If you’re only familiar with Diamond’s hammy pop hits, it’s time to take a closer look at the iconic singer’s work. A new album out next Tuesday, “Home Before Dark,” shows a return to creative form, particularly on this plangent and nostalgic acoustic lament.
Hear it at neildiamond.com.
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Every other year, it seems, Elvis Costello releases another “deluxe” edition of his early LPs “My Aim Is True” and “This Year’s Model.” They’re always overpriced, and contain little or nothing that a committed Elvis fan hasn’t heard many times before.
If ever a band deserved to shamelessly cash in on their oldies the way Costello has, it’s the Replacements, the Minneapolis band whose phenomenal first four records feature some of the smartest
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Hayes Carll
Trouble in Mind (Lost Highway)
ESSENTIAL “Bad Liver and Broken Heart”
Authentic voices are so rare these days, it’s easy to overpraise newcomers but Carll’s debut ushers in a compelling major voice. Following in the tradition of his many Texas predecessors, Carll delivers a set of songs filled with little epiphanies, lyrical dexterity and dirt dry wit. He’s an observant storyteller who knows life’s struggles and understands that
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Review Of The Sarah Mclachlan Cd Touch
The exceptionally talented Rock artist Sarah McLachlan has released her CD entitled Touch. I am very confident and happy to announce that I believe Sarah McLachlan fans, and Rock fans alike will be pleased with this one. With the release of Touch Sarah McLachlan’s artistic excellence is on full display as McLachlan has once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks that could very well be her best work to date.
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Review Of The Billy Cobham Cd Total Eclipse
I can describe the latest release from Jazz sensation Billy Cobham for you with just one word… Outstanding!
This CD literally grabs your attention right out of the gate with Solarization: Solarization / Second Phase / Crescent Sun / Voyage / Solarization-Recapitulation and won’t let go until the very last note of the very last song Last Frontier, which is another great track by the way.
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Review Of The Silk Cd Tonight
Tonight is the latest release from Silk, and is another winner from this talented group.
Silk have been a heavy hitters in the Pop genre for quite some time now and Tonight is an excellent illustration as to why.
One of the nicer things about a CD like this is with this level of talent even if Pop isn’t your favorite style you still can’t help but appreciate the greatness of the musicians.
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Review Of The Yes Cd Tormato
Tormato is the latest Rock CD put out by the very group Yes and they have once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks. I’m confident Yes fans, and Rock fans alike will be pleased with this one.
It’s a rare day indeed that I get a CD from an artist that I can truthfully say does not have a bad track in the bunch. I’m more than happy to announce that’s exactly what I must say about this one. There simply isn’t a bad one in the bunch. No fillers here at all.
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Review Of The System Of A Down Cd Toxicity
The exceptionally talented Rock group System Of A Down have released their CD entitled Toxicity. I am very confident and happy to announce that I believe System Of A Down fans, and Rock fans alike will be pleased with this one. With the release of Toxicity their artistic excellence is on full display as they have once again delivered a brilliant collection of tracks that could very well be their best work to date.
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Review Of The Stanley Clarke Cd Toys Of Men
One word describes the CD Toys Of Men from Stanley Clarke… AWESOME!
I wish it weren’t the case but, it’s not everyday that I get a CD from an artist that I can just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. There is usually a song or two that I just can’t force myself to get through. Not at all the case with Toys Of Men. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.
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Review Of The No Doubt Cd Tragic Kingdom
No Doubt released their most recent album entitled Tragic Kingdom.
Refreshingly, this was one of those CDs I was able to just pop in and comfortably listen to from beginning to end. Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.
Tragic Kingdom is a pleasantly varied, mix of 14 tracks that are very well written and brilliantly
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The Blues Guitar’s Influence On Popular Music
Anybody interested in modern music sooner or later asks the question, “Where did it begin?” Well, if you leave blues music out, you will not have much of an answer. So let us look at where the blues came from, where it went and who it met on the way. We will also take a look at the “blues sound” and how it has its unique effect on our feelings.
