Category: The Shaman’s Den (Page 4 of 9)

(Erika wrote:)

This week there were two Shaman’s Den’s! The second Shaman’s Den was on Monday night with the The Family Curse. They play noise, electro industrial and rock music. They play at all different places that feature different kinds of music and they said that they don’t fit into any one musical genre. Frank said just like us, always on the outside! We have been through all the sub cultures, first they embrace us and then they freak out. Like the noise festival, we were too noisy for them!

The Family Curse is made up of Marc and Jeff on guitar and Megan wailing, singing, screaming on vocals while she sexily slithers on the floor. Frank said that Megan beat Pattie Smith when they first saw Pattie at a little club in Berkeley before she was famous. Megan and Pattie have a similar quality of being very physical and moving around on the floor sexy. Megan said that it helps her to get the words out, or the screams out and that at first she felt the screams sounded better than when she would sing. Frank and Linda talked about how when they were auditioning for lead singers for Frank’s band he wanted Raw and he couldn’t get it. The women who auditioned wouldn’t belt, they were sweet. Frank would have Linda show them what Frank was looking for they wouldn’t do it! Megan of The Family Curse is RAW and sexy!

Linda said that The Family Curse was really fun and easy to video during their set. They moved together as one body and it was not just a chick and couple of guys, They were fun to look at, juicy and alive, moving together. They are an exception. Most bands are a chick and some guys. Frank said that Megan had a “meaty presence” and that she reminded him of Bob Matageon of Fluff Girl. He is raw and physical, drawing people in and a very sweet guy. Bob is always burning his pubic hair, wearing a slab of meat for a g-string and is always drunk, and he is the one who was always calling them and getting things going. He was the one who was following up on what he said he would do when most people did not. Frank said “Now you know why I loved you guys.” They really liked hearing that from Frank.

Frank asked the band where they play when they come to the bay area and they said The Hemlock, Annie’s Social Club, The Knockout and Gilman Street. They live in Seattle now after Marc and Megan lived in San Francisco for several years. They said that they feel more at home musically in Seattle. All three of them grew up or went to school in Kansas near Kansas City and that is how they met and started playing together. Frank later asked them what a normal day is like for them and Megan said that she works a 9 to 5 day job doing digital web design media research work and then there is all the ad min work of the upkeep of the band like booking tours. She and Mark who are no longer together, but they have a three year old son and their son is with Marc during the day. They live just down the street from each other.

Frank and Linda talked about a new book they are reading about the punk scene full of interviews from bands from the 70’s and 80’s. They found out in the book that Mabuhay Gardens was just starting when they started performing there. The Family Curse really enjoyed hearing the story about how The Outrageous Beauty Review started. Frank and Linda were hanging out at the strip club on Broadway in the 70’s with his students who he was coaching on their strip club characters. One night while they were wondering around Broadway they went into Mabuhay Gardens and Frank asked Dirk Dirksen if he could do a play there and Dirk said, “What do you got?” Nobody came to the play but Dirk loved it and said that they could come back anytime. Six monthly later they did The Outrageous Beauty Review and the place was packed and the press filled the first two rows of the audience. Dirk came out and said that The Outrageous Beauty Review would be happening weekly and Frank being flexible said ok! Frank said that The Family Curse reminded him of the music that happened there but it was musically better.

The Family Curse talked about playing at Gilman Street and that the kids there were way more organized than most all the other clubs that they played at. It was fun to hear about when Frank played at Gilman Street just him singing along to taped music like Hank Williams. The guy who was running it then said maybe you should sing more current songs. Frank called up the Feeders and they learned all of Franks taped hooky songs and the guy at Gilman Street just shook his head afterwards. When Frank performed at the Anti-Club, a punk club in LA, he did the same routine. He would get on strange and sing along to songs like Hank Williams and then Linda would come out and they would do a Sonny and Cher song. At first the people at the club could not understand why they let Frank on the stage and by the end they were singing along and putting their punk jewelry on Frank and giving him a neck massage.

The Family Curse said that they had played a show in Vegas that had been just awful! It was fun to hear the story about when Frank and Linda answered an ad to play at the MGM Grand. They showed up for the sound check and even toned the performances down. The back up singers were in tuxedos, Frank wore a suite. Then came the make out scene with two women for the Meatloaf song, then one of the cast members did her weiner routine making a parfait out of hotdogs. Everyone was leaving their gambling tables to come watch and the owner of the club put a stop to it and told them they could not perform and that had just been the sound check!

Megan, Todd and Marc really enjoyed hearing all of Frank and Linda’s the punk period stories and Megan said that they had such a colorful history of the underground music scene. It was a cozy Shaman’s Den full of loud take your hearing aid out music, wailing, screaming, sexy slithering and punk club performance stories.

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ah, yes… As I said on the show, they are in my top ten high power /energy bands EVER!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore

(Erika wrote:)

Last night on the Shaman’s Den was Beltaine’s Fire: Revolutionary Celtic Hip Hop Fusion pulsing out deep ballads of Celtic bards blended with conscious Hip Hop. Lynx sang lead vocals in his kilt with Laura on bass and back up vocals, Todd on drums and John on electric Banjo. They also have a cello, mandolin & maybe fiddle player Kater who was not with them. Frank described their music as deep and cosmic, many layered. He said it was his kind of music, the people’s music. Their sound blends music of the Scottish and Irish Diasporas with funk, rock, jazz and hip hop each member of the band bringing their pulse to the melting fusion of sound. This is music that you need to be active to listen to, not just sit back and take it in, but there is so much and so many layers to it that it requires listening deeply to all the words and taking in all the sounds.

At the beginning of the set Lynx said that the bands name came from Beltaine which marks the beginning of Summer, a sacred time of rebirth and renewal. Beltaine was reborn as May Day, international workers day. After the set Lynx talked about how it all began. His father always had Celtic and Folk music playing in the house, he was surrounded by it. Then his school and neighborhood was filled with Hip Hop so it felt natural to blend the two together. They are both music of the people that comes from roots of telling the stories of the people and expressing the protests and revolutions of the people. Beltaine’s Fire plays Celtic Hip Hop ballads about needing a supersized revolution, that resistance is fertile its time to thrive, they sing about the environment, the future, the meting ice caps and when the floods are going to come.

Their last song was a love song Lynx wrote about Laura also in the band about their journey together. He said that they needed to have one love song and that actually all of their songs are love songs and Frank said yes! All of their songs are passionate poetry fighting beautifully for the human struggle, the good of the people, the working people, the illusions the government dishes out, wars and injustice. Their music fights for the human experience of pushing on for greater potential and the simple surrender to the human need of each other. Lynx said that they could not have put as much into the band had he and Laura not both been in the band, that it is what they do together and that is how it works. They talked about the evolution of the band through different band members and that they now have a core group that is solid.

Lynx read Frank’s poem “Locked in Locked Out”, adding a hip hop fusion to it that was magical. Its always amazing to hear different people read Frank’s poems! Frank’s poem spoke about the exact things that Beltaine’s Fire had been expressing the whole night, all things that lock us in and lock us out from our potential and busting through that. Lynx said that Frank’s poem was exactly what he sings about and some of the same imagery even.”Great Minds!” Frank said. It’s amazing all the great bands who come on the Shaman’s Den!

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ah, yes! They are very inspiring… And very dance-able!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore

Last night’s guest on the Shaman’s Den was Nellie Wilson of the Sacred Touch School. She helps people expand their erotic life though in person instruction/workshops and through video learning on her website with Ed Ehrgott. Some of what she does is explore exercises with people that expand their erotic experience and believes that learning happens by experiencing in your body. Nellie spoke about her work with people one to one and about exploring their edges where they felt uncomfortable or tight while being erotic. Nellie talked about how Frank’s performances are much the same. Frank creates a play space and invites people in and he follows opportunities and openings as they arise. People can explore and expand and jump into the unknown, or sometimes they hold on and are unwilling to explore, staying safe.

