Author Archives: milkshakemusic

Snow Day

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It’s one of many days of snowy weather we’ve had here in Baltimore this winter, and while the power is still on I thought it would be a great time to catch up. Usually Milkshake puts on what we like to call a “Valentine’s Day Spectacular” around this time, but instead we had scheduled a video filming for this weekend. A few weeks ago the video shoot got bumped to early March, and we were left with a free weekend…full of snow! I guess things work out the way they should sometimes.

snow outside my window.

snow outside my window.

So this year, after 2013’s fantastic shows and the release of Got a Minute, we’ve decided to film new videos. Our first effort will be something we can shoot indoors, a song called “Girls Wanna Dance,” for which Tom had a brilliant idea: film it in a school gym, with the band in white tuxes and brightly colored shirts. It’ll be like a school dance circa the 70’s, complete with mirror ball and nerdy teachers. And the funny thing I’ve found in recruiting kids for the shoot is that it’s much like Mikel’s original idea behind the song: the girls wanna dance but the boys just stand around “with their hands in their pockets.” That is, it seems we have more girls than boys wanting to perform in the video! Can it be true that boys don’t wanna dance?! I guess we’ll see when we film in a few weeks.

With all this snow piling up, and new videos on my mind, I think I’ll do as Cord suggests and go across the street to borrow my neighbor’s little white dog. He’ll make a great Snowy for our song “Snowy”  and it’s a perfect day to go outside and play. Hmmm, maybe “Girls Wanna Dance” will be our second video of the year!

Be safe, have fun.  And look for a special Valentine’s Day post tomorrow.

xo,

Lisa

Remembering the warm months.

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Fall is in full force here in Baltimore, and the leaves are beautiful. Last night, it was cold enough for a fire, today Mikel and I brought in the first of what will be at least four Santas at malls and holiday events, and tomorrow holds a full day of raking. But at this moment, I want to post a quick look back at summer and the lovely warmer months when Milkshake played outdoors. The band had an incredible outdoors season, and Mikel and I enjoyed visiting many parks and libraries as well. Highlights include two shows at Strathmore Center for the Arts in Rockville, MD, an early evening show at the Levitt Pavilion in Westport, CT and a rainy, fun show at Kidstock in Long island, NY. But without a doubt, our hands-down favorite show was a late-summer stop at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA in August.

There’s something magical about the place. Yes, the gardens are beautiful, with so many special trails and secret nooks and big, flower-filled spaces. A few times in the past, we’ve played in the amphitheater fronted by fountains. It’s lovely, but we never feel as close to our friends in the audience as we like. So we were very happy to find that this year, Milkshake was playing in front of the lighted fountains on a low-to-the-ground stage. There, in front of the stage was a warm grassy area to dance and play, and that’s exactly what we did. The people working at Longwood obviously love what they do, and they always spoil us with a generous green room, incredible sound and stage crew, and they kindly ride our kids and family around in golf carts. This time, it was raining as we pulled into the gardens.  But by a half hour before showtime arrived, so did the sun, setting warmly over the gardens. From 7 – 8:15 PM, both band and audience were transported by the perfection of the place, and afterwards, everyone was treated to a lighted fountain show. I sat on a picnic blanket with my daughter, Jesse, eating some finger food, watching the fountain show and feeling absolutely, blissfully happy. Thank you, Longwood Gardens, for the most delightful last show of summer.

Check out the summer gallery posted here, all taken by our friend Bill Auth (Thanks, Bill!). Click on the pics to see them larger, in a photo stream.

Now it’s on to the holiday season. Hope to see you at one of the upcoming shows (MA, NY, MD etc.)…indoors, of course.

xo,

Lisa

Rumpus Room Fun at SiriusXM Radio’s Kids Place Live

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We’ve performed at the Rumpus Room at SiriusXM Radio four times, now, and every time it’s a memorable and joyously messy experience.  Live radio is usually an anything-can-happen idea in the first place, but radio in front of a live audience is something a bit more open to a find-a-balance stress, especially since our audience is so young and loves when we dance with them. Unfortunately, that’s hard to do connected to head phones and wired for recording, and kids wonder why we have big things covering our ears and don’t seem to play with them as much. It’s a fine line between doing a great performance for this audience, and trying to get a stellar recording. Inevitably, the star rating for each song will vary depending on the perspective. But what I love best besides the incredible SiriusXM recording studio and the warm, friendly people behind the Kids Place Channel is that we are encouraged to try new things we might not do live.

