I wanted to share with you some custom jingles I wrote for backers of last March’s Motion for the Music Picture Kickstarter project. The reward tier read: “I’ll write a 10 second jingle for you or someone else. You can title it, dedicate it to someone, make a ringtone, whatever… if there’s a specific word or phrase I’ll try and rhyme it. (try and keep it PG-13 please)”.

Here they are, you can download and share them too!

Separately, I’ve just launched to a new kickstarter project for a web-series-type travel show–like “No Reservations” but for Music instead of Food where I would tour some studios and explore/document the song recording process, all while inviting some of my favorite musicians into the fold.

It’s called The Dream Sessions: Musical Travel Show

I want to dispel any pressure to contribute money to this next project. I know times are definitely tough!

But, if this sounds like an intriguing idea to you, any help promoting it via your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or otherwise would be a HUGE Godsend! I’ve officially lost my mind, but at the very least, it feels great just to Go For It–like pursuing a girl way out of my league, and not caring about the outcome.

Thanks so much for your support, I can’t wait to share the fruits of my musical travels with you.

Love,
Goh

Dead Love from Kaiser Hwang on Vimeo.

Here’s a cool video poem of the live broadcast from 10/30. We were playing Zombies covers for my friends’ birthdays. I love how this video came out, has soul to it. Thanks to Kaiser Hwang for filming it and putting it together!

Atsushi of Scrabbel, PCP, Me

Eric Nakamura. My cousin from a different dozen.

After the GR show, Eric was kind enough to host an intimate living room concert, which was really fun for me. I ended up doing a twisted version of “Creep” by Radiohead. There was some serious star power in that room. (photo via Giant Robot Eric)

James Jean, Martin Wong, Saelee Oh, Stanley, Astushi, Michael, David Choe Mannequin

Daniel Wu, Dave Choe mannequinn

A week later, Atsushi and I drove down to L.A. again for an event called “Bang, Bang, Draw!” that Poketo put on featuring PCP and musician Marc Bianchi aka Her Space Holiday

There was a great Q&A session between Heisuke and Marc about their artistic relationship and processes, I definitely learned a lot about them and thoroughly enjoyed the banter and music.

Before we drove down, I had asked Ted and Angie of Poketo if I could crash the party by playing a set at the very end, and they very kindly said yes! I played a few songs…
(both vids via Poketo Ted)

and Marc rocked an awesome set to close it all out. Love his songs…

Thanks to Atsushi, Tony Kang and Ruby Rubes, Ted and Angie of Poketo, Eric of Giant Robot and Heisuke and Mark for the great times!

I didn’t write the lyrics until a few months later. I didn’t know what to write about, so I started asking questions…

I recently fell back into it (nerd-dom, not 7th grade). Got a new computer. It’s basically my new instrument now. It’s amazing how much “practicing” I do on this, yet so little music comes out of it. In the time that I could have used to learn a thesaurus of scales and melodic patterns, I struggled to get protools to work with a new external hard-drive! Geek! In the time that I could’ve learned a few Jimmy Page guitar solos, I installed some software to make blips and bleeps! Woah yeah… here come the memories! Jocks putting me in a headlock! Girls walking by me in the hallway and saying “ewww! gross!” There was even a point when other nerds would gang up on me and diss me! I was a minor player, even in the nerd circles! Ahhh, gotta love the pecking order.

I even look more like a “computer player” now.

3 words: $11 dollar haircut.

I asked the barber to give me a trim, nothing too drastic… now that I think of it, I don’t think he understood English. I told him it’s ok if I look shaggy, I’m a musician. It dawned on me that he only knew how to do one haircut- the technology haircut. It makes sense now, because as I was getting my hair cut, a previous customer came back to pick up his jacket that he forgot… suprise, suprise: he had the technology haircut! The barber did a good job though, maybe it’s a kind of a zen thing for him: Know one thing… apply it to all things…
So, I’m probably not gonna gig until my hair grows out a little… unless it’s something I can’t turn down, and/or I can borrow a wig. $11 though… ya can’t beat that.

“Here are 11 songs from the deepest reaches of my heart.

The Breakdown:
2 sad songs (“Daylight Savings,”“Highway Flowers”)
2 songs about getting dissed (“Z=zerogame,”“Pigeon Toes”)
3 Love Songs (“Y.T.,”“Surrogate,”“Yer Highness”)
4 “Dream” Songs (“At Ease,”“Embarcadero,”“El Camino,”“N.P.”)

Everything was recorded all by my lonesome on a Roland VS 880 digital 8 track in the wee and not so wee hours in various bedrooms and living rooms in California.”

Daylight invites humming along. It becomes second nature and you’ll find that you don’t even mind that the CD is physically and literally stuck in your car stereo system–3 weeks straight.The sequence and selection of songs create a biography of extraordinarily accessible memories and experiences covering childhood memories, bad jobs, loss, first kisses, fandom crushes, and startling love. Nakamura’s emotionally taut and controlled lyrics have frequently been compared to Elliot Smith, while his vocal stylings resonate a little of both Colin Haye and Elvis Costello.Wry, self-effacing humor in Daylight tunes “N.P.,” “Embarcadero,” and “Z=Zero game” will manage to wriggle a smile out of even the most dour cynic. (“Goh Portman”? I mean come on). No pretenses or hyper-emo stylings. Just solid, smart songwriting. Refraining from the more ambitious live loop tracks that can be experienced at a Goh “Live” show, Nakamura keeps his self harmonizing clean and focused in intention. Still, one wonders if he recorded these tunes while barefoot. It would seem quite alright if he did. I’d reference the liner notes, but alas there aren’t any. Maybe in his next album. . . rumored to be produced later this year by Ooh You Records. In the meantime, you’ll just have to listen to this album again, and again, and again, and again yourself. Or visit his website: gohnakamura.com for more on the lyrics and their inspiration.

by Min Jung Kim