Take Shore Fire Bowling, Take Them Bowling!

Oh boy did we have a blast last night at Brooklyn Bowl. Where else can you watch clips of Bruce Springsteen live as well as Stop Making Sense and old Kraftwerk videos on big screens and bowl with your comrades at the same time? Here are some photos from our awesome outing:

The gang arrives and Marilyn Laverty takes down highest score predictions. Prize winners for the night included the winning score for Chris Chafin whose score of 219 truly amazed everyone, and Andy Silva who believed in his Shore Fire teammates enough to bet that someone would bowl 200 or over.
(Carrie Tolles, Diana D'Angelo, Emily Rosenblum)
(Andy Silva)
(Mark Satlof, Chris Taillie)
(Yum)
(Nick Baily, Rebecca Shapiro, Matt Hanks)
(Nora Lyons and Elizabeth Lutz)
(Diana, celebrating a strike)
(Chris "I bowl over 200" Chafin)
(Chris Brudzinski and Brendan Gilmartin)
That's gorgeous Shore Fire director Rebecca Shapiro, front in center with the black top, whose husband Peter Shapiro, picture with bowling ball, is the owner of this fantastic place.

(An aside: dancing in bowling shoes is really really fun)

Miriam Linna says: a couple of rockin' cats!

I had a blast and saw tons of old friends at the first night of Ponderosa Stomp's three night NYC visit a couple of weeks ago up at Lincoln Center, the snazzy soul night. I just got a note from the amazing Miriam Linna who with her husband Billy Miller run Norton Records, the inspirational label that's keeping real rock and roll alive - "The Home of Wild Rock." What a thrill:

"Hi! Sorting through snapshots from Lincoln Center! Here's one of a couple of rockin' cats!
Best, Miriam"

That's me on left with Legacy's Rob Santos. I promise we didn't coordinate our outfits beforehand. P.s. over my shoulder, that's Lincoln Center's series booker Bill Bragin.

The Kids love Black Moth Super Rainbow

The kids love Black Moth Super Rainbow, and not just the folks in their twenties who packed the band's concert Friday at South St. Seaport. No, I'm talking about the second-grade set, like my kid Leo. I picked him up at camp drop off and then we trained it down to the show (after a quick bite at L&L Hawaiian Barbecue on Fulton St.). Andy, a co-worker, hooked me and Leo up with VIP wristbands, which led to a highlight for the both of us: we got to meet the main singer and songwriter Tom. Leo and I (the whole family, really) are huge BMSR fans, so that was an extra-special thrill. Of course, Leo asked why we didn't get to meet Dylan last week, but that's another story.

We parked ourselves in the perfect location, right up front on the side, against the barricades, and stayed put the entire show. Leo was transfixed and I'll hand it to him, paid attention all the way through. BMSR now have a guy dressed in a gray animal suit, wearing an odd oriental visage mask, who jumps around with a mike lip-synching (without lips because of the mask) the vocals, while in truth, the singing comes from Tom, sitting cross-legged halfway back on the stage, leaning into a small mic. The furry man certainly gave the crowd something to focus on.

Brooklyn Vegan's got a ton of photos, including one that I cribbed below....if you look closely, that's Leo and me on the far right.

UPDATE: Here's a snazzier shot from Tearntan on Livejournal.

Marcus Roberts Radio Magic, Day Two

As Mark Satlof recently noted in this space, Marcus Roberts is in town for a string of shows at Jazz At Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (thru July 26) that the NY Times has already called "extremely gratifying." Yesterday, Marcus visited WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show - today, it was NPR's Piano Jazz. Marcus joined guest host and bassist extraordinaire Christian McBride for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the pair's history together, and Marcus' plans for the future. And the tunes were sublime. This episode of Piano Jazz won't air for a few months; in the mean time, here's a photo of Christian and Marcus snapped just after the taping.

The Lawn Service: Sister Ray from 'Livin' Lovin' Lawn Service'

Not only do I get to represent TuneCore but I'm a happy customer too. I signed up in cognito with TuneCore a while back to test it out.

I used a song, VU's Sister Ray from my college band The Lawn Service, taken off the long-in-the-works box set 'Livin' Lovin' Lawn Service.' That's Steve Sherman on vocals with me and Karl "Precoda" Ochi on the duelin' guitars.

Now, I took TuneCore's new widget out for a test drive and it's even better than I'd expected.

Easy to use and took me about one minute (literally). So here you go. Let's see how my sales stack up!

Fiery Furnaces rock Lowbrow Reader Variety Show

As a publicist, I'm constantly inviting writers to concerts, so it's a nice change when situations are reversed and a writer invites me to a show, and it's even better when the writer is Time Out NY's Jay Ruttenberg and the show includes a set from one of my favorite bands, The Fiery Furnaces.

When he's not busy writing for TONY, Jay edits the fantastic Lowbrow Reader, and last night's event (officially called The Lowbrow Reader Variety Hour and held at the amazingly altruistic Housing Works Bookstore) celebrating the new issue.

