You never know when a ukulele will come in handy. It’s a good thing Shawn Fogel (Golden Bloom, Neutral Uke Hotel) plays a mean one, because he’ll be putting it to good use as he takes part in Roger Greenwalt’sThe Beatles Complete on Ukulele January 15th at Brooklyn Bowl. The event, spanning two days, will feature Greenwalt and a host of special guests playing every single Beatles song on ukulele. This year, guests include The Zambonis, and Nellie McKay. Last year’s shows featured guest appearances from, Ryan Miller of Guster, Adam Green, The Pierces, and Ben Kweller.
Shawn Fogel is officially in the ukulele camp, as evidenced by his recent project Neutral Uke Hotel. The band played Neutral Milk Hotel’s beloved In the Aeroplane Over the Sea live to packed rooms of singing, stomping fans all over the country. Fogel says of this project, “It’s one of my favorite records ever, and the album doesn’t just have fans. The people who love that album are obsessed with it…. The goal of the project: [is] to strip these songs down and get people in a room to share their love for this album.
Last year was a big year for Shawn Fogel, who joined the likes of Ben Kweller and Guster's Ryan Miller in Brooklyn and at SXSW and played sold out Neutral Uke Hotel shows across the country. His project, Golden Bloom, is currently in the studio recording the follow up to Fan the Flames (2009); shooting for a release this year. He’s already tracking songs with Ryan Ball and plans to work with producer Peter Katis again.
Roger Greenwalt’s The Beatles Complete on Ukulele Saturday, January 15th Brooklyn Bowl 61 Wythe Ave., Brooklyn, NY http://www.brooklynbowl.com Doors 6pm Show 6pm $10 (http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/24861) 21+ With: The Zambonis, Nellie McKay and many more surprise guests
When you’ve recorded eight studio albums over fifteen years, there’s bound to be songs that have been forgotten. The Handsome Family has revisited their past and gathered up these treasures; a smattering of covers, alternate takes, unreleased songs and bits of their history and put them together on the self-released Scattered: A Further Collection of Lost Demos, Orphaned Songs and Odd Covers which the band will support with a tour beginning in early January.
Fans of Rennie and Brett Sparks’ haunting and hauntingly beautiful stories in song will be delighted to know that they’re in for a double treat: The Handsome Family will be touring the west coast and they’ll have copies of Scattered with them. The CD is only available at tour dates and on their website, http://www.handsomefamily.com. The tour, which begins in Vancouver January 19th, will take them down the west coast to Santa Monica.
Scattered collects moments from The Handsome Family’s history and pre-history. A four-track demo of “One Way Up,” which appears on the album, was recorded in the Sparks’ tiny Chicago living room twenty years ago. Alternate takes, rehearsal tapes and orphaned songs keep company with covers the band has recorded for compilations over the years. “Little Buddy,” which Rennie describes as “one of our earliest attempts at songwriting,” was rescued from obscurity to be included. A cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” was which was originally recorded for the Uncut Magazine compilation, Highway 61 Revisited Revisited as well as The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” recorded for Mojo’s Revolver Reloaded, are both included on the album. Covers of Leonard Cohen, Leon Payne and Harlan Howard also appear. There’s also traditional songs, like “The Lost Soul” of which Rennie says, “Hard to imagine, but they sang this terrifying song in church.”
The Handsome Family have toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, their live performances sometimes consist of up to a six-piece band and other times just Brett and Rennie. Despite the dark mood often created by their music, A Handsome Family show is fun, with Rennie bantering and telling more stories between songs, and Brett collapsing the illusion of tradition by sometimes using a laptop for drums.
