Michael Butler - Will the world
please make this guy a "star"! Wait, he sort of already is...
New Releases on
RARadio: Trouble in Mind 2011
label sampler;
Black Box Revelation Live on
Minnesota Public Radio;
Apteka "Striking Violet";
Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get
Along"; Dana deChaby's
progressive rock
New York City-based
singer/songwriter/musician Rachel
Platten is playing Radio Holiday shows in
select cities this December alongside The Fray, Gavin Degraw,
David Cook & others. Platten released an LP of original
material, 'Be Here', in 2011 after touring the material for
a year. The performance below was recorded at her CD
release. Several are available from YouTube, but this
strikes me as the one that is most effective.
.
Platten is a Boston native
who started taking serious piano lessons about the time she
got old enough to got to school, but she caught the musician
bug later in her college years, while studying abroad in
Trinidad. Recently signed with Rock Ridge, Platten seems to
have been inspired by the Caribbean nation's Calypso music,
particularly Soca, and who he wouldn't be. It re-enlivened a
musical passion that she pursued by taking a songwriting
course through Boston's highly-respected Berklee College of
Music in Boston, and then on to New York City and subsequent
travels abroad, burnishing his skills as a touring pro.
Platten is among a sizeable
crop of smart and talented women who are barnstorming the
world these days and storming the gates for crossover
recognition. Others include Gabrielle Louise (below), and
Kat Parsons, i.e., songwriters who combine real musical
skills with open-heart performance. It feels as if we may be
entering a particularly good period for this type of music,
as happened before in the early '60s with the emergence of
Carole King and her generation of similar talents.
- RAR
MIRACLES OF MODERN SCIENCE
Miracles of Modern Science is a group of four orchestra
instrument chaps, plus a drummer, who met on Facebook while
students at Princeton and in 2004 starting doing what they
call "orchestral space pop". They make classical
instrumentation sound like avante garde synthesizer work, or
maybe it is just that we have been primed by years of
digital music and forgot how rangy wood instruments can be
in the hands of crazy scientists thinking outside of the
box, or whatever the next best cliché would be. Whatever,
Miracles of Modern Science is cool. After checking out this
stage show, go to YouTube to find their casual live version
of the Bowie tune "Life On Mars". Wonderful to hear
thoughtful folks at work doing interesting stuff.
Miracles of Modern Science just
released their new LP Dog Year, which was
financed through the Kickstarter scheme.
National Public Radio
(NPR) featured the LP on the day of its release.
- RAR
_____________
Rolling Stone Runner-up Lelia Broussard
EDITOR'S NOTE: Lelia
Broussard hails from the musical mecca of Lafayette,
Louisiana, which has been a well-spring for musical types
ranging from Cajun and Zydeco to swamp Country and Rock'n
Roll. Our contributor and featured blogger Sam Broussard, of
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, is a Lafayette native,
as is slide master Sonny Landreth. Lelia is the most recent
of this Louisiana brood to hit it big, finishing second in
Rolling Stone's recent search for the next big thing, losing
out to The Sheepdogs, a hairy Canadian collective of
erstwhile Southern Rockers.
I can't tell if Lelia
Broussard is really anything or not. She clearly comes to
life with the support of a band, becoming an entirely next
level of performer compared to her solo persona. Below is
what Teen Vogue had to say about her.
- RAR
______________________________
Lelia Broussard is a
people person. Onstage or off she lights up those around
her. So it's not surprising that the electric 22-year-old
indie-pop singer (think Regina Spektor) has been able to use
her growing, obsessive fan base—not the traditional label
system—to spring into the mainstream.
The Louisiana native says she
grew up worshipping "the divas," like Whitney Houston and
Mariah Carey, as well as Patsy Cline. By the time she was
thirteen, she had picked up a guitar and begun writing her
own songs. "I was having a hard time then," she recalls. "My
mom was going through a divorce, and it was difficult. So
music was an outlet for my feelings—it still is."
As time went on, songwriting
became Lelia's only focus. "I just had it in my mind, and it
was all I wanted to do," she says. After high school, with
the support of her mom, the then-seventeen-year-old moved to
New York City to pursue a recording career. Working as a
waitress by day, Lelia, who cites acts like Phoenix, Lykke
Li, and David Bowie as inspirations, played open-mike nights
in the city, meeting some other performers who were just
cutting their teeth—"I used to be friends with Gaga when her
name was Stefani," she reveals.
