Cien Agaves Main Dining (drinking) Room

(click image to be re-directed to cienagaves.com)

Daylon Greer and Supernormal Tyler will be sharing a stage at Cien Agaves tonight.  If you haven’t been here before get in here!  Great Tequila selection, cheap beer and a little thing called Sangrita.  What’s Sangrita?  Come in see Roque and the crew and find out!

Cien Agaves

7228 E. First Avenue

Scottsdale, AZ

(480)-970-9002

SHOW STARTS AT 8:30pm and goes until 11pm

SuperNormal Tyler will be performing Live in Queen Creek, Arizona

• THIS SUNDAY !!  July 13th, 2008 7:30 - 8:30 pm at a Chris Gramazio for Congress Rally.

Do you live in District 6?

This East Valley seat in Maricopa County contains parts of Mesa, Chandler, and all of Gilbert and the fast-growing town of Queen Creek; it also contains the city of Apache Junction in Pinal County.

Need a Map?

How do I get to the Beer and Brats Party?
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Chris Gramazio

Chris Gramazio is running in a primary, and is looking to make it all the way to the general election to unseat Jeff Flake (R-AZ). Chris and I were on 1480 KPHX Radio together on June 22nd, 2008 discussing his campaign, my recent Public Transit Tour, and Public Transit issues in the State of Arizona.

RSVP

Please come out and support SuperNormal Tyler and Meet Chris Gramazio!

Please RSVP the Gramazio campaign if you plan on attending (480-987-3018, or sgramazio@cox.net). Tell them, SuperNormal Tyler sent you. Or, you can e-mail me at tyler@supernormalrecords.com.

Portland’s Finest Open Mic

I hit the streets with Joseph O’Brien and we hoofed it from SE Hawthorne Boulevard all the way to Alberta Street.  It was quite a hike but well worth the trip.  A woman named Tamara runs the open mic and she had two assistants, (Nik and Rachael) digitally recording the night.  Hopefully, can get a hold of that and toss it up on this site soon. 

 Rachel and Nik

The true test of the quality of an Open Mic is who is running it.  Sure, the quality of performers is important, but, when a night is run by professionals and cared for like it was Wednesday May 14th at The Alberta Street Public House in Portland, Oregon the performances shine and the vibe gets positive enough to change things about this little ball we live on. 

Tamara-The Professsional

Whiskey and the Walk Home

Gil (a street musician) Joseph, and I hit the streets and in true busker fashio Gil was asking every passer-by if they wanted a song.  Dusty, a guy strolling home, stopped on the corner of Alberta and tenth, and Gil went into it.  I popped the latch on the case and backed him up on harmonica.  A 20 minute chat and a drop in to the Plaid Pantry for some beers we soon found ourselves parked on a wall along the sidewalk and shot the breeze and talked music and dreams.  Good Times.  Thank you Portland.  

Public Transit Tour

Portland, Oregon

May 11, 2008 - May 18, 2008

“By Rail, By Bus, By Flip-Flop!”

Read the Overview of the tour below, or read the blog posts Supernormal Tyler wrote about his recent tour via the links below:

•   Day 1: Portland, Oregon (Part 2)
•   Day 2: Portland, Oregon (Part 2)
•   Day 3: Portland, Oregon
•   Day 4: Portland, Oregon (Part 2)
•   Day 5: Portland, Oregon
•   Day 6: Portland, Oregon
•   Day 7: Portland, Oregon
•   Day 8: Portland, Oregon
• Exodus: Portland, Oregon

In honor of Mother Earth, on May 11th, 2008 (Mother’s Day) Supernormal Records sent Supernormal Tyler out on the road. Tyler will toured the Northwest and focusing on the city of Portland, Oregon. This was a dual-purpose tour:

1. To promote Supernormal Records and Tyler Christensen’s music
2. To highlight the ease and accessibility of Portland Oregon’s Tri-Met Public transit system and encourage the use of public transit in cities around the world.

Supernormalrecords.com visitors are treated to a show unlike any other. Videos and blogs documenting the day-to-day hour-by-hour progress and process of pulling a tour like this off.

Tyler did not rent a car, did not have a driver, and got around town and to and from gigs via the extensive and efficient Tri-Met Public Transit System in beautiful Portland, Oregon (scroll down for more details).

Supernormal Tyler stayed at the famed Portland Hawthorne Hostel in the Hawthorne district of Portland, Oregon (see below for details).

