OK, fine it’s not quite the greatest headline in the history of newspapering but it was the best I could come up with on short notice.

Matt Hanks took a stab at it too with the very strong contender “SHORE FIRE’S PIX TO CLIX AT SXSW IN TX” but hey, I’m the one writing the blog post, so that’ll have to be the tiebreaker.

The occasion of course is South By Southwest. It’s that time of year again. When bands gather from around the country, and the music industry comes together for an event that seems like one part trade show, five parts open air music festival, and a dash of the opening scene of the movie Dazed and Confused (think Alice Cooper to jog the memory). A week when bands are bands, musicians are musicians, and beef cattle start looking around anxiously.

And for good reason I might add. Look no further than here, here, or here.

Anyways, far more important than the meat as always is the slate of great bands and shows and events and panels and parties that are going on this year. You never really know what might happen if you snooze. So for the full report on Shore Fire’s clients and what they’re up to, just click here for the complete run down and don’t hesitate to drop a line if you’re heading down yourself.

I had the pleasure of celebrating the 50th Anniversary of what is a seminal event in jazz history and recording: Thelonious Monk performing his music with a big band for the first time, at the Town Hall, in NYC, in February of 1959. Friday night, Feb 27, young and extremely gifted pianist Jason Moran performed ‘In My Mind,’ a tribute to Monk and his great performance 50 years ago, with his newly-created and very talented tentet, Big Bandwagon.

Moran used the 1959 performance as a jumping-off point for his tribute to Monk. The choruses and melodies of Monk’s tunes were recognizable, but the music and band quickly deviated to territories unknown. A video screen hanging above the band that piped in animations and video feeds from cameras placed all around the stage made the show a truly inspired multi-media performance. During the final tune, the band walked off stage, through the theater, and, surrounded by a wide-eyed audience, concluded their performance in the lobby of the Town Hall.

Here’s Moran and the Big Bandwagon, acknowledging a standing ovation, before performing their encore (photo by Jon Vachon for WNYC):

Listen to a recording of Moran and his band playing “Little Rootie Tootie” in 2007 here, and watch Moran with members of the Big Bandwagon playing “Crepuscle With Nellie” in the WNYC studios here. And check out more photos from the show, courtesy of WNYC.

You can read more on the initial Monk at Town Hall event in 1959 and 5oth Annivesary celebration here. NY Times reviewed the show here.

It was a truly surreal week. Recently I headed out to LA for the Grammy Awards, with great hopes for all of our nominees, including Ricky Skaggs, Cherryholmes, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. It was truly an amazing night, congratulations to all our winners and incredible kudos to Robert & Alison for pulling off a clean sweep, winning five out of their five nominations, adding to last year’s single win for a total of six for ‘Raising Sand’ including of course Album of The Year. 

Los Angeles at sunset. I’m still a die hard NYC’er but I must admit, there’s something to this California thing you can’t ignore. 

The inexplicable giant fruit, discovered on rehearsal day wandering through the loading docks. These things were like 20 feet across. A quick peek revealed gaffers tape market “Katy Perry #1″ and “Katy Perry #2″ on the sides, as the viewing audience discovered two nights later. 

Though these flowers were very pretty and smelled nice (yes they were real), all I could think about was someone tediously sitting there with some kind of stencil meticulously adding the logo to each one of what must have been hundreds of these things in every dressing room. 

Finally, the big day arrives. The red carpet, before all the insanity begins in earnest. 

The view from the side of the stage as Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and T Bone Burnett finish their great performance and get ready for what turns out to be a win for Album Of The Year.

The picturesque ramp at LAX International as I bid goodbye to the West Coast for the trip back to NYC. Did I mentioned it rained about half the time? I thought there were laws about that in Los Angeles.

And just four days later, it’s showtime again, as the crowd gathers to see the newly restored Beacon Theatre and enjoy a performance with Paul Simon and his band and guests.

Jimmy Fallon arrives to great fanfare for his upcoming late night host debut, on the red carpet.

And lastly, one of the more impressive cakes I’ve ever seen. The centerpiece of the backstage celebration party. Despite the presence of a large knife (upper right) for the entire event nobody had the guts to be the first one to take a slice. 

I’m a big fan of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. So much always going on, and a mere 10 minute walk from my apartment make it one of my favorite places to see a show, movie, cultural event, etc.

This past week I made 2 separate treks to BAM to check out Thursday nights Bell Orchestre/Clogs show and Saturdays Final Fantasy/Grizzly Bear show, both nights accompanied by the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

While I’ve never listened to Bell Orchestre or Clogs before, I do love both Arcade Fire and the National, of whom both groups share members. The show was done in a sort of “in the round” style, with Bell Orchestre, Clogs and the Brooklyn Phil taking turns performing. You could hear the slow build to borderline spastic freakout of Arcade Fire in Bell Orchestre’s pieces, while Clogs definitely had the stateliness of the National. Sufjan Stevens and Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond guested with Clogs, and I also ran in to Shore Fire friend Holly Schomann from Sirius XM.

Saturday night was a packed house for the highly anticipated Final Fantasy/Grizzly Bear show, and Shore Fire’s own Nora Lyons was also in attendance. Final Fantasy opened, and according to FF mastermind Owen Pallett it was an “exercise in trust” to hand over the reigns to the Brooklyn Phil, as he usually performs solo with just his violin and computer looping different parts together.

Grizzly Bear arrived to rapturous applause and did not disappoint. They played songs old and new, working with the Brooklyn Phil on many tracks, but also performing a few songs as their usual four piece. Personal favorites “Colorado” and “Little Brother” were worth the price of admission for me, and encore closing cover of “He Hit Me” ended the night on a haunting note (and I swear that song is one hundred times creepier live).

All in all a great night. If you squint at the crappy iPhone photo below you can sort of see Grizzly Bear after their first song, but there are much better photos and reviews of both nights on the old interwebs.