Shawn Fogel to Uke it up in Roger Greenawalt’s Beatles Complete on Ukulele January 15th

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 15^th 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

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Golden Bloom Covers Wussy’s “Magic Words”

Choosing a song to cover is an art. Golden Bloom’s Shawn Fogel is quite adept at it, as shown by his choice of Wussy’s “Magic Words,” a track from the Cincinnati quartet’s celebrated self-titled album. “Magic Words,” a mid-tempo rocker, and his favorite, is transformed lovingly by Fogel into a poppier version of itself. Still present are the droning guitars, but added are the shiny synth touches that are a Golden Bloom trademark. All of this adds up to a unique approach to Wussy’s well-crafted phrases and lyrics. “I heard a lot of possibilities in my head, different directions I could take the song, says Fogel. “I ended up trying to inject a little more power into the pop and had a lot of fun reinterpreting this song in the studio.”  Fogel is not alone in the desire to reimagine Wussy. This Will Not End Well, a remix album that was digitally released in September, is filled with tracks from Wussy, but does not include “Magic Words”.

Shawn Fogel is no stranger to the art of the cover. This past summer and at CMJ 2010, he and members of Golden Bloom and The Motion Sick embarked on the ambitious task of playing Neutral Uke Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over The Sea live on ukulele, melodica and trumpet as Neutral Uke Hotel. The shows were well received, filling venues with fans singing, clapping and stomping along to the beloved album.

Fogel is back in the studio with Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National, Interpol and Tokyo Police Club), to produce some tracks on the follow up to Fan the Flames, which was compared favorably to Summerteeth-era Wilco, The New Pornographers, and Big Star and loved by critics and fans alike. 
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Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart, Kaisercartel And Golden Bloom Play Middle East On September 29th

Sharing the stage once with one of Hüsker Dü’s founding members is something to be proud of, but twice in the same week, well that’s just plain awesome. Such is the life of multi-instrumentalist Shawn Fogel, the front-man and mastermind of Golden Bloom, who will be playing two shows with ex- Hüsker Dü member, Grant Hart: September 26th at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live and September 29th at Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, MA. Brooklyn’s KaiserCartel will be joining Golden Bloom and Hart for the Middle East show.

Golden Bloom is Shawn Fogel’s soaring vocals, shimmering guitar hooks; whizzing keyboards and twinkling sounds. In fact, Golden Bloom is all Shawn Fogel, at least for the purposes of recording. The Middle East show will give audiences a chance to see him solo, too. He has been rapidly adding to his impressive list of bands he’s played with recently to include Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Hey Marseilles, Telekinesis and Sea Wolf.

Fogel is back in the studio with Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National, Interpol and Tokyo Police Club), to produce some tracks on the follow up to Fan the Flames, which was compared favorably to Summerteeth-era Wilco, The New Pornographers, and Big Star and loved by critics and fans alike. He’s has also been busy with Neutral Uke Hotel, a side project that has been taking the world by storm with live performances of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over The Sea which is played entirely on ukulele.
Grant Hart is best known as being a founding member of Hüsker Dü. His latest album Hot Wax is his first solo studio album in 10 years. KaiserCartel is made up of Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel. Their latest album Secret Transit is full of delicate and sensual but nonetheless punchy folk-pop.


Wednesday, September 29th
Middle East Upstairs
Cambridge, MA
Golden Bloom (solo), KaiserCartel, and Grant Hart (of Husker Du)
Doors: 8:00 PM
Show: 9:00 PM
$10 in advance
$12 at the door
18+
Advance tickets: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=3149945&pl=mideastclub
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Golden Bloom Plays Philadelphia F/M Showcase with Robbers On High Street and Grant Hart of Husker Du

When power pop worlds collide, magic is made. Golden Bloom’s Shawn Fogel will play a selection of Golden Bloom and Canadian Invasion songs with Philadelphia’s Canadian Invasion at the World Café Live on September 26th as part of the Philadelphia F/M Festival. Both bands are known for socially conscious, catchy pop, so audiences are guaranteed a fun, high energy show. Also playing the Green Room Music Source Showcase are Husker Du’s Grant Hart, Robbers On High Street, The Melismatics, Pearl and the Beard and REMMA.

