ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves atNOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
Brookyln's Miniature
Tigers have been around for awhile. Back when MySpace
was still a thing, in 2006, Rolling Stone magazine trolled the
plethora of recording entities represented there and named
Miniature Tigers as one of the Top 25. Nothing wrong with that
pick. The band tours widely and has remained a presence on the
pop culture scene. In fact, the Miniature Tigers may well have
been part of a shift in pop culture back away from the west
coast and more to the east. The video here of "Swimming Pool
Blues" would only confuse the issue, with the band (guitarist
Charlie Brand, Rick Schaier on keyboard and vocals, Algernon
Quashie on guitar, and Brandon Lee on bass) cavorting around
some pretty west coast-looking locations, and bringing life to
still photography in a clever video production. However thin the
song might be, it is really catchy and nicely done, and
Miniature Tigers have a great sound.
Hamilton
Leithauser
Hamilton
Leithauser has been the front man for
the Indie band The Walkmen,
and he has had a couple spots on NPR. He has a youthful
recording-friendly voice, but his main strength may be his
songwriting, which has a poetic heft to it that sets a little
back in the mix may at first be mixed. He is another of the new
romantic types, a guy who, at some impressionable moment, must
have listened to a bunch of early Dylan.
New York-based
producer, songwriter and percussionist
D. Gookin (aka Mike Birnbaum) is on a mission.
Think of it as retaliation against a recession both economic
and emotional. While his peers delve ever deeper into sonic
murk, Gookin flips life's unsavory bits into maxed out,
genuinely uplifting music.
Combining the adventurousness of modern
electronic innovators like Tobacco and Len, his sound is as
propulsive as it is melodic and as freewheeling as it is
meticulously orchestrated. His first two records-2008s LP
How 2 Deal and EP When You're Lonely Everybody's a Celebrity
(Moodgadget)-are steeped in '80s electro and Italo Disco and
yet oddly melancholic.
In 2009, Gookin released From Here the
Wall of Undoing EP where he took a different tack. He pushed
his drums and vocals to the forefront, adopting a
psychedelic, rock-driven approach. Meanwhile, he developed
his kinetic live show to match, both locally and on the
road. In 2011, he returned with Spiral Style, which covers a
broad swath of styles while staying true to Gookin's goal.
From the anthemic electronica of opener "Way 2 Grow," to the
beaming optimism of "Spirit Link," to the chopped chipmunk
soul of closer "Stealing Sun Chips," the Spiral Style EP is
a candy-coated feel-good affair that effectively wrings good
vibes out of the bad stuff that too often slows us down.
One of the more intriguing stories of the
past year is the YouTube-enabled rise of Lana Del Ray, whose
nakedly emotional "Video Games" caught the attention of a
nation, to the extent that within months of breaking she was
performing on "Saturday Night Live". She caught nearly
universal criticisms for her performance, though
RARWRITER.com had no trouble with her effort. On Late Night
with David Letterman February 2 (2012) she did her hit in
its original sparse arrangement, which puts total attention
on Del Ray's natural steaminess. Letterman and Paul Shafer
seemed to love it. The performance has an honest edge to it
that is hard to describe as anything other than stimulating.
What do you think?
______________________
_________
Glamour Girl
Charlene Kaye's
Animal Love
Those style fiends over at Glamour
seem to like Charlene Kaye,
at least enough to provide a pad for the premiere of "Animal
Love 1" from her upcoming sophomore LP of the same title.
There is evidence that the 25-year-old Kaye is watch worthy.
She has a clear, strong voice that is perfect for recording,
and she brings tunes that have intelligence wrapped in there
around the beat, a characteristic that we at RARWRITER have
noticed with every Charlene Kaye release.
2011 was an amazing year for Kaye. After an overwhelming
outpouring of support from fans via Kickstarter, Animal
Love was recorded in Brooklyn with Charlene Kaye's band
mate and producer Tomek Miernowski
[The Pierces]. Charlene released the catchy single "Dress
and Tie," a duet with her frequent collaborator,
Glee's Darren Criss, opened
for Big Boi and
Minus the Bear and participated in a national
tour with Internet sensation Team StarKid, went to
the Grammys, and played CMJ and SXSW.
You can download the album track and learn more with
interviews at Glamour and
NewNowNext.
