Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, I moved to Los Angeles after graduating from college (later than most people do). Growing up, I was always obsessed with comedy & was always, as the expression goes, the "class clown." I never realized you could get paid for being obnoxious & disruptive until I moved to L.A. and got a job on E!'s hit show Chelsea Lately â Hollywood dreams, they do come true!
Since Chelsea Lately ended, I have toured with Dana Gould and Chris Hardwick & have appeared several times on Comedy Central's hit show @midnight (you can see the highlights here). I currently co-host the weekly show Almost Genius on TruTV with my friend Chris Fairbanks.
I've also published my own photocopied zine since the age of 14, and have kept a blog since 1997. I used to work for MTV & regularly contributed pop-culture pieces like these ones right here. ("Well yeah, I guess it's obvious â I also like to write.")
What else am I supposed to brag about here? I created & hosted the popular Go Bayside podcast for nearly two years. I make pretty good mixtapes. I think being able to make ends meet by doing comedy & comedy-related things is really wonderful & enjoyable & I feel very lucky. (And did I mention I made lord of the underworld Glenn Danzig laugh once? As far as I know, this qualifies me for a Nobel Prize nomination.)
And because dorks like me enjoy reading this sort of stuff on other people's sites, here are some of my influences: BOB ODENKIRK, Millie De Chirico, Billy Bragg, Paul F. Tompkins, Steve Martin, Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer, Brian Regan, Bill Hicks, David Cross, Colin Quinn, Tom & Jerry, Kids in the Hall, French & Saunders, Eddie Murphy (I saw Raw when I was like, 8, after my grandparents had gone to bed and left HBO on), late '80s-early '90s Saturday Night Live, Clarissa from Clarissa Explains it All, Christopher Guest, Janeane Garofalo, Mike Judge, The State, those MTV promos from the early '90s with Donal Logue as a gross cab driver, both Wayne's World movies, Professor Harold Hill from the 1962 film The Music Man (for confidence), Bugs Bunny, John Waters, Sassy magazine, Zack Morris, & tons more.
For fans of the song and how to feel it. Kath Bloom (USA) is some kind of legend. She comes from a special place where country, blues and folk are made beautifully translucent and emotive. She has a special gift â her voice is delicate and tender, yet retains that raw emotion and hard worn truths that allows each sung word to be felt.
The more you hear of Kath Bloom, the more you notice itâs not just the arresting voice, but the power of the songwriting. âBeautifulâ is the typical responseâthe kind of beauty that comes from truth, musical and the deeply lyrical. There are no good comparisons, but if you like the deep well of Emmylou Harris, the more poignant lyrics of Lou Reed, the joy of Maher Shalal Hash Baz or even Joni Mitchell, you're kinda in the right zone. In reality, sheâs simply Kath Bloom: horse whisperer, vocalist, mum, songwriter and a beautiful person.
Her albums recorded with Loren Mazzacane Connors in the 70′s/80′s are rare things, full of songs that float and melt into the ether. Impossibly beautiful and hard to find on LP, but check the reissues from a few years ago . In the 90′s Kathâs music was famously featured in Richard Linklaterâs film Before Sunrise. Since then she has been busy writing and recording to great acclaim. Two new albums in the last few years and she and her songs where also honoured on a tribute album featuring Bill Callahan, Scout Niblett and Mark Kozelek.
Tank and The Bangas with Special Guests The Buckle Downs - Presented by Opus One & 91.3 WYEP
Originating in New Orleans, Tank and The Bangas have all the qualities that relates them, to the city that birth them but a flair that separates them as well. Their performances range from being âOne of the most energetic shows youâll ever seeâ to âA gospel tent in Mississippiâ. Rummaging through their sound like a thrift store hippie, youâll find the Bangas to provoke a musical reference of Rhythmic Soul and Spoken word among other genres such as Rock, Gospel, Funk, and Folk. Combining the various musical techniques among the Bangas, coupled with the instilling play on lyrics from the lead vocalist; Tank and The Bangas have quilted a unique sound that singles them as one of the most distinctive groups to come out of New Orleans. The group has graced the cover of one of New Orleans most recognized magazines, âOffBeatâ and recently won band of the year at the New Orleans Big Easy Awards. The group has opened for acts such as LiAnne LaHavas, PJ Morton, Galactic, Big Freedia, The Revivalist, and The Soul Rebels. Most recently the band was titled as the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest winners.
