Let’s not forget that American pop culture is not the only place to find some unexpected musical oddity, as this video – which is apparently a massive hit on the UK charts – clearly demonstrates.
I confess, I did have to Google “Jedward” for the backstory.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh_xhF5NsnY]
Zac Brown Band Named Best New Artist; Maxwell Wins 2
Shore Fire clients last night earned nine GRAMMY® Awards, five of them in a diverse set of Best Album categories, and a clutch of our clients were seen onstage during the televised Awards ceremony. Zac Brown Band was named Best New Artist and, with Leon Russell, delivered a smoking rendition of America the Beautiful, Russell’s Dixie’s Lullaby and their own #1 platinum single Chicken Fried. Maxwell won two awards — his first GRAMMYs® — including Best R&B; Album and tore down the house with his song Pretty Wings and a spirited duet with Roberta Flack on Where is the Love. Loudon Wainwright III took home his first GRAMMY® Award. Smokey Robinson sang, as did Butch Walker, who was invited by Taylor Swift to play on the arrangement of her song “You Belong With” made famous by his viral video cover.
Click here for video highlights of Maxwell and Zac Brown Band.
Shore Fire GRAMMY® winners:
Best New Artist:
Zac Brown Band
Best Americana Album:
Levon Helm – ‘Electric Dirt’ (Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard Records)
Best Pop Instrumental Album:
Booker T. Jones – Potato Hole (Anti)
Best R&B; Album:
Maxwell – ‘BLACKsummers’Night’ (Columbia)
Best Tejano Album:
Los Texmaniacs – ‘Borders Y Bailes’ (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)
Best Traditional Folk Album:
Loudon Wainwright III – ‘High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project’ (2nd Story Sound Records)
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance:
Bruce Springsteen “Working On A Dream” – from ‘Working On A Dream’ (Columbia)
Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance:
Maxwell “Pretty Wings” – from ‘BLACKsummers’Night’ (Columbia)
Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s):
Claus Ogerman, arranger (Diana Krall) “Quiet Nights” – from ‘Quiet Nights’ (Verve)
Yes, it was finally time for the big one, the landmark birthday, the one everyone’s been waiting for. It’s been a long time coming but our very own Diana D’Angelo has hit the big twenty-one, and is ready to take a few writers out for drinks. As you can see she was grinning ear to ear for the occasion:
Here’s Diana as she got ready to blow out her birthday… well, pastry collection, which may be a first for an afternoon Shore Fire birthday celebration, flanked by the front of Chris Taillie and the back of Andy Silva. The pastries were spread among the staff with joy, partly aided by the intrepid tong-wielder whose prominently displayed arm is obscuring Mark Satlof, just after bestowing some morsels on Matt Hanks, seated to his left.
And as the sugar and good conversation sets in, the staff eases back to celebrate another wonderful year with the lovely Ms. D’Angelo, at far right, with (counterclockwise) Chris Taillie, Carrie Tolles, Nora Lyons, Rob Krauser, Mr. Hanks, Mr. Satlof, and a glimpse of our fearless leader, Shore Fire President Marilyn Laverty, peeking into the photo at far left:
Happy Birthday Diana!!
Last night the Shore Fire gang marked the new decade by convening some of our Brooklyn friends for an impromptu 2010 kick-off cocktail party at the Brooklyner. It’s an impressive new residential building — in fact the tallest building in the entire borough — we’ve been watching grow from our office windows for some time now.
Needless to say we were thrilled at the chance for a sneak peek at the building and its very hip hang out lounge, and thanks to the gracious hosting of our brilliant friend Karen Auster and her firm Auster Agency, and the Brooklyner’s management, friends new and old joined for music, snacks, and drinks. Here’s a sampling of the evening’s festivities.
Here’s Shore Fire’s Matt Hanks with musician Josh Charles.
Blue Note publicist Cem Kurosman doing his best to channel Minnesota Fats:
Shore Fire’s own Diana D’Angelo and Marilyn Laverty flanked by label legend Tommy Silverman (on right) and manager Bruce Garfield (left):
Rob Krauser catching up with ICM’s Alex Joffe and Jessica Rosenberg of Harlequin Books.
Want to see more pictures? Check out Shore Fire’s Facebook page for the full gallery.
The battle for the honor of best cupcake in the city has become a serious NYC pastime, with fierce advocates and strong opinions, and Sugar Sweet Sunshine has been chronicled here as an office favorite on multiple occasions. But Lauretta Charlton’s birthday celebration marked the debut of a new contender — Brooklyn’s One Girl Cookies — that might just have a shot at the title. Here’s Lauretta making a wish flanked by Mark Satlof, Elizabeth Lutz, and Matt Hanks captured in mid-applause.
The huge smile says it all, it’s a hit. Here’s Lauretta with (from right to left) Elizabeth, Mark, Nora Lyons, Diana D’Angelo, Carrie Tolles, and Matt. Happy Birthday Lauretta!
