Ben Howard proves sound expansive enough for Greek Theatre, plays fan favorites and Sharon Van Etten cover

Ben Howard proves sound expansive enough for Greek Theatre, plays fan favorites and Sharon Van Etten cover
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 9, 2015

Last October, I got to see British singer-songwriter Ben Howard play a sold-out gig at the El Rey Theatre just as his record I Forget Where We Were was released. It’s the kind of intimate venue that these types of musicians are best enjoyed and Howard did not disappoint – I considered it one of the very best shows I got to see in all of 2014.

Now a year later, Howard was headlining the much more expansive Greek Theatre on Wednesday night. I previously considered him to be the next Damien Rice, so it was intriguing to see how he’d compare to Rice’s own Greek Theatre gig earlier this year.

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Staff Picks: Grimy Goods Best Albums of 2014

Staff Picks: Grimy Goods Best Albums of 2014
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
December 19, 2014


1. Sharon Van Etten – Are We There (Jagjaguwar) 
This is clearly Van Etten’s best and most expansive work to date. On previous efforts, she stuck with a less is more approach but incorporated a much fuller sound on this release. The common use of a piano brings an added element, and Van Etten takes a more hopeful approach to dealing with heartbreak and moving on in many songs. There’s not a single weak link among the 11 tracks, which you can stream here.

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The Nine II Five: Volume Three

The Nine II Five: Volume Three
TheAudiologist.net
December 10, 2014




Remember mixed tapes? Mixed CDs? Recording songs off the radio? Nowadays, it’s too easy to try and make a playlist on subscription-based streaming sites that spiral out of control.

Every playlist I’ve made climbs to crazy numbers, sometimes into the hundreds. This can be nice, for many reasons. But there was a certain difficulty and passion that came all my life with making mixed CDs. There’s an art to it — being able to move from track to track without something feeling far too out of place.

925… It’s the area code where I grew up in northern California’s Bay Area. It also works as “nine-to-five”, commonly known as the working person’s grind Monday-through-Friday. I’m taking that number and using it as the formula for a mix I hope to continue creating every week.

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Ben Howard spreads magic at sold-out El Rey Theatre performance

Ben Howard spreads magic at sold-out El Rey Theatre performance
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
November 6, 2014


I didn’t know very much about Ben Howard going into his show last Monday at the El Rey Theatre. I’d taken a quick listen to his latest album I Forget Where We Were and saw how quickly tickets were gobbled up to his one of two U.S. shows this month and was very intrigued.

What I didn’t expect was to hear just how full Howard and his band sounded. What I experienced was the kind of emotion that Damien Rice was able conjure out of me earlier that month.

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