CAROLYN MCCOY PHOTOGRAPHY, WORDS & DRONE - Photo Essays & Music Reviews

Milk For The Angry Video Shoot - SF, CA - 10.7.23

10/15/2023

As a photographer, I often have the privilege of being behind the scenes in a variety of creative processes. Being a part of a video shoot for Bay Area psychedelic-rockers Milk For The Angry was one of those special moments of creative fun.

The decline of San Francisco was apparent as we shot part of the band's new video on the city's famed Market Street, a once thriving and lucrative area that used to have a Starbucks on every corner and nary a "FOR LEASE" sign anywhere during the dot.com boom, but it is now home to more and more freaky weirdos living an alternate life on the streets. What better location to film a video about greed and obsession with wealth and money?

In our 4 hours of filming, MFTA frontman Dana Lindstrom directed us while the wickedly brilliant Will Rushton shot the footage amid the smell of piss, drive-by's from cops (who, oddly, left us alone), interactive and curious street people and the ridiculous cacophony of the Blue Angels and their reminder of war.

Rushton and Lindstrom have collaborated on videos for ages, and it was incredible to see their synced minds create the scenes on the fly. It was a true cohesion of vision.

Our scene had us fighting as a group over a dollar bill flying over our heads; we were to push, shove, hit, pull and generally exhibit horrible behavior towards one another. Even as we shot the scene where we were kicking and hitting Dana as he lay on the sidewalk, pedestrians walked by with a mild air of "Huh?", but generally the vibe was "Hmmm, just another weird scenario in the City, I guess!"

In those 4 hours of shooting, we probably produced no more than a few moments of footage for the video. More hours will be needed to finish the filming, plus the editing and the finalizing of the end product. I have always known that making a video is hard work, and it was truly an amazing experience to be a part of that hard work and to see that hard work in action.

The video will be out in a few months! Keep an eye out, in the meanwhile, check out all other groovy vids from Milk For The Angry!

Photos: Jesse Ray Smith - Sweetwater Music Hall - 9.14.23

10/15/2023

Songwriting from the soul. Music for the mind.
Jesse Ray Smith Band
Sweetwater Music Hall, Mill Valley CA

Jesse Ray Smith: Guitar, Harmonica, Words
John Varn: Keys and Vocal
James DePrato: Guitar
Michael Pinkham: Drums
Sean Cox: Guitar & Vocals

Check out Jesse's new album Back To Yesterday

Photos: El Cajon - San Anselmo, CA - 9.9.23

9/17/2023

Mix in a teaspoon of pop with a tablespoon of rock, spice it up with a splash of positivity and stir well. Add a few slices of accordion, a dash of violin and shake it up in a mosh pit of fun.

El Cajon are: RJ Holmberg (guitar and lead vocals), June Holmberg (keys, accordion and backing vocals), Michael Rennie (violin and backing vocals), Martin Ledyard (bass and backing vocals) and Kyle Hermans (drums, percussion and backing vocals).

Check out more on El Cajon.

Photos: Pete Floyd - Rancho Nicasio - 8.27.23

8/30/2023

SET 1: ONE OF THESE DAYS, IN THE FLESH, THIN ICE, BRICK 1, HAPPIEST DAYS, BRICK 2, BRICK 3, YOUNG LUST, ECHOES, WISH YOU WERE HERE

SET 2: SHINE ON, COMFORTABLY NUMB, PIGS, BREATHE, TIME/BREATHE, GREAT GIG, FEARLESS, MOTHER, MONEY, US & THEM, ANY COLOUR, BRAIN DAMAGE/ECLIPSE. HAVE A CIGAR, RUN LIKE HELL

PETE DELANEY, PETE HALE, PAIGE CLEM, TOBY TYLER, SEAN ENGLAND, TEAL COLLINS, ALEX GARCIA, BOB MCBAIN

Check out more on PETE FLOYD!

Reyes The Pen Writer's Workshop - 8.25.23

8/26/2023

1) Alone In The Realm Of My Senses: I just sent my 20-year-old daughter off to traverse 5,045 miles across the globe for her collegiate life without me. And let me say, it never gets any easier to let her go. My grief and sadness over the long road of being by myself is always a huge shock when it happens, year after year. Even after playing the game of empty-nesting for 3 years, I still find it difficult to hold it together emotionally for a few days after she departs. It’s a huge transition from daily motherhood to eating toast over the sink by myself, it can be brutal for me. I now know that finding activities to keep my mind off my sadness is crucial, so I find myself at a writer’s workshop out at the magnificent Point Reyes National Seashore to distract me from my panic, fear, sadness, and the empty pit in my belly over her initial departure.

Words have been my solace and therapy since I was young, and writing during challenging times has been a lifeline that has kept me from going over the edge countless times in my roller coaster life, and now is no different. When I need to feel, I write.