“This tour will be an exercise in sustainable living,” says Tyler. “I don’t own a car in my hometown and I try to keep my carbon footprint tiny so that I may help others make up for their obese carbon feetsprints.” he laughs. “Portland is going to be a blast because everyone I talk to raves about the Tri-Met, and where I come from (Scottsdale, Arizona) it’s all unreliable buses and footwork. It’ll be nice to feel the smooth pull of an electric street car again. I can’t wait to begin.”

Shows and Shooting Schedule

• May 11th - White Eagle Saloon - Songwriters Night

• May 12th - [TBD]

• May 13th - [TBD]

• May 14th -

• May 15th -

• May 16th - Public Transit Tour: Supernormal Tyler LIVE at Eugenio’s 3584 SE Hawthorne
  • Portland Oregon 97202 (MAP IT) Showtime: 8:30 PM - 11:00 PM

• May 17th - Supernormal Tyler LIVE at the Matchbox Lounge 32nd AVE and Division
  • �
    • Portland, Oregon 97202 (MAP IT) Showtime: 10:00PM-11:15PM

• May 18th - The White Eagle Saloon -  Songwriters Night

Overview 

The Hostel

“Portland’s famed Hawthorne Hostel”

Located in one of Portland’s most popular destinations; the Hawthorne District. The hostel is bohemian, & enviro-conscious. Hawthorne Blvd is known for it’s quaint eateries, coffeehouses, pubs, unique shops, and the famous Bagdad Brew Pub & Theatre. We have chosen this location for our accomodations due to what they call their “Green Commitment”

Hawthorne Hostel’s Green Commitment

• The staff and board members of the hostel are committed to use environmentally kind practices whenever available and cost-acceptable.
• We have an eco-roof, made possible with a grant from the City of Portland to showcase sustainable development practices.
• Over 80% of the office, cleaning and disposable supplies come from ‘green companies’ such as Seventh Generation and Bio-kleen.
• We participate in the electric companies’ ‘green electricity program’, so that 100% of our power comes from renewable sources such as wind and geothermal.
• We are a designated ‘Sustainable Living Center’, per the HI-USA program.
• We use a non-motorized lawnmower called a ‘reel mower’. Did you know that a gas lawn mower uses puts out as much emissions as an average car?

The Transit System:

“The Tri-met Rail yard in Portland, Oregon”

In 1872, twenty-one years after the city of Portland was founded, citizens and leaders began the work that would build the city’s public transit system. Today it is known as the Tri-Met. Combining people-movers such as: Buses, light-rail, commuter-rail, a street car, and a (OHSU funded) one of a kind Aerial Tram citizens and visitors to Portland, Oregon have a myriad of options to arrive on-time and in-style.

The Portland Aerial Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon carrying commuters between the city’s South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is the second commuter aerial tramway in the United States (after New York City’s Roosevelt Island Tramway).[3] The tram travels a horizontal distance of 3,300 feet (5/8 mi, 1 km) and a vertical distance of 500 feet (150 m) in a ride that lasts three minutes. (quoted from wikipedia.org)

“The Portland, Oregon Aerial Tram”

Travelers and commuters can arrive at the Portland International Airport and be transported to the city center in a matter of minutes. During the duration of a visitors stay, little else is needed to see the entire city, and get this: In a large area called ‘Fareless Square” all travel is free. Yes, meaning no money.

Fareless Square

FarelessSquare includes most of downtown Portland (within the boundaries of the Willamette River, NW Irving Street, and the I-405 freeway), as well as MAX stations from the Rose Quarter to Lloyd Center and bus stops along NE Multnomah to 13th Avenue.

When boarding a bus, MAX or streetcar in Fareless Square, just take a seat and enjoy the ride. Fare is not required unless you are traveling outside of the Square.

Fearless Fares

If you are travelling outside the designated Fareless Square, the fares are fearless. Affordable and easily attainable tickets can be purchased on board the bus, at ticket vending machines located in MAX stations, neighborhood ticket outlets (Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albertsons stores), the TriMetTicket Office at Pioneer Courthouse Square in person, or send your digital self in to the TriMet Store online and score some tickets.

The Purpose

“I want to show my listeners how I live,” Tyler says. “Since I started writing songs I have been pushing myself to write honest lyrics and stay true to my core beliefs. I learned early on from Ani DiFranco that if ‘you don’t live what you sing about your mirror is going to find it’ and I think that is a pretty good rule. I sing what I live, and this trip is to be a peek into how I travel, how I live, and how I hope that we all can live the values that I sing about in my latest song, ‘One World’.”

The song Tyler mentioned, “One World” is posted in Demo Form on Tyler’s Myspace page at www.myspace.com/supernormal.

