837 posts tagged “vu”

As I previously mentioned, I am heading out to 80/30 Music Festival in Des Moines, Iowa, tonight. I may not be able to update until Sunday. Was just corrected that they will have Wi-Fi and Media Centers.

I think this is a stupid name for a festival, apparently it was named after the two interstate freeways: I-80 and I-35. Yes, I hate festivals. I will recount the story about Coachella sometime later, OK? I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible.

There's a few bands I'm definitely going to see (Tilly & The Wall, Ben Harper, and Public Enemy).  I didn't know Public Enemy are back together!

I will be doing that twttr thng. If you are in the area and want to say hi, text me: 763 656 9257.

Below are some bands playing:

Friday, July 3 Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Main Stage 4:00 PM – Tilly and The Wall 5:45 PM – Matisyahu 7:30 PM – Stephen Malkmus 9:30 PM – Public Enemy Mediacom East Stage (free) 4:00 PM – Buster and the Punks 4:45 PM – William Fitzsimmons 5:45 PM – Modern Skirts 6:45 PM – Maps and Atlases 7:45 PM – The Nadas 8:45 PM – House of Large Sizes Meredith West Stage (free) 4:00 PM – MooseKnuckle 5:15 PM – The Dig Angees 6:15 PM – The Autumn Project 7:15 PM – Occidental Brothers 8:30 PM – Public Property 9:30 PM – DJ Diverse 10:45 PM – Brad Goldman & Jade Reed

Saturday, July 4 Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Main Stage 12:00 PM – Poison Control Center 1:30 PM – New Monsoon 3:15 PM – Man Man 5:00 PM – G. Love & Special Sauce 7:00 PM – Broken Social Scene 9:00 PM – Ben Harper   Mediacom East Stage (free) 12:00 PM – Hanwell 12:45 PM – Beati Paoli 1:45 PM – Miss Derringer 2:45 PM – Audrye Sessions 3:45 PM – The Josh Davis Band 4:45 PM – Wild Sweet Orange 5:45 PM – Cleo’s Apartment 6:45 PM – Mr. Baber’s Neighbors 8:00 PM – Brother Ali Meredith West Stage (free) 12:00 PM – Anni Rossi 1:00 PM – Baby Teeth 2:00 PM – Paper Route 3:00 PM – Girl In A Coma 4:00 PM – Floodplane 5:15 PM – Cymbals Eat Guitars 6:15 PM – Margot & Nuclear So & Sos 7:15 PM – Maximilian Eubank 8:15 PM – The Envy Corps 9:00 PM – All Bugs 10:00 PM – Al Brown 11:00 PM – Flatform

FANFARLO
fanfarlo.com ♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo

This band shot straight up my priority list because you only have FOUR more days to get Fanfarlo's Reservoir album for $1 USD. And for your information, I did buy it for $1, via paypal and it was quick, painless, and easy, just the way I like it. The download for the fifteen tracks was quick and comes with the image of their album on the unrestricted MP3s (949 pixels). This is a pretty nice deal because there's actually four extra tracks that's not on the vinyl or CD.

The extra tracks are: "Kist of Whistles", "Hands (demo)", "Drowning Men (acoustic version)" and "Acoemeti". Even if you've already purchased their special edition of Reservoir, these four tracks are definitely worth $0.25 each surely?

Apparently the promotion is doing the group some good as they moved 500 copies of their album as "Record of the Week" from Rough Trade in the UK (in fact, it's completely sold out). As for a release date for the US, I thought I read it wasn't even schedule until September!

Fanfarlo's music reminds me of a trend in UK alt-folk movement of late. As far as I'm concern, we seem to get a lot of that type of music going around these days: Laura Marling, Jay Jay Pistolet, Kill It Kid, etc.

Anyway, I just wanted to quickly get this article up prior to the expiration date of July 4^th, so excuse the lack of detail on examining the album. What I can tell you is that it's folksy. There's clapping, there's clarinets, there's strings. The singing is wimpish, sensitive, and hey, he probably wears glasses. And you know what? Despite all that, it sounds alright!

