Tag: Festizio

Chopin, Piazzolla, The Temper Trap / The most beautiful music in my life right now

Posted on by Keane Li

First of all, our new studio album is scheduled to be released at our Café Du Nord show on October 17. Get more details here and find out how you can get a free copy.

Secondly, I just returned from Cincinnati for our drummer’s wedding. I had a blast and ate plenty of Skyline. You can view my full collection of photos here.

✈

For me, music has always been a form of expression. Like a language, it articulates the feelings I’d like to express. It’s always been, above all, a supplement to the experience of everyday life. Music as entertainment is fine enough, but I’m realizing it exists more in my life as a soundtrack than as the feature.

Sometimes I just need a reminder of why I love it so much.

Chopin‘s Nocturne Op. 72 No. 1 – I’m currently learning this on the piano

“Oblivion” by àstor Piazzolla, the Argentinean composer and bandoneón player

And for all you new-music kids out there, a great song by The Temper Trap from Melbourne

Welcome to my new blog :)

Posted on by Keane Li


via DeadFrank

Hi,

A few days ago, both my personal and band blogs were hit by malware and are thus not viewable until the overlords at Google deem them clean. I took this opportunity to move my blog into a unique domain.

You can see that it’s a little more personalized. I removed the original title, “inFESTIZIO,” on account that people were apparently mistaking it for my band name. I also included randomized photos from my life in the above banner, giving a view from my perspective of the world.

I’ll eventually get all my old posts back up when we clean out our other domain. Until then, you can find me on Twitter, and you can follow my band, Festizio, at our ReverbNation page (sign up for our mailing list to get a free copy of our upcoming album!).

Thanks again for everything,

Keane

Coldplay – "The Scientist (Acoustic)" / Back to the start

Posted on by Keane Li


Coldplay | MySpace | Twitter

In revisiting a particular instance in the timeline of your life, chances are your impression of that moment changes with memories of all that you’ve experienced since. There are pockets in life that seem so perfect at the time. And when you remember them, it’s nice to keep them in the context that they were originally in, to keep them independent in themselves…

I was putting on my shoes, about to head out for a run, when I hesitated for a second and looked up from where I was kneeling down. I observed how lived-in my apartment had grown. I imagined what it would be like for someone to see it for the first time, and if they could tell how long I’ve lived there. I recalled what it looked like and how I felt when I first moved in. I contrasted this image by phasing in the contents that fill it now.

To my left: a cluttered closet adjacent to a bathroom with a single towel hanging on a rod. To my right: a refrigerator with random items on its door. A photobooth strip from the Yelp Holiday Party at the Westin St. Francis. My Performer review of Treasure Island Music Festival 2008. A picture of a dinosaur with short arms trying to reach into a fridge, exclaiming, “My hands are too short!” Straight ahead: the ATR Master Tape we used for recording our second album at Tiny Telephone last month.

A big hurdle in my life has been getting over always thinking about the future and to really absorb what’s happening to me at the current moment. I’m not sure if it’s nihilistic or hopeful, but the fact that we all end up in the same place (physically, at least) is reason enough to stop repeatedly asking myself,

Where am I going?

Where am I going?

Where am I going?

But rather to inquire, where am I now?

Revisiting Old Festizio Recordings

Posted on by Keane Li


Festizio | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter

In going through my old files, I uncovered a few unreleased Festizio demos for songs we never really used for various reasons. Usually we’ll drop a song if we feel it’s either not up to par or if it doesn’t fit well with our overall sound. However, I think the three songs below have enough merit to, at the very least, revisit on this very happy Friday.

The two photos were taken during one of our earlier shows at Ireland’s 32, a really great Irish (duh) pub in San Francisco. Even after having played at bigger and fancier venues, that night still brought in the most cash for us, as they gave us a portion of the bar tab and, let’s face it, our friends are drinkers.

Keep in mind that these songs are old and are no longer good representations of our current sound. You can check our actual studio work at the links above.

1.) Festizio – “I’ll Never Do It Again”
We recorded this song in our rehearsal studio. At the time, it was one of our better songs but it later fell into our “maybe” pile. Personally, I felt it was a bit too whiny.

2.) Festizio – “Out Of My Life”
Another song we recorded in our rehearsal studio. I wrote this during my big blues rock phase. The shift in style was too much of a jump from the rest of our set so we only ever performed it a handful of times.

3.) Festizio – “Time” (acoustic demo)
I wrote this song when I was still in college. I’m not exactly sure when it was recorded. Someone once told me it reminded them of John Lennon and I took that as a compliment. Please forgive the poor audio quality.

If you’d like to learn more about the thought process behind song composition, I highly recommend this recent Music Think Tank article by Brian Hazard entitled, “The Death of the Bridge.”

