The DIY punk ethic also applies to everyday living, such as learning bicycle repair rather than taking a bike to a mechanic’s shop, sewing/repairing/modifying clothing rather than buying new clothes, starting vegetable gardens, and reclaiming recyclable products by dumpster diving. Punk impresario David Ferguson’s CD Presents was a DIY concert production, recording studio and record label network.
Subculture
The term ‘DIY’ or ‘Do-It-Yourself’ is also used to describe:
* Self-publishing books, zines, and alternative comics.
* bands or solo artists releasing their music on self-funded record labels
* creating crafts such as knitting, sewing, handmade jewelry, ceramics, etc.[2]
* creating punk, indie, or hipster musical merchandise through the use of recycling thrift store or discarded materials, usually decorated with logo art applied by silk screen.[3]
* Independent game development and game modding.
DIY as a subculture arguably began with the punk movement of the 1970s[4]. Instead of traditional means of bands reaching their audiences through large music labels, bands began recording themselves, manufacturing albums and merchandise, booking their own tours, and creating opportunities for smaller bands to get wider recognition and gain cult status through repetitive low-cost DIY touring. The burgeoning zine movement took up coverage of and promotion of the underground punk scenes, and significantly altered the way fans interacted with musicians. Zines quickly branched off from being hand-made music magazines to become more personal. Zines quickly became one of the youth culture’s gateways to DIY culture, which lead to tutorial zines showing others how to make their own shirts, posters, zines, books, food, etc.
Political action
With the rise of the modern multi-national corporation, North American and European DIY culture has increasingly become a social and political ideology as well as a hobby and fashion aesthetic. Similar to the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1900s, the modern DIY movement is viewed as a reactionary response on an individual scale to modern industrial society’s reliance on mass-production. In response to the perception and belief that these large multi-national companies exploit labor in developing countries, (such as Gap, Nike, and Coca-Cola), the DIY subculture has increasingly seen its choices as consumers motivated in part to not support such perceived cruelty and abuse. A common sentiment expressed in DIY culture is to “think globally, act locally,” meaning that support of multinational corporations supports exploitative labor and environmental practices, so to purchase goods and services made locally in effect boycotts these organizations. In addition, the making, recycling, or otherwise following a doctrine of “non consumption” as part of DIY subculture lessens the amount of sales taxes one pays, such taxes being viewed as similarly aiding such morally repugnant institutions as governments which wage war. This view of “consuming less as political statement” is not agreed upon in the subcultures it is found in, but is a motivating force for many of its adherents.
DIY culture is not limited to hand-making items such as clothing and housewares, but extends to choices of public transportation such as biking and bike repair, walking, taking public transportation, making electric, hybrid or bio-diesel vehicles and modifying existing vehicles, to avoid supporting traditional car companies, which are perceived to be amoral. Listening to and making community radio, pirate radio, and watching and making community television instead of advertising-filled traditional media is also common.
The DIY ethic (do it yourself ethic) refers to the ethic of being self-reliant by completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are likely more experienced complete them. The term can indicate “doing” anything from home improvements and repairs to healthcare, from publication to electronics.
DIY questions the supposed uniqueness of the expert’s skills, and promotes the ability of the ordinary person to learn to do more than he or she thought was possible.
In the punk subculture, the DIY ethic is tied to punk ideology and anticonsumerism, as a rejection of the need to purchase items or use existing systems or processes. Emerging punk bands often perform basement shows in residential homes, rather than at traditional venue, to avoid corporate sponsorship. The DIY punk ethic also applies to everyday living, such as learning bicycle repair rather than taking a bike to a mechanic’s shop, sewing/repairing/modifying clothing rather than buying new clothes, starting vegetable gardens, and reclaiming recyclable products by dumpster diving. Punk impresario David Ferguson’s CD Presents was a DIY concert production, recording studio and record label network.
Subculture
The term ‘DIY’ or ‘Do-It-Yourself’ is also used to describe:
* Self-publishing books, zines, and alternative comics.
* bands or solo artists releasing their music on self-funded record labels
* creating crafts such as knitting, sewing, handmade jewelry, ceramics, etc.[2]
* creating punk, indie, or hipster musical merchandise through the use of recycling thrift store or discarded materials, usually decorated with logo art applied by silk screen.[3]
* Independent game development and game modding.
DIY as a subculture arguably began with the punk movement of the 1970s[4]. Instead of traditional means of bands reaching their audiences through large music labels, bands began recording themselves, manufacturing albums and merchandise, booking their own tours, and creating opportunities for smaller bands to get wider recognition and gain cult status through repetitive low-cost DIY touring. The burgeoning zine movement took up coverage of and promotion of the underground punk scenes, and significantly altered the way fans interacted with musicians. Zines quickly branched off from being hand-made music magazines to become more personal. Zines quickly became one of the youth culture’s gateways to DIY culture, which lead to tutorial zines showing others how to make their own shirts, posters, zines, books, food, etc.
Political action
With the rise of the modern multi-national corporation, North American and European DIY culture has increasingly become a social and political ideology as well as a hobby and fashion aesthetic. Similar to the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1900s, the modern DIY movement is viewed as a reactionary response on an individual scale to modern industrial society’s reliance on mass-production. In response to the perception and belief that these large multi-national companies exploit labor in developing countries, (such as Gap, Nike, and Coca-Cola), the DIY subculture has increasingly seen its choices as consumers motivated in part to not support such perceived cruelty and abuse. A common sentiment expressed in DIY culture is to “think globally, act locally,” meaning that support of multinational corporations supports exploitative labor and environmental practices, so to purchase goods and services made locally in effect boycotts these organizations. In addition, the making, recycling, or otherwise following a doctrine of “non consumption” as part of DIY subculture lessens the amount of sales taxes one pays, such taxes being viewed as similarly aiding such morally repugnant institutions as governments which wage war. This view of “consuming less as political statement” is not agreed upon in the subcultures it is found in, but is a motivating force for many of its adherents.
