Just Stuff: May 2008

Have to post lots of stuff, this week I was lucky to be able to attend some mini event at my favourite radio and see shows by Nicole Atkins, Ingrid Michaelson, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings...all up close & cosy (so took pics, vids, did the fan bit taking pictures with them...-sorry Ingrid, sorry Nicole, we can't help ourselves!). Missed Ani Difranco though, was too tired.
Just uploaded this funny bit of Ingrid Michaelson "experimenting" with Breakable, her new single(quality's pretty bad, am afraid, my photo camera does its best but it has its limitations...):

I guess hardly anybody will watch it since there's like a zillion vids of her on youtube, but nr of views is not something I keep in mind, or else I'd handle this little blog in a very different way.
Nicole Atkins' guitar told me they'll start working on the new album this summer, still deciding on the producer.
Also a few FAN's I haven't posted yet: B52's, Danielia Cotton, yesterday's Ryan Bingham and Hayes Carll....but not today, tonight's the Jakob Dylan and Kathleen Edwards show, can't decide which of both acts I'm more looking forward to..

Will keep posting things about this concert. First: videos

1. Kate Walsh, "Fireworks". Her voice was incredible on this one.

2. From Quincy's performance "Never happy", with trumpet Stewart Cole (cool guy!):

3.Brandi Shearer's most rocking moment, "I've had enough"

You can get a free song download from each of them here, and also an interview.

Post dated 07/23/08
I wanted to walk in the rain now, it had been falling for a while, felt like it, figured it would clear my head. Seriously upset about something I'd just read. Stepped outside and started walking and it was raining but a few seconds later rain decided to stop. It was funny, like those cartoons where the raining cloud follows the character, but reversed: raining cloud was clearly avoiding me. Then looked up and all the grey skies had vanished, like magic. So went back home thinking what the... I want my rain!. It's been 10 minutes and grey skies are back...incredible-
Incredible too that I'm supposed to be trimming this blog to make it more serious... and then I go and write this...oh my.
********************************************************************************** *******************************************************************************

Look what you've done
Oh what have you done
Eclipsed my sun
The change was sudden

You wanted my heart
And I let you in
You fucked up everything
Your love was rotten

I don't want you back
You're not a good man
Your devilish hell
Is not forgotten

Your blinding smile
It hides your dark side
Can no longer lie
'Cos I've seen everything

You said I was wild
So you held me down
You held me too tight
And now I can't break
your fall
My hands are tied

What have I done
Oh, look what I've done
It looks like I won
You must feel bitter

You messed me up
And I let you down
The bill for your fun
Is now delivered

I'm not coming back
You're not a good man
Your castles of sand
Fall to shivers

You turned me around
Away from myself
That was just how
You dug your own grave

You said I was loud
So you shut me up
Forbidding me to speak
So now I can't kiss your mouth
My lips are sealed

You said I shouldn't mess with you
If I knew what was best for me
And now I do

I've got no respect for you
You can fool the whole world but not me I've heard everything
Your every down word
You hit me with
Rings through my ears
So now I can't hear that old song
You wrote for me

You said I was wild
You said I was too loud
You turned me around
and as I'm slowly turning back
I turn my back on you going down.

I don't usually post lyrics in my blog, though I'm always looking them up on the internet (I'm not a native English speaker so...). I figured I'd write the words to this one since I couldn't find them anywhere.
Trusting someone and getting just cheapness and unkindness in return is damn hard to accept, be it love, friendship (this second one I have fresh) or the weather man. And seeing someone you trusted get the wrongest picture of you just because it suits him just tops it.
Of course chances are the guy in the song doesn't give a damn what she sings to him, not gonna hurt him one bit, that's the unfairness of it; obviously the girl in the song does and it's going to take a while to process why he would be so unnecesarily unkind, because she cared and he could count on her, that is also the unfairness of it. Obviously that happens all the time, people letting people down for no particular reason. It's like the oil of this mean life machine.
Whatever, just learn from it (or if you can, better forget all about it) and move on.
"A Fiction" on Amazon

Three blondes in black...

1. Anna Ternheim
For Summer rain lyrics go to the end of the post.
Anna Ternheim's setlist (little over half hour, bummer!, wonder what it will be in NY today and tomorrow):

You mean nothing to me anymore
Nights in Goodville
Girl lying down
The ones they blame
Little lies
Summer rain (new)
Lover's dream - To be gone (linked both)

J. (aka youtube head chopper dude, am afraid) recorded part of Anna's new song "Summer rain" for me (I didn't want to miss a sec). Ternheim said it will be in the new album she's currently recording, beautiful. Only half of it, didn't seem fair to tape it all:

For some reason I expected Anna to be small and fragile but she wasn't at all, she was very tall (high five!), tomboy-ish and younger looking than in the vids, the kind of person that looks very different in flesh. She would interact with the public quite a bit, talking about the songs, etc. She played alone, sometimes on the guitar, sometimes on keyboards, sometimes with the help of her i-pod. The first song she played, not being one of my favourites then, was the best of the night. The way she sang it really froze my blood, gave it a different light. The last part of the setlist, to my surprise, was the weakest, and Lovers dream and To be gone sounded somewhat flawed, specially the latter. But she was amazing, and though most of the audience didn't know her and were there for El Perro del mar, she was a success. She said the place had a soul, it did, but her songs so magnified it.
She was in a hurry -had a train to catch- but she was really nice and found a few minutes to talk to us. She didn't want to be specific about some lyrics (didn't want to "spoil them", gave a few hints, some singers feel that way, like her or Jakob Dylan, others do the opposite, I somehow agree with her, though I was the one to ask her... curious). The song she went into more detail for was "The ones they blame", during her set. She was very modest and acted as if nobody there had heard of her before, asked me how I found out about her music, told her through some English music blog. But also many people here know about her (& quite a few U.S. blogs mention her, like Muruch's), only Philadelphia is such a hard city, it's so difficult to fill up a venue, for some reason I can't understand...
Great timing for me her coming to Philly.

2. El perro del Mar

She had a quite large band playing with her and she hardly spoke, was very immersed in the music. She's remarkably beautiful. 2 peculiar things: a picture they had brought onstage an an incense stick they burned while they played. I'm into curious things so I took a pic.

Their setlist (their writing):

Another chopper J.'s video, "You can't steal a gift", El perro and Lykke Li's duet (a bit, camera run out of memory this time) :

3. Lykke Li played last and did a short setlist, during which it seems that she had some kind of problem with her voice, as El perro del mar let us know when she did the encore (Likke was going to be a part of it but couldn't make it). This girl dances better than anyone I've ever seen, incredible. And her drummer is just impressive (as in both gourgeus and music wise). Unfotunately the batteries in my camera died so I couldn't tape any of her part.

A rather long post ...

Summer rain lyrics:

Last summer was mad remember the rain
I know people complained
I had something else in mind
Not the sound of rain against my window pane
All I could hear was you
Hammering in my head

Fall like a wave
Against a rock
Leave with a rush
Or get crushed
You never know
Until after the shock
When you wake up
What’s broken what’s not

One day I don’t know how
My whole life evolved
Around you my Lord
Believing was not enough

You said I was a hole of desperate need
And no love in the world
Not even yours
Could satisfy me

That’s when the troubles began
Disasters came
One by one I nearly drowned
In that Summer rain

Fall like a wave
Against a rock
Leave with a rush
Or get crushed
You never know
Until after the shock
When you wake up
What’s broken what’s not

We fall like waves
Against the rock
Leave with a rush or get crushed
You never know
Until after the shock
When you wake up
What’s broken what’s not
When you wake up
What’s broken what’s not

This blog is now officially one year old!. To my surprise!!!
Over 6.000 visitors (doesn't mean anything, many bounced), over 28.000 pages viewed (mostly the ones I less care about), and some things that came out of it (some good, some bad, some very sad - bloody hell, it rhymed!). And invested quite a bit of time in it (which is silly, time being scarce and all).
I guess I had to write a post about the occasion though.
I thought I was done with it when I completed the Tower Theater info, I even sort of said bye bye, but somehow I still kept going. But it will most probably be left to its own devices when I move back and everything changes (some kind of reality check, I suppose, hmmm).

Maybe I'll start a different blog with useful tips for moving (ornament wrapping, that kind of stuff) or maybe about fridge magnets or something (some are really cool, after all). Because trust me, music is poisonous...
Oh, and I can count with the fingers in my hands the number of people who've found out who I really am. But not to worry, I killed them all!! :)

Just watched this week's Grey's anatomy, nr 414 I think (dorky?, no way!). Woooow, specially good. Only tv show that still holds my attention. Plus there's always one or two really good songs in it, this week the one that caught my attention/ear turned out to be (after proper googling) Taken by trees' "Only yesterday". Once discovered, I like "Lost and found" even more, dreamy. Other things: this singer, Adele, has a really nice website, different, check page nr 2 for a great video. Top voice, great song-. Lyrics, mm, not so much, it really seems like the music's saying something different. And Sia has released a new video/single, "The girl you lost to cocaine". Can't not to laugh!

There's this review at Tina's webpage here that is pretty complete, so little more to add. She was a real pro and gave it all anyway.

Got to chat a tiny bit after...

Chopper J (see Anna Ternheim's post) recorded the vids for me (and took the second pic), if there was ever a patient guy...
I did enjoy the concert a lot, she has a great voice and beautiful songs. Maybe too "clean" for me.
And again, Philly is a tough place to fill up venues, it really is unfair.

"Beak of day" (love the Carina Round-ish bit at the end):

I ended up going to this concert mainly by chance. Glad I went, though. A few days later Regina Spektor played in Atlantic City and I couldn't make it...by chance too. This week we've had a lot of time in our hands, and set out to make the most of it, trip to NY included, bummer it's over.
"You know better":

And two more blogs talking about this show: music&more and popwreck, an audience full of bloggers!!

Recorded this on Friday at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York, a really good show. This song, "Green eyes", was the first one they played, beautiful. She has a great voice, and more rocking songs like "Silver and gold". Vid is shaky at the beginning, as usual (had to find a good position!), but soon it gets better.

As I sat there I couldn't help but think about the chain of events that had led me to that chair. Too many random unlikely things happening, such few chances that I'd end up there that Friday night (so unthinkable only two years ago)... but then I did!.