_________________
World Class
Song Stylist
Pop Maestro Kyle Jarrow
Brooklyn-based playwright
Kyle
Jarrow has won some fine honors for his musical
theatrical craft, but along the way he has also led some
exceptionally cool bands, including The Fabulous Entourage and
Super Mirage. He is now with a new entry,
Sky Pony. Watch this live
performance of an original tune below, leaving no doubt that
Jarrow is one of the authentic singer-songwriter talents in
the country, and one doing a sophisticated brand of
electro-pop thriving almost exclusively on the coasts, at
least stateside. It has a smart lyrical and melodic quality
and a playful, sexy bounce to its funky rhythmic structure.
More on Sky Pony below.
Sky Pony
"I did indeed get married, last
May. Thank you for the congratulations. She's a very
talented actress/singer. It's been a lot of fun starting a
band with her!." - Kyle Jarrow.
Sky Pony is billed as a
husband-wife act, i.e., "It's a brand new band that combines
the "uptown" talents of singer/actress
Lauren Worsham (City
Center's Where's Charley, Goodspeed's Carnival, City Opera's
Candide) with the "downtown" sensibility of her husband Kyle Jarrow (from the bands
The Fabulous Entourage and Super Mirage, also an Obie
Award-winning playwright for A Very Merry Unauthorized
Children's Scientology Pageant) -- as well as an
ever-changing collective of guest performers."
The quote above references an
update to this piece that first appeared on January 18. RARWRITER.com
has featured Kyle regularly on this site but hadn't been in
touch with him in awhile and was not aware of the nuptials.
Our best wishes!
Here is a description of the Sky Pony show
in January (2012) at The Knitting
Factory in Brooklyn: "...a theatrical concert experience
that may well blow your mind, featuring a talented calvalcade of special guests: backup singers
Jessi Suzuki and
Megan Stern, guitarist
Kevin Wunderlich, bassist
Eric Day, drummer
Perry Silver (of The Fabulous
Entourage), cellist David Blasher,
and raconteur Clay McLeod Chapman
(of Pumpkin Pie Show fame). Costumes and choreography (yes,
there will be both) by Eunice Bae."
New
York City-based singer/songwriter/musician Rachel
Platten is playing Radio Holiday shows in
select cities this December alongside The Fray, Gavin Degraw,
David Cook & others. Platten released an LP of original
material, 'Be Here', in 2011 after touring the material for
a year. The performance below was recorded at her CD
release. Several are available from YouTube, but this
strikes me as the one that is most effective.
.
Platten is a Boston native
who started taking serious piano lessons about the time she
got old enough to got to school, but she caught the musician
bug later in her college years, while studying abroad in
Trinidad. Recently signed with Rock Ridge, Platten seems to
have been inspired by the Caribbean nation's Calypso music,
particularly Soca, and who he wouldn't be. It re-enlivened a
musical passion that she pursued by taking a songwriting
course through Boston's highly-respected Berklee College of
Music in Boston, and then on to New York City and subsequent
travels abroad, burnishing his skills as a touring pro.
Platten is among a sizeable
crop of smart and talented women who are barnstorming the
world these days and storming the gates for crossover
recognition. Others include Gabrielle Louise (below), and
Kat Parsons, i.e., songwriters who combine real musical
skills with open-heart performance. It feels as if we may be
entering a particularly good period for this type of music,
as happened before in the early '60s with the emergence of
Carole King and her generation of similar talents.
- RAR
MIRACLES OF MODERN SCIENCE
Miracles of Modern Science is a group of four orchestra
instrument chaps, plus a drummer, who met on Facebook while
students at Princeton and in 2004 starting doing what they
call "orchestral space pop". They make classical
instrumentation sound like avante garde synthesizer work, or
maybe it is just that we have been primed by years of
digital music and forgot how rangy wood instruments can be
in the hands of crazy scientists thinking outside of the
box, or whatever the next best cliché would be. Whatever,
Miracles of Modern Science is cool. After checking out this
stage show, go to YouTube to find their casual live version
of the Bowie tune "Life On Mars". Wonderful to hear
thoughtful folks at work doing interesting stuff.
Miracles of Modern Science just
released their new LP Dog Year, which was
financed through the Kickstarter scheme.
National Public Radio
(NPR) featured the LP on the day of its release.
