Sunday, February 28, 2010

You Heard It Right!

On an exciting note. The band debuted this past Friday night at Java Jones Coffeehouse. It was awesome! Noe Anguiano is my new bass player and Jerris Dunnaway my new percussionist. What a fun time. On an even more exciting note, we'll be playing again on Tuesday at O'Connell's Pub.

And it doesn't stop there...

The Ruby Room will be booked for mid April, either the 16th or 17th. Check www.myspace.com/chadcavanaugh for more info to come on this and more dates.

And...

The radio play continues! I can't tell you how awesome it is to hear my music on the radio. It never gets old. It's like "kid in a candy store" awesome!

Come out and check out the band. You're gonna love how we sound. More ALWAYS to come. We're currently working o stuff that we'll be debuting in a month or so. It's awesome to have two people like Noe and Jerris to play with. You heard it right, Chad Cavanaugh is now a band!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Believe... Don't Believe

Evolving happens all around us. Always. Life is constantly changing and that is really the only constant. Just like music. It changes, evolves, ebbs and flows. How is Nu Metal doing these days?

In 1999 there were a lot of bands that broke on to the scene with 7 string guitars in dropped D tuning and it was Nu Metal. A fusion of metal and Pop and Hip Hop and whatever else. Today, most singer/songwriters I know are using Dropped D tuning. Not for every song. But it's common across the board. Probably has been off and on forever. But the genre of Nu Metal has gone the way of the Dodo. So to speak. In it's place has emerged bands like Rise Against and Cage the Elephant. The Black Keys are another one that are just straight forward rock, a little dirty and awesome to listen to. I also liked Nu Metal. I like music, period. I love writing and playing it as well.

As music will inevitably change over time, there will always be those who want to hold on to a specific genre and not ever embrace any other type of music or amalgamation of genres. It's okay. Being that music can be recorded, leaving a lasting, documented history of it, they can hold on to it forever. For them it can be timeless. My inner most hopes and dreams are that what I write will ultimately be timeless. That any generation will be able to listen to a song I wrote and performed and have it be relevant to their day and age. That is the hope. I believe I've done that.

I believe that my daughters will play my music when they are older and it will make them feel like I am with them. In hearing the familiar strike of the first chord of the songs they've listened to since they can first remember to the last note of each song. I hope it can make them feel my love for them even when I'm long gone. I hope it does the same for you.

Believe, don't believe, but be open to change

Monday, February 22, 2010

That's Not Me?!?!


Can someone tell me why the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are playing on my site? It's baffling me. I went to my myspace site and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs started playing. What kind of joke is this? It has nothing to do with whether or not I like them, it has everything to do with the fact that I'm not cool with squatters.

If you came home and found someone in your living room, feet up on the sofa, drinking your last Yoohoo, you'd probably have issue with that. Right? Get your f***ing tent out of my campsite, son, before I go Grizzly Adams on your a$$ (does that mean I'll grow a beard on someone?)

Ugh...

I'm not good w/ technical difficulties. Things are just supposed to work.

Moving along. Last night was the Acoustic Alliance, which I am now honored to say I am an alumnus of said event. It was a lot of fun but went really late. And the little one got up really early. But now she's back down and I'm back online, until AT&T digital fails again.

So the past week had a bunch of cool shows. Ran into some old friends and made a bunch of new ones. Met people who are in the same community as me, the singer/songwriter circle, but sound completely opposite of each other. It was really cool. Some very talented people played on stage with me last night and I look forward to playing with them again. Some very genuine people on their own paths in life and I'm glad our paths crossed.

Stay tuned for upcoming shows and chicanery.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Things We Already Knew

"I'll take 'things we already knew' for $1,000, Alex"

I heard today in the Twitterverse that Mtv has removed the word "music" from their title. I haven't seen this as being confirmed but what I can say is that we knew Mtv hasn't had anything to do with music since 2000.

It's like everyone tip-toed around this Mtv character at parties and in meetings not wanting to damage its fragile ego. Like a kid that's been living in denial. Like a CEO that tells its investors "we're doing great!" while behind him in plain site the business is falling to pieces and the stock is plummeting.

We already knew it wasn't about music for them. I'm happy for them, if it's true, that they finally came out of the closet and are owning up to what they are. A Reality Show channel that does nothing more than provide entertainment for the voyeuristic society that we have become. We as in the people that watch it. I don't. I had to Google "the situation" to find out what people were talking about. I don't have cable. You're welcome.

So I guess the question is this, who is going to get to use the name "Music Television"? I reminisce often about the days of first having Mtv and being able to watch shows like Headbangers Ball w/ Ricki Rachtman(sp?) and Yo Mtv Raps w. Fab 5 Freddy and later Ed Lover and Dr Dre. People like Denis Leary, Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler and Colin Quinn become household names but few may remember that they were on Mtv in a small capacity. Denis Leary had a rant about how Mtv should be Ctv, for his love of all things Cindy Crawford. Colin Quinn was the co-host of Remote Control and Adam Sandler was an ancillary character on that show. Jon Stewart had a show on there as well as Ben Stiller.

Programs like Liquid Television brought us Beavis and Butthead & Aeon Flux. The Idiot Box furthered the career of the guy that starred along side Keanu Reeves in the Bill and Ted movies. These shows were woven in between music videos. Lots and lots of music videos.

As a little white kid in the desert southwest I was able to learn all about cool hip hop dance moves, rock n roll hair styles and fell in love with the girl from the Young MC video-as did many others in the mid 80's so don't hate.

Will we see a return of the television channel dedicated to music, and not to the sordid behind the scenes lives of the music makers? I don't know, as "video killed the radio star", "reality TV killed the video channel"

Creators f Music Television, probably not fist pumping

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Surprises, the Good Kind

When you least expect something is when it usually happens. So making a life of no expectations should lead to a lot of awesome surprises. Unfortunately, I'm more excitable than a Chihuahua that just ate a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans.

Yesterday, as I was checking my Twitter, I noticed my name but it wasn't the brown color normally associated with being referenced in a Tweet. Turns out, it was a Tweet about another follower/followees latest artist review. I have seen in the past that this person writes about a lot of artists on his blog so I checked it out and was really surprised, in an awesomely good way, to read the article on me. It was titled "Straight Boys Need Love Too".

Having a completely unsolicited article/review of your work and having that review being favorable is pretty damn awesome!

So to you, Howard, I say thank you. Thank you for such an awesome and positive write up about what I love to do and for the surprise, the good kind.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

It's A Celebration

I believe everything is worth celebrating. No milestone or accomplishment too small in my book. But this is a huge milestone! Two years ago, my daughter Kaia was born.

It was the day before Super Bowl Sunday. My wife and I were about a month away from having our baby, according to the ultrasounds. She had been wanting to go get a stroller/baby car seat for some time and I finally caved. But we still had almost a month before the arrival of our little one.

Super Bowl Sunday. The Giants and the Patriots squared off in a historical game! This would be the first time in decades that a team had a chance to go unbeaten from beginning to end. Not since the Miami Dolphins did it in the 70's. The Patriots were 18-0 and the clear favorites over the Giants that seemed to have arrived at the Super Bowl by complete luck. Nobody outside of the Meadowlands thought they had a chance.

My wife made a awesome dip consisting of melting a block of Velveeta cheese over a can of chili. She removed the chili from the can first and discarded the can. She's thoughtful like that. The dip was excellent but definitely something that was going to cause trouble later on. But we kept eating it. After half time, my wife went to lay down. Had to be the dip.

A little over an hour later, a miracle of a catch was made which was followed by an unbelievable touchdown catch made by a guy who would later be in jail for concealing a weapon and shooting himself.

Note to self: Don't shoot yourself with a concealed gun. Makes you look like an idiot.

Moving along. The game ended and I went in to see how my wife was feeling. I saw a look I've never seen on her face. Pain. She is tough. Like way tougher than Run DMC and their claim to be tougher than leather. She was in serious pain. But we were a month away from being due.

About an hour later, we were in a birthing room listening to the anaesthesiologist ask condescending questions of my wife while slowly putting the epidural together. Within seconds our little baby came out, without my wife having to push.

She was here! She was tiny. She wasn't crying, just sticking her tongue out. Was she okay? They cleaned her up and brought her over to me to cut the umbilical cord. It was tough. It was like trying to cut through the chain of a bike lock. Then she was whisked away to the NICU, the intensive care for babies. She needed to be observed since she was early and tiny. 4 lbs 9 oz tiny. When she would eat she would stop breathing and turn blue.

Today, our little Kaia Blue is two years old. It seems like yesterday. The reason why I'm the Stay At Home Rock Star is two.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Reciprocity

Life is a two way street. You can't expect it to always go in your direction...

What you can do is learn to go in each of those directions. Best summed up as give and take. Within a community it is awesome to see this kind of reciprocity. Last night I played at the Comedy Palace in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego. There was a great line up of comedians and an awesome headliner. There was also a great number of comics on hand just to support as an audience. I love to see that. A friend of mine, Alyssa Jacey, was there from my music community as well. It was awesome to have that support from her. We were able to talk afterwards about upcoming shows and possible shows together in the future. Great networking going on.

For the most part, the San Diego music scene is an incredibly supportive community. Most of the musicians I know are as busy as I am with shows so you can't expect them to come out but yet they still do. On Saturday night I played to a packed house, opening for an award winning Improv Comedy troupe, the Hinges. In the audience were my friends/fellow singer/songwriters Rob Deez and Lindsay White. Seeing them there was a huge boost for me. They are people that I love and it just makes you feel good to see them in attendance.

I look forward to seeing them perform and supporting them in the near future, schedule's permitting. Rob puts o a show every Thursday at Java Joe's, 3835 5th Ave in Hillcrest called Grow Folk Sh!t that you can catch, Lindsay will be playing at U-31 in North Park on Feb 10th with her full band (you can her my duet with her at my MySpace page. A song called Daydream, inspired by Lindsay) and Alyssa, just off of her successful CD release/Video Premiere show at the Belly Up Tavern will be opening for Shawn Colvin on Feb 13th.

Remember, life goes two ways. Give and Take. Become proficient at both.