Category: Features

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Features

New Artist to Listen For: Plushgun

With their catchy choruses and electronic beats, Plushgun is a new band soon to be on everyone’s radar. I recently received a copy of their EP for review, a preview of what’s to come on their debut full-length due out January 2009. Though it’s only four songs, each has become ingrained in my head long after listening.

Opening track, “Just Impolite” was the first song written by Daniel Ingala in his Brooklyn apartment and then posted on MySpace, creating quite a buzz. (You can listen to “Just Impolite” here.) Eventually RagTag Productions heard some of his tunes and approached Ingala about using his music for their web-tv series, “We Need Girlfriends.” Low and behold, everything spiraled from there. Plushgun hit #1 on OurStage.com‘s Alternative Rock channel, where music fans rate the music posted. Soon Ingala recruited band members to perform live shows and the rest, as they say, is history.

While “Just Impolite” tells the story of chasing a seemingly doomed relationship with lyrics “I’ve called you nine too many times/I’m not obsessed, just impolite” the upbeat music throughout the song makes you think otherwise. “14 Candles” is a bit slower, again the tale of a failed relationship as Ingala sings of isolation, despite the couple in the song still loving each other.

My favorite on the EP is “How We Roll.” With biting lyrics and fitting musical accompaniment, this song epitomizes high school angst. Somewhat reminiscent to Bowling For Soup’s popular hit “1985,” Ingala sings about being outcasts throughout junior high and high school: “Hey cheerleaders, we’re superior/We’re only losers til we reach the end of senior year/We never comb our hair, our clothes are out of fashion . . . ” It’s one of those songs that you wonder, “Did he just say that?” before replaying the song over again to realize you heard each lyric correctly.

Though the EP had only four tracks there is much material and depth within each song to listen to. Be sure to check out Plushgun on MySpace if my brief review intrigued you and pick up their album when it hits shelves in January!

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Features

Artist to Listen For: Benjamin Wagner

I’ve caught two of Benjamin Wagner‘s performances over the past year and both were incredibly solid, impressive sets. Performing for over 10 years throughout various New York venues, Wagner is one singer-songwriter you should check out if you haven’t yet. His latest album, The Invention of Everything Else, is a strong lyrical and musical album. Most of the songs on the album are a mix of acoustic rock and slower ballads. When in play, the entire album takes you away from reality which for a musician, is a good thing.

The Invention of Everything Else encompasses an album full of raw, honest emotion. In “The Last Time” the listener feels exactly what Wagner is singing throughout the song, not always an easy feat for a singer-songwriter. Lyrics, “Write our names in black and white on the freeway so you see it/And maybe you’ll notice the lengths that I’m going to/I believe I’m going down for the last time, the last time/I’m afraid nothing I can do, oh no/I believe I’m going down for the last time, the last time/Baby it’s you” let the reader envision the story being told in the song.

“Giving Up the Ghost” opens up the album with a strong guitar presence in the middle of the song, somewhat reminiscent to Gin Blossoms’ “Follow You Down.” This song segues nicely into an edgier, catchier track “Trying to Tell You.” Positively the most up-beat track on the album, the faster guitar rhythm accentuates Wagner’s vocals extremely well.

Throughout much of the album, instrumental interludes flow perfectly breaking up the lyrics and music effectively with guitar, drumming and light tambourine features. “(I Won’t Let You) Get Away” has this feel as well. A much slower track, Wagner’s acoustic singing and light guitar playing achieve that laid back, tell-all, emotional feel. Constant repetition of lyrics, “I won’t let you get away from me” communicate his yearning to be heard.

In fact, most of the songs on The Invention of Everything Else are ballads. “Promise,” one of the strongest lyrical tracks, sounds like the quintessential wedding song. Lyrics such as “I promise you at the end of the day/In your darkest blue, in your deepest grey/I will sing to you, keep your demons at bay/I will see you through, I will shoulder the weight,” exhibit Wagner’s prowess as a songwriter, allowing the listener to delve into his inner psyche.

