Last time The Indies featured Alexz Johnson was March 2013 (visit that post) and we were impressed by her not only for her music, but for her way of approaching the business. Fast forward to today, she's recently been talked about in the Wall Street Journal of all places (see article here), and has a fresh video to the tasty title track of her latest album titled Let 'Em Eat Cake which is featured below.
The Budos Band is another great act that happens to be on the Daptone Records label, home to an eclectic array of real true unmanufactured soul, afro and jazz inspired acts of substance. It's really great to find a full band with real horn players like this. Now digging for more great takes of them with more to come.
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Thanks to Scott Hathaway for the original post of the above Budos Band performance shot August 21, 2010 at Mohawk in Austin Texas
CREDITS:
Congas/Bongos -- Robert Lombardo
Percussion -- Vincent Balestrino
Conga/Percussion -- John Carbonella
Drums -- Brian Profilio
Bass Guitar -- Daniel Foder
Guitar -- Thomas Brenneck
Farfisa Organ -- Michael Deller
Trumpet -- Andrew Greene
Baritone Saxophone -- Jared Tankel
Director/DP/Editor - Scott Hathaway
Camera Crew: Ken Dvorak, Chase Chesnutt, Gary Wilson, EJ Enriquez, and Dan Powers w/ Assistants: Alexander Clark and Damian Ramos Sosa.
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Below are beautiful songs and music videos by the trio known as London Grammar from their debut album titled If You Wait. The frontwoman of the act, Hannah Reid, who stands in front of the mic (with zero hype, pomp or circumstance) and simply sings, is the best thing since Sade. Enjoy!
Please click the play button on the first video below, pick the high-resolution
& fullscreen options and kick back. At the conclusion of the
first video, the 2nd, 3rd & 4th videos will continue playing automatically, followed by hours of handpicked music videos if you choose to let it roll.
The one shot music video, with no cuts, seems like a great indie tool for those on a budget who don't have the cash for an editor. But, it usually takes much more planning, choreography, dozens of failed tries and complicated hard work than most would think. Just below is a good one for the One Take Hall of Fame by a true indie out of Canada named Kiesza. She is signed to a New York indie label Lokal Legend. This is her debut single that has had a strong impact that has gotten her a lot of attention in a short time.
This Trixie Whitley video is a repost that is a must... A great timeless song yet to be widely discovered. Please share it, for it is one of those songs by one of those artists that deserves to be heard.
The-Indies is proud to present Dawn Mitschele, a very tasty singer/songwriter and guitarist. She's a true indie, organic, uncontrived artist without an ounce of hype. She has traveled, busked and performed around the world with love that radiates a certain purity and authenticism that is rare.
Dawn Mitschele - Soldier (Shot and Edited by Mike Hacker in various spots around NYC: Chelsea Market Passage of the High Line, The Grizzly Pear bar on MacDougal Street, and on Minetta Street in Greenwich Village)
Dawn Mitschele - The Queen (On the streets and doorways in the 20th arrondissement of Paris - Directed by John McNulty)
From her 5 song EP, "Love Remains."
A indie film titled Omar hit the big league after being nominated for an Oscar for "Best Foreign Language Film" of 2014.
The film was directed by Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, who also was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2006 with his film titled Paradise Now.
Omar is really the deepest of love stories at it's roots, but is full of real danger, non stop suspense, paranoia of not knowing who to trust, mind games and bitter betrayal.
The character Omar (Adam Bakri) must scale a separation wall if and when he wants to meet up with the love of his life named Nadja who is played by actress Leem Lubany.
The film is really heavy and portrays Omar and his friends as freedom fighters against the Israeli occupation. It's violent and harsh with action and heart pounding scenes that don't let up through to the last frame. While the film offers no solutions to the ongoing conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, it's a must see and a very well done film with many layers of depth.
Bordering on Avant Garde, from Brussels Belgium, here is a psychedelic band known as Robbing Millions. The band was founded by guitarist/vocalist Lucien Fraipont and includes Gaspard Ryelandt on vocals, Daniel Bleikolm on keyboards, Leo Campbell on bass & guitar and Jakob Warmenbol on drums.
The first two videos below were filmed by a French music discovery show out of Brussels known as Bruxelles Ma Belle
Robbing Millions - Tenshinhan
Robbing Millions - I Did Not Realize
Next up is a conceptual music video for the studio version of the Robbing Millions song titled Ages and Sun
Next up is a conceptual music video for the studio version of the Robbing Millions song titled Tenshinhan
Dom La Nena performs to a packed house in Lisbon Portugal
For the last year or so, the cellist/songwriter/singer and touring artist named Dom La Nena has been no stranger on my trail of posts listed at the end of this entry. It has been lovely to follow her international travels where she has been so well received quite literally everywhere. Just read the piece on her that Jim Fusilli at The Wall St. Journal recently wrote about her in the January 9, 2014 Life & Culture section. (click here to read).
