Random “Q”sings: Christina Perri, Renaissance, Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Posted on May 25, 2011 by PhilMaq

I just got around to watching Christina Perri sing her latest single “Arms” on the May 18th Jimmy Kimmel Live. It’s really very sweet! She pretty much can’t help but smile all the way through the first couple of verses before she gets serious and kicks the song into gear. I’m sure a lot of that smiling had to do with starting her performance cold with a song that she’s been placing second to last on her current tour with James Blunt. She is getting so much more confident than when she started! Musically, the symphonic musical arrangement was translated surprisingly well by her band. That is not easy to do and she should be proud!

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OK, speaking of bands that do a great job translating symphonic arrangements to a live show, let’s go waaaay back in time. I featured Renaissance, a prog rock band from the 70’s, on my show last week, and I can’t get a song of theirs out of my head! Although I have always liked the band, I have never really cared for “Can You Hear Me Call Your Name?” from their “Novella” release. It is a dense 13+ minute symphonic excursion with a couple of false endings. Maybe it was too much for me to take in at the time that I first listened to it. Over the years, I have heard it a few more times and have never given it a positive rating on my own music rating system. Now I can’t get it out of my head! Go figure. It’s very atmospheric, and I should have known it was good because it isn’t available as a download! On the other hand, I still have never warmed up to “Midas Man,” quite possibly their most accessible radio friendly song. I wonder how long it will take it get used to that one……………..

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Let’s stay in the symphonic vein.

I was very pleased to see that Rodrigo Y Gabriela have several songs featured in the new “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” movie. They performed one of them on May 13th on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with a small symphony and they were very impressive! They are extremely underrated, and it was good to see them expanding their musical vision even more!

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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Random “Q”sings: Steve Holy, The JaneDear Girls, Steel Magnolia, Jason Aldean

Posted on May 23, 2011 by PhilMaq

Well, I finally broke down and decided to take in a day at the Detroit Country Hoedown. I chose last Sunday because of what I considered to be a pretty solid lineup.

I arrived at the time slated for The JaneDear Girls, but they were running late, so I was able to catch some of Steve Holy’s set. He sounded great and upbeat! The sound mix was superb, especially on the crowd-pleaser “Brand New Girlfriend!” It would turn out to be the highlight of the day.

The JaneDear Girls did a very energized set, but Danelle Leverett’s banjo couldn’t even be heard. Fortunately, her hyperactivity made up for most of what was missing. She was constantly moving around the stage. But from a fan’s perspective, it was very disappointing to not hear the instrument. I mean, if you’re going to feature an obnoxious instrument, you should absolutely make sure that it’s going to be heard. Susie Brown’s fiddle, however, was right up front and was featured prominently in a segue of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” into The Orange Blossom Special.” That was probably the fastest I’ve ever heard that song played! All in all, they really tried hard to give a good show, even though the temperature was about 40 degrees with a constant rain blowing in their faces. They finished with a great version of “Wildflower!”  

Next came the duo Steel Magnolia. They didn’t fare so well. The duo, consisting of lead singer Meghan Linsey, who was under the weather, and her fiancé, Joshua Scott Jones, plowed through most of their self-titled debut release. Highlights were “Eggs Over Easy” and “Last Night Again.” It was pretty average fare, but I still think that the lousy mix did not help them.

Finally, the show’s closer came on. This was an incredible opportunity for Detroit country fans to see a major arena artist-for free! And boy was there a crowd! The crowd was large to begin with, but it constantly expanded during the other acts’ sets. Jason Aldean finally arrived about 45 minutes late-even though all of his equipment was already set up onstage. He touched on most of his highlights and sent most everyone home happy-COLD, but happy!      

