Author Archive
Concerto for Bass Drum and Orchestra
Author: Andre Veloux
The concert at the Richardson Auditorium on Feb. 9 was advertised as a first-ever performance of the 1936 dramatization of Pushkin’s masterpiece Eugene Onegin, with incidental music by Prokofiev, performed by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Princeton University. It was quite a surprise then, that after the intermission the audience were treated to the Symphony Orchestra and British percussion maestro Joby Burgess performing a bass drum concerto. A quite remarkable composition as a bass drum concerto is not something you come across every day.
read comments (0)Lulu – Lou Reed & Metallica
Author: Andre Veloux
I just don’t get it. I thought this was supposed to be terrible? I read the reviews, “’Lulu is a catastrophic failure on almost every level”, “grueling, even by latter Lou Reed standards”,” quite possibly a candidate for one of the worst albums ever made”, “Lulu sinks to almost unimaginable lows.” I was ready to write a really bad review (for once!), hopefully with a dash of humor. Surely the near $40 I spent on the double vinyl set could have been better donated to HomeFront for example. But no, for me this negative depiction is just so far off the mark. I just wonder what was really expected of a collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica. This is Lou Reed is it not? Wasn’t he in The Velvet Underground? Didn’t they record White Light / White Heat? Didn’t he go onto record Berlin? Seriously, you can’t spend every waking music hour just tapping your foot and living in la-la land. Lou Reed certainly doesn’t.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Soundtrack
Author: Andre Veloux
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You’ve read the book, you might go and see the film, but what would the music sound like? For 3 hours and 39 tracks spread across 3 CDs you can find out. This soundtrack which has been just released by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is something worthy of the title an opus. Although opening with a cover of Immigrant Song and closing with a cover of Bryan Ferry’s Is Your Love Strong Enough, these two vocal tracks are anomalies that bookend 37 instrumentals. Because those two vocal tracks aside this is a largely ambient piece of work.
Tori Amos @ the Beacon Theater New York
Author: Andre Veloux
Tori Amos lives and breathes her music. You know that from the moment she takes to the stage in her billowing red dress, split to the hip, and her gravity defying heels, sparkling under the spotlights like her music sparkles through the air. She performs a sun salutation to her immediately transfixed audience and sets down to her keyboards and begins her nightly journey.
Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events
Author: Andre Veloux
Anticipation is not something I can say I have felt waiting for the release of the last few Dream Theater albums. Their frequency (no more than two years apart) doesn’t help, and ever since 2003′s Train of Thought I think they have been releasing music with the same kind of variations on a theme. The last two records, Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds really were pretty indistinguishable. They needed a break or a change. And as is well documented, they rejected the break idea and went for the change. No more Mike Portnoy, no more band leader. The time was now for the other four in Dream Theater to take the responsibility. They replaced Portnoy with Mike Mangini and got on with the music. The result of which meant I was actually keenly anticipating the new release, this their first album of the new era, A Dramatic Turn of Events
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Gomez – Whatever’s On Your Mind
Author: Andre Veloux
Who are Gomez? Another great, esoteric band from a small town in England? Perhaps a truly great band from a small town in England? They haven’t made much of an impact in the US, just a small splash at the end of the 90s around the time of their debut Bring it On, and the follow up Liquid Skin. Since then, they have produced consistently and have a back catalogue of all sorts of wonderful and interesting music behind them. And here they are with their seventh album, Whatever’s On Your Mind which I picked up on a recent trip home. Another out of genre mix of this and that, diverse lyrics, tunes and melodies.
Record Store Vacation
Author: Andre Veloux
Times have changed, the big record stores are no more, their dead retail carcasses lying boarded up and abandoned. But hey, that’s the good news! Lots of music is cheap, music is even free sometimes, and if you still want that store experience you can relive the old days and visit your reliable local record store. Independent, vibrant and staffed with people who love music like you. Why can’t shopping always be like this you wonder.
As a consequence, for my vacation research, in addition to scouring the internet for local art galleries, stately homes, restaurants and the like, I google for the local record stores. I know, you’d think with Prex on my doorstep, why should I ever need to. But no two record stores are alike, and you never know what you might find. And to be honest I just get a great big buzz out of going to record stores. Prex itself is a Princeton tourist attraction to rival Nassau Hall, Princeton University and Palmer Square. In my eyes at least.
Gorillaz – The Fall
Author: Andre Veloux
Damon Albarn is on a creative high right now (notwithstanding a Blur reunion album!). Anyone who saw the Gorillaz at Madison Square Garden last year could see he was having the time of his life, and probably has to pinch himself that he managed to put together the multi talented supergroup that he did for that tour, and that even Lou Reed came out to play that night. As has been well publicised already, Albarn had a mini studio set up backstage and with the aid of his new toy iPad was able to record each night as and when the mood took him.
The iconic Record Store plastic bag
Author: Andre Veloux
What could be more sustainable than a shop that sells predominantly used items? Not much if you ask me. In so doing Prex has already stepped up to the environmental challenge by having a store full of all those pre-loved goodies. No mail order either, it’s all in one place, if you added a bike rack outside you could be talking practically a zero environmental impact of your purchases. Bearing all that in mind, it was great to see Prex joining in many other local businesses in supporting Sustainable Princeton‘s BYOBag (Bring Your Own Bag) campaign. But that got me thinking, isn’t the iconic record store bag part of the experience? Could we seriously ask record store patrons to forgo the ubiquitous plastic bag?
Blackfield – Welcome to my DNA
Author: Andre Veloux
Blackfield – Welcome to my DNA
Steven Wilson is a very busy man, with his solo records, producing, mixing, a ton of surround sound work, side projects like No-Man and Blackfield, and even a regular job with that exceptional band of his, Porcupine Tree. Blackfield is the duo of Wilson and Israeli singer Aviv Geffen. Aviv Geffen in many ways seems pretty similar to Steven Wilson, in that he is a singer, a guitarist and a producer in his own right. Makes you wonder if a combination like this can work. Well let me tell you, it certainly does.
Record Store Day 2011 at Princeton Record Exchange
Author: Andre Veloux
Editor’s note: we are happy to add Andre to our blogging roster. Below is his first-hand account of RSD 2011 as a customer. We look forward to seeing what he comes up with next! So….here’s Andre…
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I’m on a bandwagon, I admit it. Like many others I recently got back into vinyl a few months ago. In fact after setting up my turntable, it was on a rainy trip to Prex in February that I bought my first new vinyl LP in more than twenty years. The thrill of flicking through the covers in the store was too much, I was eighteen again and I was hooked yet again.
So when I discovered Record Store Day was coming up, I got pretty excited. Thinking it would be a relatively low key event, I rather foolishly went for breakfast in Small World Coffee beforehand, and by the time I lined up at ten to ten, the line was stretching all the way down Tulane Street and I was round the corner outside the Italian deli! Note to self, next year I’ll eat my breakfast in line. Read the rest of this entry »