She is well deserving of much more exposure in my opinion because her songs are so very beautiful along with the fact that she has really paid her dues in terms of personally honing her craft and original songwriting. She is a real artist not put together by the Hollywood hype machine. She is super organic, unmanufactured and a true artist. Dom La Nena is breath of fresh air.
The two videos below are different takes of the same song, and original by Dom La Nena titled Canção Boba. The first take was shot in the streets of Fez, Morocco. It was shot by Dom La Nena's videographer (her husband, according to the Wall St. Journal) who gets credit only as Jeremiah with support from Mathieu Mastin and Renaud Duguet. Dom La Nena is one of my favorite emerging organic artists making her way around the international scene.
Dom La Nena - Canção Boba (on the streets of Fez, Morocco)
This version and official music video for Canção Boba was filmed in the Jardin des Tuileries of Paris, France. It too was filmed by Jeremiah.
A few years ago, the only Eskimo I think I know, recording artist/producer Kelly Moneymaker, turned me onto Jerle Bernhoft, a.k.a. Bernhoft. Bernhoft has been emerging for years and fine tuning his own brand of soul music in his native country of Norway.
Bernhoft is seriously inspired in terms of songwriting, his very soulful vocals and in terms of his ability to play guitar, bass & piano and create percussion sounds out of thin air while setting up loops with his feet that forms a serious wall of sound. He is the ultimate one man band.
***In these first three recordings below, these are actual live recording and there are no overdubs. seriously for real!)
Bernhoft and his track entitled Cmon Talk.
Next is Bernhoft and his track titled Choices
Next is Berhoft and his unreleased track entitled Since I was a Little Kid
Next video below is a song where he breaks from his usual pattern of being a one man band running loops, being a beatbox and playing multiple guitars all while singing his ass off. In this live performance video, he simply sits down at the piano and sings.
Bernhoft - Stay With Me
And last but not least is Bernhoft with more of a studio track and a real music video to his song titled So Many Faces.
For those unfamiliar with Nneka, she is a serious political anti corruption activist minded artist of substance. Those who cherish and seek this sort of substance will love Nneka. Her songs often sound like personal love songs at first listen, only for the listener to get sucked into deeper messages with heavy stories of corrupt leaders, pillaged countries, stolen dreams and the desperate lives of real people in real places.
The full concert film below is of Nneka's performance at the The Rototom Sunsplash, shot in August 2013 during the 20th anniversary for the festival. Rototom Sunsplash takes place in Spain on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the resort town of Benicàssim, a NY walk from Castellón.
The entire concert is excellent, but a favorite start off point for return viewers is at the 22 minute point when she performs her song titled Do You Love Me Now, followed up by songs where the band grooves hard for the remaining 30+ minutes.
Trixie Whitley has been featured on The Indies family of music sites multiple times and her songs often reemerge onto the most played lists again and again.
She has been touring worldwide and there are so many great videos of her appearances. Just found this great take of of her song titled Need Your Love filmed live in Japan on a Internet show called On The Shelf TV. She delivers the song in a different way than I've heard before. It's a unplugged sort of thing with a swamp bucket funk sort of feel. It's soulful! Her accompanying musicians give it a minimalist flair and perfectly placed sounds. Love it!
Epick is a tight grooved R&B artist who raps with some funky rhymes and a fun flow worthy of a listen. The video was directed by Jamie Heinrich for 9000 wolves and was filmed in Reno, Nevada with random people Epick and the crew met on the streets.
Below is a great live performance by a gifted artist with a soul grounded in her unmanufactured skill set that will hopefully suck you in and make you forget everything for minutes. The artist has honed her craft since 5 when she began studying piano and jumped to cello when she was eight. Now in her early 20's, she has spent over 75% of her years woodshedding, writing, singing, and seriously playing. These are the kind of artists who deserve more recognition than karaoke singers auditioning on any wanna be Idol style program, in my humble opinion. She is Dominique Pinto who goes by the stage name of Dom La Nena. She is a polished cellist, vocalist, songwriter and all around recording and touring artist. Born in Brazil, but now firmly a well traveled citizen of the world who has trotted the globe not only to study, she travels far and wide to play for paying audiences large and small. La Nena's other songs and music videos at the links below are worthy of delving into for those who want to drop out and forget, if only for 40 minutes... her songs have a magic way of doing just that.
Dom La Nena - Ela (Live on Portugese TV in Europe)
*Credit for capturing this well shot performance goes to Portuguese language the late night TV program out of Portugal known as 5 Para a Meia-Noite.
Hear more Dom La Nena music on the following posts:
