Since I am going to a wedding this afternoon, this seemed the appropriate mix. Hooray for Christopher Rubino and Megan McGowan! Yes, I am a closet romantic. Stole My Heart is on the Amazon Kindle commercial. Sister Hazel actually has some good stuff beyond their most popular late 90s period. Carissa’s Wierd was a Seattle “chamber pop” band, one of the members went on to Band of Horses. They apparently didn’t know how to spell. Good to see Jennifer Knapp coming back with some good stuff. Ima see Katie Herzig live pretty soon, so am looking forward to that. The Lily Allen song has weird grammar but maybe that’s a Brit thing… “get a Chinese” rather than “get Chinese”? I assume she’s talking about Chinese food and not adopting a Chinese baby. The song has a nice cover by some UK kids choir, was listening to that the other day and it was utterly charming… possibly even a little better than the original.

Stole My Heart – Little & Ashley
Dead Hearts – Stars
You’re Not The Only One – Paul Thorn
What Kind Of Living – Sister Hazel
Raining In Me – The Benjy Davis Project
Lions – Samantha Crain
Chinese – Lily Allen
Princess – Lee Dewyze
Die – Carissa’s Wierd
Things I Used to Know – Riley Etheridge Jr.
Blue Sunshine – Blue Giant
Check Your Pocket – The Benjy Davis Project
Dive In – Jennifer Knapp
Wasted Daylight – Stars
Static Waves – Andrew Belle & Katie Herzig
Queen of the Lot – The Spring Standards
Heart To Tell – The Love Language
Smile with Candy Hearts – Clara C

K-town, in the vein of Jersey Shore.

I can waste hours listening to new music (and lots of rediscovering old favorites). One of my joys is listening to opera arias that I used to accompany back in the day. I remember with fondness the extremely short-lived Penn Opera Society… I looked up some of the old members on Facebook and it looks as if a lot of them are still in the opera game. Good for them. I’m not out of the game either; I’m working with many talented soloists on an opera right now called The Crowded House, along with the composer himself, Michael Dutka. The show will be opening in the Philly Fringe Festival in September in the Lantern Theatre. It’ll be great. I hope.

Never actually accompanied this one, but I find the Stabat Mater to be beautiful.

This Steppenwolf song has always been a keeper, and this updated live cover (since it’s been jazzed up a little bit) by the old man himself is pretty darn tootin.

I listen, off and on, to a lot of French music. Particularly that with a Afro or Cuban or Afro-Cuban feel. Since there are so many African and Arabic “influences” in France, there’s always bound to be great music. Thus, one more. I love her sound, as I imagine myself in a Havana cafe in the 1920s with elegant Creole women holding long cigarettes in holders and wafting exotic perfumes… I also, randomly, think of Marion Cotillard.

One of my favorite bands, Stars. They have this cinematic melancholy sound, and they’re from Toronto. What’s not to like? This is Wasted Daylight, off their newest album. Their other single from that album, Dead Hearts, is also super-awesome – and you can get it free on Amazon. Grab.

Busy week! July 4th weekend: Walnut Room, Byblos, Philadelphia Orchestra at Penn’s Landing, Tattooed Mom, learned about Franklin Mortgage and Investment, BBQ on Kelly Dr, BBQ in W Philly, fireworks on the Parkway…

1) The Roots, Goo Goo Dolls, Chrissette Michele: OK performance. For some reason, speakers did not seem loud enough. I could hear them, but it didn’t seem close at all. So, The Roots weren’t as amazing as they usually are, though I could hear them playing perfectly competently. Chrissette Michele didn’t do too much – guess she was guesting with The Roots. Goo Goo Dolls were all right. Since everyone was talking a lot (and I was hardly paying attention to the show anyways), the sounds just kind of passed over my head. I did notice that the lead singer didn’t take any risks – he skipped most of the high notes and changed songs to make the vocal line easier! I mean, understandable in a way… but not something I’d want if I paid for the concert.

2) Comedy Cellar in NY, plus more. Chris’s bachelor’s party was a great time. Comedians were hilarious (place gets a let’s-go-there-again star), evening entertainment was entertaining, drinks were drinkable, etc etc. Drunken shenanigans, Chris almost rolling off a roof. Raina…

3) Memphis. Hot. The actor playing Huey almost broke on a high note (but didn’t… I could tell it was a near miss though) and his voice was on and off annoying/effective. Loved the main girl… shoot, don’t remember her character name. Bobby stole the show for his quick solo and then crazy dance routine. Basically, the entire 2nd act is on the set of the TV show. Stuff happens but it felt a little enclosed, namean? Great dancing. By the way, the League of Extraordinary Dancers has started on Hulu, and there is some awesome dancing. I was looking for the Antigravity dudes to make an appearance on Memphis, but that would be anachronistic. Probably.

