Tag: Listen

Artist to Watch: Amber Rubarth

Post author By admin
Post date April 22, 2010
2 Comments on Artist to Watch: Amber Rubarth

Photo Credit: Wendy Hu

During Amber Rubarth‘s first night back in New York after touring Japan, she invited several friends to share the stage. Performing for nearly 90 minutes, Rubarth’s girl next door charm and witty, emotion-filled vocals captivated all at the newly opened Stage 2 at Rockwood Music Hall.

Being familiar with the New York music scene, I quickly realized how close knit the singer-songwriter crowd is. Having interviewed numerous New York musicians, Amber Rubarth’s name has come up on several occasions as a source of inspiration. I quickly realized why last Friday.

Rubarth kicked off the night with the moving “In the Creases.” With oboe accompaniment and her comforting vocals, the room stood still. Throughout the night musician friends took the stage to provide backing vocals, piano and guitar accompaniment or perform tracks of their own.

The rustic country-esque “This Is Real” showcased Rubarth and Peter Bradley Adams on vocals and Tony Maceli on bass while jazzy ballad “Full Moon In Paris” introduced Ian Axel on piano. French songstress Julie Peel took the stage for “Song to Thank the Stars,” a track Rubarth joked about writing in France. “It’s a lot harder to write a love song than a breakup song. So I only have one,” she said.

Before crowd favorite Ari Hest took the stage, Rubarth concluded, “It’s more like a party than a show tonight.” And that it was. The audience, mostly filled with fellow musicians, didn’t seem to mind.

Debuting her newest song, “Letter From My Lonelier Self,” alone on guitar, Rubarth reminded everyone why they were there. With moving lyrics, “You’ll hear the answers if you listen/When it’s love don’t wait to say what it is/And don’t trade love for an aimless embrace of the wind/Please don’t lose your love like I did,” and her wavering vocals, the song struck a chord.

Original tracks “Pilot,” written with Nate Campany, “Good Mystery,” “Edge of My Seat” and the award winning “Washing Day,” co-written with Adam Levy, rounded out the set with additional guest appearances. Ian Axel, Greg Holden and Ari Hest performed a few songs of their own before Rubarth and Hest closed the night with a cover of Tom Waits’ “Hold On.”

While Rubarth’s touring schedule takes her to Europe next month, New York fans will be relieved to know Rockwood remains her favorite venue. “This is the greatest place I’ve ever been. Hands down. Expanded it’s more beautiful then I ever imagined,” she said.

Fellow singer-songwriter Nate Campany summed up the night. “Amber is a rare talent and we’re all lucky to have her as a friend and inspiration.”

For the latest tour dates and music, be sure to visit Amber Rubarth on MySpace.

Tags Amber Rubarth, Listen, singer-songwriter

Artist of the Week

Artist of the Week: Ari Hest

Post author By admin
Post date April 19, 2010
1 Comment on Artist of the Week: Ari Hest

There is nothing I enjoy more than going to a concert and discovering new music. This past Friday, I attended Amber Rubarth’s show at Rockwood Music Hall (review to come soon) and walked away with a list of several new artists to showcase. One singer in particular was Ari Hest. With deep vocals that bring resemblance to Mat Kearney, he captivated all in attendance while onstage.

Piano centered tracks like “Avalanche” accompany Hest’s vocals beautifully. The piano never overpowers, and instead assists Hest’s voice to soar in the perfect direction. “Stalking the Moon” continue to showcase his raspy vocals with light guitar picking. Throughout each song, it is the lyrics that truly move the listener. Accompanied with fitting melodies, Hest’s descriptive lyrics transfer impeccably with his emotional vocals.

Ari Hest’s tracks on MySpace don’t do him justice, so I’ve included a few live performance videos below. For more, be sure to check out his Web site.

“Sleep Tonight”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGZErB3eiNU]

“Broken Voices”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xahwn1C7Bw]

“I’ve Got You”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1J5N1FTwHk]

“When and If”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hsK401AWZ8]

Recommended: For fans of Mat Kearney, Tyrone Wells, Jack Johnson.

Tags Ari Hest, Listen, singer-songwriter

Song of the Week Videos

Song of the Week: “I’m Alive”

Post author By admin
Post date April 16, 2010

I’m sure you all know by now I’ve become a huge country music fan after attending the CMA Music Festival last year. One of my current favorite tracks is Kenny Chesney’s “I’m Alive” featuring Dave Matthews. A little pick me up for those days that have you wondering where you’re headed, Chesney and Matthews put life into perspective with light guitar strumming and moving lyrics.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLgLfD3wElQ]

All you country fans, be sure to tune into the ACM Awards broadcast live from Las Vegas Sunday, April 18th at 8:00 PM ET/PT on CBS. Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Zac Brown Band are up for Entertainer of the Year. You can vote for Entertainer of the Year here.

Tags Dave Matthews, I'm Alive, Kenny Chesney, Listen

CD Reviews

PT Walkley Offers Versatility on Three-Song EP

Post author By admin
Post date April 8, 2010

PT Walkley is an artist who needs to be witnessed live. The first time I caught him in concert, I covered the show for Filter and was truly in awe. It was his record release and he had nearly a full orchestra of musicians and backup singers perfecting each song on his album from start to finish.

Having opened for Coldplay at Madison Square Garden, performed at All Points West and had his music featured in several commercials and films, Walkley has proven his staying power as a songwriter and performer. His latest three song EP (which he handed out to all in attendance at a recent show at Joe’s Pub) will be showcased in Ed Burns’ upcoming movie, “Nice Guy Johnny.” The film premiers April 23rd at Tribeca Film Festival.

A slight departure from his previous release, Mr. Macy Wakes Alone, the three songs provide a much more upbeat rock sound. “What’s What” kicks off the release with gritty guitar and seductive vocals. With additional piano and percussion accompaniment and Walkley’s catchy “woah-oh-oh’s” the listener is captivated right away.

“Something Else” switches gears and is more of a tongue-in-cheek love ballad. With quirky lyrics demonstrating the roller coaster tale of a relationship, Walkley intrigues. “Oh how we used to fight/We’d shout out loud ’til the laryngitis came in/You weren’t my type/I didn’t float your boat/I was broke and you were broken,” Walkley sings at the start of the song. However, by the stories end, the character seems to have changed his tune. “Love is alive and well/Something else, something more/So much better than it was before,” he concludes. With fast-paced percussion and Walkley’s energetic vocals it’s impossible to not tap your foot along by the song’s close.

Last track on the EP, “The Radio,” featuring The Blue Jackets is a much edgier rock sound than previously heard from Walkley. A track questioning the impact of radio and tastemakers, the song’s aggression impresses. It perhaps is fitting then, that he name drops well known songs and musicians like Billy Joel and “Billie Jean” within the same line. “If you ain’t Billie Jean or Billy Joel you’re gonna come and go/On the radio, radio, radio,” he sings. In the end, the song begs the question: Who is to say what belongs on the radio?

For more on PT Walkley, visit his Web site. You can listen to “What’s What,” “Something Else,” and “The Radio” on MySpace.

Tags Listen, PT Walkley

Song of the Week Videos

Video Wednesday: Featuring Cage the Elephant, J Lewis and Theresa Andersson

Post author By admin
Post date April 7, 2010

I’ve been receiving numerous emails debuting new videos from artists. Rather than hold off until the end of the week, I figured I’d feature some of my favorites today. There are plenty more out there, so if I missed any you’ve been diggin’ lately be sure to leave them in the comments!

I interviewed Theresa Andersson during CMJ back in 2008 and was truly impressed by her performance. The one woman band plays multiple instruments throughout her set with the help of loop pedals. Watch her perform “Oh Mary” below. The video is the newest clip from her soon-to-be-released DVD, “Theresa Andersson: Live at Le Petit” due out April 24.

J Lewis blends pop, hip-hop, and R&B; throughout his debut video “Dancin’ For Me” featuring Flo Rida. His soulful vocals are sure to be a hit on the Billboard charts. Except his first album release later this year. Check out his music video below.

[dailymotion id=video/xcod87]
J Lewis Feat. Flo Rida – “Dancin’ For Me” OFFICIAL Video
Uploaded by thatsfunny. – See the latest featured music videos.

Cage the Elephant sure know how to party. You can find them jumping from school buses, lighting fireworks and crowd surfing at a house party in their latest video “In One Ear.” It may even inspire you to have your own house party…hopefully with minimal damage.

http://www.vevo.com/VideoPlayer/Embedded?videoId=USZM21000003&playlist=false&autoplay=0&playerId=62FF0A5C-0D9E-4AC1-AF04-1D9E97EE3961&playerType=embedded

What did I miss? Which videos can’t you stop watching? Leave them in the comments and maybe I’ll feature some on the blog.

