Conquer fear by doing;
not thinking, not planning, not dreaming;
doing.
Do the thing you fear and your fear will evaporate like frost in the morning sun.
There is nothing here to fear. Do.
With all Art - there is no place to hide. Not on a screen, not on a stage, not on a page. Be real and your realness WILL COME THRU....
Peace and love,
xox LV
"Never too late, never too old, never too bad, never too sick. Get started. The journey is the destination." Bikram
Angeline: Linda Viens, vox, acoustic guitar; Emily Grogan, vox, electric guitar; Scott Cornielle, bass; Larry Dersch, drums, Gabriel Rossi, violin; Randy MacCaffrie, percussion.....and many friends and special guests....all the time...:-)
Cosmic-Trigger: Linda Viens and producer/dj/track-maker Ted Corrigan...new tracks coming soon...!
Bad Saints: Incarnation 1 ("Beautiful Today") - Derek Boyd, mandolin; Larry Dersch, drums; Andrea Gaudette; piano, David Grogan, bass; Eamonn McKeever, guitar; LV, vox.
Incarnation 2 ("So It Goes") - Derek Boyd, mandolin, vox; Ted Corrigan, laptop, beats; Larry Dersch, drums; David Fredette, guitar, vox; David Grogan, bass; , guitar; LV,vox.
Influences
George Clinton, Regina Spector, Terence McKenna, Oscar Wilde, Larry Love, Robert Anton Wilson, Mick Jagger, Mary Oliver, Goldfrapp, Woven Hand, Richard Metzger, Modest Mouse, Iggy Pop, Aleister Crowley, Gorillaz, Alabama 3, Cat Power, Dresden Dolls, David Bowie, Pema Chodrun, Wayne Valdez, Jason Webley, Charles Bukowski, George Sand, Tom Petty, Alex Grey, Beck, Grant Morrison, Joe Coleman, Howard Zinn, Asia Argento, Mazzy Star, White Stripes, Alan Watts, Michelle Wilde, Bad Saints, The Pogues, P.J. Harvey, Damien Hirst, Marc Chagall, Neil Young, Emily Grogan, Portishead, Rolling Stones, Asa Brebner, Drive by Truckers, Galway Kinnell, Steve Earle, Virginia Woolf, Brickpecker, Massive Attack, Lucinda Williams, Betty Davis, Hank Williams III, Morphine, Cowboy Junkies, Ted Corrigan, Morcheeba, Gabrielle Riley, Count Zero, Bob Dylan, Kelly Davidson, The Love Artist, Dave Matthews, The Jayhawks, Eamonn McKeever, Kay Hanley, Arab Strap, Peter Moore, Sufyan Stevens, Madonna, Nick Cave, Andrea Gillis, Tenacious D, Angelina Jolie, The Five, The Titanics, Pablo Neruda, Patti Smith, TRex, Anais Nin, Izzy Maxwell, Janis Joplin, The Neats, Gertrude Stein, Tammy McLaughlin, Dan Coughlin, Blackalicious, Pfunk, Jack Black, Siobhan Dunne, Malcolm X, Aerosmith, Alex Chilton, Eminem, Radiohead...and the list goes ON, dudes!!!
"I hope that the time [When cannabis is legalized] isn't too distant; the illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
"Angeline’s Powdered Pearls feels like an arrival. As Linda Viens and Emily Grogan croon in the opening track, “Weathervane,” it’s as though the listener has “made it through the emptiness, the heartache and the loneliness” only to arrive at the pivotal moments depicted in the band’s edgy mix of 1960s-influenced folk rock. Each track manages to convey a sense of knowledge and calm about these points of arrival, while tackling the hurt of lost love, painful memories, death and even revolution. Consequently, the album has the ability to capture those moments of pleasant self-evaluation, where suddenly everything seems to make sense. It’s the album to put in when you’re finally feeling like you can forget about your most recent heartbreak, and you’re ready to move forward with the sound of the upbeat “Girl of Opportunity” in your ears.
Though Angeline’s sound is that of folk rock, complete with banjo and harmonica, the two women grew up with punk influences that seem to be responsible for their edgy delivery. But Powdered Pearls hints toward a number of other influences as well. The meandering two-part harmonies of “The Clearing” bring to mind Chan Marshall’s vocal work on You Are Free in their purposefully mismatched quality, the higher line featuring playful staccatos over the more sustained melody. The comparison ends there, however. The vocals are playful rather than ethereal, possessing a characteristic edgy confidence. Driven by the steady percussion and the playful use of the vibraphone, played by Cheryl Etu, “The Clearing” cheerfully describes waiting for promised letters that never arrive.
The album features many contrasting styles, indicating a wide range of musical experience. With its despondent vocal lines and the almost theatrical despair of the lyrics, the title track reveals a darker, almost chilling sound, with a mournful violin solo enhancing the other-worldly and grieving harmonies as Viens and Grogan repeat, over and over, “Everything dies, everything dies.”
Powdered Pearls, in all its wisdom and clarity, is a successful first release from the two solo artists, and hopefully the beginning of a long-running collaboration."
(Hi-N-Dry)
-Melina Moore (Northeast Performer Magazine, Oct. 1, 2007)
www.myspace.com/angelinemusic
Bad Saints:
Alabama 3 meets Steve Earle meets Portishead meets ...Lynyrd Skynyrd in a dark alley...!
"Linda Viens could sing the phone book and make your soul weep. The songs here have all the sass of a Black Crows rocker or a classic Rolling Stones tune, but the styles of music are pure American Storyteller. Recorded by Morphine's Dana Colley, there is an immediate homey, easy organic flow to the band and their songs. There are flashes of folk, country, blues, mixed with turntables and laptop electronica here and there, and a virtual who's who of Boston's best musicians and session players. Every track sounds and feels like a killer jam in the lounge with some friends and a few bottles of good beer and a fine single malt. Music like this is meant to make your soul feel good and I sincerely hope that everyone gets a chance to bob along." -Joel Simches (Noise Magazine 2006)
"Link for Linda" by Mauro
"You are what your deepest desire is.
As your desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny..."
(words of wisdom from my friend Michael Guardabascio xox)
Record Label
Hi-N-Dry Studios, Cambridge, MA , www.hi-n-dry.com
With every new thought, with every shift in consciousness and awareness, with every kind and joyful action, we are working miracles." - LV, August 2008
"Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society that you wanted. How would you live, personally, in that society? Start living that way NOW!" - Paul Goodman - author and sociologist, 1911-1972.
Yes, suppose... suppose everything we needed was right here, right now, (like the very nose on our faces)...everything we needed to create the lives we want, for ourselves and for the world... the beauty, the bounty, the freedom, the peace, the respect, the Bliss, the Grace!?
It is! If WE have the courage, the stamina, the determination to create the REAL revolution...
the Revolution INSIDE -
the choice each moment to seek the Good, to connect with the Divine within us and without us (whenever possible - we are human after all!)
in all that Is...
as it is ever unfolding...to BE the good...
Suppose We WERE
the
REAL REVOLUTION...what would that look like?
golden light blazing!
silver rivers flowing...
airborne and light
as feathers on the wind!
...in order to...
BE THE CHANGE (!!%!)
Not asking for change, or wishing for change, or praying for change....
BEING the Change!!!
hmmmm....what if???
I'm so grateful to be alive. To be here. To be a part of the Universe and to learn and to grow as the grasses grow!
Happy NEW YEAR 2009!!!!
Peace y'all!
Yes we can, yes we did, and yes we will!!!" xoxoLV
"It is important in becoming artists to make sure that we do not pollute this world; moreover, as artists we can actually beautify this world. Inspired in this way with our contact with dharma art, there is less room for neurosis. That is the actual project of dharma art, which is both necessary and important. Inch by inch, step by step, our efforts should wake people up through the world of art, rather than please everyone and go along with the current. The dharma artist is not a self-styled artist painting a picture out of his own shit and piss and selling it for a million dollars, but an upright person, a good, gentle, and well-meaning person who is willing to cut through his or her subconscious gossip completely so that a straightforward, brilliant, precise, clear mind takes place....What makes you artistic? What convinces you, if you are uncertain, that a work of art is a real expression of yourself? Or is a work of art something to make sure that the rest of the world is convinced about you, so that in turn you yourself find ground to exist?"
- Chögyam Trungpa, Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher
So much to ponder! Only love the world. Only work a little bit, each day, on what brings you joy, and goodness to all creaturekind!
"What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people
think things are."
- Epictetus
"The problem with the world, is that we draw the circle of our family too small."
- Mother Teresa
"The poet must never avert his eyes. We must see everything."
- Werner Herzog
"Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
- Henry Miller
"If society wants me to be an outlaw, then I'll be an outlaw and a damned good one. People at all times need outlaws." - Ken Kesey
"The ultimate measure of a person is not where he or she stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where that individual stands in times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Your imagination is the single most important tool you have in your daily fight to be free. It is the source of every act of liberation you will ever need to pull off. " - Rob Brezsny
We don't want to die. We want to live. Because we don't want to die, emotionally, spiritually, OR physically, every moment, all that happens, is an opportunity to learn to master the skill of transforming our suffering into grace. This is how we go on, it's the only way TO go on. This is our alchemical challenge, our "experiment" in living...as great Greek philosopher Plutarch (b. 46 AD) said, "what we achieve inwardly will change outer reality"...xoxLV
Born in Minnesota and raised in corn-country, Linda Viens has been playing and singing and writing songs since getting her first guitar at age 12. Linda moved to Boston to attend Mass. College of Art and has been performing since graduating from art school and discovering punk rock. She played drums and sang in the punk band, Children of Paradise, went on to lead local roots rockers, Witch Doctor, sang cabaret with collaborator Catherine Coleman in Les Chanteuse Sorcieres, and formed the notorious funk orchestra Crown Electric Company with her husband Wayne Viens in the mid-nineties. Linda was a founding member of Boston Rock Opera and performed in many productions, including Sgt. Pepper, Jesus Christ Superstar, Abbey Road, Preservation, and Billion Dollar Babies vs. Aqualung. Her daughter Ruby Clare was born in 1998. Linda has recorded with some of Boston's finest including Mark Sandman of Morphine, Asa Brebner, Bad Saints, StarMatters, Ted Corrigan, and Emily Grogan & Cheryl Etu (Angeline). Linda has also produced and directed many Boston based musical projects and recording sessions, and lives to nurture the latent rock star in us all! Linda is currently writing all kinds of stuff, learning to meditate, working with drummer/trackmaker Tamora Gooding and producer/songwriter Peter Dixon, raising her darling daughter Ruby, working for political, social, and cultural change, playing with Angeline, having FUN (:-)), and is available for hire as a music arranger, sound track artist, lyricist, and producer.
Linda studies magick, music, and the mystery of existence. She believes we each can (and do) change the world.
"Be brave, kind, compassionate, creating, responsible and unblaming. Then you will truly be a Warrior of Light". :-) - LV
Try to Praise the Mutilated World
Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
And wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather the thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.
- Polish poet Adam Zagajewski
"Life's a freewheeling vendor: occiput, penis, knee...and geography blended with time equals destiny."
- Joseph Brodsky
Ladies and gentlemen, the free and the brave, the Bad Saints:
"I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think that 'progress' is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live IN IT. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that's what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it!"
- Joan Didion, 1975 UCLA commencement address
"The secret of life," said sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, "is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is - it must be something you cannot possibly do."
So that is it, then, the great discomfort of ever reaching, ever striving? Knowing: there will never be enough hours in the day to love enough, live enough, laugh enough, play enough, kiss enough, dance enough, help enough, write enough, make love enough, create enough, cry enough, heal enough, sing enough, be naked enough, learn enough, see enough, serve enough, give enough, receive enough...and on and on, ad infinitum...? And still, it MUST be, joyously, carelessly, effortlessly, truly.....enough! The Now. The Now. The Now. Today. All that we could ever want. Enough. :-)
The most important thing I look for in a person? How you treat others...
and how you treat yourself....
...and speaking of others, the words below were gifted to me from my wise and amazing friend, Luna Jade (http://www.myspace.com/LunaJ). I read them at her page and the directness and clarity of her vision spoke for my own soul. I share them here as one might cast a prayer upon the wind; putting forth focused intention and desire, but also understanding that Life brings an infinite variety of experience: things and people that will challenge us and bring us to our knees, and things and people that will restore us and empower us, but All will be lessons to embrace and grow from....Thank you Luna Jade!!! xoxo
"Who I'd like to meet:
Those with the grace and confidence in their own light not to be threatened by the glow of another.
People who:
- are masters of their own mind.
- allow themselves to dream... and believe.
- are responsible for... and can provide for... their own existence.
- create, think, feel, learn, work, love ... with tangible results.
- truly are in forward motion, reaching for the next level.
Teach me something new and I will return the gift.
I believe in the true spirit of partnership, where each person brings what they have to offer to the table and works hard toward the common goal. "Investing" in a partnership requires giving more than that which doesn't cost you anything.
The synergy that is possible when each person lives that is amazing... "
"May the road rise up to meet you
and the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face and
the rains fall soft upon your fields. May your heart continuously open to the knowledge that you are worthy, and able, to know true communion with the divine, and true joy, that we can make the choice to be positive.... And
until we meet again, may the Goddess
hold you gently in the palm of her hand...."
"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters." - Seneca
from a beautiful song by Kate Fenner called "Never Done":
'maintain my maintain, my day is long and my don't complain, carry on, my carry on, my notice everything...' It is in the 'noticing'...that we become 'aware' and that we realize, with 'awareness' - anything is possible...
"Don't worry...be strong.....we're almost there........"
Eternal love, xoxo
Linda
All you gotta do is do it. :-) (TM 2008) Linda Viens
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. ~Voltaire
Hello Love, it is almost Thanksgiving here in the states.
This holiday is especially wonderful because it sets aside a day to be with people we love and to reflect upon and share our many blessings and our gratitude.
From my home to yours, bright blessings of gratitude and Love, Love Love Love Joee xx
We are finally ready to start promoting my 'I Surrender' single with my album, 'Ella Trip' coming right after -yey!! What d'ya think to the video teaser?
Hiya, thanks for being a friend - I enjoyed visiting YourSpace :-) Keep it up May your life be full of love, light and fun... hugs SOREN - Beats for change - NYERTUN
Peace Sunday, June 5, 1982, Rose Bowl, no nukes - nuclear disarmament - stop nuclear madness concert - NYC - Central Park - June 12, 1982, 1,000,000 person march and rally for Nuclear Freeze. Photography and presentation by Curtis Rainbow. 'Give Peace a Chance' music by Achim Schultz. Inspiration by Yoko Ono. Dedicated to John Lennon.
Hello, It's always a pleasure to contact my friends, first thanks for your friendship and hope all is well. if you have time, there are some new videos on my page. Life is beautiful. All the best - Pat.
Linda Viens This is the OFFICIAL ALBUM RELEASE PARTY!!! Friday, Nov. 6th at MILLY’S Tavern 500 North commercial st. Manchester NH. Doors open at 9:30. This is an 18+ event. Also performing are special guests ICEMAN, CAMEEN, NACHILUS KEZUCK, APESH!T & UNDU KATI, LB, AND SONS OF KALAL. Hosted by : DJ SAMMY SMOOVE “Your baby mommaz favorite DJ” Free copy of 3rd World War with each paid admission. Proper Attitude Required.