Oh man. This girl is good with the production values and all the instruments and of course, being pretty and Korean. That’s called wide appeal. Having Kal Penn give you props and get you White House gigs ALSO helps.

BOB mashup covered by Clara C and Jason Yang, and the rap verse is sung. 1:00 to 1:30… musical heaven.

Kings of Leon, Colbie Caillat and John Mayer mashup.

Blu Cantrell and Paramore mashup. Nice take on Misery Business!

Wrigley’s marketing team spends a day with an innovator to learn their creative process… and this time it’s Raphael Saadiq.

How does the big man do it? Saadiq walks into a studio, pulls the Wrigley guys in. Ima lay down a few tracks, and here, why don’t you guys sing a bit and I’ll splice you in. All right, all done – here, take this home. Your very own Raphael Saadiq + yours truly exclusive.

End of the day: Buddy Guy’s Legends. Raphael: Oh, I’ve got time to chill. So… on to Legends it is. Grand entrance – hey, they’re with me. Sup, Buddy.

Perfect day. Too bad I’m not Chris.

Love his latest album. 50s renaissance man. Does soul music right. AND pulls in Stevie Wonder. Holy crap. If you check out some of his interviews, he gives a shoutout to Philly’s own Gamble and Huff, down Broad and home to Philly soul… progenitor of disco.

No Philly shows in ‘10. Too bad!

On those long walks home – when I weave into dark alleys and shadowy paths, purposely chasing after danger and death by misadventure – and when I’m not otherwise occupied by audial bliss of an escapist nature (yes, even the strident tones of Rammstein or Slayer are an escape into something, be it love, happiness… or misery), I wax philosophical. I ask the very important question that most people do ask themselves in a usually ignominious, or insincere, or indirect way, and over which old men and women write heavy tomes, propagate religious dictums and otherwise determine an elusively permanent and malleable structure for ordered human thought and society: what exactly do I live for?

My inspiration, albeit extremely negative in some sense, comes from the core maxim of a 1938 novel by Vladimir Bartol. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. While the exact phrasing is not factually derived from the historical account or sayings (though interpreting his teachings may lead to that conclusion) of Hasan-i-Sabah, erstwhile leader of the merry band of Hashashin that plagued the Seljuk Empire in the 11th century, it is a nihilistic truth that both upends the common moral and religious strictures that governs and creates manageable human societies, and replaces it with another. One that more keenly ennervates and encourages our most primitive setting: he who wins, lives.

Alamut Castle

Not that I actually prescribe to a life dictated by the need to show that I, by the sum total of my positively gargantuan efforts to remain in such a position (which must be patently false since I don’t seem to be stressing too much about the basic issues inherent in the life of your average caveman of the Tertiary period), am at the top of some imaginary evolutionary chain – even though humans are still routinely eaten by sharks, lions, elephants… even other humans. What it does show me is that we are indeed insignificant in a universe that is expanding (and also retracting, according to your neighborhood astrophysicist) beyond our ability to reasonably comprehend, and thus anything that is true for us cannot mean so much to, well, everything else in this vast expanse of space. I can very well imagine myself as a speck of dust, completely impossible to find, in some existential miasma: exempli gratia, some unexplainable interstellar phenomena like the giant green gas blob near galaxy IC2497 in the constellation Leo Minor that eats planets. Which, despite being the material from which C-list scifi movies are made, does exist.

It’s coming to get you.

Any discussion on the place of man in this state of being (in comparison with his fellow man or with nature, since “being” is always in relation to something else) must always include the status and location of religion in such a conceptualization. In a grand general sense, religion is just a set of beliefs that promote ways for individuals to live in a mutually beneficial way with other believers in the faith. How? By providing a sense of belonging, an absolute sense of product placement in the store window that is this planet, and finally, a way in which one is not continually afeared of death due to the presence of others that, colloquially, “watch your back.”

In my present incarnation on this plane (not a reincarnation, as I do not believe that I was made into flesh, again, from some previous existence as… the mind boggles, though if I happened to be Casanova or Admiral Horatio Nelson or my namesake, Lord George Gordon Byron, bleeding to death a hero at Lepanto and refused a burial at Westminster Abbey due to “questionable morality”… “and all that’s best of dark and bright/ Meets in her aspect and her eyes“… I should not mind), I happen to be a believer in my own peculiar version of Christianity. One in which the individual can commune with God, separate from institutions which are not absolutely necessary but are beneficial in spreading the word. One in which the truths of our physical world, or what we can most closely discover to be the truth using our limited human understandings and experiences, are completely compatible with being a believer – I could not believe in a theory unjustified by the facts. One in which the believer can understand that the religion itself is fallible without disbelieving. One in which inconsequentiality is a possibility, and there exists no confirmation of man as a god above all things (yet somehow below the God of all things).

Oh Captain, my Captain (Nelson). Who here read Whitman? Who here watched Dead Poets Society? Who here read Whitman before watching Dead Poets Society?

What do I believe? That God made all things… by making it possible for all things to develop, given time. That God is a passive god, letting us make our own mistakes and discovering our limitations: disease, eventual feebleness, and worst of all, a paradoxical unlimited capacity for arrogance. What does this mean, and what does this have to do with an anarchical saying from a Middle Eastern potboiler (of the 11th or 20th century)?

To be continued…

1) Seth Rogen is the Green Hornet. Harrumph. He definitely needs Kato on this one – adds the only, sure, I can believe that, edge to the movie.

2) Chris Evans as Captain America… hmm… sure.
3) Kenneth Branagh is directing Thor? Granted, it has huge buzz. But Branagh? Hamlet? Thor?
4) They’re working on a Planet of the Apes prequel. Not necessary.
5) I don’t know if they are still working on it, but back in 2008, Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell were announced as the new stars of a Sherlock Holmes franchise. Worst idea ever.
6) Steve Carell is leaving the Office after next season.
7) Iron Sky looks fantastic. These are the Finnish guys who put together a fake trailer of Nazis who fled Earth at the end of WWII in flying saucers and are back to ravage Earth – after crowdsourcing the funding, they’re filming now. Good SFX on those fake trailers… on zero budget. Hooray for independent types! Though true, their donation funding on the movie would not have been possible in the US.

8 ) MJ’s zombie rears its head: Captain EO coming back to Epcot in Orlando (after already doing so in California). I remember seeing Captain EO as a kid. I’m not sure it should come back (as I remember it being kind of terrible)… but I guess it has lots of street cred: MJ himself, Francis Ford Coppola directing, George Lucas writing and producing. Also, most expensive movie of the 80s. Cost $17 million, or $1 million a minute. Many people have noted that Top Gun cost $15 mil, and that had real JETS in it.

9) Because MGM is having financial woes, many movies are being thrown into limbo. Including the next Bond. And Guillermo del Toro doing the Hobbit – he can’t wait that long for MGM to fix itself up and get him some money.

Bond 22 redux.

10) New Oz remakes look LAME. Get Spawn back on the job!
11) Meet the Parents 3: Little Fockers. WTF. Stop making these.
12) GOOD NEWS: Paul W.S. Anderson and Three Musketeers: Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Matthew MacFadyen as the Three Musketeers; Christoph Waltz as Cardinal Richelieu; Mads Mikkelsen as Rochefort; Milla Jovovich as Milady de Winter (!). Logan Lerman (Percy from Percy Jackson… never saw this, no idea if he’s any good) as d’Artagnan. Casting looks super awesome.

Oops, this is the straight-to-bargain-bin exploitation version.

13) Spiderman 4 has no Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire. Fail. No reboot please.

14) I don’t mind 3D releases… but please continue offering the 2D options. Don’t force everybody to see the 3D one so theaters can rapeage our pockets and everyone can go home with motion sickness and headaches.
15) There’s an X-Men prequel coming out, covering Magneto and Prof Xavier’s younger days. James McAvoy stars. I’m half-sold because of McAvoy but the IDEA just sounds like it’ll be horrible terrible.
16) RT: Amanda Bynes is into black guys.
17) Megan Fox (married in Hawaii!) out, Micaela Johnson in. Is it insulting for the girl role to have no name except for “Sam’s Girl” on the IMDB page? She does have a vague somewhat resemblance to Megan so the difference is not retardedly jarring.

Her being Miss USA 2008 helps out?
18) A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. Thank you, Santa!

