Collected Sounds

I’ve got some Nicole Atkins news. Yes, I know she’s a little more mainstream than most of the artists I feature, but her voice gives me goosebumps so she’s in.

Firstly, she has a new blog. She was using MySpace but it got a bit cluttered (no surprise, they’re blogging software sucks IMHO) so you can find her [here].

She and her band have recorded an EP of covers called Nicole Atkins Digs Other People’s Songs and they’re working on a release date. Some of the songs she digs are by Mama Cass, the Doors, the Church (eeee!) and Nada Surf. I’ll let you know more about that as I find out.

And finally she’s got some live dates coming up.
Now, I’ve not seen her live yet, but I did see her set from SXSW on DirecTV and she blew my socks off. Her band is faboo (and we already know she is). So if she’s coming to your town try and see her…and then write about it and I’ll post your review!

08/22/2008 New York NY USA Rockin the River Cruises w/ Rhett Miller, Nicole solo, Two Shows: 7pm and 9:30 pm
08/24/2008 San Francisco CA USA Outside Lands Festival
08/25/2008 Los Angeles CA USA Largo at the Coronet
09/26/2008 Shreveport LA USA Jayne Marie On Cross Lake
09/28/2008 Austin TX USA Austin City Limits Music Festival
10/11/2008 Rosenhayn NJ USA Deerfield Harvest Festival, Trio Performance
11/05/2008 Philadelphia PA USA World Cafe
11/07/2008 Kendall Green DC USA The Rock And Roll Hotel
11/08/2008 Charlotte NC USA Neighborhood Theatre
11/13/2008 Cambridge MA USA T.T. The Bears
11/14/2008 New York NY USA The Bowery Ballroom
11/26/2008 Asbury Park NJ USA Stone Pony

Check out [Nicole Atkins Official] for more details.

I heard this songs on the radio yesterday and on a whim thought I’d check YouTube. Now this is not an actual video, but at least you can hear the song. I think it’s official so it should stay up (unlike that time I unintentionally teased you with the new Portishead…sorry about that!)

Ben Fold (A god) featuring Regina Spektor (a goddess):

Hey all, just a quick note…the show was great. Kyler is a true performer and professional. Even though the attendance was abysmal, she was a trouper and put on a great show. In fact, when I told her our numbers, her response was, “You know if I’m playing for 100 people great! If I am playing for 3, that’s great too. At least I get to spend the evening playing my songs for people. It’s like pizza. How bad can it be? ” Now that’s the right attitude for house concerts!!!

She is exceptionally talented and deserved to have a full house of people, but I guess we can’t compete with other events happening (vacations, family visits and work were the top reasons for either not signing up or for canceling last moment).

I only have a moment and I forgot the camera cord at home, so I can’t post any photos yet, but I wanted to tell you it went well and we had fun! After the show (which we held in the theater again) we put on the Olympics just in time to see Michael Phelps win his 8th Gold and we all hooted and hollered. It was cool to see it on the big screen too!

As I said, I’ll post set list soon
Here’s a photo

Kyler England
Saturday August 16, 2008 8:00 pm

Collected Sounds Living Room
Minneapolis, MN

I saw Kyler England perform on the same bill as Vienna Teng a few years ago and became an instant fan. We’ve been talking about doing a show for some time now and we’re both glad it finally has
come together! Here’s a little more about her:

“Listening to any Kyler England song, it’s easy to believe you’re hearing a classic in the making: gorgeous, organic pop music that speaks to your heart like a close friend.
Her soulful voice draws you in with its fragile strength, then leaves you breathless when it soars to brilliant heights. She sings like you’d always wished you could, with all the raw honesty of your
most painful moments and all the beauty of your fiercest hopes. There is something universal going on here, something magical. Comparisons to Sarah McLachlan and Patty Griffin are mere approximations;
Kyler has a style and charisma all her own.”
–from Kyler’s official bio

[See more videos]

[Kyler England Official Site]

Live Wire Volume 2 (2007)	The Green Room Sessions (2006)	Live Wire (2005)
A Flower Grows In Stone (2003)

Artist: Amanda Palmer
Date: August 11, 2008
Venue: Spiegeltent
City: New York, NY

Review by Karen Hester

Amanda Palmer at Spiegeltent was as expected - great music (lots of
slow songs), interesting clothes (bra, gold corset, ruffled skirt, red
stockings, magic marker smeared hands), digressive stories,
communicating through large hand-held signs (afterwards there were
audiences members wandering around holding ‘Hi’ or ‘and’), karaoke (to
Ben Folds song), ‘Creep’ on ukelele to end, which was around 1.30am
(sleepy grrrr DD and AP shows lateness).

Songs were Ampersand, Astronaut, Point of it all, Guitar hero, Runs in
the family, Icarus, Blake says, Strength through Music, Coin Operated
Boy, Half Jack, Mrs O, a Regina Spektor song, an obscure sentimental
song by an Irishman (”look, mummy, no hands” on the carousel).

Oh, and a song with lyrics by Neil Gaiman. They’re both Sinatra fans
and were discussing how you can’t do songs about lonely people sitting
in smoky bars at 3am anymore, it’s so cliche, and bars aren’t smoky,
and who does that anyway, so the late-night loneliness ballad instead
went “I google you…”

During ‘Ask Amanda’ we learnt that her favorite vege is broccoli, Neil
Gaiman was ‘fucking amazing’, and that we become one with the earth
after death.

Story of her plane ride to NY: sitting in back next to old Arab guy
(”he was in his late 100s”) who couldn’t speak English; lots of
confused attempts to converse, feeling of success when she realized he
needed a wheelchair, and further success when she helped him call a
phone number. He hand signed ‘is this home?’ when they landed and she
thought about it and realized the NY skyline was her favorite and said
‘yes’ and felt wonderful, like they’d shared a deep moment and she’d
come to an important realization, and she gazed into his wise old-man
eyes and leaned back in her seat and enjoyed the moment. And then he
reached over and grabbed her breast and squeezed. “Way to spoil the
moment, dude.”

Similarly, a sleazy older guy was there with his little goth-metal
son, and dad (we’ll assume) keeps on asking “do you think she’s hot?
man, amanda palmer is sexy.” I’m not sure if this is a usual
father-son bonding issue. He shouts out “You’re hot Amanda” and takes
out a comb to tidy up his comb-over.

Amanda wants to hand out her album at 5am in the morning the day it’s
released, for free, so keep an eye out if you’re an upper East
Coaster.

[This Flickr site] has some cool photos
[Amanda's MySpace]

I also found this video (on Neil Gaiman’s site) of Amanda singing “I Google You”