Friday, 27 June 2008
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Tomie Nevada
Artist: Tomie Nevada
Genre(s):
Techno
Discography:
Meeting at the Cornfields EP
Year: 2005
Tracks: 2
Friday, 13 June 2008
Tunstall's Orpheum show: All that with 'Cherry' on top
A little versatility goes a long way. This is especially true in today’s music market, which is drowning in mediocre singer/songwriters.
But an artist can distinguish herself from the herd by demonstrating a wealth of musical possibilities. Scottish firecracker KT Tunstall did just that at the Orpheum last night with an unplugged set that yielded marvelous results.
Tunstall opened with “Miniature Disasters,” a sturdy tune built of chunky riffs from her 2004 debut, “Eye to the Telescope.” But more revealing was how well “Little Favours,” from her latest CD “Drastic Fantastic,” lent itself to the pared-down motif. That the song came across as stunningly as it did minus the new CD’s slick production value attests to the durability of Tunstall’s songwriting. Playing a 12-string guitar, her vocals portrayed road-worn huskiness and a bit of Americana-styled grit, but she remained flexible; during the tender reading of “Other Side of the World” she hit all the high notes.
Her four-piece band improvised ingeniously on Tunstall’s material: keyboardist Kenny Dickenson played marimba on the recent single “Hold On,” and added a muted horn solo to the New Orleans-meets-Nashville feel of “Ashes.” Bassist Arnulf Lindner contributed a colorful kazoo to “Funnyman,” which also found guitarist Sam Lewis switching to mandolin duties, which he reprised during a klutzy but well-intentioned encore cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody.”
A holdover from her early solo shows, Tunstall made good use of her loop-and-pedal skills, building “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree” from the ground up while the crowd cheered her on. During the latter half of “Beauty of Uncertainty” she used the same trick to cook up a flesh-raising layered vocal.
The Orpheum wasn’t quite full for her Boston return, and “Drastic Fantastic” hasn’t sold nearly as well as her debut. But, dressed in a white V-neck T-shirt, skin-tight black jeans with boots and hoop earrings, Tunstall seemed not to care. And while those who came looking for a full-on rock show were likely disappointed, she owes no apologies for switching things up; on the contrary, being able to change gears will help keep her in the game.
Accompanied only by his guitar and guest keyboardist/vocalist Fiona Melady, Irish lad Paddy Casey opened with a set of passionately sung numbers that revealed capable pipes and a penchant for palatable melancholy.
ctreacy2003@yahoo.com
But an artist can distinguish herself from the herd by demonstrating a wealth of musical possibilities. Scottish firecracker KT Tunstall did just that at the Orpheum last night with an unplugged set that yielded marvelous results.
Tunstall opened with “Miniature Disasters,” a sturdy tune built of chunky riffs from her 2004 debut, “Eye to the Telescope.” But more revealing was how well “Little Favours,” from her latest CD “Drastic Fantastic,” lent itself to the pared-down motif. That the song came across as stunningly as it did minus the new CD’s slick production value attests to the durability of Tunstall’s songwriting. Playing a 12-string guitar, her vocals portrayed road-worn huskiness and a bit of Americana-styled grit, but she remained flexible; during the tender reading of “Other Side of the World” she hit all the high notes.
Her four-piece band improvised ingeniously on Tunstall’s material: keyboardist Kenny Dickenson played marimba on the recent single “Hold On,” and added a muted horn solo to the New Orleans-meets-Nashville feel of “Ashes.” Bassist Arnulf Lindner contributed a colorful kazoo to “Funnyman,” which also found guitarist Sam Lewis switching to mandolin duties, which he reprised during a klutzy but well-intentioned encore cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody.”
A holdover from her early solo shows, Tunstall made good use of her loop-and-pedal skills, building “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree” from the ground up while the crowd cheered her on. During the latter half of “Beauty of Uncertainty” she used the same trick to cook up a flesh-raising layered vocal.
