Benefit Show For Autism Empowerment

Believe it or not, Second Player Score is occasionally a band! And we will attempt to prove it by playing our first show since last November (man, does time fly) at Ole's Outpost in beautiful east Vancouver, WA this Saturday.

We'll be opening the night at 6:30pm, followed by our friends Flying Whammy. And best of all, the event is a benefit for Autism Empowerment!

So if you're in the area, head on down to 11202 NE Fourth Plain Blvd to enjoy some great beer and rocking tunes while supporting an amazing cause. Hope to see you there!

Show Recap

We (Second Player Score, that is) had a great time playing our first show in (checks notes) over a year?? at Ole's Outpost, Loowit Brewing's second location this past Saturday.

Big thanks to Tom and everyone at Loowit for inviting us to be part of the festivities, and also to our friends who came out! It was a little different from most of our shows in that we were playing with our garage setup, with Kyle on his electric drum kit and me and Dan on our smaller practice amps. But it was still a lot of fun, and actually sounded better to my ears than a number of other shows I've played in the past - I could hear everything, especially my own guitar (people in the crowd kept telling me to turn the guitar UP, which, to a guitar player, is like a "Whaaat? Seriously? You're giving me free beer?*" kind of situation).

* And speaking of free beer, the bands had open tabs at the bar, which was a total chef's kiss situation seeing as how Loowit beer is so darn good

For posterity's sake, here's the set list from the evening, which consisted mainly of SPS "standards" (i.e., songs that we remembered better than others):

Liberty's End

Daily Grind

Ragged Town

Winner Takes It All

Demon's Kiss

Game On

Falling Forever

Eye of the Needle

Comets

And as a bonus, we started around 8pm, played until 9pm (which is when most bar shows begin), and got home at an hour that is much more compatible with my cat-affected sleep schedule.

Hopefully it won't be another year before we play again!**

** It won't be. We're scheduled to perform at Loowit's original downtown Vancouver location in a few months for an exciting special event. More details on that to come!

SPS @ Ole's Outpost

A reminder, in case you needed it (we kind of did): Second Player Score, in addition to being a multimedia production team, is also - gasp - a band!

Yes, after literally months of not picking up our instruments due to being busy with Hold My Beer, we are once again going to be cranking out some tunes. And what better occasion to dust off the cobwebs than the grand opening of Ole's Outpost, Loowit Brewery's second location!

If you're in the Vancouver area, check it out this Saturday, August 24th, starting at 6pm (we'll be going on at around 8pm, but come early for the beer, food and raffle). Ole's Outpost is located at 11202 Fourth Plain Blvd, Vancouver WA 98662. Hope to see you there!

Stuck In The Daily Grind

Hey, so remember this post from six weeks ago where I mentioned that my band was making a video for our song "Daily Grind?" And I posted a picture from the set where there was a green screen behind a desk? Well, whether you remember or not, here is the completed video!

In preparation for our work on Hold My Beer, we scripted, storyboarded, directed, and edited this all on our own (with an assist from my son Torin). It was a lot of fun to make. Here is some behind-the-scenes trivia about it:

- The opening wake-up shot of me was filmed in my bedroom with my actual alarm clock that I don't use, because I'm usually woken up by cats. Kyle's shot was filmed on my couch, while Dan filmed his shot in his room at home.

- All the "getting dressed" shots were filmed in my house. Yes, that's my 20-sided die mug (a present from Dan) and my Portland Trail Blazers miniature basket.

- We considered several different options for the "sitting in traffic" shots, like actually sitting in traffic, or filming in a garage somewhere with giant screens behind our cars, but when we realized a tight shot of us in the driver's seats would be sufficient, we just did it in my driveway.

- The offices are all green screen images, in case you haven't already guessed.

- Torin shot most of the "playing in the garage" scene.

Check it out!

4-D Is Here!

Now that every track on Second Player Score's latest release 4-D has been launched, it's time to reveal the official entire album, complete with cover art!

It features the main characters of the underlying story, Wynn and their fourth-dimensional companion Gogo. As for the story itself, some of the details have changed over time, but the main plot (inspired by things like Pokemon and Avatar: The Last Airbender) is essentially the same: four kids become involved in a high-stakes scavenger hunt to retrieve powerful objects from the fourth spatial dimension in order to make their dreams come true... but, of course, nothing is as it seems.

