Bowery Ballroom

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Eric Hutchinson

Eric Hutchinson

Meaghan Smith / Matt Hires

Sat 12/13
Tickets

18+

Doors 8PM

$15

Eric Hutchinson

  • http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=8959532
  • http://www.erichutchinson.com/
  • Few stories underscore the radical changes experienced by the post-millennial music industry than that of Eric Hutchinson. Originally nurtured and then abandoned by an established label started by a pop superstar, Hutchinson then got discovered by a much larger audience while unsigned, thanks to an online plug by a notorious Hollywood gossip. Born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., Hutchinson first began performing in public while attending Emerson College, a performing arts-oriented university located in downtown Boston. Between Emerson's influential campus radio station, WERS, and the thriving local singer/songwriter scene, the guitarist and pianist found enough of an audience for his folk- and jazz-inflected brand of AAA pop (somewhere between Jeff Buckley and John Mayer) to move from Boston to Los Angeles and make a career of it. Hutchinson self-released his debut album, That Could've Gone Better, on his own Let's Break label in summer 2003. The album gained the attention of Madonna's Warner Brothers-distributed label, Maverick Records, which had previously broken similar artists like Alanis Morissette and Michelle Branch. However, as Hutchinson was preparing his major-label debut, Maverick Records became embroiled in a lawsuit with its parent company, which effectively shut down the label; extricating himself from his Maverick contract took Hutchinson the better part of two years, but he returned to his own label in 2006 with the release of the wryly titled live EP Before I Sold Out. After the release of Hutchinson's second studio album, Sounds Like This, in summer 2007, online gossip maven Perez Hilton raved about the album on his blog. That one mention on one of the most popular websites in the world sent Sounds Like This into the Top Ten most downloaded albums on iTunes, peaking at number seven in September 2007.
    --Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Charlotte Sometimes

  • http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=160671364
  • http://www.charlottesometimesmusic.com/
  • Charlotte Sometimes’ enchanting debut full-length, Waves and the Both of Us, is a product of insomnia, airplanes, and bodies of water, not to mention countless hours of daydreaming to the mesmerizing sounds of Billie Holiday, the Everly Brothers, Jeff Buckley, and Fiona Apple, among others. An allusion to the year to which Farmer’s protagonist travels, the title isn’t so much an overt reference to the book as it is a recognition of the fact every one of us is stuck somewhere, trying to be someone else, or at least play the role of one of our personalities. Also named for one of its songs (“Waves and the Both of Us”), the record tells a story of the currents that pass through our lives, some more uplifting or traumatic than others, Charlotte says. “It’s about all the different waves that live inside my head and heart, and how they affect others, myself, and the person I want or pretend to be.”

    It’s difficult to say whether Charlotte’s onstage persona is an outlet from these personalities or just one of them. Probably both. As a performer, she’s flippant and seductive, and as a songwriter, she gravitates toward the shadier elements in life, like spiders and Valium (“Sweet Valium High”), using the eclectic imagery to dissect the dynamics between women and men. “The whole idea of the power struggle between a man and a woman entertains me—the idea of what a woman’s role is, if it’s to be submissive to a man, or if it’s to be in charge of a man, if it’s to be equal to a man.”

    Leave it to a Cypress Hill lyric to score one for the girls. On “How I Could Kill a Man,” Charlotte reinterprets the refrain of a rap classic, graciously turning male bravado on its head. It’s a disarmingly upbeat and happy song colored with darkness and condescension. Her warm, amber voice isn’t murderous, per se, but you believe it when she says she’s “killed” men, metaphorically speaking. And still, you smile and move your feet—proof once again that dancing and misery are not mutually exclusive.

Matt Hires

  • http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=88960527
  • On the surface, 22-year-old Florida native Matt Hires seems to be the epitome of the sunshine state: bare-footed, artistic, and coolly easy-going. But there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye. As a child, Matt was introduced to different musical genres by his father. It was Matt’s father that passed along his old, handmade acoustic guitar from 1977 to Matt when he was sixteen years old - the same guitar that Matt uses today. A homeschooler, Matt taught himself to play the guitar. During high school, Matt gravitated towards the punk/hardcore scene, which is a far cry from his own introspectively powerful acoustic pop sound. Although he was a hockey player and enjoyed surfing and skateboarding, Matt was self-proclaimed nerd. “I collected tons of Star Wars toys as a young kid, made my own Star Wars movies with them that usually starred my pet hedgehog, Prickles, and wrote my own Star Wars stories - they were pretty bad,” Matt recalls of his early childhood. Though Matt might have outgrown his fascination with Star Wars toys, he never outgrew his love for music. By the time he was seventeen years old, Matt wrote his first song, and began performing in public a year later. Soon thereafter, Matt and a few of his friends decided to start a band, Brer. They recorded two albums, The Sun Is Rising EP and Microwavable. “There were ups and downs, band members came and went, but overall it was a great time, and a great experience. We also evolved a lot musically over our fairly short existence, and I grew a lot as a songwriter and musician,” says Matt. Now, as a solo artist, Matt is poised to captivate audiences with his endearing personality, melodic sound, and undeniable talent.

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