Movie of The Month: Die Hard-y Goodness

Hey everyone!

First off, thank you a billion times over to all that joined us at the legendary Viper Room last Monday night for an epic evening of rock & roll.  Needless to say, we all had an absolute gas performing on stage for you!  A special thanks to DJ Stryker from KROQ for playing our song "Surrender" earlier in the day as well as introducing us at Viper Room, and the CBS film crew that taped our performance for a future air date.  We will keep you updated as to when our feature will air on Stryker's show.  Can't wait!

So.

Die Hard 5.  That's right.  5.  Suck it Lethal Weapon.

We had a night off on Tuesday and figured we would go catch a flick.  There are a few movies out that I want to see, but one in particular topped the list.  Naturally, that film was A Good Day To Die Hard.  Now, I should inform you that this guy (me) is a HUGE appreciator of the Die Hard films.  I've seen them and loved them all, of course the first and third being favorites.  But this fifth installment in the Die Hard series was no slouch.  I may even venture to say I enjoyed it thoroughly.  And I did.  Both ventured and, in thorough fashion, enjoyed said film.

The fifth movie of the Die Hard series did not disappoint.   There was gratuitous destruction, plot twists that I should have seen coming, silly Russian accents, explosions, guns, swearing... everything I wanted it to be.  And of course there was John McClane.  One of the most courageous, unlucky/lucky, and badass characters ever dreamed up to grace the action film genre.  Suffice to say, I got my fix.  Though recounting my experience of this film I have now grown the itch to watch the other Die Hards... alas.

So, if you have that desire to witness the nonchalant ravaging of Moscow and the urge to vicariously take down evil Russian terrorists, by all means, please see this movie.

Ty

Fun Times at Morrison Hotel, Keeping it Casual with Sirius Black and Other Famous Peeps

As we wind down from all the draining hours we have spent in the studio these past few months, the relentless 28 North gang has been hitting the streets that have been so deprived of our presence as of late (elbow to the ribs).

Hangin with Matt Sorum

We had a blast at the opening reception of the Morrison Hotel Gallery, which made its West Coast debut last Thursday at the Sunset Marquis Hotel.  It was a beautiful event that celebrated the true monument of soulful rock & roll grit through photography.  We ran into the very sweet and talented drummer Matt Sorum of Guns 'N Roses and Velvet Revolver fame as well as the legendary actor Gary Oldman of recent Dark Knight releases amongst the many celebrities that were at the party.  Of course we got some pics.  And thank you to Dawn Kamerling of The Press House for throwing such a fine party!  Naaaaaaaiiiled it!
Read more about it here in The LA Beat and check out the gallery here.

Tay and Mike with Gary Oldman

Hangin with Stryker at KROQ

Yesterday we had the great pleasure of stopping by to chat with DJ Stryker of KROQ Los Angeles.  It is a lot of fun to watch a professional perform their craft as Stryker does.  He's also got a great new show on CBS called Lexus Night Out with Ted Stryker which just debuted this past Saturday.  It's a rock & roll show where Stryker gets to do what he loves and feature great young bands.  It airs on Saturdays at 4:30.    Rumor has it we may be getting involved here (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Mike and Edward Furlong

Oh yeah, and we hung out with Edward Furlong, he is the man, and saw Principal Belding last night at Viper Room...  

Dennis Haskins (Principal Belding) announcing at Viper Room

Where we are playing next Monday February 18th!!  That is right and we will be performing our entire album World On Fire.  Do not miss out on this special show at one of our favorite places to play in the whole world, the legendary Viper Room!  Do not miss this epic night!

Tickets/info here

And We Shall Continue Rocking

Well the Super Bowl is over.  Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens on their second NFL championship.  I can't lie, I'm a hometown loyalist and my intrinsic distaste for The Ravens spawns from the fact that The Ravens were originally The Cleveland Browns.  It's tough being a Cleveland Browns fan.  But congrats to all you Baltimore Ravens fans out there.  Enjoy it.

