Holly Palmer's Journal



February 7th 2006 hi.. okay, here's the new news on this journal. i am getting a new website together this month, doing photos for the new album and all that. so, i WILL update the news on this site, but i WON'T be doing any more journal entries here. for those, i will start the ole bloggerino at http://www.myspace.com/hollypalmer that way, the new music and photos, and super up to date stuff is happening all in one place.. xxxxxoohp [14 Comments \| Comment on this] December 23rd 2005 merry christmas everyone!! i have been a bad girl i know.. no entries for 3 months... bad bad bad bad bad....... here's the news, the album is all done. i'm working on the artwork now.. i'm calling it "songs for tuesday" or "love kills pain" what do you like better? we're gonna get it up on i-tunes and other on-line distributors as we start to talk to some "brick and mortar" distributors.. i'll keep you posted on that. in the meantime, i'm gonna start actually administrating my MY SPACE account. gonna put up a few songs on there in the next few days.. check those and see what you think.. it took so long to finish cause we decided to do more mixing on the album and i wanted to see if i could beat the vocals from the live sessions and everyone's schedules went crazy so we got back in a month ago and did it all up. i used the vocals from the live sessions after all. they were way better than the new ones i did.. but it was nice to be able to go in and see what would happen. as we thought in the beginning, live is always better... happy new year all y'all!! let's keep it live... [11 Comments \| Comment on this] September 24th 2005 okay. brothahs and sistas.. we made this album in three weeks total.. this includes the planning meetings with joey and justin, 6 days of preproduction (rehearsals with the band), A FEW DAYS OFF, two days of live recording (in the studio in front of an audience) 2 days overdubs and a day and half of mixing. we did 12 songs..... !!!!!!!! now i am listening to everything, deciding what the album will be... I AM HAVING A BLAST!!! can't wait for you to hear it. in the meantime, you can hear an early version of one of the songs, "I WILL" in the jessica alba movie that opened this week, "INTO THE BLUE"....... it plays within the first ten minutes in a LOVE scene.... [28 Comments \| Comment on this] August 14th 2005 i've been hanging out with justin and joey, playing music, talking, planning, writing more songs.. they are so delicious. they must be one of the most delicious rhythm sections ever. we have been working on the title track for the album, which i can't tell you what it is.... but it is different. a different kind of song for me. this album is more simple and direct and ultimately i think, more honest than what i've done before. it's a little scary but feels good. what's scary? revealing yourself. but, fuck, i'm at the point in my life where everything else feels like bullshit. [15 Comments \| Comment on this] July 13th 2005 thanks for all your emails.. here's what's up... i'm going into the studio starting the last week of august. i've got a stellar band o' mugicians to play with. their names are justin meldal-johnsen, lyle workman and joey waronker they are all BRILLIANT GUTTERAL SOULFUL guys and i am so freaking excited to play with them. we are gonna produce it as a group. that is, there will be no "one" producer calling the shots from inside the control room of the studio. rather, we all collectively, instruments in hand, will produce it together. that turns me on ALOT. the album will be made over a series of evening sessions in which we will play a couple of sets of music each night. we are going to bring in friends and loved ones and play to them. when i'm working in a normal studio environment, i really miss the real world, and real interaction with an audience. so, as i've been getting ready to do this batch of music, i didn't want to have that feeling again. i like to sing to you. that is my favorite kind of singing. [27 Comments \| Comment on this] May 19th 2005 planning the sessions for the new album now. gonna produce it myself. really looking forward to that. it's gonna be super raw. gonna cut it LIVE with a 3 piece band. yum. wrote the theme to a new show coming out on the LIFETIME network. it's called "you're not the man i married". it's cute. it's a reality show where the host takes a guy around trying to make him back into the hot romantic everything guy he was when he married his girl who is at the end of her rope, and will try anything (i.e. a show called "you're not the man i married") to get the sauce back on. the executive producer is a man called david franske. he also produced punk'd and the jaime kennedy experiment. he told me that the marriages of the people who have been on the show have skyrocketed since they did it. he said they are all super happy and loving each other again. yum. [16 Comments \| Comment on this] April 6th 2005 hey all... i am going to open for MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD at a benefit in nyc at the end of the month. Check the tour