It's Time To Finish What We Started And #SaveOurStages

To date, over 1.5 million live music lovers nationally have written letters to their elected officials via SaveOurStages.com, but it’s not enough. Without an influx of federal funding 90% of independent music venues across the nation will collapse before congress reconvenes in the fall.

Within the next week, both the Save Our Stages Act and Restart Act, two bills that have been introduced and can ensure the survival of independent venues across the nation, will be up for vote in Congress. It’s time to make sure that these pieces of legislation get passed. Keep in mind that the Save Our Stages Act also impacts Broadway, so this isn’t just us fighting for our sacred music spaces. It’s up to the people to fight for the communal art spaces where we gather to connect over art.

We need to step up and finish what we started, y’all.

Today the New York Independent Venue Association (NYIVA) alongside with the newly formed National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) are calling for a day of action. If you were one of the 1.5 million angels who already submitted a letter with ease via the SaveOurStages site, there’s a new letter for you to fire off to your representatives urging them to pass these bills.

The list of NIVA members/venues speaks volumes in terms of both how hard our industry was hit and how many locally owned businesses have been impacted due to COVID. I think of how many times I have felt my heart sink walking past Knitting Factory, Baby’s All Right, or Music Hall of Williamsburg since the pandemic shut down NYC, unsure of how long it’s going to be until it’s safe to be sweating profusely in sold out show, grinning from ear to ear as the bass from the band I’m seeing shakes my entire body. These spaces are sacred and precious. We need to do everything we can to protect them right now against all of this uncertainty.

I know in NYC alone there are more than 1.5 million people appreciating music or Broadway at any given moment. If show going is your moment of sanctuary against the insanity of this thing we called life, I encourage you to take time out of your day today to first (obviously) send the latest letter to your representatives and then identify at least 5 friends you love being at shows with and directly put this in front of them. You can put this in your Instagram stories or post it on Facebook all you want, too, but take a moment to check in and make sure that the people you’re eager to share space with again are doing their part, too.

Please take the time to reach out to your representatives RIGHT NOW.

[NIGHT OUT] Spencer Ludwig @ Mercury Lounge 2/13/2020

images courtesy of Some Kind of Awesome

Last week I finally had the pleasure of catching rising singer-songwriter and trumpeter extraordinaire, Spencer Ludwig. I’m thrilled that the Brooklyn can claim the Los Angeles born poptastic performer as our very own. It was a special treat for longtime fans because it was the first time that Spencer shared some new material that he’s been working on. Prior to the sold out show, I was fortunate enough to grab Spencer for a quick interview (which is coming in the next few days) and not to throw you too many spoilers from that, but he wasn’t exaggerating about how his newer material explores a much broader range of emotions than any of the work he’s released to date.

Another semi-spoiler from the interview: there was a moment during the interview where Spencer casually semi-downplayed his abilities as a singer, citing something to the effect of he didn’t have have a lot of vocal training yadda yadda yadda. I remember chuckling to myself a few songs into his set at that very thought. Granted, if he thinks there’s room for improvement in his vocal performance, I will always encourage someone to better themselves, obviously. All of that to say for only a few years into his solo career he’s already leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of performers that I’ve seen grace the same stage. He certainly had that audience in the palm of his hand from the moment he stepped on stage.

I should also relay that during his set, the Latin Grammy award winner announced that he will be making a return to The Freehold for another residence this coming March. Details should be rolling out momentarily on that. With regards to the aforementioned new music, there are no official details on any of that just yet. That all said, while this is the first we’ve seen of Spencer in 2020, it’s obviously not going to be the last. How often he’ll grace us with his presence is still up in the air, but rest assured I’ll be passing along every last update.

Spencer Ludgwig @ Mercury Lounge 2/13/2020 SET LIST

• Helium

• Welcome Party

• Right Into U

• Best Life

• Can We Just Stay

• Us

• Summertime With U

• Falling Out

• Growing Up In LA

• Hard

• Day That I

• Just Wanna Dance

• Diggy

• Made To Love You

• All Night Long

[SONG OF THE DAY] BENEE - "Glitter"

photo credit: Some Kind of Awesome

On Friday Auckland alt-pop angel BENEE dropped her debut EP, FIRE ON MARZZ, which features a collection of songs that yours truly got to witness in the flesh a couple of weeks ago at Mercury Lounge. I remember as I went over the bridge on the J train that evening shooting “Evil Spider” over to a friend accompanied by the following text, “I’m heading into the city to check out this singer right now. I need to confirm that she’s real.”

Gonna be honest, I was completely blown away by BENEE. Not only is her soul-soaked voice 1000% authentically just her and not a ton of tweaking in a studio, but she’s so effortless with this set of pipes she’s got that she just skips and dances playfully around stage, having the time of her life. Without a doubt this is one of the most fun shows I’ve been to in awhile. In addition to delivering a stellar energetic performance, she’s also so down to earth and personable on stage that you go from casually interested to completely invested in between songs.

I really admire her ability to write really compelling and catchy songs about all sorts of wonderfully random things. One unreleased song, “Monster”, is about her moving out of her parents house and being convinced that a monster was lurking somewhere while she as alone in her new place. Another song, “Afterlife” is a diss track to someone who tried to kill her in her dreams. My favorite story, which would come to no surprise to anyone who follows me on Twitter or Instagram, was the one for “Glitter”, which was inspired by a night out at a gay bar in downtown Auckland where she came across a big thing of glitter and proceeded to dump it all over herself. Definitely ✨my aesthetic✨.

Definitely give LIFE ON MARZZ a whirl if you haven’t already, it’s 20 minutes of glittering pop perfection.

Pics from the set at Mercury Lounge below. SHE WAS SO MUCH FUN TO SHOOT IT WAS HARD TO NOT POST LIKE 100 OF THESE FOR REAL.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Husky Loops - "Let Go For Nothing"

Husky Loops at Elsewhere (zone one) on 3/5/2019

Back in November I casually evangelized the wonders of London trio Husky Loops courtesy of some diSKOAver weekly loving. Since then some cool shit has happened for the fellas. On Friday the band has released a new offering unto us, “Let Go For Nothing”, a first taste of their forthcoming debut full-length Music That Makes the World Better, which is due out this summer. The piano-forward track showcases a softer side to the band than we’ve previously seen, all the while maintaining their experimental sound.

Earlier in the week the band also made their North American debut appearance at Elsewhere on Tuesday, which yours truly was in attendance and therefore can confirm for the rest of y’all that these dudes fucking slap. Their energy is insanely infectious. It was sort of impossible for anyone to sit still for too long.

In summary, if you don’t like Husky Loops then you’re dead wrong.

I’m not sorry, these are the rules.

If you happen to be heading to SXSW next week (unlike me who will be attending couch by couch west), please do yourself a favor and make it a point to go see these guys. You absolutely won’t be disappointed.

Also buy them some BBQ and margaritas on my behalf.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Summer Heart - "Buckle Up"

Summer Heart @ Knitting Factory on February 21, 2019. credit for all photos in this post: William Helms, The Joy of Violent Movement

On Thursday night Brooklyn got some much needed summer sunshine when Swedish sweetie Summer Heart kicked off his east coast tour with analog animal Brothertiger. He kicked off the night with my gateway drug to the world of Summer Heart, “Pretty Haze”, rounding out the night with his latest track (and last song of the #12songsofsummer series), “Buckle Up”. It was a packed crowd full of people who were dancing like it hadn’t snowed earlier in the week, additional layers be damned. With this being my first time catching him, I had hypothesized that there would be mainly two types of attendees at a Summer Heart show and I totally nailed it: there are folks who 1)- happily dance and sway basically the whole time and 2) - those who choose to stand on the sides of the stage, head in their hands while resting their elbows on the stage, who just swoon and sing along in their own version of a pretty haze.

Side note: if there were an award for Musician With The Most Infectious Smile the dude David Alexander would win all day every day. His joy performing is infectious, making the whole experience even more enjoyable than you thought it could be.

East coast fam def don’t miss this tour. Dates below for your convenience. 💖

SUMMER HEART ON TOUR WITH BROTHER TIGER

Feb 23 Norfolk, VA - Charlie's American Café

Feb 24 Greenville, SC - Radio Room

Feb 26 Atlanta, GA - 529 bar

Feb 27 New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa

Feb 28 Houston, TX - Continental Club

March 1 Austin, TX - Barracuda

March 2 Dallas, TX - RBC

March 3 Tulsa, OK - Chimera Lounge

March 5 Kansas City, MO - Riot Room

March 6 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen

March 7 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop

March 8 Columbus, OH - Spacebar

March 9 Pittsburgh, PA - Cattivo

March 10 Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA

Biffy Clyro Announces North American Tour

Oooo shit yes your girl is having a Biffy Birthday™️! After dropping a phenomenal album last year, the fellas are coming to the states with O'Brother to melt our faces off. 

ickets go on sale at 10am local time this Friday, January 13th here: BIFFYCLYRO.COM/SHOWS

Who's gonna come sing along with me and Sprout at Irving Plaza!? 

