Jul
4
2011
Concert review: Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan Glasgow Royal Concert Hall ****
Read more on The Scotsman
Miley’s show of flesh
THE Miley Cyrus concert at Burswood Dome will be remembered for its show of flesh by both the Hannah Montana star and many of her young fans.
Read more on Perth Now
Feb
11
2011
Live Music Review: Panic! At The Disco @ Bush Hall
If you’d have passed Uxbridge Road’s tiny Bush Hall around 8.30am on Tuesday morning you might have wondered exactly what a line of teenager girls clad in black were doing hanging out. In scenes akin to the road behind the Astoria when a big American rock group were playing, these were the lucky few who managed to snap up tickets for a tiny gig by emo-favourites Panic! At the Disco . Whether it …
Read more on Londonist
News in Brief
Jammin’ Java The Grosse Ile High School music program invites you to join them at “Jammin’ Java” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in the school’s cafeteria.
Read more on Ile Camera
Jan
25
2011
Concert review: Yasmin Levy and Moishe’s Bagel
YASMIN LEVY AND MOISHE’S BAGEL GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL ****
Read more on The Scotsman
Concert Review | Columbus Symphony: Russian works imbue concert with history
Listeners glimpsed history through two renowned composers last night as the Columbus Symphony presented Russian Masters – 1812 Overture! at the Ohio Theatre.
Read more on The Columbus Dispatch
Jan
12
2011
2010…YEAR IN REVIEW
January 6 Blake Adams realized a life-long dream of playing on the PGA tour by earning his tour card. Adams finished third on the Nationwide Tour money list during the season.
Read more on The Swainsboro Forest-Blade
2010: Year In Review
Happy New Year! With 2010 at an end, the Crawford County Avalanche presents its annual Year In Review. The Year In Review includes article summaries from stories featured in 2010 Crawford County Avalanche editions.
Read more on Crawford County Avalanche
2010…YEAR IN REVIEW
January 6 Blake Adams realized a life-long dream of playing on the PGA tour by earning his tour card. Adams finished third on the Nationwide Tour money list during the season.
Read more on The Swainsboro Forest-Blade
Nov
9
2010
Concert Review: Septeto Nacional, Kingston, Ontario – November 3, 2010
In the first week of November the temperature starts dipping below freezing in Kingston Ontario, so it was some relief to have a warm Caribbean breeze blow in from Cuba November 3/10 and plunk itself down on stage at the city’s Grand Theatre. Septeto Nacional has been bringing son habanero (the sound …
Read more on seattlepi.com
Music News @ SheKnows.com:
Michael Jackson is Immortal , at least according to the new Cirque du Soleil posters. Kenny Chesney just announced a new stadium tour with the Zac Brown Band and other country friends. Will you be first in line to…
Read more on SheKnows
Sep
6
2010
Music review: Jenny and Johnny
Relationships can be a messy business, even for indie rock’s most beautiful and extravagantly talented couple. On Thursday, Rilo Kiley front woman Jenny Lewis and her longtime boyfriend, Johnathan Rice – who perform together under the name Jenny and Johnny -… Jenny Lewis – Johnathan Rice – Indie rock – Music – Arts
Read more on San Francisco Chronicle
Die-Hard Fans Follow Iron Maiden Into the Digital Age
The success of Iron Maiden’s latest album and the continued loyalty of its fans offer the troubled music industry some tips on survival in the digital age.
Read more on New York Times
Eating out and more in Asheville
ASHEVILLE — The Grove Arcade on Page Avenue downtown will host An Italian Evening, featuring food, music and entertainment, at 6 p.m. Sept. 15.
Read more on Asheville Citizen-Times
Aug
11
2010
Concert Review: Lollapalooza much more than headliners
About 240,000 people attended Lollapalooza from Aug. 6 to 8 to see more than 125 musical performances. Needless to say, the post-hippie, utopian and countercultural vibe ofthe first few Lollapaloozas is long gone, but it was still an excellentcorporate rock show.
Read more on SouthtownStar
Concert in the park, film showing, music jam and more things to do tonight
Dig out your lawn chairs or blanket and enjoy some live music in the park:
Read more on Tacoma News Tribune
Little River Band concert benefits Rock Hill schools
A portion of ticket sales for the Little River Band rock concert on Wednesday will go to educators in Rock Hill schools to make up for supply money that was taken from them to help plug holes in the district’s budget.
Read more on The Rock Hill Herald
Jul
11
2010
Concert Review: Perez Hilton’s “One Night In Chicago”
I’ve always wondered how celebrity blogger Perez Hilton throws a pre-Lolla party, so we headed to the Hard Rock Hotel to join other fans for a late-night adventure of live rock, pop, dance and hip hop in downtown Chicago. Since 2008, Hilton has hosted his personally curated multi-city concert …
Read more on seattlepi.com
Winter Moods concert
The Winter Moods concert was held last week on the Granaries, Floriana. Seen here are Andrew De Giovanni, Yasmin and Davinia Hamilton, Winter Moods frontman Ivan Grech and his wife Deborah and Josette Hamilton.
