048 Rhythmic Idler: Josh Block

I’m really into systems. So I like setting up the system and like watching it expand and become something really cool and new watch other people, like, contribute to the system and make it something better than I invented, or ever imagined it to be. You know what I mean? And I think that’s what led me to studio-owning–is essentially you’re building a giant instrument.

That’s Josh Block. Phenomenal drummer. Music producer slash arranger slash audio engineer. Owner of recording studio––and now label––Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, Texas. He played and toured with rock and roll band White Denim for many years, and later helped launch the career of R&B singer-songwriter Leon Bridges, which he casually mentions but is a pretty big deal; so is the grammy. Josh’s ear for capturing timeless vocalists, proclivity for warm sounds from vintage equipment, and innate understanding of rhythm make for a lovely recording, if you’re in the market for a hit. But the only thing better than hearing my friend on the radio is catching up with him in real life.

Chatty Crafties Podcast · Rhythmic Idler: Josh Block

Early on he recorded in a 1940’s Spartan trailer / makeshift recording studio, which is referenced in this Austin Chronicle article.

Josh co-founded and played with White Denim (originally Parque Touch) for 10 years, and left the band to move to Fort Worth, where he founded his recording studio Niles City Sound in 2014 (@nilescitysound on Instagram). Josh showed us his copy of the book Temples of Sound: inside the great recording studios during the podcast interview when we were talking about how the space is designed.

He met and started playing music with Leon Bridges, who’s successful album kick-started his recording studio concept. Here’s a Grammy Museum video about how they met and started recording Bridge’s grammy-nominated album, Coming Home, together at Niles City Sound. Leon’s second album, Good Thing, won him and his team (read: Josh!) a grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand.”

The three songs that appear in the episode are:

Do your homework and watch True Stories by David Byrne of the Talking Heads!

Josh’s three albums he keeps coming back to are:

Roberto Cacciapaglia – Sei Note
Tuca – Drácula I Love You
John Coltrane ‎– Coltrane Jazz

According to Josh, Pickathon is one of his favorite venues to play live; SNL was fun of course, Conan was rad, and Jimmy Kimmel was super cool to his staff, playing at the Apollo was huge. Just don’t slap the log!

Josh sent me these photos taken by the talented Rambo Eliott, who’s @Rambo on Instagram.

Videos below:

1/ Josh Block playing drums backing Leon Bridges on Saturday Night Live

2/ Josh Block playing drums backing Leon Bridges on Austin City Limits

3/ White Denim on Austin City Limits (August 2014 – Matt and I were there! My photos from the crowd is in the upper slideshow)

4/ White Denim interview after their Austin City Limits show (August 2014)

Josh Block playing drums backing Leon Bridges on Saturday Night Live

Josh Block playing drums backing Leon Bridges on Austin City Limits

White Denim on Austin City Limits (August 2014)

White Denim interview after their Austin City Limits show

043 Handbag Poetry Night

But I think I stopped writing poetry as much just because when I would come back to it, I was like, what was I even trying to say? It was just too vague. It was too vague to get the meaning later.

Well hopefully it’s like protecting itself from getting burned. If it weren’t so vague, you wouldn’t be able to stand it, maybe, you know? That’s why I wrote that way, why I still write that way.

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This week on a special Handbag Hangout Poetry night, I’ve rounded up Amber, Diana, Sara, Maria, and Genevieve to read poetry with me. Our friendship was cultivated while writing poetry and furiously journaling in high school in the late 90’s, which bound us tightly as very close friends over the past 20 years. Since becoming adults, we have made a point to meet monthly (to reinforce and celebrate our identities before we became partners, spouses, mothers, or professional people), which came to be known as Handbag Hangouts as a dirty joke over beers. Since COVID-19, we’ve upped our Handbags to a weekly Zoom meeting to dish out our love and support for each other. (Please do forgive the quality of the recording since we weren’t able to meet in person.)

Order of poems:

Angelica: Title redacted a poem about restlessness found in an old journal (Feb 8, 2001)

Genevieve: “What is Never Lost” by Cynthia MacDonald from I Can’t Remember (1997)

Maria: “A Callarse/Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda. English translation and in the original Spanish (1958)

We mentioned “the great pause” and referenced the incredible article, “Prepare For the Ultimate Gaslighting,” by Julio Vincent Gambuto.