Over the next few years,
Lelia became a presence in the Lower East Side scene,
bluffing her way onto the stages of 21-and-over venues. At
the end of 2010, she recorded her first full-length,
Masquerade, through funds raised on entrepreneurial social
site Kickstarter.com. In January, Lelia entered herself in
Rolling Stone magazine's first-ever national "Do You Wanna
Be a Rock & Roll Star?" contest, a six-month fan-driven
battle meant to discover and promote new talent. At press
time, Lelia had made it to the fourth round—meaning she was
one of the two finalists, with a strong chance to win a spot
on the legendary magazine's cover. "It's an exciting time we
live in as musicians," she says of the experience. "It's
thrilling for the fans to make something this big happen. I
haven't signed with a major label in all these years, and
that's been a good thing—I've been doing what I want, and I
think my fans appreciate that."
____________________________
Charlene Kaye
This year
Charlene Kaye released the insanely catchy
single, "Dress and Tie," a duet with her frequent
collaborator, "Glee's Darren Criss", opened for Big Boi and
Minus the Bear, went to the Grammys and played CMJ and SXSW!
It's been quite a year and Ms. Kaye is at the top of her
game. Grab the single "Dress and Tie" and check out the
accompanying video following the LA recording of the track.
Charlene possesses a mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind voice -
check out the old-timey, glamorous video for "Mad Tom of
Bedlam," and the sweetly sunny "Skin and Bones."
Charlene Kaye
The multi-faceted vocalist
relocated to New York City to pursue stardom, and she is
certainly doing her part, working hard at showcase events (CMJ
and SWSW among them). And she is bringing the chops, little
by little breaking through with national television exposure
and reviews in the Huffington Post. Here she is doing some
clever, high energy, sophisticated jazz with some cool dudes
called The Brilliant Eyes.
Clogs
Bassoonist Solo Project
Rachael Elliott
“Elliott is the Jaco Pastorius of the
bassoon, sweeping between glowing bass parts and sweet,
yearning melodies in the highest register.” -The
Guardian
There have been some nice
developments in music over the past dozen or so years, none
of them nicer than the re-emergence of modern classical, or
music written for classical instrumentation. I don't mean
this in that Windham Hill kind of way, that makes you feel
pretty certain that you have given up on life, but in that
way that is illustrated by the likes of Belle Orchestre and
The Books.
Add
Clogs to that, the quartet of Yale Music students
who came together in the late 1990s to create a decidedly
impressionistic ensemble of mostly instrumental sounds. The
players are top-flight, with Australian violinist
Padma Newsome, guitarist
Bryce Dressner, percussionist
Kozumplik, and
bassoonist Elliott. Dressner, who has composed for the
Kronos Quartet, a group
that could rightly be said to have pioneered this new era of
modern classical, has had success outside of Clogs with The
National. The National has about as much to do with Clogs as
Arcade Fire has to do with Belle Orchestre, which is to say
a little. Use this link to go
to the New York City pages to see The National.
Now
Elliott is
releasing a project of her own - Polka the Elk -
which is described as "blending jazz harmonies, hypnotic
minimalism, and indelibly wistful melodic lines with pure,
transcendent chamber music. The music will appeal to lovers
of new and experimental music and those with slightly
twisted pop sensibilities". The LP will be released on
Brassland Records, the label founded by Bryce and
twin-brother Aaron Dressner.
While you await September and
the release of the Rachel Elliott LP, check out this
masterwork from Clogs.
The National
Brooklyn has been home to
the Dodgers and Ebbetts Field, Radio City Music Hall, Woody
Allen, Isaac Asimov, W.H. Auden, Aaron Copland, Clive Davis,
Neil Diamond, Jackie Gleason, Moss Hart, Rita Hayworth, Joseph
Heller, Lena Horne, Moe-Curly-and-Shemp Howard, Carole King,
Norman Mailer, Carson McCullers...and 2.6 million other people
at any one time. The coolest people living there on this day
might just be playing in The National.
Besides having some fine musical
education, as a band The National
has something else going for them that is impossible
to develop: brotherhood. The National consists of brothers
Aaron and Bryce Dessner,
brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf, and singer
Matt Berninger, and together they do some stuff that
probably only blood relatives would - you know, if they had a
shared friend. Here is The National live on Q TV. Cool band.-
RAR
Grace Potter and the
Nocturnals
Grace Potter is
pretty hard to deny as a natural musical force. Orphaned as a child, she was
taken in by a relative and raised in a small room beneath a staircase...no, wait
a minute, different Potter. This is the Potter from Waitsfield, Vermont, but
that's kind've weird, isn't it? Actually, Grace Potter is a St. Lawrence
University music dropout who started her band in 2002 with the notion that they
would mine the influences of such diverse talents as James Brown and The Band.
Those somehow seemed right for her voice, which is way rangy and soulful without
being imitative of previous belting blues babes.
