Post by chitowngirl on Jun 1, 2006 17:18:44 GMT -5
June 01, 2006
LA SUMMERTIME
Bob and I drove out from Chicago on a three day trek and it was a cool ride. When we arrived we headed over to the ASCAP Pop Music Awards being held poolside at the Bevery Hills Hilton. A friend of mine, Carolina (Tactics), got us an invite to the event and even managed to get our blue jean wearing asses into the black tie event. I met up with a few of the producers I have been working with over the past few weeks (Mitch Allan and his beautiful gfriend Kelly Hu, Jeff Trott and Dennis from Sugarcult. Mitch won an award for most played rock song (1985). A big congrats to him for writing such a killer song. Kenny introduced me to the guys in Green Day, Switchfoot and Papa Roach. Kenny is the nicest guy on the planet (next to Mig Ayesa) and was so cool to bring us over to meet some of the bands that I really admire. We hung out and met some Hip Hop artists and industry big wigs. Then we sat down in the main ballroom for the big event of the evening... Annie Lennox was being honored with the ASCAP lifetime achievement award and she gave a speech about the power of music and then performed two songs. She did a piano version of "Sisters are Doin it For Themselves" and then knocked everyone over with a simple version of "Why". This last song blew my mind. I have never seen an artist perform like her. She amazed every peoson in the room. I will never forget that song and her emotive performance. Another highlight of the evening was the speech by Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day. At the end of his speach he said "I guess this is the point in the speech where I am supposed to say F**K George Bush, But I think he has allready f'd himself enough". The crown let out a roar. His is a punk. I love it.
The next morning Bob and I drove up to Topenga Canyon near Malibu to go on a four hour hike. It was a perfect day cause it wasn't to hot and we cruised up to the top of the mountian. We hang out at the peak for awhile and bumped into Taylor Hawkins on the way down. He was struggeling to get his bike up the the peak. A minute later Bob and I are flying down the trail and I looked up and saw an amazing cactus that I hadn't noticed on the way up. I said "Wow! Check this out." Bob did not know what I was reffering to and he looking to the ground and about 1 foot in front of him was a rattle snake curled up, ratteling it's tail and with its fangs out. Bob jumped about three feet in the air and took off in the other direction. I think the snake was sunning itself and lying stretched out until I unknowingly stepped over it or on it and by the time Bob came up to it, the rattlesnake was curled up and ready to lunge. We got to the base of the mountian and asked a ranger about the snakes. He said it was poisionous but not deadly. He said you would have had plenty of time to make it to the emergency room before the poision killed you. We were definitly freaked out for sure.
We headed to the VH1 Rock Honors on Thursday. Billy could not make it so we brough Jeremy. He was so psyched to get to go. We arrived in a limo and walked the black carpet. We felt like such badasses getting to attend this event. Our connection is that Doc McGhee manages KISS and we were there in support of them. We watched the show with the guys from FUEL, Godsmack and White Star. We were all blown away by the performances. I wanted to be up there performing so bad. All the lights kicking and the sound blew your head off. After the show we hit the post party at the House of Blues and met up with Doc and Scott McGhee. A guy from Sanctuary Management grabbed me and said there was somebody that would like to meet me. He didn't say who but I went through a maze of doors and hallways and security posts and went in a moroccan style room at the back of the lounge and saw Tommy Lee and Slash were sitting there. We were introduced and talked about Season 2 of Rockstar and hang out. Tommy was tired of the House of Blues so he asked us all to go to another club with him. We made our was to Tao (I think that's what it is called). We got escorted to a VIP table in the middle of the dance floor. Tommy and Slash definitely get the rockstar treatment. Every head in the place (Thousands Literally) we turned as those dudes walked by. It was wild to be a part of it. Bob and Dino were there and we all looked at eachother and said wow, this is insane. It was like Slash and Tommy were a silver screen movie and the whole place just stared at them. Really wild. Slash and I talked about Vegas and the Rock Honors show performance and eventually we all headed back to the House Of Blues Foundation Room.
