Here is a short video of my first time ever doing karaoke…this took place at the Hotel Jonas in Jonas, Pa., on April 16, 2010 — the first night of my bachelor party weekend, which included a whitewater rafting trip near Jim Thorpe, Pa. This bar just happened to be down the road from the house we rented that weekend. I wasn’t going to do it, but I found this song — one of my favorites — in the catalog and I had six beers and two shots in me that night…so I wasn’t thinking very clearly. I think I did OK, though.
I first heard of Winter Gloves when I happened to catch the track “Invisible” from their “about a girl” CD on XM Radio’s The Verge channel. It was the catchy electric piano riff over a techno beat that drew me into the song. I hit the info button on my radio to find out the artist and saw the name Winter Gloves.
Unfortunately, I never wrote down the name of the band and forgot it hours later. Over the next 48 hours or so, I told my friend Jason and my fiancee Alison about this great song I heard on XM, but that I couldn’t remember the name of the band who performed it.
Then, while at a party for one of Alison’s friends, I checked an e-mail on my phone. It was a message letting me know that WinterGloves was now following me on Twitter. I instinctively blurted out, “Holy crap! That’s the band who did that song I heard! It’s Winter Gloves!”
So thanks to a combination of XM Radio and Twitter, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about the Montreal-based band Winter Gloves, which consists of Charles F (lead singer/songwriter/wurlitzer), Pat Sayers (drums), Vincent Chalifour (synths) and Jean-Michel Pigeon (guitar/glockenspiel).
According to the band’s bio…
Winter Gloves began as one guy’s way of figuring out how to plug himself into life in the big city. It was a single microphone and minimal equipment gathered into Charles F’s downtown Montreal apartment to piece together all the distances he’d covered since growing up in rural Quebec.
A three-song EP (“Let Me Drive”) was offered as a digital-only download and created additional buzz in anticipation of the release of the full-length “about a girl” CD in 2008.
I just bought “about a girl” from iTunes this past weekend and had a chance to listen to it a few times while driving up to Scranton, Pa., for a work-related meeting. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to catch Winter Gloves live in the near future.
Here is a video of Winter Gloves performing “Invisible”:
As someone who uses Pandora as a tool for new music discovery and listens to WXPN, the great radio station operating out of Philadelphia’s University of Pennsylvania, and to the emerging artist channels on XM Radio, I sometimes hear a band I like and think to myself, “You know, I wish I blogged about them sooner. Now they’re everywhere.”
But then I realize the artist isn’t everywhere…just everywhere I go for new music. So even though “those in the know” are raving about a certain artist, when I bring that artist up in a conversation about music, I’m always stunned to hear that most of the people I’m talking to have no knowledge of said artist.
So while I may be late to the party among those who pay close attention to the music industry, that shouldn’t stop me from writing about certain artists. After all, if my blog post connects just a few more people to a deserving artist, it’s worth the time to write it.
For instance, in this piece — my first “artist to watch” post in ages, I’m going to take a look at Passion Pit, an electronic group out of Cambridge, Mass., fronted by songwriter Michael Angelakos. Their first full-length CD, “Manners,” was released back in May, but there was buzz about the band after the ecstatic reception to their 2008 EP, “Chunk of Change.”
Passion Pit also has an interesting “from out of nowhere” back-story. “Chunk of Change” actually began as a four-song CD that Angelakos — who was attending Emerson College at the time — made for his then-girlfriend as a Valentine’s Day gift. The CD, however, wound up becoming quite popular on the Emerson campus and soon Angelakos was getting attention from record labels and promoters.
That resulted in the formation of Passion Pit (which currently consists of Angelakos, Ian Hultquist, Ayad Al Adhamy, Jeff Apruzzese and Nate Donmoyer) and the production of the “Chunk of Change” EP, which included the original four songs on the Valentine’s Day CD plus the tracks “Sleepyhead” and “Better Things.” Additional exposure for Passion Pit came from the use of “Sleepyhead” in a Canadian commercial for Sony’s PSP game system and spots for MTV’s “What the Flip?” promotion.
Passion Pit was named one of the top bands at the 2008 CMJ Music Marathon in New York and placed ninth in BBC’s Sound of 2009 list of emerging music acts. The band was also XPN’s Artist to Watch in June 2009.
Built upon electro-pop bass grooves and punchy synth-based hooks, the tracks on “Manners” draw from a number of musical influences. One can clearly hear touches of Brian Wilson/Beach Boys (“Let Your Love Grow Tall” and “Seaweed Song”), early Prince (“Eyes as Candles”) and even U2 (“Moth’s Wings”). For a taste of “Manners,” check out the video for “The Reeling” (my favorite track from the CD) below.
But Angelakos and Co. manage to incorporate those various influences into a cohesive collection of songs on “Manners” that makes for a enjoyable listen throughout. The one issue I have with “Manners” is the sequencing. While the first track, “Make Light” is a decent enough song, it isn’t quite successful as an album opener. If I hadn’t already heard many of the tracks that were to follow, I’m not sure “Make Light” would have drawn me into the rest of the CD on its own.
But if you like intelligent electronic pop music suitable for dancing or just driving around, pick up a copy of “Manners” by Passion Pit.
Ben Folds performs “Fair” in Dallas, Texas, during an October 2008 performance (link).
Because Ben Folds was playing at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia last night, my girlfriend, Alison, and I basically celebrated Valentine’s Day on Friday night. We exchanged gifts, she made me dinner and I gave her flowers…you know…all that stuff.
But we had made reservations for an early evening dinner Saturday at Copper Bistro in the Northern Liberties section of Philly since it is close to where the Electric Factory is. We get to the front door of the restaurant and there is a greeter outside…and nobody in the restaurant. After asking if we had reservations, he informs us that a problem with the restaurant’s oven hood meant the place was full of smoke. However, the owner was good friends with the owner of a small art gallery across the street, so the Copper Bistro staff moved all the tables and chairs over to the gallery, which served as dining room for the night. It was very resourceful and it was nice to see area businesses working together, especially in these times.
And the food was pretty good overall. The desserts were a bit of a let down, but the coffee was good and that’s all that matters to me after a meal.
Anyway, after dinner, we headed to the Electric Factory. Now, I am not one of those people at concerts who are constantly taking pictures — mostly because my photos usually turn out awful. But I like to take a few just to post on the ol’ blog. You may notice, however, that there is no photo to go along with this blog entry. I will explain that in a bit.
Knowing that I have received some pretty serious pat-downs upon entering the Electric Factory, I gave Alison my camera and my Flip camcorder to put in the bottom of her purse. In the past, it always seemed that women breezed through the security check while I was getting scrutinized for the various contact lens solutions I always carry around with me. This time, it was different…they didn’t even touch me, but they were going through all the women’s bags. Fortunately, Alison got through without the staff confiscating either camera.
However, they must have confiscated a lot because an announcement was made just before the night’s opening act, Miniature Tigers, took the stage that told people where to pick up their cameras before leaving.
So I wasn’t even going to attempt to take out my digital camera or the Flip. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt if I attempted to get one or two pics of Ben with my Blackberry.
Ben Folds and his band — now a five-musician unit — hit the stage around 10 p.m. and opened with “Fair” (see video of October 2008 performance above) from the Ben Folds Five CD “Whatever and Ever Amen”…a song I love that I haven’t heard Ben play live in quite some time. About a minute into the song, I noticed that everybody around me had their camera out taking pictures, including a few who were using flashes. Because I know any pic I take with the Blackberry is going to be crappy without using the flash, I figured I would try to take the photo and try to blend in with the 50 people or so around me who are taking pictures.
I take the pic and almost immediately, an Electric Factory staff member comes up behind me and tells me to delete the photo and to put the phone away…and that I would be thrown out if caught taking another photo.