- RAR
_____________________
Italian Horn
Anthony
Pappalardo's Red Affair
Channeling equal parts Guided By
Voices, Bailterspace and Flying Saucer Attack, synth and subtle
noise intertwine with short strummed songs and washed-out
shoegaze reverb guitar creating direct but layered soundscapes
throughout Red Affair. The
cover collage was created by Robert
Pollard (GBV) and the release is limited to 300 vinyl
copies and available digitally.
Continuing the home
recording tradition of My Dad is Dead, East River Pipe and
Sebadoh,
Italian Horn, the solo project of New York City writer behind
Radio Silence and Live...Suburbia,
Anthony Pappalardo,
announces the release of his Red Affair 12" debut via DAIS
Records.
_____________
Rolling Stone Runner-up Lelia Broussard
EDITOR'S NOTE: Lelia
Broussard hails from the musical mecca of Lafayette,
Louisiana, which has been a well-spring for musical types
ranging from Cajun and Zydeco to swamp Country and Rock'n
Roll. Our contributor and featured blogger Sam Broussard, of
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, is a Lafayette native,
as is slide master Sonny Landreth. Lelia is the most recent
of this Louisiana brood to hit it big, finishing second in
Rolling Stone's recent search for the next big thing, losing
out to The Sheepdogs, a hairy Canadian collective of
erstwhile Southern Rockers.
I can't tell if Lelia
Broussard is really anything or not. She clearly comes to
life with the support of a band, becoming an entirely next
level of performer compared to her solo persona. Below is
what Teen Vogue had to say about her.
- RAR
______________________________
Lelia Broussard is a
people person. Onstage or off she lights up those around
her. So it's not surprising that the electric 22-year-old
indie-pop singer (think Regina Spektor) has been able to use
her growing, obsessive fan base—not the traditional label
system—to spring into the mainstream.
The Louisiana native says she
grew up worshipping "the divas," like Whitney Houston and
Mariah Carey, as well as Patsy Cline. By the time she was
thirteen, she had picked up a guitar and begun writing her
own songs. "I was having a hard time then," she recalls. "My
mom was going through a divorce, and it was difficult. So
music was an outlet for my feelings—it still is."
As time went on, songwriting
became Lelia's only focus. "I just had it in my mind, and it
was all I wanted to do," she says. After high school, with
the support of her mom, the then-seventeen-year-old moved to
New York City to pursue a recording career. Working as a
waitress by day, Lelia, who cites acts like Phoenix, Lykke
Li, and David Bowie as inspirations, played open-mike nights
in the city, meeting some other performers who were just
cutting their teeth—"I used to be friends with Gaga when her
name was Stefani," she reveals.
Over the next few years,
Lelia became a presence in the Lower East Side scene,
bluffing her way onto the stages of 21-and-over venues. At
the end of 2010, she recorded her first full-length,
Masquerade, through funds raised on entrepreneurial social
site Kickstarter.com. In January, Lelia entered herself in
Rolling Stone magazine's first-ever national "Do You Wanna
Be a Rock & Roll Star?" contest, a six-month fan-driven
battle meant to discover and promote new talent. At press
time, Lelia had made it to the fourth round—meaning she was
one of the two finalists, with a strong chance to win a spot
on the legendary magazine's cover. "It's an exciting time we
live in as musicians," she says of the experience. "It's
thrilling for the fans to make something this big happen. I
haven't signed with a major label in all these years, and
that's been a good thing—I've been doing what I want, and I
think my fans appreciate that."
____________________________
Charlene Kaye
This year
Charlene Kaye released the insanely catchy
single, "Dress and Tie," a duet with her frequent
collaborator, "Glee's Darren Criss", opened for Big Boi and
Minus the Bear, went to the Grammys and played CMJ and SXSW!
It's been quite a year and Ms. Kaye is at the top of her
game. Grab the single "Dress and Tie" and check out the
accompanying video following the LA recording of the track.
Charlene possesses a mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind voice -
check out the old-timey, glamorous video for "Mad Tom of
Bedlam," and the sweetly sunny "Skin and Bones."
Charlene Kaye
The multi-faceted vocalist
relocated to New York City to pursue stardom, and she is
certainly doing her part, working hard at showcase events (CMJ
and SWSW among them). And she is bringing the chops, little
by little breaking through with national television exposure
and reviews in the Huffington Post. Here she is doing some
clever, high energy, sophisticated jazz with some cool dudes
called The Brilliant Eyes.
Clogs
Bassoonist Solo Project
Rachael Elliott
“Elliott is the Jaco Pastorius of the
bassoon, sweeping between glowing bass parts and sweet,
yearning melodies in the highest register.” -The
Guardian
There have been some nice
developments in music over the past dozen or so years, none
of them nicer than the re-emergence of modern classical, or
music written for classical instrumentation. I don't mean
this in that Windham Hill kind of way, that makes you feel
pretty certain that you have given up on life, but in that
way that is illustrated by the likes of Belle Orchestre and
The Books.
Add
Clogs to that, the quartet of Yale Music students
who came together in the late 1990s to create a decidedly
impressionistic ensemble of mostly instrumental sounds. The
players are top-flight, with Australian violinist
Padma Newsome, guitarist
Bryce Dressner, percussionist
Kozumplik, and
bassoonist Elliott. Dressner, who has composed for the
Kronos Quartet, a group
that could rightly be said to have pioneered this new era of
modern classical, has had success outside of Clogs with The
National. The National has about as much to do with Clogs as
Arcade Fire has to do with Belle Orchestre, which is to say
a little. Use this link to go
to the New York City pages to see The National.
Now
Elliott is
releasing a project of her own - Polka the Elk -
which is described as "blending jazz harmonies, hypnotic
minimalism, and indelibly wistful melodic lines with pure,
transcendent chamber music. The music will appeal to lovers
of new and experimental music and those with slightly
twisted pop sensibilities". The LP will be released on
Brassland Records, the label founded by Bryce and
twin-brother Aaron Dressner.
While you await September and
the release of the Rachel Elliott LP, check out this
masterwork from Clogs.
The National
Brooklyn has been home to
the Dodgers and Ebbetts Field, Radio City Music Hall, Woody
Allen, Isaac Asimov, W.H. Auden, Aaron Copland, Clive Davis,
Neil Diamond, Jackie Gleason, Moss Hart, Rita Hayworth, Joseph
Heller, Lena Horne, Moe-Curly-and-Shemp Howard, Carole King,
Norman Mailer, Carson McCullers...and 2.6 million other people
at any one time. The coolest people living there on this day
might just be playing in The National.
Besides having some fine musical
education, as a band The National
has something else going for them that is impossible
to develop: brotherhood. The National consists of brothers
Aaron and Bryce Dessner,
brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, and singer
Matt Berninger, and together they do some stuff that
probably only blood relatives would - you know, if they had a
shared friend. Here is The National live on Q TV. Cool band.-
RAR
Grace Potter and the
Nocturnals
Grace Potter is
pretty hard to deny as a natural musical force. Orphaned as a child, she was
taken in by a relative and raised in a small room beneath a staircase...no, wait
a minute, different Potter. This is the Potter from Waitsfield, Vermont, but
that's kind've weird, isn't it? Actually, Grace Potter is a St. Lawrence
University music dropout who started her band in 2002 with the notion that they
would mine the influences of such diverse talents as James Brown and The Band.
Those somehow seemed right for her voice, which is way rangy and soulful without
being imitative of previous belting blues babes.
The Gypsy West
Sweet boys singing in harmony at the
local music shop
The Gypsy West is a power
trio from Brooklyn, though you would not likely get that from
the video shown here. They blend progressive precision, catchy
grooves and psychedelic heaviness on their radically released
second LP, Accomplices II - You Might Get Caught, which
will be released on September 6. Labeled “stunning,” “inspiring”
and “powerful” by critics, Accomplices is a concept album
released as a series of EPs, sequentially detailing the journey
to and through a social revolution. You Might Get Caught
picks up where Accomplices left off with the hero, Phoenix, at
the threshold of revolution. Their live sound has been described
as “intimate, breathless…this lean trio stomps with the ferocity
of a deadly orchestra.” The Gypsy West is
touring all about the New York City area in July and August
(2011).
She is currently working on
her next album and just released another single, “Me Or
New York,” which is available on iTunes.
Upcoming tour dates include:
5/15/2011 Los Angeles, CA
/ Cafe Was
5/28/2011 Denver, CO / 16th Street Mall - Denver Day of
Rock
5/29/2011 Evanston, IL / SPACE (ticket sales benefit Art
of Elysium)
6/15/2011 Los Angeles, CA / Cafe Was
One of the first bands to surface from exposure on
MySpace was the Miniature Tigers,
a Phoenix, Arizona contingent since transplanted to
Brooklyn, New York. In 2006, Rolling Stone listed
them as one of the best bands on MySpace. "I shot this video
March 21, 2010 in McAllen TX at FUNDAY with my Nikon D300s.
