Sheik In The City, pt. 2

Geoff Muldaur beat me to WQXR where I found him tuning a gorgeous, signature model Martin and chatting with NY Times Popcast host Ben Sisario about the death of radio, and the rising popularity of live performances online. He taped "Cairo" in one take ("I messed it up real good for ya" - Geoff) and spoke with Ben about the custom Ed Ruscha cover art on his latest record 'Texas Sheiks,' and recording with the various Sheiks, including late Texas songwriter Stephen Bruton, to whom the album is a tribute.



We stopped briefly at Geoff's daughter's polished West Village studio, where Jenni Muldaur solicited her father's advice on artwork she might invest in and answers to a crossword puzzle (a passion they share). An accomplished musician in her own right, Jenni has backed Lou Reed and David Byrne, and has a record out titled, 'Dearest Darlin'.'



SIRIUS Radio was my last stop with Geoff. We joked about Michael Moore's crazed personal assistant (he was undoubtedly there in support of Capitalism: A Love Story), then quieted as Geoff warmed up for the interview. As he strummed through a couple chords he muttered, "What was that?" - and turning to me said, "That was a pretty new chord." Imagine that, Geoff Muldaur discovering a new chord.



Here's a photo of me and Geoff with the hosts of FreeWheelin' (Sirius Road Dog Trucking Channel), Meredith Ochs and Chris T:





Left to right: Miya Hannan, Chris T., Geoff Muldaur, Meredith Ochs

Sheik In The City, pt. 1

Geoff Muldaur came to New York to celebrate release date of his wonderful new album Geoff Muldaur & The Texas Sheiks. I found him to be full of gracious warmth. He's also a hell of a singer and guitar player. First, he appeared on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show. Here he is (at center) with Lopate producer Melissa Eagan and WNYC engineer and folk expert Ed Haber, in front of one of the station's original doors:



We then wandered up the block to the newly remodeled Newsweek, where Geoff taped an interview and a song performance of "Cairo" for Newsweek.com's Malcolm Jones and Jonathan Groat.



I can't wait to see a full Muldaur concert! - Nick L-E

Lessons I've Learned on My Travels for Hennessy Artistry

In the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to travel with the Hennessy Artistry 2009 Series and learned a few things along the way:

Why is Chicago called The Windy City?

While heavily debated around the table at Shore Fire's Pizza Friday, it seems that no one is exactly sure why Chicago is "The Windy City." While I thought the moniker was a result of a local politics, and others insisted that it was the lake effect that resulted in actual gales, Wikipedia was unable to solve the debate - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_name_%22Windy_City%22#References

And, where does one go when Wikipedia has no answers? The Weather Doctor seemed like a good idea - and they backed me up!

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/whys/chicago.htm

Where is the best breakfast in Chicago?

Hands down - its the Bongo Room in Wicker Park, this place rivals my all time favorite breakfast eatery Zaftig's in Boston's Coolidge Corner neighborhood. (Nora, THANK you for opening my eyes to the possibilities of a Benedict breakfast.)

Where do you get the best Chicago hot dog?

Not nearly enough time to time to answer this question - I must go back soon.

Does HotLanta live up to its name?

Well, the hip-hop scene and female attire is red hot - as evidenced by my evening at The Velvet Room surrounded by spandex, leather, Project Runway's Mychael Knight & Real Housewife Sheree Whitfield. But as far as the weather goes, we made it out of there just in time to avoid the state of emergency flooding... given the circumstances, I'll need to revisit Atlanta when its not raining to weigh in on this one.

Does Delta's electronic boarding pass get you on the plane?

Short answer - no. Despite the fact that I spent 20 minutes trying to get the pass on my iPhone, as soon as I got to the first security check point they wanted to scan my phone to print a boarding pass..... but the scanner was running low on batteries. Luckily, I had printed a back-up. Then when I got to the gate and asked about why they needed to do this, I was informed that even the boarding gates at Delta's U.S. hub hadn't been upgraded to accept their new technology. Maybe next time.

So here I am back in Brooklyn - a little wiser and ready to take on our grand finale at Terminal 5 on October 7th with Common, The Roots, Elevator Fight, Colin Munroe and a yet-to-be-announced but truly iconic surprise guest.

Will I see you there?

Don Waller's Imperial Dogs Gets Belated Due with New DVD

My old pal Don Waller's secret proto-punk history is slowly coming to light. Now there's solid proof of the existence of his mid-70s LA answer to the NY Dolls, The Imperial Dogs. As a New Yorker I can't say I knew much about Don's band, other than a few passing mentions in Chris Stigliano's Blog to Comm, until now with the launch of The Imperial Dogs website and the new black & white DVD The Imperial Dogs Live! In Long Beach (October 30, 1974). I haven't seen it yet, but any band that was covering the Velvet Underground in 1974 is jake by me.

Here's a clip from the DVD of their best known song, This Ain't the Summer of Love, later covered by Blue Oyster Cult, the Nomads, L7 and Lizzy Borden. Don's the singer, snarling an intro to the song: "to all you hippies, out there, this ain't the summer of love."



I've known Don for years as a journalist, as a repository of LA's rock history and LA's answer to our our own Norton Records folks Miriam Linna and Billy Miller, and an all around stand up guy. Good luck Don!

New Jack Swinging With Hennessy Down South

If you're of a certain age, it doesn't matter what albums you were buying at the time, the fact is you were listening to Boyz II Men on a regular basis. From the inevitable "MotownPhilly" roof raiser at the school dance, to the song that must have been a part of 94% of all high school graduations that year, "End Of The Road."

But I have to admit, it had been awhile since I'd thought about it -- until this past weekend that is, thanks to the fine folks at Hennessy and everyone involved in their fantastic Hennessy Artistry series. Curated by Common and The Roots, with the latter as the backing band, the series is all about the concept of blending -- performances and collaborations, and a blend of musical, artistic, cultural (not to mention flavorful) experiences.

Saturday night's event in Atlanta was action packed, with sets by Amerie and Anjulie as well as solo turns by Common and The Roots. But if I had to pick the one part that's been etched in my eardrums for two days now, it actually happened early in the afternoon when we went over during soundcheck. Walking into the venue I heard the familiar groove of "MotownPhilly" at full volume through the soundsystem, and proceeded to take a leisurely look around to check out the space, thinking I was listening to a CD being played by the soundman. It wasn't until I was almost on top of the stage when I glanced up and saw Ahmir in full force on the drums that I realized it was the real thing. Man, that is one ludicrously tight band.

And keeping to the blending theme, I realized in restrospect just how perfectly matched they were to the series. At the time the first New Jack Swing artists broke through, what now seems obvious -- that hip hop and R&B are a natural blend -- wasn't the consensus at all. Those two genres were often kept in their own little niches, and it took guys like Teddy Riley, Atlanta's own Babyface, among others, to knock down a wall that Boyz II Men came through in a big way.

Have to give Hennessy credit for pulling this one together, it was pretty special to be just a few feet away when they brought the house down later that night. Here's a little taste of what that was like:


Oh and keeping to the high school theme I discovered that not only are Boyz II Men and The Roots both well known as Philly natives, but they were in fact high school classmates as well at the School for the Performing Arts, and in fact if you look closely at the original video, that's Ahmir on drums too.

I guess it all comes back around if the blend is right.

You Always Remember Your First Time

[mp3] Ezra Furman: "We Should Fight"

You always remember your first time. The first time you drove a car, the first time you heard Sgt. Peppers, the first time you and that girl (or guy) went to the movies and well... you get it. So, here we have it, my first post on The Suite 16. It feels good. I'm feeling loose. Limber. So, what to write about? The question has been vexing me for oh, about 5 seconds. I'll try and answer the most important question probably on everyone's mind when someone new comes to Shore Fire, what do they listen to? Ok, maybe not the most important question, but it's a question.

To begin, sometimes my jeans may be a little "tight" and you may hear some sort of random, fuzzed-out, lo-fi, chill-wave, no-fi, post-gaze whatever coming out of the speakers on my desk. But I'm no indie elitist. I believe Townes Van Zandt is one of the greatest songwriters that has ever lived. But I'm no fool either. Bob Dylan is almost always tops for me. Cliche? Too easy? Sure, say what you'd like, I'll stick by Bob anytime. Except for Self Portrait. Not so much there.

