Archive for the 'Musician Reviews' Category
Rundgren takes the mic back from Sulton for the ever popular 'Soul Medley'. Photo by Lynn Vala
Rundgren reemerges with an Orange suit on, much like the one worn during the Liars tour. This medley is obviously what they rehearsed the most, or it at least sounded that way as apart from some errant Theremin notes (and those things were hair-trigger at best) this was as tight as it gets.
read comments (0)VALENCIA UPDATE
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
Ever enchanting Amos warms the ivories on her trusty Bosendorfer piano. Photo by Lynn Vala.
Picking up from last time, we are now reviewing the concert show for Amos’ most recent release Abnormally Attracted To Sin. Red Bank to the average visitor (which I consider myself to be) is a quaint hamlet akin to Philadelphia’s South Street before the Mardi Gras riots of a few years ago. After a lovely dinner at a local diner, we venture to the venue. An all-American meal before seeing a show from an all-American girl.
Who just so happens to live in England.
TORI AMOS ABNORMALLY ATTRACTED TO SIN ATTRACTS ABNORMALS OF ALL KINDS
Author: Jeff Boule
On the outskirts of town, there is a scarlet mansion. Well maintained, and heavily visited. The police know what goes on there, and they look away. Those who enjoy visiting the scarlet mansion come and go frequently. Each bringing in their cares and woes and after an hour or so visit, they leave without them. What is the attraction? The girls.
Anyone who knows Tori Amos, knows that she refers to her songs as girls. When the girls want to come out and play, Amos inserts them into the song list, records them, or just pals around with them. If there was ever an appropriate allegory for a Tori Amos album, the above seems to fit. On the outskirts of town? Definitely a fringe artist, Amos only enjoyed minor success at the beginning of her career. As she became more established, her sales numbers leveled off until she was unceremoniously dumped by Atlantic Records. She did sign a short-lived deal with Epic, and they released some very interesting if not earnestly successful records. My most notable is “Strange Little Girls” which was an album of covers done in her own inimitable style. A scarlet mansion? Come on, look at her.
I’m not about to call one of music’s smartest redheads a blonde-wood bungalow.
Sea Sew Suds
Author: HJ Mills
The first thought that pops into my head when I think of Lisa Hannigan’s “I Don’t Know” is a pink, sparkling bubble bath because that’s what it sounds like – an audio bubble bath. Singing with a smile that can be heard through any speakers, Hannigan proudly sings “I don’t know if you write letters or you panic on the phone/I’d like to call you all the same/If you want to/I am game.” Though the music video lacks the suds, the paper cut-outs work out nicely. As her second single, it’s lovely as a single rose to pluck or biting into a ripe mango – so sweet. Read the rest of this entry »
The Young Person’s Guide To Fripp & Eno
Author: Jeff Boule
Again, we have a reissued blog from a time lost to the digital gremlins:
Mr. Billingsworth,
Upon bringing in the email, I found your exchange with my Mrs. from earlier today regarding Fripp & Eno. I have a few points of interest and we can also discuss Prog matters in general.
So I here I am in the New Jersey dust bowl sitting through Street Sweeper Social Club featuring Tom Morello. While he is an innovative guitarist, I got nothing for him, I got nothing for Rage Against The Machine. I am here for Nine Inch Nails. If this is truly going to be one of those farewell tours that precede another farewell tour later on, I will be pissed. Street Sweeper Social Club is a mutation of “Kid Rock meets Poser Metal”. The PNC dust bowl is filling up and the crowd is respectably mixed in demographic. Morello, the guitar player for SSSC, tells the crowd to stand up for their last song (thankfully) but I adhere to no such demands from any front person.
BILL BRUFORD – A DRUMMER OUT OF TIME: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Author: Jeff Boule
The Bill Bruford Autobiography, definitive reading for progressive music fans, jazz fans, music practitioners from the novice to the professional, this book is the 21st century musician's survival guide. (Photo permission courtesy of Bill Bruford)
A few posts ago, I wrote about Bill Bruford, announcing his retirement from public performance as of the first of this year. I was angry, I was hurt, I felt abandoned, and most of all I was disappointed that one of the primary warriors of mundane music had laid down his small wooden swords for the last time. I could not understand why the world’s greatest drummer would hang it up while he was still undeniably a force in the industry, the industry he labels as “the industry of human happiness”.
Sometimes you need a good autobiography to make things clear, to garner the inside perspective. But be warned, and I was taken aback by what I encountered, the ending of this book is not what you would expect from a player of Bruford’s qualifications.
SLIMMED-DOWN TUBES SPRING FROM NY ON WORLD TOUR – B.B. KING’S 05-31-09
Author: Jeff Boule
(Photo by Lynn Vala)
If you are a bit longer-in-the-tooth as I am, you remember a time when MTV played music videos, those alleged promotional devices that were short-form movies scripted to coincide with the lyrics and tone of the song being promoted. If you consider this time period (from 1981 to about 1992) when we were still recovering from the post-disco era, music that suddenly had images to accompany the sounds seemed like a logical place for this 7-piece-plus musical theater troupe of a band. Since their inception through their last major release, they have been minimally a 7-piece. TWO guitars, TWO keyboardists, bass, drums and vocals with occasionally added female vocals, dancers, roller skaters, actors, sometimes just the guys backstage would walk around on stage and it would be so heavily populated no one would notice.