Now, it’s not necessary to pity me for being alone. Being alone is a gift for me, one I cherish immensely, as with being alone I can fully gauge what I experience and feel without the outside influence of others. I can use my senses without any input other than what I pick up with my antenna of a body from the world around me. And so alone, I head out onto the trail to begin to compose the writing assignment about sensory perception out in the woods.

What I see is usually my first introduction to an unfamiliar environment. The mighty oaks, bay, and willows cover my pathway as they lend a mysterious shadow-side to the light coming from above. The brown of the grasses that line the path are not just brown, but grey, green, yellow, orange, and a multitude of other colors and shades, a plethora of earth tones that blend into one vibrant visual for my eyes.

My nose kicks into gear, picking up the dryness of the valley around me. Dust is kicked up as I walk; it is earthly, dense, and chalky, with hints of sage as it fills my nostrils. The air is filled with pungent pennyroyal and dry grasses with a hint of salt from the coast over the ridge. As I near a small, trickle of a stream, the aquatic aromas of algae, mud, and the damp odors that water creates take center stage over the dust. Mugwort and salvia send out a variety of medicinal smells that denote their true purpose as part of nature’s pharmacy.

With a body covered in skin that holds millions of sensors, I cannot help but physically feel the world around me. The sun’s heat versus the cool breeze. The leaves in my fingers and tree bark against my palms leave a dusty film. I feel my feet hit the ground and I notice every injury I have received over the last 5 years come shining through. I trudge on, knowing the hike will benefit me regardless.

The cacophony of birdsong is one of the forest’s gracious gifts to our ears. The woodpeckers knock and cackle as they go about their job of relieving trees of their bugs. The flocks of California quail call out their incessant “CHICAGO! CHICAGO!” as they scuttle across roadways and paths, their many offspring wiggling along behind them. The wind in the tall, undulating grasses hiss like rushing water, although water is scarce this time of year. The sound is still soothing. It is only when I hear a human voice on the trail do I remember that I am human, too, and not a wild animal of the woods.

If my heart pumped the ancient blood that carried the deeper knowledge of edible plants, I would no doubt have been able to identify more things I could survive on if need be. But still, my limited knowledge of herbs and plant identification allows me to know that I can taste the mugwort and it will be bitter but calming, that the wild amaranth drying next to the creek has seeds that pack nutrition, and that, during another season, the berry bushes I passed will eventually be filled with bright red thimbleberries, currants, and huckleberries.

Filling my senses with the world around me is my way of knowing I am part of the world itself, that I am not separate from it. Our senses are key in connecting us and solidifying ourselves in this world and with others. With all my senses in use, I am never alone on the paths I walk.

2) We Are All Gardeners: We are the gardeners of our lives. We are the ones who plant the seeds of our humble beginnings as humans, and we are the ones who need to nurture ourselves to grow. Ground your roots deep into the earth, and feel those roots grasp onto the network of community beneath your feet. Put your hand into the ancient soil that has fed life for eons with nutrients and minerals, and feel the past of who you were within its many grains. Survival isn’t enough, you must thrive and succeed in your garden of life, and therefore

Antidote For Lost Souls In Fishbowls: Pete Floyd - The Chapel, SF - 7.29.23

7/31/2023

My first introduction to Pink Floyd was probably in the mid-70s, when my older brother would bust out his rock and roll records. While searing guitar riffs and big-drum booms wafted from his bedroom in the basement, I would be nearby playing with my dolls, my romper-stompers, or I'd be reading Little Golden Books about pokey puppies and cute ducks. I may not have been paying attention to what he was playing, but that music still made its mark.

Fast Forward to 1986 and my first acid trip. There were melting faces. There was stomach-quaking laughter around the absurdity of life on top of the shedding of hot tears around the newfound realization that I had a hot date with mortality at some distant point in time. There was also my first viewing of Pink Floyd’s wicked-mindfuck of a masterpiece film The Wall, based on their epic album of the same name. My friends and I were obsessed with Pink Floyd at the time, as any teenage acidhead is prone to be.

My friends and I were also grappling with the suicides of two of our crew; young men of 16 years who, for their own reasons, thought dying was better than living. We were only teenagers ourselves, very sheltered, and we did not know how to deal with that kind of loss. That whole summer we were raw, shocked, and wallowing in deep trauma and grief. We needed The Wall; it wrapped up all our fears, angst, anger, and rebellion into a two-record guidebook on how to say FUCK YOU! to a fucked up world. It was brilliant! We lived, breathed, and spoke the Gospel of Floyd. It helped us make sense of the bad shit that went down. In addition, Wish You Were Here and Dark Side Of The Moon were on repeat as we processed our sadness. We used it as an antidote to feeling so lost in the world.