The track that they seem to like is "Luna", but I didn't like it as much as "Fire Escape".

Reservoir will be the best $1 you've spent this summer. Go for it.

PS, the cover artwork is creepy.  It reminds me of A Tale of Two Sisters.

R.E.M.
remhq.com ♥ myspace.com/rem

I know I've already reviewed Reckoning: Deluxe Edition, but we finally got the actual product in house. So think of this as the packaging review.

I have long suggested to musicians that music fans like myself still prefer to actually own a physical product. Compared to the endless amount of jewel case albums, it's definitely worth it to make your CDs more attractive and unique. Case in point: those awesome 2-disc "Deluxe Packages". I've previously praised Deluxe Editions for that very reason.

To start off, the clear plastic sleeve are interchangeable with other Deluxe series. The liner notes unfolds to reveal a poster of the album artwork. On the reverse are credits, random "aged" photographs, and a long introduction written by Tony Fletcher. The Fletcher article basically sums up R.E.M.'s first few years up touring for Reckonining. It also document the craziness of how songs were basically thrown together. Recordings were produced in very short amount of time with the rhythm section (Mike Mills & Bill Berry) catching on quickly as a result of being marching band partners and understanding each other's works.

Basically songs were recorded because "either you got it, or you didn't.".

The article is also printed in tiny, tiny, font, and I suspect only hardcore R.E.M. fans will likely read it. Bring a magnifying glass.

As expected and predicted, the package is very similar to Murmur. See picture of that previous package. You can pick up Reckoning Deluxe Edition at most places, like Best Buy - but amazon has it cheapest ($17.99).

MISCELLANEOUS
news.weheartmusic.com ♥ myspace.com/weheartmusik

What's on my radar? Here's a few that we've recently receive - that looks interesting. I'm especially drawn to Italy's Father Murphy (I think of Peter Murphy for some reason!) and K Records' The Pine Hill Haints. I heart K (so does Kurt Cobain). They recently signed up on twitter and I followed them immediately.... even though as of this writing they haven't exactly "tweated".

Melissa McClelland - Victoria Day (April & May Showers) Melissa McClelland 1 comment Tour Dates 07/17/09 Dawson City Music Festival 07/18/09 Dawson City Music Festival 07/19/09 Dawson City Music Festival 02/21/10 South America Cruise Ship 02/22/10 South America Cruise Ship 02/23/10 South America Cruise Ship 02/24/10 South America Cruise Ship 02/25/10 South America Cruise Ship 02/26/10 South America Cruise Ship Discography [2004] Stranded in Suburbia [2006] Thumbelina's One Night Stand [2009] Victoria Day See Also Sarah McLachlan http://weheartmus... I bought Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Legacy Edition for $8. This is not a bad deal...

I sure love the Eagles' song "Hotel California". It's one of those long song that tells the story of a man driving through the Californian deserted road and finding himself checking into a strange hotel. The song soon turn into a nightmarish horror film, where "you can check in anytime, but you can never leave".

What's kind of interesting was that the Eagles formed out of basically being session musicians for Linda Ronstadt. They played backup to Ronstadt and on her self-titled 1972 album. I suppose the band knew a good thing when they saw one and recorded their own songs that same year. By the time 1976 rolled around, they clearly had a certified hit with the album and title track "Hotel California".

Of course, by the time I was listening to Eagles on "oldies" radio station, they had already broken up. Don Henley was going strong on his solo albums, particularly with his third, The End of the Innocence, in the late 80s/early 90s. Incidentally, I did pick up the album on the strength of strong singles "New York Minute", "The Heart of the Matter", and "The End of the Innocence", via the now-defunct BMG club.

I was happy to find that Don Henley just released a special greatest hits album called The Very Best of Don Henley (released on June 16^th on Geffen Records/Universal). Fans who waited a week will want to get the deluxe CD with DVD for a few extra dollars (totally worth it).

Although the track listing is pretty similar to his earlier greatest hits album, Actual Miles (in fact, the first 10 songs are exactly the same order), what set The Very Best of Don Henley apart is that all the tracks have been remastered. And trust me, "The Boys of Summer" and "Dirty Laundry" will never sound better than this. You can clearly hear every beat and sound effects of the 80s music technology!

Nearly 10 years have passed since Henley's last album, Inside Job, three if you count Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden (a six-year project!), so it's really nice to hear some of Henley's best songs collected in one CD. Relive your childhood hits of the 80s and 90s. For the (newer) generation that's not familiar with Henley or Eagles, it's an attractive starter compilation.

As for the DVD, besides from the six music videos ("The Boys of Summer", "All She Wants to Do is Dance", "The Last Worthless Evening", "The Heart of the Matter", "Everything is Different Now", and "For My Wedding"), there are four bonus "DVD audio". I find these dvd audio to be kind of useless for the average consumer, because we normally don't listen to audio on the DVD player. But for the music collector, it's actually nice that they were able to squeeze on some of the lesser-known songs like "Love Rules" and "Through Your Hands".

The music videos are great, but sometime are too artsy and it comes off as rolling-my-eyes cheesy.   I was disappointed to not see "The End of the Innocence" video,  I suppose "Heart of the Matter" made up for it, as it came from the same era. Still, I was very happy to revisit some of these classic videos that I haven't honestly seen these in nearly 20 years. Thank you Geffen Records for making my weekend.

Currently, Henley is playing some stadium dates through Europe with the Eagles. Hell is still frozen, I guess.

Please visit our website for more information, podcast.weheartmusic.com, subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS).

Again, I know these are long overdue. These were recordings from SXSW.

Again: I'm not very happy with the audio quality, I was recording it using a built-in mic on the recorder. On retrospect, I should've bought along a professional mic and plug it into the input. So apology for the poor audio once again.

THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR
theasteroidsgalaxytour.com ♥ myspace.com

I talked to: Lars Iversen

Again, lots of background noise. We moved to a quieter area in the interview.

Lars had never played "Tap Tap Revenge 2", so I had him play on his own song: "Around the Bend".

The band is still doing quite well in the UK, currently touring. They seem really excited to support Katy Perry for their show in Luxembourg.

07/04/09 Eurockeennes De Belfort Belfort, FR
07/05/09 Metropolis Festival Rotterdam, NL
07/06/09 Rockhal  Luxembourg
07/11/09 Terres Du Son Festival Monts
07/16/09 Dour Festival Dour
07/17/09 Montreux Jazz Festival Montreux
07/18/09 Latitude Festival Henham Park, Southwold
07/24/09 Secret Garden Party Huntingdon, East
07/25/09 Les 3 Elephants Festival Laval
07/29/09 Cabaret Vert Festival Charleville-Mézières

HONEY CLAWS
honeyclaws.com ♥ myspace.com/honeyclawsmusic

On the interview: Thomas Sahs and Jon Von Letscher

Download the original interview last year.

This year, the interview was conducted in a car, listening to their EP, Healer. At one point Tom got distracted by "the twins".

Their song of choice, "Beat Of The Wet Eve", is about being in Costa Rica. Tom showed me his stingray bite and oooh it was nasty.

I try to make it to their show that night, but the (tiny) venue was packed full of people. It looked pretty awesome and everyone was having a great time.

Currently, it looks like Jon is in Sweden.

I've been listening to The Gossip since I heard "Dressed in Black" from their self-titled original EP on a compilation my friend Celeste made for me (she felt she owed me for a Sleeper b-side compilation I made for her a while back). There was a few I liked right away, like ESG's "Dance", Anna Oxygen, and, of course, The Gossip's "Dressed in Black" and "Red Hott".

I got a hold of their debut album, That's Not What I Heard, from one of my favorite label, Kill Rock Stars, a few years later... by that time they had dropped the "the" part of their name and became simply Gossip, starting with their 2002 EP Arkansas Heat.

