The Bowery Presents

The Bowery Ballroom upcoming shows

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers
official website
myspace
Look no further than the title track of their new Vanguard debut album The Bear to understand Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers. As the band sings passionately, “Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. Sometimes you’re gonna win, sometimes you’re gonna lose… but you know in the end – there's no apologies!”

Many bands talk about “keeping it real,” but in The Sixers’ case, they mean it. “We’re not up there projecting a personality we can’t believe in. I think it’s important to go with the feel of each moment and take chances. If that means we get out of synch or sing out of key once in a while, so be it. The crags are cool because they’re interesting.”

That explains why producer Tom Schick (Norah Jones, Ryan Adams, Rufus Wainwright) signed up for the new record. “Each person in The Sixers really adds a lot,” he says. “They’re so locked in with each other. Stephen is definitely the leader of the gang, but everybody has their say,” he adds of the roles played by Boots Factor and Kit Karlson. “They rise and fall together. It’s amazing to watch them work.”

Although The Bear is not a concept record, there is a conscious time line that the characters on the record follow and Kellogg even goes so far as to say thatit's "66 percent autobiographical." Of course, he will only elaborate on it a little, "If I explained the entire story to you, it wouldn't be as fun to dive in and figureit out for yourself", he says grinning. "I'm sorry, but I just can't take apart every aspect of the music without taking something out of the soul of it... you'll have to experience it yourself and find meaning there."

No apologies needed.
Carbon Leaf
myspace
Some bands insist on dragging listeners into their world, but Carbon Leaf works towards a more admirable and considerably more difficult goal – that of letting perfect strangers feel that the band understands their world. The band succeeds in doing just that — and in creating a soundtrack suitable for multiple worlds — on its third Vanguard release, Nothing Rhymes With Woman.

“For me, this is an album that’s focused on growth and maturity, but it’s not deadly serious,” says front man Barry Privett. “I wanted to examine my life and the lives of my family and friends and do it with a little bit of a wink. The last thing I wanted to do was get all dark and overwrought.”

Privett and his bandmates dodge that pitfall with aplomb on Nothing Rhymes With Woman, the much-anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed 2006 offering Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat. As ever, the quintet — recently joined by drummer Jason Neal, a veteran of the southeast’s club circuit, and Seattle bassist Jon Markel — challenge themselves and listeners by steadfastly refusing to retrace old steps, bringing in like-minded collaborators (like Toby Lightman, who brings a burnished tone to her vocal parts on the gritty “Meltdown”) and taking off in plenty of new directions of their own accord.
American Express — Are you a card member?

© 2010