Read more on Times of Malta
Concert Review | Lorie Line: Pianist, small band all talk, all talent
Pianist Lorie Line and her Fab Five presented a thoroughly entertaining “intimate concert” last night in the Lincoln Theatre that was lapped up by a small but adoring audience.
Read more on The Columbus Dispatch
May
31
2010
Michael Franti & Spearhead announced in November last year that they would be opening for the 2010 John Mayer “Battle Studies Tour” in the spring. It was difficult to picture Mayer, known mostly for his colorful love life rather than his guitar compositions, and Franti, known for his fights against political, religious and racial wars, on the same stage.
Franti’s practicing what he preaches. He is closely involved with CARE, an organization trying to educate mainly women and girls in developing countries in quest against poverty. He travels all around the world on CARE missions. One of the last places he visited was East Timor.
A few years ago Michael Franti & Spearhead released their Yell Fire! album, inspired by Franti’s trip to the Middle East war zones including Israel, Baghdad, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip.
But despite the mixed reactions after the announcement of the collaboration, Michael Franti was confident that his music is compatible with Mayer’s and that Michael Franti & Spearhead would connect to Mayer’s audience.
Franti, in whose veins flow all kinds of blood, is equally open to people of all ages, genders or races. And according to the positive reactions of fans after the first concerts of the Battle Studies Tour, he was right. The light, positive music blending hip hop with funk, reggae, jazz, folk, and rock, turned out to be a perfectly matching opening act for John Mayer’s “Battle Studies.”
Michael Franti & Spearhead gained mainstream recognition last year with the hit single “Say Hey (I Love You)” from their “All Rebel Rockers” album. “Say Hey (I Love You)” turned out to be a gold mine and became double platinum with more than 2 million sold copies sold.
“All Rebel Rockers” was recorded mainly in Jamaica. Franti finds inspiration not only in Jamaica but also in classical albums like Stevie Wonder’s Songs In the Key of Life. But what really makes their sound so unique is the live performance of the band. Something that draws Michael Franti to reggae are the vibes that the band creates when they play together.
Right now Michael Franti & Spearhead are working on their next album.
Feb
16
2009
A new poster on the RMF has recommended a new pop artist to our readers. If you’re a regular reader of the RMF then I’m sure you’ll know already how I feel about the pop industry, (and if not, you should start by reading my “Recent Music Releases” article). So a word to the wise… if you’re here to deliver SEO spam, be prepared for your link to be reviewed in true RMF style.
So, without further ado, here’s my review of Gabriella Cilmi – Sweet About Me…
Gabriella Cilmi: Nothin' sweet about her?
I’ve got to say, compared to a lot of pop artists, she’s not too bad… there’s certainly a lot of potential there, but it appears to me that the label and producer had too much say in her “sound” for my liking. They seem to have placed the emphasis on making her fit in with modern pop trends and ignored her actual strengths.
Voice: This is a case-in-point for me. She’s reasonable enough in the bits where she stops putting on The Whinehouse Effect – you can hear that under the neuveau-pop surface she can probably actually belt them out with the best of them. It’s a shame that her label / producer have forced her to sing in that Winehouse-esque pseudo-Anastasia post-Gabrielle half-throaty-and-half-nasally style, because it’s certainly not her natural voice – you can tell in the bridge sections where she almost lets herself sing properly. Macy Gray opened a door a few years ago, showing the labels that this kind of voice had a market, and since then every other “alternative pop” vocalist seems to have this same croaky edge. The majors are doing the same thing to this sound that they did to indie music in the mid-90′s – taking a tiny part of what makes it “good” and exploiting it by papering over the cracks of bad pop music with this new sound to market the same tired old crap with a new wrapper. Such a shame. Such is the modern pop industry.
The band: Real instruments played by decent session musicians, but the whole thing’s just a bit too… “poptastic” for my liking. With the wealth of talent at her fingertips, having a band full of session musicians of obvious skill, and yet the song is a formulaic 4-chord stumbler. She probably has to kick them during performances to keep them awake.
Hit / Miss? Miss for now, but a definite “wait and see”…. if she gets enough limelight from this album, she will have more sway with the label for her “sound” for the 2nd album, and hopefully she’ll let her musicians have more input for the song structures and start singing with her real voice, and who knows, maybe, just maybe she’ll fulfill her Real Music potential and leave the mindless pop thing behind.
P.S. Cilmi? This surely isn’t her real name, is it? How is it pronounced? “Kill me”? A cry for help perhaps? Cynical and jaded about her own project from the outset?
Do the right thing, Gabriella, sack off the major label pop chart thing and start playing jazz clubs for a few years. Start hanging out with Donavon Frankenreiter too. It’ll make all the difference. Trust me.
Stay tuned for more up-to-the-minute news and reviews of the pop charts and recent music releases.
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