For our latest field recording, we wanted to shine a spotlight on the talents of Sarah Siskind, who plays Joe’s Pub tomorrow (Wednesday, July 15). The Nashville singer-songwriter shot to attention last year after being praised enthusiastically by Justin Vernon (Mr. Bon Iver). In fact, Vernon said that Siskind’s music had changed his life—and he covered her beautiful song, “Lovin’s for Fools,” to prove it. Sure enough, Siskind is a really great songwriter, combining directness with exquisite nuance; but it’s her voice that really gets you. Siskind sang a cappella for TONY in Tompkins Square Park, in the rain, with a chorus of barking dogs. The song is “Go,” and though it sounds like a traditional blues song, she wrote it herself—you can hear it on her new album, Say It Louder. Let us know if you get goose bumps at the end too.
Squint your eyes, people: Imagine you’re sitting on a patio, there’s the smell of incense wafting on the breeze, fireflies are buzzing, dogs are barking… Okay, now you’re in the right mood to watch this clip of Matt Bauer singing at a photography opening last night in a Brooklyn backyard. Currently based in Greenpoint, Bauer hails from Kentucky, and his softly spun songs recall Iron and Wine and Bonnie “Prince” Billy; he picks banjo like he’s spinning lace, and guests on his current album, The Island Moved in the Storm, include AlelaDiane and Angel Deradoorian. After the jump: glockenspiel action!
When we found out The Lisps were presenting a Civil War–themed sci-fi musical, we knew we had to feature them in Perfect Pitch. The Brooklyn quartet brought along five friends to help it belt out one of the bizarrely enchanting tunes from Futurity, which it performs at Joe’s Pub tonight and Sunday.
Yes indeed, as we posted yesterday, the weekend saw this year’s Great Escape festival take over the seaside town of Brighton on England’s south coast for the U.K.’s answer to SXSW. Brighton is an arty, left-leaning place, where Londoners flock at the merest hint of sunshine. Predictably, it was chilly all weekend, with gusting winds and crashing waves, but there was a fine spread of talent on offer—including NYC acts Vivian Girls, Leona Naess (who sang us two of her lovely songs, here) and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. We thought Robinson’s loud, sweaty set was ace: Check out “Buriedfed” below. And after the jump, TONY’s Great Escape highlights.
It’s a transatlantic love-in with TONY this weekend. We’ve come to the Great Escape festival in the seaside town of Brighton, England. The Great Escape is basically the U.K.’s equivalent of SXSW, just much colder, with the Tex-Mex replaced by fish-and-chips. We’ll give you a full review of the fest once it’s wound up, but for now, check out one of our highlights so far: New York gal Leona Naess. Naess was born in NYC, moved to London as a kid, then returned to sunny Gotham. After playing a gorgeous set last night, Naess sang for us on a rooftop overlooking the sea today. It was pretty windy, so we filmed indoors, too, Naess still in her raincoat. Check out “Unnamed” here:
After the jump, “Not The Same Girl”, with seagulls.
This week’s Perfect Pitch is a real treat. Cabaret star Maude Maggart stopped by our office with keyboard accompanist John Boswell and proceeded to win over everyone in attendance with Joseph Thalken and Marshall Barer’s “Billions of Beautiful Boys,” a wickedly charming ditty about wanting to shack up with a pair of dream guys. She’s at the Oak Room tonight, and most nights thereafter, through May 23. Check it out:
Here at TONY, we’ve been fans of both avant-jazz cornetist-composer Taylor Ho Bynum and alterna-Latino percussionist Abraham Gomez-Delgado for quite a while, so we were very psyched when we got word that the two were teaming up to co-lead a ten-piece big band. That outfit, Positive Catastrophe, has recently completed its debut full-length, Garabatos Volume 1(Cuneiform), and it’s a doozy: a wonderfully lush and unusual Latin-jazz party record. The band officially unveils the release tonight and tomorrow at Jazz Gallery, but Bynum and Gomez-Delgado stopped by our offices earlier this week to give us a quick sneak preview. (If Bynum’s playing seems even more awesomely frenetic than usual here, it’s because he had spent the previous hour stuck on a stalled Amtrak train!)
We were thrilled—seriously, thrilled—to have Angel Deradoorian come and play the TONY office in advance of her show at Cake Shop Tuesday May 5. You’re more than likely familiar with Angel as bass player and singer in David Longstreth’s mighty Dirty Projectors, who are currently rehearsing for their Housing Works fund-raiser with Björk and prepping a new disc, Bitte Orca, for a June 9 release.
Angel is a solo artist in her own right, too, though, having released her debut EP, Mind Raft, a muzzily lovely collection of songs touching on traditional choral arrangements, tripped-out dubby basslines and straight-up soulful singing. Here, she plays “Carry the Deed.” On the hottest day of the week, all those who watched got goose bumps. Let us know if you do, too.
