Maryland Public Television (PBS) often dedicates a big chunk of its Saturday Night lineup on its "MPT 2" channel to music performance. Tonight, June 4th is no exception. Beginning at 11pm, they kickoff the entertainment with "Live from the Artists Den" with Jakob Dylan performing in the Refectory of the Desmond Tutu Center in NY.At Midnight, MPT 2 turns to Memphis, running a series of "Sun
Last summer we featured a duet with Ben Arthur and Rachel Yamagata. Today, we have yet another beautiful collaboration with Ben and another female artist we love, Vienna Teng . Vienna Teng In this video/track, Ben Arthur and Vienna debut a brand-new video series, Dubway Days. The two artists have just one day to write and record an original song together. In this fifth and final episode of the five-video series, (above) it's crunch time to finally [...]
While heavily engrossed with graduate school, Vienna Teng escaped her duties at UMich this past weekend and flew to Colorado with frequent collaborator Alex Wong . The duo supported Glen Phillips, playing to a sold-out crowd at the Soiled Dove Underground before heading to Vail on Saturday. I'd never seen (nor heard) Vienna and Alex prior to Friday night, but was easy won over by the superior musicianship on display. Alex performed two new originals during the set, the first being a song recorded in December to benefit NYC's City Harvest . Please show [...]
Matt White Performs On The Rachael Ray Show 2011 Tour Dates Matt White kicked off the New Year with an acoustic performance on the Rachael Ray Show on Wednesday, January 5th. Matt played his single "Falling In Love (With My Best Friend)" off his latest record It's The Good Crazy , released this past Fall on Ryko . Check out the video (link below), which features some great chitchat from Rachael herself, who [...]
One of my most favorite times of the year happens at the end of every January: the Ann Arbor Folk Festival put on by The Ark . I start to get super excited about it generally in late October when the line-up starts to be announced starting with the main headliners and slowly filling out the bills with smaller more regional acts. The first night of the festival is generally full of artists who are expanding the traditional folk genre. Past Friday night acts have been Ben Folds, Jackie Greene, Jeff Tweedy, Rufus Wainwright, and Jay Ferrar & Ben [...]
Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised. ♫ The Lucksmiths - A Hiccup In Your Happiness ♫ Final Fantasy - This is the Dream of Win Regine ♫ Explosions In The Sky - Your Hand In Mine (with Strings) ♫ Paolo Nutini - Autumn [...]
bumbershoot This year Seattle's Bumbershoot marked its 40 years anniversary with an outstanding lineup of both critically acclaimed and up-and-coming musicians. Legendary Bob Dylan, folk goddess Neko Case, funky soul performer Jamie Lidell and the Mediterranean Balkan Beat Box are just a few to name. Following the Aurgasm spirit, below are a few acts we wanted to share with you. The Budos Band Aurgasm featured The Budos Band grabbed our attention [...]
Pianist and songwriter Vienna Teng's first live album, entitled The Moment Always Vanishing, is now available for download on Amazon and iTunes. Recorded at shows in New York City and San Francisco last December, the release chronicles Teng's 2009 tour with percussionist Alex Wong, who also sings backgrounds in the recordings. The 24-track album contains 14 songs, along with 10 tracks of stage banter. Teng even gets a bit adventurous, lending her sultry voice to an intruiging cover of Radiohead's Idioteque . As well as digital download, the release is available from Vienna's website [...]
Other than Steven Spielberg, Vienna Teng may be one of the best things to come out of last hometown, Saratoga, CA. Easily one of the best Idioteque covers out there. - Albert
This Saturday, January 9th, is gearing up to be the most frustrating night in recent local folk music history, thanks to a huge convergence of talent in the Boston area. I've got third row tickets to see Greg Brown at Sanders Theater - a great place to see a folkfan's favorite wry basso and sensitive songwriter, who once told me a hilarious anecdote about being asked to sign a woman's breast, "and I had to hold it down with my other hand, it was so jiggly" - so I'm not really disappointed [...]
