Shine A Light Productions Presents: ROCKTOBER

After a lengthy blogging absence, we are jumping back into the thick of things here at Shine A Light Productions, and we are going to be providing you with some of what we've been working on over the summer months.

Over the course of the next five weeks, we will release live footage of some of our favorite artists every Friday through a series we're deeming ROCKTOBER. These exclusive videos will be released via the Shine A Light Productions Live Music Page and through our Facebook page, so be sure to become a fan so you will receive updates announcing the latest live video releases.

October 3 - Surprise Me Mr. Davis
October 10 - Brad Barr solo
October 17 - Marco Benevento
October 24 - Earl Greyhound
October 31 - Nathan Moore and release of new Surprise Me Mr. Davis video

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The first featured artist is Surprise Me Mr. Davis, an innovative electro-folk quartet which is comprised of singer-songwriter Nathan Moore and what is surely the most under-rated band in modern rock, The Slip. The story goes that Nathan was on the road as The Slip's merch guy when the acoustics in some hotel shower convinced the Boston-based trio that they should begin collaborating musically with Moore.

Many years later, we are lucky to be witnessing the bounty of this musical partnership in venues all across the country, and nowhere are the boys more at home than at the High Sierra Music Festival, where they have reigned as unofficial good times amabassdors for the last decade. Shine A Light was on hand at the 2008 festival to capture some of the many sets that these fellas offered, from the Davis performances at all hours of the day and night, two rare and hotly anticipated sets from The Slip, and solo sets from Nathan Moore (which didn't necessarily feature Mr. Moore... a late-in-the-festival troubadour timeslot saw Brad Barr fill in and play the songs of the vocally-overworked Nathan Moore).

The Davis boys did a quick run through the North-East in August, landing in New York during what was surely the most heavily-laden week of music in recent memory, with an All Points West Radiohead double-header sandwiched in between shows from Trey Anastasio, Wilco, and Bob Dylan. However, Union Hall played host to SMMD for a fantastic Sunday evening show, and the following day before the boys left town, Shine A Light caught up to the boys to shoot a music video for their new song, "I'm No Good At All'.



Surprise Me Mr. Davis doesn't have any tour dates on the radar until their huge New Years Eve show with their good friends the Benevento-Russo Duo at B.B. Kings in New York (conveniently located down the street from what promises to be a monster celebration at Madison Square Garden when My Morning Jacket rings in 2009). However, the Davis boys will be busy touring in other incarnations: the fall season will see The Slip touring with Sonya Kitchell all over the lower 48, and Brad Barr will be promoting his new instrumental album, The Fall Apartment, by doing solo performances to open most shows; Andrew Barr and Marc Friedman will appear in Marco Benevento's trio in November, and Nathan Moore will be the featured opener for a handful of these dates.

Rocktober's inaugural live release is featured below, and remember that you can only check out the rest of these exclusive (that means not on YouTube) videos at the Shine a Light Live Music webpage.

Flashing forward, flashing back.

Anyone hankering for a cozy campfire vibe will be happy to know that highlights from Nathan Moore and Brad Barr's acoustic set at Pete's Candy Store are now finding their way onto YouTube. It was the perfect capper to a dizzying wedding weekend that had these boys playing music continuously in various capacities-- as Surprise Me Mr Davis, then as the tastiest wedding band on earth, and finally as a duo at Pete's in Williamsburg. There's not much I need to say about this amazing show that isn't readily apparent in the clips, so I'll let the songwriting and musicianship speak for itself on this haunting version of "Hollow" by Nathan Moore, followed by the pair's swoon-a-licious rendition of "Lost Man in a Foreign Country".



Check out Nathan's new album In His Own Worlds... and get yourself to the left coast early December to catch the delightful Davis experience in Northern Cali. You might just want to bring along your French-English dictionary...


Another nugget you might have missed in the Big Apple this fall is Do Make Say Think's powerful performance at the Wordless Music Series.



The Wordless Music Series is off to an amazing start this season, having just hosted a back-to-back Mum weekend, and a brilliant show from Grizzly Bear, whose drawing power is great enough to draw Paul Simon out to hear their rendition of Graceland. Word is that Feist recommended the Brooklyn-based quartet to Mr Simon. The Wordless Series will be featuring Jonny Greenwood's (Radiohead) debut of the Popcorn Superhet Receiver in January and there's talk of David Byrne doing a show in the spring.

Monuments frontman Gabe Berezin threw quite a party in DUMBO this past weekend, all in the heady name of Kurt Vonnegut. It featured some great performances from Suzan Hurtuk and All the Tired Horses, and of course from Monuments themselves. If you've never heard the math-y magic of Monuments, get ye to Trash Bar Nov 16th to get your first taste. Stay tuned for clips of the Vonnegut tribute...

And lastly, how's this for awesome: Smyer just released their debut album and they're making it available for FREE DOWNLOAD here... In the always-apt words of Gordon Hartin, "There are some things you can't download. Like a coca-cola. Music is already out there being downloaded, so we're giving it to the people and hoping it will translate into them coming to our shows." So do it-- on December 7th at the CD Release party at the Crash Mansion. And since you'll have downloaded the album already, you will know all the songs and feel like the coolest kid on the block.