Kristy Hanson

  • a new favorite…joe henry’s “civilians”

     /  16 Sep 2007  /  Music, food, LA, and other things I love

    Mike and I went to hear Joe Henry live at Largo on Friday night – he just released his new album, “Civilians” and this is one of his rare appearances. Though I’ve known of him for a while, I didn’t know much about him or his music until Mike and I met Jay just shortly after he’d recorded “I Believe to My Soul” with Joe (which we promptly bought at Starbucks one cold Grand Rapids day after it came out). I’ve been listening to a lot of his music and music he’s produced since then. We were also aware he’d been recording because we used (almost) the same team that he did for my album. We obviously like the same musicians. Apparently, we’ve got some other random things in common, too, like English degrees from the University of Michigan…
    :)

    We’d heard from Patrick himself how amazing this record was going to be and we had been listening to the tracks available on his website, so we were definitely excited for the show. They stuck us in the middle of the front “row” of tables, so close to the little stage that I could read the setlist, most of it, anyway. Which I tried not to do-it felt sort of wrong to remove the element of surprise-but it was almost impossible. We were so close that when the band was all getting on stage and tuning, there was some kind of feedback when Joe plugged in his guitar and he looked down at me and joked, “was that you?” Pretty funny.

    Needless to say, we were VERY attentive, which was certainly not hard considering how great a show it was. The band included all our favorites – Jay Bellerose on drums, Patrick Warren on keyboards, Greg Leisz on guitar, etc. (“everything else” as Joe put it), Dave Piltch on upright bass and Jen Condos on electric bass for just a song (what a sweetheart. And I love watching her play. My hero…ahem, heroine). There was an incredible energy in the room – an energy that was almost intimidating – it was like VIP night there, with all my favorite songwriters and musicians on stage and in the audience. And the band played perfect arrangements for each song. I couldn’t help thinking about what I know about Joe as a producer, and how “well-produced” the whole show was, while still so natural and relaxed (which seems to be his production style, too). His lyrics are incredible and sitting about two feet away while he sang them allowed us to catch every nuance!

    Do yourself a favor and check out his album. As I mentioned, he actually has some tracks available on his website, amusingly titled www.joehenrylovesyoumadly.com.

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  • this last week in music…

     /  03 Aug 2007  /  Music, food, LA, and other things I love

    So, I’m still plugging away at the Austin City Limits contest. I was boosted up to about 31 out of all the bands and then, though I’ve been garnering more and more votes, I’m down to about 51 now. Hopefully we can get things movin’ again over the weekend. What can I say – I’m competitive. And I would LOVE to play Austin!

    For those of you who’ve told me I need to re-post the link, here you go:
    mp3.com

    I’m really blown away by how many people I don’t know (outside of MySpace) who’ve written to tell me that they’ve been voting everyday, re-posting the bulletin, having their friends vote…wow. I always feel like I’m imposing when I ask people to do something like this, but it seems that people like being a part of the mission! Certainly anything good that comes of this belongs to everyone who voted. My fingers remain crossed…

    On Tuesday night, Mike and I went to go see Michael Penn at Largo. It was an extra special treat because Patrick Warren, Mike Elizondo, Buddy Judge, and Aaron Sterling all played with him for a full-band extravaganza toward the end of the show. Patrick and Michael have played together for years, and I loved hearing them play as a duo, even if we did wonder when Aaron was going to come on and rock out! Listening to Patrick, I just kept thinking to myself, “I can’t believe he’s on my album.” There’s just no one like him, and he couldn’t be nicer on top of it. It was a treat to hear Aaron play, too – he’s just incredible, and again, we’re so lucky to have worked with him (he played on the CD release party). It would have been a great musical evening regardless, and Michael Penn was in great form, but the extra personal connections made it really special.

    Wednesday night I played a very last-minute show at The Derby. It was strange but also a lot of fun to play by myself. Nothing compares to playing with a full band. It makes me really let go, and I’d probably almost always prefer it, but I’ve gotten to a point where I feel much less inhibited playing on my own. And it’s liberating, if a little self-indulgent, to be able to just do a song however you feel it and not worry about what everyone else is doing! A few folks came out to the show, including engineer Bryan Cook, who knows our engineer Ryan Freeland. We connected through MySpace and he decided to just come on out to the show. He could not have been cooler. I’m glad that our musical and social circle just keeps expanding with such great people.

