#moondreamzzz

premiere: MoondreamzzZ - Shy Toes

I’ve been excited about this project after seeing their video “Porcelain”. Jeremiah Meltzer (vocals, guitar) and his bandmates Cary Workmon (vocals, bass), and George Powell (drums) are currently out on the road supporting their first EP, but while they were traveling spent some time to write me a story about where the trip and the music inspired.  #FuckCancer

Hey Mark,

Writing this letter to you from the basement of our old drummer Blake’s house in the outskirts of Seattle. MoondreamzzZ and Extra Spooky are on our first West Coast Tour, “Paradise in America Tour 2016”. This is MoondreamzzZ’s first tour ever, and the first tour I’ve ever done personally. This also Extra Spooky’s first time up the west coast after recently transplanting to Los Angeles from Akron, Ohio. So the tour has been just as exciting for both of us. People from both bands are in Blake’s backyard picking wild blackberries that grow like weeds on a two acre plot of land behind his house as I write this to you.

I want to thank you foremost for premiering our first single “Shy Toes” off our upcoming EP Leap Year. We recorded the entire 5 song EP a couple weeks before embarking on this tour with Dave Newton (The Mighty Lemon Drops) at his Burbank home studio, who so kindly mixed the single for us before we left on this wild journey. The EP and this tour is a homage to my godmother Pia who passed away February 29th (a leap day in a leap year) after an almost two year battle with stage IV breast cancer; I lived with her the last ten months of her life. I don't know if I would be alive today nor if I would be performing music in the capacity I am today if it was not for the love and guidance of that woman.

P.I.A. or Paradise In America Tour has taken on a new dimension as we traverse the coast. As cheesy as it sounds- we have grown from friends to brothers. Vinny, the videographer, chipped his tooth and had to see an emergency dentist in Olympia. We played the last show ever at Chinatown Youth Center, a seven year volunteer run & operated hardcore punk venue in Fresno, where people did barrel rolls on the floor and threw glitter on us that we were washing off the next couple days. We played in a packed 100 degree basement in Chico, Ca. We performed on public access tv in Olympia. John the bassist/singer for Extra Spooky cut his hand trying to close the band van window that shattered last night in Seattle. We swam, bathed, and jumped off boulders into a river near the Oregon border. We hung out with an adorable puppy named Ginger Ale in Eugene, Oregon (which was a trip for me since ginger ale was the last thing I gave my godmother before she passed away). I have also smoked way too many Black & Mild’s (my only vice this tour).

The tour has restored a sense of childlike optimism and limitless adventure to be had in America for all of us, during these too often dark and uncertain times. We are doing what we love-playing live, while also meeting new people seeing new sights, and becoming best friends. The highlight of tour so far was playing at Samoa Beach near Arcata, California during the Fourth of July on top sand dunes that stood less than seventy feet from the Pacific Ocean. The day my godmother passed away at Cedars Sinai Hospital in West Hollywood I drove immediately to the coast from the hospital (between Malibu and Santa Monica). 

Pia talked about the ocean being a very important place for her, helping her on her spiritual journey as an obvious example of a power bigger than us. That day she passed the tide came up unexpectedly high soaking my pants. I felt like it was Pia’s spirit saying goodbye to me. This whole tour I’ve carried this old photo of me and her, with her beloved dog Maxie in my pocket, but that day at Samoa beach I couldn't help but be filled with joy as I felt her smile looking back at me in the glistening waves, and later that night as we watched our brothers in Extra Spooky perform as the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.

-Jeremiah

Read more Letters to YVYNYL.

MoondreamzzZ - Porcelain

Video premiere: MoondreamzzZ, ‘Porcelain Skin’

In spite of what their sleepy, sloppy name suggests, MoondreamzzZ are noisy beasts. The L.A. trio makes unfussy punk rock about complicated people — “orchestrated noise as a form of therapy,” says singer-guitarist Jeremiah Meltzer, who started the band in San Francisco in 2014 and is joined by singer-bassist Cary Workman and drummer George Atom. The trio made its EP with engineer David Newton…

Thank you to everyone who made it out to The Red Cove on Saturday. What a great venue full of killer rockers. Thanks again to MoondreamzzZ for opening the night up with a fury. And a huge shout to the local bands The Kane Gang, S.R.A and We The Underclass…pros who bring the Rock! Finally, thanks again to Tanya for saving the day and turning a gig into a show!