Further inspiring proof that the real world doesn’t stop people from dreaming: Daniel Hymanson, an aspiring film-maker, has a new project brewing, and he needs your help! The film, as planned, will tread the grey area between documentary and fiction, and will be based on the in-home installation work of Jackie Seiden, a Chicago-based artist and educator. Hymanson has started a kickstarter, and as of 11pm EST, he has 18 days and a little less than $2,000 to go. Check out the preview above, and consider helping him out! For more info, head over to the link above, or continue reading after the jump.
Josh Smith & The Concert Gs are here with their debut EP as a band… it’s something else. Read on to learn about the band, and a little bit more about this release means to me in particular…
To make a long, rambling story slightly less long and rambling, here’s the breakdown: I’ve seen all sides of this band. I’ve shared hotels and tents. I’ve pulled all-nighters of all varieties. I’ve watched them raise their hands in class and then raise those same hands around instruments in the same day. I’ve walked in the backstreets of Brooklyn and driven in parts of Virginia so rural that a term like back road is simply redundant. In the last three years of living and loving (sometimes a bit too literally) with this band, I’ve learned that home is not always about the place where you come from, but in the people who know your stories. It is the people you feel safe falling asleep next to knowing they’ll wake you before the last stop. The Concert G’s bring that kind of faith and trust into every show they play. Indeed, there is a warmth in their music that can only come from the kind of person who having been through the winter themselves promises never to leave anyone out in the cold.
For the last few years, The Concert G’s shows have provided a place where I can sink comfortably into the background and give myself over to whatever it is we give ourselves over to when there’s nothing left to give. This band has been my church. And now, with the release of their debut EP, their music is available to the general public. The title track “Reach” and the final song “Caught” are clear favorites for me, take a listen and hopefully you will get a taste of what I’m talking about. If you live in the Northeast, keep your ears open for concert announcements, and you can come experience it for yourself.
To put this excerpt in a bit (albeit a bit disjointed) context, click the read more button. If you’ve read all you need to, then take a listen to the album below (if you’re short on time – or are a trigger-happy music critic — go ahead and skip straight to track 5 or 3) then head over to Josh Smith’s Bandcamp site and make a good decision.
I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate my friend Jason Katzenstein’s artwork into my poetry for sometime, and I thought the story of Sisyphus was particularly relevant to the self-limiting cycle at work in the text. Major thanks to Jason for letting me use the image. Be sure to check his work out here.
In keeping with The Illdefined’smost recent post (which was quite to the point), I’m going to share some original work. If you have been reading our humble site for a while, you will notice that I have a habit of posting old soul (and sometimes new soul) that I’ve stumbled upon in the various proverbial record-bins of the internet. It’s no coincidence that I’m part of such a soul band, called Mad Wow, and I’m proud to present our first, self-titled EP release for its TNC debut.
What started as a party band has become something of a suit-and-tie affair, with a few NYC gigs and dapper outfits to match the Motown appeal. Mad Wow attempts to provide a unique brand of funk; heavy horns and break-beat drums reminiscent of Marva Whitney don’t overpower a distinctly modern soul feel that draws on intricate vocal arrangements and nuanced instrumentation. Produced by TNC favorite Jared Paul, Mad Wow has found a sound that’s clean enough to stay classy but dirty enough to dance with the baddest of blues.
<a href=”http://madwowmusic.bandcamp.com/album/mad-wow” mce_href=”http://madwowmusic.bandcamp.com/album/mad-wow”>Mad Wow by Mad Wow</a>
The band has gone through several iterations and a slight genre shift (from soulive-type modern funk to motown soul) over three incredibly short years at Wesleyan University, but through it all the core has been original songwriting, creative covers, and the sheer love of music. This EP represents the first studio recordings the band has done, and it’s something of a culmination for us, as three of our members have graduated Wesleyan. I think, however, that I can speak for the band when I say that all the work we put into this project at Wesleyan, the friends we’ve made, and the legitimate following that we have on campus would be too much to let fizzle, so keep an eye out for more from Mad Wow in the near future.
Emma Watson is going back to Brown, but Samuel Jackson‘s upset. It’s been a few days since you’ve heard from us. We’re sorry. We (the royal we) were swimming. Wait, no, we weren’t. We forget it only feels like we’re underwater here in Minneapolis where the dew point is 81 — the same as parts of the Amazon and most American steam baths — we’re not actually swimming.
Anyway, we (the regular we) here at TNC have got plenty of exciting things coming your way. A lot of the reason we’ve been so quiet over the past year is because most of us have been hard at work on some side projects that are just now wrapping up. So in the coming weeks you’ll be seeing albums of several different genres, chapbooks, videos and multimedia of all kinds coming your way. All of these projects are of our own or close friends’ creation. Basically, we’re going back to our roots.
So as the summer stretches on toward August, and Emma Watson heads back to the classroom, check in with us from time to time. And now:
TNC favorite Flying Lotus is awesome. He has had a partnership with Cartoon Network for years now and they’ve begun to do his music videos for him. This is so awesome, awful, awe-inspiring. Awe…nesstication. Just watch the video. This one below is a collaboration with Flying Lotus and the animator Beeple for Fly Lo’s song [...]
Lupe Fiasco has done it once again. His social and political commentary in the past years has often been drenched in creative metaphors and dark parody but this time around Lupe comes straight up. He is one of the few mainstream artists right now speaking truth consistently. The first track gave me chills as I [...]
To open up the ear… My turn, to the artists (music, con, and otherwise) in my life, I ask: please, stop calling it slam. stop calling it poetry. it’s what I do – stop calling me. stop writing me into songs you don’t want to hear. stop pretending you alone carry creation. we weren’t born [...]
I, Mike Rosen (the shameless hooligan you know as illDefined) started TheNewConfusion a few years ago as a way to practice writing and share my work. It’s been a while since I posted any of my own work up here… so without any further shenanigans I’d like very much for you to read a copy [...]
NPR, most recently in the news for it’s survival of House Republicans’ plan to slash its budget, is, for many, a beacon of light amidst the dying world of radio. The Record is an NPR-run blog about the way people purchase, listen to, and think about music, and one of their recent posts is an [...]
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