jinners: why do you come here? and why do you hang around?
who is jinners?
why do you come here? and why do you hang around? ...it was just to see, just to see all the things you knew, i'd written about you... oh so many illustrations...
as stephie would say, "i'm an island of such great complexity... a shady jin, everybody wants one." jinners is my nickname... hopefully in an affectionate sorta way.
Power To the People... Pay Whatever The Hell You Want For Music... and Magazines... and What Else?
First Radiohead says they want fans to pay whatever they feel like for their new album, In Rainbows, online. They want the fans to decide the price. Fans have the power. [read here]
Then Saul Williams follows the new Radiohead model and offers his album as a free download on his site. [read here]
Now Paste magazine has ads posted everywhere asking people to subscribe to their magazine for whatever they want to pay. [read here]
My friend Yuri got engaged at the Wilco show at Voodoo Festival this weekend... "Heavy Metal Drummer" was dedicated to her and her fiance Mike while her cute face was plastered on the big screen with a "Will you marry me?". Awwwwwww. Go, Mike! That's such a perfect indie rock proposal!
Come see Nicole Atkins and the Sea tonight at their Monster Ball at Union Pool in Williamsburg. Party starts at 9:30pm, and it's free!
Then tomorrow night, come see Cheeseburger and Cassettes Won't Listen at Union Hall in Park Slope for the Onion and Adult Swim Halloween partay. It's only $5!
Songwriter Spotlight: Daniel Tashian of The Silver Seas
Nashville is known for nurturing classic songwriters -- the kind of songwriter who will last through the ages. I recently came upon a great band from Nashville called The Silver Seas. The band's music speaks to the lonely and romantic -- the every man and woman. Their universal songs are what I call instantly "gettable," making your leg shake along with each chord, each sweet note.
Concert Review: Film School - 10/25/07 @ Mercury Lounge (New York, NY)
Last summer I heard a rumor that Film School had broken up. This was disappointing news as I had just seen them at SXSW and really was beginning to love them. Turns out the band was just on hiatus, or maybe they came back to their senses and realized they couldn't just quit like that. What kind of happy ending would that be for a band called Film School?
Last night I went to see them at Mercury Lounge, and really enjoyed their heavy, dark, shoegazy set. Lead singer Greg Berten's vocals range from soft, dreamy coos to sensitive-guy mutters.
Join Gabby Glaser In Rocking For Darfur on November 10!
Watch this trailer below with Don Cheadle about the Darfur crisis, get informed, and come out to support!! Please post this on your blogs and MySpace as well to help spread the word. Proceeds from the show will be donated to Oxfam America and Save Darfur Coalition.
My philosophy this year at CMJ Music Marthon was to "go with the flow." I would have a loose plan each day with what I hoped to see, but generally I would just high-five friends and see where the day (and night) ended up taking me. This laid-back approach served me well at SXSW (a huge indie festival in Austin, TX) earlier this year, and it didn't steer me wrong at CMJ.
Another side of CMJ Music Marathon are all the shows that are considered "unofficial" day parties or shows. This year there are quite a few -- too many to be named, but they usually include free admission, free booze and free swag!
I spent the last few posts focusing on the "music showcase" side of CMJ, which is a huge part of the festival that appeals to both fans and music industry professionals alike. But another important aspect of CMJ is what is happening behind the scenes -- networking between musicians and the pros who support them and their careers.
I once said Les Savy Fav were the saviours of rock and roll. And I meant it. I love them. Here's a fun YouTube video mockumentary they made about their HUGE Randall's Island show with Arcade Fire and Blonde Redhead.
I went to sing karaoke with Calvin Harris when he was in town recently and I ended up asking him questions for an interview with Filter TV. Watch how it turned out on Filter TV below:
Even though I swore I wouldn't watch any more reality tv shows, I couldn't help myself with this one. I just saw The Salt-n-Pepa Show last night on VH1, and am already hooked. Perhaps they're not gonna "push it" anymore, but I'm so happy to see these two ladies reunite and start working together. I never knew there was so much drama behind it!