My favorite record of the year so far is a tie between The Antlers Hospice and The Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca. Yes, I also happened to really love the debut from Those Darlins. Oh well.
Furthermore to whatever point I'm making, I love The Drive by Truckers immensely, but I also love anything the Numero Group puts out, especially the Eccentric Soul series. Levon Helm is my hero, and Rick Danko had a voice of gold, so did Richard. I'm not so much a Robbie fan. Read This Wheel's on Fire, you'll see.

My favorite youngster that no one ever writes about is Ezra Furman, and my favorite old timer that no one writes about is Sam Baker. Except for Geoff Himes, he's the one who turned me onto him.

I could go on and on - as everyone else in the office can, but I won't. Thanks for reading, and come by anytime. I'll listen to you ramble if you listen to me ramble. Fair deal.

Wine + Music= Good Evening

Nick Baily and I had an amazing time at Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founding member John McEuen's solo show at City Winery this week. He is just as funny as he is a talented musician and we left there even more excited for NGDB's show at BB Kings on Oct 6th.


This was my first time at City Winery and I fell in love with this new space with its wine and cheese pairings, flat breads, and wonderful acoustics. If you haven't checked it out yet be sure to do so on Oct 8th for Bob Schneider's show!

A guy walks in a movie theater...

...and expects to just see a movie. Well, not the other night. Me and two of my friends went to see Big Fan at the Angelika, starring Patton Oswalt and written and directed by Robert Siegel. Right before the film was about to start, a voice came in over the loud speaker announcing that after the movie Robert Siegel himself would be there to answer questions! How cool is that?

Lo and behold after the movie ended, which I thought was excellent by the way, Robert came out and answered questions from the audience for about a half an hour.

It was fascinating to get insight from the writer/director. Topics touched on included how much the film cost to make, how a certain cast member auditioned for a part in a strip club VIP room and why Patton Oswalt was perfect for the lead role.

I unfortunately chickened out on asking Robert a question, so I'll put it to him here.

Robert, if you're reading, what was your inspiration for the 50 Cent birthday cake? Did you have a similar experience in real life?

Wild Thing: The Songs of Chip Taylor

Basebrawlin'

On Tuesday of this week we had our biggest yet trip to Yankee Stadium by Shore Fire Staff and friends. Seen here, from right to left, are Chris Thieke, Laura Watson from CBS, Brian Bingham from CBS, me, and Diana D'Angelo. Not pictured is camerman Brendan Gilmartin, who also used his connections to get us into the posh Mohegan Sun sports bar in center field during the 8th inning.

Sadly, it was a snoozer of a game. The Yankees got pummeled by the Blue Jays, until the 7th inning, when both teams just started pummeling each other. Literally. with their fists. I've never before been at a game when a genuine benches-and-bullpens clearning brawl happened; it was quite entertaining. The only problem was that being in the stands, we got no replay and no commentary so it took us quite a while until we finally learned what had happened. All we got in the stands was this incongruous cartoon of some happy dancing flowers in a garden that stayed on the jumbotron for the entire brawl, because Brett Gardner (get it?!) had gotten the base hit that set off the whole fracas.

Anyway, it was a great night.

And while we're talking baseball, i have to share this insanely cute clip from a Phillies game that is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

High Wide & Handsome at the Highline Ballroom: Loudon Wainwright III and co. put on a night to remember

Tuesday night was an incredible on, with the one-time-only 'High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project' concert in NYC, featuring a who's who of NYC's acoustic best and of Loudon Wainwright III's talented family. The cast (it felt like a narrative musical at times) included family members Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Maggie Roche, Terre Roche, Dave Roche and Suzzy Roche, plus multi-instrumentalists Chaim Tannenbaum and Sufjan Stevens-collaborator Rob Moose, along with Greg Cohen (bass), Erik Friedlander (cello), Paul Asaro (piano) and producer Dick Connette (harmonium). A country pioneer and bootlegger, Poole would've been pleased about the night, though he likely would have stuck to the bar.

