What should I be doing instead of this?
 
 
by Mike Breen 03.09.2012 78 days ago
Posted In: Live Music, Local Music, Music Video at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 
 
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Music Tonight: Young Jeezy, Brighton MA and More

Hip Hop star Young Jeezy performs tonight in Corryville, bringing his tour behind the recent Thug Motivation 103: Hustlerz Ambition album to Bogart's for an 8 p.m. show. The Def Jam Records recording artist released his major label debut, Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, in 2005, spawning the hit single "Soul Survivor," featuring singer Akon. The South Carolina-born, Atlanta-based MC (once a member of the group Boyz n da Hood) put out two more albums — The Inspiration and The Recession (in ’06 and ’08, respectively) — which featured guests from R. Kelly and Keyshia Cole to Nas and Kanye West (their collabo "Put On" was nominated for a Grammy), and he's appeared as a guest himself on singles by Usher ("Love in This Club") and Rihanna ("Hard"). The Thug Motivation masterclass skipped ahead to 103 (perhaps Thug Motivation 102 is audit-only?) and was released late last year after several announced release dates came and went. The album landed at No. 3 on the album charts its first week out (in the midst of holiday shopping fever, making it more impressive). TM 103 once again features a pretty heady guest list, with cameos by Yo Gotti, Lil Wayne, Freddie Gibbs, Jay-Z, Andre 3000, Jill Scott, Snoop and Ne-Yo, who appears on the most recently released single "Leave You Alone."  Check the video below (NSFW for language, excessive head tattoos and gratuitous product placement for Crown Royal and Ciroc vodka). Tickets for tonight's show are $25 (plus fees). Read more about Jeezy here.• Indie rockers Brighton MA — neither from Brighton nor Massachusetts — hit MOTR Pub tonight for a free show with great locals The Mighty. The Chicago band was formed by two members of Scotland Yard Gospel Choir upon their departure from that acclaimed Indie Pop ensemble, emerging as a successful and acclaimed unit in its own right not long after. An intense mesh of Folk, Rock and Pop, the band's songs have been used on TV shows (like Gossip Girl and Community) and in a successful Jack Daniels ad campaign last year during the holidays. The band also scored a sweet tour van to take a trip on Route 66 for an extensive promotional web series called "Rock the Route," which was sponsored(-the-hell-out-of) by Red Bull. Earlier this year, the group released a new 7-song EP called Billboard Sun, a warm-up for their second full-length, due later this year. Tonight's show starts around 10 p.m. Oh, and Brighton, Mass., is the neighborhood in which singer Matt Kerstein was born (in case you were wondering). Here's the band's "Good Kind of Crazy" (aka "the song from the Jack Daniels commercial"):• Veteran Country star Marty Stuart plays the Newport Syndicate tonight, part of the club/restaurant's concert series that matches musical performances with a dinner buffet (the successful series has featured artists like John Waite and Little River Band in the past). Read more about Marty here then get to the club by 6 p.m. for your meal. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. (For more food/show details, go here.) And check out a video for "Tear the Woodpile Down" from Stuart's forthcoming Nashville, Volume 1: Tear the Woodpile Down (due April 24). Stuart's career has crossed lines and touched on Rock & Roll and Bluegrass over the years, but Woodpile looks to be straight-up Country. Here's a great press-release quote from Stuart about the new effort: "When I first came to Nashville the most outlaw thing you could possibly do around here was to take Country music and blow it up into Rock & Roll. Mission accomplished! Today, the most outlaw thing you can possibly do in Nashville, Tenn., is play Country music.”• Equal Vision recording artists We Came As Romans (cover models for the April edition of Alternative Press magazine) will rock Covington's Madison Theater tonight with guests Emmure, BlessTheFall, Color Morale and Woe is Me (all on the road together currently as "The Fire and Ice Tour"). Doors open at 6 p.m.; showtime is 7 p.m. Admission to the all ages show is $19. Read more about the Romans here and check out their most recent music video, "Understanding What We've Grown to Be," below.• Syracuse, NY, native (boo! Go Bearcats!) Martin Sexton comes back to Greater Cincinnati tonight, performing at Oakley's 20th Century Theater "An Evening with …"-syle (meaning no opening act and lots of Martin all night long). The folksy Americana singer/songwriter is known for his fingerstyle guitar playing, skilled songwriting and soulful singing, as well as his "guitar-solo vocals," where he mimics guitar leads, Peter Frampton-style (at the 2006 Jammy Awards at Madison Square Garden, he had a sung-solo sing-off with Frampton — maybe Pete will show tonight?). Read more here. Tonight's show is at 8 p.m. and admission is $22. Below is the official video for Sexton's title track off of the recent 5-song EP, Fall Like Rain:

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by Jac Kern 03.02.2012 85 days ago
 
 
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I Just Can't Get Enough

Jac's favorite pop culture and Internet findings of the week

Blues Night at the White House No, it wasn’t a somber night of the Obamas watching the GOP race progress. Blues Night brought B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Mick Jagger to Washington for a night of great performances! The trio, along with many other performers, played classics like “Let the Good Times Roll,” “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and “Let Me Love You Baby.” No word on whether “Moves Like Jagger” was on the bill (sorry for making that get stuck in your head). The highlight of the night? Obama singing a few lines of “Sweet Home Chicago.” The concert aired on PBS Feb. 27. My Strange Addiction It’s baaaack! This hot mess of a show seems like it would be an SNL spoof on ridiculous reality shows, but it really exists. And who really knows if these people are truly “addicted” to their behavior, or just do it for attention — either way, it’s some twisted entertainment. This season of the TLC "hit" features a man who is in love with (as in sexually attracted to) his 1998 Chevy Monte Carlo; a woman who can’t stop snorting baby powder; a woman with 38KKK-sized breasts addicted to (you guessed it) breast augmentations and plenty more sorry souls. Alcohol on the Internet You’ve probably heard of What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner, a comically crass blog that randomly generates unique recipes (and if you “don’t fucking eat meat,” there are plenty of veg options, too). Thankfully, now you can find out where to get a cocktail after dinner, with Where The Fuck Should I Go For Drinks. Just enter your location, and the site gives plenty of good options to wet your whistle. I also discovered an amazing blog this week (That’s So Michelle) and instead of gushing, I’ll just explain one thing: It has a category devoted to Jell-o shots. And I’m not talking nasty lime gelatin-and-Popov crap, this shit is gourmet! Michelle uses excellent ingredients and ingenious flavor combinations to create shots of pink lemonade, caramel apple and strawberry margarita, all served in hollowed-out fruits. Bask: Chloe Frankly, I’m disappointed in myself for just now discovering “Chloe.” This web show stars Drew Droege as Queen Original Hipster, Chloe Sevigny. Each episode is set up the same: Chloe introduces herself and discusses her appreciation of something mildly timely (Valentine’s Day, Summer, Resolutions). She then goes on to discuss how she celebrates the topic, name-dropping all along the way. From the unusual accent to the discussion of obscure activities to the amazing wardrobe, it’s hi-lar-i-ous. Again, I realize this has been around the ‘nets for a while, but I have to share with anyone deprived of Chloe as I was. Enjoy! Baby Kanye Meme OK, I’ve grown tired of this “everything’s a meme!!” trend happening, but sometimes there are decent ones amidst the sea of “What my friends think I do…” And since everything Kanye is generally entertaining, I present Baby Kanye: The Meme.   Design*Sponge’s "Living In" Page D*S can do no wrong, so I love everything about it. But I’ve always particularly liked when blogs and magazines show me how to incorporate style from a movie into my real life. D*S’ “Living In” page covers all the best scenes you want to copy, from Cleopatra to Clueless. Most recently, the site featured Twin Peaks, Almost Famous and Chocolat. Christopher PlummerRemember in grade school when there would be “Star of the Week,” and that kid would bring in brownies and talk about his pet turtle and make a posterboard about his cool life? Beginners' Christopher Plummer is my Star of the Week. He’s proof that it's never too late to do something awesome. So if you’re 28 and crying because you hate your office job and you don't know what to do with your life, suck it up!  CP waited 82 damn years to get an Oscar! Check out his charming speech here.
 
 
by Mike Breen 02.23.2012 93 days ago
Posted In: Music History, Music Commentary at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 
 
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This Date in Music History: Feb. 23

'This Land Is Your Land' turns 72 and Aziz Ansari turns Kanye jokes into an artform