BTW, White Castle blows.
19) Scream 4 has Cheerleader, Igby (Goes Down), Nancy Drew. Dewey is the new killer. Filming in Ann Arbor? Perhaps BKII could make a cameo.
20) Paranormal Activity 2 the what what.
21) Pirates 4 the what what.
22) Footloose the what what. And when I say what what, I actually mean freaking hell, were they on crack, please burn the script and bury the bodies. Now.

First time at Tin Angel. Was there for Amy Regan, though I didn’t mind listening to Jer Coons as well. I played a bit of Jer Coons’ stuff from YT and it was okay – commenters pointed out he was on the Hollister store soundtracks and I could totally see how that would be. Amy’s voice was great but she had some guitar issues for some reason. I liked the 2 new songs she did; apparently, they’re not recorded yet so can’t get a copy of it. Oh wells. I did like her previous show more, as the piano was there and somehow it was more of a cozy feel? I mean, the room was fine acoustically speaking (and of course nice mic-ing), but the rowhouse feel to the room (long, not wide) definitely made it seem a little less cozy. Had a chat with her after the show, she’s real down to earth. Jer Coons was a little too self-deprecating. He’s funny but would have made a much better impression if he didn’t keep saying every 5 minutes how uncool he was. I know it was nerves, but still. His songs were okay, and I liked how he slyly threw in a line of Party in the USA to one of his songs. His cover of No Air (“No Chair”) was funny. I DID like his guitar playing though, much more than his vocal stuff (which I hate to label… but there’s a reason he’s playing on the Hollister soundtracks). During his last number, he went into somewhat of a jam session and it was real entertaining watching the fingerwork.

Her two-song recent release. This time with a cover. And an autograph.

Jer Coons doing Legs. Is it bad that I think John Mayer?

1) Imelda May, April Mae and the Junebugs. April Mae has an okay blues voice EXCEPT when she does those stupid slide notes. Which she does way too often. It’s especially prevalent on her CD. I like her band a lot though. The Elvis looking dude who played a box guitar had some really amazing solos, and her bassman did a great job of keeping everything moving. I hadn’t actually been to the Johnny Brenda’s upstairs space before – I’ve always just had drinks downstairs. I like their stage! Imelda May had a great LONG set. Lots of rockabilly, enough to whet my appetite for… a week. I wanna see another rockabilly show. She has an amazing voice but also has a killer band with her. Her vocals are way more polished blues than Kitty, Daisy and Lewis; on their side, they’re doing more of a 50s rock thing instead. Her band is more Mississippi delta and theirs is more “at the sock hop.” I can’t say any one of them provides a BETTER experience than the other, but my gut feeling is that Imelda May is more talented.

Mayhem.

2) Samantha Crain, Frontier Ruckus. Frontier Ruckus has a very fun sound: banjo, trumpet, zither, guitar, bass, very folksy vocals. Though listening to more than an hour of the guy’s voice and it starts to sound a little whiny. Best in smaller doses. They are very tight. They’re countryish folk rock with moments of blues, bluegrass and jazz thrown in. There was this one song where they had a nice intense jam session in the middle -the banjo guy is REALLY good though I don’t think they’re completely at ease with jazz improvisation. Which IS different from blues improvisation.

What You Are.

I definitely love seeing shows at WCL. It’s so intimate and I’ve been able to meet the performers every time. Some of them are more friendly than others, but they’ve all been pretty companionable. They’ll order drinks at the bar and have a chat, etc. Anyways. I love Sam’s songs but her set wasn’t as vibrant as Frontier Ruckus. She had a bunch of technical issues, which are fine, but her set definitely felt shorter if you took out all the pauses for dealing with said issues. She did reach out to the audience for a second with one of her stories: her electric guitar was apparently not hers, as she had to sell her own electric guitar to pay debts associated with hitting the road for this tour (which she told me was going to last the rest of this year… ouch) and so had to borrow an electric guitar. That proceeded to feedback a lot – though maybe that was the speakers. Her voice is powerful but she had SO many under the breath asides that it felt more like a practice session than an actual performance. Still, when she stepped off the stage to sing (and strum quietly) in the darkness without the aid of a mic – everybody listened. It was pretty powerful. Not many artists can pull that off. She has this real folk pop sound (especially on songs like Lions) but she also does rock out. I like those songs of hers a little less. I love Devils in Boston, which counts as rock, but is not a rock out song. BTW… Ann the drummer is a hottie. She had on a white-blonde hairdo with the bangs squared in front and she looked so 50s vamp. And she played drums like she was on speed (after, I swear, like 5 glasses of chablis before the set… I’m pretty sure I got the number right, sitting right by her during Frontier Ruckus’ set).