For this Rumpus Room Concert, we thought we’d be more radio-focused and created a couple skits purposely for the show. Nodding to the beginning of the new Got a Minute? CD, we started the show with a skit, inviting bandmates to come on down to the SiriusXM Studio. Each one had something else they were doing – Cord, for instance, was still cleaning up after a Super Bowl Party, trying to get bean dip out of the X Box, and Tom discovered he was just outside, standing on the corner of Florida Avenue in DC. Tom created a sarcastic question and answer with me we fondly titled Yep. In between these bits, we played mostly songs from the new CD, and it felt good. Got a Minute? is full of variety and I can’t wait to play the songs at our CD Release Party at Rams Head Live April 14. It was wonderful to see Program Director Mindy Thomas and Kenny Curtis again, and we hope SiriusXM Radio listeners enjoy the concert if they catch it on the channel. Our concert airs March 22, 23 and 24.  Check the radio website for exact times.  Special thanks to good friend and photographer Bill Auth for capturing the event in pictures.

Back To the Future?

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Years are passing, and our kids are growing up. The Milkshake project is fulfilling its original purpose, which was to write and record songs that reflected our kids’ journey through childhood. 12 years have passed, and Mikel and I have watched as our babies have turned into our almost teen friends. So it seemed fitting to now revisit our catalog of adult tunes as we release the fifth and probably final Milkshake CD. Mikel and I decided we’d see if the music we had written years before Milkshake, for our adult alt-rock band Love Riot, would still sound great. We gathered some of our favorite musicians and booked a show at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore. Thinking it would be especially fitting to have a date around Valentines Day, on February 10th at 2 PM we invited old and new friends to come hear us perform.

After a few rehearsals and many changes, we set up on the Creative Alliance stage, and decorated the theatre with candles, flowers, chocolates and Sweet Tarts.  I was excited about these old tunes, and to sing love songs again. Some of Milkshake’s songs are, as The Washington Post says “…more like love letters from a parent to child.”  But most are simply describing the world from a kid’s point of view, and singing love songs from an adult point of view would be refreshing. I added a favorite Donna Summers song, “On the Radio,” a new song called “Disaster,” and then even some Milkshake songs that work on an adult level while still being love songs (“Enemies,” “One of a Kind”), which of course, was our theme.

The band was a mix of old and new, featuring Love Riot violinist Willem Elsevier (who also played on the latest Milkshake CD), and Milkshake drummer Tom Moon, bassist Cord Neal and keyboardist Brian Simms. We added acoustic guitarist extraordinaire and good friend Howard Markman of Palookaville, and even my husband guitarist Miles Anderson, who joined us on a couple songs. To round it all out in almost retrospective then-now fashion, Mikel’s son Eric played drums on a song called “One of a Kind,” and my daughter Jesse performed her original song “One Day“. The show would be a perfect blend of Love Riot/Milkshake creativity.

New friends Bumper Jacksons opened with a short and incredibly captivating set, playing their blend of swing, jazz and Americana. We took the stage and it was as if we had simply taken a short break, and despite initial nerves, I was just as at home, tutu-less with my guitar, chatting and singing to an adult audience as if it were 12 years ago.  Yes, the band was different, but they brought a new intuition and musicality to the old songs, and capability to the set in general. I know it might sound totally ridiculous but love permeated the air in the room that afternoon. Old friends we hadn’t seen in years came out and it was very much like a gathering of good friends and good music. Everyone wanted to stay long after the show was over, and the good folks at the Creative Alliance had a hard time kicking people out.

Afterwards, we all said it was so much fun, we should do it again.  Perhaps we will 🙂

Special thanks to good friend and photographer Steve Parke for these pictures.  And big thanks to the Creative Alliance – what a great place for the arts!, and the musicians and friends who made the afternoon so memorable. xoxo

Radio, Radio!

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I’ve always been envious of DJs: What fun it must be to spin music and chat all day, taking the occasional phone call from all sorts of people. I love visiting radio stations, too, giving unpredictable answers to unexpected questions, talking about a new record or show my band is doing. I never know exactly how it’s going to go, as every DJ I meet is so very different.

Recently, I got a chance to both be a DJ and to talk with one within a couple weeks of each other, and both were exceptionally good times.

“Lisa the DJ” was asked to create an hour-long special for WXOJ’s Hilltown Family Variety Show, 103.5 FM in Northhampton, MA. My show would air on Saturday & Sunday, February 16th and 17th, right after Valentine’s Day, and since my theme was love and social consciousness, the timing was perfect. Little did I realize how much work it would involve. Gathering the right songs seemed the easy part. Putting it all together in a way that made sense, writing a script and making it all fit neatly into 58 minutes was no small task. Luckily, I had great helpers. My daughter Jesse would say yes or no to some songs – like when I asked, “Do you think kids of all ages would be okay with Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’?”

