It’s our first year watching the Super Bowl on our new Samsung flat screen LCD and Bose home theatre system. For the most part the picture and sound has been nearly immaculate, with the occasional bad pixelation.

And then there’s the half-time performance of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Tom Petty? At the Super Bowl half time performance? You’re kidding, right?

Well, then Fox’s audio department sure seemed to drop the ball this year — while the visuals were enough to keep me interested, the audio SUCKED. All you could hear was Tom’s voice, the guitars, and the snare drum. The low end was nowhere to be found and my subwoofer patiently waited for a little action, occasionally putting out a barely audible off-tempo thud.

FOX Network, you sure dropped the ball this year at the half time performance. You’ve had your fun, now I think it’s time to let the real networks do their job and cover the Super Bowl.

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Things have really picked up for me in the photography world. In addition to a ton of time-for-print/cd (TFP/CD) sessions coming up, I’m working on the side with Minnage Magazine as one of their photographers, helping cover Minneapolis nightlife. Tonight I’m fortunate enough to have been asked to come down to Foundation night club and photograph Rock-n-Roll Hall of Famer, Grandmaster Flash, one of the pioneers in turntablism and hip-hop. And the best part about it—paid assignment (not much, but it’s something)…and the possibility of being published. With a higher profile assignment like this, it’s almost certain that Minnage will publish the photo(s).

And just in case you still can’t remember who Grandmaster Flash is…I’m sure you’ll remember the tune, “Rappers Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang. Grandmaster Flash was from the same era when rap was first getting noticed in the mainstream.

Next weekend’s going to be extremely crazy—a wedding, two photo shoots, and one runway show. My hard drive is going to fill up fast this week.

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…I read that headline in my RSS feeds and thought, “what!?!?!” The guy is dead for crying out loud. Apparently some woman is crying “sexual assault” after James died back in December and trying to seek out $106 million in “damages.” I’m sorry, but that’s just someone with dollar signs in their eyes and I question the legitimacy of their claims.

While I don’t doubt that James Brown was capable of such a thing—sexually assaulting a woman—you’re supposed to take them to court when they’re LIVING…not postmortem.

What a Darwinian thing to do—take a dead person to court.

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That’s what the temperature gauge read when I logged in at work: 3°F.  The DJ on 89.3 The Current said that it was 0°.  I think that would warrant a O.o 

I swear my fingers are going to fall off.

Okay, I’ve a few new favorite bands that I have to add to my wish list and a new release from an old standard that’s finally grown on me.  The first of these being Kasabian, this really sweet band out of UK that has this huge sound.  It’s hard to describe, so take a listen to some of their audio. It’s like this epic-sounding, crazy 60’s-influenced euro-rock.  I love it. 

I’ve also come to like the band Cold War Kids, a band from Los Angeles.  They’ve got a single that The Current’s been playing called “Hang Me Up To Dry” that’s pretty cool.  Supposedly they’re going to be on Letterman in about two weeks, but I couldn’t find any information about that.

And of course, an artist that is like a cup of strong coffee—you’re either gonna love it or hate it—Tom Waits.  He’s got a new three-disc set out now called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards.  Personally I can’t imagine listening to three, full discs of Tom Waits material back-to-back, but he’s grown on me a bit as of late.  His raspy voice somehow fits appropriately with his skillful word-smithing and thought-provoking lyricism.  The samples that I’ve heard of his new CD sound pretty cool.  Chalk that up to my wish list as well. 

Well, I’m gonna go back and listen to the audio samples from Kasabian and get back to work.  Those guys are pretty sweet.

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This evening my wife and I went to the fair and happened to catch about 20 minutes of the jam band Umphrey’s McGee. They were very cool and very good. It was like seeing Phish…maybe not entirely on the same level, but the energy of the crowd and the interaction within the band was refreshing.

Anyway, check out their website…they’ve got podcasts of their shows that you can download, like 70 meg mp3’s. Definitely worth the wait.

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It’s not totally finished and there are two applications that I need to build for it, but the Crash Effect website is live and up and running.  I’ve even got a couple t-shirts in the merch table through Cafe Press…albeit temporary until we produce our own merchandise and can sell directly.

Anyway, if you haven’t yet, subscribe to the RSS feed for the blog and enjoy.

Filed under: Artists, Awareness, General, Music, Websites, Wordpress
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This evening I took my buddy Isaac to see Runway 36 perform at their CD release party at Club 3 Degrees (my first time at that club). They had just finished a project with their local record label FS Music, having recorded at Fuzzy Slippers Studio in Saint Paul.

They were pretty good and had a great deal of energy, particularly their guitarist Mike. He reminded me of a younger Angus Young (of ACDC fame). Maybe not nearly on the same calibur of skill level as Angus, but he was quite fun to watch. I wish I had that level of energy.

My only real critique of their show is that they went on too long with their planned “curtain call.” There was a point when they had a bunch of people on stage and had the crowd all participating — that would have been a fabulous point to end the show. Leave them on a high and wanting more. Never give them too much. I felt Runway 36 crossed that line…but they were still fun to watch.

The first opener though — Allies in Chaos — they were also a great deal of fun to watch. A bit like Incubus, they were unpredictable, funny, and had a TON of energy. Granted, I couldn’t understand A SINGLE WORD comin’ out of that boy’s mouth…most of it just wailing and screaming various phrases and words. That said, they were still a blast to see.

Don’t ask about the band between Allies in Chaos and Runway 36…they weren’t that good in my opinion. I’ll spare them the bad press and withhold their name. They sounded like they were trying to pull off a U2-meets-Morrissey thing. But the “lead singer” wasn’t that good — kept rounding up and down to his notes. The guitarist was okay and the bass player animated. But they need to spend some more time in the rehearsal studio.

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Just when you thought that you had to go on tour to make the big bucks…some have come along and found a better way. Bring the tour to your basement — literally.

After the runaway success of the Arctic Monkeys, who built up their international following on the internet from their base in Sheffield, Sandi Thom, a 24-year-old Scot, is using the web to entertain nightly audiences put at more than 60,000.

Seating at the venue underneath her home in a Victorian terraced house in Tooting, south London, consists of six stools bought from Ikea for about £3 each.

Thom uses a webcam to record a nightly performance before broadcasting it on the net later in the evening. In the past eight days she has entertained more than 250,000 fans worldwide. By contrast, her live audiences usually total about 200 when she plays in clubs around Britain.

More from the source >>>

This artist, Sandi Thom has a good thing going for her. And despite its success and the degree of visibility that she achieves, she is missing perhaps one of the most important factors and reasons for doing music [in my mind anyway] — and that’s the connection and interaction with the audience; feeding off of their energy and giving it right back in the performance.

Sounds like an interesting premise. It’s working for her anyway.

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Lately I’ve been getting into The Postal Service, a pretty cool semi-electronica group — pretty good moderate to down-tempo stuff. I particularly like their single, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight“.

Well on the way home from our small group this evening, I heard this awesome song on The Current. At first I thought it was another song from The Postal Service, but it ended up being Death Cab for Cutie. The lead vocalist sounds A LOT like the lead in Postal Service, but the overall sound of the band is less electronica and slightly more natural sounding in terms of instrumentation. The single I heard was “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” and unfortunately the sample from MPR’s store doesn’t do any justice whatsoever to the song. But it was pretty cool. They’re my next buy for albums, that’s for sure.

Correction: I guess it’d help if I checked the website for Death Cab for Cutie… They have a flash component there, where you can hear the song in its entirety. Very cool. They’ll also be in concert with Franz Ferdinand in April 20th at the Northrup Auditorium. I’d like to try and make that concert.

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