January 2024 album: The Silent Spectre

 The first Secret Path album for 2024 is complete!........ The Silent Spectre is upon us. Hopefully 11 more to come.....one for each moon........ Listen Here!

The Silent Spectre

 Another new and awesome song, and the final and title track of our January 2024 album, 'The Silent Spectre'........ its a super rad, deeply groovy song about how our life experiences can be enhanced by awareness of our impending end, featuring guitars, organs, and even a guzheng! listen here, follow us on Bandcamp, and enjoy!

Chieves Running

 Okay, it's time to introduce our amazing bass player, Randolph "Chieves" Running! The smooth and steady melodic man down low that I've known since we were in our first band 'Flash Lamp Centigrade" back in high school......when we met he insisted for days on end that the plural of 'chief' was 'chieves' and he stood on that hill for days on end until he died there hahaha.....he's the kind of guy where you never are quite sure if he's serious or not.....so I always call him Chieves, but most people call him Randy......here's a couple of random pictures of him, the first one with his brother Glenn (Randy on the right).....the second picture was some Halloween party we were at in North Hollywood....he made that giant bass guitar! It actually works.......

Cosmic Polaroids 3

 Well hello there! Here are some polaroids from when The Secret Path took a team building retreat last summer, to really get comfortable and bond with each other..... the first image is a rare glimpse onto the face of the elusive Thinking Machine of Antwerp!......it could even allow you to project your dreams and visions outward into reality, where others could see them. The second picture is of The Dean of Deans; Dean Supreme! He is now, of course, our spiritual mentor, but this is when we first ran into him while looking for Dracula's Castle in Romania, and he gave us some valuable life lessons and taught us a lot about the universe, and everything......certainly one of the wisest and most entertaining people I've ever met. That's his pet dragon sidekick in the background....

And speaking of dragons, the last photo was taken by Flipping Pancakes in northern Tibet, and to me is conclusive proof that dragons exist, and walk among us......(fly among us?).......... all in all, it was a great trip, and it really brought us all closer together!....

Museum 4

Here is a little peek at a small amount of the immense collection of swag on the desk of Curator Melinda "Mindy" Murata, from The Museum of Wonders in Alberta.......she gets cool free stuff from all over the galaxy! From the top left we have a big stack of magical foundation make up that can blend your skin to take on the hues of many and various exotic colors..... moving right from there we see a book of protection spells from the helpful Druids on their planet of Shosthanna....... At the top center is a Love Clock, which makes various movements and noises based on the amount of love that is felt in the room.... the red light in the center will glow brightly when there are soul mates in the area.... top right is a signature Deince Chitlto nose to earring chain (complete with charms) from her time as an intergalactic pop star! NIB looks like hahaha........ bottom left we have a Woodland Sprite Harmonizer, or WSPHR (The green lady)..... when switched on it will harmonize vocally with anything you say or sing! its fantastic..... and finally the brooch at the bottom center is a remote control for all the light fixtures and water features in this absolutely fabulous museum!
 

Time Passing

 Here we have 'Time Passing'...... another new song to take us deeper down The Secret Path.....maybe its Library music? I'm not sure, I'm no good at picking genres and quantifying stuff, so you tell me.... I know it has cool guitars and bits and pieces of an old Lens Crafters commercial!....follow us on Bandcamp, and enjoy.......

Birihdoy Qub

 Heigh Ho friends! Here is another fabulous Interdimensional McDonalds Birthday Club membership card!...... In this particular universe Ronald is a tie wearing football skeleton, and those jars at the bottom are mood altering powders that you order with your meal, and he sprinkles the dust on you and completely changes your mood!......very cool if you're having a bad day, or just want to feel different.......

Tarot and Astrology (T and A) 3

 It's time for another installment of Tarot and Astrology! Here we have a manifestation of the High Priestess, pictured with her faithful cosmic squid 'Pearl', who doubles as a magical glass cutter/lens crafter.....Pearl can cut amazing windows out of anything, even if its not made from glass!.......The picture on the top left is a keytar once owned by Kip Winger, that he gave me when our bands toured together once upon a time......this picture is the last time I saw it, as it was stolen not long after the photo was taken. At the bottom center appears to be a woman playing Fruit Ninja on her tablet....looks like she's not wearing any clothes hahaha! The triple triptych on the left middle is of the evolution of a piece of popcorn into a cloud, which somehow becomes people and symbols along the way.....below that is a picture of the small hidden beach in the Baltimore Harbor where my friends and I spent much of our time during the Sunrise Festival rave back in the early 90s...and below that is a happy anime girl in a grassy field, surrounded by various symbology and ephemera........