As I grew and changed into adulthood, Pink Floyd ebbed and flowed in and out of my awareness as they too grew and changed as a band. The songs, new and old, continued to tickle my ears with edgy lyrics and heavy, emotional concepts in conjunction with a constant psychedelic dreamscape of sound.

It’s interesting when you can pinpoint aspects of your past through reliving musical experiences; it is almost a type of time travel. Hearing songs from my past, especially the intensity of most Pink Floyd songs, is truly bittersweet. My recent experience with SF Bay Area Pink Floyd tribute band Pete Floyd at The Chapel in San Francisco definitely brought back the deep feelings of my youth. Pete Floyd culls its players from the extraordinary North Bay music scene, including founder Pete Delaney, (vocals/guitar), Pete Hale (guitar/vocals), Toby Tyler (Bass), Bob McBain (keys), Alex Garcia (keys/sax), Sean England (drums) and the powerhouse vocal team of Teal Collins and Paige Clem.

As I witnessed this band’s execution of some of my favorite Floyd songs, I was brought back to the vivid memories of my past and there was nothing to do but pause to feel and honor those memories. I then began to sing; utilizing my voice, shouting the lyrics loud and clear as I did when I was young & wild and trying hard to understand myself. As I stood amid the audience of like-minded music lovers, singing along with these songs I knew so well, I felt a sense of much-missed peace inside my mind; and then there was that familiar feeling of possibility that I am not as alone as I thought.

www.petefloyd.com

Video Review: Milk For The Angry - "Doors Of Dismay"

5/18/2023

the journey through the video.The making of a music video can be very challenging and is no small feat. The planning involved in bringing visual imagery to a song takes a lot of brain power and people to make it happen. Not only does the band need to create a vision based on a song or lyrics, but they also need to do it in a way that makes sense of the song.

Marin's psych-rock band Milk For The Angry is never lacking creativity in pretty much everything that they do, so much so that I’d even credit them as being an “art-rock” band. So when this bunch of freaky-weirdo-artsy-geeks gets together to make a music video, you know it’s going to be pretty epic.

Milk For The Angry’s latest music video (their 11th!) for the song “Doors Of Dismay” is the first single release from their upcoming album Free Gold Sunday, due this Spring.

For “Doors Of Dismay”, MFTA utilized multiple locations to film the “going through the door” imagery, dragging said heavy wooden door around the Bay Area for the shooting; San Quentin Beach, the MFTA studio, The Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma, Mt. Tamalpais, China Camp, the funeral home Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, Druid Heights and many other nooks, crannies, and alleyways around the Bay Area.

MFTA prides itself on making DIY videos; filming, and editing the old-school way. “No CGI, just splicing out a certain area of footage and replacing it with the following scene”, states ringleader Dana Lindstrom. “The movement had to be consistent too, meaning we had to keep track of how fast the camera moved into the next world and at what angle. Lots of failed attempts.”

“The workflow has always been that I come up with some ideas, figure out how to logistically pull them off, and then my friend Will Rushton comes out to film and expand on concepts. He’s great, he oozes creativity and has an eye for making things pop on camera. He also does all the editing and that’s another huge aspect of the excitement.”

“Each video is different and everyone who’s involved helps in one way or another. Just showing up is huge. I’ve got to give a big thanks, hug, kiss, and shout out to my favorite person and girlfriend Angela Cieslewitz, who’s been there for every video in one way or another and always helps in a huge way.”

The video for “Doors Of Dismay” pulls off the vibe of a dreamy reality with the psychedelic riffs of the song leading us the way through the visual journey. The band took brilliance to another level by incorporating the incredible clay masks of local artist Rachel Pozivenec, which transformed the band members into the magic beings that lead us through the doors and the journey through the video.

The idea for the video comes from “that place where you’re listening to a song and imagery comes to mind. I feel like everyone experiences that at one point or another”, says Lindstrom. “This video was pretty literal though. Doors of Dismay, camera going through doors."

The song "Doors Of Dismay", (performed in the video with Lindstrom on guitar and vocals, Natasha Bailey on drums, John Varn tinkling the keys, and Michael Masters on bass), is really epic, and the imagery the band uses to convey the story of the song is well suited.

“With a song like this where the topic isn't very clear, it slowly develops meaning for me over time”, states Lindstrom of his song crafting. “This one makes me think about leaving my body, experiencing new planes that are out of my vocabulary, and pushing into them with more curiosity than fear. This can also go with the idea of different ‘chapters' in life. I think about how my life felt 5 years ago. Totally different! A whole different theme, quality, and feeling to it. It really feels like a different world. Like most of my songs, I’ve never had luck trying to write a song about something. The words might start with vowels, then progress to words, then form an idea, then I find the missing puzzle pieces. I think Keith Richards coined a process similar to this 'vowel movement,' and that has always resonated with me and made me laugh”.