The Orpheum wasn’t quite full for her Boston return, and “Drastic Fantastic” hasn’t sold nearly as well as her debut. But, dressed in a white V-neck T-shirt, skin-tight black jeans with boots and hoop earrings, Tunstall seemed not to care. And while those who came looking for a full-on rock show were likely disappointed, she owes no apologies for switching things up; on the contrary, being able to change gears will help keep her in the game.
Accompanied only by his guitar and guest keyboardist/vocalist Fiona Melady, Irish lad Paddy Casey opened with a set of passionately sung numbers that revealed capable pipes and a penchant for palatable melancholy.
ctreacy2003@yahoo.com
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Gin Blossoms
Artist: Gin Blossoms
Genre(s):
Rock
Rock: Pop-Rock
Other
Discography:
Major Lodge Victory
Year: 2006
Tracks: 12
Outside Looking in
Year: 1999
Tracks: 14
New Miserable Experience
Year: 1997
Tracks: 12
Congratulations I'm Sorry
Year: 1996
Tracks: 13
Dusted
Year: 1989
Tracks: 12
Up and Crumbling
Year:
Tracks: 5
Alternative magnate popsters Gin Blossoms were formed in 1987 in Tempe, AZ, by longtime friends Bill Leen (bass) and Doug Hopkins (guitar), with an initial batting order besides featuring vocalist Jesse Valenzuela, guitarist Richard Taylor, and drummer Chris McCann. The following year power saw several personnel office shifts as the band struggled to solidify -- McCann was replaced by Dan Henzerling and, shortly thenceforth, Phillip Rhodes, while Taylor was laid-off and replaced by guitar player Robin Wilson. Wilson and Valenzuela after switched roles, and the band recorded a self-released record album, Dusted, in 1989. A&M signed them the next year.
Later an telling 1991 debut EP, Up & Crumbling, the Gin Blossoms rocketed out of the college pop charts and into the mainstream with their 1993 hit unmarried "Hey Jealousy." Combining the vibrancy guitar hooks of the Byrds and R.E.M. with a square, rootsy drive, the band's breakthrough full-length album, Modern Miserable Experience (which had actually been released the old year), was filled with songs equally as impregnable as "Hey Jealousy," including the sec strike single, "Establish Out About You." New Miserable Experience and its singles henpecked radio and MTV for the following year -- "Hey Jealousy" and "Establish Out About You," both penned by Hopkins, were in lumbering radiocommunication rotation nigh a year subsequently their initial sack -- pushing the sales of their debut album to over one billion copies.
However, all was non intimately. Hopkins' struggle with alcoholism and depression had taken its toll on the band during the sessions for New Miserable Experience, and he was laid-off shortly subsequently the record's release, with guitar player Scott Johnson pickings his station. Speculation abounded as to whether the band would be capable to wield their success without Hopkins' black bile songwriting voice. Tragically, on December 5, 1993, Hopkins stroke and killed himself, regular as the songs he had scripted were blanketing the airwaves.
In the summertime of 1995, the Gin Blossoms contributed "'Till I Hear It from You," a song they co-wrote with Marshall Crenshaw, to the soundtrack of the plastic film Empire Records. "'Till I Hear It from You" became a major radiocommunication hit, merely was never released as an official individual until it was the B-side of "Follow You Down," the showtime undivided from the group's second record album, Congratulations...I'm Sorry. Upon its release in February of 1996, Praise...I'm Sorry charted well, merely inside sixer months, it had disappeared from the charts. Following the encouraging circuit, the Gin Blossoms disbanded in 1997.
Queerly sufficiency, the group reunited sans Rhodes on New Years Eve of 2001 for a concert. Deciding to arrange themselves back together for a spell, the band hit the road a few months later in the summertime of 2002 and released a alive DVD that fall to prepare audiences for a new album, Dusted, which was followed little Joe eld later with Major Lodge Victory.
Lohan to work in morgue as punishment
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