Late in February, Ben Kweller and his wife, Liz, lost their 16-year-old son, Dorian Zev, in a tragic car accident. Aspiring to be a musician like his father and recording under the name Zev, Dorian was set to make his live debut at South by Southwest later this month. The entire music community shares in the Kwellers’ sorrow, and mourns the loss of a burgeoning talent and spirited young man.
The Kwellers have launched a GoFundMe page to help create the Dorian Kweller Memorial Fund, with the goal of turning the fund into a 501(c)(3) non-profit to help musicians and skateboarders like Dorian by supporting initiatives within those communities. To show people why the Memorial Fund was started and inspire donations — as well as begin to heal from their own grief — Ben and Liz have penned a personal obituary for their son.
The heartfelt eulogy sheds a light on the kind of person Dorian was,...
The Kwellers have launched a GoFundMe page to help create the Dorian Kweller Memorial Fund, with the goal of turning the fund into a 501(c)(3) non-profit to help musicians and skateboarders like Dorian by supporting initiatives within those communities. To show people why the Memorial Fund was started and inspire donations — as well as begin to heal from their own grief — Ben and Liz have penned a personal obituary for their son.
The heartfelt eulogy sheds a light on the kind of person Dorian was,...
- 3/8/2023
- by Consequence Staff
- Consequence - Music
Mason Jennings’ 2011 album Minnesota may have put him on the map, but for follow up Always Been, he didn’t feel pressured to rush into another album. Jennings took refuge in a rural cabin during Minnesota’s frigid winter and wrote over 30 songs, recording them to cassette tape and emerging with a multitude of material to craft Always Been into a cohesive work. The album was released in November, and now Jennings follows up with a video for the opening track, “Lonely Street.” “Lonely Street is the first song on my new album Always Been. Its theme is joy and...
- 12/13/2013
- Pastemagazine.com
AudioPlayer.setup("http://www.nerve.com/files/players/audio/player.swf", { width: 350 }); The Nerve Mixtape With The Kooks The Brit-poppers share their secret seduction playlist with us. by Hugh Harris In support of their third album, Junk of the Heart, The Kooks are coming to America for a run of sold-out shows with Foster the People. We asked guitarist Hugh Harris to make us a romantic seduction mixtape; the glorious results are below. Check out this Spotify playlist of their picks. 1. Mason Jennings, "Big Sur" This is the best possible start to any compilation — "Just let the disc play." I had this opening a tape for my girlfriend. We've been together six years, so something must have worked. AudioPlayer.embed("audioplayer_1", {soundFile: "/files/media/features/MixTape_Kooks/1.mp3"}); 2. The Mummers, "March of the Dawn" This reminds [...]...
- 5/3/2012
- by Hugh Harris
- Nerve
The ninth studio album in Mason Jennings' discography, Minnesota, was released this week. For the past few weeks we've been premiering music videos from the album every Thursday. While Jennings has stepped away from a more traditional folk sound that's been fine tuned over his career, he branched out a bit more sonic while maintains his own distinct lyrical approach.
- 9/15/2011
- Pastemagazine.com
The ninth studio album in Mason Jennings' discography, Minnesota, was released this week. For the past few weeks we've been premiering music videos from the album every Thursday. While Jennings has stepped away from a more traditional folk sound that's been fine tuned over his career, he branched out a bit more sonic while maintains his own distinct lyrical approach.
- 9/15/2011
- Pastemagazine.com
Independence suits Mason Jennings. In his transplanted home of Minnesota, he crafted “Minnesota,” the album, out in his own wilderness, for the first time for his own label Stats & Brackets. Over the past year, he’s divided his time between raising his two kids with his wife of nine years, and then retreating to his private studio, recording most of mostly pop-rock album’s instruments himself. "I make sure I have a space out in the woods, it's where I disappear and become very experimental. That’s been key for the last couple of records," Jennings said in our recent interview. "It's been...
- 9/13/2011
- Hitfix
Getty Bonnie Raitt
Patagonia Inc. is adding a new product to its line of fleece jackets and rock climbing gear: MP3s.
Of course, there is an outdoorsy twist: All the proceeds from the 99-cent downloads sold, starting this week, on the Patagonia Music website are to be given to environmental charities.
The specific causes are being chosen by participating artists, including Jack Johnson and Moe. It’s not all crunchy jam bands. Alternative rockers old and new—including Pearl Jam,...
Patagonia Inc. is adding a new product to its line of fleece jackets and rock climbing gear: MP3s.
Of course, there is an outdoorsy twist: All the proceeds from the 99-cent downloads sold, starting this week, on the Patagonia Music website are to be given to environmental charities.
The specific causes are being chosen by participating artists, including Jack Johnson and Moe. It’s not all crunchy jam bands. Alternative rockers old and new—including Pearl Jam,...