Tags Cage the Elephant, J Lewis, Listen, Theresa Andersson, Watch

Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Hot Chelle Rae

Post author By admin
Post date April 5, 2010
1 Comment on Band of the Week: Hot Chelle Rae

With energetic, danceable tracks Nashville-based Hot Chelle Rae are bound to convince even the most shy wallflower to make their way to the dance floor. Combining pop rock and radio friendly choruses, their debut release Lovesick Electric grabs the listener’s attention on the first track.

Forming in 2005, Hot Chelle Rae’s name was inspired by one of the group’s most devoted female fans. Having toured with Third Eye Blind, The Rocket Summer, Sherwood, Black Gold and Reece, the band has been perfecting their stage show. With a catchy sound that is reminiscent to fellow pop rockers Boys Like Girls and killer guitar riffs it is hard to believe this is their debut release.

Tracks like “I Like to Dance” (listen here) and “Never Have I Ever” have an unfaltering energy while beautiful ballad “Bleed” show the band can switch things up and be more serious. A love song that holds striking resemblance to Boys Like Girls’ “Two Is Better Than One,” all Hot Chelle Rae need is their Taylor Swift duet. “I bleed my heart out on this paper for you/So you can see what I can’t say/I’m dying here/’Cause I can’t say what I want to/I bleed my heart out just for you,” frontman Ryan Keith Follese sings with soaring musical accompaniment.

Watch Hot Chelle Rae’s latest music video for “Bleed” below.

Recommended: For fans of Boys Like Girls, Metro Station, Fall Out Boy, The Killers.

Tags Hot Chelle Rae, Listen, New Artist

Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Athlete

Post author By admin
Post date March 29, 2010

UK-based band Athlete‘s latest release, Black Swan is a beautiful, emotion-filled album with soaring melodies and musical accompaniment. With songs that detail the highs and lows of life — everything from embracing youth to failed marriage and death, Athlete impress and leave a lasting impact on the listener.

Released earlier this month, the band took a different approach to recording. After their split with EMI, Athlete recorded and financed the album with money they raised on their own. Due to lack of funds, they were forced to travel to America without drummer Stephen Roberts and played acoustically while on tour with Switchfoot.

“We were playing to 5,000 people a night, without a drummer,” frontman Joel Pott said. “It wasn’t an easy experience, but it was a real positive to see what captivates people when you’re playing to them totally stripped down. You really get a feel for which are the strongest songs.”

Night after night, the crowd’s loudest cheers were reserved for first single, “The Getaway”, a stirring tale of infidelity and communication breakdown, their press release states.

“That reaction was a real boost,” keyboardist Tim Wanstall said. “And it totally focused the idea that the whole record needed to be packed with the kind of songs you can sing along to at the top of your voice.”

When Athlete returned to England, they decided they wouldn’t record the new songs until they’d been properly road-tested.

“A lot of people talk about us being a great live band, but we didn’t think we’d ever quite captured that on record. We wanted it to sound like it was just us, playing together in a room. So before we recorded the songs, we did a tour of really small venues in the UK, to get us to the point where we were playing them well. And it really worked. By the time we got back to the studio, we knew the songs inside out,” Pott said.

Blending electro indie-pop, their fourth LP, Black Swan, offers listeners much diversity. The upbeat “Superhuman Touch” kicks off the album with airy vocals from Pott and electric musical accompaniment. With heavy bass and percussion beats, Pott’s singing style produces a striking blend. “Sparks flying out in every direction/There’s more of this to come/I think it must be heaven/Burnin the sun with just a wave of your hand,” he sings.

Next track and first single, “The Getaway” has a softer and intriguing innocence despite the song’s tale of infidelity. With Pott’s emotional vocals and light percussion and guitar accompaniment, the band switches gears from the fast-paced and energetic “Superhuman Touch” to a beautiful ballad, showcasing their versatility. With the soaring singing style of Coldplay’s Chris Martin combined with their musical prowess, “The Getaway” is one of the record’s stand-out tracks.

“Light the Way” begins with nearly two minutes of instrumental before Pott comes in. Where on previous tracks his voice and sing-along choruses evoked the most attention, it is Athlete’s rich musicality that resonates with the listener.

Title track, “Black Swan Song” is a powerful and moving number about the death of Pott’s grandfather. With a somber and laid-back almost Caribbean feel at the start, Athlete’s heartfelt lyrics transcend in the stripped down track. “I’ve been racing the clock and I’ve run out of steam/I am ready for my final symphony/Oh, my body is weak but my soul is still strong/I am ready to rest in your arms/Though many battles I have won/I lost too many friends I could count on/And I know they’ll be the first to welcome me/When I parachute into eternity,” Pott sings.

