Thursday, May 31, 2007

Go Watch The California Guitar Trio

One of the most mind-blowing concerts I have ever attended was by the California Guitar Trio at NEARFest several years ago. Now, I am generally not much for instrumental concerts (I enjoy some classical music shows every now and then), but this group blew me away.

The California Guitar Trio (CGT for short) consist of three spectacularly proficient, classically trained guitarists who put on a show of dexterity and skill like you have never seen before. I was mesmerized by the guitar playing abilities and their incredibly coordinated playing. I can't even imagine how long they must have practiced together to be so in tune with each other (pun intended).

These two selections here just do not do justice to the experience of seeing this group live. Check out their site at http://www.cgtrio.com/ and pick up a couple of albums. However, more importantly, check out their tour schedule at http://cgtrio.proaudiowebsites.com/cgi/calendar.paw. I promise you that you will not be disappointed. To tide you over until they visit a city near you, here are a couple of selections from their Pathways album.

You can find their complete catalog on Amazon here. The Pathways CD is available here.
1. California Guitar Trio - Classical Gas (2.68 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. California Guitar Trio - Misirlou (1.76 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Experience Seandemonium

A friend of mine sent me a CD by Sean Altman a few years ago. Great catchy pop that is not pretentious and doesn't pretend to be anything more than catchy melodies. The CD he sent me was Sendemonium and proved to be one of those instantly likable CDs.

Some of the songs (like the first one featured here - Person) is completely acapella, while others have more instruments. But all the songs have catchy melodies. Great harmonies and clever vocal stylings. As a lover of harmonies, I tend to prefer the acapella songs, but they're all great.
I started describing the music as very similar to David Yazbek (who will be featured here soon)and the harmonies similar to Rockapella. It was incredibly gratifying to visit his Wikipedia page and find that he is a long time friend of Yazbek and was the founder of Rockapella. Now, you shouldn't be surprised at the sound. There are some songs that remind me of Julian Lennon and others that are very Beatlesque, such as the second song featured here, You're Mine.

You can find all Sean's CDs on Amazon here. If you're interested in his Rockapella discography, you'll find it here. The songs featured in this post are from the Sendemonium album which you'll find here.

As always, I recommend you always visit the artist's site and buy CDs there to support the talent.
1. Sean Altman - Person (2.85 MB;128kbps MP3)
2. Sean Altman - You're Mine (3.17 MB;128kbps MP3)

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Getting Back In The Saddle

As I mentioned in my "other blog," I finally fell off the wagon and missed an entire week of posts. I was out of town almost all of last week and was also out for half the previous week. As a result, I've been struggling to catch up and the blog posting fell off my list of priorities. So, I'm going to try hard to get back in line, straighten the wagon, hop back on the saddle, and try and relearn how not to mix metaphors.

On to business.

This weekend, the touring Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar was in town. Of course, I couldn't miss it. It featured Ted Neeley as Jesus (yes, he's been playing the role for 35 years now) and Corey Glover (of Living Color) as Judas. While Ted's voice was surprisingly strong for his age (he nailed the screaming tones of Gethsemane!). The rest of the production was okay. It wasn't bad, but nothing spectacular. I have always wanted to play Pilate in a stage production of this musical and I thought the Pilate in this production resorted to screaming too much instead of singing.

To celebrate my return to the blog and my weekend of Jesus Christ Superstar, here are two selections from "international" versions of the production from my collection. The first one is from the Japanese production. The Japanese production has a terrible Judas. He screams dischordantly through many of the numbers. Still, I selected Everything's Alright from the Japanese cast recording because it provides a reasonable sampling of the voices of Jesus (Takeshi Kaga), Judas (Minoru Terada), and Mary Magdalene (Hideko Kuno). The sound seems a little more synthesizer-tinged than the original. It appears that this CD is available via an Amazon seller at a very high price here.

