Toolshed Inc.

07/10/2016

Toolshed is very excited to be working on our 7th Ani DiFranco project for Righteous Babe and United For Opportunity. In usual form, Ani is outspoken and on the mark. Take a moment and check out the video for Play God below on Huffington Post.

“As a society, it is time to acknowledge that unless a woman is in control of her own reproduction, she is not free."

14/03/2016

SxSW friends...I'm in town Wednesday-Friday afternoon, please come out to see me, Sharky Laguana of Creeper Lagoon, and Rasmus Rex of the Danish Music Conservatory talk about the subscriber share/per-user distribution model for on-demand music, and middle class income streams for artists at Making Streaming Royalties Fair(er) http://schedule.sxsw.com/2016/events/event_PP46911

I've attached a playlist of the bands I want to see. Let me know what I'm missing. Here are my show plans below. C-ya!

Tuesday night

Peaches is playing at 1a at Maggie Mae’s - she’s always worth seeing.
Wednesday

Pandora Discover Den is happening 1p-1a - 708 E. 6th. Also the Dutch Impact showcase at Cedar Street Courtyard, and the Concord showcase at 902 E. Cesar Chavez

Freedy Johnston, one of the most consistently talented songwriters on the planet, plays the annual non-SxSW Ginger Man event around 2p.

MSTRKRFT, Canadian electronica pop, is on at 5p at The Gatsby (Pandora Discover Den) and also at midnight at Floodfest at the Cedar Street Courtyard.

Wray, southern dream pop (think The Church) is playing 6:15p at Long Branch Inn

Basia Bulat is a past Toolshed client who has the voice of a chanteuse, and playing 10p at Parish.

Then a ton I want to see at 11p - these are in order of interest - Riothorse Royale at the Majestic (a new find, female leads, intertwining vocals, spare dreamy guitar - sort of Now Now-ish, even vaguely reminiscent of June who I used to manage), Thao and her unique vocalizing at the Parish, Givers and their Vampire Weekend-esque pop at Clive Bar, dreampop from Jane Weaver at St. David’s, and the more earthy Eleanor Friedberger at Central Presbyterian Church - not to mention Yuck at 11:30 at the Sidewinder Outside. Figure that one out!

L7 (if you don’t know what they sound like where were you in the 90’s) playing 1a at Buffalo Billiards - that’ll be a busy one, going to try. If not Diarrhea Planet (blistering punk guitar and vocal, think Early Man but less metal) and Mercury Rev (UK dreampop with Grasshopper’s completely captivating stage moves) are all playing at 1a downtown.

Thursday

Pandora Discover Den is happening today.

Floodfest this afternoon if you’re in the area of Cedar Street Courtyard, as well as the Pitchfork Parties at Barracuda and Stereogum at Hole In The Wall.

Aoife O’Donovan styles her southern-twanged acoustica 8p at St. Davids, as is DJ Halo at the Karma Lounge. A very inventive new electronic act, Bayonne, is playing 8:15p at Barracuda, that’s likely where I’ll be.

Tanlines at Bangers and Eleanor Friedberger (again) at Clive Bar at 9p. I will probably catch a bit of both.

Alex G, a new Domino act I really dig (thank you Mom+Pop SxSW playlist), falsetto vocals over GBV-style often slightly out of tune chordings, plays at 9:30 at Cheer Up Charlies

Lower Dens dream electronica with some oomph at Bangers, and scandinavian chanteuse and next-big-thing Låpsley at Stubbs at 10p / 10:30p respectively. Ceschi and his sensational hip-hop at Karma Lounge, and Dash Rip Rock on hit parade at Saxon Pub will be fun if the other two aren’t great (unlikely)

11p is the meandering electronic piano and Cat Power-esque vocals of Poliça at the Parish, Bloc Party at Bangers (will be jammed), Aristophanes (guested on Grimes new album) plays her electronic lounge hip-hop mash-up at Palm Door on Sixth also at 11p.

I definitely want to catch one of the most unique acts around, Cocorosie’s intertwining female-hip hop-vocalists at Central Presbyterian Church at 12p. NOFX is at Buffalo Billiards at 12:30p, that’ll be a hit-parade serious hi-speed punk rock Epitaph-style show.

Charlie XCX, MNDR collaborator, at the Hype Hotel at 1a to round out the night, and Detroit’s Protomartyr at Cheer Up Charlies will end it with a bang at 1:30a.

