Couch Potatoes// Living Room Songs

—by jack

So, a couple of things: A) I was not aware that the 1 Red Line in Manhattan went to the Bronx; B) nor was I aware that there was such a thing as 231st street; C) there is a large, orthodox Jewish community in that area and D) there is a fucking mountain, too.

I figured all of the above out when I opted—as a naive Chicagoan—to let Google Maps guide me to the basement studio where EMILY WARREN & THE BETTERS record their indefatigably catchy/soulful pop songs. Let me just get out of the way right now that it was 100 percent worth it to climb a literal mountain covered in damp snow and fight through what I thought was a forest (and turned out to be a very large backyard—there are backyards big enough to be confused with forests in New York City? What?) to get to this session. 

I may have been damp, cold, red-faced and I might have freaked out someone’s mom and most definitely freaked out this borderline vicious looking dog, but it was worth it. 

And it was worth it for more than one reason: Emily Warren turned out to be an insanely talented young woman with a voice that would knock the best of us on our ass, while “The Betters,” as I am gonna dub her three accompanying musicians, were all-around nice and welcoming guys. The basement was beautiful. The skeptical mom and vicious dog were a lot kinder when my presence was explained. And I even got a ride back to town.

I hope you enjoy this session as much as I enjoyed filming it.

VIDEO HERE