When you watch the video and listen to the song, you can’t help but allow your mind to become part of this fantastic reality MFTA is creating. You want to follow the masked being and dive through those doors of dismay and see what is there for you.

For More Info on Milk For The Angry>>>

Sunhead & The Strange: Fuck Adults, The Kids Have It Covered

4/28/2023

It's Friday evening, just past dinner time. Do you know where your children are? Probably not and that's normal. But do know that sometimes your kids are having a great time without you, and as long as you know they are safe (hopefully), it's easier to go about your parental life without too much worry. That's why teen events are so important! Because just like us old farts, the kids need to rock and roll.

Sometimes it takes a bunch of kids to entertain a bunch of kids, as kids know kids better than adults do. Unless you're one of those adults that remembers what it's like to be a kid with no place to go on a Friday night except Trouble Town. So what better way to gather up the youths of Marin County for an evening of fun than by pumping live rock and roll into their brains that is created by their peers and classmates?

Youth shows in Marin are few and far between, a sad reality, as young folks really like live music as much as the rest of us. Supporting kids with the music they create is something we often overlook as grownups, but luckily around these parts the kids are go-getters and know how to take shit into their own hands and make stuff happen.

In conjunction with the bands The Strange and Sunhead, Fairfax's teen-friendly hub Revolution 9, owner Huda al-Jamal and The Strange front woman Devon Harvey, this fun teen-friendly event had a life of its own and it rocked hard. With both bands playing for well over an hour, local teens moshed, danced, head banged, and sang along to music created by their friends. And might I say that these bands are GOOD; these bands are not bobby-sox kid bands, no, no no, not at all.

Sunhead shook me senseless with the maturity of their music. We are talking a conglomerate of David Bowie, Genesis circa 1974, Wagner, and maybe a sprinkle of Slayer, and they are probably not more than 18.

The Strange is a great rock band with a power pop edge. Harvey's band takes on mostly original songs with a few pop covers. All members are ridiculously talented young adults bringing forth music that is full of depth and spunk.

Keeping kids safe and in an environment that is conducive to them being themselves is a fine-edged sword. Giving them space to play and have a good time without us grownups cramping their style should be the norm in any community. With events like this, created for and by young adults and teens, allows these kids to become more aware of who they are within their peer groups and gives them a safe outlet to bust their shit out. Support youth bands and youth events, it's the best way to keep kids of out trouble.

Album Review: Katie Knipp - Live At The Green Room Social Club

4/12/2023

The short-story version of Sacramento blues singer Katie Knipp is this: She’s a little go-getter, she’s got her shit together and she’s not wasting time with making her career happen.

But the long-story version of blues singer Katie Knipp has quite a bit more depth .

The last time I interviewed Katie Knipp was about 2 years ago. She had just come out with her 6th studio album, The Well, she was ALMOST nominated for a Grammy and she had a few of her songs on the Billboard Blues Charts alongside Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Buddy Guy. She is a winner for Best Blues Artist in Sacramento twice over, and she was voted Female Artist of The Year in 2020 and 2021 by the Country Folk Americana Blues Realm.

Now do you understand my earlier comment of “she’s a little go-getter”?

“I would say hitting top 10 Billboard Blues Albums charts with the last 3 albums has been more of a boost!” states Knipp. “It helps with credibility in getting better opportunities for the band."

Fast forward to here and now, Knipp has yet another album for us to feast on with our ears and mind, a live album, no less. Live at The Green Room Social Club, her 7th album, is Knipp and her incredible band showcasing what they do best, performing live in front of an audience. To most bands, playing live is really the end-all of why they create music.

New Singles Released By West Marin's Peppermint Moon

3/22/2023

The one-man band that is Peppermint Moon is at it again with the release of two wonderfully composed and sonically layered new singles!

Peppermint Moon is the pseudonym for West Marin songwriter/musician Colin Schlitt, whose other job is being the bassist for dark alt rock band El Radio Fantastique. Schlitt’s choice to not use his own name for this project is a bit unusual. He explains, “I like the idea of a set of music having a poetic name as opposed to just being the name of a person. I am also pretty shy and introverted most of the time and felt more comfortable giving this project a name that wouldn’t draw as much attention to me personally and would focus more on the songs. I thought it would be cool if people were fooled and thought it was an actual band.”

The two new singles, “Foxy Friends” and "He She They” are not part of any upcoming Peppermint Moon albums, but instead they were more of a “creative surprise” for Schlitt. “I wasn’t planning on working on any new recordings for a while, but these two recordings just sort of happened quickly in unexpected spurts,” Schlitt explains. “He She They”, was recorded after Schlitt took his son to a concert at the Fillmore featuring artist Cavetown. “I was blown away by the concert and by Cavetown’s recorded stuff. 'He She They' was already almost all the way written, and with that concert as inspiration,