NEWS

Ben Bromberg, The Huffington Post

This Thursday, Deerhunter headlined a free show at Pier 54 in Hudson River Park, part of the River Rocks concert series that take place every summer. Brooklyn locals Real Estate opened the show, hypnotically drawing in concert-goers towards the stage with their polished brand of soft surf guitar. Real Estate is the kind of band whose songs best fit as transitional numbers on your mixtapes, a mellowed out break to provide breathing room between hits and bangers.

Four or five songs into their set, and the gentle, sleepwalking melodies of Real Estate started to threaten the audience’s abilities to keep their eyes open. Songs rarely pick up in tempo or develop in format — this is something that a listener of Real Estate’s recently released self-titled LP might also notice while trying to make his or her way to the end of the album. But as the band debuted new songs it became clear they weren’t interested in developing beyond what they had already built. There were actually several times that I believed I recognized a song from their record as the lazy, languid chords strummed in, but thirty seconds later I would realize it was actually something else, and must have been a new song, albeit with startlingly similar chords.

Of course, the band that the crowd of hundreds had truly come to see was Deerhunter, the Georgia-based psychedelic rock outfit that has never had any trouble playing dynamic, engaging sets. And loud. Did I mention loud? Deerhunter has the habit of building momentum within tracks before ripping them open with screeching guitar solos and walls of feedback, and the first time they ripped one open in their set at Pier 54, it was as if they had stabbed an adrenaline needle right into the heart of every audience member who was still reeling in Real Estate heroin overdose.

The last time I had seen Deerhunter was in the summer following the release of their very first album, 2007’s Cryptograms, and I was blown away on Thursday by how they had since come to perfect their sound, accomplishing absolutely everything they were working towards but not quite finding in 2007. It’s not that the band was any less inspired in 2007, releasing music as original and groundbreaking as anything they’ve released since — they were just unfocused. The ambient instrumental washes that Deerhunter likes to segue into between rock numbers made up the majority of Cryptograms and their 2007 live set, and back then the band seemed less interested in marrying the two extremes as they were in perfecting the wash. On Thursday’s show, however, the band had clearly come to master all aspects of their live performance, each and every sonic element landing just where it was supposed to in the mix. Every echo, every bark of feedback came together to form the most perfect kind of controlled chaos, something frontman Bradford Cox and his bandmates kept under their thumb with as much casual candor as Real Estate exhibited keeping their narcoleptic guitar strolls at bay.

Deerhunter’s progress as a band was perhaps most clearly displayed in how brilliantly they performed their older material. Cox’s crew has been preparing to release their follow-up record to 2008’s Microcastle, titled Halcyon Digest and due out this September, so naturally a great deal of the band’s set on Thursday was debuting new material. And while these songs did indeed promise another solid record from the psych-rockers, the night’s most surprising success was when the band tore through “Wash Off”, a track off of their 2007 Fluorescent Grey EP. Although I had seen the band perform this same number in 2007 — and it was no sleeper, back then, either — on Thursday’s performance the band was able to breathe new life into the track, proving how far Deerhunter had evolved from their early stages of experimentation as a young band on the rise. Fair-weather fans of Deerhunter would do well to give the band a chance to convince them in live performance; this is a band that has the power to completely win you over, while playing the same songs you thought you already kind of liked.

Link to original article here.

The official Michael Jackson website posted our KISS FM Michael Jackson Birthday cruise that is setting sail on Saturday, August 28th!

Check out the posting on MichaelJackson.com here.

Check out our event page here: “98.7 KISS FM Presents: The Michael Jackson Birthday Cruise, hosted by Shaila”

What breezy views we had over the Hudson River! How could you not want to spend a warm Thursday night on a charming wooden pier, surrounded by water? The incessant clouds hovering above made no impact on the weather, only adding to the nocturnal beauty of the New Jersey skyline.

