"Easy-Listening" Music

Why is some easy-listening music so hard for me to listen to? My wife and I were sitting in a movie theater waiting for the movie to begin. The music playing over the sound system was a style I've heard referred to as easy-listening. It was a bit painful for me to hear and I was doing my best not to feel tortured by it. Some might find it hard to understand how someone can be so tormented by what might seem like the most non-offensive style of music a theater can pick for their "general" audience. Okay, maybe tormented is a bit too strong a word. How about pained? Hearing is one of our five senses; the others being sight, touch, taste and smell.

So I'll equate it to this: Imagine sitting in a theater and there's a smell throughout the room...a pretty bad smell, but not bad enough for your date or anyone else around you to mind. It might be as a result of the guy in front of you having had a big hangin' bag of chicharonés (fried pig skins) with hot sauce, two hard-boiled eggs and a six-pack of Heineken before arriving to the theater. Maybe it's a rotting, dead animal inside the air-conditioning vent. Who knows? At any rate, you know the smell will magically disappear once the movie starts, so you stick it out knowing that when the movie starts, you'll hear the soundscapes of a film score from usually a brilliant film composer like Thomas Newman, George Fenton, James Newton Howard and Mark Isham to name a few.

April 24 - Light a Candle

APRIL 24: Please visit http://candle.direct.am (site has been down) and light a candle for the 1.5 million victims of Armenian Genocide. April 24th is a day when Armenians all over the world will commemorate this horrible tragedy because it was on that day in 1915 when 300 Armenian leaders, writers, thinkers and professionals in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were rounded up, deported and killed. Pretty sick, huh? Also on that day in Constantinople, 5,000 of the poorest Armenians were butchered in the streets and in their homes.

Vegas Baby!

I just got back yesterday from a short trip to Las Vegas. A short trip to Vegas is always the best way to see this incredibly over-stimulating mecca of decadence. A lengthy stay there could cause your brain to explode from all the lights, colors and noise, and it could also make your wallet shrivel up like that snail on the sidewalk who crawled out of it's shell during the April rains and is baking on the sidewalk under a scorching August sun! But that didn't happen to me (this time). Whew! I've learned to pace myself there. Cranberry-vodka and video poker were my vices of choice, and I did well enough to almost pay for the entire trip.

I went there to meet with people at the NAB convention which could lead to some work composing music. It was a convention for broadcasters (and anyone/anything that had to do with broadcasting be it audio or video) - "The World's Largest Electronic Media Show." There were an extra 200,000 people in town for this thing! It was professionally run with booths that were complete with frozen mai-tai and margarita machines, hula dancers, open bars, and the "nurse" decked out in a hospital-issue miniskirt and high heels as she was handing out brochures for...hmm...funny...I dont' remember the name of the company, but I do know that these people know how to have a good time!

A rough day at the convention:


Meet Jorge, my assigned bodyguard for the trip (nipple rings not shown). My wife's in the backseat feeling pretty safe as you can see:


The view from my room at night (click for larger pic):

DLP (Doug Lunn Project)

I've been working with Doug Lunn on his recording project over the last few days - working title "DLP." Doug is the brilliant bassist that you can here on my last two CDs. He began writing the music and recording for his project at a friend's studio, then moved to record at another friend's place and is now working in my studio. I'm not too sure what happened along the way for Doug to end up at my place, but after seeing the photo of him below at a previous recording session with guitar in hand, you can be sure that I'll be on my best behavior and will do exactly what he says. Some amazing musicians are performing on this album, and I can tell you that it's some of the most liberating and interesting music I've heard in a long time.

Gallery Theater Concert - Hollywood, CA

Armen Chakmakian Blog

After arriving for our equipment load-in @ 3pm, I found myself in what could've been a very ugly situation and something that is referred to as "typical band shit." I ring the backstage buzzer and while waiting for someone to open the stage door, I look at Gilbert (one of the percussionists) and say, "Watch, this be one of those times where no one's here to let us in, and they won't get here until 5pm." Well, I was close. There was a casting call going on the same stage until 5:30. This is when I had to get a hold of myself and think clearly because I felt my blood boiling and the smoke was about to shoot out of my ears! ...Long story short, I got them to move the casting into the lobby of the theater and started loading in at 3:30. We played two good sets to about 150 people...pretty good for a Sunday evening. The band kicked ass and received a standing ovation. We would've come out for an encore had the promoter not immediately come onto the stage, grabbed the mic and started thanking people for coming. Jesus...they paid $30 bucks to get in. They deserved an encore. Sorry folks.

We did have a blast playing this venue and the audience was wonderful, except for the lady who was complaining loudly to her husband (the poor bastard!) about it being cold in the theater. Any normal person would've been embarrased. We were about to play September, and I heard some hag yapping and yapping and yapping until finally someone told her to be quiet. Think she listened? Nope. Doug's playing a very quiet intro on his bass, and she just kept going and going. You know that sound when you try and start your car and the engine won't turn over? Yammer-yammer-yammer-yammer. Dear god!! So I finally gave her a stare, put my finger to my lips and shhh'd her too (I've never shhh'd an audience member). The idiot kept talking! Had this been a rock concert I would've dove into the audience, strangled her (can you say 'anger management'?), and then been on the news every day for the next month and watched my album sales sky rocket! Maybe next time.

We'll definitely be playing this cool room again, and play for such a wonderful audience (minus the psycho lady)!

Backstage:

Rehearsal Cam

Armen Chakmakian Blog

I was getting ready to rehearse my band for my concert tomorrow at the Gallery Theater in Barnsdall Art Park, Hollywood. I called up a close friend who couldn't make it the show. He's very busy running Honey Bear Ranch up in Kern County, CA. So I turned on my web cam and let him and his wife watch us rehearse in my living room. No sound, but I think they got a kick out of it. The band thought it was pretty cool too...might start doing it more often and announcing it on my website. Live rehearsals from Armen's livinging room! Gotta love that!