When I first heard about Utopia’s new bass player back in 1977, I wondered if he would last.  “Who is this Kaseem Sooltan?” I asked.  The answer is extraordinary talent, a level-headed sensibility and a close eye on Todd Rundgren have kept him working with industry names such as Mick Jagger, Joan Jett, Patti Smyth and most notably as musical director for Meatloaf, as well as being part of the foundation of the Bat Out Of Hell original album and a right-hand man to Rundgren since Utopia’s evaporation in 1992.

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We want our customers to have a good time when they visit, and many folks make up their own fun.  This photo is part of a series posted by Teamsteam on Flickr.  We didn’t know they were doing this, but we sure like the results!

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$herazada is going into the studio on Feb 2nd to record their second EP with Chris Badami who also produced:
-The Dillinger Escape Plan
-Trophy Scars
-Midtown
-The Early November
-Fenix TX

The online merchandise store is up: .<br style=”display:none” gauntlet_tokenizer_reserved=”"/> Just click on the nifty image below, shirts are real cheap! With each purchase you will recieve a FREE EP (extremely loud and incredibly close)
(signed if you please) !

ALSO
Round 1 of The Break Contest to play Bamboozle is THIS SUNDAY at the Cedar Grove VFW. For tickets contact the band.

-leigh Silbernagel

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Before you get mislead, no fans or audience members were harmed in the making of this blog. But it ain’t pretty.

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Valencia’s brand new video for “Where Did You Go?” is available now on their MySpace:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.showvids&friendID=1736005&n=1736005&MyToken=a8bb9674-06c6-4067-b527-4c8ac2fb4b45&utm_medium=columbia-email&utm_source=valencia&utm_campaign=columbia-email|valencia|20081121

-leigh silbernagel

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The story behind the album Arena is simply a tale born out of situational necessity. You die-hard Rundgren fans remember a couple of years ago (around the time the movie CARS came out) Todd had replaced Ric Ocasek in The New Cars (the ‘New’ being added in light of the minority percentage of returning members, only Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes returned). Also joining Easton and Hawkes were Utopia and long-time Rundgren bassist and vocalist Kasim Sulton alongside drummer for The Tubes, Jefferson Starship and also a long-time Rundgren band member Prairie Prince. During the New Cars tour, the tour bus was in an accident and Easton fell from an upper bunk and broke his shoulder/collar bone. The tour was cut short, the cross-promotion with the Pixar movie was cancelled, and Rundgren found himself with nothing to do for a summer. Not wanting to waste a prime touring season, Rundgren spoke with Tony Levin band and long-time Rundgren guitarist Jesse Gress who contacted Levin and recruited him along with Levin Band drummer Jerry Marotta to do a two guitars bass and drums tour. Less expensive than touring with Midi and keyboards, etc.

Seeing as how he was going to be touring with a guitar-oriented band, not only did he have to limit his repertoire to guitar based or guitar-oriented or guitar adaptable songs, he also had to rearrange some keyboard-oriented standards for guitar.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

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Technically, it’s still Sunday, making it my designated blog day here at prex.com. Good start, I know.

A little while ago, I found out that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were playing the Electric Factory on October 7th. While I’m from Bucks County, I go to school in Pittsburgh, and Nick is one of my favorites. Long story short, I flew home for 24 hours to catch this show and then turned around and came back.

Worth it? Yes. Hell yes. Read the rest of this entry »

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It seems that life is so high pressure these days. Economic crisis, housing crisis, Middle East crisis, everything in crisis. Sometimes you need something to bring your stress level down. The new album from David Byrne and Brian Eno is something that can keep your toes tapping while reducing heart rate and blood pressure levels. But the music is far too lively to be as coma inducing as some of the earlier Eno ambient albums. But it is far more cerebral than Talking Heads.

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Have you ever wondered what goes on behind those mysterious doors at Princeton Record Exchange? In our new web videos, we give you a sneak peek into the behind-the-scenes workings of our store, and a whole lot more! 