- Sentimentalist Magazine, full review “HERE”

The Antlers are one of my favorite new bands, and as usual, they didn’t disappoint. Frontman Peter Silberman somehow manages to simultaneously channel so much emotion while completely playing it cool, and shredding on guitar. His backing band of Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci are completely able, and together they, well to quote James above, sound so good.

- Dominick Mastrangelo, Brooklyn Vegan, Full Review HERE

By Nate Chinen, the New York Times

THE waters were placid, the breeze was a balm and the Statue of Liberty was keeping her vigil about a hundred yards aft. Maybe more, maybe less. From the rear deck of the Spirit of New York one recent evening, she seemed plenty close, anyway, and oddly approachable: an onshore well-wisher, watching over the slow pivot that marked the midpoint of our tour. By chance, this was the moment at which the music stopped, and a voice overrode the applause: “We’re going to skip ahead 27 albums and play something new for you.”

The Smooth Cruise in New York books some of the best-known performers in jazz, like Spyro Gyra, with Julio Fernandez, above.

A couple hit the dance floor as Spyro Gyra performed on a recent Smooth Cruise.

That was Jay Beckenstein, the saxophonist and leader of Spyro Gyra, making a segue from “Shaker Song,” which opens the band’s 1978 debut, into “Unspoken,” from an album released last year. We were aboard the Smooth Cruise, now in its 13th year, held each Wednesday through summer’s end by Spirit Cruises. Most passengers were inside with the band, closing in on a swatch of dance floor, but the sound was also being piped on deck, where I slouched at a rail. I was having a suspiciously good time.

Smooth jazz is all about pleasure, but I hadn’t expected much. It isn’t really my thing, this waxy, wine-lighted catchall genre — also known by niche-programming terms like urban contemporary, chill and, confusingly, contemporary jazz. Not that I’m inclined to moralize about it; for me, smooth jazz has always been less of an affront than an afterthought, like frozen TV dinners. My fallback strategy is avoidance. So any thoughts of boarding a Smooth Cruise stirred a mild trepidation, along with a milder enthusiasm.

The enthusiasm was almost conceptual, rooted in the elegance of the pairing. I mean, Smooth Cruise: the two words seem meant for each other. Both cruises and smooth jazz hold the promise of a passive indulgence, of kicking back and letting go.

Not surprisingly, the luxury cruise industry is on top of this, with big-ticket enticements like the Smooth Jazz Cruise, which pokes around the Caribbean in January, and Dave Koz & Friends at Sea, off the Alaskan coast in August. “The absolute finest in lifestyle entertainment,” pledges Mr. Koz, the saxophonist, in an online mission statement; his weeklong cruise features himself, along with the likes of Kirk Whalum and Mindi Abair.

A more modest experience is proffered by Spirit Cruises, and a lesser commitment is required. The Smooth Cruise in New York runs a brisk two hours; a pair of tickets for the “sunset” outing was $82.72, but taxes and fees bring them to just over $100. (A “moonlight” option, the equivalent of a second set, is the same price.) A dinner buffet and drinks are optional.

And the Smooth Cruise, organized by Smooth Jazz New York, a subsidiary of Marquee Concerts, doesn’t skimp on headliners. Next week’s cruise will feature Pieces of a Dream, a band whose track record runs nearly as far back as Spyro Gyra’s. Mr. Whalum will appear on Aug. 11, as one of the saxophonists in a popular Guitars and Saxes package; Ms. Abair, yet another saxophonist, is scheduled for Aug. 25. The Rippingtons will play the week in between on Aug. 18.

Not all of these artists luxuriate in their smoothness.

“We preceded smooth jazz by nearly a decade,” Mr. Beckenstein said by phone a couple of days after the cruise. “We came out of Weather Report and Miles Davis and the fusion movement. And smooth jazz, interestingly enough, was more of a radio format than it was a style of music. A whole generation of artists, especially after the success of Kenny G, was encouraged by record companies to chase the radio format. That’s not what we did. So no, I’ve never considered myself a smooth jazz artist.”

