Winter Across The Pond

Feb 26: BERLIN

2009-03-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday February 26th
DUNCKER
Berlin, Germany

We loaded up the van and headed out for another long drive, this time to Germany.
At the border we were promptly pulled over by the Polizei and documents were requested. There was snow on the ground and it was quite cold so when they asked us each to get out of the van after running my passport and the guys' drivers licenses, it was not my cup of tea. Nonetheless, AND thankfully we all cleared fine and were back on the road shortly thereafter.....

We arrived at The Duncker with a slight parking challenge yet quickly unloaded and began to set up for soundcheck. The crew of sound engineers was about 5 or 6 deep and super organized. While the il moro crew set up I scoped out a small table and wall for the merchandising. Beers were poured. Bags were arranged backstage behind the Guardaroba (coatcheck). My friend Crys (who I met last three years ago during CMJ in NY when I was performing with Apollo Heights ) showed up to surprise me at soundcheck and with a sweet gift of Ballantine's Bourbon;)

After soundcheck we had dinner in the back with all three bands which included another Italian via London band, Lillys on Mars (female electro punk duo - HOT - look our for them -I believe they are coming to New York in April). More New York posse surprises included Elyas and Melissa (Nervous Cabaret) plus Angel Idealism, who now all live in Berlin! In addition our amazing graphic designer Lorenzo Pilia (who did the layout for my album as well as Dejligt and also for my video release party in December) came through as he also lives in Berlin. It was like a New York meets Italy mash-up and PACKED!

The stage was small and I did keep hitting Quasi's mic stand as I spun around but we still had a great time and the crowd was not shy - they moved in close to us and danced through our entire set. Afterwards we all hung out with our various friends dancing and talking until nearly 5:00AM.

The next day the club treated us to breakfast at this really cute cafe down the street and we ate as much as humanly possible before coming back to load the van. It was like a tea parlor, full of celery green, wine and champagne colored brocade furniture. Ru and I went first with Andrea since we were awake the earliest. Packing the van on no sleep is hard, but on no sleep and no food for me is a challenge, ha ha!

Next Stop: ODENSE

Feb 25th First Day of the Tour: VIENNA

2009-03-24T11:28:00.001-07:00

Wednesday February 25th
TUWI
Vienna, Austria

We're at the Tuwi squat. Extremely feminist-focused, Eco-friendly and all about organic food;)
Our sound engineer Kristine has been faced with the challenge of finding power converter jacks that go from 3 prong (Italy) to 2 prong (Austria / the rest of Europe. The guys are setting up. During our first hour here we heard amazing drum & bass. Now - Rage Against The Machine. On the radio in the van, CAN was playing. Our journey started with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. In the van we heard CAN on the radio as well once we got into town.

This morning we drove to Codroipo before leaving Italy to drop off Lorenzo's car and I got to meet his parents. His father had made Crostini for Carnivale and his mother kindly packed us a to-go box for the van. After that and some coffee I have basically been sleeping all day. Soon I will step away from the main room to do my vocal scales though. Andrea's flight gets in at 9:00PM so Lorenzo and Matteo will go pick him up. Matteo said tonight I might want to dress "extremely punk" to fit the anarchist environment, haha! Docs stay on (check). I do wish I brought my shorts though as it is quite relaxed here.

Ru's friend who is the lead singer of Mintz, came to see us. He met her when Wah Companion played in Vienna.
The chef made a vegetarian lasagna for us in the back and I partook in the organic "bio" white wine spritz, which they served in pint size glasses.

Even though Carnavale was last night the COOP was still in celebration mode, with many people in facepaint, hats and various costumes, super colorful and dancing around during our sets. One tall guy in an orange jumpsuit and matching ski cap said he loved the set and that my voice is "like all the voices of Africa" - SWEET.

The next morning we awoke to a few people coming into the office where we crashed.
After freshening up in the bathroom we all met in the cafe to fuel up on breakfast before loading the van.

Next Stop: BERLIN

from Milano to Parigi March 15th

2009-03-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

4:10pm
after my initial shock then denial upon learning that I'm about to be on a train for ten hours with no power for my laptop.....

I've really got Milano Centrale down, chao and all.
I get in my favorite cheap little shop and buy foccacia, today with large green olives. a 2 pk of cocnut yogurt, é litres of aqua frizzante, no wine today tho. Catering leftovers from last night include a pear and banana.

so psyched for this train ride.
Being away from home for so long has made me extremely humble and thankful for what I do have. All rain announcements will now be in Italian, French and English. We will pass through Switzerland as well. I haven't taken this train since 1999. The sun will set in a few hours. I'm rolling into Paris just before midnite.

Fantasy Catering (Rider) for il moro e il quasi biondo + Honeychild Coleman Italy Winter Tour

2009-03-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

We are two bands blended into one (6 people total).

We are omnivores and have our own sleeping bags.

We are driving like animals from town to town
and when we get backstage, we'd like the following items:

Stefano (guitarist ): White wine (preferably from Alsace); Champagne; Argentenian beef steak, medium rare; Large condoms.

Ru (guitarist / backing vocals): Kir Royale & Champagne; Calvados (Apple liquer); Fresh strawberries & creme fraiche; condoms; milk chocolate.

Matteo (drummer): 12 beers & 3 condoms; a mirror.

Andrea (bassist): Bottle of Jameson whisky & bucket of ice.

Roberto AKA quasi: Oregano, papers and quasi (almost) red wine.

Lorenzo AKA il moro: Orange Juice, Pineapple (Ananas), Cheese puffs.

Honeychild (fearless leader): Jameson OR Ballantine whisky; red apples; salt or regular liquorice (liquirizia): hot tea & honey; a masseuse.

Batton down the hatches and hold on to our kneesocks, we hit the road at 9am tomorrow.

Video Release Party! YOUR IDEA OF TIME

2009-01-25T22:08:00.000-08:00

Press Release: INSIDE TROIS video!

2009-01-12T00:27:00.000-08:00

Honeychild Coleman's Debut Video: Inside Trois (w/Gracefully)

This is the first track chosen by Honeychild Coleman (Apollo Heights, Badawi, we™, Here) to represent her new album to be released in January 2009.
"Inside Trois" is a single Honeychild originally recorded for fellow New York band Gracefully (led by SoL'il's Ben Malkin), and fell in love with the pop energy so much that she asked if she could include it on her own album, "Halo Inside (Come la Luna)"

Gracefully's Ben Malkin comments about the song:

“The song was born on ecstasy, a note to a girl I was just beginning to see, who wasn't quite over an ex-boyfriend yet, and the note meant to convey 'Come on! Get on with your life, there's so much more out there' (like, right in front of you!).
Honeychild was a friend from the NYC scene, playing lots of live shows together, and, at a loss in the studio where I was not doing the vocal justice, over Saketinis at Decibel with Lee and Elizabeth, I thought “Honeychild!” (the session was the next morning), texted her, and she miraculously said “yes!”, came, threw down, reached the heavens, added the most gorgeous ethereal harmonies, and ran off like the super-hero she is.

Honeychild Coleman's comments about the song:

“The cadence of this song reminds me a bit of Lush. When I met Ben in the studio I’d just come from singing at DubWar the night before with a thermos of special tea and a jar of honey ready to work! Ben said something about a girl-group feeling and I ran with my best Ronettes meets Supremes energy. This is the kind of song I’d like to hear when I turn on pop radio. I’ve been dancing to it in my kitchen since we recorded it so that energy translated to the video. I chose to shoot at EKS Yogurt because the paintings and colors of the space are something between pop art and psychedelic, which fit the song perfectly. When we arrived in set to shoot I told Delano I wouldn’t be moving around too much but I had no choice – the music took over. The vibe on-set was amazing and everything flowed seamlessly.”

Franklin Delano, the Director of "Inside Trois" talks about the video:

“Shooting this video for Honeychild was a fun experience. She loved the look of this yogurt place in Brooklyn and was determined to do her video there. The place was actually perfect. There was plenty of room for me to line up my angles, and light for what we needed was almost perfect. Though this is the first time that we really worked together on a full video shoot, I was impressed by the way we seemed to anticipate each other’s moves. After hardly an hour of shooting, we had a very clean, energetic video.”

Photographer Ed Marshall talks about shooting Behind-the-Scenes:

“Honeychild had approached me about capturing behind the scenes footage for “Inside Trois”. I had already heard the track and liked it very much so of course I said yes. When all arrived we did a quick run through of the location and it was done in record time. About 45 minutes to be exact... we had a pretty tight crew that day.”

THE VIDEO CREW INCLUDES:

Director: Delano Franklin
Production Manager: Ria Katz
Make Up Artist & Grooming : Yassira Diggs
Behind The Scenes Photography: Ed Marshall Photography NYC

Press Office and Management:
Barbara Santi - Tel 3281749964
E-mail: barbarasanti@matteite.com

About Gracefully:

Gracefully is an experimental pop band from Brooklyn based around the collaboration of childhood friends Lee Diamond and Ben Malkin. Allison Gentile and Padden Glocka round out the line-up. On this song Lee played drums, electric and acoustic guitar, and bass, Ben played keyboards and wrote the skeleton (melody, lyrics, chord structure), and Padden played violin.

Gracefully is currently on Goodbye Better, a multi-media collective out of Brooklyn, NY, who have released albums by I Feel Tractor, Aydin, So L'il, and so many more, as well as poetry books by Corrine Fitzpatrick, Jessica Fiorini, Dustin Williamson, and many others, and is also home to the infamous Cock-Now Zine.

http://www.myspace.com/gracefullymusic

http://goodbyebetter.com

http://www.myspace.com/goodbyebetter

Behind The Scenes images By The UNSTOPPABLE Ed Marshall Photography NYC:

http://picasaweb.google.com/EdMarshallPhotographyNYC/HoneyVid?authkey=lzc9UEN1pw8#

NEWS! 12/26/08 My First Video Release Party!

2009-01-11T23:39:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY DECEMBER 26, 2008
ZEBULON
Williamsburg (BK)

Super big thanks and kisses to all of you who came out to Zebulon Friday night for the world debut screening of the Honeychild Coleman video INSIDE TROIS. I was joined on stage by my Apollo Heights band mate Monk Washington on acoustic guitar and we did two songs together from the album: "Friend" (which we wrote together) and "Halo Inside (Come a Luna)". It was a sweet reunion for us as Monk and I played together in the original Honeychild band ten years ago. I also played a slow tremelo acoustic version of the Gracefully song "Inside Trois", and then later in the set, just as he walked into the club, coat still on, I called MC Natureboy JimKelly (tm) to the stage for "Headlock". The energy was hot, the place was packed and the staff of Zebulon were lovely as always;). Special thanks to Joce and Tyler for wonderful sound and 1930's cabaret style lighting.

Images captured by the unstoppable Ed Marshall:
http://picasaweb.google.com/EdMarshallPhotographyNYC/HCVideoDebuteZebulan?authkey=pBew4ZcYMbA&feat=directlink

Press Release : YOUR IDEA OF TIME Video!

2009-01-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

Honeychild Coleman's Second Video: Your Idea of Time (w/ The Mad Professor)

This is the second track chosen by Honeychild Coleman (Apollo Heights, Badawi,
we™ & Italy’s Here) to represent her new album, “Halo iInside (Come la Luna)” on Matteite Records (Venus). "Your Idea of Time" is a single Honeychild recorded in collaboration with legendary dub reggae producer extraordinaire The Mad Professor. The duo first met via Myspace in Autumn of 2006. Then in May 2007, in New York City minutes before performing live together at S.O.B.’s. Several months later the dub track haunted Honeychild so much so that she asked Mad Professor if she could write something for it. The result became “Your Idea of Time”, a song featuring guests Paula Henderson (Baritone Sax) and David Smith (Trombone) AKA The Hedonistic Horns (Burnt Sugar /Reverend Vince Anderson’s Love Choir), magically recorded and arranged by Producer Max Stirner.
Some New York City cameo appearances in the video include MC Natureboy™ Jim Kelly (New Kingdom), Lisabell, Voodo Fe, Militia (Former Fuse VJ / Host + Singer, Swear on Your Life), Karen Levitt (stylist/photographer), Kelsey Warren (Pillow Theory), Gabriele Guazzini (Smell of Trees/Flaming Flowers ITALY ), Teedo, Annu Lilja (Animals of The Forest FINLAND), DJ Shakey (Warper), Stephanie Pezolano (Actor), Nick Ayer (Ex-manager,The Second Step), Oweinama Blu (Madam Robot & The Lust Brigade/Teedo), Seraphim (No Surrender), DJ Hayden Honey, Apollo Heights, Gina Marie Rodriguez (Moisturizer/Les Sans Culottes/Madam Robot & The Lust Brigade), and Daniel Smith.

Honeychild Coleman's comments about the song and video:

“The vibe of this dub is pure Summer time and I am honored to have had worked on it with The Mad Professor. In it I sing about everyday things like walking down Ludlow Street in the East Village and riding The V Train, which ends there. We were having a bit of a heat wave in October when we started to record, which helped for inspiration. Max Stirner worked out the horn section arrangements and when I got into the studio it was like a dream come true! Once the horns arrived on-set for the video, the crowd went crazy, dancing even more and really feeling the song. It was my manager Ria’s idea to shoot at Trophy Bar where I DJ regularly, and invite friends to be in the scene in order to create a real authentic Brooklyn party vibe, and everyone got on famously, so much so that they wanted to hear the song over and over after the cameras stopped rolling! “

Delano Franklin (Franklin Delano is that Italian Folk group), the Director of "Your ldea of Time" talks about the video:

“There were quite a few interesting visual moments throughout this shoot, though I must say things really increased in intensity once the "Horns" arrived. Early on I realized that what I thought or had planned to happen, just was not going to happen. Which is probably a good thing. As I just begin the editing process I am seeing quite a different video develop, I am excited as well as a little nervous. One thing that is obvious even in the raw footage is that everyone genuinely seems to be having a good time, which they were..”

Photographer Ed Marshall talks about shooting Behind-the-Scenes:

“It was a very good night for all in attendance I believe. The cooperation, the vibe/music and the people made it effortless. Honeychild Coleman in my experiences with her, always seems to have a following of family more than friends. Mind you..they are her friends and peers, but there’s a certain warmth in her personality, sound and being that just brings them all together. She has a very strong support system here in New York and I'm not surprised! It's one of the reasons why I make time for her..”

THE VIDEO CREW INCLUDES:

Director: Delano Franklin
Production Manager: Ria Katz
Production Assistant: Sterling Hudson
2nd Production Assistant: Paul Bonafante
Make Up Artist & Grooming: Yassira Diggs
Behind The Scenes Photography: Ed Marshall Photography NYC

Press Office and Management:
Barbara Santi - Tel 3281749964
E-mail: barbarasanti@matteite.com

Behind The Scenes Images By The UNSTOPPABLE Ed Marshall Photography NYC:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=EdMarshallPhotographyNYC&target=ALBUM&id=5289175756572698737&authkey=8_u2w4rVo2g&feat=email

Your Idea of Time

2009-01-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

Your presence is greatly requested to appear in the video shoot for my song Your Idea of Time, a track l did with Mad Professor.

Place, Trophy Bar
South Williamsburg
Broadway bet Rodney and Keap
JMZ to Marcy or Hewes
L to Lorimer
G to Broadway

Call time, 7pm
Happy hour ends at 8pm
Video shoot starts at 7.30pm
Rock'N'Roll Speakeasy Party Immediately After at 10:00PM

Please come grace my Brooklyn Dub Time Capsule with your presence and spirit.

RSVP: djsugarfreebk@gmail.com
Subject: Mad Professor

image: Thomas Appel

Video Release Party 12.26.08

2008-12-26T01:22:00.000-08:00

Video Release Party!
Friday Night December 26,2008
at Zebulon in Williamsburg, BK
Doors at 8PM - Arrive early as tables fill up fast...
INSIDE TROIS video will screen at 9:15PM
followed by a concert featuring excerpts from my HALO INSIDE (Come la Luna) album.

Happy Holidaze!
HC

(invite below....)