We played on Saturday at Michelle's store- Blackbird Attic Boutique in Beacon, NY. The photos above were taken by Jay Dymond.
You can be a fan of Blackbird Attic on facebook here.
She posted some videos of us playing, and also a video of a little impromptu fashion show that we had after the show.

Our crowd was mostly our friends (THANKS!) but a few passerbys stopped in. Overall, I realized how detrimental it was to my confidence level to have not played in so long! I usually hide any butterflies pretty well, but I was beyond nervous for this show. I'm glad we got the ball rolling though- hopefully we will be playing as much as possible this summer, especially since it turns out that both our bassist and drummer are sticking around NY!

So much for the shorts and tank tops of last week... it's miserable and dreary out.

Our grandpa, Papa Dom, passed away last week. The funeral was Saturday. The show at Michelle's store had to be cancelled, although it is rescheduled for this Saturday instead, at 6pm.

Dominic Anthony De Leo, a devoted husband, loving father and veteran of World War II, passed away on Tuesday, May 4, at the age of 86. He was surrounded by his beloved wife, Dorothy, and his six adoring children. Dominic was born in Brooklyn on December 30, 1923, to Antoinette and Santo De Leo. He had four siblings: Phyllis, Anna, Frank and Angelo. He graduated from New Utrecht High School at 16 and attended St. John's University. In 1942, on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, he joined the Navy and was trained as a radioman. Twice a ship he was assigned to was torpedoed and sunk. As the ship's chief communications officer, he stayed on the sinking ship longer than anyone else to send Mayday signals. He was honorably discharged in 1942 and served in the Reserves until 1962. He graduated from NYU School of Foreign Trade, and he studied to be a chiropractor. Dominic married the love of his life, Dorothy Terranova. He met Dorothy at a VJ Day block party after calling out, "Who wants to kiss a sailor." Violet Terranova, his future mother in-law, stepped forward. She introduced Dom to Dorothy, and Dom declared she was the one he would marry. And they did in 1947. They started a family and in 1962 moved to Pearl River, where they raised Diane, Maryann, Dominic, David, Dorothea and Daniel. A son born in 1954 only survived two days. He spent 31 years as a foreman with the New York Sanitation Department. He worked for D.C. Andrews, Dyson Shipping Company, Sheffield Dairy, was a licensed realtor and notary republic. Dominic rooted for his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers and was overjoyed when they won the World Series. He had a curious, brilliant mind and enjoyed organic gardening, gadgets, technology, photography and was a champion handball player. He was an avid reader and did two crossword puzzles in pen every morning. His favorite books were the Bible and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. He was a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus (serving as financial secretary), the American Legion, the VFW, the Christian Family Movement (CFM), and St. Margaret's in Pearl River. He was a Democratic Party committeeman. Dominic loved life, lived passionately and by example encouraged his children to do the same. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy, his daughters Diane, Maryann and Dorothea, and his sons Dominic, David and Daniel, his daughter in laws, Carolyn Bogart De Leo, of Jackson, MS, LindaLee Colavito De Leo of Balmville, NY, and Joanna Weiss of Milton, MA, and 12 grandchildren, Michael, Jeremy, Christopher, Lena, Dante, Lara, Dean, Kristyn, Jenni, Ethan, Ava and Jesse and three great grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Anna, and brother, Angelo. Visitation will be held Thursday, May 6, 7-9 p.m. and Friday, May 7, 3-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m., at Wyman-Fisher Funeral Home in Pearl River, NY. There will be a funeral mass held at St. Margaret's Catholic Church in Pearl River on Saturday, May 8 at 9:30 a.m. Interment will take place following the mass at Frederick Loeschser Veterans Cemetery in New Hempstead, NY. Donations in his honor can be made to EFFORTS.com, a non-profit organization for people with COPD. WYMAN-FISHER FUNERAL HOME INC. 100 Franklin Ave. Pearl River, NY 10965 845-735-2161

We have a show coming up, our first in a while, so we spent the morning and early afternoon practicing outside on our porch. It's beautiful out today! Our thermometer says its 100 degrees, but I'm going to disagree. It's probably around 80. A few bicyclists turned around probably wondering what in the world sort of noise was coming from our house, and we egotistically hoped that we could gather a crowd on our front lawn. I think the breeze carried our sound, but probably not in a good way.