The blues as a musical phenomenon
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Why Not Know About Woofer Designing
Woofer is commonly known for its loudspeaker driver, designed to produce low frequency sounds. It can produce sounds ranging from around 40 hertz up to about a kilohertz or even higher. The name is derived from a dog bark, woof in contrast with tweeter. It is a name given to the speakers designed to reproduce high frequency sounds.
The most common design of a woofer is the electrodynamic
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Know Your Punk Drums Better
Drums are one of the most popular of musical instruments. Drummers all over the world have been making the effort to create a drum set that would truly suit the appetite of music lovers all over the world. One of the primary characteristics of a drum is that it can produce indefinite low and high-pitched sounds constantly.
Punk rock was based on anti-establishment rock music genre in the
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CHICAGO—Lawyers for two newspapers and The Associated Press are seeking sealed court records and transcripts related to R. Kelly’s pornography case with an emergency motion filed in the Illinois Supreme Court.
The 41-year-old R&B singer has pleaded not guilty to charges that he videotaped himself having sex with an underage girl. His trial is scheduled to start in Chicago May 9.
The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the AP want
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CAMBRIDGE - The much-admired but long-defunct ensemble known as Tashi recently answered the trumpet call of the Messiaen centenary by reviving itself for a handful of concerts, including a brilliant appearance on Friday night before a packed audience at Harvard’s Paine Hall.
The original group - clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, violinist Ida Kavafian, cellist Fred Sherry, and pianist Peter Serkin - first came together in 1973 to play Messiaen’s
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This Kind of Love (Hear)
Her voice is huskier, veined with the fine lines of age, but that only enhances the sultry sound of the Vineyard’s favorite songbird, the still-too-sexy-for-her-shirt Carly Simon. The original songs on “This Kind of Love” are a mishmash of styles: poppy, jazzy, or seasoned with a dash of Brazilian Tropicana. Thirty-six years after her breakthrough “No Secrets,” Simon is still exploring the vicissitudes of togetherness.
Twenty years ago, Abra Moore became a full-time musician as a founding member of Poi Dog Pondering. She left the band for a solo career in the mid-’90s, releasing a string of critically-acclaimed rainy-day Americana albums while Poi Dog continued to morph, tour, and record its eclectic, rootsy pop. Tonight at the Paradise, Moore and Poi Dog Pondering will be together again. Poi Dog is celebrating the release of its seventh album, titled simply
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When we heard that Scurvy was launching its first tour of the Northeast, we immediately thought of grabbing some fruit and staying off boats. But it turns out there’s no need. This Scurvy isn’t a disease, it’s an experimental jazz outfit with a penchant for dissonance and skittering guitars - like most bands that play the Lily Pad. The comparatively smooth Ben Kogan Group opens. The usual Monday night jam, the Fringe, is scheduled to follow at
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If you saw San Francisco’s Film School on its headlining tour in support of its eponymous 2006 full-length debut, you may not recognize the group that rolls into T.T. the Bear’s tonight. Only lead singer/guitarist Greg Bertens survived that disastrous tour, in which the band’s van and equipment were stolen; Bertens was even jumped at one gig. What hasn’t changed is the band’s trippy, guitar-based shoegazing sound. Two Boston bands, the Douglas
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When folk legend Joan Baez was in town to celebrate Club Passim’s 50th anniversary, and her 50 years in the music business, she autographed a 1970s Harmony acoustic guitar donated by the Ben & Jerry’s in Harvard Square. That Joan Baez Autographed Guitar, decorated by local artist Tabitha Fitzsimmons, is now being auctioned off online. If you win it, you just might achieve guitar greatness, or at least the next best thing to it. Proceeds go to the
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At the Ryan Center at the University of Rhode Island tonight it’s Akon, a hip-hop artist originally from Senegal who is a pal of Gwen Stefani. In fact, it’s Akon who does the “whoo-hooo, weee-oooo” refrain of Stefanie’s hit “Sweet Escape.” And just like Stefani, Akon has his own clothing line. Next thing you know, he’ll have his own set of Harajuku Girls. 8 p.m. $25. Ryan Center, One Lincoln Almond Plaza, Kingston, R.I., 401-788-3200. ticketmaster.com
THE 1 FASHION GURU
Soap star Brenda Dickson’s ridiculously inane 1987 video seems aimed at teaching Reagan-era hausfraus how to wear gold lame evening gowns in their living rooms. Teleport into Dickson’s closet for such timeless advice as “Fashion is something that is acquired by looking at a lot of different fashions.” Inhale much Aqua Net, Brenda? There are multiple YouTube parodies, but Dickson remains the campiest of them all. See it at brendadickson.com. - CHRISTOPHER MUTHER
THE 1 GREAT CHARACTER
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For the New England Philharmonic’s spring concert at Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center on Saturday night, music director Richard Pittman chose three works that spoke to each another in interesting ways, and left your hearing and worldview a little bit altered - a consummation always to be wished.