The tie-in novella that was originally planned has been put on the shelf for now, but the associated card game is still in production. And we also have concepts and ideas for a possible TV show adaptation. In the meantime, you can check out the rest of the album's artwork and order a CD copy of it (do people still listen to CDs? Of course they do!) at this link.

More New Music Tomorrow: Divide and Conquer

If you've been following this blog for the past five weeks, you know that my band and multimedia production team Second Player Score has been dropping a new track off our latest album 4-D every Friday. The first four were from the "Summer Suite" (4-D is divided into four seasonal suites), while the next four, which began last week, are from the "Spring Suite" (graphic below).

Tomorrow's new song is "Divide and Conquer," which is a song about, well, dividing and conquering. You see, 4-D, like all our albums, tells a complete story while still having lyrics that are relatable to everyday life, and "Divide and Conquer" is told from the Big Bad's point of view near the beginning of the final act right before the climactic fight with the heroes. This song is probably the album's least relatable one (unless you are an evil supervillain), but it's still a rocking, energetic track that is perfect for a good shout-along (fun fact: it used to be slower tempo-wise and didn't really work until our drummer Kyle, inspired by an Offspring song, suggested that we play it a lot faster). Or, I don't know, maybe you can relate to it, read the lyrics and judge for yourself:

And now that we're at the final battle

They come together like herding cattle

Since when they gather, they drive you bonkers

You'd so much rather divide and conquer

Hey!

Alone you know they won't last much longer

And joining forces will make 'em stronger

To kick their britches from here to Yonkers

You're gonna have to divide and conquer

Hey!

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!

Things Are Happening

Exciting times!

First of all, remember the film project tentatively titled Hold My Beer? In the last status update post about it back in April, I mentioned that I was working on an application for a grant from the Vancouver Culture, Arts and Heritage Commission that would help fund the project. Well, on Tuesday, it was announced that the grant has been awarded! (it's going to Autism Empowerment, who is coproducing the film with my band/multimedia production team Second Player Score). So now, we can move full speed ahead, which means you'll be seeing a lot more status update posts. In the meantime, Second Player Score has been developing our filmmaking chops by creating a music video for "Daily Grind," the song mentioned in this previous post (the picture above shows one of the sets of the video, complete with green screen).

Second, the secret recording project that I talked about in this post has been unveiled! It's called "Welcome to Punky's MixTape," and it's the new theme song for the internet variety show "Punky's MixTape" on Twitch. We've been good friends with the show and its host/creator, Punky Bruiser, for a number of years now (you may recall us having a virtual launch party on the show back in February 2021, and also playing Dungeons & Dragons as a fundraiser for Autism Empowerment a month after that), and we are honored to now be the official soundtrack for their opening credits. You can check out the song and its awesome accompanying footage on YouTube at this link, and be sure to tune in to Punky's Mixtape every Wednesday on Twitch at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern.

And finally, tomorrow another track off of Second Player Score's new album 4-D will be released! It's from the album's Spring Suite, it's called "Fourth Quarter Comeback," and it's about...well, it's basically about what it says in the title. Also, it features guest backing vocals from Dan's wife Molly and Kyle's daughter Fallon. We wrote it with the idea that it would make a good anthem for high school football games across the country. Here are the lyrics:

Let's see those rally caps go on

We'll seize this chance before it's gone

Stay calm I know we got this now

It's not too late to show them how

We're never giving up

We're never giving in

We're never gonna stop

Not until the end

You know there's still a lot of time

And fortune can turn on a dime

It isn't over 'til it's done

And then we'll see just who has won

We're never giving up

We're never giving in

We're never gonna stop

Not until the end

Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!

So, I Have Thoughts About The New Miraculous Ladybug Movie

As long-time readers of this blog may know, I am a fan of the French children's animated series Miraculous Ladybug (officially, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir). Heck, it was the reason I signed up for Netflix in the first place. I was originally turned on to it by my youngest back in 2016, but while they've outgrown it, I am still watching it to this day, since I am a fifty-something-year-old with the heart, soul, and mind of a fifteen-year-old er, I mean, who is a kid's fiction writer that needs to keep up with the latest marketplace trends.

In case you're not familiar with it, here's a brief description: it's a superhero show that is like a cross between Sailor Moon and Spider-Man where the two leads, Ladybug and Cat Noir, are high school students by day and secret identity superheroes by...well, still mostly day, and they have huge crushes on each other. Only, she likes him when they're regular kids, he likes her when they're in costume, and neither knows each other's identities even though it's totally obvious to us, the viewers (the show makes some in-universe explanations about how the costume distorts other people's perceptions of you). It mostly follows a monster-of-the-week format and is currently in its fifth season. For some reason that I'm sure has to do with complicated licensing and contractual rigamarole but ends up feeling like the film studio equivalent of a coparenting arrangement, Disney+ has all five seasons plus some bonus material, while Netflix has seasons one through three plus a newly-released full-length movie that is based on the show and is the subject of this post.

