A little sickness is nothing when you have friends by your side...Matthew Barber live @ Union Hall 5.13.2009 - Easily Bruised

So on the night I was supposed to be in Athens, GA, hearing one of my personally favorite musicians, Matthew Barber, both as singer/songwriter; and honestly as a person. He took the time out, some 15 minutes before he was about about to go on stage an perform and shoot me an email via phone to check on if I was OK and then after reading my email on what was going on wishing me, "to feel better," among other kind sentiments.

That transcends music.

I will not go into details about what ailment I have, but it causes me a lot of difficulty lately with life and doing normal activities and hopefully I will find some cure, but if not it is nice to know that people even ones famous enough to be nominated for nationally acclaimed awards. It goes to show you a lot of the stereotypes about people and fame and all that stuff you read onn those trashy sites about the debauchery and greed of stars is not all true. Matthew Barber is not one of them. He is unique, not just because he is talented, but because he is as benevolent as his songs and the vocal resonating harmonies that accompany them. When was the last time one of your musical heroes sent you an email from their phone minutes before going on stage to make sure you were OK? Does that happen, really? Clearly the answer is yes. I am grateful beyond reproach. Moments like these, no matter when or how they occur give me faith in our society and savage beast that is supposedly has become. When people put aside all that is going on around them and care for each other, what do you call that?

For me...That is humanity.

For me...That is integrity.

For me...That is hope.

Thanks Matt...indeed.

Here is a copy of Matthew live on 5.13.09, it appears I am the first viewer and you are the 2nd. I guess this just went up and I found it, again, coincidence or intervention from the powers that be, from the goodness of man that still appears to exist. Please enjoy and check out stuff from IndieCabaretNYC on YouTube. All of his stuff is top notch, enjoy! Follow this guy if you like high rez, tunes from the NYC music scene...here is:

"Easily Bruised" by Matthew Barber ~ Ghost Notes (live @ Union Hall, Brooklyn May 13, 2009)



fyi...this song is my favorite song in the world, today...it's so right on right. Tomorrow might be something else, but today this wins the contest if there was one in my riddled mind. Listen closely, please and if not here below to the track you can dl, but listen closely, it's worth it, it's deserving of it.

ghost notes, riddled phantasms and, "'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice...

...(she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); `now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!' (for when she looked down at her feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so far off). `Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears? I'm sure I shan't be able! I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself about you: you must manage the best way you can; --but I must be kind to them,' thought Alice, `or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go! Let me see: I'll give them a new pair of boots every Christmas.'

~ From page 7 of Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking Glass"

Video for the song "And You Give" from the album Ghost Notes that made it's US release on April 14th 2009. Directed by Alexis Taylor and Matthew Barber.


I thought I would add this, as the hours and minutes tick away until we get to see Matthew perform in Athens, GA at 8pm at the Farm 255 on May 15, 2009 and then at 5:30PM at Criminal Records for an in-store performance in Atlanta, Little Five Points.

This is what Matthew himself has to say about "Ghost Notes" a name that now strikes me as uniquely tied to my own E-Zine online Magazine's name "Riddled Phantasms". Spooky and similar eh?

"Ghost Notes is my first record in two-and-a-half years, and it marks somewhat of a turn away from making rock records, and towards embracing more folk, country and bluegrass influences on my singing and songwriting. The record is rooted in vintage rock and roll production values, but it dabbles with traditional elements in the way The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dylan, Neil Young, Springsteen, Petty, Van Morrison and the Band do without ceasing to be acts that have aimed big and sought popular appeal. I produced the record myself with the help of engineer Ken Friesen at the legendary Bathouse studio in Bath, near Kingston, Ontario. Ghost Notes features a completely new line-up of musicians – namely Kieran Adams on drums (who had been drumming with me since 2006, Paul Mathew on bass, who I had played with in my other band Live Country Music, and Jesse O’Brien on piano and organ, who I had met years earlier in Hamilton. After the Canadian release, the album came out in Australia on the Code One label in September 2008, and is coming out in the U.S.A. in April 2009. It was also nominated for a 2009 Juno award for best solo roots/traditional recording."

For me something struck me today as odd, unique, off-beat, veiled, nothing bad, just different. I was listening to my i-Pod on shuffle and the song that this video plays "And You Give" came on right before an Elliot Smith song came on, possibly his most famous one, one that I like because of its references to Johnnie Walker and Los Angeles, unbeknown to me that it was in "Good Will Hunting" and had all the veritas of being a song nominated and sung by Elliot at the Oscars.

