THE WOODEN BIRDS PREMIERE "TWO MATCHSTICKS" VIDEO

Following up the release of their "best damn self-produced" tour video which premiered on Crawdaddy,  IFC.com hosted the exclusive debut of The Wooden Birds first video from their great new album Two Matchsticks.  Created by Justin Goldwater at Slowmobile, the hand crafted "artfully menacing" video for the album's title track follows magical and colorful evolution and destruction of some very interesting wood.  

The Wooden Birds have also been out showcasing new album tracks along with favorites from their outstanding debut Magnolia as well as gems from frontman Andrew Kenny's former band American Analog Set.  They rocked a very memorable show in LA where friend Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) joined them on stage to sing album track "Warm To The Blade" (he also sings this as a duet with Kenny on Two Matchsticks).  The Wooden Birds just wrapped their West Coast leg where they stopped for performances on both KEXP and Oregon Public Radio and are pausing for a short breath before hitting Chicago and the East Coast next week.

"One of the best albums of 2011" - Willamette Week

"a perfectly tailored record" - 4/5 AllMusic

"clear, unadorned lessons about life and love" - Pitchfork 7.3

"a superbly blended elixir of vocal harmonies and atmospheric twang" - Premier Guitar

Watch "Two Matchsticks" on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wvY3NXbEyA&

Hear The Wooden Birds' KEXP performance here: http://www.kexp.org/live/liveperformance.aspx?rID=33517

http://thewoodenbirds.com/

THE WOODEN BIRDS SUMMER TOUR

7/8 - Chicago, IL @ The Hideout (21+)
7/9 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Founders Brewery (21+)
7/10 - Toronto, ON @ The Drake (all ages)
7/11 - Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo  (all ages)
7/12 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott (18+)
7/14 - New York, NY @ Mercury (21+, 8pm)
7/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Rock Shop (21+)
7/16 - Washington, DC @ DC9 (all ages)
7/17 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl (21+)
7/20 - Austin, TX @ The Mohawk (all ages)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wooden-Birds/54720103553

http://twitter.com/thewoodenbirds

http://www.barsuk.com/bands/thewoodenbirds

REGGIE WATTS ROCKS CONAN, DOES 2 FREE NY SHOWS

Last night REGGIE WATTS again rocked Conan.  Catch him this week at TWO FREE SummerStage shows in NY!

Wed June 22 @ Central Park *Comedy Central taping
Friday June 24 @ Red Hook Park

MATT & KIM "BLOCK AFTER BLOCK" VIDEO MAKES MTV DEBUT

MATT AND KIM UNLEASH FLASH MOB-INSPIRED MUSIC VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE “BLOCK AFTER BLOCK”

Matt & Kim have done it again in their new video for “Block After Block”, the latest single off their album Sidewalks which premiered today exclusively on MTV and is now in rotation on MTV’s Hits and mtvU channels. The duo reunited with Jonathan Del Gatto, the director of their “Cameras” music video, to take the action-packed fun that is a Matt & Kim live show and bring it direct to the streets....Crowd surfing on the Brooklyn Bridge, performing in a Chinatown intersection, and taking over the NBC Rockefeller Plaza are just a few of the raucous scenes in M&K's new fun-filled music video.

SEE IT HERE!

WOODEN BIRDS PREMIERE TOUR VIDEO

Crawdaddy premieres The Wooden Birds new Tour Video this week, calling it "the best damn self-produced tour diary we’ve ever seen" and frontman/narrator Andrew Kenny "indie rock's Ira Glass"

The Wooden Birds are on tour now in support of the awesome new 'Two Matchsticks' LP.  Click For Dates


Andrew Kenny takes his Wooden Birds to Brooklyn and back for a lobster dinner, some quality minor league baseball, an old school dance off with Broken Social Scene and also previews some of the new album, 'Two Matchsticks' (Barsuk). Featuring Andrew Kenny, Sean Haskins, Leslie Sisson, Matt Pond.   http://thewoodenbirds.com/

ALINA SIMONE TALKS NEW BOOK & LP WITH THE WALL ST JOURNAL

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304392704576375701336848170.html

WTF WITH MARC MARON HEADS TO PUBLIC RADIO

 

Marc Maron's sensational WTF podcast is heading to public radio.  From the nearly 200 episodes of WTF With Marc Maron, a ten part series comprised of some of the most compelling interviews has been selected and edited for public radio with the help of The Sound Of Young America's Jesse Thorn and Nick White. The episodes will be distributed to public radio stations by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, distributors of shows like The Moth and Sound Opinions.  Among those WTF episodes set for airing are  Maron's in-depth conversations with Conan O'Brien, Judd Apatow, Louis CK, Carlos Mencia, Margaret Cho and Robin Williams.  For a full list, visit http://www.prx.org/wtf#episodes 