The Handsome Family are known for Rennie’s evocative, descriptive lyrics, Brett’s deadpan baritone and their sparse, traditional bluegrass instrumentation. Their work has garnered praise from Pitchfork, Billboard, Spin, The BBC, Mojo and more. Their songs have been covered by many artists, most notably: Andrew Bird, Christy Moore, Cerys Matthews, The Sadies and Sally Timms. Honey Moon, the Sparks’ eighth studio album was released in 2009 to celebrate their 20th year of marriage. The Handsome Family Tour Dates
1/19 Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC 1/20 Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA 1/21 Doug Fir, Portland, OR 1/22 Sam Bond’s Garage, Eugene, OR 1/25 Freight and Salvage, Berkeley, CA 1/26 Café DuNord, - San Francisco, CA 1/28 Bootleg Theater, Los Angeles, CA 1/29 McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, CA
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After many weekend trips from Essexville, Michigan toDetroit to visit record shops and see live music, it was only a matter of time before Scotty Hagen made the Motor City his new home.Hagen crash landed in Ferndale in the late 90’s. By 2002, he tuned up his bass, teamed up with Stevie Michael on vocals, and put together the Grande Nationals, who after a few line-up changes are back in the studio to finish their latest album, which is set to be released on Hagen's own record label, Bellyache Records, in January 2011.As an avid record collector, Scotty Hagen spent much of his free time in record stores, which eventually lead to a management position at Rock-a-Billy’s in Utica. After spending five years as an independent record store manager, he moved up to the corporate world to work for Borders’ music department in 2004.Last winter, when Lost and Found Vintage’s Tommy Dorr and former record store owner Jeff Bubeck approached Hagen with the idea to open an all-vinyl independent record store in Royal Oak, Michigan, he jumped at the opportunity to become the UHF general manager. On September 11, 2010, the doors of UHFopened for business next to Lost and Found Vintage on Washington Street and the local vinyl shop has been thriving ever since.
Green Light Go was able to catch up with UHF’s Scotty Hagen (who is pictured to the right of UHF owners Jeff Bubeck and Tommy Dorr) in between helping customers and pricing records to find out what it’s like to be on the other side:
Green Light Go: UHF has a ton of used vinyl, where do you get the inventory?
Scotty Hagen: The records mainly come from a number of connections around town. Jeff (Bubeck) has been hunting for people selling record collections for years, so a lot of the UHF records were stockpiled in storage units before the store opened.When Jeff was trying to persuade me to work for him, he took me over to the storage units in Fraser, MI.I took one look and thought, “Oh my God!” I spent hours looking through crates of crazy records that I had heard of, but had never seen in person before. UHF carries many new releases by independent bands and labels, but we have repressed vinyl as well.[Our customers] are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of rare and "hard to find" records we have.
GLG: Are UHF customers able to buy records online as well?
SH: We have an eBay store, but that is temporary until we have our website up.Right now, we only have a domain, which is uhfmusic.com. Soon, customers will be able to buy records from our website as well as in the store. Every day we are chipping away at something else.
GLG: With so many record stores closing in Detroit, what made you take the plunge and open a new record store?
SH: Well, opening a record store is always a gamble, but location is key. Royal Oak has always been one of the only window shopping cities in the Metro Detroit area. We get so many people coming into the store that are just walking by, because we’re in an ideal location and we’re next door to Lost and Found. The businesses go hand in hand.
GLG: We’ve heard you also get a number of celebrity window shoppers, like Glenn Danzig?
SH: Yeah, he just popped in! Danzig was playing at the Royal Oak Music Theater, so Steve Zing (Danzig’s bassist) was in here first.Steve was looking around the store, he saw our Elvis records and said, “I have to call Glenn and let him know there are tons of Elvis Presley records here.” I am sitting in UHF thinking, “Is he calling Danzig?!” Sure enough, 20 minutes later, Glenn Danzig walked through the door.It was crazy, he was super cool.Danzig posed for pictures with us, bought some records, and took a few of our business cards.
A few weeks before that, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones from The Clash dropped in. We have only been open for two months and we’ve had all of these punk rock gods in the store…it’s really cool.We’re hoping that UHF will become a destination, because [touring bands] are always telling us that when they’re on the road, it's difficult to find record stores to shop at.
GLG: I know you’ve started to host in-store performances recently, so when are those scheduled and how might an independent artist go about booking a show at UHF?
SH: So far we are doing an in-store every Saturday at 4pm through the winter. We’ve been scheduling the in-stores at 4pm because it has been a peak shopping time for us. We had The Wall Clocks in last weekend and right before the band started playing, we had [a surge of] people pour into the store and start shopping.If a band would like to do an in-store at UHF, they can contact me at the store by calling (248) 545-5955.We’d prefer that the band has an album to promote, so when people come in to see the band, they have something to take home with them.
GLG: Can local or independent bands sell their records in the store?
SH: Absolutely, we have a consignment program.We let the band pick the price and we’ll set up an 80/20 split.Since I play in bands, I know how tough it is to make the money back [that is spent on recording]. Many record stores offer a 70/30 split, but we want to be fair and do a good thing for [local and independent] bands, so we stick with 80/20.
GLG: Since you work in a record store, I’m sure you get this question all of the time, but what have you been listening to lately?