I later found out when I wanted to see him play, actually purchasing tickets in SF a couple of months in advance that he had recently stabbed himself in the heart with a knife. I don't know about conspiracy theories or any of that surrounding his death, but I know that they are out there, same as with Kurt Cobain, Elvis and almost everyone famous all the way back to Jesus. You can find them, but I won't indulge that kind of stuff here, I think it's beneath me or at least not what I intend to do here so I forgo that sort of thing today. These things happen I guess, suicide and strange currencies (a nod to the upcoming Athens visit), but I wanted to share with you both songs, which happen to have YouTube videos (yeah for us! we're the winners now!) and so we are in the luck of it and get to watch both in one fell swoop.

Enjoy my friends, roses for all.

Pictures Might Be 1000 Words Strong, But Passions Remain Infinite Amongst The Garden of Sideways-Eights...

~ "White Lies For Dark Times" concert & album review~

White Lies for Dark Times - (c) 2009 - was released 05.05.2009 and I just have started listening to it a couple of weeks ago as I was fortunate enough to have a copy. In all earnest it is so new that there is no data yet on the Billboard 200 about it's release as of yet, but they say, "Other albums looking to start high on the Billboard 200 next week include Devil Wears Prada's "With Roots Above and Branches Below" (Ferret), Ben Harper's "White Lies For Dark Times" (Virgin/Capitol)."

I have a personal kinship with Ben both legitimately and via the songs themselves even though I did get the boot, post show, by some roadie who looked like he was 103 and hopped up on about 40 grams of 'meth' that started like I mention previously on the floor, freshman year of college hearing him live for the first time. If you are like me, like John Cusack and how he rants in Hi-Fidelity (Nick Hornby's first novel) that you can organize your life by music. Music isn't just an art form according to Hornby, "In a way Rob's job in High Fidelity is a trope, if you like...He listens to very raw stuff all day and it probably doesn't do you any good. I think over the last 10 to 20 years we've all had much more opportunity, more leisure time, and there's certainly more stuff around in terms of radio and TV, so I think we have a slightly distorted sense of what life is." And that's it, our lives might be distorted by what we feel a connection to, real or imagined, it is ours and it is personal and often times related to specific music. That is why you see so many blogs and sites out there like this, because we find company in our collective misery, joy, sadness, whatever emotion the music helps us feel, there is that collective kinship among the listeners, the fans, you and me. I personally can link several of Ben Harper's songs to moments of my life that come to me like a scene in some movie where your life flashes by quickly or via that slower montage that they teach you about in film school or books on how films are made, as a dramatic effect, because it's something that most music lovers, and lover in general can relate to, it's why you hear that guy say, "Oh sh*! this is my favorite song," and start bouncing, moving, hopping, dancing or whatever you might call it.

I personally don't have a name or a genre for that feeling of association, but it is often what I am trying to give readers who are kind enough to visit and read the words here at the Riddled Phantasms website of the Brass Hat Group. It is the tie that binds us here or at concerts or at anything artistic and entertainment filled. It is what I love and it is so genre-less that I want to be certain it never gets caught and caged like the sad lion or giant silverback gorilla at the zoo that has lost its will to be free. Music, especially the kind Ben Harper writes and sings and performs, both live or via album - this one being "White Lies For Dark Times", gives us back that internal freedom even if only for a brief instant, and allows us to have something that loves company that isn't just "misery".

Ben Harper's songs and my memory of the events around them work like that. From what I know personally of Ben is he is a helper, he cares about people, just ask Jack Johnson who literally just gave Ben his demo and the rest is history, i.e., Jack Johnson is huge with a large record contract and nominations yearly for songs and albums all the accolades that accompany fame and success, simply because Ben Harper cares. There was a point during the show where Ben, spoke to the audience expressing a hearfelt thank you and speaking in terms that everyone could clearly understand about how he does it for the love of music, the passion of music and the love of his fans whom without he would have no career or anything.

His new album goes back a little to the roots of rock and roll, post blues, with less of a focus on Ben Harper solo acoustic artist and more a push towards his Burn to Shine and Innocent Criminals days where he seethed with a hot-blooded vocal tonic that really drove the masses to Ben Harper and whomever he has backing him. The relentless 7 is made the band Ben formed in 2008, Relentless 7 with Texas-based musicians Jason Mozersky (guitar), Jesse Ingalls (bass) , and Jordan Richardson (drums). They receive their first musical credit with Ben on this new album release and accompaning tour (http://relentless7.benharper.com/#/tour).

