I only remembered to record the last couple of songs in today's Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show. But it was a particularly fun show today, with a zany set list. I wasn't in the modd to do my standard list of Zak Claxton songs, so I handed a stack of songs to Kat and had her pick them at random, which may help explain the crazy set list below. I relented right at the end, and had her randomly choose a Zak tune, which happened to be "Falling Down". It all worked out fine.
ZCHFS #9 Set List... Peg (Steely Dan)
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Crosby, Stills, and Nash)
Uncle John's Band (Grateful Dead)
Sex and Candy (Marcy Playground)
Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)
The Worst (Rolling Stones)
Nobody Home/Vera (Pink Floyd)
*Synchronicity II (The Polive)
Man of Constant Sorrow (Traditional)
Falling Down (Zak Claxton)
Improvised Outro Song (Zak Claxton)
Thanks to everyone who tuned in to today's show! Next one on June 12!
I'm really enjoying this ongoing European tour I've been doing. Today's show was at an Italian fashion boutique, Le Charme, and it ended up being a very fun show with a good crowd. It helps that the show was well promoted, and it definitely helps to have Max Kleene following me. But mostly, we had a crowd consisting of 99% women who all seemed to be enjoying the tunes, and I don't ask for anything beyond that.
Today's set list... You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton) Wonderwall (Oasis) California (Joni Mitchell) Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton) Ashes to Ashes (David Bowie) Falling Down (Zak Claxton) Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton) De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da (The Police) Any Major Dude (Steely Dan) Time Never Waits for You (Zak Claxton) Shine (Zak Claxton) What I Got (Sublime)
Thanks to everyone at Le Charme, especially the people who helped support my show! Diana Renoir, Sensual Fold, Alexis Fairlady, Arlene Islay, Angie Ling, Kat Claxton, Ramona Planer, Mirtha Majeta, and the lovely Sandy Demina!
Yes, that's me on CNN.com. Click to make it bigger.
In case you hadn't heard elsewhere, I'm doing a show tomorrow (Thu 5/27/10 at 1:00PM SLT) at a nice fashion store in SL called Le Charme. There's nothing really unusual about that. Anyone who reads this blog knows I play pretty much all the time, and enjoy performing at new venues, perchance to gain some new fans.
But the interesting thing this time around is that upon waking up this morning, I saw that I had some new messages on my Facebook wall, and went to go check them out. One was from Sandy Demina, my informal manager who has helped get me in front of a bunch of European audiences in SL recently. Lo and behold, Sandy had managed to get CNN to run an iReport on the fashion show event... and included information on me and the other musician playing tomorrow, Max Kleene!
Before you decide that I'm blowing this out of proportion... yeah, it's an iReport, which isn't exactly the same as being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer in the Situation Room. iReports are CNN's user-created content section. But still, this is one of the first mentions of Zak Claxton that's even remotely tied to mainstream media. It's not insignificant at all. I'm very happy to have received past coverage in places like the Metaverse Journal, on the Beat Chicks podcast, Second Life Newspaper, SL Enquirer, and many more. But none of those publications are necessarily those that you feel compelled to forward to your mom.
Part of me feels somewhat akin to Navin R. Johnson, Steve Martin's character in The Jerk after being listed in the phonebook... "I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday!". Even so, it's pretty cool to be referenced on CNN. All I can think of are the millions upon millions of musicians who weren't on any mainstream media today -- and likely never will be. I'm not nearly so jaded as to not appreciate these kind of things.
Oh, and lest we forget: please come to the show tomorrow! Talking about something is never as cool as actually doing it. There will be a fashion extravaganza, with me (followed by Max) strumming and singing along. Should be fun. See you there.
This is a bargain blog post, folks. You get three -- count them -- three topics in one. I've been so busy doing stuff -- a new Podcast, a new music video, and finally a show today -- that I haven't had enough time to write about them. We can remedy that, though. Let's do them in chronological order. It only seems fair. 1. NEW! Zak Claxton Podcast Spring 2010! It had been five months since the last Podcast. I was slacking. But I think this one makes up for the delay, with news on my latest recording session, four complete tunes from the Zak Claxton album, and (drum roll please)... a complete interview with my friend, multi-instrumentalist and all-around great guy Bunny Knutson! Bunny dropped by on Wednesday evening, and I spontaneously turned his visit into an interview, much to his dismay. You can listen/download it right here...
2. NEW! Music video for "Waxing Gibbous" YouTube Link
It's been my intention all along to eventually product videos for every song off the album. Of course, it's also been my intention to quit smoking and do sit-ups every morning, and haven't made much progress yet on those either. But yesterday (Sat May 22), I realized that the moon was in its waxing gibbous phase, and that started me thinking about doing a simple video for the only solo instrumental song on my album. So, Kat and I shot footage yesterday, I did some editing late last night, and bang-zoom! A video for you. Enjoy it.
3. Notes Shack (05.23.10)
It's really always a fun show at the Notes Shack. I tend to pull out tunes there that I don't do elsewhere, and today had a good-sized crowd of folks that really seemed to enjoy what they were hearing.
I did have a brief moment of insanity, inserting techno bleeps and bloops into the solo section of "You're Like a Cloud". I was going to try and write some excuse for this, but I don't think I should bother.