“NO, Mom!  That’ll scare them!  Especially the burning flesh part!  It’s horrific!” she said. I was impressed she knew the lyrics so well (not to mention the word “horrific”). In our family, racism isn’t tolerated, and the school she attends teaches her the same thing.

So I settled with “God Bless the Child” instead.

When I asked my husband if he thought Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” was a good social consciousness song, I received an emphatic “YES!”  That went into my playlist. Happily, Milkshake had some great ones to use, including our new anti-bullying song Let ’em Know and the look-outside-yourself gem More Than Me.

When it was time to put it all together and record the show, I headed down to our favorite studio, Invisible Sound, and handed everything to Dave Nachodsky. We started with my read of a little Danish story called Frog In Love.  It fit perfectly with my theme of love and social consciousness, since frog falls in love with a duck and, despite the naysayers, they manage to become a couple: “A frog and a duck.  Green and White.  Love knows no boundaries.” The read took all of 5 minutes, and then we worked outward from there.  Some songs had to be cut, like Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Night and Day,” and Pink’s “Glitter in the Air,” along with my story of watching Pink swinging above us as she sang at the Grammy Awards a couple years ago. It was breathtaking, but I didn’t have time to share it on the show. In the end, I think we put together a thought-provoking show for growing musical ears and minds. You can hear it when it’s been added to the podcast list: Hilltown Family Variety Show

Alex Cortright, Mikel & Lisa

Alex Cortright, Mikel & Lisa

On the other side of the radio mic, Mikel and I headed down to WRNR in Annapolis, MD to play a few love songs and chat about our Valentine Concert Matinee at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore.  We chatted with DJ Alex Cortright about the good old days of Love Riot, and our wonderful time with Milkshake. Alex was excited to spin an unreleased song we wrote and recorded toward the end of Love Riot, a song I wrote for my dad called One of These Days. To my surprise, it didn’t sound old or dated, and it reminded me of what a wonderful band Love Riot was.

The Valentine’s Concert wasn’t a Milkshake thing.  It was more a Love Riot thing, pumped up and expanded. We did some old songs from the Love Riot catalog, along with a couple new ones and some favorite covers. Look for pics and more about the show in my next post.

Holiday shows are the best!

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SMP30895We love the holidays.  Not just because we love giving and getting presents and celebrating the season, but we have two wonderful Milkshake Band shows that we’ve been doing for the past few years: Kennedy Krieger’s Festival of Trees and Midnite Noon at the Maryland Science Center.  Mikel and I also enjoy bringing in Santa to a few area malls.  These are early morning shows in mall open spaces and at the end of each performance, who arrives but the jolly old man himself and the look on kids’ faces is priceless.  I take extra glee in quizzing the mall Santas about the names of all the reindeer, which they inevitably can’t name, but this year I was happily surprised to find a Santa who knew them all, in fact, he went on tell us what he feeds them (hay)! I loved the Santa at Festival of Trees, who played right along with the audience as we tried to figure out which door he was behind in a mock game show we called “Where’s Santa?!”  Crazy fun. Both the band and duo shows are joyously messy extravaganzas of fake snow, candy canes, sleigh bells and holiday songs in between Milkshake classics.  This year, we added some songs off the new Got a Minute? CD, and of course we always delight in playing our original Christmas song “Christmas in Baltimore”.

The following pictures are from our annual Festival of Trees shows for Kennedy Krieger.  We’ve done these all-day shows for the past five years and we look forward to it so much now, it wouldn’t be the start of the season without this long but gratifying day.  Thanks to photographer friends Steve Parke, Bill Auth and Space Chapman for these great pictures!

Have a wonderful holiday season from all of us at Milkshake!  Our next and last show of the year is at the Maryland Science Center December 31st at 11 AM, where we’ll be bringing in the new year a little bit early.  Always great fun, and we hope to see you there!

Finally Finished!

