Lake Effect

Friday, July 31, 2009

Show Review-Jackson Browne at Ravinia

In case you're wondering,The Jackson Browne Show at Ravinia last night was pretty much a snoozefest. I know you must be shocked to hear this. Though the visibly aging troubadour was in fine voice with a solid band and a pair of terrific backing vocalists, the show lagged, with over half of the setlist for the 2.5 hr show comprised of none too subtle political protest songs with truly horrific 7th grade level lyrics. We did get a good dose of classics including Already Gone, Late For the Sky, The Pretender, Running on Empty and of course The Load-Out at the very end. He jipped us out of Somebody's Baby.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

When Worlds Collide...

...great things can happen! Take for example the pre-outdoor-show teen band rehearsal yesterday. Lead singer Jacob was running late and everyone else was ready to play, so the QD stepped up to sing MJ's "I'll Be There". As soon as she started singing, glances with eyebrows raised were exchanged between band members, followed by a "dammmmmnnnnn!" from drummer Kevelyn at song's end. Jacob showed up mid-way through the next take, so the two of them finished up the song as a duet with Heather singing the bridge.

It was a beautiful moment for me.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A Boy (Who Looks Like) Sue

This little boy broke the cute filter on my internets.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Disco Processional

This one is everywhere, but in case you haven't seen it yet, here you go. Embed is disabled, but one click will get you there

Friday, July 24, 2009

Frontier Psychiatrist

I don't know how many other people know about The Avalanches (for a long time I was simply unaware of what was happening on the music scene, thanks in part to where I come from) so I may be preaching to the choir here...forgive me if so. I found out about them about 7 years ago on a road trip from Barcelona to the Pyrennes. A friend put on their one and only album (entitled Frontier Psychiatrist released in Australia in 2000) on the drive through the breathtaking mountains and I couldn't get enough of it. Word is, the album is comprised of about 3,500 vinyl samples (not to be confused with anything like Girl Talk). Until today, I didn't know they had also created music videos, so I was psyched to see this extremely literal translation of the song in video format. Enjoy. It's slightly repetetive at first, but it changes up at about 3:05.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Are We Going? (Audio NSFW)

Dude, you're gonna want to turn this off early. Don't miss the quote at 1:18, the intros starting at 2:16, and the mind-blower at 4:53. I'll bet there's more amazing stuff in the remaining 10 minutes (!!!), but I couldn't take it. Try something random - for example, check out what happens at 10:00. Oh my god.

Modern Art

Beck's website is kind of amazing these days. He's got this "record club" project where he and his friends cover classic albums in their entirety - right now it's "Velvet Underground & Nico". He's got interviews with Tom Waits. He's got streaming mixes of whatever he's listening to currently. And my favorite part - he's got acoustic versions of songs from his last record. Here's the video for the stripped down "Gamma Ray", which actually smokes the original.