WARNING: Spoilers to follow!

Okay, so I watched the movie and...well, I have thoughts. Like:

- Why is it billed as "the long-awaited origin story"? The show has already devoted a lot of time to telling the origin story of its heroes. Also, I'm not sure I care for the movie's version of the origin story. In the show, Marinette (Ladybug) originally dislikes Adrien (Cat Noir), thinking that he's just a snobby rich kid, but ends up falling for him after Adrien proves to instead be a nice guy (if I recall correctly, he lends her his umbrella). In the movie, she basically just seems to be smitten right off the bat by his good looks. I get that you don't have as much time in a movie to flesh these things out, but to me it makes Marinette a shallower version of herself.

- Along those lines, I found Movie Marinette to be much more annoying than Show Marinette. I don't know about you, but I thought she was whiny and insecure (yes, Show Marinette is like that once in a while, but aren't we all? Movie Marinette was kind of the distilled essence of that). And wasn't it weird that Gabriel (Adrien's dad and also the Big Bad, Hawk Moth) was a hippie when he was young? The whole thing was like an alternate universe version of the Ladybug world where people randomly break out into song - oh right, I forgot to mention, it's a musical. Which also threw me off, because Marinette's singing voice sounds so much different from her speaking voice.

- I got the impression that the whole "watermelon" joke (as in, Ladybug's red costume with the black spots makes her look like a watermelon) was derived from some fan comments that the writers decided to incorporate into the script in a meta, self-deprecating kind of way.

- The movie, since it was a self-contained, entire arc, ended up resolving the main conflict of the show, which is basically derived from the fact that Marinette, Adrien, and Gabriel didn't know each other's secret identities. As the credits rolled, I wondered - now that the movie has done the "Big Reveal," how is the show going to top it?

- I did like the use of the Wilhelm Scream.

Anyway, I will say that I was entertained, and am still a fan of the franchise in general. And the fact that I have these thoughts only means that I care. I will simply think of the movie as the aforementioned alternate universe version (the show does have time travel, so it would make sense) while I continue to enjoy catching up with Season Five (Disney+ did not alert me to the fact that it had come out last fall).

On another subject, tomorrow will bring the release of another new track off Second Player Score's new album, 4-D! This one is called "Daily Grind," whose title basically says it all. Here are the lyrics:

The time goes flying by so why am I not having any fun?

'Cause when I get up, I'm so fed up I just want it to be done

Don't wanna die, don't wanna live, I'm sick of giving all I've got but fooling no one

This can't be all there is, it's like I'm free but I'm still in a prison

I'm gonna lose my mind, can't take it any more

Stuck in the daily grind, I'm tired and I'm bored

I've got to find some kind of brand-new line before I break down

I'm like a player in a game that's all the same and much too real

Go through the motions, no emotions, now I'm way too numb to feel

Don't wanna live, don't wanna die, I'm simply trying to survive through this ordeal

I know my place in the rat race is right here on the hamster wheel

I'm gonna lose my mind, can't take it any more

Stuck in the daily grind, I'm tired and I'm bored

I've got to find some kind of brand-new line so I can break out

Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!

More New Music Tomorrow: Challenge Accepted

Continuing with my band Second Player Score's once-a-week new music drops, tomorrow will see the debut of "Challenge Accepted," the second track from the Summer Suite and the 4-D album as a whole.

The song is an upbeat, no-frills pop-punk tune in the vein of Green Day and other similar bands about, well, accepting challenges. It's the sunny, optimistic beginning to the story behind the album (before things start to go sideways, as they always do). Of course, you could always interpret it independently from the story and just apply its positive message to your own life circumstances. Here are the lyrics:

Minding my own business when today you came along

Offering an opportunity to prove the doubters wrong

You said, "You don't have to do it," but I said, "Oh, I insist"

Because that's the kind of challenge that I just cannot resist

Bring it on

People always have their doubts, but they don't bother me

When they say that something can't be done, I tend to disagree

I don't look at obstacles and get discouraged or depressed

I just find a way to persevere and keep on doing my best

Bring it on

Living in the moment while pursuing some big dream

That I thought might be impossible or so it may have seemed

But the harder something is, the more I want to make it real

You may think I'm being stubborn, but, well, that's just how I feel

Bring it on!

