Andrew Vladeck

Europe, Days 10-16, Kind of…

Apologies for the disjointed - typo-ridden blog post.  I hope it gets the point across.  I’ve had little time in front of a keyboard, but want to share my trip with you as much as possible.  It’s been so densely, richly laden with all sorts of good things.  First, here’s a video as we Zip along the Autobahn (and More photos posted on Facebook):

Drove from Modena, Italy to Chemnitz (former GDR) in one day.  Gorgeous and fascinating to be able to cut through the formerly impermeable Alps in one afternoon.  Made me thing of Hannibal leading his calvalry of Elephants through the Alps to attack Rome way back in the day - didn’t work out so well.   Anywhoo, for us it’s working great.   Such different terrain, people, language, food, culture, weather.  It doesn’t seem possible in one week, let alone one day.  But that is the wonder of Europe.

Zittau - an amazing club (Emil) with a wonderful community feel.  tons of kids came out, and students from the university.  since Zittau is off the beaten-path, and my show was featured in the paper, people were excited for my arrival.  And so was I.  Really down-to-earth, earthy, crowd.   We were fed an amazing 3-course vegetarian meal my Chef David.  So incredible.  I’ve never been asked for so many encores as I have on this tour.  As headliner, I’m already playing shows that are already an hour-and-a-half long, and still I have to cut them off after the third round of encores.   It’s madness.  and very, very sweet.

Leipzig - a breathtaking venue (Moritzbastei) in the bastion of an ancient fortification in the center of the city, which the promoter and the lighting designer made beautiful.  as usual, many of completely new faces.  The language barrier is particularly steep, in conversation, yet during the show, people are still engaged.  I must admit that this phenomenon is curious to me, but I’m grateful for the attention and patience.

Drove through a cloud lying across the rolling farmland and modern windmills of the former German Democratic Republic.   I’ve been feeling more than ever in a bubble.  A “tour bubble.“  haven’t read the paper since sept 13.  i know what town i’m in - that’s the fun part - but lose sight of the time and the day.   no watch, no phone (left that in vienna anyway).  No text messages, or iPhone anything.  Limited laptop time.   it’s such a radical change. At first I was going through withdrawal, but now it feels good.  It kind of feels like I’m meditating, all the time.   I haven’t even carried a wallet, as the venues provide dinner and and the accomodations often provide breakfast, and otherwise my tour manager has been handling the cash.   It’s like i’m 10-years old.   Language barrier has been great in the East and the South (of Germany) and in Italy - it’s hard to find other anglophones other than my friend and tour manager.   In each new city there’s usually one person I meet - the promoter - whose english is very good.  Some towns, there’s no one.  It’s very curious to see the reaction to the music and the stage banter.  At at some points I feel like i’m a crazy person talking gibberish to myself, in a crowded theater.

It’s interesting how eastern and western Germany are different, as any German (east or west) will tell you.  It makes sense, as it was literally walled-off from Western Europe for almost 50 years.  50 very formulative years - the post-war development, the continuing march of modernization, technological revolution, cold war, English-learning versus Russian-learning.   Anyone over a certain age grew up learning russian, which explains why so few speak English.   as a result it’s a slightly different place.  i wonder if it will always be.  i think it has a lot of soul.  in some ways feels closer to Poland and the Czech Republic than to Frankfurt and Berlin.

Frankfurt!   The language barrier has come down -  what a difference that makes!   I did a radio show on one of the stations earlier that day, and with the press, there was a wonderful audience.  I was happy to have the local artist, Ina Simone (that’s her real name) open up the show with her gorgeous piano-based alt-folk-pop songs.  I’ve been a fan of hers for a while, so it was a real thrill.   I had a great time playing, the sound system was amazing,  and a great responsive crowd.  It was electric.   After the third encore I had to sneak out the side door.  That felt good, and it’s just so hilarious.  It was fun to hang out with the various other people and musicians after the show.

Berlin!  amazing.  My show was featured in several of the leading print papers, in Berlin and that drove up attendance quite a bit… which is awesome!   especially since most of these shows have me headlining with no support.  I’m very thrilled that the response has been so good, because I’m as new to town as one could get.  Had a neat moment when one of my songs mentions “Berlin” and I got to sing “Berlin” in Berlin!  Very cool!  Also a bunch of friends came out, including my cousin Tom (who had run the marathan earlier that day (an incredibly rainy day).  

After 5 more shows in Germany, we’re driving to the Netherlands today, for a radio show in Rotterdam, and then a show in Belgium in the evening.   Three countries in one day, bring it on!

Oh!  and here I am backstage with Ina Simone and David of The Lonesome Thrones in Frankfurt, Germany at Hazelwood Studio’s Yellowstage.

Posted on 09/30/10 at 05:11PM | Filed under: blog

Europe, Days 5-9… sort of…

Kind friends, driving north through italy, and in a wonderful groove.  (More photos posted on Facebook).  But first, I’ll start with a little video from the road.  Driving from Roma, We decided to take a detour, the scenic route from Firenze to Modena, which entailed some magnificent mountain driving through Tuscany.   That being said, it was a bit of a challenge, being new to driving stick shift, but it was a lot of fun with our hot wheels - the rocker working behind the desk at the rental company bumped us up to a sweet, diesel BMW for free, and we salute him!

All in all, have a hard time believing my luck - with the great shows and audiences and other musicians and cool promoters, and great meals.   It’s funny, by the third day, I feared everything would get routine.  And it has, but in the best way possible.  I think this is what people call a groove.   It’s hard to get in a groove when the gigs are few and far between… but on tour, with each show containing, mirthful new faces and each stop a decent, beautiful drive (Umbria!  Tuscany!  Venezia!) it certainly is a groove.  It’s been nice to get good radio and press, so even though it’s my first time playing in Europe, and i’m playing smaller solo headlining shows, there are people coming to the shows!  how awesome is that?  Plus the shows have gotten nice press in Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, and etc.  Read some of the press here. 

Performing night after night makes everything become second nature, so organic.   I’ve done plenty of tours in the States, but this tour has been more rewarding in some ways - I mean, having Italians shout “Bravo!“ at the end of a song feels pretty fucking good. 

In Rome, I had a couple of hours between soundcheck and the show, so we hopped on the subway and took a quick tour of the tourist hotspots.  I have seen them on other occasions, so it was fun to just zip through town.   Day two of driving stick-shift and I drove in Rome, fitting, as “all roads” lead to it, as they say.   Did my part to add to the gorgeously choreographed chaos that is traffic there.   So much fun!   Special thanks to Lullo at Conte Staccio for promoting a great show, and then feeding us and putting us up in such a gorgeous flat in the Trastevere neighborhood (above a Pizzaria no less = HEAVEN).  

Although I must say, the Rome night started out pretty shakey. First, I was almost eaten alive by red ants.  After soundcheck I was hanging out with members of the supporting act, and i leaned on a wall that was covered with red aunts leaving their nest.   Before I knew it I had ants in my pants, and ants in my hair, and in my shirt, all pinching me.  Everybody got a good laugh I i stripped to my skivvies to wipe them off my cadaverous, New Yorker skin.   Also, the promoter and my tour manager didn’t exactly mesh.  It was a classic Italian versus German personality types in all it’s textbook stereotypical hilarity.  I watched multiple levels of miscommunication and frustratioin unfold before me, yet in the end the night was still AMAZING, with a great venue, late night eats, and the wonderful, aforementioned B&B.  

Tonight I play Arceto, just north of Bologna.  And then tomorrow drive through the Alps back to Germany, then Netherlands and Belgium.  

I’ve been surprised how many of the bands I share bils with sing in english - especially when I talk to the musicians afterwards and we can’t even hold a conversation.   Still they do it to varyine degrees of success.   In Vicenza, the band Roulette HiFi really beat Wilco at their own game - excellent.  Still others don’t have as much luck;  Last night one group played and it took me a while to even figure out what language they were singing… English.  Why?    The Italian language is so beautiful!    My favorite bands so far sang in Italian - one of them, RIVE from Seregno, is a band anyone would love.  Check them out here:

Just arrived at the venue near Bologna/Modena - the “Salumeria Di Rock.“   OH YEAH. 

