June 2012 Gig Guide:

Sat June 2: Brainyboxer @ Le Carillon – 9pm / Free
Fri June 8: Sam Sparro @ Le Nouveau Casino – 7:30 / 19.80€
Fri June 8: King Charles @ La Maroquinerie – 8pm / 20€
Wed June 13: Kassidy @ La Boule Noire – 8pm / 15€
Fri June 15: Barry Johnson @ La Halle des Epinettes – 8:30pm / Free
Mon June 18: Boy @ Cafe de la Danse – 7:30pm / 19.80€
Mon June 18: Mötley Crüe @ Zenith – 8pm / 58.70€
Wed June 27: Belleruche @ Cafe de la Danse – 7:30pm / 16.80€
Fri June 29: Nadeah and Ben Mazue @ Cafe de la Danse – 8pm / 27€

Atlas Jams mission statement

Atlas Jams goal is to provide a venue where music lovers from all around can stay plugged in to the music world. From obtaining current news and information on their favorite artist, discovering new artists, buying concert tickets, arranging travel plans, to sharing their musical adventures with the community, we want to be the hub that connects it all together. We will offer value to all users whether it be the consumers, affiliates, sponsors, and advertisers. We seek to service all levels, from local venues, consumers, restaurants, and clubs, to national vendors and advertisers. At Atlas Jams we believe “Good Music Will Prevail” and we will do our part to insure that it does.

Jarle Bernhoft

I think I stopped counting at 12. I almost passed out too, but I think that had more to do with a packed, hot and sweaty Trianon. It’s amazing what one man can do with his hands…one 8-string guitar is all Jarle Bernhoft needs to create thumping bass lines, layers of guitar riffs and a looped percussion track. Top that off with his impressive baritone to falsetto dexterity (which grants him immediate access to The Reverend Al Green Club of Amazing Vocal Ranges), and you’ve got yourself a one-man-force-to-be-reckoned-with-music-machine whose animated, riveting performance is worthy of the greats. The groove is epic on tunes like “Choices” and “Streetlights” and the soul is smooth on ballads like “Stay With Me” (my personal favorite). Switching between two guitars, two microphones and keyboard, Bernhoft is working hard, earning and keeping the attention and respect of his audience throughout the 1h20 set.

In addition to a great live show, I was lucky enough to catch him before the gig at Le Petit Trianon where he and his crew were tucking into some pre-gig grub and beers. Very cool guy (he is actually spreading his legs to make me feel taller).

Smitten

All in all, a fantastic show that left me wanting more.

Is Jarle Bernhoft that amazing? Yes.

Am I smitten? Definitely.

And his cheeky smile seems to indicate he knows this too.

Setlist:

Control
So Many Faces
C’mon and Talk
Stay With Me
Ever Since I Was a Little Kid
Fly Away
Streetlights
Choices
Space in My Heart
Shout

Encore:

Sunday
Prayer to a Landlord

For more information on Jarle Bernhoft including upcoming tour dates, check here

Worship, to be released June 11th in the UK and Europe

Forgot to mention New York based noise band A Place to Bury Strangers in my monthly gig guide. Silly me.

In preparation for the release of their third full-length album, Worship, the band will be touring all around Europe, hitting La Boule Noire on April 15th.

A stream of the first single off the LP, “You Are the One,” is available on label Dead Ocean‘s Soundcloud.

Worship to be released on June 11th (UK and EU) and June 25th (US).

Worship Tracklist:

1. Alone
2. You Are The One
3. Mind Control
4. Worship
5. Fear
6. Dissolved
7. Why I Can’t Cry Anymore
8. Revenge
9. And I’m Up
10. Slide
11. Leaving Tomorrow

April 2012 Gig Guide:

Mon 2 April Los Campesinos + The Tall Ships @ La Fleche d’Or – 7:30pm / 16€
Wed 4 April Fishbone @ New Morning – 9pm / 21€
Thurs 5 April Veronica Falls + Memory House @ Fleche d’Or – 7:30 / 14€
Fri 6 April Fauna @ L’International – 8pm / Free
Mon 16 April Lauryn Hill @ L’Olympia – 8:30pm / 62€ – 80€
Fri 20 April Bronco Knowledge + Professor Liv High + Noise Zion @ La Scene Bastille – 7:30 / 14.80€
Mon 23 April Method Man + 1995 @ Le Zenith – 7pm / 35€
Tues 24 April Quantic + Alice Russell @ Le Trabendo – 7:30pm / 26.5€
Sun 29 April Carosel + Emilie Chick @ L’International – 9pm / Free
Sun 29 April The Dandy Warhols @ L’Olympia – 7pm / 36€ – 39€

I loved Between Two Lungs, but I will admit it took me time to warm up to her last album, Ceremonials, Florence’s performance last night at the Casino de Paris turned me into a believer. Powering through her anthems, she is a force to be reckoned with. Since I am still regaining my composure and am at a loss for words, I will let the photos and Flo’s lyrics take over.

