SLM NEWS
March 2020: We're holed up in our apartments. COVID-19, y'know.
Like you, and like everybody involved in the arts, sports, social life, and everything else that makes life interesting, SLM is currently hibernating through this plague. No gigs, no practices, no recordings, nothing that puts people in the same room: you know the drill. Hope you're well. All of us are for now, too. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay sane, and STAY IN.
Most Recent Gig: Monday, December 30, 2019, Arlene's Grocery... plus SLM Video and Beckenstein-Brown
SLM returns to Arlene's Grocery to close out the year. We recently heated up this legendary joint on a rainy Sunday, and Dan Weltsch's video of our Tom Jones cover "Love Me Tonight" has made it to Mark's page at YouTube. We've also launched the SLM YouTube Channel, with links to all the SLM videos we're aware of, including all 11 songs on Thrum. Keep an eye on this space for more of these soon.
Amongst our weaponry, SLM's live lineup continues to include Vern Woodhead (whom you may have heard with Woodhead, Echo Moth, the Johnny Scuotto Band, Skulk, the Hulking, the Beckett-themed album Songs for Samuel with Norah Vincent, and countless others) on guitar and vocals. That's Vern singing the living hell out of "Love Me Tonight."
Set time: 8 pm.
Cover: $10. Here's an Eventbrite link for advance tickets.
Directions: Arlene's is at 95 Stanton St., a block below E. Houston between Orchard and Ludlow. Here's a map. Take the F to Second Avenue, then three blocks east and one down, or bike (there are Citibike racks all along Stanton and throughout the neighborhood; the closest is on Allen half a block up from Stanton).
Also appearing: Montrose Station, Thanks!, and Bad Kitty.
Look for Bryan's excellent extra-SLM project Beckenstein-Brown, too, appearing at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 on Thursday, December 5, 8:30 pm. As the name implies, B-B is Marion Beckenstein (vocals, autoharp) and Bryan Brown (vocals, guitar). Expect folk, jazz, standards, originals, and the unexpected.
March 2018: SLM a Trio
After a half-dozen years with the excellent Burn Smith as SLM's full-time keyboardist, the band is returning to the core lineup of Bryan, Mark, and Bill, with Burn amicably moving to SLM Emeritus status and working on, among other things, a major fiction project. The Shanghaiers salute him, thank him for his awesome musicianship and rock-solid friendship, and look forward to reading the book.
July 2015: Rave Review for SLM
Check out this review of Thrum before our July 2015 gig. It's a corker.
A few pull quotes: "Even in an era when obscurity has become a badge of honor, New York band Shanghai Love Motel are almost apocryphal. They don’t play a lot of gigs, so when they do, it’s a pretty major event.... What distinguishes them more than their catchy hooks and biting guitars is their savage, literate lyrics: bands who can be this loud seldom have words as good as the music.... A cult classic."
October 2012: SLM has reinvented itself. Welcome the newest Shanghaier, David (Burn) Smith on keyboards.
December 2011: SLM Makes NYMD Top 100 List!
The prestigious indie-connoisseur site New York Music Daily listed "The Universal Skeptical Anthem" from SLM's Thrum among its Top 100 Songs of 2011, calling it "[a] typical savage, corrosive anthem from the hyper-literate New York rockers." The full list is here (scroll down or search for "Shanghai," "Skeptical," etc.). We're in heady company here; the list includes Marc Ribot, Laurie Anderson, Either/Orchestra, Reid Paley, the Christian McBride Big Band, and other critical favorites.
Thrum, SLM's Debut Album, is Released
Available on ITunes, CD Baby, DigStation, and Amazon
New Website Launches
And you are there.