Ever since I discovered Britpop, I have been keeping an eye on UK pop music, and I can tell you that Gossip is huge in the UK. This was quite evident with their last album, Standing in the Way of Control, which had a huge buzz overseas, where their song, "Standing in the Way of Control", became the theme song of the British show Skins. The album instantly hit #1 on the UK Indie Charts.

With mass appeal,especially in the UK, the band recently signed with major label Sony Music (under the Music With a Twist umbrella). Their major debut is called Music for Men and it was released last Tuesday on CD and digital in the UK. As for the US, you can legally purchase the album last Tuesday - but the physical CD won't be available in the US until October 6^th on Columbia Records. I am assuming around that time, you'll get to see the band on their promotional tour dates. As of this writing, there is one sole New York date.

So what is it about this three piece from Olympia, Washington, that's so appealing? I will ask you: what's not to love?

First off, their lead singer, Beth Ditto, is unabashedly lesbian, proud of her weight, and unapologetically outspoken. To be honest, none of that really matters to me, because I just enjoy hearing her vocals.

Second, backed with bassist (but will occasionally play guitars), Brace Paine, and drummer, Hannah Blilie, their songs comes off as raw, but always with a jerky dance groove.

Compared to Gossip's earlier work (especially on their first few EPs), they have gone from a sort of rockabilly soul to simply disco soul. I also felt Music for Men to be very polished and each sound can be heard loud and clear. This is possibly due to that the majority of the album was written and recorded at the Shangri-La studio in Malibu, a first-class studio that Ditto admitted "the first time we ever had access to a studio like that".

I think it's a great direction for the band, because it gives us the opportunity to hear more of Ditto's soulful pipes and hear every bass and drum beat. Also, I felt that the disco/synth plays a more important role in Music for Men, compared to their earlier works.

Some stand-out tracks is the love song "Love and Let Love" (I just really love hearing "It's a long way until February") and "2012". I don't know if you knew about the end of the world, but according to the Mayans, they seem to think it ends on December 21^st, 2012. This will shed some light on Gossip's song "2012", which sings and dance and celebrate as if the year is 2012.

I don't know what the Gossip's next single will be, but I would guess it would be something poptastic and easy as "Pop Goes The World" since "Heavy Cross" was released as the lead-single for the album.

If you're in the UK, you're in luck as the album is available to buy right now and that, also, they're doing all the major festivals. For US fans, just wait a little bit longer - or if you're impatience, the MP3s are available on iTunes and amazon (both stores sells the full album for $8).

It's kind of weird to see The Lonely H playing at bars, especially because, according to their biography, three of the band members are underage. The band's been around since 2000, released three albums (their latest is Concrete Class, released June 6^th on The Control Group), and have played over 200 shows! They stopped in Minneapolis last night to play mostly new songs from the new album at Lee's Liquor Lounge.

I've never been to this venue before, it's basically a bar with a half-wall that divides the stage and drink area. It's deceivingly longer than it is wide, and looks pretty spacious. Also, the atmosphere was pretty relaxed, and the turnout of local patrons and friends and music supporters were surprisingly busy for a work-day Thursday.

I haven't seen Gabe from Four on the Floor (possibly do not have a myspace) since SXSW, and I did not recognize him as he's now 90% beard. It's like an enchanted forest! Haha.

The highlight of the show was their cover of "Beat It". It would turn out to be sort of a Michael Jackson tribute night as each of the three band pay tribute to him. A Night in the Box (myspace) even did a pretty great rendition of "The Way You Make Me Feel" (followed by another cover, Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour").

The Lonely H ♥ Lee's Liquor Lounge, Minneapolis (06/25/09) Setlist ♥ Lee's Liquor Lounge, Minneapolis (06/25/09)

Most of my driving day, I spent listening to Lonely H's Concrete Class to get an idea of what to expect. They sound like a mix of country rock and classic rock.

What I wasn't expecting was how absolutely tall singer Mark Fredson is. He towers over the other band members, Fredson looks kind of awkward leaning down when he plays his Yama"ha".

