Every once in a while you gotta take a leap of faith.  Just give something a listen to that may not be up your alley.  For me, that leap of faith was The Funky Knights.  I have some R&B appreciation in my background.  One of the slickest produced artists I remember (and just plain old liked) was the late Luther Vandross.  His albums were always clean, tight and had that smooth sheen.

I have to say, The Funky Knights come awfully close.  At least when it comes to the instrument production.

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Berlin poses with a neon copy of his Dean bass. A sweet sounding instrument as evidenced on his new album, "High Standards".

There used to be a blogger I worked with a while ago.  Anthony Medici, whom I admired for his tenacity, work ethic and integrity.  I especially respected him once he started to take on the major jazz publications and took them to task!  He also had some harsh words for a local public radio outlet near his hometown (Washington DC area).  But he knew his stuff about jazz, and were he still working for the blog, I would ask him to review Jeff Berlin’s new disc, and most likely ask him to do this interview.

It isn’t as though I am totally foreign to Berlin’s work.  I was first exposed to Jeff Berlin during his tenure with Bill Bruford’s fusion band, Bruford in the late 70’s.  Having recently purchased the “Bruford  – Rock Goes To College ” DVD, I was able to watch a young Jeff Berlin toss around riffs with the likes of Bruford, Allan Holdsworth, among others.

Berlin has come a long way…

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BOSCH are (from l to r) Christopher Brown, Charles Greenleaf, and Kevin Sims. I dig `em daddy-o!

I find it hard to find new music I LIKE.  Yeah, yeah, there are satellite channels, pay-radio, web-radio, TV “music” channels, friends, etc.  But just because there are multiple sources of input does not necessarily yield categorical output.

I like BOSCH.

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Princeton Record Exchange kicks off their 30th anniversary celebration on Record Store Day! 

2010 marks the 30th year of the Princeton Record Exchange, one of the leading independent music and movie stores in the USA. We are happy to invite our fans, friends and families to join us in a weeklong celebration including live music, raffles with prizes awarded every day, scores of freebies and a huge amount of limited edition merchandise. The party begins on Saturday April 17 with the 3rd annual Record Store Day, and continues through the week, culminating on Saturday April 24 at Princeton’s Communiversity festival. Read the rest of this entry »

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In this issue of Music You Should be Listening to:

Welcome to 2010! The Indie music world has been gearing up for these first couple months and MYSBLT is all a buzz for things to come. New Years Eve is one of the best nights for hearing good music, but only if you are willing to spend a little extra. So I will let you in on the secret to dropping less coin without sacrificing good tunes. For those of you who have been on the edge of your seats waiting for the new Vampire Weekend album, I will let you know what I think of my first couple listens. Want a hint? I am not happy. On the side of recent news, the Coachella 2010 lineup has been announced and we finally have news from the guys at Brand New who have been tormenting their fans with the possible release of God and the Devil on vinyl. And finally, MYSBLT will pay its last respects to indie garage rock mastermind Jay Reatard who tragically passed away on January 13^th at the age of 29.

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Here at MYSBLT and The Princeton Record Exchange, we cannot tell you how excited we are to bring to you our second issue in the feature: Bands to Watch in 2010. I was lucky enough to sit down with Los Angeles band, The Local Natives, before their show in Boulder, Colorado, on December 1^st. As it so happens, I met with the band the eve after they had announced signing with New York indie rock mega-label Frenchkiss. Going backstage with the band before they opened for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, we discussed their music, signing with Frenchkiss and the upcoming debut release Gorilla Manor. If you have yet to hear their tunes, you can expect to be blown away. The Local Natives are MYSBLT’s second act in our feature: Bands to Watch in 2010, and I thank them for welcoming me and my cameras backstage.

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In this issue of Music You Should Be Listening To:

We’ll take a wondrous musical journey with New York based band, Alberta Cross. I’ll discuss their September release Broken Side of Time, as well as their recent set in the Daytrotter studios.  In one word… Amazing!

We’ve also got some big news this week including not one but two upcoming releases from New Jerseys own, Real Estate. In the next 30 days the band will release their highly anticipated debut album as well as a brand new EP.  Jack White is also making headlines as he gears up for a new project featuring one very unlikely pairing. He’ll put his producing skills to the test as he once again teams up with a rock and roll icon.

Finally, I’ll let you in on the upcoming schedule for MySBLT. On the docket we have the first in a series of interviews with up-and-coming bands as well as a few concert reviews. Big things, they are a-coming! Read the rest of this entry »

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Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Music You Should Be Listening To. This blog is your one stop shop for all things indie rock including album reviews, concert highlights and the latest news on the bands that no one has heard of… yet.