On this day in 1940, American music icon Woody Guthrie wrote his most famous song and one that has become embedded into the DNA of American life, "This Land is You Land." The Folk music legend and notorious fighter for the social causes of the poor and working class is said to have written the song after hearing (a few too many times) Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," which he felt was too hyperbolic. Just like Roxanne Shante's "The Real Roxanne" was written as a response to U.T.F.O.'s "Roxanne Roxanne" (OK, maybe not JUST like), "This Land" was Guthrie's "answer song." Guthrie recorded the future standard five years later, but it wasn't until the ’60s Folk revival that the song really took flight, as everyone from Bob Dylan to The Kingston Trio covered the tune. Though "God Bless America" may be the song still sung at baseball games, "This Land is You Land" has endured as one of the greatest pieces of American art, a reflection of what many of us believe our country is all about — "We're all in this together and lucky to be on this wonderful little chunk of dirt, so shut up and quit being so selfish, jerk-ass!" Or something along those lines (maybe I read too much into it). The song is still common at protests and used in political contexts. Bruce Springsteen closed his acoustic concerts in support of Barrack Obama in 2008 with a version ("Yes We Can" chants added), while Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello serenaded the mass of humanity at the Occupy Wall Street protest in NYC with the song (lost verses and all) this past October. Here is one of the great "contemporary" versions — a rendition by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, who give the song a sweet vintage Soul makeover:Click the jump for "Born This Day" featuring Aziz Ansari, the Mark Twain of Kanye West jokes.

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Cobain, Kanye and T-Pain

0 Comments · Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Kanye West and Jay-Z were recently sent a message from independent record stores — please, sirs, may we sell your music and make you even more money? A coalition of stores signed a letter to the super-duo asking them to reconsider their deal with Best Buy to sell their much-anticipated Watch the Throne exclusively for about two weeks before other retailers may have the privilege.  

Elvis Costello, The Greenhornes, Rory Gallagher, Kanye West and new Jimi Hendrix

0 Comments · Tuesday, December 7, 2010
It's been a while, boys and girls. Sorry for going dark — it's been a wild November, what with the mid-term elections, a trip to Michigan and the excellent Music CEAs event. Let's check out new releases from Elvis Costello, The Greenhornes, Rory Gallagher, Kanye West, Jimi Hendrix, The Russian Futurists and The Sights.  

FamousAches, BitTorrents and SuperBowels

0 Comments · Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The musical universe was in perfect order Thanksgiving week. Willie Nelson was busted on his tour bus for marijuana possession by U.S. Border Patrol in Texas. The cop said he smelled pot when the bus door opened (though, if fishing for reasonable cause for a search, he could have just gone with “It was Willie Nelson’s tour bus”).  

Bieber Threesome, Kings of 'Glee'on, Aerosmith

0 Comments · Tuesday, August 24, 2010
That one random kid Kanye West was following on Twitter has been replaced ... by Justin Bieber. The two tweeted about working on a song together and, not long after, the duo turned into a trio with the addition of Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon. While little Bieber referred to the collaboration as "EPIC," we're all sitting back with our "Huh?" faces on.  

Kanye Tweets, Wyclef and a Classical Critic

0 Comments · Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Kanye West is at that level of "tabloid celebrity" where joining Twitter is such a huge event that it makes headlines. And, Kanye's buddy, comedian Aziz Ansari, has been "Predicting Kanye Tweets" on his Twitter account, dropping potentially prophetic gems like, "Hans Zimmer needs to write a score for whenever I eat a cookie … when I eat cookies shit is mad suspenseful."  

The Floods, Kanye and Comics

0 Comments · Wednesday, May 12, 2010
'Rockabye Baby!' albums are supposed to appeal you adult sensibilities while providing some calm ambient noise for your infant, but this time they've gone too far with their first foray into Hip Hop: 'Lullaby Renditions of Kanye West.'  

Bonnaroo Buzz, Hip Hop Putin and Hecklers

0 Comments · Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Ben & Jerry's has topped itself with its most recent specialty offering. We're not exactly sure how the new "Bonnaroo Buzz" flavor — a blend of coffee and malt ice creams with "whiskey caramel swirls" and English toffee — ties in to the big summer music festival, but maybe the Gatorade/ pot/ Patchouli-flavored formula didn't test-market well.  

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