I added in the actual song to the video because the audio
was horrible. I did my best to have Charlie in sync with the
actual song, but a live performance is never the same like
on an actual recording, it is off a little." -
Charlie Brand, MT
guitarist, songwriter and vocalist.
New York Songwriter Returning to
Nashville
Brian
Mackey Touring Honest Love
Singer/songwriter
Brian Mackey is currently touring to support the recent release of his
Honest
Love CD, Brian Mackey is an honest, eclectic pop-infused
rock, singer songwriter, with a twist of folkish Americana. One
might say it's hard to pinpoint exactly what genre Brian Mackey
is, but no matter how you label it, it is heartfelt, witty and
truly real. It's just Brian.
A
favorite of music supervisors and directors, Mackey’s music will
be featured in several upcoming movies. “Color Blue” and “Honest
Love” will be featured in The Boys of Abu Graib with actors Sara
Paxton (Last House on the Left) and Sean Austin (Lord of the
Rings), and in 29,000 Wishes, 1 Regret directed by Oliver Robins
(Poltergeist). Other 2012 movies featuring Brian’s work include:
"Color Blue" in Fake directed by Gregory Friedle, with Robert
Loggia and Gabriel Mann, and "Color Blue" in Fathoms Deep.
Brian was selected as Viso music's January 2012 Featured Artist
and his music will be heard by passengers on US Airways
In-Flight Radio. He is currently working on his next album which
will feature special appearances from Nashville’s own
singer/songwriter Sam Ashworth, son of songwriter and producer
Charlie Peacock (Amy Grant, Civil Wars, Switchfoot), and Matt
Slocum (lead guitarist, Six Pence None The Richer). The album,
produced by Mark Nash (producer, Six Pence None The Richer), is
scheduled for release later in 2012.
The
video below is Mackey and Ashworth playing "Honest Love" (and
more) last year at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
MOOT DAVIS DELIVERS MAN
ABOUT TOWN
New Jersey country artist enlists Grand Ole
Opry star/Outlaw Country Sirius XM host Elizabeth Cook and
Kenny Vaughan as guests on new CD.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — From Auckland to
Austin to Nashville, New Jersey-based country musician Moot
Davis took quite a journey to make his third CD, Man About
Town, but it was certainly worth it. Davis describes his new
release as the one he likes the most because “it wasn’t
altered to suit anybody’s tastes but mine.”
Moot Davis burst onto the country music
scene in the mid-2000s. With his self-titled debut, Davis
delivered a set of timeless honky tonk that brought
comparisons to Hank Williams Sr. Entertainment Today touted
Davis as “primed to be the leader in the new insurgent
country music scene.” The kudos continued for his second
effort, Already Moved On, which about.com’s Kathy Coleman
ranked as the Fourth Best Country Album of the Year, ahead
of the likes of Dwight Yoakam and Brad Paisley.
Man About Town fulfills the promise of his earlier efforts
while also expanding into new musical territory. Tracks like
“Day the World Shook My Hand,” “How Long” and “Only You”
should resonate with fans of his earlier, retro honky-tonk
sound. “Queensbury Rules,” on the other hand, boasts a
harder, rockier sound, while “Rust” mixes country twang with
a funky beat. Davis wanted a change with this disc. “I
didn’t want to make the same album again and again.”
In a sign of his artistic growth, Davis
accomplishes several firsts on Man About Town. “Crazy in
Love With You” stands as his first duet, with the delightful
Elizabeth Cook serving as his singing partner. He also
delivers his first murder ballad with “Black & White
Picture,” a highly cinematic tale driven by Mexican-style
guitar picking.
Davis populates this CD with a number of
vivid character studies. The lead-off track, “Rags to
Rhinestones,” is a prime example of his storytelling
talents. In this classic honky-tonk number, a musician goes
from “rented rooms to mansion homes” only to squander it all
and wind up being kicked “out of bars on Lower Broadway.”
The tune came together for Davis after his buddy, musician
Dave Gleason, told him of a successful country musician
whose life and career veered off course. Davis became
intrigued by the idea of “someone who rises to a certain
level and then just dive-bombs.”
