Nicole Atkins Feat. Future Clouds & Radar @ SXSW!

I'm getting ready to head down to Austin on Saturday for SXSW and I'm excited and honored to announce that one of my favorite Austin bands, Future Clouds and Radar will be my backing band for the festival! Their music is a mixture of great storytelling, mystery, psychedelia and heart. Having them backing me up is pretty fitting too as over the last year their leader, Robert Harrison and I have formed a great working relationship as cowriters for some songs on my upcoming album and for a few songs on our side project Sir Parker. I'm really excited to be going down there to play mostly new songs from my upcoming album (still figuring out what i'm going to call it...perhaps i'll just name the album "the black sea," thoughts?)and am also excited to be able to introduce ya'll to future clouds and radar! check out some of their songs here: http://www.myspace.com/futurecloudsandradartx

While we're in Austin you can come see me play here:

Mar 14 2010 9:45P
PBS.org Performance @ ACL Studios Austin, Texas

Mar 18 2010 7:30P
La Zona Rosa Austin, Texas (Ray Davies & Roky Erikkson w/ Okkervil River are also on this bill so I'd get there early so you can get in! Yay!)

Mar 19 2010 1:30P
Club DeVille - BrooklynVegan Party Austin, Texas

Mar 20 2010 1:00P
Red Eyed Fly - WXPN Party Austin, Texas

He Has the Soul of Liz Claiborne!

Sitting with Susan in the living room. She's making plans for ornate headdresses and I'm making plans for SXSW. Veeeery excited to be heading down there again! My good buddies Future Clouds & Radar will be backing me up for my shows down there. Halla! So far I know I'm doing the PBS showcase on the 14th. Band of Skulls will be doing it too which I'm psyched about because even though I havent heard them yet, I've heard good things about them. I'm also playing the Bellhouse/WXPN party at 1pm on Saturday. I might be doing that one solo but am not sure yet. I'm reallyyyyyyy excited about my actual music showcase but I can't announce it yet. I want to! But I gotta wait till they put it up on the sxsw site. soon my friends!
Learning the Who song "The Song is Over," for the Carnegie Hall show this tuesday! Its a tribute to the Who and the lineup is grrreat! You guys should get tickets if they are still available. Also, there are still tickets available to my City Winery show with Joseph Arthur on March 12th. Neptune City album artwork artist Nic Rad is going to be doing and projecting a live painting of my set behind me while I play. Yay!
Last thing last...I'm djing at Niagra this Thursday! Come out and Dance. Lots of exciting updates to come soon!!!!

Me & David Byrne sing Neptune City @ Bowery Ballroom 2/4/10

Nicole Atkins & David Byrne, Neptune City from Nicole Atkins on Vimeo.

Daytrotter!

Last October we visited the Daytrotter Headquarters and did a session. You can view it and download it now! Hooray!!! www.daytrotter.com

Stories in High Fidelity

Last Wednesday I was part of a show at the Bowery Ballroom called "Stories in High Fidelity." It was an absolute blast. Lots of really funny storytellers including NY Times writer Allan Light (whos touching story about his 6 year olds Beatlemania actually made me excited about my hopeful futuristic children), novelist Dan Kennedy (who did a hilarious interpretation of what a group prayer by Bon Jovi might sounds like before they go onstage!), Jason Gordon (who read a book report he did in 5th grade about the Doors "No One Here Gets Out Alive") and David Bryne who did an amazing lecture about how musicians make music for specific venues, ie, rap is made for car speakers, midtempo U2 music is for stadiums, etc. Actually made me have more of an understanding for East coast vs West Coast hip hop. If you ever get a chance to listen to David Byrne lecture, do it! Its eye and ear opening and extremely funny in his way. After the speakers, I played a small acoustic set solo and was accompanied by cartoonist Michael Arthur who drew cartoons of my songs while i sang them. He has a great band called Balthrop Alabama that ya'll should check out. Actually they are playing one of the nights I host at Bowery Electric on March 5th. Come see them!
For my last song I played "Neptune City," and was joined by David Byrne on vocals and guitar. It was like a dream as he's always been one of my favorite artists and now here he was up onstage singing and playing my song with me. yip! I loved the way his guitar playing made a somber song such as that sound, i dunno, tropical! Byrne brought the warmth.
A great show topped off by a great hang with my ladies Miss LuLu and Mandy, Foleyz, my roomie Susan and her bf Adam, my good old friend Regina Spektor and her bf Jack Dishel, my producer Phil Palazollo or Pizzapollies as he's lovingly referred to as, and good ol' Dawn and Tom. Courtney, Jackie and the notorious Vodka Dave were in the house as well although my dancing shoes were not awake enough to follow them into the night.
It was such an amazing night that I can't wait to be part of again. In the meantime, if you ever see one of these stories in high fidelity shows advertised or a storyteller slam by the MOTH. GO go go!!!

Lookout for a new blog on Monday, I know I've been lazy with this thing but there are lots of things to share! Also, I have a video I'm gonna post of David Byrne and I singing together once I figure out how to convert the video into a smaller file. Any tips?

Goldenwood!

My superhero librarian roomie susan makes gorgeous necklaces out of antique wood and gold and now you can buy them! check out her etsy site!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Goldenwood

Paste Session

Back in October when we were out on tour with the Avett Brothers we visted our buds at Paste Magazine for a live session. Have a gander!
cut and paste (no pun intended!) this link into your browser!

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2010/01/watch-nicole-atkins-live-at-paste.html