So.  Today is our final day in the studio, we are putting the stamp on final mixes for our entire record.  It feels great to be done and know that we have put endless hours into making this album as amazing as possible.  A special thanks to producer/engineer Gavin MacKillop who has put in uncountable hours to perfect this masterpiece.  Truly, we are proud of this record.  So it is off to mastering on Wednesday and soon to be injected into your ears.  ROCK!

We are also very excited to be returning to The Viper Room on Monday February 18th!  It is always a gas to play this legendary room, don't miss out on this epic show!  We will be joined by The Bleecker St. Company and Naked Walrus.

Tickets/info here.

FACEBOOK EVENT

TYENCE!

Previously on TYENCE:

We made beer!  A porter to be exact.  Mama's Porter as the recipe calls it, but we shall wait to christen our particular batch once we get to know it a little better.  

So.  Porter.  It is a beer which came to be during the 18th century in London, England.  It is a direct descendant of brown ale.  Brown ale accordingly called for brown malt in the brewing process throughout the 18th century, and porters followed in this tradition.  By the turn of the century, pale malt became the new standard with brewers because of its higher yield, making it a more economic choice.

The name porter is derived appropriately from its success with the street and river porter demographic in 18th century London.  Hearty brews for tough crews, right?  Porter is also directly tied in with stouts as stronger porters were subsequently dubbed as "Extra Porter", "Double Porter", or "Stout Porter".  Eventually the porter was dropped from "Stout Porter" and stout became the standard for thicker brews such as Guinness.  In fact Guinness Extra Stout was originally called an "Extra Superior Porter", which was changed in 1840.  

So the quick porter we through together, and by we I mean my brother Stephen and friend Danny along with me observing for the most part, is scheduled to be bottled within this week.  At this point I must amend some info I imparted in the last TYENCE post, that being the amount of time until the beer is ready.  Previously I stated there was a two month wait, the process in actuality involves waiting an initial three weeks, then bottling and waiting an additional three weeks.  So six weeks total brewing time.  Some tough math.

I know.  Shut up Ty.  You're rambling.

Anywho, enough out of me.  

More TYENCE soon!

And take a peak at our performance from our House of Blues show with Steel Panther last Monday!

Ty

Blogmosis on Sunset Strip

Hello folks, I hope everyone is having a glorious weekend thus far.  Wanted to shoot a quick update in your direction.

Mike with one of our favorite stand ups Chris D'elia

We have finally all returned to Los Angeles.  Taylor got in last evening and we promptly attended the Friday night show at The Comedy Store, one of our very favorite places to be in this fair city.  It was enjoyable as always to take in some comedy and forget about the unfunny responsibilities that plague us in life.  Chris D'elia, Bobby Lee, Dov Davidoff, Brent Morin, Brody Stevens, and a special appearance by Jeff Garlin; it was a great show.  I highly encourage all in the L.A. area to attend a show at The Comedy Store.



In the last week we have been finalizing the mixes for our new record with Gavin MacKillop.  We have four tunes out of ten about 95% done and the remaining songs will be finished within approximately a week's time.  These tunes are sounding incredible!  SO PUMPED!

Do not forget to get tickets for our House of Blues show this Monday with Steel Panther!  Guaranteed great times and incredible music!

Get tix here!

And I will leave you with this for some general hilarity:

Ty

Movie of The Month

Transformers.  The movie.  The 80's CARTOON movie.

That's right.

Suck it Michael Bay.

This movie has the very limited and prestigious privilege of being one of the few pillars of my childhood.  Joking am I?  Sure.  But serious?  100%.  And embarrassed?  Absolutely.  Ashamed?  Never.

This movie was monumental for me, I must have rented it from Blockbuster (remember those?, apparently they still exist) hundreds of times throughout my childhood.  But nostalgia aside, this movie is composed of a truly strange and foreign substance.  Firstly, check out the voices featured as characters: Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Casey Kasem, John Moschitta Jr. (the Micro Machines guy with the super fast voice!!), Peter Cullen (voice of Optimus Prime and Eeyore from Whinnie-the-Pooh), and Frank Welker (voice of Megatron and many more Transformers characters, not to mention the former highest grossing actor in Hollywood).  A strange enough cast but then add to that the final movie appearances of Orson Welles and Scatman Crothers.  Just bizarre right?

