Vinyl Pile

2010-10-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

Maggie Brazelton: The Snohomish Sessions

2010-09-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

Sheryl Crow : News : "Sheryl Crow & The Thieves" Summer Tour Starts TODAY!

2010-08-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sheryl Crow : News : "Sheryl Crow & The Thieves" Summer Tour Starts TODAY!

Lady Gaga is the Devil

2010-07-14T01:25:00.000-07:00

Turns out, for me anyway, the bridge between style and substance is a long one, too long. I mean, I just don't get it. Rarely do we see anymore, an extremely talented and gifted artist sitting down, writing some songs, recording them, and sharing them with the world...not because it made them millions, not because they had a marketing deal with Ray Ban or whatever, but, because they had to....it was their gift, and the only way to exercise it was to play...purely for the love of playing and it was genuine, it was real. Now don't get me wrong, these type of artists still emerge...Jack White, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Taylor Swift and Kings of Leon, to name a few...but sadly, the overwhelming and very disturbing trend in the industry of "inventing" pop/rock/country stars has reached epic proportions.

As I scan the latest top 40 album charts in the recent issue of Rolling Stone, I am dumbstruck by the fact that Lady Gag Ga (not a typo) has not one, but two albums (not singles) in the top 25 and The Fame is #6...really? Lady Gaga? This is a gender neutral freak show better known for her outrageously stupid outfits and over the top pre-packaged dance routines set to motion by some synthetically manufactured house beat than any actual songs....she actually said it herself "were plastic, but we still have fun". Just as disturbing, the following "artists" also made the top forty list....Justin Beiber, Ke$ha, and Miley Cyrus. In it's own review Rolling Stone said of Cyrus's Can't be Tamed album "Cyrus is indeed part of the big machine. Tamed was mostly cooked up by the pros who helped make her a Disney princess, packed with electro-pop hooks and big Kelly Clarkson-style shout-along choruses", and don't even get me started on Beiber or Ke$ha..it's all crap, manufactured, distributed, marketed, and sold to 12 year old kids and idiots who don't know anything better.

You see it's all about money...corporate greed. Slimy record label executives aiming to exploit the buying public regardless of how real their product truly is. They take your average good-looking teenager with some talent, dress them in the latest trashy designer crap, get them in a studio, hand them a list of "songs" someone else wrote, and have them screech into a microphone channeled directly to a sound board where their voice is electronically enhanced for pitch and tone, add a little pre-packaged standard pop melody and then blitz the worldwide buying public with advertising and marketing campaigns meant to make you feel like if you don't listen or watch your missing out on something hip or stylish. Just to top it off, they often create a little controversy ( alcohol or drug arrests are good, maybe a paternity suit) so they benefit from endless publicity via TMZ or OK magazine....arrrggh!...what are we thinking? wasn't Millie Vanilli or the Ashley Simpson debacle enough? we (the buying public) actually feed into this shit and spend our hard earn money buying it or the cross-marketed products and services that support it.
Kid Rock said at the CMA's when he hosted earlier this summer, "if it looks good you'll see it. If it sounds good, you'll hear it. If it's marketed right, you'll buy it, but if it's real, you'll feel it." He's absolutely right, I've listened to Hulk Hogan's daughters album...all I felt was the bile rising up in the back of my throat. This is not necessarily a new trend, anyone remember Tiffany's "mall" tour?

Trust me, I understand, like all art, everybody has different tastes and appreciations, but grouping some of these "stars" in the same category with true artists is like comparing Claude Monet to Bob Ross. There is a vast and distinguishable difference between Hillary Duff and Bob Dylan, isn't there?