So that was the end of my picture taking. But what bothered me was that, for the remainder of the night, there were people in my immediate vicinity who were obviously raising their cameras up to take photos and video. BUT NOTHING WAS SAID TO THEM. And since the LCD screens on these cameras were so freakin’ noticeable, I could see these photos and videos were coming out 50 times better than the piece of crap blurry pic that existed on my Blackberry for about 15 seconds. AGAIN, NOTHING WAS SAID TO ANY OF THESE PEOPLE. I think the “camera police” guy busted me and, possibly, the guy to my left, and that was it.
Hopefully, I will eventually find these better pics somewhere on the Interwebs and I will, as Mike Doughty says, gank one to accompany this blog post.
OK…so now that my rant is over about that, how was the show?
First, Miniature Tigers opened with a pretty decent set. I had listened to a couple of their songs on their MySpace page to familiarize myself a bit with them and didn’t really like what I had heard. But they sound much better live. And, even though Miniature Tigers are apparently gaining popularity among the young folks (they will be at South By Southwest next month), I don’t think I’ll be jumping on the bandwagon any time soon…just not my cup of tea.
In between Miniature Tigers and Ben Folds, the all-female Gracenotes a cappella group from West Chester University performed two original songs and then a version of “Fred Jones, Part 2” from Ben’s “Rockin’ the Suburbs” CD, which the group recorded with Ben for an upcoming disc featuring 18 a cappella groups from various colleges, universities and high schools performing songs from both Ben’s solo catalog and those from the Ben Folds Five days.
And, like I said, Ben Folds and his four fellow musicians hit the stage around 10 p.m. and knocked it out of the freakin’ park. Aside from nearly getting tossed out for taking a blurry picture with my Blackberry, this may have been the best show I have seen Ben play…especially with a band. He did an incredible solo show a few years ago in Princeton, N.J., that I hold in high regard. But last night’s show may have topped it.
By my count, he played 26 songs that covered a lot of musical territory. I don’t remember the setlist in sequential order, although I am trying to find an accurate setlist on a couple of the Ben Folds-dedicated forums that are out there. In the meantime, I have put together this list of songs based on what CDs they appeared and which were from the Ben Folds Five days:
BEN FOLDS – WAY TO NORMAL ( 2008 )
Effington
Brainwascht
You Don’t Know Me
Hiroshima
Before Cologne/Cologne
Free Coffee
Kylie From Connecticut
Dr. Yang
Dr. Yang (from the “fake leak” version of the CD)
Bitch Went Nuts (from the “fake leak” version of the CD)
Way to Normal (from the “fake leak” version of the CD)
BEN FOLDS – SONGS FOR SILVERMAN (2005)
Bastard
Landed
BEN FOLDS – ROCKIN THE SUBURBS (2001)
Annie Waits
Zak and Sara
The Luckiest (which he dedicated to his wife…contradicting an article published online just two days earlier stating that his fourth marriage, to Fleur, had recently ended)
Not the Same
BEN FOLDS FIVE (in order I remembered what songs were performed):
Fair
Alice Childress (with a credit to WXPN for making it an early “hit” for BF5)
Eddie Walker
Army
Lullabye
Underground
Philosophy (including Misirilou and a bit of Theme from Dr. Pyser at the end)
Kate
Emaline
Any Ben Folds show that features “Army,” “Emaline,” “Philosophy,” “Underground” and “Alice Childress” are considered freakin’ sweet by default. “Fair” and “Kate” made it that much better.
1. Fair
2. Effington
3. Brainwascht
4. You Don’t Know Me
5. Annie Waits
6. Alice Childress
7. Way To Normal
8. Lovesick Diagnostician (fake Dr. Yang)
9. Dr. Yang
10. Hiroshima
11. Bastard
12. Landed
13. Free Coffee
14. Eddie Walker
15. Lullabye
16. Emaline
17. The Luckiest
18. Kylie From Connecticut
19. Army
20. Underground
21. Not The Same
22. Cologne
23. Bitch Went Nutz
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!)
