We got our first taste performing on a House of Blues stage in our home town of Houston, TX!
Local Brews and Local Grooves is an annual local craft beer & music festival and we played via invite this year! (word on the street our name was mentioned as a ‘must-have’. we are grateful, thanks! 🙂
And get this, there were free tickets to give away: FIVE THOUSAND! So, we got to give out TONS of free tickets so our Funkateers and new curious ears of TIGHTN’ UP! were able to come out and #funkwithus! BIG thanks to KING BABY FAMILIA and DJ CYDE for helping us getting those free tickets out to our future friends of groove!
The Tightn’ Up! Tabernacle of Funk was full of amazing souls sharing their funk with ours! Check out some of the moments captured by one of our favorite photogs, Val Marie Photos:
Our lovely drummer Mikol had the foresight to reach out to some music venues on his radar a few months ago, and so far, none had responded.
Then SURPRISE! One of them DID reach back out with an offer we could not refuse: For Tightn’ Up! to be their featured act on Friday and Saturday night during the 2019 ESSENCE MUSIC FESTIVAL WEEKEND!!!
Like, for real. Funkin’ real. And the establishment looking ‘to shake things up a bit’ with a two-nighter with Tightn’ Up! ?
Pretty Isn’t It?
Little Gem Saloon, “at the jazz corner of New Orleans” a historic night club over 100 years old, located within walking distance from the Superdome (the epicenter of Essence Festival). Kurtis Ruffins is a regular on their stage 🙂
This is just one main program area at the Essence Music Festival
In 2018, over five hundred thousand people were in New Orleans from all over the world to attend the Essence Music Festival! Little Gem Saloon’s location places them in a central hub of Essence Music Festival where people are out walking and taking in the sights, events, and street vendors that surround the club! They felt like Tightn’ Up! would be perfect for the weekend to bring in folx looking for a night of music and fun, but may not be headed to the main concerts at Essence. We accepted the gig with excitement and then got to planning!
What can be seen behind & across the street of Little Gem Saloon. Black woman and vendors of alll types!
The Essence Festival, known as “the party with a purpose”, is an annual music festival which started in 1995 as a one-time event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine aimed primarily towards African-American women. It is the largest event celebrating African-American culture and music in the United States. Learn more here.
All Systems GO!
It was another out of town #TUP road trip, and we only had two weeks to get everything together!
We expected the car rental costs to be through the roof considering we were very last minute in attempting to rent an SUV on 4th of July Weekend! But thanks to our membership with ASCAP as music writers and publishers a benefit of membership is a sweet lil discount on vehicle rentals!
You can see Urica and Mayadia were very happy how it all turned out…lol.
Mikol grew up in a town about an hour away from New Orleans, surprise! We are so grateful his family agreed to open their doors and hosted us for the weekend!
Mikol was already at his parent’s spot in Louisiana, so Friday the rest of the #tudgaf crew piled into our rented tour ride and headed to meet him! This may become our official tour vehicle it rides so smooth!
Hatter Hideaway
After an amazing first show on Friday night, with folx coming off the streets to see what our funk was about, Saturday we had some time to enjoy the lovely features of the Hatter Hideaway (i kinda like the sound of that…lol) before our evening show and got some more surprises….
Mayadia soaking in the sun!
Hatter’s parents did so much more than we ever expected! They cooked delicious food for our musical souls, we had our own quarters to lay our funk down and they had a pool!
Dragonfly Summer
We had some visitors to let us know all was good in the Tightn’ Up! Hood of Funk because we had not just one, but TWO dragonflies encounter with our #tudgaf fellas!
After delicious homemade turkey burgers, hot dog, and Sunkiss we all took a dip in the pool. As we were getting our funk wet…lol, in landed a delightful dragonfly who did not want to leave Mikol or Brandon alone!
First, he landed on Brandon’s hand, just like that! and sat there! Then he flew and sat on Mikol’s shoulder a while….lol.
And THEN, when we stopped for gas at least 30 minutes away from New Orleans, Mikol comes back to the tour Suburban with another visitor! JUST CHILLING!
After this second instance, Mayadia had to look up dragonfly symbolism from what’s-your-sign. Yea, these dragonflies are definably welcome to hang with our funk ANYWHERE!
