Last Matches Show

Sunday August 23, the Last Matches Show ever. 

I started listening to The Matches when I was about 15. A boy in the grade under me lent me two of their CDs to upload onto my itunes. I didn't like them very much at first because I thought they were too pop/punk for me and I was really into bands like Minus the Bear, My Morning Jacket, Sufjan Stevens, etc. and I thought The Matches would be like Blink182, Good Charlottle, etc. At first I only really liked their song Salty Eyes, a waltz with really creative lyrics and a kick ass music video.

Then I got became obsessed with the whole Decomposer Album. I remember telling my friend Zach "I like all of the songs on that album, there isn't one song I don't like! This has never happened before!" I then I got into E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals, then A Band in Hope, then any demos I could find. Now whenever I don't know what do listen to, I listen to The Matches because I always enjoy their music regardless of the mood I'm in. They even make long Bart rides bearable, even fun!

 

At the beginning of the summer I made a calendar of the shows I was going to go to. The Matches were playing the same night as a Dizzy Balloon show in Santa Cruz. I wanted to see The Matches more (cause I could Dizzy Balloon easily another time), but I put the Dizzy Balloon Show on my calendar because my friend's family has a beach house near Santa Cruz and I figured we could party there after the show. Then I found out Dizzy Balloon would be opening for the Matches with Judgment Day- Sweet, but also that The Matches would be breaking up and that this was their farewell show- not so sweet. I knew I had to go, I bought my ticket about two months ahead of time.

 

The Show was AMAZING. They played all my favorite songs of theirs and I danced, I sang along to every word I knew, I screamed, and even moshed a little. I pretty much embarrassed my friends, and myself but I had to! I was determined to have the best Matches experience possible! I almost forgot they were breaking up, I was having so much fun. But then Shawn sang Clouds Crash to the rest of the band. That’s when it really sunk in.

They literally had four or five encores, but finally ended with Sick Little Suicide. Goodbye Matches. I will miss you. I promise I will not stop listening to your music.

Red Rock Show

I had a show at the Red Rock Cafe in Mountain View August 15th. It was awesome, my favorite show so far! Mike AKA The Curious Quail opened up for me and did an amazing job! The Red Rock staff were super nice and helpful! AND the crowd was super awesome and fun! Best show ever! And you can download my set for free here!

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=31e4f4f873b7ab8b08f8df73f2072ed6e983afa19516e7c15be6ba49b5870170

Here are some pics from that show!

What I've been doing in the past 2 or so months

Hey! its been a couple months since I've posted. A lot has happened! I shall quickly fill you in!

Since my last post I have seen the bands 

-Dizzy Ballon (twice) -SO much fun to see live! just gotta dance around like a maniac!

-The Cataracs- wasn't too into them at the time, but I downloaded some tracks and now I'm hooked. I listen to them in the morning when I get ready. 

-The Sadies- really great musicians. cool outfits too.

-Jenny Lewis- I got to be right up in the front, AMAZING. INSPIRING. she was FANTASTIC.

-MC Lars-"Who's that?" "Who's that knocking!?" "It's Mr...." "Mr. Raven!" fun.

-The Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Karen O is a cartoon character, she just bounces all around!

-DJ AM- Fun times, lots of dancing involved.

-Metric-this was the second time I've seen them live, the first was better but they're pros. No complaints. 

-The Offspring-meh.

-Corpus Callosom-I had never heard of them before which bothered me cause I thought I knew about ALL the local music! They were creative, kind of cliche but they'll get better in time. I faith in the callosom. keep me updated.

-Azure Ray-A-mazing. It was so cool to see them in such a small space, a once in a lifetime opportunity. They blew me away.

-No Doubt- I was skeptical at first, had Gwen spent too much time being a hollaback girl? But she was amazing (and GORGEOUS) and the rest of the band was fantastic. I usually hate amphitheater-scale shows but this was worthwhile.  The whole show was very well put together, lots and lots of fun.

-Please do not Fight (again)-They are good people, good friends of mine, and a good band. These guys know where its at. 

-Westwood & Willow- Cool dude, good music! who could ask for anything more?

-Blood Sugar Sex Maching- The best cover band/ dance band/ party band you will ever see. mad love.

+other bands I can't remember right now that opened for other bands I saw

 

I played a shows at

-Brainwash Cafe and Laundromat w/ Zak Smith and Abbey Frenes- very fun show but was on fathers day so not too many people could come out.

- Barefoot Coffee Roasters -cool place to get coffee, kind of boring show. 

-The Dragon Theater w/ Please do not Fight and Westwood & Willow- really really fun, so many people came out! everyone had a ball! much better than a coffee shop show

at Barefoot Coffee Roasters

Please do not Fight at The Dragon Theater

Aidan from Blood Sugar Sex Machine playing at intermission!

Playing with Robbie Pruett.

at The Dragon Theater (bed time themed)

I started a t-shirt line

www.johannacantwin.blogspot.com

SO THATS WHATS NEW! maybe I'll post more soon, but we'll see! 

LOVE

JOHANNA!

Django PDNF show May 17

On Sunday got to see my friends Django James & The Midnight Squires and Please Do Not Fight play at Blake's. So fun! The Finish Ticket played first and were quite good! They look very young but have a very mature sound. I'm excited to see how they will grow as a band.  Jonathan Devoto from The Matches played an acoustic set. He played a lot of new songs and also some Matches classics. It was really nice to see someone who's in a band like The Matches pay tribute to his Bay Area roots and play a venue like Blake's. I believe I also spotted Matt Whalen, The Matches drummer in the audience too. I was SO EXCITED to see Django James & the Midnight Squires because my friends Scotty and Spike are in the band and I had never seen them before! They played a great set. Django told me his voice was sore but I couldn't tell. SUCH FUN! OY VEY! Django complimented my outfit and that made me very very happy because he's so stylish. What a nice guy. Pleas Do Not Fight played a solid set, I really enjoyed hearing their new songs. I'm really looking forward to playing with them later this summer. At the show I got to meet the members of Madders and Petros from one of my favorite local bands Dizzy Balloon for the first time. SUCH NICE PEOPLE. They all recognized me from myspace which was pretty bizarre to me. I really had no idea anyone pays any attention to myspace but its also nice and flattering to be recognized and all that. Pretty crazy. 

Today I toured The Dragon Theater, where I will be having a show August 1. It was SO COOL! This shows gonna be fantastic. I'm playing a handful of shows this summer but I'm most excited about this one!  

Hihi! Welcome to my little blog. I decided to create a blog to document my 

music making process, but to also other people's music, art and fashion that I like.

I don't know how much I will update this or if anyone will read it but we'll just see 

what happens! Who knows, it could be great!

anyway thanks for stumbling upon this!

love

Johanna