Oppenheimer has a new CD, “Take the Whole Mid-Range and Boost It,” coming out soon. Below is the video for “Look Up” from the upcoming disc. Great stuff from the two boys from Belfast! Enjoy!
Video: “Song for Matthew” by Christian Beach (Live 2/2/08)
Here’s another video from Christian Beach’s Feb. 2 performance at Paul’s Tavern in Lake Como, N.J. This is “Song for Matthew” and — although unseen — I am playing tambourine and organ on this one.
Christian Beach: “Poet of the Great Plains” (Live 2/2/08)
Christian Beach – “Poet of the Great Plains” (Live at Paul’s Tavern, 2/2/08)
Found this video of “Poet of the Great Plains” from Christian Beach’s 2/2/08 show at Paul’s Tavern in Lake Como (formerly S. Belmar), NJ. I am rockin’ the tambourine and organ in this one (you won’t see me until about 1:03 into the clip).
What the heck…here’s one more PG video (“Secret World” – Live 1993)
Peter Gabriel – “Secret World” (Live 1993)
Sorry…I need to post one more Peter Gabriel video. This one is a performance of “Secret World” from the “Secret World Live” tour that supported the “Us” album. I love this song (if you go to my MySpace Music site and listen to “The Greatest Love,” you may hear the influence) and experiencing it in concert is always a thrill for me. I don’t know…maybe it’s the combination of a great song, strobe lights and twirling.
Peter Gabriel: “Lay Your Hands on Me” (Live 1988)
Peter Gabriel: “Lay Your Hands on Me” (Live 1988)
I have been listening to Peter Gabriel a lot lately because the first single, “Whole Thing,” from his long-awaited Big Blue Ball project (it’s a multi-artist effort…NOT a new PG album) was recently released as a single on iTunes. Anyway, I was wandering around YouTube and spent a good hour or so watching some Peter Gabriel videos…and this performance of “Lay Your Hands on Me” from the late 80s tour supporting “So” is one of my favorite all-time concert experiences (I wasn’t at this particular show, but it went down basically the same way when my sister and I saw him from row 16 of the floor at The Spectrum in Philly).
For the uninitiated, this song may be tough to get through, but trust me…right around the 4:40 mark of this clip, it gets freakin’ amazing…and I don’t care what kind of music you’re into.
Recap: Howard Jones in South Jersey, 1/18/08
I went to see one of the musical influences of my youth, Howard Jones, perform last Friday night at the Dennis Flyer Memorial Theatre on the Blackwood, N.J., campus of Camden County College. The venue seats about 600, but — disappointingly — it was only about half-filled. However, that did make for a very intimate performance.
HoJo, better known for his synthesizer-driven pop hits of the 1980s, played digital piano and was accompanied by long-time collaborator Robin “The Itch” Boult on acoustic guitar. I wound up buying a live CD from a show the pair recorded last year in the UK and had HoJo sign it after the show. I would have taken a picture of this brief meeting…except my camera batteries died and I forgot to bring extras with me. D’oh!
Anyway, I found this YouTube video of HoJo and Robin performing “Life in One Day” in Brisbane from a March 2007 show.
UPDATE…After I originally posted this, I found a couple of YouTube videos from the show I attended, plus one of HoJo and Robin performing “Life in One Day” at a March 2007 show in Brisbane.
Enjoy!
Howard Jones “Life in One Day” Live @ Brisbane, March 2007
This video starts out with HoJo telling a story about how the record company forced him to write it because the “suits” didn’t hear any hits on what would become his biggest-selling album (“Dream Into Action”)…and then there is a bit of a false start at the start of the song. But it’s all super fun!
Howard Jones “Like To Get To Know You Well” – Blackwood, NJ (1/18/08)
This video cuts off before the end of the song, but includes a funny story about how a translation of “Like to Get to Know You Well” into Japanese nearly destroyed Howard Jones’ career.
Howard Jones “No One is to Blame” – Blackwood, NJ (1/18/08)
No funny stories here…just HoJo performing his classic hit, “No One is to Blame,” the way it was meant to be heard (i.e., without Phil Collins messing around with it).
Another show coming up
My friend Christian Beach has once again invited me to play some organ and — believe it or not — accordion for a show he is doing Feb. 2, 2008, at Paul’s Tavern in Belmar, NJ.
Also, just wanted to let you know that Christian’s cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years,” on which I play organ, appears on “Hero: The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie.” The 2-CD set, which was released on Christmas Day, features many Jersey artists’ takes on Bowie classics and is available now from the Main Man web site.
Bowie tribute album set for Christmas release
A few weeks ago, my good friend Christian Beach invited me to play organ on a recording of David Bowie’s “Five Years.” Well, I am pleased to report that Christian’s cover of “Five Years” will be the first song on the second disc of a 2-CD Bowie tribute album to be released by Main Man Records on Dec. 25.
Follow the link to find out more about Hero-The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie.
Artist to Watch: Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is a duo from Belfast, Ireland, who recently finished a U.S. tour opening for They Might Be Giants.
I know there are a lot of people out there who don’t care at all for opening acts, but I have had pretty good success at seeing openers who went on to bigger and better things. Actually, the first concert I ever went to was when my parents took me and my sister to what was then Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands for a Hall & Oates show. The opening act that night was a yet-to-hit-it-big band by the name of ‘Til Tuesday fronted by Aimee Mann. About a week later I saw their debut album, “Voices Carry” — on cassette — in a local store and bought it. A few weeks later, the album’s title track was all over the radio and on MTV.
So, anyway, I have had a pretty good history with seeing quality opening acts, especially in recent years. I saw Tegan and Sara open for Ben Folds at The College of New Jersey about five years ago and never heard of them before. Now, they seem to be all over the place. Then, I saw The Zutons and The Redwalls open for Keane a few years ago, the soon-to-be-all-over-the-place Nicole Atkins open for Mike Doughty, and the still-up-and-coming Dawn Landes open for Midlake just a few months ago.
And that leads me back to the point of this post: Oppenheimer has joined the list of opening acts I would certainly like to see and hear again…hopefully, as a headliner. They played a really strong set of synth-based, 2-to-3 minute pop songs, and their debut, self-titled album is more of the same.
And this quote from Oppenheimer’s Rocky O’Reilly reminds me of the days when my friend Christian Beach and I use to stand behind our array of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines and sequencers:
I could never imagine Oppenheimer being more than us Oppenheimers. We write and record all our own stuff, the creation is very studio based. It’s the two of us throwing our ideas back and forth at each other and seeing where it takes us. In that way I hope the live show reflects that process, that it is two people creating the sounds. On occasion people are upset that it’s not guitar/bass/drums, but that’s not really what we are about, it’s about pop/electronica and really it’s about having fun!
Here is dark, grainy YouTube video of Oppenheimer performing “This is Not a Test” during a recent CMJ show in New York City…
(photo and quote courtesy of Pixelsurgeon.com)
New song in the works
So I finally got around to writing and recording a new song this past weekend. Well, it’s really more like a sketch of a song, but it creates a foundation for something that should be one of my better works.
The drum/percussion parts will be changed and I’m not sure the bridge is going to stay the same. But the verse and chorus parts are pretty much established, although I might make an adjustment in the verse parts to make them a bit different from the intro.
Basically, it still needs a lot of work…and, as is often the case with my stuff, lyrics/vocals. However, this is the first thing I have written and managed to record in about a year. And, except for the faux acoustic version of the “Technology and the Arts” theme I recorded for that podcast, this is the first time I have recorded on my MacBook (using GarageBand, of course).
So, here you go…enjoy my latest musical creation (but keep in mind this is a work in progress).
“Alliel (Rough Demo Mix #1)” (4:42 / 6.5 MB)
Brian Kelley 