Christine's Design Blog

Hello, my brain is fried, so I shall take a quick break and write a bit about the Lady Danville show that happened on Monday at Rockwood Music Hall.

As usual, the boys delivered an amazing show! I caught all songs except for two on my camera, which you can see on my newly created YouTube channel. My favorites are posted just below. (Songs I missed recording were the Lily Allen cover and ‘Tired Magician,’ toward the beginning of the set. Which is too bad, because they had such great energy during the cover. I didn’t know I would end up taking that many, but once I started, I didn’t want to stop!)

This is a new song called ‘Better Side,’ which I had never heard before. They said it was inspired by their new tour van, Brenda.

Another new song called ‘End of the World.’ I love the story this one tells.

A song called ‘Cars,’ which has been a favorite of mine for the past few weeks.

And some photos:

In case you are unfamiliar, that’s Dan on the guitar, Matthew on the cajon, and Michael on the keys.

Gotta love Dan’s bowtie!

Alrighty, back to work I go. If you want to find out more info about the remaining East Coast Tour dates, check out their MySpace and send them some love via Twitter.

I wish that I could say that I didn’t care
I wish that I could say that I don’t believe
Talking to myself in my underwear
But I could never leave

Scoring up the points for sleepless nights doing school work, but listening to this song on repeat puts a pretty big smile on my face. What puts an even bigger smile on my face is the fact that Lady Danville is coming to New York and various other towns for their first ever East Coast Tour.

Complete tour dates and locations found here.

Of course, I emailed them for details on the private showcase happening on Monday the 19th, and here it is:

Monday, April 19
Record Label Showcase
Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street at Houston
New York, NY
8-8:45 p.m.
Age 21+

Then there’s their regular Tuesday night show:

Tuesday, April 20
Pianos
(w/ Standard of Living)
158 Ludlow at Stanton
New York, NY
8:30 p.m.
Age 21+

Come support our boys from Los Angeles!

Listening to music has never been more environmentally friendly or artistic!

These are my new OrigAudio speakers, which were quite a steal with my Lady Danville discount code, making the speakers $10. Usually priced at $16, they are still an amazing deal when you compare then with this very similar product sold at Muji for $38. On top of being very affordable, you can read about how your purchase can benefit non-profit organizations on this page of the OrigAudio website. OrigAudio also partners up with independent bands to help them raise funds, which is what prompted me to make the purchase in the first place in support of Lady Danville.

An even cooler about these speakers are that they’re made with recycled material and are collapsible — hence the origami + audio name. They come folded in their package like so:

Though you can’t exactly expect to rock out on 1-watt speakers, these are ideal for trips and small spaces. While I chose the plain Canvas speakers so that I can eventually decorate my own, they also come with designs like Daydream and Surf Break:

Was about to head off to bed when I saw John Mayer’s latest tweet about Battle Studies, his fourth album in the making. John’s more annoying traits set aside, I love his music, and I think he has a lot of good thoughts in what he writes. He says to travel alone in his description of this video, and I feel like he took the idea right out of my head. I was planning a great 3-4 week solo trip to the British Isles this summer, to take some time to clear things up, but the plans didn’t pan out. Still, I can’t agree more that it’s something everyone should do at least once in their lives. I’m posting this video because I feel like it says it so well, and it had a very calming effect on me, which not a lot of things seem able to do.

Lady Danville is one of my favorite bands in the universe. Back in the day when they were still Mikey G and Dan from Danville, I saw them perform ‘Cast Away’ at UCLA’s Spring Sing 2006, where they won Best Duet and Best Overall Entry. (Wow, Spring Sing 2009 is actually happening tonight at Pauley Pavilion, what a coincidence! On a side note, this year Julie Andrews will be there to receive the George and Ira Gerswhin Lifetime Musical Achievement Award — last year we saw Lionel Richie.)

Since then, Lady Danville added a third member and changed their name (which brought the band to comprise of Michael Garner on keyboard, Dan Chang on guitar, and Matthew Frankel on cajon), won the Star 98.7 Lounge Competition with their song ‘Tired Magician,’ earning them $10,000 (I think that was the number), which they used to record their EP. (I remember telling people to go vote for them on the website, but they’re such great guys that everybody loves them and knows them.)

Now they are touring mostly west coast states, playing various colleges and bars, so check out their Myspace to see if they’re coming near you.

Also, check out the T-shirt design I did for them last fall, which was my first official freelance job. After doing a class assignment and giving them a copy as a gift of appreciation at their show at the legendary Hotel Cafe, they asked me to help with their shirt. This goes to show that you never know what will come of a friendly gesture. When I last spoke with Dan, he said they were working to come to New York for a show, so I’m eagerly anticipating whenever that may be. Plus, I am ready to help promote that show like mad.

Okay, on to the audio files, enough rambling. (If you want a song, you can e-mail me at christineypark[at]gmail.com):

Easy On Me – classic Mikey G and Dan from Danville, their first song ever

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Cast Away

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Anthem

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Sophie Roux – based on a summer romance in France of one of the band members

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Spoon

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You can also follow them on Twitter.