The song’s Nashville references reflect
the fact that this album is the first one Davis recorded in
Music City. (His first two, released on Little Dog Records,
were done with the esteemed producer Pete Anderson in Los
Angeles.) The ace players on Man About Town are from Marty
Stuart’s band: guitarist Kenny Vaughan, who served as
producer; pedal and lap steel player Chris Scruggs; drummer
Harry Stinson and bassist Paul Martin. Also featured is
fiddler Hank Singer, who plays with George Jones. These
guys, according to Davis, are “all serious players but they
are all regular guys too.” He describes the sessions as “one
of those things where everything comes together. It’s kinda
rare.”
Man About Town marks a return to recording
after a short hiatus as Davis extricated himself from his
Little Dog contract. A bit disillusioned with the music
business, he travelled to New Zealand to do some acting.
There, he says, “I fell back in love with music” and started
writing songs again on an acoustic guitar. He next moved to
Austin, bought a Telecaster and continued working on his
tunes. The music evolved even more upon his return to New
Jersey, where he played with some local guys. “They’d
rehearse for hours with me, just kicking songs around. It
was kind of like a therapy session.”
Growing up in New Jersey, Davis actually
was more into classic rock than country. In fact, he sparked
to traditional country from an unusual source: a TV ad. In
his early 20s, he heard Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart”
in a Pepsi ad and, in Davis’ words, “it just got my antenna
going.” He immersed himself in the music of Hank Sr., Lefty
Frizzell, Webb Pierce and others from the golden era of
honky tonk. This music inspired him to learn to play an
acoustic guitar and start writing songs.
A major turning point came for him when he
wrote the song “Whiskey Town.” When he played it for other
people and saw their reactions, Davis recalls, “I knew I was
onto something.” Within a year of writing that tune, he had
moved to Nashville and a year later he was flying to L.A. to
record with Pete Anderson. “Whiskey Town” also landed a spot
on the Crash soundtrack — the first of now nearly 20 song
placements that Davis has had over the years, from movies
like The Hills Have Eyes to TV shows such as Criminal Minds.
Man About Town also is the first album on Davis' own record
label, Highway Kind Records. He started the label with Paul
W. Reed, a Texas businessman who is a huge Davis fan. Davis
marvels how this friendship developed and evolved into a
business relationship too. “He really had some guts to help
get this going,” Davis admits, adding, “I find it’s always
better to be in charge of your own destiny.” Davis feels the
current music scene has created a leveled playing field that
allows the opportunity to achieve the American Dream if you
work hard enough and have some talent. “Every success is a
victory,” he exclaims — and with this new album, Moot Davis
should have many more victories in his future.
- Cary Baker
KREEP: Obnoxious Vocals,
Brutal Bass/Drums - What's Not to Like?
KREEP is a hardcore metal band that features
face peeling obnoxious vocals, heavy hitting drums, huge guitar
riffs, and brutal bass lines that force you to punch the person
next to you. KREEP is a band that demands attention and gets it.
KREEP has released their exceptional debut
album ‘LEAD US NOT’ (available now on iTUNES, digital stores,
AMAZON & finer record stores worldwide). They debuted their
powerhouse skills when they played their first live show with
this line up to a sold out crowd at The Joint in the legendary
Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas NV for Xtreme radio’s annual
Holiday Havoc concert. KREEP has just released the new video
BLOODLETTING starring METAL SANAZ.
KREEP originated with potent vocalist Brett
Pirozzi putting together a band that would stand out in the
world of metal. Brett’s New York roots and the garbage he was
hearing on the radio propelled him to want to write songs that
expressed his anger with the world and music of today. Brett
began to write songs that were about things happening in life
and in the process realized that these issues affected a lot of
people in society today. That’s the heart of KREEP: angry guys
making angry music for an audience of confused people.
On drums, KREEP features the explosive and
heavy hitting, Ivan de Prume. Ivan is best known for his playing
with White Zombie and is a multi-platinum selling, Grammy
nominated artist. Ivan’s in your face, New York attitude adds to
KREEP’s musical presence and leaves listeners defenseless to his
powerful and undeniable abilities on the skins. Ivan now lives
in Oregon and his extensive technical knowledge in the recording
studio field allowed KREEP to record their new album LEAD US
NOT. KREEP has shared the stage with numerous National acts ranging
from Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, Hoobastank, Hollywood
Undead, Prong, Divine Heresy, Green Jello, and many more.