Time to start practicing your air drumming and sing-a-longs! 

Biffy Clyro 2017 US Tour Dates

03/24    Las Vegas, NV             Vinyl @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

03/25    Phoenix, AZ                 Crescent Ballroom

03/26    Los Angeles, CA          Belasco Theater

03/28    San Francisco, CA       The Fillmore

03/30    Seattle, WA                 Neptune Theatre

03/31    Vancouver, BC            Vogue Theatre

04/01    Portland, OR                Hawthorne Theatre

04/04    St. Paul, MN                Turf Club

04/05    Chicago, IL                 House of Blues

04/07    Detroit, MI                  St. Andrews Hall

04/08    Toronto, ON               Phoenix Concert Theatre

04/09    Montreal, QC             Café Campus

04/11    Boston, MA                  Paradise Rock Club

04/13    New York, NY              Irving Plaza

04/14    Philadelphia, PA          Theatre of Living Arts

04/15    Washington, DC          9:30 Club

[Night Out] Monarchy, Her @ Highline Ballroom (11/06/2016)

Monarchy @ Highline Ballroom 11/06/2016

🎶 Finally it has happened to me right in front of my face. 🎶

I 

SAW

MONARCHY

LIVEEEE!

Yes I know they played at Highline Ballroom in 2012 let's not get into the reason why I was not in attendance for that or this update will get weird really quickly. 

ANYWAY. This has been a long time coming for me. I remember back in July 2010 getting my watermarked copy of Around The Sun. I've been enamored ever since, anxiously awaiting the day that I would finally get to experience such amazingness live. 

You'd think with that kind of buildup that I was setting myself up for failure, but y'all know I don't invest an insane amount of energy into bands that don't deserve it. Every second was electrifying. I couldn't keep my eyes off of them because I was so excited this was finally happening. I probably shouldn't have spent so much time snapping photos, but this is an unfortunate side effe of trying to pass along to the internet why a band is worthy of more than just a few stray micropennies. 

I hope Monarchy can come back to the states more often. It sounds like their little tour over ehre went well. After that experience I'm now going to daydream of what their performance would be like in Beacon Theatre, which has officially become my benchmark of when I'll stop incessantly trying to "make Monarchy happen" in the US. You have been warned. #sorrynotsorry 

Oh oh! A pleasant surprise was French duo Her opening for Monarchy that night. Their single, "5 Minutes" was delivered to me by The Algorithm™️ (Discover Weekly) a few months ago and I quite enjoyed their set. Part of me would love to see them collaborate with Mayer Hawthorne or someone of that funkability. I think they definitely have something to offer audiences in the US. 

Gotta say, I'm kind of glad I'm just getting to writing about this show because the past month has been kind of rough from a personal standpoint and reliving this night is taking me from ❤️ back to 💖, which is how I'd best describe how my heart feels after seeing a band I love live. 

What was the last show you saw that really moved you? 

[Night Out] Jesse Ruben @ Gramercy Theatre (04/18/2016)

Holy crap, I know what Jesse Ruben looks like not performing at any of the multiple Rockwood Music Hall stages now! After releasing his latest single, "This Is Why I Need You" late last year, the homey is gaining momentum at a nice pace. In addition to hopping about on The Hype Machine charts, he's also been romping around in Europe over the past couple of months playing shows.

Last week, I got to see him charm the pants off of a crowd in Gramercy Theatre that was very eagerly waiting to see American Idol season 8 winner Kris Allen. Jesse is charming as fuck, let's be very clear on this. Fortunately he's as talented as he is charming. Dude had that crowd wrapped around his little finger by the end of his set. There was even a nice swarm of fans, presumably old and new, lined up to meet him after the show. I guess I'm normally navigating to one of the bars to get more wine when this part happens at Rockwood, so it was adorable to finally witness. 

Don't worry though, I know how to make sure to keep Jesse feeling humble. All I had to do was pretend to be one of the overzealous future #teen fans that will inevitably fall for him and want to add him to their Snap stories. He did not know how to handle that at all, lolol. Fam is a little skittish around social media, but I will break him into it, best know.