While the first two tracks incorporate more fun, up-beat, rock show type songs and the remainder makes up more of an emotional journey, The Invention of Everything Else progressively reveals its depth. Not incredibly overproduced, this album has the stripped down feeling of watching a performance in an intimate, local venue. One of the strongest songs on the album is somber “Secrets & Lies.” The slow guitar strumming encompassing the song seems simple, but so deep in meaning when listening closer to the lyrics and realizing this epitomizes the emotion of the story. This song differentiates from the more optimistic chronicles throughout the beginning of the album. Wagner sounds much older than his years on this track, a bit reminiscent of Bob Dylan.

With praising reviews from R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe calling Wagner a “future superstar” and VH1 News referring to his songs as “Timeless,” Benjamin Wagner is one artist to look out for. His songs are likely to stay in your head long after the last chord is played.

You can preview the album on iLike or MySpace and if you dig, check out Authentic Records to buy the album or iTunes for the album plus two bonus tracks — covers of Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and a favorite summer song of mine, Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.” Benjamin will also be performing September 20 and September 25 at Rockwood Music Hall so be sure to catch a show if you’re in NYC!

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Features

Colbie Caillat, Army of Me Featured on Team USA Olympic Soundtrack

I’m so excited to report (as I’m currently watching the USA men’s volleyball team destroy Argentina) that two of the artists I’ve covered and interviewed earlier on my blog have songs featured on the Team USA Soundtrack — Colbie Caillat and Army of Me. These songs include Caillat’s light and airy “Somethin’ Special,” written exclusively for the soundtrack as well as Army of Me’s acoustic version of “Perfect” from their debut album, Citizen. Other artists on the album include Sheryl Crow, Goo Goo Dolls, Taylor Swift and Queen Latifah.

By checking out AT&T;’s Website you can watch the music video for each artist’s song as well as two interviews where they explain the inspiration behind the song chosen as well as their favorite Olympic moment, among other topics. You really get to know more about each musician as they talk about what the Olympics mean to them, the similarities between athletes and musicians and how inspiring others through their music affects them.

To check out Army of Me’s page on AT&T; click here.
For Colbie Caillat, click here.
And, to view the other artists featured on the album check out the AT&T; Website‘s artist lineup on the right side of the page. If you like the tracks, be sure to download them as a ringtone before the ceremony ends on August 24!

If you recognize the Army of Me photo from previous posts, it was taken by my friend Wendy Hu and it’s also featured on the AT&T; Website!

Michael Phelps in 30 minutes! You think he can beat the all-time record? I don’t doubt it for a second.

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Features

New Artist to Listen For: Jaymay

With her light, soft vocals and honest lyrics, Jaymay’s debut full-length album Autumn Fallin’ has the versatility to keep the album on rotate all day long. While many of the tracks are ballads, (some more somber than others) jazzy songs like “Hard To Say” have catchy choruses and instrumental accompaniment, often putting the listener into another time period. The first half of Autumn Fallin’ starts slower, but track six segues into almost another album entirely.

New Yorker Jaymay starts off Autumn Fallin’ with “Gray or Blue,” a lyrically honest song with light guitar strumming while tambourine and xylophone can be heard in the background. If you listen closely to each song, they all tell a story — whether it be about crushing on a friend or wishing to find love. The underlying theme on Autumn Fallin’ seems to be heartbreak and unrequited love while three of the ten song titles include the word “blue.” Coincidence? I think not. Lyrics such as, “Don’t second guess your feelings, you were right from the start/And I notice she’s your lover but she’s nowhere near your heart” get the point across.

On “Gray or Blue” Jaymay tells the story of two friends in love, who ironically both have significant others. She sings, “You haven’t written to me in a week I wonder why that is/Are you too nervous to be lovers?/Friendships ruined with just one kiss.” While the title of another track, “Blue Skies,” sounds like it might be more of an uplifting song, the listener can sense the angst. “Faith brings me back to the place I met you/I bet you miss me sometime . . . sometimes,” she sings.

