Devendra Banhart
Talented folk rocker heartthrob Devendra Banhart has been off the grid for awhile, rarely surfacing since his rather magical but strangely mainstream 2009 major label offering What Will We Be, except to donate some of his original art for T-shirt designs for both the Yellow Bird Project to benefit Teenage Cancer Trust and Comune’s Drop City program, and his periodic tours to Australia.
It looks like the long-haired musician is finally ready to come out of the cave and will be appearing at the 55 Degree Wine Shop in Los Angeles’s Atwater Village on July 15. He’s also got another show on the books a week later and he’ll be at the Bootleg Theater on July 21, but if it were us, we'd opt to hear the eccentric folk bard among the crates of vino. If you find yourself in Southern California, it's worth your while to see the last of the true originals. Tickets for both the events are on sale today through Ticketfly.
55 Degree Wine, Friday, July 15 , 3111 Glendale Blvd. (in Atwater Village) 10pm - $35, 21 and over.
Bootleg Theater, Thursday, July 21, 2220 Beverly Blvd (across from Brooklyn Bagel) 8:30pm - $25, 18 and over.
Everybody likes a comeback story, so it’s no surprise that there’s a campaign to rehabilitate Amy Winehouse’s tarnished reputation. First, her goddaughter and protégé Dionne Bromfield spoke to UK’s Company magazine recently about Winehouse. “I wouldn't even say five percent of the stuff written about her is true," says Bromfield, 15, who was the first artist to be signed to Winehouse's Lioness Records. "Even if she does do something good on stage, [the media] still make her sound awful. All it takes is for her to blink while the press are flashing cameras, and it looks like she's drunk. … That's not the Amy I know - the real Amy."
Bromfield and the “real” Amy tend to engage in far less flamboyant activities than what is portrayed in the press. The two of them like to engage in rather normal activites when they're together, like getting manis and pedis and watching My Name Is Earl. But not at the same time.
The second person to come to Winehouse’s defense is none other David Arnold, who’s scored every James Bond movie since 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. Arnold told IndieWire’s Matt Mueller that he’d love to have the beleaguered singer to tackle the next 007 theme tune. “She’s absolutely the real deal and the problems she has are part of that genius,” he says. “Of course, until you read the script it’s impossible to say who would be right and you’d consider any of the current great female vocalists, like Adele, Beyonce, Lady Gaga… But if Amy was in a position to be back to full fighting strength, she would be fantastic.”
Speaking of Adele, we just heard that the “Cold Shoulder” singer is attempting to be a vegetarian. No, not because Sir Paul McCartney told her she should but because she feels bad for her pet dog every time she eats meat. She’s eschewing all meat products in a bid to become healthier, but admits her passion for animals has also prompted the diet change. "I'm trying to be veggie [vegetarian],” She told Britain’s Radio 1. “For what I want to do next year I have to be really healthy and stuff like that. I can find another way of getting all the stuff out of meat you need. I hate that tofu stuff though. It's rank. Whenever I'm about to eat meat I always see my little dog's eyes."
Speaking of food, Kid Rock is a die-hard carnivore and now has his own pizza. Farmington Hills, Michigan-based Buddy's Pizza announced that it will start offering "Kid Rock's Badass Detroiter Pizza." Buddy's spokeswoman Angela Hernandez says Kid Rock's "American Badass Beer" is added to the crust of its pepperoni and cheese Detroiter specialty pizza. Buddy's owner Robert Jacobs says, "It just doesn't get much more Detroit than Kid Rock" on the decision to create the new pizza.
