Tag: Music

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LA Music

Raising The Bar With Hank Fontaine

Hank Fontaine, Central Park

Hank Fontaine is ready for revolution.

On New Year’s Day, the Los Angeles musician trumpeted a public call for creative reformation:

You’re a creator? Awesome. Create. This idea that you’re supposed to be a living, breathing “brand” is gross and someday it’s gonna look really dated. Whether you paint, write, sing, or complain, own that it’s an extension of your soul, not “content” that you excrete on a daily basis like a robot. Can we please make 2020 the year that branding dies?

Hank Fontaine is a powder keg in an industry bursting with soul peddlers thirsty for fame and power. He refuses to be contained. He is content to stay honest to himself, his whims and his art. Conformity does not interest him in the least. Fontaine is a restless soul forever on the prowl for inspiration, both a citizen and student of the world. Ten years of touring as a guitarist; a lifetime of transience. For the time being, he’s existing in Los Angeles, eschewing that plastic Stepford Wife nonsense.

Living in the City of Angels has only deepened his determination to bring authenticity to his craft, encouraging others to follow suit. He walks the walk. After four years as half of sibling duo The Fontaines, touring with Dylan Gardner and Valley Queen, and resetting his path with a couple of singles, Fontaine released his first solo album in 2019: The Globalist Agenda or: Welcome To Frogtown. It is an eclectic tour de force.

Fontaine’s sound is impossible to pigeonhole, and he likes it that way. There are some echoes of retro influence, particularly in Fontaine’s guitar licks, but his lyrics are firmly rooted in the 21st century experience. He effortlessly weaves elements of Harry Nilsson, early Billy Joel, Supertramp, and Electric Light Orchestra in his sound, through the filters of English music hall, New Wave, and breezy California surf rock. Although Fontaine is primarily known for his guitar chops, he is a powerful and emotive vocalist who croons, growls, whispers and fearlessly falsettos.

Photo: Alice Teeple

Hank Fontaine’s strength lies in his curious voyeurism and refusal to mould himself to a false concept. He takes that kid-in-a-candy-store approach to sound, reminiscent of Odelay-era Beck. His self-penned Spotify bio cheekily mocks the industry push to brand musicians, which he sees as a limiting force on creativity. Not a single song on this album sounds like any other, but all work together in a sonic crazy quilt as varied as the people who influenced them. The Globalist Agenda was inspired by people Fontaine met while living in the Frogtown neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“I like to pretend to be other people when I’m writing. I think that’s gonna get me in trouble someday,” he quips.

Fontaine’s love of Seinfeld shines through in his observational lyrics: always wryly wondering, “what’s up with that?” This is best exemplified in his debut single, Bad Love, which sounds like a powerful breakup ballad, but was in fact about a time he got cut off in a Trader Joe’s parking lot. “I asked, what happened to this person to make them like this?” Fontaine explains. The ethereal, forlorn Hope Don’t Leave Me Now was inspired by a compulsive lottery ticket gamber at his local 7/11.

The album was a collaboration with his friend and producer Jason DeMayo. The pair recorded all the instruments together, one at a time.

“It was a very freeing way to work that I never tried before,” says Fontaine.

Fontaine headlined the Troubadour in LA to celebrate the release of The Globalist Agenda, and then took off the rest of 2019 to focus on writing. He’s in NYC for a few months doing an artist residency, working on a new EP of songs he wrote in his hometown of Paris.

Keep your eyes and ears on this one in 2020. Hank Fontaine is just getting started.

You can purchase The Globalist Agenda Or: Welcome To Frogtown here:

https://hankfontaine.bandcamp.com/releases

You can stream it here (but consider buying it, he’s completely independent):

Can’t Give It Up Single

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Categories
Featured Living Technology

The Best Tech and Gear Gift Guide for the Holidays

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Downtown’s best tech and gear gift guide for the tech-obsessed on your holiday shopping list, or to satisfy your own inner techie, includes a round-up of super cool items from translation earbuds to camping gear. Cheers to finding the perfect gift for anyone who wants to keep up with the current state of technology today!

