Hey,
I’m really sorry to inform that the shows at the M Room in Philly and at the Velvet Lounge in Washington DC are cancelled. I tripped going down the stairs to take the subway, fell and injured my ankles. I’m not able to get around now, so making it to these shows isn’t possible. Bad luck, colorful ankles.
Hey,
I’m playing tomorrow at 7:30 pm at 88 Orchard. It’s a great coffee shop in the lower east side. The show is free and it’s going to be really nice. Hope to see you there!
Juviley @ 88 Orchard
Thursday, May 7th, 7:30 pm
88 Orchard St and Broome St
J/M/Z or F to Delancy / Essex
The first time I moved to New York City I made myself a habit that almost every time I wrote a new song I sent a rough sketch of it to my family and some of my friends. I didn’t necessarily seek feedback, it was more like a certain desire to share it with people whom I love and who are interested in what I’m doing. They were far away and could not hear these songs at shows or after a delicious weekend lunch (how I miss those!). Actually, when I think about it that’s also one of the main reasons why I started using Twitter and writing this blog for the first place.
Now I’m here again and I’m thinking whether I should make this habit public and post sketches of some new songs here. I’m not doing it yet because I still need to think about it some more, but if you care to share your thoughts I would love to hear them.
Will you be interested in listening to some roughly recorded sketches (of only guitar and vocals) of new songs even though their fate and direction is still unclear? And what do you think about listening to these kind of recordings in general? I usually love listening to early sketches of songs that I love, but the main reason is that I enjoy hearing how different ideas progressed (or didn’t) to the “official” recording of the song and what were some of the key elements that were there from the beginning. Listening to the versions in chronological order may not have the same effect. There’s also the question of whether a song should have only one recorded version, but maybe I’ll save this one for a future post.
Please let me know what you think and I’ll think about it some more too.
I played at Spike Hill a week ago and had the pleasure to play a couple of songs with my friend Daniel Koren. It was lots of fun and I hope we’ll be playing together again soon. Here’s a picture and a song from the show. The picture was taken exactly as a suspicious looking lama was entering the room, thus our perplexed faces.
Juviley @ Spike Hill
Sunday, April 12th 7:00pm
184 Bedford Ave Brooklyn, NY 11211
L to Bedford Ave, no cover
RSVP on Facebook
Hey-
I’m playing 3 shows in the next few days so I wanted to let you know about them.
For those of you who are looking for something to do tonight, I have the solution! I’m playing at Goodbye Blue Monday at 9:00pm. It’s on 1087 Broadway in Brooklyn. J/M/Z to Myrtle-Broadway or J to Kosciusko. It’s a beautiful venue, everybody loves this place and you will too.
On Sunday I play a set at Spike Hill in Williamsburg (all the details at the top of this post). It’s going to be a sunny Sunday and I really hope to see you there so we can end the week together. There may also be a super secret surprise guest! Feel free to help and invite your friends too.
Finally, on Tuesday, April 14th at 8:00pm I’m going to play at The Fire in Philadelphia. It’s located at 412 W Girard Ave Philadelphia, PA 19123. I’m really happy to be playing in Philadelphia again but I need your help. Please let your friends from Philly know about this show, it’s going to be a night full of great music!
Thanks everyone for being so supportive and cool. I hope to see you soon at one of the shows or if you’re far away in some kind of awkward online setting (plenty of convenient choices there!).
I got the new master in the mail today, it’s very exciting! I uploaded the new versions of the songs here and to myspace so you’re welcome to once again listen to the songs which now sound slightly different, and better.
The design for a limited quantity of copies is pretty much ready. Soon physical copies of the album will be handed or mailed to important people. Especially ones who live underwater. I’m happy it’s almost ready and curious to see what happens next.
Have a good weekend!
How did that happen?
It’s a short notice, but it’s also a celebration! I’m returning to the antifolk headquarters.
March is coming to an end and hopefully it will take the winter with it. It’s this crucial time right before April 1st.
I will be playing a show at 11pm at the infamous Sidewalk Cafe. There are new songs that you haven’t heard yet and I can’t wait to play them to you. When I’ll be done it will be April fools day and we can plan the biggest hoax of all times.
It’s going to be a great night. You should come, and you should bring a your friends too.
See you there!
Tuesday, March 31st 2009 11pm
Sidewalk Cafe
94 Ave A at 6th St.
New York, NY 10009
I just got back from a few hours of playing in the subway and I thought it would be an interesting subject to write about from the performer’s perspective. How else could someone possibly know what playing for few hours in the cold does to your fingers? (the answer at the bottom of this post).
