Photo via Shaking Through
Shaking Through: Invisible Familiars from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.
Watch the new Shaking Through with Brooklyn’s Invisible Familiars, curated by Nicole Atkins
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Watch “Fire” come together in Night Panther’s Shaking Through session
Photo by Peter English
Farzad Houshiarnejad has been struggling with Night Panther’s single “Fire.” It’s evident from the first seconds of the band’s Shaking Through session, released today via Weathervane Music. An earlier version of the song was released in January, but the Bucks County snyth-pop band wasn’t totally happy with the results – and over the course of seven minutes in this Shaking Through featurette, the song comes together in a new shape, with a Casio underbelly and string accents. Watch the video and download the song below. The band just returned from its South By Southwets tour, and is wrapping up production on its full-lenth debut.
Watch the new Shaking Through episode with Helado Negro, curated by Wilco’s Mikael Jorgensen
Ecuadorean / Brooklyn artist Helado Negro, aka Roberto Lange, accepted Weathervane Music‘s Shaking Through challenge for this month’s episode, curated by Wilco keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen. With Lange’s extensive gear collection paired with generous synth contributions from Moog Music, the session turned into a two-day experiment informed by the musician’s background in visual arts. Approaching the recording experience from this standpoint resulted in “Mitad del Mundo,” a song that is as three-dimensional in layers and production as its namesake is in form. From the Shaking Through website:
Spanish for “The Middle Of The World”, Helado Negro’s “Mitad Del Mundo” was born out of Lange’s childhood memories. “I feel like a lot of the songs that I have are almost like patch cables… like I’m patching in one end of a memory, and these non-chronological experiences come together to make up my lyrics.”
Watch the episode with Helado Negro below, and then download “Mitad del Mundo” here. Helado Negro will be at the North Star Bar on March 23rd in support of his upcoming record Invisible Life, which you can stream here via SPIN. Tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here.
Shaking Through: Helado Negro from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.
Shaking Through alums Port St. Willow sign to Downtown Records
Brooklyn by way of Portland, OR ambient rock outfit Port St. Willow have signed to Downtown Records, home of Vacationer, Mos Def and Justice, just to name a few. The new signing comes with a reissue deal for the Shaking Through alums full-length Holiday, previously self-released in 2012 and impressing listeners far and wide, including famed producer Brian Eno who commented:
I just heard a record last month by Port St. Willow…which I became completely entranced by,” he said. “I just thought how amazing that somebody could take the same few chords, pretty much the same sorts of sounds – it’s quite hard to tell what is original about it, but I just know I’ve never heard it before. It’s such a fabulous record.
The reissue will be accompanied by the newly-composed 25 minute, four-part suite Soft Light Rush. Below, watch Port St. Willow’s Shaking Through episode in which the band writes and records “Stay Even” (filmed in 2010).
Steven A. Clark gets in the studio with members of The War on Drugs, Man Man and Ava Luna for Shaking Through
Going big for 2013′s first Shaking Through video, Weathervane Music called in Secretly Canadian / Jagjaguwar / Dead Oceans founder Chris Swanson to curate Volume 4 Episode 1. Swanson took the opportunity in an experimental direction, bringing North Carolina hip hop artist Steven A. Clark together with local musicians to create a scenario not often encountered in the hip hop world. Clark, who usually is a one man band, was backed by The War on Drugs‘ Dave Hartley (bass) and Robbie Bennett (keyboard) with Man Man‘s Chris Powell on drums and Ava Luna‘s Becca Kauffman and Felicia Douglass providing additional vocals. From the Shaking Through website:
Fayetteville NC’s Steven A. Clark is something of a “bedroom R&B” artist. Until that sunny day in late September, he had barely worked with others, and he certainly had little experience fronting a group of actual musicians. He arrived at Miner Street Recordings that morning with no instrument in hand, no cases full of equipment – just his song, “Bounty” and a voice to sing it.
Watch the episode below and download “Bounty” from Shaking Through’s Bandcamp page here.
Shaking Through: Recording Steven A. Clark from Weathervane Music on Vimeo.
Weathervane Music kicks off Shaking Though Volume 4 with Ava Luna and Twin Sister (at Johnny Brenda’s on 1/12)
To celebrate the start of Shaking Through Volume 4, Weathervane Music is bringing soul / pop band Ava Luna and experimental pop group Twin Sister to Johnny Brenda’s this Saturday, January 12th. The Shaking Through series was started by local non-profit Weathervane Music to “document the birth of a song,” giving the featured bands two days in Miner Street Recordings to create and record a new track from start to finish. The video series was shortlisted for the 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards and its catalog includes episodes with Sharon Van Etten, Strand of Oaks, Hezekiah Jones and over twenty-five other artists.
In addition to sets by Shaking Through alums Ava Luna and Twin Sister, this week’s event will feature the premiere of Volume 4 Episode 1 with R&B singer Steven A. Clark and appearances by members of Dr. Dog, The War on Drugs, Man Man and Purling Hiss. Tickets and information for the 21+ show can be found here. Below, watch the Shaking Through episodes from Ava Luna and Twin Sister. Continue reading
Watch Grant$ (Tim Fite and Chris Powell of Man Man) get “Punch Drunk” for Shaking Through
Photo by Peter English
Tim, whose music has run the gamut of genres, shares one simple goal with Powell: to make art and to have fun doing it. The two came together at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia to record “Punch Drunk” – a thumping hip-hop track, true to its own name. What none of us could have expected, however, was that by the time the day was finished, this Shaking Through recording session would give birth to a new project, a collaboration with a life of its own. That’s right – this final episode of 2012 captures not only the birth of a song… here we have the birth of whole new musical project called Grant$.
Watch the video for “Punch Drunk” below, and get the track at Shaking Through’s Bandcamp page. While you’re there, download the entire new Shaking Through Volume 3 for free.