Tag: Brooklyn

Categories
Artist of the Week Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Whale Belly

I Was Once A Bird COVER 10042012

 

Nearly three years ago my roommate introduced me to Brooklyn-based band Whale Belly. At the time I was planning a concert and she suggested they’d make an excellent addition to my lineup and she was right. I hosted a show at the now extinct Brooklyn venue Southpaw and the band won over the crowd and booking agents.

Last year I interviewed Whale Belly for CBS New York as they were promoting their debut album …the Smile at the End of the Slope. A year later, the band are back with their sophomore follow-up I Was Once A Bird which embodies 10 excellent tracks fueled with emotions we can all relate to: heartbreak, anxiety and the uncertainty life often brings.

Frontman Todd Bogin’s vocals exude a distinct urgency throughout I Was Once A Bird while spot-on string accompaniment, quirky guitar riffs and ear-grabbing percussion captivate.

I Was Once A Bird begins with memorable guitar and intriguing violin parts on “Bubbles In My Blood.” By the track’s end, foot-stomping rhythms, soaring music and Bogin’s catchy vocals beg all to keep listening. “Bubbles In My Blood” segues seamlessly into “Mette By the Canal” with soaring violin and delicately strummed acoustic guitar.

While the music accompaniment impresses on the LP, it’s the emotion-fueled tracks that show Whale Belly’s power. For example, the standout “Nervous Breakdown” was inspired by actual events Bogin faced while shopping at IKEA.

“I’m a very anxious person and I do really bad in crowded public spaces,” he explained. “I had a freak-out in IKEA because I went there on a Saturday before Christmas and it was so insane. I got lost, I couldn’t find who I was with, I couldn’t find the exit and I literally ran home. It’s a lighthearted song but if you listen to the lyrics and the music, it’s a very stressful song. It’s hard to listen to for me because it’s so intense.”

The listener can feel the angst with aggressive violin and guitar parts throughout the song.

Meanwhile, Bogin lays it all out on the line on heart-wrenching album closer “Long Drawn.”

“I’m getting used to being the lonely guy/Now that I don’t have you by my side/Enjoy my company and my own thoughts…You didn’t love me like I loved you,” Bogin sings.

“The next album will have the aesthetic of Whale Belly itself but make a point of transitions in life and change,” Bogin told me last year.

He wasn’t lying.

Download I Was Once A Bird here and be sure to catch Whale Belly live in New York tonight at Mercury Lounge.

Categories
First Person

You Sing I Write Adventures: August Recap

Earlier this summer, I wrote a post titled “A Day In the Life with Annie Reuter” after my friend Monica said she wanted to read more about my music adventures. Since then, I received an overwhelming response from readers requesting weekly updates. While my daily life isn’t THAT exciting, I’ve been trying my best to provide monthly recaps. If there is anything specific you’d like to know, be sure to let me know in the comments!

August saw major life changes as I took the leap and moved to Brooklyn with two friends. When it used to take me more than an hour to commute to NYC for a show, I now have five concert venues within walking distance! As luck would have it, since the move my freelance work has picked up. I’ll try my best to update the blog on a daily basis, but if I slack off please forgive me!

You can keep up with my apartment life on Busted Halo where my roommates and I blog for “Girls Meet God.” Each week we reveal what it’s like for three girls with different backgrounds and faiths to live together. Being the token Catholic girl, I’ve already learned so much about the Jewish faith and what it means to keep Kosher. Read all about it here.

In addition to exploring religion, I’ve continued writing for Lemondrop where I post articles that explore my dating life (eeek!) and find out love advice from other women. Most recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pat Benatar! A few days later, I attended her concert at Nokia Theater and was truly blown away. The way she interacted with the crowd was incredibly enjoyable and it was easy to see the love between her and guitarist husband of 29 years, Neil Giraldo. Whether it was Giraldo telling the audience the story behind “I Don’t Want to Be Your Friend, I Just Want to Be Your Lover” (Benatar had a dream he cheated on her), or Benatar confessing her least favorite song to perform, (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”), they had everyone’s undivided attention.