One of the things I feel are important when playing music in a place like New York City is being busy. But it’s often difficult to succeed in getting all the gigs you want, so you should be creating your own opportunities. Special things somehow just occur. I guess that if you do it long enough it’s just a matter of statistics. After a certain amount of people passing by, someone will do something extraordinary. So you end up playing with random musicians, meeting strange people, getting odd requests and notes and so on. Some will argue that playing in the subway doesn’t count as an opportunity but I will disagree. There are always the people who are bold enough to approach you and ask you to come play somewhere.
But it’s not about career advancement. It’s also pure fun and interesting. It’s a whole anthropological experiment laid in front of your eyes. Just being there watching how people react differently is a good reason to do this at least once. Of course that there’s the occasional drunk/drugged person who finds a whole new way of reacting. I once found myself accompanying this guy who decided to stand an inch from my face and started making up a song. It was intense and a bit scary, but also quite funny in a way.
Playing itself is obviously also great. Busking is a great way to practice. You can try new things, play for as long as you want in front of a crowd you have to win over somehow and you even get paid for doing it (at least if you’re good or look miserable enough). I currently play for two to three hours in a row, but I’m constantly trying to play for longer. Crazy things happen the longer you play, especially when it’s cold. I usually play fingerpicking, so after an hour and a half of not really moving my arm, the fingers get numb and I can hardly feel them. The thing is that when this happens, I’m often playing a song for the sixth time (some songs are bigger than others), so I find myself just playing it without really feeling my fingers. It’s exciting as it is frightening. No harm is done of course, you have to know when to stop and take care of yourself, but I’m trying to stretch my limits. I’m curious to see what happens after four hours of playing, or six. People who have practiced their craft for so long usually ended up doing remarkable things.
I hope the New York City winter will end soon. I think it will make the experience better. I will be sure to report any odd things that happen. I also have a few stories from past busking sessions, so I may write about them in the future if it’s something you would like to hear about.
It’s probably the same in other fields too, but being a musician (and especially one in the early stages of his/her career) puts you in a place where you constantly have to deal with failure and rejection. Whether it’s not being able to book a show at a specific place, not getting an answer from that critic you’ve been trying to get a hold of, or many other scenarios.
I’ve found that after so many times that my attempts have resulted with practically nothing I developed a much healthier approach to these things. I no longer expect anything to happen so when that’s what happens I’m not disappointed. However, when something does come through, I’m the happiest person on earth.
Sometimes, though, I put a lot of effort into something and I can’t help but hoping it goes well. That was the case with my last show in New Paltz. If you read my last post you know that it was supposed to be a ‘bring your own instrument’ show. I was really excited about it and did everything I could to promote it. There was an article published about the show at a local paper as well as other promotional efforts to help spread the word.
When I got to the place I found out that the ownership has recently changed and that they didn’t know I was supposed to play that night. I ended up sharing the bill with a great singer/songwriter. I was happy to hear her play but was felt kind of bad for being forgotten. My idea of a bring your own instrument show didn’t work out and I ended up playing a regular set. It was fun and the people there were great and super nice, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed that despite my many efforts my idea didn’t work.
I wasn’t sure if I should be writing all of this. Sometimes it feels like I should appear to be successful here and not write about this kind of experiences. I’d like to believe that if you’re following my writings here you’d like to know about the bad as well as the good.
Is this kind of news something that you find interesting and want to read about?
Oh, and on a happier note- The new album will be mastered later this week!
I’m playing this Friday at 60 Main New Paltz Cultural Collective. It’s going to be a different kind of show so I wanted to give you some more details about it.
It’s a “bring your own instrument” show, which means that you should do just that, whether it’s your guitar,your tabla drums or anything else. At some point of the show I’ll quickly teach you a few simple songs of mine and we’ll play them together. There’s no knowing what will happen next, but I’m sure it will be very interesting and a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see what different forms a given piece of music can take when played by different people at different locations. The wider scope of the whole thing is to spontaneously form a band in the different cities that I play in. It’s going to be a fun experiment.
If you were following my last tour you may remember this. That experience was so special and exciting that I just had to try and do it again. If you don’t play/own an instrument don’t worry, you should just come and enjoy the show.
Below is a beautiful flier for the show, courtesy of Inbar Shabtai. Feel free to download it and send it around. The more people who come the better it will be. Uncommon instruments are very much welcome and encouraged!
Friday, March 6 2009, 8:00pm
New Paltz Cultural Collective at 60 Main
60 Main St. New Paltz, NY
Facebook event
Flier