Plasticsoul Music

2005-10-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

Played at a wonderful venue in Hollywood the other night called The Fake Gallery on Melrose. It was my first time there and I do hope to perform there again. On the bill was our good mate and occasional partner in crime, Jake Gideon, and his new posse The Breakups (formally the brilliant Edison Gower). It was my first time seeing them perform as a unit and they did an amazing job rocking the house. Following The Breakups killer set I donned Jake's groovy Richenbacker clone and did a solo set which consisted of the following:

Fishwife
San Francisco
Heartbeats and Baby's Breath
Kite (Nick Heyward cover)
Saintly
New Town, Different Day
Poor White Trash

The crowd seemed to enjoy it and I had a good time.

Allegra Gellar finished out the night with an acoustic set. We only stayed for the first 4 songs but had to head out as it was getting late and we were all exhausted. It was my first time seeing AG and I really liked their sound. Hopefully I will get the full Allegra Gellar experience in the near future.

Ta for now

www.plasticsoulmusic.com
http://myspace.com/thebreakupssuck
http://www.soullaxluster.com/allegragellarmain.html
http://www.fakedotcom.com/

2005-10-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

The other night while shopping for groceries with my wife I happened upon a box in the frozen section which, according to the label on the box, was filled with rabbit meat. More specifically, "cut-up white meat with giblets". My first thought: what would happen to sales in the rabbit-as-food industry if you replaced the word "rabbit" with "bunny"? Would diners have a problem ordering their Hasenfeffer if the menu item was accompanied by a picture of the PAAS Easter egg bunny? I'm only talking about regular people here. Ted Nugent not included.

2005-10-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

I've been on the fence about the death penalty for a long time now, but if there was a specific crime that would push me over that fence it would be the playing of Christmas music at anytime other than December 1st through December 25th. Those found guilty of said crime may even find me hiding behind the executioners mask.

2005-10-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

My set Tuesday night, October 18th at The Universal Bar & Grill

Hey there...Steven here again. Here is the setlist for Tuesday, October 18th at Universal Bar and Grill where I once again filled in for the ultra-sexy Brady Harris.
Good to Know (Brady Harris cover)
Broken Bones
Heartbeats & Baby's Breath
You Choose Me
Borrowed & Gone (on banjo)
Poor White Trash
Paper & Parrafin
San Francisco

Story break: How I was dissed by Brian May after waiting outside the Palace in Hollywood for hours following his show...then had to wait allnight at Denny's until the buses started running again because I told the people I came with to go home because I was going to wait...in the cold.

The Human Jungle (Jazz Butcher cover)
Kite (Nick Heyward cover)
Early 1970 (Ringo Starr cover)
Part of the Queue (Oasis cover)
Sleep Baby Sleep

encore (sort of)
Fishwife
New Town, Different Day

Apparently the stormy weather kept people in their homes tuesday night because it was a small crowd. Not to say they weren't a fun and responsive crowd because they were. I drank too much and had a great time! Looking forward to seeing Brady make his triumphant return next Tuesday night.

2005-10-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

I get compared to Beach Boy genius Brian Wilson....well, almost

from the great music website americana-uk

http://www.americana-uk.com/html/july_05.html

Self- deprecating moniker belies a writer with an honest emotional intensity and an ear for the studio. Steven Wilson, for it is he who is the writer, multi- instrumentalist & producer behind the Plasticsoul project, delivers his debut album ‘Pictures From The Long Ago’ – for our money we get ten tight, concise and sonically dynamic pop songs with not so much a country sensibility, but certainly utilises such instruments as are generally attributed to the genre. In places we are in a lazy power pop mode, like opener ‘Broken Bones, which lulls along, urged forward by over- driven guitar arpeggios until we get to the ‘I just want to be their when you fall’ chorus, which will never be truly fulfilled until sung to a sea of cigarette lighters in a football stadium somewhere. Thankfully Wilson has no such corporate aspirations, this song, as many other points on this collection, is grounded by instrumental touches that highlight a man as at home behind the desk as he is behind a mic; on this track the listener is immediately drawn to the Richie Sambora- esque (please God, don’t let this be a real word) guitar work, but has to work harder to decipher a tastefull string arrangement that works the tracks undertow lending a smoothness that would otherwise be absent. Such attentiveness pays dividends throughout this record, on ‘Over & Over’ a strange reverb has been added to the piano which conjures up the sound of an empty school assembly hall – gives the track an Elliott Smith circa Figure 8 feel to it, while the sampled percussion tracks on ‘Roof Above Your Wheels’ are tactfully done, providing a solid, yet interesting rhythm to the slow tempo, without ever interrupting the flow of the track. Equally subliminal, but vital, are touches like the chime bells on ‘Borrowed & Gone’, another guitar pop song, the type of which pepper some acoustic material on this record affording a nice balance. ‘Pictures From The Long Ago’ delivers a continuity that is sometimes lacking from debut releases. It is often the way with first records that they are culled from a disparate collection of the bands live set, but there is a definite feeling that these tracks were written for this project and Wilson’s glaring interest in the studio leads me to the irony of his name. Let me make this clear, Stephen Wilson is no Brian…. well, yet. That said if his progress continues on the trajectory set by this record then I do not think I will be the last journo who will trade off of his name – so, it may be wildly premature, but I just wanted to be the first.

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I'll take it!

2005-10-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

Here we are -- my first blog post. I'm sitting in the front room of my apartment at 1:13am listening to a CD of a Brady Harris appearance on some Texas radio station. Right now he's singing "Ordinary Song" which if I remember correctly is the very first song that I ever heard Brady sing when we did an International Pop Overthrow show together at a club in Glendale (I can't remember the name). Brady rocks. Our meeting had to have been planned long ago by somebody who knows much more than either of us. Same with Matt Hopper (who I also met at an IPO show). Same with Joe Woolley -- whom I didn't have a chance to really get to know but I hope to some day -- who I was introduced to me by Pat Fish (superhero) while I was on tour in Northampton, England. Then there is Daniel Jacob Horine who I have to be related to somewhere long ago, whom I seem to share a great many likes, loves, obsessions, etc. He, of course, is another brilliant songsmith.

Here we are -- my first blog post and I really have no idea what I'm trying to communicate to anybody. Perhaps I'm just communicating with myself. A chance to say things that need to be said. Or perhaps things that really don't need to be said at all but I will say anyway.

Good or bad -- Point or none at all. This is what my brain told my fingers to type. A strange and mystical process. Instinct. Neil Finn wrote a song that said, "Your instinct can't be wrong". This entire rambling post could in fact be Neil Finn communicating with me telepathically. A long distance, psychic commercial for his back catalogue. It wouldn't be much of a surprise. The Jazz Butcher has been invading my dreams as of late...doing strange performance art pieces featuring 13 some odd slouchy teenagers wearing oversized black t-shirts with "dole drum" written across the front, traveling in zombie-conga line fashion and mumbling incoherently...together sounding like a group of drunken monks. Must be the drugs.