The second selection is from the Spanish cast recording from Madrid. What I love about these different versions is how the local musical flavor influences the arrangement. The Spanish version has a stronger chorus of acoustic guitars than the original. Here's an extra energetic and rock version of Simon Zealotes. Note the great use of synthesizers on this song. I also include I Don't Know How To Love Him sung by Angela Carrasco as Mary Magdalene. The Spanish version is also available for a ridiculous price on Amazon here.

1. Everything's Alright - Jesus Christ Superstar Japanese Cast (3.7 MB; 128 kbps MP3)
2. Simon Zealotes - Jesus Christ Superstar Spanish Cast (3.35 MB; 128 kbps MP3)
3. Es Mas Que Amor (I Don't Know How To Love Him) - Jesus Christ Superstar Spanish Cast (3.78 MB; 128 kbps MP3)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Give! And Anything Is Possible

Oh no! I missed my first post. And it's only been a few weeks since I started this blog! I was out of town yesterday and never got around to doing my blog post for Monday.

Today, I returned to town and had a meeting with my friend Marty Weintraub who now runs a search engine marketing (SEM) firm AimClear.com. As usual, I remembered my initial introduction to Marty was through his work in the music industry. A long time ago, I served on the local United Way advisory Board and Marty was instrumental in creating a fund raising effort that involved producing an original CD by a Minnesota artist Pamela McNeill. Being on the Committee at that time, I was marginally involved in the process.

The end result was a CD of original songs written by Pamela McNeill and other local artists, with a lot of the music composed by Marty Weintraub. When I heard the CD for the first time, I was floored. Here was one of those rare CDs where I felt every song was a classic. This truly was one of those complete CDs with no filler material. A perfect example of the incredible talent that isd often hidden in the heartland of this country. I bought several autographed copies of this CD to give to friends convinced it was going to be a huge hit. In a way, it was. One of the songs on this CD (The Gift) was picked up and used for the national United Way campaign. The song, The Gift was written in a short time by a local songwriter, Dick Wilson around our local United Way of Greater Duluth theme of "Give, and Anything Is Possible." Beautiful words, with music composed by Marty. If this song doesn't make you want to go out and donate to the great local causes of the United Way, nothing will!

To make up for my missed post on Monday and to highlight the fact that this CD is spectacularly strong, I am including FOUR songs from the CD here. Pamela McNeill has an exquisite and unusual raw voice that will tug at your heartstrings. She donated 100% of the profits from this CD to charity. Unfortunately, you can only get used copies of this CD from Amazon for as little as a penny here. I promise you that this is an album you won't regret buying. Great pop produced in tiny Duluth with catchy melodies and great lyrics. There isn't a weak song on this album. However, she has another album out, American Breakup. Although you can buy these albums on Amazon, I beg you to support such talented artists by buying these CDs from her own site http://www.pamelamcneill.com/. Please consider getting Pamela's CDs. Start with 2 Sides to Every Sky which is featured here and then move on to American Breakup. This is really good stuff that you wouldn't have heard of if it wasn't for this blog! :-)

Here's a deal. To encourage you to support the artists highlighted here, I am willing to mail one of my autographed copies of 2 Sides To Every Sky to the first person who posts a comment on this blog in response to this post AND buys a copy of another Pamela McNeill CD online through her site. First post a message on this blog and then email me (rvblogs@gmail.com) with a copy of your purchase receipt and I'll mail you (at my expense) an autographed copy of her debut CD.

1. Pamela McNeill - You Will Love Again (4.22 MB; 128 kbps)
2. Pamela McNeill - Let The River Come To You
(3.99 MB; 128 kbps)
3. Pamela McNeill - 2 Sides To Every Sky (4.78 MB; 128 kbps)
3. Pamela McNeill - The Gift (3.94 MB; 128 kbps)

Friday, May 18, 2007

Welcome to an IndiPop Classic

I'm going to end the week on a nice intercultural, fusion theme. I have greatly enjoyed the pop music emanating from India over the last few years. The entry of MTV into India a decade or so ago completely changed the music scene there. Many talented musicians got a great deal of visibility and a huge new genre of music "IndiPop" started growing. One of the earliest acts to attain superstar status in India was a group called Colonial Cousins. It's fascinating to realize that this group is now so legendary that they're almost considered an "oldies" act there. There has since been an explosion of Indian musicians who skilfully blend western music styles with a range of Indian styles - from Bollywood to classical Indian music.