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Once upon a time there were four Armenian boys who formed one of modern rock’s heaviest bands. I am recalcitrant to say heavy metal, as, especially with Scars On Broadway, all these artists can play soft as well as heavy. But back to our four Armenian friends, they formed a band. One considerably older gentleman (Serj Tankian), and the very unusual bass playing style and sound of Shavo Odajian, and two childhood friends Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan.

Now the childhood buddies had very distinct ideas on how the music should sound. But so too did the older gentleman and the unusual player. Four opinions in one small band is toxic.

At the absolute pinnacle of their career, nothing could go better, they decide now is the time to split up and do solo things. So the older Serj went and did his the fastest. His came out first to modest fan/critical response. Next came the project of the buddies Malakian and Dolmayan.

It is easy to see that Shavo will have a tough act to follow.

The heavy dissonances, speedy beats, time/tempo changes, humorous lyrics, inventive keyboards, all belong to the Malakian/Dolmayan connection.

Because as Scars on Broadway, these guys got it dead to rights!!!

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Greetings from Princeton Record Exchange,

Recently arrived:

Over 3,500 Hip-Hop and Soul 12″ singles and LPs!
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…then I took another trip to the New York/ New Jersey area last weekend and found myself thinking that WBGO should advise listeners who are driving to keep their windows rolled down for fresh air lest the programming lull them to sleep while they are behind the wheel. OK, I’m being snarky.   In previous responses to my blogs on WBGO, I was told to give the station more of a listen than I had time to do on my last trip, which I thought was fair, so I kept the station locked in until I couldn’t stand it any more.  But this was initially going to be a blog about about baseball and jazz, so let me tell you about that first. Read the rest of this entry »

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Now comes the hour of departing, glad were I be were it not true: Fondest regards I’ll be imparting, one final fervent fond adieu….

No, I’m not quitting the blog crew. I am, however, mourning the end of the WCYOW’s 2008 season.”Pandora’s Box” had a very good run, and I hope a lot of you got to see us. Of course, the fun wasn’t secluded to the stage, especially on closing night.

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Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy! That kind of describes opera rehearsals as of now. Read the rest of this entry »

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Chris Arduser is not now, nor will he ever be a household name. But I would rather keep this Chris Arduser in tact as opposed to some record label machination. I have come to know and love Deathy (as he is known in the inner circles of the Bear’s cave) through his work with Adrian Belew and the Bears, the Psychodots and later Raisins, Graveblankets and his own solo albums.
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A Public Service Announcement:

BEATLEMANIA AGAIN Live in Concert, July 16th. 2008. 8:00pm.
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Sorry for the delay. I haven’t been near a computer for a bit. Regardless, I carry on. Anyone who has any experience in musical performance knows that it’s not a simple task. There is lots of preparation to do and many hours are spent rehearsing, making sets, and choreographing dances. However, it doesn’t seem as meticulous as I am describing. In this entry, I would like to describe a typical rehearsal at the Westminster Youth Opera Workshop. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sorry folks, no nonsense about this recording, it’s all business with the Generator. It has to be. At least from Nick Oliveri’s point of view. After all, what do you do when you are asked to leave a band on the verge of breaking huge?
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What is it about lo-fi punk bands that drives everyone crazy [in the good way...] these days? What with the phenomenal debut full-length from LA’s No Age and the long-standing underground successes of garage noise punk a la Japanther, Mika Miko, Black Lips, etc, it’s almost as if the lo-fi recording quality of some upcoming bands serves as a “seal of approval” for listeners everywhere that says, or even screams: “This music is so raw…you’re going to listen to the shitty quality, and you’re going to loooove it.” But in the end, you have to admit that this lo-fi stuff actually sounds, well, kinda good…not in terms of clean engineering or production, maybe, but as a complement to the bands’ sounds and attitudes about not only how they record their music, but how they choose to perform it live as well. Times New Viking’s newest release “Rip It Off” is a perfect example of how maxed-out instrumentation/vocals can be made to just work. Read the rest of this entry »

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It seems as though 2008 is the year for comebacks-and when I say that, I don’t mean for unsuccessful bands to redeem themselves, but bands to continue their album releases. If you think about it (and do your music research), there are quite a few groups with albums being released this year. There must be something with the summer of 2008…but it’s full of music mayhem.

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