Knit November Newcomers and October Memoirs



For Nov. 19th I arranged another incredible night at the Knit, featuring the breakout stage debut of the most promising young female singer in New York, Aurora Rose. Also on the bill is the unparalleled acoustic virtuoso Kelli Rudick, the freewheelin' introspective indie folkster Carolyn Alroy, and the down and dirty alenative rock powerhouse that is Genetic Control. Tickets are available through TicketWeb. Take my advise, and don't miss this one!

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I wanted to thank everyone who made it out to see The Dig on Oct. 11th at the Knitting Factory. The gig was so incredible it was almost eerie how perfectly it went.

Jill Stevenson went on first, with a hauntingly beautiful acoustic set. (Check out her website for an awesome video of her song "Times Like These.") Then Bravestate went on, who are good friends of The Dig. They gave us a unique set of tight indie rock, with the enchanting Yvette on lead vocals and keys. They were followed by Lulu's Ascent, friends of Jill's from Woodstock, NY. They were the perfect mesh of rock and jam to grace the stage before The Dig set it on fire. The pics have made it to my computer, but I'm still working on how to upload them all to the blog in thumbnails. I'll get them up soon...



Thanks everyone!

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And make sure you're there Nov. 19th at the Knit!
Tickets are available here.

Coming up is my friend Elisabeth's benefit show for children's cancer at Sin-e. Don't miss it people! 11/10 on the LES.

Summer of Insanity

Sorry everyone for the lack of posts of late, as I've been a little sick for a bit.

So it's officially fall for a while now, and Halloween is right around the corner. It's time to face that the amazingly beautiful Summer '06 is gone, but let's take a moment to reflect for a moment on the live music of the last summer season.

This past summer I realized that music promotions and publicity was the route for me, and I started up with Rocks Off and Ariel Publicity. It was a pretty inspiring period for my life. I traveled around the globe a bit in a fairly frugal style, and I saw many fine concerts and festivals. Here's a recap for my friends who asked (all the concerts were in New York, NY unless otherwise noted):

Wed May 17 - Guns N' Roses (the current incarnation) at the Hammerstein Ballroom.
It was an interesting display, proving that Axl Rose truly is still a brilliant frontman and a powerful and visceral singer. Axl put together a good hard rock band, including the one-time Primus drummer Brain, but it required two halfway decent lead guitarists to even try to cover all of the Slash elements. Izzy Stratlin played on three songs, including "Patience," representing the only other original GN'R member to accompany Axl since the downfall of Guns. Also Sebastian Bach came out briefly, who Axl credited with giving him the cure to his recent loss of voice. All in all, it was a really good show, a solid hard rock band able to achieve powerful moments, with one of the greats on the mic.

Thu May 18 - New Riders of the Purple Sage at the Canal Room
Honestly, I came and went a few times during this show, all in all catching only a few songs. In between sets we enjoyed a fine meal at the Italian place next door. The New Riders are one of the original jambands, and I suppose they can be a lot of fun when one is in the mood for that type of thing. Playing wise they don't hold a ton of talent, and for an improv driven genre that is not a plus. However the show had it's moments, and the crowd was loving every one of them.

Fri May 19 - The Roots at Radio City
Well, a million and one people have blogged about this show. What more can one mention? I'm sure ya'll heard about Dave Chappelle's intermission standup, and how everyone at that show cannot reveal Dave's secrets. And I'm sure somebody must have told ya'll about the brief appearance of Jay-Z during the encore. But those were just the surprise cameos, not to mention the singular Mos Def and the fantastic Erykah Badu who were on the bill for that evening. For live hip hop, you can't beat an evening with The Roots crew.

Mon May 22 - Gov't Mule at the Bowery Ballroom

Wed May 24 - the New Deal on the Temptress Cruise Ship

Thu May 25 - Panic Channel at the Avalon

Fri May 26 - Soul Position (RJD2 + Blueprint) at the Bowery Ballroom

Sat May 27 & Sun May 28 - My Morning Jacket/Pearl Jam at the Tweeter on the Waterfront in Camden, NJ

Wed May 31 - Grace Potter/Mike Gordon and Ramble Dove at Irving Plaza

Thu June 01 & Sat June 03 - My Morning Jacket/Pearl Jam at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ

Fri June 02 - Radiohead at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia, PA

Then I went to Israel from Tue June 06 - Fri June 16 where I toured the country and got a chance to see my sister and her five little boys.

