You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2009.
Ecstatic Peace! band WAND has an mp3 available. It’s a beautiful piece of acoustica. Makes me feel all warm inside. The male and female vocals compete, but also live together happily. The album is out on May 26. Check it outttttt.
PS: Wand and WoodenWand are the SAME.
WAND: “Saturday Delivery”
At least- for the big names. Today’s New York Times has an interesting article detailing just what artists have to do these days with marketing in order to make money off their music. The article uses Dave Matthews’ various versions of its album release as its main example:
There’s the regular CD version, with 13 songs. Then there’s the deluxe version, which includes a documentary DVD, and the $60 “super-deluxe” boxed set, which adds four extra songs, a 40-page photo book, 14 lithographs by Mr. Matthews and a 24-page tribute to LeRoi Moore, the band’s saxophonist, who died last year. If bought on the band’s Web site. davematthewsband.com, each CD comes with an additional live disc. Also online, iTunes is selling the standard version for $10, as well as a pass for $20 that includes still more bonus songs and video.
Geez. I don’t know which one to get!!! Why would I get any of that though, when I can download the whole thing for free? (I’m playing the devil right now).
It’s an interesting story.
Lee Renaldo
Here’s the thing that kind of stinks. I already have SY’s new album and I really like it, but i can’t get too excited for the release and tour, cos I know i’m not going to see them. Unless they play some small secret show that I find out about….I’m hoping that happens! I don’t want to go to see them at the Nokia or wherever they’re playing….The United Palace?
I guess i’ll have to be okay with blasting the records in my room. But my speakers are blown so I have to listen on computer speakers. Such bad sound. It Sucks.
Hey! This wasn’t supposed to happen! Check out Lee’s MAGIC journey into the woods….”we’ll know where when we get there.” This song is Lee (Renaldo) at his best and most adventurous.
“Hoarfrost” is off 1998′s A Thousand Leaves, a highly underrated SY album. It was released today, May 12. But in 1998. Crazy.
Sonic Youth: Hoarfrost
click the above link.
Sonic Youth: Hoarfrost
Most everything is SOLD OUT. But that’s fucking rad- in the scheme of things…
Tonight:
POBPAH at Bowery Ballroom, 8 pm
Wednesday:
Animal Collective at Terminal 5, 8:30
Previously On Lost and LOST Season Finale! at the Bell House, 7 pm (NOT SOLD OUT)
Thursday thru Sunday:
NYC POPFEST, Don Hills, Cake Shop, Bell House (NOT SOLD OUT)
Fri, Sat, Sun
No Fun Fest at WBurg Music Hall, 7:30
Friday:
Dan Deacon Ensemble, Broadway Backyard, 6 or 7 (NOT SOLD OUT, though his other shows are. This one’ll be better anyway)
Sunday:
The Vaselines at the Bowery Ballroom, 8 pm (NOT SOLD OUT!!) Vaselines also playing MH in WBurg on Monday, SOLD OUT.
Certain films rely on sound more than others. And certain films rely on popular music. The first movie to really use popular music as a major component was Mike Nichols’ “The Graduate.” Set in the late 60s, pre-Summer of Love in Southern California, the film stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin, the troubled, un-inspired college graduate and Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, the sexy mother of a woman Ben is interested in, and a friend of his parents. AWKWARD! She seduces him.
The music is done by, of course, Simon & Garfunkel.
The New York Times‘ awesome film critic, A.O. Scott, discusses the film this week in a video. Check it here.
This time that we’re in now can be compared to the time of the mid to late 60s, when happy boom times were running out, and problems across the globe were hitting home. The film is thus both happy and sullen. Timeless, says Scott.
PS- I believe the deluxe edition of the DVD features the video of The Lemonheads covering Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” which was The Lemonheads first hit. You could say the cover is what made them famous….which is too bad.
Simon & Garfunkel: Scarborough Fair/Canticle
click the above link.
Simon & Garfunkel: Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Read my review of the Knives’ Friday night show….
I love this song mostly because it has my name in the title- twice. HA. This b-side was released in 2007 on the Elliott Smith double-album New Moon. It’s very short, perhaps even unfinished, and very simple. Elliott Smith songs always question that which is unknown….
Georgia, Georgia
I can’t understand your sickness
You have no forgiveness
No attention left to pay
The quiet way you leave
And just forget it all
Just takes my breath away
How’s that supposed to make me feel?