Snow Storm

Another new song to take us further down The Secret Path!!....this one is called 'Snow Storm', and it's a beat driven, alternative rock song featuring ethereal piano, dreaming guitars, singing fairies, and crystalline wind chimes......there's a lot going on inside the storm so listen close and follow us on Bandcamp!               Music Link Here

Love LK
 

Mi/Km

It's time to introduce our heroic keyboard superstar, Miles Kilometer! That's him in the first picture, deep in the zone at his home setup. His real name is Miles Conner, and I first met him on The London Eye;.... both of our dates had somehow or another ditched us on that fateful evening, but we both still used our tickets for the Eye, and as the only two people standing by ourselves high above London, we gravitated together, and our mutual love and admiration for early King Crimson music cemented an eternal musical connection which still thrives to this day.....I named him Miles Kilometer because he has dual citizenship and I thought it was funny hahaha! 

The second picture is of our completely insane Head Roadie/Technician, Gar Bevilacua, or Garish Beverages as I call him, or Flashy Drinks as he is known in some circles, or simply Gary, or Flashy.....he is amazing to watch, and fairly difficulty to corner or control. He does his work barefoot (as you can see) because he is equally proficient with hands and feet; a technical wizard without whom we would be lost on the road.....or on The Path. I got him that Superman shirt as he's the only one of us who would choose DC over Marvel, and he's not afraid to stick to his guns......cheers to you, Flashy!
 

Astral Record Player 4

 The Astral Record Player has shown itself yet again!....and a very cosmic record it had for me to play today....first off, this record player is from another dimension and operates on what we call a 'Zodiac Wheel', that knob looking thing on the bottom right corner. You first put the needle on the record, and pull and push that red knob up and down (like those old spinning tops where you push the crank up and down on top and it starts to spin) until it spins a mechanism, which spins the motor, which spins the record! It doesn't require electricity hahaha.....This record is an extremely rare recording from the early 90s of Nick Cave and Tom Waits playing sitar and tamboura, with Ananda Shankar playing a glockenspiel......its called "The Disappearing Lemongrass" and has an out of this world amazing sound to it! The green face you see on the record (the Lemongrass Deity) is only visible when the record is playing, something to do with the way the grooves are constructed. the needle is pink wrapped for safety, and on the lid of this record player, you have a picture of the Skull of Jesus Christ, as well as a replica of one of Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets!........

Spider Queen

Some refractions of the alluring and powerfully dangerous Spider Queen, in honor of my old band from Los Angeles, Efelbed, putting some of our songs on Spotify. Check them out in the link below to hear some cool rock songs from 2008-9ish era!......

Efelbed (Spotify) 

Mossy Dew

 Hello all! This is concept art of The Mystery Machine (or Machina Mystere) for a little known spinoff of Scooby Doo that came out in 1972 called 'Mossy Dew'......it was a gang very similar to Scooby and the Gang, but covered in moss and leaves......they hung out in ancient forests around the world, and instead of solving crime mysteries, they worked on solving long term, lifetime mysteries, like 'why do we exist?' and 'how do we perceive the way we do?'....... it only aired in Eritrea, Zambia, and Lebanon, and wasn't on the air very long at all. I'll see if I can find any images of the actual gang......

Lady Prism 4

The inscrutable and ever changing Lady Prism, made entirely out of magic.....
 

Moss and Memories

Hello friends! Another magical song has sprouted along the Secret Path......its called 'Moss and Memories'.... kind of a dark, cosmic dream pop, with acoustic guitar, synth, spacey drums, and vocals.... there are vocals on this track....sung by all of The Secret Path 5..... check it out on our Bandcamp, stream, download and follow!

THIS WAY

There's a tree in the forest, it looks just like you

Every time a leaf will fall, you can feel it too

"Make the most of it" she said, as she

kissed my cheek and drove away..... I was alive

I was alone

There's a skeleton, covered in moss and memories

He's been looking down on us for half a century

He knows that all is well that ends well, and I told him it all ended so long ago

We were alive

We were alone

Just like you

LK

 

When Wheels Turn

 A new song grows along The Secret Path!..... When Wheels turn is a chilled out, downtempo beat with elements of Hauntology, and Drum and Bass, courtesy of our drummer extraordinaire, Rad Boggzz! listen on the free Bandcamp app, stream and enjoy!......

