Fresh Cuts

Was getting to wondering about a few musicians that we haven't heard from in quite a while and found that the subjects of my music musings are indeed releasing new works.

Van Hunt:
One of my personal favs. On May 8th VH will be releasing: Use In Case of Emergency - a few rare items from the vault ' a salve for these desperate times.' .only on www.vanhunt.com.

RiceBoySleeps:
By Sigur Ros frontman, Jon Birgisson along with collaboration partner Alex Somers. Due out July 20th.

Pete Yorn:
Fellow Jersey native and a most gifted singer/songwriter Yorn is at long last releasing a new record (June 23rd) entitled "Back and Forth"- first single "Don't Wanna Cry" - we still haven't gotten over Strange Condition. You can also catch Yorn performing on the Coldplay tour.

The MAGNIFICENT, Leonard Cohen, has released a live record "Live in London" from his current tour. Reaching its completion now- was amazing live performance, if you caught it. Genius. The record can give you comfort after you come down ........ we just love this man.

If It Be Your Will
(Leonard Cohen, Nokia Center, LA)

Face The Music (And Dance)

Well, this is probably another one of those shows not to miss, I mean - Herb Alpert is quite the musical pioneer and legendary trumpeter.His wife, Lani Hall, is one of the most wonderful and talented vocalists .

The pair perform together at various venues, material from their new record.
Herb Alpert and Lani Hall Live "Anything Goes"
They performed two sold out shows last week at Vibrato, Albert's Jazz venue in Bel Air.
You can catch a show at Yoshi's in SF in June.

Hail to the Musicians

We have just learned that SF School District has initiated a program for teachers which provides an educational guide book with Jimi Hendrix gracing the cover with the following musings "Remember the first time you heard Jimi Hendrix?" "Our plan is as transformational now as his music was then!" We don't have a copy but sounds good.
For more gory details on the state of affairs in arts education.....visit our blog




A very special thanks to all the wonderful people who help bring the orchestra of music to life..... please help to keep the music alive and the arts programs in our public schools.

Just for fun- I've included a video clip of one of our personal faves....Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith talking about how he got his start in music.

Even though he does refer to yours truly as a 'naughty school girl' (must have been the pigtails) - we still love him.
Promise to get better with our camera angles next time.

Golf w/Green Day: 4/20

Help support Music in Schools Today while you enjoy a round of golf hosted by Green Day's Tres Cool.
Monday, April 20th - Sequoia Country Club

The 3rd Annual Music in Schools Today Golf Tournament, Hosted by Tré Cool will be held at the beautiful Sequoyah Country Club in the Oakland Hills on Monday, April 20, 2009. Proceeds of the event will fund Music in Schools Today's Music Integrated Learning Environment program in the Oakland Unified School District.

Register Here

This amazing event includes a full day: lunch, a round of golf at one of the Bay area's best private clubs, and dinner! Golf with Tré Cool, Mike Dirnt, Bobby Hutcherson, Lawrence Karnow, John Kessler, Tom Luce, Butch Vig, and Vinnie and Icky from RadioAlice, among many others.

Some of the Live Auction Prizes

* Radio Alice ~ Producer for a Day with Sarah & Vinnie. Value: Priceless
* Dude Ranchers Association ~ 4 nights at Rancho de los Caballeros + golf +
Southwest Airlines ~ 2 unrestricted round-trip tickets. Value: $3300
* Calistoga Ranch ~ 3 days/2 nights in Bay Forest Lodge. Value: $2000
* Reunion Resort Orlando ~ 3 days/2 nights with deluxe accomodations +
JetBlue Airways ~ 2 round-trip tickets. Value: $1500
* CordeValle ~ 2 days/1 night, plus a round of golf for two. Value: $1235

Silent Auction Prizes

* Gretsch ~ Hawaiian Guitar with Pickup & Gig Bag, Aged Natural. Value: $959
* Gretsch ~ Double Jet Guitar with Gig Bag. Value: $790
* Leedy ~ Snare Drum, donated by the Gretsch Foundation

Hope to see you there.

Beautiful Freedom

Photo Courtesy - Robert Altman
(collector editions prints of this photo available )


Mr Havens performed a very intimate show last Sat. night at the Napa Valley Opera House. Harry Manx opened - a special evening.

Havens played a 2 hour set strong, full of spirit and sweaty. The master strummer and vintage man gave us Freedom along with many other greats and closed out the evening with Cocker tune "You Are So Beautiful" and had full audience participation alternating back and forth lyric words of 'beautiful' with 'wonderful'.

