I stumbled across Adele a couple of weeks ago, and I can't say enough. That voice just makes my ears so happy - so bluesy and soulful - and it's superbly mixed with some jazzy melodies backing her up and some catchy lyrics.
What made me pick her up initially was a review calling her "what Amy Winehouse should have been" or something like that. Having loved Amy's "Frank" (i.e., the pre-crackhead Winehouse album) and enjoyed "Back to Black", comparing someone to her is definitely going to catch my attention. I haven't been disappointed, and it's a perfect comparison. Similar voices, similar sounds, but hopefully not similar career arcs.
If you love some powerful female vocals, give her a try. I doubt you'll be disappointed!
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Friday, December 19, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Since I'm still up - time to Simplify!
I figure I might as well mention this, since I never have seemed to remember to before when I'm in a blogging mood:
GO GET SIMPLIFY MEDIA RIGHT NOW!!!!!
It is simply the best software out there for making your music library portable and sharing it with your friends. Any time I'm away from the house and have a 'net connection, I can tune in to my iTunes library with Simplify. It streams it all from your home computer and lets you listen. For friends, they can stream it as well. The only limitation is that DRM-enabled files (read: Stuff you bought from the iTunes store) will only play on authorized computers, so they can only see a subset of your library.
I've been using since they came out in 2007, and it's one of the coolest pieces of software I've come across. There were some growing pains, as I'd expect of any large, networked piece of software like this, but they've done a fabulous job. I'm happy for them that they've been so successful with their release of their iPhone app - they're finally making some money back from all their hard work! And if you've got an iPhone, why wouldn't you want to be able to stream all your music from home to wherever you are?? Just knowing Simplify is available makes me want to get one even more.... Santa will bring me one if I ask enough, right?? :D
We've got a few friends on our Simplify account right now, and it's a great way to get to know more about them and what they listen to. Call me weird, but I've always thought you can tell a lot about a person by the music they identify themselves with. I guess that makes me a rather eclectic individual! :)
GO GET SIMPLIFY MEDIA RIGHT NOW!!!!!
It is simply the best software out there for making your music library portable and sharing it with your friends. Any time I'm away from the house and have a 'net connection, I can tune in to my iTunes library with Simplify. It streams it all from your home computer and lets you listen. For friends, they can stream it as well. The only limitation is that DRM-enabled files (read: Stuff you bought from the iTunes store) will only play on authorized computers, so they can only see a subset of your library.
I've been using since they came out in 2007, and it's one of the coolest pieces of software I've come across. There were some growing pains, as I'd expect of any large, networked piece of software like this, but they've done a fabulous job. I'm happy for them that they've been so successful with their release of their iPhone app - they're finally making some money back from all their hard work! And if you've got an iPhone, why wouldn't you want to be able to stream all your music from home to wherever you are?? Just knowing Simplify is available makes me want to get one even more.... Santa will bring me one if I ask enough, right?? :D
We've got a few friends on our Simplify account right now, and it's a great way to get to know more about them and what they listen to. Call me weird, but I've always thought you can tell a lot about a person by the music they identify themselves with. I guess that makes me a rather eclectic individual! :)
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Daft Punk fan video - "Daft Hands"
Had I been blogging when this first came out, I'd have been all over it. But, alas, I was not. Anyway, I stumbled across this video again today and thought I'd share because it's so freakin' awesome!!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Hotel Cafe Tour: St. Louis, Nov. 8, 2008
Saturday's show was simply fabulous. The two hours were extremely satisfying, and the format of the show was a pleasant deviation from the standard concert fare.
The venue was interesting. The bar and restaurant are upstairs, and we all lined up, snaking through the dining area, as we waited for the doors to open. The concert itself was in the Duck Room, a dark, cozy basement that had me thinking that it could easily have been a speakeasy back in the day, hiding under the cover of the legitimate business upstairs. It was such a casual atmosphere, too - the "dressing room" for the artists was right next to the stage and we saw them coming in and out, walking through the crowd, several times as we waited. A couple of people were lucky enough to talk to Rachael before the show, and Kim and I tried as well, but she headed backstage just after we went over to where she was talking. By the time the show started, the crowd had swelled to maybe 400 people. It was nice, though - a lot of enthusiasm, but not with the crush of people that can happen with open-area crowds like this.