Since 2012, The Shaun Peace Band has been entertaining the nation, and dazzling audiences across 38+ states with their varied, yet untimely refined blend of electrifying music.
Shaun Peace was born in the heartland of Texas, but raised in the birthplace of our nation, Virginia. His father, an accomplished, formerly touring musician, easily aided in directing Shaun's love for music at a very early age, and after years of performing as a budding, local solo artist in Virginia, Shaun formed what would be the beginning of The Shaun Peace Band. With poise & passion, and now with a dedicated, experienced, multifaceted backing band, he would immediately go into production of his debut album, aptly titled, "Finally Begin," recorded at the Legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The album garnered instantaneous acclaim, and Shaun & his band set out on a mission to spread their message & music to the masses.
Characterized by their musically diverse, electrifying live shows & rigorous touring schedule, The Shaun Peace Band has built a loyal following of listeners worldwide. It is also this characterization that has led them to share the stage with Shinedown, Third Eye Blind, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Lakeside, Keith Horne, J.J. Plasencio (of Sixpence None The Richer), Chico De Barge, Klymaxx, Phil French (of Brian McKnight), and many more...
Jason Walker grew up in Pittsburgh, singing in church choirs and then in local R&B and Blues bands. He first shined on the national spotlight with a winning performance on TVâs Its Show Time at the Apollo.
Following his TV debut, he moved to New York City and was quickly signed to dance music icon Junior Vasquez's, label, JVM, where he recorded two albums, âThis Is My Lifeâ and âFlexible,â garnering three Top 10 Billboard hits (âMy Life,â âNo More,â and âMovinâ Onâ), two Billboard #1s (âFoolish Mind Gamesâ and âSet It Freeâ) Jason and Tony Moran first met through Junior Vasquez when Vasquez
commissioned Tony Moran to remix âSet It Free.â Jason would go on to receive 2 IDMA (International Dance Music Award) nominations including one for Best Breakthrough Dance Artist.
In 2010, Walker released his third full-length album âLeave It All Behindâ independently, landing his seventh Top 20 Billboard Dance hit. His eighth release, âRaise Your Hands,â climbed to #17 on the Billboard charts. He followed with âBeat Donât Stopâ (a song that peaked at #5 on Billboard), âTell It To My Heartâ (an explosive re-imagining of Taylor Dayneâs pop classic, produced by Bimbo Jones, that hit #10 on Billboard), âSo Happyâ and âSay Yesâ (his third and forth Billboard #1s).
To support their newly released single âIâm in Love with You,â Tan Man Music has commissioned remixes from some of the top names in dance music, including Rosabel, Moto Blanco, Sted E and Hybrid Heights, Mike Cruz, Tommer Mizrahi, Strobe, Dinaire and Bissen, Boris, and more.
Moran and Walker also re-enlisted videographer Karl Giant, the director of the âSo
Happyâ and âSay Yesâ music videos. Giant, in turn, brought in artist Randy Polumbo,
whose work has exhibited at the Bass Museum in Miami, Art Basel Miami Beach,
Burning Man and Coachella, as well as a few World champion and Olympic ice skaters, to create a visual work of art for âIâm in Love with You.â
(Late Show) Luxury Machine (Vinyl Release) with Special Guest Leo D'Angelo
The Legendary Shack Shakersâ hell-for-leather roadshow has earned quite a name for itself with its unique brand of Southern Gothic that is all-at-once irreverent, revisionist, dangerous, and fun. Led by their charismatic, rail-thin frontman and blues-harpist JD Wilkes, the Shack Shakers are a four-man wrecking crew from the South whose explosive interpretations of the blues, punk, rock and country have made fans, critics and legions of potential converts into true believers.