Last week I went to see Miss Polly Jean Harvey for the first time at the Beacon Theater in New York. The show was sold out, and I had amazing seats ... right next to Music Snobbery, so you know they're good. ;-)
I have to admit, I listened to the new beautiful and haunting PJ Harvey album, White Chalk, before going and was afraid it was going to be a super-mellow show. I was dead wrong. She played a balanced mix of new and old, and it was actually a very soulful, dramatic and captivating show. I couldn't take my eyes off of PJ and found her performance very moving. She had on a white, Victorian looking dress that she claimed had all of the words to the songs written on it, a dress very similar to the one she's wearing on the album cover and a very simple stage set up with piano and various instruments.
Her vocals are so versatile, it's like she's changing character from song to song, and each character is so believable it's easy to get lost in the world that Polly Jean sculpts note by note. The best part is that she plays all of the instruments like she's starring in the best one-woman show ever.
I was quite charmed by her stage banter (everything sounds better with an English accent, innit?), and her fans were also very vocal with their "I love yous," "woo-hoos" and standing ovations. It was easy to get swept up in all the excitement, and I walked out of the theater infected and inspired.
I've got my show picks from the last three days of CMJ right over at Lifeskool TV. Check them out here... My head is dizzy from all the listening and clicking.
I listened to the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, in the van on the way down to DC this past weekend. I wasn't that into it honestly. So I ask, Is Radiohead dead or what?
I am going to try and remember my dreams. Lately they have been pretty vivid and I usually can remember them right in the morning. Here's what I dreamt last night...
I was at a tattoo parlor. There was a guy up front, and I told him I wanted to get some words tattooed on me, probably my arm. he referred me to a woman in the back. When I told her what I wanted, she said she wasn't the best at tattooing words, which made me nervous. My sister had gotten one in a "French Script" which I liked, so I said that I wanted to get the phrase "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none" on my arm.
That's all I can remember for now... but what does it mean? If anything?
The Dream Moods Dictionary online says this: Tattoo: To dream that you have tattoos, represents individuality and the desire to stand out in a crowd. You want to be unique and different from everybody else, particularly if you do not have any tattoos in real life. Consider also what the tattoo is.
OK, so I do have tattoos. I don't necessarily agree with this interpretation. I was trying to dig deeper online to see if there is another explanation but didn't see many alternatives. My own interpretation would be that the dream doesn't mean much of anything. I recently got a heart tattoo on my wrist which I wasn't completely happy with, so it probably references the fact that I want to get the tattoo redone with a better tattoo artist and add flourishes to it...
Gabby Glaser Official CMJ Showcase Wednesday, October 17, 2007 @ Union Hall w/ Ladybug Transistor & Special Guests Doors at 7:30pm. Gabby at 10pm.
Meanred Party Saturday, October 20, 2007 @ Don Hill's w/ Black Betty (Sylvia of Kudu), Tiombe, Taylor McFerrin Doors at 10pm. Gabby at midnight.
Dirty on Purpose Benefit for Hammer (Official Cat of Death By Audio) Wednesday, October 17, 2007 @ Death By Audio w/ A Place To Bury Strangers, Sisters, Coin Under Tongue, Indian Scout and more Doors at 8pm.
Jin Moon Manage This! A Discussion About Artist Management A presentation of common deal structures and the role of the manager with advice for bands on how to choose the right manager and vice versa. BB
MODERATOR: Dan Efram Tractor Beam, Founder & President
PANELISTS: Blaze James Black Sheep Fellowship, Artist Manager Mark Kates Fenway Recordings, Founder Doug LeFrak Feisty Management LLC, Owner Jin Moon On The Moon Music, President
VENUE: Kimmel Center: Shorin Music Performance Center 60 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012
CMJ Music Marathon recently announced the schedule for this year's festival. I went through the list of bands playing and picked the ones I thought were interesting enough to pop my head in and check out. Read the article here.
I have been having a lot of digestive problems in the last couple years that have been crippling me, mostly in the mornings (no, it's not morning sickness). Usually a quick wake-n-bake would take care of the problem. However, I thought perhaps there is a better alternative so I don't have to start my mornings out so groggy. I may have found the answer on television, of all places.
Yep, I've been seeing those Two Week Activia Challenge commercials on TV and have wondered if they actually work... and would they actually work for me? I decided to test it, just for kicks. Maybe by the end of these next couple weeks, I won't wake up clutching my stomach in pain.
All I have to do is eat one Activia yogurt per day for two weeks. Today is Day 3 of this Activia Challenge for me. I expected to wake up with a major stomach ache, but was only greeted by a passing feeling of queasiness. Is it starting to work already?