I'm planning to feature an entire week of IndiPop on this blog within the next few months, but for now, let me start with the people who started it all - Colonial Cousins. Colonial Cousins consist of Hariharan - a top notch musician trained in both the south Indian and north Indian classical styles, and Leslie "Lezz" Lewis - a long-time fixture on the music scene in India who was known for writing catchy jingles for the advertising industry there.

I think they were astonishingly successful at blending the extremes of classical Indian music with Western music. Many people who have not been to India are surprised to learn of the widespread use of "Hinglish" in Indian colloquial speech as well as in advertising. The mixing in of English words, phrases and sentences in a conversation otherwise conducted in Hindi is common. In the selections I have featured here, there is a great blending not only of musical styles but also lyrics in multiple languages. By the way, they were the first (and so far only) Indian act to be featured on MTV Unplugged.

Both the songs featured here are from their debut CD. You can actually buy the debut Colonial Cousins CD on Amazon here. If you like this, you can find their other CDs here. I strongly recommend you start with the debut CD and then move to the others. I think the weakest album of the lot is The Way We Do It, but I would recommend their third album, Aatma.

Krishna starts off with a brief religious chant and then an invocation of God in a very south Indian style. Then Lezz Lewis jumps in with his very secular lyrics in English. Spectacular! Sa Ni Dha Pa (the south Indian equivalent of Do Re Mi Fa) also starts with a south Indian chant followed by Lezz Lewis's great blend of western and north Indian melodies. The mix of styles here is quite astounding and brilliantly smooth.

1. Colonial Cousins - Krishna (5.34 MB; 128 kbps MP3)
2. Colonial Cousins - Sa Ni Dha Pa (Never Know The Reason) (4.67 MB; 128 kbps MP3)

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Jangling Guitars for Years Around The Sun

When I started this blog a few weeks ago, my goal was simply to learn a little about blogging as a form of word-of-mouth communication as well as share my love of more "unusual" music (that is, stuff you don't hear every day when you turn on the radio). I never expected that this blog would (so quickly) help me discover new music and artists -- something I love to do (as I mentioned in my post about bar hopping).

I was surprised recently with an email from the marketing coordinator of an artist management company that represents a band called Years Around The Sun with an attached MP3 file from the band as well as an offer to send me their debut CD Introstay. The moment I heard it, I decided that this was my kind of music. Catchy melody and toe-tapping rhythm. While it's possible the lyrics may be profound (as I've mentioned before, I am not really a "lyrics man"), I couldn't tell. I listen to music for entertainment and not some intellectual stimulation. This was a song with lush and layered sounds surrounding a nice hook. As I said, my kind of music.

I would like to assure blog readers that I am NOT paid for the review. They sent me the song, I liked it and decided it is worth sharing with all of you. I don't know if any of you know me well enough to trust that I won't feature anything I am sent by any band or company that I don't genuinely like myself. But, given my eclectic taste in music, the featured music here will span many genres.

The first song is a single Heart Delay which, as I said, will get your toe tapping. This is the first song I heard from this group. The second song linked below is a selection from their debut CD called Sinclair. I had a hard time picking a song off their Introstay CD to feature here. I didn't like the opening track (Align), but found Dead Man's Sea to be very catchy. But then, when I put my headphones on, I seemed to prefer Dry Lake Bed. Probably the easiest to like on the first listen is Sinclair. Sounds like a single should sound. Soft Soul has a funky groove to it that would work great in the evening with a glass of wine in your hand. Both Northfork and Warm Jets are great songs. For some reason Warm Jets sounds a little Beatlesque to me. The sound on most of the songs is quite similar with jangly guitars and synths leading to a nice melody and a steady beat. Overall, the vocals are somehow reminiscent of a British group, but their site seems to suggest they're all Americans. Let me know if you get the same sense of a "British accent" when you hear these songs. In fact, all these songs remind me a lot of Evermore who I featured recently on this blog. Maybe it's my imagination.

