&^%$ 'em.
Guess it's time to check out Firefox, but I'm ticked every time I ask someone to check out my site and they come back to tell me there's nothing there. The wind is out of my proverbial sails, but there's a backlog of stuff to get to, so let's get...
As television becomes the new radio, Indie artist Ingrid Michaelson won plum position on the Hot Playlist - a new song of hers debuted over the final scene of the "Grey's Anatomy" season finale in May - her fourth track to be featured on the show. I don't watch "Grey's" myself - I was tossed out of the TV room by my daughters when I dared to laugh at Izzie's crazy plan to temporarily kill her hospitalizd boyfriend - and she got to keep her job, too! Hogwash, I say.
When Michaelson's CD arrived earlier this year, I paid little mind. But then that Old Navy commercial came along and I couldn't get "but I-I-I lo-o-ove the way you call me baby," out of my mind. Thought it was another Feist tune, actually, but when I learned the truth, I went back to Michaelson's "Girls and Boys" and found a new friend.
She played at Jammin Java this past Saturday night - a sold-old "late" show (that's 9:30 in the suburbs, and I'm fine with it!) and the crowd was 100% behind her. She paid back with a thoroughly charming set, as much fun for her rambling, totally spontaneous monologs as for her classically trained piano, cute ukelele moments (the Hawaiian Christmas song) and lovely voice.
I hung out afterward to say hello and for those of you care about my small Zelig moments, here's yours truly with Ingrid and her fine accompaniast, whose name I didn't ctach, but he's in a Brooklyn-based band called Fireflies...
(pic by the nice guy behind me on the merch line)As we roll into the merry holiday season and obligatory Year-End-Best list, the question does not appear to be IF the CPF O/CD Tally will cross the 1K mark, but rather WHEN it will happen and WHETHER I get around to listing all the discs. (And, as my mom always says, let that be the biggest problem you have to deal with.)
I truly intend to listen and respond to everything that comes in (there are probably some publicists out there calling me names) but time, trouble, trivia and that frickin' ISP unhinge my best intentions.
So, let's blow off a few right now, with a a minimum of chat...
I'm still wading through the many samplers I picked up at CMJ (at this point, my Festival Summary will appear as some kind of Year in Review item!), such as these Various Artists collections:
1. Best of OurStage, Vol. 1 (OurStage.com)
2. CMJ Presents Phase Five NZ Music – Guitar cover (NZ On Air)
3. CMJ Presents Phase Five NZ Music – Piano Cover (NZ On Air)
4. CMJ Presents Phase Five NZ Music – Kiwi Cover (NZ On Air)
5. AMP 6 Packs, Volume 28
6. Copenhagen Jazz Festival (Copenhagen Jazz Festival)
7. FILTER MAGAZINE – Subway Series (FilterMMM)
This one scores points for including genuine exclusives, like a preview (“Cowboys”) from the upcoming Counting Crows release, due this month, and the soundtrack to the Joy Division film.
8. Eyeball Awareness, Volume 1 (Eyeball)
9. CMJ 07 sampler (CMJ)
10. Severe Records Sampler (Severe)
And here's a bunch of recent promos that didn't make the Keeping Cut:
11. BLONDIE – No Exit (Eleven Seven)
Don’t get me wrong, Blondie was an important band, and Debbie Harry is a true rock icon, but this 1999 release, the first the band released in 16 years, has to be one of the group’s worst efforts, Some of it is just downright laughable (“Happy Dog”), and the overall feeling is of grasping at stylistic straws. I ripped the cover tune “Out in the Streets” for its retro girl-group lyrics, but there’s little else here to spark a revisit.
I don’t bang my head much anymore, so I don’t need:
12. The AUTUMN OFFERING – Fear Will Cast No Shadow (Victory)
13. ARISE and RUIN – The Final Dawn (Victory)
Can you match the band with its PR hype?
“The new kings of metal have arrived with a full keg of metal goodness.”
“Your favorite white trash sons of Southern-fried metal have returned!”
And from the Kids Corner:
14. DAVID GROVER and the BIG BEAR BAND – Listen to the Music Band (KOCH)
“singing songs…about loving to sing songs (about songs)”
I listened in the car and feared that, should there be an accident, someone would think I listened to this for fun, and not research, Pretty cloying stuff.
15. BARBIE – As The Island Princess (KOCH)
I admit, I was curious about “Love is for Peasants.” And “The Rat Song.” But it's basically second-rate would-be Broadway Kidz, clever and cute for the tykes but not much for the parents stuck in the car with them.
But just when I think I should send a note to the publicist and say that there’s not much sense in sending me the kids’ music, I get something like…
16. FRAGGLE ROCK – Fraggle Rockin': A Collection (KOCH)
A 3-CD in luxe fold-out package. Who knew the Fraggles and Doozers did 3 discs worth of music? It's not just a set of all those Other Land Down Under favorites, but surely must be every note ever sung on the show. Weighty, perhaps, but a treasure trove of memories come flooding back and I am giggly with the joy of my "job." Some days are like Christmas, weeks early.
I shook Jim Henson's hand once. But that's another story...
Who'd A Thunk It?I
The most obnoxious music ad in recent memory comes from a classical company. In promoting a performance of the Academy of Choral Art and Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Washington Performing Arts Society ran an ad in the Post Weekend section, touting baritone Dmitri Hvorotstovsky with this quote from The Financial Times:
“Sexual heat that burns up every female on stage.”
Really? Do we need fire-retardant opera singers now?
At least they didn’t use the word “literally” which a Post reviewer did recently, saying that a show was packed “literally to the rafters.” Where’s the Fire Marshall when you need him/her?
YTD O/CD Tally: 807
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