While tracks one through five are mostly somber ballads, nearly 10-minute track “You’d Rather Run” has background music reminiscent of a carousel ride at a carnival, seemingly in opposition to the more serious story within the song. Stand-out track on the album is “Hard To Say,” a more upbeat, fun jazzy number featuring Jaymay’s higher vocal range. “Hard To Say” segues nicely into the next track on the album, “Big Ben,” a slower song, almost sounding like a song right out of an old black and white movie. Despite the stories within each song being somewhat of a downer, Jaymay’s debut album has the intrigue to keep the listener wondering what exactly she’s trying to get across throughout the album’s entirety. By the last track, I think she’s given us all the answer.

For more on Jaymay, listen to an audio stream of her song “Gray or Blue” here or check her out on MySpace.

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Features

New Artist to Listen For: Jessie Baylin

While her voice is somewhat reminiscent to a blend of an edgier Carrie Underwood and Lucinda Williams with that country-pop blend, Jessie Baylin’s major label debut is much more distinctive. Jessie’s second full-length album, Firesight, has her branching out from today’s mainstream music with a jazzy and almost folk-like feel on some songs. With performances on past Hotel Cafe Tours as well as this year’s Bonnaroo Festival, she is definitely making a name for herself.

First track on the album, “See How I Run” starts off with Jessie singing, “I’m not stopping, waiting on nothing/Moving quickly trying to catch what’s mine/What’s destined inside the dreamer/I’ll be rushing, making a lot of noise” to a catchy guitar and drum beat. A solid first track for what’s to come on the rest of her album — strong collaborations with Grammy-winning songwriters (Jesse Harris) as well as various co-writers Mike Daly (Whiskeytown), Mark Goldenberg, Greg Wells and Danny Wilde (Rembrandts) and accomplished musicians including Brett Dennen and Cary Brothers as well as Ryan Adams’ drummer Brad Pemberton and guitarist Joe Pisapia of Guster among others.

Each track on Firesight varies from the previous, some tracks sounding jazzy while others have more of a country vibe. “Leave Your Mark” features Brett Dennen on backing vocals and is one of the stronger songs on the album, having a full sound both vocally and musically. The keyboard, guitar and bass as well as percussion and strings round out the track well while Brett’s vocals blend well with Jessie’s. “Not A Day More” has a faster beat, but darker vocals and even drearier lyrics while “Lonely Heaven” sounds like a jazz number, Jessie’s voice accenting but not overpowering the piano feature in the background of the song. Her voice in this track is timeless and could not have been performed any better with the crescendos in her voice in sync with each note played on the piano.

“Tennessee Gem” is more of a folk song with a country twist to it, immensely refreshing with guitar and pedal steel accompaniment while “I’ll Cry For the Both of Us” sounds like it could be a track right out of the 1970’s. Definitely versatile, Jessie Baylin’s Firesight has something for everyone. Due out in stores, Tuesday, June 24th, if you like the tracks below pick it up!

Listen to “Was I On Your Mind” here.
Check out “See How I Run” here for Windows Media and here for QuickTime.
For more on Jessie, check her out on MySpace

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Features News

GigMaven: An Easier Way to Book Shows

I’m always interested in what’s going on in the constantly changing music industry. I originally started this blog to feature interviews with musicians, but there are so many aspects of the music industry to cover. I think I’m going to try to branch out on things that I find interesting that might intrigue others as well. GigMaven is just one example that is helping with the rapidly changing industry. Below is my interview with Howard Han, founder of GigMaven, a new website dedicated to helping musicians find and book gigs online. Check it out for yourself at http://www.gigmaven.com. As always, feel free to leave comments or E-mail Me! on suggestions, artist features or ways you’d like me to improve the blog!

Tell me a little bit about GigMaven. How did you come up with the concept?
One of my friends, Richard Pan, was a musician for three years out of college. He was working at Abercrombie and Fitch in Ohio while driving out to NYC every couple of weeks to play gigs. He was doing pretty well, consistently booking gigs in NYC. He played at the Knitting Factory and at CMJ ’08 and got signed to an indie label, but he was having a bit of trouble getting gigs outside of NYC. Ultimately, he ran out of money and decided to go to law school.

