Category Archives: Pop and Rock

Rockland County honors Bruce Springsteen’s local legacy Thursday evening

Bruce Springsteen (DoD News Features)

Bruce Springsteen (DoD News Features)

You may have forgotten — or maybe never knew — that some of Bruce Springsteen’s distinctly New Jersey-oriented tunes were actually recorded in Rockland County, that tiny part of New York State just north of the Garden State line and west of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

He recorded his albums “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” and “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” — as well as the title track of his breakthrough third studio album, “Born to Run” — at the former 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York.

The Blauvelt Auto Spa May 5, 2015. Bruce Springsteen

The Blauvelt Auto Spa May 5, 2015. Bruce Springsteen recorded “Born to Run” in the building 40 years ago, when it was the 914 Sound Studios. (Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)

At 6 p.m. today, there’s a ceremony at the site — now an auto spa — where a historical marker will be installed. It’s being followed by a concert by Joe Delia, a keyboardist/composer who has played with Springsteen.  Rockland-born guitarist/songwriter Joe D’Urso and other guests will also be on the bill.

The event starts at 6 p.m. at the Blauvelt Coach Diner, 587 Route 303, Blauvelt.

It’s free. But get there early, because while the dedication ceremony should have plenty of room for anybody who shows up, fewer than 200 will be able to enter the diner for the concert afterward. But don’t fret if you can’t get in. Organizers say the overflow crowd will be able to listen in on speakers set up outside.

My buddy Robert Brum from The Journal News/lohud.com has played a big role in making this historical event a reality. He’s written extensively, and lyrically, about the history. Click here to read Brum’s beautifully written and presented piece about the roots of Springsteen’s song on its 40th anniversary.

Brum also wrote about the campaign for the historical marker. Go here to read that.

 

 

Last Minute Music: Eisa Davis performs new songs at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater tonight (Video)

Embed from Getty Images

You may remember Eisa Davis from “Passing Strange,” where I first encountered her.

But if it strains your brain to reach back that far, and you watch TV, you’ll recognize her from her roles in “House of Cards” and “Blindspot” or her many guest appearances on other popular shows, including “Gotham,” “The Blacklist,” “The Wire,” “The Good Wife,” and many others. 

She’s not just an actor. She’s also a writer, composer, and singer.

She wrote a musical play called “Angela’s Mixtape,” an exploration of family dynamics titled in honor of her aunt, Angela Davis.

Yes, THAT Angela Davis.

Eisa Davis

Eisa Davis

She’s appearingat 8 p.m. Tuesday,  Aug. 2, in the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater series “New Songs Now,” sharing the bill with Zoe Sarnak, in a program of new songs, conversation anda bit of drinking.

She’s a good, charming singer and performer with magnetic stage presence. It should be a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Tuesday evening. 

This is the third in a series of five shows in the Manhattan theater’s unplugged summer concert series. Each features two songwriters who share songs in progress and conversationfollowed by an audience talkback.
Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 on day of show, and include one drink. Go HERE to buy online or call 866-812-4111 or 212-627-2556.

Rattlestick is located at 224 Waverly Place.  

 

Imagine if Philip Glass had produced The Feelies’ first album

The Feelies celebrate their 40th anniversary at The Woodland in Maplewood, New Jersey. (Copyright 2016, Steven P. Marsh/www.willyoumissme.com)

The Feelies celebrate their 40th anniversary at The Woodland in Maplewood, New Jersey. (Copyright 2016, Steven P. Marsh/www.willyoumissme.com)

The Feelies co-founder Bill Million reminds us of an obscure fact about negotiations for the iconic New Jersey band’s first album, “Crazy Rhythms,” that could have changed its history:

“We turned down a lot of major labels because they wanted to bring in a producer to work with us. One of ’em was Philip Glass, and Glenn and I went to meet him. After a while he looked at us and said, ‘Well, you guys sound like you know exactly what you want, you don’t need me.’ So it was cool meeting Philip Glass.”

The band was influenced by the drones and repetition of the musical Minimalists on the scene at the time, 40 years ago, with Glass and Steve Reich at the top of the list. But imagine what having Glass himself behind the board could have done to the songs of Million and co-founder Glenn Mercer.

It’s great to learn that Glass recognized their talents and declined to get in their way.

GO HERE to read the full Flood interview. 

Sharon Van Etten’s return to college takes a detour

Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

If you thought Sharon Van Etten‘s return to college in February would take her out of the public eye for awhile, think again.

Sharon’s collegiate redux lasted about two weeks before she got an offer she couldn’t refuse, she revealed the other day: an audition for a role on a TV show.

Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

She talked about  the detour in her plans for a post-music career in clinical psychology at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan Sunday, during a morning jam session with comedian-musician Fred Armisen.

“Somebody told me they thought I’d be perfect for this part, so I auditioned and got it,” she told the group in response to our question about what the college experience was like for her.

She said she couldn’t talk about the show, but it’s been widely reported that she’s one of a number of rock musicians — along with Eddie Vedder, Trent Reznor, Sky Ferreira — tapped to appear in the Showtime reboot of David Lynch’s cult series “Twin Peaks.”

Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten walk through the crowd, chatting, at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten walk through the crowd, chatting, at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

She revealed in her self-effacing way that the experience taught her she’s a terrible actor — though I’ll wait for the onscreen evidence before going along with her assessment.

With her TV work finished , Sharon says she’s going to return to school in August.

Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

“They’ve been very nice about it,” she said of the officials at the New York City college where she is enrolled. (After the jam session, she told me the name of the school, but I’m withholding that information out of respect for her privacy.)

The 35–year-old native of Clinton, New Jersey, tried the standard college routine right after high school, enrolling at Middle Tennessee State University to study music production. That didn’t work out.

“I didn’t like it,” she told the Vulture crowd.  So she dropped out, got a job at a music venue in Murfreesboro, and stayed in Tennessee for five years, working on her music.

Now, it seems, she’s ready to take another path and build a backup plan for her life after music. With any luck at all, the talented performer and songwriter will never need to use it.

Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Fred Armisen and Sharon Van Etten at the Vulture Festival in Manhattan on May 22, 2016. (Photo © 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

 

 

 

 

LA pop genius Jon Brion making rare New York solo appearamnce

Jon Brion

Jon Brion builds a song at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City, Oct. 3, 2011. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

Jon Brion, the Glen Ridge, New Jersey, -born pop genius, has been based in Los Angeles for many years and rarely performs anywhere else — sticking mostly to the legendary club Largo.

But Brion, who’s worked with important musicians and filmmakers including Fiona Apple, Elliott Smith, Robyn Hitchcock, Judd Apatow, Aimee Mann, Of Montreal, Best Coast, and Paul Thomas Anderson — makes the trek back East every to put on a show once in awhile.

This year is one of those times.

Jon Brion on guitar

Jon Brion builds a song at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City, Oct. 3, 2011. (Photos © 2011, Steven P. Marsh)

He was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opera house on Saturday night, joining the Wordless Music Orchestra as it performed his original score to accompany a big-screen presentation of the 2002 Anderson film “Punch-Drunk Love,” which stars Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. (He’s also written scores for “Magnolia,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and last year’s Amy Schumer vehicle, “Trainwreck.”)

He sat in the rear, practically under the screen and pretty far out of view, but took a big bow at the end.

I bemoaned the fact that he was such a small part of the fantastic evening. But seeing and hearing him at all was better than being deprived of his massive talents altogether.

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Shearwater shows David Bowie some love in Brooklyn

Jonathan Meiburg and Shearwater at Brooklyn's Rough Trade on March 16, 2016. (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Jonathan Meiburg and Shearwater at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade on March 16, 2016. (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

Jonathan Meiburg the lead singer and head honcho of the crew of talented hired guns that call themselves Shearwater these days (or Johnny & the Meiburgs, as one former member dubbed the band) have been playing songs from David Bowie’s 19979 album “Lodger” lately while touring then new album, “Jet Plane and Oxbow.”

On Tuesday night, the band put those 10 songs together and played them in album order at Rough Trade in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“This is the first time we’ve played them together in order,” he told a small but enthusiastic crowd — which included Okkervil River frontman and onetime Meiburg bandmate Will Sheff. Continue reading

2 classic Feelies albums to be reissued in March

The Feelies' "Only Life" and "Time for a Witness" will be rereleased on the Bar/None label on March 11. (The Feelies/Facebook)

The Feelies’ “Only Life” and “Time for a Witness” will be rereleased on the Bar/None label on March 11. (The Feelies/Facebook)

It’s been a long time coming, but the third and fourth albums from New Jersey indie rockers The Feelies are finally getting  proper reissues, complete with liner notes and bonus material.

“Only Life” (1988) and “Time for a Witness” (1991) are scheduled to drop on the Bar/None label — which released the band’s latest album, “Here Before” (2011) — on March 4. The Haledon, New Jersey, -based band — comprising Glenn Mercer, Bill Million, Stanley Demeski, Brenda Sauter, and Dave Weckerman — made the date official in post on Facebook over the weekend.

Just to make it official, these 2 LP’s will be re-issued by Bar/None 3/11/16. And there will be bonus tracks included with each.

Posted by The Feelies on Saturday, February 20, 2016

“Only Life” was reissued in 2008 by Water Records through Universal Music Special Products, without bonus tracks or the band’s involvement. As far as I know, this is the first reissue for “Time for a Witness” and hasn’t been widely available for years.

The two albums, originally issued on A&M, complete the band’s classic catalogue, joining the 2009 rereleases of the band’s first and second albums, “Crazy Rhythms” (1980) and “The Good Earth” (1986).

The albums will include bonus material — none of it from the original sessions, according to the band — and new liner notes. “The Ice Storm” author Rick Moody wrote them for “Only Life” and Michael Azerrad (“Our Band Could Be Your Life”) handled the “Time for a Witness”  notes.

The reissues are available for preorder from Bar/None now. Go here for ordering information.