With so many names listed to play during the night, I wasn't sure how that was going to work or if I was going to enjoy it or not. I feared that we'd get just a couple songs from each of them instead of longer sets, and that's exactly what happened. But, it turned out my fears were unfounded; the short sets and quick rotation kept things fresh and kept a wide variety of sounds pumping through the Duck Room. Each musician played 2 songs the first time through, and then we were treated to a second rotation with each artist playing another couple of songs.
• Alice Russell - She rocked my socks off!! She was by far the Queen of Funk for the night, with the bass grooves and her gorgeous voice getting the night off to a great start. She apparently needs a bit more caution around her bandmates, as the guitarist (Jason, I think his name was?) had given her a black eye the day before. It definitely added a rather unique twist to her "look" on stage, though not as much as the bandaged and bloody pinkie that Jason sported. That led to the grossest moment of the night as he removed the bandage to allow him to play slide on his guitar during Alice's phenomenal rendition of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", one of the highlights of the night.
• Jaymay - Kim had mentioned her to me before, but I was wholly unfamiliar with her work. I came away impressed with her voice and music, though I'm not sure if it's really my thing or not. I had heard she had kind of a poppy sound, but there was much more of a country/folk feel to it live. She definitely piqued my interest as someone to check out some more.
• Meiko - Completely and utterly unfamiliar with her before the show, she's definitely on my list of artists to check out in the future. She had one of the funniest moments of the night when she came on stage and said it was nice to be playing in St. Louis for the first time - only to be corrected by an audience member that she had been here a while before. I couldn't make out the name of who it was, but her response was, "I don't remember much of that tour. He likes to drink a lot of whiskey!" Another great voice that made the night enjoyable.
• Thao Nguyen - Wow, this chick can rock!! If her album had the same sound and energy that her live show did, I'd have been grooving on it a lot more. With the guitar and the way she worked the stage, I kept thinking to myself, "Hmm, she's definitely getting her Chuck Berry on up there!" I think she worked the crowd amazingly well, with her sing-alongs and her beatboxing on the mic. Any time she comes around the area, I'll be up to watch her perform again.
• Kate Havnevik - I knew the name and had heard a couple of songs, but was not overly familiar with her before the show. I would have enjoyed her performance a lot more if it weren't for the noisy crowd. A lot of what she did was quiet, gorgeous vocals that were simply drowned out by the obnoxiously loud bastards in the room that refused to STFU. Ugh. There were certainly flashes of awesome there that made me want more - pieces of Bjork, pieces of Imogen, pieces of Kate Bush, but in a way that was all her own.
• Rachael Yamagata - Man, what is there to say? She was why I wanted to go to this show and everyone else was just a super yummy added bonus. And wow, did she deliver! Rarely at concerts do I ever get to hear the songs I want them to play the most, but Rachael came out and blew me away with "Be Be Your Love" right off the bat, followed by "Faster" in her first go-round. When she came back on, "Elephants" and "Sunday Afternoon" were next up on my list of most-wanted and she rocked the house with them. The guitarist's solo on "Sunday" was all-the-more impressive knowing that his pinkie was useless and hurting him so much - now THAT is dedication to the job! She closed the show with "Reason Why" and then it was time to go home, happy, tired and satisfied from a night of great music.
Now, going back to the whole noise issue during the show: What is wrong with people? I just have huge issues with this on so many levels.
1. If you paid money for a ticket to go to the show, why would you spend your time talking when the musicians are playing? If all you want to do is drink and talk, go to a bar or stay home and have a party - it's a lot cheaper and more convenient that dropping cash on a concert ticket!
2. Do you not realize that other people are there to actually HEAR the music? If I wanted to hear Jackass A talking to Jackass B, I would buy tickets to a show with their name on it. But you know what? Your names weren't on my ticket! I saw "Hotel Cafe Tour" on my ticket, so unless you're with the tour, I don't want to hear you! This is even more frustrating for artists like this, where a lot of the music can be subtle and quiet and the background noise of Le Jackasses simply overpowered it.
3. If the artists ask you to be quiet, and several people in the crowd are shouting at you to be quiet, why is it so hard to realize that people want you to be quiet?? One lady even shouted back something like, "God, why should I be quiet? It's a concert!!", and that was just the perfect description of what is wrong with these people. That attitude of, "It's a concert so I should be able to talk loud and do whatever I want", shows such a fundamental selfishness and lack of appreciation for music that it makes me all sad and whiny.
