Tuesday, March 31, 2009

People, C'mon

Well it's been a week since South By and I'm still re-living the moments. It was right back to work so I haven't really had a chance to sit back and write about all the bands I saw, but I will, I hope. Work is good. A lot going on as the students wind down for the semester. We are already booking into June which is crazy talk. This week we have the last Executive Session of the semester Natalie Maine's dad and Acapella Friday night. Also the one year celebration of the club with three alum/student groups on Saturday. Steven's going to the KS formal as are a lot of people so it will probably be a pretty quiet weekend. Although after a week of detox after Texas I'm ready to go out again.

Thursday night will probably go to Northeastern's alumni center to grab a drink to celebrate Rebecca's new job (She's coming to Berklee yay!). Then its home to settle in for 3 hours of the end of ER. The end of an ERa. Growing up we had one night a week we could stay up as late as we want and pretty much do whatever we want, within reason. That's when I first saw ER. Carter was just an intern who had never been in an ER and Carol was supposed to die. 15 years later the hospital I grew up with, and which at one point had me wanting to be a doctor, will leave the air for good. (I once even watched a season finale from the Albany Med ER, a girlfriend had put her teeth through her lower lip and needed stitches.) Hopefully they do Michael Crichton and the original writers, and the characters the justice they deserve.

I might be going to New Orleans in June. Berklee pays for 4 Faculty and 4 Staff members to go and volunteer their time and build houses for Habitat for Humanities in a music village down there. I'm applying this week and will hear back the first week in May. Wish me luck.

Another casting call I may attend for fun this weekend, but look for more details on that later.

-S

Monday, March 23, 2009

Back to Boston

South By Southwest was a whirlwind. I'm exhausted and refreshed and excited to get back to work with some great ideas and some great new bands. I'll update tomorrow when I'm fully rested.

-sh

Thursday, March 19, 2009

SXSW Day 1

Ok. So I'm a little tired. The worst part was I woke up at 8:59, my free breakfast ended at 9pm. Awful. Yesterday was day one and I personally think it was a great pre-game for the rest of the week. I took it kind of easy. This is who I saw:

Ten Out Of Tenn - Caught a quick two three songs from these guys. I've seen these guys before and they are really great. I'm trying hard not to repeat bands I've seen previously, because it just takes away from why I'm doing this.
Roman Candles - These guys came on at the same British showcase that Ten Out Of Tenn were. It was really awesome and this was the first band of the day that I know I want to get to come play The Red Room. They are out of Nashville and even had a couple Ten Out of Tenners out to sing on a song.
Heartless Bastards - Her voice is just mesmorizing. It's very deep and had I not seen them on David Letterman, I would have thought it was a male lead. These guys know how to rock. They are probably too big for The Red Room, but still a great show.
Janelle Monae - This was a suggestion of a friend and let me tell you it blew me away. This girl can sing and she rocks out. With the soul and swagger of Amy Winehouse and the funk of Outkast (she is friends with these guys and Big Boi is performing tonight), Janelle isn't likely to be the unknown Grammy nominee for long. That's right she was nominated for best new artists and you now that I told her about you, you have to check her out.
Jessica Lea Mayfield - I've had Jessica tabbed on my computer for about a year after I saw a write-up about her on PopCandy so I knew I wanted to get to this show. At 20 years old, Jessica has built up some considerable buzz. While I wasn't blown away at her performance I was definitely impressed.
Angie Mattson - Caught her for a couple songs before Joe Pug. Really interesting. I'm going to spend some more time looking into her.
Joe Pug - Joe was supposed to play The Red Room and for whatever reason didn't really work out. So I knew he was playing and decided to check out a few songs. Really great singer/songwriter with a little country/americana feel. Solidified trying to get him into the room.
Delta Spirit - Okay so I KNOW I said that I wasn't going to see bands that I've seen, but these guys are SOOO good. I mean mindblowing soulful rock. They just put so much into their music and they are the real deal. No doubt in my mind that these guys will see some great press and rewards from this weekend. They played a new song which gets me really excited that they will be going back into the studio after they get back from a European tour.

So that was a really brief recap of day one. I'm actually in a panel about blogging as I type so I'm going to go, but I'll try and include links to all the bands later.

Sh

Monday, March 9, 2009

New Feature!

Ok. So I'm getting ready to spend a whirlwind week in Austin, TX next week for the South By Southwest music festival. I won't have my computer with me all the time, but I will be provided live updates over here ==============> on the right side of my blog. I can text what I'm doing or what show I'm at and you can all follow along. Exciting right? Of course it is!

Laters
Shawn