You can find the band web site here (including tour info). And their CD cover looks suspiciously like the Jantar Mantar ancient astronomical lab I used to pass by frequently when I lived in New Delhi! Like many independent bands today, you can hook up with their MySpace page. Of course, I urge those of you who like these songs to buy their CD here. After having heard the songs, how wrong can you go for ten bucks?

1. Years Around The Sun - Heart Delay (Deleted on artist's request)
2. Years Around The Sun - Sinclair (Deleted on artist's request)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

10cc of Reggae-Rock

Since I seem to be on a roll here with my nostalgic tunes, here's another one that stems from my college days in India. A cousin of mine owned this album by 10cc. Since I considered this cousin of mine extremely cool, I had no choice but to like what he liked.

One song that was a favorite of his was Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc. If you listen to it, you'll see that it builds on the typically catchy reggae beat by adding some nice harmonies. It also has the word "cricket" in the lyrics, which for some reason, I always liked (I know this is all strange like a surreal dream, but you've got to realize that I'm grabbing at fragments of my memory here).

You can find the 10cc catalog on Amazon here. This song came from the album Bloody Tourists that you can find here. For a start, I strongly recommend this greatest hits collection available here.

You are all savvy enough to find out more info on this band at WIkipedia if you're interested, so I won't go into detail here in the post.

10cc - Dreadlock Holiday (6.92 MB; 192 kbps MP3)

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tony Brent - The Anglo-Indian Crooner

Here's something you probably have never heard. This post again refers to music that strikes a chord with me purely because of nostalgic reasons. Growing up in India, I used to listen to several 78 rpm records in my dad's collection. One of these was by a singer who was very popular in India and reached his real fame in the UK. Tony Brent was an "anglo-indian" (one parent English and another Indian) singer who moved from India in the 1950s and reached some acclaim as a singer. I think he also moved later to Australia but there is surprisingly little informatoin on the man on the Internet. I have memories of my Dad singing this song off-key in a loud voice and both of us laughing hysterically when my mom would complain. That would only encourage him to sing louder and even more off-key which, for some strange reason, would delight me.

You can find a CD of his greatest hits on Amazon here. There's another CD with less information here. The song featured here is really quite good and has nice lyrics and a catchy melody. As you can guess, his contemporary in the US was Pat Boone.

Anyone who can fill in more information on Tony Brent, please post here.

Tony Brent - Don't Save Your Love [For a Rainy Day] (2.09 MB; 192 kbps MP3)

Monday, May 14, 2007

A Fine Hero

An unexpected benefit of blogging is when it helps me discover new music that I otherwise would never have found. Recently, I was contacted by Dinesh Lalvani in Dubai about a song from his group The Fine. The music is a mixture of rock, electronica and strong vocals from fellow group member Claire Murphy.

They have a 4-song EP done that is available for purchase online. I understand they're working on a full album. You can find more information on Dinesh & Claire on their site at http://thefine.net/ which I urge you to visit. You can also head to their MySpace spot.

The first song featured here is Hero which couples a rock beat with some beautiful guitar work and Claire's clear vocals. It has a catchy melody and the combination of rock and acoustic ballad that I like so much (as you may have guessed from the selections of Triumph and Uriah Heep that were featured on this blog earlier).

If you like the song, why don't you add a comment to this post and I'm sure Dinesh and/or Claire will respond to any of your compliments or criticisms! Let them know if you want to hear more and maybe they'll send me another song for me to post here.

1. The Fine - Hero (4.69 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Friday, May 11, 2007

We All Make Our Choices ...

For this weekend, I'm going to leave you with something special. Another one of those albums I thought was a classic when I was young. I'll admit I bought this album in the 80s because of the album cover. Any album with a massive, threatening, snake with blood dripping from its jaws has got to be good. So I thought.