Last Of Last Of The New-Wave Riders – Utopia Storm Tokyo, 1979
Author: Jeff Boule
Utopia bid adieu after a night on stage. Photo by Coming Age.
It is painfully; finally time to wrap up the on-going series of reviews tackling the Utopia box set Last Of The New Wave Riders. This set features Utopia playing to the American-culture-starved Japanese inquisitive yet reserved audiences. Japanese audiences were the most accepting of the some-time obscure and were willing to hear out the overtly obscure. No better place to play Utopia’s material. Unless you are Todd Rundgren and in your enthusiasm to entertain you do something that mortifies the people in the first few rows.
AMY SERRATA
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
Amy Serrata’s self-titled debut album is a musical blend of soul, jazz, hip-hop and pop, threaded with themes of personal growth and positivity.
free download of the track “Rooted”
http://wdl7.streamhoster.com/elemental/amy-serrata-rooted.mp3
C
-leigh Silbernagel
Beatles Bio Looks Behind the Myths
Author: Bob Bembridge
To London record executives in 1962, Liverpool may as well have been Timbuktu.
Small wonder that a provincial rock band calling itself “The Beatles” couldn’t beg, borrow, or steal a record contract. How a desperate Brian Epstein, after a crushing rejection by Decca, finally secured a recording contract is one of the many engaging stories told in Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: A Biography. Read the rest of this entry »
Acid Mothers Temple for beginners (like me!)
Author: Doctor B
I’d only heard a few of Acid Mothers Temple’s recordings before I saw them last April in Philadelphia. One of them was a seven-inch which sounded much to me like the output of any number of Japanoise bands, such as The Boredoms or The Machine Gun TV. Another was a live recording from 2004 which had them sounding like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd jamming with Blue Cheer with members of Pere Ubu sitting in. This turned out to be merely a fraction of a fraction of the output of this extremely prolific Japanese psychedelic-rock band One day while I was in Philadelphia visiting friends, I heard on the radio that Acid Mothers Temple’s 2009 North American tour would bring them to a club in Philadelphia called Johnny Brenda’s. So I decided to make the trip and check them out. Read the rest of this entry »
VALENCIA UPDATE
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
Direct from Valenica’s email newsletter, here’s the latest update about the Japan Tour and all of the Presale Information you need.
-leigh Silbernagel
LAST OF THE NEW WAVE RIDERS, UTOPIA LAND ON THE WRONG PLANET
Author: Jeff Boule
Roger Powell from Utopia Photo by Coming Age
For those of you following my blogs, you know that some of my earlier posts were eradicated through the magic of ones and zeros. The reason I am bothering to repost them is that some are referred to in other blogs. Then when the hapless reader looks for those blogs they aren’t even there! This blog is BRAND NEW!!! This section of the box set Last Of The New Wave Riders never made it to press as concerts came first. I won’t be making that mistake this time. We will finish the box set and THEN begin an onslaught of new reviews. Upcoming will be The Tubes from B.B. Kings in NYC and then the Nine Inch Nails FAREWELL TOUR. Yup, you heard it right, Trenty is hangin’ up Nails. At least for a while. New Tori Amos album Abnormally Attracted To Sin will soon be reviewed here, and hopefully some new releases as well, as well as dipping our toes in some literary territory.
It ain’t all about Utopia, but we are going to review two more discs from the box set then we have all new events and music to sink our teeth into.
Utopia’s Last Of The New Wave Riders Hurtles Towards Oblivion
Author: Jeff Boule
Photo By Jeff Boule
Once again, we revisit, review and revise a blog lost to zeros and ones…
As we recover from the last two back-to-back weeks of the Deface Tour, we need to take it easy. With this in mind, we will be doing an abbreviated review (read: not a two-parter this week). We are continuing with our examination of the Utopia box set, Last Of The New Wave Riders. A set of live performance CDs spanning from early in Utopia’s career up to almost the end. This particular show, the Oblivion Tour, is a single disc. The only one in the box set that isn’t a two CD set. VALUE!
Utopia’s Last Of The New Wave Riders Deface The Beatles Music (Part Two)
Author: Jeff Boule
Photo By 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.
The Dead Tear Down the Spectrum
Author: Andrew Overton
I never had the chance to see the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia died when I was 7, but since high school I’ve been a student of jam–the Dead, Phish, Allman Brothers, etc. I not only have admired the musicianship of these bands, but envied their fans for the epics concerts they were able to attend.
My parents, both well aware of this envy, gave me an early birthday present this week: tickets to see the remaining Dead at the Spectrum. Warren Haynes (lead guitar) and Jeff Chimenti (keyboard/organ) were asked to join the original members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann for an American tour. For most of the tour the setlists have been packed full of hits and Saturday night was no exception. It became almost immediately apparent to me that these old fellas could still play.
Belated Record Store Day Recap
Author: jon
We’ve been very busy with back-to-back weekend events, so this is a little belated, but we wanted to give a big thanks to all the folks who came out and supported us on Record Store Day! Read the rest of this entry »
Whole Lotta Utopia Goin’ On
Author: Jeff Boule
Good readers I return from the Grand Parade Of Life-full Packaging (to paraphrase Peter Gabriel) where I am triumphant and have all the scars to show for it. Some of the those scars involve taking a thirteen-hundredth look at some previously published blogs that, for some inexplicable reason just, disappeared from the site. If this seems familiar, you are NOT having a Déjà vu, it is repeating the mantra (again from Gabriel) “Man feed machine, machine feed man”.