Greater Boston Spring/Summer Concert Lineup: A Sure Remedy for Seasonal Depression

February 28, 2011

It’s probably safe to say this dreadful weather has taken a handsome toll on all of us, but luckily, there is a cure for what ails. With dates being unveiled at the same speed of the falling… snain (or whatever that “wintry mix” of snow and rain is), the Greater Boston concert scene is picking up momentum, and not a second too soon. From marquee staples the likes of Rihanna, Sade & John Legend, Rod Stewart & Stevie Nicks, and Bon Jovi, to less famous powerhouses such as Ellie Goulding, Further, and Providence-based indie rockers The Low Anthem besieging local stages, Boston will be swaying and flicking those red socks-embossed lighters well through the sticky dog days of summer.

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Us On Roofs and Land Of Pines at The Vera Project, Seattle

February 22, 2011

This past Friday, February 18, I caught a show at The Vera Project in Seattle, an all ages venue in Seattle Center. It was definitely an experience. When we were looking for venues, it didn’t occur to us that “all-ages” also meant no bar and a crowd of almost all early college and high schoolers with parents in the back waiting for the concert to be over so they could pick up their kids.

Despite the new venue experience, we were pleasantly surprised by the whole night. The venue was picked purely on Myspace samples of Us On Roofs and Land Of Pines, leaving us with the thought of, “yeah, we could spend an evening listening to that”. Both are underage bands with ties to the Experience Music Project Sound Off! battle of the bands. The whole night was a refreshing confirmation that young bands are not to be ignored.

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The Best Thing Twilight Did For Me, Or The Discovery of Sia

February 21, 2011

It might be a disease. Whether in the theater, surrounded by a spellbound audience or in my living room watching the characters of ABC’s latest drama dash across my television, I’m never quite consumed by the plot. Always, always I am more tuned in to what’s going on behind the scenes: soundtracks reel me in. While those around me channel laser-like focus on dialogue, character interaction, and hidden symbolism, I am busy jotting down lyrical snippets on my BlackBerry to explore later.

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The Imagined Village

February 15, 2011

The Imagined Village is a project started by Simon Emmerson, a three time Grammy nominee, who wanted to explore identity of traditional English folk music while acknowledging the multiculturalism in the U.K. The name of the band comes from the book The Imagined Village by Georgina Boyles which is a study of English folk traditions. They ask the question, “who decides what it is to be authentic and English and more importantly what it is that makes us proud to be English musicians”? The question is never quite answered but it comes close to, “that there is a distinctly English tradition that belongs not to royalists and imperialists, but to the people, a tradition that runs from The Diggers to The Clash.”

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Grammy Musings

February 14, 2011

I didn’t watch the Grammys live this year, but thanks to the efficiency of social media, I was quite up to speed on each and every development. A few things worth discussing (or deliberating):

1. “Who is Esperanza Spalding?” Question of the night the year. Yet, while all of the world’s Beliebers (and nonBeliebers) are in a Twitter tizzy about an alleged musical coup d’état, Espe is laughing all the way to her next sold out show with a shiny, golden gramophone in hand. I’m impressed that the Academy chose to honor an unconventional nominee, at the risk of infinite backlash (Drake and Florence were nominated for Best New Artist too, Beliebers). Not that the Grammy panel cares about a swarm of prepubescent tweens.

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