Witnessing Benatar live was a concert experience like no other. A rock icon and inspiration to women everywhere, I never dreamed I’d interview and watch such a phenomenal artist live. It’s moments like these that deepen my passion and determination to continue a career as a music journalist. I can’t wait to share with you my future adventures!

Related Links:
• You Sing I Write Adventures: A Day In the Life with Annie Reuter
• You Sing I Write Adventures: Why I Love Taylor Swift, June Recap
• You Sing, I Write’s Top 5 Moments of 2009
• Q&A; with You Sing, I Write

Categories
CD Reviews

Album Review: The Canon Logic’s “FM Arcade”

I’ve been to my fair share of shows over the years. Every now and then there’s a band that really sparks your attention. Not just the, “Wow. They were pretty good,” remarks after a concert, but thinking that this band truly has something special. Something different than all those other up-and-coming bands out there. This is exactly how I felt the first time I covered The Canon Logic.

It was October 2008 at Arlene’s Grocery and the first night of the CMJ festival. I had never seen a New York crowd go that crazy. The girls were dancing like maniacs in front of the stage and everyone was wearing Canon Logic sunglasses that the band made specifically for their showcase. Performing at 7pm on a Tuesday night the first day of a festival was definitely not the best time slot, but the band worked it to their advantage.

I interviewed the guys after their set and never imagined I’d wind up working with them as tour manager and publicist for a few months. Funny the way things work out. During my interview, I asked TCL what makes them different from every other band invading NYC during CMJ week. Guitarist Josh Greenfield informed me of their diverse and devote fanbase where everyone from parents to grandparents to even his high school-aged sister enjoy their performances and frequent shows.

“I think we have a wide range of fans. We like to try and bring everybody together. We’re trying to pull from so many different influences. We really like the classic rock stuff and we also like what’s going on now. I think we have a good balance of the two, which allows everyone to really get into the music.”

It’s been a long journey since that October. Many concerts later, The Canon Logic are releasing their debut full length, FM Arcade. The 12-track album is an accurate portrayal of their talent and energetic live show. Think The Killers meet The Beach Boys. Or, as Time Out New York once wrote, “The Canon Logic plays 1960s-style shameless pop fused with latter-day production sensibilities.”

Kicking it off with solid instrumental buildup on first track, “Villain In America” the listener is jolted awake and quickly realizes this isn’t your typical debut. Frontman Tim Kiely’s vocals have an old school vibe that intrigue and are never overpowered by the musical accompaniment.

Second track, “Avenue of Criminals” has always been a concert favorite. Longtime fans will be impressed with the arrangement. Slow piano draws the listener in at first before Kiely enters while guitar and percussion further layer the track. Complete with Beach Boys-esque harmonies, their first single off FM Arcade is bound to stay stuck in your head.

“It All Went Away…” switches gears from the high intensity of the first few tracks. Just over a minute long, the piano based song showcases the band’s willingness to try something new with a stripped down approach, breaking up the album well. “Nights At Armour Mansion” follows suit and is a darker number with a slow beat at first listen. Midway through, however, an instrumental interlude quickens the pace with fitting percussion before the rest of the band joins in on vocals.

Standout track, “Dead Man” begins with 15 seconds of guitar distortion reminiscent to that of The Kinks. The energy never wavers, and instead continues to electrify throughout the entire track. This is indie rock at its finest. While it’s hard for the rest of the album to follow such intensity, “Dead Man” is one track that is sure to have music critics raving.

Ending with the minute-long “Last Day of Man,” The Canon Logic leave the listener wondering what they can expect next. A solid debut release, FM Arcade, is only a glimpse into what is sure to be a bright future for the Brooklyn-based band.

