The Dan Band does Beyoncé right…

Brilliant and hilarious, you must watch!!

And for the sake of comparison, I tried to post Beyoncé’s video but she apparently does not like her videos embedded.  Check it out on YouTube

Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Listen to: Chains Chains Chains 

Elvis Perkins released his debut studio album, Ash Wednesday  in 2007. His band, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, includes multi-instrumentalists Brigham Brough (bass,vocals, saxophone), Wyndham Boylan-Garnett (organ, harmonium, trombone, guitar, vocals) and Nick Kinsey (drums, clarinet, vocals).

I saw them in Austin, TX during SXSW and bought a CD after the show not anticipating the extent to which the music would grow on me. In order to fully appreciate it, I suggest listening to the nuances in his voice, the eclectic instrumentation and the unusual melodies. This album sounds like it’s right out of the early 1970s, accompanying The Band, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan in the record stacks at your local music store.

Upon further research I learned that Elvis Perkins is the son of actor Anthony Perkins who died in 1992 of complications related to AIDS and photographer Berry Berenson who was a passenger on one of the September 11th flights that attacked New York City’s twin towers. Knowing that, the music seems to take on new meaning. I pondered whether to include that personal information in this post as I’m writing about his music and not his personal history but is it fair to say that the two are inextricably linked?

Leerone on TheStream.TV

Raw Rhythms – Leerone

Watch This Episode on www.theStream.tv

I performed on a live streaming web show called Raw Rhythms last night with the lovely string quartet that accompanied me at the Troubadour this last Saturday night. The show is or was hosted by Katie Scanlon and Megan Marlow, who usually interview the guest artist or band and mediate between comments and questions that come in online on a live chat feed. However, they were not present last night so I had to wing it on my own!! Speaking to a camera is definitely something I need to practice, I realized this when attempting to create video web blogs (I’m still trying). 

The show is meant to showcase the artist but more so, provide a place for “fans” or as I prefer to say, band members (me + you = the band) to interact with the guest artist/band through questions and comments that are fielded through a live chat room feed and instant messages. In other words, viewers can send instant messages to us during the show and THANK YOU to those that actually did!! I didn’t get to see all of the comments but I responded to those that I did see. It’s not quite as gratifying as meeting face to face but for those of my friends who are on the other side of the globe or even in Athens, GA (Jon Lester!)- it’s a special treat and now we are one step closer to making real contact

Link is above if you would like to watch the performance and awkward banter. Stay tuned for my video blogs, coming soon… Thanks to Brian Gramo, owner of The Stream. 

Photo by Michael Modecki