Listen here

Van Stock 3

 Here is a few more rad vans from my Uncle Zane, all three of which I used for different businesses I used to operate.......the first one is from back when we tried to get a Dungeon Synth radio station going in North Carolina, called WZNC......it was super awesome, and this is the van that our street team would ride around in.....but I guess the world wasn't quite ready for a Dungeon Synth radio station back then.

The second photo is from my mobile cannabis delivery service, Unityy, back in the 90s.....too bad it wasn't quite in fashion.....or legal hahaha!......moving on.

The last one was from my ill fated dot com startup in the early 2000s, wizarc.com, which was the central website for my chain of wizard themed arcades....we had 11 of them at one point, but everyone games at home these days......peace!

The Floyd 3 (Spelle Krafter Edition)

 My lovely sister was inspired by our versions of Pink Floyd's 1969 album cover for 'Ummagumma', so she made her own version and sent it in for the blog...... obviously that is her in the center playing the role of David Gilmour. I believe this picture was taken from inside her company's dance rehearsal studio in Brooklyn, where, if you look through the open door behind her, you'll see that A Tree still Grows hahaha! The strange people and animals around her in costume are various members of her theater company, which is currently in rehearsal for a musical version of 'Dune' that I can't wait to see! The portrait at the top is of the legendary choreographer Ames Philandering, also known as The Godfather of modern science fiction dance routines.......a little vain to have such a giant picture in his studio but who am I to judge! Carry on my wayward sons and daughters.........

Rad Boggzz

Here we have Bradley Bogsworth, affectionately known to all of us over here as Rad Boggzz, plucky drummer and Cosmic Lunatic for The Secret Path 5.....he's been after me to 'give the proverbial drummer some' all week so we're working on something this weekend that features perhaps more interesting and intricate drums.....more on that, and more members of The Secret Path, to follow.......
 

Notes From the Bedroom Wall 3

 Heigh Ho! This here is another installment of strange happenings at my bedroom wall.... at this point in the story my wall was made of grey bricks! This was a long time ago, and that's my sister, Spelle, checking herself out in the mirror/giving thanks and praise at my tiny little altar to our Great Grandmother Winsome Winchell (that tiny little obelisk looking thing with the Cameo on it)......... we were heading to a Renaissance Faire, and she was dressed like a fortune teller, and I was her barbarian bodyguard, similar to Conan (I know, very gauche, but I was young, cut me some slack hahaha!). To the far left of the mirror/altar is a Spectral Hexometer, given to me by a Voodoo Priestess just outside of Lafayette, LA......It helps detect and prevent hexes from befalling your person or household, and can even diagnose the specifics of the hex in some cases....its one of my most valuable possessions. On the shelf below we see a very young potted jimson weed plant, next to a photograph of the one time I was able to levitate in front of  other people in a forest in Oregon....eveyone thinks that photo is doctored but I swear its real! All the way to the right there (the screaming woman) is a cd box set by Spelle Krafter of screams, chants, and incantations..... a very powerful and difficult to listen to set of strange sounds from the human body. She only had 10 copies made, thats my copy on the shelf there.....

slainte!

MTV 2

 MTV Eternal!..........

Cognitive Underpinnings

 A new song flows along The Secret Path.....going by the name of 'Cognitive Underpinnings', and rounding out a week of 'Under' themed songs......its a straight forward, chilled out downtempo beat with music box and wacky synth vibes, and also features a brief cameo from the psychic kid in The Oracle's apartment from The Matrix. Check it out here and please enjoy viewing the universe through your own personal lens of perception.......

Love LK

Optigan Season 3

 Hey there! It's Optigan Season again!.... here we have the one of a kind signature model Optigan of the late, great Henry Muster, legendary organist for the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus for most of the 70s and 80s...... hand painted for him by Roger Dean's cousin, Dodger Dean, who as we all know was very enamored of the circus (and probably owed Henry money hahaha!). Some of its standout features include a large green On button in the center, because as you know Henry was very close to legally blind, and during the circus performances night after night it was very dark in the organist pit; a fanciful and lovely sculpted autumn scene, complete with bizarre purple dragon (because, the 70s, you know?); a trapeze scene to the left of the main keyboard, with very interesting dials and knobs that allowed Henry to do all kinds of horn stabs and stings during the Clown part of the shows; and the quixotic, mushroom like knobs at the top right which he could use to apply all kinds of delay, reverb, and distortion; all in all, a gorgeous piece of machinery, perfectly preserved and safely ensconced in the Optigan Museum in Kalispell, Montana.........peace!