So…  THANK YOU, to you and you, and especially YOU!

Posted on 09/22/10 at 03:46PM | Filed under:

Europe, Days 1-4, Kind of…

a dream-like journey.  this blog post will be as disjointed and confusing as a dream, since it’s hard to keep up and to keep track of all the magic and write about it in a coherant manner.  will start off with a video shot in Vienna by Fairsoul Communications, two Vienna-based filmakers who I met with in a silver-lit platz near the venue, Verein.  Thanks Stuart Jolley and Gregory Kennedy-Salemi.  We had to scrap the first take because the church bells were shock-and-awe-wake-the-deadloud.  (btw, you can see more photos and up-to-date mini updates at Facebook Page and Profile).

Andrew Vladeck - Living The Dream from FairSoul-LIVE…ACT..BE on Vimeo.

4 shows down, 17 to go.  I can’t for the life of me believe it’s only been four days.  Four gloriously long, interesting, fun, soulful days.  I’ve already met and played for so many wonderful people, enjoyed meals and drinks and pretzels and funny sandwiches and pizza, driven through the gorgeous german and austrian countrysides…. the alps, the dolomites…

I can’t believe I have 5 times as many shows waiting for me. Awesome.  I’ve been trying to type this as we drive, the mountains covered in evergreens, the valleys filled with smokey clouds.  It’s intoxicating.  All of it.  There’s no way to do it justice in a blog - the amazing audiences, the kind people who have opened their venues and often their homes to us and have fed us coffee and eggs and pretzels in the morning and sent us on our way.

I’ve been thinking of my friend Abigail Chapin‘s status updates from her world touring.  Often she simply says one word - the name of the city.  Last week it was “Berlin.“  Or something like that.  They leave me hungry for details, but I can understand why now… it’s hard to describe, too much to say, not sure where to begin, and perhaps best left a mystery.

These days I never see the sunrise unless i fly a Red-Eye.  We started with a red eye to Frankfurt, and I played that night in Heidelberg.  At a fantastic venue run by anti-fascist activists, Our gracious host, Martin, fed us well and showed us around as we walked through the old part of town near the University and, of course, the castle.  They’re everywhere.  There was an interesting opening act, a german folk/punker, who sang every whiskey-laden song in english. But what a cool first night.  Students, activists, musicians, all sitting in a salon-style show.  People signed my mailing list in the best handwriting i’ve ever seen.

The landscape is lush and gorgeous, and reminds me of New York State, with the first signs of fall.  We’re zipping by in a TOTALLY SWEET black, diesel BMW stick shift car.  We had reseved a 2-cylander sardine can called a “Twingo,“ but then the rental place only had this stealth bomber of a vehicle left.  Wiebke, the svengali and partner-in-crime of this tour, is at the wheel..  we cruise at 140kph, on the autobahn, cars are FLYING past us.  each time it happens it takes my breath away.  WOW.

Did a fun interview with the biggest radio station in Bavaria, on3radio with Christina Wolf.  I got to DJ songs by a bunch of my heroes and influences, including songs by The Honey Brothers and Balthop, Alabama.

The night after our second show we drove from nurnberg to munich, as a delightful new friend graciously put us up, and in the morning fed us eggs and bavarian pretzels.  She takes the prize.  There will be payback in Bklyn bagels and genuine Nova lox.  Played an incredibly special venue in Vienna that was run by a delightful Austrian named Dominik along with at least 4 of his five siblings, and their cute dog, Vespa.  I love Vienna, stately, yet somehow quaint.  I shared the bill with this fantastic expat American named Andy Fite, who lives in Stockholm with his wife and children.

Next stop Italy.  Never really know what to expect next - it’s hard to imagine the changes that await on the other side of the alps… [next morning] Well a wonderful show awaited at Sartrea in Vincenza, brought by Albe and Enri of Occasional Disaster Booking.  Local favorites Roulette Hi Fi joined the bill - and we kicked it off with a backstage family-style pizza party.  A DREAM COME TRUE!!!

