Brooklyn Heights’ writer & author John Kenney’s debut novel “Truth in Advertising” was released this week by A-list publisher Simon and Schuster. The book explores the fictional life of a modern day ad pro—after Kenney worked as a copywriter in NYC for 17 years and as a New Yorker magazine contributor since 1999.

It was reviewed in Tuesday’s Boston Globe (albeit not too kind)… In addition, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which published a Q&A with the writer today, notes: “Through his fictional character Finbar Dolan, Kenney offers a candid and humorous vision of what it truly means to be an advertising professional, delving not only into Dolan’s professional life, but also the inevitable complications of romance and family relationships.”

In the Eagle profile, the (very handsome) Kenney also shares some sweet smack about living in Brooklyn Heights:

It is nice to live not far from where Walt Whitman strolled. I moved to Brooklyn in 1998. I was living on the Upper West Side, in an apartment I couldn’t really afford. I came over to visit a friend one afternoon in Brooklyn Heights. I’d never been to Brooklyn. I found an apartment a few months later and have lived in the neighborhood ever since. My wife and I have two children and the apartment is getting noticeably smaller. Last spring we drove to the suburbs of New Jersey and Westchester. All lovely. But we came screaming back to Brooklyn each time. We love it.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/54340

Presidential Scholar & St. Francis Political Science Professor Frank Sorrentino will lead a discussion on “The Presidency, The FBI and Martin Luther King” at the St. Francis College Founders Hall on Wednesday, February 13 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. The free lecture is open to the public.

To honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and mark Black History Month, the discussion will focus “on the web of relations between various parties that resulted in counter-intelligence activities against Dr. King. These activities included surveillance and the release of information to news outlets and other prominent parties such as members of Congress, religious leaders, university presidents, as well as foundations and other significant donors to Dr. King and his organization. These measures also helped foment feuds among various civil rights leaders and organizations.”

The theme of the talk is exposure of the political battle for power and policy in America, which dovetails into the subject matter of Dr. Sorrentino’s new book, “Presidential Leadership and the Bureaucratic State,” published by Outskirts Press. A book signing of the newly published work will take place after the lecture.

St. Francis College is located at 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/53949

TONIGHT: Brooklyn Heights PS 8 is hosting its fourth annual “Night To Celebrate Reading,” with nearly a dozen authors participating, along with “wine, cheese, hors d’ouevres, author readings and hilarity.” The place: Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO at 16 Main Street, 7-10 p.m. Adults only, please.

This year’s authors include Katie Moline, Jeff Newelt, Monte Burke, Katie Roiphe, Dan Janison, Kevin Holohan, Tad Friend, Matthew Aaron Goodman, Seth Kaufman and more. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door, benefiting PS 8. More info here. See the flyer below.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/51816

Author L.V. Salazar’s “The Ghosts Of Brooklyn” offers spooky tales of a “house of suicides” in Brooklyn Heights, demonic wolves in Prospect Park and a coven of sperm-stealing witches in DUMBO. Writer Natalie O’Neill spoke with the self-proclaimed ghost specialist in The Brooklyn Paper.

In the piece, he describes “ghosts” as such: “Imagine two rooms connected by a revolving door. One is life and the other is afterlife. A ghost gets stuck in the revolving doors. They didn’t fulfill their purpose in this world—or something terrible & tragic happened—so they go around in circles for eternity.”

In his book of ghost stories, among other wicked happenings, a man bursts into flames in Brooklyn Heights. Fun! Read O’Neill’s interview here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/49743

Billy McCarthy and Eric Sanderson formerly of the critically acclaimed Pela formed the group with drummer Rob Allen. Their debut album Rise Ye Sunken Ships was released in June. The collection chronicles the emotions and challenges faced by McCarthy over a year where he lost his mother as well as his brother James. In our interview, he tells the story of how his James’ struggle with schizophrenia led him deeper into the complicated web of the criminal justice system.

McCarthy also discusses working with Emmy Award winning director Matt Mills on their video for “Chapel Song”.

The band is playing several CMJ 2011 showcases this week before heading out to the U.K. to support Glasvegas on their tour.

Also out this week is the video for the band’s next single, “Book of James” which tells the story of McCarthy’s brother.