I flew back into Newark Int'l on June 16, ran across the airport and caught my flight just in time down to Nashville, TN for:

Fri June 16 - Sun June 19 Bonnaroo Music Festival, Manchester, TN


After which I spent some quality time with my other sister in her log cabin in the middle of nowhere in TN.

Tue June 27 - Derek Trucks Band/The Allman Brothers Band at Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY

Sat July 01 - Phil Lesh/G.R.A.B. at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ

Wed July 05 - Ellis Ashbrook/Zebu/Gary Wilson at the North Six in Brooklyn, NY

The weekend of July 8-9 I went up to the Berkshires in MA for a family reunion. It's truly beautiful out there in the summer.

Fri July 14 - Sun July 16 - AllGood Music Festival, Masontown, WV

Wed July 19 - Robert Randolph/The Black Crowes at Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY

Thu July 20 - Galactic/Umphrey's McGee at Summerstage in Central Park

Sat July 22 - Robert Randolph/The Black Crowes at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ

Wed July 26 - The Breakfast on the Half Moon Cruise Ship

Thu July 27 - The Samples at the Canal Room

Saturday, July 29th I got to see the Yankees lose horribly at the Stadium to Tampa Bay on one of the most disgustingly hot and humid days in the history of the Bronx. But I did get to go with my brother who lives in FL and the wonderful woman he eloped with just days before. Then when they went home, I went off to Chicago, IL for a week...

Fri Aug 04 - Sun Aug 06 Lollapalooza in Grant Park in Chicago, IL

Fri Aug 11 - Steve-o's Birthday Bash at the Knitting Factory (Old Office)
My birthday celebration that I was able to arrange through the great Dave at Rocks Off, which featured a bunch of my good friends performing.

Sat Aug 12 - The Lifters at CB's Lounge

The following weekend I had the pleasure to go out to Santa Fe, NM.

Wed Aug 23 - The Shins at the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, NY

Thu Aug 24 - Neko Case at the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, NY

Fri Aug 25 - Big In Japan/Kid Beyond/Amon Tobin on the Temptress Cruise Ship

Sat Aug 26 - Rancid at BB King's

and later that night...
P.B.S. on the Temptress Cruise Ship
(George Porter, Russell Batiste, Brian Stoltz)

Mon Aug 28 - Flaco Dominguez aka Jake Szufnarowski's 33rd Birthday with Bustle In Your Hedgerow on the Temptress Cruise Ship
(Joe Russo, Marco Benevento, Dave Dreiwitz, and Scott Metzger)

Wed Sep 06 - Damien Marley/Ben Harper at Summerstage in Central Park

Fri Sep 08 - Avengers at CBGB

Sat Sep 09 - Gov't Mule at the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, NY

and later that night...
The Breakfast at Coda

Tue Sep 12 - Citizen Cope at Tower Records on E4th St.

Wed Sep 13 - John Mayer at Webster Hall

Fri Sep 15 - Widespread Panic at Radio City

and later that night...
Outformation on the Temptress Cruise Ship

Sat Sep 16 - Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ

Sun Sep 17 - Lyle Lovett at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ

Mon Sep 18 - Flipper at CBGB

Wed Sep 20 - Bobby Previte and Brian Haas at the Knitting Factory (Tap Bar)

Mon Sep 25 - Lee Scratch Perry at CBGB

Wed Sep 27 - Chris Harford and the Band of Changes outside of Grand Central Station
(Chris Harford, Dave Dreiwitz, Scott Metzger, Eric Slick)

Thu Sep 28 - Eric Clapton with Derek Trucks at Madison Square Garden

Fri Sep 29 - I wished I was as Clapton again...

Sat Sep 30 - Eric Clapton with Derek Trucks at Madison Square Garden

and later that night...
Jounce at Lucille's @ BB King's

Well friends, I would go onto discuss the great music I've had the privilege to experience so far this month. But I think it's fair to end the summer music discussion with the end of September, with no better finale than an evening of Clapton and a free show after at BB's.

(I couldn't finish writing each and every concert blurb tonight, so I did the first few and will continue to update this blog as insomnia allows.)

Hey guys!

Please check out the web radio station for the PR firm I work for, Ariel Publicity:

Ariel Radio

Since the movie Ray came out chronicling the life of the outstanding Ray Charles, there has been newfound interest in a number of his songs. ""Georgia On My Mind"" in particular, written by Stuart Gorrell and Hoagy Carmichael in 1930 and made famous by Charles in 1960, has received a record number of hits in web search engines. I felt I would take this opportunity to pay tribute to both Ray, as well as the incomparable Richard Manual, in posting a video of Richard singing that very song with The Band.