Posted on 09/18/10 at 06:15AM | Filed under: blognews | Leave a Comment

Why?  The Answer’s Because.

This video was filmed at Andrew’s family’s home in Upstate New York, a cabin deep in the forest glade, where he enjoys the rustic life, and home-made apple pie.  This is part of a series of weekly videos in anticipation of Andrew’s European Tour. The first two weeks will featured traditional American folk songs, followed by new songs on the upcoming EP.

Posted on 09/07/10 at 08:12PM | Filed under: blog | Leave a Comment

UPDATE: Stolen bike recovered in Chinatown Police Sting!

Reunited and it feels so good!

When last I wrote, my bike was stolen, and the thief was selling it on Craigslist.

Here’s a passage from my last post: “In the immortal words of Queen, “I Want to Ride My Bicycle.“  But in the most tragic of ironies, it was stolen by a person FROM Queens (the borough, not the band), and the thief is selling it on Craigslist.“

Well, three weeks after my bike was stolen from in front of my building it is back at home where it belongs.

In brief:

I made a google alert for whenever the words “Giant Halfway Craigslist” would appear on the internet. And sat back an waited.

Google emailed me an alert on Saturday morning. I clicked on it.  A man in Chinatown was selling a bike like mine.  It raised my suspicion becuase they posted a catalog photo.  Very oddly enough, it was the SAME generic photo as the last person who posted an ad for the bike a week earlier.

(aside: in a previous ad, a person offered only a three-word description: “NEED IT GONE”.  That bike, while it looked a lot more like my bike than the bike in the photo the person posted, was, I determined in the end, possibly not my bike.  The police thought it was, based on my photos, the description, and the suspicious ad, but fortunately I balked.  It was probably someone else’s, although it looked so much like mine, it was uncanny!).

Anyway, back to Chinatown. I called the seller and asked if it looked like it did in the photo.  He said it had no fenders or rack, just like mine.  He hesitated when I asked if he was the original owner.  I decided it was worth having a look and told him I’d visit in an hour.  He asked me to meet in outside his housing project in the Lower East Side/Chinatown.

This is going to sound so completely unbelieveable, but I kid you not - this perp is living in THE VLADECK HOUSES, the housing project in the Lower East Side that’s named after my great-grandfather, B. Charney Vladeck (I’m A. Charney Vladeck), a labor leader and City Councilman (he ran with LaGuardia).  The perpetrator walked out of THE VLADECK HOUSES to sell me my own bicycle. How flipping crazy is that? I mean really, I still can hardly believe it. (in another note, it’s really sad that this thief is abusing houses reserved for working families, to run his fencing operation).

My friend “Alice Chen” joined me on this operation.  I saw the bike and it was 1000% clearly mine.  I even took it for a spin.  Every odd detail completely matched up.  I told him I wanted to buy it and told him i was going to get cash, and instead Alice and I walked straight to the 7th Police Precinct. Two good cops said my description of the guy fit someone they were watching. and then they even took me to the corner where they thought he’d be, and my bike was right there locked outside Chang Wang Restaurant.   They brought the man out of restaurant and encouraged him to give me back the bike of spend the holiday weekend in jail, and asked me to not press charges for possession of stolen property in exchange for a warning him. i think he well knew the bike was hot (he had told me he was the original owner, but changed his story to say he bought it from the thief), but i don’t think he was the one that stole it. Though right before I checked out my bike, he sold another bike to another customer - so he’s moving plenty of bikes.  He said he bought it from the first person to post it on craigslist three weeks ago, who I had also called at the time (a Jason/Jayson/Alex from Queens).  Anyway, The police will keep their eyes open and hopefully they’ll investigate the contact in Queens.

Now, I’ve just made what could be a VERY LONG story short.  The whole saga was fascinating.   But for the sake of this blog, I’ll leave it at that.  And in anycase, I’m rocking my trusty old steed!   Thank you officers Ducret and Newberry, and “Alice Chen” for getting my back!

YEEE HAAAAW!

Posted on 09/07/10 at 10:11AM | Filed under: bicyclebikeblogstolenthief | Leave a Comment