The Roches harmonies were gorgeous, Martha and Rufus each sang lead on a song, and Lucy proved to have an incredibly gorgeous voice. The atmosphere felt like a cross between a multimedia history lesson replete with slides, a family reunion, a musical theater narrative, storytelling session, and a hootenany. Here's Rufus leading the band at one point:



Spotted in the crowd were liner note writer Greil Marcus, New Lost City Rambler John Cohen, Holy Modal Rambler Peter Stampfel, and singer Jenni Muldaur.

Loudon and Lucy were kind enough to pose with me:



Oh and Loudon closed with a rollicking version of his own "Dead Skunk (In The Middle of The Road)." Utterly appropriate considering Charlie's fondness for humor and novelty songs.

O'Connor & Strings

Mark O'Connor, virtuoso musician, tireless educator and scholar, skilled composer and more, stopped by the office last week. We got to discuss and learn about O'Connor's chock-a-block schedule for the next six months. Here, he poses in front of a recent Strings Magazine cover story focused on his new, insurgent violin method (recently written about in the New Yorker) with some of the PR team, l-r: Andy Silva, Matt Amoroso, Nick Baily and Nancie Martin.

The Race For All Tomorrow's Parties' Prize

(All photos by Becca Laurie and Andy Silva)

This Sunday, my girlfriend and I traveled upstate to attend our first All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by The Flaming Lips. The legendary psych-rockers invited Black Moth Super Rainbow (who I was thrilled to get to work with on their latest album 'Eating Us') to join the incredible closing day line-up. Needless to say, we were stoked!


It's truly a special opportunity to see so many groundbreaking artists gathered in a retro country club (that was the inspiration for the country club in "Dirty Dancing"!). The two performance spaces at Kutsher's, seemingly unchanged since the 1950's, were surprisingly intimate and had incredible sound systems.


Black Moth Super Rainbow were especially on that evening and played a terrific set. By 11:30 PM, the festival's headliner and curators (and former BMSR tour mates) The Flaming Lips brought exactly what everyone was hoping for: and all out RAGER.


Confetti flew, Wayne Coyne bounced around in a bubble, men and women pranced around on stage in animal outfits. The night wouldn't have been complete without a "Yoshimi..." sing-along, which actually happened twice in the course of their set.

All in all, great times. See you next year, ATP.

PS: Shout out and big thanks goes to Nick Baily, who let us crash at his lovely house for the night.

Hey Mr. Rain: It's Pouring Velvet Underground books

I can't say why there have been two landmark books about the Velvet Underground published in the last few months but I can say boy does it make me happy. Richie Unterberger's train-spottingly in depth White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground Day By Day is the book I've been waiting for for years. On the other hand, Jim DeRogatis and friends full color, densely-packed ephemera and photo-filled The Velvet Underground: An Illustrated History, is the book I didn't even know I was missing until I bought it yesterday. Between these two hefty works this is the most important time in VU scholarship since the days of Phil Milstein and MC Kostek's "What Goes On" fanzine three decades ago. And that's not to mention a book called The Velvet Underground that Amazon has down for an October release and describes as "A definitive anthology of unseen photographs, posters, and rare ephemera documenting the influence of this legendary band."

You won't get me to chose between the two. I''m learning more about the Velvets from Unterberger's 368 page (small print!) tome while (it's taking me a while to digest all the information), while I learned more about Velvets visual history from DeRogatis' coffee table book. Day By Day is image packed too, but An Illustrated History looks to have access to the Andy Warhol Archives in Pittsburgh and other private collections, re-printing among many other things, Lou Reed's manuscript, with chords and lyrics, to Heroin; dozens of ads for albums and concerts, ticket stubs, and a bigger collection of posters than I'd ever seen since, well, VU Day by Day.

Mick Rock's Glam Gallery Opening

I was thrilled this past Saturday when I heard about the gallery opening for legendary Glam photographer Mick Rock--and that it was happening right in my sleepy little neighborhood of St. George on Staten Island.


If you're not familiar with Mick's name right away, here's some of his work you may recognize -


A great DJ spinning all the classics kept the crowd going well into the night.