At the time, I was helping him out while working in finance, and I started thinking about ways to help him get exposure and book gigs outside of NYC. After doing some research, we realized that booking is still very much an old-school process where people walk around and try to get their press kits to bookers at clubs. We felt like there had to be a better, more efficient way to do this. Out of Richard’s struggle and decision to forgo his music dreams, came our idea for GigMaven.

How are you working to get this project off the ground?
Currently, we have close to 300 musicians and 15 live music venues in NYC helping us beta test the website. We are slowly looking to expand to Boston, Philly and DC over the next couple of months and then expand to the rest of the nation in 2009.

What stage do you think you’re at right now?
We’re at the very beginning of something that will change the way the live music industry operates. We want to make everyone’s lives easier and allow them to book gigs online, lowering the average cost and time to book a gig.

Are you planning on eventually helping out with merchandise and releasing these artist’s albums, or just gear it towards finding venues?
We’ve definitely thought about the opportunities around helping musicians sell merchandise or mp3s and we have some interesting ideas around how we can make that process easier. That being said, we are 100% focused on our core business right now, which is booking gigs for musicians and venues.

What type of artists are you working with?
We primarily work with indie rock musicians, some unsigned and some signed to indie labels. Although our core is indie rock, we don’t focus on one genre or specific type of music or club.

What type of venues? Is it just based in New York for now?
Currently, we are only booking gigs in NYC, but we plan on expanding to Boston, Philly and DC in the next couple of months. In 2009, we aim to expand to the rest of the country.

How do you decide what venue to book these artists at?
We do not make any decisions regarding the actual booking. GigMaven is a platform for musicians and venues to find each other. Venues ultimately make the decision who they want to perform and musicians ultimately make the decision where they want to play.

Do you think what you’re doing is the future of the music industry?
We believe that it will be the future of the booking aspect of the live music industry. The music industry is going through a period of turmoil, which I believe will result in a tremendous amount of innovation and opportunity. We believe that booking gigs online is a natural solution to the inefficiency in the live music booking process.

For more on GigMaven listen to the guys explain their concept in more depth on a previous radio interview here.

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Features

Buenvenidos a Miami

Sometimes a change of scenery is good for the mind. It opens you up to surroundings you wouldn’t normally have encountered otherwise. The past few days me and eight friends from high school and college took a mini-vacation to Miami, a much needed break from working and interning that has encompassed our lives for the past few months.

Although mentally I was on a break from everything — working, the job search, even my blog — I still brought some CD’s to review and couldn’t help but take in the music and performances I stumbled upon each day, writing imaginary blog posts in my head. (I can’t help it, music is in my blood.)

Miami is like another world entirely — the language, the culture, the music and I experienced all this each day. Whether it be the hip-hop and R&B; music at club Opium Garden or the salsa music at Bongos, the Cuban restaurant we ate at our last night in Miami. We encountered many entertaining street musicians throughout the various outdoor malls we visited, even a rapper singing a Father’s Day song to shoppers, who later stopped his performance to give some parents anti-bacterial hand gel for their son who was picking up rocks from the ground of a nearby tree. Who knew street musicians in Miami were so concerned with germs?

Man, to live on the beach . . . oh well, back to the grind. I have a bunch of album reviews (including Jakob Dylan and the next big thing Jessie Baylin), songs and interviews (Canadian sensation Serena Ryder and Howard Han, founder of Gig Maven, a new approach for artists booking gigs) to get up for you within the next few days. In the meantime, feel free to read past posts and if you haven’t noticed, some of the titles of my blogs have an external link to my reviews posted on MTV’s concert blog. You can check out my reviews of those here if you haven’t yet.

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Features

New Artist to Listen For: Priscilla Ahn

With a soothing voice and light guitar accompaniment, Priscilla Ahn is an artist who will no doubt soon be a household name. Having just wrapped up touring with Ingrid Michaelson on the Hotel Cafe Tour as well as getting ready to release her debut full-length album June 10, Ahn has been keeping busy.