Nellie spoke about how many people are holding on to being in control. She said sometimes people want to be in control when they are having an orgasm and they are concerned about how they will look when they have one. Linda said that holding onto control is not sexy, what is sexy is a person who is available and willing to jump, explore and surrender. People who are available without limits, that is what is sexy! When someone is available without limits people feel it and respond to it. They may not always know what it is but they feel it and they are drawn to it. Frank said that guys are always coming up to him and wondering how does a guy like him get all the girls? Nellie said there is pretty on the inside and there is pretty on the outside. Frank said that he is pretty all the time! He is available without limits. Nellie said that spoke to something in all of us deeply at the core. Frank and Linda talked about the many times when they were in other cities and they needed people to be in performances. People would find people who were sex performers and it was always them who had the most trouble jumping in. They said that they would be fine having sex on the stage with Frank but rocking naked on his lap they would not do. It is not usually the sex and nudity that makes people uncomfortable but the intimacy, the relationship. Frank’s focus is on relationships and he is always looking for and following opportunities to be intimate with people and that is what is sexy!

Nellie said that there needed to be a dictionary of new words to talk about erotic experiences. Frank had done it! He came up with the term eroplay to talk about erotic physical play for pleasure without the goal of orgasm, tansex another state of physical play without genital intercourse where there may be orgasm but orgasm is not the goal as in sex. Pantan describes the combination of various kinds of orgasm with an intensely small intimate nonlinear play. Linda said that when Frank had first come up with these terms to talk about erotic play people did not know what he was talking about. Then over time people knew exactly what he was talking about. Nellie said that she could come up with a few terms for the dictionary. Frank said that they could work on it together and she said she was busy with grad school right now. It seems like Frank and Nellie would have a lot to explore deeply together.

Frank is always finding and following ways of being intimate with people like asking Nellie if she would be a plant in his performance at the Pow Pow performance coming up. Nellie would be in the audience and she would feel turned on by Frank and be moved to come up to the stage and explore Frank’s body. The performance was going to be Frank looking out to the audience connecting with people and the plants would become turned on and come up to the stage and explore his body. Nellie said she was not sure that she had class on Friday but they could check in via email. She said that she did not feel very sexy on Friday nights and Frank said that he would turn her on. Nellie said, “I’m sure you would!” Frank said that it was fun to play with Nellie and she enjoyed that. Nellie said that there were more and more people out there she has found that are doing similar things that are wanting to have more human connections, to play and explore. Frank said that people are hungry again like they were 30 years ago!

not art if it was not scripted? think: ‘spontaneous’ (as so many WORLD KNOWN and greaet artists have been) think: ‘improvisation’ think “mime’ think how many actors ‘went off their movie script and…..get ready for this word now……IMPROVISED. Just “LET IT ALL HANG OUT.” from the millions of mini scripts percolating in the incredible cells of the brains.just waiting to be heard. I’m going to write a piece on IT’S NOT ART IF IT’S NOTSCRIPTED as a nouveau curious attempt to say that the first great blind poet Homer of ancient Greece was a hoax? because he was not scripted.

Jesse Beagle
(c) 2009 djb

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exactly, Jesse!

In Freedom,
Frank Moore

ah yes! Below is how we ended last night’s show which was one of the best Shaman’s Dens ever! N.Y.C. based Dufus [which is Seth] has been one of my personal favorites for years. He has been on the show years ago and was in my band in my last N.Y.C. performance. But last night was deep magic! I even backed him up on the piano on a few Songs [which is a first for me because, while I jam a lot, I never have tried to fit my piano into actual Songs!]. Moreover the interview was deep fun! But this last song [which i sprung on him as a request] took the night to a liquid dimension! Enjoy!

And today I see that Dufus’s latest cd made it on Captain Fred’s top cds list for the month!

“Wee Ma Moo”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80FSg5o3dqY

In Freedom,
Frank Moore