Last night my friend sent me the most absolutely adorable rendition of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero’s “Home.” Performed by a Alexa and Jorge Narvaez, this video is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and warm your heart. Attention Alex Ebert, I think we’ve found you a new band member. Home – Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros Acoustic Cover (Jorge & Alexa Narvaez)
A Halloween Tribute to The Swell Season
October 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I got an email from a Swell Season fan today who created a festive homage to The Swell Season. Check out this photo of Glen Hansard’s guitar reincarnated as a pumpkin.
Glen’s guitar as a pumpkin
Glen's guitar
Now that’s some impressive pumpkin carving….
Parks and Recreation is the “Wu-Tang of comedies”
January 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I absolutely love NBC’s Parks & Recreation, I think its brilliant and Questlove agrees. He recently called the show “the Wu-Tang of comedy.” Quest got together with the cast and his friend RZA to created a little spoof, the result is hilarious. You have to check it out here:
http://player.ordienetworks.com/flash/fodplayer.swf
Vintage Shopping with Lykke Li
January 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
http://current.com/e/91373583/en_US
I caught Lykke Li at SXSW in 2008 when the young Swedish phenom was on the verge of breaking out this side of the pond. Although I arrived late and only caught the last song I knew she was one to keep an eye on. Since then she’s collaborated with Bon Iver, recorded a hit song for the Twilight soundtrack and toured the world over. One of the things I love most about her is the way fashion infiltrates her image as a musician, she’s kind of like the Ashley Olsen of indie-rock. I was super excited when I saw this Current TV Embedded segment on Lykke. They go vintage shopping in San Francisco, one of my favorite cities and they find some awesome stuff. I’m kind of thinking of planning a trip to San Fran just to hit up some of those thrift shops. Who’s with me?
Good times with the Boys from Oklahoma
December 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
My favorite Red Dirt rockers Cross Canadian Ragweed were in town this week for a couple of rare NYC shows. We had a fun press day on Wednesday that started out at Relix where Cody, Grady and Jeremy played a couple of acoustic songs for the folks there. It was nice to hear stripped down versions of the songs that they rock out live. Next we made our way over to Sirius where the band was interviewed on the Road Dog channel followed by a session for Outlaw country.
By far the highlight of the day was meeting Jesse “The body” Ventura. Here is a pic of the guys and the governor at Sirius.
A fun couple of days w/ The Swell Season
November 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The best part of my job is definitely getting to spend time with musicians that I respect and admire. The past two days have been a delight since I got to spend them with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the Swell Season. They came into town on Tuesday straight from a sold out show in DC. I met them at WNYC where they were guests on Soundcheck for part of the “Soundcheck Smack-down” series – they were debating the love song vs the break up song with host John Schaefer. It was a fun segment and both Glen and Mar spoke about the different types of songs beautifully. Then they performed one of their own, the slow-burning soul number “Low Rising” – one of my favorite songs! you can listen to Glen and Mar on Soundcheck here:
On Wednesday we did a couple of online performances for People Magazine and Rolling Stone. It’s so incredible to see Glen and Mar perform in front of just a handful of folks when most people only see them perform in the larger venues. I’m not knocking the larger shows though, I love those too and can’t wait to see The Swell Season at Radio City in January!
Above is a picture I took with Glen and Mar just before we said goodbye. I know its a bit blurry but you get the idea.
Me at The Newport Folk Festival
August 11, 2009 By 1 Comment
Last weekend I went to the Newport Folk Festival. It was the most wonderful festival experience I have ever had. The line up was fantastic (Billy Bragg, Deer Tick, Iron & Wine, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Fleet Foxes, The Low Anthem…) and the location couldn’t have been more picturesque. For those of you who have never been the festival is held at Fort Adams Park an old
military fort from the Revolutionary war, the stages are set up on the lawns overlooking Newport harbor where people set up beach chairs and watch from the field or dock their boats and watch the show from the water. Its also an incredibly low key festival: there are only 3 stages and less than half the people you get at the other major festivals. Plus, they have real bathrooms
and they have vendors that sell lobster rolls!
Some highlights of the festival were seeing some of my former clients perform. Billy Bragg opened the festival on Saturday and was as awesome as ever. After his set I hung out with him and his crew a bit – Billy is such a delightful soul – one of my favorite songwriters and an all around great guy! After Billy I ran into the Avett Brothers (we worked their 2007 release ‘Emotionalism’) back stage as they jokingly did their pre-performance stretches. They put on an excellent show and the new stuff sounds fantastic but it was Mavis Staples who really brought down the house. Her performance was mesmerizing and as my boyfriend said “could not be topped.” The company we watched her with couldn’t be topped either, at one point we found ourselves sandwiched between George Wein and Rambling Jack Elliot.
After Mavis’s set we hung out backstage with the Ice Cream Man who was taping performances with some of the bands that played the festival. Check some of them out here:
We were just relaxing, eating ice cream and all of the sudden we saw a police escort arrive. We thought, who could it be? Bob Dylan? Obama? Nope! It was Gillian Welch and David Rawlings! Turns out the duo’s plane was delayed and landed less than an hour before they were set to hit the stage. They don’t usually travel like that but with the crazy traffic from the center of Newport it was the only way they could have arrived on time. We watched as they literally grabbed their guitars from the car and went straight to the stage and they still sounded amazing.
I haven’t uploaded my pictures yet but you can see some great shots from the festival on Ryan’s Smashing Life Blog here .
TOP SHOP OPENS IN SOHO
April 6, 2009 By 2 Comments
The line, almost there!
Kate and I waiting patiently.
This weekend we headed to Soho to hit up the newly opened Top Shop. The line wrapped around the block, we waited for about 30 minutes before getting into the fashion mecca. The four floors full of clothes, shoes and accessories were buzzing with shoppers. For opening weekend they had DJs spinning, free manicures, hair styling and $5 Top Shop gift cards. The Kate Moss line has some gorgeous dresses and the shoe department had some really funky heels. I left with a mint green cargo jacket and a cute navy and white stripped dress. The store wasn’t quite as magnificent as the Top Shop in Oxford Circus but don’t get me wrong I am super excited it’s finally here and word from one of the salesclerks, the candy shop is coming soon!
Interviewing Susan Tedeschi For NY1
November 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Matt Hanks and I went to Susan Tedeschi’s show at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza on Wednesday night. She rocked the nearly sold out crowd playing tracks from her new album ‘Back To The River.’ Her five song encore was killer including a cover of one of my favorite songs, “Evidence” by Candi Stanton.
After the show I filled in for George Whipple and interviewed Susan for NY1. No, not really I was just holding the mic while the camera man asked the questions.
Morrison Hotel Brings Music Back To The Bowery
November 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Last Night Matt Hanks and I attended the Django James and the Midnight Squires show at the Morrison Hotel Gallery’s Bowery location. The gallery now occupies what used to be part of CBGB’s and last night’s show was the first live musical performance in the space since CBGB’s shut its doors. Check out some photos from the show below.
Django James and the Midnight Squires perform. Photo by Rick Edwards
Django James, Goergina Jagger and Jordan Hewson hang out after the show. Photo by Rick Edwards
