NYNS - NYCNY

Since things are a little slow around here this time of the year, and since I've been thinking about killing off the inactive New York Nobody Sings, I'm going to start publishing my posts from there, on a regular basis, here. In case you don't know, the NYNS site was started, with myself, EV Grieve, Alex, and Holly Ramos, as a sister site to the wonderful London Nobody Sings, and was dedicated to posting songs about, or referencing, NYC.

This one is definitely a bit of an oddity. Found on the one Daryl Hall album I can listen to all the way through, NYCNY is from Hall's first solo album, Sacred Songs. Recorded in 1977, but not released until 1980, it's an obvious love song from Philly native Hall to his longtime adopted hometown. Producer Robert Fripp's fingerprints are all over this. A strange mix of new wave and prog rock, I'd venture to guess that it's pretty much the sort of album Daryl Hall wished he could have been making all of the time.

Original version from Sacred Songs:

South By Southwest, Part 1

Last Wednesday thru Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending South By Southwest (or SxSW) for the 5th or 6th time. If you've been, you know about it already. If you haven't been, its definitely worth a visit at least once. Take about 10,000 attendees, and about 1700 bands, stick 'em into the coolest town in Texas (Austin to be exact), give 'em about 4 or 5 days to do their thing & see what happens.

During the day, day parties & barbecues, gigs, and music business panels on everything from the future of the business to 16 Magazine. At night, it's pretty much all shows at every venue they can fit a band into, and even some places that aren't even venues (see photo at top). You're pretty much going from 9 or 10 in the morning until 1 or 2 in the morning for 4 or 5 straight nights. Feels more like 4 weeks once you get home.

Panel highlights for me:
- Lou Reed being interviewed by Hal Wilner
- Seymour Stein being interviewed by David Katznelson
- Danny Fields and the panel on the history & importance of 16 Magazine
- Daryl Hall being interviewed by Ann Powers (don't ask - I went for my wife but actually enjoyed it)

DISCLAIMER: I'm going to be posting some photos from the trip, but please keep in mind that all I have to work with is an iPhone. A few of the pix came out great. Most came out so so, and several are just plain crap, but at least I tried.

Photos from the Daryl Hall panel:





With my friend, Kandia Crazy Horse: