Nicole Atkins, Locksley, Willie Nile & Pat DiNizio to play benefit salute to Buddy Holly at Vintage Vinyl

As anyone in the Jerz will tell you, the best record store on the East Coast is Vintage Vinyl in Fords.  No further discussion needed.  I just found this press release in our in-box for what looks like a killer free event at "The Double V":

Record Store Day Sponsoring "Buddy Holly Lives!" festival at Vintage Vinyl to raise money for Parkinson's research

January 23, 2009- Record Store Day, presented by a consortium of independent music retailers spanning the United States and overseas with hundreds of store locations, will be sponsoring Buddy Holly Lives on January 31st, 2009. Vintage Vinyl Records will host "Buddy Holly Lives," a live in-store concert event.

The free concert will seek to raise money for the Light of Day Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's Disease. The event begins at noon and is expected to run until about 5 PM.

The performers, including celebrated NY rocker Willie Nile, Columbia recording artist Nicole Atkins, Pat Dinizio, lead vocalist of the Smithereens, MTV featured artists Locksley and more, will each perform their favorite Buddy Holly tunes to celebrate the life of the rock legend and commemorate the 50th Anniversary of his tragic plane crash. The event will take place on the Vintage Vinyl in-store stage.

Vintage Vinyl Records is an independently owned and operated records store in NJ since 1979.

To learn more about this event, visit vvinyl.com and vvinyl.com/buddy.php

Location: Vintage Vinyl Records, 51 Lafayette Road Fords, NJ 08863

My Morning Jacket & Nicole Atkins - "Islands In The Stream (Live at MSG on NYE 09)" mp3

Nicole Atkins, Live In The Dirty Jerz.

In a convergence of two of the best entities in the New Jersey music scene, Nicole Atkins played a great acoustic set at one of the world's best music stores, Vintage Vinyl of Fords last month, and the whole thing was shot with multiple angles and can be streamed courtesy of YeboTV:

I know I've said it before, but you've got to see her and her band, The Sea, live and in-person to really see and feel how powerful a performer she is. Here's her current string of dates:

02/19/08 Cleveland, OH Beachland Tavern

02/20/08 Ann Arbor, MI Blind Pig

02/21/08 Chicago, IL Subterranean

02/22/08 Milwaukee, WI Cactus Club

02/23/08 Madison, WI Café Montmartre

02/25/08 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry

02/29/08 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge

03/01/08 Seattle, WA The Triple Door

03/03/08 San Francisco, CA The Independent

03/05/08 San Diego, CA Brick By Brick

03/06/08 West Hollywood, CA The Troubadour

03/09/08 Dallas, TX House Of Blues - Cambridge Room

03/10/08 Houston, TX The Mink

03/12/08 Austin, TX SXSW
03/13/08 Austin, TX SXSW
03/14/08 Austin, TX SXSW
03/15/08 Austin, TX SXSW

03/17/08 Birmingham, AL Bottle Tree

03/18/08 Atlanta, GA EARL

03/20/08 Charlotte, NC Snug Harbor

03/21/08 Charlotte, NC Snug Harbor

03/22/08 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506

03/24/08 Washington DC Rock and Roll Hotel

3/25 Philadelphia, PA The World Cafe Live

6/12-15 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo


Nicole Atkins - "Party's Over" mp3

Peter Morén signs to Quarterstick (Bjorn & John unavailable for comment)

Great news about our fave PB&J member:

From the press release:

On April 8, 2008, Quarterstick Records will release the highlyanticipated solo album from Peter Morén, the lead singer of Swedish indie megastars Peter Bjorn and John.

The Last Tycoon may be Peter’s first solo album, but it has beenseveral years in the making. Throughout the hectic years of songwriting, recording and touring with Peter Bjorn and John in support of their infectious breakout album, Writer’s Block, Peter never rested. What emerged from that period is an intimate 10-track collection of delicateand introspective songs from one of the most promising young storytellers of the decade.

Recorded and mixed over two years in tiny apartments and rehearsalstudios in Sweden and the U.S., The Last Tycoon is built around the basic foundation of Peter and his guitar. The album has a distinctly homemade feel that feeds from the folk singer-songwriter tradition but still incorporates strings, synthesizers, vibraphones, percussion, amusical saw, and even a drum machine or two.

Peter will be bringing his charming folk-pop to the South by Southwest Festival in March and a handful of select cities this spring.

Nice.

Peter Bjorn & John with Nicole Atkins - "Young Folks (Live in Hoboken)" mp3

extrawack!'s Top Ten Albums for 2007

Lest we get one more email or phonecall from a publicist or music mag asking us for a sneak peek at our year-end album list, I thought I'd post it up about three weeks earlier than we have in the past.