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q 

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Random “Q”sings: Hunter Hayes, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, The Civil Wars

Posted on May 15, 2011 by PhilMaq

I’ve seen the video for “Storm Warning” by Hunter Hayes several times now. It’s a better than average country song that grows on you. I like the many varied weather descriptions in the lyrics: “Have you ever noticed every hurricane gets its name from a woman like this?” He’s a very young good looking dude, but that’s not what’s got me interested. The thing that’s got me going is that he’s probably about 18 and he’s already made five albums!!! AND, by watching the video, you see that he plays all of the instruments himself á la Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren, Prince…!

I can’t remember any country artist doing this. Good looking and talented. Ahh, you’ll never make it, kid.

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Speaking of looking good, has Ke$ha, in the video for “Blow,” ever looked better? She cleans up pretty good. Also, I still laugh every time the guy in the video takes off his bra and she tilts her head and gives him a confused look! 

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OK. Today, I can’t get the Farmer’s Insurance jingle out of my head. (“We are Farmer’s. Bum- da-dum da dum dum dum.“) Can you please reinsert that Britney Spears song I was complaining about a couple of weeks ago?     

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I read in Rolling Stone Magazine that Justin Bieber is the first person since Garth Brooks in 1993 to have four albums on the Top 40 Album Charts. ODWITS!!!!!!!!!!! (O Death Where Is Thy Sting?) The end of the world is nigh!    

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Alright, I am going to admit that I don’t really care for The Civil Wars. I’ve listened to a few of their songs now and I can’t see why they are crossing over onto other charts from the country charts. They don’t even seem to be good Appalachian folk artists, yet “Barton Hollow” keeps moving up the charts. I know they got a big boost when Taylor Swift heaped some praise on them, but I still don’t see why people who don’t usually like country music are claiming to like these Jean Ritchie-type songs. I’ll stick with Alison Krauss, thank you.

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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Random “Q”sings: Christina Perri, Rock Mafia, Miley Cyrus and Train

Posted on May 8, 2011 by PhilMaq

Let’s talk music videos today. I’ve had some of these thoughts built up for awhile so I’ve got to get them out!

I’ve now seen the video for Christina Perri’s new song “Arms” from her upcoming new album release lovestrong. available on May 10, several times. I am really starting to like this song. It definitely grows on you.

The arrangement for it is incredible and makes the song even better! It starts out with acoustic guitar, and then the tempo switches to a running octave piano beat with tremolo guitar and randomly accented snare drum hits. The melody is derivative from Coldplay – which is a great source to draw on for good melodies.

At least I know that Christina will not be a “oneder.” (A “one hit wonder.” Yes, yes, I know you would have known what that is. Sorry.)  When “Jar of Hearts” was released, I checked out whatever else she had available and every thing she had sounded very similar to that song. What a difference in six months! I will also credit producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, The White Stripes), with helping in the transformation!

As far as the video is concerned, Christina says that she did all of the stunts herself – which involves many scenes of floating and flying. It’s another one of those ugly blue-gray dream sequence videos that doesn’t show any natural colors. That only makes her look tremendously prettier in person! Stick with the song instead. Now I can’t wait to hear the rest of the CD!

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I want to revisit “The Big Bang” by Rock Mafia. I have sort of watched the video several times and thought that the girl in it looked pretty hot. I had no idea that it was actually (are you kidding me???) Miley Cyrus!!! – and I am very happy that I didn’t know that! (I guess I didn’t watch it that closely.) And now that I know who it is, she still looks pretty hot! Man, Hannah Montana has grown up! 

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Just saw the new video for “Save Me San Franciso” by Train from the album of the same name. IT IS GREAT!!!!  It’s a mid-tempo rocker (about as hard as they ever rock!) with a good melody. As usual, it features singer Pat Monahan in the starring role having relationship problems with his girl friend. Of course, there is plenty of beautiful sunny San Francisco scenery! The main plotline centers on a spoof of “The Graduate.” I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t viewed it yet, but YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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Random “Q”sings: George Bedard and the Kingpins, The Beatles

Posted on May 2, 2011 by PhilMaq

Last Saturday, April 23, I went to see George Bedard and the Kingpins perform at a local blues club. I hadn’t seen them for a couple of years, and it was great to get reacquainted with all of the guys, George Bedard, Rich Dishman, and Randy Tessier, especially after their triumphant opening act engagement for Jeff Beck!