Gearing up for their debut full length release this coming Tuesday, FM Arcade, will be available on iTunes and Canon Logic’s Web site. If you can’t wait that long, you can download “Nights At Armour Mansion” and “Avenue Criminals” for free here.

The band will be performing at Mercury Lounge tomorrow night celebrating their release. For more information, visit their Web site.

Related Links:
• Q&A; with The Canon Logic
• Song of the Week: “Delia”
• The Canon Logic Video Performance
• Canon Logic Lure Fans With Catchy Rock Songs, Sunglasses

Categories
Concert Reviews

New Jersey Welcomes Brooklyn-based Band, Hello Tokyo

Many people often forget about the New Jersey music scene being that New York is a train, bus, ferry or car ride away. Sure we have the greats – Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi and you can’t forget Frank Sinatra was born here also. Indie-band Thursday as well as current teen pop sensation the Jonas Brothers are all Jersey natives too. Even Jimmy Eat World sings “I’m a New Jersey success story” in one of their songs, “Big Casino” from latest album, Chasing This Light, despite being from Arizona.

Often, it’s not just these bands, but the venues that encompass New Jersey that makes for a great place to discover new bands. Starland Ballroom in Sayreville always has a great, for the most part extremely eclectic, tour line-up. Even Rutgers in New Brunswick puts on good shows, both on campus and at The State Theater on George Street. And then you can’t forget about Giants Stadium which hosts the Bamboozle Festival in May, the many concerts that go on at Continental Airlines Arena or even down in Asbury Park.

Hoboken is also a great live-music spot, especially Maxwell’s, where I was Friday night covering Brooklyn-based band Hello Tokyo. Although they may be based in Brooklyn, lead singer Kat is herself a Jersey girl. She told the crowd Friday that she was born in Hackensack and grew up in Wayne. And boy does this Jersey girl know how to sing.

Hello Tokyo is definitely a band to be on the look-out for. Their music has been featured on various MTV shows and they were a part of Fashion Fights Poverty’s 2007 Dress Responsibly Look Book. The female fronted power pop band is an eclectic mix of pop, rock and even dance music, or rather just music that makes you want to dance.

Having been working on their first full-length album, Sell The Stars, due out later this year, their performance Friday night gave a glimpse to what can be expected. While Kat fronted the band on vocals and keyboard, the rest of the band – including Sam on drums, John on guitar and guest performer Michael on bass – greatly accentuated her singing style.

I’m not sure how to best accurately describe their music style to be honest. It’s a mix of many different flavors and styles which definitely helps Hello Tokyo’s live performance and credibility. For more of an idea of their style, check out their MySpace and decide for yourself. And let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Hello Tokyo played a 40 minute set featuring 10 songs on Friday. While I recognized a few from their MySpace page, such as “The Affair” and “Run To You,” others were a pleasant surprise, like “I Spy” and “Alert the Authority,” which Kat told the audience is a song about living in New York City. You could definitely sense the New York City lifestyle with the fast beat throughout the song as well as when she starts whispering during the song, slowing down the beat and then picking the tempo right back up again. Lyrics such as, “You’ll never save me because I won’t ask you to” definitely gets the independent New Yorker lifestyle across. This song encompasses strong singing on Kat’s part and strong guitar features as well. Hello Tokyo definitely has the blending between singer, drummer and guitarists well polished.

While “Rain or Shine” might have had the best guitar sound of the set, the keyboard feature in the song slowed the night down for a bit, but Kat was able to quickly pick it right back up and continue through the rest of the song. A few of the songs played had longer intros, featuring Kat on keyboard while the rest of the band jammed in the background.

My favorite of the night was “Radio,” which Hello Tokyo closed with. This song, by far, had the most energy of the night and got many in attendance dancing along or tapping their feet and bobbing their heads to the music. You can check out their video for this song on YouTube.