The album quickly grew to be one of my favorites and I carried that with me over the years. It was only many years later, when I knew all about Uriah Heep did I come to find that this album, Innocent Victim was always considered one of their weaker albums. I am here now to finally dispel that myth. This is still one of my favorite albums. This is the kind of hard rock I like. It has the heavy overdriven guitars to classify it as hard rock, but the sound and vocals are clear. Like you should with most hard rock, please listen to these tracks with the volume turned up high to get the best effect.

The first track is "Free 'N' Easy" which is a good, hard rocking track that starts off with a great, confident guitar riff and keeps it up through the song. The second track is one that I found moving when I was young. I am not sure exactly why now, but I do recall feeling the lyrics hit me in the gut whenever I heard this song in my younger days. As an eighteen year old, for some reason, I was completely impressed with the lyrics
And we all make our choices
Like a blind man feels his way,
And the choice I've made is simple:
Passion over pain.


I'm sure there was a reason these lyrics affected this eighteen-year old so strongly. I've tried hard to recall what emotions led me to rave over these lyrics, but I'm drawing a blank.

Most of you are familiar with Uriah Heep. You can find more about the band here. Their complete discography on Amazon is here. This album, which I still maintain is their best, is available here with bonus tracks. Enjoy!

1. Uriah Heep - Free 'N' Easy (2.83 MB;128 kbps MP3)
2. Uriah Heep - Choices (5.33 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Listen to the pouring rain ...

Many years ago, I owned an album by Jose Feliciano. Although I think it was a greatest hits album, I recall the one song I instantly fell in love with was Rain. It has all the elements of a song I tend to like - simple lyrics sung in a heartfelt manner and a catchy melody.

It is easy to generate the visual imagery of a cool, cloudy, rainy evening with you all alone at home thinking of your love who is far away. The loneliness coupled with the mild depression brought on by the weather makes you realize how much you love the one you're missing and how much better it would be if she was there with you. The lyrics in this song just seem natural in that context. Even though the words seem to be sung to someone in the room with him, I see it more as the singer sitting alone and reassuring himself of his love for a woman. He almost seems to be trying to cheer himself up by singing about her.

Or, I could be reading way too much into all of this ...

Jose is a unique singer and a virtuoso guitarist. Some of his greatest hits were covers of other hit songs (probably his biggest hit was his exceptional and unique cover of Light My Fire). The second song I feature here is a cover of Lennon-McCartney's In My Life. Again, he puts his own stamp on it and doesn't try to recreate the original. According to his bio on wikipedia, he was born blind and taught himself to play the guitar by locking himself up in a room and practicing 14 hours a day. Now if that doesn't lead to passionate playing, I don't know what will.

As usual, if you're as enthralled by Jose Feliciano as I was when I first heard him, you can find most of his discography at Amazon here. As a start, I would recommend The Definite Best which seems to be a fairly comprehensive coverage of his hits at a reasonable price. You'll love the passion in Hitchcock Railway and enjoy his spin on the many covers on the disc.

As long as we're together, who cares about the weather ...

UPDATE (5/17/2010): MP3s deleted at the request of DMCA and Google. Don't bother trying to sample music here before buying.

1. Jose Feliciano - Rain (2.25 MB; 128 kbps MP3)
2. Jose Feliciano - In My Life (3.09 MB; 128 Kbps MP3)

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Buy Blackman!

So far, this blogging has been fun. Even though I started doing this just for fun and haven't found the time to publicize this blog at all, it is delightful when it yields surprises. I'll admit it is exciting when I find someone is actually reading what I write. It is even more exciting when what I write is read by someone I write about.

In a recent post, I had talked about this great Atlanta band called Starbuck. While researching the band for my post, I found out that the founder of the band, Bruce Blackman was still around and that the Starbuck releases available on Amazon were apparently not the original album recordings but instead some low quality demos released by someone looking to make a fast buck.

Imagine my delight when I found that Bruce Blackman himself somehow found his way to the blog and posted a comment about the imminent release of all the band's original recordings on his own label. I was relieved that he didn't yell at me for posting an MP3 of his song and I am ecstatic that the original recordings are to be released, I really hope to hear them soon. One of the best parts of the recording I had posted (as mentioned in my previous post) was the sonic quality of the recordings. I sincerely hope they have been remastered to preserve that sonic excellence.