If you are unfamiliar with The Kingpins, you need to bring yourself up to date. They do a superb job of mixing many musical styles including blues, rockabilly, swing, jazz, R&B, country, surf, and indie rock-and I’m sure I’m forgetting a couple! They select a few well chosen oldies to go with the originals that they’ve carefully placed on each of their three albums. Most of the time, unless you are familiar with the song yourself, you won’t be able to tell the difference between the originals and the covers! In my book, that is one of the highest compliments I can give them!

And guess what? They’re getting ready to release a new album within the next couple of months. So far, each of their CDs has had a couple of instrumentals – music that is much underappreciated these days. The new one is going to be 100% vocal-free, which will give everyone the chance to hear their impressive musical skills within the team framework that has always worked for them. I mean, come on. There are only three of them! When I find out what the name of the new album is, I’ll let you know!

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I have been an avid listener to Beatle Brunch hosted by Joe Johnson for almost as many years as it has been on radio. Today’s show featured highlights from the recent annual Beatles Tribute Cruise-which the show promotes. When Joe was interviewing a member of Yesterday, a Beatles tribute band (sorry, I didn’t get his name), about his favorite Beatles song, he pulled out this gem: “Hold Me Tight” from “With the Beatles” (or “Meet the Beatles” if you’re still old school American). Now that is a great, often unrecognized, song – and a favorite of mine, too! It is one of the hard driving rockers on that album and features some great “Wipe Out” style drumming by Ringo Starr during the “middle 8.” The drumming is down in the mix so it’s not really obvious – but that makes it even greater!  The Beatles did so many little things within their songs that you have to actively listen for, because most of the time, the listener is only catching the “surface.”

The reason for talking about this song is because it triggered a memory about it from an introduction interview conducted by Beatles archivist, Mark Lewisohn, for his book The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years, 1962-1970, with Sir Paul McCartney. The song, since it was sung by Paul, had to be written by Paul. The astonishing thing to me is that when he asked him about it, he had no recollection of the song whatsoever! The Beatles did at least 29 takes of “Hold Me Tight” because the final result was a mixture of takes 28 and 29.

You often hear that a musician thinks of their songs as being their “children” because they created them. Paul, you can’t remember one of your “children!!??”  Oh well, he’s given us so many other great ones that I guess he can be forgiven for not remembering such a great song, that he must have considered a “throwaway!”     

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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“Q”sings: A New Music Principle

Posted on April 30, 2011 by PhilMaq

I’m way overdue for another principle, so I’d better get to work.

The next few principles are closely related and will seem like variations on a musical theme. As a matter of fact, this first point is going to seem kind of weak. But, once all of them are together they’ll make sense because they need each other for support. Each individual one will have weak points that could be easy to undermine. In fact, this one may be the weakest of the three. But, together they should provide a cohesive and strong argument as to why they should be stated.

Principle #2: Just Because a Song Is New Doesn’t Automatically Make It “Good”

This one, to me, is the most obvious of the three. After all, we are already preconditioned and programmed to think that new is always better. I’m also not going to disagree with that viewpoint – which is a direct contradiction of this principle itself. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a reason to make any new music if that were the case.

The interesting point that is never discussed is the fact that we are also, as part of the human condition, reflexively opposed to change. As much as we say we like “new” when music is involved, more often than not, we have a tendency to automatically reject new music, at least initially, unless we are already familiar with the artist or the genre.

