RockMy Events – Putting Gigs & Events On The Map

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RockMyEvents

Name: RockMy Events

URL: http://www.rockmyevents.com

Traditionally, it was always possible to miss on this or the other artist when he or she came to town, even if you were a big fan of music in general. And I am talking about “established” artists. Now, if we were to move into Indie music it was always even harder to know what was going on unless you had some kind of direct connection with the band, or were in their (very) close geographical vicinity.

That is a thing of the past. Now things are far, far removed from that context. I dare say we have gone from one extreme to the other, as services like Twitter ensure that we have access to so much information that picking out which gig to attend can take longer than it took Pete Townshend to present “Lifehouse” to the world as he had originally intended it. Continue reading →

Kanye West Interrupted Taylor Swift And The Social Web Went Off

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Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor’s Swift acceptance speech is one of the viral pieces of content right now. MTV has managed to keep it off YouTube, but a relevant search produces enough remixes and video reactions to keep you watching for hours on end. One of the finest:

This is not the first time Kanye’s big mouth blazes off. The remark of him that caused the biggest controversy was the one about President Bush in the aftermath of Katrina:

That video alone has had over 6 million views ever since it was posted online. Note the expression of co-host Mike Myers at the end! Continue reading →

Give’em Enough Rope (The Clash) – Album Review

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Give'em Enough Rope's Cover

Give'em Enough Rope's Cover

It is amazing how wrong both the critics and the public can perceive an album when it is first released. The Clash’s second record is a case in point. The album was released in 1978, and it was largely panned. Most of the criticisms I have read focus on the producer that was chosen, a Sandy Pearlman (famous for his work with harder-rocking outfits). The truth is that the album is the most natural evolution of the sound The Clash had presented on their first offering you could ever picture.

In actuality, it is hard to imagine how an album that starts up with “Safe European Home” could cause a bad impression on the listener. The song is one of their best style explorations, melding a call-and-response lyric with a bestial wall of riffage that eventually gives way to a reggae excursion. You know what? That song alone justifies buying the album, especially since it is omitted on “best of” packages. The album as a whole has never got the recognition it deserves. In fact, when the “From Here To Eternity” live CD was issued in 1999, not a single song from “Give’em Enough Rope” was included. Not even “Tommy Gun” (the third track here) was featured. That song showcases that the political vision of the band was advancing both at a steady rhythm and in a focused way. It was Strummer’s homage to mercenaries, and a study on violent types and their motivations. The drums emulate a machine gun all the way through, and the sudden ending makes it all feel as if a grenade had been lodged into the brain of the listener through the song, only to explode at the song’s conclusion. Continue reading →

MinimumNoise – Crowdsourcing Music Production

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MinimumNoise

Name: Minimum Noise

URL: http://www.minimumnoise.com

This site defines itself as a music marketplace that lets people crowdsource music production on the Net. The way it works is really simple: you just create a project and explain how much you are willing to pay for it. Once you have done so, producers can access your project’s page and take part of it by uploading audio clips for you to weigh up. When you come across one that fits what you had originally envisioned, it is a mere matter of transferring the money and receiving the full audio.

When creating your project, you can (and must) include a couple of reference files for the community of producers to easily realize what it is you are after. That is only suitable – it is almost impossible to transmit music verbally, and a short clip is certain to transmit the concept 100 % accurately and in no time at all. Continue reading →

Tumbleweed Connection (Elton John) – Album Review

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The Original Cover

The Original Cover

Released the same year as the superb “Madman Across The Water”, “Tumbleweed Connection” stands as one of Elton’s best-loved albums. No singles were drawn from it, and as a result it is never represented when it comes to “Best Of” packages. This makes listening to it all the more refreshing and novel, especially as more than a handful of compositions are as good (or better) than the albums both sides of it.

This time, there is a concept unifying the songs – they all revolve around the Far West. Bernie always loved the topic, and he concocts together stories of gunslingers, confederates, American natives and furtive love adequately enough. As I said before, it took Bernie some time to get places. But Elton was up to the challenge from day one, and he always managed to give his lyrics the right accompaniment. Leaving aside the lyrically accuracy or lack thereof, “Where To Now, St. Peter”, “Amoreena” and “Country Comfort” are A-side material, and so is “My Father’s Gun”, the song that would be featured 30 years down the line as the key tune to Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown”. Continue reading →

Goodbye Cruel World (Elvis Costello) – Album Review

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The Front Cover

The Front Cover

Costello defines this album as his worst ever. After listening to it attentively, I dare say it was (up to that point in his career, 1984) the album that was approached the worst. Some of the material holds well under scrutiny, but the fact that the best songs are segregated on the first side does lead to an exhausting listening experience. Continue reading →

Ophelia (Natalie Merchant) – Album Review

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The CD Cover - Natalie As Demigodess

The CD Cover - Natalie As Demigodess

I consider Natalie Merchant’s “Ophelia” as the point when her solo career really commenced. She had released an album before (1995’s “Tigerlily”), but that album was more like the closing of a stage than the start of a new one. Conversely, “Ophelia” (released in 1998) is her first truly realized artistic statement, using every device that she wants to use, and letting her own voice and musical vision dominate every single minute of the album.

In actuality, “Ophelia” was a multimedia project – the CD was accompanied by a short video, and stills from the film constitute the artwork of the album. A concept is clearly discernible, although there are songs like “King Of May” that deviate from the overall study of the famed Ophelia, a female figure par excellence, and an obvious choice for Natalie, someone always concerned about the way women are perceived and how these perceptions can end up being lies which are always true.

That is the theme of the album’s eponymous track, and the first thing you listen to when you play the CD. Incidentally, it will also be the last thing you will listen to – an orchestral reprise closes the album. The song studies the character of Ophelia all through history, her feats and the eventual disgraces those achievements were to bring about. The fate of Ophelia reminds me of the words of Yeats: “I’ve grown nothing/being all”. Is Natalie studying the role of women from a perspective that implies so much effort to be regarded as equal did nothing but accentuate differences that were actually small to begin with? And is the result of such a situation that women end up being relegated to submissive romantic roles, such as in the song “Frozen Charlotte”? Continue reading →

Chalkhills and Children (Chris Twomey) – Book Review

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The Cover Of The Book. The Picture Comes From The "Nonsuch" Photo Shot.

The Cover Of The Book. The Picture Comes From The "Nonsuch" Photo Shot.

Named after one of Andy’s most ethereal compositions, this book (first released in 1992) stands as a moving portrait of a band that is incredibly cerebral, and yet has the ability to tug at your heartstrings like few bands in history. That contradiction comes as no surprise. The story of XTC involves the clash between ideals and reality, and that is something that comes across very vividly on this book.

The book has 188 pages. It includes 10 chapters, two sections of black & white photographs and a discography at the end. It begins out of chronological order (the first chapter deals with Andy’s breakdown) and then the story properly starts and it is run without detours or digressions. It is also an “authorized” biography – the book was compiled from interviews with the band members and their families. And most key figures like Todd Rundgren and Steve Lillywhite are also among the interviewees. Continue reading →

Greatest Hits Volume II (Linda Ronstadt) – Compilation Album

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The Front Cover

The Front Cover

This is the companion album to the volume I reviewed last week. It basically gathers Linda’s most salient recordings at the time when her sound began diversifying in earnest. As I explained at the end of my review of Elvis Costello’s “Extreme Honey”, when that happens an artist might not make the best choices as regards which songs he or she ends up performing, and the way these are recorded. That was the case with Linda’s albums throughout this particular period, and as such this compilation has the merit of bringing the very best from those years that could be termed a bit spotty. Continue reading →