Hey, say it out loud, it’s even got the right number of syllables. For what may be one of the last Suite 16 posts of the decade it seems ok to have a little pun, er fun.
Sorry, couldn’t resist a little wordplay. It may not be worthy of Shakespeare, but the brilliant and eclectic band Hem sure are, as they ably proved earlier this year with their original music for the production of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park.
And earlier today, Dan Messe and Steve Curtis stopped in to New York public radio station WNYC to talk about the project with Leonard Lopate. Here’s the two of them (with yours truly) just before the show:
And you can listen to the conversation for yourself here:
http://www.wnyc.org/flashplayer/mp3player.swf?config=http://www.wnyc.org/flashplayer/config_share.xml&file=http://www.wnyc.org/stream/xspf/146751
The album, which features the band as well as contributions from cast members such as Anne Hathaway, has been a critic’s darling through the fall and on to a host of best of the year lists. Learn more at this link.
If you’re of a certain age, it doesn’t matter what albums you were buying at the time, the fact is you were listening to Boyz II Men on a regular basis. From the inevitable “MotownPhilly” roof raiser at the school dance, to the song that must have been a part of 94% of all high school graduations that year, “End Of The Road.”
But I have to admit, it had been awhile since I’d thought about it — until this past weekend that is, thanks to the fine folks at Hennessy and everyone involved in their fantastic Hennessy Artistry series. Curated by Common and The Roots, with the latter as the backing band, the series is all about the concept of blending — performances and collaborations, and a blend of musical, artistic, cultural (not to mention flavorful) experiences.
Saturday night’s event in Atlanta was action packed, with sets by Amerie and Anjulie as well as solo turns by Common and The Roots. But if I had to pick the one part that’s been etched in my eardrums for two days now, it actually happened early in the afternoon when we went over during soundcheck. Walking into the venue I heard the familiar groove of “MotownPhilly” at full volume through the soundsystem, and proceeded to take a leisurely look around to check out the space, thinking I was listening to a CD being played by the soundman. It wasn’t until I was almost on top of the stage when I glanced up and saw Ahmir in full force on the drums that I realized it was the real thing. Man, that is one ludicrously tight band.
And keeping to the blending theme, I realized in restrospect just how perfectly matched they were to the series. At the time the first New Jack Swing artists broke through, what now seems obvious — that hip hop and R&B; are a natural blend — wasn’t the consensus at all. Those two genres were often kept in their own little niches, and it took guys like Teddy Riley, Atlanta’s own Babyface, among others, to knock down a wall that Boyz II Men came through in a big way.
Have to give Hennessy credit for pulling this one together, it was pretty special to be just a few feet away when they brought the house down later that night. Here’s a little taste of what that was like:
I guess it all comes back around if the blend is right.
That’s the well documented consensus of a devoted subgroup here in the office, with Mark Satlof as the clear spiritual leader and strong adherents including Messrs. Hanks, Lavigne, and yours truly, among others. And in that good ol’ “everything-with-bacon-is-just-a-little-bit-better” spirit, we present an alternate enhanced version of the blog you’re currently reading. Just click here to experience it for yourself.
Hat tip to Mike Lavigne for forwarding the link, but I was briefly transfixed last night looking at this gallery of screenshots posted on The Daily Beast of the web in all its 1.0 (or even pre-1.0) glory. Highly worth checking out the gallery.
The Daily Beast calls it a flashback to “ugly” websites, but that doesn’t seem fair. They weren’t badly designed, that’s what everything looked like early on. This one though was my favorite, especially since it was taken in 2005.
That’s an entire decade after the Netscape IPO (usually credited as the Lexington & Concord of the dot com era) and well into the Web 2.0 era. Things sure do move fast, checking Google’s handy de facto EKG meter for the news media you can see that it wasn’t long before it was one of the biggest tech phenomena going.
And a year from now the story is bound to have changed and morphed yet again. We have a suspicion our client SuperFan.com might just be a big part of it, but in any case if you can forgive the cliche — the one thing that’s certain to be constant is constant change.
And a side note, this image was my runner up favorite. It may not have resonance unless you were living in Manhattan in 1999-2000 or so, but the Kozmo/UrbanFetch wars were epic. My first apartment in the city was a lovely single room with a sweeping (nearly half block wide) first floor view of the Lincoln Tunnel entrance on 34th street.
But one thing I had going for me was being about 100 yards from the old UrbanFetch distro facility next to Javits. Ever find yourself at 2am needing two razor blades, a snickers bar, and a 60 watt GE lightbulb delivered to your door, at low prices with no minimum order, and tipping strictly prohibited? That one’s still sorely missed.
I had the pleasure last Friday night of attending a house party (a "Sweet and Greet," if you will) in honor of Brooklyn's singer/songwriter sweetheart Risa Binder. Risa, whose debut album 'Paper Heart' came out this past February, has an impressive … continued
