A good reason to visit Philadelphia in June. Tickets are on sale. Info below...

Continue reading "Popped Music Festival (in Philly) announcess 2008 lineup"

photos by Ryan Muir

NYC band Spanish Prisoners opened the show at Highline Ballroom, AND played some songs as Daniel's backing band. I was curious to know how that all came about, so I asked Spanish Prisoner frontman Leo Maymind about it before the show. He said....

I've always been a big fan of Daniel's music- it has a very innocent quality to it that attracted me to it. I saw that he was coming to New York and I got in touch with the venue, and we arranged the show so that my band, Spanish Prisoners, could open and back Daniel up for his set as well. This is something he's done in the past with previous tours, so it just worked out really well.

...we're only backing Daniel at this one show (as of now). We're going to be doing 5 or 6 songs with him, and he may be doing some solo, and some with his own guitarist.

I actually chose the songs we're doing with him from a list of possible songs. We rehearsed them on our own and are going over them with Daniel quickly at soundcheck. It's definitely an off-the-cuff sort of thing, so it'll be interesting and loose.

Continue reading "Daniel Johnston & Spanish Prisoners @ Highline Ballroom"

DOWNLOAD: All songs .zip (ZIP FILE)
DOWNLOAD: Razor Love (Neil Young) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Baby We'll Be Fine (The National) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Mobius Band in a Green Cotton Sweater (Casiotone FT Painfully A)
DOWNLOAD: I'll Keep It With Mine (Bob Dylan) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Digital Love (Daft Punk) (MP3)

Brooklyn/Massachusetts-based trio Mobius Band is not unfamiliar with the EP format. They produced four separate EP's before their first LP, "The Loving Sounds of Static," was released in 2005. Now, on the heels of the bands sophomore LP "Heaven" comes a new twist on an old theme - a free covers EP of love songs recorded in Massachusetts, and just in time for you and your sweetie (or perhaps your ex) to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Continue reading "Mobius Band - free Valentine's Day cover EP, Tour Dates"

Daniel Johnston is playing Highline Ballroom and a bunch of other places in February....

Continue reading "Daniel Johnston - 2008 Tour Dates"

Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo releases Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo tomorrow, but the release I am picking up is another side-project, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's score for the film, There Will Be Blood.

The Daniel Johnston tribute disc, The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered has been remastered, and is a must-have for any fan of the singer-songwriter. The double disc release includes one disc of covers as well as a disc of the original songs. The covers:

"My Life is Starting Over Again", Teenage Fanclub with Jad Fair
"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grievances", Clem Snide
"Impossible Love", Gordon Gano
"Living Life", Eels
"Walking the Cow", TV on the Radio
"Good Morning You", The Rabbit
"Sorry Entertainer", Calvin Johnson
"Devil Town", Bright Eyes
"Dream Scream", Death Cab for Cutie
"True Love Will Find You in the End", Beck
"Go", Sparklehorse with The Flaming Lips
"Blue Clouds", Mercury Rev
"Love Not Dead", Thistle LLC
"Like a Monkey in the Zoo", Vic Chesnutt
"Dead Lovers Twisted Heart", Starlight Mints
"Story of an Artist", M. Ward
"The Sun Shines Down on Me", Guster
"King Kong", Tom Waits

Continue reading "Largehearted Boy's Interesting CD Releases This Week"

Tickets go on sale Friday for a February 21st Daniel Johnston show at Highline Ballroom in NYC. Daniel is still doing just fine....

Continue reading "Daniel Johnston doing just fine (playing Highline Ballroom)"

Daniel Johnston @ Spiegeltent, NYC - Sept 4, 2007

Daniel Johnston was in good spirits, smiling and interacting with his friends for the night. At one point during the set, DJ had the crowd sit down while he played a couple songs on the Baldwin stage left. His good friend, Brett Hartenbach, joined him for a good portion of the set on acoustic guitar.[Fresh Bread]

What else?

DJ @ Spillers Records, Cardiff, July 16, 2007 (CRED)

Daniel Johnston has gone from total recluse to touring machine. He was just here in NYC in May, and he'll be back on September 4th to play the Spiegeltent. Tickets are on sale. New video, and more tour dates below....

Continue reading "Daniel Johnston - more 2007 Tour Dates & new video"

There was no way I was going to pass up a big vegan dinner cooked by Isa Chisandra that included an open bar and a Man Man show (true - I'm not the biggest man man fan, but still). That was until I found out I could instead catch a short set by Daniel Johnston - and still have time to see Man Man on top of it. The Daniel Johnston show was in this loft-office-production-company space in SOHO that fit about 125 people. Luckily there was free food there too, but sadly it mainly consisted of cocktail weiners and macaroni & cheese - aka nothing I could eat. On the way there I passed Fred Schneider of the B-52's going into the Antony-Nico Muhly-Final Fantasy $600 Kitchen performance that Lou Reed was also at to honor his wife/girlfriend Laurie Anderson. Kitchen co-sponsor and Daniel Johnston fan David Bowie was at neither performance.

