stuffoflegends

please help, please participate...

due to a turn in events, the music video i was supposed to be directing in Los Angeles has been re-scheduled for up here in San Francisco on Thursday, June 28th. 7-11pm

darren was the lead singer for the great shakes (full disclosure: my older brother was the bass player). i did their music video a couple of years ago for $12. see here: http://www.nogreats hakes.com/ av.html

he's got a great new project that me and ajax and ruckus actually helped usher in, booking him to play the 1st gig w/his new project - the key party - at our Hippoween party in nyc.

it seemed destiny to me that he re-did only one great shakes song as a key party song and it's one of my fav's and so lovely & evocative.

here are the lyrics:

TO BEGIN AGAIN

I want the right to begin again
The right to forget
The right to saay I love you
And fall guilty in to sin
To be honest I thought I'd go there twice
I never thought I'd have to move in
And lose another piece of me
Another unrequited gift

You know we wish

The stars in the sky they don't have any lies
They don't have to explain
There's no hole in their name
When we lose and we trip, we fall with a twist
You can't grab onto nothing
That's the bitterest loving

I want the right to change my faith
The right to fight in vain
The right to smile in the rain
And sway my sorrow to cure my pain
I want to lasso clouds and think I won
I want to lie that I feel great
Still I'm stuck inside this house we built
The pictures still the same

But I'm not afraid

The stars in the sky they don't have any lies
They don't have to explain
There's no hole in their name
When we lose and we trip, we fall with a twist
You can't grab onto nothing
That's the bitterest loving

The stars, the stars in the sky
Look like passengers in your eyes
The stars, the stars in the sky
Look like passengers in your eyes

I want the right to begin again
The right to forget
The right to say I'm sorry
And fall in love with you again
And again

To begin again>
____________ ________

the video concept:

darren is on a stool w/his guitar in an abandoned lot - we have secured the yard at Melting Point @ 1340 Bryant St (at Division). Thanks Kaos!!! Thanks Tammy!

there is a burning barrel in front of him

and as he plays the song - i see a sundown to sunrise time lapse - a long line of people file past him (that's where YOU come in) - each of them placing a real item of deep, personal significance into the flames, releasing it, releasing themselves ... to begin again.

it should be beautiful and it should be cathartic. and i could really use your help in making my vision become *reality*.

we have a fantastic HD camera with which to shoot (Thanks Cary!!) so this should look glorious...

here's some info on darren & the key party. if you go to his profile on myspace, the song should just start playing.if it doesn't you might have to click on that particular track:

http://www.myspace. com/thekeypartyn yc


this is what CMJ had to say about the 1st release, "hit or miss":

"On the Key Party's introductory LP, New York singer-songwriter Darren Gaines gets a good bit of help from his friends. Accompanied by a rotating cast of thirteen, Gaines positions Hit Or Miss somewhere between a solo song cycle and a house party of an unusually artistic coterie. Indeed, many of the best moments are when the neo-folkie most engages his party guests: the Waitsian cacophony of "Wildcard," the arms-around- the-shoulders fraternal hollering of "We Love You" and the girl-boy harmony of "Look Like Hell." When alone though, as when his baritone buckles in the loping ballad "Monday Morning," Gaines sings as if he just woke up from that joyous get-together, only to find his head aching and his house wrecked." - CMJ May 2007

For immediate release - The Key Party, THEIR BLACKS DON'T MATCH.

The Key Party, brainchild of SF ex-pat now NYC native Darren Gaines, is like the mythical party of the same name, you never know who you're going to get but you know it will be different. The debut CD Hit Or Miss is a DIY to do. Created in bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms and even one backyard, this $100 microphone affair is what punk rock teethed on. There was a "key party" bowl involved, both as the bowl where musicians dipped their hands in to choose, among other things, what instrument they might bang on and as an instrument. There were toys, homemade instruments and even the kitchen sink thrown in for good meter. And there were friends, "a house party of unusually artistic coterie" said CMJ (2007), who mingled into the soire. What came of this mismatched shebang has been hailed as "15 songs of rock and roll poetry celebrating the debauched, the broken, the drunken and the misfitting." (PopMatters 2007). Join them live on stage and see what curioddity may climb the gilded stairs to join the caterwauling of The Key Party.

also, playing live at:
Wednesday, June 27th 9PM Rickshaw Stop (San Francisco)

PLEASE drop me a line if you are available and interested in participating. we could really use as many of you and your momentos as possible. it's going to take a few hours - we have the space from 7-11pm.

there is ample, free street parking at that hour. i can forward you a little map w/better directions.

and there will be BEER!!

thanks ever so much. i really hope to hear from you, to see you...

thanks much
brian