SH: Everything! I really like the new stuff on Jack White’s label, Third Man Records, especially the new Greenhorns album, Four Stars.I am really into the 5,6,7,8’s reissue, re-press stuff like Blues Magoos andThe Lollipop Shoppe, and I'm forever listening to The Monkees and Alice Cooper.I always look for weird records to put on in the store, like the Dick Hyman album, The Age of Electronicus, which is a compilation of Beatles’ songs and other covers played on a Moog synth.
The Other Side highlights the talented folks behind the scenes of the music we listen to. The Other Side features producers, engineers, booking agents, photographers, radio DJs, management teams, and label representatives.
This week’s The Other Side is brought to you by: Lauren Roberts
With the May release of No Second Troy's album Colors, positive reviews keep rolling in. Skope Magazine read into the title of the album, writing, "‘Colors’ is a great title for the experience, as the encouraged mood seems to be of vibrance and faith. Campus Circle is into the vibe as well. They might be the first ones to refer to NST as "indie-electro pop." We're cool with that.
No Second Troy front man Jeff Wharen (clearly the one "sipping" water in the pic) checked in with us and sent us a list of five albums that he's been listening to a lot lately. "I'm loving all these albums for different reasons," he said. "If it makes me feel good, inspires songwriting or the lyrics stir up emotion I'm digging it. I'm always listening to The Beatles in some way. It's like keeping a picture of your grandparents up on the wall they keep me grounded and remind where we came from."
5. The National High Violet 4. The Avett Brothers I and Love and You 3. Passenger Wide Eyes Blind Love 2. Spoon Transference 1. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
No Second Troy Tour Dates
Saturday, Jun 5, Herndon Festival 2010
Downtown Herndon - 777 Lynn Street Herndon, VA 3:00 - 3:45pm at Depot Main Stage
Each Friday, hence the name Favorite Friday - one GLG band/artist will send us a list and comments about their "favorites" of the week. It could be a list of albums they are listening to in the van, books they are reading, guilty pleasure TV, and so on. We hope these various "favorites" will give you unique glimpse into the lives of our bands. Click Here to Read More..
It may not not Halloween, but on Thursday, May 27 at the Sierra Grille in Northampton, MA, The True Jacqueline will be emoting the essence of The Beatles. In an event aptly titled The Age Old Question: Beatles or Stones, almost a dozen bands will play 15 minute sets of songs by either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones in a battle for a winner. We don't think there will be a winner, but it sounds like a fun night.
The True Jacqueline will tackle iconic Beatles' songs "Golden Slumbers," "Carry that Weight," and "Don't Let Me Down."
"Last time, it was a David Bowie / Velvet Underground show, where we played "Changes" by Bowie and "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground," singer/guitarist Noah Stevralia shared with us. "This one is more of a friendly competition to decide who is the better band, the Beatles or the Stones. I'm firmly in the camp of the former."
P.S. This battle will never end. I mean, can you really choose one? I wonder if there will be trash talk?
Talk about all killer, no filler. Golden Bloom will join The Fervor, The Main Drag, The Tryptics and headliners Wussy for an incredible show on Saturday, April 17 at Spike Hill in Brooklyn. Golden Bloom’s non-conformist pop allows leader Shawn Fogel to share the stage with a varying mix of eclectic bands.
Golden Bloom front man, Shawn Fogel, just came off a two-day stint at SXSW as part of the Beatles on Ukulele party. The full live line-up of Golden Bloom will bring their matchless power-pop to the stage, which they will share with Cincinnati, Ohio band Wussy. Wussy, which features former Ass Ponys front man Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker, has received gobs of great press from Rolling Stone, Spin, Village Voice and Uncut. Wussy’s noise-pop rallies up with Golden Bloom on Saturday, April 17th for this rousing evening of music.
Saturday, April 17th,
Spike Hill, 184 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
$7 at the door
7pm - The Fervor
8pm - Golden Bloom
9pm - The Main Drag
10pm - The Tryptics
11pm - Wussy
Click Here to Read More..
You never know when a ukulele will come in handy. It’s a good thing Shawn Fogel (Golden Bloom, Neutral Uke Hotel) plays a mean one, because he’ll be putting it to good use as he takes part in Roger Greenwalt’s The Beatles Complete on Ukulele January 15th at Brooklyn Bowl. The event, spanning two days, will feature Greenwalt and a host of special guests playing every single Beatles song on ukulele. This year, guests include The Zambonis, and Nellie McKay. Last year’s shows featured guest appearances from, Ryan Miller of Guster, Adam Green, The Pierces, and Ben Kweller. 
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