Kurt Cobain died sixteen years ago and we’re still talking about him

Posted on by Keane Li

Nirvana | MySpace

Before our show at Red Devil Lounge last night, I had been watching music performance videos to sort of get me into “the mood,” which is, I think, the equivalent of watching porn before having sex. Though who does that, I don’t know. Anyway, I ran into a Rolling Stone article on Kurt Cobain, discussing the sixteenth anniversary of when the rock icon committed suicide. The article commemorates his life with an amazing photo collection and some updates on his legacy, including his inclusion in Rock Band and the planned biopic on his life, Heavier Than Heaven. Here was a guy, loved and hated musically, that stood for something beyond music, injecting something more meaningful than sex and booze into rock culture. And as destructive as he was, he was/is pretty damn inspirational.

As a musician, I think it helps to constantly reevaluate why you create music. I think great music comes through if it stands for something, if you’re motivated by something more than simply creating melodies for the sake of creating melodies. That’s what separates an artist from a hobbyist, I guess. Artists create largely because they have to. Like the need to drink water or breathe air, their medium is an ingrained form of expression that, whether they want it to or not, needs to come out. Not allowing it to would be akin to never speaking for a kid that can’t shut up.

Nirvana’s performance at Reading, regarded as their greatest, is available on an NME award-nominated DVD. I’m seriously considering finally picking this up.

Audioslave – "Be Yourself" / Engaging in Self-discovery

Posted on by Keane Li

I don’t normally subscribe to astrological predictions, but I’ve always been entertained by Rob Brezsny’s Free Will Astrology and how his writing always seems so on-point with what I’m going through at a given time in life:

Some people are here on the planet to find success, while others are here to find themselves. In the big scheme of things, I’m not sure which category you fit into, Taurus. But I’m pretty sure that for the next few weeks you’ll be best served by acting as if you’re the latter. Even if you think you’ve found yourself pretty completely in the past, it’s time to go searching again: There are new secrets to be discovered, in large part because you’re not who you used to be. So for now at least, I encourage you to give your worldly ambitions a bit of a rest as you intensify your self-explorations.

The associated image he provides is that of a tribal king with the words “Control Freak” over it. Great.

But questioning the accuracies in astrology aside, his writing couldn’t be more appropriate. Lately, in focusing on particular areas of my life and things I wanted to achieve, I feel I’ve neglected the lifestyle balance that makes a person healthy and sane.

While most people know what I’m up to with Festizio (Red Devil Lounge show and radio appearance *cough cough*), here are some of my non-band exploits:

1.) Went barrel tasting again this past weekend. This time in the Livermore Valley.

2.) Going to a photo shoot for Fifth Floor, one of the city’s fanciest restaurants.

3.) Starting a creative project about San Francisco with Alex Hisaka and Helena Price.

4.) Studying Italian again. Maybe I’ll start playing video games too…

So, in an effort to learn more about myself and how I can exist in the world as an optimal human being, I’m giving myself more time to breathe and more opportunity to seek out new forms of adventure. In other words, I’m relaxing the focus so my peripheral vision can take in a few more things that make the world a beautiful place. Maybe, in the process, I can find what it is that makes me beautiful too.

Someone swears his true love until the end of time. Another runs away…

And to be yourself is all that you can do.

Bat for Lashes – "Daniel (Mt Eden Dubstep Remix)" / One Year

Posted on by Keane Li


Bat for Lashes | MySpace
Mt Eden Dubstep on YouTube

I promised myself I would do whatever it takes this year to achieve all my goals. Most notable is the desire to push Festizio, my band, as far as it can go: more shows, another studio release and networking with as many people as I can. Music was always what I felt most passionately about so I think it’s important to do this while I can. I’m not so naà¯ve as to think we’ll be around forever. People get married, have kids, move away or go to space. It’s expected and should be encouraged for everyone (going into space more so for some people than others). One year… to move as efficiently and expeditiously as I can in the right direction.

Festizio at The New Parish

I think we’re off to a good start. We already played a big Yelp Elite Event in Oakland at The New Parish, a new venue opened by the owners of The Independent. We also have two radio appearances and two more gigs coming up in the next few months, including a cool performance at the Chabot Space & Science Center (in the Planetarium, no less).

So, I’m more than happy so far. Unemployed but busy as hell. Time waits for no one. Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’. Sweep the leg.

By the way, if you want to help me on this lofty mission, please tell your friends, family and pets about Festizio. And please do follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You don’t have to buy anything or perform any sexual favors (unless you want to), but rather share us with the people in your life… especially if they’re record producers.

Festizio Acoustic Demo from 2007

Posted on by Keane Li

I just found the last copy of an unreleased acoustic demo I recorded in 2007. I made a few copies and shared it with some friends, folks at the local coffeehouse and my mom. It’s all acoustic and includes three tracks. The first song was only performed once. The last song you may recognize if you’ve ever seen us play or own our studio album. The second song I can guarantee you’ve never heard before.

1.) Today
2.) Til Lights Send Me Home
3.) Beautiful

Let me know what you think in the comments.