The Gypsy West
Sweet boys singing in harmony at the
local music shop
The Gypsy West is a power
trio from Brooklyn, though you would not likely get that from
the video shown here. They blend progressive precision, catchy
grooves and psychedelic heaviness on their radically released
second LP, Accomplices II - You Might Get Caught, which
will be released on September 6. Labeled “stunning,” “inspiring”
and “powerful” by critics, Accomplices is a concept album
released as a series of EPs, sequentially detailing the journey
to and through a social revolution. You Might Get Caught
picks up where Accomplices left off with the hero, Phoenix, at
the threshold of revolution. Their live sound has been described
as “intimate, breathless…this lean trio stomps with the ferocity
of a deadly orchestra.” The Gypsy West is
touring all about the New York City area in July and August
(2011).
She is currently working on
her next album and just released another single, “Me Or
New York,” which is available on iTunes.
Upcoming tour dates include:
5/15/2011 Los Angeles, CA
/ Cafe Was
5/28/2011 Denver, CO / 16th Street Mall - Denver Day of
Rock
5/29/2011 Evanston, IL / SPACE (ticket sales benefit Art
of Elysium)
6/15/2011 Los Angeles, CA / Cafe Was
ill the world please
make
Michael Butler a
"star", as in a guy who gets rewarded well in cash and
recognition for the extraordinary contributions he makes to
this creative world? Were there justice in this veil of
tears, our friend from Harlem would be passing out cash
wherever he goes because his pockets would be booked just
trying to carry the wealth of his talent. I love this
guy. He has a poet's soul, a guitar attack that feels
utterly spontaneous and effective, and he has that rare
quality of the authentic in his voice. He also has
that other thing going that confounds and perplexes
almost every singer-songwriter: that commercial/cultural
requirement to do what is familiar and loved by audiences
while being completely original within one's self. Michael
Butler has the advantage of sounding completely like
himself while evoking ghostly recognitions of a hundred
beloved and familiar singers who have gone before. He also
has a cross-cultural thing going for him, a personality who
owns all that comes with being Black but is so much more.
Jimi Hendrix had this quality, a kind of unbound nature that
belonged to a world larger than that in which he was set,
which was no doubt a key to his other worldly musical
expression. Ditto for Butler, whose off-the-cuff way with a
melody is fresh air to those of us galvanized by a world of
broadly endorsed copies. And then there is the intelligence
of the songwriting, again completely universal in its
cultural associations and aspirations; real melodic song
structures, unbound by the narrow-band restrictions of
commercial radio today, though I am unaware of a more
emotionally evincing performer working anywhere in the world
in 2011. Butler's biggest hurdle is that he is like a raw
diamond too cool to cut.
"I’ve been Playing Bar 9 Every Saturday
from 4pm -7pm in sort of a Happy Hour thing since September"
Michael reports. "It’s nice to be in a bar again, getting to
play all types of music that I don’t regularly get to do,
and interesting that the gig came to me right off of
performing covers in Europe for the month of July. For those
of us who have children, kids are allowed in the Bar 9 until
9pm because it's a Restaurant as well - and the Food Ain't
bad Neither, shrimp for me personally!!! (Bar 9 is at 807
9th Ave - between 53rd St & 54th St - New York, NY 10019 -
Neighborhoods: Hell's Kitchen, Midtown West, Theater
District (212) 399- 9336). If you can't make it to Bar 9,
for
sure check out the video below.
- RAR(Posted Dec 2011)
DJ DX
N
ew Jersey electro
hip hop artist DJ DX may not be the most original or
authentic of today's beat and rap set...so why is he so
likeable? RARWRITER.com is all behind his melodic
structures, silly audio tuning vocal effects aside, and his
thematic explorations. You decide. Watch the video below
to check out "This Is My Fight" featuring 1dakid.
_______________
New York
- Pop
Mikey Wax
"Marion
was my grandmother who I never got to meet. It's who I'm
named after. Sometimes we're told childhood stories by those
older than us, and like an old TV show, I can't help but
picture those stories in black and white. While I know the
generation before me faced many similar struggles that we
still face today, it seemed to me like a simpler time.
Marion passed down a white dress she once wore to my mother,
and after seeing my mom in the dress, it gave me a
connection to my grandmother and the past that I never could
have experienced otherwise." Okay, call me a sentimental
sucker, but this is really beautiful piece of music by Mikey
Wax. - RAR
___________
Brian Mackey Touring New LP
NYC-based singer/songwriter Brian Mackey (pictured above)
is currently touring to support the recent release of his
Honest Love CD.
Mackey's music is an eclectic mix of acoustic and synth-driven, up-tempo
indie rock with a hint of Americana. Originally from a tin roof town on the
Northern Florida/Georgia border, his songs reflect life experiences and the new
found freedoms of an artist in New York City.
