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We had a great time co-hosting the 80s @8 on 106.7 The Eagle w/Jim E. Chonga (on the right.) It was fun to go in the way back machine AND talk to talk about the NOW of Nu Shooz. Great to meet Bubba too! (on the left)
For those of you who missed the show, check out the tasty conversational tidbits below!
Read moreFreestylin' in Fresno 2015
Actually we have TWO dates to celebrate this month. TODAY, Sunday, June 21st is the 36th anniversary of the first Nu Shooz gig. You read that right. 36 years since that first show in 1979 at Colonel Sumners Park in Portland OR. Yup. We're a summer solstice baby! There were just four band members back then. (It would take another year before the Shoo-horns and I-Lets came on board.)
Also last week, we played Fresno, CA with the Freestyle Explosion Tour. Two years ago in Fresno was our first EVER performance on the tour that has taken us all over the U.S.. Nu Shooz has always had a soft spot for Fresno; friendly people, great crew. It was one of the best shows on the 1986 tour too.
NOW it's on to...
Read moreIt's been interesting around here, a hundred projects going on at once. Carpenters are upstairs rebuilding the shower while downstairs we're working with our friend Mariecella on choreography for the horn section.
Somewhere on the other side of town the finishing touches are being applied to our "nu" website by a guy named Daniel Webb (really - you can't make this stuff up!) and Tim Simpson is building a synth-guitar system so we can trigger piano sounds from a six string.
We have a summer-ful of shows coming up and a million details to attend to; costumes, charts, drum heads, wires, vans....Whoever said it takes a village was only partly right.
It takes a universe.
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That sounds like something out of Star Trek or Star Wars, or...Dancing with the Stars! Weren't we supposed to have flying cars by now?
It's only January, but 2015 is already shaping up to be a fun year. Once again, we'll be appearing with our 80's pals on the Super Freestyle Explosion Tour. Miami, Boston, San Jose, and Fresno are already confirmed.
Read moreMay your holidays be bright! Much love to all...
If you’re in Oregon, you can catch the reunited Nu Shooz Band twice in November. We’ll be in Sheridan, OR at the Monroe Events Center on November 8th and at Jimmy Mak’s in Portland on Saturday, November 15, for TWO shows - one at 7:30 PM and one at 10:00 PM. The band features Nu Shooz alumni Gary Fountain on bass, Tracey Harris, Margaret Linn, and Haley Horsfall on vocals, Johnny Riley on drums, and the Shoo Horns Paul Mazzio and Tim Jensen performing songs from 'Poolside' through 'Kung Pao Kitchen.' Hope to see you there!
photos by Elizabeth Mansell
Our summer shows in Oregon were a BLAST! The best part was laying down the groove with some of our favorite NU SHOOZ alumni. The other best part was the people who showed up and gave us massive doses of LOVE. Thank you band for working so hard. Thank you audience for keeping the music alive. It couldn't happen without you.
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Happy Father's Day! In honor of the occasion - we'd like to tell you a story about a father and son and how our new video came to be...
Once upon a time there was a little boy named Malcolm.
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When citing examples of music video directors with signature looks, names like Anton Corbijn or Matt Mahurin jump out, but the unfortunately overlooked genius in this club must be Jim Blashfield. Creating a trademark visual sensibility with just a handful of videos, the Oregon native created dreamlike fantasies with a cut-out xerographic animation style that reveals a gentle magic hiding the ordinary — strangely devilish garage-sale travelogues, if you will. Jim’s artisan videos, which embrace both texture and perspective, include Talking Heads’ “And She Was,” Paul Simon’s “Boy in the Bubble,” Tears for Fears’ “Sowing the Seeds of Love” and Michael Jackson’s wildly self-effacing “Leave Me Alone.” His most visually-trippy grab bag of kitchen sink mischief, though, is his clip for Nu Shooz’s “I Can’t Wait” from their album Poolside. The video he created for his fellow Portlanders, Valerie Day and John Smith, helped propel the duo’s inescapably catchy hit into pop history — and also into the still-curious minds of video music fans everywhere.
I spoke to Jim recently about his career, and he shared his experience on creating this amazing piece of filmmaking:
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I had a pretty mellow Father's Day, all things considered. Got to spend the whole day in a comfortable chair, reading. It would have been perfect except that the chair was in the waiting room at St. Vincent Hospital. Valerie woke up that morning in severe pain. By noon it wasn't getting any better so we went to the Emergency Room. Within the hour she was under the knife, being parted from her APPENDIX!
The Appendix is like the 'Vice President of Internal Organs,' [i.e.; no known function] So as I sat reading in Father's Day splendor, Valerie's Appendix was being impeached. The offending organ went quietly, stating only that it "wanted to spend more time with family."
As luck would have it, the surgeon was a Nu Shooz fan. As they wheeled her into surgery, he asked "Are you the Valerie Day?" Turns out he still had his old 45.