Gallons of Fuel

What is going on right now with the oil spill in the gulf is sickening and totally fucked up. A few years ago I recorded this song called Gallons of Fuel for one of my upcoming solo cds entitled The People Aquarium. WWAP's own DJ Plutoe (Random Ran) made this beat and the song has been sitting in my itunes catalog with only about 5 different people ever hearing it.

This version is unfinished, unmixed and may never see the light of day other than this blog and through this free download. It just seems like a proper time to share a song when we are going through such a serious environmental crisis. Hope you enjoy it (the song not the crisis), thanks for reading this blog and for following our music! Here is Gallons of Fuel.

-David Downey Jr.

We are...

decrepit statues, broken relationships, dreams of flying, alien visions, psychotic multiple personalities, bird communication, rusty playgrounds with steep metal slides, words of vitriol, misguided energy, dreams deferred, marijuana, dolphins rescuing humans, insight of spiders, job disillusionment, untranslatable instructions, forced hypnotism, insane neighbors, passive aggressiveness, aggressive aggressiveness, complicated interactions, not holding back, absolute power without corruption, rock proof glass houses, early bird worm hoarders, silent objections, mental assassinations, undiscovered planets, squeaky swingsets, dusty nooks, painstaking detail, franklin mint manufactured plates of unknown heroes, bounced checks, climbing trees and hiding, hearts torn out, roadkill reanimated, the secret sauce, workplace sabotage, calling in sick, going in sick, driving recklessly, walking carefully, shooting your mouth off, excess, ambience, creation, transference of energy, ancient thought patterns, the superconsciousness, the ability to fly, your first forgotten dream, your first remembered nightmare, what you wanted to be as a kid, who you are as an adult.

-David Downey, Jr.

David Downey and The Drugs Live at The Rocks

This Thursday May 2oth, Woke With A Plan frontman David Downey Jr will be performing with his posse of lunatics The Drugs. Playing in support of longtime North Bay mainstays High Intent, this gig promises to be an action packed roller coaster ride of bangin beats and conscious lyrics.

For this potentially dangerous prescription of The Drugs, Downey will be joined by Derailed Freight Train, DJ Plutoe, Rose Logue and possibly Ehnertia. This regimen will likely cause extreme heart palpitations, spontaneous dancing, binge drinking, hallucinatory visions, increased sex drive, heightened sense of ninja skills and Beatle-mania like hysteria. We are currently awaiting approval from FEMA and the CIA before we can release our product for mass consumption but are currently allowed to dose you in small venues.

We hope to see you there. Feel free to bring children with fake ids, grand-parents and aliens. We will rock their respective world!

High Intent and David Downey and The Drugs @ The Rocks. 146 Kentucky St. Petaluma

-David Downey, Jr.

All Over A Girl

Woke With A Plan recently performed at Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland which is a dope spot if you have not checked it out. Its a coffee shop that has good beer on tap, an outdoor patio in the back where you can smoke and the staff is cool as shit. Martin Sole and Alice Hejna started up the night up with soulful sets of folk rock before WWAP dimmed the lights only to illuminate briefcases and alien heads while some 70's sci-fi movie with Charlton Heston lived on in our TV set. We will never tell what the movie was or if the aliens head was returned to its body and planet...

You will just have to come on out to the next show and see what is in store.

Until then here is a free download of the song All Over A Girl(Live @ Mama Buzz)

-David Downey, Jr.

Woke With A Plan Live at Mama Buzz

Woke With A Plan will be performing this Wednesday, March 31st at Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland. Also on the bill is folk/rock singer Alice Hejna who has been touring the west coast from Paris, France and local SF folk/soul singer Martin Sole. This is an early gig, starting at 6 and ending at 9 so you can check us out for a cheap $5 bucks and still be able to get a good nights sleep in preparation for April's Fool's jokes.

On a side note, David Downey Jr and The Drugs rocked the House of Shields in SF on the 26th. Costume changes, glowing mannequin heads and pure unfiltered energy made the set incredibly unique and it will only get crazier as this was the groups debut. Derailed Freight Train injected ambient flavor with his electric guitar and Random Ran owned the tables while David Downey, Jr. jumped around like a madman covered in ants ranting lyrical poetry. Pictures will be available soon.

We hope to see you this Wednesday at Mama Buzz!!! Be there...

-David Downey, Jr.

David Downey Jr and The Drugs

Woke With A Plan frontman David Downey Jr has recently undertaken an additional project--David Downey Jr and The Drugs.

David Downey Jr and The Drugs is pretty much going to be a live circus with Downey as the rapping ringleader. Long inspired by his talented circle of musician friends while contemplating more ways to put on a great live show, Downey decided to combine the two. The Drugs will be a revolving cast of instrumentalists, fire breathers, singers, escape artists, rappers, bearded ladies and extra terrestrials. For the first show it will be Downey performing songs with the eternally dependable (WWAP member Randy Ziady-Huling) Random Ran, Ehnertia (Sunset Leagues) and Derailed Freight Train (Burning Token Records) . The idea is for Downey to lead the show while still allowing opportunities for the various members of The Drugs to take center stage.

The first chance the world has to see David Downey Jr and The Drugs live is THIS FRIDAY THE 26th at The House of Shields in SF. Alice Hejna and Blair are also playing.

-David Downey, Jr.

Woke With A Plan & Derailed Freight Train

Woke With A Plan is pleased to announce and share with you our recent collaboration with Derailed Freight Train aka Damian C. Cohn for his upcoming EP "Back Seat Driver"(produced by WWAP's own Topher Lewis). This song was recorded in one session using a 20 year old Yamaha Portasound Voice Bank PSS-270 (the one you got for your 10th birthday) for the main beat.

Here is Voodoo Doll for your listening pleasure.

Multi-instrumentalist Derailed Freight Train has been a longtime contributor to the Northern California music scene through his various innovative undertakings including the euphonic Scattershot-Theory, sample smorgasbord Overturned Big-Rig, The Brozone on KBRO and The Petaluma Radiophonic Workshop.

Great things often gain mystique once they are gone, growing more legendary with each fond remembrance. Such is The Petaluma Radiophonic Workshop. Set in a dilapidated old farmhouse on a secluded road in Petaluma CA, The Workshop served as a mecca for local artists and musicians to gather and create. Wall to wall cables and strategically placed microphones left The Workshop completely wired for recording and eclectic instruments abound encouraged all-nighter parties/jam sessions. You just can't describe the feeling of taking a piss then looking up to find a microphone and realizing that your bathroom experience has been recorded or trying to keep tune on a vintage organ while some of The Bay Area's most respected musicians are rocking out beside you. Encounters with an unrelenting, invading possum (immortalized here) and a half-feral cat named Tagger proved to visitors that the workshop was just as much a magnet for wild animals as it was for eccentric musicians.

On Sunday nights Cohn would open the doors (they were never locked anyway) to host The Brozone on KBRO FM, a weekly radio show focusing on a variety of revolving topics and including an ever-changing lineup of musicians, personalities and friends. No topic was too absurd and no sound too ridiculous for the circus The Brozone would often become. Cohn presided over this harmonic carnival like a mad scientist watching his experiment animate, mutate and turn to ash all in the course of a night. Seasoned maestros and inexperienced beginners mingled together to absorb the magic and bask in the creative glow.

Sadly, The Workshop no longer exists in its original form but Cohn has continued to produce The Brozone from temporary locations vowing to return the The Workshop to its former glory once a suitable space has been discovered.

Be on the lookout for Back Seat Driver and future collaborations between Woke With A Plan and Derailed Freight Train!!!

-David Downey, Jr.