The band are all in cowboy wear (embroidered button shirts, leather boots, jeans), plus they all have really long hair, making them look like they're in a hard-rock or hard metal band. I also quite like the idea that they have this giant "H" that lights up with them on all their shows. Unfortunately the lights did an epic fail half way into their opening song, "Going out West".

They didn't play some of my favorite songs from the new album, "Girl from Jersey", "Take Care" and "Singer". I suppose it's understandable those songs are pretty mellow (compared to the rest of the album), but they made it up with rock-out version of "Diggin' a Hole" and "Cold Blues". The highlight of the show is probably their cover of Tom Petty's "Anything That's Rock N' Roll".

The Lonely H is playing a ton of dates for 2009, so they'll probably most likely be playing in your town. If not, their music is quite cheap (all albums are priced at $10, some with bonus DVDs).

It's been widely reported that Michael Jackson died today, originally from TMZ. As soon as the story of Michael arriving at the hospital in Los Angeles as a result of a cardiac arrest, the gossip website updated the story in a matter of minutes. It's amazing how breaking news spread across twitter, wikipedia and online newspaper.

When I first heard of the news, I actually did not believe it... but I suppose it's the truth.

I grew up in the ghetto in Sacramento, and we were pretty poor. Our color television was probably the most valuable thing we'd own. I don't know how it came into our possessing (probably a find at the Goodwill), but we had this one-hour NBC documentary via VHS on The Jackson Five. At the end of the documentary, it shifted focus on Michael Jackson.

It was brilliant, they showed his performance at the Apollo Theater, unveiling his "Moon Walk".

By 1987, I bought one of my first album, Michael Jackson's Bad on bootleg cassette at the local flea market. Hey, did I mention I was poor ? I played the crap out of that thing, I loved "Man in the Mirror".

I actually didn't end up buying the best-selling album of all time, Thriller, until the mid-90s. I lost it/lend it to someone, but it's okay because I recently re-purchased the album when the 25^th anniversary edition came out in 2007. I'm happy to report that the new version contain a DVD of the "Billie Jean" performance with that Moon Walk!
Sadly, the king of pop is dead, long live the king.

Speaking of Asians... See where this is going? You following me, Camera Guy?

*The title courtesy of Kate & Lara.

JAPAN
Hikaru Utada, or better known simply as Utada (official/myspace), is a massive Jpop singer from Japan. I'm not sure how popular she is in the US, but she seems popular with the anime crowd (her music's been used in Square Enix's games).

Her second album, This Is The One, released May 12^th, on Island Def Jam, sounds like more or less R&B.

The lead single, is "Come Back to Me", which I caught the music video for it during their promotional push in May (you could've also gotten the album for $5 too!). I was actually impressed with her English, it actually sounds like it was written and sung by a native English speaker (most Jpop songs seems to me like they throw in English words that sounds good, even if it doesn't make much sense in the song. Like South Park's interpretation.).

As far as the album is concern, it's very slick and, maybe just a little over produced? Take a listen to my favorite song, "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI" to see what I mean. I liked the lyrics, "FYI, we're gonna be up all night". You can interpret that how you like, but I can't see this cute/big-eyed girl being naughty.

HMONG
I don't think there is a country anymore, but the Hmong culture and language lives on. They descended from Southern China, and you can hear that influence in their language.

I was given a few albums by popular Hmong singers, Maiv Xyooj (myspace) and Tou Ly Vangkhue (myspace).

Since all their songs are all sung in Hmong (and I don't speak a word), I'll admit to not spending too much time listening and analyzing the music.

From listening to Xyooj's greatest hits album Best of Maiv Xyooj Collection, it sounds to me like pop music with traditional singing (the flutes and chimes help create that authentic sound). However, some of the recording sounds like it was recorded with 80s technology.... but it doesn't sound very new wave.