If you want to read an excellent Q&A with Ben Harper I strongly suggest you take a look at the Ampersand's by Brad Frenette. This is one of the better artist/writer interviews that induldge the belief that music is more than just a hobby, but a passion that kindles with each spark and what makes it unique is that those sparks range the whole gamut as people have different parts, songs, albums, moments that tie them all together. The way Ben talks about music reminds me a lot of the way Bob Dylan talks about it in his book Chronicles, Volume 1. I hope you all enjoy the music and the video and everything The Brass Hat Group has to offer.

Cheers!

"Faithfully Remain" - White Lies For Dark Times (c) 2009 - Ben Harper

(The cover art: "Le Petite Mort" by Sanithna Phansavanh - more of his art will be covered shortly in another post, please contact me at ross@brasshatgroup.com if you have any questions or would like to download any full sized images -- Also this MP3 is available for download from my hosting site link and is covered by license I use on everything, but just as a reminded this is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License (c) 2009 - The Brass Hat Group)


"Thin Skin" - White Lies for Dark Times (c) 2009 - Ben Harper

(Photo Art: "21 Grams" by Sanithna Phansavanh (c) 2009)


"Faithfully Remain" - Live Video - 5.2.9 Variety Playhouse - Atlanta, GA

Boots Like These - LIVE - Video - 05.02.2009

So sorry for the miss-post, but thanks to the kind folks who were at the show and corrected me and made sure I knew this song is "Boots Like These" off of his new album WHITE LIES FOR DARK TIMES (c) 2009. That is a great album and my next post that is about to drop goes over it. I did want to point out however since I already got started.

Ben did do a cover of "HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE" ~ Standing in the Shadows of Motown [SOUNDTRACK] - 12-24-2002 HIP-O Record (this was the first time I have heard this live in my 15 years covering and seeing Ben all over in L.A., New Orleans, Atlanta, San Francisco starting off first at Lulu's in Normaltown (a Diner/Beer Bar) where we sat on the floor and he played to us acoustic (also saw Jeff Buckley in the same setting). I was shocked and awed by Ben and from that moment forth I was an insta-fan, this is the first of what I hope to be many videos on the Brasshatgroup YouTube channel, please sign-up and join us as we "Fight The Resistance", the MLK/Ghandi way:

Now For The Video, Please Enjoy!

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 documentary film directed by Paul Justman. It recounts the story of The Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who performed on Motown Records' recordings from 1959 to 1972. The film was inspired by a 1989 bass guitar instruction book of the same name, by Allan Slutsky, which features the bass lines of James Jamerson.

The film covers the Funk Brothers' career via interviews with surviving band members, archival footage and still photos, dramatized re-enactments, and narration by actor Andre Braugher. The film also features new live performances of several Motown hit songs, with the Funk Brothers backing up Gerald Levert, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan, and Montell Jordan.

In case you haven't heard anything off of this or seen this film, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT, the soundtrack is amazing and I have it here for you to look and gawk at, once again Enjoy! I promise more on the Ben Harper & Relentless 7 show soon.

- The Brass Hat Group

Released by Hip-O Records. Can be purchased off of their official website here:

Now For The Video, Please Enjoy!

If you do decide to get it, I would recommend the double disk version with the songs seen below and some samples of those songs too, this can be bought off their website or off of Amazon in case you have one of those discount cards like I do, either way it's a must have for Birthday, Christmas, Bastille Day, whatever, whenever:

Disc: 1
1. Heat Wave
2. You've Really Got A Hold On Me
3. Do You Love Me
4. Bernadette
5. Reach Out I'll Be There
6. Ain't Too Proud To Beg
7. Shotgun
8. What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
9. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
10. You Keep Me Hanging On
11. Cool Jerk
12. Cloud Nine
13. What's Going On
14. Band Introduction / Ain't No Mountain High Enough
15. The Flick
16. Boom Boom
17. (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher
18. Scorpio

Disc: 2
1. Funk Brothers In The House
2. Standing In The Shadows Of Love
3. Dialogue: Joe Hunter
4. The One Who Really Loves You
5. Pride And Joy
6. Dialogue: Robert White
7. My Girl
8. Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart
9. Don't Mess With Bill
10. The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game
11. Dialogue: Eddie Willis, Uriel Jones & Jack Ashford
12. I Second That Emotion
13. I Was Made To Love Her
14. Dialogue: Richard "Pistol" Allen
15. Heard It Through The Grapevine
16. Home Cookin'
17. For Once In My Life
18. Dialogue: Jack Ashford
19. I Can't Get Next To You
20. It's A Shame
21. Ain't No Mountain High Enough
22. Dialogue: Eddie WIllis
23. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
24. Dialogue: Lamont Dozier
25. You're My Everything