Mark your calendars for April 10…not only is it my wonderful girlfriend’s birthday, but my friend Christian Beach will be celebrating the recent release of his self-titled CD with a show at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ.
I will once again be part of Christian’s backing band, helping out on organ and accordion, as he performs the entire 12-song CD in tracklist order. Christian will be hitting the stage around 10 p.m. and tickets are just $10.
If you are in the area and are available that night, please feel free to come to the show. If you want to get a taste of Christian’s music, visit his new web site at ChristianBeach.net, or visit him on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/christianbeach.
Christian Beach’s self-titled CD is now available on iTunes, so if that is your preferred online music retailer, you may sample Christian’s music and buy it there.
Here is the YouTube playlist of Christian Beach’s complete set at the Strand Theater gallery on Feb. 7, 2009, as part of the CD release party for “A Few Uneven Rhymes – A Tribute to Winter Hours.” Enjoy!
(And thanks to Alison for capturing the video with my Flip mino!)
And here’s a fun fact for you: I designed the CD artwork around a photo by Charlie Pranio, which means I just did layout and selected an appropriate font.
Anyway, if you want to check out Christian Beach live, he has a few shows coming up:
Sat., March 28, 2009
8:45 p.m.
S.S. Cape May Music Conference Showcase
Congress Hall – The Brown Room Lounge
Cape May, NJ http://www.sscapemay.com solo
Fri., April 10, 2009
10:00 p.m.
“Christian Beach” CD Release Party @ The Saint
Asbury Park, NJ http://www.thesaintnj.com with band
“Hair Apparent – The Main Man Records Tribute to Hair Bands”
A couple of weeks ago, I posted that “Hair Apparent – The Main Man Records Tribute to Hair Bands,” featuring a bluegrass version of Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock” recorded by Christian Beach, was going to be on sale at www.mainmanrecords.com today, Sept. 2. That information was taken from a blog posting on Main Man Records’ MySpace profile.
Well, Main Man has just set up a “Hair Apparent” MySpace profile, which states next Tuesday, Sept. 9, as the actual release date (it will be available on iTunes in October)…so look for it then.
Christian’s version of “I Wanna Rock” will be the fifth track on the CD and also features Dan Mulvey on upright bass, Michael Scotto (of Agency) on drums, John Pfeiffer on Dobro, Gorgo on mandolin and yours truly on accordion.
So remember that post about a week ago in which I questioned how good the next Ben Folds CD was going to be based on the single “Hiroshima”? Well, it turns out, Ben put out a leak of “Way to Normal” on various web and torrent sites…but he recorded fake versions of several of the songs (including a title track that doesn’t really exist) and included those on the leaked version of the CD
That being said, “Hiroshima” is a real song…and I’m still not a big fan of it…but it’s not really the first single. It’s kind of a fake first single. The actual first single is the extremely catchy “You Don’t Know Me,” which is a duet with Regina Spektor.
“You Don’t Know Me” – Ben Folds (feat. Regina Spektor)
Anyway, here are videos for “Cologne” and “Hiroshima” from the upcoming CD. A note on the video for “Colonge”: The CD version apparently doesn’t include the piano orchestra intro…and the European music show is obviously fake.
“Cologne” – Ben Folds
“Hiroshima (B-B-B Benny Hit His Head)” – Ben Folds
Well, today marked my first listening to new songs by two of my favorite artists, Ben Folds and Keane.
Ben Folds announced via MySpace the debut of a video for “Hiroshima,” the first single off his upcoming CD, “Way to Normal” (Sept. 30, 2008). The half-assed, stop-motion video is quirky and funny…but the song? Well, I worship Ben Folds…think he’s a genius…I even met him very, very briefly in November 2005. But I’m just not feeling “Hiroshima.” It’s obviously a fleshed-out version of one of Ben’s improvisational pieces during one of his shows…and it will probably be fun to hear peformed live. I just don’t see myself playing it too many times on my iPod.
However, I guess I just expect a level of musicianship from Ben on recorded media…and “Hiroshima” doesn’t really meet that expectation for me. Hopefully, the rest of the new CD reaches higher.
But I still love your music, Ben…and you are still a genius.
On the other hand, Keane’s single for “Spiralling” (although I prefer “Spiraling”) off the upcoming “Perfect Symmetry” CD (Oct. 13, 2008 ) is really entertaining and fun. It’s not groundbreaking and I don’t expect Keane to be. However, the boys managed to retain their sound while also infusing it with dance beats and funk bass that seem to be greatly influenced by (and perhaps featuring samples from) David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” Even though this really isn’t the style of music I am into these days, I always seem to find a few pop songs throughout the year that I really enjoy…and “Spiralling” is definitely one of them. I can’t wait to get it on my iPod and play it a few times very loudly with my windows down on a long drive.
I was disappointed with Keane’s previous CD, “Under the Iron Sea,” although “Bad Dream” from that disc is a freakin’ great song. I thought “Sea” was a step back from the brilliance of 2004’s “Hopes and Fears,” which spawned “Somewhere Only We Know,” “Everybody Changes,” and “Bedshaped.”
But “Spiralling” gives me great hope that Keane has taken many steps forward with “Perfect Symmetry.”
Below is a Ustream.tv archive of a live “Sunday Jams” performance by Christian Beach on July 13, 2008. The backing band, which comes on for the fourth song, features Gorgo (mandolin, bass, backing vocals), John Pfeiffer (guitars, dobro), Michael Scotto (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and yours truly (organ, accordion, tambourine).
Set List:
1. Shadows (Christian Beach solo)
2. Cemetery Friends (Christian Beach solo)
3. Don’t Want to Be a Lonely Man (Christian Beach w/ Gorgo)
4. The Finest Day (Christian w/ full band)
5. Great Ideas (Christian w/ full band)
6. Poet of the Great Plains (Christian w/ full band)
7. Song for Matthew (Christian w/ full band)
8. Open Spaces (Christian w/ full band)
Brian Kelley 