As for Vangkhue, his music is basically what you would call "soft rock". I was surprise to hear his Hmong version of the Bobby Vee classic song, "More Than I Can Say" (how come nobody ever covers Vee's "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes"?). Anyway, this version sounds like Hmong Karaoke: not quite as passionate with mellow guitar melodies.

VIETNAM
If you're Vietnamese or hang out with Vietnameses, you're probably familiar with the very popular music program called Paris By Night (official). They celebrated their 25^th anniversary last year, but the DVD version wasn't made available until earlier this year - in two parts.

Of course, I have a copy, as do all Vietnamese families across the world (although ironically the program is banned in Vietnam).

The same crew and staff have been doing this annual program for years that it seems flawless, but because 2008 marked such a special year for them, everyone seems under a lot of stress and pressure. There are moments on the DVD where one of the hosts goes backstage and talk to the crew handling the program (everything from makeup, to lights, to camera works, etc).

As for the performances, it's not live... but the performers do some great lip syncing. Some of the speech are hard for me to understand, especially if they're using a northern dialect (they like the "zz" sound vs the south with the "yy" sound).

If you don't speak Vietnamese, don't bother tracking down a copy, there are no subtitled version as far as I know. But if you're just into the culture and performances, then Paris By Night #94 and Paris By Night #95 have a lot to offer. There's a bit of everything, from comedy sketches, insane dresses, film (The Vertical Ray of the Sun), interviews, traditional Vietnamese music, modern dance/techno, to even cover of popular American tunes ("Bang Bang I Shot My Baby Down").

As you can see from the follow epic intro to #94: it's pretty ridiculous. Especially when they started lowering this woman sitting on the 25th logo, holding a globe. As if the girls in white dresses balancing candles weren't crazy enough!

Stick around until 70% into this "thank life and parents" song, and it becomes a techno/dance song!

Remember ASIA? You know, the super prog rock band from the 80s? They had several big hits, including one of their most well-known song, "Heat of the Moment" from 1982, which help move 10 million of their debut album worldwide!

The band changed lead singers as John Payne stepped in to replace John Wetton, who was non-functioning due to alcoholism. From my understanding, the new Asia band released six albums and in 2006 the band branched into TWO bands: Asia and Asia Featuring John Payne.

Apparently there was a problem over the reunion of Asia around that time and founding member Geoff Downes decided to perform retaining the original name and Payne agreed to perform under Asia Featuring John Payne name.

I just got word that Asia featuring John Payne will be releasing a new EP called Military Man and will be touring this summer (lots more detail at news.whm):

July 5, 2009 American Music Festival, Riverfront Park in downtown Harrisburg, PA 6:30PM
July 11, 2009 Riverfest, East Hartford, CT
July 12, 2009 Tupelo Music Hall, 2 Young Road, Londonderry, NH 03053 7PM
July 14, 2009 Mohegan Sun Casino, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd. Uncasville, CT 8PM
July 16, 2009 The Boogie Festival, Springville, IN 11PM
July 18, 2009 Rock N Resort Music Festival, Clays Park Resort, North Lawrence, OH 44666 7:30PM
August 7, 2009 Crestwood Fest, Caesar Park, Crestwood, IL 9:45PM
August 9, 2009 Valley Cultural Arts, Warner Park Ctr., 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd. Woodland Hills, CA 6PM
August 12, 2009 Trocaderos Event Center, 107 Third Ave., Minneapolis, MN 8PM
August 13, 2009 Waterfest, Riverside Park, Oshkosh, WI (with Night Ranger) 8PM
August 15, 2009 Wisconsin State Fair, Cousins Subs Amphitheater, West Allis, WI 8PM
September 12, 2009 Sky City Casino, Interstate 40 Exit 102, Acoma, NM 87034 8PM

Additional tour dates will be announced later. Keep an eye on news.weheartmusic.com for the latest news.

Also, as far as I know, with over twenty band members that came and went, there were actually no Asians in Asia.

PS, I love those Roger Dean cover illustrations.  You might have seen his works on those YES album covers, video game covers, and science fiction books.