So, besides the odd cast of voices, the movie itself has a much darker tone than the television series.  The evil Decepticons savagely murder Autobots without any hesitation and the amount of destruction is decidedly more intense.  It was nothing short of terrifying, as a child, to watch certain characters that I loved in the television program deteriorate before my eyes, red smoke pluming from the mouth in appropriately typical 1980's action cartoon movie violence.  Not to mention that a VERY prominent character dies within the first twenty minutes, along with dozens of others.  So many characters meet their demise that it merits a "Character deaths" section on the Wikipedia page.  This movie is no joke, it is full on serious, action-packed drama circa 1986.  And humorously, present day in the movie is established as 2005.

The animation itself is quite good, at least much better quality than the television series provides.  I myself describe it as Japanese anime meets a certain quality of animation found in Pink Floyd's The Wall, if that makes any sense.  Give it a break, it was 1986.  And the soundtrack is absolutely divine.  In appropriate 1980's fashion, the senses are bombarded with Van Halen-esque heavy metal pop tunes amongst the average, predictable, sic-fi, synth film score.  Hilariously awesome.  Almost as entertaining as the classic dialogue which features such lines as, "I'll rip out your optics!" and "Wait, I still function...".  Not to mention the clever use of embellishments such as "When are we gonna bust some Decepti-chops?!" or "Take that Auto-creep!"  As you can tell, this movie scores a 10 in all categories.


Truly, this movie is a gem.  It is not one to be forgotten as surely it will not thanks to legions of dorks like myself that will continue to champion its importance.  And by the way, the best scene involves Eric Idle's character on Planet Junk with Weird Al's "Dare To Be Stupid" playing in the background.  Which is why my brother Stephen bought me this shirt:


Suck it Michael Bay.

Ty

P.S. You shouldn't actual see this movie.

Album of The Month: Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind

This month I would like to feature a record that is technically not an album but an E.P.  So welcome to the first installment of E.P. of The Month!  (LMFAO, elbow to the ribs).  Anywho, the record I have chosen is one that I have come back to recently and one that I enjoy very much (duh).  It is Fall Be Kind by Animal Collective.  I have become relatively familiar (not on a personal level) with Animal Collective over the past few years.  This indy, electro, experimental, hipster, art group began in Baltimore, Maryland and is currently based in, wait for it, New York City (surprise!).  The band's sound is difficult to pin down and that is partially why I enjoy them so much.  These Baltimore natives boast a solid catalog of ten full length albums and six E.P.'s since 2000.  At this point they have become a bit of a poster child for the whole indy, electronic music movement (whatever that is).

So. Fall Be Kind; released 2009.  It has a bit of everything: ambient soundscapes, funky beats, odd time signatures, abstract lyrics, smooth vocals, goofiness.  

Opening cut "Graze" begins with ambient textures and culminates with an upbeat carnival-esque synth vamp.  The second tune "What Would I Want? Sky" boasts the very first legally obtained Grateful Dead sample.  It is in 7/4 and one of my personal favs.  "Bleed" is a droning ambient piece with beautiful vocals.  "On A Highway" is a haunting, personal work containing tribal-esque beats and more distantly droning synths.  The final cut "I Think I Can" contains some minimalist, pulsing beats that include some overlapping Steve Reich-like hand claps; think Clapping Music (okay it isn't quite as intensive on the hand claps as this but you should get the idea).  Overall, this record is for those who are open minded and enjoy the occasional strange musical journey.  For those that are weary of such endeavors, this record is fortunately a short one and should provide an easy introduction to Animal Collective if you are not familiar with them.

Please check out this record!

Fall Be Kind on iTunes

Fall Be Kind on Spotify

Ty