London-based singer-songwriter Julian Velard's piano pop sophomore album, Mr. Saturday Night, will be released in the U.S. on November 1st. It may not be an artistic masterpiece, but it's one of the catchier albums I've heard this year. The influence of 19802s Elton John and Billy Joel are evident in the ready-for-radio piano pop opener, [...]
Julian Velard - When the native New Yorker found a more welcoming reception in the U.K. for his witty, acerbic and vividly rendered piano pop, he decided to pack up and move...new London home has proven to be an inspiration as well as studio setting or his newest longplayer, released this spring in the U.K. and finally arriving stateside this fall // Release : Mr. Saturday Night (November 1) // Sounds like : British music hall theatricality becomes a component to the Velard stage persona, taking the album's title to a bow-tie-wearing semi-fictional [...]

An Evening Under The Bridge Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge, London Friday 11 March 2011 Under The Bridge is one of my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, but now I can add it as one of my favorite places to be, too. Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea Football Club , Roman Abramovich , recently opened the 500-capacity £20million nightclub quite literally under Chelsea's Stamford Bridge football stadium. I was looking forward to [...]

Anti-normative behavior is expected from most successful artists. There is little reason for them to pay much attention to the Top 40, since worthwhile artists do not derive their material from popular opinion. It may seem like a bold statement, but there is little purpose in devoting a large amount of time to a songwriter who sounds like everyone else on the radio. Listeners come to expect innovation but there is often a personal struggle for artists that wish to find the middle ground between accustomed accessibility and staggering innovation. This process often cannot be resolved through practice though, as [...]

Great news: I got un-fired! Thanks to some clandestine arm wrestling and a substantial pay cut, I got to keep my job. This is good considering the current economic conditions and whilst this job is far from perfect, it can serve as a haven in times like these. These past few days are proving a bit disorienting as I find myself making plans and changing headings with the ebbing of the (economic) tides; on Sunday I got fired, on Monday I was given a chance and today I was finally saved. All in all, it has been a [...]

YES! New Yorker Julian Velard is finally making a name for himself, and rightfully so. I've been following him for several years now, as he is a friend of a friend (thanks Mosh). It's exciting that people are considering him to be a breakout artist for 2009, even though he's been making music for quite some time now. He was more in the jazzy realm before, but now it seems as if he's entering the pop world a bit more. He's also getting publicity for his covers of Kings Of Leon, Madonna, and Chris Brown. Here's the Katy [...]

Grrrr, my internet's been cutting in/out all day... and the only cure is a monster batch of even more 80s covers! Here are some that didn't make the first cut , mostly because they don't carry the same personal resonance as some of those earlier picks. Some I just plain forgot to include and the 80s police got mad at me. The Pigeon Detectives - The Power of Love [originally by Huey Lewis & The News] Tropical Jazz Big Band XI - [...]

1. Eric Hutchinson - Ok, It's Alright with Me - There's not a lof depth here, just an irresistible chord progression hook and the moxy and voice to pull it off. RIYL: Jason Mraz, Gavin Degraw, Jamie Cullum, Maroon 5 [from Sounds Like This (re-release 5.20)| buy ] 2. Julian Velard - End of an Era - The velvety-voiced wonder is back with a preview of his debut LP The Planeteer , due this fall. Geek's been holed up in [...]