Yeah, well, how am I supposed to feel?
Elliott Smith: Georgia, Georgia
click the above link
Elliott Smith: Georgia, Georgia
The Fly Girlz, out of Brownsville, Brooklyn, are the first act to be born out of the new artistic collaboration project Representing NYC, which matches underprivileged youth with working indie musicians, said Sam Hillmer, founder.
Hillmer , of the experimental band Zs, had been an arts educator and musician in Brooklyn for more than a decade. He says Brooklyn is ripe with opportunity for both youth and adults, new residents and old, to work together. He’s been a “teaching artist” for some time, but in 2007 decided to take his teaching one step further.
“At some point I just thought, ‘I’m going to step up my game. I’m gonna make records with the kids,’ ” he said.
And Representing NYC was born.
The first release was the Fly Girlz’ “Da Bratz From Da Ville.” Hillmer put the group together at PS 284. The Fly Girlz, who are 6 girls, Tamera (aka Angel), Tyshana (aka Pinky), Vernice (aka Lady Millz), Sharmaine (aka Rose), Ameena (aka Sophia), and Ashli (aka Princess), ages 12 to 14, played their record release at the New Museum on the Bowery on March 13.
Hillmer has partnered with True Panther Records, which is releasing the Representing NYC albums. And he’s already hard at work with a new act, Nine 11 Thesaurus, an older group, ages 13 to 20. Nine 11 Thesaurus is working closely with Tim from Gang Gang Dance who is making original beats for the group, said Hillmer. They will release their record in October and will open the record release show for Hillmer’s band Zs on June 15 at the studio under Webster Hall.
The Fly Girlz are currently writing new songs and two of them took time out to answer a few questions for us.
The Fly Girlz: Born 2 B Fly
Click the above link
The Fly Girlz: Born 2 be Fly
Check this- Brian Williams wants to be hip- or at least appear hip. He and his people have launched a new feature at NBC- “BriTunes.” Cool name dude! And the debut band that Williams waxes off about? DEER TICK.
Williams says on the site that he likes to discover bands when they are still unknown- and help others discover those bands too. Commendable, right? Sort of! I don’t know- middle aged mainstream viewers might not be able to get down to Deer Tick. Or maybe they can- Deer Tick is not hard to listen to.
On the indie scale, Deer Tick are pretty popular and successful. They’re about to go on tour with Jenny Lewis! But, to Williams’ audience, they’re just a bearded foursome named after a very serious disease.
All in all- it’s a decent interview, and it really shows what $$$ can do for a segment….It’s funny how Williams asks them about ITUNES. “What did ITUNES do for you?” HAHA.
Check it here and get Deer Tick’s “Easy” below.
Deer Tick: “Easy”
click the above link
Deer Tick: “Easy”
Jeff Buckley’s “Amazing” Life Is Subject of Film Documentary
By David Chiu
The overall response to watching Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley, a posthumously released 2004 film documentary about the life of musician Jeff Buckley, is two-fold. One response is sadness because the film reminds us of what might have been if Buckley hadn’t died in 1997 at age 30 from an accidental drowning. And yet the film is also uplifting because of the timeless quality of Buckley’s music and mesmerizing performances.
The film chronicles Buckley’s early days performing at the Lower East Side café Sin-e, his signing with Columbia and garnering acclaim for the album Grace and culminates with his final stop in Memphis where he was recording Grace‘s follow-up. As the film points out, at a time when alternative rock, with its detachment and self-loathing, was all the rage—Buckley brought back the importance of the personal singer/songwriter. And while dealing with the pressures of fame and a music industry that was usually unkind to serious musicians driven by art, Buckley was never compromising. What comes across very clearly in this poignant documentary is Buckley’s drive and passion, qualities he possessed from the very beginning of his career that never diminished.
Amazing Grace: Jeff Buckley has made the film festival rounds and will be released on DVD on June 2 as part of the special deluxe version of Grace Around The World, a DVD/CD collection of Buckley’s live performances recorded around the time of Grace. The documentary was directed and produced by Nyla Bialek Adams and Laurie Trombley. Microphone Memory Emotion caught up with the filmmakers who spoke about what drew them to producing a documentary about Buckley, the filming and research process and the impact of Buckley’s music.
