Music & More

.... Lily Allen - It's Not Me It's...Dr. Rosen Rosen (Remix) Dr. Rosen Rosen, a remixer from Los Angeles, has stretched the envelope of what we know as remixing with a total remake of Lily Allen's lastest release, It's Not Me, It's You. He has taken her vocal tracks, discarded the rest of the music and written, recorded, and produced new backing tracks for Lily's vocals and accomplished the dramatic and unlikely result of producing an album that is both different from the original and totally wonderful. And his remix album is available for free download right now, right here . Listen to "Never Gonna Happen (original version)" Listen to "Never Gonna Happen (Dr. Rosen Rosen Rx)" Check out the above comparison of the original and the Dr. Rosen Rosen remix of "Never Gonna Happen" while you read Dr. Rosen Rosen's own description of this project from his website. I saw Lily Allen for the first time in 2006 while on tour in Icela

One of the most promising Rockwood finds of the last several years, Susan Enan has readied her first full length album for release on July 30th. Previously projected for spring 2008, Plainsong is now available for mail order at Susan's website with download purchase coming soon, and based on the first several preview tracks, the record clearly sounds well worth the wait. Listen to "Birds" Rockwood Music Hall, 10/12/07 Have a look back to January 2008 for point of reference and first impressions of Susan and a few photos of her singing at Rockwood. Susan's songwriting skill is matched by the intensity of her performance, and now on record her songs take on a whole new dimension with some beautiful production. Here's another track. Listen to "We All Belong Here" "Bring on the Wonder" may be Susan's best known song, it was used in the television show Bones, and was included on that show's season two soundtrack CD, released in 2008. Sara

Mindy Smith - Stupid Love (Vanguard, 2009) Mindy Smith's third and most recent album, My Holiday (2007) is not just a great Christmas album, but due to the quality of the original songs, is one of my favorite records of all time. The songwriting, the vocals, the production, all add up to a listening experience that I just can't get enough of. Early notices on Mindy's new album suggest that she's on a roll, and that the excellence continues. Here's a little preview. Listen to "What Went Wrong" (Photo by Traci Goudie, ©2009 Vanguard Records) From Vanguard: Stupid Love finds Mindy co-producing along with Ian Fitchuk and Justin Loucks. The three explore and expand with different sounds making an impressive backdrop to the thirteen tracks on the record. Written over a two year period, each song delves into the various stages of relationships; the highs, the lows, the emotional investments made, how they can change us and move forward. For Mindy, Stupid Love

Imogen Heap's second solo album, Speak for Yourself topped many year end best lists in 2005, including mine . Almost four years in the making, her followup album Ellipse is finally ready and will be released on August 25th on RCA. Speak for Yourself was created in a studio Imogen built in her London flat, and was compelling for it's combination of electronics, unusual instruments, powerful rhythms, and Imogen's highly melodic songwriting and singing. To say that expectations are high for Ellipse would be an understatement. The first song, "First Train Home" was released this week for preview listening, a video is also available to U.K. viewers, and is due soon here in the states. After a few spins, it seems that "First Train Home" picks up right where "Goodnight and Go" left off. Listen and enjoy new music from Imogen Heap. Listen to "First Train Home" From Imogen's website comes the tracklisting for Ellipse: 01. First Train Home

One of the really cool things about the Rockwood Music Hall and the Living Room, is that when you come to see someone, you often get to hear someone new, playing in the hour immediately before or after the person you came to see. Last night depsite some craziness on the Jersey turnpike on the way to Shayna Zaid's 8pm show, an early arrival at Rockwood enabled seeing a complete set by Julian Peterson in the 7pm hour. Julian has two very cool looking guitars and plays them exceptionally well. His set was good sounding, mostly original material drawn from his self-released album Get On This Train . Listen to "Hold On" Cover songs can tell you a lot about an artist; what they choose to play and how they choose to play it can speak volumes and give the audience a reference point from which to interpret the rest of the artist's music. Such was they case last night when Julian pulled out a cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" singing it "in the style of Do

(Photo source: maniadb.com) Out on a delightful morning bicycle ride this morning, the iPod rolled into Blue Moon Swamp by John Fogerty, which seems so appropriate to hear on the 4th of July. Fogerty had a run of hits with Creedence Clearwater Revival in the late sixties that was almost as prolific as the Beatles, writing, playing, and singing songs that melded so many great American musical traditions into three minute slices of rock and roll that sounded heavenly on the radio; influences from rock to country to cajun to blues to soul, and most emphatically that swamp guitar sound that is his signature. John Fogerty - Blue Moon Swamp (1997) Blue Moon Swamp sounded so good that I had to let the ipod roll right on into the live Premonition album. John Fogerty - Premonition (1998) The fourth of July is a significant date in Fogerty's career. Not only is his status as an American musical icon without doubt, but for nearly twenty years after Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up, Foger

When we last checked in with Shayna Zaid, her band had just been named the Catch, and in the last six months, she and the band have continued working full tilt, writing, recording, and playing frequently at Rockwood Music Hall and the Living Room, as well as extending their reach beyond NYC with ever more frequent college tours. Shortly before last Friday night's show came the happy news that a new EP was finished and ready for release and that the first copies would be available at the Living Room, making the show a CD release party. Shayna Zaid & the Catch, new EP coming soon to Amazon MP3 and iTunes, CDs available at shows. Listen to "Closer", from the new EP. Let's start with the new EP. Shayna and her band have been in a highly creative zone for some time now, perfecting their mix of folk, pop, rock, and soul that results in a sound that is clearly their own. Not content to keep writing in any one style, Shayna, Joel and band stretch their songwriting muscles