46 posts tagged “music”

The Weakerthans' video for "Sun In An Empty Room" is one of my favorites in recent memory. It features the once-booming and affluent North End of Winnipeg, a city that reminds me so much of Asbury Park in how a traumatic handful of years can be devastating for decades. Oh, and the song is pretty good too. The first time I listened to it I was driving just outside of Washington D.C. during sunset, it was perfect.

Check out my good friends in Racing Kites and the amazing new electronic press kit they just put together. These guys are really as honest, hardworking and humble as they are in this video. They also have a new EP Right Here, Right Now available on iTunes.

Lemuria has become one of my true favorite bands over the past two years. I saw them at the Asbury Lanes on tour

with the Loved Ones back in 2007 and bought their record Your Livingrooms All Over Me. Lemuria combines the sweetheart vocals of singer and guitarist Sheena Ozzella with the snappy, reverberating drums of Alex Kerns and smooth night-timey bass of Jason Draper. Ozzella's voice will most assuredly make every pop punk boy like myself melt, but the band is more than that. They're not a girl band. They have loud stereo songs, see "Bugbear" and "Bristles and Whiskers".

Recommended starting listening would be The First Collection. Standout songs: definitely "Bristles and Whiskers", "Hours", and "Who Would Understand a Turtle".

For fans of Jawbreaker, the Ergs, the Pixies and Limbeck.

New Jersey music zine Jersey Beat has a great interview with the band on their website.

Hear more on the band's MySpace.

The last Monday in July I saw Green Day at Madison Square Garden. I now refer to July 27th, 2009 as the night I saw the greatest concert of my life. There was a lot of emotion leading up to this show, for starters Green Day is a band I've grown up and grown up with. The first time I saw them I was 14 years old at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I went with my great friends Joey, Sarah and Lauren and had an absolute blast. The band was touring behind Warning, a huge departure from their previous records and a lot of my friends weren't really into it. Warning for me however was pure beauty. Growing up and playing music wholeheartedly to this day, there's a handful of musicians that I've tried to model myself after. Names that come to mind are Bruce Springsteen, Mark Hoppus of Blink 182, John Mayer, Greg Attonito and my good buddy Pete Steinkopf from the Bouncing Souls, Kris Roe of the Ataris and Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. On Warning, Billie is almost unleashed. A lion who's turned down his roar so everyone hears what he has to say. I love the band's previous work: Dookie, 1,039, Kerplunk, Nimrod and Insomniac, but not the way I would grow to love Warning. The maturity, the craftsmanship and the absolutely perfect sound of this record is unmatched to me. I'll be the first to tell you there's nothing insanely complex about the guitar, but sound of the Gibson Les Paul Juniors used on Warning is absolutely perfect. Every guitarist or musician for that matter has one idealic sound in their head, their sound. For mine it was found on "Blood, Sex & Booze" and "Waiting". Tough, full-sounding guitar. Crunch and clarity perfectly blended, exactly like the record as a whole. You have these moments of anger, desperation, melancholy, reflection and hope in-depthly encompassed in 41 minutes. That record was the record I dreamed of writing and performing in city after city after city, Billie Joe just beat me to it.

I'd wait a little over two years before I'd see Green Day again, this time as a co-headlining act on the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink 182. I absolutely loved both bands growing up, but I was starting to almots grow out of Blink. I was pretty mature as a kid and that trend kept going. I was amazed I'd get to see two of my favorite bands of all-time on one bill, on one night. Saves the Day was the opener, their record Through Being Cool was and still is one of my favorites of all-time. They were a great band, but they weren't a PNC Bank Arts Center band, not at this point anyway. Green Day came on and I remember never seeing anyone so demanding of a crowd than Billie Joe Armstrong. Not a single person sat and watched that show. What I remember the most from that show was one of my all-time top life moments. I'd started playing bass when I was 12 years old because of Mike Dirnt, Green Day's bass player and in my opinion the greatest bass player in the history of punk rock. Halfway through their set, Billie Joe searched the crowd for musicians, starting with finding a drummer, then a bass player. As he walked from side to side, he came to stage left and I yelled "BILLLLLLLIEEEEEE" from the deepest pit of my stomach. He looked me in the face with wide eyes and said "you can play bass, you can play, you swear to God?!" Next thing I know, there I am on stage next to Mike Dirnt showing me the notes to Operation Ivy's "Knowledge". I'm two inches away from him watching him play the same white bass that inspired me to play music as a kid. Fifteen seconds later it's around my neck and in my hands. It was surreal. I kept thinking "take this IN" while playing behind Billie Joe Armstrong in front of 17,000 people. I never felt more like myself or more at home. Two and a half minutes later, the song is over and Billie Joe, one of my true heroes is telling me to get off his stage because I'm making him "look bad". We share a sweaty hug and a man-kiss before I get off stage and watch the rest of their set. This concert was the first time in my life I remember thinking I'm watching a special band and the entire experience is unforgettable.