    Finally, we got together with some friends last night, and snacking and drinking wine turned into Mike and our friend kind of jamming on the piano and guitar. We’ve known our friend since college and re-connected out here. I re-visited his random, red guitar that I borrowed for a show once back in Ann Arbor and actually wrote “Take it Back” on. I sang a little Gershwin while our friend played all the crazy jazz chords on the piano. I used to be able to at least play changes – I miss playing piano and wish I had one – nothing like the feel of real piano keys. I should probably force myself to practice on a keyboard in the meantime, since I’m a long way from owning a house, a piano. Oh, and I want a dog, too. :)

    Ah, so much to accomplish. ;) Baby steps….

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  • what i’ve been up to…

     /  03 Jun 2007  /  Music, food, LA, and other things I love

    I keep saying I’m going to get better about regularly blogging and then I don’t – or I do, but in fits and starts.  In my defense, we have been BUSY planning and promoting the CD release party. Mike and I are the street team, the publicists, the promoters, etc. :)  More on that in the next blog. First I’ll catch you up on my recent musical activities:

    1. Guitar lessons. I’m taking lessons from Tim Young when I can squeeze them in. He’s teaching me how to improvise and solo more. Lots of blues and pentatonic scales and other scales in different places on the guitar. I’m playing electric, which is really fun (and easier on my fingers, frankly). Who knew I could bend notes? I’m trying to get out of my ruts and expand my skills and songwriting – and ultimately, be a girl who can wail on the guitar. There are definitely some but far too few out there. Hopefully I’ll be shredding in no time…

    2. Our show at Cafe Cordiale on the 23rd. Lots of fun, friendly people, and we made some new fans! One of them even pre-ordered a CD. One of my favorite parts might have been when this woman actually leapt up from her dinner to applaud me after I sang “Careful.” But she also full-out danced in her seat when we played “Comfort,” so that was a close second.  Perhaps I’ll be a dance-pop star yet…ha ha ha

    3. Rehearsing for the show on the 6th – and more on that in the next blog, as I said. But playing with Tim, Mike, and Aaron this last week was so fantastic. I’m always suprised by how gratifying it is to hear what other people do with my songs – they always become something different and better than I can even imagine.

    4. Hearing Aimee Mann at Largo again – along with Paul Bryan, her bassist and, these days, producer. You should check him out on MySpace and go listen to his song “Houdini and Celia” and cry like I do. :) Jay Bellerose and Jen Condos played with him – it was the first time I’d seen Jen play, and it’s very inspiring (see my above comment about girls and guitars…). She’s the sweetest, as is Jay. And we even saw Ryan Freeland, our album engineer/mixer, too. It was a fun reunion and I got a little emotional, especially watching Jay play with Aimee Mann. I still sort of can’t believe that he’s on MY album. I am a very lucky girl. :)

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  • a week in the life…

     /  24 Feb 2007  /  Music, food, LA, and other things I love

    I’ve been meaning to blog for a while, and since I haven’t I’ll have to do a bit of an overview. I realize now that it’s been a rather momentous week.

    Thursday, Feb. 15 – Worked on a new song…it’s a little depressing (I was in a funk) but it may have potential. I’ve been writing lots of little half-songs recently, which is odd for me, but this one I basically finished the form of.

    Friday, Feb 16 – We went to see Aimee Mann’s “Valentine’s Revenge” show at Largo. I really love the whole “variety show” format she’s into these days. Well, in my eyes she can do no wrong, but nonetheless, it was really a very well put-together, entertaining show. She had Paul F. Tompkins (funny-and who knew he could sing?) and Morgan Murphy there, and she had Grant-Lee Phillips do a couple songs (his voice is just perfect, always). Paul Bryan, Jebin Bruni and Jay Bellerose comprised her kick-ass backing band. I’d never heard Paul play before and I see now why Mike is so into his playing. It was so good to hear Jay play, and equally great to see him and catch up a bit. I’ll never get over how nice he was and is to us. He even asked Mike to come back on Saturday night to see the show again and, apparently, to throw back some scotch. I had to work…but I shouldn’t be greedy. I really can’t complain (though I did, let’s be honest).