 

 

The Best Tech and Gear Gift Guide for the Holidays
Insulated Touchscreen Gloves
The Best Tech and Gear Gift Guide for the Holidays
Insulated Touchscreen Gloves

Touch tech that never fails. Our Publisher’s favorite tech gloves for 2019.

Mujjo, has perfectly blended in the tech so that it complements the sleek style of the glove. The stretch knit fleece fabric stretches in all directions for a comfortable pre-curved fit. The fabric is given a highly conductive treatment that mimics the conductive properties of the skin to make them touchscreen compatible before being sewn into a slim, stretchy profile that conforms to the shape of your hands.

It works all the time, every time. After all, no one wants to take their glove off to scroll through Instagram, we’re better than that.

 

 

 

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

 

Introducing Ambassador, the highest quality interpreter for professionals and travelers of all backgrounds. From training to travel, groups to solo, the Ambassador allows you to have smooth conversations free from the constraints of language barriers. Sleek and specially designed over-the-ear interpreter engineered to translate speech with higher accuracy than any other tool on the market.

 

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

 

The Tree Of Light is a stunningly beautiful sculptural art piece, that replaces just about everything you’d normally keep on your nightstand. It’s a sleek LED lamp with a thin, cherry wood shade, and brightness that can be smoothly adjusted via the touch controls on the base. The “Sleep Mode” setting will even turn it off automatically after 30 minutes, so you don’t have to worry about falling asleep with the lights on. But it doesn’t stop there. The lamp base has an integrated wireless charging pad, as well as a sticker receiver, so you can wirelessly charge any phone. If your phone doesn’t already have wireless charging, just choose between the Lightning (iPhone) or Micro USB (Android) options, and your lamp will arrive with a super-thin wireless receiver that you can stick directly on your device, and start using the charging platform instantly.

This gorgeous charging lamp even comes with a built-in neodymium speaker. Just pair your device to the lamp, and play your favorite music wirelessly. You can even use the touch controls on the lamp to adjust the volume and skip songs.

Goodbye boring desk lamps, switches, messy tangled cords, and clutter!

 

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

 

Devialet Gold Phantom. The best wireless speaker in the world. This speaker from Devialet emits an ultra-dense sound with physical impact. No distortion, no saturation, no background noise and features our exclusive Analog Digital Hybrid Technology. With power, clarity, and precision unlike anything, you’ve heard before. With power, clarity, and precision unlike anything, you’ve heard before.

 

 

This summer, OMEGA partnered with The Metropolitan Museum of Art to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landing, and created the Speedmaster “First OMEGA in Space The Met Edition. This watch comes with a red and white striped NATO strap, a nod to the Museum’s signature color, with The Met’s logo engraved on the loop. Each model will be delivered inside a unique presentation box, crafted with The Met logo, and retail for $5,200.

 

 

 

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Our music-obsessed editor in chief swears by the superior sound, chic design, and cutting-edge technology of these Sennheiser Momentum headphones. They feature intuitive controls, active noise cancellation, and transparent hearing so that you can enjoy your tunes while still being fully present in real life. The leather head strap and cushy earcups deliver superior comfort while looking great on the go.
Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide
From industry leader and trusted CBD brand, Charlotte’s Web’s holiday box is offering 30 Days of Calm. The box includes a beautiful set of relaxation and holiday tip cards with positive affirmations, activities, and useful information, and includes CBD oil in mint chocolate and Calm gummies, both made from responsibly farmed USA grown hemp. All Charlotte’s Web products are third party tested and a certificate of analysis is available upon request.
Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Can’t stay away from your tech? Don’t want to rely on campsites with outlets? MPOWERD’s inflatable solar night is perfect. Charge it during the day, then strap it to your tent at night for a lantern that will charge your phone, your GPS, or anything else you need.

