About six weeks ago, another Mary Kelley single was released, a re-make of one of the best songs in her repertoire, "Praying Hands". There are a number of versions of this song available, as it was recorded for her EP Greetings Five, and it was part of the set of songs recorded live and unplugged on the CD "Harrogate." The song was ripe for a 21st Century reinterpretation, so Mary, Dave Lebolt and I made this hard-charging version…
Music
The second single release by Mary Kelley is now available online on most digital music outlets, both downloadable and streaming. The song, "Here I Am", is an original composition by Mary. The recording was co-produced by myself and independent film composer and producer Dave Lebolt. Dave also arranged and mixed the track, and Dave and Mark both played on the recording. The song can be heard in its entirety for free, either…
In the effort to make the music of San Francisco singer-songwriter Mary Kelley more widely known and available, I have been playing a key role. Her new web site, which I designed and produced, has been live for a few months now. The web site contains links to Mary's archive of recorded music, a blog that Mary is keeping up monthly herself, and a few other links to videos and photos from her career as a solo artist, and as a member of one of the original all-female punk bands…
We recently launched a new web site for San Francisco-based singer-songwriter Mary Kelley, officially titled "Mary Kelley Music." We have been working together for a few years now, producing recordings, arranging tunes, playing instruments and even co-writing some songs with her. The Tumblr-based web site finally gives Mary an anchor for her material, a place for her to show what she can do and for people interested in her work to find out more…
Here's a preliminary mix of new song that San Francisco singer-songwriter Mary Kelley and I have been working on, entitled "John Donne's Song," an adaptation of a poem of that name by 16th century English poet John Donne. This all-acoustic piece is a bit of a departure for us, much more traditional and spare than the majority of our pieces. But it's got a great feel and still fits in well with Mary's other work. Aside from Mary and myself, the piece features…
The most recent Factrix show at the Chapel in San Francisco's Mission District on November 22 was a lot of fun for us. The band played well, and there were a lot of folks there to witness it. One audience member with a lot of patience and a good camera preserved the whole show for posterity on video.
After traveling to Los Angeles and playing the San Francisco Punk Homecoming in September – and after playing an unannounced gig in Oakland in October masquerading as the Velvet Underground ( 3 days before Lou Reed passed! ) – Factrix will be back in action, opening for Lumerians, Friday, November 22, at the Chapel in San Francisco. The Chapel looks like a very civilized venue for gatherings of up to 600 people, with a restaurant…
I had one of those moments this morning that your public radio station likes to tout when they are fundraising: I pulled into the parking lot at my studio, and just as I was about to shut the car off this story begins on my old clarinet teacher from junior high, Gabe Baltazar. I left the car running and listened to the whole story. Mr. Baltazar taught reeds at Punahou School in Honolulu in 1969-1970, when I was…
Factrix will be playing another show this Sunday in Los Angeles, at the Echo nightclub in Echo Park. The show is the first in LA for Factrix since 1982. Factrix will also be playing a show in San Francisco soon, as part of a mini music-festival in the Mission called the San Francisco Punk Homecoming. The date for that show will be September 22; look for more information in a future post. Here are some links related to the show…
Bay area industrial-rock band Factrix played their first gig in 30-plus years last month at the Night Light in Oakland, and I was fortunate to be a part of it. Founding members Bond Bergland and Cole Palme asked me to contribute to their efforts on guitar. It was really fun to be playing in a rock band again; it was my first time on stage in more that 22 years. We have a couple more shows coming up, which will be called out in future blog posts…