NYC | ChinaShop

Music Mandy’s Music Mail 2/25/11

February 25, 2011 - 11:38 am

So I’m back in my favorite city in the world, lovely London (sorry New York, I do love you and you are incredible, but I’m afraid London wins in my book) and what better way to start this week’s post than with two tracks from UK based Jamie Woon, a singer/songwriter whom I’m definitely digging. First up is “Night Air”, off last year’s EP (co-produced with Burial) and “Lady Luck” is the first single off his upcoming debut album Mirrorwriting; listen to both here. Also check out this video of Woon singing in a canoe in Cambodia; no bells, whistles or fancy camera work, just a simple video of Woon sitting in a canoe. In Cambodia. Singing. Awesome.

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Contributors Teresa Jusino: Writer, Badass, GeekGirl

by Mike Bucher

February 19, 2011 - 10:13 am

I don’t have a TV, I rarely get out and admittedly, I’ve never been to a book reading… but it was quite special getting my listener’s cherry popped Wednesday night by one of ChinaShop’s own Teresa Jusino as she read some of her work at The Talking Stick in Venice.

Teresa, a talented New York based writer and activist from Queens, is in Los Angeles for a limited time in support of her contribution to the recently published book Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon By the Women Who Love Them.

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Music Mandy’s Music Mail 2/18/11

by Amanda Boyd

February 18, 2011 - 12:21 pm

We’re New Here the (insanely awesome) Jamie xx remix album of Gil Scott Heron’s I’m New Here doesn’t come out until the 21^st, but the folks over at The Guardian have provided us with a full album stream this week! *Happy panda paws in the air!* I. Love. This. Album. So much.

The visual for Cee-Lo Green’s “Bodies” is not merely a music video but “an animated short motion picture,” which is kind of pretentious but as it’s Cee-Lo (and I love him) he gets a pass. The “animated short motion picture” was directed by Mikael Colombu and features appearances by Kerry Washington, Janelle Monae and Karl Lagerfeld. Bam. It’s an… interesting piece for sure, though the song isn’t my favorite off the album. Check it out below.

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Music Friday Night at Pianos NYC

by Courtney Dudley

February 18, 2011 - 10:42 am

It was a chilly night in the Lower East Side last Friday when Headless Horseman finished night one of their four performance residency at one of New York’s most ubiquitous indie music venues, Pianos. The downstairs stage was packed with stylishly sloppy girls in red lipstick and plenty of furry boys drinking whiskey– its a good crowd to spend a Friday night with.

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Social Media SMW Day 4: Discovering New Music Plus Ian “Enable” Wyatt

by Teresa Jusino

February 17, 2011 - 11:59 am

Ian “Enables” My Gaming Habit

Red Bull Space knows how to do Happy Hour. Not only did they provide alcohol for Social Media Week attendees last week, but they provided video games! Each day of SMW11, attendees could hang out in the Gaming Lounge and drink Red Bull & Vodkas as they tried their hand at Wii Snowboarding, raced in Gran Turismo, or shot at enemy soldiers in the new HALO Reach game. The star of the Happy Hour on the third day of SMW, however, was Ian “Enable” Wyatt. At only 17 years old, he’s one of the top HALO players in the world! Gaming fans had the opportunity to play with Wyatt in a relaxed atmosphere, allowing them to get into the minds and play-style of one of their gamer idols. And so did I!

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Social Media Tweet Like the Stars (or Learn From Celebrity Mistakes) – Social Media Week Day 3

by Teresa Jusino

February 16, 2011 - 8:07 am

Who would’ve thought that a panel about celebrity tweeting would’ve been so intelligent? When I first saw the description of this panel, I thought it would be a bit of fluff. However, when you put together a panel of people who are not only pop culture reporters, but true journalists, you realize that there’s a lot more going on than just who’s sleeping with whom. (Though there’s plenty of that, too).

At the Tweet Like the Stars: Celebrities Using Social Media to Successfully Build Their Brands panel at Red Bull Space, BuzzMedia organized a panel of well-respected editors and columnists from both print and online entertainment news sources: Mike Hess (Celebuzz), Eloise Parker (OK! Magazine), Bonnie Fuller (Hollywood Life), Rob Shuter (PopEater), moderated by Mike Porath, SVP of Programming at BuzzMedia. They managed to not only successfully examine how celebrities are using social media to build their brands, but also translate how those same techniques could be applied to themselves and to businesses that have nothing to do with entertainment.

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Social Media Twitter Saves Music at SMW

by Teresa Jusino

February 15, 2011 - 9:52 am

If Day 1 was all about singing Facebook’s praises, Day 2 was all about how Twitter kicks Facebook’s ass; at least as far as the music industry is concerned…

Is Social Media Music’s Savior?

BUZZMEDIA hosted an event with the Kanye-inspired title, The Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy of Social Media as Music’s Savior, which featured a panel of respected music curators and promoters: Angel Laws (ConcreteLoop.com), Jessica Suarez (Stereogum), Tamar Anitai (MTV.com/MTV Buzzworthy), Rob Bonstein (Epic Records) and moderated by Jeff Leeds, Editor in Chief for Music at BUZZMEDIA.

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Social Media Social Media Week Day 1: Real-life vs Facebook, Africa and More

by Teresa Jusino

February 14, 2011 - 10:42 am

Social media will never replace real-life, human interaction. This was the surprising, but reassuring theme of Social Media Week 2011 in NYC (there were also events in nine other cities). Both big events I attended at Red Bull Space on the first day kept coming back to that idea; that social media is a wonderful tool, but at the end of the day, success is determined by the quality of your relationships with other human beings. Shocking, right?

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Music Talib Kweli’s Road Rules

by Soren Baker

February 4, 2011 - 11:18 am

Talib Kweli learned an important lesson on the road. Before the Brooklyn MC broke out with Reflection Eternal, Black Star with Mos Def or embarked upon a successful solo career, he saw the importance of visiting places beyond the New York state line.

“Traveling has definitely enabled me to appreciate other cultures musically, even cultures within hip-hop, whether it’s Down South, Midwest, West Coast,” says Kweli, whose new album, Gutter Rainbows, is due in stores today (January 25) and features the song “Mr. International,” which details his life on the road. “Me working with Hi-Tek early in my career and spending a lot of time in Cincinnati really opened me up. When I was first in Cincinnati, they were listening to a lot of E-40. E-40’s Federal was the album that they were on. Then it moved from the West Coast with E-40 and Spice 1 and Dr. Dre influence to a Down South influence with the rise of Master P.”

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Art/Design Kenny Scharf vs. Graffiti

by Richard S. Chang

February 2, 2011 - 10:16 am

When Kenny Scharf was painting his mural—an orgy of candy-colored cartoon faces in various states of distortion—on the northwest corner of Houston and Bowery in downtown Manhattan, he said he wasn’t worried about graffiti writers painting over his piece, as they did to Shepard Fairey’s “May Day” mural at the same spot in July.

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