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Bugaboo Camper, Four Person Nesting Camp Cookset: When our associate editor goes camping, he needs every inch of space. The four-person Bugaboo Camper comes with two pots (2L and 3L) with strainer lids, frying pan, four large mugs with insulated sleeves and Sip-Through Lids, bowls, and plates for everyone, a pot gripper, and a carry bag that doubles as a sink. And all of that fits inside of the 3L pot for easy transport. Perfect for feasting in the great outdoors.

 

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

 

This beautifully designed reading lamp at Roche Bobois, designed by Carlo Zerbaro, with a base and structure in varnished steel with a matte finish, col. black, oxidized steel screen giving a reflection of multi-colored material (oxidized copper). With adjustable direct or indirect light source. Perfect for any room.

 

 

Geeks, Gear and Tech Holiday Gift Guide

 

Nimble is making tech products from plant-based bioplastics, recycled aluminum, and fabric made from recycled water bottles. The carbon-neutral portable chargers, wireless stand chargers, phone cases, and cables are all shipped in plastic-free packaging made from scrap paper and non-toxic inks and adhesives, and to encourage tech recycling, each item ships with an envelope to pack up your various cables, plugs, phones, mp3 players, and chargers, and you can go online to print out a free shipping label. The company has recently acquired B-Corporation status, verifying that they meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

 

 

Categories
Culture Featured Music

Clan of Xymox Materializes at Le Poisson Rouge

Clan of Xymox Materializes at Le Poisson Rouge

By Alice Teeple

Photos by Alice Teeple

Eyeliner? Check. Black lippie? Check. Mesh, lace and platform combats? All present and accounted for, with a gloomy rainy night for good measure.

It was undeniably a Clan of Xymox concert down in the rumbling subterranean catacombs of Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village. The venue found itself stuffed to the gills with New York City’s goths, punks, leather daddies, kohl-eyed Gen Xers, telephoto-wielding photographers…and most wonderful of all, a genteel-looking mama jacked up on Bud Light. She was over the moon to introduce the music of Xymox to her daughter. “I’m from the South, honey!” she shrieked with delight, waving to frontman Ronny Moorings. “We make our performers feel WELCOME!” She hugged everyone within her immediate radius, bumping the enthusiasm levels right up to eleven. What a fantastically eclectic crowd at this show.

NYC’s own Pawns and Chicago’s The Bellwether Syndicate (led by William Faith of The March Violets and Faith and the Muse) riled up the crowd with their outstanding sets. Thunderous, energetic, and gothic as hell, these two darkwave outfits were terrific choices to support Clan of Xymox.

Clan of Xymox
Ronny Moorings

For the uninitiated, it was a real treat to see this new material live as well as the members in great spirits. The Dutch band, featuring Moorings, Sean Gøebel, Mario Usai, and Daniel Hoffmann, made a blessed final stop in New York, wrapping up this leg of their Days of Black Tour. Clan of Xymox was finally completing a cross-continental schedule of shows. If they were fatigued from the series of sold-out gigs, they certainly showed no signs of it.

Continuously playing in various incarnations since their formation in 1981, Xymox still sounded fresh and prescient with their philosophical lyrics and screeching synths. Xymox rolled out their old tried-and-trues like A Day, Obsession, and Muscoviet Mosquito, but introduced plenty of newer tracks as well.

Moorings, with his wonderful mop of jet-black hair, was in fine form, making wry political jokes. He mischievously taunted the audience and encouraged clap-alongs, as synth player Sean Gøebel went hog wild on a melodica. At times Gøebel appeared almost otherworldly as he serenaded the crowd, twisting and turning like a mohawked, German Expressionist Pan. Hoffmann and Usai kept up the pace, basking gleefully in the stage fog. The real surprise of the night was an inspired cameo appearance by their friend Curse Mackey of Pigface.

Xymox wound up the evening with two encores, and finally sent the children of the night off to their lairs with Going Round. The set lists were divvied out to the devoted, and the Southern mama’s daughter triumphantly snagged one of  Mooring’s abandoned guitar picks.

“This will make a nice Christmas present for Mom. Maybe a necklace or something,” she said, just before the duo tackled Bellwether Syndicate’s William Faith in the lobby with big hugs and good ol’ Southern hospitality.

Yes, ma’am!

Clan of Xymox: A Day

Vixen In Disguise

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Marcs Goes “Wild” In Stunning New Video

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Categories
Culture Featured Music

Virginia Marcs Goes “Wild” In Stunning New Video

Virginia Marcs Goes “Wild” In Stunning New Video

By Alice Teeple

Photos by Alice Teeple

Virginia Marcs is a force to be reckoned with in her stunning, unsettling new release, Wild.

This collaboration with famed MTV VMA award-winning director Alexander Hammer (Beyoncé, Lizzo) unleashes a spectacular recollection of a manic night of excess on the “road to ruin.” She draws from her own tumultuous life experience and steps away from her usual power belting in favor of a more introspective approach. She asks through reflection, what damage does excessive partying do to one’s psyche? When does the cycle become an ouroboros?

“Self-destruction is the intoxicating swan song of the artist, the lover, the young,” says Marcs. “I lived it, loved it, blamed it, hated it, survived it, watched it unfold all around me…and made peace with it.”

Virginia Marcs

Virginia Marcs’ gorgeous operatic soprano transforms into veritable banshee howls as she runs in slow motion through an empty mansion and the nightlife of New York City. The slurry feeling of too much, too soon; the wild looks of determination to take it to the next level. She is non-judgemental and unrepentant. Hammer’s cinematic visuals lushly illustrate her memories of chaotic youth as a surreal dreamscape. We bear witness to her dirty deeds done dirt cheap, as Hammer peppers the video with subtle nods to the truth behind the mask. Is the lie of nostalgia, after all, just another high?

Marcs delivers a unique brand of art-pop, combining her opera and jazz vocal training with solid guitar chops and a passion for raw storytelling. She credits Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and Jeff Buckley as inspiration, first catching the ears of Idlewild Magazine in 2016. Since then she has released her first album, Climbing The Wall, and played all over New York City, as well as taking her show on the road with tours in Florida and New England.

Wild is her second video collaboration with Hammer from Climbing The Wall.  Marcs is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for the production of her forthcoming EP, Reckoning.

Virginia Marcs

Marcs performs at The Bitter End on 12 December at 8 pm, in partnership with the NYC Mayor’s Office for a showcase devoted to bringing awareness to gender-based domestic violence. This is a subject very close to Marcs.

“It’s a disgusting and preventable cycle,” she says. “You grow up in an abusive home, then as a woman you are twice as likely to end up in a similar relationship. It’s a poison. It’s one thing to drink it yourself, but when you feed that poison to your child…I was that child….it’s about survival, letting go of the past ever-changing. It is not about absolution.”

Forgiveness is a subject Marcs still finds challenging. “I wasted a lot of time and my life trying to get there,” she admits. This video demonstrates the importance of self-empowerment following a chaotic life experience; to become a phoenix rising from those unfortunate ashes.

Downtown is thrilled to debut this “dazzling generational tale of self-destruction.”

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Categories
Architecture Design Featured News

A Famous Acoustician Designs For Change in Harlem

A Famous Acoustician Designs For Change in Harlem

Photos credit WSDG

Acoustician John Storyk has spent the last 50 years working with dreamers and artists to create remarkable music spaces. He’s worked on projects from Jay-Z’s “Roc The Mic” recording studio to Rio De Janeiro’s “Barra Olympic Park.” Now, he’s working on a music space to create dreamers and artists. In April, sources announced that Storyk and his studio, WSDG, would join a group effort to renovate the Harlem School of the Arts. The building, which has stood for more than 40 years, has been will be receiving a major re-vamp throughout.

The Harlem School of the Arts has been inspiring youth and building talent in Harlem for more than 50 years. Just X years before Storyk handed over his first sketch for Jimmy Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios, concert singer Dorothy Maynor founded the HSA in TK Church across the street from the school’s current location. She believed, as the school still believes, that the arts can stimulate growth in children. To that end, it provides music, dance, theater, art, and design classes for children of all ages. A majority of these students are black or latinx, and half are on some kind of financial assistance. HSA hopes that, with the opportunities they provide, their students can grow and succeed in ways previously closed to them. 