I had all intentions of using my first entry to review some great new album that is dropping in November, however, I encountered a bit of a problem… I’m still stuck on the early fall releases that are continuing to blow me away. So instead I’ll let you in on what I’ve been digging since September. I’ll also hit you with some news that will definitely help you get through those cold winter months (hint: January is going to be chalk full of new releases from some of the superstars in Indie!) Read the rest of this entry »

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     Many people probably wondered how Brand New was to follow up there 2003 Emo Rock masterpiece Deja Entendu. The album’s success was unheard of for a band of their genre, as the band landed the cover of Seventeen magazine, air time on TRL, and even the approval of veteran rock critic Rolling Stone magazine. To top this fairytale of an album release, they got a record deal with DreamWorks Entertainment, estimated at a worth of one million dollars. So come November 6^th, 2005 the release date of The Devil In and God Raging Inside of Me, a lot was resting on the shoulder’s of Brand New.

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The 2nd annual Record Store Day is this Saturday April 18, 2009! 

We here at Princeton Record Exchange are proud to be one of the largest remaining independent record stores in the country and are pleased to be participating in this exciting event. 

There are a lot of reasons to visit us and join the fun.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Blue Note Ridge is Roger Powell’s fourth solo album.  The largest difference between this album and the three preceding ones is that these previous albums were significantly synthesizer-based.  As his former band–mate, Todd Rundgren used to say, “you were born, to synthesize”, and this new CD on Fossil Poets Records is largely based on piano.  Plain old acoustic piano with maybe a synth note here and there.

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When I first heard about Utopia’s new bass player back in 1977, I wondered if he would last.  “Who is this Kaseem Sooltan?” I asked.  The answer is extraordinary talent, a level-headed sensibility and a close eye on Todd Rundgren have kept him working with industry names such as Mick Jagger, Joan Jett, Patti Smyth and most notably as musical director for Meatloaf, as well as being part of the foundation of the Bat Out Of Hell original album and a right-hand man to Rundgren since Utopia’s evaporation in 1992.

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The story behind the album Arena is simply a tale born out of situational necessity. You die-hard Rundgren fans remember a couple of years ago (around the time the movie CARS came out) Todd had replaced Ric Ocasek in The New Cars (the ‘New’ being added in light of the minority percentage of returning members, only Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes returned). Also joining Easton and Hawkes were Utopia and long-time Rundgren bassist and vocalist Kasim Sulton alongside drummer for The Tubes, Jefferson Starship and also a long-time Rundgren band member Prairie Prince. During the New Cars tour, the tour bus was in an accident and Easton fell from an upper bunk and broke his shoulder/collar bone. The tour was cut short, the cross-promotion with the Pixar movie was cancelled, and Rundgren found himself with nothing to do for a summer. Not wanting to waste a prime touring season, Rundgren spoke with Tony Levin band and long-time Rundgren guitarist Jesse Gress who contacted Levin and recruited him along with Levin Band drummer Jerry Marotta to do a two guitars bass and drums tour. Less expensive than touring with Midi and keyboards, etc.

Seeing as how he was going to be touring with a guitar-oriented band, not only did he have to limit his repertoire to guitar based or guitar-oriented or guitar adaptable songs, he also had to rearrange some keyboard-oriented standards for guitar.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

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Technically, it’s still Sunday, making it my designated blog day here at prex.com. Good start, I know.

A little while ago, I found out that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were playing the Electric Factory on October 7th. While I’m from Bucks County, I go to school in Pittsburgh, and Nick is one of my favorites. Long story short, I flew home for 24 hours to catch this show and then turned around and came back.

Worth it? Yes. Hell yes. Read the rest of this entry »

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Chris Arduser is not now, nor will he ever be a household name. But I would rather keep this Chris Arduser in tact as opposed to some record label machination. I have come to know and love Deathy (as he is known in the inner circles of the Bear’s cave) through his work with Adrian Belew and the Bears, the Psychodots and later Raisins, Graveblankets and his own solo albums.
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Sorry folks, no nonsense about this recording, it’s all business with the Generator. It has to be. At least from Nick Oliveri’s point of view. After all, what do you do when you are asked to leave a band on the verge of breaking huge?
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What is it about lo-fi punk bands that drives everyone crazy [in the good way...] these days? What with the phenomenal debut full-length from LA’s No Age and the long-standing underground successes of garage noise punk a la Japanther, Mika Miko, Black Lips, etc, it’s almost as if the lo-fi recording quality of some upcoming bands serves as a “seal of approval” for listeners everywhere that says, or even screams: “This music is so raw…you’re going to listen to the shitty quality, and you’re going to loooove it.” But in the end, you have to admit that this lo-fi stuff actually sounds, well, kinda good…not in terms of clean engineering or production, maybe, but as a complement to the bands’ sounds and attitudes about not only how they record their music, but how they choose to perform it live as well. Times New Viking’s newest release “Rip It Off” is a perfect example of how maxed-out instrumentation/vocals can be made to just work. Read the rest of this entry »

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TO: Jeff Boule

FROM: Trent Reznor

RE: something new

Hey Jeff, I figured I would let you know the new disc is almost ready to go out, but here are some new tracks I came up with that you might get a chuckle out of.

Hoping for good things, try not to pan it too bad! Trent

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The Kills new album, “Midnight Boom”, is a great art rock follow up to their album “No Wow”. Fans of the Kills will not be disappointed in the single “Cheap and Cheerful”, which stays true the the Kills’ grungy, dirty style while still presenting new material. Read the rest of this entry »

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