Hey all!
Just returned from a 5 week stint in Vegas. It was infinitely underwhelming. Glad to be home now and ready to go check out some great music at Summerfest in Milwaukee. Summerfest is sick. If you haven't been, I strongly suggest. Checking out Altos and Death Cab for Cutie tonight (July 5) and Atmosphere tomorrow.
Catch y'all later and I'd Love to hear what is tickling YOUR ears!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Cloud Cult Show
One of my absolute favorite bands, Cloud Cult, ended their 8 month live hiatus last Friday. They played at UW-River Falls in what turned out to be a surprisingly awesome venue inside the student center. The entire student center was nice and, according to the literature throughout, very green and quite sustainable. The bill included Bad Habits Brass (whom I unfortunately missed) and Jeremy Messersmith.
Jeremy Messersmith is one romantic beast. A guy that writes the songs I wish I would write. It had been over a year since I caught him last and the set list contained a vast majority of my favorites, including the rarely heard Tatooine. In fact, he may have said that it was the first time it had been played live, but there was considerable chatter where I was at that point. It could have been it was the first time the song was played live on Star Wars Day (May 4). Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who makes songs with such depressing subject matter so alive and uplifting.
Cloud Cult doesn't play live music in the traditional sense, they put on mini fucking festivals. With live painters and multimedia, it is probably vastly greater of an undertaking than anything you have seen before. What makes them so epic is the stand alone genius of the music. Craig Minowa needs to be in the discussion for greatest songwriter/music maker of the past 15+ years. You can read the Cloud Cult history here. As I write this, I continue to be distracted by my search for Cloud Cult videos and the like on the interwebs so I suggest instead of reading this (a little late, I know) you do the same.
Videos on their official page
Sound check from a show I attended in Madison a few years back
Nice fan video to "Fairytale" Shows some of the great live paintings
Thanks for reading. I love you all.
Jeremy Messersmith is one romantic beast. A guy that writes the songs I wish I would write. It had been over a year since I caught him last and the set list contained a vast majority of my favorites, including the rarely heard Tatooine. In fact, he may have said that it was the first time it had been played live, but there was considerable chatter where I was at that point. It could have been it was the first time the song was played live on Star Wars Day (May 4). Off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone who makes songs with such depressing subject matter so alive and uplifting.
Cloud Cult doesn't play live music in the traditional sense, they put on mini fucking festivals. With live painters and multimedia, it is probably vastly greater of an undertaking than anything you have seen before. What makes them so epic is the stand alone genius of the music. Craig Minowa needs to be in the discussion for greatest songwriter/music maker of the past 15+ years. You can read the Cloud Cult history here. As I write this, I continue to be distracted by my search for Cloud Cult videos and the like on the interwebs so I suggest instead of reading this (a little late, I know) you do the same.
Videos on their official page
Sound check from a show I attended in Madison a few years back
Nice fan video to "Fairytale" Shows some of the great live paintings
Thanks for reading. I love you all.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
CPS album
Ended up in Vegas for a few weeks, but we are back in business friends.
I was able to make it back to Wisconsin just in time for a weekend with Brooklyn's finest, Christopher Paul Stelling. His album, "Songs of Praise and Scorn", which you can get here, is a fantastic journey through belief and disbelief in both spirituality and love. It's a journey that I am constantly struggling with, constantly fighting against. On Solar Flares Chris questions, "...ain’t it always these god damn sleepless nights? Ain’t we always wondering in a desert somewhere, always taking lefts when we know there’s only wrongs and rights?" But, if you are at all like me, you find enjoyment rationalizing the darkness between wrongs and rights. It also becomes easier as these rationalizations become more and more commonplace. Original sin at it's core. I can't blame Adam for the Fall of Man, I'm sure the fruit looked delicious, "swear I’m not a bad person, no, just got a strange darkness living in me." If anyone is to blame, and this is part of my struggle, it is God. He is omnipotent, for Christ's sake, so how can I blame Him either. A Flawless Executioner indeed. "Hey y’all remember that time when we prayed hard for rain? The good lord he only sent clouds." Seems so drastic, wouldn't it be easier if we all lived harmoniously, in symbiotic bliss? I question whether I even have the worth to question, because I am, in fact, breathing. "They carved [poor Leviathan] up and fed him the their children saying praise the good lord we’re satisfied." Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and, according to Job 41:33, "nothing on Earth is his equal...", yet God has kept me from him. But, Leviathan is just doing what he feels is right, and who am I to tell him he is wrong? And so the struggle continues...