I'm so happy to hear from Mr. Blackman that today's post has no song (you've had plenty over the last few weeks), but instead includes a link to MoonlightFeelsRight.com. I urge you to keep checking the site for information on the release of Starbuck recordings. Perhaps Mr. Blackman will drop by here and post a comment once those CDs are available on the site.

Visit http://MoonlightFeelsRight.com/

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Quoth the Raven "Evermore"

Okay, okay. I know that that raven really quoth "Nevermore," but then I wouldn't be able to use Poe to introduce my band of the day - Evermore.

If you'll look through the blog I made of my Australia trip last year, you'll see my mention of the opening act for Split Enz that I thought was amazing. Evermore is a New Zealand - Australian band that is made up of the "Hume Brothers." When I saw them open for Split Enz last year, I was struck by the richness of the sound this three-piece band was able to create. It was a very full sound and the drummer for the band (who looked to be all of fifteen) was spectacular. I attended the concert with a guy who has played in a band for years (perhaps I'll feature his band on here some time) and he raved about the drummer, so it is not just my uninformed opinion that this kid was great. The songs featured here are all from this three-piece band and should give you an idea of how impressive their concert set was.

Evermore released their Dreams album in 2004 and their second album Real Life in 2006. I picked up a copy of their first single from the Real Life album during the Enz concerts last year and was impressed enough to buy a copy of their Dreams album. Although these songs have done well in Australia, I'm sure many of you reading this blog have never heard Evermore. They claim to be influenced by The Police (Synchronicity), Pink Floyd, and Silverchair.

As usual, if you like them, buy their Dreams album on Amazon.com here. The Real Life album is available only as an import so is a lot more pricey on Amazon here. From what I heard, these kids are young and will probably be heard more from in the future. Just remember, you heard them first here.

The first track is from the single I picked up in Australia last summer, Running. It is from the Real Life album. The second track here is a single from their debut album. Find out more about the band on their Wikipedia page or on their MySpace page. Of course, if you like these tracks, you should also visit their official web site.

1. Evermore - Running (4.03 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Evermore - It's Too Late (3.59 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Monday, May 7, 2007

Free Steadman NOW!

Several years ago (honestly, it was at the turn of this century!), when the idea of bands releasing their own music on the Internet was a completely new phenomenon, I ran across a band completely by accident on MP3.Com. In those days, bands could create an account and upload their music and then create a "space" on their site to sell their stuff.

One of the many songs I downloaded in those days was by this group called Steadman and this song called Life of Leisure was absolutely one of the catchiest songs I had ever heard. I was just convinced that this band was on the verge of really hitting it big. The song sounded exactly like the hits that was getting a lot of airplay in those days (Blues Traveler, Semisonic, Everclear, etc.) and I couldn't imagine how it could be long before some savvy marketer picked up this single and got it a ton of airplay. I remember being excited and telling friends about this band I had "discovered" so I could tell them all "I told you so" once the band became a household name.

Well, as far as I know, it never happened. I still love this song and think it has a catchy melody and great clear vocals. For anyone out there wondering what kind of music turns me on, here's a model! When I was creating this post, I did some searching online to find out what happened to Steadman. Of course, at Amazon, not only can you find the album with this song, Loser Friendly but also their newest album, Revive (released in 2003). Apparently they're an English band who has gained some fame after being featured on Smallville. Wikipedia provides more details about their current whereabouts and also clarifies that their sound is influenced by Oasis and Radiohead (shows what I know in my musical comparisons!) Most interestingly, I discovered from Wikipedia that Steadman got disgruntled with the "big label" business and have released all their albums and off-cuts online as free digital downloads with a creative commons license (feel free to download and distribute). Now if that isn't a reason to love this band, I don't know what gets you going. Please visit their site here and download anything you want! As they say, they want you to.

