monkeywhale.com

Junior League Band: Behind the Scenes

carolyn — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:13:35 +0000

The Junior League Band (or this particular version of it) rolled through our Kitchen on their way to the Fiddler’s Grove Festival which was started by lead singer Lissy Rosemont’s family almost a century ago. There was all sorts of talk about moonshine and tents and campfire jams and we were excited that shooting our session would kick off such a fun weekend for them. Lissy and Faye Petree, who accompanied her on fiddle, couldn’t have been more charming or entertaining. Lissy and her band, now based out of Washington, DC, are getting all sorts of press lately as they prepare to release their new album and Lissy prepares to get married. We wish them all the best in their endeavors, but as you can see from their video, they’ve got this thing down. On a side note, Lissy has a Master’s from Georgetown in physiology and biophysics. I think that’s a first for the Kitchen series! More photos on our flickr page.

Junior League Band, Harvey's Kitchen

Anna Vogelzang: Behind the Scenes

carolyn — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:23:23 +0000

Anna Vogelzang came to our Kitchen session on a beautiful afternoon in April. We couldn’t bear to pull out the hot lights and crank up the kitchen. Luckily, Anna and her co-conspirators Guy Capecelatro and Megan Huddleston were game for whatever we threw at them. So, we dragged a light downstairs and set up on our front porch while keeping an eye on the darkening skies around us. Although we sort of hoped for some rain as a backdrop to Anna’s beautiful songs, we were relieved that a thunderstorm didn’t shut the whole thing down before we were done. We really enjoyed meeting all three of these cats and all of their cd’s have been on rotation in our house since they left them with us. If you haven’t checked out Anna’s video yet, take a listen and enjoy.

Anna Vogelzang, Harvey's Kitchen

Harvey’s Kitchen: Junior League Band

harvey — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:17:21 +0000

“The Junior League Band is an old-time inspired rock band fronted by the Georgia grown banjo, vocalist, Lissy Rosemont. Based out of Washington, DC, this nationally touring band has been compared to “Alison Krauss and the Band” by the Washington Post, and touts Levon Helm’s own horn players on their catchy single “South Carolina Blues.” Rosemont has been referred to as one of the “most promising up and coming vocalists on the Americana scene” (Bristol Rythm and Roots Festival) as well as recorded in the studio her old-time banjo with acts such as Missy Elliott and the Pussy Cat Dolls. Rosemont’s family runs the oldest fiddler’s festival in the country, the Old-Time Fiddler’s Convention in Union Grove, NC. The 5 instrumentalists merge these influences with delta blues and pop rock (50’s to Indie Rock) to make for an energetic, sing-song, string heavy, danceable yet mesmerizing live performance. Expect a show ripe with catchy melodies, toe tapping beats, sweet vocals, and some of the countries most talented up and coming players.” – juniorleagueband.com

I had big plans to finish this session prior to the July 16th release date of their new album, “Jelly Roll” … and as I look at the current date I see it’s only July 12th. Woo. Good for me.

Keep an eye on this band as they rise in the charts. Many thanks for the lovely visit.

Harvey’s Kitchen: Anna Vogelzang, Tiny Monsters

harvey — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:40:25 +0000

“Anna Vogelzang is a songwriter splitting her time between Madison, WI and Chicago. She has shared the stage with the likes of Regina Spektor, Deer Tick, and Nat Baldwin, among others. Her fifth studio album, Paper Boats, was released earlier this year by Slothtrop Records.”

Dark altostratus clouds were encroaching into our neighborhood as we set up the mics on our porch. The hope was that the impending downpour would make for a terrific backdrop for at least one of Anna’s songs. It didn’t exactly turn out the way I’d imagined. Performing alongside Anna are the very talented Megan Huddleston whose album, “Mr Baby” has been on regular rotation in our house, together with Guy Capecelatro III who also has a stark midwestern album entitled, “abandoned christmas trees.” We hope to see both of them in the near future in our kitchen.

This has been quite a year for us at monkeywhale.com. Over the past 11 months, 5 of our guests have appeared in Rollingstone magazine. Clips from our tiny show have appeared on E! News and tonight the very talented Steel Train will be rocking it out on the David Letterman Show. The amazing thing … or perhaps it’s not so amazing is that we’ve never made a dime despite all the syndication. Sometimes the rewards aren’t always so apparent. Our good friend Will Dawson reminded us that Carolyn and I were living in a very special time in our lives and I think he’s right.

Love is Dead (The Musical)

harvey — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:36:27 +0000

Here’s Monkeywhale’s submission to the 2009 48 hour film festival.

Additional writing credit should go to Mike Lowe, who worked on Swim Film’s production, “Polish Versus” this year. They deservedly received awards.

Every element in this short was created and edited within a 48 hour timeline and no alterations have been made since.

Many thanks to everyone who helped. I’ll be posting this year’s film which won the city of Greensboro and goes on to compete in Las Vegas at some point in the future.

Also I should add that I’d wanted to work with my classmate German Valle for many years … and despite the fact that the 48 hour film festival isn’t an ideal situation to work out a good creative relationship his talent shines.

Photographer Alex Maness used a Nikon DSLR to shoot the stop motion elements and Carolyn de Berry also took additonal montage photos.

The music was composed by Monkeywhaler Matty Sheets and co-head of There is No Creature Music and performed by members of Holy Ghost Tent Revival. If you haven’t heard of HGTR, check them out on myspace. Awesome. Two of the songs were written and performed by Emily Moore.

Mike Tourek has performed in every one of our 48 hour efforts and he’s just an absolute joy to work with. Emily Moore was a first time actor and really brought the bacon. She happens to be an extraordinarily talented musician.

Additonal thanks go to the incredibly talented 223 post house in Greensboro, NC.