Post show we quite literally ran into the legend at the elevator while exiting off the wrong floor mistakenly, which gave us a great opportunity to chat one-on-one with the man who exudes such immense warmth and kindness. One of my guests sat next to Havens in first class on a flight some 25 years ago during which the two had shared some great conversation ... some part about Haven's museum in NY for kids which he immediately recalled upon re-connecting. As the story goes, people in-flight kept coming up and kissing Haven's rings, my friend wasn't even sure who he was at that time...

We hugged and parted ways, but not before Richie graciously signed his photo in my personal copy of Robert Altman's "Sixties" book (pix above) taken by Altman in 1968 .



Generate Kindness.org

Hallelujah: Cohen in Coachella Lineup

Updates on a few of our favourites - or should we say, iconic figures.

First up:
We have been waiting to see "Our Man" live, but until now, he was only touring dates in Canada.

Our prayers have been answered and LC, Leonard Cohen, is scheduled to take the stage April 17th at Coachella.

Here's a review of his recent show in NYC at the Beacon Theatre, where he played for over 3 hours.....eh, we will definitely be at the Coachella show.

SWEET!

We also congratulate Chef MC (Michael Chiarello) and Eileen on yet another inspired adventure - restaurant Bottega- which opened recently in Yountville (Napa Valley)


Seems that hard to please restaurant critic Michael Bauer was pleased and 'lusty'. His review here

Music and transcendance

I have a confession. The only time I've seen Neil Young live was when he walked by me on Haight Street while I was busking one of my tunes about a year ago. (I'm still trying to have it not mean anything that my performance was not enough to interrupt his march to wherever he was going.) In fact, the first time I remember seeing a Neil Young *performance* was just a few minutes ago, when I watched the "Like A Hurricane" video above, and I'm just floored.

There's something transcendent about his performance. The music flows with a most powerful and eloquent grace. I feel embarrassed by admitting I've never seen Neil Young live and feel like a neophyte annoyingly spouting the obvious. But I wanted to share. Neil Young rocks.

Random Noteworthy of Jan '09

Architects of a New Dawn launched 1/1/09
Carlos Santana's Media Channel

Carlos' 'vision for AOAND is a multi-tiered media company whose approach to building a new reality for the planet is based on inspiration, creativity, love & forgiveness. This is where my passion lies, and I wish to bring it forth by combining music, sacred thoughts and inspirational media. ." For more on that vision, visit the site.

Burning Man Announces '09 Theme Evolution: A Tangled Bank
prompting three related questions:
What are we as humans beings?
Where have we come from?
How may we adapt to meet an ever-changing world?
Burning Man is now accepting art proposals for the 2009 event until February 1.

GraceNote gave a first look at their CarStars Stereo system at CES "which scans your music collection and selects an artist to be your personal musical guide, giving you track suggestions depending on where you happen to be driving" Check out this video review from CNET

The company announced their support for video formats (in addition to their patented music recognition technology, a core component of ITunes and other music players).


Grissom Says Goodbye
CSI's hot thespian, William Peterson, is staying true to his core artist roots, and finally leaving CSI (after 9 seasons) for theatre back in Chi town.

Paradise Lounge , the old mainstay rock club in San Francisco, has re-opened after another reprieve between owners. A dance club, not sure if there will be any live shows. If you catch a show/event before we do, let us know. For a walk down memory lane in the locale -

A Bite of SFSounds

here are few things, sounds from san francisco...

Our very own Ink co-blogger and talented singer-songwriter musician Ian was interviewed recently on KFOG Radio now avail on-line

Mystery Music Men of Myspace.
They call themselves the Negative Divine.... if they are still going by this name they seem to disappear and reappear every so often under different names.
Developing songs like "Ellis and Jones".

TMODM-Turn Me On Dead Man
- yes, we still like them...from Technicolour Mother, Her Planet is Love
On Emusic and the review below.


Review by Megan Frye, All Music Guide
San Francisco's Turn Me on Dead Man's second album plays like a journey into space. The album blends the headbanger-worthy riffs and hooks of stoner metal with the spacey nostalgia of psychedelic prog rock and the loud, raw energy of alternative rock. Guitarist, sitarist, and frontman Mykill Ziggy's detached vocals and effects pedals give the album a feeling of floating aimlessly in space. Technicolour Mother explodes with the exceedingly distorted prog rock instrumental "Child in the Sunburst Pyramid" and never lets up. The album is divided between melodies and full-on metal assaults. "Pharmaceutical Rainbows," with its onslaught of a suffocating heavy metal solo, sounds like it's ripping a black hole into outer space. On the other hand, "Galaxina" and "Her Planet Is Love" are sweet, but no less loud and distorted, with candy like vocals. Turn Me on Dead Man define their own genre, and Technicolour Mother is pure enjoyment. Advice: listen to this one loud; really loud.

