Archive for the 'Music' Category

Stomacher at Great American Music Hall

Published on April 29, 2010 in Music, Musicians and Photography.

Last time I was at the Great American Music Hall, I was there to see Imogen Heap (whom I love), so you can imagine my excitement when finding out my brother, Stephen’s band was playing such an awesome venue! On April 10th, 2010, Stomacher opened for the headliner, Tornado Rider, along with a few other opening bands. They played an amazing set. I know I may be biased, but they just seem to get better every time I see them. I’ll attach the band’s info to the bottom of this post so you all can check them out for yourselves.

Just the right people seemed to attend this show. First of all, my whole family was there: my mom, my dad and his wife, my brother and his wife, and even my sister and her husband, who live in England but were in town visiting. Secondly, I always enjoy seeing the friends that show up to these shows. It feels a bit like a reunion. Lastly, and most certainly not least, The Edge from U2 showed up (!!!) to check out the headlining band. He was in the crowd with his bodyguard, nonchalantly enjoying the show. Stephen and Jarrod, the lead singer of Stomacher, were able to give him their CD to check out. Later in the night, he actually walked into their dressing room to say hi and compliment them on their album cover. Let me tell you… before this happened, if someone were to have asked Stephen what one musician he would want to meet, he would have said The Edge from U2. He was a huge inspiration for my brother to start playing guitar. The experience was surreal.

Check out Stomacher here: www.stomachermusic.com

Download their latest album, Sentimental Education, for FREE here:
www.stomachermusic.com/download

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Imogen Heap – Ellipse

Published on June 29, 2009 in Music.

Yessssssss! I’m so excited! Imogen Heap’s new album will be released on August 25, 2009.

www.imogenheap.com

If you’re not already doing so, you should follow her on Twitter.

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Wait. What?!

Published on May 15, 2009 in Music.

Matt Morris is the MATT from MMC (The Mickey Mouse Club) circa 1992?!!

I can not even begin to describe the obsession I had with this individual starting at the age of 8! In fact, there was a specific performance that I had recorded onto vhs and I would watch over and over, like it was my favorite movie. I’m going to head over to YouTube and grab the video and put it right here on this very blog post so you can all appreciate what I once considered perfection. You see, my sister (god bless her), was the whole reason I started watching the beloved show. She was totally in love with Tony Luca and greatly disliked Kerri Russell for the longest time because of it. Haha. This is great. I keep laughing at the thought of what I would have done had I known I’d someday meet him in person by random coincidence. I also keep wondering if I’d have been too nervous to talk to him had I known who he was before walking up to him two days ago, getting him to sign his cd that I had just purchased, telling him he did an amazing job during his performance and that I follow him on twitter. I ALSO keep wondering if I would’ve had such a huge obsession back in the day had I known he’d end up marrying a man? Haha. Adorable. He is absolutely adorable.

After publishing the previous post (Indigo Girls in Berkeley), I decided to read up a bit on what Matt has done to land him on stage, opening for the Indigo Girls. I was on imdb and read that he was a cast member on MMC and for some reason it STILL didn’t click that it was him. Then, later that evening (last night), I was telling my sister-in-law about the concert and I said something like, “…and I guess he was on MMC. I used to watched that show and was totally obsessed with this kid named Ma……………… OMG.” That is when it all clicked! I pulled out my iphone and googled Matt Morris MMC and on the first page was THE video on YouTube that I used to watch over and over! I immediately called my sister in England to tell her the awesome news. I figured she’s the only one that would truly understand just how excited I was. And she did. (Thank you, Tiana. Sorry I woke you up so early.)

Turns out he’s signed to Justin Timberlake’s record label, Tennman Records. JT was one of his fellow cast members on MMC, along with Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Kerri Russell, Tony Luca, and JC Chasez, just to name a few.

Ok, you can watch the video now. Yes, he’s wearing jean overalls.

And here he is NOW.

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Indigo Girls in Berkeley

Published on May 14, 2009 in Music.

An Indigo Girls set is like a Radiohead set (except, obviously, totally different). I mean, it’s not like I can be like “gosh! they played such a good set last night!” as if it’s possible for them to not play a good set? It’s a given that I’m going to walk away having known and sang along to 97% of the lyrics and feel completely satisfied with the performance. The Indigo Girls, of course, lived up to this last night (Wednesday, May 13, 2009) when performing at the Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA. They truly are amazing women and extremely talented artists. This is my 4th time seeing them live and definitely not the last.

I took my friend with me to the show who hadn’t heard much of their music and I’m pretty sure he’s convinced of their greatness now (finally!). In fact, his facebook status this morning was “Jon is down with lesbians.”

Me too, Jon. Me too.

Matt Morris was the opener. I have high hopes that he’ll make it really far in his career. He has an amazing voice, a funny sense of humor and a great stage presence. Check him out here: www.mattmorris.net. As usual, the Girls had him come out on a couple of the songs at the end of their set. It was obvious he was loving the experience.

I was disappointed that they were sold out of the Indigo Girls t-shirt I wanted, but I did purchase the latest album, Poseidon and the Bitter Bug, on vinyl and also bought Matt Morris’s EP, Backstage at Bonnaroo and other Acoustic Performances. He was hanging out by his merch booth, so I had him sign it for me and let him know I enjoyed the show. He was really nice.

The Girls are going to be playing close to home again at The Mountain Winery on July 18, 2009. I think I might take Katie to see them. It’s never too early to introduce children to great musicians, right?

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Amy & Emily

Published on April 27, 2009 in Music.

The Indigo Girls just released a new album called Poseidon and the Bitter Bug. I’ve been listening to it a lot (obsessively?) since March 24, 2009 when it was released and I’m finally at the stage where I’m realizing how amazing the lyrics are that I’ve memorized and have been singing loudly to in my car.

This particular song hit home:

Love of Our Lives (click to listen)

I open my hands up to see what I’ve got.
My days slip like coins into a slot they are gone.
The shadows lie long.
I’ve been banking on a broken machine,
Left unattended like most of dreams.
Rusted components of an unmarked song.

We’ve been staring down the brilliant dream,
The sun burns our eyes.
We’ve been fighting for the love of our lives.

All around us things come apart.
Broken pieces broken hearts.
Fix me, oil me, match me with the next best thing.
Person to person or nation to nation.
Heels dug in, no communication.
Wily time sneaks her weathering.
We’ve been wanting to be held by binding ties.
We’ve been fighting for the love of our lives.

And when it breaks down, I beg you don’t go.
I circle your ship, I’m ready to blow.
Try to outflank you with an army of words, I strategize.
I am fighting for the love of my life.

Iron, water and oxygen,
Scotch and soda, or any combination.
Starts the reaction.
Is there no mastermind of modern day,
Who can blueprint a plan to make love stay.
Sturdy and weatherproof, ushering in a new revolution?
At the drawing board the hopeful ones still try.
How can we help it when we’re fighting for the love of our lives?

It’s amazing to me how they sum up the frustration of love in humanity.
I honestly can’t say much more than this: I completely live this out on a daily basis.

I’ve purchased tickets to see them live on May 13th in Berkeley. I’m ecstatic.

(A little secret: I wish I took those pics of Amy and Emily that I posted above.)