Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend fame gave the music blogosphere a puzzling laugh earlier this week when he posted a tongue-in-cheek version of Dave Matthews’ Crash, during which he struggles
Brooklyn’s Food Will Win the War got into the holiday spirit this winter and filmed their latest music video at SantaCon 2010 amidst the legions of blotto Santas and Elves.
The year 2010 marked a huge milestone in the career of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. The band broke out in virtually every conceivable way: they were featured on VH1 Divas Salute the Troops, Grace sang a duet with Kenny Chesney and the band had songs prominently featured in the feature films, Tangled and Alice in Wonderland. Shortly after the VH1 Divas performance, the band even outsold the Beatles on iTunes as the single top selling artist. Let’s just say the past few months have been nothing short of life-changing in the world of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
[All photos by Jeremy Gordon]
“It’s always a funny thing when things start happening quickly,“ Grace comments. “You know that these things have been in the works for a long time and all of the sudden they get delivered to the world. Sometimes things hit really big and sometimes they don’t. I was really pleased with how quickly people responded to everything from the Tangled song to the VH1 Divas performance to the duet with Kenny Chesney. All that exposure hit a fever pitch, and I guess people finally had to look us up online. Our website crashed the day of the VH1 performance. It was really rewarding to finally hit that moment where everything really fell into place.”
It’s rather ironic how the VH1 Divas performance breached the tipping point whereby Grace Potter and the Nocturnals catapulted into the limelight, because for years Grace has playfully shunned the diva mentality. Even in performing on the program, she sensed VH1 chose her based on the perception that she was going to show up as the Vermont girl in the flannel and boots, yet got a big surprise when she appeared in one of her emblazoned mini-dresses. Even now that she has embraced her style and performs in much flashier outfits, Grace still gets a good laugh out of the whole idea of herself as any kind of diva. READ ON for more…
The Brooklyn-based High Highs took full advantage of a clever New York City art installation this past summer which strategically placed 60 pianos all over town. With a high 8
When visionary ex-pats Trevor Herman and Jumbo Van Renan compiled the music of the Indestructible Beat of Soweto: Volume 1 from the Soweto region of Johannesburg, South Africa – an
In conjunction with yesterday’s release of Gutter Rainbows, his fifth full-length solo effort, Talib Kweli also put out an official video for the single, Cold Rain. Gutter Rainbows is chock
Beyond the obvious associations of flux capacitors, 1.21 gigawatts & lightning, there’s a new distinction we need to make regarding the DeLorean. Doc & Marty have inspired a pair of great bands to name themselves after their stylish time machine: the one spelled “Delorean” is the Spanish dance-rock band, and the other, the focus of today’s interview, spelled Dolorean, is a fantastic Americana-folk group led by Al James out of Portland.
[Photo by Sarah Jurado]
After releasing three albums in just five years prior to 2007’s You Can’t Win, Dolorean took the last four years as a reprieve, having come to the realization that they needed to slow it down. The constant studio output and subsequent touring grew exhausting, so they decided to put the music on their own time-line, and in doing so, put forth one of the first great records of 2011 called The Unfazed.
The Unfazed works as a quasi-concept album about acknowledging life’s anxieties without getting too bent out of shape; rolling with the punches. It’s entirely apropos in that the album’s mantra serves as a direct parallel to both the band’s hiatus and the album itself, as a living embodiment of being “unfazed.” By accepting the stresses, regaining control of the process and doing it at their own speed, Dolorean gave the music time to grow around the easy feelings and in essence, created a perpetual spiral, whereby this idea of The Unfazed flowed through into the music and the music in turn now embodies the idea of being Unfazed.
Hidden Track: So, let’s begin with this idea of “The Unfazed” that permeates the new album. I gather that this is saying something to the effect of “The Unfazed” are people who can sort of deal with bullshit and go about their lives without being too affected by the annoying burdens?
Al James: In some ways it’s about not dealing with the bullshit, but the flip side of that. It is accepting it, embracing it and not being surprised by it. It’s about not being caught off guard when things go completely off the rails (because the usually will) and just maintaining perspective. Living unfazed is a position of empathy and understanding.
HT: It’s probably not a great example, but that idea made me think of Bernie Madoff for some reason. The guy never showed an ounce of emotion in the face of blunder that probably caused more stress than any human could normally endure. So, who are some other people that come to mind when you think of The Unfazed?
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with Al James…
While a number of bands out of the modern day London folk movement have burst onto the global stage (i.e., Mumford & Sons, Noah & the Whale), one of the
While Phish shied away from playing much new material during their five-night New Year’s Run, they did debut a catchy new Trey/Tom tune called Pigtail at the second night of
The announcements continue to roll in this week as today Mountain Jam – the premier rock festival for mud, bikers, funnel cakes and ninjas – announced its preliminary batch of
