The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger To Release Debut Album, October 26 + MP3

The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (GOASTT), the moniker that duo Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl record under, are set to release their debut album. Acoustic Sessions, comes out on October 26 and will be released on the duo's Chimera Music label.

Lennon, who is often compared to his legendary father when it comes to anything musical (though I find his approach to his craft more akin to his mother's), along with Muhl has put together a delightful folk record that reminds me of some of the quirky Brit folk from the 60's. The album is full of delicate melodies and charming harmonies which are a treat. The highlights on the record for me are "Candy Necklace" and "Schroedinger's Cat." By genetic default, many insist on imposing unreasonable expectations. But, I think with this record and partnership, Lennon has found his own place in the sun.

Acoustic Sessions shows the duo’s love of quirky and whimsical '60s folk pop, reminiscent at times of Syd Barrett, Incredible String Band and Simon & Garfunkel. Sean and Charlotte’s creative minds eloquently draw from what is fascinating about the everyday mundane and bring to the forefront what is extraordinary in the ordinary. Acoustic Sessions carries you from a quaint French café, to a left-of-center universe that feels as if it is out of the mind of Tim Burton. Curiouser and curiouser, GOASTT’s world is a beguiling Wonderland and one stunning debut.

For your listening pleasure, we have "Jardin du Luxembourg" in our MP3 Grab below.

Tour Dates

• 10/22/10 New York, NY @ Union Hall (CMJ)
• 10/28/10 New York, NY @ Nublu

MP3 Grab: "Jardin du Luxembourg"

Out Now, The Heavy's How You Like Me Now? EP + Free MP3

UK band The Heavy released their, How You Like Me Now? EP, today! The EP features two previously unreleased songs, crowd favorite "Big Bad Wolf," which always gets the audience going (whatchu say?!) and "Strong Enough," a song I haven't heard live for a couple of years. It also contains new versions of majorly popular favorites. Former tour mates, The Dap-Kings Horns, who also joined them onstage for their recent shows in New York, add their funkiness to the new versions of "How You Like Me Now?" and "Coleen." To give you a little taste of the EP, we have "That Kind Of Man (1.1)" below in our MP3 Grab. What are you waiting for, go download it!

The Heavy are on tour. I highly recommend you go see them if you haven't already. If you have, go see them again! Their blend of funky soul and rock will have you dancing from start to finish. The dates are below. They're worth a road-trip if they aren't playing near you.

Track Listing

• How You Like Me Now? (featuring The Dap-Kings Horns)
• That Kind Of Man (1.1)
• Big Bad Wolf
• Strong Enough
• Coleen (featuring The Dap-Kings Horns)
• How You Like Me Now? (Original)
  

Tour Dates

• October 19, 2010 | Boston, MA The Heavy @ Paradise Rock Club*
• October 20, 2010 | Albany, NY The Heavy @ Jillian's^
• October 21, 2010 | Washington, DC The Heavy @ The Black Cat*
• October 22, 2010 | Atlanta, GA The Heavy @ The Masquerade*
• October 23, 2010 | Birmingham, AL The Heavy @ The Bottletree*
• October 24, 2010 | Nashville, TN The Heavy @ Mercy Lounge*
• October 25, 2010 | Asheville, NC The Heavy @ The Orange Peel*
• October 27, 2010 | New Orleans, LA The Heavy @ One Eyed Jack's^
• October 28, 2010 | Houston, TX @ Fitzgeralds^
• October 29, 2010 | Austin, TX The Heavy @ The Mohawk^
• October 30, 2010 | Scottsdale, AZ The Heavy @ Martini Ranch^
• October 31, 2010 | Las Vegas, NV The Heavy @ Hard Rock Cafe^
• November 3, 2010 | Seattle, WA The Heavy @ The Showbox at The Market^
• November 4, 2010 | Portland, OR The Heavy @ Wonder Ballroom^
• November 5, 2010 | Sacramento, CA The Heavy @ Blue Lamp^
• November 6, 2010 | Los Angeles, CA The Heavy @ El Rey Theatre^
• November 7, 2010 | San Diego, CA The Heavy @ The Casbah^
• November 8, 2010 | San Francisco, CA The Heavy @ The Independent^
• November 9, 2010 | Salt Lake City, UT The Heavy @ Club Sound^
• November 10, 2010 | Denver, CO The Heavy @ The Bluebird Theater^
• November 11, 2010 | Lawrence, KS The Heavy @ The Bottleneck^
• November 12, 2010 | Minneapolis, MN The Heavy @ Fine Line Music Cafe^
• November 13, 2010 | Chicago, IL The Heavy @ Double Door^
• November 14, 2010 | Milwaukee, WI The Heavy @ Turner Hall^