Still, he allowed, Spyro Gyra is booked on the Capital Jazz SuperCruise in October out of Miami, along with Mr. Whalum, George Duke and others.

A similar ambivalence has plagued the smooth jazz economy in recent years. It buckled significantly in 2008, when WQCD-FM, the New York beacon long branded as CD101.9, switched to a rock format, like many other smooth jazz stations across the country. The shift has prompted its share of reflection. Last month Kenny G himself released an album with guest turns by Babyface and Robin Thicke, tactically aligning himself with R&B. The keyboardist Brian Culbertson did much the same on an album released this week. (His guests include Kenny Lattimore and Brian McKnight.)

The Smooth Cruise — which often sells out its capacity of 600 each on two cruises a night — is a haven from these market calculations, even though CD101.9 was its title sponsor for years.

“When they changed format — well, that audience is still there,” said Bill Zafiros, CD101.9’s former event director, now a partner in Marquee Concerts. “So what we’re doing is serving that audience. And they’re very passionate about this music.”

My experience confirmed his claim: the base for this particular “lifestyle entertainment” is loyal and enthusiastic, as well as ethnically and demographically diverse. While awaiting boarding, at Pier 61 at Chelsea Piers, I encountered only repeat customers, like Cheryl Davis and her husband, Richard, of Brooklyn. They said they hardly missed a Smooth Cruise last summer, and had similar plans for this year. (Another discovery made in line: the Smooth Cruise is partly sponsored by The New York Times, for the second year in a row.)

There are three decks on the Spirit of New York, and during a Smooth Cruise, the second deck is where the musicians set up on the dance floor, along the ship’s port side. Seasoned cruisers either scored a spot within several feet of the musicians or made a beeline for the third deck, where a string of coveted tables overlooked the dance floor, as if along a horseshoe balcony.

Others headed straight to the buffet, though I can report that the food, at $19.23 a head (pretax was steam-tray grim, a defeated allotment of leathery prime rib, grayish salmon and congealed mac-and-cheese. Far better to make pre- or post-cruise restaurant reservations, thereby avoiding not only the buffet but also the need for a table.

Freedom to move about the ship is, after all, one thing that distinguishes the Smooth Cruise from a place like the Blue Note, where Spyro Gyra played a weeklong stand last year. Hence the leisurely Statue of Liberty sighting, and a later excursion to the windswept top deck, for a never-gets-old perusal of the Lower Manhattan skyline.

But that was me. Plenty of other patrons stayed put, listening raptly to the band. And as a long, flashy drum solo led inexorably toward the encore — ”Morning Dance,” a certifiable smooth-jazz classic, complete with synthesized steel drums — the dance floor got blissfully crowded, as in the final stretch of a good wedding reception. That glow had barely faded by the time we were back at Pier 61, steeling ourselves for the grit of summer pavement. No doubt some of us were already making plans for next time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/arts/music/23jazzcruise.html?_r=1&hpw

On July 8th Phosphorescent played an amazing show with Dawes for the River Rocks concert at Pier 54 along the Hudson River. Later that night Phosphorescent’s rental van with over $40,000 worth of equipment was stolen. Phosphorescent was about to kick off a huge tour so they desperately sent out notices asking for help with any leads about the theft or donations.On July 13 the New York Police department recovered *Phosphorescent*’s van with all of the gear intact.

It’s been close to a year since Dawes’ debut LP, North Hills, hit shelves and thrust the band into the heart of the indie/Americana/nu-folk scene. Since, singer and guitarist Taylor Goldsmith has fraternized with John McCauley of Deer Tick and Matthew Vasquez of Delta Spirit in MG&V (unofficially known as Monsters of Fuck), and led Dawes- consisting also of Wylie Gelber, Alex Casnoff and younger Goldsmith brother Griffin-through tour, several Daytrotter.com gigs and a recent performance on The Late Show With Craig Ferguson.