Illegal Fun

Some excellent friends of mine and I, temporarily christened Sean Nelson & The Coastal Elite, made this recording to say Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence to the late, great Mr. Bowie, and to the now-staggering array of great artists and friends who died this year.

"Dead Man Walking" has been one of my favorite post-golden years Bowie numbers since I first heard the drum and bass arrangement on Earthling in 1997 and I've never understood how is has escaped being discovered as one of several lost classics in his repertoire.

The band is Eric Howk (Portugal the Man/Shelby Earl) and Lance Umble (Sloucher / bod/ Cumulus)on guitars, Jacob James (Ships, MANY others)on bass & harmonies, and Michael Lerner (Telekinesis) on drums. Can't ask for better. Michael also recorded and mixed it. (When we performed this arrangement earlier this year, Nouela O. Johnston of Bardot played keyboards and sang, so she's in the band, too, if she'll have us.)

Dead Man Walking

I noticed myself, I was breathing
And then there was rain in my vision

If I picked my colors yesterday
Then why must I bear my blue today?
I knew that place before
I mean oh yes, of course
How could I ever understand it?
It rained all day...

I noticed myself, I was breathing
And then there was rain in my vision

Why am I the person that I am?
If I could I wouldn't know a thing
And all this time to spare
Is stripped down to the air
How could I ever understand it?
It rained all day...

I noticed myself, I was breathing
And then there was rain in my vision

When will I change for the better?

and then there was rain

With one exception, these were all recorded in the apartment I inherited from Aaron and Mindy Huffman at 15th & Denny on Capitol Hill in Seattle between 2007 and 2011, when I moved out, which also constituted a period of intense misery and relentless writer's block. 

As many charlatans before me have done, I took up the time-honored rationalization that "learning" some of my favorite (morbid downer) songs would somehow impart the secret code that would allow me to start writing again. The culprits, unsurprisingly, included Pavement, John Prine, Blur, Leonard Cohen, Elvis Costello (x3), Big Star (Andy Hummel), Sebadoh, Randy Newman, Husker Du (Grant Hart), the Connells, and Stephin Merritt.

 I recorded them with the Voice Memo tool on my stupid iPhone, the lo-fi for people too lazy to find the power source to the cassette 4-track machine they never properly learned to use in the old days.

The gambit almost sort of worked once or twice. But what it mainly revealed were the limits of the autodidactic minimalism of my piano technique and, but, also, the sonority of my cheap 3/4-scale upright piano (the kind you find in a secondhand store) and the sweet acoustic of the little bedroom adjacent media closet. Also, thin walls demanded that I keep my voice down. Also, I did change that one chord in the John Prine song, just to see what would happen, and nothing did, so I reckon it's ok.

I'm not sure these merit "release" (or, indeed, that this qualifies as one), but believe it or not, these are the best of this little series. I find myself coming back to them quite a bit, the same way I always, always want to hear the demos on re-released versions of my favorite albums.

Bedroom Adjacent (solo piano covers)

Poor Napoleon

Stop Breathin'

Santolino’s latest set! A hot new recording streaming from the studio Magma Project in Madrid. High-fi trip, filled with basslines that heat up the space, a touch of minimalistic suspense popping up, tracks filled with a powerful energy that keeps growing and growing, undeniably top tracks with a high quality selection, definitely showing a new side and taste of this emergent artist.

*Watch it live here:
https://www.facebook.com/marianosantoli/videos/467568143843209/

Magma Project Madrid - Promo Set Sept. 2019

This was a 2018 remix I was commissioned to do for my talented electronic/ambient friend, Andrew Patrick Henry. I think he originally intended to release this as a b-side or as a bonus track for the original single "Dragoon", but never got around to it. 

Under my Squonk alias, I wanted to give the original track a sense of my esoteric nostalgia for Carson and Torrance, especially the two or three times I went there as an adult late at night on a weekday with work in the morning. I worked pretty hard to make it catchy but not overly annoying and with some sense of progress and build up. Later I would do my own remixes for the "Emma" cass-single shortly afterwards. This is something I might attempt again for HS LP2 (if it ever comes out). Anyways, this is probably the first official Squonk recording aside from the remixes I did for OG Dino/Mister Ugly in 2015(?)

Andrew Henry - Dragoon (Squonk's Night Trip To Carson Mix)

#indiepop #poprock #garagerock #postpunk #dancerock

I appreciate it - alun kenneth

anything by it

heart eyes demo

Established in 2008, How Scandinavian is the band/alias/project of Bryan Santizo. There's other people in it when it's live. This page is mostly used to highlight random demos, rarities, and "deep" cuts that probably will never be uploaded to "proper" streaming channels. So enjoy the obscurities if you are into that sort of thing.