Archive for June, 2008
Camden – Susquehanna Center – June 19 2008
Author: Carl Homrighausen
We arrived to the wonderful stench of Camden, which is always an awe-inspiring thing. Truth be told, there’s nothing in Camden except a battleship, and aquarium, and an amphitheatre that I can honestly view as a second home. Thank you, Susquehanna Center, for making Camden worth existence. Read the rest of this entry »
read comments (0)Why Did I Not Think Of This Earlier?
Author: Melissa
In my last post, which I am assured was not my best, I said that not much was happening musically in my world. However, over the week I just remembered that it’s not necessarily true. I would like to maybe take some time these upcoming weeks to chronicle the production of a musical event that I am participating in at Westminster Choir College. The Westminster Conservatory Youth Opera Workshop is currently getting ready to perform it’s latest production, “Pandora’s Box”. Read the rest of this entry »
Vision Festival XIII: The Aftermath
Author: Anthony Medici
A few stray thoughts, dear Readers, fueled by potent antibiotics to treat a nasty case of bronchitis, following the epic Vision Festival XIII in New York City, which I blogged about last week. To wit: Is the Free Jazz aesthetic in need of a makeover? Is jazz radio WBGO (Newark) in need of a makeover? Click the link and read on. Read the rest of this entry »
Utopia’s Last Of The New Wave Riders Deface The Beatle’s Music (Part Two)
Author: Jeff Boule
Picking up from where we (mercifully) left off last week, we are smack-dab in the middle of what is part of the box set from Todd Rundgren and Utopia chronicling their Deface The Music tour. To recap, Deface The Music was Utopia’s tribute to the Beatles. Rundgren and Sulton have frequently stated that the Beatles were tremendous influences on them both. Powell and Wilcox are more comfortable in the jazz realm, but also have Beatle-influence (come on, everybody has Beatle influence, even if you didn’t like them, odds are, many of the artists you DO like were influenced by the Beatles so vicariously, you are influenced).
But this isn’t about the Beatles, it’s about Utopia, maybe for this tour we should call them Beatleopia. Read the rest of this entry »
Another Empowered Female – Santogold
Author: Andy Sosnowski
Last time I reviewed MIA’s live concert. This time I review Santogold from Brooklyn, as a preview to a free concert that Santogold will be giving on Sunday July 20 in N.Y.C. as part of Central Park Summerstage (see www.summerstage.org). There are similarities in that both make powerful but not (usually) pretty electronica. Santogold has a strong song called Starstruck, M.I.A. has a strong song called Sunshowers. If anything Santogold’s music is more melodic and diverse. Read the rest of this entry »
I think it’s safe to say almost all of us know who Bill Cosby is: Stand-up comedian. Actor. Jell-o Pudding guy. Fat Albert creator. And of course, Dr. Huxtable – one of the defining characters of the 80s. So when I first got into hardcore beat-digging and record-collecting and started to do my research within those corners of the earth, finding ‘Bill Cosby’ on my want list was a surreal thing, you know? Turns out he’s actually known for creating a few sought-after beats within soul collector realms – “The Mudfoot”, a dope spoken word and beat perfect for sampling, and “Salvation Army Band”, known for its drum break - and come to think of it he did seem to rep jazz a disproportionate amount on the ol’ Cosby show, so wow okay there was something to it.
And that was before Badfoot Brown.
Summer Songs
Author: Dee
Bret Michaels at House of Blues
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
June 24, 2008: The vox from Poison; like Bon Jovi, he is another former 80’s glam rocker turned Pop-country-southern rock. I went to hear the Poison songs, and to tolerate the Southern rock- Americana- country-rock newer stuff (which he didn’t play too much of—which made me happy). Read the rest of this entry »
5 Cool Songs To Graduate To
Author: Melissa
Not too much happened in my little world, so I decided to make a post about Graduation. The time where we celebrate milestones in ours and others lives. Many people think that certain songs can be used for certain times, a belief that shows through during Graduation. Below is a collection of my favorite graduation songs(because “Pomp and Circumstance” isn’t too fun anymore). The list would be longer, but I go to that many graduations. Read the rest of this entry »
VISION FESTIVAL XIII: Shock and Awe
Author: Anthony Medici
I’m still somewhat agog over the recent Vision Festival XIII in New York City, produced by Arts for Art, Inc. If one word could sum it up, it would be: Intensity. The music, the playing, the heat, the marathon hours. They all contributed to feelings equal part rapture and exhaustion. Being somewhat new to the free jazz scene, I did not know what to expect, but came away feeling deeply moved. Driving away from the festival site on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a lot of the music on the radio felt pallid and tired and derivative. To borrow a phrase that was all the rage about five years ago, the festival produced a sense of shock and awe. Read the rest of this entry »
In conjunction with, but not necessarily a part of, The Summer Concert Series feature I have undertaken on this here PREX site, I am also reviewing some rare, unearthed, it took me several distributors to find this, live Utopia. Featuring a frequent blog topic, Todd Rundgren and his four-piece model of Utopia. This model was the version with Wilcox, Powell and Sulton. I can hear you all asking: “Who are these people?” Read the rest of this entry »
Keith Kenny CD Release Party: Limit is the Sky
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
Keith Kenny CD Release Party: Limit is the Sky
June 17, 2008- Keith Kenny is a band that instills new respect for music’s ability to expand one’s horizons and way of viewing the world. Aptly titled, “Limit is the Sky,” Keith Kenny’s first CD (http://keithkenny.net/) is a celebration of classic blues rock combined with country influences, skilled musicianship and demanding instrumental part writing.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Dodos-Visiter
Author: Steven
A few prerequisites before naming your band “The Dodos”:
1. More than 50% of the band should be relatively good looking in an effort to avoid too close of a connection between the band name and the band members
2. Your music should be pretty good so as to avoid the label of a “joke band.” (Note: Most bands should strive to meet this prerequisite, though not all of them do.)