Amber: “Sensation” by Arthur Rimbaud. French and English (March 1890)

Diana: “I’m Nobody, Who are You?” by Emily Dickenson from Poems, Series 2 (1891).

Sara: A saying probably by Lao Tzu (?) from Zen Garden Book of Meditations

Angelica: “As Far as Masks Go,” a poem about COVID-19 (April 20, 2020)

Amber: Rhyming Poem, a poem about haircuts or a hangover maybe (2001)

Sara: “We shape clay into a pot but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want” from Zen Garden Book of Meditations

Genevieve: “If” a poem about being a therapist, in a series she wrote called Termination Poems (December 2019)

Diana: Two nature poems from a journal while being a summer camp counselor at Camp Arrowhead (June 14, 2003)

Angelica: “Friendliness is Not the Car Ride it Once Was” in my portfolio used to apply for landscape architecture grad school (April 3, 2000)

Angelica: “Song of 3 Days Sad” A poem repeating the phrase Techno Glazes/Inspiration (July 14, 2000)

Handbag Hangout during the podcast

The gang was all there last week

Handbag Retreat 11/2018

Handbag hangout 4/2016

Handbag hangout 8/2016

Handbag hangout 5/2015

Handbag hangout 10/2015

Angelica, Genevieve, Diana, and Amber in college in the early 2000s

Maria and Jelly in early 2000s

Maria and Sara in high school

040 Ambassador of String: Gretchen Du Prè

Angelica, it is why I do what I do. I love this city. I love Austin, and that’s honestly my career goal, is to make Austin beautiful, though public art, through landscape design, through public projects if I can be involved.

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That’s Gretchen Du Prè. Fiber artist, landscape designer, musician slash singer, mother, and beautifier. Gretchen’s own string theory is: if there’s a way to knit it, play it, draw it, or sew it, she wants to get her hands on it. If you see her around town and compliment something she made – watch out, you might be wearing it home.

Public Art:

She and Austin Outdoor Design had a entry in the recent Fortlandia, called Hamaca de los Flores, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

She also had a project in Creek Show, a temporary light installation over Waller Creek in Austin.

Music:

Singer and musician for the band, Honey Punch, for 10 years, a daytime fun band. The intro was “Anarchy in the UK” ; the mid-episode sample was “Being Mir Best Du Schon”, and the outro was “Fallen for You.” Follow them on Instagram and check out their website for shows and delights!

Honey Punch band

Gretchen du Pre

Gretchen at Creekshow 2018

Gretchen du Pre at Creek Show

Creek Show 2018

Fortlandia 2020: Hamaca de los flores

037 Manic Maker at Testify: Angelica Norton

And what I learned was: anytime my hands were busy, I could think the thoughts I needed to think instead of having my smartphone dictate what I should think and feel.

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For my birthday today, I recorded a quick episode of the story I performed on the stage at Spiderhouse Ballroom on Thursday, October 24th for Testify (a monthly storytelling group in Austin) for October’s theme, Craft. My story I recorded tonight (which is better audio than I captured on my camera) is about this podcast, so if you want a 16 minute sampler of what Chatty Crafties is all about, have a listen.

036 Schizophrenic Straddler: Chad Raines

I think arranging in pop music is like so underrated. I think that’s the whole reason why people like pop music; there’s not like lots interesting chord changes or melodies happening–-it’s all about production, which, production is arranging. and it’s just all about the choices of tones and instruments you make and creating an atmosphere that gives you a feeling.

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That’s Chad Raines, sometimes known as Rad Chains, but it depends if you find him on the divine stage or in real life. His artistic lens is aimed at the juxtaposition between giving a rough edge to the prestigious and elevating the overlooked. He swings between between musical theatre to performing in spandex with his band The Simple Pleasure. He arranged and played the music to my wedding, and even more importantly to Matt and me, he made the “Egyptian Lover” music video of our friend Basil Malaty. Having something so precious to look at when my friend was no longer around eventually lead to me to creating this podcast, so I can give stage to the essence of people I hold dear for posterity.

You can find more on Chad at www.chadraines.com, at www.thesimplepleasure.com, the Rad Chains Soundcloud page, and The Simple Pleasure Bandcamp page.

