Go Listen To Some Feel Good Blues!
June 14, 2010 by Jenny Miller
Filed under Arts, Entertainment, Featured, Music
Sometimes the best things come along when you least expect it. On Friday night my husband & I decided to grab a bite to eat at a pub in Valley Cottage called the Smokin’ Bull. We were delighted to hear from our waitress that a live band was scheduled to play that night. With a mechanical bull, stage coach booths and cowboy boots as far as the eye could see we were expecting a country band. My husband, an avid country music fan, was thrilled! When the band arrived and started setting up it was obvious by their smooth black clothes and beret’s instead of Stetson’s that it wasn’t country we were gonna hear but blues. Hey, all great music has it’s roots in blues so while my husband was a little disappointed he quickly got over it. Johnny Feds & Da Bluez Boyz were pure blues & pure magic (www.johnnyfeds.com). A fantastic multi-talented five man band including drums, bass, keyboard, sax/harmonica/vocals, guitar/vocals. With the bull as a backdrop they began to jam and they sounded sooooo good. The acoustics were amazing, the sound clear and not too loud, vocals were great and best of all the band played well together and were having a genuinely good time! The songs were well known tunes such as Crossroads, Pride and Joy and Hoochie Coochie Man. My husband said the song was an old Allman Brothers Band song and I said it was from Eric Clapton. Tu
rns out Hoochie Coochie Man was written by Willie Dixon in 1954 and was first performed by Muddy Waters. The song has since been covered by no less than 25 artists including the Brothers and Clapton. Johnny Feds & Da Bluez Boyz gave the song its due and played a kick ass version of it. The coolest thing about this band is that they play “Chicago Style” which they explained means that anyone from the audience could join in. If you can play the guitar, sax, sing or whatever. An amazing woman joined in on the harmonica and played along with the band. Jeez that woman can play! Unbelievable!. So if you play the spoons or possess any other musical talent stop on in at a Johnny Feds set and play along. They’d love to jam with you!
The GLINT Experience!
December 29, 2009 by HBR.M Review
Filed under Arts, Entertainment, Events, Featured, Music
“The GLINT experience is indeed different. A musical art piece, unleashed. The venue, it’s frame. The event, memorable, in fact the visual image lingers, while the concert continues in my mind, long after”. The band is headlining at the new and soon to be, the most incredible venue in New York, the Brooklyn Bowl www.brooklynbowl.com. on Wednesday, December 8, 2009. The only scheduled local (their home to some) Rockland County show takes place in Piermont, on December 18th, at the Turning Point. After that, follow them, their journey will interestingly surprise you regardless of age and tantalize your musical buds, regardless of taste. This is a special group, that will clearly have a place in musical history, you’ll see…..
www.relyrecords.com/glintwatch.pdf
HBR, M. Review
Dave Matthews Band New Album
July 24, 2009 by SarahJacobs
Filed under Arts, Entertainment, Featured, Music
There is a common belief among many that the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) sounds better live compared to its studio efforts. In fact, the band’s rise to fame was because of its live music – so much so that it allows the audience members to record most shows and permit non-profit trading of the recordings. Despite that, DMB still has the privilege of being among the world’s best-selling artistes, having shifted an estimated 31 million copies worldwide!
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King – the band’s seventh studio album and its first since 2005’s Stand Up. There is a freshness and urgency about Big Whiskey that calls to mind the early gems like Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash and Before These Crowded Streets.
This is also DMB’s first release since the death of saxophonist and founding member LeRoi Moore, and Matthews and other stalwarts, violinist Boyd Tinsley, bassist Stefan Lessard and drummer Carter Beauford, are in inspired form, paying tribute to their departed comrade.
The album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, selling 424,000 copies in its first week of release. I’m pretty sure that loyal fans will be delighted by this latest offering.
Enjoy the fresh new music and tour Dave Matthews Band has released!
Featured Album: “Lost and Safe” by The Books
Lost and Safe
Over two albums, the Books have plucked sampled voices from their original context and arranged them inside simple compositions for sliced-and-diced guitar, banjo, and cello. They’ve taken moments of contemplation– when one understands something on an emotional level but can’t quite articulate his thoughts– and dressed it up in a melodic frame. By transmitting at the frequency of pre-conscious association and intuition, Thought for Food and The Lemon of Pink were immediately accessible despite absences of obvious reference points. Both records felt like gifts, demanding little from the listener but paying out handsomely.
With their fresh sound and economic construction (the first two releases were each under 40 minutes), the Books did well to stick to a similar template on back-to-back records. But in preparing for their third album, one senses Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong felt as if they’d mastered this approach and needed to try something different. On Lost and Safe, the Books take the vocals and song structures hinted at on Thought for Food and fleshed out on The Lemon of Pink and make them the centerpiece.