    Saturday and Sunday, Feb 17-18 – Worked most of the weekend: more Mozart mania with LACO! What I caught of the concerts was lovely, and I had a good time post-concert on Saturday night at Charles’ Billiards in Glendale with Pulse, the ‘young professionals’ (for lack of a better term) group we young LACO staffers are building. Addie and I played a very hard-core game of table hockey.

    Monday, Feb 19 – A day off, and a full one…rehearsed and grabbed some food with Mike and my favorite half-Romanian Steven Nistor. Steven is hilarious and rehearsals are always really fun. For some reason having to leave home and have official ‘rehearsals’ has gotten me much more motivated and focused as far as my playing and singing go. I feel like I’m getting back into it, whatever ‘it’ is. Mike and I also hiked and went to see “Music and Lyrics,” which was kind of silly and cute. I thought the more satirical parts of it…like the little quasi-Britney character…were spot-on. We tried to catch Maria Bamford at Tiger Lily and she was nowhere to be found…

    Wednesday, Feb 21 – After work I drove to Hollywood for the end of our mastering session with Gavin Lurssen. He, like everyone else who’s worked on he album, is incredibly nice. He talked me through a lot of what he was doing, and it was like going to ‘mastering class’ with a very insightful teacher. And the album sounds GREAT! (If I do say so myself, har har). Then we scrambled back to play with Steven for the SoCal Music Live competition at The Derby. There was a decent crowd there overall and our set, while short, was really fun and seemed to sound pretty good. I love playing with a band! Love it. It was also really great to play for and to meet some new people who seemed to dig the music. That’s always good…apparently, score-wise, I’ve made it into the ‘top 5 females’ in the competition. Woo hoo! I do like to win. At table hockey or music competitions. Ha.

    Friday, Feb 23 – Heard a beautiful concert with Steven and Mike, given by the young and incredible Calder Quartet. I went to support the efforts of their PR people, who I know through work, but enjoyed the music so much and was really glad I went. They did some late Shostakovich and Thomas Ades, and I used not to like contemporary composers all the much, but I guess my ears have stretched – I loved it all.

    ok, enough for goodness sake…i need a nap, and this is becoming War and Peace.

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  • Valentine’s Day in LA…

     /  14 Feb 2007  /  Music, food, LA, and other things I love

    Here’s what I liked about Valentine’s Day in LA – it was not a big deal. And because I had few to no expectations, it wildly exceeded all of them.

    No one at work asked me what Mike was ‘getting me’ for Valentine’s Day, and inquiries about plans we had were very casual. Most people in my small office are paired off, but there was no delivery of flowers or obnoxious teddy bears or anything. Cookies and other things I should not eat abounded – I don’t actually know who brought them in, but there was an abundance of pink sprinkles and frosting which literally sustained me throughout the day…

    Mike is, or has been, sort of anti-Valentine’s Day, so imagine my surprise when I got home to receive a bouquet of roses! Aww. I guess it’s just inescapably part of being a girl, but being given flowers just pleases me to no end. The fact that it was a total surprise really does make it that mch better. YAY!

    Being no slouch, I took Mike out to Largo for Dave Palmer’s special Valentine’s Day show. In return, he’s taking me to Aimee Mann’s show on Friday there. The show tonight was fantastic as usual. The band included Aaron Sterling on drums, Dave on piano, of course, David Piltch on bass, Tim Young on guitar…with David Garza and Fiona Apple.

    When Fiona wasn’t singing, much of the time, she was sitting about 10 inches away from me. I just don’t even know what to do with myself when someone I idolize that much is sitting right next to me…so I do nothing. Other people were talking to her after the show, taking photos with their camera phones, and I just couldn’t think of anything to say because nothing would sum up what I actually want to say.

    Oh, Largo is my favorite place ever. So is LA, really. Today was a good day to be right where I am. ‘night everyone…hope you had a good Valentine’s Day, too, however you chose to celebrate (or not celebrate!) it.

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  • celebrities in restrooms

     /  17 Nov 2006  /  Music, food, LA, and other things I love

    I have a very strange knack for running into famous or even semi-famous people in public restrooms.

