It All Takes Shape...

While I write this, I’m eating string cheese (bet you thought I was going to say olives). Why string cheese? Because it’s tasty, as well as nutritious, and we women need our calcium.

In the vein of accomplishments, new beginnings, dreams realized, and such, here we are (you and I) at the start and restart of High Voltage Magazine. It’s a brave new world and I have no righteous clue how I stumbled into the position to have this dynamic platform to launch my voice from, but now it’s so. You all have Chelsea to thank (or curse) for that.

If you’ve seen the brand spanking new and damned sexy print Fall edition of High Voltage that just came hot off the presses (oooh, is that Fitz & the Tantrums on the cover?), then you’ve seen the culmination of our work. Asses were busted to bring this thing to you and you’d better love it like your first-born, dammit.

So let’s roll with it, this new beginnings thing and the week is off to a fine start right down to the release of new music. Vanaprasta, a band for whom I have borderline epic feelings for, dropped their long-suffering debut CD Healthy Geometry into the ether. Goddamn. A CD that makes me feel and see magic in the words, hear potential in the shapes, and think naughty thoughts all while appreciating each individual’s contribution to their impressive walls of sound. Flipped my world, this album did and I'm not mad at them. See the pretty album art?

I'm talking about this album at this particular time because the overarching theme to this very non-shitty body of work are the patterns in and of our lives as we move through this existence. We feel our way through, succeed, fuck up, break bones, make love, beg for mercy while sometimes giving none, sleepwalk, then wake up and do it all over again. It's what we do and it makes for the powerful beings that we are.  For so many reasons this album means a lot to me right now, will be a constant in my consciousness because I believe that it was meant for me and, for that, I'm grateful. Much is shifting beneath my feet at the moment, and Healthy Geometry is the sound of the movement. Music, in general, gives me cause to be grateful so being here at High Voltage is surely the right place to be. 

If you're a music fan, thanks for reading us and know that I'll do my batshit-crazy best to inform and entertain you in this Concert Whore-space. If you're a musician, thank you for being and giving me a shit ton of light in my life, as I couldn't imagine this one without what you do. 

And cheers to High Voltage: back and beautiful.

Vanaprasta Go For The Soul With "Nine Equals Nine"

Silverlake's indie rockers Vanaprasta have rolled out a new track, "Nine Equals Nine", from their forthcoming album, Healthy Geometry due out on 11/1/11.  The album is a keeper, and no you can't have a copy yet, but in the meantime let's talk about this new track.

The first time that I heard this thing called "Nine Equals Nine", I was sitting on a stool at Bootleg Theater.

Just like consuming alcohol, sitting during a rock show is one of the last things that I'm prone to do; music moves, makes the mind and body do the same, and sitting down is just not conducive to connecting my mind and body to the music.  But this night was odd; I felt mellower than usual, intentionally hadn't left home all day, and literally got in my car at 11:50pm in order to catch Vanaprasta's midnight set at Bootleg. Their set began and it was good, so very good but when the first 60 seconds of "Nine Equals Nine" flowed out, perhaps it was best that I was sitting down.

As a sound "Nine Equals Nine" made me cock my head to the left (the thinking, rational side), then to the right (the intuitive, feeling side): I was so confused. Barely taking my eyes off of the five guys onstage Steven Wilkin- vox/keys, Collin Desha- guitar/vox/keys, Taylor Brown- bass/vox, Cameron Dmytryk- guitar, Ben Smiley- drums), I leaned over to my musicphile friend, Kevin, and asked him what the hell this song was. He didn't know. He walked away and returned less than a minute later with the answer: "Nine Equals Nine".

As is, Vanaprasta is a tad musically schizophrenic and my linear head knows this- accepts this-, as it's just one of their assets, but my emotional heart was still surprised by the old soul presence in this song. Due to its overwhelmingly shitty nature, current day R&B has little place in my life anymore, but the warmth and echoey groove of "Nine Equals Nine" underneath Steven Wilkin's truly reverent vocals had cut into the flesh of my psyche and made it bleed want. Simultaneously soothing and energizing, here was a rock song tapping into many fluid dynamics of my past (Teddy Pendergrass, Jeffrey Osborne) laced with an inward/outward mystical trip ("Make sure to thank the sky for being blue, yeah.").  My heart and body were moving and, dammit, I was sitting down. 

Vanaprasta gives you "Nine Equals Nine".