thingy for details....gonna do it with my friends, MOJO MANCINI. they are a vibey gorgeous music making outfit that channels dr. john fucking around with henry mancini. we're gonna do a set of classic songs like, "cry me a river", "the man that got away", dylan's " gotta serve somebody" "i'd rather go blind" and other GEMS. the tickets are 20 bucks and when i find out where you can get 'em, we'll put it up in the news... AND, THEN cindy h. and i are gonna start recording said "christmas" album. i want to hear from you what you might want to hear from us. the less regular, the less ray coniff-y the better. for instance, cindy wants us to do an islamic song. it sounds like a good idea to me. anybody out there got ideas for that? like a particular song and where to get it? and i'd love to know what else you might like to hear.. shooting a punky little video to keep me hanging on next week. watch this spot for more on that. also, in the deep dark secrets department, i have another commercial running right now. it's HOT. have you seen the wrigley's double mint gum ads? with the twins? [10 Comments \| Comment on this] February 16th 2005 been recording here in cali and in new york. an album is taking shape. it feels good to be moving. the past in fully done. also, my friend cindy hopkins and i are tossing around the idea of doing a winter holiday album. when i was a kid, we had a christmas album by the ray conniff singers. ....."come on, GIRLS! it's time to decorate the CHRISTMAS TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" it's so happy, it's scary. it actually freaks me out. i found it this year on cd. i still love it. cindy is brilliant. her band is called gloria deluxe. she also just wrote produced and starred in an opera called "accidental nostalgia" it happened at st. ann's warehouse in brooklyn and i believe she's taking it to europe next. it's like if woody allen was a 1930s appalachian trickster nymph staring in her own muti-media musical... if it comes to your town, i say, SEE IT i LOVED IT. for more info on accidental nostagia and to hear her excellent records: check http://www.gloriadeluxe.com [11 Comments \| Comment on this] January 9th 2005 i am playing genghis cohen this wednesday the 12th and next wednesday the 19th. these dates are not up on the site yet because i am having some trouble getting the news and tour section updated. the news is, both shows are at 9:30, i am gonna play a few new songs and for more info on the club, check http://www.genghiscohen.com. i just added notes to the cdbaby page on tenderhooks. if you're into history hit http://www.cdbaby.com/hollypalmer2. if you like pina coladas, or getting caught in the rain, come to Los Angeles, it hasn't stopped for weeks. it's loud too. [13 Comments \| Comment on this] December 8th 2004 okay. i've been a little lax on the updates cause i just moved and i've been painting my shack. hmm....that sounds obscene as i read it back. the living room color is called, "panama", and the bedroom is "pine island" and the studio is a color called, "primrose patch". i guess that last one is a little blue. re; the tour..... i've been loving playing solo...feels free. it's trickier than playing with the band, cause it's all on me, whether or not the music sinks or swims. but somehow, when the stakes are very high like that, i get more into it. oh yeah, and by the way TENDER HOOKS IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! http://www.cdbaby.com/hollypalmer2 [14 Comments \| Comment on this] November 25th 2004 ..home from tour. there is much to report. will do so over the next few days. happy thanksgiving or thursday or whatever today is to you. let's enjoy. for we are here, for all we know. ....for that matter see if i-tunes will let you check out donny hathaway singing the song, "for all we know" it is a treat on any kind of day. love, holly [8 Comments \| Comment on this] October 21st 2004 hey ladies and men.. i just put together the artwork for tender hooks. it's going to the manufacturer on monday. think it'll take about 3 weeks to turn around and the a couple o' weeks for cdbaby to get it going. meow... booked a little east coast tour by the way. me and emm gryner are gonna get in a car with our guitars and roll across the countryside. emm is the bomb. at her wedding a few weeks ago all us bridesmaids wore rock t-shirts and silver shoes and nothing else! no not true.. but i got you going. hey if you are in LA come to my play.... i really will be wearing no pants. do i really feel i have to coerce you with pants or no pants? what am i doing? what a kook. bikini kook. [14 Comments \| Comment on this] September 9th 2004 okay cool. thanks for your two cents. $12.98 it is.... i predict that i will be a TENDERHOOKer for halloween... [19 Comments \| Comment on this] September 7th 2004 hi question.... how much are you comfortable paying for a full length cd? how much are you comfortable paying for an EP? i'm working on getting TENDERHOOKS pressed up and i'm wondering what's real for you guys in terms of pricing. i like the ten dollars, cause it's a nice, fairly