Mushrooms

 Found a clump of mushrooms on my walk and a multidimensional conglomerate of universes formed within it............reminds me of a dream I had long ago, where I was a spy, and the buildings in the world I lived in were all made out of intricately interconnected pieces of flexible wood, kind of like wicker, or caning, but much cooler looking, darker, and more sturdy. The buildings were also all up very high on cliffs, or giant trees, like enormous treehouses........if you look close you can see the weird eye of the mushroom guy in the last picture.....

Shrine of the Eternal Wizard 3

 Here we have yet another installment of our tribute to the Eternal Wizard in all of us! The main character (top middle) in this iteration is The Waterfall Wizard of Jaipur seen here wrapped around his Mystic Mountain by the banks of the Yellow River.......the trees in the background are a fantastical conjuration by the Wizards' best friend and constant boon companion, The Shadow Man, depicted here in the large tree just to the top right of center......on the left of the top shelf is a miniature reproduction of Road Runner's Last Stand.....the cliff where Wile E. Coyote finally landed a giant anvil on the fast little bird that was his nemesis, and flattened him for all time! To the right of the top shelf is an alien mushroom tree on a small stack of books on how to grow and cultivate them here on earth.....the bottom shelf contains three photos of  Charybdis Lagoon, an adult themed, top-secret fantasy water park located somewhere near the Seychelles......Excelsior!

Under the Weather

Another new track of The Secret Path music!.......this is a dark ambient, hauntology, progressive rock type of song that we made this weekend while we were all sick.......link below; listen, download, follow, subscribe!.........
 The Secret Path is Here

The Understudy

 A new song release from The Secret Path! It's entitled 'The Understudy' and its a chill beat along the lines of classic Hauntology and Synthwave, bookended by dystopian loneliness, and featuring a super relaxing, 70s style soft rock French horn solo in the middle section...... listen to it here and download, follow, and subscribe!

Flipping Pancakes

 A few shots from this weekend of our Intrepid engineer here at Spectral Studios, Felipe Inpacas; or as he's known around here, Flipping Pancakes....... I met him playing a tin whistle at a street festival in Honduras, and when he told me his name, I thought he said 'Flipping Pancakes', and it just became his nickname because its an awesome nickname.....incidentally, he's also an excellent pancake chef, and, like me, overly fond of America's favorite fluffy sweet breakfast treat hahaha! If you look closely, he has pancakes with him in every picture..........we are all kind of sick this weekend but we're working on a new song 'Under the Weather', and a older song made new called 'The Understudy', and perhaps one called 'Cognitive Underpinnings' if we can get it ready in time......more pictures of Secret Path members to come.........

Tarot and Astrology (T and A) 2

Hey there! Here we have an iPad showing an image of Virgo, one of the 12 Astrological Zodiac signs......again, apologies for the rampant use of T (and even T stacked on T at the bottom center hahaha!) but its out of my hands....... in the main image you can see a buxom and hooded representation of Virgo channeling the Cosmic Key and Lock, a representation of the dawning of new consciousness, sexual congress, and the opening of psychic astral doorways into the deepest parts of the mind, body, and soul. Just to the right of the top corner of the iPad is a small dark portrait of The Candlemaker, a universally renown master of wax, and to the left we have a square with 9 famous Virgos; people, places, and things (from the top left): cumulonimbus clouds, Monsignor Muriel Yankovic (Al's distant cousin), The Death Star (completed September 15), (second row): Terwiliker Jones (original guitarist of The Brian Jonestown Massacre), The infamous Grueling Baby, and Harper Cahill, legendary technocrat and private detective; (bottom row): The Venutian symbol of Love, The Scarlet Sorceress, and a washed out Joe Camel ad from the late 70s.........and below those 9 images is a couple of autographed pictures of everyone's favorite fake pin up girl Atama Nagano, frolicky and fun!