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FINALCOVERcolored4x4It took more than just a minute, in fact a bit longer than we anticipated, but the new CD, Got a Minute?, is finally finished.  We have a lot of people to thank: All the Kickstarter friends who pledged to help us make the CD, artist/teacher Danamarie Hosler who did the cover and inside poster, Steve Parke for taking new band pics and putting the CD cover together, Bill Auth for documenting our time in the studio in pictures, Dave Nachodsky for co-producing and continuing to be our favorite studio dude, the kids who suggested song topics: Ethan & Sara Scally, Savannah Radz, Addy Velasquez and Luca Zamero, and of course the many fine musicians who joined us on some of these new songs. Previous posts have mentioned some of them: Adrian Cox played tuba on “Fish,” Willem Elsevier added violin and viola to “Starry, Starry Night,” and “Anyday Waltz,” Dave Hadley played incredible pedal steel on “Looking Out the Window,” Howard Markman added some great guitar playing to “Workin’ Kid Blues,” ” Seabreeze,” and “Anyday Waltz,”  Duncan Parke played upright bass on “Seabreeze,” Kyf Brewer sang on “Starry, Starry Night,” and “We Just Wanna Have Fun,” adding bagpipes to that last one, Cathy Fink added banjo and sang on “Snowy” and Marcy Marxer played mandolin and sang on “Snowy,” and added ukulele to “Tiptoe Thru the Tulips,” Alex Handy rapped on “More Than Me,” and Vance Thomas did the same on “Baltimore,” and sang in the kid chorus of “Workin’ Kid Blues” and “Hiccup,” Lauren Reilly sang on the kid chorus of “Workin’ Kid Blues,” and “Hiccup.”

And then there’s our kids: my daughter Jesse played and sang her original song “One Day,” and Mikel’s son Eric played drums on “One of a Kind,” and both of them sang for the kid chorus.  Remembering back to our first CD (Happy Songs, 2002), when Jesse’s baby gurgling was heard at the beginning of “When You Were Born,” this is full-circle in a way, as our kids have made guest appearances on our discs through the last 10 years, but now are so very grown-up.  I can’t help but feel the Milkshake project of reflecting our kids growth and adventures through childhood has been a worthwhile and beautiful one. In some ways Got a Minute? is almost a retrospective of this because of the combination of simple songs we wrote for PBS KIDS in 2006, and the newer, more musically and thematically complex songs, both found on this new disc.  I look back fondly over the 10 years doing this project, and each CD takes me back to that certain place and time.  We learned how to count with “Fingers & Toes” (Happy Songs, 2002), signed and sang our ABC’s with “ABC of Me” (Bottle of Sunshine, 2004), played and pretended with “Superhero” (Play! 2007), learned about friendship with “Enemies” (Great Day, 2009) and found strength in ourselves in “Let ‘Em Know”and “More Than Me” (Got a Minute? 2013).

Got a Minute? will be released worldwide March 26, 2013, and we’re excited to share this new disc with you.  Advance copies will be available via our website beginning in January, and we’ll be having an official CD Release Party at Rams Head Live in Baltimore Sunday, April 14.  More on that later 🙂

Summer In Pictures

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Milkshake had a lovely summer, mostly spent in the studio recording Got a Minute?, our new CD set for release early 2013.  When we did get out for concerts, some show days were quite hot, and I will never forget a particular show in Rockville, MD July 17th, when it was 104 degrees in the shade, and we were not.  Even the astroturf the audience was spread upon had to be close to melting point.  The Milkshake Trio will also fondly remember an August trip to Kalamazoo, MI, playing in Branson Park for the end-of-summer reading celebration concert for the good folks at the Kalamazoo Public Library.  Everyone was especially kind and we had to admit we “Geek Our Library!” after that.  Hope your summer was full of music and fun.

Sing in Joyous Revelry

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Singing on “We Just Wanna Have Fun”

It was background vocal time on Sunday July 15. The whole band came back to the studio to do one of the things that I think sets Milkshake apart: harmony vocals.  Everyone in the band sings (Brian, Tom, Shepp and Cord all sing or share lead vocals in other bands), but getting everyone singing in a creative, seamless harmonious way is another thing.  Still it’s something Cord, Brian and Shepp do especially well together, and listening to them throw harmony ideas around like they toss jokes back and forth is a crazy, exhausting, joyous experience. On “We Just Wanna Have Fun,” a song inspired by the raucous Irish tunes from our Barleyjuice friends, everyone crowded into the vocal booth and let loose. The guys sung and shouted and laughed through eight vocal tracks, creating an aural mayhem not heard since, oh, the last time we drove in a van for four hours en route to a gig in Arkansas. The song is somewhat autobiographical, as our raison d’être has always been to have fun making music together.

Cord & Brian sing on “Looking Out the Window”

On “All the Girls Wanna Dance,” Shepp sang an incredibly low vocal line while Cord added a harmony in the style of “Jive Talking” and together, they take the song to a better and more interesting place.  “Workin’ Kid Blues” finds Cord channeling Johnny Cash, while Brian added an amazing counter-point to my vocal on the title track. Both Cord and Brian added country-tinged harmonies to “Looking Out the Window.” Everyone layered harmonies on “Rainbow.”  Lots of laughs, lots of great singing; all in all, in a great time for everyone.

Photo by good friend Bill Auth.