With nearly 20 million downloads since its launch in September 2009, WTF With Marc Maron is nothing short of a phenomenon.  The podcast regularly charts in the top comedy podcasts on iTunes and its enthusiastic and ever-growing audience includes not only fans of comedy, but those in the industry who hail WTF as essential listening. WTF With Marc Maron has been called a Must-Listen by The New York Times and Vanity Fair, and featured in Entertainment Weekly's "Must List" where it was called "a fascinating hour."  Along with his many accolades as a brazenly honest and effecting, if not accidental, journalist who is capable of drawing out the most compelling stories from his peers, Rolling Stone also named Maron "One of the Funniest People" of 2011.  

Maron, a legendary comedic writer and performer, who in addition to his bi-weekly podcasts, continues to tour as a stand up says, "It’s exciting that I could take the world I came from and bring it to public radio.” 

WTF episodes are set to air on Chicago's WBEZ, WNYC in NY, KUT in Austin, KCRW in LA, with many more stations set to also pick up episodes.

Any stations interested in airing the show, or for more about PRX and the radio version of WTF, go to http://www.prx.org/wtf

Find more info on WTF, full episodes, photos, apps, dates for WTF Live and more at http://www.wtfpod.com/

The Big Jewcy: Alina Simone - Rocker And Writer by Jason Diamond | Jewcy.com

The Big Jewcy: Alina Simone - Rocker And Writer by Jason Diamond | Jewcy.com

Songstress/Author Alina Simone talks Russia, writing, stage fright and lists her 5 favorite Jews.

ALINA SIMONE BRAINSTORMING SESH WITH EUGENE MIRMAN & STEPHEN ELLIOTT

 

ALINA SIMONE LIVE : 

6/4 – New York, NY @ End of Century, Abe’s Penny launch, 7:30 (175 Rivington)

6/8 – Brooklyn, NY @ WORD, Largehearted Lit reading series, 7:30

6/9 – New York, NY @ Joe’s Pub *Book Release Show, 7pm, guest Amanda Palmer

6/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Make Out Room, Rumpus event, 7pm

6/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Alexander Book Company, 12:30pm

6/15 – Porltand, OR @ Record Room, 7pm *reading and performance

6/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ LA Public Library, 7pm, w/ Eric J. Lawrence

6/20 – Boston, MA @ Brookline Booksmith, 7pm

6/21 – Portland, ME @ Space Gallery

HEAR THE FULL ALBUM BY THE BLACK SWANS AT SPINNER

The Black Swans release their long-awaited new album 'Don't Blame The Stars' today as the 2nd release for the newly relaunched Misra label.  Head over to Spinner.com to hear the album in full.  Next month, frontman Jerry DeCicca and bandmate Tyler Evans will touring as a two piece showcasing songs from the new album along with back catalog faves.  See you out there!

 

6/3 – Columbus, OH @ Rumba *Record Release Show

6/9 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bruar Falls

6/10 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery

6/11 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Shop

6/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Highwire Gallery

6/14 – New Haven, CT @ Café Nine

6/15 – Biddeford, ME @ The Oak and the Ax

6/16 – Northampton, MA @ Feeding Tube Records

6/17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Coco66 –Northside Festival

 

STREAM COOL NEW WOODEN BIRDS ALBUM IN FULL

HypeMachine is hosting an exclusive stream of the entire Wooden Birds album 'Two Matchsticks' well in advance of the June 7 release on Barsuk!  



http://thewoodenbirds.com/

THE WOODEN BIRDS GIVEAWAY 3 NEW SONGS

 The Wooden Birds are giving away their three song 'Two Matchsticks' EP! The free EP includes the title track from their great new 'Two Matchsticks' full length plus two unreleased covers treated with the understated and beautiful care that only The Wooden Birds can give to the two classic gems, Hall & Oates "Maneater" and Kenny Rogers' "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town."

The Wooden Birds frontman Andrew Kenny (American Analog Set, Broken Social Scene) breaks down the “Maneater” inspirato as such:  Hall & Oates get a lot of play in our van. On a tour with the Clientele in 2010, this gem was our regular warm up song at soundscheck. Over time, the goof grew into something that we worked on improving every night. We'd jam through our soundcheck so we could pop the collar on the chorus for "Maneater."  And this is where we wound up. A 4-way standoff with nobody learning how to play saxophone. C'mon!