In other words, we like what we like and are usually more than willing to hear more of the same. That’s what makes it easy to narrow-cast on satellite and mass market radio. It, of course, is one of the theories behind Pandora’s success. If you like one artist, you’ll probably like another in the same genre. There’s usually not much thinking or analysis involved on the part of the listener – at least on the surface. A lifetime of condition and response went into those subconscious preferences. (I’m drawing on my own experiences for this information as well as observing and speaking about music with other people.)

The choices that listeners make about the music they like is often hard to change. In fact, if you ask someone why they listen to a certain type of music, you may get a series of comments about what they dislike first and then what they like – if you can get someone to actually voice their preferences. But I’m also sure that you know someone who is stuck in a musical timeframe and not crazy about today’s sounds. Although they don’t and probably can’t say it, they’re stuck waiting for some style of music to return (50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s….). Of course, it can’t. But, for the most part, it’s still there. Most music is built on the “shoulders” of prior music. Musical artists often identify influences from the past.

I’ll pick it up from here next time.

Until then, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace,

Q

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Random “Q”sings: Lady Antebellum, Rock Mafia and Britney Spears

Posted on April 23, 2011 by PhilMaq

OK. I woke up this morning with “Run to You” by Lady Antebellum from their self-titled first album running through my head. I have no idea why since I hadn’t heard it in at least a couple of months. I’m not complaining and I’ve certainly had it do that before. (It must be loaded with more hooks than I give it credit for.) It has a long way to go, though, before it passes “Need You Now” by Lady A from the album of the same name-which by the way has now passed 5 million downloads. That song burned a hole in my brain for a long time! (So did “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri!) 

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Heard that Colbie Caillat is scheduled to perform “I Do” at the upcoming TLC broadcast of the Royal Wedding. There’s a couple of other songs that I would have picked by her to do before that one. It’s an average upbeat song with a cute video. But it fits in with the theme of the show.

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I am absolutely getting hooked on “The Big Bang Theory” by Rock Mafia! It’s just a simple standard rock drum beat that’s way up front and LOUD, but it’s the passionate vocals that carry it over the top!

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Another song that gets stuck in my head lately, is “Till the World Ends” by Britney Spears-especially the “ooh ooh” chorus. But in my brain, for some reason, the melody morphs into “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but at the moment, I’ll still take “TiK ToK” over “Till the World Ends.” Sorry, Britney.      

Speaking of “Till the World Ends,” I know the video has been out for a couple of weeks, but I actually sat down and watched it today instead of just glancing at it. It’s pretty good. The “plot” has Britney and her dancers sneaking underground to dance “Till the World Ends” while Armageddon is taking place on the surface above ground. At the end of the video, the sun is breaking through and Britney survives to dance another day. I love positive endings! And it’s so much better than the video for “Blow” by Ke$ha! I hate to see the senseless slaughter of any unicorns. Sorry, Ke$ha.

One last comment about Britney’s video: The world was saved by dancing! Huh? And I thought that only music could save the world. That must be a parallel thought!

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Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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Random “Q”sings: Thompson Square, The Beatles and Los Lonely Boys

Posted on April 23, 2011 by PhilMaq

Just saw the new video by Thompson Square for “I Got You,” their follow up to “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not.” It’s a real hoot! Although the title is similar to Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You, Babe,” it is not a remake of the song. However, the couple do a spot-on parody of  “The Sonny & Cher Show.” It is hilarious! Check it out!

BTW, the self-titled album, “Thompson Square” by Thompson Square is a very solid debut album that has a very tight country/rock sound! 

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Please quit taking my precious“Taxman” song by The Beatles hostage every tax day. It’s bad enough that I have to get my taxes in, let alone I have to hear snippets of that song all day long every year when it gets close to the filing date. There are other versions of it out sthere that can be sampled. Use those instead. I don’t want it to get to the point where I don’t want to hear it anymore-much like “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, because that’s the only Halloween song most people know. JUST STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Just listened to some tracks from the recent releases by Tres Mountains and Los Lonely Boys. I like them and they seem to me to be very derivative of Band of Gypsys-the band fronted by Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Miles. That is good company to be associated with! Rock on!!!! 

