Artist Profiles: Joel Fennell as Wizard

When I first met Joel I had only recently moved to Brooklyn. I was at a local bar visiting a friend of mine who was working. The DJ was having technical challenges with his equipment and was like "don't worry, my friend is coming to fix it." That friend was Joel. He walked in and pulled out a little flame torch, proceeded to break apart the equipment and use fire to do something magical then put it all back together again and there you have it. Wizard. He was. Then. We've been good friends since and I consider myself very lucky to consider us as such. He is truly an artist and the band he plays with, The Collected Works of Lenin have an intensity and approach to sound I choose to admire and have been honored enough to have a small taste of when playing with Wizard myself. We have jammed a couple of times and I intend to continue to do so. Without a further mention, this is Wizard. and me. hanging out.

A song we began to work on the first time we jammed, here's us playing it:



Lyrics:
Wizard Cat Man. Wizard Cat Man. Do what you can. You're the Wizard Cat Man. I saw you. I saw you. You were over there. You were over there. I saw you. I saw you. You were over there. Over there cause you're the.........

Then we just jammed. With Wizard, the typical interview format is unnecessary. We communicated through sound mostly. If you don't understand, that's ok. It's not what we're saying, it's how we say it.



Check out his band here: The Collected Works of Lenin

Artist Profiles: Mikal Evans

Mikal Evans is rad. She is my friend. Sometimes she puts pieces of paper next to me that tells me things to do and I have no choice and I get grumpy, but that's not her fault. Originally coming to Brooklyn by way of South Carolina, her southern drawl is subtle but certainly present....what a charmer indeed. Mikal studied acting and is in commercials and other things sometimes, but I like it best when she sings sweet songs and plays her guitar. Her style is versatile, at times more rock and roll and at times simple, soft, and pretty. Sometimes I even hear a little Lucinda in there and that's pretty cool. I recently went over to her place and we hung out; drank a little wine, ate a little Jarlsberg and discussed the fate of the world! She performed one of her newer songs "The Pirate Song" in her kitchen and then the interview of epic proportions came to fruition. Enjoy the show!






Please check out Mikal's site here for more of her music and story!

And if you're lucky enough to be in New York Monday, April 11th Mythical Legends has the honor of opening for Mikal Evans at Trash bar in Williamsburg.....whoa!

Artist Profile: David Smith

I recently went over to David's rad apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to learn more about him and talk about art and things like that. He made me a cup of coffee and we sat down and had a thoughtful conversation. Artist's stop frontin'! Let's get together and encourage each others work! Stuff like that. He has been working as a photographer, musician, visual artist, and most recently, an art teacher at SUNY college and he is just really nice to spend time with. His apartment is currently in the works to become more of an open space for projects and collaborations, I certainly look forward to seeing what comes into fruition there as it is such an inviting place to be. I remember well the first time I ever saw David play under the 2nd best band name ever, Doom Trumpet. I was like "WTF." Yeah, it was so awesome to see a solo performance with so much sound and layers...just one man, a microphone, an amp and a looping pedal. I was so inspired by the fact that you can rock out by yourself, which he certainly does (ummmm Space is the Place). It was an honor then to have a live performance right in David's apartment just for us, the debut of his new song (officially named in my presence) Waterfalls. The more I watch this video the more I realize what a bad ass song it is, he is so humble and generous in his performance.........



But there was still so much important information to be uncovered about David.....so without further ado, I bring you a glimpse into the mind of David Smith in this shocking and controversial interview............



Please do yourself a favor and check out David's work here as well as listen to some Doom Trumpet originals....(ummmmmmm, Space is the Place)!

Mugen Hoso in NYC

A couple weeks back Bug and I played an open mic at Spike Hill in Brooklyn. Mugen Hoso was the first band to play the open mic and we were like "WTF" "OMG". This two piece group from Japan is electric, their energy together is so tight and while they shred and offer genuine rock n' roll as well as punk and new wave timings, they are overwhelmingly happy and you can just feel their love for playing to an audience and sharing their music. We were instant fans and went to see them last night at Fontana's in the city. We hung out with Igaki (guitar and vocals) and Taro (drums) after the show for a bit and made a little video outside the club. I sound like such a dork, "say some words about love..." (seriously?) and the language barrier is apparent, but more importantly so is their personality which totally comes through and if you don't try to go see them if you're here in New York this week, well, that's a god damn shame. Here's some of what went down:





My video's were uploaded wide screen, so the format is kind of annoying to look at, please watch them in their proper aesthetic if you are so inclined here on YouTube

They will be playing tonight, Sunday 3/6 at Piano's
Friday 3/11 at the Delancey bar
Saturday 3/12 Otto's Shrunken Head
Tuesday 3/15 Lit Lounge

Then they are back to Japan....! Visit their website here for more information and muzak