Stay tuned for a complete interview with Kat from Hello Tokyo later this week.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Army of Me Invades Brooklyn

D.C. rockers Army of Me played to a packed crowd Thursday night at Union Hall in Brooklyn. From the opening drum beat in “Thinking It Over” to the last note of “Perfect,” Army of Me showed nothing short of greatness during their hour-long set.

Having been constantly touring for the past few years with various bands including The Used, Blue October and the Dave Matthews Band and releasing their first full-length album, Citizen, back in April, Army of Me is definitely a band to be on the look out for. With solid vocals from frontman singer/songwriter/guitarist Vince Scheuerman and a well-blended guitar and drum sound, it’s hard to believe that a few years ago drummer Dennis Manuel hadn’t picked up a drum stick and Scheuerman never wrote a lyric.

“When Dennis and I first started talking about starting the band he didn’t even play drums and I didn’t know how to write songs. But it didn’t matter, because we were going to take over the world,” Scheuerman said. “We kind of learned as we went, we didn’t really know what we were doing, but we still wanted to do it.”

From concocting their own “wheat paste” made out of flour and water to stick signs up on light poles throughout the D.C. area for their gigs, “the fliers would stay up for months and months. Everyone knew our name because you couldn’t help but see our name,” Scheuerman said, to recording their own demo and paying for tours through day jobs, Army of Me eventually landed themselves a record deal with Doghouse Records in January of 2006, soon after releasing their first full-length album, Citizen this past April.

I’m always a bit skeptical of seeing a band perform live after only hearing their album because it either makes or breaks your opinion on the band. But I have to say, Army of Me definitely blew me away. Each and every song is entirely different from the previous and Scheuerman has such an incredible stage presence that really engages the crowd. From jumping into the crowd on top of a bench in the corner of the room to constantly pointing to someone in the audience, you feel like he’s singing directly to you.

Even during some of the slower parts of a song, such as in the middle of “Still Believe in You,” Army of Me is able to capture the audience’s attention with the honesty of the lyrics and rhythm of the song. What’s even better is that when the tempo changes, the entire band can pick it right back up without missing a beat or having a strange transition.

“Meet You at the Mouth” had quite a few strong guitar riffs throughout the song as well as an amazing guitar solo from Brad Tursi. Scheuerman introduced “Rise” as being a song of healing and rebirth, getting knocked off your feet and not being sure you could get up and then getting that reassuring word from a friend and being able to get back up.

Up next was my favorite of the night, “Better Run.” Slowing things down for the night, Scheuerman started off alone on keyboard while singing solo until the rest of the band joined in halfway through the song. The song is so honest and you can just feel the heart wrenching of letting a relationship end, even though you don’t want it to. With lyrics like, “If you run at full speed and it feels good to be free/If you know it in your soul, though it’s hard to let it go/You better run, you better run,” Scheuerman got the point across.

Perhaps the crowd favorite of the night, “Going Through Changes,” had the crowd singing along. First big single for Army of Me, this song was ranked No. 3 as MTV’s most played video a while back and it’s easy to see why, the catchy chorus and rockin’ guitar driven drum beats that make up the song definitely get stuck in your head. Lyrics like, “It’s hard to accept what you don’t understand/And it’s hard to launch/without knowing how to land,” are relatable to everyone.

Last song of the night was “Perfect,” which Scheuerman said is his favorite to play. “It’s like a journey. It’s a song about wanting to accomplish something great, wanting to prove that you’re worth something to somebody. And when we play it live, it feels powerful, and I feel like I can do something great. In the middle of the song, we do a section that is improvised. Brad, our guitarist, does a solo which is always great. I like to get lost in the moment,” he said.

And that guitar solo might have been the best of the night, adding a powerful instrumental segment before Scheuerman finished the song. Scheuerman spoke to the crowd before ending the song, saying, “I think we’re all capable of something great, something perfect. Something perfect.” I think he’s right.

Check out more photos from Wendy Hu here.