People think of him as the 80’s synth guy, but he’s a lot more than that. Thomas Dolby brought his “Imaginary Lighthouse” project to one of my favorite venues, the Crest Theater, and most people missed it. The theater was about half-full, but it should have been a sell-out crowd. The show was great and the crowd was enthusiastic.
Note: This post was also used at www.sacmusicblog.com
Review and photos after the “read more”…
RIP Lou Reed. His Velvet Underground albums and his many years of solo work influenced a lot of people. He was unique and true to his vision even when the public wasn’t. Classic albums are Transformer (a must), Rock and Roll Animal (a great live album), New York, the Velvet’s “Banana” album, and many more…
For the thirteenth year in a row, we traveled up north to Seattle for the annual Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. I’ll get some pictures on here soon. We had a few extra days too, to see the city, but of course the festival is the big draw. As in most years, some friends travel along, this time it was Cal and Laura, along with Sam and Mama O. What did we do? Well….
Wednesday August 28
All six of us had the same Southwest flight in the morning. Once in Seattle, we separated at various points. Petra and I took the light rail to our hotel, The Camlin. The room wasn’t quite ready so we had them hold our luggage while we went to lunch at one of our favorites, Cyber-Dogs, a wonderful vegetarian hot dog place. These dogs are more like meals and really delicious. After that we walked over to Whole Foods and got some supplies for the week. Then it was back to the hotel. Now the room was ready and we went up and unpacked. In a bit, we took the monorail over to the Seattle Center and met up with the rest of the party for a while. Then Petra and I had a nice vegan chinese food meal at Bamboo Garden, where everything is animal-free! And then the monorail back to the hotel. It was a good start for the trip.
Here is the latest update. It’s been a while since the last one. Some of these were new, some were used, some were gifts, a few we burned. Do you love any of these? Hate any of them? Or are you just confused?
Read all the way to the end and then leave me a comment!
ARTIST – TITLE – FORMAT – SIZE – COUNTRY – COMMENTS
Bowie, David – The Next Day CD 5 US Special edition, three bonus tracks
Fun. – Some Nights CD 5 US
Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City CD 5 US
Harrison, George – Early Takes Volume 1 CD 5 US
Wombats, The – This Modern Glitch CD 5 US
Bonamassa, Joe – Live From New York Beacon Theater CD 5 US
Passion Pit – Chunk Of Change CD 5 US
Rolling Stones, The – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! CD 5 US
Thenewno2 – Thefearofmissingout CD 5 US
Thenewno2 – EP002 CD 5 US
Visage – Fade To Grey – The Best Of Visage CD 5 US
XX, The – The XX CD 5 US
Beatles, The – Anthology 2 Promo CD 5 US Promo only
Beatles, The – The Capitol Albums Vol. 2 CD 5 US
Ra Ra Riot – Beta Love CD 5 US
Higgins, Missy – The Sound Of White CD 5 US
Higgins, Missy – On A Clear Night CD 5 US
Costello, Elvis – The Man In Time CD 5 US Bootleg
Costello, Elvis – Radioactivity CD 5 US Bootleg
Also known as “Happy Birthday, Kate Bush”…
Kate Bush (learn more) has been a huge musical talent for thirty-some years. She is eccentric, even weird at times, but totally original and one of a kind. Her last few albums have been a bit too much on the mellow side, but her first six or so albums are interesting, clever, arty, and highly recommended. Her voice may not be for everyone, and her songs may not be either. But give her a few listens with an open mind and you might just hear a unique talent.
Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom’s most successful solo female performers of the past 35 years. – from the Wikipedia article
Seriously, there is no one like her. Give her a chance and listen to something different and original.
Here’s the video for “Suspended In Gaffa”:
and here are a few more videos, after the “continue…”:
Here’s something you don’t see everyday.
First off, thanks to our friends over at Clicks and Pops for posting this a while back and for reminding me that it existed. I am a big Elvis Costello fan and have been since his first album in the late seventies. This video is a lot more recent, and shows his playful and humorous side (which was not as evident in the early years). I love that he can parody himself and have fun with it. What do YOU think?
Well? Maybe you should leave me a comment…
Long-time superstar singer Cyndi Lauper played the Crest Theater and brought down the house. It was a very enthusiastic sellout crowd and she did not disappoint. No, not at all. The occasion was the Sacramento stop of her “She’s So Unusual 30th Anniversary Tour”. To commemorate that landmark pop album, Cyndi performed it in it’s entirety.
Remember all the hits from the album? Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, She Bop, All Through The Night, Money Changes Everything, When U Were Mine, and more. In between the songs, she talked a lot about the making of the album and whatever else came into her mind. And it was great, lots of anecdotes and memories with her trademark humor. She’s a charming, funny, and gutsy woman and her stories only served to make the show even better. For her encore, she performed a few other songs, Shine and of course True Colors.
She’s a wonderful show(wo)man and the crowd went wild for her. It was truly a great show.