Golden Bloom is back in the studio with Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National, and Tokyo Police Club), to produce tracks on the follow up to Fan the Flames, which was compared favorably to Summerteeth-era Wilco, The New Pornographers, and Big Star. Shawn Fogel has also been busy with Neutral Uke Hotel, a side project that has been taking the world by storm with live performances of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over The Sea which is played entirely on ukulele.

Canadian Invasion’s latest album, Three Cheers for the Invisible Hand, is an ode to suburbia filled with character sketches and infectious melodies. The band, which possesses Brit-pop sensibilities, is considered Philadelphia’s best power pop band.

THE PHILADELPHIA FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL or "PHILLY F/M" for short is a four-day festival taking place at over 30 music and film venues, with free outdoor stages, day parties and a record fair. Philly F/M will take place on Thursday, Sept 23 - Sunday, Sept 26th, 2010 and will feature a wide variety of regional, national and international musicians and films. The festival strives to be an annual event that effectively merges independent film and music in new and exciting ways. Instead of segregating them to different venues, the festival will combine the aural and the visual in dynamic settings to engage and foster new audiences for both mediums. More information on the festival can be found at http://www.phillyfmfest.com/.


Philadelphia F/M Festival presents Green Room Music Source Showcase
Sunday, September 26th
World Café Live (upstairs)
3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
215-222-1400
7 PM, 21+
Tickets: $13 (advanced tickets http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=3735)
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Golden Bloom Returns to Studio with Producer Peter Katis

Wooooooooooooooooo! We are shouting at GLG! Golden Bloom (OK, well, Shawn Fogel) is finally working on another album, which will not doubt be stellar. We seriously can not wait for his next work of pop genius.

Fogel has begun recording new Golden Bloom material, once again with producer Peter Katis! If you haven't heard, Katis is an uber producer who has worked wonders on records for The National (their last five records), Frightened Rabbit, The Swell Season, Interpol and Tokyo Police Club, to name just a few. The magic began this month when Fogel returned to Tarquin Studios with the prolific pop-maker Peter Katis. Golden Bloom's last full-length, Fan the Flames, which was compared favorably to Summerteeth-era Wilco, The New Pornographers, and Big Star and loved by critics and fans alike was recorded by Katis

So what can we expect from Fogel this time? Power pop? Rest assured. Intelligent lyrics? Certainly. The best music Golden Bloom has ever made? Absolutely. Fogel says, “[The experience] is similar to Fan the Flames in that I'm trying to make the best music I can in the moment, but I'd like to think whenever you work on something new you're in some way trying to out-do your previous work. I think the songs are really strong and more mature than the last batch of songs that comprised Fan the Flames.”

Wait, it's going to be even better than Fan the Flames? That's serious. Someone is going to need to fan us.



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Live Sneak Peaks of Golden Bloom, My Morning Jacket, Superdrag mp3s

When we first heard that Golden Bloom's Shawn Fogel performed his new song "Mr. Belvedere" at his gig opening for Guster on April 14, for a second, we thought it could be a cover of the '80s TV show theme song of the same name.

In all actuality it's a superb new pop song written by Fogel and  Large Hearted Boy  posted the live version of it from the recent Golden Bloom show with Guster, giving a sneak peek of the song that will appear on Golden Bloom's next album. Fogel/Golden Bloom is currently in the studio recording the follow-up to Fan the Flames. On the same spot, LHB also has new tracks from Superdrag, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, My Morning Jacket and Guster.

Along with the gaining momentum of his Neutral Uke Hotel project, Fogel is also a band member of The Zambonis (a band that sings only songs about hockey), The LeeVees (a band that sings only songs about Hanukkah) and The Macaroons (a spin-off of The LeeVees, that's sort of for kids). Fogel has also been known to occasionally play with Philistines Jr. (Producer Peter Katis' band; Katis produced portions of Golden Blooms' last album as well as The National, Mates of State, etc.). So with all these wildly different styles, you can see why "Mr. Belvedere" could have been about the TV show. His song is better anyway. Fogel is a busy man, but never too caught up throw something incredible at you when you least expect it.

The full live Golden Bloom performance with Guster at the Hanover Theater can be found here.





live photo by Kenneth Parry
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