For the release of his second mixtape in collaboration with Nick Catchdubs, Timbaland-backed artist Izza Kizza celebrated and performed at the Red Bull space in Soho. Izza took a few minutes away from the party to talk about the progression of his music with his latest work, some highlights from the new release and his relationship with 88-Keys. The party featured DJ sets from Keys and Catchdubs and after talking with us, Izza performed to a rambunctious crowd, which included Missy Elliott, DJ A-Trak, and AOK Collective members Fresh Daily, P.Casso and Strictly Business.
The Wizard of Iz is a more traditional outing for the artist when compared with his previous Kizzaland, and shows Izza’s true talents on the mike alongside standout guests including Lil Wayne, Birdman, Colin Munroe and David Banner. Both mixtapes are available for free download.
Don’t miss our slide show from the event, featuring candid shots with Izza Kizza, 88-Keys and A-Trak.
Last night, rising stars Chester French took some time out to connect with the fans at the Steven by Steve Madden store on the Lower East Side. Just last week the group opened for and performed with Asher Roth, but this time around D.A. and Max performed without their full band to an intimate crowd inside, and to more who watched the performance from the store’s front windows. The twosome played a number of cuts off the new album, Love the Future, which was released last Tuesday, and hyped the disc and their recent free mixtape, Jacques Jams Vol. 1: Endurance. It was a fun atmosphere as the two seemed very relaxed and enthusiastic about interacting with the crowd. Check out the video to see snippets of their performance, including the tracks “She Loves Everybody,” “The Jimmy Choos” and “Bebe Buell.” The group is currently on tour opening for Lady Gaga and have a sold-out show Saturday at Terminal 5, and another gig with Lady Sovereign and Hollywood Holt at the Highline Ballroom May 5.
We liked the sound of Shelly Bhushan even before we heard her sing. In response to our, “Go on! Pitch to us!” request, she mailed TONY to tell us exactly why she and her band should come in and play a song…
“I’m a real singer and my band is legit and we rock live. If you can get past the fact that my pants aren’t that tight and that I refuse to wear glasses with fake lenses I think you’ll like us. In fact, I think you’ll love us. We’re soulful, but not in that sort of cheesy way. My keyboardist is infatuated with Genesis, my drummer plays like Bonham, and my bassist used to play with James Brown.”
And then, of course, we heard her sing. And whooaaa!!! Is that a voice. So, folks, check out Shelly and her fine band, who stopped by the TONY office to perform “Beautiful Me” in support of their show at Drom on Monday—complete with laminated visuals and a percussive egg. Nice work.
As ever, if you’d like to play Perfect Pitch—or if you have any suggestions about who should—please let us know via the comments.
So how was your Record Store Day Saturday? Don’t tell us you spent it lazing outside in the sunshine with your iPod on speakers! Actually, do. That sounds pretty nice. But maybe you spent it at one of the awesome little parties that were being thrown by indie music retailers around the city. If you did, we want to hear from you—tell us how it was in the comments section below. The Volume decided to celebrate RSD by heading down to Other Music in the evening, to catch a solo set by Bill Callahan, a.k.a. Mr Smog—and gosh, wow, was it good. To set the scene: Folks were lined up around the block to get into the show (the sheer density of indie-rock fans reminded me of The Onion’s Yo La Tengo disaster story), the lucky few squished into the little store drinking free beer and getting busy with the comp tattoo transfers (which read, “So Indie It Hurts”).
Callahan, although graying now, still looks like a little boy, and he took the stage (well, little raised platform) just him and a matte brown Les Paul. The first part of the set comprised cuts from his latest album, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, some of which took on an almost mantric quality, stripped down to their leanest state. Callahan is a real master of economy, lyrically and musically; guess it helps that his voice is such an extraordinary, gently thunderous thing. His banter was restrained too. Audience member: “How are you?” Callahan (after a long pause): “Good.” Another pause. “How are you?” Audience member: “Good.” Long pause. “I’m glad we caught up.”
Here’s a clip of Callahan singing the record’s “All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast.”
When Brooklyn’s Suckers arrived at the TONY office to plug their upcoming record release show, the band admitted to us that they’d written their SXSW blog entry half crazed, on their 36-hour nonstop return drive to NYC. “We were sooo tired,” grinned their guitarist Austin. But Suckers were in sprightly form for this performance in the lobby. Their self-titled debut EP features crashing drums and glimmering guitar action, but playing unplugged here, they opted for trumpet, bongo and glockenspiel. You can check out the band for yourself at Glasslands Gallery next Thursday, April 23 (show time is 8pm, and more info is here).
As ever, if you have suggestions for whom you’d like to see on upcoming editions of Perfect Pitch, let us know via the comments.