1. Steadman - Life of Leisure (5.376 MB; 160 kbps MP3)

Friday, May 4, 2007

Dance and Feel Sad

One "family" of artists I promise to feature regularly on this blog is the "Finn Family." You can trace this family's musical roots to the groups Split Enz, Crowded House, Schnell Fenster, The Finn Brothers, as well as solo albums by brothers Tim and Neil Finn.

This year has been big news for the Finn folks as we heard that Crowded House had been reformed for gigs around the world. Yesterday, Tim Finn kicked of his U.S. tour with an appearance on KCRW in Los Angeles. Tim Finn is out promoting his new album Imaginary Kingdom which was just released in the U.S. Before I post a song or two from that album, I am going to jump back early to his solo career and post a couple of songs from his first two solo albums.

The first song is from his 1983 album Escapade and features very dated synthesizer-heavy dance music. While it certainly sounds like "an 80's song" Fraction Too Much Friction has the catchy pop melody and reggae-tinged beat to make it instantly likable. The second song is from his 1989 self-titled album and is achingly painful. The story is that Tim went through bouts of depression. Follow the lyrics in this song. There's one verse where he sings "Not even close to pulling through ..." with such feeling that it makes your hair stand on end. You can feel that this is not some meaningless lyric to him. Two very contrasting moods in these selections here.

You can find all Tim Finn CDs on Amazon.com here. Escapade can be purchased here, and the self-titled Tim Finn can be found here. You should buy his newest album Imaginary Kingdom here. And, if possible, catch Tim Finn at a city near you using the news here. Tim even has a MySpace page where you can listen to songs and watch videos.

1. Tim Finn - Fraction Too Much Friction (3.89 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Tim Finn - Not Even Close (3.96 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Soulful Jesus Christ Superstar

One of my all time favorite albums is Jesus Christ Superstar. In general, I also love cover versions of songs I love (especially if they're quite distinct from the original). So, how could I resist when eBay promised me that ultimate salvation - a cover version of Jesus Christ Superstar?

The vinyl album on eBay promised a "soul version" of Jesus Christ Superstar that sounded intriguing. I have numerous versions of the album already (if you're interested, I'll post songs from the Japanese version on this blog sometime). So, during one of my spurts of vinyl-to-digital conversion, I transferred the album to my computer.

This appears to be one of those rare albums that I could not find on Amazon.com. It obviously is so obscure that it was never released on CD. The versions are certainly very different than the ones we're all familiar with and consists of songs sung by Sammy Turner (Jesus), Jaye Kennedy (Mary Magdalene), and Sam Taylor, Jr. (Judas). While I would love to post the entire album here, I thought I'd at least give you a taste for the style of the album with these two selections here.

Amazingly (maybe I should say "Amazoningly"), I found that Sammy Turner was apparently famous enough to have a Best of ... collection on Amazon.com. You can find that album here. I have no idea if the Sam Taylor, Jr. on this album is the same Sam "The Bluzman" Taylor listed on wikipedia. No information can easily be unearthed about Jaye Kennedy.

1. Jaye Kennedy - Everything's Allright (2.29 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. J.D. Bryant - The Last Supper (2.49 MB; 128kbps MP3)

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Fountains of Wayne are Never Wet

The music savvy among you probably are scoffing at the idea that people haven't heard of Fountains of Wayne. After all, they're gaining in popularity and may even have gotten some fair airplay recently. Again, my 11-year-old son (who I use as the barometer of what's "current") knew who Fountains of Wayne were and gave me the title of a few of their songs.

But, this CD was sent to me by a friend of mine some time agop and I found most of the songs instantly catchy and likeable. The one song that grabbed me and stayed around in my head all day was "Hat and Feet." I challenge you to listen to this song twice and not find yourself humming it all day.

Great midwest pop. You can find all their CDs on Amazon.com here. The CD from which I got these two selections is Utopia Parkway and you can find that CD here. Enjoy!

1. Fountains of Wayne - Hat and Feet (2.78 MB; 128kbps MP3)
2. Fountains of Wayne - Red Dragon Tattoo (3.23 MB; 128kbps MP3)