After taking more than a year off to work on other projects (including JD Wilkes's book "Barn Dances & Jamborees Across Kentucky"), the band is re-mobilizing in the fall of 2014 much to the excitement of many a Shack Shaker fanatic. Despite the groupâs time off, their reputation for intensity has stuck with them. On stage, JD has been compared to the likes of Iggy Pop, David Byrne, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The Nashville Scene named Wilkes âthe best frontman in Nashvilleâ in 2002, while former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra has called JD âthe last great Rock and Roll frontman.â Having joined the band in early 2012, garage blues guitar player Rod Hamdallah--who also lends his prowess to Wilkes's side project âJD Wilkes and the Dirt Daubers'--is back in the Shack Shakersâ lineup. The rhythm section is rounded out with Brett Whitacre on drums and Mark Robertson thumping out the upright bass.
Although not legendary upon being named, the band has grown into its reputation the last several years due to their heavy tour schedule, six critically acclaimed studio albums, and songs that have been featured on television shows such as HBOâs True Blood. Past tour mates and fans include Reverend Horton Heat, Rancid, The Black Keys, Slim Cessnaâs Auto Club, and Hank Williams III. Robert Plant is also a noted Legendary Shack Shakers fan, and picked the band to open for him on his 2005 tour of Europe. Plant named the band's third album Believe as one of his favorite records of 2005. The list of esteemed admirers goes on to include horror novelist Stephen King, who listed âCB Songâ as among his iPodâs Top Five in a 2008 Entertainment Weekly article. Such a wealth of devoted fans over the years has only added to the mystique that the Legendary Shack Shakers possess, carrying them down the road toward new creative pursuits and barn-shaking tunes.
Highly Suspect with Special Guests DJ Redbees, Monk Tamony - Presented by 105.9 The X, Opus One & PromoWest North Shore
"Our groundbreaking tour will continue changing lives and connecting people for a second year in a row. This tour started off with the premise of allowing creators to share their stories with their fans, who may be going through similar experiences.
The audience was able to unite with one another in a welcoming environment and connect like never before. People who might have come alone, left with new friends and an unbreakable bond with the cast. There were so many amazing responses from fans and parents alike about the positive energy that Love is Love had- we just had to bring it back!
Love Is Love is here to prove that love is stronger than fear, hate, and adversity. We're excited to announce Ally Hills, Louie's Life, Jackson Krecioch & Larray as our 2018 cast of the Love Is Love Tour! These four creators will encourage their audience to have fun, embrace one another, and put love first. Are we coming to a city near you? Tickets are available now! DO NOT MISS OUT!"
An Evening With Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. & Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band
THE LEGENDARY ILS SONT PARTIS BAND
featuring BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO JR.
"Keeping the legacy of BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO Alive"
One of the best bands in America.
â The New York Times
BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO was the preeminent ambassador of Louisiana's zydeco music. If youâve gotten into zydeco music, or felt its influence, or watched the world celebrate this great aspect of Louisiana culture over the past 30+ years itâs likely been because of Buckwheat Zydeco and his Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band. No other zydeco artist has come close to selling as many records or exposing the music to more people around the world. Buckwheat Zydeco and his Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band has played many major music festivals around the world, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Summerfest, San Diego Street Scene, Bumbershoot, Montreaux Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and countless others.
On September 24,2016 Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Jr. passed away when he lost his battle with cancer.
Stanley "BUCKWHEAT" Dural, Jr. was the fearless leader of the Legendary Ils Sont Partis Band. The BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2009, and capped it with the release of the Grammy Award-winning Alligator CD, Lay Your Burden Down. In February of 2010 the album won for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album. Buckwheat Zydeco had been nominated four previous times in three different categories. This was the bandâs first Grammy win. The Legendary Ils Sont Partis band members have appeared with Buck on shows such as David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Conan Obrien, Carson Daily, CNN, The Today Show, MTV, NBC News, CBS Morning News and many others. The band has performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, both President Clintonâs Inaugurals, and also with the Boston Pops to name a few special events.