Mackey was featured on the Songs of Love for Japan compilation CD,
which also included songs by Sarah Barielles, Ani DiFranco and Tori
Amos. His song "Color Blue" is in the feature film, "Fake" which stars
Robert Loggia and Gabriel Mann, to be released January 2012, and in the feature
film, "Fathoms Deep," releasing in February 2012. His "Honest Love" video was
released in March of 2011, shot in Chicago by director Nick Cavalier. The
video for his song "Sunshower" is currently in post production, slated for a
release in Fall of 2011. Brian is also working on his next album, scheduled for
release in early 2012.
Talent at Tenderbox Festival
Brooklyn's The
Knitting Factory hosts a
second annual gala of female musical talent.
RARWRITER.com takes a peek behind
the curtains at the Tenderbox Festival, which showcases female singers and
female-led bands. We have ranked (4 stars is Excellent) some of these acts. The
ones without stars were either not ranked or were not very impressive, at least
to our ears. You might follow the links, where available, and judge for
yourself. The big star in this group is definitely
Charlene Kaye.
NYC
Benefits And Summer Pride Performances Planned
Brooklyn-based, genre-bending musician Ariel Aparicio recently released the
video for “She Will Show Us” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRHzVlxe5_Q) and
over 10,000 viewers watched the video within 72 hours of release. The video also
made its broadcast premiere on Logo's NewNowNext Music last week. Says Aparicio
of the video and song: “I wrote this song in the summer of 2008 during the whole
Obama euphoria we were all pretty much caught up in. So when we set out to make
the video, I wanted to capture some of that. My director, I.R. Marin, happened
to have some footage from the inauguration (her nephew was there) and also some
of those post-victory celebrations. I was thrilled with how she was able to
incorporated that ‘real’ footage, with the stuff we shot and the additional
‘Americana-type’ imagery she used. I love the video.”
“She
Will Show Us” is a track from Aparicio’s recently-released album “Aerials” (it
hit digitally on March 8, 2011), which was produced by Tom Gilroy. The album has
proven to be a favorite of many – SiriusXM Out Q host Larry Flick (who hosted
Aparicio on his show in early March), had this to say about “Aerials”: “I am a
huge fan of Ariel's new album ‘Aerials.’ It's filled with deep, richly textured,
smart, and soulful songs. He seems intent on bleeding for his listeners...
giving them a degree of truth that demands close examination and ultimate
empathy. Best of all, Ariel wraps his songs in arrangements that are nowhere
near trendy, yet they're completely accessible and mainstream. These are songs
that will endure over time.”
Aparicio is scheduled to perform on May 15th at Crash Mansion in NYC at the
“Love RAINN on Me” benefit for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network;
http://loverainns.net/) as well as June 7th at Public Assembly in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn, for the PCCHF Benefit ( http://www.pcchf.org/). He’ll be hitting the
Rainbow Stage at Milwaukee Pride on June 11th. He’s also scheduled on June 17th
to headline at National Underground in NYC as part of Pride Celebration with
several other singer-songwriters.
Born in
Cuba and raised in Miami, Aparicio was surrounded by the rhythms of salsa, funk,
and disco. The discovery of Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin in adolescence prompted
him to grow out his hair and pick up the guitar, but Aparicio never segregated
genres from one another. While the wider world is still discovering Aparicio's
charms, trendsetters in the LGBT community have been aware of his work for
several years; as early as 2005, The Advocate named him as a rising star to
watch. His version of Jim Carroll's classic “People Who Died” was nominated for
an OutMusic Award in 2010, and Aparicio was also the subject of OUTMusic's 2009
“Freedom of Expression” campaign, an effort to end the silent discrimination
against openly queer artists in the entertainment industry.
Songs
and videos from his previous releases, including “the bEdRoom tapeS,” “All These
Brilliant Things,” “Frolic & F***,” and “All I Wanted” have made him a popular
fixture on Logo's NewNowNext and the Click List. Aparicio’s video for "People
Who Died" from “the bEdRoom tapeS” popped back up on the Click List again in
2011 after it spent many weeks on the countdown in 2010. His video for the track
“Lucille” was ranked #7 on Logo’s Best of 2010, while his cover of “Pretty In
Pink” topped out at #3 on the same chart at Logo in 2009. www.arielaparicio.com
www.myspace.com/arielapariciomusic www.twitter.com/arielaparicio
www.facebook.com/pages/Ariel-Aparicio/39944058816
For
more information, please contact: Krista Mettler / Skye Media & Rock Ridge Music
- publicity@rockridgemusic.com
_____________________
Click on the Village Voice logo to go to the Village Voice.com for News, Events, Reviews and Cultural News of interest to the
residents of New York City and beyond.
Rachel
Platten
World's
Greatest Unknown?