KREEP is one of the premiere releases on the
new MAXIMIZED Label, the major new independent METAL & HARD ROCK
label headed by industry veteran JAY WARSINSKE. Jay has over 38
years experience in working with the likes of METALLICA, SLAYER,
MEGADETH, AC/DC, GUNS ‘n ROSES, & many more. For more info visit
www.MXMZD.com
_________________
World's
Greatest Unknown?
Michael Butler
W
ill the world please
make
Michael Butler a
"star", as in a guy who gets rewarded well in cash and
recognition for the extraordinary contributions he makes to
this creative world? Were there justice in this veil of
tears, our friend from Harlem would be passing out cash
wherever he goes because his pockets would be booked just
trying to carry the wealth of his talent. I love this
guy. He has a poet's soul, a guitar attack that feels
utterly spontaneous and effective, and he has that rare
quality of the authentic in his voice. He also has
that other thing going that confounds and perplexes
almost every singer-songwriter: that commercial/cultural
requirement to do what is familiar and loved by audiences
while being completely original within one's self. Michael
Butler has the advantage of sounding completely like
himself while evoking ghostly recognitions of a hundred
beloved and familiar singers who have gone before. He also
has a cross-cultural thing going for him, a personality who
owns all that comes with being Black but is so much more.
Jimi Hendrix had this quality, a kind of unbound nature that
belonged to a world larger than that in which he was set,
which was no doubt a key to his other worldly musical
expression. Ditto for Butler, whose off-the-cuff way with a
melody is fresh air to those of us galvanized by a world of
broadly endorsed copies. And then there is the intelligence
of the songwriting, again completely universal in its
cultural associations and aspirations; real melodic song
structures, unbound by the narrow-band restrictions of
commercial radio today, though I am unaware of a more
emotionally evincing performer working anywhere in the world
in 2011. Butler's biggest hurdle is that he is like a raw
diamond too cool to cut.
"I’ve been Playing Bar 9 Every Saturday
from 4pm -7pm in sort of a Happy Hour thing since September"
Michael reports. "It’s nice to be in a bar again, getting to
play all types of music that I don’t regularly get to do,
and interesting that the gig came to me right off of
performing covers in Europe for the month of July. For those
of us who have children, kids are allowed in the Bar 9 until
9pm because it's a Restaurant as well - and the Food Ain't
bad Neither, shrimp for me personally!!! (Bar 9 is at 807
9th Ave - between 53rd St & 54th St - New York, NY 10019 -
Neighborhoods: Hell's Kitchen, Midtown West, Theater
District (212) 399- 9336). If you can't make it to Bar 9,
for
sure check out the video below.
- RAR(Posted Dec 2011)
DJ DX
N
ew Jersey electro
hip hop artist DJ DX may not be the most original or
authentic of today's beat and rap set...so why is he so
likeable? RARWRITER.com is all behind his melodic
structures, silly audio tuning vocal effects aside, and his
thematic explorations. You decide. Watch the video below
to check out "This Is My Fight" featuring 1dakid.
_______________
New York
- Pop
Mikey Wax
"Marion
was my grandmother who I never got to meet. It's who I'm
named after. Sometimes we're told childhood stories by those
older than us, and like an old TV show, I can't help but
picture those stories in black and white. While I know the
generation before me faced many similar struggles that we
still face today, it seemed to me like a simpler time.
Marion passed down a white dress she once wore to my mother,
and after seeing my mom in the dress, it gave me a
connection to my grandmother and the past that I never could
have experienced otherwise." Okay, call me a sentimental
sucker, but this is really beautiful piece of music by Mikey
Wax. - RAR
___________
Brian
Mackey
NYC-based singer/songwriter Brian Mackey (pictured above)
is currently touring to support the recent release of his
Honest Love CD.
Mackey's music is an eclectic mix of acoustic and synth-driven, up-tempo
indie rock with a hint of Americana. Originally from a tin roof town on the
Northern Florida/Georgia border, his songs reflect life experiences and the new
found freedoms of an artist in New York City.
Mackey was featured on the Songs of Love for Japan compilation CD,
which also included songs by Sarah Barielles, Ani DiFranco and Tori
Amos. His song "Color Blue" is in the feature film, "Fake" which stars
Robert Loggia and Gabriel Mann, to be released January 2012, and in the feature
film, "Fathoms Deep," releasing in February 2012. His "Honest Love" video was
released in March of 2011, shot in Chicago by director Nick Cavalier. The
video for his song "Sunshower" is currently in post production, slated for a
release in Fall of 2011. Brian is also working on his next album, scheduled for
release in early 2012.
