Check out my Review and images of the Secret Machines on MyDentonMusic.com! I took some nice concert shots and talked about how much the newest member of the group is the defining factor in their sound. Enjoy!
Pictured here is Mike, one of the great folks that helps organize independent music events through Songs for Children. He was also omni-present last night adding video to live music (and doing cool techie stuff) during Music for Your Marrow, a concert to raise awareness about Leukemia and how to become a bone marrow donor in Hong Kong.
Fair Dinkum Dragonboat Team. These are my friends in Hong Kong! Our team held a major adventure race throughout Hong Kong with 23 teams participating and me as the photographer. After a crazy morning in Admiralty, we sneaked away to Ma Wan Island where the teams used clues and intuition to find us, build a 1/2 meter tall sandcastle and swim in the “shark’s nest.” Goodtimes.
Wayne Coyne Under My Parachute from Video Mix-Me-Up on Vimeo.
With over 20,000 people attending Denton, Texas’ newest music “conferette” NX35, last weekend was a real game changer for a lot of folks. You can expect to see Denton emerge as the new “indie” capital of the United States in the next few months and years. The question is, how do they top this festival next year?
Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips interviews at NX35, video courtesy of a very-excited-about-Denton Patrick Flaherty.
DP are from Hong Kong. Well, at least they’ve lived here long enough to claim it as home, and have been rocking long and well enough to claim their stake this weeekend at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. I caught them last night at Grappa’s Cellar, one of my favorite music venues in Hong Kong. They were opening for The Secret Machines, a Dallas, Texas band that gained fame when they made the move to New York.
I had an oddly long conversation with the drummer Paul in the bathroom of Grappa’s, and as mean as they look on stage playing the loudest, most satisfying metal I’ve heard in a long time, they’re really nice dudes.
Check out DP Metal Heads on myspace. They’re most definitely on a plane to Texas as I write this. The Secret Machines are also on tour, heading to Beijing today to rock out with another crowd.
The NX35 (North by 35) festival is this weekend in Denton, Texas. Midlake and the Flaming Lips are playing for free. The Flaming Lips dude! Free! If you’re in Texas, this is one festival not to be missed. I’m already making plans to be there next year. Some of my favorite bands are playing there. Both Snarky Puppy and Sarah Renfro are releasing their new CDs there, and there’s more good bands playing than you could ever hope to hear in one weekend, and all much more intimate than SXSW (I say that in all respect). Not to mention some amazing panel discussions on independent music, two led in part by Pegasus’ News Music Editor Sarah Crisman. Denton is absolutely exploding! Ya dig? Leave some love in the form of comments.
Photo taken at Dan’s Silverleaf this past winter at a Paul Slavens show.
I’m a big fan of the TED talks, not just because they’re inspiring but because they have real-life implications. This is one idea I’m gladly spreading. Mullins talks about how in many cases “to say the thing out loud brought it into existence” when referring to the current notion of disability. I choose to follow her lead and encourage those who don’t have the same resources (be it legs, connections, money, special abilities) as the general population because those folks have something the general population does not have: a unique perspective that will force adaptation and serve them well to innovate for others like them and for all people.
A note I’d like to add about TED talks is that even though many of the projects mentioned are technologically amazing, the most amazing (and usually undervalued) thing is getting people to live and work well together. True power is the power to move people.
Gigi Marentette performs at a corporate gig I was hired to photograph. Gigi is one of my favorite singers in Hong Kong. Originally from Canada, you can check out her work here.
Tell Your Friends! That’s the name of the new Snarky Puppy album which is coupled with a feature-length DVD shot by Andy Laviolette and the folks at Holt Arts. Mike League, the band’s leader, really went out to the bayou with this one – he brought a handpicked studio audience to hear the new album recorded live at Dockside studios. I’m really bummed I can’t catch any of their release parties at the NX35 festival in Denton, Texas or Artmosphere in Lafayette, Louisiana. Like the pups, I advocate music that is for the booty as much as it is for the brain. Watch, listen and enjoy 
By the way, this is my favorite still from the video:
We came upon this not-so-scary swing that appeared absolutely ominous in a recent creative photo session to the West Kowloon Arts District in Hong Kong. What do you think? Scary or just plain childish?