They Want to Rock

A line-up of bands comprised of tech geeks by day come out to rock in support of Music Education (Bay Area'sMusic in Schools Today) - Dec 3rd at the Great American Music Hall.

Tix are $60.

All Silent Auction Items Benefit Music in Schools Today, check them here Including guitar signed by Joe Satriani.
We will report in again, post performance.

Legendary Jazz & Blues Musicians Converge for Thelonious Monk Institute Jazz Finals - LA Oct 26th

Stellar Jazz evening at Kodak Theatre for the finalists in Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition; which is the most prestigious jazz competition in the world and is often compared to the classical Van Cliburn competition. It has launched the careers of a number of major young jazz stars including Marcus Roberts, Joshua Redman, Jacky Terrasson, Joey DeFrancesco, and Jane Monheit.

This very special evening awards and acknowledges BBKing and Paul Allen - who will receive the Institute's Founder Award- for their outstanding contributions to the world of music.

Guests include blues and jazz greats; BBKing, Herbie Hancock. Wayne Shorter, Keb Mo, Robert Cray....many more- including the just very recently announced addition of Bono.
For more on the Institute
Check this Epistrophy-Thelonious Monk

Mo' Shroom Jazz...,

Famed DJ Mark Farina's Mushroom Jazz - 6- comes available Oct 21st.
For a taste of the delight from OM Records

Love Is Stronger than Death

This song by The The ('the' talented Matt Johnson) is remarkable and one I always seemed to enjoy listening to most from the most from The DUSK record.
Soul Mining was another favourite from this artist. Deep.

Rolling Stone Magazine's review of the record said, in part -
If the unconscious mind could speak for itself, what would it say? That is the question singer-songwriter Matt Johnson and the The attempt to answer on Dusk. On three previous the The recordings, Johnson always asked difficult questions about human frailty and psychic vulnerability, though not without flinching. By contrast, the songs on Dusk are written in the language of raw need.

VIDEO

JAMTSE: Love & Compassion

BFM Digital (www.bfmdigital.com), a leading digital music aggregator and distributor of independent music, announces the release of the album “Jamtse: Love and Compassion – An Offering to The Tibet Fund”.

This digital compilation features such renowned artists as Nawang Khechog, Snatam Kaur,Jai Uttal, Deva Premal, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, MC Yogi, Toshinori Kondo, Krishna Das, Bill Laswell and more.

This project, conceived by producers Joshua Jacobs (Ambient Groove, a division of
Synaptic Fusion Entertainment) and Steven Weber (President, BFM Digital), is intended
to act as an instrument to bring awareness toward the current plight of the Tibetan
people. Each track was hand picked by Jacobs to focus on healing through sound
vibration and mantra. The musical genres include World, New Age, Meditation, Chant,
and Yoga.

About The Tibet Fund
The Tibet Fund (http://www.tibetfund.org/) is dedicated to helping Tibetans improve their
lives and preserve their distinct cultural, religious and national identity. The Tibet Fund
brings urgently needed resources to the educational, cultural, health and socioeconomic
institutions that sustain the Tibetan way of life, language, and traditions. The Tibet
Fund‘s support helps to sustain the Tibetan refugee settlements in India, Nepal and
Bhutan and provide rehabilitation services for the thousands of new refugees who
continue to arrive from Tibet every year. Through its program in Tibet, the Tibet Fund
partners with local NGO’s in Tibet on projects that treat and prevent blindnesand care for orphans, and provide educational opportunities for Tibetans.

"something extraordinarily impressive"

AKA LollaPallooza (slang for)
Friends Anthony and Marcelo have reported in from the Windy City after the first day/night of the show - (pictured). Radiohead must have been amazing. Certainly Rage will be. RadioHead also did a bit from OK Computer - where our all time favourite No Surprises emerged.



Seems there's a rumor/possibility Barack Obama will show up at some point this weekend (w/Wilco). Homeboy, Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails dual it out closing the show. I heard Joe Escalante on his LA radio show (Indie 103.1) say he'd recently seen NIN and the show was off the hook.


Other, In Radiohead .............
This Found On Radiohead's Site re: Internet Neutrality -

RadioHead plays Golden Gate park Aug 22-24th, Outside Lands Festival

the lineup for this includes Tom Petty, Beck, Ben Harper, Wilco, Primus and many others.