While I’ve been typing this, I’ve been listening to “Folk Music from Venezuela” by Huascar Barradas y Maracaibo. (With long generous pauses, of course, to analyze it and read the liner notes.) It’s kind of “new agey” with complicated rhythm changes and a tremendous amount of flute. The liner notes, of which there are plenty, trace the histories of many of the dances and folk music on the CD. Very peaceful! I like it! 

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Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q

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“Q”sings: The First Music Principle

Posted on April 13, 2011 by PhilMaq

All right, where do I go from here?

As much as I’d like to only talk about music, I’m going to resist that temptation and lay down some principles concerning music that I feel very strongly about. This is not going to be a scholarly discussion, but I am not aware of anyone else approaching music the way I intend to. By the time I am done discussing these, there should be quite a few. I, myself, have never written them down before, so this is new for me, too. I am also going to number them so they’ll be easily referenced -as well as seem more impressive than they are. 

Principle #1: I Still Believe That Music Can Save the World 

Now, that may seem like a corny thing to say, but I think it’s true, and I’ll give you some examples.  

Since man (or woman) discovered how to make music, over time, music and instruments were adapted for various functions. As more people developed their musical skills, more reasons were found to actually have it played. I mean, we brought fife and drums into The Revolutionary War. (Sorry. As I’m typing this, the “Good Sir Robin” song from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is going through my head as an example.)  Music is still used to start and end the day on military bases around the world. It is also used to wake up the astronauts in space. As a matter of fact, while writing this, I watched Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame play a flute duet with someone on the space shuttle (synchronized by Pro Tools, of course). 

Music was used to further class struggles by people like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. It was then used to take on the Civil Rights struggle. I don’t remember who is responsible for this quote; it may have been Civil Rights activist Jesse Jackson, who told Aretha Franklin it would have taken him years to do what her “Respect” song did in such a short span of time. There is something powerful about a simple, constructed song created for a specific reason. Otherwise, why would we bother to sing in church? 

I think that one reason why progressives in the U.S. are struggling politically is because no one is writing good protest songs. If you don’t believe me, check out what Billy Bragg has been using against banks in England for the past couple of years. A good protest song has some intrinsic quality that is stronger than any iniquity it goes up against.

So, I believe that music still can save the world!  

Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace

Q

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“Q”sings: A BEGINNING

Posted on April 11, 2011 by PhilMaq

How do you start in the middle of something?

I’ve been listening to music all of my life. I come from a musical family-not of a pedigreed musical lineage, but a home that always had music playing. I’m quite sure that I was heavily exposed to music way before I was born. That exposure, for better or worse, has helped to shape me into the music obsessive person that I am.

So, I am going to do what any decent musician would do: I am going to synthesize something new from all of the influences that I’ve come across. I consider this journey in music to be the equivalent of a life journey. It’s just that I cannot separate the two. Music is as much a part of my DNA as breathing is or the color of my eyes. In fact, I think about music 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Yes, I know what I just said. But I know that even in my subconscious there’s music playing. There has to be! It’s everywhere else in my life!

As much as I know that my musical sojourn is just as unique as every other person out there, I am counting on the similarities of music fanatics to be able to relate to mine. I will fill in more of my background when it’s necessary. In other words, I want to move forward but I occasionally have to look back at both my musical roots as well as my personal ones. I am not promising that I will reach any conclusions about anything on this ride. The goal is to find “good” music. Good is in quotes because that, of course, is a relative term. Those will be discussion points along the way.

I do promise to make this web site as interesting as I can possibly make it. (Since I have no experience running a web site, that may be an empty promise. Ha, ha! But I have several people that are supporting me and urging me on.) The descriptions will certainly be less dry and more passionate. Music should always be more about feeling than thinking! But I had to start somewhere. So here it is-the starting point.

Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!
Peace
Q

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