Happy new year everyone!
I have the feeling that 2011 is going to be a great year! In the meantime here is some gems from 2010 and a George Harrison new years eve classic.
Be safe tonight!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Harry Nilsson and Peasant
I wanna just give a huge kiss to who ever it was that invented Netflix! As previously mentioned New York City is still covered in snow and certain subway lines are still not up and running, rendering most of us home bound during the evenings myself included. To keep my sanity during this period I have been watching Netflix 24/7 and listening to new music. I have watched every season of "30 Rock" available on Netflix and last night I watched a documentary on the singer songwriter Harry Nilsson called "Who is Harry Nilsson And Why is Everyone Talking About Him".
Harry Nilsson was a pretty prolific songwriter whose career spanned two decades. His most well known songs are "You're Breaking My Heart, You're Tearing It Apart, So Fuck You", "Everyone's Talking" (which is the theme from the film "Midnight Cowboy"), "Coconut" and "One".
Harry Nilsson's songs were covered by other artists such as the Monkees and Three Dog Night and his music quickly made him a favorite of the Beatles with whom he became friends with. John Lennon would produce Nilsson's album "Pussy Cats" and Nilsson would collaborate with Ringo on various things including the animated film version of "The Point".
Tragically Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack at the age of 53 in 1994.
"Who is Harry Nilsson And Why is Everyone Talking About Him" is a really well done interesting look at Nilsson's career and life. Lots of friends including Eric Idle, Mickey Dolenz and Robin Williams are interviewed as well as Harry's ex wife and widow and children from his two marriages. Seeing the documentary made me really want to check out Harry's back catalogue and I also felt after watching the doc that Harry Nilsson is truly an overlooked and very under rated artist.
I highly recomend Netflixing "Who is Harry Nilsson And Why is Everyone Talking About Him" and I highly recomend that you take a listen to his albums "Nilsson Schmilsson" and "Pussy Cats".
Onto a very happy snowcalypse 2010 discovery Peasant. Peasant, otherwise known as Damien DeRose from Doylestown PA makes very good dreamy music.
In this clip Peasant gives us a lesson on how to play his song "The End" on guitar.
This is a clip of Peasant's song "Not Your Savior"
To hear more of Peasant's music and get tour dates you can click here.
Harry Nilsson was a pretty prolific songwriter whose career spanned two decades. His most well known songs are "You're Breaking My Heart, You're Tearing It Apart, So Fuck You", "Everyone's Talking" (which is the theme from the film "Midnight Cowboy"), "Coconut" and "One".
Harry Nilsson's songs were covered by other artists such as the Monkees and Three Dog Night and his music quickly made him a favorite of the Beatles with whom he became friends with. John Lennon would produce Nilsson's album "Pussy Cats" and Nilsson would collaborate with Ringo on various things including the animated film version of "The Point".
Tragically Harry Nilsson died of a heart attack at the age of 53 in 1994.
"Who is Harry Nilsson And Why is Everyone Talking About Him" is a really well done interesting look at Nilsson's career and life. Lots of friends including Eric Idle, Mickey Dolenz and Robin Williams are interviewed as well as Harry's ex wife and widow and children from his two marriages. Seeing the documentary made me really want to check out Harry's back catalogue and I also felt after watching the doc that Harry Nilsson is truly an overlooked and very under rated artist.
I highly recomend Netflixing "Who is Harry Nilsson And Why is Everyone Talking About Him" and I highly recomend that you take a listen to his albums "Nilsson Schmilsson" and "Pussy Cats".
Onto a very happy snowcalypse 2010 discovery Peasant. Peasant, otherwise known as Damien DeRose from Doylestown PA makes very good dreamy music.
In this clip Peasant gives us a lesson on how to play his song "The End" on guitar.
This is a clip of Peasant's song "Not Your Savior"
To hear more of Peasant's music and get tour dates you can click here.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Ethan Gold a chat three years later
It's been nearly three years since I've had a chat with old Whatever blog friend Ethan Gold. To refresh all your memories Ethan produced the great Elvis Perkins debut album "Ash Wednesday" and was a member of "Entourage" star Adrian Greiner's band The Honey Brothers. And besides being a talented producer and side man, Ethan is also brilliant solo artist in his own right. After three years in the making his album "Songs From A Toxic Apartment" is finally finished and so Ethan and I caught up via email about "Songs From A Toxic Apartment" during this past sunday night's snowcalypse 2010. And this is what he had to say.
AG: It's been nearly 3 years and "Songs From A Toxic Apartment" is done. How does it feel to have it done finally?
EG: It's great to have this stage done. But I feel like the album is just being
born. It was a long pregnancy but I want her to grow up and be the
president one day. So she needs to go to school & study her maths. That
will happen by all the videos I'm making and by playing lots more live shows
and then by giving her siblings to play with - other albums. But this
spring and summer and maybe into the autumn will be her special time
AG: It's been nearly 3 years and "Songs From A Toxic Apartment" is done. How does it feel to have it done finally?