modest, round number. but, i could get to putting out other stuff quicker if i charged $12-14. talk to me. [19 Comments \| Comment on this] August 23rd 2004 cdbaby is fucking cool. i can go on there and see what sites people are coming from when they buy the album. i found a beautiful site named for a song off of tenderhooks called "something else". i am touched. it looks like the site has been alive for a couple of years. having wriggled out of the hole i was in, my senses are coming back. it takes a certain amount of psychological and emotional contortion to accept making two albums and not having them see the light of day. a person begins to devalue the actual light of day. you stop reaching. it sucks. pity parties also suck. but, seeing this site was such a surprise.... it just hit me, how cut off i've been. thank you girl. http://trajecting.com/holly/ [16 Comments \| Comment on this] August 3rd 2004 i got ten boxes of "i confess" on friday. finally i can slide 'em out across the pavement to whoever wants one. mmm hmmmmmm....... cd baby should get them in the next couple of days and then they get em up for sale within a week. we're gonna be on i-tunes as well if that's your flavor. you're my flavor. [30 Comments \| Comment on this] June 26th 2004 i went to a party last night downtown near USC. it's called club bingo. there's a man called xavier who has a band called blood sugar. this party, which has happened a few times before, is his brain and love child. you can check his world at http://www.blackballuniverse.com. the word that comes to my head in trying to describe him is......FREE he's a free musical spirit doing his own new thing with shades of robert plant and prince running through mm hmmmm.... he had asked about 8 artists to play acoustic versions of their shit for fifteen minutes each in his light saber lit room. it was not hollywood. there was much love and respect and inspired music flowing. i played a few songs with two pockety drummers one was gabe from the peak show he is MAGIC and the other guy, lorenzo, is a drum circle activist down at venice beach he made me crazy happy. listening listening listening as he played. he said he was playing for god that when he plays he's in church. dr. madd vibe aka angelo from fishbone closed the night with mad mad vibes indeed. it was his saxophone and pointed poems told by his different characters and occasional elbow slamming onto the low end of a keyboard and banging the mic into the ground and working his bowler hat you should check this out. go to http://centralelements.com it was deep. [5 Comments \| Comment on this] June 23rd 2004 oh my. here comes the conga room show. tomorrow. we will rock it. i've been thinking up names for my band. they are all ridiculous. the names, not the guys. they are all crazy but not ridiculous. the last one that got the biggest reaction was box o' rocks. they said, is that with a 'cks' or an 'x'? see what i mean? [7 Comments \| Comment on this] June 10th 2004 i do get freaked out. but at least i am awake. it's a real trade off. [12 Comments \| Comment on this] June 7th 2004 okay. back from the beach. and i did not beatch about anything the whole time. took tonic down to the water let him off the leash and watched him run. he chased the birds like a bat out of hell. alex and me drank jagermeister and watched monster and the pink panther later on in the bed. i am relaxed. the kickoff was friday morning. before we left, i spent a couple of hours revising the "i confess" album copy. there were a few names to remove. it was very cathartic, surprised me how much. as we drove out of town, i caught fire and began to sing songs about going to the beach and the dog and xing out nonbelievers. kevin reagan (genius designer who did the album package) and i had a meal the other night, and he made a case for me to find the cash and put this album out right. (i was thinking okay, i'm running a business now, i've got to be fiscally responsible. can't put out a full color 16 page booklet, it's too expensive) so kevin comes back around and paints a picture for me about how good it will feel to hand somebody this album. here's the backstory to that; when we first met a year ago, i had handed him a stack of books. there was one on italian deco signage, one filled with posters from the harlem renaissance, one entire book devoted to the story of the billie holiday song, "strange fruit", and one book of logos from the 50', 60's and 70's, with a bunch of pages marked. then i showed him the trailer park pinups that sheryl and i shot in ensenada.... it was a lot of different shit. he kept saying to me... "this is gonna be difficult". i was like, 'yeah yeah." and he'd say, "no, no, i mean i just want you to know......these elements are all so different.....it's gonna be tricky". i'd say, "yeah, but you're the man. you can do it. i know you can." and then he did. he put all these things together and made a beautiful package that blew my wildest dreams out of the water. so that's it. he got me. it's full regalia time. ...maybe 3 weeks from now. [7 Comments \| Comment on this]