Check it out on all the usual streaming platforms!

Band Update: Ridgewalker Brewing and New Music

This past Sunday, the guys in Second Player Score and I had a great time hanging out with our good friend and SPS super-fan Jeff Alberghini at Ridgewalker Brewing in Forest Grove, OR.

Ridgewalker (discovered by drummer Kyle) is just our kind of place, with pop/nerd-culture decor and themed beers, including the India Pale Jones and the Last Cascade IPA and the Predator-inspired If It Brews, We Can Drink It! lager. About an hour drive from Vancouver, WA, we highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're into the same kind of stuff as us.

Also, starting tomorrow Friday 8/4, we will be dropping a new track off our finally-finished-after-four-years fourth album, 4-D, every Friday for the next eight weeks, at which point the album will be officially released in its entirety. First up will be the lead track from both the Summer Suite and the album as a whole, something appropriately titled "Dimension No. 4." It's an especially nerdy song that serves to sort-of-explain the whole fourth spatial dimension concept (including references to obscure historical figures like Charles Howard Hinton and Ambrose Bierce) and will also be the introductory theme song to the 4-D animated series if when it gets produced. Check it out on all the usual music streaming platforms!

Secret Recording Project!

Fresh off Second Player Score's first show at Dante's, we went into the studio - the new digs of our pal Chris Hahn from Zomie Media and Old Cross, to be specific - to work on a special recording project unrelated to our upcoming release, 4-D.

What kind of special recording project, you ask? Well, like the title of the blog post says, it's a secret! You'll just have to wait until it debuts next month, at time and place to be announced. In the meantime, enjoy these photos:

(Editor's note: enterprising readers might be able to make educated guesses about the nature of the project by examining these pictures closely)

Show Recap

Had a ton of fun performing with my band Second Player Score at Dante's in Portland last Saturday! It was my second time playing there (first time was with a previous band) and first time with SPS.

(photo by Lexi Winkler)

Despite what people say about rock 'n' roll and Murphy's Law, the whole evening went off in incredibly smooth fashion, from the parking to the load-in to the sound to the schedule and everything in between*. Everyone involved was super cool and all the bands rocked.

Much mahalos to the following: Dante's, of course, including staff and soundman; Kingbanana Presents; Craig James & The Hawthorns; Still Golden; All Hype; and everyone who came to see the show (some of whom apparently were just walk-ins from off the street)!

* With the small exception of almost losing my voice in the middle of our set. At one point I was wondering what we could play in place of our last song, which is a bit vocally taxing. Fortunately I bounced back in time. Note to self: don't eat - especially pizza - right before playing. You should know this by now!

Show Announcement!

Yes, despite all the other things we do, Second Player Score is still a band. We even play live every once in a while!

And the next time we will do so is in a little over four weeks, at the brand new incarnation of Twilight Cafe & Bar in Portland, OR. We'll be a part of a killer lineup that includes All Hype, Still Golden, and the headliners Craig James & The Hawthorns who will be performing an entire set of Blink 182 covers (featuring our own Daniel Downs on guitar).

So mark your calendars for Saturday, June 24th, and get your tickets pre-sale for only $10 at this link. Hope to see you there!

No Time To Blog

Partly because of Tears of the Kingdom, yes, but also:

- Mixes of the remaining tracks for 4-D are back! So, as always, they need to be listened to over and over again several times in different conditions (open air, car, headphones) in order to make them the best they can possibly be.

- Cover art for Joel Suzuki, Volume Seven is done! So now, proofs and eBook conversions need to be ordered, final info forms need to be filled out, and preparations for a launch party need to begin.

- Preproduction for Hold My Beer continues, with grant applications, cast searches, and general film school-style-learning all going on simultaneously.

Busy, but exciting times! (And big thanks to my youngest who told me that walking on the pipe to reach one of the shrines in Great Sky Island is not the way to do it, saving me hours of stress and heartbreak.)

Album Four Status Update

Well, we have FINALLY finished all the tracking for every song on Second Player Score's fourth album, Four-D. As one would say in Japanese, yatta! ("Yay!") And also, yokatta ("Thank goodness").

Over the last couple of days, we recorded the four songs that make up the album's "Summer Suite," including "Dimension No. 4," "Challenge Accepted," "Daily Grind," and "This Won't Be So Easy After All" (the title of that last one could very well apply to the recording of this album, which turned out to be a FOUR-year process - there's that number again).