Team MWP 48 Hour Film Project: Behind the Scenes

carolyn — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:40:27 +0000

Last weekend Monkeywhale Productions teamed up once again with Mark Wagoner Productions for our first ever 48 Hour MWP Collaborative film, “The Adventures of Martin Dockery, Horologist”. I think it’s safe to say we had more fun in one weekend than we ever thought possible. A tireless and utterly amazing cast and crew made movie magic happen and we couldn’t be more grateful to every single person who helped us this year. From last minute Red Bull runs to miniature horse wrangling to telegram designing to bagel delivering to on the fly music composing to race car driving to the drop-off, this movie was a true labor of love and a collaboration of the highest form!

If you weren’t able to attend the screenings this week at the Carousel Cinema, our movie will be posted here very soon. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be appearing in the “Best of Greensboro” screening on July 8th as well. There were a lot of great movies made in Greensboro last weekend and we feel honored to be in such good company. Here’s a tiny look at some of the stuff that went on when the camera wasn’t rolling (and sometimes when it was) from the kick-off to the wrap party. There are hundreds (literally) more photos on our flickr page so feel free to post and tag and link away! Endless thanks and giant hugs to all of you who took part. You know who you are!

Harvey’s Kitchen: Steel Train, Bullet

harvey — Thu, 27 May 2010 06:19:32 +0000

New Jersey. Yes, this band is from New Jersey. They’ve performed on the Conan O’Brien show, been featured by Spin Magazine, performed at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Coachella, and were formerly signed to Drive-Thru Records.

We had to wait until close to the release date of their newest album, “Steel Train” before we could post this stripped down version of “Bullet.” The Album will be available June 29th and this song, but not this version, will appear on it.

I did witness and record them engaged in a very funny crank call to a manager of another band, letting him know that the state bureau of alcohol enforcement had them under investigation for giving a 16 year old beer at an afterparty. That part isn’t in this clip, but will be revisited in a larger piece about the kitchen series.

Songs from the well-received album, “Trampoline” have been featured on MTV’s The Real World, and CBS’s Harper’s Island.

Many thanks to our friend and North Carolina Native, Mr. Justin Huey for helping us make this happen.

Current members are:

Jack Antonoff :vocals, guitar, piano, drums

Evan Winiker : bass, backing vocals (2002-Present)

Daniel Silbert : guitar, backing vocals (2006-Present)

Jon Shiffman: drums, percussion (2006-Present)

Justin Huey: vocals, piano, wurlitzer (2008-Present)

Praise for Steel Train and Trampoline:

“One of the best albums of 2007″ -ESQUIRE.COM

“This New York City band’s second full-length album, Trampoline, is so relentlessly sincere and introspective” -ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Packed with pop nuggets” -ALTERNATIVE PRESS

” the band stares straight at suffering and counters cold horror with an audible confidence in perseverance” -SPIN.COM “Having spent a nonstop life on the road, this band proves that they deserve the attention” -RELIX

Steel Train: Behind the Scenes

carolyn — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:14:49 +0000

The boys from Steel Train are sitting in our living room laughing about some really funny crank calls they’ve just made from the road. Relaxed and laid-back, young and polite, these guys don’t seem like what you might imagine as rock stars. Once they start playing, though, their talent, confidence, and ability to nail each take regardless of how worn out they are from traveling is clear. Pros, you could say. Luckily, there’s a lot of laughing and silliness and, much to our delight, they don’t even complain when we have Driveway hit them with the van. Fast forward seven months and they’re about to crank up yet another summer tour and release their fourth album. Steel Train is the real deal. Here’s further proof…

Spin Magazine loves these guys. In the last month alone they’ve named them as one of the 25 Must Hear Artists at New Jersey’s Bamboozle Fest and posted a video of them covering a song by English band La Roux. They’ve played Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Coachella as well as playing on Late Night with Conan O’ Brien. They spent the winter touring with Tegan and Sara, among other things.

So, here they are when they visited Monkeywhale Central way back in October. There are many more photos on our flickr page. Their video is up next and we are pretty excited about it. Stay tuned.

Steel Train, Harvey's Kitchen

Harvey’s Kitchen: Amelia’s Mechanics, Part 2. Nina.

harvey — Sat, 22 May 2010 04:02:37 +0000

Here’s part 2. It’s been a few weeks since part 1. Molly McGinn and Molly Miller after completing their first album “North, South” with Kasey Horton and produced by Jim Avett, are now beginning the process of recording their second album with 3 time grammy award winner Steven Heller and Laurelyn Dossett at Echo Mountain Studios.

This is a bit of departure from the usual Kitchen episode. The song was recorded live next to our dirty dishes but Carolyn and I also ventured out to a few venues to capture a little live footage to complement the performance.

This particular song will be appearing on their as yet untitled new album. If their introduction is anything to go by, this band is definitely going places.

Many thanks to David Butler of WQFS for allowing me in the booth during an interview with the 2 Mollys.

Hope you enjoy it and continue to watch

Amelia’s Mechanics: Behind the Scenes

carolyn — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:39:29 +0000

Molly McGinn has been in our Kitchen at least four times in the last year and a half and I must say that it’s always a great pleasure. A few weeks ago she stopped by with Molly Miller for their official Amelia’s Mechanics session. Lovely, lovely ladies. Beautiful songs. Great playing. Lots and lots of laughing. Amelia’s Mechanics is getting big fast and we couldn’t be happier for them. Stay tuned for more videos and photos as we attempt to document their journey. More photos from this session can be seen on our flickr page.

Amelia's Mechanics, Harvey's Kitchen

Amelia’s Mechanics, Harvey’s Kitchen

Amelia's Mechanics, Harvey's Kitchen

Amelia's Mechanics, Harvey's Kitchen