The delicate “Rubik’s Cube” fittingly closes the album. It is a song Pott has said sums up everything. “It’s about puzzling through life, working it out as you go along and having to deal with its uncertainties. That’s the magic of life, really.”

It is no question Athlete have had years struggling to survive and find their rightful place within the music industry. As with anything, these hurdles provided material that only strengthened their impeccable release, Black Swan.

“After everything we’ve been through in the last couple of years, it feels like we’re starting again with this record,” Pott said. “We made it without a label, without any pressure and without really having anything to lose. That’s exactly how it felt when we first got together. In a lot of ways, Black Swan, is like our second debut album. That’s a pretty exciting feeling.”

Watch Athlete perform “The Getaway” live at the VEVO Playlist Party at SXSW 2010 below. For more on the band, be sure to visit them on MySpace.

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

Tags Athlete, Listen, New Artist

Song of the Week

Song of the Week: “Dying Day”

Post author By admin
Post date March 26, 2010

This week brought new single releases from several talented artists, providing music lovers with plenty of tunes for the weekend. CMT just premiered Brandi Carlile‘s latest music video, “Dying Day” off her phenomenal album, Give Up the Ghost.

With live tour footage mixed into the video, viewers get a feel for what a typical day of life on the road entails. To watch the music video for “Dying Day” click here.

Tags Brandi Carlile, Dying Day, Listen

News

Stream Six Songs Off Sia’s Upcoming Release

Post author By admin
Post date March 23, 2010
1 Comment on Stream Six Songs Off Sia’s Upcoming Release

Australian songstress Sia manages to captivate music fans, critics, and fellow musicians in the industry, most notably Christina Aguilera who recently asked Sia to work on her upcoming release. While Sia’s fourth album, We Are Born, isn’t due out until June 8, lucky fans can hear six songs from the LP on her site, http://www.siamusic.net.

First single, “Clap Your Hands” is an energetic track that is sure to bring even the most timid wallflower to the dance floor. While many of the tracks on her site are upbeat, danceable numbers, ballads like “I’m In Here” showcase her emotional vocals, having the listener beg for more. To preview Sia’s six tracks, click here.

I named Sia one of my Top 10 interviews of 2008 after chatting with her about her last release, Some People Have Real Problems. She filled me in on the touring lifestyle, her songwriting process and stalking Amy Winehouse. To listen to my interview with her, click here and be sure to catch her on the road later this spring!

Tags Listen, New Music, Sia

Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Murder By Death

Post author By admin
Post date March 22, 2010
3 Comments on Band of the Week: Murder By Death

I have yet to hear an album as versatile and powerful as Murder By Death‘s upcoming release, Good Morning, Magpie. Of the LP, singer-songwriter Adam Turla said, “Good Morning, Magpie is some of the darkest and brightest material we have ever written. While it’s not a concept album, it embodies the struggle between light and dark that has defined our previous work.”

This struggle can be heard throughout many of the tracks. In fact, it is Turla’s vocals that demand the listener to take notice. “I traveled so long/I traveled so long til I was cold, cold as stone/My whiskers are gray they reach to the ground” he sings emotionally on “King of the Gutters, Prince of the Dogs.” It is perhaps no surprise then, that Turla wrote most of the new material during two weeks spent alone deep in the woods of Appalachia with just “a tent, a fishing pole, a guitar, and a lot of paper.”

Their biography describes Murder By Death perfectly. “Theirs is a world where Old West murder ballads mingle with rock-injected Western classicism; where an album’s sequencing can take listeners from a haunted back alley in rural Mexico to a raucous Irish pub. All of which is to say, Murder by Death albums don’t just string together songs; they create experiences.”

I couldn’t have written it more succinctly. Their fifth album release, Good Morning, Magpie, continues to bring listeners on a journey. Combining powerful haunting string interludes, horn accompaniment and percussion features, the band’s music leaves just as much a lasting impact as Turla’s vocals. First single, “Foxglove” is a beautiful love song with moving string accompaniment. With that classic Johnny Cash feel, you can easily picture Johnny singing “It was always you” to June Carter Cash.

Whether it’s a love ballad or drinking away the pain on, “As Long As There Is Whiskey In The World,” (“For as long as there is whiskey in the world we can drink away the heartache/We can drink away the girls”), Murder By Death manage to keep the listener intrigued and wondering what will come next.

Due out April 6, Good Morning, Magpie is one record to buy this spring. I can only imagine how Murder By Death sound live. Be sure to visit Murder By Death on MySpace for songs and upcoming tour dates.

Tags Listen, Murder By Death