First up – The Kin. The NYC based trio featuring Aussie brothers Thorald and Isaac Koren along with percussionist/legend Shakerleg (he’s Kanai Dutta meets Buddy Rich while channeling Animal) have the distinction of being our most viewed Brooklyn Bugle Session.

The band have also been generating quite a buzz recently. Along with We Are Augustines, they made the NY Daily News’ list of 15 Bands to See at CMJ 2011. Last week, Thorald and Isaac staged Dinner with Thieves, part dinner theater and part showcase at Australian restaurant Kingswood in Manhattan.

Bon Appetite writes about the experience:

Guests, who had signed up in advance, were told to order a special drink at the bar, at which point they got a packet of papers with a warning not to open and to await further instructions scrawled on the outside. It may have been the drink working its magic, but by the time the band burst in from the back stairs, angrily strummed an acoustic guitar, and demanded that its hostages march down to the basement (or else), I was actually down for some musical spectacle (rare for one as grumpy as I).

And they did not disappoint! No pyrotechnics, since that’s usually a bad idea in basements, but during and between courses, the band managed to happily distract me from the serious business of eating with an interesting mix of storytelling and songs. Their music, driven by acoustic guitar and two-part harmonies, fit the intimate space well, and they didn’t even make us help solve a murder mystery.

Also in attendance at the dinner, legendary producer Tony Visconti best known for his work with David Bowie and T-Rex. Seems that he’s got a thing for gifted musicians with a theatrical side – he’ll be producing The Kin’s new album. Not only that but Visconti, who regularly took bands to his mother’s Brooklyn home for dinner must also appreciate the fact that the Koren boys feature their mother in their performance piece.

The Kin

The Kin perform at Rockwood Music Hall Saturday (10/22). Details here.

One of our favorite sessions was with John Michael Rouchell aka MyNameisJohnMichael. The New Orleans based singer-songwriter usually appears with his full band – featuring a brass section – but his stripped down performance here will have you thinking about Tom Waits or Tim Buckley in their heyday. MyNameisJohnMichael perform at the Living Room on Friday (10/21). Details here.

Locksley lit up our studio with a performance of their hit “The Whip” as well as a Bob Marley cover song. They’ll be playing CMJ 2011 Wednesday (10/19) at the Rockwood Music Hall. Details here.

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: We Are Augustines from The Brooklyn Bugle on Vimeo.

Last but certainly not least is We Are Augustines. Our interview and other music from the band will be posted later this week but we couldn’t hold back on sharing their performance of “Strange Days” with you right now. They’ll be performing Wednesday (10/19) at the Ace Hotel. Details here.

Are you hitting CMJ this year? Who are you seeing? Comment below!

In our latest Brooklyn Bugle Session they perform their own “Downtown Train” along with a rousing cover of Bill Withers’ “Who is He and What is He to You”.

Check out our interview with them and learn more about the unique way they’ve invented to spread the word about their music. It might just surprise you!

The Kin are currently playing a residency at Rockwood Music Hall [196 Allen Street, Manhattan] every Thursday.

As for the song, “It’s about cool cars and Indiana Jones,” vocalist/guitarist Jesse Laz tells us half-jokingly in our Brooklyn Bugle interview. But seriously folks he adds, “It’s about a guy who’s under his woman’s thumb. ‘Whipped’ some might call it.”

The band was formed in 2003 while most of its current members were attending high school in Madison, Wisconsin.

They went their separate ways for college but quickly realized that “college sucks” and moved to Brooklyn to pursue life as a band. Jesse’s younger brother Jordan joined them three years later fresh out of high school.

Watch our full interview with Locksley here:

Bonus Track!

The band perform Bob Marley’s “I Need You So” –

Connect with the band:

Website: http://www.locksley.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/locksleymusic

Twitter: http://twitter.com/locksleymusic

MyNameIsJohnMichael is a 6 piece indie rock band born and raised in New Orleans, which began as a solo project in 2008 when lead singer John Michael Rouchell accepted a friendly challenge to write, record, and release 52 songs in one year.

Easy question and lazy journos aside, it opened up a broader conversation about songwriting during our Brooklyn Bugle Session interview.  For example, in a week where the biggest karoke competition on the planet is about to crown a new American Idol it begs the question, “is songwriting dead?”