And I even got to hang with the man himself -



Check out more of Mick's work here - http://www.mickrock.com/

Holiday Ro-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oad

The Griswalds got nothin' on us! The Hanks family recently embarked on our own roadtrip vacation, hitting many of the same spots Clark & co. covered, and I'm happy to report no dogs or elderly relatives died in the process. Alas, there were no cameo appearances by Eugene Levy or Brian Doyle Murray either, but we did have some pretty awesome celebrity sightings including Dean Stockwell on our flight to Albuquerque and The Hedgehog himself, Ron Jeremy, poolside at our hotel in Vegas!

In all we covered six states, five national parks, one epic twleve hour day at Disneyland, and a lot in between! It's hard to pick just a handful of pics from the trip, but here's a few that stand out for me.

First stop on Day 1 was Tinkertown, a museum of curiosities just east of Albuquerque that was assembled by one family over decades "while you were watching TV" as their motto states. Highlights include a collection of figurines taken from the tops of wedding cakes, a boat that sailed around the world, shoes worn by the world's tallest man, and this wall of bottles that my daughters Sally (age 3) and Emma (age 6) quite liked.


Later that same day we stopped at the mysterious Ice Cave off Route 66 near Grants, NM. It's a collapsed lava tube that created a cave where it stays 31 degrees year-round. That green oozy-looking stuff behind us is a frozen block of ice.


After the Ice Cave, we headed to Arizona for another otherworldly wonder, the Meteor Crater. It's hard to convey the scale of this thing in one photo, but I'll try. See that little rock on the rim in the upper left hand corner of this photo? It's the size of a house.


After a long day on Route 66 we spent the night in what may have been my favorite lodging of the entire trip - the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ! Holbrook is also home to one of my favorite meals from the trip, the huevos rancheros at Joe & Aggies Cafe.


Day 2 brought our first stop at a National Park, the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Here's a shot of Emma checking out some petroglyphs with her new binoc's.


Later that week we really hit full stride with a visit to the Grand Canyon. Emma and I got up early one morning to watch the sunrise over the canyon. Here's a shot of her at abround 5:45am.


And here's another shot of her taking pictures on the Grand Canyon's Bright Angel Trail. Just past that path ledge is a sheer drop of several hundred feet. It completely freaked me out but Emma didn't seem to mind.


OK, one more from the GC. An elk taking a leisurely stroll down the South Rim's main thoroughfare. That's the famous El Tovar hotel off in the distance (which, yes, was used as a location in 'Vacation.')


On to Bryce Canyon where we did some serious hiking (for us), took in a rodeo, and spotted an elusive Alaska license plate. We found about 45 different license plates in all, but were most excited about this one.


Emma participated in the Junior Ranger program and every park we visited (Sally was too young, which most parks were OK with, but they were real sticklers at Bryce). At Bryce, one of her assignments was to pick up trash around the park. Here she is making an ill-advised attempt to throw away a piece of gum. Good thing they provided gloves!


Here we are hiking the Navajo Loop at Bryce. The way down was easy, and beautiful beyond description. But.....


...the way back up was pretty brutal. I had to carry my daughter Sally the entire way.


Fast forward a few days to Vegas. In a city of strange sights, here's one of the strangest. The aquarium at the Silverton Lodge features a live mermaid. The girls were spellbound.


While in LV we also made the short drive out to the Hoover Dam. In addition to the awesome sight of the Dam itself, we got to see construction of the Colorado River Bridge, just a few hundred yards downriver. It's scheduled to be completed this fall.


And here's a shot from the Pinball Hall of Fame, which is really just a rundown old arcade in a stripmall (they specialized in primitive old video games too), but hey, nothing wrong with that and when was the last time you played Paddle Battle?


OK, we're in the home stretch now. Between Vegas and LA we stayed at the Joshua Tree Inn. I didn't have the budget or the ghoulish need to stay in the "Gram Parsons Room," but this is a place I've always wanted to visit, and I'm glad I did. The sunsets in Joshua Tree are pretty spectacular.


And finally, the promised land - Disneyland! Ask my girls what their favorite part of the trip was and they'll answer Disneyland with total certainty. My hope is that this trip opened and their eyes and their minds a bit, but sometimes, you just can't compete with a bunch of fairies and princesses and talking mice. Here's a couple shots of them meeting their favorite princess, Cinderella, and doing some karaoke at the House of the Future in Tomorrowland. Note the facepaint on Sally, which she insisted we leave on for, like, three days!