In honor of NXNE this week we are giving you a few mp3s of showcasing bands on the GLG roster. Feel free to post any of the approved songs below on your blog or tweet to your friends. Not on our email list to receive these directly and want to be? Send an email over to info(at)greenlightgopublicity.com
I hesitate to use the word buzz, but for lack of a better word to describe the rabid fan base that's developing around Shawn Fogel's side project, Neutral Uke Hotel, I feel I must. And why wouldn't there be a rabid fan base when a musician announces they will perform Neutral Milk Hotel's pinnacle album,In the Aeroplane Over the Sea live in it's entirety? On ukulele. Only forming a few months ago, in late April, Neutral Uke Hotel already has 2,716 fans who have determined they do indeed "like" the band. One has even posted on Craig's List, trying to find someone to go to the Mercury Lounge show on June 15th where NUH appears with The Handsome Family. So it came of no surprise to us that NXNE would add a second Neutral Uke Hotel show to their lineup. If you are in Toronto on Friday, June 18th head on over to Yonge Dundas Square at 2pm to catch NUH on the Bacardi Dock stage.
And if you haven't heard of Shawn's original band, Golden Bloom, don't hesitate to check out the insanely catchy melodies on Saturday night at 9pm at Czehoski.
For full tour dates
Neutral Uke Hotel Tour Dates:
Tuesday, 6/15 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY (with The Handsome Family)
Wednesday, 6/16 - Rongovian Embassy - Trumansburg, NY Friday, 6/18-NXNE - Bacarda Dock in Yonge Dundas Square,-Toronto ON
Friday, 6/18 - NXNE -The Painted Lady- Toronto, ON
Sunday, 6/20 - Mohawk Place - Buffalo, NY
Tuesday, 6/22 - The Khyber - Philadelphia, PA
Wednesday, 6/23 - Acoustic Cafe - Bridgeport, CT
Friday, 6/25 - The Basement - Northampton, MA
Green Light Go artists like to keep themselves very, very busy. We wouldn't have it any other way.
I don't know how The Motion Sick's Michael Epstein has time for anything because he's always making up new blogs and new blog posts about various Motion Sick-related things. And sometimes about just weird things. His best side projects has been with his darling Sophia Cacciola for the band Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling. Their insanely cool "concept," album The New Number 2 came out last month and the duo playing their spy songs live this Saturday night.
The Boston Phoenix caught up with the pair who are in preparations to play in Cambridge, MA at the Middle East (Upstairs), this Saturday, May 22. They talked about the TV-show inspired album and why they record as a duo.
"Whereas other bands cram 20 friggin’ persons on stage at their shows, or rely on technology to fill out their sound, Cacciola and Epstein get a lot done with as few tools as possible. The singer doubles as drummer. The bass, jacked into a guitar amp, plays the highs and the lows, though never simultaneously," wrote Barry Thompson. “It’s weird for people,” Epstein observes. “They’re like, ‘Well, there’s no low end at this moment,’ or, ‘There’s no high end at this moment!’ It makes them uncomfortable.”
“We thought about getting a third person, but this way, it makes us more creative,” explains Cacciola. “We really want to build dynamics, quiet parts and loud parts. It’s harder to do that with two people, but it makes it more interesting.”
Epstein: “They get really upset. I don’t think it’s a personal thing. Some people are like, ‘Well, I hear a guitar part!’ ”Click Here to Read More..
Tickets are all sold out for Shawn Fogel/Golden Bloom's evening of Neutral Uke Hotel this Friday, May 7 in Somerville, MA. We all know Fogel's gone uke crazy and we're not the only ones taking the instrument more seriously.
The Motion Sick's Michael Epstein and Fogel have collaborated many times and a little birdie (named Michael) told us he's going to make a special appearance at the Neutral Uke Hotel. The thing is, he needs to learn how to play the tiny guitar first. So he thought he'd give another seminal indie band a ukulele spin. Epstein decided that he'd learn to play by converting songs by The Magnetic Fields onto the ukulele. Epstein has captured many of his sessions on live video and shared us the links to see a handful of the videos.
Here's our favorite (today): The Magnetic Fields' "All the Umbrellas in London" Click Here to Read More..
