Posts Tagged ‘Rock & Roll’
My Top Ten Favorite Lyrics (Or, What’s Left Behind To Shoulder Grows Weightless)
In what has become a presumably tiresome refrain amongst my musician friends, I’ve said more than once of late that I’m not sure I’ll ever release another album. Sure, I’m releasing my Live From Rockwood Music Hall LP on November 19th. And yeah, I have plans for a big live recording of my “greatest hits”…
Read MoreThe Next Big Thing
I knew I was in the right place when, ten paces into the student center, I found myself engaged in a conversation about personal responsibility and morality. Aaaah, academia. I sat on the steps of NYU’s Judson Memorial Church, CMJ Music Marathon registration headquarters, there in the shadow of Washington Square Park, for a few…
Read MoreThe Rainbow Connection
When I was about nine-years-old, my mom had a record called, “I’m Getting My Act Together And Taking It On The Road.” I never listened to it myself. I never had to; it was on the record player incessantly. The single was called, “Strong Woman Number.” It was a post-ERA, liberation song full of self-awareness…
Read MoreLive Blogging The “Holiday Benefit, Volume II” Recording Session
On December 1, the follow up to our now-annual holiday benefit compilation — aptly titled “Rebel Spirit Presents: A Holiday Benefit” — will be released at New York City’s Canal Room. This year’s record features twelve holiday covers and originals from New York City singer/songwriters like Brent Shuttleworth, Casey Shea and Rosi Golan, plus our…
Read MoreBenjamin Wagner “Live At Rockwood Music Hall” Due November 19
I’ll be releasing a new EP, “Live At Rockwood Music Hall,” on November 19th. The 8-song recording will be available exclusively on Authentic Records Online and iTunes. “Live At Rockwood Music Hall” tracks were culled from three separate Rockwood Music Hall performances over the course of sixteen months: March 25, 2007; July 10, 2008, and…
Read MoreRoll Your Windows Down, Part III
All the best stories are trilogies (or should have been): Star Wars, The Bible, Lethal Weapon. There’s something elemental to the rise, fall, and major lift. And all the best heroes go out on top: Perseus, Odysseus, James Dean. Tonight then, to that end, we celebrated the cacauphonous conclusion of the Lower East Sides’ favorite…
Read MoreJamie Leonhart & Chris Abad Bring Christmas To October
It may have been a bit out of sync with yesterday’s balmy, October weather, but the holiday spirit was in the air. And so it was that — just as the sun began to set on a crisp, fall afternoon — I retired to our cramped walk-in closet and began assembling my little MacGyver recording…
Read MoreGoodnight Two Timing Blues
You’re sitting in a windowless, fluorescent-lit conference room on the seventeenth floor of a Midtown corporate headquarters reviewing the network’s Q4 Programming Calendar when it dawns on you. You’ve promised your best friend, a guy you’ve known since you were ten-years-old, that you’d meet him in back home for his induction into your high school’s…
Read MoreUnderground
Dear Ben, In just a few weeks, you’ll be laying in a hospital bed with a broken jaw. You’ll look in the mirror but — what with those wired teeth and that Elephant Man swelling — fail to recognize yourself. It’s a whole lotta’ trauma on account of a girl, and a knuckleheaded football player,…
Read MoreBest M*therf*ckin’ Crew Ever
Hangin’ with the best m*ther*ckin’ crew ever makes me the luckiest m*ther*ckin’ dude ever. I mean, I don’t wanna’ overstate anything, but tens days ago, I was laid out on a slab of stainless steel, shaved, intubated, swabbed with iodine, and incised. Tonight, I was stompin’, singin’ and scissor kickin’. But tonight wasn’t about me.…
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