Lovely Nicole Willis and her amazing Soul Investigators are really garnering some nice little buzz from the good people over at MTVU. Their program The Freshman, hosted by America’s Next Top Model’s resident lesbian Kim, brings together three unknowns to comment and critique on a variety of under-the-radar videos. This go around Ms. Willis gets the once over, and it’s interesting to say the least.
Nicole Willis, our sultry songstress across the sea, has an amazing video for her amazing song “If This Ain’t Love (Don’t Know What Is)”. And for the next two days you, our loyal fans, can help Nicole, and us, out by heading on over to the MTVU The Freshmen page and voting for Ms. Willis on the Soul Investigators. Check out the competition, scoff (nicely), and then vote as many times as you can. If she gets the most votes, the video will instantaneously be thrown in to the MTVU rotation on January 25th!
Vote here:
http://www.mtvu.com/music/freshmen/
Or if you’re feeling tech saavy, shoot a text over to 22422 that says FRESHMAN. Polls close at 11:59 on Friday night. Get out there and vote!
It’s that time of the year again. A time of presents and cocoa, dreidels and fake chocolate money, embarrassingly drunk X-Mas parties and spiked egg nog at Grammies. Yup, it’s the end of the year holiday season and all the grand accoutrements that come with it are roaring in to effect.
And you know what that means: TOP TEN LISTS … … or top five, or top three, or top one million … you get the jist.
Well, we at Light In The Attic are eager as wood-starved beavers to get our well-deserved bands on these lists so we’re begging and pleading that you, our loyal fans will do a little voting for us. Think of it as your X-Mas present to us. And you’ll be getting your present … in … the, er, mail. Yeah, that’s the ticket …
Lets start off with our favorite radio station in the whole world, KEXP! They’re doing a fan-based best of 90.3 and we’d love for you to help us get The Blakes, The Saturday Knights and Nicole Willis at the top of that list. Just head on over to KEXP and type in your favorite Light In The Attic-related music. Then just sit next to the chimney and wait for that holiday cheer to start rolling on in.
Oxford American is a quarterly literary magazine featuring works of writing by southern authors or works of writing about that grand old place, The South. Even though it originates in Oxford, Mississippi (and we’re trying not to hold that against you), around these parts it’s considered a top notch publication. The most recent issue is there yearly Music Issue, and, aw shucks, gee wilikers, they did some pretty weighty write ups on both Betty Davis and Karen Dalton (giving us a few shout outs in the process). Not only that, but they put songs by Betty, and Ms. Dalton on the accompanying CD.
Oh Oxford American, if only you could see our shit-eating grins.
For you, our fans, the articles:
There are many varied arms of the unwieldy beast that is the music industry – bands, ringtones, albums, touring, publicity, internet content, the hellish world that is Myspace, and of course, the idiot box itself: television. Our TV/Film Guru Sandy works his purdy lil’ ass off morning and night getting the great music this label puts out in to television shows, movies, and just about anything else defined as screen media. We’re taking the boobtube by storm in the coming weeks and we want you to know about it, so get out the old TIVO remote, and take this shit down!
From Sandy, good old Sandy, who’s even been nice enough to link to a few of the places where you can check these out for free:
We’re happy to announce a couple placements:
- Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators “If This Ain’t Love” aired on
a recent episode of ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters”, and should be
available to watch online @ abc.com
- Betty Davis “Walkin’ Down The Road” appeared on episode 3 of the
Showtime original series Californication.
Not bad eh?
We’ve been busting our asses lately around here. Last month it was Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators. So far this month we’ve put out the The Blakes Streets EP, and September 25th sees the next entry in to our Jamaica to Toronto series (Summer Records Anthology). October 6th is the release date for the full, ass-kicking, LP by The Blakes (and a sure to rock two-part record release … more about that later).
So, yes, we’re a little tired, a little worn down, but damn near ecstatic to be delivering great music to the ears of discerning music lovers. And, truthfully, we’re just as happy to be garnering some serious press from across the nation. Press that looks like this:
Nicole Willis in XLR8R
“Willis’ covers the gamut of ’60s- and ’70s-era soul and funk without ever placing a foot fully in the ‘retro’ camp.’” (more…)
Corporate coffee giant Starbucks, no matter what you think of them, puts out a surprisingly diverse selection of music at their nauseatingly aesthetic stores. Seemingly, their next big step in conquering all facets of the Universe is building an I-Tunes page solely dedicated to the music they sell, and the music they feel fits the ‘Coffeehouse Sound‘.
Turns out our very own Finnish crooner Nicole Willis (and those irascible Soul Investigators) fits the stringent qualifications of the ‘coffeehouse sound’ and is being featured, sort of, on the Starbucks I-Tunes page.
If you just pop on over to the Starbucks I-Tunes page and scroll down to the bottom of the page, and take a gander at the ‘For Your Collection’ section, there she is, Nicole Willis – Starbucks Goddess.
Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigator’s new album Keep Reachin’ Up is pretty damn good. Obviously, we’re a little bias in our opinion of Ms. Willis, but, if you don’t believe us, you’ll certainly believe these three reviewers, all seemingly brimming with positive things to say about our Finland-based, neo-soul crooner (click on the link for the full review):
“Willis and co. perfectly extract the essence of Curtis Mayfield, Northern Soul and Motown.”
“About as vintage and boogie smooth as reinvigorated modern soul can get.”
“From these tight melodies and whip-crack beats, you would think Helsinki was just another Detroit neighborhood.”
There you have it, even if you think we’re a bunch of self-promoting music snobs, the critics have spoken … and they’ve said nice things.
KCRW, California’s largest NPR affiliate, is putting together a new daily download called ‘Today’s Top Tune‘ and they’ve selected our very own Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators as today’s, er, top tune.
So for the next 24 hours, KCRW and Itunes will be featuring ‘If This Ain’t Love (Don’t Know What Is)‘ for your downloading enjoyment. Oh, and we know, you can download that song right here at Light In The Attic, but the good people of KCRW were nice enough to give Nicole a shout out, and we thought we’d return the favor.
Head on over, they’ve lined up some great songs for their ‘Today’s Top Tunes’ (I personally like the Metric track from last week) and even though they aren’t available for downloading anymore, you can still take a listen.
Thanks KCRW!
KEXP’s DJ Troy just pumped out his very first Music That Matters podcast (numero sixty if you’re counting) and our very own neo-soul outfit, Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators are featured on it! ‘Invisible Man’ (a track off Keep Reachin’ Up) is squished between other amazing tracks by noted performers like Trans AM, Laylights, and Born Ruffians.Not only is this fifty-one minutes of good, new music, it’s also free! So what reason do you have not to head over to KEXP and pick this shit up? None, absolutely none.