For “Ruby,” Kenny says “It was an after-show karoke party outside of Detroit when drummer Sean Haskins burned down the place down with his tender rendition of this Kenny Rogers classic and it sparked The Wooden Birds desire to play this proper-like as a band.”  And that's just what they did.  When Kenny pleads “For godssake turn around” at the end of the song, it's downright chill inducing.

You can hear all three unreleased tracks for free below.  In exchange for an e-address, you can bonus out with a download of all three tracks AND get a big discount on a pre-order of The Wooden Birds 'Two Matchsticks' LP which includes featured guests Ben Gibbard of Death Cab and members of Ola Podrida.

And be sure to catch The Wooden Birds all star summer tour featuring Andrew Kenny (AmAnSet, BSS), Matt Pond (Matt Pond PA, Wooden Birds), Leslie Sisson (AmAnSet, Matt Pond PA), Sean Haskins and Chris Hansen (Matt Pond PA).
'Two Matchsticks' will be available June 7th on Barsuk.



THE WOODEN BIRDS ON TOUR

6/16 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room (all ages)
6/17 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (18+)
6/18 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar (21+)
6/19 - Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place (all ages)
6/23 - Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern (21+)
6/24 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir  (21+)
6/25 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill  (all ages)
7/8 - Chicago, IL @ The Hideout (21+)
7/9 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Founders Brewery (21+)
7/10 - Toronto, ON @ The Drake (all ages)
7/11 - Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo  (all ages)
7/12 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott (18+)
7/14 - New York, NY @ Mercury (21+, 8pm)
7/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Rock Shop (21+)
7/16 - Washington, DC @ DC9 (all ages)
7/17 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl (21+)
7/20 - Austin, TX @ The Mohawk (all ages)

 

ALINA SIMONE ANNOUNCES LP, BOOK, FREE SONGS & TOUR DATES

ALINA SIMONE ANNOUNCES NEW LP & BOOK

TWO NEW SONGS AVAILABLE ONLINE

SUMMER PERFORMANCES ALSO ANNOUNCED

 Alina Simone announces the June release of her highly anticipated follow up to her critically acclaimed 2009 LP 'Everyone Is Crying Out To Me, Beware' with a brand new full length of original songs entitled 'Make Your Own Danger.'  Perfectly artful and edgy, 'Make Your Own Danger' features the Ukrainian-born songstress at the forefront with voice and guitar backed a fantastic cast of musicians and exotic touches that include flute, autoharp, horns, Brazilian drumming and vocal loops.  Steve Revitte (Beastie Boys, Black Dice, Liars) produced the album and two of the new songs are currently available online:  album opener "Beautiful Machine" can be heard on Alina's site here . Head over to MTVHive.com to get a listen to another cool new song, "Glitterati," which features "a heavy dose of the auto-harp and cello to darken this song up proper."

'Make Your Own Danger' will be released next month as will the multi-talented Alina's new book "You Must Go And Win."  After the Editor in Chief at esteemed publishing house Farrar, Straus & Giroux discovered her music on Pandora, he asked Alina to try her hand at penning a book.  The results are Alina's very funny and on-point collection of must-read essays based on her journeys through the ever interesting world of indie rock. Bookslut called "You Must Go and Win" "the funniest essays I've read in years" and last week CBS Miami put the book in their "Best Beach Reads" list saying it is "an addictive collection of essays from brainy, critically acclaimed Russian-American songstress Alina Simone."

Alina was recently featured in the New York Times T Style Magazine which you can find here.   Catch Alina in select cities this summer where she will be performing new songs from 'Make Your Own Danger' and reading from "You Must Go And Win." 


ALINA SIMONE PERFORMANCES

6/4 – New York, NY @ End of Century, Abe’s Penny launch, 7:30 (175 Rivington)
6/8 – Brooklyn, NY @ WORD, Largehearted Lit, 7:30 w John Wesley Harding
6/9 – New York, NY @ Joe’s Pub *Release Show, 7pm, w guest Amanda Palmer
6/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Make Out Room, Rumpus event, 7pm
6/15 – Portland, OR @ Record Room, 7pm *reading and performance
6/16 – Los Angeles, CA @ LA Public Library, 7pm, w/ KCRW's Eric J. Lawrence
6/20 – Boston, MA @ Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
6/21 – Portland, ME @ Space Gallery





http://www.alinasimone.com/
http://www.facebook.com/alinasimonemusic
http://twitter.com/alinasimon
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