The night started off with banjo antics from Peter Stampfel and the Ether Frolic Mob, followed by an amazing reading from Gilbert Rogin, and music from Larkin Grimm. I loved comedian John Mulaney's set (wish I could find a YouTube clip of his routine on 'Law & Order,' which cracks me up), but the Furnaces were the real highlight of the evening.

I was sitting about four feet from the stage and snapped this picture as Jay was introducing Eleanor and Matthew.


Seeing the Friedberger kids play with just Matthew's acoustic guitar was amazing, and so wildly intimate. It felt like a family reunion almost, but the only people who were actually related were the performers themselves. Their set focused mostly on material from their new album 'I'm Going Away,' which all sounded great (especially "Cut the Cake"), but they also played one of my old favorites "Teach Me Sweetheart" from 'Bitter Tea.'

Here's hoping there's another Variety Hour in the works!

It's a fast moving interweb...

Hat tip to Mike Lavigne for forwarding the link, but I was briefly transfixed last night looking at this gallery of screenshots posted on The Daily Beast of the web in all its 1.0 (or even pre-1.0) glory. Highly worth checking out the gallery.

The Daily Beast calls it a flashback to "ugly" websites, but that doesn't seem fair. They weren't badly designed, that's what everything looked like early on. This one though was my favorite, especially since it was taken in 2005.


That's an entire decade after the Netscape IPO (usually credited as the Lexington & Concord of the dot com era) and well into the Web 2.0 era. Things sure do move fast, checking Google's handy de facto EKG meter for the news media you can see that it wasn't long before it was one of the biggest tech phenomena going.

And a year from now the story is bound to have changed and morphed yet again. We have a suspicion our client SuperFan.com might just be a big part of it, but in any case if you can forgive the cliche -- the one thing that's certain to be constant is constant change.

And a side note, this image was my runner up favorite. It may not have resonance unless you were living in Manhattan in 1999-2000 or so, but the Kozmo/UrbanFetch wars were epic. My first apartment in the city was a lovely single room with a sweeping (nearly half block wide) first floor view of the Lincoln Tunnel entrance on 34th street.

But one thing I had going for me was being about 100 yards from the old UrbanFetch distro facility next to Javits. Ever find yourself at 2am needing two razor blades, a snickers bar, and a 60 watt GE lightbulb delivered to your door, at low prices with no minimum order, and tipping strictly prohibited? That one's still sorely missed.

Marcus Roberts' Terrific Turn on Leonard Lopate Show

Believe it or not, Marcus Roberts and his trio had never done a live radio gig before their appearance today on WNYC radio's Leonard Lopate. Lopate's one of the best interviewers around and he's particularly great with musicians. Between Robert's erudite discussion of his music and Lopate's obvious enthusiasm and knowldege, it was a great listen bolstered by a pair of live performances. You can take a look below for video.

By the way Marcus and the trio (Rodney Jordan, bass; Jason Marsalis, drums) killed last night at the opening set of their six night stand at Jazz at Lincoln Centers Dizzy Club Coca-Cola, playing mostly material from their new album New Orleans Meets Harlem Vol 1.

File Under...

Greatest music videos ever

Breakfast Spread for Chafin Celeb.

Our reliable local deli Lassen & Hennings delivered a tasty breakfast spread this morning for our celebration of Chris Chafin's birthday. He stuck a candle in his Danish and called it Happy Birthday! That plus a gallon of coffee made for a great Monday morning start to our busy work week. Happy Birthday Chris!

An "Old Soul" drops by SFM HQ, Plays NYC

We were thrilled to have Chicago-based and LA-minded soul-funker Danny Chaimson stop by Shore Fire HQ last week. Danny (third from L in the orange shirt) was in town to play a show at Piano's last Monday (a great video of which is below) and do a bit of press, the highlight of which was definitely Danny inventing a song at 3 in the morning, live on national radio, about someone getting arrested for spitting in a police officer's Egg McMuffin.



Danny live! He's not this blurry in person, promise

As you can see, Danny's got humor, musical skill, and soul in spades. All of that's shining in full force on his debut album, Young Blood, Old Soul, out August 11th on Cold Classic Records.

Shore Fire Kids do Dylan

In a fun confluence, Shore Fire's Nick Baily, Matt Hanks and I found ourselves at Bethel Woods on Saturday night for a Willie Nelson/John Mellencamp/Bob Dylan triple bill. After visiting with Nick at his amazing 1898 farmhouse a few miles from the venue, we all set out (separately) to the gig. Traffic jam and long slog later with kids in tow, we settled in at the back of the lawn.

The place was jammed, one of the biggest crowds they'd ever seen I imagine. I dropped Leo off at Matt's encampment, and mostly watched him from afar as he hippie-danced in circles with Matt's Emma (in stripes) and Sally (in pink). A little rain scared me off, but Leo demanded we stay for Dylan. My other kid Eli got pooped and retreated to the car for a nap. We're putting this one down as Leo and Eli's first official concert (not counting a clutch of Ralph's World shows) and Leo got a way overpriced t-shirt to prove it. Here's a couple of divergent but accurate reviews: The Smell of Clean Laundry and Frank Beacham's Journal. And here's the local paper's review Time's Herald Record.

