Developer Ken Greenwood can sing.
Lana Del Rey appeared on SNL yesterday, performing her hit “Video Games” in a well received session.
The classy, beautiful and talented daughter of domain investor Robert Grant, drew scorn from talentless and less attractive performers – but she should not let these jealous statements affect her dreams.
Go Lana! 😀
Meanwhile, domain developer Ken Greenwood, creator of top domain research tool ZFBot released a series of YouTube videos, in which he not only plays kick ass acoustic guitar, but also sings.
While living in NYC for several years, Ken was the lead singer/guitarist.
Ken still plays out in South Tampa doing acoustic shows and it’s evident from the video below that he’s no rookie – despite simply recording it with an iPhone!
Great stuff, Ken – onto your first commercial CD!
I love how dated that video looks. all faded like an old family photo album.
as far as Lana’s SNL performance, not to take any credit away from her and what she’s accomplished but i had the same reaction.. it was kinda painful to watch to be completely honest. she seemed to loosen up toward the end of the second song and i could hear her heart going into it a lot more. it was noticeable for me. whether that song was a better ice breaker and should have been performed first, or it was just a matter of it taking one song to get warmed up, idk. I have played in bands and performed on stage before so i know the feeling. i couldn’t imagine playing on SNL. no disrespect to Miss Del Rey but i thought it was a pretty awkward performance. also, her songs are very subtle and soft, i had to laugh when i saw the drummer going bonkers on the second song crashing the cymbols like he was Jon Bonham, LOL. further i’m not sure how well the audio engineers did on their end of things either, i have a sneaking suspicion it was either just not mixed well or something. the whole thing just sounded ‘off’ to me somehow. sorry but that was my honest impression as i watched last night. you know, everyone’s a critic though,
hey Mike – Lana’s songs are definitely melancholic and not upbeat but I find them very appealing just for that reason. I think she deserves a break. 🙂
no I think there’s nothing wrong at all w/ her music, it just didn’t seem to translate well from the studio to this particular performance, hopefully it was just a fluke and she’ll go on to prove the critics (including myself) wrong. i wish her the best
I didn’t know her album wasn’t realeased yet. Is her video not on MTV in te US yet? It is on MTV South East Asia like every 5 songs and is super popular here. It is virging on overplayed in fact.
Give her a break. She was nervous- better then being Winehouse/Whitney Houston cracked.
http://youtu.be/teGe32Ax2iE
http://youtu.be/D9Ol4HD48Y0
Mike – the app I used to shoot the video on my IPhone (and they’ve got all sorts of old time camera looks… ) is 8mm by Nexvio, Inc. Well worth the 2 bucks it costs.
Ken’s no amateur, that’s for sure…. Speaking as his sister, I can tell you he’s been jamming since he could hold an instrument. And despite “life” and responsibilities (family included), his MUSIC playing AND composing continues on — growing more and more refined each day. Check him out! http://www.indabamusic.com/people/ken
http://www.kengreenwood.com/mp3 —
Unfortunately, you don’t really get a “break” when you’ve managed to land a spot on SNL. This is not performing a few of your songs for friends in the livingroom at a family get-together – it’s an audience that has a certain set of expectations. This is the equivalent of seeing not-so-great classical musicians claiming in their bio that they headlined at Carnegie or Avery Fisher Hall. Well, the reality is that ANYONE can rent out those halls, if you have the funds, so unless your performance is sponsored or is the result of winning an award or a competition, it means nothing.
Obviously, we all have performances we’d like to take back, but I watched a few of her other videos on YouTube, and she has a disconnected, lifeless quality on stage. It speaks volumes for the amount of energy and personality big stars (Rihanna, Katy Perry, etc.) pour into their performances, despite (in some cases) having lackluster singing voices. Personally, I’m a fan of dark, edgy mezzo voices, and so it’s nice to see someone emerge who sounds different, but she really needs to work on her stage presence and intonation if she wants to compete with other singers. What you see in music videos is highly coached and edited – a live performance is much more difficult, and unfortunately, hers spoke volumes. I’m sure she’ll improve in time and that this will be a learning experience for her.