* co-headline w/ Mayer Hawthorne & the County, presented by MAZDA2
^ The Heavy headlining

MP3 Grab: "That Kind Of Man (1.1)"

A Million Years To Play Arlene's Grocery & Spike Hill This Week

New York rockers A Million Years will be taking the stage in New York twice this week. It's CMJ time folks so get your badges out and go see these guys! You can catch them on the LES at Arlene's Grocery on Tuesday, October 19. They're on at 9PM. If you can't make that one or just want to see them again (you know you do and they'd love you for it), they'll be over in Brooklyn at Spike Hill. That show is on Saturday, October 23 at 5:15PM. Go show them some love. They're going on tour and won't be around for a while so send them off in style with a massive amount of mad love.

Tour Dates

Monday October 25
House of Blues - Myrtle Beach, SC
opening for Phoenix

Thursday November 11
University of Delaware - Clark, DE

Friday November 12
Ohio University - Athens, OH

United Kingdom w/Jesse Malin

Thursday December 2
The Albert - Brighton, UK

Friday December 3
02 Academy2 - Sheffield, UK

Saturday December 4
Sound Control - Manchester, UK

Sunday December 5
King Tut's Wah Wah Hut - Glasgow, UK

Tuesday December 7
02 Academy2 - Leicester, UK

Wednesday December 8
02 Academy Islington - London, UK

Sweaty Fun With The Heavy At The Bowery Ballroom

The Heavy: October 17 @ Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

Sunday night and things were hot at the Bowery Ballroom. UK band The Heavy came back to NYC and rocked out. It was sold out folks. If you missed it, you missed a good one. Y'all know I love The Heavy ... if you don't know that, well then you haven't been paying attention or, you're new here. I even provided visuals. For you're viewing pleasure, there are some questionable pocket camera photos ... we'll call it old school QNYC photography. You should also know by now that me trying to take photos of The Heavy is a pointless exercise as you can't take photos and dance!

For those who aren't familiar, I'm going to tell you what I've been telling you since I first saw them in 2008 ... they are "bad-ass hot stanky fun ... yeah, they're that damn good." Judging by my fellow audience members, I'm not the only one of that opinion.

The band, Kelvin Swaby (vocals), Dan Taylor (guitar), Spencer Page (bass) and Chris Ellul (drums) were once again joined by the horn section and vocal powerhouses Kimberly Nichole and Myoshi.

The Heavy are a tight band and Swaby is a sweat and swagger, high energy soul singer who can sing to me anytime ... seriously. There were minor changes since June. Ellul's kit wasn't on a riser this time around. And, Taylor didn't sing "Love Like That" which I kind of missed. By the way, is it okay with y'all that I might have a wee bit of a crush on Taylor? Shh, don't tell! They did make me squeal when they played "Set Me Free." The minute I heard the cowbell start, I squealed. So, color me happy I got to hear the song that hooked me on them the minute I heard it back when! They didn't play that the last time I saw them and that had been the only flaw in their otherwise stellar set. Other than that, the set was the same, just shuffled around a bit.

I danced. I sang. I was hot and sweaty. I had a damn good time. If you haven't seen The Heavy play yet, put them on your list of need to see live bands. You won't regret it.