DIY culture is not limited to hand-making items such as clothing and housewares, but extends to choices of public transportation such as biking and bike repair, walking, taking public transportation, making electric, hybrid or bio-diesel vehicles and modifying existing vehicles, to avoid supporting traditional car companies, which are perceived to be amoral. Listening to and making community radio, pirate radio, and watching and making community television instead of advertising-filled traditional media is also common.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Economizing The Band
In the next few days, we are going to experiment with our set-up and try out playing our songs in different ways.
Anyways, last night was a great show at the Echo with Infinite Body, Hecuba and High Places whom we both love wand respect with high regard. We went to see the show with Andrew who is so happy that High Places lives in LA now, he danced like there was no tomorrow. Olrayts!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
5...4...3...2...Fun!
Last week we made our way up to Santa Barbara. We played on the local college radio station, KCSB 91.9 FM and made some new friends! I have to say that this trip helped make me bliss; exploring! creating! and sharing music!
We drove up Thursday night and played on the radio show 5...4...3...2...Fun! with radio host Josh from the band Watercolor paintings. Josh is a rad guy who always welcomes bands onto his show each week.
We played just over a half hour set and gave a one hour seminar about our political and socio-economic beliefs. It was really fun!!!!
We didnt have much of a plan, but Josh was nice enough to let us crash in his living room. We woke up and made our way to a beautiful butterfly preserve. It's the season for Monarch butterflies to migrate through the area, particularly, a Eucalyptus field. You walk inside, stand still, look around and begin to see swarms of butterflies emerge from the shadows, fly out of mossy logs and rest on blades of grass blowing in the breeze.
Gabe and Katya met us on the beach just in time for sunset. We ate some mediocre sushi and went to see Josh's band play at a house party at UCSB. It's a great community of people and bands, definitely worth checking out!
Soon enough, it was time for us to go home. Traveling and experiencing other people's creations is the best. Next time we can stuff you in our trunk and take you along with us...
We drove up Thursday night and played on the radio show 5...4...3...2...Fun! with radio host Josh from the band Watercolor paintings. Josh is a rad guy who always welcomes bands onto his show each week.
We played just over a half hour set and gave a one hour seminar about our political and socio-economic beliefs. It was really fun!!!!
We didnt have much of a plan, but Josh was nice enough to let us crash in his living room. We woke up and made our way to a beautiful butterfly preserve. It's the season for Monarch butterflies to migrate through the area, particularly, a Eucalyptus field. You walk inside, stand still, look around and begin to see swarms of butterflies emerge from the shadows, fly out of mossy logs and rest on blades of grass blowing in the breeze.
Gabe and Katya met us on the beach just in time for sunset. We ate some mediocre sushi and went to see Josh's band play at a house party at UCSB. It's a great community of people and bands, definitely worth checking out!
Soon enough, it was time for us to go home. Traveling and experiencing other people's creations is the best. Next time we can stuff you in our trunk and take you along with us...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
"Spooky Snow" For All Of You.
We finally finished a new EP of home recorded songs that we have been working on. Its been fun trying to learn and experiement with "production techniques" and all that chu-chu. Gotta admit, I'd still prefer just pressing record and playing the whole song through but this was good for us to make something different more based on concepts for recorded material instead of just songs to be played live which for me have always been two different art forms. Except for one song, most the songs weren't originally intended for us to be played live. We made most of it with a lot of additional instrumentations and had fun with effects pedals during recordings. But perhaps we might reconfigure some of it and transpose it to our live sets or if we can find people who wouldn't mind playing small but crucial parts in some songs. Who knows? Anyways, the little EP is called "Spooky Snow" and its our little winter album for all of you. You can get it from our shows or through Paypal for 5 bucks. All the proceeds will go to funding for zines that we will be making. Anyways, if you have nothing to do on Thursday at 10 pm, we'll be on air in KCSB 91.9 UC Santa Barbara's COllege Radio. If you want you can give us a call and we can play requests for Mariah Carey and Carpenters covers. Thats all for now. Get "Spooky Snow".
Friday, January 9, 2009
Two Thousand Nine.
We just made several new songs this week which we a re excited to play. Its been a really crazy Holiday and too much partying since Kwanzaa. Rhea is kinda getting sick and losing her voice, hopefully she'll be much better next week because we'll be heading to Santa Barbara to be on 5432Fun, which is a radio show on KCSB hosted by the other half of Watercolor Paintings, Josh. The other half is her sibling, Rebecca, who plays the harp. We've been listening to previous episodes of the show online and really dig the songs he plays in the show. This will be our first time on the radio so it will be fun especially since its kinda out of town and in a college radio. We've been wondering what kind of set-up we're gonna bring but i think we agreed to just play with keys and drums. We are hoping to stay in Santa Barbara until Saturday and hope to find some fun things to do. Maybe we can go to a show or play some impromptu house party or just have fun. We are also looking forward to the Echo Curio show on the 19th. Our great friends The Health Club will play first then us then Billygoat. We also went to The Smell last night to check out Campfire, Sun Araw and Pocahaunted. Rhea wasn't feeling so good, especially after swimming in a sea of noise and drone so we had to leave early -she was getting sick. There were still a lot of people on the streets though it was very cold and foggy. I realized it was because of the Downtown Artwalk. Anyways, i hope you are smiling hard in reading this, lone reader!
P.S. Rhea has been doing the Only For The Open-Minded zine which you can find at some local venues and i've been getting busy in making the Smile Hard zine which i have made available online and some local venues like Pehrspace, The Smell, and soon Don's Records and The Echo Curio.
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