This first was a ballet-in-progress by the young Washington, D.C.-born, Los Angeles-based, Latin American-rooted composer Carlos Rafael Rivera,
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INDIO, Calif:—Searching for an oasis of music in southern California desert, thousands gathered Friday for the opening day of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.
Temperatures hovered in the relatively bearable mid-90s as the notoriously hot three-day festival got under way in the desert a few hours drive southeast of Los Angeles. Rogue Wave was the first act to hit the main stage, where Tegan and Sara, the Raconteurs, the Verve and Jack Johnson were to play later.
INDIO, Calif.—Tegan and Sara, the identical twin powerpop duo, are accustomed to writing intimate, emotional songs about heartbreak. But when performing, for every song like “Back in Your Head,” there’s a balance of silliness. Between nearly every song played by the singing-songwriting pair, the two casually — often hysterically — banter back and forth in what amounts to indie music’s answer to Laurel and Hardy.
“Sometimes I like it more
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LONDON—Amy Winehouse left a London police station Saturday after questioning about reports that she scuffled with two men during a raucous night out. She received a formal police caution for assault.
The caution means the 24-year-old soul diva has not been charged, but the incident will remain on the record and could count against her if she is ever charged with a similar offense in future.
Winehouse spent the night at Holborn Police Station in central London after arriving for questioning Friday afternoon.
It’s happening. We’ve been working on the screenplay. We finished the script, I think we’re there.
That’s my goal. It’s kind of eerie. Ever since I heard her singing when I was a little girl, she’d make my hair stand on end. I got the feeling that one day I’d have something to do with Connie.
Since I put it in my husband’s hands, I can guarantee that it’s hanging up somewhere in the office. That was a big deal for us. For all the schools to get a degree from, Berklee was quite something.
INDIO, Calif.—Purple rain was to fall in the desert Saturday night when Prince was scheduled to play his much-anticipated headlining performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Prince’s concert, the centerpiece of the festival, was announced only two weeks ago, adding a high dosage of star power to the ninth annual Southern California music festival. The Purple One was easily the most in-demand act to see among the 125-plus bands playing over the weekend.
From the looks of it, “Hard Candy,” Madonna’s new album, is an unambiguous riff on the superstar’s favorite theme. She appears on the cover in thigh-high boots, blinged-out wrestling belt, and a long black strap stretched from her wrist to her mouth. Her legs are spread. Her eyes are slits. Her lips are parted.
But looks are deceiving. This pose isn’t about sex, and it never was. Madonna is about control. Her titillating accessories - the bustiers
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Sitting on a stool in front of a four-piece band at Scullers Jazz Club, snapping his fingers, scatting his way through the infectious swing of a tune called “Melodious Funk” - su-loo doo doo doo dop - Giacomo Gates is a long way from driving bulldozers, a long way from hanging sheetrock, a long way from working construction on the Alaska pipeline.
Gates, 57, is a long way from where he began - su-dep doo-boo-doo-whaa - but in a way he’s right
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