Archive for the 'Reviews' Category
Montreal Jazz Festival - part two
Author: Andy Sosnowski
In this post I wanted to include a link to still more reviews from the Montreal Gazette of concerts I was unable to attend:
http://communities.canada.com/MONTREALGAZETTE/blogs/wordsandmusic/default.aspx
Also there are 2 local noteworthy bands that we saw:Gadji-Gadjo who play East European tunes. I endured the first blazing sun of the festival to watch them and they played a long set of stirring music to celebrate the sun. Read the rest of this entry »
read comments (0)Fleet Foxes
Author: Steven
Everyone can appreciate a beautiful voice. I don’t care what kind of music you are into…there is always THAT voice for each genre–that voice which, when you hear it for the first time, convinces you that there are few things more welcome to your ears.
Singers today come in a variety of singing abilities; I’ll admit that I enjoy the nasal whining/screaming of singers just as much as I do the beautiful crooning of a well-weathered singer/songwriter (more often than not, I like the former). But the trick for pulling off the “beautiful voice”-kind-of-music is to find the right combination of a beautiful voice and…well, kinda obviously, beautiful song-writing. I don’t think many would argue that the majority of American Idol contestants have great voices (my one requisite pop-culture reference for the year), but when it comes to their collective ability to write a beautiful album, I think that it’s safe to assume that it leaves something to be desired.
Fleet Foxes’s self-titled LP has that golden ratio of beautiful voices and song-writing. The perfect combination that kinda (embarrassingly) leaves your mouth hanging open for the first few minutes of the album while sitting by yourself in your local coffee shop. And it’s delicious…
Beautiful Mutants Were Heard In The Distance: Devo at Penn’s Landing
Author: Jeff Boule
When you think of Devo, certain things just don’t come to mind. Power chords, heavy, loud styles of music and guitars. Well at Penn’s landing on June 28th, Devo was all that and more! Performing their “stadium/festival” set; these are tracks that they can perform without the assistance of midi, sequencers or anything of that ilk. As if stripped down to their possible beginnings, Devo provided tones to enrage and engorge the attendees. Read the rest of this entry »
Montreal Jazz Festival- part 1 - Jun 28-Jul 1
Author: Andy Sosnowski
Certainly one of the huge attractions of the festival so far has been the city as well as the music.
But lets start with the music;. The whole festival spans 11 days of which I will see 7 days worth. There are impressive names that come for reasonably priced concerts such as Gilberto Gil, McCoy Tyner, Taj Mahal and Keb Mo, Abbey Lincoln, Orchestra Baobab, Betty Levette, Brad Mehldau, Ladytron, Aretha Franklin, Richard Thompson, Steve Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, Martin Sexton and Blind Boys of Alabama. Read the rest of this entry »
Music for Headphones
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
Music for Headphones
1 July 2008—By chance, I stumbled upon ‘Music For headphones” a psychedelic/ shoegaze/ experimental band out of Philadelphia, PA. This is a very creative and unique sounding band for people who want innovative and modern music.
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.
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.