EG: It's great to have this stage done. But I feel like the album is just being
born. It was a long pregnancy but I want her to grow up and be the
president one day. So she needs to go to school & study her maths. That
will happen by all the videos I'm making and by playing lots more live shows
and then by giving her siblings to play with - other albums. But this
spring and summer and maybe into the autumn will be her special time
Monday, December 27, 2010
2010 in a nutshell
Since every blog is doing it here is my list of things that were amazing in 2010.
BANDS/ARTISTS
Ego Puppets
Oh Land
Diamond Doves
Freshkills
Heavy Cream
Shark?
Those Darlins
Vandaveer
Buke and Gass
North Highlands
The Armchairs
Jonny Corndawg
Basia Bulat
The Acorn
Peasant
Even though their last album came out in 2009, I'm putting J.A.C.K. on my amazing things of 2010 because they came onto my radar this year.
ALBUMS
"Born & Thrown on a Hook" by Drink Up Buttercup
"What Lasts" by These United States
"The Ghost Who Walks" by Karen Elson
"Sea of Cowards" by The Dead Weather
"The Big Island" by Motel Motel
"Castle Talk" by Screaming Females
"Fate" and "Shame Shame Shame" by Dr. Dog
"Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky" by Ok Go
"Brian Wilson Reimangines Gershwin" by Brian Wilson
"Melted" by Ty Segall
"The Black Dirt Sessions" by Deer Tick
"The Traveling Show" by The Art of Shooting
ARTISTS & BANDS WHOSE HYPE IN 2010 I JUST DON'T GET
The National-pretencious douches who make boring over hyped music and think they are better then you.
Arcade Fire-another group of pretencious douches who try to make music that is "out there", in my humble opinion if your gonna do "out there" music at least have a sense of humor about it i.e. the late great Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart. One positive thing I will say about Arcade Fire is that they put their money where their mouths are and give a lot of money from the sales of various albums to charities.
Dawn Landes- she seems like a nice woman and she has a pretty voice. But I'm just sooo sick to death of women with acoustic guitars playing nice gentle boring music & every critic thinking it's so great!
THINGS IN MUSIC THAT JUST NEED TO STOP IN 2011
Rachael Ray/The Cringe organizing concerts at SXSW & in Brooklyn- Rachael honey, use your Oprah money for good like giving to real charities and not the charity of trying to make your middle aged husband a rock star! The Cringe is nothing more then a bad bar band and if John wasn't married to you he'd be playing bars in New Jersey, Queens and Long Island on Saturday nights! And stop with booking bands like Dr. Dog & Motel Motel at your SXSW & Bellhouse parties along with your husband's band to make it look as if he's on their level artistically; also stop saying you love Daytrotter and Deer Tick...you and your cheesey husband are helter skeltering a lot of really cool and important things for a lot of people! So please do us all a favor in 2011 and stop trying to make your lawyer husband an indie rock star..it ain't gonna happen sweetie, John's got about as much rock/indie cred as my grandmother!!
Just continue to interview the Kardashians, make really shitty food and continue with the cutesy abbreviations for food that make people wanna puke and shut up about loving The Freelance Whales & Brooklyn ..please!! Your only hurting indie rock and not helping indie rock!
Glee- I have a guilty pleasure list when it comes to music, tv shows & movies. For instance there are some songs, tv shows & movies that I just love that some would consider stupid. One guilty pleasure tv show for me was "Glee", "Glee" often reminded me of my own high school experience as a musical theater geek. This year I just could not get into it, it jumped the shark for me, due to the entire episodes of the kids performing Madonna and Britney Spears songs and recreating "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and Gwyneth Paltrow guest starring and singing Cee-loo. I read in one of the tabloids that Paul McCartney is a fan of the show....please God DO NOT make there be an entire episode of the Glee kids singing Beatles songs in 2011!
Things like drum circles- This past June I went to see These United States play the Music Hall of Williamsburg, one of the "bands" that opened was called Chica Vas. Chica Vas consisted of a group of white and Asian girls and one white emo looking dude banging on drums and making Yoko Ono type noises into the mike. Chica Vas was basically a glorified hipster drum circle! As you all know I'm all for the weird and the strange in music, but this to me was another case of playing "out there" music without a sense of humor and look at us, look at how cool and edgy we are!
And my advice to all the musicians who are stuck creatively and looking to do something different in 2011 is; (and this all goes back to my problem with Arcade Fire) if your gonna do edgy and "out there" music don't take it so seriously! Make it funny, sarcastic and interesting!!
And in closing when did drum circles become cool? Dirty smelly hippies always were in drum circles not edgy kids!
BANDS/ARTISTS
Ego Puppets
Oh Land
Diamond Doves
Freshkills
Heavy Cream
Shark?
Those Darlins
Vandaveer
Buke and Gass
North Highlands
The Armchairs
Jonny Corndawg
Basia Bulat
The Acorn
Peasant
Even though their last album came out in 2009, I'm putting J.A.C.K. on my amazing things of 2010 because they came onto my radar this year.