Seriously, if you want to be loud and listen to music, just go to a bar. Or buy the CDs and crank them up at home. But out of respect for the artists and the people at the show that actually WANT to hear the music, don't go to concerts. If you can't muster the basic decency to be quiet during a show, then just don't go, or maybe just go to really loud metal concerts where no one can hear you anyway. I know that if you're one of the loud people at shows, all you really care about is yourself and what YOU want to do, but in the future, could you please just be selfish enough to want to go somewhere else so that the decent people of the world can actually enjoy the music?
The venue was interesting. The bar and restaurant are upstairs, and we all lined up, snaking through the dining area, as we waited for the doors to open. The concert itself was in the Duck Room, a dark, cozy basement that had me thinking that it could easily have been a speakeasy back in the day, hiding under the cover of the legitimate business upstairs. It was such a casual atmosphere, too - the "dressing room" for the artists was right next to the stage and we saw them coming in and out, walking through the crowd, several times as we waited. A couple of people were lucky enough to talk to Rachael before the show, and Kim and I tried as well, but she headed backstage just after we went over to where she was talking. By the time the show started, the crowd had swelled to maybe 400 people. It was nice, though - a lot of enthusiasm, but not with the crush of people that can happen with open-area crowds like this.
With so many names listed to play during the night, I wasn't sure how that was going to work or if I was going to enjoy it or not. I feared that we'd get just a couple songs from each of them instead of longer sets, and that's exactly what happened. But, it turned out my fears were unfounded; the short sets and quick rotation kept things fresh and kept a wide variety of sounds pumping through the Duck Room. Each musician played 2 songs the first time through, and then we were treated to a second rotation with each artist playing another couple of songs.
• Alice Russell - She rocked my socks off!! She was by far the Queen of Funk for the night, with the bass grooves and her gorgeous voice getting the night off to a great start. She apparently needs a bit more caution around her bandmates, as the guitarist (Jason, I think his name was?) had given her a black eye the day before. It definitely added a rather unique twist to her "look" on stage, though not as much as the bandaged and bloody pinkie that Jason sported. That led to the grossest moment of the night as he removed the bandage to allow him to play slide on his guitar during Alice's phenomenal rendition of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army", one of the highlights of the night.
• Jaymay - Kim had mentioned her to me before, but I was wholly unfamiliar with her work. I came away impressed with her voice and music, though I'm not sure if it's really my thing or not. I had heard she had kind of a poppy sound, but there was much more of a country/folk feel to it live. She definitely piqued my interest as someone to check out some more.
• Meiko - Completely and utterly unfamiliar with her before the show, she's definitely on my list of artists to check out in the future. She had one of the funniest moments of the night when she came on stage and said it was nice to be playing in St. Louis for the first time - only to be corrected by an audience member that she had been here a while before. I couldn't make out the name of who it was, but her response was, "I don't remember much of that tour. He likes to drink a lot of whiskey!" Another great voice that made the night enjoyable.
• Thao Nguyen - Wow, this chick can rock!! If her album had the same sound and energy that her live show did, I'd have been grooving on it a lot more. With the guitar and the way she worked the stage, I kept thinking to myself, "Hmm, she's definitely getting her Chuck Berry on up there!" I think she worked the crowd amazingly well, with her sing-alongs and her beatboxing on the mic. Any time she comes around the area, I'll be up to watch her perform again.
• Kate Havnevik - I knew the name and had heard a couple of songs, but was not overly familiar with her before the show. I would have enjoyed her performance a lot more if it weren't for the noisy crowd. A lot of what she did was quiet, gorgeous vocals that were simply drowned out by the obnoxiously loud bastards in the room that refused to STFU. Ugh. There were certainly flashes of awesome there that made me want more - pieces of Bjork, pieces of Imogen, pieces of Kate Bush, but in a way that was all her own.
• Rachael Yamagata - Man, what is there to say? She was why I wanted to go to this show and everyone else was just a super yummy added bonus. And wow, did she deliver! Rarely at concerts do I ever get to hear the songs I want them to play the most, but Rachael came out and blew me away with "Be Be Your Love" right off the bat, followed by "Faster" in her first go-round. When she came back on, "Elephants" and "Sunday Afternoon" were next up on my list of most-wanted and she rocked the house with them. The guitarist's solo on "Sunday" was all-the-more impressive knowing that his pinkie was useless and hurting him so much - now THAT is dedication to the job! She closed the show with "Reason Why" and then it was time to go home, happy, tired and satisfied from a night of great music.