We turned the Little Gem Saloon into another outpost of our Tightn’ Up! Tabernacle of Funk! About 40 people came out Friday night, and a lil over 60 on Saturday! We even had a crew that reserved a table when they bought their advance tickets to our show. They said that our show was a part of their original plans for Essence Music Festival, and they liked what Little Gem Saloon had to offer Saturday so they bought their tickets and were ready to #funkwithus !
Big ups! to Little Gem Saloon for having us out, the venue is soooooo beautiful and jazz chic and our sound fits perfectly in your establishment! We cant wait to come back and do it again!
We are so thankful for our crowds both nights! Groups of women, wives and their husbands (one couple had designed matching red tees for each other), and even full families with the grandparents, adult children, and their teens and friends!! Everyone who came from near and far and took a chance on an unknown funk band from Houston, TX and you showed out with us! We may not have sold out the place but it sho did feel like it!! Much love you all!
Coming Soon Bonus: Yadifree and the Houma Hammock
Just watch, you’ll see what else happened at the Tightn’ Up! Retreat…lol. Editing the video now…lol.
We, the players of #TUP, are exploring new modes of connection through the creation of Tightn’ Up! Television – wonderfully edited by our own Mikol Hatter!
We want to share with our fellow Funkateers more of our journey as professional indie band, including our inspirations and concert shenanigans. We love how our collective personalities make for a truly funky family and we genuinely love making music together.
Mikol, Mayadia, Brandon, Lou andUrica encourage you to watch a few clips from our first episodes of TIGHTN’ UP! TELEVISION!
We have an album. And we had a party. Basically, our funk is out.
The Tightn’ Up! debut album AND NOW WE CAN BEGIN is live!
The 3rd Friday in August will go down as the date Tightn’ Up! finally released our Htown bred music to the masses of the world.
The album cover
Our funk is out!
The day began with an interview published in The Houston Press about our album release and party at Notsuoh.
“Would you like to feel free? You wanna feel connected? Would you thrill to having an “eargasm?” These are all sensations the members of Tightn’ Up! hope you’ll experience on a single listen of their debut album, sensations you could even seek right now.” – by Jesse Sendejas Jr.
We wrapped up the last show of our Notsuoh three month residency with our album release party, with special guest DJ Muskscratch. Playing the third Friday in June, July and August in downtown Houston are invigorating for this funk band. The night owls of HTown dug us, and we dig them too!
Our guitarist has this to say about our album release party.
“The release was every bit the stone jam I’d anticipated it to be. The coolest folks of all stripes gathered to forget about the unfunky world for a bit and shake ass, feel real and experience the connection. A majestic evening for the boogie indeed.” – Brandon Miles, Tightn’ Up! Guitarist
For a peek at the fun, check the video clips and photos below. And GET OUR ALBUM!
Yes, we have tee shirts! Get one at our next show (online coming soon).
You have come to shows, connected with our sound, & shared us with your friends as we created our first body of work.
But…
the wait is almost over. Â Â Â Â yaaaaaaaaaaassss!
The first single is here. Â Yes…Â #tudgaf
GOOSEBUMPS
The lead single from our debut is Goosebumps. Â It’s a soulful, funky tale of the heart tingle.
Get Goosebumps on iTunes, Amazon & Google PlayÂ
You can buy it from our music page, and we have the whole song streaming from Soundcloud with our lyrics below.
Goosebumps – lyrics by Tightn’ Up!
[Intro] – Ooooo Oh Oh Oh Oh
[Verse 1]
The deviant in me
Would like to turn you down
So I’d feel like I’d beaten my own desire
When I see you smile
Cuz it still calls me
Each time I see you I tickle with glee
And my mind wanders off to thoughts of what our love would feel like
[Chorus]
You give me Goosebumps (4x)
[Verse 2]
I think of you daily
I write of you sometimes
Berate myself of shady thoughts of taking you
From behind closed doors
Oooo the deviant in me
Wants you to come to my door
Anytime you want to share a piece of your heart
Baby
Come find me
[Chorus]
You give me Goosebumps (4x)
[Bridge]
The deviant in me
Wants you to sleuth
Come find me
The deviant in me
Wants you to sleuth
Come find me (2x)
[Intro Reprise] – Ooooo Oh Oh Oh Oh
[Chorus]
You give me goosebumps (4x)
Produced by – Tightn’ Up!
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Digital Warehaus Studios by Steven Finley
Copyright 2017 by Tightn’ Up!
