Before I moved out here (LA) I was living in New York and right around the time I was leaving you couldn't walk around the Lower East Side and avoid the endless repeat of Vampire Weekend's, then, EP that wasn't even officially out yet! Man, it must be hard to develop a sound these days... Anyway, I thought it was a catchy pop record, I appreciated their 70's Paul Simon vibe, and secretly high fived myself over the hometown pride (Cape Cod). I left a few weeks too soon to see those fabled Webster Hall shows where an unsigned band, without a record, from out of town, that had only been together for a few months was playing consecutive sold out nights in a big venue in NYC. I thought, like most that they would fade as quickly as they rose, not because they were unworthy of the attention, but because kids these days have the shortest attention span, and usually when something is good it gets imitated so quickly and so frequently that the market becomes saturated with bands that sound enough like them to get the label guys attention, which creates a "sound" and MTV has a show devoted to it hosted by P Diddy or some shit and AAARRRRG!! Somehow VW managed to skirt all of that and release that self titled album which is great. Highly recommended.

Anyhoo, my friend Zach has a friend in the band Secret Machines, who were the openers for the Wiltern show, so he invited wifey and I to check it out. The show started a little rocky as they were having monitor issues throughout the first 3 or 4 tunes. But then they shook out the bugs and started really killing it! Tight, crisp, clean, renditions of the tunes off of their album as well as a couple of new ones. Nothing too spectacular to report but they look cool, sound cool, have cool instruments, and are a lot different than many of the new bands out there. Quite nice to see some talent being recognized and deservedly rewarded.

i love these two, so i want you to love them too!

I played records back in September for The Aloha Rag Grand Opening. I would venture to say that AR is the hippest clothing store in NYC but I'm sure there are those who would disagree. One point that nobody can argue is that they know how to throw a party! They have beautiful clothes, a beautiful staff, and aren't afraid to dance, which says quite a lot for New York cool kids! Anyway, the pictures have finally made their way on to the internet (shot by our friend Brandon Harman). So I thought I'd share. All the pictures can be found HERE .

They also have a great blog HERE Enjoy!

Our friend and long time collaborator Apple Via and I produced a live music event for the television show Mad Men last night at The El Rey Theatre here in LA. Whitney and I got our start producing events, concerts, music festivals etc. It has been awhile since I've done one, and it really reminded me how much fun it can be. The Mad Men people are wonderful to work with, they are super talented and deserve all of the praise they have been receiving lately. The show was mainly a concert which featured the band that makes all of the music for the show, their musical director David Carbonara conducting, and the actors from the show singing songs from the 50's and 60's. The band was incredible! Joel Murray hosted (by hosted I mean he drank half a bottle of Whiskey, chain smoked, and told jokes in between acts), it would have made the Rat Pack proud! It was quite a spectacle... We decked the whole theatre out to look like it might have in 1959 including elaborate period correct backdrops, a full bandstand, chandeliers, everyone in tuxes etc. As an added bonus the entire audience turned up dressed to the nines in period clothing! Amazing! Come to think of it, this would be a great idea for a wedding!

Whit and Jess already had another shoot on the books so we decked out our friend Jiro Schneider (of PYT and Danceright fame) as a late 50's journalist and he took some pictures. He even brought his hasselblad, he really looked the part. What a rad night!

The last picture is my production team and I having a well deserved scotch after being on our feet for over 19 hours!

It's no news that I am a huge Johnny Cash fan. Anyone who gets my monthly cds (join HERE by giving me your address and I'll send them to you) knows that he is a regular on those comps. There is no need to go into why here, as it is no doubt obvious to everyone why he is so important. (right?) Right.

Anyway, Columbia did us all a favor recently and finally made available the entire recording of both of the shows on that legendary day in the begining of '68. It includes a ton previously unreleased songs by Cash, as well as numbers by openers The Statler Brothers, and Carl Perkins (who penned Blue Suede Shoes) but more importantly it includes a DVD of the entire performance! This is as raw as it gets, one of the countless moments in his long career where he just did what came naturally and out popped a masterpiece! Cash, along with soon to be wife June Carter, waked into a state prison in California and shored up his outlaw image with jailbird anthems that vividly evoked prison life with a country-folk sound that became roughly as enduring as the Bible.

You should stop everything and go to your local record store and buy this right now. (ok, you can read one more post, than you gotta go!) Also, I recently watched Johnny Cash's America on the Biography channel and it reminded me of how powerful this video is. This guy was no joke. HURT VIDEO

Since before I can remember I have made monthly cds for my friends. Way back when I was 8/9 years old my best friend David Roddy and I used to try to out do each other with the dirtiest rap tracks (the more cursing and nasty sexual references the better) NWA, 2 Live Crew, and Ice T were regulars (I would do anything for one of those old tapes...) Anyway, my taste has grown but the concept is the same. I will try to post up as many of these as I can but here is the current one for now. These are always a broad mix of old and new music from many genres. If you would like to receive these cds every month email me your address HERE and I will start sending them to you. Here is what made the cut this month.

1. Ou Es-Tu, Mon Amor? (Where Are You, My Love?) - Willie Nelson 2. The Smokey Life - Leonard Cohen 3. Angel from Montgomery - John Prine 4. I Found a Reason - The Velvet Undergound 5. Far From Me - Nick Cave 6. How To Disappear Completely - Radiohead 7. Flume - Bon Iver 8. The Kids Don't Stand a Chance - Vampire Weekend 9. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself - Morrissey 10. Wicked Annabella - The Kinks 11. Candy Man - Roy Orbison 12. Everyday - Buddy Holly 13. I Still Miss Someone - Johnny Cash 14. Every Night - Paul McCartney 15. Mr. Bojangles - Nina Simone 16. Another World - Antony and the Johnsons 17. A Hudson Cycle - Nico Muhly 18. Vide Cor Meum - The City of Prague Philharmonic 19. Reprise - Grizzly Bear 20. In Spite of Ourselves - John Prine 21. Frankie's Gun! - The Felice Brothers