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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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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