I was slated to leave the next morning but decided to stay one more night. We headed over to the Hard Rock and I went to that awesome pool for the first time. We hung out for about 5 hours and then off to the Rinbow for some of the best pizza and calamari. The owners of the Vegas Raainbow Club gave us a private tour of all of the rock and roll memorabilia that the Greenburg family has acquired. Stuff dating back to Led Zeppelin hanging out at Raainbor, Guns and Roses, Elton John, Cheech and Chong, The Who, etc, etc. I love R&R memoribilia and hang out there for a long time in amazement.
On Monday I headed to the W Hotel for their annual poolside Memorial Day event. It was all Hollywood in effect. Everyone was in their $1,000 bikini's drinking $25 margarita's and $500 bottles of champaign. I was just hanging out and soaking it all in. The vibe was so ridiculous and might have been the best people watching on earth. You got Mike Tyson in a cabana with three girls giving him a back rub, Mischa Barton being stalked by the papparazzi for pictures, and every other B-Lister clammoring for attention. I left the pool after watching the freak show and headed with some friends to a sunset BBQ in a Beverly Hills estate. I felt like an alien in an alternate universe. LA is crazy like that. I think of it as like Disney Land. Fun to hang out at once in a while and see the sights, experience the ride. There are alot of fun things to do here but you got to have some work ethic and self control to make the dream turn reality. I figured that LA is full of dreamers and New York and Chicago is full of workers. You have to work hard to make things happen. Nothing comes for free in this town. Well, maybe a margarita or two.
This week I am back working in LA hanging out with Doc McGhee and putting together a budget for the tour dates that could start as early as July. We also discussed a ton of other possibilities for the band. And who knows, we might even be opening for KISS one day. That would be insane. I think I am going to start practicing breathing fire and flying across the stage from tightropes.
I am back writing songs with Marti Fredrickson, Mitch, Kenny, Dennis and Jeff. This is the funnest thing of all. Getting one step closer to another album full of material. I feel most fullfilled when I finish the day knowing I worked my ass off. I had a great memorial day and now it's time to get back to work.
Laters,
Marty
Posted by martycasey at 04:38 PM
LA SUMMERTIME
Bob and I drove out from Chicago on a three day trek and it was a cool ride. When we arrived we headed over to the ASCAP Pop Music Awards being held poolside at the Bevery Hills Hilton. A friend of mine, Carolina (Tactics), got us an invite to the event and even managed to get our blue jean wearing asses into the black tie event. I met up with a few of the producers I have been working with over the past few weeks (Mitch Allan and his beautiful gfriend Kelly Hu, Jeff Trott and Dennis from Sugarcult. Mitch won an award for most played rock song (1985). A big congrats to him for writing such a killer song. Kenny introduced me to the guys in Green Day, Switchfoot and Papa Roach. Kenny is the nicest guy on the planet (next to Mig Ayesa) and was so cool to bring us over to meet some of the bands that I really admire. We hung out and met some Hip Hop artists and industry big wigs. Then we sat down in the main ballroom for the big event of the evening... Annie Lennox was being honored with the ASCAP lifetime achievement award and she gave a speech about the power of music and then performed two songs. She did a piano version of "Sisters are Doin it For Themselves" and then knocked everyone over with a simple version of "Why". This last song blew my mind. I have never seen an artist perform like her. She amazed every peoson in the room. I will never forget that song and her emotive performance. Another highlight of the evening was the speech by Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day. At the end of his speach he said "I guess this is the point in the speech where I am supposed to say F**K George Bush, But I think he has allready f'd himself enough". The crown let out a roar. His is a punk. I love it.
The next morning Bob and I drove up to Topenga Canyon near Malibu to go on a four hour hike. It was a perfect day cause it wasn't to hot and we cruised up to the top of the mountian. We hang out at the peak for awhile and bumped into Taylor Hawkins on the way down. He was struggeling to get his bike up the the peak. A minute later Bob and I are flying down the trail and I looked up and saw an amazing cactus that I hadn't noticed on the way up. I said "Wow! Check this out." Bob did not know what I was reffering to and he looking to the ground and about 1 foot in front of him was a rattle snake curled up, ratteling it's tail and with its fangs out. Bob jumped about three feet in the air and took off in the other direction. I think the snake was sunning itself and lying stretched out until I unknowingly stepped over it or on it and by the time Bob came up to it, the rattlesnake was curled up and ready to lunge. We got to the base of the mountian and asked a ranger about the snakes. He said it was poisionous but not deadly. He said you would have had plenty of time to make it to the emergency room before the poision killed you. We were definitly freaked out for sure.
