Life of Bot

Look Alive People - First official release from Wake Up Lucid

    Wake up Lucid's first release, "Look Alive People", is a fierce debut from this Southern California trio. The opening track, "A Minor", intros much like the humble beginnings of the band itself, starting slow and bluesy, then catching momentum and ripping into full velocity by the main riff of the song. "I'm gonna take you to heaven tonight, and I ain't never gonna bring you back". The album touches on a range of emotions and leaves you desperate for more by the final song, E Minor. It was nice to hear accents from the keyboard and organ interlaced subtly into their studio work as well. I was also impressed at how they managed to capture a bit of their live performance in terms of energy onto their record, especially Jamie Baca's intense drumming skills. Many successful bands never fully achieve that.     

    What's different from previous incarnations of the band is a dirtier yet fuller sound due to bass player Ian Baca and newly appointed drummer Jamie Baca. Coupled together with Ryan Baca's talented songwriting skills and electrifying guitar work, Wake Up Lucid has never sounded better or more complete. The EP is now available on . For $4.99, you get your money's worth. Pick it up now!

Below is an older write up from Rolling Stone, written 3/10/2009, since then, Jamie Baca has replaced Dan Hodge as the drummer of he band, and boy, does this Baca rip.

Introducing... Wake Up Lucid

March 10, 2009 11:30 AM

Thanks, S.S. readers, for your tips about L.A. trio Wake Up Lucid. We checked 'em out, dug their shit and hunted 'em down. We got them fresh -- turns out their first gig was last December.

Wake Up Lucid are cousins Ryan Baca (guitars/vocals) and Ian Baca (bass), and drummer Dan Hodge. They've known each other forever and jammed plenty before officially forming the band last March.

At that first gig in December, at LA's 24K club, "A couple of DJs from KROQ were there and they were really pumped on it," says Ryan, 29, who loves the Beatles and Zep and the Black Keys and the Raconteurs. "The crowd was stoked and they just started asking us back. So we decided to roll with it and kept going."

And they've only played a handful of shows since, and they're still in the process of making an EP.

They certainly have the dedication. "At our second show, we were about to get on stage when our drummer gets a phone call that his house just burned down," says Ryan. "We ended up playing the show -- I mean, it was already burned to the ground."

Check out "Broke Down House" below, and head over to their MySpace to hear more.

Wake Up Lucid - "Broke Down House"

Iberico de Bellota Ham

    I was walking through Bristol Farms this morning in Los Angeles by the deli department when I walked by a sign that stated:

Exclusively at Bristol Farms

Iberico de Bellota Ham

$99.99lb.

    WTF? No misprint here. So what's up with ham that costs $100/lb?

Scotch

    I never knew that much about Scotch before. It seemed to me like something old people who smoke cigars that don't want to be around their wives drink in some secluded and refined place. I have had a Johnny Walker Red before and really did not think very highly about it, in fact, gross might have been the adjective. I took a trip to Portland, Oregon and met with my buddy Matt Braman, who is now a retired bartender, he switched careers into sustainable business practices. Anyways, we went to a place he used to work called Paddy's Bar and Grill to link up with good friends Josh and Carla. Biggest liquor selection I have ever seen. I wanted something other than a beer, and asked Matt what I should get. He suggested a Scotch and we talked about the idea that older scotches were better and that was the way they were meant to be drank. I turned to the bartender and asked him, "if I was to die tonight, which Scotch, would reverberate in the afterlife?", this guy did not miss a beat, and reached for the Macallan 25 year. He leaned over and warned me that this shot was going to be $45.00. I thought about it, good friends, amazing city, life is short...hell yes. Over the next 15 minutes, I sat and sipped one of the most amazing Scotch Whiskeys I've ever had the pleasure to sip. I was also able to share that with all my friends. It was amazing. I think it's the kind of thing you have to be ready for, which can only be prepared by experience. If you ever get the chance, your over 21, you've grown tired of the standard drinks, and you have the means...give it a try, they are amazing.

Click HERE, for the list of the 10 most expensive Whiskeys in the world. You will be shocked.

Illusion Lab's "Touch Grind"

    Currently, I'm on a photo trip in Oslo, Norway for Forum with Stevie Bell, Nic Sauve, Nico Cioffi, Joni Malmi and Peter Line. We are very busy and don't have much down time, however, when we do, this new app from Illusion Labs for the iPhone is constantly being broke out. For those who don't know, it is a multi-touch skateboard game for the iPhone and it is as addicting as crack. I downloaded it for $4.99 from the iTunes store and it is wasting my life away. The look and feel of the game is very realistic. Check the video below. This video game will do no good for anybody who wants to do something with their life, so if you don't want to turn into a vegatable, steer clear of this and the iPhone. It's too late for me, I'm addicted.