ALBUMS
"Born & Thrown on a Hook" by Drink Up Buttercup
"What Lasts" by These United States
"The Ghost Who Walks" by Karen Elson
"Sea of Cowards" by The Dead Weather
"The Big Island" by Motel Motel
"Castle Talk" by Screaming Females
"Fate" and "Shame Shame Shame" by Dr. Dog
"Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky" by Ok Go
"Brian Wilson Reimangines Gershwin" by Brian Wilson
"Melted" by Ty Segall
"The Black Dirt Sessions" by Deer Tick
"The Traveling Show" by The Art of Shooting
ARTISTS & BANDS WHOSE HYPE IN 2010 I JUST DON'T GET
The National-pretencious douches who make boring over hyped music and think they are better then you.
Arcade Fire-another group of pretencious douches who try to make music that is "out there", in my humble opinion if your gonna do "out there" music at least have a sense of humor about it i.e. the late great Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart. One positive thing I will say about Arcade Fire is that they put their money where their mouths are and give a lot of money from the sales of various albums to charities.
Dawn Landes- she seems like a nice woman and she has a pretty voice. But I'm just sooo sick to death of women with acoustic guitars playing nice gentle boring music & every critic thinking it's so great!
THINGS IN MUSIC THAT JUST NEED TO STOP IN 2011
Rachael Ray/The Cringe organizing concerts at SXSW & in Brooklyn- Rachael honey, use your Oprah money for good like giving to real charities and not the charity of trying to make your middle aged husband a rock star! The Cringe is nothing more then a bad bar band and if John wasn't married to you he'd be playing bars in New Jersey, Queens and Long Island on Saturday nights! And stop with booking bands like Dr. Dog & Motel Motel at your SXSW & Bellhouse parties along with your husband's band to make it look as if he's on their level artistically; also stop saying you love Daytrotter and Deer Tick...you and your cheesey husband are helter skeltering a lot of really cool and important things for a lot of people! So please do us all a favor in 2011 and stop trying to make your lawyer husband an indie rock star..it ain't gonna happen sweetie, John's got about as much rock/indie cred as my grandmother!!
Just continue to interview the Kardashians, make really shitty food and continue with the cutesy abbreviations for food that make people wanna puke and shut up about loving The Freelance Whales & Brooklyn ..please!! Your only hurting indie rock and not helping indie rock!
Glee- I have a guilty pleasure list when it comes to music, tv shows & movies. For instance there are some songs, tv shows & movies that I just love that some would consider stupid. One guilty pleasure tv show for me was "Glee", "Glee" often reminded me of my own high school experience as a musical theater geek. This year I just could not get into it, it jumped the shark for me, due to the entire episodes of the kids performing Madonna and Britney Spears songs and recreating "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and Gwyneth Paltrow guest starring and singing Cee-loo. I read in one of the tabloids that Paul McCartney is a fan of the show....please God DO NOT make there be an entire episode of the Glee kids singing Beatles songs in 2011!
Things like drum circles- This past June I went to see These United States play the Music Hall of Williamsburg, one of the "bands" that opened was called Chica Vas. Chica Vas consisted of a group of white and Asian girls and one white emo looking dude banging on drums and making Yoko Ono type noises into the mike. Chica Vas was basically a glorified hipster drum circle! As you all know I'm all for the weird and the strange in music, but this to me was another case of playing "out there" music without a sense of humor and look at us, look at how cool and edgy we are!
And my advice to all the musicians who are stuck creatively and looking to do something different in 2011 is; (and this all goes back to my problem with Arcade Fire) if your gonna do edgy and "out there" music don't take it so seriously! Make it funny, sarcastic and interesting!!
And in closing when did drum circles become cool? Dirty smelly hippies always were in drum circles not edgy kids!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Storm 2010
Before I start I want to say that I hope all of you had a very happy holiday!
Right now as we speak the East Coast of the US is being pounded by a major snowstorm. My home city of New York has almost a foot of snow on the ground and it just keeps falling. Some people here in New York are claiming that they heard thunder several times, I myself have not heard anything cause I've been too busy watching the first four seasons of "30 Rock" & having a one woman dance party grooving on tracks by Ratatat, Spoon,Ego Puppets & The Dead Weather...I tend to do things like that when I'm bored.
I went out into the blizzard for about five seconds to take pictures in front of my house, the wind gusts were crazy, total white out conditions at times!
Right now as we speak the East Coast of the US is being pounded by a major snowstorm. My home city of New York has almost a foot of snow on the ground and it just keeps falling. Some people here in New York are claiming that they heard thunder several times, I myself have not heard anything cause I've been too busy watching the first four seasons of "30 Rock" & having a one woman dance party grooving on tracks by Ratatat, Spoon,Ego Puppets & The Dead Weather...I tend to do things like that when I'm bored.
I went out into the blizzard for about five seconds to take pictures in front of my house, the wind gusts were crazy, total white out conditions at times!
Onto the topic of music! Within the next few days, I will have a new chat posted with an old friend Mr. Ethan Gold and some new tracks posted by two recent & very happy discoveries Peasant and Alcoholic Faith Mission.
And a big huge thanks to all involved in & all who came out to the Whatever Blog Holiday Extravaganza on Dec 21st! All Whatever blog parties start up again in Feb of 2011, so keep it here for dates and details!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
