Artist Spotlight: Jenny and Johnny

Everybody knows Jenny, yet who is this Johnny character? Well, it seems they've been living together the entire decade and wrote a batch of fine songs! Their new debut record sounded pretty good after 1st listen, there's one tune which was the stand-out called "Really Very Small" with a great line "See you on the way Up (all the way down) - See you on the way Down - (all the way up) ". While my 1st impression, it didn't really hit the spot as much as some of Rilo Kiley's best, I look forward to getting into this record and will report back...Tom-

Speaking of Rilo Kiley, here's the one that made me fallin love with Jenny almost immediately.



Here's a review of their record from August:

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Album review: Jenny & Johnny's 'I'm Having Fun Now' 

August 30, 2010 | 

The heterosexual working couple may be replacing the band of brothers as the primary unit of the 21st century rock group. In Arcade Fire, Sleigh Bells and the Dirty Projectors, a balanced blend of male and female sensibilities creates the kind of buzz once caused by all the boy energy of classic rock. Relatively balanced, that is: In most groups built around such units, the man remains the primary creative force (at least on the surface). As in most workplaces, in pop music women have made significant but limited gains.
Jenny & Johnny represent a different situation. In this couple, the woman is the powerhouse and the man, though forceful in his own ways, rises to her challenges. Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice have been creatively and romantically involved for half a decade; the lady, one of indie's most successful thinking beauties, is the bigger star. Maybe that's why this project, though lighthearted, has some of the prickliness of a real day-to-day relationship. The title may be "I'm Having Fun Now," but there's room for wisecracks, bitterness and worry amid the lovey-dovey stuff.
"I'm Having Fun Now" distinguishes itself from Lewis and Rice's solo efforts, or hers with band-on-hiatus Rilo Kiley, by going for a very specific tone. The fuzzy but bright production by the duo, with help from old friends Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) and Pierre de Reeder (Rilo Kiley), has been compared to classic AM radio fare but is really closer to the jangle pop of the 1980s -- bands like the Three O'Clock and Opal in L.A., Let's Active out of North Carolina, and the Chills from New Zealand. It's prettier than what today's shoegaze revivalists do, but still a little jarring and tart.
Merging voices and exchanging lines, Lewis and Rice don't duet so much as banter. Some, like "Switchblade," are directed at the kinds of shifty characters a musical couple might encounter in Hollywood. Others tackle the relationship theme in language that's highly literate and never over-sugared.
What other pop couple would dream of being together forever in a New Yorker cartoon? That's just how urbane and aware Lewis and Rice can be, working out their power dynamic with the "record" switch on.
-- Ann Powers
Three and a half stars (Out of four)
source

Your Best Dining/Food Experience Ever

I have had so many great meals over just the past 10-12 years. Here a couple of my top picks:

1) Churrascaria Plataforma (Brazilian Buffet) - 49th St. (NYC) - the same co-worker I shared that terrible turbulent plane ride from Orlando to Nashville could not shut up about how we should eat at this place when we went up there to work the December 2001 Streaming Media expo and train a new hire. He was absolutely correct in doing so IMO. What started out as just a plain ole buffet turned into the most incredible meat-lover's paradise, once things got started. Their waiters started serving every known, tender as hell, cuts of beef off of sabers right at your table. I swear, I ate until I literally could not go any further -OR- move at all. Sin of Gluttony rating: 10 out of 10.
 
2) a local Cuban restaurant in Miami, right off the strip - I just had their Paella dish, (shrimp, scallops and chorizo sausage) combined together on a bed of rice to absolute spicy perfection. It just hit the spot for me that day. I was a bit hung over after a week of tough 15+ hour days at the corporate office in 2004 and a hard-drinking drive from Orlando to Miami for our deserved weekend off (no-driving for me that night). The flavors just kicked my @$$. Obviously the combination of these incredible Cuban flavors and the spiciness of it all just worked perfectly for me that day. I have to give this restaurant’s Carne Asado a close second for “Spot Hitting” that weekend.

3) a local Indian restaurant in San Francisco - I was there meeting with vulture capitalists for possible seed money during the end days of the dotcom craze in early January 2000. A friend and fellow MP3 artist who I was staying with took me there for my first Indian meal ever. While the flavors were all familiar to me, the combination of them were completely foreign and just kicked my @$$ once again. I remember going nuts for their "DAL" which was basically a rice and chicken dish with all of these amazing spices which made it incredible. I must have had 5 bowls of that stuff alone. Everything was as if I were tasting it for the first time, and I was. From the 1st course to the desserts.. AMAZING. BTW If you are a passionate food-eater I def. recommend targeting San Francisco someday!

4) New Orleans House (Louisville RIP) & Jeff Ruby's @ Belterra - 2 more Sin of Gluttony experiences - the most amazing seafood buffet I have ever eaten INLAND and a feast of seafood and the most tender fillets I have ever tasted respectfully. Definitely a tie due to the fact they actually sliced their crab legs perfectly in half at both places. The simplest of things make all the difference sometimes.

5) Other than a good medium rare cut of prime rib, t-bone or fillet mignon, I really enjoy the classic Italian dish of veal Parmesan. I keep this for very special occasions every few years or so and haven’t had a bad dish from any of the chains -YET- the best come from the mom and pop Italian restaurants that you can find in any major city -OR- even small towns such as Kingsport’s - Guisseppe’s - www.giuseppesitalianrestaurant.com

My father always asks me "Do you eat to live -OR- do you live to eat?"

Well, do ya?