Storyk, with his wife and founding partner Beth Walters.

While the renovations to the HSA building will be extensive, Storyk and WSDG were brought on to help design the main lobby of the school, which also acts as a performance space for students. Storyk’s job will be helping to design the acoustics of the space to enhance musical or vocal performances. The most remarkable feature will be a large, slanted glass wall facing the street. The glass wall will open up the lobby space and replace a solid brick wall. 

Storyk was added to the team at the recommendation of Herb Alpert, who made the renovation possible with a $6 million donation. When they needed to find an acoustician, Alpert said Storyk was the only choice. “It’s an honor to be on this team,” says Storyk,  “Every now and then you get a job like this, with a social conscience and cultural coefficient. I’m not suggesting that doing a private studio for Jay-Z is not important. This is more important.”

Categories
Culture Featured Music

Interview With Niabi Aquena of Searmanas

Niabi Aquena of Searmanas Comes to NYC

Niabi Aquena of Searmanas in an interview with Downtown

Listening to the opening strains of a Searmanas song is like falling into a murky pool of lucid dreams. The ethereal vocals of Niabi Aquena gently sprinkle cinematic fairy dust over her lush soundscapes. Her work has been described as “etheric darkwave,” with nods to Sigur Rós, Fever Ray, and composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. 

Searmanas (pronounced SHA-mah-nas) is the Irish word for “ceremony.” Much of her poetry explores nature and ritual through unusual sonic channels; for instance, she used the radiotelephony spelling alphabet in her song Opening With Phonetics. Aquena’s live performances transform her into a priestess solemnly creating altars of noodly wires and sound waves.

“I love the exploration of the role of ceremony within both urban and rural experience,” says Aquena.  “I like showing, not telling. I’m inspired by intensity and poetry. I’m a romantic.”

Although she has called NYC home for two decades, Aquena originally hails from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where the oldest mountain ranges found on earth surround the region with rolling hills and green pastures. Many of her atmospheric progressions sonically mimic that landscape. 

“I grew up in this beautiful place feeling as an outsider and a weirdo,” Aquena explains. “My mom named me from a New Age baby name book she found. I was 5’9” at age twelve; I had flaming red hair. I was different, and in rural Virginia, that was not accepted. This led way to a vulnerability founded in mettle.”

Aquena has since struck an intriguing balance with her place as a metropolitan artist, and the acknowledgment of the pastoral beauty that shaped her youth, through her mystical lyrics and transcendent electronic experiments. She is a unique fixture in the New York music scene, having shared the stage with other electronic visionaries like John Bender and Hieroglyphic Being. 

“The city certainly has taken my heart, and the rhythm of this place motivates me to my core.”

Seamanas
“The only solution I could come up with after hot compresses failed me, was an eyepatch! The pics from that show turned out cool though, so now I’m asked when I’m bringing the eyepatch back…”

Since debuting Searmanas in 2016, Niabi Aquena has been signed to Cleopatra Records and taken her project on tour all over the Midwest and East Coast. Aquena describes tour life as “grueling, but very rewarding.” On the last leg of a major tour, however, a minor crisis struck.

“I got bitten on my eyelid at someone’s place and my eye swelled up. I looked terrible but was playing a show that night. The only solution I could come up with after hot compresses failed me, was an eyepatch! The pics from that show turned out cool though, so now I’m asked when I’m bringing the eyepatch back…although it most certainly wasn’t a fashion statement!”

Aquena has lent her considerable talents to other bands such as Dead Leaf Echo and Textbeak, but she has many more plans for her solo project. 

“I’m waiting on getting a pedal. It takes the firmware from one of my favorite modular synths, but in a stompbox. Earlier this year I taught myself guitar, so I’m thinking of incorporating these two loves, modular synthesis, and guitar, together for the next iteration of Searmanas.”

Searmanas performs the Hart Bar on 7 November.

Check out Undo by Searmanas here:

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