Side note: These yogurts taste pretty good. I've been eating Blueberry, and it's nice and think. Almost like my favorite yogurt -- Skyr from Iceland -- except it has pieces of real blueberries in it. (You can find Skyr at Wholefoods Union Square.)
They're called Jackass Penguins. Click here for the NPR story. I saw a documentary on them on PBS recently. But why are they called Jackass Penguins? See below...
Katy's hotel is in the worst part of town... midtown. But we managed to have fun anyways on her last night in the city. The bar inside is really cute and right next to a pool, where you can see people swimming behind the bar. Among the bands I heard in the hotel's playlist: Fujiya & Miyagi, Real Life, Calvin Harris, Information Society and some others. HA!
In most pictures, smiling makes me look like I have no eyes. But I swear, they are open. However Facebook's FaceDouble Celebrity Look Alike Program totally shut me down. See below.
Rock Stars Are Real People Too: Kurt Cobain in About a Son versus Ian Curtis in Control
I just watched two films about two music icons -- last night I went to a screening of About a Son, the new documentary from Michael Azerrad about Kurt Cobain of Nirvana based on 25 hours of never-heard-before interviews he conducted with Kurt about a year before he committed suicide. This morning I went to see Control, a film based on the life of Ian Curtis of Joy Division shortly before he took his own life.
Of course, there are a lot of similarities between the two films and their respective subjects. Both films are "personal" accounts of artists as human beings. At the screening, Azerrad expressed how he really wanted his film to focus on Kurt as a person, not as a God. He wanted to strip away all the iconography and whittle the story down to just Kurt's regular day life and thoughts. Azerrad did this by layering excerpts from his Kurt interviews over imagery of not Kurt, but of regular people from Kurt's hometown of Aberdeen. There wasn't any Nirvana music used at all but other songs like Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" and The Vaselines' "Son of a Gun" were used to move the storyline along. (Barsuk released the soundtrack.)
Control director Anton Corbijn himself stated, "Control is a personal film. It is not a music film..." Unlike Azzerad, Corbijn chose to tell this tale in black and white with actors portraying the story. He also used several Joy Division songs via concert-based scenes to help show the progression of Curtis' deteriorating mental state throughout the film. Songs included "Love Will Tear Us Apart," "She's Lost Control" and "Transmission." (Rhino is releasing the Control soundtrack which also includes previously unreleased tracks from the surviving members of Joy Division -- also known as New Order.) Newcomer Sam Riley did an excellent portrayal of Ian Curtis...
The biography of both Kurt and Curtis run parallel as well. Rock and roll. Angsty poetry. Marriage. A Baby. Drugs. Wanting to run away to a bigger city. Physical pain and ailments. Depression. Songs about alienation. Quick fame. Mental breakdowns. Suicide. Both Kurt and Curtis seemed to feel that fame somehow boxed them into lives they didn't intend to lead. Both problematic lives also compounded by each's physical ailments -- Kurt with his stomach and back problems medicated by heroin and Curtis with his epileptic fits medicated by a slew of random pills.
However, what is clearly different about these two people is how each processes, reacts and thinks about their family life. Kurt leaned on his wife Courtney and welcomed his daughter Frances into his life, even saying that when Frances was born, things seemed to be better in his life. Curtis was the opposite. He kept referring to his marriage with Debbie as a mistake, had an on-road affair and seemed to hardly pay attention to his baby daughter Natalie.
And while both stories did end in suicide, the feeling that I was left with as an audience member was wholly different. Yes, I felt sadness for both tragedies. But I also felt like there is no separating artists from their human self and vice versa.
The funniest and cutest sign of affection from my kitten, hazy, is when she "makes the pizza" (that's what mikers calls it). her front paws shift back and forth like she's kneading dough. supposedly she does this to show contentment and pleasure. i love it! i am constantly looking for signs of affections from my cats, and am happy to discover that hazy likes making the pizza. haha! click here for more signs of affection from cats...
Lifeskool TV Songwriter Spotlight on Matt Pond of matt pond PA
check out my revealing interview with matt pond of matt pond pa. he talks about how he writes his songs and what is currently (and perhaps always) inspiring his work. read the interview here.