The intro of the episode is “Another Active Shooter,” we sample “Girls and Guys Sometimes, and the outro is “Labor of Love ” by The Simple Pleasure.

Here’s Tom Cherry’s “Boogieman of My Dreams” and Donzi’s World, which have big Tim and Eric Awesome Show vibes way before that was a thing.

Shameless Plug: Chad’s new (Untitled) record with The Simple Pleasure, which should be out by Oct. 14th.

Here’s a couple of The Simple Pleasure’s music videos, “Young Professionals” and “A Need to Know Basis.”

Here’s the “Egyptian Lover” video featuring our friend Basil Malaty (1981 – 2004), shot and produced by Chad Raines in collaboration with Matt Norton around 2001/2002 in Austin, TX.

Chad Raines on Melodica(Chris Perley Photography)

Chad Raines (Photo from ishotamandapalmer.wordpress.com)

Chad and Lily (Photo from The Simple Pleasure)

Chad Raines (Photo from claireandherpipsqueaks.tumblr)

Chad and Lily (Photo from The Simple Pleasure)

035 Magnificent Memorizing Maniac: Eloise Norton

I want to try acting for the rest of my life so I can become one of those actors that are really good. I want to just keep on acting until I feel like, you know what, too much! I don’t feel like I’m enjoying this anymore; I’m just doing this for fame and money, not for my enjoyment.

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That’s Eloise. Child actor, big sister, and my incredible daughter with a memory like a steel trap. She spent the summer working on her first professional play with Different Stages Theatre Company in Austin, Texas. I wanted to capture her pure connection to playing characters when playing pretend was still an instinct instead of a distant, adult memory.

A question to our listeners: What should we do with the memorabilia from her performances? Does anyone have a scrapbook they’ve done to give us ideas on how to showcase all of her programs, thank you notes, etc? Tag me @chattycrafties on Instagram and Twitter!

Some names we mentioned during the podcast: Clayton Stromberger is the On-campus Coordinator of the Shakespeare at Winedale Outreach program. Mr. Park is Eloise’s AMAZING 3rd grade teacher (what up, Mr. P!) A Doll’s House (by Henrik Ibsen) was a Different Stages production, directed by Norman Blumensadt. Kelsey Smith (Episode 31) told us about the audition for child actors. Catie Williams (@catieelaine) played Nora Helmer, and was mentioned during the “dah doo” vocal exercises. Emily Villarreal (@thatsmissemily) played Kristine Linde and showed Eloise tongue twisters.

PRESS:

Different Stages’ A DOLL’S HOUSE is an Excellent Rendering of the Ibsen Classic by Broadway World: “An unexpected highlight of the production is the performances of Eloise Norton and Anuart Zarate as the Helmer children. Commendably, these young actors pick up cues quickly and play their roles with enthusiasm.” (June 27, 2019) by Lacey Cannon Gonzales

Review: A Doll’s House by Different Stages by CTX Live Theatre (July 2, 2019) by Michael Meigs

Eloise singing Clementine for a talent show

Eloise at a costume fitting for A Doll’s House

Eloise as Willy Wonka

A Doll’s House (Steve Rogers Photography)

Eloise Norton, Catie Williams, Anuart Zarate (Steve Rogers Photography)

Eloise and Emily Cawell at a costume fitting for A Doll’s House

Eloise Norton, Catie Williams, Anuart Zarate (Steve Rogers Photography)

032 Indecisive Dancemaker: Angie Obermeyer

Because I really feel like movement is healing. Physically, for sure it’s good for you, you know, because our bodies are meant to move in those directions and not just very linear. But I think, too, it just awakens something. And I’m not saying you have to have like me, like a love of dance, but I think to set something a little bit free.

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That’s Angie Obermeyer, née Johnson. Semi-professional dancer, reluctant advertiser, wife, and mother of three. She’s a factory sleeper – you wouldn’t know she was a sucker for technique while chatting on the playground afterschool but once you get her talking about it, her passion for dance becomes immediately apparent, as is her drive to make dance performances more accessible to the general public.