Natalie Merchant, whom I respect and admire for her unwillingness to compromise, and total sincerity, said in an interview with the British paper The Gaurdian, "the mega pop culture realm is pathetic", and was taken aback by the video for the song Telephone from the album The Fame, in which Lady Gaga dances around a women's prison and organises a mass poisoning. "I think the women's prison motif is just beyond the pale," says Merchant. "I don't think women's prisons are environments for dance routines, and I don't think mass murder is humorous. I just think it's really offensive and I'm embarrassed for them",

Natalie got it mostly right...the real embarrassment is that Lady Gaga's album The Fame has sold over 4 million copies.

alas, I am encouraged, after reading an article in Spin describing how young people today are "discovering" the genius of Jimi Hendrix...and by the fact that Tom Petty, after 30 plus years of doing what he loves and selling over 60 million albums in the process, released Mojo in June and it debut at #2 on Billboards top 200 with over 125,00 units moved. Its some of his best work and was cut using the old school method of putting everybody in a room and playing until they got it right...recorded live in the studio...he even included in the credits the make and vintage of every instument and the exact tracking date of each song,I think this is called stressing authenticity.

My point is,maybe just maybe, this will be the new trend, people all over the world clamouring for the last copy of The Beatles Revolver while The Jonas Brothers latest release sits collecting dust in the bargain bin at WalMart.

I can dream can't I?

Peace

Kara Grainger

2010-07-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

I had heard a little about Kara Grainger and read a couple of reviews of her debut album "Grand and Green River" previous to seeing her play live last weekend. What an amazing talent she is. The Australian born singer/songwriter has been cranking out her soulful blend of blues and folk for several years and is just now starting to receive some long overdue acclaim here in the states. She has a writing style that is both introspective and heartfelt...lot's of songs about heartache and loss that come across as authentic blues classics. Her wistful vocals were complimented nicely by her serious slide guitar riffs and classic harmonica work by her brother..acclaimed harp player Mitch Grainger on "The Sky is Falling". Seeing her live was a real treat, she plays with passion and grace...a bluesy edge that is part Bonnie Raitt and part John Lee Hooker. Her her rendition of 'On My Way' (a duet with Amos Lee on the album) was the highlight of a show ripe with one folksy,edgy, blues number after another.

This is someone your going to hear a lot about in the coming months, no bullshit, straight forward and real. It is about time the American buying public embrace someone with real talent and charm instead of the pop- diva, talentless teeny boppers that seem to have infiltrated the music scene for some time now.

Do yourself a favor, download or pick up a copy of "Grand and Green River" put it on, sit back and relish in the sounds of one of the best new artists to come along in quite some time..then tell a friend, and tell em you heard it here first.

Peace

Purchase "Grand and Green River"here

"Grand a Green River" on YouTube

YouTube video of "Cannot be Denied"

Kara Grainger's website

Baskery: A little "banjopunk" at the Blues Festival

2010-07-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

By the fourth day at the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland over the 4th of July weekend, I was getting a little weary. Having had my dose of some solid blues for the time being, I was looking forward to something new and different and damn did I get it.
The Swedish band Baskery (Gretta, Sunniva and Stella Bondesson) came on amidst a day 4 lineup of traditional blues performers and proceeded to blow the top off an already enthusiastic audience with a high energy set of what they call "banjopunk" or "blues-grass", I would describe their sound as more like The Dixie Chicks on steroids.
Gretta ignited the stage with her explosive, fuzzed up, electric slide banjo playing, while maintaining a thumping back beat on a small drum kit she played with her feet. At one point she actually was playing drums, banjo, and harmonica, while adding to the trios rock solid vocal harmonies on the song "One Horse Down" from their debut album "Fall Among Thieves". She seemed to work in perfect unison with her little sister Stella who was spanking the hell out of a slap-happy upright bass and providing a solid bluesy groove. Sunniva's spirited lead vocals and fiery rhythm guitar work were only enhanced by her vivacious stage presence and a kind of sarcastic, witty interaction with her audience that was refreshing to say the least.
As they ripped through several cuts from their debut album "Fall Among Thieves" they seemed to energize the audience a little more with each song, highlighted by a frenzied, in your face, version of "Out of Towner" that brought the crowd to a fever pitch...I for one, was blown away.

I have posted a couple of links here for you if you want to check out Baskery or buy the album "Fall Among Thieves" I highly recommend a listen, it's a well written and amazing piece of music ...believe me you haven't heard anything much like this before.

Peace

youtube video "Out of Towner"

Buy ''Fall Among Thieves" here
http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Among-Thieves/dp/B002MCK23O/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1251738496&sr=301-2

Baskery web page

Waterfront Blues Festival