Sing For China at The Center

This was a rather special event.  These bands were amazing and it’s exciting to see this sort of talent coming from China.  We were quite happy to be a part of it and so was the lucky winner of the raffle.  Ed, Dusty and I definitely have some cool ideas brewing for these guys.

SING FOR CHINA

JUMP is very proud and excited to sponsor three of China’s biggest indie rock bands for the SING FOR CHINA event at Bennett Media Studios this Thursday.  Should be a lot of fun as is the norm with Culture Catch events.

Here’s some background on the bands.

About the Bands

Hedgehog:

photo credit, Matthew Niederhauser

Hedgehog, powered by pint-size female drummer/vocalist Atom, represent the best of China’s rock scene. The band was a featured headliner at the Modern Sky Festival in 2008 and Strawberry Festival (Beijing) in May of 2009. Hedgehog’s 2006 debut Noise Hit World was a critic favorite in China, and their 2008 release Blue Day Dreaming helped catapult them to the top of the Chinese indie-rock world.

On SPIN Magazine’s website:

http://spinearth.tv/report/hedgehog-rocks-chinas-future

Strawberry Festival, Beijing:

http://www.vimeo.com/4443832

More:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=1300348224

http://cn.profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=1300348224

http://newindiemusicinhongkong.blogspot.com/2009/04/hedgehog-tour-09-atomic-rock.html

Queen Sea Big Shark:

Expect a barrage of rock n’ roll-electro power punches from arguably the most ferocious rockers on the Beijing scene. QSBS rarely disappoints in delivering tight, raunchy instrumentation fronted by the frenetic, full-body assault of singer Fu Han, a woman seemingly possessed on stage. The band supported the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Modern Sky Festival (Beijing) in 2007 and recently headlined the Converse sponsored “Love Noise” tour in China (featured here on the Dazed and Confused website: http://dazeddigital.com/projects/Converse-LoveNoise/Music.aspx.

For more about QSBS, visit:

http://www.myspace.cn/queenseabigshark

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6shj4_queen-sea-big-shark-in-hohaiyan-roc_music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAd2lvLwq50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkaSw-0IO1E&feature=related

Casino Demon:

Veering from raw, noisy guitar bursts to tight, rapid-paced assaults, Casino Demon during 2006 moved from the outskirts of the Beijing live music scene to the forefront. At heart, they’re a good-time rock n’ roll band that really like to crank it up. Casino Demon recently celebrated the release of their new album, Teenage, in March of 2009.

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDSBjO6ndpc

http://dazeddigital.com/projects/Converse-LoveNoise/Music.aspx#CasinoDemon

Here’s the video of Glenn Tillbrook performing at Culture Catch

more about “Glenn Tilbrook plays “Product” on Cul…“, posted with vodpod

Catch my cameo at the 2:00 mark.

Culture Catch X The Takeover UK

I had the unique opportunity to stop by The Center (otherwise the residence and creative compound of Ed Bennett) and enjoy a live performance as part of Culture Catch by The Takeover UK, a young band out of Pittsburgh.  It’s always cool to see performances at Ed’s place because he’s got a variety of “venues” even in his own home.  This time, the guys performed in his living room and it was totally dope.  It was all acoustic and I was struck by the unique way in which they were able to harmonize three singers in all their songs.  Beyond their harmonic abilities, they and their music had all the trappings of an “it” pop/rock band.  In other words, they’re really fucking good.  It was live streamed on ustream and was also filmed and recorded for Quicktime on the Apple website.  I’ll post it up when it becomes available.  And of course they had to be wearing JUMP.

There’s Dusty and the band.

Derek’s wearing the Vanquish Grey Ivis Patent and Josh is wearing the Vague Taupe Patent.

Nick on piano.

Josh enjoying a book on Kitchens.

They stopped by the SoHo store to hang out for a bit before heading out to a photo shoot.  Got themselves some shoes!  Here’s Nick, Mark, Derek and Josh.  They left a bunch of their EPsat the store so stop by and nick one for your listening pleasure.

I liked these guys so much that we’re talking about doing an in-store acoustic performance the next time they’re in town.  Sometime in July.  Keep you guys posted.  They have a pretty funny blog too.  Here’s one of their videos.

Their song was also used for the Castle promo.

It’s actually quite interesting to meet these different types of artists and see how they can make JUMP their own.  It’s a testament to the diversity of the brand that Busta Rhymes can look sick wearing them and a drummer from a band like The Takeover UK can look just as good in them.

Culture Catch X Henry Butler X The Sopranos

After having met Dusty Wright (the man behind Culture Catch) and Ed Bennett (founder of VH1) at my friend’s mom’s birthday party (random, but cool), they kindly invited me to their Culture Catch events.  Each of which have been very intimate invitation-only performances held at some amazing townhouse or some other crazy loft.  Last week’s was at the residence of Joe Scarpinito in Tribeca.  The event featured Henry Butler, a blind pianist from New Orleans.  I introduced him to the Monderer for Jump Gatsby in Black Dentelle and when he started feeling it, he was immediately impressed.  He could tell through his hands that it was a special shoe.

Also in attendance were a host of characters from The Sopranos, notably Michael Imperioli who made the introduction for Henry and who also flipped for the Vanquish Grey Nappa.

His performance was amazing.  The things he was doing with that piano without the ability to see was breathtaking.  Must’ve been the shoes.  Check out Complex’s writeup on him.

My hair’s shorter now.

My homies, Ed and Dusty.

That’s Norena, Henry’s manager, Michael, his wife Victoria and Dusty.

The caterer was wearing one of our shoes from last season, completely unsolicited.

Dope view from the roof.

Joe had quite a collection of artwork.  I recognized this piece from a Chinese artist, Yue Minjun.  As usual, it was quite a unique event.  I’m certainly looking forward to the next one!

Glenn Tilbrook X Culture Catch X Ed Bennett

On Sunday, I was invited to my friend, John’s mom Shirley’s birthday party at Trump Tower on the West Side. Shirley herself is a fun lady and she had quite a few interesting guests at her party, one of whom was a gentleman named Ed Bennett. After speaking to him for a bit, I learned he was one of the founders of VH1. He invited me over to his house in the West Village to check out a live feed recording he would be doing with Glenn Tilbrook from the 80s Brit band, Squeeze. They had hits like Tempted and Pulling Mussels from a Shell.  This is from one of his concerts.

So I went to check it out and sweet baby Jesus, Ed’s place was by far the sickest pad I’d ever seen in Manhattan.  When he bought the place 9 years ago, it was a little two car auto repair garage and he basically took it apart, kept the facade and rebuilt it into a 5 story house.  It’s there where he runs Bennett Media Studio where he records artists, has performances and even hosts art exhibitions.  We met Glenn and introduced him to JUMP and he loved it.  He makes it work with a suit eh?  He’s wearing the Vaine in Graphite Patent.

Check out Ed’s pad.

Glenn’s an excellent and rather funny performer.  The whole thing was orchestrated by Culture Catch who did a quick interview/Q&A with him and will be posting it on their site.

After the performance he came to the store to buy another pair of Monderer for Jump for himself and a pair for his wife.

I don’t know how to smile.