The Perlich Post: Nite Jewel gets her shine on

Monday, July 26, 2010

Nite Jewel gets her shine on

Certainly having a song placed on James Murphy's soundtrack for the Ben Stiller character-comedy Greenberg helped boost Nite Jewel's profile but the Oak-town synth diva's quick rise to notoriety really began in San Francisco. It was there in the Groove Merchant record shop that Damon "Dam-Funk" Riddick first heard Nite Jewel's Good Evening debut from 2008. He was so impressed with Nite Jewel's twerked out sound that he bought the LP on the spot and grabbed an extra copy for his fellow 80s electro-soul fanatic Peanut Butter Wolf at the Stones Throw label who was equally floored.
Soon after, a fantastic seven-inch coupling of the Good Evening album's two stand-out tracks Weak For Me b/w Suburbia appeared on the mysterious 1984 Records label which looks very much like another Stones Throw subsidiary.

While Nite Jewel continued work on what would become her new Am I Real (Gloriette) EP, Dam-Funk was busy drawing up secret plans for a Jeff Phelps-inspired collaborative recording with Nite Jewel which will follow his other studio project involving vocalist Steve Arrington who formerly fronted legendary Ohio funkateers Slave.
Judging from the appearance of Dam-Funk and Nite Jewel together in webisode 136 of XLR8R's Tune In An Afternoon series (see clips below), the proposed Nite-Funk album for Stones Throw sounds very promising.

A message from Nite Jewel:

Life just gets more expansive and interesting as time goes on. In January 2008, I began recording what became my debut LP Good Evening. Good Evening was recorded in moments of ecstasy, emotion, and hardship—barely considering or calculating—in the privacy of my own home. Never did I imagine, at least until the final stages of recording, that these songs would form a discrete package for listeners to ponder, critique, and love. Since finishing Good Evening in fall 2008, I continued to record, formed a live band and toured the globe, did remixes for several artists, collaborated with some incredible musicians, and graduated from college with a degree in philosophy.

The recordings after Good Evening have lead in several directions: the Want You Back EP, recorded for Italians Do It Better in collaboration with The Samps, a limited tour CD of demos called You F O, and an again limited 7″ through Japanese label Big Love featuring tracks “Falling Far” and “Spiritual Nite Life.”

Now in the wake of this whirlwind of people, places, artists, art (and non-art), I am finally ready to make official the second independent Nite Jewel release through Gloriette Records in the U.S., and internationally through No Pain In Pop and Big Love. This six song EP entitled Am I Real? spans the gamut of Nite Jewel’s emotional, musical, and social development since the release of Good Evening. The EP was recorded in-house on analog and digital equipment with production, arrangement, and performing assistance from Cole M.G.N.. Title track “Am I Real?” also features performances and writing and production assistance from Daniel and Andrew Aged from Teen Inc.

You can get your copy of Am I Real? digitally right now through our website (see link below) and on vinyl on August 16th through Other Music, NYC. We will also be playing a handful of dates to support the release.

Thank you for staying along for the ride.

Love,
Nite Jewel

Artificial Intelligence by Nite Jewel