Spotlight: NYC Unsigned and Indie Artists

[Scourge]

I recently got back from New York City where my son Tristen and I went to Sidewalk Cafe on open mic night and Tristen subsequently played.

I've never been to an open mic night before, so my expectations were really, really low despite being in Manhattan's East Village. But I can't believe how incredibly high the talent pool was. This wasn't just a collection of nobodies. Many of the people who played were having gigs there later in the week and are well known entities throughtout the NYC indie music scene.

Sidewalk Cafe is the home of antifolk, or urban folk, or folk punk... and is the place that gave birth to acts such as Beck and Regina Spektor.

All mp3's below are from Sidewalk Cafe's site and are legal downloads.

First up is Ivan Sandomire. This guy was so fucking good it almost brought tears to my eyes. He's got a heavenly Thom Yorke-esque voice and plays moody stuff. Download: Hey Dad.

Next up, Matt Singer. He goes effortlessly between jazz infused folk, country campfire songs and hip hop, not to mention just your plain old quirky acoustic pop and rock. Download: The Best Thing. see also: http://www.matt-singer.com/

The night's host was Dan Costello. He's not the normal host; a guy named Lach is but he was on tour in Europe. Dan was awesome though. He ran the board and introduced acts and played as well. Download Maria With The Legs So Long. see also: http://www.dancostellomusic.com

Rav Shmuel is a Hasidic Jew who plays pop punk, power pop and folk. This guy was fan-fucking-tastic! Download: Last Chance. see also: http://www.ravshmuel.com/

Mike Baglivi is a New Jerseyite who is also known as The Lone Wolf and who looks and sounds similar to Sylvester Stallone, except in his songs. His myspace page has kind of jangly melodic stuff, but when he took the stage he rocked our faces off!

Vincent Cacchione is the voice of Soft Black and plays stoned out countryish folk. In fact, I think it's safe to say that Vincent Cacchione is stoned out of his gourd 99.9% of the time. Download: Santa Fe.

There were a ton of others there that night, but that's all I got for now. I just wanted to give these guys some exposure.

[arjue]

seriously, You are the best dad imo.

[Scourge]

Thanks! I think Tristen will remember that night the rest of his life. I've never seen him so excited as he was after he finished playing... he was flying! The crowd loved him.

[Razor Ramon]

I never got another PM from you about this weekend.

Alls good, though. I had to go to Boston. Glad to see that you and your son had such a good time. He sounds like he has the potential to be a great guitarist.

[Scourge]

I never got another PM from you about this weekend.

Alls good, though. I had to go to Boston. Glad to see that you and your son had such a good time. He sounds like he has the potential to be a great guitarist.

Yeah, sorry about that. The forecast for the whole time we were there was thunderstorms every day. It didn't happen except one day, but I wound up prior to going not wanting to make anybody hassle with the weather to hang out.