jenny lewis on conan
October 17th, 2006 by Dave Allen
Ever since I met Jenny Lewis in the dungeon of a dressing room at the now defunct Blackbird up on Sandy, the night she performed with The Postal Service, I’ve had a soft spot for her. The more time I spend with her album the more I’m reminded that women are taking over my iTunes playlist. My top 25 most played list goes like this; Jenny Lewis, Cat Power, Laura Veirs, Neko Case, The Wailin’ Jennys, Emmylou Harris, Tori Amos, the Be Good Tanyas are the women mixed among a bunch of electronic and hip hop artists. The only rock band in there is Wet Confetti and they are fronted by a woman too.
October 17th, 2006 at 11:13 am
ah the blackbird…why oh why did that one have to fall by the wayside. Dave…with all the royalties you are going to make on the Antoinette movie, you should resurrect the blackbird, and turn it back to what it once was and money pit is not what I am referring to.
October 17th, 2006 at 9:21 pm
I agree, I’m here to serve. So now that Imbibe is going under I should resurrect Blackbird? I’m not so sure..
October 18th, 2006 at 6:32 am
I wonder if the rumors of why the blackbird went under are all true. I don’t think the location necessarily hurt the bird, was it the size, the pricing at the door, (I don’t remember what I paid for that postal service show or many others but I don’t think it was ever under 10 bones and I did met my wife there so that’s worth something more), the bar itself was rather small but charged a fair amount for drinks. I wonder if the “fair trade” approach to music ultimately killed them. They supposedly paid the artists that went through there a good sum of money which ultimately created a following of not only devoted fans to the venue but devoted artists and it became the place to play up until its last days. Now, that physical space is definitely not a destination before the hours of 10 pm so can it be a profitable, sustainable business. Maybe it can.
October 18th, 2006 at 8:00 am
I’m not sure what happened. But whatever happened, since it closed it’s opened a few times as a different restaurant only to close again. I think the location and space were fine and when the booking was stellar it really worked but sometimes there were too many obscure bands in there playing to an empty room - oh, and the PA was awful, I know as I played there with Squall…..
October 18th, 2006 at 8:50 am
I remeber seeing Bellini which included some members of Uzeda and Damon Che from Don Caballero at the blackbird…the same tour that he had a nervous breakdown and drove the tour van backed to Penn sans bandmates…anyway they fucking blew the speakers up sparks flying, so to say that the PA was awful, I would agree.