by Anna Karney
After my previous album, Creatures In The Garden, I didn’t think I had another one in me. But suddenly this chorus just popped out, lyrics, chords, and melody all at once, “We will all come out together for love, love, love.” And I really needed to hear these hopeful words, because of the daily barrage of sad news. It was enough to start me off on my next album journey.
Continue readingby Jessica DeSimone of Warren Teagarden and the Good Grief
Since I can remember, I’ve been performing. My earliest memories are dancing around my childhood home, singing along to my mom’s records, or doing what I can only describe as a cobra pose inside the giant planter boxes at our local shopping mall, pretending I was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I used to feel like I could fly when I sang, like I had tiny wings sprouting from my back.
As I got older, my grandma taught me how to play piano, back when my hands were so tiny I couldn’t hit an octave. In school, I added choir, theater, and dance team to my repertoire, and I was sure I would be a big theater star one day. But of course, pragmatism won, and I went to college for something far less fun and ended up in a career even less fun, leaving a part of myself behind.
For years, my creative self was suffocated. I was dying to tap back into the freedom that came with being on stage, that rare out-of-body experience when you get to leave yourself behind and become something else entirely.
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My brothers and I started out deejaying and producing as Chalice Palace Music in the late 90s, still Teenagers. Most of our productions were with local upcoming talents from our hood. At that time, we never had a distribution deal, so most of the work was unreleased until 2004 we released a few 45s. But we still had a long, long way to go until to receive recognition.
Our former artists of the week, Hot Flash Heat Wave from San Francisco, released their new single Glo Ride in early March. They also spent almost the full month of March on tour co-heading with No Vacation.
Another fantastic collection of hot Reggae talents by Giddimani Records, Anti-Racism Riddim, has been released on March 30.
Our new Artist of the Week (#11) is worldwide known reggae producer and performer Perfect Giddimani, the stage name for Greg Rose of St. Ann, Jamaica. The name Perfect Giddimani is a mixture of the words “Armageddon” and “morning.”
Hot Flash Heat Wave, our eight Artist of the Week, is the brainchild of four best friends from Davis, California. During their high school years, they met and bonded through participation in a small, tight-knit community of musicians that put on a slew of DIY shows in parents’ garages and local venues, at the time each playing in a variety of different projects. After leaving Davis for various cities in California, the four eventually reunited in San Francisco to write and record under the same roof. Their debut LP Neapolitan, released in 2015, quickly launched them to the forefront of the Bay Area music scene with its candied hooks, fuzzy guitars and tunes reminiscent of The Smiths gone new wave.