3. You should not take yourself too seriously. I mean…you call yourself The Dodos.
4. I should hope that you really love animals. And not just extinct ones.
Having met these requirements, these two boys from San Francisco (The Dodos!) create a perfect blend of light-hearted music, substantial lyrics, and anthemic drive. Tasteful irony is alive and well in the music world. Read the rest of this entry »
Album review: Judas Priest “Nostradamus”
Author: Keith
So what shows up in the mail the other day but my pre-ordered copy of ‘Nostradamus’ by Judas Priest, ordered for one reason and one reason only – along with it came the chance to attend a Judas Priest in-store signing. Which was a great idea, except the Jersey Turnpike had other plans (which you can read about in a previous blog here). So with no autograph to show from the signing and the only other release from the last 10 years the subpar “Angel of Retribution”, I was thinking this album better be good‘. And damn… it IS. Judas Priest is pulling a Bernard Hopkins on us.
Vision Festival XIII
Author: Anthony Medici
Literally just back from the Vision Festival in New York City by way of Princeton, NJ, and our host, Princeton Record Exchange, where I spent several hours and several hundred dollars on jazz LPs and CDs. I mention that in extenuation of not getting a full-scale blog post done earlier today. I’m late getting this blog posted, but wanted to post a quick entry, for you, dear blog Readers, and for our exacting Blogmaster. What can I say about Vision Festival XIII? Fantastic. Involving. Sublime. Raucous. Loud. Surprising. Challenging. Necessary. Were you there? I will blog more about the festival later this week , but if you attended, I invite you to post your thoughts and comments on this blog entry and open up the discussion.
Summer Concert Preview: Devo – What Can We Expect Now That It Has Been Told?
Author: Jeff Boule
As part of our Summer Concert Preview/Review, we will be looking at a concert disc by the Spudboys from 1988. They were ten years in and disillusioned from all the abuse from critics, non-fans, their label at the time, Warner Brothers, and so on. Yet that disillusionment NEVER affected the music! Read the rest of this entry »
Editor’s Picks from Jersey Stock
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
June 10, 2008: Last week was my last post as a blogger for Prex. This week is my first post as one of the newly appointed Editors of the Blog, making this my first Letter from the Editor. A response from a reader stated, “I for one am interested in learning about new and upcoming acts, I’m just interested in those that are a little off the edges of typical American pop music.” These are the Editor’s Picks from Jersey Stock 2008 (‘Jersey’s version of Bamboozle): 5 reviews of up and coming local ‘Jersey bands.
O Be Joyfull Is A Preservation of Old Tunes
Author: Melissa
Yesterday, I was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as part of a volunteer program that does work to preserve the battlefield. As part of our reward for painting barns, building fences and other things in 95 degree-weather, we were treated to a concert by Rick Garland and his lovely musical presentation O Be Joyfull. In a nutshell, O Be Joyfull is a sampler of Civil War music as well as stories behind several of the songs. But I am not here to give you a nutshell, am I? Read the rest of this entry »
“Tradition and the Individual Talent”
Author: Anthony Medici
In his famous essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” poet and critic T.S. Eliot famously stated, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.” I listened recently to three albums that seem to me to seek to place the individual artist in the tradition, while simultaneously moving beyond that tradition, an act both necessary and presumptive. An act that says, “I am here now, I am alive and new, and, by implication, “That was then, the past, which I am replacing.” Yet at the same time, all three albums also acknowledge the importance of the past, of the tradition. The three albums I want to consider are: “Ellington & Coltrane (1962);” Archie Shepp’s “Four for Trane” (1964); and, Marion Brown’s “Three for Shepp” (1966), all on Impulse Records. Read the rest of this entry »
M.I.A. live concert at Maccarren Pool, Brooklyn
Author: Andy Sosnowski
M.I.A. played the last concert of her current tour to promote the CD Kala Friday night Jun 6. Pity, because it was a wonderful live show in a very cool venue that itself resides in a fun neighbourhood. The audience stands right within the former pool with traces of blue paint remaining on the bottom; the surrounding buildings have dramatic towering red-brick arches unlike any swimming pool or concert venue I’ve ever seen. Read the rest of this entry »