Matt Smith takes control of the TARDIS in 2010 as the 11th Doctor. (BBC Photo)
Matt Smith, a 26-year-old actor whose name had not even been mentioned for the role until the last couple of days, has been cast as the 11th incarnation of the Doctor in BBC’s long-running sci-fi series, “Doctor Who.”
Smith will officially take over the role when the fifth series of the show debuts in 2010. Until then, popular David Tennant will continue to star in the title role in a series of specials through 2009 and early 2010. It is expected that the famous “regeneration scene” — in which Tennant’s 10th Doctor will “die” and transform into Smith’s 11th Doctor — will take place in the conclusion of a two-part special that will be broadcast in the UK for the Easter holiday in 2010.
The announcement of Smith’s casting was made during a special episode of “Doctor Who Confidential” on BBC 1 on Saturday.
Smith, who will be the youngest actor to ever play the approximately 1,000-year-old Time Lord, has coincidentally appeared in three series opposite former “Doctor Who” companion Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) — “Ruby in the Smoke”, “The Shadow in the North”, and “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”.
Following Tennant into the Doctor’s TARDIS will be no easy task for Smith. Tennant, who has starred in the titular role since a 2005 Christmas special (“The Christmas Invasion”) has become arguably the most popular actor to ever play the character, even surpassing perennial favorite Tom Baker, who starred as the floppy hat/long scarf-wearing Fourth Doctor from 1974-1981.
Watch an extended interview with Matt Smith below:
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
A few weeks ago, my friend, singer-songwriter Christian Beach, recorded a bluegrass version of Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock” for an upcoming Main Man Records tribute to 80s hair metal. I contributed the accordion part and some backing vocals to the track.
Well, Main Man Records posted a blog on its MySpace site a few days ago to announce that “Hair Apparent” will be available for sale at www.mainmanrecords.com beginning September 2, 2008.
Here is the tracklisting, as posted in the Main Man Records MySpace blog:
1. Heavy Metal Love – LaBooze
Originally recorded by Helix
2. Cum On Feel The Noize – Bob “Derwood” Andrews
Originally recorded by Slade… and then again by Quiet Riot
3. Malibu Beach Nightmare – Mutant Monster Beach Party
Originally recorded by Hanoi Rocks
4. She’s Tight – Frankenstein 3000
Originally recorded by Cheap Trick 5. I Wanna Rock – Christian Beach
Originally recorded by Twisted Sister
6. Ballad of Jayne – Wynntown Marshals
Originally recorded by L.A. Guns
7. Chatterbox – K Roth
Originally recorded by The New York Dolls
8. Big Bottom – The Dennis Dunaway Project
Originally recorded by Spinal Tap
9. Babylon – Bad Biscuit
Originally recorded by Faster Pussycat
10. It’s So Easy – Pillow Theory
Originally recorded by Guns ‘N’ Roses
11. Another Piece of Meat – FourYearBeard
Originally recorded by The Scorpions
12. Shoot ‘Em Down – AB
Originally recorded by Twisted Sister
13. Public Enemy 1 – Mars Needs Women
Originally recorded by Motley Crue
14. 18 & Life – Johnny Dey
Originally recorded by Skid Row
15. Little Fighter – AB
Originally recorded by White Lion
16. Final Countdown – Killing Phantom
Originally recorded by Europe
17. After The Rain – Days Before Tomorrow
Originally recorded by Nelson
18. Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You – Frankenstein 3000
Originally recorded by Spinal Tap
19. Here I Go Again – Dan Maxwell & His Band
Originally recorded by Whitesnake
20. Wanted Dead Or Alive – Early Times
Originally recorded by Bon Jovi
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Christian for allowing me to be a small part of this project.
Just a reminder, Christian’s cover of David Bowie’s “Five Years,” on which I played organ, appears on “Hero: The Main Man Records Tribute to David Bowie,” which was released last Christmas Day. Look below for our live performance of that song, recorded at the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, NJ, on March 28, 2008.
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.”
Brian Kelley 