Is it strange that I have strong childhood memories of the song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" by Elton John. It was a fairly popular single for him, and was played all the time on AM radio when I was a kid.

I couldn't decypher the lyrics, the the MELODY of this song is so astonishingly beautiful, and simple, that it wrapped itself around my head like a warm fuzzy hat.

To this day, I still adore this song - and the whole album - which is full of some truly masterful creations by Sir Elton and Bernie Taupin.

An unsung master of tasty hooks

Kevin Barnes is the new master of tasty hooks.

Who the hell is Kevin Barnes, you ask? Have you ever seen a commercial for Outback Steakhouse with the chorus "let's go outback tonight", or the latest commercial from Comcast where some catchy electronic music plays over the Comcast logo?

Both are hooks courtesy of Kevin Barnes, the mastermind behind Athens, GA band Of Montreal. (click the link, you know you want to!)

Their latest contribution to psychedelic, electronic poptasticness is something called Skeletal Lamping.

Would I do the band justice by writing yet another bio? Nah, their site is pretty spiffy.

What would I say in a sales pitch for the band?

Can you boogie? Do you disco? Is there funk in your pajamas?

Have you ever heard the music of David Bowie and enjoyed it?

Do you believe there should be humor in music?

Does psychedelic music excite you, intrigue you?

Are you frightened by harmony or does it make you feel warm and delicious inside.

Do you smile at the sight of a scrawny, nerdly looking fellow in embarassing costuming playing guitar and wearing a bit of makeup

Can you appreciate the humor (and irony) in a song about coping with clinical depression and the annoying side-effects of antidepressants - with a happy, infectious chorus?

Of Montreal is worth a listen.
1 part 80's synthpop, a big scoop of Bowie, a dash of Ray Davies, a few spoonfulls of disco, a dash of 70's pop music, throw it all in the blender and serve extra groovy, with a slice of deliciousness.

Chemicals don't flatten my mind!!



The song that became an earworm television commercial. Incidently, the restaurant chain kind of screwed over the band with the usage rights of the song. It pissed (Kevin) Barnes off so much that the band refused to play this song live for a few years.

Blue Man Group

I had the pleasure of taking in the Boston production of Blue Man Group yesterday and I just wanted to post a few comments on my experience.

1. It is nothing like what I was expecting, yet it was very much what I was expecting from a showmanship standpoint.
   




2. The soundtrack and/or the musicians that are part of this production are our hope for the future of Progressive Rock.
   Drums, guitar (and guitar synths), and Chapman Stick. How can you go wrong?
   I mean seriously.
   I really felt I was listening an opening act for Rush, King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, or maybe even Primus. Energy, intensity, and talent.
   




3. The writers have done an outstanding job at bringing together pop culture references, humor, and also a few dark messages about the increasing isolation of humankind because of technology.
   




4. Did I mention the pop culture references?




5. Mime(!).
   Drumming.
   FUN stage makeup.
   Paint.
   ...and burying your audience in a mound of (recycled) paper toweling.
   




6. It's Performance Art for people who are afraid of Performance Artists.
   




7. It's what the Burners (Burning Man) do during the off-season.
   




8. It's a show that Bob and Cyndie Mundane can bring their kids to and have a good time - and the kids might walk away thinking "I want to do THAT when I grow up!"
   




9. I was there with my sweetie, and 2 other couples. One of the other couples are big progrock fans like me and the other couple have only heard the "hits" from bands like Rush or Genesis. They all enjoyed the show on different levels (and they thought it was funny that I was buried in the aforementioned paper toweling but seemed to be having a good time).
   




10. My only meh moment was spent thinking how hopelessly unhip I am by today's standards, and that I found myself wishing I was 15 years younger, with no financial obligations, that I could spend my time working on musical and/or theatrical productions like this.

From the shuffle mode

Damon Albarn is one of those creative musical geniuses, yet not many outside of the music nerd contingent know who he is by name.

However, mention the animated Gorillaz, or the song "Feel Good Inc" and you may get an oh yeah! I know that song! response.

I've been listening to Gorillaz "Demon Days" quite a bit lately, and find these songs to be wonderfully catchy and lushly produced techno-pop without making me want to perform a labotamy with a plastic spork.

Albarn effectively created an "Archies" for today's generation. With the help of Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl fame, numerous guest musicians and some great songs, he's put out no less than 5 cds worth of material, some fantastic videos (animated, of course!), and now there's a documentary being released of the making of the band (called "Bananaz")

What today's young Gorillaz fans may not realize is that Damon Albarn has been making music for 20 years, and was singer/songwriter for the band Blur who incidently also put out some amazing pop music in the 1990's.

I do, however, know more than a few Blur fans who are also big Gorillaz fans so I do know I'm not alone in my fawning fangirl behavior.

Here's the video for the song "Dare" from Demon Days.



and this... a gem from the 90's - Blur's "Parklife".




Official Gorillaz site

Gorillaz wikipedia entry

You've Got To Start Somewhere

I am a notorious procrastinator in both my personal and professional life.
I frequently find myself psychologically bound and gagged when faced with starting a new creative project because anything that feels like too much work hurls me backwards in time, channeling my inner 12-year-old. The one that would avoid practicing her piano assignments and instead opt for endless noodling which amounted to numerous unfinished songs and highly frustrated parents.

At any rate, I've wanted to start a blog to talk about music and for some strange reason I have been avoiding these first few paragraphs like I did my piano lessons all those years ago.

My 42-year-old self realizes that this is as productive as eating an extra helping of curry fries and wondering why my jeans fit tighter.

So here we go...

Some folks might say that I have rather appalling taste in music. My boyfriend thinks I'm narrow minded and cranky when it comes to what I will and will not listen to. Yet others find the fact that I enjoy both Cher as well as Frank Zappa to be kind of twisted and at the same time, cool.

On any given day you might find my Walkman loaded up with 70's-80's Top-40, 60's psychedelic or garage bands, soul or funk from the 60's to today, classic music icons like the Beatles, Who, or Kinks, eclectic retro-inspired contemporary bands like of Montreal or Fleet Foxes, swirly esoteric lovely music makers like the Cocteau Twins or the Innocence Mission, the bands we'll all still be talking about years from now like Radiohead and The Shins, classic folk artists, classic metal bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, great songwriters like Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Tori Amos, and my old standby of Progressive Rock.

What I don't listen to, for the most part, are the pop acts making music today, with very few exceptions (I do like Amy Winehouse quite a bit). I sometimes enjoy the rap and hiphop artists who have been around for a while, but for the most part the whole genre annoys me.

I have a great disdain for most contemporary male and female vocalists who seem more like the products that a record company packaged together than an artist with any shred of originality. Not to mention, the music seems incredibly overproduced and meant to create ear worms that could only be cured by a heavy dose of "Come Sail Away" or "Muskrat Love" - which is like trying to cure an addiction to heroin with Oxy. It's as if the entire singer/songwriter genre has been dipped in a layer of batter, deep fried, and covered in sweet goo so that it appeals to those with the attention span of a squirrel. The songcraft seems to have been lost along the way.

Anyway, I'm going to set a goal for myself here to write even just a few words each day about something that's played through on my Walkman, something I've seen on YouTube or on the telly, or something music-related that's stuck in my craw and I need to rant about.