My weekend started early this past week with the Dirty on Purpose/Fujiya & Miyagi show at Bowery Ballroom. I always love being at Bowery so it was a great night overall and the first time I saw both bands play together on this tour. After the show, we headed over to Sweet & Vicious for the Devendra Banhart afterparty. The bearded wonder was there. Jeezus! So was the amazing Cameron, who I always love bumping into at shows. I feel like I have known him since the beginning of everything, and that is somewhat comforting! One constant in a world of swift changes.
Besides talking about all things Dirty on Purpose, I have been blabbing on about a couple things of interest lately... identity fraud and The Pick Up Artist. First off, yes, someone committed identity fraud on my bank account, wiping it clean in three easy transactions from an ATM in California. I almost couldn't believe it... just like in the commercials! Apparently this all happened because I have been using non-bank ATMs. Beware, Williamsburg hipsters! Do not use those ATMs in those bodegas. Only use bank-based ATMs. People can steal your info after you type in your pin code, take all your money and fuck up your credit.
Then I was just telling a friend about the VH1 reality show, The Pick Up Artist. I don't know who is hooking up with that show host and so-called "master pick up artist" Mystery, but his tricks seem to work for the geeky dudes on that show. I was beginning to wonder if I could apply these so called pick up and attraction tips to my life and career. It's basically all about body language and subconscious communication skills... Just as I was recounting this story to my friend, a guy walks up to us at the bar. He asks us if we're from the area because he's looking for something. We are. He reveals he is from the Upper East Side and doesn't know the area (SoHo) that well. The guy refers to his friends who are sitting at the bar. We acknowledge that he is not some desperate wallflower. I asked him what he was looking for, and he told us he was looking for trouble. That was a classic surreal moment right there. I started looking around the room for hidden cameras. Was this an episode of The Pick Up Artist?
On Friday, I got ready for the Dirty on Purpose/Fujiya & Miyagi show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The venue looks a little different in the light of day. I first saw the space during the opening week with Patti Smith and I thought it was really majestic. I still think it's majestic, but clearly not quite finished yet. The show was more fun than the Bowery show as there was more dancing and more friends at Music Hall show. Everyone wanted to check out the new venue. The sound system is amazing, but I couldn't really hear the band's vocals too much... But the thing was that they played really well and sounded really epic. It made my heart skip a beat. F&M sounded amazing as well -- I was totally grooving to their beats. In general the show took me to this great elated state. I liked Project Jenny/Project Jan a lot too with their interesting projections and energetic frontman.
I really liked the way Music Hall is set up. Sure, it's a lot like Bowery Ballroom, which is great, but it also has this wonderful lounge area at the back of the balcony section. And I really like the way the band dressing rooms are set up. They are located right above the stage so during the show, the rooms are rumbling with sweet music. The staff is amazing and friendly. The dressing rooms are all in a row so that the bands can co-mingle throughout the night. Can you tell that I love this venue? At least as a band manager, it's really great. I liked it as a fan and concert goer as well though. I can't wait to see and do more shows here...
random note: many of our friends showed up in flannel... that's so williamsburg!
On Saturday I wished my friend Mary a happy birthday. We hung out on the Great Lawn in Central Park. I accidentally wandered up Belvedere Castle, which was really beautiful. There was oldies music like The Carpenters coming from inside the Delacorte Theater. The day was breezy and perfect for a birthday picnic. Afterwards, a bunch of us ended up at Barcade in Williamsburg. Then we decided to take the party back to my incredibly tiny apartment and played a board game called Last Word (kind of like Scattergories).
My friend Katy is in town from LA and I met up with her on Sunday at her hotel, QT, in midtown, an appropriate name for such a "cutie" hotel. Katy bought a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, and we toasted the night with some bubbly. Yum... Then we headed over to Magnetic Field for the Gabby Glaser gig at the Atlantic Antic after party. She sounded really good, and there was a great (and handsome) crowd at the venue. This Park Slope area is full of intellectual cuties, apparently. After the show we went back in the city to feed our hungry bellies at Kate's Joint. I hadn't been there in a while, so it was absolutely awesome to be eating a satisfying meal of buffalo un-chicken wings and southern fried unsteak. holy moly. so delicious. so sinful... I recently met THE Kate at Gabby's Mercury Lounge show this past month. It's sort of like meeting a legend, no? I love working with Gabby because she is surrounded by people like this -- talented, driven and totally fascinating. Gab, herself, is full of stories of back in the day, and it's so amazing to hear those stories and compare it to how the music business is in the present day.