 

Big day coming for Jennifer O’Connor

Jennifer O'Connor

Jennifer O’Connor

Jennifer O’Connor, the singer-songwriter and proprietor of The Kiam Records Shop in Nyack, New York, has a spectacular new album, “Surface Noise,” coming out next Friday, March 4.

That’s the same day she makes her debut at the Tarrytown Music Hall as she enters the home stretch of her tour with bad-ass indie singer-songwriter Neko Case.

I wrote about O’Connor’s album early in February, calling it “the best new album I’ve heard so far” this year. A month — and many other new albums — later and my feelings haven’t changed. It’s a great album that shows off an artist who has grown and developed a richer, more nuanced sound.

O’Connor hits Tarrytown with Case at 8 p.m. Friday, March 4. A few tickets remain in the side orchestra sections at $48, and about 100 balcony tickets are still available at $38. Go here to get your tickets online. It’s a great way to give O’Connor a nice Lower Hudson Valley welcome-home, and to experience a great show. (If you can’t make it to Tarrytown, you have a chance to check out O’Connor’s full set during her official record-release show at Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge on Monday, March 7, with wife Amy Bezunartea opening. Doors are at 6:30 p.m. Go here for tickets, which are $12 in advance.)

Christopher Vaughan of The Journal News/lohud.com, sat down with O’Connor recently to talk about her big day. Go here to read his interview.

 

 

The best time for Speed the Plough is ‘Now’

Now slice.jpg

Mark your calendar now: Speed the Plough is ready to party.

The North Jersey chamber rockers have been playing the songs from their splendid new album, aptly titled “Now,” for awhile. But now they’re ready to make it official with a record release party.

STP will jam the tiny stage of The HiFi Bar (formerly Brownie’s) in Manhattan’s East Village on Thursday night, Feb. 25, to celebrate its release.

nowcover “Now” is Speed the Plough’s eighth album, and is notable for its fresh-but-familiar sound and the fact that it’s the first release by the newly revived Coyote Records.

Coyote was responsible for some of the early releases by Yo La Tengo, The Feelies, Beat Rodeo, Chris Stamey,and other leading lights of the Hoboken indie rock scene that centered on Maxwell’s. It was co-founded by Steve Fallon, who also ran Maxwell’s before giving it all up and moving to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he opened a collectibles shop called Gidget’s Gadgets.

It’s fitting in so many ways that “Now” is Coyote’s first release in years. Speed the Plough  started playing in 1984, during the golden age of the Hoboken scene, and has persevered — with an evolving membership always anchored by stalwarts Toni and John Baumgartner — through so many changes.

“Now” is a perfect example of Speed the Plough’s ability to ability to adapt.

The album preserves the feel of the band’s earlier work without  sounding dated. This disc embraces the talents of the new members — vocalist/guitaristsEd Seifert and Michael Baumgartner, bassist Cindi Merklee, and drummer John Demeski.

Seven of the album’s 12 tracks are John Baumgartner compositions featuring vocals by him or Toni, along with Toni’s traditional wind instruments. They’re every bit as good as anything they’ve done before. The haunting “Midnight in the World” — with its refrain of “Calling you ’cause I don’t know what to do” — is a particular earworm.

Their son, Michael, comes on strong with three contributions: “Garden,” a rocker that is probably the first of the gravel-voiced songwriter’s that I ever heard live, “Hey, Blue,” a gentle love song, and a brief (1:47), driving, Hüsker Dü-ish rocker, “Ed’s Song.”  that closes the disc.

Seifert contributes “Be With You,” a delightful, loping folk-rocker with spare, repeated lyrics.

Merklee steps forward in a way that I’ve been waiting to hear, offering a beautiful, plaintive homage to novelist Carson McCullers wiht “Miss Amelia.”

IF YOU GO

What: Speed the Plough record release party

When: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25

Where: The HiFi Bar, 169 Avenue A, Manhattan

Tickets: Free, donations accepted, with all proceeds going to the artists. Shows in this small venue tend to fill up, but if you arrive early, you’ll likely have no problem getting in. Making a donation in advance online guarantees entry.

 

Wilco brings ‘Star Wars’ to Port Chester’s Capitol Theatre

 

The Capitol Theatre marquee (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

The Capitol Theatre marquee (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

I’ve seen Wilco more than just about any other band. I’m not sure why, it just happened. It seems I can’t get enough of them. Thankfully, every tour seems fresh, because this band is tighter and more spectacular every time it blasts out of the gate.

The "Star Wars" cat — or, rather, a reasonable facsimile — awaits the band's arrival onstage Tuesday night at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

The “Star Wars” cat — or, rather, a reasonable facsimile — awaits the band’s arrival onstage Tuesday night at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. (© 2016, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)

This tour — which returns to the Capitol Theatre for another sold out show Wednesday, before hitting the far less intimate Kings Theatre in Brooklyn for two more sold-out gigs on Friday and Saturday — rolls out the new “Star Wars” material, like “More,” “Taste the Ceiling,””Random Name Generator,” and the heartbreaking “Where Do I Begin.”

Even so, Wilco’s never a play-the-album band, so there were plenty of favorites from the back catalogue in the show, too.

Photos and setlist on the jump.

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