This time it’s Zammuto alone on the mic; Anne Doerner, whose spare vocal contributions to The Lemon of Pink wound up being a highlight, doesn’t sing any lead. There’s more processed electric guitar (often used in a clicking, repetitive manner reminiscent of classical minimalism) and far less cello. Despite live vocals on nearly every track and the shifts in texture, the approach is still very recognizably the Books. In a way, the original lyrics aim for the same level of engagement as the odd samples, finding and skirting the edge between different meanings. “Yes and no are just distinguished by distinction, so we chose the in-between” are the first words Zammuto sings in his hushed whisper on the opening “A Little Longing Goes Away”, and that sort of ambiguity sets the tone for the record. Words for the Books have been a subject in and of themselves, worth hearing purely as sound, and the written lyrics here have a similar character.
Most of Lost and Safe is pleasant enough but not much more. “Be Good to Them Always” is the record’s lone great track, one that hints at potential interesting directions down the road. As clicky electric guitar with some backward reverb pans across the stereo field, Zammuto sings in concert with the sampled voices, finding the hidden melody in the deadpan newsman deliver of lines like “I can hear a collective rumbling in America” and “This great society is going smash.” Reminiscent of Steve Reich’s “Different Trains”, which built tunes from the speech inflections of interviewed holocaust survivors, “Be Good to Them Always” is a fantastic reminder of the musicality of the spoken word, an idea that lurks constantly inside the music of the Books.
One of the more interesting things about the Books first two records was their democratic production; the music never seems to push the listeners ear toward any one element. But now Zammuto’s voice is clearly the focus, and though his quiet and half-spoken phrasing works well with the arrangements, the “tunes,” as such, don’t necessarily warrant the added attention. It’s as though, with a few exceptions, the Books weren’t quite sure what they wanted to do and they wound up stuck halfway between proper songs and the ambiguity of samples. Though the Books do a nice job here bending lyrics to fit the open-ended tone of their compositional style, the original vocals wind up draining their sound of mystery, and Lost and Safeseems by far more conventional than their previous two records.
— Mark Richardson, April 4, 2005
-LOU ASHBY
Featured album: “Wrecking Ball” by Emmylou Harris
Wrecking Ball
Wrecking Ball is a 1995 Emmylou Harris album that found the country music singer veering away from the traditional acoustic sound for which she’d become known, to team up with rock producer Daniel Lanois (most commonly associated with U2). The album has been noted for its murky, atmospheric feel, and featured guest performances by Steve Earle, Larry Mullen, Lucinda Williams, and Neil Young (who wrote the title song). Though her choice of songs had always been eclectic, the album was regarded as a departure for Harris who, by the age of 48, had become something of an elder stateswoman in country music. It received almost universally positive reviews, making many critics’ year-end “best of” lists, and pointed Harris’ career in a somewhat different direction, where she would incorporate a harder, albeit plaintive edge that would single her out from the complacent, country music mainstream. As a career-redefining album, Wrecking Ball was likened to Marianne Faithfull’s 1979 Broken English album and Johnny Cash’s later American Recordings. Wrecking Ball won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.
Nyack’s Larry Mullen Jr. lends his drums to most of the album.
Because Emmylou Harris has performed traditional country music and recorded with ’70s country rockers like Gram Parsons and Linda Ronstadt, many fans associate her with that style of music. In reality, Harris floats in some netherland amid country, rock and folk. Her latest album turns this stylistic ambiguity into a stunning virtue: Wrecking Ball is a wrenching collection of songs that merges popular and historical styles like a 1990s rethink of the Band.
Some of the contemporary feel comes from producer Daniel Lanois, who brings his own style into play: atmospheric background combined with powerful, clear-cut melodies. He provides the perfect setting for Harris’ lucid, crystalline voice. The songs come from stellar writers like Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, yet they don’t feel like cover versions here. Harris fully inhabits each song without overwhelming it; she’s an expert interpretative singer.
Harris interprets the tunes, but they also interpret her:Instead of emoting, she lets the feelings inherent in each one come through as simply as a still-life painting. Her take on “Every Grain of Sand” honors the contemplative spirit of Dylan’s original, although his thoughtful folk sound is amplified here into a plaintive cry set to a waltzlike meter.
“Goodbye” evokes a past love affair, the memory of which eludes the singer’s grasp. The listener, however, can find traces in the heartbreaking simplicity of the melody, in Harris’ voice and in Lanois’ lead guitar. The title track might first conjure an incongruous picture of destruction; it’s actually about a dance, the low, thumping backbeat contrasting bizarrely with Harris’ ethereal, sweet delivery. Wrecking Ball progresses like a true song cycle; Harris ponders life’s difficulties with a grim wisdom that avoids both sarcasm and pessimism.
SUSAN RICHARDSON from Rolling Stone
-LOU ASHBY
Palisades Resident, Bjork, Volta Album Review
February 16, 2009 by Bill Bliweiss
Filed under Music
Ten luxuriant, often dark songs ranging from Martian electronica to inimitable balladry to id-channeling reveries, with African percussion, thick brass and deeply emotional singing: That’s Bjork’s new album in a nutshell, and, as usual, she sounds like no one but herself. Volta is arguably Bjork’s loosest and most ruminative record, and though it touches on everything she’s ever done, it’s not as gripping or coherent as her best stuff, notably 2001’s Vespertine. But with help from well-picked collaborators, including Timbaland and Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, the gratuitously detailed new disc packs some great moments. Two Timbaland-produced cuts — “Innocence” and the rumbling, percussion-laden opener, “Earth Intruders” — are the closest thing to instant pleasures. But Bjork is at her best on two flights of fancy: “Hope,” a gorgeous thing that ponders suicide bombers and features some of her tenderest, most agile singing ever, and the terrific “I See Who You Are,” a swirl of Asian strings and swooning melodies that seems to be about sex. Overall, a pretty good argument for Bjork to keep doing whatever she pleases — not that she ever wouldn’t.
Review by Christian Hoard, Rolling Stone Magazine. Rating: 3.5/5.
Release Date: May 8, 2007
DID YOU KNOW? Bjork is a Rockland County resident, currently living in the picturesque Sneden’s Landing in Palisades, NY.
Glint performs for NME Magazine 2.26.09
February 3, 2009 by Bill Bliweiss
Filed under Featured, Music
The beautiful artwork for "Sound in Silence" prepared by world-renowned artist Mark Kostabi.
The band Glint, with founding members Jase Blankfort and Mateus Tebaldi residing in Nyack, began making their international mark with the release of their second album, Sound in Silence, released by Nyack-based label Rely Records in October, 2008. Praised in Billboard Magazine and supported by a world-wide homepage feature on the iTunes Music store, download this album now.
Following the success of Glint’s last string of packed shows across Manhattan, including Mercury Lounge, Blender Theater, and Webster Hall, the psyche-electronic-rock thrill band returns to New York City with an ‘09 live debut for Club NME at the lower east side underground spot, The Annex, on February 26th, 2009, supported by Brooklyn’s electro/pop quintet Peephole.
After melding as the superlative four-piece (Jase Blankfort and Mateus Tebaldi recently joined forces with Alon Leventon on keys & synthesizers and Dave Johnsen on bass), Glint will be testing out new material that will be a part of the group’s forthcoming album, slated for release in spring of 2009, the first recording as the four-piece.
Known primarily for their signature blend of lush melodies and climactic drumming, experience Glint’s transcendental show in the intimate Annex space. Accompanied by light show and open bar from 9-10pm, surrender to a heretofore unknown creative height in live music.
Jase Blankfort of Glint. Photo by Noahm.com © 2008.
Operating independently through Rely Records, the label co-founded by Glint, recent highlights include an impressive #8 chart of “Boy of the Stars” on Los Angeles’ KCSN top 40 songs of 2008, upcoming performance on Fearless Music (FOX TV), world-wide featured placement on the iTunes homepage, iTunes presents: Glint live from SoHo, live performance/interview on Matt Pinfield’s morning show (101.9 WRXP), featured story in Billboard Magazine, headlining Webster Hall/Central Park/Blender Theater, and lastly, being crowned the “best independent act in the northeast” by winning the Independent Music World Series, hand-picked by Billboard Magazine.
With a continuing commitment to connect new fans and listeners through Glint, the sensation will thrive at 10:30 PM at 152 Orchard St, New York City, on February 26TH, 2009.
Glint live at Webster Hall. Photo by Scott Yeckes © 2008.
Critical accolades for Glint’s Sound in Silence:
“Air tight […] & irresistible” – BILLBOARD
“Pianos and cymbals battle it out in the musical solar system of Glint’s open and glimmering sound, as the vocals pull elements from Muse and a little bit of Bowie here and there”- DELI MAGAZINE
HEADLINE: “GLINT… THE NEXT BIG THING?”- YEDIOT AMERICA
“Boy of the Stars charts at #8 on the top 40 songs of 2008” – KCSN LOS ANGELES RADIO
“the missing link between Mogwai & Portishead”- NOAHM.COM