Lang Lang Performs LA 11/1

"The Hottest Artist on the Classical Music Planet"- The New York Times



(from Langlang.com)
Considered by the New York Times as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet”, 26-year-old Lang Lang™ has played sold out recital and concerts in every major city in the world and is the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and all the top American orchestras. He has worked with the world’s best orchestras under the most renowned conductors.
Lang Lang performed recently at the 50th Anniversary Grammy Awards dueling pianos with Herbie Hancock


Music is in his DNA-
Lang Lang™ began playing piano at the age of 3, won the Shenyang competition and gave his first public recital at the age of 5. When he was 9 he entered Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory. He went on to win first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition and played the complete 24 Etudes of Chopin at the Beijing Concert Hall at 13. At 17, Lang Lang’s™ break into stardom came when he was called upon for a dramatic last-minute substitution at the “Gala of the Century” where he played the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Chicago Symphony.


Lang Lang's also helping kids get to music-
n 2004, he was appointed International Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and with an interest in child development, Playing with Flying Keys, Lang Lang’s™ autobiography geared for children will be released in 2008. As a result of his enormous popularity with children, Steinway created the “Lang Lang™ Steinway” designed in 5 different types for the early musical education of children



You can try to catch this phenom perform at UCLA Nov 1st.


Other Interesting UCLA Live shows of note: Barrie Kosky

Dali's Handgun

From the elusive Mark Griffin, AKA MC900FT Jesus, who recorded w/Rick Rubin circa 1993. Griffin trained classically then turned rapper, old school. His writing and beats score points all around.


Griffin seems to have vanished, but not without leaving trace evidence..... these are Lyrics to Dali's Handgun, from one of my favorite records mainly because of pyro tune The City Sleeps "Welcome to My Dream"

The perfect gun
The perfect gun is not visible
The perfect gun exists in a savage state
The perfect gun confers omnipotence
The perfect gun will follow the free tendencies of desire
The perfect gun its like a rosary around the neck
The perfect gun stretches as far as the eye can see
The perfect gun seeks all your reflected images
The perfect gun The perfect gun is sufficient unto the day
The perfect gun is nothing but a crossroads
The perfect gun keeps its promise for everyone
The perfect gun is a pill dropped in a glass of water
The perfect gun is the household crow
The perfect gun leaves in a shadow of perfumes
The perfect gun is an illusion on a surface of memory
The perfect gun is a finger resting on the controls of a broken machine
The perfect gun is too soft to be honest and too honest to be true
The perfect gun turns as it pleases toward all horizons
The perfect gun is perfect sadism, at least as a method
The perfect gun is a flower beaten by the rough fever of the wind
The perfect gun can be rearranged in all possible combinations

The perfect gun is a bueatiful chimera
The perfect gun is an idealist without taking part in any ideal
The perfect gun takes the shapes and colors of demoralizarion and confusion
The perfect gun crouches to intercept shadows
The perfect gun is not in the habit of saluting the dead
The perfect gun will always find buyers
The perfect gun is at most a thinking reed
The perfect gun has drawn the symbol of the infinite
The perfect gun is not incompatible with a certain nobility of thought
The perfect gun is watching over a blue glass
The perfect gun writes sad and ardent love letters
The perfect gun is a hierarchy, like any other
The perfect gun is a door someone opened
The perfect gun implies that there are others behind it
The perfect gun is a dark intention
The perfect gun never waits for itself
The perfect gun is hard as the incredible hammering and no questions underneath
The perfect gun is a reference point
The perfect gun is neither my shadow, nor my double, nor my half nor another myself
The perfect gun is blood at water level
The perfect gun is half of a destiny
The perfect gun has nothing to do before dying
The perfect gun leaves an exquisite corpse

Comedy at The Largo

Largo on La Cienega



Known more for singer-songwriter performances and surprise guests, but according to my comedian friends, Largo is the one of the places to see great funny shows too.

Singer-Songwriter Ron Sexmith performs Largo next week.


Hotel Cafe in Hollywood is another great spot.

Van Hunt- DUST

Discovered this band when they opened for Seal at the Warfield in San Francisco about 5 years. Van Hunt invited us to their in store at Amoeba on Haight the following day and we quickly fell for them. Combination Sly and Marvin Gaye with his own personal style and great lyric writing abilities. Also awarded a Grammy in '06 for Best R & B Record.

A Funk Soul Brother.

Dust Video

Here with you in Hell (love with pain)

Untamed and Diabolical -7/13- LA

Very distinctive guitar sound

Diabolic Live

Gunslinger StringBender
You can catch James Wilsey at a Free show July 13th - ECHO, Echo Park.


Post Show Notes:
Dave Gleason sat in with Wilsey's band, these guys put on a great show great guitar sound. Definitely one of the most amazing covers of Loneliness (Karen Carpenter)