- 3/4/2011
- by Ethan Smith
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Nothing could be more enjoyable than listening to music for a good cause. Unless, the tunes are those of the Beatles. The Minnesota Beatle Project released its second volume, Minnesota Beatle Project, Vol. 2, a 16 track LP on December 7th. The album’s proceeds will benefit art and music education in Minnesota Public Schools. The collection features the sounds of Minnesota born-or-based artists with some special guests. Musicians, such as Soul Asylum, Mason Jennings, Total Babe, P.O.S and Sound of Blackness, sing beside the original quartet’s compositions. The album, consisting of more than 125 musicians, is available in stores and online. The cover tracks can also be obtained by purchasing a limited-edition double [...]...
- 12/18/2010
- by Perri Nemiroff
- ShockYa
Chicago – We dig discovering sprouting artists at the phase where they’re just talented enough to keep their humility. That’s where we found 21-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist Sahara Smith on Friday night at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall. Her voice has been described as “a potent mix of whiskey and molasses” and the “best of what’s next”.
Music Rating: 3.0/5.0
A Texas-based performer since the age of 13, Smith’s new career has been shepherded by T Bone Burnett and produced by Emile Kelman (Burnett’s longtime studio veteran). Burnett earned recent acclaim for writing the lyrics to “The Weary Kind,” which was the theme to the new film “Crazy Heart” where Jeff Bridges won a 2010 Oscar for his leading role.
21-year-old newcomer Sahara Smith.
Image credit: Jon Pattillo
Smith’s current tour, which is aimed at helping to sell her album due out in Aug. 2010, is piggybacked with Mason Jennings and Nathaniel Rateliff.
Music Rating: 3.0/5.0
A Texas-based performer since the age of 13, Smith’s new career has been shepherded by T Bone Burnett and produced by Emile Kelman (Burnett’s longtime studio veteran). Burnett earned recent acclaim for writing the lyrics to “The Weary Kind,” which was the theme to the new film “Crazy Heart” where Jeff Bridges won a 2010 Oscar for his leading role.
21-year-old newcomer Sahara Smith.
Image credit: Jon Pattillo
Smith’s current tour, which is aimed at helping to sell her album due out in Aug. 2010, is piggybacked with Mason Jennings and Nathaniel Rateliff.
- 6/26/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
As if James Mercer, frontman of indie standby The Shins and one half of new hip kid obsession Broken Bells, wasn’t already busy enough, now he’s contributing music to the soundtrack of the new documentary, 180° South. Along with Modest Mouse leader Isaac Brock (under the name of his side project, Ugly Casanova), the two fill out nearly all of the soundtrack’s fourteen songs. The album is complete with a Mason Jennings track, along with a tune from Love as Laughter.
Read more on Soundtrack details for doc 180° South…...
Read more on Soundtrack details for doc 180° South…...
- 4/21/2010
- by Kate Erbland
- GordonandtheWhale
Jack Johnson - En Concert In 2008, Jack Johnson toured the world with his Sleep Through The Static concerts, the best of these shows assembled for his new CD/DVD En Concert that captures quite a bit more than your average live album. Jack brings his beach-troubadour style to some of the great cities of Europe--Berlin, The Hague, Munich, Paris, Newquay, and London--with the help of an entourage of kindred souls featuring Adam Topol, Merlot Podlewski, Zach Gill, plus star appearances by G Love, Ben Harper, Mason Jennings, Neal Halstead, and Matt Costa. Eddie Vedder also makes the cut, his having taken the stage with Johnson at Bonnaroo, and Paul Fuga jumps in for a performance of "Country Road." Filmmaker Emmett Malloy seriously documents all the fun of their trip across the continent (and beyond), from performances to backstage rehearsals and banter, and...
- 10/26/2009
- by Mike Ragogna
- Huffington Post
More questions than answers on folk storyteller's somber eighth LP
This wiry haired, plaid-clad Minnesota musician has established himself as a glass-half-full kind of guy. Many of his songs celebrate family and love—he’s been known for simple, repetitive lyrical constructions with lines like, “You are the love of my life,” or “Keep on kissin’ me,” and love songs to Jesus and Buddha alike. It’s not that Mason Jennings has never tackled hard things—much of his early work is heavy with well-developed questions and doubts about God and human hurt, but they’re mostly channeled through playful poetry and breezy acoustic riffs. His latest, Blood of Man, is an oft-startling departure from his characteristically light-hearted sound, as Jennings explores dark material with crunching electrics more suited for a stadium than the coffee shops and small clubs we’ve pigeon-holed him into.
This wiry haired, plaid-clad Minnesota musician has established himself as a glass-half-full kind of guy. Many of his songs celebrate family and love—he’s been known for simple, repetitive lyrical constructions with lines like, “You are the love of my life,” or “Keep on kissin’ me,” and love songs to Jesus and Buddha alike. It’s not that Mason Jennings has never tackled hard things—much of his early work is heavy with well-developed questions and doubts about God and human hurt, but they’re mostly channeled through playful poetry and breezy acoustic riffs. His latest, Blood of Man, is an oft-startling departure from his characteristically light-hearted sound, as Jennings explores dark material with crunching electrics more suited for a stadium than the coffee shops and small clubs we’ve pigeon-holed him into.
- 10/9/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
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