Monday, September 26, 2005

Healthy in Paranoid Times

Rating:★★★★★
Category:Music
Genre: Alternative Rock
Artist:Our Lady Peace
I love Our Lady Peace. This review will be biased. I have all of their albums (6) and have seen them in concert 3 times (last week at the 9:30 club in DC was #3).

You have probably heard at least one of their songs and didn't realize who they are. They are a Canadian band and have been around for a long time (mid 90's). One of their biggest U.S. hits was 1997's 'Superman is Dead' off the album Clumsy. Three years ago their song 'Somewhere Out There', off their album Gravity, probably sold the most singles in the U.S.

Their new album, Healthy in Paranoid Times, took a long time to make. 1165 days to be exact. This is their most political album to date, although not preachy. It has some definite 'wave your hands' anthem tunes (I waved my hands at the show last week to these new songs: 'Where Are You', 'Wipe That Smile Off Your Face' and 'Angels/Losing/Sleep').

Of course there always has to be the sentimental lullaby type song. On Healthy in Paranoid Times it would be 'Al Genina (Leave the Light On)'. This song was written by Raine Maida (lead singer) after a trip to a few third world nations.

My favorite song on the album is 'Picture' (although this changes daily- last week it was 'Boy'). It's a sweeping, beautiful and very personal song- ”Don’t take my picture down/Don’t erase everything that we had …".

The concert was awesome. It was sold out and actually seemed to be full of all OLP die hards. Everyone was singing every song. During the encore, the audience sang most of an entire song while Raine stood holding the microphone out to us. Typical concert moment, but, well, I sang my heart out :)

It's a good rock/alternative album. I definitely recommend it. Although if you never heard OLP, I would probably have you buy their last album 'Gravity' too!

Check out my music downloads for some of my favorite OLP tunes...

Monday, September 19, 2005

Las Vegas

Start:     Nov 5, '05
End:     Nov 9, '05
Location:     Las Vegas

Washington Caps vs. Carolina

Start:     Oct 22, '05 7:00p
Location:     MCI Center, DC

USA WEEKEND Nat'l Sales Meeting

Start:     Oct 17, '05
End:     Oct 20, '05
Location:     McLean, VA

Aunt Myrna & Uncle Bob Visit!

Start:     Oct 21, '05 7:00p

DC Autism Walk

Start:     Oct 15, '05
Location:     Fed Ex Field
http://www.walknow.org/05baltimore

Washington Caps vs. Tampa Bay

Start:     Oct 16, '05 6:00p
Location:     MCI Center, DC

Foo Fighters & Weezer

Start:     Oct 10, '05 8:00p
Location:     Patriot Center

New York Business Trip

Start:     Oct 5, '05
End:     Oct 7, '05

Tour of Hope Closing Finale

Start:     Oct 8, '05 12:00p
www.tourofhope.org

Washington Caps pre-season vs Philly

Start:     Oct 1, '05 7:00p
Location:     MCI Center, DC

Washington Nationals Baseball Game

Start:     Sep 30, '05 7:00p

New Jersey

Start:     Sep 24, '05
End:     Sep 25, '05

Washington Caps pre-season vs Buffalo

Start:     Sep 21, '05 7:00p
Location:     MCI Center, DC

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Blue Brothers in Chicago




While in Chicago this past weekend, I was fortunate enough to catch the Blues Brothers Benefit show for Katrina. Dan Akroyd and Jim Belushi, with an assortment of amazing and talented blues musicians, rocked the house (the House of Blues that is). Thanks to Shari for the VIP lounge hook-up! Here's a snippet of Soul Man.

Thursday, September 1, 2005

Ripe and Raw Rock: Green Day's Post-Punk Boom


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102617.html
Ripe and Raw Rock: Green Day's Post-Punk Boom

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Page C01

It's hard to say which is more striking about Green Day circa 2005 -- the group's recent maturation or its sudden arena-rock tendencies.

Both were on full display Tuesday at Merriweather Post Pavilion, where Green Day performed material from last year's "American Idiot," a sharp, sociopolitical punk-rock opera that signaled a serious artistic growth spurt for a group previously known for caca jokes and songs about boredom, bong hits and masturbation.

The long-running Northern California band then punctuated the proceedings with a bunch of pyrotechnics: There were flash pots and torch flames and spark showers and such (and if there isn't a rule about turning in your punk badge once you reach double-digit pyro cues in a single show, well, there should be).

If the explosives weren't rawk-goddish enough for the kids in the crowd, well, thank good ness for the elaborate lighting and the disco ball and the wave-your-arms exhortations and the big blinking multicolored bulbs that spelled out GREEN DAY. There was also a cover of Queen's arena-rock anthem "We Are the Champions," an encore that was surprisingly light on irony. Somewhere, six feet under, Joey Ramone was rolling over.

So, Green Day: Definitely no longer a punk band -- although that story line has been in development at least since 1994, when the "sellout" charges came fast and furious upon the release of "Dookie," an MTV-friendly album that racked up sales of about 10 million copies.

There's also this, though: Green Day, one of the more compelling big-name rock bands around, by virtue of "American Idiot" (roughly 4 million sold -- less than half the "Dookie" haul, but a very big number nonetheless in the iPod era), along with a live show that sits at the entertaining intersection of good music and good theater.

Lest you worry that this means Green Day's, like, totally grown up and stuff, there was plenty of juvenile evidence Tuesday to suggest otherwise.

The manic lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong half-mooned the crowd, pretended to pass gas with the help of the tenor saxophonist (yes, the band occasionally used a horn section) and blasted fans with a water gun. Armstrong also pretended to pleasure himself at one point -- though The Washington Post can't verify the "pretended" part. Besides the shenanigans, of course, there was also music.

Playing for the first time since Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards, where Green Day collected seven statues -- including best rock video and video of the year, for its "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" clip -- Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tre Cool and several sidemen bashed, burned and sometimes wobbled through greatest hits ("Long View," "She," "Basket Case") and covers (Queen, Operation Ivy, "Shout," a bit of "Stand by Me"). But the majority of the set list featured songs from "American Idiot," including the album's first three tracks performed in sequence to open the nearly two-hour show.

The capacity crowd of 17,500 provided backing vocals, at very high volume, to just about every song out of the Green Day catalogue, including the album tracks that never made it as singles. And while the singalong occasionally annoyed, there were also moments of brilliance. Witness, for example, the slight young boy, maybe 8 or 9 years old, emphatically -- no, belligerently -- shouting "Can I get another Amen! There's a flag wrapped around a score of men!" from the antiwar screed "Holiday" as his mother stood stiffly and silently next to him, her arms folded, her lips pursed, her eyes rolling.

Now that is a punk-rock moment worthy of a flash pot.