Daniel played for about 30 minutes - an acoustic set with Brett Hartenbach (who also played with him acoustic at Warsaw). The whole thing was being taped - part of some new series for something (not totally sure what). I was also supposed to interview Daniel after the show - hopefully to clear up the air, but that ended up not working out. Maybe there's nothing to clear up (Interview still might happen though). Happy, and moved, yet conflicted and disappointed, I left and walked over to Man Man. It was just a few blocks away in Chinatown.

It was around 9:15, and Man Man was going on at 9:30....WRONG - a big sign on the door said that Man Man doors weren't opening until 10:00. After killing some time in the area while simultaneously getting tireder and tireder, I came back a little after 10:00 to find that doors were still not open, and there was a huge line going in two different directions. I gave up and went home.

Continue reading "Daniel Johnston's private show & the Man Man vegan dinner"

DOWNLOAD: Daniel Johnston - Impossible Love (MP3)

Sorry for the last minute notice on this one. Daniel Johnston is playing a private acoustic performance tonight in SOHO in NYC (May 23). The event, which will also have some of Daniel's artwork on display, runs from 7-9 pm. It's invite-only, but I have two pairs of tickets to give away to two people who email BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM right now (subject: Daniel) and tell me what famous rocker wore a Daniel Johnston t-shirt during his performance at the 1992 Video Music Awards? Include your first and last name for the guestlist. Two winners will be picked at random at 4:15 pm (today - May 23) and emailed the location.

If you can't make the show, I also have one copy of "the Devil and Daniel Johnston" DVD to give out. Just mention in the email that you want the DVD instead of the tickets.

This will also actually be Daniel's second private NYC performance on this tour. I heard he played a conference room on the afternoon before the Warsaw show.

Oh, and in case you were wondering - Daniel has not been in NYC since last week. In fact, he just arrived back to NYC from Europe today. While there he played 3 shows in the UK (including ATP), and one in Belgium. For a guy who just recently couldn't travel at all, he's really turned around.

DOWNLOAD: Daniel Johnston - Funeral Girl (MP3)

Daniel Johnston played his second of two NYC shows last night (May 16, 2007) at the Highline Ballroom (part of the High Line Festival). I wasn't there, but I did go to the first show at Warsaw the night before (May 15). Apparently I picked the right show.

We were treated to a beautiful performance by Daniel at Warsaw - two sets (one acoustic, one with a band, neither the Nightmares), two one-song encores, and a happy, cheerful, and loving Daniel Johnston. I'm serious about the loving part too - especially in light of the Nazi stuff that I'm sure everyone is wondering about. Daniel seems to have two jokes that he tells at every show. He told the one about a man being sentenced to death for trying to commit suicide, and then at one point - almost sadly, but still smiling - he told us how he didn't have anything to say at that moment because one of his jokes has been censored. He said the press wrote about it, and his dad and brother yelled at him - so he couldn't say it anymore. I was both happy (not to have to hear the 'joke') and sad at the same time. Here was this amazing man talking about being censored, and he was even so cute when saying he can't say it anymore because he was yelled at by his dad. Other times during his set he wished us all to live forever and true love. During the censored joke he told us to think about the funniest thing we could think about instead (or something like that) - this way we would laugh even without his 'joke'. Again - I don't think anything about Jews going to a concentration camp is funny, but I won't hold it against him.

That all said, I've asked sometimes BV-contributor Nick Brassbonanza to write a review of the Warsaw show, and I received a really disappointing letter from someone who went to the High Line show. Both of those, and more pictures from Warsaw, below.....

Continue reading "reviews of DANIEL JOHNSTON at Warsaw & the Highline Ballroom + more pics"

DOWNLOAD: Daniel Johnston - Walking the Cow (MP3)

To be continued....

I knew Roky Erickson was playing a free show this summer, and I had heard Alejandro Escovedo was too, but it wasn't until I saw it in writing yesterday that I realized the two legendary Austinites are playing the same free show! June 2nd @ Castle Clinton. Many, many, many more free NYC events now UP AT THE RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL SITE.

On a related note, fellow wacky Austinite Daniel Johnston plays Warsaw in Brooklyn TONIGHT (May 15) (not sold out), and the Highline Ballroom for the High Line festival tomorrow (is sold out).

The Pipettes are playing Highline Ballroom in NYC on June 5th. Tickets are on sale. Daniel Johnston's May 16th show at the Highline Ballroom is sold out, but tickets are now on sale for a second show on May 15th at Warsaw in Brooklyn.

Last time the Pipettes were visiting the States, they got to meet Perez Hilton.

According to a news item on their website, the Pipettes were very honored to be written about by Perez:

Also were honored with a mention on PerezHilton.com! [The Pipettes' official website]

The girls met Perez Hilton, whom I've heard a lot about, though I think the girls were less overwhelmed by his presence than our manager and tour manager, he seemed a really cool guy though, great pink hair. [The Pipettes' MySpace]

They could talk about if Daniel meant what he said or not.