Brian in New York

Solitude, reflextion, and decompession a playlist...

Hey People, I'm up for the past few days with wicked insomnia so I've decided to share some music with you. For me there are very few things as good for my soul as a nighttime walk in the quiet outdoors with no one else around and listening to some music. Before I moved to NYC I would typically jump in my truck to the top of some canyon, watch the stars from the back of my truck, play my "solitude & reflection" playlist. These days is almost impossible but I do find occasion where I can be walking with no one around, its quiet, and pretty safe. The streets of my neighborhood after midnight are a good example.

What makes this experience cleansing is my "solitude & reflection" playlist. While it's always in flux I'm pretty happy with it right now. I've recently trimmed it a bit so I think it's pretty solid. The complete list is below, but I've picked my top 12 which was really, really, really freakin' hard, and am I'm not convinced it's really my top 12. Although I'm absolutely sure that Bon Iver's Skinny Love is first. Anyway, I put it in an online streaming playlist here: http://bond.muxtape.com/

What songs do you like to unwind too?

Artist - Name
Alison Krauss - Can't Find My Way Home
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Bonnie Raitt - I Will Not Be Broken
Broken Social Scene - Looks Just Like The Sun
Coldplay - Sparks (Accoustic Version)
Copeland - Pin Your Wings (accoustic)
David Gray - Please Forgive Me
Death Cab For Cutie - Marching Bands Of Manhattan
Death Cab For Cutie - Summer Skin
Death Cab For Cutie - What Sarah Said
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
Erin Bode - Holiday
Groove Armada - Hands of Time
Harry Nilsson - Are You Sleeping?
Headlights - Cherry Tulips
Hem - Half acre
Jack Johnson - F-Stop Blues
Jackson Browne - These Days (Solo Acoustic Version Please)
Jeff Tweedy - I am Trying to Break Your Heart (Coleman House)
John Legend- Save Room
John Mayer - Wheel
Jose González - Hints
Josh Rouse - Love Vibration
Kings of Convenience - Gold In The Air Of Summer
Landon Pigg - Falling In Love At a Coffee Shop
Laura Veirs - Don't Lose Yourself
Leona Naess - Ballerina
M. Craft - Love Knows How To Fight
Mae - Tisbury Lane
Maria Taylor - Song beneath the song
Matt Pond PA - Snow Day
Nada Surf - Your Legs Grow
Old 97's - Question
Paul Simon - Slip Slidin' Away
Pete Droge - Going Whichever Way the Wind Blows
Phantom Planet - Anthem
Rhett Miller - Come Around
Rilo Kiley - Pictures Of Success
Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan
Rogue Wave - California
Ryan Adams - Helpless (with Gillian Welsh)
Ryan Adams - Wonderwall
Shawn Colvin - Round of Blues (with Mary Chapin Carpenter)
Sia - Breathe Me
The Spinners - I'll Be Around
Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You
The Sundays - Goodbye
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Something's Always Wrong (Solo Acoustic)
Van Morrison - Sweet Thing
Van Morrison - Moondance
Van Morrison - Wavelength
The Weepies - World Spins Madly On
Wilco - "Jesus, etc."

Woohoo good times!

PS: I wish I took that photo, but I didn't... at least not yet, but mark my words I will.

Nada Surf Friday Night

Went to Nada Surf at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. Great concert and it was their home town so it was completely sold out. They played my two favorite songs as encores: "Blankest Year" and "Always Love". Here are some pictures from the night, the mirrors were really cool.

The openers were great, especially Illinois. I had never heard of them but they put on a great show. The ironic thing is I'm watching the Showtime show "Weeds" and was catching up on some episodes today and one of their songs I heard last night was used in a scene and I recognized it. Pretty funny, make sure you check out both bands if you're looking for something new.

More Music Stuff.

I've decided I'm subjecting you to more of my musical musings. Actually just wanted to share a great cover.

One of my "new" favorite bands is KT Tunstall. I've been listening to her for almost a year and I still can't get her hit out of my playlist. Makes me happy :)

I really wanted to share her covering "Walk Like an Egyptian" by the Bangles (one of the first tapes I ever bought with my own money)

Awesome!

Rock On, High Five, Now Go Away

Alright most of you know I'm a total music freak. My new co-workers are still stunned that I went to 12 concerts in the first 15 weeks I was here, but what they didn't know is that I skipped 10 more to go to those 12. I know I keep needing to tell you about the NYC concert scene and never do but picture this 20-30 concerts a night at least 2-3 are people I know an want to see, but I digress.

