Let's get straight to it - you want to hear and you want to see... for the rest, please feel free to dig deeper... there is A LOT of info on this site! (for instance this new journal goes all the way back to 2001!)
To start you out, here's a small selection of videos featuring Elyas and also his band Nervous Cabaret:
Elyas Khan with Kitty Solaris LIVE on Motor FM ! - July 28, 2010
Tune in to 100.6 MOTOR FM FRIDAY JULY 30, 2010 at 3PM for a sneak preview of what Elyas will be performing with Kitty Solaris at the Solaris Empire Label night at Schokoladen.
If you don't have a radio, or don't live in Berlin, you can live/stream from their website!
ELYAS 80's STYLE with BRONSKI BEAT - July 14, 2010
Radio Dijon Campus 92.2 invited Elyas to work on a video collaboration covering "Small Town Boy" by Bronski Beat. Elyas and his drummer Nick Stubbs did a little switcheroo - so you also get to see Elyas play drums on this one!
The recording will take place on January 13 (2010).
Keep your eyes peeled for announcement for when to watch.
Sold Out Music - January 6, 2010
"The Music Hall Of Williamsburg was the drunken bright-lights sin-city brother to the hushed living-room confessional vibe of Palmer’s last New York appearance, at Highline Ballroom. Flanked by the incredible NY-based Nervous Cabaret, this time Amanda Fucking Palmer had a Fucking band. And what a Fucking band they were, if I may say so myself. Impeccable rhythm, flawless horns, and a leader with a voice like melted fucking chocolate doused in bourbon."
Elyas on East Village Radio: Chances With Wolves - December 16, 2009
Finally getting back in the groove of things and got the videos downloaded from our camera... here is Elyas singing a little John the Revelator into Cat Head Live on East Village Radio's Chances With Wolves Show.
It was so much fun seeing the Brooklyn crew in the Manhattan studio, although everyone was completely distracted by The Sandwich Incident .... To listen to the show again, which features some fantastic tunes you probably have not heard before, as well as Elyas's new tracks tune in to:
NYC was FANTASTIC: Gettin' Ready Set Go for the next half! - November 17, 2009
The New York show at Music Hall of Williamsburg was amazing. It is so wonderful to play to your home crowd, and walking around Brooklyn these past 2 days seeing all our friends and how psyched they were to be at this show has been truly uplifting.
Elyas had the camera on stage and snapped off this shot of Amanda Palmer auctioning off some art works in between songs. I think it shows the energy of the night... what an incredible audience to give us all so much energy!
Looking forward to seeing all the guys tomorrow morning and heading off to Philly to do a radio segment with Amanda and then of course the show at Theater of the Living Arts.
See you there!
Elyas Khan LIVE on Chances With Wolves! - November 16, 2009
Elyas Khan will be in the LIVE in the booth with Mikey Palms
Absinthe Minded ruminations on film screenings and tricky, brittle, snapping guitar strings from Paris, France.... Oct 12-14 2009 - October 26, 2009
This will largely be a rambling blog. When squeezing this much activity in the span of just one week, excited, tangental sputterings are about all I can manage. Bear with me. Or as our tour bus GPS is fond of saying: "Bear Right".
Nick Stubbs flew in From London with his fiancee Deborah. This would be our first time playing together as a duo. Nick "The Big Stick" on Drums and yours truly doing the old guitar/bass/electronics/vocals routine.
I had played with him at Jordan's (Three Black Eyes) wedding in Enfield, London a couple of months back and was impressed with his knowledge of our music.
I, on the other hand, was completely indecisive as to what to play for this string of gigs. I had the new material: Lowest of the Low , The River, Three Merry Boys etc... but right before leaving Berlin I had uncovered a whole portal of other new work I had been churning out in the last year, plus up to the moment fiddlelings I wanted to fiddle with some more.....
Realizing that Nick didn't need that kind of bumble-mindedness I decided to stick with the game plan. Got into Studio Bleu in the bustling, African market vibe Chateau D'eau district and we were off. Suffice to say Nick's a lovely boy, he really is....
THE SCREENING OF " Between The Bridges" : A documentary about NERVOUS CABARET (that's my band in NYC) came up next; the day before the Paris gig. It was going to be screened at INTERNATIONAL, a great two floor venue in Menilmontant. The very idea of having to attend this the day before our Point FMR Paris gig was a bit much for me. Revisiting a document of the last time we played together as NERVOUS CABARET, my moving house from Brooklyn, my marriage to Melissa etc... in front of an audience was a tad emotionally daunting: I'm a sensitive fella y'all!
Accompanied by my wife Melissa and old chum Nadja, we meandered through the golden, dusky houred Rue Oberkampf in Menilmontant; past my favorite cilantro, ginger and galanga scented Korean rice shop overflowing with after work customers, past Nouveau Casino getting ready for their evening concert and straight into my worst scenario: having sit through a film where I have the most lines: embarrassingly self scripted impromptu dialogue; the things one says, appalling in retrospect.
The place was packed, another surprise because in-fact, the other worse thing would be to sit through the premiere of such a film, a film in a sense honoring the achievements of our happy enterprise, with no one in attendance. Thankfully that didn't happen. Our director Guillaume Dero was outside the murmuring venue smoking. Devilishly handsome and shy, a Saint of a man, all the more so because he had a book of drink tickets which I eagerly clutched from his paw. He was nervous. They wanted me to make an appearance before the film. I did so but sheepishly. I just wanted to get upstairs and down some more of the house red.
There were great whoops of applause after it was all done. Many pats on the back as the audience climbed back upstairs and saw me wobbling on my stool, elbow on the bar, drink tickets at the ready for "all my friends" who were brave enough to show up.
I missed my band. Those boys had taught me so much. I missed New York. I was proud and getting a little nectar sappy with Melissa about it all. She reminded me that I'd be back in NYC soon enough and just to enjoy what was happening now.
Well, ok then, "I'm off to the Absinthe bar two doors down. Anybody care to join!" A boozy caravan organized itself clumsily on the narrow sidewalk and chugged along after me. The shattered glass from a vandalized car poured out in front of us like a starry carpet that lead to the door of the bar.
Secretly now, I was only thinking about the next day, the order of the songs and how shitty my voice was sounding. I was sick. Had been for a week and it was getting worse. Flemmy, shredded tones pushing through a snotty nose and thick head. Some people like that kind of thing I'm told and I was doing all I could, in my revery, to make sure the people, God bless 'em, got what they wanted.....
The next evening at the sweaty, fog filled Point Ephemere, on the banks of the lovely Canal Du Saint Martin, excited and rearing to get on with this gig, my D string snapped at the very top of the show; without any provocation, before I had even uttered a raspy breath! With no back up instrument I tuned up and went for it. Nick was looking a bit worried but also mysteriously calm and pounded through the set with great aplomb. The Thermals had a nice set but we were over the moon at having pulled this one off. The intensity intact and in full force.
Next up was Reims, the birthplace of champagne; Dijon, Mustard land and Strasbourg, aah...more French food. We were ready
Nervous Cabaret: Between The Bridges - October 5, 2009
Directed by Guillaume Dero or release on La Huit ProductionsNervous Cabaret: Between The Bridges, filmed in St. Nazaire and Brooklyn/NYC, takes you on an intimate journey with the band and packs in lots of live footage to keep everything moving along!
The DVD will have it's first public screening at L'International in Paris on October 13th!
What BLACK SWAN Tastes Like! - August 13, 2009
It's getting to close now I can taste it... and I am wiggling around in anticipation, spurred on by getting in my hot little hands (hot little hard-drive?), this video promo clip featuring a bit of "LOWEST OF THE LOW", which will be one of the tracks on Elyas Khan's forthcoming EP "BLACK SWAN".
The footage was edited in Berlin by Oliver Kless and was taken from the "Between The Bridges: Nervous Cabaret" documentary by Guillaume Dero, La Huit Productions (Paris), and was shot at Festival Les Escales 2008 in St. Nazaire (FR), and also in various locations in Brooklyn (NYC).
The DVD will be released later in 2009... Elyas EP: BLACK SWAN will be released in October 2009, and is part of a 3 stage project leading up to a full-length release in 2010.
The Post Man delivers BLURT! - July 21, 2009
Here is a photo of me (Melissa: Elyas's manager) opening my mail and finding my new Ted Milton / Burt Cut It / Hat 7"
Now, this looks like a normal 7" - but it's actually more than that. It's a microcosm of what symbolizes for me the very best of what music can do in this world, and what music means in my life.
In this 7" I have received 2 gifts in one. First of course, it's given me a really lovely piece of music to listen to. And Second, it's given me a reflection on what is important and why the I do this work anyway.
I was very inspired the first time I saw the limited edition books that Ted Milton puts out - which you can see here on his website: TedMilton.com.
He's been added to this wonderful group of people I have been so fortunate to be exposed to in the music business, and a lot of it is coming together in this great series of coincidences, that are coming around again in September in Holland.
It's interesting to me to see how it all hangs loosely together... kind of like that 6 degrees of separation game:
Ted is an alumni of the Beukorkest project Elyas will be playing with this September. Elyas was recommended to the Beukorkest project by De Kift, who Nervous Cabaret have played several shows with over the years. De Kift are a very passionate band that are, for the most part, related to each other, and they also make extremely cool limited edition merch.
Nervous Cabaret listened to Ethiopiques A LOT when getting ready to record the last album Drop Drop... The Ex (from Holland) have been recording an touring with Ethiopiques... Therrie Ex (guitar player) is also a Beukorkest alumni...
You are getting the idea by now... and my brain feels slightly less tangled as well. I am not sure Ted Milton could have had any idea that this would all resonate so personally with me when he sent me the 7", but it does.
Art makes my life worth living... and passionate artists give me a hope for humanity.
PS:
Ted Milton will be playing in Berlin on November 18th 2009 at the DOT Club Put it on your calendar and come with me - but don't worry - I'll remind you later!
Tetsuo's Cousu Main Now on iTunes! - July 20, 2009
Tetsuo's "Cousu Main" is now available on iTunes, Amazon.com, Fnac.com and Deezer
Elyas Khan is featured on the track #10 "Gargantua" but I suggest downloading the whole album as it's really good.
Since the last time we wrote about getting Cousu Main in the mail several people have purchased the CD, and one new fan ended up buying ALL Tetsuo's stuff after discovering them!
Elyas had a nice surprise while we were working with Three Black Eyes in Toulouse. Arnaud from Tetsuo happened to be passing through on the way back from a festival and thus had time to spend an afternoon with us before driving back Pau.
Tetsuo and their label organization A Tant Rêver Du Roi have some interesting projects in the works (sorry not allowed to say what yet), but let's just say we're looking forward to future collaborations!
Hanging out at the World Beatbox Championship 2009 - June 1, 2009
Got a note from NYC beatboxing pal Adam Matta last week. The Beatbox Battle World Championships were being held in Berlin this year, he was about to hit the city and suggested I come down. I checked out the various promo videos out on youtube and was happily surprised to see that old friend and lower east side alumni Kid Lucky who was hosting this year.
Kid Lucky and Adam Matta Backstage
Great news, I hadn't seen him in a number of years and he certainly was not expecting me to show up. Suffice is to say that major manly squealing and fits of laughter accompanied by spasms of festive hugging ensued as we caught sight of each other. We recalled the old days when we met in Tompkin Square park, smoking, drinking, prepping for for the Sidewalk Cafe open mics or taking our instruments and following the legendary likes of Sabir Mateen and Daniel Carter around the city and into Queens to tour and jam at an assortment of rent parties, gallery openings, weed spots, subway platforms, bars and happenings. Sabir and Daniel would take their saxophones and play up to five different events a night back in the day, sometimes for not a dime. These guys had played with Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth and never lost faith in music and played as mentors to a countless numbers of young enthusiastic musicians who flooded the city every year. I was thrilled to learn that both were doing very well and touring all over. The worst and toughest part of their long careers being well behind them.
Elyas and Kid Lucky
Kid Lucky clipped a three day pass on my lapel and we were off.
Adam was getting his breathing together and demonstrated some wonderful Egyptian Orchestral beatboxing he'd been working on. I was floored. This was going to be fun. The competition was split into three categories: Men, Women and Group. There were fifty people in the mens alone which would eventually be cut down to 16 and then the finalist over a period of three days. Here are some pics of the first day. My camera was at the studio so I had to borrow another. No video I'm sad to say. Look up the youtube page etc... for updates and results. Adam was up first and he smoked 'em.
Nervous Cabaret on Rear Window Radio - May 29th through June 4th - May 28, 2009
Woah!!! Super link-heavy post, but I just had to do it because I want to save everyone the time of having to google each band... NERVOUS CABARET is once again in the playlist of REAR WINDOW RADIO. These guys are based in Toronto and many of the artists they play are also Canadian so I KNOW all my Canadian friends are going to wanna tune in! (although their playlist is actually pretty international).
This playlist episode airs from FRIDAY, 29 MAY (AKA TOMORROW), until June 4th. Go ahead - have a listen!
The playlist (in playing order is):
That's right it's finally here... the album features Elyas singing on track 10 "Gargantua", and also features Dawn McCarthy from Faun Fables
You can pick it up from iTunes or buy direct from their label at ATRDR.NET
Action Packed Saturday! (TWO) - May 24, 2009
(written by Melissa) Being full of excellent hors d'oeuvre and wine it was time to get back on our bikes and head over to the Privat Club in KBerg to see our studio neighbors SkaZka Orchestra play (you'll remember these guys from our previous post SkaZka.
We've been meaning and planning to get over to one of their shows - but for whatever reason it never worked out. Anyway, we wanted to see them at Privat because any place that's instructions start with "go into the restaurant and look for the stairs at the back of their restroom" is a place you've gotta go. What we found was an absolutely packed, sweat soaked room of people down for a serious amount of partying.
Unbelievably Elyas and I scored a seat (two actually)! where we remained for most of the show... Elyas stood up on the seat to get some photos and shoot two videos (which we will post later once SkaZka give us the thumbs up). For now here's a pic (which makes the club look deceptively small - trust me those people go back a long way):
From there, and completely giddy by this point, we hopped back on the bikes and made our way for the Stella Flamingo, where Sxip and Elyas played. we wanted to stop by their anyway and talk about playing another show, and also we figured we'd get ahead of the crowd of dancing Russians that were sure to follow from the SkaZka show as Stella would surely be the natural spot for the after party.
It turned out to be one of those nights where you just can't miss and everything you see is inspiring. Stella Flamingo had a DJ working tunes to this video that was a cut up of old movies pasted into a running train-race theme... it was so good we were mesmerized for a good 30 minutes... so we stayed around for a bit, and then back into the night, riding our bikes all over downtown berlin!
Action Packed Saturday! (ONE of TWO) - May 24, 2009
(Written by Melissa) Wow - what a day Elyas and I had yesterday! So much so that I'm going to divided it into two separate posts.
First off, it was the Federal Republic of Germany 60th Anniversary, which was being celebrated by, among other things, a huge concert at the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor). We headed down to see the 17 Hippies, who were one of the bands playing. We figured we'd be able to scope put some back-stage action and see what was up. As we approached the area from Unter Den Linden we realized this might be a bit difficult as we saw what turned out to be about 100,000 people stretching all the way into Tiergarten!
We headed for the stage side of the gate and it was completely packed... At the top of the show we ducked back around to the other side of the gate and Elyas got some great shots of the band on one of those giant screens erected for people who have no chance in hell of getting close enough to see the people on stage... this is a close up of the accordian against the gate (I love this shot!)
Not satisfied with watching the show vicariously through the camera mans eyes, we headed through the gate and back into the main audience area and see if we could get close.... With a little prodding, luck, and a little bit of charm, one the security guys let us into the penned in area RIGHT in front of the stage!
It was a super fun show, the audience was in the mood to sing along and to dance. From this vantage point we got the full-on giddiness inducing effect of a high tech stage set up and the energy of 1 in 30 people in the city dancing around. The Hippies got a SERIOUS encore from the crowd, but unfortunately with these big events things are pinned to the schedule. The video backdrop being used on the stage was really cool, the images changed and melded together based on what the camera men on stage where focusing on and blended it in real-time with thematic elements from the Hippies album artwork and the like.. Elyas got some great shots there too, here's one to give you an idea.
After the show we did end up getting backstage, and were presented with fine treat indeed! We were invited, along with the Hippies, to an extremely private party being hosted at the top of the Dresdner Bank building, directly overlooking the gate. The view as backdrop to the lovely company of our friends with some very nice catering and delicious German white wine - life really does not get any better.
Melissa & Henry with the Brandenburger Tor
Rainy Days, Demons & Good Shows - May 23, 2009
Yesterday started out with a good idea. I'll peruse the SBahn / UBahn busker scene, play a few ditties, makes a few friends, scratch up some dough. But from the outset the weather put a major damper on my plans. Torrential rain soaked me to the skin, by the time I got to Schlesisches Tor on my bike I needed a rapid dry-off. What I was greeted with instead was a fully self-powered, strap-on microphone'd balalaika Russian-Punk-Folk outfit dominating the sidewalk underneath the overhead train. I parked the bike and waddled around the scene, guitar strapped to my back and the not-so-fresh rainfall oozing from my boots. These guys were putting on an epic and the throngs of Berliner fisted polka enthusiasts were gathering. They sounded good though. The band members were taking turns passing the hat, and by the looks of it making enough money for their next meal and a few drinks. All I could think was, "I just wanna play". What I didn't realize was there was going to be no playing today. The long and the short of it is I hooked up with a neighborhood friend and for the next six hours got well embroiled in a domestic abuse scenario involving police, ambulance and a somewhat psychopathic former lover. Situations like this require much needed self-medciation. Now I just wanted to go home and pull the blanket over my head. Tomorrow - there's a drum set coming my way courtesy of Daniel and the local experimental rock band Alice Daisy - who are presently wailing away in the studio next door on some heavy Led Zepplin meets Jack White riff.
To cheer up this post - just a tad - I uploaded a video of NYC Math-Pop outfit Capillary Action Within their ranks is old pal and Nervous Cabaret band mate Sam Kulik. It was great to see him and the band coming through Berlin town. Such great players. They put on a great show at Lokal where they co-billed with The Season Standard sponsored by their record label Discorporate Records... click over to my YouTube/KidSic Channel and ENJOY!
Sammy in Berlin! - May 22, 2009
Nervous Cabaret Trombone player Sam Kulik is in Berlin right now with the band Capillary Action and I had the pleasure of hanging with him and dragging him to an open mic at Artliners in F'Shain. It was a great excuse to play with him again, as I hadn't scene him since my wedding three month ago in Brooklyn. It was probably the most boisterous and noisy open mic I've experienced - lead by resident bartender Tom Lee Who. It was sort of like a scene from a Philip K Dick story. Suffice to say I got invited back for an actual gig on June 25th. We'll be going down to Lokal tonight on Rosenthaler Strasee tonight to check our Sam with Capilary Action.
Here's a little pic of Sammy & Me playing darts at an underground after hours joint where the stragglers from the open mic wandered off to... a legendary place called the Concierge... can't tell you where it is!