Now, going back to the whole noise issue during the show: What is wrong with people? I just have huge issues with this on so many levels.
1. If you paid money for a ticket to go to the show, why would you spend your time talking when the musicians are playing? If all you want to do is drink and talk, go to a bar or stay home and have a party - it's a lot cheaper and more convenient that dropping cash on a concert ticket!
2. Do you not realize that other people are there to actually HEAR the music? If I wanted to hear Jackass A talking to Jackass B, I would buy tickets to a show with their name on it. But you know what? Your names weren't on my ticket! I saw "Hotel Cafe Tour" on my ticket, so unless you're with the tour, I don't want to hear you! This is even more frustrating for artists like this, where a lot of the music can be subtle and quiet and the background noise of Le Jackasses simply overpowered it.
3. If the artists ask you to be quiet, and several people in the crowd are shouting at you to be quiet, why is it so hard to realize that people want you to be quiet?? One lady even shouted back something like, "God, why should I be quiet? It's a concert!!", and that was just the perfect description of what is wrong with these people. That attitude of, "It's a concert so I should be able to talk loud and do whatever I want", shows such a fundamental selfishness and lack of appreciation for music that it makes me all sad and whiny.
Seriously, if you want to be loud and listen to music, just go to a bar. Or buy the CDs and crank them up at home. But out of respect for the artists and the people at the show that actually WANT to hear the music, don't go to concerts. If you can't muster the basic decency to be quiet during a show, then just don't go, or maybe just go to really loud metal concerts where no one can hear you anyway. I know that if you're one of the loud people at shows, all you really care about is yourself and what YOU want to do, but in the future, could you please just be selfish enough to want to go somewhere else so that the decent people of the world can actually enjoy the music?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Rachael Yamagata rocks my little world
Man, I am loving the new Rachael Yamagata album. The teaser she put out had me highly anticipating it, and she absolutely nailed it. And I've got a signed picture of her that came with the album, which just adds to the awesomeness factor! :D
The way she split up the tracks into 2 discs was such a nice touch. Normally, when there's an album with such distinct sounds, they're mixed together and you end up skipping through some songs that you're not in the mood for. Rachael, though? Not happening. She's got the "mellow", piano-based, traditional Yamagata sound all together on Disc 1 and the edgy, guitar-thrashing sounds on Disc 2, giving me the chance to take it all in without being jarred between her beautiful ballads and new push towards rock.
I have to admit, I was not looking forward to the "new sound" when I first read about it. Why mess with a good thing, ya know? But I have been pleasantly surprised. She's found a way to do it without being over the top and without losing the piercing lyrics that have always moved me. "Sidedish Friend" and "Accident" were perfect on the sampler, showcasing what she had done and laying the groundwork for the rest. "Faster" and "Don't" are simply awesome; some great music and the kind of lyrical depth and cleverness she excels at.
I couldn't be more excited right now about the concert next month. I just wish that instead of it being this cafe tour with like 6 artists on the bill, it was just Rachael on stage for like 4 hours playing everything on every album of hers plus whatever covers and such that popped into her head. I don't ask much, right?
The way she split up the tracks into 2 discs was such a nice touch. Normally, when there's an album with such distinct sounds, they're mixed together and you end up skipping through some songs that you're not in the mood for. Rachael, though? Not happening. She's got the "mellow", piano-based, traditional Yamagata sound all together on Disc 1 and the edgy, guitar-thrashing sounds on Disc 2, giving me the chance to take it all in without being jarred between her beautiful ballads and new push towards rock.
I have to admit, I was not looking forward to the "new sound" when I first read about it. Why mess with a good thing, ya know? But I have been pleasantly surprised. She's found a way to do it without being over the top and without losing the piercing lyrics that have always moved me. "Sidedish Friend" and "Accident" were perfect on the sampler, showcasing what she had done and laying the groundwork for the rest. "Faster" and "Don't" are simply awesome; some great music and the kind of lyrical depth and cleverness she excels at.
I couldn't be more excited right now about the concert next month. I just wish that instead of it being this cafe tour with like 6 artists on the bill, it was just Rachael on stage for like 4 hours playing everything on every album of hers plus whatever covers and such that popped into her head. I don't ask much, right?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Grown-ups getting a play date
It seems like it has been an eternity since I was able to go to a concert. But come November, that streak will be at an end!