And the heart is hard to translate, it has a language of its own

it talks in tongues and quiet sighs and prayers and proclamations

in the grandest of great men, in the smallest of gestures, in short shallow gasps

but with all my education, I can’t seem to command it

and the words are escaping, coming back all damaged

and I would put them back in poetry if only I knew how

I can’t seem to understand

I would give all this and heaven too

Setlist:

Only If For a Night
What the Water Gave Me
Cosmic Love
Between Two Lungs
All This And Heaven Too
Shake It Out
The Dog Days Are Over
Heartlines
Leave My Body
You Got The Love
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Spectrum

Encore:

Never Let Me Go
No Light, No Light

Florence + The Machine will be on tour promoting “Ceremonials” throughout Europe and the US. For more information on the tour, click here.

While many were enjoying a gorgeous sunny Sunday in Paris, I spent close to two hours indoors. The exhibition at the Cité de la Musique on Bob Dylan‘s early years (“Bob Dylan : L’Explosion Rock 61-66″) is to blame, but it was worth it. Photographs, interviews, live footage and other Dylan ephemera including some of jotted lyrics on bits of paper, make for a very enjoyable time travel experience back to when a young folk singer from Minnesota was on the brink of international superstardom.

For me, the most captivating part of the exhibit was viewing Dylan through music photographer Daniel Kramer‘s lens. The exhibit is, in many ways, as much about Kramer as it is about Dylan. Or, more accurately, the images speak of the close working relationship the pair developed between 1964 and 1965. Kramer admits in an interview excerpt with TIME that he did not know who Dylan was until he caught him on the Steven Allen show in 1964. He found the performer “riveting” and spent the next seven months trying to get a hold of someone at Dylan’s management company. He finally got the chance to meet Dylan at Woodstock – and what was meant to be an hour meeting turned into a five hour photo session including chatting over lunch and playing chess. Dylan was a star in the making, which would be enticing enough to any photographer, but Kramer’s images show a tacit understanding and mutual trust between subject and photographer. Not willing to take full credit, Kramer says of Dylan, “He was a good subject, a very good subject. He’s very smart about the camera and about pictures.” In addition to the portraits of an elusive, carefree Dylan, there are some priceless shots of him with Joan Baez as well as some images documenting his tour in France and performances at the Newport Folk Festival. Through Kramer’s images we witness the evolution of Dylan, the evolution of folk and rock: “A photographer is simply a historian with a camera”.

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez onstage

With Bob on Our Side

If you are a Dylan fan and really want to show it (and also have a video camera handy), why not participate in Cité de la Musique and Dailymotion‘s contest of Dylan covers, With Bob on Our Side? Choose among the 10 songs on the list, upload your video on Dailymotion and tell your friends to vote for you! Winners will be announced on June 17th. For more information on With Bob on Our Side, click here.

The exhibition “Bob Dylan : L’Explosion Rock 61-66″ is on view at the Cité de la Musique and runs until July 16th.

Laura Marling @ Alhambra

My first face-to-face encounter with Laura Marling could have been so perfect. It could have been so cool, so… Paris. I was, after all, in a cafe sipping Sauvignon Blanc when I spot Laura and her band turning onto rue Beaurepaire after her show at L’Alhambra. This instant, my last redeeming moment as a normal, composed person would have been a good time to remember that Laura Marling is still under the illusion that I am cool. Just moments ago, I was part of her audience, and in her terse onstage banter, she admitted her admiration for Parisians because they sat in cafes drinking coffee, looking effortlessly cool. And even after an enthusiastic Frenchie threw in his suggestion, “Live in Paris!”, Laura insisted, “I can’t. I’m not cool enough.”

