The new Escape to New York festival is happening Southampton, NY this weekend. As mentioned, the music lineup features artists such as Patti Smith, Best Coast, Mates ot State, Psychedelic Furs, The Vaccines, of Montreal, and others. There will also be an acoustic stage with sets by Savoir Adore, Dead Leaf Echo, and many others we aren't too familiar with, and a dance tent, and a "dance off area" with sets by VHS or Beta (Live), Andy Rourke (of The Smiths), Alex English, Mister Saturday Night, "DJ Scotto of NASA", Rich Medina, and many others (also a lot of unfamiliar names). Tickets are still on sale and include weekend pass and camping options.

Escape to New York is not to be confused with Music To Know Fest which is in East Hampton one weekend later.

For the Psychedelic Furs, the Sothampton festival appearance is one of two upcoming NY shows. The other is at Irving Plaza with Tom Tom Club.

Rich Medina DJs in the Main Dance Tent at Escape to New York on Sunday. He has also been added as the opener to the BrooklynVegan-presented Little Dragon show happening at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday, August 16th. The show is sold out, though tickets are on sale for Little Dragon's upcoming show at Terminal 5. Meanwhile catch Rich at Le Poisson Rounge TONIGHT (8/3).

Best Coast, who play Escape to New York on Friday night, have a new Drew Barrymore-directed video which you can watch below...

Continue reading "'Escape to NY' this weekend, Rich Medina opening for Little Dragon @ MHOW, Drew Barrymore directed Best Coast video"

There's a few of my songs in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut "Whip it". Drew was really nice, she flew me out to LA, we had a cup of coffee and she showed me some clips from the movie. Usually I say no to film synchs because you just get a short synopsis from someone's agent's agent, and I always feel awkward my song will end up in the wrong context. You know, I write my songs for specific people, I find it hard to find them applied to someone elses story. But Drew listened to my concerns and we discussed the scenes she had in mind.

At some point our conversation drifted away and I think we were talking about monkeys, and it just struck me right there and then how surreal my life has become. And how absurd it is when anyone expects any kind of real compensation in this business. Compensation for what ? I've been touring on and off like crazy, I've put so much work into recording and writing. And in the end what I make my money from is talking to Drew Barrymore about monkeys...

The soundtrack is compiled by Randall Poster, who put together the soundtracks for the Wes Andersson movies among others. His soundtracks are like amazing little jukeboxes of random goodies. I haven't seen the movie but it seems to be falling smoothly into the category of American movies about teenage love and alternative sports. From Breaking Away to Bring It On. -Jens Lekman

Jen (who's now cured of swine flu) contributes the song "Your Arms Around Me," originally on 2007's Night Falls Over Kortedala, to the soundtrack. Joining him on the comp are The Breeders, Peaches, Little Joy, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and more. It comes out September 29th on Rhino. Album art and tracklist are below.

The film itself stars Ellen Page and is about roller derby. Its trailer, which includes a nice chunk of Weezer's "Pork and Beans," is posted below...

Continue reading "Drew Berrymore movie 'Whip It' stars Jens Lekman (songs) "

Comedian and musician Dave Hill was summoned to Bonnaroo this past weekend to be part of both the comedy and music going-ons at the four-day Tennessee festival. I asked if he'd mind sharing his experiences (and pictures) with BrooklynVegan.com. He agreed. I regretted it. He sent it anyway, so here it is (starting with some MP3's by his rock band Valley Lodge), but warning: this post is not for the squeamish (NSFTS)...

DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - All of My Lovin (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - Hangin On (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - The Door (MP3)

Dave Hill tests face-melting licks out on some chairs

I've just returned from four magical days and nights at Bonnaroo, where my rock band Valley Lodge was the house band for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's "Bonnapoo 2009" shows, which featured all sorts of awesomeness from Robert Smigel aka Triumph as well as sets from the great Todd Barry, Amy Schumer, and Kumail Nanjiani.

"Smigel performed four sets as Triumph at Bonnaroo, which annually hosts a comedy tent along with its smorgasbord of music acts, spread out over five main stages on a farm in rural Tennessee.

"My live act is a huge undertaking because Triumph kind of thrives on the immediate, discussing what everybody's thinking about," said Smigel while whisking past festival-goers in a golf cart, puppet on hand." [AP]

The excitement started on Wednesday night when I got on a plane to Nashville with my close personal friend Janeane Garofalo, Pete Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, and the rest of my rock band Valley Lodge. If you've ever wanted to be on a completely hilarious plane, you could do a lot worse than to have been on this plane. As you can probably imagine, all of us were running back and forth between our seats spraying each other with seltzer bottles and throwing pies in each others' faces. At one point, Pete Holmes came over to my seat to shake my hand and it turned out he had one of those joy buzzers on his finger. Man, was my face red. I got him back though by spraying him in the face with a prank flower I was wearing at the time. We both just laughed and laughed after this happened. He couldn't stay mad at me.

Once we got to Nashville, some unmarked vehicles took us all to Murfreesboro, the popular Tennessee town where we all stayed at the Doubletree Hotel, which is really classy. Because I snore and also like to get up to all sorts of hardcore banging in hotels, I had my own room. When I dropped off my bags, I looked around the room and got all excited about all the snoring and hardcore banging I would be doing in my room over the next few days and nights.

continued below...

Continue reading "What It's like to be a VIP at Bonnaroo 2009 by Dave Hill"

the Moldy Peaches (probably too famous)

Continue reading "not-too-famous band/actor needed for new Ellen Page movie"