Browsing Tag

Video

Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: Courtney E. Smith Discusses Record Collecting for Girls

November 18, 2011


Author, music maven and former MTV programmer Courtney E. Smith discusses her book Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Timein the premiere edition PacMan Sessions. Smith has enraged some feminists with her book while also garnering praise for encouraging young women to enjoy and embrace music beyond their comfort zone.

Find out why you should never date a Smiths fan and why musicians make lousy boyfriends to why Boz Scaggs should never be on anyone’s playlist all while the author tackles a game of PacMan.


From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: We Are Augustines

October 21, 2011

Our latest session features Brooklyn based We Are Augustines.

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.

From the Web

Books

Video: Author J. Courtney Sullivan Discusses Her Best Seller, Maine

September 15, 2011

Park Slope resident/ NYT best selling author J. Courtney Sullivan sits in with the Brooklyn Bugle to discuss her latest novel, Maine.

Find out how she wove dollhouses, worm farming and real New England history into the book in our video interview.

Sullivan first gained notoriety with her debut novel Commencement in 2009, while still working as an assistant at the New York Times.

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: The Kin

June 28, 2011

Aussie brothers Thorald and Isaac Koren along with a former subway performer/percussionist known only as Shakerleg make up the NYC based combo The Kin.

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.

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: Locksley

June 12, 2011


Even if you’re not an avid follower of new music and bands, you’ve heard a Locksley song. “The Whip”, performed in our Brooklyn Bugle Session, has been used on many TV shows, movie trailers and commercials thanks in part to a licensing deal with MTV.

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

 

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: MyNameisJohnMichael

May 23, 2011

The first question most interviewers ask John Michael Rouchell of the band MyNameisJohnMichael, usually, is about the 52 songs he wrote in a year on a dare. Sure it’s interesting but the primary reason for the initial salvo is the fact that it’s in the first paragraph of his official bio:

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 52Althea 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.

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: Elisapie

April 15, 2011

We welcome Canadian singer/songwriter Elisapie as the third performer in our Brooklyn Bugle Sessions.

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:

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: NEeMA

November 29, 2010

We kick off the first of our Brooklyn Bugle Sessions with Montreal born singer/songwriter NEeMA.

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. Continue Reading…

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: Coby Grant Performs on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

October 27, 2010

Australian singer/songwriter Coby Grant is our latest guest on Brooklyn Bugle Sessions.  She’s in town for the big CMJ confab and will be playing live tonight (10/28) at the Rockwood Music Hall [196 Allen Street (between Houston and Stanton)].

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. Continue Reading…

From the Web