“I ask myself that question every morning.  I worry a lot that the concept of the song is dead, that it’s antiquated that people don’t care about stories.”

As a performer, John Michael presents as a mix of Elvis Costello, Joe Cocker, Billy Bragg as channeled by Thom Yorke. Out of all those, it’s Costello who appears to have influenced Rouchell’s wordplay the most — especially in songs like “Her, I Think” and his latest single, “Orphan”.

Rouchell readily admits to being a fan of Costello’s and has the singer’s TV show, Spectacle,  to thank for inspiring him to write one of the songs on 52.

Lou Reed discussed songwriting on the program and the flack he received for the dark themes he explored on his seminal album Berlin. Reed’s take on his choice of subjects, Rouchell says, “if Shakespeare can do it why can’t I?”

And that’s when he decided, “I’m going to kill someone off in a song. This is gonna be great.”  The result – the final song on 52 “Althea and the Company Store“, which took him 10 minutes to write.  However, it’s the one that sticks with him the most from that year of writing.

Diving deeper into the Costello connection, it’s his 1983 album Punch the Clock (which featured legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker) that is the most sonically similar to MyNameisJohnMichael. Makes sense since a key component of the band is its horn section.

John Michael says the idea for brass came from a conversation with  band producer Raymond Richards.   He wondered, what sonic element would  ground the band’s music in New Orleans and give it  a sense of place, much like Dylan’s harmonica puts you in 1960s Greenwich Village or  Clarence Clemmons’ sax roots Springsteen’s music in New Jersey?

“Brass. It was the color I grew up hearing,” Rouchell says. “So it just made sense.”

Stripped down to guitar and vocal for our Brooklyn Bugle Session Rouchell performs  “When I’m Older”. This intimate performance gives the song, which Rouchell says is more of a pop tune on record, a bittersweet spin.

Rouchell  says he’s “insanely proud” of the band’s untitled new album, out later this year, which mixes classic New Orleans R&B with indie and the band’s anthemic trademark sound.

She’s recently released her first solo album in Canada (out in the U.S. on June 7), There Will Be Stars and is currently on tour. Born to an Inuk mother and a father from Newfoundland, she was adopted by an Inuit family and grew up in the Great North of Canada.

Find out how her background influenced her music and more in our interview:

A frequent visitor and lover of Brooklyn Heights, she performs “Elsa’s Lullaby” from her second album , Watching You Think (available now on iTunes) while sitting on a bench outside of Middagh Street’s Van Sickel Salon.

Peformance video, produced by theshaltzes, after the jump.

NEeMA by The MuseBox

Folk icon Leonard Cohen co-produced the new album. NEeMA was profiled by The Montreal Gazette recently:

But her relationship with the enigmatic Cohen, who also supplied the portrait of NEeMA for the cover art of Watching You Think, goes deeper than mere production advice.

“With the writing of these songs, he’s been part of that process since the beginning,” she says. “I started sharing my work with him. So he’s been kind of a teacher or consultant, supporter, mentor – whatever you want to call it – good friend for the entire process of this album.”

NEeMA says she met Cohen by chance roughly five years ago. They live in the same neighbourhood in Montreal and would run into each other at the cafe or in the park, where the two would eventually take her dog for a walk. Soon, he became “probably the biggest influence on my life in the past little while.”

“When he was in town, we started to hang out and share ideas about all sorts of things,” she says. “Eventually, I started to actually share songs with him. The friendship is what emerged first. After that, I started to share my music with him and my writing with him. He started drawing me. But that all came after.”

NEeMA on MySpace
Official site

In “honor” of Halloween, Coby performs “A Song About Me”  near the infamous “gates of Hell” at 10 Montague Terrace featured in 1977’s  horror masterpiece The Sentinel. Video after the jump.

Also featured in the clip is  a cameo by the King of all Food Tour Guides Famous Fat Dave, who coincidentally was showing some Aussies around Brooklyn while we were shooting.

Coby on the web: www.facebook.com/cobygrant www.myspace.com/cobygrant www.youtube.com/cobygrant01 www.twitter.com/cobygrant

Coby’s music on iTunes
Coby’s Fanfare For Love at Amazon.com