I recently received an advance copy of debut album, A Good Day, and can’t stop listening to it! While her voice is reminiscent of Ingrid Michaelson and fellow newcomer, Colbie Caillat, Ahn definitely has her own style.

Light and airy, Ahn opens up A Good Day with stand-out track “Dream” – a song starting off with light guitar accenting her vocals incredibly well. She sings about childhood dreams in lyrics, “I had a dream I could fly from the highest swing/I had a dream/Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park/I asked God who I’m supposed to be.” A song many can relate to. Next track is “Wallflower,” a story about a shy girl standing in the corner of a party, wishing she was more outgoing.

To watch a video of “Dream” and Ahn performing “Wallflower” live click here for Windows Media, here for Real Media and here for Quick Time. You can also check out the music video for “Dream” below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKfDwChOoHI]

A Good Day is also made up of some of Ahn’s favorite cover songs, such as Willie Nelson’s “Opportunity To Cry.” While some songs seem a little more obscure at first listen, such as “Astronaut,” when I covered a New York date of the Hotel Cafe Tour, I remember Ahn saying, “This song is called ‘Astronaut’ and it’s about astronauts.” It can’t be too difficult to understand, right? Another song, “Leave the Light On,” she later told the audience, was inspired and written when she was 18 and living in Pennsylvania with her parents, practically in the middle of the woods. Coming home late at night, her parents would never leave the lights on and she was constantly scared that she was surrounded by “cougars, bears and rapists” in the dark.

The entirety of A Good Day is enjoyable and relaxing. It’s one of those albums that you won’t get tired of listening to. While some songs have harmonica features, others have light, bell sounding xylophone accompaniment, keeping each track fresh.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out Priscilla Ahn on MySpace and pick up her album in stores in June!

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New Artist to Listen For: Taylor Carson

Last week I caught a show at Sullivan Hall with up and coming musician Taylor Carson. A friend of mine told me about him and after having a listen to his latest album, Standing Alone, we decided to check him out.

I read a quote on his MySpace page from a recent album review that said, “Generation X had Dave Matthews, Generation Y has John Mayer and Generation Z will have Taylor Carson.” I was a little skeptical, being a John Mayer fan myself, but Taylor definitely surprised me and still has me wondering if that quote will pan out to be true.

Taylor’s singing and guitar style was reminiscent to John Mayer and Jason Mraz at some points, with a deeper voice and intricate guitar features in many of his songs. But there was something else. My friend mentioned that she could picture a full rock band behind him and I think that’s what it was. Taylor is a little bit more rock. His 50-minute, 14-song set had most in attendance singing along to verses he taught them, saying, “Y’all wanna sing along with me? Don’t be shy!”

While he played a few songs off his latest album, Standing Alone, Taylor also covered some songs including the Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” the theme song to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the Temptations’ “My Girl” – often putting his own spin on the songs. His stage presence was strong and for many seeing him for the first time, he definitely impressed.

One of his later songs was a new one, which he told the audience had no title and he was open to suggestions. Last song of the night was “Lucky Tonight,” which in the middle of playing he stopped, telling the crowd he forgot the lyrics. You wouldn’t have noticed it though, because he segued right into some improvisation, singing lyrics from Cypress Hill’s “Insane in the Brain,” getting laughs from the crowd.

So is Taylor Carson the next John Mayer? Check him out in concert to see for yourself!

I sat down with Taylor after his performance and chatted about how he got into music, his current east coast tour and where he finds his inspiration for the music he writes. Check back in a few days for the full interview! And if you haven’t yet, listen to him on MySpace.

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CD Reviews Features

Most Spun 2007

So I’m trying my hardest to transcribe the 5+ hours of interviews I did this past week . . . hoping to get some up by the end of the weekend! In the meantime, feel free to check out my “Most Spun” list of albums from 2007 featured on inReview.net, a website I just started writing for. Can you guess my number one? Let me know what you think! You can read my picks here.

Also, here’s a cool video of singer/songwriter/one-man band David Ford I saw in concert a few weeks ago. It’s featured on YouTube’s homepage this week. Making music while having breakfast, he makes it look so easy!