and rhythm...

Remember this video?


Review on Gorillaz concert in Aganis Center:

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have certainly matured by leaps and bounds since their Gorillaz album debuted in 2001. To be honest, going into this Gorillaz concert I was slightly skeptical-- how would the lead singer of Blur and a British cartoonist possibly entertain an Aganis center sized audience? Well, the skepticism that I had soaked up leading to this concert was soon called into question and then rung out like a rag. Gorillaz provide some some titillating audio/visual input, to say the very least. Listening to the album on my ipod at work, I was under the impression that Gorillaz relied on mainly computer sound generation. I was wrong. The concert began with a silly british Gorilla cartoon on a massive screen, followed by an orchestral intro. And I'm talking a real orchestra with at least three people on violins, a flautist, piano, keyboard player, acoustic guitar (? wasn't wearing my glasses), standing bass, dancers, drummers, at least two electric guitar players, rappers, singers (male and female). I'd venture to say that at one point, there were about twenty people on stage. The music was elastic and dabbled between classical, electronic, dub, eastern, and hip hop compositions. One minute you would be closing your eyes to the classical flows, highs, and lows of orchestra and the next you would be bobbing your head to raps and down beats. They rocked their old classics and seduced us with their newest works. Needless to say, the concert was a sweet success.

Side note: The Aganis Center also happens to be the most strict of venues I have visited thus far. Get a beer before 9:30 and if you think you're sneaky, well, god's speed. The lunch ladies (some of whom actually look 14) at Aganis have hawk eyes below the scrunchies on the backs of their heads.


Gorillaz- On Melancholy Hill


And now for some uplifting bluegrass buzz (and others):

Thanks Rafalicious


Kay I know for a fact that you will love this song...


Weidman- selected.


Thank you Oliver... your bluegrass suggestions have been phenomenal!




some good cuts, with a Scofield-sounding-feel


Now this is actually old fashioned sounding...


STS9-thanks Fox


instrumental aahhh

...and that noise begat rhythm

Brief review on Talib and Mos Def Sunday concert:

Of course, as you may have noticed, I thoroughly enjoy hip-hop. Whether it be Lil Wayne's scratchy "pop a wheelie" references or Jay-Z's "YOUR BOY!" howls, hip-hop has a tendency to make us bob our heads, purse our lips, and throw arm gestures to the down beat (that we think look cool but not so much). The House of Blues, with it's eastern style artwork against the black painted walls, creates an especially fitting ambiance for hip-hop. Talib Kweli rocked the house for the first hour; he had us whistling, screaming, rapping, and even laughing (referring to Talib's line, "orange like Snookie"). But herein lies the rub: Mos Def took about an hour and a half to come on stage, and by the time he did half of the group of people we arrived with had given up faith in his arrival. Because this was my first hip-hop concert, I was unaware that this is a habit of most hip-hop artists in general. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't, often they are late. I was pondering why this could be such a common epidemic, and then it dawned on me. WWHHYYYYYYYY ARE WE SURPRISED?! Rappers are artists who spend half their lung capacity rhyming and the other half rapping about themselves in the third person, essentially stroking their own egos, demanding listeners pledge their allegiance, and claiming to be able to turn crack rocks into mountains. NO WONDER they don't give a chrome tooth about whether or not you are feeling impatient. You know you're going to pay to see them anyway so we need to stop complaining, and just accept that their seconds, minutes, hours will always come from our all mighty dollars.







J. Cole. Shut your mouth. (referring to his tangent at the end of the video)




Curren$y