Here are some pictures from the show, click on the “continue”…
We just returned from a week’s vacation in sunny Southern California. We timed it for spring break week, not so we could “party like it’s 1999” but because we had no kids to watch that week! Yow! We wanted some warm weather and we got it in Indio, with temps in the mid -80s. So nice.
We went from Friday to Friday and our first destination was Indio, in the desert but nestled like an oasis with Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta and other cities. We spent five nights there and then two in Hollywood. Here’s what we did, mostly…
Friday March 22nd
We hit the road early, since it’s quite a ways to drive. Road trips are fun though, so no worries. About halfway there, we stopped briefly in Bakersfield for gas and also for lunch. Lassen’s Natural Foods there has a deli inside that serves a variety of options, many of them vegetarian and/or vegan. Sufficiently stuffed after that, we traveled the rest of the way, through desert, hills, forest, and more desert, until we got to our first destination, the Worldmark Indio. We checked in to our very nice room (actually living room with large kitchen area, bedroom, and bathroom). We took a pleasant walk around the resort, since the weather was beautiful and warm. So nice and warm, in fact that we went to the pool (one of them) and swam for a while, even though it lasted until after 9pm. Then of course we needed a snack back in the room and some rest.
Sacramento area music lovers, this is sad news. There’s a nice obituary at least.
I spent a whole bunch of time (and money) in his stores over the years. And he actually bought some of the record bins from our store Obsessed With Music when we closed it. Like I said, some sad news…
I can still remember searching for (and often finding) some elusive music items in his store: a Prince 45 with the then-rare track “Horny Toad” on the B-side, a John Wesley Harding CD promo EP (actually a couple of them), XTC singles, Cure 12″s, and a bunch of other stuff over the years.
Rest in peace, Denis and thanks for having your store, Sacramento is a better place because of it.
Yes, he was a member of “that group”. But George was a talent in his own right and a pretty interesting person too.
Here’s a video for his song “When We Was Fab”, a light-hearted and humorous look at his days with that other band. Cool video, good song, and a clever idea.
And it’s his birthday too!
What do you think?
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I just finished watching The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour” and was going to post a Beatles video, but when I was looking around and thinking about it, I decided to post this instead. For now at least. It’s “Gimme Sympathy” by Metric, a modern band with 5 or 6 albums out, all very good, some songs great. Is this one great? Well, it does reference The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Good start, huh? But with a modern sound. And singer Emily Haines is a great vocalist, not sure if that comes through on this track but trust me on this.
Now watch and listen, you will probably want to turn up the volume while you’re at it.
“Come on baby play me somethin’ like “Here Comes The Sun”….
What did you think?
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David Bowie celebrated his 66th birthday recently, by releasing a new single and also a new album (finally) is due soon. Great news for those of us who had heard that he’d retired from music.
So that made me think of his classic songs (there are SO many) and I decided to feature this gem from forty years ago! Is it dated? Well maybe, but not for me. I still love his look back then and it’s a really well-written song. And sung too of course. Enjoy the video, circa 1973, for “Life On Mars”:
What do you think, feel free to leave a comment…
David Bowie web site | wikipedia | music and video
Here is the latest update. Some we bought, some were gifts, a few we burned. Do you love any of these? Hate any of them? Or are you just confused?
Read all the way to the end and then leave me a comment!
ARTIST – TITLE – FORMAT – SIZE – COUNTRY – COMMENTS
Parker, Graham – Three Chords Good CD 5 US with The Rumour
Muse – The 2nd Law CD 5 US
Wombats, The – A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation CD 5 US
Of Monsters And Men – My Head Is An Animal CD 5 US
Passion Pit – Gossamer CD 5 US
Passion Pit – Manners CD 5 US Limited Edition with bonus tracks
Gibbard, Benjamin – Former Lives CD 5 US
A Fine Frenzy – Pines CD 5 US
Shiny Toy Guns – III CD 5 US Autographed
Carlile, Brandi – Bear Creek CD 5 US
Higgins, Missy – The Ol’ Razzle Dazzle CD 5 US Autographed
Herzig, Katie – The Waking Sleep CD 5 US Autographed
LP – Into The Wild CD 5 US CD with DVD
Garbage – Not Your Kind Of People CD 5 US
Yes, I already posted about this show, but now I am adding four video clips from the show. For the original post click here, and here are the videos:
Graham Parker and the Rumour at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA, December 15th, 2012 – “Watch The Moon Come Down”
The other three videos are after the “read more”. See you on the other side…
It was December 15th, 2012, and Santa Cruz, California was frigid and rainy. Inside The Catalyst, it was only frigid. Seriously, people wore coats and scarfs through the whole concert. But it was well worth it to see Graham Parker reunited with The Rumour after over thirty years. Their albums from that period are classics, including Squeezing Out Sparks, Howling Wind, and more.
Recently they released an album of new material and the show combined a number of songs from that effort with many of Graham’s best know songs from back in the day. (The full set list follows, plus pictures!).
