Photo Gallery: Lost In The Trees @ Black Cat Backstage

I caught one of my favorite new bands of 2010 at South By Southwest on the first night: Lost In The Trees. If you knew about the horrifying childhood that inspired the works, you’d be incredibly surprised how joyful and celebratory the music actually is. And when you catch the band on stage, the humility, and endearing charm of front man Ari Picker is so big and genuine, you cannot help but fall in love with this band.

I decided to catch them again back here in D.C. Monday night at the Black Cat’s Backstage, where a full crowd of people were all captivated. NPR Music was there to webcast the show, so be sure to take a listen. (Also be sure to check out our Tiny Desk Concert with them from last year).

But in the meantime, here are a few shots I managed to take.

Reblogging Update: Antlers, Besnard Lakes, more

Here is yet another post highlighting some links to a few things I’ve contributed to over at NPR Music:

The Antlers: Tiny Desk ConcertHelped shoot and edited\produced the video for this beautiful set.

Laura Veirs: Tiny Desk Concert Edited\produced this video of a very preggers Laura Veirs. Great, warm show.

— Song of the Day: The Besnard Lakes: Filling The Room With Sound

Sparklehorse Singer Mark Linkous RememberedHelped put this page together and selected all the music.

— All Songs Considered blog: Dorks Gather For Listening Party In which I am mentioned and briefly talk about the RPM Challenge.

Culturetopia Won A Gracie Award! — This is a weekly arts and entertainment podcast I produce and it really is quite great. Check it out if you haven’t tuned in.

Tiny Desk Concert: Lightning Dust (and more…)

Over at NPR Music, I continue my reign of recent Tiny Desk Concert videos that I’ve helped put together. This week, is Lightning Dust, who put out one of my favorite albums of the year, Infinite Light. This video is infectious thanks to the wonderful harmonies of the two female singers, presumably sisters.

Take a look below, and read my little write up here on the website.

Also on NPR Music today, I contribute to the Take Five series’ Top 10 Jazz Records of 2009 list as part of our end of year coverage. Here I write about one of my favorite guitarists, Nels Cline — notably of Wilco fame — who put out a great jazz/rock/folk/minimalist album Coward.

Tiny Desk Concert: Bowerbirds

Way back in July, I invited one of my more recent favorite groups Bowerbirds to perform at the NPR Music offices for a Tiny Desk Concert.

Many, many (MANY) months later, after getting buried in an almost insurmountable backlog and actually having the raw HDV tapes go missing for a few weeks, the video has finally gone live, produced and edited by yours truly. This is my second real foray into video editing, but I think the video looks pretty good.

Check it out below and read my short write up at NPR Music here.

Tom Jones Performed 10ft From Me At Work Today

And it was totally amazing… What a showman!

UPDATE 3/2: For those who care to watch Sir Tom Jones in action, video is now up.

I think Robin’s write up is incredibly accurate: While Jones has accumulated quite a reputation as schlock and cheesey moves over the years — not to mention spoofed by Carlton on the Fresh Prince — there is no denying why this incredibly talented guy rose to the top. Even in this intimate setting I think he really sounded great, was very genuine and was quite the showman.