Sad to be missing the Heavy Metal parking lot at 2a on Friday, along with a ton of other great music Friday and Saturday nights including the Soundexchange party at Stubbs, but I’m outta there Friday afternoon.

A playlist featuring Jane Weaver, Waxahatchee, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, and others

08/10/2015

Come one, come all...we'd love to see you at our annual Toolshed digital media party at HiFi during CMJ.

Toolshed Inc. brings you the 12th annual CMJ digital/new media cocktail mixer, always on Thursday evening during CMJ at HiFi:  When: Thursday, October 15, 2015 during CMJ - 7-9p Where: Hifi Bar (169 Ave. A, intersection of Ave. A and 10th Ave), NYC  This is *the* digital mixer event attended by both…

01/09/2015

Duquette Johnston is an artist we finally had the opportunity to work with at Toolshed a couple years ago. He put out a beautiful album and has a new video for it. He says this: "“When the director Dillon Hayes and I started talking videos he understood the song and had the idea of following us for a day and making it about my family before I even told him about the meaning of the song. He just got it. So Dillon came over at 5 AM one saturday and filmed us all day, from sunrise until we went to bed filming Morgan and Tennessee and I throughout the day. We wanted to make a moving portrait of my family. The video is so important because my wife almost died after our son was born so I stopped promoting my record to heal my family and a year later everyone is great and we got to film this.”"

A simple portrait of family life captures the soul of Duquette Johnston's track beautifully.

06/08/2015

Toolshed is very pleased to see the debut of the entire long-form video documenting the making of the new Indigo Girls album "One Lost Day."

Enjoy it here:
YouTube: http://bit.ly/onelostday_youtube
Vimeo: http://bit.ly/onelostday_vimeo

10/07/2015

Ani DiFranco published her brilliant take yesterday on a folk anthem by Peter Mulvey that has gained traction. The flag is down, but the families of those slain remain, and there are many more issues - extending Medicare benefits, voting rights issues - that are of importance to many of the good people of South Carolina, more broadly to many States with their own civil rights issues, and to many individuals who live in the north who should be careful about pointing fingers. The south is full of tolerant, strong people, fighting for change. This is but one step in the ongoing fight to change attitudes about repression across this country.

“Take Down Your Flag” – a song by Peter Mulvey and many others This version is performed by Ani DiFranco with Ivan Neville and Terence Higgins Peter Mulvey w...

13/04/2015

Bailey Williams has created a Kickstarter for her new music project, Emerson. A fellow midwesterner who is creating music that's unique and groundbreaking when it's hard to sound original. Damien Jurado and others have taken notice. So good to hear.

She's raised $1,603 of a $10k goal. Please watch her video, listen to her music, contribute if you can. We at Toolshed think she's exceptional.

Please share this link if you support new music (http://bit.ly/helpBWC ), and let's try to make it to $2,000 by the end of tomorrow.

Help Bailey Williams & The Cherannes expand their reach by donating toward distribution, merchandise, and promotion costs.

28/03/2015

We at Toolshed are extremely pleased to welcome Bailey Williams and the Cherannes to our project list. Hailing from Indiana, our newest Toolshed project, fresh off an opening slot in February for Damien Jurado. We think this band is something special. So be prepared to see this band popping up in our feed over the next months, and take a minute and listen, you heard it here first.

9 track album

20/02/2015

LOVE this bit from Ani - "Hey"..."Look"..."It's Me"..."Over Here"... (Ani talking about early days playing in bars with Mike Meldrum and trying to get people's attention - a commentary on the writing style of her early songs). Mark Segal Kemp fun to see you doing this interview.

Ani DiFranco plays two songs from her forthcoming album, Allergic to Water, and talks with AG editor Mark Segal Kemp about her percussive guitar style and th...

03/02/2015

MNDR returns with a fantastic new collaboration with Sweet Valley Music (of WAVVES). Listen to the lead track from the 5 song EP now on Pitchfork: http://bit.ly/1BVY5iq

Listen to the title track

31/10/2014

Thrilled that PopMatters is debuting the new Nat Jay music video for the single "Just A Little More," off her fantastic debut album "All I Think When I Wake Up." Check it out!

The British Columbia-based Nat Jay is becoming a rising talent in her native Canada, and the tender pop of Just a Little More gives a pretty easy reason as to why that's happening.