Talent at Tenderbox Festival
Brooklyn's The
Knitting Factory hosts a
second annual gala of female musical talent.
RARWRITER.com takes a peek behind
the curtains at the Tenderbox Festival, which showcases female singers and
female-led bands. We have ranked (4 stars is Excellent) some of these acts. The
ones without stars were either not ranked or were not very impressive, at least
to our ears. You might follow the links, where available, and judge for
yourself. The big star in this group is definitely
Charlene Kaye.
NYC
Benefits And Summer Pride Performances Planned
Brooklyn-based, genre-bending musician Ariel Aparicio
recently released the video for “She Will Show Us” and
over 10,000 viewers watched the video within 72 hours of release. The video also
made its broadcast premiere on Logo's NewNowNext Music last week. Says Aparicio
of the video and song: “I wrote this song in the summer of 2008 during the whole
Obama euphoria we were all pretty much caught up in. So when we set out to make
the video, I wanted to capture some of that. My director, I.R. Marin, happened
to have some footage from the inauguration (her nephew was there) and also some
of those post-victory celebrations. I was thrilled with how she was able to
incorporated that ‘real’ footage, with the stuff we shot and the additional
‘Americana-type’ imagery she used. I love the video.”
“She
Will Show Us” is a track from Aparicio’s recently-released album “Aerials” (it
hit digitally on March 8, 2011), which was produced by Tom Gilroy. The album has
proven to be a favorite of many – SiriusXM Out Q host Larry Flick (who hosted
Aparicio on his show in early March), had this to say about “Aerials”: “I am a
huge fan of Ariel's new album ‘Aerials.’ It's filled with deep, richly textured,
smart, and soulful songs. He seems intent on bleeding for his listeners...
giving them a degree of truth that demands close examination and ultimate
empathy. Best of all, Ariel wraps his songs in arrangements that are nowhere
near trendy, yet they're completely accessible and mainstream. These are songs
that will endure over time.”
Aparicio is scheduled to perform on May 15th at Crash Mansion in NYC at the
“Love RAINN on Me” benefit for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network;
http://loverainns.net/) as well as June 7th at Public Assembly in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, for the PCCHF Benefit ( http://www.pcchf.org/). He’ll be hitting the
Rainbow Stage at Milwaukee Pride on June 11th. He’s also scheduled on June 17th
to headline at National Underground in NYC as part of Pride Celebration with
several other singer-songwriters.
Born in
Cuba and raised in Miami, Aparicio was surrounded by the rhythms of salsa, funk,
and disco. The discovery of Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin in adolescence prompted
him to grow out his hair and pick up the guitar, but Aparicio never segregated
genres from one another. While the wider world is still discovering Aparicio's
charms, trendsetters in the LGBT community have been aware of his work for
several years; as early as 2005, The Advocate named him as a rising star to
watch. His version of Jim Carroll's classic “People Who Died” was nominated for
an OutMusic Award in 2010, and Aparicio was also the subject of OUTMusic's 2009
“Freedom of Expression” campaign, an effort to end the silent discrimination
against openly queer artists in the entertainment industry.
Songs
and videos from his previous releases, including “the bEdRoom tapeS,” “All These
Brilliant Things,” “Frolic & F***,” and “All I Wanted” have made him a popular
fixture on Logo's NewNowNext and the Click List. Aparicio’s video for "People
Who Died" from “the bEdRoom tapeS” popped back up on the Click List again in
2011 after it spent many weeks on the countdown in 2010. His video for the track
“Lucille” was ranked #7 on Logo’s Best of 2010, while his cover of “Pretty In
Pink” topped out at #3 on the same chart at Logo in 2009. www.arielaparicio.com
www.myspace.com/arielapariciomusic www.twitter.com/arielaparicio
www.facebook.com/pages/Ariel-Aparicio/39944058816
For
more information, please contact: Krista Mettler / Skye Media & Rock Ridge Music
- publicity@rockridgemusic.com
_____________________
Click on the Village Voice logo to go to the Village Voice.com for News, Events, Reviews and Cultural News of interest to the
residents of New York City and beyond.