Fire up that Speak & Spell, because today kicks off NYC’s annual circuit-bending extravaganza, the Bent Festival at The Tank. Running from today through Saturday, it’s an art and music fest that celebrates DIY electronics in its many forms—so you might find a serious electro artist making a circuit from scratch, right next to a kid playing a Game Boy. If you’re wondering what circuit bending is, we asked Peter Edwards, an electronic-instrument-making whiz, to come into the TONY office and tell us. (Edwards has worked with Mike Patton and the Melvins, and has made a customized Speak & Spell for Danny Elfman!) He’s teaching a beginner’s workshop on Saturday at noon, which is free and open to everyone. “There isn’t some stringent code of laws you have to understand before you can play,” he says. “It’s like, you don’t need to understand the physics of paint before you can make art.” Right on! Oh, and there’s a free beer happy hour every evening from 7 to 7:30pm. Take it away, Peter!
Welcome to the first installment of Perfect Pitch. Each Friday, we’ll bring you an exclusive video of a local band or artist playing live and un- (or semi-) plugged in the TONY office. Before performing, the musician(s) in question will “pitch” Volume readers on one of their upcoming gigs. Got any ideas about who you’d like to see on upcoming editions? Let us know via the comments.
Perfect Pitch kicks off today with The Beets, who will do their best to convince you to come see them at Glasslands Gallery tonight. The name might have you thinking of the fictional group from the Nickelodeon animated series Doug, but these Beets are actually an endearingly slackerish indie-pop band from Jackson Heights, Queens. We had a little bit of trouble corralling all the members into the TONY conference room, but once everyone arrived, the outfit turned in an awesome performance for our camera. Note the nifty Beets logo banner in the background.
Man, was that a weird show last night. Weird for starters because the swanky LES Crash Mansion is such a totally inappropriate venue to see a tour that features artists from Scotland’s Fence Collective. The Fence lot (who include various Beta Band members, King Creosote and James Yorkston) are a shambling, boozy bunch who live by the sea. So when an artist like the Pictish Trail plays his warm, winsome musings, you kind of want to be in a little-old-man pub—whereas the low-lit, distressed-brick Crash Mansion is straight off the set of Friends. Mr. Pictish (a.k.a. Johnny Lynch) played the twinkling folk and electronic wiggles of his Secret Soundz album, to a scattering of well-dressed people flopped motionless on leather sofas, 30 feet back.
But far weirder was the set played by headliner Viking Moses: simultaneously brilliant, moving and totally nuts.
Realistically, there was every chance that the Sam Isaac and his band could’ve sucked at their Fontanas show last night. This was their last night in the U.S. before returning to London, after a series of shows at SXSW and three consecutive gigs here in NYC. Knackered (as they say in the U.K.), the group had also been told to leave the venue on account of most of its members being under 21. And to cap it all, the band playing before Isaac & Co. consisted of (1) a man dressed in a Clockwork Orange–style beak, making noises by bashing a mike against a shopping cart; (2) a girl crouched miserably at one side of the stage holding an FX pedal; and (3) an embarrassed-looking drummer, playing to a crowd of precisely no one. Even the girl at the bar had fled.
Oh, and there weren’t enough amps to go round. Amazingly, though, this turned into a lovely show. Maybe because there were about seven people in the audience, the band felt free to goof around and just have fun—which perfectly suits its poppy, sweetly earnest songs. Isaac himself has a shock of red hair and stands a good couple of feet above his cute backing singers (one of whom, weirdly, is adored by Perez Hilton), and the band plays with the kind of heart-on-sleeve sincerity unique to the very young. Imagine an emo take on Scooby-Doo and you’re there.
Anyway, they played us a quick burst of their new single, “Come Back Home Tonight,” while standing in the drizzling rain outside a Chinese restaurant, and it was grand. Hope you enjoy.
We told you in our listings yesterday that we thought the Jay Jay Pistolet show at Pianos would be worth catching, and certainly among the best, pre- and post-SXSW gigs in NYC this week. But we had no idea how good it would be, less still that the night would wind up with the man himself singing TONY a song in the venue’s bathroom. Oh, the glamour!
Want some background? JJP’s real name is Justin Hayward-Young, and he’s emerged from the same young crowd as London’s Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons (both of whom we’ve bigged-up here), as well as Noah and the Whale, whose main man produced JJP’s debut EP. So to that extent, you can guess that there are folky, heartfelt elements to his music.
We stumbled—almost literally—across this band, singing and plinking their instruments in their front yard, away from the barbecue showcase madness in the center of town. Earth People Orchestra (yes, it’s that kind of band) is from Boston and had a selection of glockenspiels, shakers, drum kits and a harmonium spread across the lawn. It sounded so lovely, we thought you’d want to see it, too.
If you’re here in Austin, check ’em out live at Thunderbird Coffee Saturday. Otherwise, the band plays Brooklyn in April; keep checking it’s MySpace page for details.
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