Set List

• Short Change Hero
• What You Want Me To Do?
• Big Bad Wolf
• Sixteen
• Coleen
• Set Me Free
• Girl
• In The Morning
• That Kind Of Man
• No Time
• Oh No! Not You Again!
• Brukpockets Lament
• She Got To Go (they may have done this before Brukpockets can't read my scribbling)
• How You Like Me Now?

Kicking things off was Childish Gambino. I wasn't familiar with him but he's apparently on a TV show called Community. I'm not into rap. So, needless to say, he wasn't my cup of tea but he wasn't annoying and my fellow audience members really liked him.

After him came Mayer Hawthorne & The County. I wasn't familiar with them either. I asked the person next to me what kind of music they played and she said Motown type stuff. Okay, I can hang with Motown. They weren't bad. They had a lot of fans showing them massive love. I wasn't so much into Hawthorne's vocals but The County was a tight band ... guitar player gets extra props. Anyway, I was hanging well enough with them until they covered the Doobie Brothers, whom I like. But, the bad part was, they didn't even cover one of the good Doobie songs! Oh well.

Tuesday Night Fun With Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger: October 12 @ Mercury Lounge, New York, NY

Tuesday night, I made my way to Mercury Lounge to catch one of my faves, Doppelgänger, rock out. If you weren't there, you missed a hell of a show. If you haven't made yourself familiar with these guys, you really should. They have an energy that's matched by few on the scene.

More photos HERE

Version 2 for those who have a tolerance for amateur (and some would say, me for example, obnoxious) blogger chick special effects.

Happy Anniversary Quirky NY Chick!

Another year has come and gone in my quirky little world. No, it's not the new year yet. It's our anniversary! Two years ago, in the wee hours of the morn, I decided a blog sounded like a good idea. And thus, QuirkyNYChick.com was born!

Over the two years, I've met some great people, heard a lot of great music and in general, I've had a bang up good time. I look forward to many more years of the same.

Cheers!

ResidentBand Episode 029: The Deadlies - Lesson In Futility

Our friends at ResidentBand have released Episode 029. It's features The Deadlies and their song "Lesson In Futility." Kind folks that The Deadlies and ResidentBand are, they're offering the song for free download HERE. Check out the episode below.

Skye Claire And The High Society @ Crash Mansion Tomorrow, 10/15!

Skye Claire and the High Society will be at Crash Mansion tomorrow night, Friday, October 15. It'll cost you $10.

Dar Williams Live Chat Tomorrow, October 15!

Dar Williams is doing a live streaming Q&A session tomorrow, October 15 at 12:30pm Eastern time. Conveniently, you can partake using the handy widget below.

New York, Williams will be at City Winery tomorrow and Saturday, October 15 & 16. She's on tour supporting her new record, Many Great Companions that came out earlier this week. It's a terrific acoustic working of classics that shows off Williams' remarkable talent and gives listeners the feeling of seeing her live in terms of intimacy. You don't even have to be a fan to appreciate this record. Old fan, new fan or uninitiated, this is an album that should be on your list of need to listen to records.

MP3 Grab: "If I Wrote You"

Watch live streaming video from darwilliams at livestream.com

Photo Gallery: Alex Mallett At Parkside Lounge

Alex Mallett: October 12 @ Parkside Lounge, New York, NY

One man, one banjo ...

After a fun set by Gaz Ellis at Parkside Lounge last night, Alex Mallett took the stage. I was completely unfamiliar with Mallett but was curious. Anyone with a banjo in New York makes me curious. But, fellow native Midwesterner Mallett, cured my curiosity.

Mallett launched into a set of moderately jazzy, country with robust vocals full of charm and laced with a sense of humor. It was an intimate yet lively show. Mallett announced he had learned a new song and went on to play a cover of the Beatles "Help." Okay, so maybe he only kind of learned it but, that didn't matter. It turned into a sing-a-long with the audience cheerfully helping him along. He ended his set with "Baby's Too Busy" giving the audience another chance to sing-a-along with its church revival stomp and clap chorus.

More photos HERE