So hopefully we are still on track for a summer of 2023 release. The accompanying card game that I've mentioned in previous posts is probably back on the shelf for now as we have other big projects going on at the moment, but it will see the light of day eventually, I swear.

In the meantime, stay tuned for release date announcements, cover reveals, etc.!

New Second Player Score Website

I'm happy to announce that my band Second Player Score has completed the redesign of our website!

We wanted it to better reflect our identity as not only a band, but as multimedia content producers. Big thanks to my son Torin for doing the bulk of the design work. Check it out here!

Well, that was a short post, wasn't it? To make up for that, here are some bonus cat pictures:

Next week (probably): a Volume Seven status update!

Album Four Status Update

In the last Album Four Status Update post from July of last year, I said "We're trying to push the timeline so that we can get the album - along with, hopefully, the accompanying novelette and card game - out by May/June 2022."

Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha hahaha!

Obviously, that didn't happen.

What did happen was we ("we" meaning my band, Second Player Score) got sidetracked with "The Fear" (cover art below, Spotify link here) and Beer & Ramen, and also of course I was quite occupied with Volumes Six and Seven of the Joel Suzuki series.

But I'm glad to say that today and tomorrow we are back in the studio, finally laying down tracks for the Spring Suite of Four-D. The songs are titled "Fourth Quarter Comeback," "Divide and Conquer," "Battle Royale," and "Everything's Fine."

As for the novelette and card game, I don't think the former is going to happen any time soon (I finally settled on what I believe is the story outline, but at this point I think I want to save the project for later), but the card game is back on and is in process. Will we get it and the Summer Suite done in time for a Summer '23 release? Stay tuned!

Vancouver Brewfest 2022

We interrupt this series of Volume Six-related posts to say a few words about the Vancouver Summer BrewFest that took place this past weekend, where my band Second Player Score performed.

And those words are: Fun! Beer! Music! Seriously, though, we had a great time. It was our third BrewFest (the first two being in 2016 and 2017) along with being our first full electric performance (we did a casual acoustic jam at last month's Autism Empowerment picnic) since you-know-what (starts with a "C" and rhymes with "Ovid").

We'd like to thank Matt and Eric from the Washington Beer Commission for having us and being awesome hosts, Al Jones from A&L Productions for being a super cool and proficient soundman, Cody Gray for hooking us up with the gig, all the breweries and food vendors, and everyone in the crowd who enjoyed our hour-long set of nerd-punk rock.

Speaking of the set, here's the list, for posterity's sake:

Liberty's End

Game On

Demon's Kiss

BTMD

Winner Takes It All

Eye of the Needle

Death and Glory

The Fear

Level Up

Desensitized

The Flow

Ragged Town

Falling Forever

Comets

Anything, Anything

Hoping to be back next year!

Beer and Ramen Is Here!

Yes, the brand-new EP from my band Second Player Score has been officially released!

You may recall this previous post from February that showed us in the studio, laying down tracks. Since then, the song count has been whittled down from seven to five, as the Japanese-language version of "Gloria" didn't make the cut and the "Collab Song" is being saved for another day, but otherwise everything else is what I said it would be.

So, where you can hear the end result? Well, just go to the Second Player Score website at www.secondplayerscore.com, where you will find links to all the streaming options (courtesy of an exclusive arrangement with TuneCore Japan) as well as a CD purchase option. You'll also find a video we filmed for one of the songs ("Ue wo Muite Arukou") that features us drinking beer and eating ramen out of beer steins (hat tip to Yuu Japanese Tapas in Richmond, B.C.). Special shout-out goes to Visual Reel Entertainment, our representation company in Japan, for helping set up the distribution and promotion efforts.

Kanpai!

Zomie Media

While my band Second Player Score is waiting for Beer & Ramen to be served, we took a little detour to record one song with our good friend Chris Hahn, guitarist/singer for Old Cross and the owner/engineer of Zomie Media.

Which song, you ask? Well, it's a cover song, one that we've been playing since the band started over ten (?!) years ago. It even predates most of our original material.

And its title is... actually, we're going to announce it on our podcast, so you'll have to listen to that to find out!

Or, I guess, you can just wait until we release it sometime this summer. Either way (and no, it's not Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know"). At any rate, we had a great time and a terrific first experience recording with Chris, so we're definitely going to be doing it again!