Ladies & Gentlemen, without further ado, and in alphabetical order...the extrawack! Top Ten Albums of 2007:


Nicole Atkins Neptune City
The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
The Cake Sale The Cake Sale
Calvin Harris I Created Disco
The Fratellis Costello Music
Gabby Glaser Gimme Splash
LCD Soundsystem Sound Of Silver
Ra Ra Riot Ra Ra Riot
M.I.A. Kala
White Rabbits Fort Nightly

As you can see, we were moved mostly by music that made us move. A bunch of the artists above gave us some of the best live sets of the year as well...James & LCD had us grooving with friends at Webster Hall and in the middle of thousands of strangers at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore. The Fratellis had us pogoing like it was 1979 at the Filter Courtyard Party @ SXSW. Nicole Atkins and The Besnard Lakes both hypnotized us in different but amazing ways at shows in Austin and Hoboken respectively. And M.I.A. made us feel like we were citizens of some sort of Groove Nation and she was that country's Queen Of Dope Beats when we saw her in Maryland and on Coney Island.

Here's our year-end gift to you, enough downloads to make your Zune/iPhone/whatever sound like ours:

Calvin Harris - "Acceptable In The 80s" mp3
Nicole Atkins - "Party's Over" mp3
The Besnard Lakes - "And You Lied To Me" mp3
The Cake Sale (featuring Nina Persson) - "Black Winged Bird" mp3
Gabby Glaser - "Spirit Of Long Island" mp3
The Fratellis - "Chelsea Dagger" mp3
White Rabbits - "The Plot" mp3

Nicole Atkins Prom Party Tonight At Union Pool

How much fun does this look?:

Get there early...tix are first come first served.

Nicole Atkins - "The Way It Is" mp3

SXSW Stuff: Nicole Atkins

One of the best sets I saw at SXSW was from Nicole Atkins (whom we reviewed a little while back) at the Industry Of Music/Oxfam America party. Her voice is absolutely amazing live, and her band, The Sea, suit her songs perfectly. She's one of those artists that can totally capture a crowd and keep them hypnotized for the full length of her set.

Here's how she looked there:





She also played an earlier, well-received show with Jersey's The Parlor Mob subbing for The Sea, who were snowbound in Brooklyn and couldn't get to Austin in time for that gig. Gothamist has video of them doing Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", and a cool short interview video as well.

Her full length album hits the streets on June 26th...it would be great to see this very cool chick breakout and get the national exposure and success she deserves.

Nicole Atkins MySpace.

from the forthcoming Neptune City album:
Nicole Atkins - "The Way It Is" mp3 buy

Nicole Atkins...Jersey Girl Without The Bad Hair & Camaro

The first time I heard of Nicole Atkins was on the "Blind Date" episode of the always excellent New York Noise, where she was set up on a blind date with J. from The Cloud Room. Together they cruised karaoke clubs and pizza joints while the cameras followed them, and they really looked like they made some sort of connection together. But Nicole in particular seemed to have a really interesting personality...so like I so frequently do after seeing something new and cool on NYN, I went to the Internets to see what I could find.

Not only did I find out that she's a Jersey Girl from down the shore (Neptune, to be precise), but she was previously in Los Parasols, a North Carolina alt-country outfit that friends in Charlotte used to rave about.

Her recently released Bleeding Diamonds EP features 6 songs full of dreamy reflection, optimism, and underlying melancholy throughout. Each song is a compelling story, and her soaring voice is every bit an instrument, fitting perfectly with the almost surreal tracks laid down by her band, The Sea. A lazy comparison would be to compare her to Regina Spektor, but now that I've typed that, it seems pretty apt...they are both very talented singer-songwriters with great stories to tell, but Nicole's got a bit more swing to her songs.

Her major label debut full length Neptune City is scheduled to be released June 26 on Columbia.

Nicole Atkins MySpace

Upcoming Shows:

Mar 14 2007 3:45P
The Mohawk, Gothamist/Gorilla vs. Bear Party for SXSW Austin, Texas
Mar 14 2007 11:00P
PureVolume Indoor Party SXSW, 11pm (acoustic) Austin, Texas
Mar 16 2007 6:00P
Fado's Irish Pub, SXSW 6pm, I.O.S./Oxfam America Party, Austin
Mar 17 2007 1:00A
Copa, SXSW official showcase Austin, Texas
Mar 19 2007 9:00P
Bowery Ballroom NYC, New York
Apr 4 2007 8:00P
Scotland Rocks! @ Bowery Ballroom