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Maybe I will delve into the struggle with love aspects that I enjoyed about the album at a different date. All quoted lyrics were taken from the liner notes.
I was able to make it back to Wisconsin just in time for a weekend with Brooklyn's finest, Christopher Paul Stelling. His album, "Songs of Praise and Scorn", which you can get here, is a fantastic journey through belief and disbelief in both spirituality and love. It's a journey that I am constantly struggling with, constantly fighting against. On Solar Flares Chris questions, "...ain’t it always these god damn sleepless nights? Ain’t we always wondering in a desert somewhere, always taking lefts when we know there’s only wrongs and rights?" But, if you are at all like me, you find enjoyment rationalizing the darkness between wrongs and rights. It also becomes easier as these rationalizations become more and more commonplace. Original sin at it's core. I can't blame Adam for the Fall of Man, I'm sure the fruit looked delicious, "swear I’m not a bad person, no, just got a strange darkness living in me." If anyone is to blame, and this is part of my struggle, it is God. He is omnipotent, for Christ's sake, so how can I blame Him either. A Flawless Executioner indeed. "Hey y’all remember that time when we prayed hard for rain? The good lord he only sent clouds." Seems so drastic, wouldn't it be easier if we all lived harmoniously, in symbiotic bliss? I question whether I even have the worth to question, because I am, in fact, breathing. "They carved [poor Leviathan] up and fed him the their children saying praise the good lord we’re satisfied." Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and, according to Job 41:33, "nothing on Earth is his equal...", yet God has kept me from him. But, Leviathan is just doing what he feels is right, and who am I to tell him he is wrong? And so the struggle continues...
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Maybe I will delve into the struggle with love aspects that I enjoyed about the album at a different date. All quoted lyrics were taken from the liner notes.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
mewithoutYou show
Not surprisingly, I was only two posts in before my first two week delay. I will try to keep those to a minimum...
mewithoutYou graced the midwest with their presence this evening in Palatine, Il at Durrty Nellies. Venue was pretty sick, minus a few sound issues which may, or may not, have been their fault. The crowd was a little sluggish for my taste, as it seemed every one but yours truly had their feet glued to the floor. But, hey, that's what you get for conducting your business in Illinois I suppose. The music was sick as always and the band itself still proves to be one of the most powerful live acts in music. I urge you all to see them in the smallest venue possible (that goes for all shows as far as I'm concerned).
Here is a video of one of my favorite songs from possibly the best set I have seen. The song, Torches Together, was performed at Musica in Akron last August.
mewithoutYou graced the midwest with their presence this evening in Palatine, Il at Durrty Nellies. Venue was pretty sick, minus a few sound issues which may, or may not, have been their fault. The crowd was a little sluggish for my taste, as it seemed every one but yours truly had their feet glued to the floor. But, hey, that's what you get for conducting your business in Illinois I suppose. The music was sick as always and the band itself still proves to be one of the most powerful live acts in music. I urge you all to see them in the smallest venue possible (that goes for all shows as far as I'm concerned).
Here is a video of one of my favorite songs from possibly the best set I have seen. The song, Torches Together, was performed at Musica in Akron last August.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Daredevil Christopher Wright Show
Thursday's show at the Tonic was spot on! Thank you to the Tonic in Bayview for hosting another great free show. This was the best The Daredevil Christopher Wright set I have seen. The energy emancipated the crowd from the doldrums of a midweek winter day and got us excited for the time ahead. On the song, "The Animal of Choice", they sing "Through the blood that we share, be me wolf and be you bear, we’ll feel each tragedy, sympathetically", and I would say this does well to sum up the relationship between band and audience, a symbiotic relationship in the purest sense.
As you may have heard, Bon Iver took down a couple of Grammys a little while back and The Daredevil Christopher Wright has a new album coming out soon. Dare I say back to back for Eau Claire, Wisconsin...
As you may have heard, Bon Iver took down a couple of Grammys a little while back and The Daredevil Christopher Wright has a new album coming out soon. Dare I say back to back for Eau Claire, Wisconsin...
Thursday, February 16, 2012
First Post
Hello. How are you?
Here is a video from The Daredevil Christopher Wright, who is playing Milwaukee this evening, to get us started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMPiZCBdnVA&feature=related
Hello. How are you?
Here is a video from The Daredevil Christopher Wright, who is playing Milwaukee this evening, to get us started.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMPiZCBdnVA&feature=related
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