shawn avery

here are the promotional devices used for the upcoming new year's eve freakout at speakeasy. in recent year's i've been a big fan of over-the-top NYE experiences. i'd give anything to either see frank zappa at some cool venue for new year's eve... or even to be frank zappa on new year's eve. unfortunately, both options are unikely. frank isn't even frank anymore. the spots will suffice. hopefully this will be among my top 5 NYE moments. moving on... i like how the posters and e-flyers came out. i made over 20 different initial versions of posters. and even the cheesy 'tv commercial' looking promo video is charming. not the best promo video ever, but charming. fortunately, now that i've got my concepts in alignment with my technology, the video aspect of the spots will turn lethal in '08.

part 5... the last segment. it is becoming apparent that there is a standard "best of" in bham this year... ACTUALLY, ITS ALMOST SILLY. but great lists nonetheless... MCSHAN WALKER'S TOP 10- I drove 50,000 miles this year. Here's how. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky Attack with Love. See you at the Ryman. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin See them live. Icky Thump – The White Stripes Chuck Norris, Tim Tebow, Jack White (not in that order). Meg’s second best performance this year. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Steering wheel drumming by :05, track one A.A. Bondy – American Hearts Black Rain, Black Rain – yep. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible Thank you for the album and The National. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black Dirty. Watch your back, she's out on bail. Eddie Vedder – Into the Open (Soundtrack) 33 minutes. Simple. Goodness. Better than anything PJ studio in a long, long time. Ryan Adams – Easy on all the records Tiger Despite Halloweenhead and himself. The National – Boxer This su...

ending the week with part 4 ... brandon brown gives props to several local bands, including st. vincent, who has close ties to bham. check out morgan's comments... she's drops some 411 on new bham albums. posting more later today ... BRANDON BROWN'S TOP 10- pallid.org photography 10. PJ Harvey - White Chalk -PJ and her piano. 2 good things. 9. Marilyn Manson - Eat Me, Drink Me -i guess Manson is the guilty pleasure on my list. i wonder if he considers his 20yr old girlfriend a guilty pleasure? 8. Imperial Teen - The Hair The Tv The Baby & The Band -this band has always been extremely underrated in my opinion. saw them at the nick several yrs ago and they were incredible. 7. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible -must see this band live in 08. 6. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand -zeppelin, beautiful voice, t bone burnette. yeah, get it. 5. Thurston Moore - Trees Outside The Academy -good record start to finish. thurston is pretty much a genius. 4. St...

continuing on to part 3 ... leah and jackson of the red blondehead music blog chime in... hopefully we will get traci's list soon... and some more from various birmingham hipsters... we'll begin with the fantastic alison hulsey... if you've never met her... i feel sorry for you. i've also added (the illustrious) john p. strohm's picks, as well as fleabomb.com founder stanley holditch's top 5. there are many nods to local bands on today's post. ALISON HULSEY'S TOP 10- here are my top 10 and maybe plus some....in no particular order.... 1. travis - the boy with no name : melodramatic, yet gentle. seems to be their "comeback record"...nice shimmery ballads...smooth synth, piano. 2. radiohead - in rainbows : well of course it's super sexy, bringing back the electronic kid-A style, melancholy, etc... you get my point. yummy. 3. maria taylor - lynn teeter flower : i mean always gorgeous, sensitive and full of emotion. her lyrics to me a...

here is part 2 of the top 10 listings submitted by various hipster music afficianados... many of whom are musicians, artists or involved in the alabama / birmingham music scene. this listing was started by brian t. murphy, who writes a blog here . SCOTT CARLISLE'S TOP 9ish- I probably can't get to 10, so here's the short list in no particular order: 1. The National - Boxer 2. Menomena - Friend and Foe 3. Josh Rouse - Country Mouse City House 4. Feist - Reminder (even though it was "cool" and over-exposed and shit) 5. Beirut - Pompeii + Long Island + Elephant Gun EP's (Together they equal one album and sound like a gypsy funeral band exploded.) 6. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (I like Volkswagens) 7. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away 8. Iron and Wine - Shepherds Dog 9. Radiohead - In Rainbows A few random cuts: The Kings of Leon "Knocked Up", Modest Mouse "Dashboard" (the rest kind of gives me a headache), Arcade Fire "Interventio...

brian t. murphy brought this up yesterday. top10 lists. i'll keep posting as people keep listing. some of these are from email threads, some lifted from blogs. i'm also including the surrounding commentary, which is pretty clever all around. hipster overload. brian's opening message and list: BRIAN T. MURPHY'S TOP 10- pianist, songwriter, producer - currently working with red mountain music , the spots , and others . okay boys. I'm compiling my lists of top ten records for 2007. if you would like to contribute, your list and your name will be included on my blog, which I know is a very high honor, and excites you verymuch. if you want to contribute a list, I need it within 48 hours. only rule - your list can only contain records which were released during 2007. I'm having a hard time deciding on number 10 (I'm hoping your lists will help me). here's my top 9 at the moment: wilco - sky blue sky josh ritter - historical conquests of josh ritter travis -...

mark nelson, jody neslon's brother... has posted some youtube clips of the set we played during the darfur benefit show. i'm the black speck in the left corner. you can see me rocking the tamborine on a few of these. everytime i played keys or guitar i seem to vanish. even the huge black grand piano seems to be absent. great show. great sound. huge crowd. lots of fun. and i think we saved africa... ha. through the sparks proper - greg, jody, the mimikakis brothers and james... all played with a great sense of groove during this set. i had time to listen... great stuff. several new songs were played during the set. like a dove , buddy holly's gun , vampires , turn everything off . the set not only featured chad fisher, gary wheat and myself... but also featured a 7 minute multi-percussionist ensemble, which you can see the beginnings of, on the clip buddy holly's gun . the horn hook on like a dove is pure magic. the horns also sound fantastic on the final if and...