Angie wants more people (YOU!) to see local dance performances, so if you’re in Austin, look into Frontera Fest, Fusebox Festival, and aerial shows with Blue Lapis light. There’s also the Austin Dance Festival coming up in April. A couple of her favorite choreographers are Sharon Marroquin and Ellen Bartel – the latter of whom has a piece in a show in February at First Street Studio. Check out their online schedules for upcoming shows, where you might happen upon gorgeous photos of Angie in action.

Angie’s upcoming show: a benefit for Andrea Ariel Dance Theater called Soundpainting on March 3rd, 2018.

For adults trying to get back into dance, try the Saturday morning class at Cafe Dance that Kathy Dunn Hamrick teaches. If you’re a skilled dancer you might like something a little more challenging; check out Austin Community Ballet in East Austin.

Angie Obermeyer (Angie Johnson)

Belonging Part One aerial dance performance at old power plant. More info at bluelapislight.org. (©ejmnet.com – you may use this photo with a credit to @EarlMcGehee.)Angie Obermeyer (Angie Johnson)

Angie Obermeyer (Angie Johnson)

031 Emotional Explorer: Kelsey Smith

And it’s real, and I can’t lie, but, when I’m being someone else – that is real, you know, that’s is like the truth, so it’s not lying to me. So when I’m in front of people and I have the mask of someone else, I can do anything.

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That’s Kelsey. Actor, lover of musical theatre, grad student in psychology, and my emotionally mature office manager. She pressed pause on acting until it felt fun again, and now has her heart set on starting theatre company and opening a space sometime in the future. Her positivity and drive are contagious, so I’m thankful she keeps us organized while she spins so many plates of her own. I’m Angelica; stay tuned for my weekly chat.

Her next show is The Book Club Play, directed by Nikki Zook at Santa Cruz Theatre, running March 22 – April 13, 2019. Find more here: www.differentstagestheatre.org/upcoming

If you’re looking into getting your child into acting in Austin, look into KidsActing Studio programs – my daughter does this in her school and it’s been wonderful; they have multiple summer shows as well.

As a professional actor, some companies to audition for are:

030 Musical Collaborator: Floyd Willis

It’s a release, it’s a distraction, you know…it’s not day-to-day life. If there’s actually people there, then the immediate gratification of, ‘oh people like me, or like what we’re doing.’ Yeah, it’s the performer’s high, you know, which you always keep chasing, but also learning how to balance that with real life.

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That’s Floyd. Bassist in a punk band, park event coordinator, dutiful dad and husband–and my older brother. We had a chat over the Christmas break at our Mom’s house about our shared creative influences growing up and explored the overlay of being a performer that also produces various events at Discovery Green in Houston. We also took a moment to put his 10-year-old daughter on for a quick dip into her artistic interests.

A new Album from Dead to the World called Fire can be found on Spotify and iTunes.
follow them on Facebook @deadtotheworldtx. Some DTTW press:

Dead to the World takes Its War to Warehouse Live – Aug 2015

The first song on the episode was “For You,” the middle song was “Decay,” and the closing song was “Taxman.”

We talked about rotoscoping; here’s an example.

Dead to the World rehearsal (image from their Facebook)

Dead to the World show (image from their Facebook)

Fire cover art for Dead to the World

Dead to the World show (image from their Facebook)

Floyd, Blake, Steve, Brandon, Mikey (left to right)

Floyd, Steve, Mikey, Brandon, Blake (left to right)

026 Heartfelt Hackster: Amanda Davidson

It’s important what we do, and it’s important how we do things, it’s important that we are creative when we do things–it matters, you know? It matters that we do things well and we do things with intention and love. It matters to our families, and our friends, and whatever random person we interact with in commerce, too.

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That’s Amanda. Mother of 3 and family caregiver, soulful singer, and appreciator of imperfect art–when she can steal a couple of hours to herself, that is. Amanda sat down with us to explore melding old and new and what it means to be dipping her toes back in the creative world though interior design with her business, Curate Homes.

Amanda and Graham named their residential construction company Curate (‘kyur-ət) because that’s the person in the church who’s the caretaker of souls. Find more online at www.curatehomes.com or on Instagram. The songs played in the episode were, in order of appearance: “Going Somewhere,” “Teaching me My Name,” “Minnie Catherine,” and “Under the Earth.” One of her albums, Home, is available on iTunes HERE under her maiden name, Amanda Leggett.