“Supernormal Tyler Live @ Rula Bula” (4 of 5)

SUPERNORMAL TYLER VIDEOS POSTED AT RULABULA.COM

A webmaster over at Zenith TPM uploaded 4 of the 5 “Supernormal Tyler Live @ Rula Bula” video’s to the Rula Bula video page.  The player and arrangement look great and Supernormal Records could not be happier.     You can see the video that was left out above.

Supernormal Records did not send these videos to Zenith TPM or Rula Bula, they simply used their internet prowess to seek out our productions and post them in their project.  It appears as though the Supernormal tentacles are spreading out through the “internets”.  Don’t worry this octopus just wants a hug.  Thanks for the love Rula Bula and Zenith TPM.

“On February 12th, 2008, I played three songs (Father’s Son, Carousel, Arizona Born and Glory Bound) at the Open Mic Night hosted by Walt Richardson.  I had Pope run the camera for me and spent a week editing together the videos and posting them to YouTube and, it looks like someone over at zenithtpm is on top of things.  They found them and posted them yesterday.  Just in time for the Public Transit Tour“

- Supernormal Tyler

NEW VIDEOS

More videos are in production for the “Public Transit Tour” in Portland, Oregon (May 11-18th, 2008).  The first show will be at Eugenio’s at 3584 SW division Street (Map It).  We are in the development process for a slew of Supernormal Tyler Live videos, Travel Vlogs, and day-to-day blogs during the tour.  Take your digital-self on the road with Supernormal Tyler.

Public Transit Tour

 Portland, Oregon

May 11, 2008 - May 18, 2008

“By Rail, By Bus, By Flip-Flop!”

 MORE INFORMATION 

• Listen to some Supernormal Tyler music. (link will open in a new window)
• Learn more about the ‘Public Transit Tour’.
• Watch all our videos right here!
• Read the life story of your’s truly.

Here is a clip of a live performance by Supernormal Tyler that took place at Rula Bula in Tempe Arizona on February 12th. This is part one of a five part series you can view all of the segments on the video page or at our YouTube Channel.

Supporting himself by bartending and insuring he stay immersed in the nightlife, Tyler Christensen played Arizona’s bars, clubs, coffee houses, book stores,art galleries, and private parties. Always conscious of the dream as number one, Tyler’s employment had to support and coincide with his musical ambitions. Dividing his nights between pulling taps and spilling booze into glasses for patrons, to the other side of the bar spilling the booze out of his own glass on stage.

In 1998, Tyler’s core group of high school friends moved to Los Angeles, and Tyler intended to soon follow. But, the time he spent semi-isolated from his buddies pushed him to seek the dream at greater depths. He began playing solo something he hadn’t done much since forming the band Promiscuous Chicken and the myriad of bands that followed. Tyler had grown weary of the sometimes diffucult dynamics of performing with a band and he sought to simplify.

“I wasn’t hearing the music anymore. It was more like I was onstage with this swirling muddy noise and my job was just to move my hands and mouth at the proper times. People cheer, beer bottles clink into the trash. (murmur murmur.) It’s kinda like being a deaf marionette.” He recalls. “I just wanted to pare everything down, to simplify. I needed to search for sound. Up until then I was just kinda molding myself into the proper size and shape for the particular “sound” of the band, but, never quite becoming myself in my own music.”

Tyler began writing voraciously, he had seemed to find a formula, and it was working. Pop melodies and blues-tainted rhythms began pouring out of him. And as with everything, Tyler sought balance and crafted languishing ballads rounding out his ever approaching signature sound. He was delving into interests ranging from The Violent Femmes, Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Black Crows, Rakes Progress, and Toadies to Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Elliot Smith, Ryan Adams, Jeff Buckley and Damien Rice.

Tyler seldom played cover songs in his earlier sets, but with exploration came discovery and he soon began working out new arrangements of popular music. This seemed to help him along in his own songwriting as arrangements became more complex, and less formulaic. And his lyrics took a sharp turn and began to scratch deeper than the surface.

He formed and disbanded a few more bands, such as the guitar, piano, drums pop trio: Sun Machine. But, his devotion was now squarely placed on his development as a solo performer. He performed seldomly and wrote tirelessly and it came to be 2005, and Tyler was looking to test himself musically.

“Music is a pure form of communication, like mathematics. Music is universal. I wanted to test my music, my ability to communicate if you will. I guess I went to Prague to live the dream, really live it. Outside of my comfort zone, at the mercy of a place where noone knew me, and most didn’t speak my language. I wanted to busker, gig at clubs in a foreign city. I wanted to use my music as a means to explore another place. I left for Prague on July 4th, 2005.  He says with a smile. “My own Indie-penance day.”