    Back in 2004, my first LA celebrity sighting transpired in the restroom of the Laemmle theatre at 8000 Sunset, where I’d just seen Napoleon Dynamite (eh. Don’t get why everyone loved that movie) with my friend Jocelyn. As I walked into the bathroom stall, Paris Hilton was walking out of it. No joke. It takes you a while to realize that when you run into someone who looks like a celebrity out here, it probably is a celebrity…so it took a second to sink in. But it was definitely her, so tan, so blond, and SO (perhaps too) thin. Really tiny, not that short, but shorter than I would have thought. Talking on her cell phone, I think, about having gotten home from partying at 7 am that morning. It sounds soobvious that it’s possible I just made that up, but I did hear something about 7 am. :)

    It was shortly after that that I realized with great certainty that paparazzi are lame beyond belief. It was a Sunday evening, and Paris was coming out of the Virgin megastore with a tiny bag and these 3 photographers were just going crazy. As I watched the whole scene, it was like, “Wow. Could this be more boring?”

    But I digress.

    The next time it happened was at the restroom of Largo on a night when we went to see Dave Palmer. Fiona Apple was there, purely as an audience member, and as I was walking out of the restroom (it’s a one-stall affair), she was walking in, to the point where we both kind of giggled because we almost slammed right into each other. I was on slightly higher ground, but I think she’s actually shorter than me. Talk about tiny. She’s adorable, actually, and all I wanted to do was scream, “you’re so awesome! You’re so amazing! You mean so much to me,” or something equally foolish and stalker-like. I held back.

    I sort of have it in my mind that I almost ran into Aimee Mann near the restroom of Largo, too, but I may be making that up. I was equally nerdily excited to see her at Largo that one night, though. (I should really get over it–our engineer for the album has worked with her tons and I’d venture to say they’re friends, and then there I am feeling like I’m going to fall off my stool just because she’s 10 feet away.)

    At Hotel Cafe, just before Vienna Teng went on to play, I almost slammed into her on her way out of the bathroom in that same, “Oh, geez, sorry,” way.

    And finally, a repeat of the Fiona run-in; she was coming out when I was going in this time. Then in between Dave Palmer’s songs, I got up to go the restroom again and saw her jump up from her table not far away and beat me there. I seriously considered turning around and pretending I hadn’t just gotten up to use the restoom. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed me anyway, but I felt like such a stalker, and what a sad way to stalk someone–by following them to the restroom. I thought about how on this new show called “Iconoclasts” Fiona laughs about how her whole life is trying to avoid awkward moments, which actually happen to her all the time in spite of that…awkward indeed. Story of my life!

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  • i am a model…

     /  14 Nov 2006  /  News

    …you know what I mean!

    While we all know I’m neither gorgeous nor even tall enough to be a real model, I did spend all weekend feeling like one. Our friend Sara Remington, who also happens to be a kick-ass professional photographer, took some wonderful shots of me (and of Mike, looking all cute with his bass) for the album and for promo materials. Along with the album, I’m not yet ‘unveiling’ the shots, but they’re fantastic pieces of art. As time went on with the shooting I forgot all about my insecurities and just let Sara do her job. I look at them and forget it’s me–interestingly, that’s similar to how I feel when I listen to the album. I get carried away by something Mike or Jay is playing and forget about myself…which is a bizarre but very rewarding experience.

    You can check out her stuff at www.sararemington.net. I’d recommend her to anyone. She takes a lot of still-life photos of food, so, seriously, make sure you’re not hungry when you visit the site. :)

    Otherwise, just gearing up for Thanksgiving. I really am counting the days ’til I get to go freeze my butt off in Michigan…can’t wait to see Mike’s family. It’s always good to get away and have a little change of scene to clear your head, and I can’t wait to hang out with my little future nephews and niece. I’ve missed family time out here, and eating too much of someone else’s fantastic food (yay Mike’s Mom and sister!).

    Before I go, I’ll be playing solo (Saturday, Nov. 18 should you want to come party with me!) at the Borders in Glendale. It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of those quasi-background music gigs, where’s it’s always awkward to talk to the crowd as if they chose to come hear you play when they walked into Borders that night…but I’m actually really pumped to play. Should get some good foot traffic, and have fun re-visiting my high school days as a bookstore cafe singer. Seriously, if you have any requests and will be there…let me know. I have 2 hours to fill!

    Right now, off to hear Dave Palmer and (we hope!) Fiona Apple, after our Largo snafu last night. See Mike’s blog for details on that ridiculous affair…

    Happy Thanksgiving (soon), people…soon it’s just a warp speed hurtle through the holiday season, which I love.

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