6/23/08: I curated the weekend music program for this year's CitySol festival, including performers Dan Deacon, So Percussion, The Acorn, Shilpa Ray, Burkina Electric & Ecstatic Sunshine. It takes place Saturday, June 28th at Solar One, 23rd Street & East River. I was entertained by this BrooklynVegan post about the event.
5/10/08: Yesterday I played guest DJ with Hallogallo (aka Brian Long) on his EastVillageRadio.com show. Download the two hour session as an mp3, but note that it's a 100mb file and might take awhile. My set includes jams by La Tordue, Yellowman, Lil' Wayne, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Mt. Eerie, Sam Amidon, David Lang (as played by Sentieri Selvaggi), Takka Takka, Void, The Virgins, The Normal, New Violators, The Kills, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Nick Lowe. It was real.
3/31/08: On Wednesday, April 2nd I will be reading at Joe's Pub. It's part of the Happy Ending Music & Reading Series in collaboration with my friends at Asthmatic Kitty. The other performers will be My Brightest Diamond, Rob Sheffield (Rolling Stone, author Love is a Mixtape), and Daphne Carr (editor of Da Capo's Best Music Writing series). POSTSCRIPT: The event sold out in advance! I was humbled, amazed, confused! I dressed as the devil! Here's some pictures, from the night.
3/8/08: It's been a very busy 2008 so I have been delinquent in updating this site. What has been going on you ask?
* I am now representing the lovely and visionary All Tomorrow's Parties in America. Keep your eye on the internets for some exciting announcements about their future US plans...
* I've replaced my LA Weekly column, The Psychic Hipster, with a deeply indulgent blog known as Teenage Kicks, where I plan to catalog my various musical obsessions. Check it out and indulge with me. If you enjoy, add me to your RSS reader, and please leave a comment.
* Finally, Brassland, the label I started with members of The National and Clogs, has just launched its new website.
There's a lot more, but that's what seems worth sharing at the moment.
1/8/08: My writing teacher, novelist Robert Stone, has honored me by including my essay/interview with him in an addendum to the paperback edition of his recent memoir, Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties. It's a reprint of this piece which originally appeared in the LA Weekly.
12/22/07: I've submitted my musical top 10s of 2007 to various critics' polls. Albums which made the cut in no particular order: The National's Boxer, Yeasayer's All Hour Cymbals, Feist's The Reminder, Dirty Projectors's Rise Above, Allison Krauss/Robert Plant's Raising Sand, Panda Bear's Person Pitch, LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, R. Kelly's Double Up, Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, CocoRosie's The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn
Individual songs: Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain," Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," Radiohead's "Videotape," Justice's "D.A.N.C.E.," Feist's "1234," LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends," M.I.A.'s "Bird Flu," Robyn's "Konichiwa Bitches," Devastations's "The Pest," Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"
Also quite nice: Daniel A.I.U. Higgs, Michael Harrison, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, Spoon, Once: Motion Picture Soundtrack, Gogol Bordello, Battles, Simian Mobile Disco, Bruce Springsteen
10/21/07: Yesterday I DJed a Doveman-curated party BrooklynVegan.com threw for CMJ. If you're baffled by all those proper nouns, just download the tracks from iTunes. (Note: that iMix is missing songs by Glissandro 70, Moondog & Nico Muhly not available via commercial download services.)
10/17/07: Today LA Weekly published a roundtable discussion I convened between Alex Ross of The New Yorker, Ronen Givony from Wordless Music, and Owen Pallet of Final Fantasy and other adventures in arranging. Read "Awesome Music" -- subtitle "What might the classical music establishment learn from pop?"
9/26/07: Earlier tonight I co-DJed Kevin Bronson's "Buzz Bands" show on LittleRadio.com. I played Nico Muhly, St. Vincent, Baby Dayliner, Devastations, Harlem Shakes, New Violators, The National, Sufjan Stevens, The Maps & Yeasayer.
7/10/07: I helped compile OKX, Stereogum.com's 10th anniversary tribute to Radiohead's OK Computer. It contains covers by "it" indie artists like Twilight Sad, Doveman, Vampire Weekend, My Brightest Diamond, Slaraffenland, and Cold War Kids. (Plus a semi-disguised David Cross!) It's quickly become something of an internet sensation. Thanks to Scott, Amrit, Brandon and all those at the 'Gum for letting me participate in this project.
5/18/07: Thursday, June 7th at 4pm, I will be speaking on a music panel at the Newport International Film Festival. Drop me a line if you'll be there or want more details.
3/03/07: I guest DJ'd East Village Radio yesterday. Here is the setlist. You can also download or stream the program to hear world premieres by The National, Sufjan Stevens, and Baby Dayliner or classics by Big Star, Bob Dylan, and Crass.
2/03/07: Thurs February 8 to Sun February 11 I will be in Trondheim, Norway for By:Larm, Scandinavia's largest music conference, much of which takes place in a former Nazi submarine bunker. POSTSCRIPT: I was interviewed by the Norwegian national paper Dagbladet; and here is a travelogue I wrote for LA Weekly.
1/24/07: Almost in time for my birthday - which happens today - LA Weekly ran an interview I conducted with my former writing professor, Robert Stone.
12/01/06: 24-hours later Gawker's new music blog Idolator.com took issue with my declaration in LA Weekly that yindie (aka "yuppie indie") is on the decline. Am I officially a pundit now?
11/30/06: Today's NY Times quotes me as an authority on music criticism. Check out the headline: "Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bloggy: An Online Poll Covets the Territory Once Owned by Pazz & Jop" Say that 3x fast!
10/26/06: Brassland is participating in CMJ next week. Several of our artists are playing. On Thurs Nov 2nd, Baby Dayliner hosts a dance party/concert at Piano's.
06/28/06: My label Brassland has been picked as Insound's first "featured label." And, this week only, the site has my sentimental favorite records on sale.
04/16/2006: I will be in Seattle, WA from April 27th - 30th for the Experience Music Project's Pop Convention. I'm not presenting but I hope to make at least one intelligent comment.
02/22/2006: I am participating in a panel at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX. If you're in town, please drop by and say hello:
Wednesday March 15 @ 4-5pm
Crash Course #5: Press & Publicity
Room 12, Austin Convention Center
02/20/2006: Welcome to my new website. It is currently a work in progress, as I'm still populating it with "content."
Resume on LinkedIn.com (PDF resume on request)
Now on Facebook!
Date of Birth: 01/24/1975
b. White Plains, New York
B.A. in History from Yale University, New Haven, CT
Alec Hanley Bemis lives in Brooklyn, NY but spends a lot of time in California. His writing has appeared in LA Weekly, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Spin, AsthmaticKitty.com, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. In 2001, he co-founded Brassland, a record label that documents the work of a growing community of musicians, including The National and Nico Muhly. Currently he continues to run Brassland, consults for the UK-based music company All Tomorrow's Parties, co-manages The Dirty Projectors, and acts as general manager at Cantaloupe Music. In the past, he has taught in New York University's graduate journalism program, produced projects for new media design firm Funny Garbage, and written for Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve.
In Autumn 2003, I taught a graduate seminar about "Youth Culture" at New York University's Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program. Check out the syllabus.