Today's set list at the Notes Shack... This Afternoon (Zak Claxton) Love Hurts (Everly Brothers) †Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix) Time Never Waits for You (Zak Claxton) Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton) ††Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead) For the Turnstiles (Neil Young) Falling Down (Zak Claxton) You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton) She's Always a Woman (Billy Joel) I've Been Waiting for You (Neil Young) Help Me (Joni Mitchell) Shine (Zak Claxton)
†This was the first performance of "Little Wing" since April 30, 2009. †† And the first "Friend of the Devil" since February 18, 2008!
Huge thanks to everyone who hung out at Notes Shack and supported my show! Rock Doghouse, Triana Caldera, Alexis Fairlady, Hotrod Solo, Kat Claxton, Aurelie Chenaux, and Notes Shack owner Krakov Letov!
Well, I thought I'd done every type of gig in SL, but today once again proved me wrong. It was the first time I'd ever been taped doing a live show for a TV program!
The Stream Scene is a show on Metaverse TV (viewable at metaversetv.com), and it focuses on the live musicians who perform in SL. I've been friends with the show's producer, Twstd Ruggles, for a long time, but we never managed to hook up for me to appear on the show until today.
I was their in-studio guest performer, and I have to say, it went really well. As you would imagine, I did a set of my original songs only, and maybe it's because I've been performing so much lately (or it was just dumb luck), but my voice and guitar playing were both behaving very well at today's show. It takes about a week to edit the show together, so expect an update sometime next week when the show is available for viewing on the air!
My Stream Scene set list... This Afternoon (Zak Claxton) Shine (Zak Claxton) You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton) Falling Down (Zak Claxton) Time Never Waits for You (Zak Claxton) Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton) Fade Away (Zak Claxton) Always Tomorrow (Zak Claxton)
Big thanks to everyone who helped support my show today! Kat Claxton, Triana Caldera, Robustus Hax, GweiMui Ghostraven, jromantic Halostar, Star Mumbhata, Selina Beedit, ANIMAL Cummings, and Stream Scene hostesses Starshine Halasy and Twstd Ruggles!
It's a little busy in Zak World, isn't it? As anyone reading this blog already knows, I did shows on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of last week, did a 12+ hour recording marathon on Saturday that was streamed out to the world on live video, spent yesterday documenting the studio session, and then tried to get in some real-life work today before having yet another show. Whew. I can't complain of boredom these days, so that's good, and on a general basis, the more music in my life, the better.
However, when I awoke today, the thought of doing a show wasn't all that appealing. Then, when I arrived at my show, I was even more doubtful about it being a good gig; we had some confusion with the stream and a language barrier to cross. However, once that got sorted out, it turned out to be a terrific show. The audience was fun and lively, and I unexpectedly had some friends/fans pop in, which is always a nice sight at a new place.
The venue itself, Restaurante Amanecer en Savilla, is a nice-looking build from people based in Spain (which you probably guessed by the name). They pulled together a nice-sized crowd, and I think everyone had a great time, or at least it seemed that way. In turn, I pulled out a few tunes that I don't do very often. This show, by the way, is one of a bunch of European-based gigs that Sandy Demina put together for me, and I have to once again say thanks to her for being a cool manager. I'm enjoying this tour of Europe!
Today's set list... Time Never Waits for You (Zak Claxton) Rikki Don't Lose That Number (Steely Dan) You're Like a Cloud (Zak Claxton) This Afternoon (Zak Claxton) You've Got To Hide Your Love Away (Beatles) Fire & Rain (James Taylor) Blue (Joni MItchell) Thank U (Alanis Morissette) Thanks Anyway (Zak Claxton) I Am the Walrus (Beatles) Falling Down (Zak Claxton) Shine (Zak Claxton)
Thanks to everyone who supported my show today at Sevilla! estela Panthar, Sandy Beachey, Triana Caldera, Diana Renoir, Sevilla owner Pinterlux Delicioso, and my European manager Sandy Demina!
In my excitement yesterday, I skipped over some of the details of Saturday's session at Sound Sanctuary that might a) be interesting to you (if you're a music/recording geek) and b) will be good to remember later on. Here's the list of exactly what we recorded, in what order, using what gear.
1. BUNNY: Drums for "Shine" (w/guitar and vocal scratch track). 2. BUNNY: Drums for "Time Never Waits for You" (w/guitar and vocal scratch track). 3. ZAK: Bass (Ibanez SR-1100) for "Time Never Waits for You". 4. ZAK: Acoustic guitar (Martin D-18V) for "Time Never Waits for You". 5. ZAK: Bass (Ibanez SR-1100) for "Shine". 6. KEN: Organ (Nord Electro 2) for "Time Never Waits for You". 7. KEN: Keyboard (Nord Electro 2) for "Shine". 8. ZAK: Guitar (Gretsch Pro Jet) for "Shine". 9. ZAK: Guitar (Epiphone Casino) for "Shine". 10. ZAK: Guitar (Fender Telecaster) for "Shine". 11. ZAK: Guitar (Les Paul) for "Time Never Waits for You". 12. ZAK: Guitar (Fender Telecaster) for "Time Never Waits for You". 13. ZAK: Lead vocal for "Time Never Waits for You". 14. ZAK: Backing vocal 1 for "Time Never Waits for You" 15. ZAK: Backing vocal 2 for for "Time Never Waits for You" 16. ZAK: Lead vocal for "Shine". 17. ZAK: High harmony vocal for "Shine" (to be replaced by Phil). 18. ZAK: Low harmony vocal for "Shine" (to be replaced by Bunny). 19. BUNNY: Low harmony vocal for "Shine".
