Barenaked Lady Coming to SLC

/ / review

Well, okay … he’s not officially a Barenaked Lady, but … you know … once a Lady, always a Lady.

Steven Page is performing at Hotel Elevate on December 8th as part of 104.7’s Ugly Sweater and Eggnog Concert promotion. This is a free show … sort of.

To get in, you have to RSVP on 104.7’s Facebook page and declare how many people you’re bringing with you. So far, I have 6 including me that I’m pretty sure want to go.

Also, you have to wear an ugly sweater. I’m fine with that, other than the blazing heat that will probably be generated by hundreds of sweating bodies in what I’m sure will be a relatively small area. Thankfully, it’s an acoustic set, so I don’t think it’ll be a really high-energy show. ANYway, wear an ugly sweater.

Lastly and certainly most importantly, you have to bring a toy for the Toys for Tots drive. Not only am I okay with this, but I also applaud Steven Page, 104.7, and Hotel Elevate for promoting the concert in this fashion. It’s the perfect time of year to generate a ton of presents for kids who would otherwise go without. My philosophy is that NO child should go without on Christmas. Ever. At all. So this is a great way to help at least a small portion of the needy kids in Salt Lake.

I’m curious to hear his new material live. Barenaked Ladies have done such a phenomenal job as a four-some with their live shows. I hope Steve can step it up as well as his compadres have. We’ll see next Wednesday!

OH!! Yah, so … I know that 104’s website states this, but to be perfectly clear, ALL THE EGGNOG YOU CAN DRINK. Like the Toys for Tots wasn’t enough incentive …

WHEW!

/ / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

All the music from my phone remained intact. THAT’s a relief.

So, the point of my concern was that a few months back, I had to re-install Windows (guess Bill didn’t like me using my “evaluation” Windows 7 OS anymore …). Unfortunately, my iTunes library wasn’t backed up entirely. All the purchased material was flushed with the hard drive re-format. Fortunately, that consisted of a total of two songs from my friend in Seattle, who sings with the band Paisley Rose out of Portland. Again, just two tracks, and I most certainly did not mind re-purchasing them … but what if i had lost my whole library? I’m not an iTunes guru by any stretch, but from the attempts I made at finding a way to re-download my already purchased tracks, I seemed to be up the proverbial creek without so much as a canoe, much less a paddle. 

Anyway, so it was a great relief to me to see that my phone did not purge the purchases when I connected it to my desktop for the first time.

And stand by for another post! A concert announcement that I didn’t know was even on the docket. SWEET.

Oops …

/ / review

Yah … so I bought a ton of stuff on iTunes with my new phone that I havn’t synched with my desktop yet. I better not lose this stuff when I connect this to my machine at home.

Guess we’ll find out tomorrow, right?

Location:Las Vegas Blvd S,Las Vegas,United States

New Stuff!!

/ / New Music, review

I *LOVE* having a paycheck again. HOLY crap. Seriously.

As per the norm, I stuck in one of the new discs in the car player heading back to work. I am DIGGING the Centipede-Eest’s “Confluence” CD. It’s … whoa. “Bombastic” comes close … but it’s just so much more than that. Evocative lyrics, EXCELLENT music … and DIVERSE! The first song, the title track, wastes absolutely no time in hitting you square in the face with voracious guitar, bass and drums in a very in-your-face style. Speedy. Wow. But the transition to “Evidence of Heaven” is indicative of just how good a CD this can be. Truthfully, that’s all the further I’ve made it in so far, but if those two tracks are any indication, yah–gonna be getting some heavy rotation over the next few weeks.

Here’s the rest of the “new” stuff.

  • Kimya Dawson – Remember That I Love You
  • Orenda Fink – Invisible Ones
  • Clare Burson – Silver and Ash
  • The Early November – The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Path (VERY excited to spin this one!)
  • Scout Niblett – I Am
  • Scout Niblett – This Fool Can Die Now
  • Holly Golightly and the Brakeoffs – Medicine County

I could have sworn that I had at least one of those Scout Niblett CDs, but apparently not. I’m okay with that. 🙂

So I think I’ll be reviewing these over the next several days. Or maybe I’ll bust out some of the older stuff from previous purchases. At this point, I’ll just be happy to get back into the steady writing mode.

Review: The Dears – Gang of Losers

/ / review

What I love about buying music I’ve never heard of is the thrill of wondering what I’ve just ppurchased. Will it rock? Will I be lulled into a wonderful trance of haunting chants? If ears  were eyes, would they be as taken aback as if they were seeing Yellowstone for the first time?

Today, my ears are thanking me profusely for the new stuff. Specifically, the ears and I are groovin’ on some Dear music.

The first thing that struck me was the intro. Wasn’t quite ready for that. “Sinthro” is exactly what it sounds like–synth-based intro to a song that is nothing like what I expected based on the first track. “Ticket to Immortality starts off with a nifty little guitar riff with some orhcestral strings faintly accenting the background. It has a strangely familiar sound, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. I want to say that they sound like The Tragically Hip, but that’s not it … not sure what it is.

Oh. Ha. That explains it. They’re a Canadian band. That automatically adds a couple more stars on the 10-scale.

Yah … 3 tracks in, and every song sounds different. You know how there are those bands where everything sounds exactly the same (*AHEM*Nickelback*COUGH*Paramore*SNEEZE*)? Not these guys. Murray Lightburn goes to great lengths to mix it up. There’s some good keyboard use, and I’m DIGGING the guitars. My buddy Josh is a guitar player, and I’m betting he hasn’t heard of these guys. He could spend weeks de-constructing this CD. Probably won’t, but he would if he could. That’s my point.

Some songs are moody. Some are mellow. Some are rocking. All are well crafted and amazing. I’m starting to understand why Kylee at Graywhale said it was a good purchase. Stand-out tracks are:

  • Ticket to Immortality
  • Death or Life We Want You
  • Bandwagoners
  • Whites Only Party (no, that’s not a subliminal message from me to you … it really is a good track!!)
  • Ballad of Humankindness
  • Find Our Way to Freedom

Truthfully, the whole CD is great. I just really like their sound. There’s a LOT of different stuff going on here.

OH! I figured it out! There’s a kind of 70s throw-back sound to some of this! I definitely wouldn’t label this as classic rock, but you can tell there are some influences there.

If you like The Tragically Hip, Interpol , Band of Horses, Bright Eyes, or Cursive, you’ll really dig these guys.

The Return of the King

/ / New Music

Yes, I know … incredibly egotistical. Screw you. I’m back. 🙂

And hey … ya never know. Maybe “New Music Friday” is the king. Certainly could be, right? In fact, let’s go with that.

Now that I’m back amongst the employed (read: making money), of course I had to go to Graywhale. Lookie what I found, folks. Good stuff!

  • The Dears – Gang of Losers
  • The Child Who Was a Keyhole – In the Faxed Atmosphere
  • Tiffany Anders – Funny Cry Happy Gift\
  • Annuals – Be He Me
  • Arab Strap  – Monday at the Hug and Pint
  • The Early November – The Mother, the Mechanic, and the Path

Good haul! ALL of these were between $2-3 with my KW card discount. Yah, you read that right. $2 to $3 per CD. Amazon isn’t even that good, even if you can find the same CDs for one cent. The most promising look to be The Early November and The Dears, but I’m betting they’re all awesome. Guess we’ll see.

“So, where’ve you been? You haven’t written anything in, you know … forever.”

You are correct. I went off the radar for a bit. Things came up. Sorry! I still have to live life, ya know?

Anyway, listening to The Dears. I’ll write a review later.

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