We headed to the VH1 Rock Honors on Thursday. Billy could not make it so we brough Jeremy. He was so psyched to get to go. We arrived in a limo and walked the black carpet. We felt like such badasses getting to attend this event. Our connection is that Doc McGhee manages KISS and we were there in support of them. We watched the show with the guys from FUEL, Godsmack and White Star. We were all blown away by the performances. I wanted to be up there performing so bad. All the lights kicking and the sound blew your head off. After the show we hit the post party at the House of Blues and met up with Doc and Scott McGhee. A guy from Sanctuary Management grabbed me and said there was somebody that would like to meet me. He didn't say who but I went through a maze of doors and hallways and security posts and went in a moroccan style room at the back of the lounge and saw Tommy Lee and Slash were sitting there. We were introduced and talked about Season 2 of Rockstar and hang out. Tommy was tired of the House of Blues so he asked us all to go to another club with him. We made our was to Tao (I think that's what it is called). We got escorted to a VIP table in the middle of the dance floor. Tommy and Slash definitely get the rockstar treatment. Every head in the place (Thousands Literally) we turned as those dudes walked by. It was wild to be a part of it. Bob and Dino were there and we all looked at eachother and said wow, this is insane. It was like Slash and Tommy were a silver screen movie and the whole place just stared at them. Really wild. Slash and I talked about Vegas and the Rock Honors show performance and eventually we all headed back to the House Of Blues Foundation Room.
I was slated to leave the next morning but decided to stay one more night. We headed over to the Hard Rock and I went to that awesome pool for the first time. We hung out for about 5 hours and then off to the Rinbow for some of the best pizza and calamari. The owners of the Vegas Raainbow Club gave us a private tour of all of the rock and roll memorabilia that the Greenburg family has acquired. Stuff dating back to Led Zeppelin hanging out at Raainbor, Guns and Roses, Elton John, Cheech and Chong, The Who, etc, etc. I love R&R memoribilia and hang out there for a long time in amazement.
On Monday I headed to the W Hotel for their annual poolside Memorial Day event. It was all Hollywood in effect. Everyone was in their $1,000 bikini's drinking $25 margarita's and $500 bottles of champaign. I was just hanging out and soaking it all in. The vibe was so ridiculous and might have been the best people watching on earth. You got Mike Tyson in a cabana with three girls giving him a back rub, Mischa Barton being stalked by the papparazzi for pictures, and every other B-Lister clammoring for attention. I left the pool after watching the freak show and headed with some friends to a sunset BBQ in a Beverly Hills estate. I felt like an alien in an alternate universe. LA is crazy like that. I think of it as like Disney Land. Fun to hang out at once in a while and see the sights, experience the ride. There are alot of fun things to do here but you got to have some work ethic and self control to make the dream turn reality. I figured that LA is full of dreamers and New York and Chicago is full of workers. You have to work hard to make things happen. Nothing comes for free in this town. Well, maybe a margarita or two.
This week I am back working in LA hanging out with Doc McGhee and putting together a budget for the tour dates that could start as early as July. We also discussed a ton of other possibilities for the band. And who knows, we might even be opening for KISS one day. That would be insane. I think I am going to start practicing breathing fire and flying across the stage from tightropes.
I am back writing songs with Marti Fredrickson, Mitch, Kenny, Dennis and Jeff. This is the funnest thing of all. Getting one step closer to another album full of material. I feel most fullfilled when I finish the day knowing I worked my ass off. I had a great memorial day and now it's time to get back to work.
Laters,
Marty
Posted by martycasey at 04:38 PM
That would be the coolest thing ever...........Kiss rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!
... So Much Music so little time eh?