Lions… at the Kennedy Center!

Devils in Boston.

3) After briefly thinking about it, I don’t have enough estrogen to deal with an Idina Menzel concert, especially if it’s showboating her new pop CD. Not a fan. Though I do love her voice otherwise! Though some people are going to go and have a fabulous time…

Yeah, it’s a lot, and I’ll end up missing most of them, but here’s to wishful thinking. I need to use up my Ticket Philadelphia gift certificates, for one… but mostly it was me deciding that I miss SO MANY great artists that swing through town. No more. If I’m gonna spend money, I’d rather spend it on concerts than on more crap that I won’t value as much. (Looking at this huge listing, I notice that the end of July and beginning of August have… too many shows… yeah… a concert every day for like 2 weeks… hahaha.)

June 16: Imelda May, April Mae And The Junebugs at Johnny Brenda’s.
June 19: Grant Park Orchestra & Chorus at Millennium Park.
June 19: Cadillac Dave and The Chicago Redhots at the House of Blues.
June 21: The New Pornographers at the Troc.
June 23: Samantha Crain at World Cafe Live (competing with Andre Watts. I’m sorry, classical piano, Boston crooners win this round!).
June 27: Passion Pit and Tokyo Police Club at the Mann Center (I shouldn’t… probably won’t… but I do love their stuff. Just don’t know if paying to see them live is worth it.).
July 4: Goo Goo Dolls! The Parkway!
July 20: Natalie Merchant at the Merriam Theater.
July 23: Korn, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch at the Susquehanna Bank Center.
July 24: Deadmau5 at the Electric Factory.
July 24: O.A.R. at Festival Pier.
July 26: Tchaikovsky with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center. Fireworks? Hears hoping.
July 27: Chromeo at the Troc.
July 28: Seu Jorge and Almaz at the Troc.
July 29: La Roux at the Troc.
July 30: Shinedown, Sevendust, Puddle of Mudd & Chevelle at Festival Pier.
August 1: Katie Herzig at World Cafe Live.
August 2: Arcade Fire (only if I don’t go to Lollapalooza) at the Mann Center.
August 3: Robyn, Kelis and Dan Black at the Troc.
August 4: Paramore at Festival Pier.
August 6-8: Lollapalooza in Chicago (MAYBE… but seriously with this lineup, why wouldn’t I try to go?? Arcade Fire, Soundgarden, Green Day, The Strokes, Phoenix, Social Distortion, Switchfoot, The National, Spoon, X Japan, B.O.B., Javelin, Neon Trees, Dan Black, Semi-Precious Weapons, Nneka, Metric, MGMT, AFI, Blues Traveler, The Temper Trap, Raphael Saadiq, J. Cole, Chiddy Bang, Empire of the Sun)
August 7: Keane, Ingrid Michaelson, Fran Healy at the Mann Center (only if I don’t go to Lollapalooza.).
August 13: Beth Orton at World Cafe Live.
August 15: MGMT at the Mann Center.
September 4-5: Electric Zoo in NY (Fedde Le Grand, Erol Alkan, Joachim Garraud, Kaskade, Benny Benassi, ATB, Diplo, Armin van Buuren, A-Trak, HOLLA)
September 7: The Pixies at the Tower Theater.
September 14: Broken Social Scene with The Sea and Cake at the TLA.
September 22: Superchunk, Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice at the Troc.
September 25: Virgin Mobile Freefest (here’s hoping I can actually get tickets), Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Theophilus London, Yes Giantess… again. The rest I’ll have to research before I go, lots of bands and soloists I’ve never heard of.)
Oct 5-10: Jersey Boys at the Forrest Theatre.
October 17: Yo-Yo Ma at the Kimmel Center.
October 20-24: CMJ Music Marathon in NY (Jill Hennessey! Also, River Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman… Wanna hear Jahdan Blakkamore, Rahzel, Pitbull, Hesta Prynn, Katie Costello, Jupiter One, Moonbabies, Pepi Ginsberg, Pill
October 26: Dave Brubeck at the Kimmel Center.
Jan 18-23, 2011: In The Heights at the Academy of Music.
April 15, 2011: Orchestre National de France with Daniele Gatti and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet at Verizon Hall.
April 17, 2011: The Roots at the Kimmel Center.
April 23, 2011: Peter Nero and the Philly Pops at Verizon Hall.
Jun 21-26, 2011: Next to Normal at the Academy of Music.