Taking what he learned from his father over the past three decades,
Sir Reginald Master Dural is leading the Legendary Il SONT PARTIS BAND- and keeping the Buckwheat Zydeco legacy alive. Sir Reginald will assume the role of the lead vocalist, accordion player and keyboardist. Along side him is his fatherâs long time friend Bassist and Musical Director of 33 years, Lee Allen Zeno. The other Il Sont Partis band members who performed with Buckwheat Zydeco for a quarter century or more includes Drummer Kevin Menard, Rub Board Mathew Roberts and Trumpeter Curtis Watson. Also joining the band, Buckâs long time friend Louisiana legend and Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame Guitarist Paul "Lil Buck" Senegal.
Meet fellow musicians, collaborate on songs with others and refine your songwriting techniques with the help of a group environment. Open to all interested in attending even if you do not wish to participate, and open to all skill levels.
Eric Sommer with Special Guest Steve Bodner of Damaged Pies
The Breeders started life as a side project for Kim Deal of the Pixies, Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, Josephine Wiggs of the British band The Perfect Disaster, and Britt Walford of Slint. They recorded the album Pod with Steve Albini in a mere ten days, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The album was released on 4AD in 1990 to critical acclaim. The press dubbed the Breeders an Indie Supergroup, but the band were able to play only two London shows before returning to their day jobs.
During another hiatus in 1992, Josephine flew to Dayton, Ohio, where Kim had recruited her sister Kelley to learn lead guitar, and stolen powerhouse drummer Jim Macpherson after seeing him play in a local band. They broke an exhaustive rehearsal schedule only to watch nightly re-runs of Star Trek The Next Generation.
The Breeders first tour launched in June 1992 in a snooker hall behind Warrington Rugby Club, Manchester, in the UK. Two days later, they supported Nirvana in Dublin and Belfast, and then performed at Glastonbury. After 27 sold-out US shows that fall, the band drove cross-country to San Francisco to record Last Splash, (released August 1993). The video for the single Cannonballâdirected by Kim Gordon and Spike Jonzeâwas in heavy rotation on MTVâs 120 minutes throughout the fall. The band provided support for Nirvanaâs In Utero tour, then in January 1994 they traveled to Australia, Japan, and Hawaii, where they were shot for the cover of Rolling Stoneâonly to be supplanted by the âLadies of Melrose Place.â That summer they embarked upon the epic Lollapalooza â94; the Melody Maker opined, "Kim's nicotine-stained vocals [are] the very spit of wasted eleganceâ¦â the Breeders are âprobably the most casually brilliant band aroundâ and Last Splash went platinum. Whatever that means.
In 2013, Kim, Kelley, Josephine and Jim reunited for the 20th anniversary of Last Splash. 4AD reissued the album as a deluxe box set, and the âclassic" lineup of the Breeders (augmented by violinist Carrie Bradley) toured the US, Europe, Austrailia and South America, performing the album at festivals, and playing eight months of sold-out shows. In London, they played Last Splash and Pod back to back, a tour de force they went on to repeat several times. The final run of shows took them across country from Dayton to L.A.âdubbed by Kelley the âMid West Coast Tourââculminating in a performance supporting Neutral Milk Hotel at the Hollywood Bowl.
As the end of the reunion tour approachedâKim, or was it Kelley?âbroached the idea of carrying onâand the Breeders started working on material for a new album. They will play shows this fall, including a show with Arcade Fire in late October.
Jim Avett with Special Guest Dan Zlotnick Presented by Opus One & PromoWest North Shore
Doors will open an hour early at 6pm for extended kitchen service. Come have dinner with us before the show!
Jim Avett of Concord, North Carolina, is the son of a Methodist minister and a classical pianist who grew up in a home full of love and music, a home where he learned the importance of hard work and honest living. He and his wife instilled these same values in their children, tempered with a lot of fun, and of course, music. Jimâs guitar was an ever present instrument, and there was always singing.
As much as he enjoyed writing and performing music, Jim put his family first and spent 35 years running his welding company, building bridges along much of the east coast in order to provide for them. After retiring from welding, he returned to music and recorded Jim Avett and Family, a collection of gospel music, with his children, Bonnie, Scott and Seth in 2008. Soon after, in 2010, he released Tribes, a collection of original tunes ranging from soulful love ballads like the title track to the more lighthearted, "Fight with a Bottle of Booze". In Second Chance, Jimâs latest offering, the influences of classic country and early rock and roll are apparent. Once again, he draws on life experiences to write songs about love ("Pictures in the Attic"), boyhood memories, ("Willard"), and loss ("Holy Ground").
