A quick apology, a justification, then I feed you music.

I apologize for my lack of posts the past 2 weeks! I have one more week of family and friends in town but I promise I'll be ON IT thereafter.

I have, however, installed a play list to check out the kick ass bands I've been jamming to. Also, please notice the addition of the "meh" button which means, well, meh. Think Larry David.

Now, I'd like to turn your attention to the music. I've been loving this Cotton Jones album for a while now. Think cherry blossoms falling on your face at the botanical gardens on or around April 1st in NYC. Lyrics like rainclouds as they hover in dark honesty while you "tay in da wynn" Nell style.

Cotton Jones will be coming out with a new album next week so I'll be sure to write it up. Here's an appetizer, but don't spoil your dinner.

Supremely Awesome Music= AVA LUNA

I was on one of my late night musical treasure hunts, which is always dangerous because I may come across a band like Ava Luna and be entirely unable to sleep. Holy shit I’m excited to have found this band!

Based in NYC, Ava Luna rocks a trio of do-woppin synchronized female voices and an insanely soulful frontman backed by a section of synthesizer industrial-alt soul-punkesq beats base and rhythm. It’s like a spoonful of your favorite ice cream combined with sticking your tongue on a 9 volt battery; a delicious dopamine filled shock of sound. 

I would highly recommend BOTH Ava Luna’s Services EP and their album 3^rd Avenue Island. Services is available here for download via donation of $2 or more.

Support Ava Luna on Facebook, follow them on the Twitters and check out their show on August 2 in Brooklyn. Get your tickets here

Tinariwen: Blues from a West African Desert

I usually feature “up and coming” artists, but not many people in the states have heard Tinariwen, and they ABSOLUTELY should be heard.   

Tinariwen is a band from mali, one of the poorest nations in the world. Many years ago the lead singer made his first guitar out of bicycle break wire, a tin can, and a stick. He grew up in refugee camps and fled to build a life filled with music and poetry. Read about their incredible journey here.

Listen and learn. It’s proof that Music, when it's in the deepest parts of our being, can make any hardship bearable. Seriously. Your life doesn't suck. 

Lyrics translated in English

I am a traveler in the lone desert

It's nothing special


I can stand the wind

I can stand the thirst


And the sun


I know how to go and walk

Until the setting of the sun


In the desert, flat and empty,


where nothing is given


My head is alert, awake


I have climbed up and climbed down


The mountains where I was born


I know in which caves the water is hidden


These worries are my friends


I'm always on familiar


terms with them and that


Gives birth to the stories of my life


You who are organized,


assembled, walking together


Hand in hand, you're living


A path which is empty of meaning


In truth, you're all alone

The Crystal Stilts Create Wondrous Musical Wormholes Bending Space and Time.

From a birds eye view we looked like a river raging toward a dam of armed men. We were revolutionaries rioting, shouting, arm in arm to steal the future back from its present owners. We believed being realistic was to ask for the impossible. We closed down streets and opened doors. It was May 1968 in Paris. I was there today, courtesy of the Crystal Stilts video and their time traveling song, Departure. 

Where we're going we don't need roads. 

The Crystal Stilts play Bowery Ballroom August 19th. Get your tickets here

"Gur you bes relax" -My Antique Phonograph

After much searching, I am now the proud owner of a Victrola Model X circa 1915. I love the Victrola because I have amazing sounding music that makes my heart sing with each crackle. It also kindly reminds me to have a trait our attention deficit disordered culture often lacks: PATIENCE. 


We live in a culture of NOW. If our Internet takes more then 5 seconds to load a page we can turn into Veruca darling at the chocolate factory screaming “BUT I WANT IT NOW, DADDY!” Buffering is a sign of end times. People have stopped supporting local record stores. We buy mp3’s from Itunes for its cheap "wam bam thank you ma’am" accessibility. Online behavior goes offline as we text, tweet and update our statuses during dinner conversations with friends or at a concert. The latter I’ve discussed in a previous post.


The Victrola doesn’t allow for me to behave like a now junkie. It has to be cranked to work and the needle must be replaced after every record or two played. I now take the time to shop at record stores again and have face-to-face discussions about music with the people who work there. It’s had a positive impact on the way I operate in general.


My point is not to go out and purchase an antique Victrola, or to never download an Mp3 from Itunes again. It’s just a metaphorical reminder that the beautiful, meaningful things in life don’t always come in a double clicked high-speed downloadable package, and neither do we, so let’s all relax and behave accordingly.

Love + Water Designs Gives Listening Voice Some Sweet Unsolicited Lovin!

BLOG TO FOLLOW: The Listening Voice

Music fans far and wide, The Listening Voice by Dominique Miniaci is a WONDERFUL new blog that chronicles great music throughout NYC.  And when I say great, I mean smart, interesting, insightful, soulful, all-around artistic work by musicians who seriously rock.  It is worth reading because Nique is an incredible writer, and listening to because the music is definitely worthy of a listen.  You won't be disappointed.  And you will be supporting artists who deserve to be heard."

If you are an artist with interesting work (painting, poetry, photography, wordage, all-around great, creative person) or a charity helping to foster incredible change, contact Alexis Fedor at Love +Water about featuring you. 

Heartless Bastards-The Good Kind

The Heartless Bastards played an incredible show at Bowery Ballroom last night. Erika Wennerstrom's voice is outer earthly; it hails from the same planet as Joplin and Plant. This is macrobiotic rock n' roll: uncooked-zero preservative rawness-detoxifying-really really freakin good for you. 

                Erika Wennerstrom (middle) and a very happy me