Treasure Valley Podcast

This week Chuck sits down to chat with Optiflynn. 

Check out their live performance here!

https://youtu.be/ucoZi9AyFrE

Visit their bandcamp to purchase music here!

https://optiflynn.bandcamp.com/

For this month’s edition of Treasure Valley Live, we went on our first field trip. The new setting (the stage at Idaho Arts Charter School) and augmented crew (Collin Insley supplied extra camera angles and JD Stefan recorded and mixed the audio) allowed us to fully capture the creativity, splendor, and sneaky inscrutability of Optiflynn.   

A recent addition to the Treasure Valley music scene, Optiflynn is formed around the songwriting prowess of Mike and Jordon Harris with John Shavel and David Kelly supplying cello and drums. Their music stands comfortably in the arena of chamber pop, but a certain thread in their instrumentation and lyrics makes their songs more irreverent and iconoclastic than you would otherwise think. Across these four tracks, the band consistently values sonic tangents and lyrical audacity over predictable song structures. This formally adventurous set rewards repeat listens.

Watch the video here

https://youtu.be/ucoZi9AyFrE

Visit Optiflynn's bandcamp here

https://optiflynn.bandcamp.com/

Chuck prescribes possible solutions to the growing negativity online, in Idaho, and across the country.

Want to get a feel for what it’s like to fall several stories after a harness failure on a construction site? VR can do that. Do you want to know how it might feel to have a mental illness that causes paranoid voices to comment on your surroundings? VR can do that too. This week I chat with Jennifer Lastra of Boise’s own Virtual Reality company, 360 immersive. It turns out that VR is for more than video games.

After an amazing set in the LowerGentry makeshift Studio, Parade of Bad Guys has a conversation with Chuck about their musical stylings and how they're always making music fun.

What is up with the skyrocketing real estate prices here in the Treasure Valley? Are we in a bubble? Should you wait before you buy a new home? This week I sit down and chat Austin Whiting, a local property developer, owner, and manager who has a background in Economics. He helps shed some light on why real estate prices have shot up so quickly and what we all can do to avoid large corporations from taking over local land development.

In preparation for their 2021 Treefort performance, St. Terrible accepted our invitation to LowerGentry Studios. We first became aware of the band earlier this year when they released An Endless Fiction, an EP that gobsmacked us with its sonic experimentation, formal unity, and lyrical introspection. Their music contains shades of our favorite mid-2000s indie rock releases. It has the earnestness. The musical dexterity. But, there is something wholly original in the way St. Terrible attacks each song’s dynamics. Across this 4 track set, they consistently retire from one deafening high only to ascend to another. Each crescendo is unexpected and invigorating; watching Zach Herbert (vocals, guitar), Sean Dahlman (piano), and Aaron Atkins (drums) traverse these emotional peaks reminds us why we love live music. Enjoy!

St Terrible performed an impressive live set in our tiny studio. We chat about their unique music compositions and their other creative endeavors!

This week I sit down with Elliot Norton to discuss how to write an engaging story or screenplay by focusing on Characters and Conflict while following the simple three act structure.