I'll be attending a show for Rachael Yamagata as part of the Hotel Cafe Tour at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis on Nov. 8. I'm so freakin' excited!! She's one of my absolute favorite artists and the fact that I get to actually take a day to do some grown-up stuff without the kids makes it that much better. An added bonus is that Alice Russell is also scheduled to perform that night. From what I've heard of her singing with Quantic and the samples of her solo material I've stumbled across, she's someone high on my list of music to add to the collection - and now I get to see her live!
Since the move to Missouri, the extent of events we've been able to manage that didn't include the kiddos was catching the Simpsons movie at the theater in August... of 2007! I absolutely love being a dad, but sometimes I really miss the freedom of not having kids to worry about and plan around. A big thanks to Kim's friend Jenni for stepping up to watch the kids overnight that night. We owe her big time!! :)
Kid stuff
Man, the kids just keep growing up faster and faster. Anisa has started to pick up the concept of reading and words. She's started pointing to a word and asking, "What's that word say?" and even started to recognize certain words. Not really reading them, but if you point to "cat" and ask her what word it is, she knows.
Kim has started Anisa on the path of juvenile humor already. Momma taught her the joke: "Guess what?" "Chicken butt!" and Anisa has gone on to improvise so that the answer can be "* butt!" - "Anisa butt!" "Xanadu butt!" and my personal favorite, "Computer butt!" I can't wait until she's in preschool next year and we get a call from the teacher about this joke being abused during class.
Jasmine, meanwhile, is doing her best to catch up to her sister. She's putting together sentences and is really getting a grasp on language. She knows pretty much all her basic colors now and is starting to learn her numbers and letters. I'm amazed at how much of a help having big sister around is. When they play in the bathtub or with the fridge magnets, Anisa will ask her to get a certain letter or certain color and help her get it right. It's sooo cool to see.
Almost as cool as seeing how their cooperative play has blossomed in the last couple of months. For a long time, they just played side by side - together, but not really playing with each other. Now, it's rare to see them playing alone. Anisa has been fixated on Jasmine being her "sweetie" lately. "Hey sweetie - let's play bookstore!" "Hey dad, that's my sweetie" "Sweetie needs a new pull-up. Stinky butt!!"
I'll be attending a show for Rachael Yamagata as part of the Hotel Cafe Tour at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis on Nov. 8. I'm so freakin' excited!! She's one of my absolute favorite artists and the fact that I get to actually take a day to do some grown-up stuff without the kids makes it that much better. An added bonus is that Alice Russell is also scheduled to perform that night. From what I've heard of her singing with Quantic and the samples of her solo material I've stumbled across, she's someone high on my list of music to add to the collection - and now I get to see her live!
Since the move to Missouri, the extent of events we've been able to manage that didn't include the kiddos was catching the Simpsons movie at the theater in August... of 2007! I absolutely love being a dad, but sometimes I really miss the freedom of not having kids to worry about and plan around. A big thanks to Kim's friend Jenni for stepping up to watch the kids overnight that night. We owe her big time!! :)
Kid stuff
Man, the kids just keep growing up faster and faster. Anisa has started to pick up the concept of reading and words. She's started pointing to a word and asking, "What's that word say?" and even started to recognize certain words. Not really reading them, but if you point to "cat" and ask her what word it is, she knows.
Kim has started Anisa on the path of juvenile humor already. Momma taught her the joke: "Guess what?" "Chicken butt!" and Anisa has gone on to improvise so that the answer can be "* butt!" - "Anisa butt!" "Xanadu butt!" and my personal favorite, "Computer butt!" I can't wait until she's in preschool next year and we get a call from the teacher about this joke being abused during class.
Jasmine, meanwhile, is doing her best to catch up to her sister. She's putting together sentences and is really getting a grasp on language. She knows pretty much all her basic colors now and is starting to learn her numbers and letters. I'm amazed at how much of a help having big sister around is. When they play in the bathtub or with the fridge magnets, Anisa will ask her to get a certain letter or certain color and help her get it right. It's sooo cool to see.
Almost as cool as seeing how their cooperative play has blossomed in the last couple of months. For a long time, they just played side by side - together, but not really playing with each other. Now, it's rare to see them playing alone. Anisa has been fixated on Jasmine being her "sweetie" lately. "Hey sweetie - let's play bookstore!" "Hey dad, that's my sweetie" "Sweetie needs a new pull-up. Stinky butt!!"
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