United Not Only Airline That Breaks Guitars

In the wake of the United Breaks Guitars web sensation, I thought I'd post Loudon Wainwright III's similar, hilarious song that also resulted in a broken guitar:



Here's Bob Brozman's advice on flying with guitars. (He was fantastic at this year's Blues Music Awards in Memphis.)

Tap Into The Future

As readers of this blog know, we're longtime fans of Spinal Tap. Here's an amazing latter day interview with the band done by our friends over at Billboard.com:

Running on empty

I'm not one for self aggrandizement, but Diana suggested i post about this, so here it is. I ran a half-marathon 10 days ago, which was quite fun. It was, by 5 miles, the longest distance i'd ever run, and i somehow managed to hit my target time to the exact second: 2 hours, 11 minutes.

The race was in Vancouver, a city whose natural beauty just blew me away. So it was a beautiful run. Still, by the time one of the official race photographers snapped this shot of me, 1 mile from the finish line and after the longest uphill of the race, i was pretty gassed.

To add a musical dimension to this post, here are my three favorite heads-down, pound-it-out running songs of all time, which i listened to nonstop in training for the race:

1. The Private Psychadelic Reel by the Chemical Brothers as heard on disc 1 of Fatboy Slim and Paul Oakenfold: Essential Selection Vol. 1

2. Hey Jack by Howie B. (Metamorphosis Mix) as heard on Fabriclive Vol. 1: James Lavelle

3. Coast to Coast by Matrix + Futurebound, as heard on their own album Universal Truth

Also, if you're into the podcasts, as i hear the kids are these days, pretty much every one of the streetlife DJs mixes on itunes are pure gold for running.

I'm a video vixen!

OK well not quiet poppin' champagne or anything but a good friend of mine is a super talented hip-hop artist and asked me (and many others) to be in the video for his song "Rep U". Check out my music video debut below:

REP U by Postell from Josh Senior on Vimeo.

Warning: Contains some foul language.

NEW Music Video by Postell: REP U
From the album The Good Thief (jimmie & wilson prod./ q bros.)
Directed by Josh Senior and Postell Pringle. Edited by Josh Senior

Postcard From Nicaragua

The classic 20-gig iPod I've had since 2004 finally passed away after many hours of service, just before I left for the airport for my flight to Nicaragua 10 days ago. I typically travel with it and a JBL OnTour setup that provides me with a soundtrack wherever I am. Nonetheless, I was neither musically nor aesthetically deprived.

For evidence of the latter, see the photo below of the grand staircase in the 19th-century home of generous and gifted friends in Granada, one of the oldest cities in the Americas, where I slept in an antique, mosquito-netted four-poster bed, soothed by the sound of tropical rains and wakened by the bells of the cathedral next door.



On a side trip to the surf destination San Juan del Sur, a friend was kind enough to lend me a horse. There is a reason that riding through a jungle and cantering along an otherwise inaccessible beach is the stuff of fantasy. My steed was white, and named Pablo Picasso, so I couldn't get the Jonathan Richman song of the same name out of my head. I also sang "Caballito Blanco" to Pablo, which I learned as a child in Chile.

Thus, when it came time to go clubbing, I was prepared for Latino men whose stares I could not resist. My Spanish held up well enough for me to crack jokes, decline invitations, and read mash notes from the smitten. I also had the new-to-me experience of being piloted around a dance floor by a smiling fellow whose eyes were at an awkward level that made staring both impossible and unnecessary. But we were dancing to a 9-piece band playing the Nicaraguan classic "Pobre de Maria," a tragic story of a poor campesina in the big city, so I didn't mind.

I managed to refrain from the Internet most of the time, but of course it found me:


And now, the Apple Store awaits.

And Good-bye to you too, old eMusic

You lost me there, eMusic. I've been a cheerleader and obsessive user for almost five years (and very much enjoyed working with you for a year), but you just ruined a good thing. The Sony catalog is great, I've no truck with that. And and I grumbled and groused at the new rate you're forcing on me -- even though I'm going from 17 cents a song to 40 something, I got used to the idea. After all, I'm in the music business so how could I be too down on musicians and labels making more? But I'm sorry, I just can't deal with the new, confusing, super-un-user-friendly, no-fun-at-all, big bummer changes in how downloads are counted. It's just too much...albums more than 12 songs count as 12, but now some albums with longer songs, but fewer than 12, count as 12? Can't download long songs individually? I wish you luck, honestly, but I also hope you'll reconsider. I really do want to stick with you and I'm ready to pay more. But don't make eMusic harder to use me at the same time you're jacking up the price.

What's yellow and shines like a star? It's Ledisi.

This past Sunday felt like the real first day of summer. The sun was shining and Nora, my friend Brian, and I headed to Central Park to watch Ledisi perform at Summerstage. She performed two new tracks from her upcoming album 'Turn Me Loose' and KILLED it! She even went into the crowd to make sure people were dancing.

Check out Nate Chinen's thoughts in this review.

Great minds think alike. Here's our rainbow of Chuck Taylors: Ledisi at top in yellow, Nora in pink, me in red and Brian in black.