Oh no Laura, you are cool. You are very, very cool (and I am not, but we’ll get to that later). As far as I’m concerned, you can’t get much cooler than a 22-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist (with three albums already under her belt) whose knack for soaring melodies and self-possessed lyrics leave you often gobsmacked. I’m a sucker for good writing, whether it’s in the form of short stories, poetry, fiction or music, and Laura’s songs actually happen to be a little bit of everything at the same time. Her beautifully crafted vignettes are often soaked in literary and theistic references, where her characters explore different perspectives on morality, relationships and life choices. Whether she is playing solo or accompanied by her musicians (last night she was accompanied by cello, double bass, keys, banjo and drums), the delivery is powerful and elegant. For someone who has spent years training her voice, it is inspiring to witness a performer achieve various layers of emotion without any fancy vocal tricks. From the ghostly whisper of a defeated lover to a steady conversational tone, she uses her voice to give the story what it requires.

Yeah she’s cool. So cool that when I had the opportunity to actually express my admiration to Laura Marling herself, I lost all composure and gumption. If we rewind to the moment where I was enjoying my last “cool” moment in a cafe post-concert, it all went downhill when my friend (who should be credited for all the concert photos in this post) caught the look on my face, shoved a camera in my hand and said “If you don’t go you’ll regret it”. I don’t usually do these kinds of things, but there I was, running after Laura Marling down rue Beaurepaire. The clanking of my heels was so clumsy and loud that Laura turned around before I caught up with her and her drummer. She smiled a nervous smile (I would think I was a freak too if I were her) and said “Hi”. And I say “Wow. This is weird. Hi Laura. Um. That was a really great show, thank you so much. Could I trouble you for an autograph?” She obliges, smiles again and asks where I am from. “New York City” “Oh cool” (yup, that’s the only cool thing about me at the moment). I fumble desperately for a pen for what seems like 300 minutes, and feel something at the bottom of my bag that is the same length of a pen but isn’t a pen and has a wrapper. It’s a tampon. (KEEP THE TAMPON IN THE BAG, FLORENCIA). At this point, even the drummer is fumbling for a pen in his satchel. If I were cool, I would have the pen handy, or better yet, I would have thought to have used the camera that was in my hand and ask for a photo with Laura.

Instead I have an autograph. Which is what you get when you lose your “cool”.

Setlist:

I Was Just a Card
The Muse
Salinas
Blackberry Stone
Ghosts
Alas I Cannot Swim
Needle and Damage Done (Neil Young Cover)
My Manic and I
Once is Enough to Break You
Goodbye England
Night After Night
Alpha Shallows
Sophia
Rambling Man
I Speak Because I Can

Catch Laura Marling on tour promoting her album A Creature I Don’t Know throughout Europe and the US. For more info, click here.

Festival Banlieues Bleues

For those willing to step out of Paris proper and embark on a suburban musical adventure, it’s time to head northeast of Paris to Seine-Saint-Denis for the 29th edition of the Festival Banlieues Bleues. The festival opens its doors today until April 16th, treating audiences to a variety of mostly live jazz and blues performances, peppered with a bit of hip hop, techno and funk where appropriate. From seasoned heavy hitters to “new wave” newbies, musicians from all over the globe including Matana Roberts, Marc Ribot (whose 30+ year career includes notable collaborations with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Alain Bashung), McCoy Tyner (known for his work with the John Coltrane quartet) and Jukebox unite under the name and glory of jazz. What’s more, most of the performances take place at the festival’s HQ in Pantin, La Dynamo, the first and only venue in Paris built specifically for the acoustical requirements of jazz.

Tickets are priced between 8 and 20 euros (students and demandeurs d’emploi benefit from a discount). For those whose interest has been piqued by more than one act on the agenda, you can opt for the 30 euro Festival Pass, giving you access to 3 concerts.

You can purchase tickets directly on the Festival’s website or call 01 49 22 10 10
Tickets are also available on Fnac, Billetreduc and Digitick.

March 2012 Gig Guide:

Wed 7 March The Fall @ Bataclan – 8:30pm / 29.70€
Thurs 8 March Moriarty (Before Dylan) @ Cité de la Musique – 8pm / 20-30€
Fri 9 March Marcus Johnson Quintet & DJ Pulse @ Baiser Salé – 7pm / 20€
Mon 12 March Sharon Jones – 7:30 / 36.20€
Tues 13 March The Big Pink @ Le Point Ephémère – 8pm / 15.80€
Sat 17 March Raul Midón @ Le Plan B – 8pm / 24.20€
Tues 20 March Laura Marling @ L’Alhambra – 8pm / 26.40€
Wed 28 March The Civil Wars @ Point Ephémère – 8pm / 14.80€

All tickets available online at Fnac or Digitick