It's that time of year again! Following are my Top 15 Albums of 2009. As usual, I tried to balance the order of the list between what I personally perceive as artistic merit (quality of songwriting, vocals, and instrumentation) and basic listenability (how many times I played the album throughout the year). I've included some new commentary and brief quotes from the original reviews. Click on the album titles to read the full reviews, purchase the albums, and in some cases download mp3s... Muruch's Top 15 Albums of 2009 [...]
This is from her album Warm Strangers released in 2004. I have a couple of her songs in my files but can't tell you why or from where. As I was trolling for today's music, I found this, gave a listen, liked it and so here it is for your listening pleasure. MP3 File yousendit
Let's hop into UI's archives and see what ancient creaking box of treats lies in wait for our greedy pawing pleasure. That's right boys and girls, it's time to Flashion Backward and fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. Today, we're peering into Vienna Teng's bag o' tricks. And what a strange mix of treats Teng has for us: Is she a folk singer, pure pop girl, a classical pianist or an a cappella tweeter? Don't know, don't care. All I know is I want [...]
Tomorrow is the last Wednesday of the month, and that means it's time for another installment of Tennessee Shines live from the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville. Can you believe the concert series started one year ago this month? Tomorrow's show is actually the first show of season two. Here's a link to a story about the origins of the series . I linked it once before, but it's still a good read. For the first show of season two, things are going [...]
Teng's musical style incorporates folk, pop, classical piano, and a cappella influences. She uses piano as her primary instrument and charges her lyrics with emotion, narrative, and personal history. Teng is a baseline alto but sings over a wide range. Inland Territory is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Vienna Teng. It was released in Germany on February 6, 2009, and is released in
Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe , who has made a career of covering, crafting and performing warm, lyrical songs with little more than an intensely rich, emotional voice, strong piano skills, and a heap of moxie, was recently refused entry into the UK for a music festival , a casualty of the United Kingdom's increasingly stringent rules for touring artists, which in turn seem to be part and parcel of the insane and inappropriately panicked global response to the fear of terrorism. We've covered Allison's work here before, and her manager Adrian even offered us some [...]
I don't usually post tributes or personal stories to this site, but it's been an unusual month. The loss that I referred to a few weeks ago was the death of my 92 year old Grandma. This week my best friend's grandmother (who was even more of a Grandma to me than my own) also died. I'm not the type to bear my emotions in a public post, and I don't plan to start now. But I've been listening to the following song a lot and thought it would be nice to share... I [...]
Ed Harcourt , the Londoner who just released the gorgeous EP "Russian Roulette" [see last week's post ], plays an intimate show at downtown's Bordello. ... John Vanderslice [pictured], getting some of the best reviews of his already well-reviewed career for his new album "Romanian Names" [downloads below], visits the Troubadour, accompanied by Sweden's the Tallest Man on Earth . ... Cursive segues from Sunday's show at the El Rey to a gig tonight at the Glass House. ... June residencies wind up in celebratory fashion, with newly signed Fool's Gold supporting [...]
As you might have noticed, lately I've developed a thinly-veiled preference for covers. Should I face it and just transform this blog into a covers-only one? I admit there are lots of pros to posting covers. They take less time to prepare draft, the source is perpetual, and I love seeing songs I heard before in new coats. Plus any song covered should, by default, be at least half-decent. I do have a thing for rarities, be it covers, remixes, acoustic versions, demos or unreleased tracks. But on the other hand, I still want to talk about new artists and [...]
EARVOLUTION
From Go to Whoa
Flat Response
Band Weblogs
Candy For Your Ears
Thieves By Tuesday*
aurgasm
One Thirty BPM
spacetoasters
Cover Lay Down
Muruch
Keep the Coffee Coming
Uncensored Interview Blog
A Fifty Cent Lighter & A Whiskey Buzz
The Cover Lovers
Vienna Teng - Idioteque [Radiohead]
The Mood Indicator 2.0
Buzz Bands
Zeon's Music Blog
Jay-Z & Kanye West - Ni**as In Paris (Explicit)
CHROMATICS "INTO THE BLACK"
Crystalfilm
Childish Gambino - Heartbeat
St. Vincent - 'Cheerleader'
Diplo - "Climax" (MP3 Stream)
Out This Week 2/14
Jackback Feat. David Guetta & Nicky Romero – Wild One Two
Listen: Diplo and Usher – “Climax”
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