The show is an acoustic set up with our new PA system that we got for Christmas (and have yet to use in public!) at my friend's new boutique in Beacon. She made us a pretty cute flyer, so I think I'm going to put some up around Newburgh and maybe in New Paltz. Her goal is to reconstruct the consignment shop so that it specializes in vintage, retro, and handmade goods and has both new and old items. It's going to be a great shop once it gets going.

Annnnd we're back

Well I never did return "tomorrow" to continue writing about how successful our recording was going... and that may be because it was once again just a tease. The guy who was recording us seemingly dropped off the face of the planet- thankfully before we had actually paid him. I don't know, everyone seems so excited to start... why can't they finish?

Good thing is, we've finally got it down. Why we didn't record with Ben Goldstein to begin with is beyond me. (HEY BEN!) We've been taking our time and having a lot of fun in our sessions. And although it is a year later, and we still have not finished an album, we are well on our way. (For real, this time).

Our 6 song E.P. is sounding great so far. Our main vocals were finished up today, and now its just harmonies and extra instruments until we can hand it over to Ben to mix and finish up. Hopefully by Fall 2010...?????

Don't give up on us! We're working on it. Really.

Although we started about 3 hours later than our optimistic estimations, the first day of Dandy Lions in the studio (sequel to Dandy Lions in the Gravitron) was a success! We tracked four songs, including one of our earliest which we haven't been playing much lately.  Tomorrow we're hoping to get 2 or 3 more and by the end of May we should have an actual real-life album. (It's only been... a year and a half?)

We never did end up with a horn section, but we've rounded up a nice group of singers to belt out some gang vocals. 

More tomorrow... 

That a way...

The black and white photos that momma lion took came back from rite aid the other day. Unfortunately, we had to ask for a new CD (which has yet to arrive) because the one they gave us includes only the... negative images... sort of??? It turns us into ghostly figures in a ghostly environment?? Anyway, here are some for show & tell, until we either get the actual photos on a CD or figure out how to use our old scanner.





Tomorrow we play at That-a-way Cafe on Greenwich Ave in Greenwich CT- We're on at 9pm and we're just doing a short acoustic set, INCLUDING a Velvet Underground cover in preparation for Sam Schachter's awesome cover band show next week, and a brand new song that we are still working on but want to test on an audience... or something.

I've got to get Dante to write some of these.


PS I really need help with uploading photos to the blog- I made them much smaller and still they cut off nearly a third of the photo! They show up whole in my "posting" so what's wrong with my premade-by-blogspot's layout?? At least I managed to change them so that they weren't all just of me ...

For a moment, we were merely playing at the Sidewalk (har har)

Friday night's show at our favorite NY venue, Sidewalk Cafe, went fantastically even despite forgetting the words to one of our oldest songs. (Laughing throughout the entire second verse wasn't so bad though- underwear is funny?) Cat hand-colored business cards with our name, myspace, and e-mail and handed them out at the show. They look super!
The general consensus was that the sound was incredible in the middle and back of the venue, and kind of shoddy in the front. (So although we love you to be as close as possible, perhaps next time you should give us some space! Dang.) However, the sound guy did an awesome job at finding a good balance between Dante's voice and mine, which is always exciting.
The other general consensus was that Zak- our bassist- has never looked happier to play with us. His comfort with the drummer- Ben, who learned 8 songs in 2 practices for this show!- was amazing, and he really was entertaining to watch (as I learned later from the videos). Our Papa Sam commented on his playing, saying he really enjoyed "that kid in the back" and we should probably "check his beard for dope". Of course, us lions know that you don't need drugs to feel euphoric. (I would go on about just needing love and good music, but obviously I'm already over my corny-ness limit).
Hee-Young, who performed before us, sang beautifully as usual, although we were still too shy to sing along to her cover of "Toxic". We did, however, find enough inspiration to come home and look up the video for "Lucky," which is obviously Britney Spear's best song.

She is so lucky, but why does she cry?
If there is nothing... missing in her life!
Why do tears come at night??

(yeah yeah uh uh uh)