Action Horse Presents "Pony Tale"

    A couple of years ago I had the pleasure to go to Hemsedal, Norway with the Roxy team for a photo shoot. While I was on that trip, I roomed with Per-Hampus Stålhandske, who at the time, was filming for the Roxy project, "Labor of Love" and we hit it off. Although I haven't spoken with him too many times since, it has always been a pleasure to run into him or see that he is doing well. So it goes without saying, when his new project dropped, I definitely wanted to make sure I had a chance to give it my full attention.
    First off, it's a free movie. In our current market place, people do not want to pay for anything. I am for the idea of just giving the movie away and increasing your viewing audience. The reason sponsors give money for projects like this is so that when you see their rider, it will connect you to their product. Enough said. I'm heading towards a tangent here, but, I cannot stand going to a movie premier and having to pay to get in to watch the film that they want me to purchase. That's like paying for it twice. Anyways, back on track. Stepchild was one of the first companies to realize that if they gave the movie away, more people would watch it, thus, increasing the advertising. Give the people what they want. Awesome. Obviously, this doesn't apply to every situation and is much more complex than I am making it seem.
    Secondly, the film stars some of my favorite riders including: Stian Solberg, Knut Eliassen, Hampus Mosseson, Jakob Wilhelmson and a slew of other very talented Scandanavians. These guys rip hard.
    Thirdly, this film, unlike many other snowboard movies on the market, is free of the normal politics of big business snowboarding, meaning, that it's fun to watch and makes you want to go snowboarding. This should be the end product of a film about snowboarding. Simple, right? Well, aparently not. Many films on the market today are plagued with ultra cool guy image, directors not getting the final cut for their art due to financial leverage and a complete lack of any type of underlying theme or message other than snowboarding sells so here is a bunch of snowboarding. This is not.
    So with all that being said, I'm going to have to say that this is one of my favorite movies of the year and recommend it to anyone who like to snowboard for the fun of it. Pat Moore has a great cameo in the movie. Just trust me, download it for free at http://www.actionhorsefilms.com/ponytale/.
    One thing I should mention, I had a really difficult time downloading the movie. I mean, it wasn't user friendly, so if your not Über computer saavy, you may have some difficulty in downloading it. The best way I found to do this was to click High Definition under the "Torrent" section. On a Mac, when you click this, a dialouge box will open. See the diagram below. Click ok and it will open Opera and begin downloading. Easy enough, however, this was not obvious at first. The first option on the site works through a third party called GigaSize. The ten times that I tried to download it through this option, it would stall and never complete the download which was annoying. I actually had to chat with Stian to figure it out. Anyways, hope this helps.

Below are some photos from the Roxy trip to Norway and other uncategorizeable instances where I have chilled with these dudes. Check 'em out homies.

(The man behind the lens, Per-Hampus Stålhandske)

(Per-Hampus with a silky smooth bs5 on the step up. Hesedal, Norway)


(Tonia Detomas hitting a kicker in Hemsedal, Norway)


(Erin Comstock with a proper method on the hip in Hemsedal)


(Portrait of Knut Elissen in the Tahoe Backcountry)


(Knut showing the kids how it's done - Ouray, Colorado)


(Stian Solberg looking...)


(...at this)

So, whatever, whatever...Check the film!

New Stepchild Video - Downloaded

 

"DOWNLOADED"

Stepchild has once again decided that money is not important to them by releasing a free downlaoadable Team video aptly titled "Downloaded". For those who don't know, Stepchild's team cosists of Simon ,(samoan), Chamberlain, Joe Sexton, Fredu Sirvio, Markku Koski, Stian Solberg, Risto Ruokola, Scott Vine, Chris Wimbles. E Man, Brian McClatchy, and November 2008 Transworld Snowboarding cover boy JP Walker. In typical Stepchild fashion, there is quite a bit of narritive delivered by the team to bring you a personal feel to the movie, skate style. It is obvious that they were not working with a big budget, but rather, taking all the footage they compiled during this past winter, and used the editing talents of Ilauri Suhonen. The movie begins with a travel segment to Japan and you witness first-hand the trials of traveling mixed with the fun of doing it all and continues into segments like "backcountry", "contests", "park", etc. I have to say that I am pleased with the movie by this criteria: does it make me want to go snowboard? If the answer is yes, it's a good movie, so, the answer is yes. If you asked whether it was as good as their previous effort "Child Support", I would have to say no. That movie was epic. This one is great to have on your computer and watch with your friends during downtimes. Also, I found it better to watch the movie online instead of actually downloading it to your desktop. The copy, and I downloaded it twice, suffered from audio problems and was extremely annoying to watch, so just watch it online, if your connection is in this decade, you should be fine. One last plug, Stepchild Snowboards is a real snowboard company. Support them, they make a good product, they give away free stuff and are owned by Sean Johnson, it doesn't get anymore core than that.