People love to videotape stuff. They really, really love to take videos. And today, it's easier and quicker than ever to do so. It's simple to take a video of your child riding a bike or perhaps many montages of dogs in wheelchairs. Yes, dogs in wheelchairs. People also love to "create" videos, edit it themselves and add music. So where are going with all this?
It seems people have been infected by the catchy tunes of The Motion Sick, and dozens of them are using the band's songs to play over candid footage and video montages that they then of course load onto the Internet. Motion Sick's lead singer Mike Epstein is no stranger to placing music in the right place - he runs the Boston-based Launch Over; a company that handles music licensing, publishing and strategy consulting.
"I've actually got about 50 more videos that I need to post," muses Epstein. It's crazy how much stuff there is out there. They only very recently opened up their searching function to include the fingerprinted music, which is why I am only now becoming aware of all these videos with our music in them. It seems like I find at least 2 or 3 more every day and I don't really spend time digging back too far, so there are probably even more than I've found. I will probably someday have to hire an intern just to post all these videos!"
The current stream of videos Epstein is stumbling upon are all very, well, unique. Some are even kind of creepy. People just love to take the music of The Motion Sick and lay it as soundtrack to their home/created videos. There are so many, Epstein had to create a blog to showcase them all. It's appropriately called Strange Videos and The Motion Sick, Epstein is finding more and more videos every single day. It's a little insane. Some of the videos are almost too weird to even talk about, while other's are cute as a button; like the mentioned little kid on a bike set to The Motion Sick's rollicking song "Winged Bicycle." And then there's the really odd video of Barbies-turned-into real life girls dancing "The Barbie" along to The Motion Sick's "Grace Kelly." It makes absolutely no sense, and it is absolutely worth watching.
"30 Lives" has taken on a life of its own being used in Dance Dance Revolution. There's more than a dozen videos featuring the fun song. One of our favorites is for a exercising DVD called "Cardio for Indie Rockers." Don't ask us why the ladies look absolutely nothing like what an "indie rocker" is supposed to. Or why they have to pretend they are jump roping instead of using an actual jump rope. Watch it, learn some moves to "30 Lives" and shed those pounds (and fishnet knee highs)!
Epstein's personal favorite use of "30 Lives" is a live video from a couple's first dance at their wedding. The newlyweds choreographed it and freestyle to The Motion Sick on the most important day of their lives. It's so cute that Epstein dubbed it "The Greatest Video Ever in the History of Videos Featuring The Motion Sick." Congratulations to Andrew and Cat.
Oh, you ironic, pop culture loving men of The Motion Sick. As if you're regular music wasn't enough for us to bop our heads to, you go and write songs about mustaches and Aquaman and you expect us to NOT love it?
With the 4-song EP Novelty Songs: Volume One, could the band be hinting at a series of "silly songs" in the future? We can only hope.
Novelty Songs is now available for purchase via download on the band's website for only $3.50 (you can also get it on iTunes). The "novelty" tracks include "Surfin' Retiree," "Tennis Pro," Aquaman's Lament," and "I Grew A Mustache."
Head over to The Motion Sick's website and you can get a short taste of each song for free. But trust us, seriously......a song about Aquaman and his poor excuse for being a super hero. You almost feel bad for the fish-loving guy.
Oh, and you thought the band's video footage for "I Grew a Mustache" was good. The Motion Sick presents "Aquaman's Lament" in a mashed-up video montage of cartoon clips.
Boy/Girl duos seem to be all the rage these days: She and Him, GLG's own Naked Hearts, and now Michael Epstein, lead singer for The Motion Sick, is joining this growing trend. And we like this trend...if that's what it is.
For this new venture Epstein puts down the guitar and takes up the bass alongside his own darling, singer/drummer Sophia Cacciola, for the duo Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.
This is no ordinary album or band; its references to a cult British television series will mostly likely be lost on Americans, but it's still marvelous music, even if you don't exactly know what spies they're singing about. Epstein and Cacciola have found an innovative way to put the classic sci-fi drama The Prisoner (which was only on TV from 19670 - 1968) into a musical form on their debut EP, The New Number 2. Two words. Awe-some.
The Boston Globe recently interviewed Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling about their new EP, and their admiration for the bizarre TV show they have based this project around. Read the entire interview, with both members, on The Boston Globe's website. On the duo's site you can check out the hard-rocking track "Episode 1: The Arrival."
I mean really, how can you go wrong with songs about a British secret agent?
Click Here to Read More..
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