You can find Jim performing in listening rooms and at festivals from the Southeast to New England. His shows are a combination of beloved country tunes, his original ballads, and the stories he tells to introduce them. Once comes away from a Jim Avett performance with the feeling that this is an honest man sharing his life and his love of music. Itâs like spending the evening on the front porch singing and talking with a good friend.
Ferdinand the Bull Album Release 'Painting Over Pictures' w/ Bindley Hardware Co. and Max Somerville (of Wreck Loose)
If you havenât panicked lately, youâre either blissfully ignorant or have gone completely clear. For the rest of us attempting to navigate the political, economical, and cultural carnage, Edvard Munchâs âThe Screamâ succinctly captures the statue of psychic dislocation. Or N.W.A.âs âThe Panic Zone.â Or Black Moth Super Rainbowâs Panic Blooms, the latest disorienting dystopian masterpiece from the experimental pop arsonists that haunt the black-leaved Pennsylvania woods.
For the last decade, BMSR and frontman TOBACCO have explored the periphery of evil and extreme color, alternating between absurdly bright beauty and the slashed throat sinister. A sound impossible to replicate, as though it burst fully formed from a paisley-painted fire hydrant stationed in hell. They combine the aesthetically gorgeous with the hideously ugly to create a psychedelic uneasiness usually only seen in old oil paintings. What if Goya or Bosch made ravaged vocoder pop? Or a neo-impressionist painter committed himself to creating slow woozy earworms so iridian and vivid youâd think he sliced off an ear in the process.
We know scarcely anything personal about TOBACCO. Thereâs his government name, Tom Fec. A few photos if you want to Google, most of them in a mask. Heâs done enough interviews where he patiently breaks down the creative process and the ideas espoused, but has mostly resisted the soul-snuffing admissions expected from contemporary musicians. In that vein, heâs closer to a Boards of Canada, DOOM, or Aphex Twinâperiodically visible but opaqueâemotional but unwilling to exploit the self-mythology and cult that cropped up around him.
So maybe this is why Panic Blooms is slightly startling. Never before has TOBACCO been so raw or direct in his lyrics. Itâs a messed up and bleeding account of depression and the shadow side of human frailty, full of gorgeous warped melodies that exist as their own genre, somewhere between late 90s Warp Records, dub, and chopped and screwed codeine drip. Itâs not drug music, itâs dragged music, oozing through the muck of the present moment, past mutating the present, demon melodies filtered through the vain search for light.
This is why Pitchfork claimed BMSR mastered the balance between the grotesque and beautiful. Spin hailed their âconsistently great records of mind-altering, sugar-coated, vocoder-heavy psychedelic pop.â Stereogum saluted their âexcellent haze.â
Encoded in a syrupy fog, TOBACCOâs lines stab with more ferocity than ever before. From the first track, the knives are out and slashing with chimerical violent imagery: mouths bleeding from razor blades stashed in tangerines and the ominous sensation of feeling haunted. There are sunset curses and diseased plants, sunburn fevers and doomsday downgrades, pink apocalyptic suns and sinister omens. Itâs reminiscent of the phrase used to describe surrealism: as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.
From the salvaged sounds of American juke joints, back porches, honky tonks and rock clubs, The Suitcase Junket conjures an entirely new sound in this essential rock collection, Pile Driver. The Suitcase Junket is Matt Lorenz: artist, tinkerer, swamp yankee, one man band. His is the road worn voice rising over the grind of a tube amped dumpster guitar, with wild double pitches of throat singing. From The Suitcase Junket's penchant for thrift and ingenuity comes this full length album his debut at Signature Sounds of original rock anthems, mountain ballads, blues manifestos and dance hall festivity, played on instruments built of broken bottles, twisted forks, dried bones, gas cans, shoes, saw blades, a toy keyboard, and an overhead compartmentâs worth of luggage.
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