When Green Day toured behind American Idiot in 2005, I missed their Giants Stadium date because I couldn't get off my pizza delivery gig that night. Along with a show praised by three dozen or so of my friends who attended, one of my best friends, Sarah Royal, played guitar on stage with them...story-topper! This all lead up to July 27th of this year, and Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown World Tour. The Oakland natives have penned some of my favorite records of all-time, but Idiot was different. Shit, everyone knows that, what I'm saying is it was different because it wasn't stamped. The songs on Idiot wouldn't fit on any other record, and some when taken out of context could almost be perceived as messy. Together, the album is a badass punk rock masterpiece. A blend of punk and poetry never before sounded so good and it is the vernacular craftsmanship of Billie Joe that makes American Idiot one of my favorite rock records of all-time.

In a business of fading ambition and countless homogenized releases, Green Day put together something completely different, looking backward and turning forward simultaneously in 12 tracks. Not to mention American Idiot was released in an era where Americans were ready to burn the Dixie Chicks at the stake for criticizing President Bush and the direction of the nation.

With Idiot being one of my favorite records of all-time, my anticipation for 21st Century Breakdown was unmatched. Not only did it blow my own expectations away, I've never felt a record more than 21CB. There's so much emotion, so much honesty. It's as good a rock record as any that's been written in the last twenty years. When the band headed to New York City to play Madison Square Garden on July 27th, I had to be there. I bought my ticket (note: singular) the morning of the show and headed to the city at 5 p.m. That night would be unforgettable.

Green Day opened the show with "21st Century Breakdown". Billie set the tone for the night by literally screaming at people who were sitting down in the first row of one section and constantly belting out "NEW YORK CITY", each time to a rousing response. It was the world's best band on the grandest stage. As they belted through classics like "When I Come Around" and "King For a Day", there was almost a feeling of not belonging in this building. Not in a bad way, just who would let us run this place like this. It was amazing. The floor that's held heavyweight brawls and championship celebrations was shaking beneath my feet. The band played for almost three hours before Billie Joe ended the night with "Last Night On Earth" and "Time Of Your Life". The best concert I've ever seen? Absolutely. This was loud, emotional and communal, it was a fucking blast. I felt that night with every sense, each fabric of my being. I remember walking out onto Seventh Avenue and almost feeling lost. I wander-ly walked to the subway and made my way back home in a haze of sorts. I felt that for two full days before the hangover-of-sorts went away. My only regret is missing the second night.

I found these two great videos of John Mayer dropping in on a songwriters' class at Berklee College of Music in Boston. One thing I think that sets John apart from so many other great guitarists like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani is he's also world class songwriter, something those guys can't seem to figure it out.

This scene is so priceless, I'm going to do this to all my amps.

"The numbers all go...to...eleven!"

I want to wish the late Leo Fender a Happy 100th Birthday. As anyone who's picked up a Telecaster, Stingray, P-Bass

or Stratocaster in the last 60 years knows, Leo founded the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation back in 1946 and forever changed the course of rock, jazz, country and music as a whole forever with his innovative electric instruments. From building Fender into the world's original electric guitar and bass standard to being the first to mass produce said instruments, Leo's drive to craft great-sounding, eclectic and affordable instruments has inspired and armed seven decades of musicians from the Garden to the garage. He passed away on March 21st, 1991 from complications from Parkinson's Disease.

Come hell, high water or both, I'm going to see Green Day at Madison Square Garden tonight. I don't have a ticket but am heading out to New York City around 5 pm to try my luck. I missed them on the American Idiot Tour in 2005 and kicked myself for months, all because I couldn't get off work delivering pizza that night. A bunch of my friends went and my best bud Sarah Royal got to play on stage (story-topping mother fucker!) at Giants Stadium. Stories to come!

While we're as far away from Valentine's Day as cyclically possible, it's time that I confess my love for Hayley Williams. Second grade-style. Now I must admit, the first time I heard your band and ran your concept through my mind I couldn't help but label Paramore as a tool; a female-lead pop punk band reaping the benefits of a label-centric 360 marketing. Foolish. Living a quiet life in South Florida for the first few months of 2009, I listened to a lot of bands

I'd either never heard or previously passed on. Your band was one of the latter. Halfway through "When It Rains", the fifth song on Riot!, you had a new fan. I envied you on tour because that song is the song you see next on the set list and think "yes!". Anyway, Paramore started off as a guilty pleasure and I'd now say they're legimately one of my favorite bands. Their records are tight and they were great the only time I'd seen them live (on tour with Jack's Mannequin Summer '08 at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ). On top of it all, I have a total crush on Hayley Williams. A life-centric, quirky beauty with an angelic voice and no spray tan. Love.

Music can get redundant, but I'm not over getting excited about listening to one of my favorites' new records.

Embarking on my first listen of Kevin Devine's Brother's Blood. Definitely a more produced and more polished-sounding record than his previous projects. Oh, what a joy to finally be free.