And also as some of you know who hang around with me know I push music like it was heroin. I'm always trying to steal 5 min of your time to hear this new awesome track from this or that band. I know some of you are like "oh man, not again here he comes with a new random song I could care less about" but others dig it. Here in lies my conundrum.... and it revolved around the new Zune ad:

Now I won't say The Shins are totally unknown. Thanks to Zach Braff they are still the flavor of the week, and whoever is creating the ads for Zune really knows their stuff. The song in the background is off The Shins latest and it's called "Sleeping Lessons". It's easily one of my top songs of 2007, you MUST listen to the whole song here (and if you don't at least listen to the 3 min. mark you suck!). There I go again pimping obscure music. The point is this... I want people to know about new music but I still want it to stay small. Whenever a band gets huge it ruins it.... case in point: Why can't I see Death Cab for Cutie (link to "Marching Bands of Manhattan", thought it would be appropriate :) but they have to many good songs to list) in the local stadium? because I've seen them many times with 50 people in a small club before they were huge. You can't experience it the same with 15,000 people as with 50, what to see what I mean? click here. Everyone jumping on the band wagon screws it up for the early fan. I'm happy for the band but wish I it could stay like it always was. Quite a paradox, don't you think?

In the meantime I'm still psyched to share new bands and music with everyone realizing my short window to have a close experience with the music. In the spirit of this, and since he's already started to blow up big, PLEASE check out Josh Rouse... freaking amazing. Logoworkers ask Susie if you need the Josh Rouse hookup.

Peace

I'm Insane for the Music

I'm a HUGE Josh Rouse fan, easily top 10 artist in my book (and its a big book). You might remember when I posted after the last show I went to. Well the guy is getting big and he's coming back April 18th to play Carnegie Hall...really Carnegie Hall!, and while it will be about twice as much as the last time but I have to buy my tickets. Anyone planing a visit in April fair warning you're joining me at the show or wandering Manhattan :)

Another Great Concert

Ok, fair warning this post might invoke jealousy (sorry Neil and Susie) but I went to another great show Friday night. This time it was Josh Rouse, at Gramercy Theater on 23rd and Lexington. He did a stellar job. I jumped onto the risers in the back to shoot some video.

The gorgeous Maria Taylor (ya know of Azure Ray) was up first and blew everyone away, could have easily been a double header the audience was pleading for her to stay on stage. She wrapped up the set with a audience request of "Song Beneath the Song", here's a few seconds I shot, the sound was much better an this obviously:

You can catch the full song here, no I don't understand the video either.

Josh Rouse and band did a great job played a few favorites and everyone got into it. Every song off 1972 has enough of a 70s dance vibe that it had a ton of people dancing with each other. He played 1972, you can see the video I shot here. He played great version of comback that I taped, check it out (sorry for the shakiness):

He did a few encores but his first was my favorite song "Winter in the Hamptons" which he did solo acoustic with the audience singing background vocals. Unfortunately I ran out of disk space so only got a few seconds, which you can see here. Someone else got a good version last month this is how it was last night too, check it out (well except for the drunk tone deaf girl ruined recording). Here's the music video.

Well off to see Band of Horses tonight. Catch ya later people.

Update: someone got a better video of comeback at the concert

I Saw Stars

Last night I went to my first concert in New York. I went over to The Town Hall, an great concert hall that has been open since 1921 (bay area people think: The Warfield, but with seats at floor level). There I saw Stars, a great Canadian rock band I 'm a big fan of.

It was amazing! sound was loud and perfect. They were stoked to be playing a big venue in New York. They opened with "Take Me to The Riot" from their new album and it blew us away. They are much louder and rough live than the album and I actually preferred the live version better, hope they release something live soon.

It was a blast  and I noticed two very cool things about concerts in New York. 1) I'm not the oldest person in the room in fact I would guess the average age was 30-35. Indie crowd of all ages, awesome. 2) since no one drives, no one leaves before the encores are out, no reason to beat the crowd. Having never seen this before I was surprised by how much cooler a concert is when everyone stays and goes nuts.

Couple of funny things happened, the stage was covered in flowers as part of their set but they spent ever spare second throwing them to the audience. I think we watched every band member put away at least one bottle of champagne a piece. On one of the new songs they screwed up in the middle and Amy Millan stopped the band and started over. Lastly they came out for the encore and said "thanks, we love ya, we'll play a few more but we've only got like 10 minutes. these union guys don't f*ck around".

Here's a picture of outside the theater and during the show, quality sucks because the camera on my iPhone is lame,

but one of the photographers there got some great shots here.

I'm having concert overload over the next three weeks. I'll follow up this weekend with why.

Follow up: Hey Someone posted the opener from the concert (or at least part of it) see they rock check it out

Found a few more vids of the same opener from another concert, sounds not as good from this angle because Amy's vocals overpower and you miss the sweet guitar melody in the background (kind of) but you get the idea about how much harder they rock live! see vid or this one which is better but cut short.