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This past Christmas, I received a soprano ukelele. I was thrilled. I finally had a comically small instrument on which to play music. Then, i tried tuning it. Who knew that nylon strings snapped that quickly? So, i finally got knew strings and got it tuned correctly: G – C – E – A. Now that it is good to go, i am just a short leap away from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. Zoey will be thrilled! My Zune has been on random this morning, as usual… Normally I flick through songs that I am just not in the mood to hear – finally stumbling upon some gem that I haven’t listened to in a while. This morning’s gem is a song by My Friend The Chocolate Cake: “I’ve Got A Plan”. This song is from their album “Brood” which I find to be a great album. I hope you enjoy this song and will check out my by this group. I know many people haven’t heard of the group No More Kings and that’s really sad. They have some very clever music. I was first introduced to them through Pandora.com with the song “Zombie Me” — a song chock full of awesome. From there, I learned of a song called “Sweep The Leg”. I have to admit this song captured fond memories of my childhood. A song with lyrics ripped right out of one of my favorite 80′s movies… “Karate Kid”. That’s right, Cobra Kai strikes back. Here is the music video, care of http://www.sweeptheleg.com/youtube: Make you message clear… check out No More Kings. The Alabama Symphony Orchestra surprised me by inviting Video Games Live to play in Birmingham. The inner nerd in me shed a tear of joy, as I have been looking forward to seeing one of these performances for a long time.
I had no idea really what to expect when arriving at the BJCC. I had read that the pre-show events had costume contests, gaming competitions, meet and greets with game composers and all that. Needless to say, we were somewhat nonplussed by what was offered. There was a Guitar Hero 3 competition, but you couldn’t hear the music… and it was displayed on two small LCD panels with a large mosh of adolescent boys attempting to achieve plastic guitar glory. However, the winner went on to play on stage with the Symphony as he attempted to break 175,000 points playing Expert level on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. And the guy won too… handily. The costume contest had a few entrants. What could you expect from Alabama? We had a Lar Umlaut from Guitar Hero, Ayane from Dead or Alive, Ness, Reno from Final Fantasy, and hand full of other lesser known characters… and we had the winning costume: a three person representation of Pong. I wish I had taken a picture. Simple, clever, effective. The actual concert… well, it exceeded my expectations. It was an incredible night. The symphony was simply excellent. I will definitely return to see them perform again, whatever it is that may be playing. If it weren’t for some pesky union rules, I’d have shot some video clips to share from last night’s performance. Here is a sampling on what we were treated to last night:
If I had to pick my favorite sequence, it would be between the Classic Arcade Medley, the Final Fantasy Piano Medley, or the Metal Gear Solid suite. The only complaint I had about the performance is the grandstanding done by Tommy Tallarico. No doubt the man is talented… but we were there to see the Symphony, not him galavanting around the stage. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend attending one fo these events. They are simply spectacular and brought back some very found childhood memories.
I am not very familiar with Amos Lee and his catalog of music, but what I am hearing from his latest album “Last Days At The Lodge” are fairly mellow, R&B inspired songs that resonate with something personal to Lee. Apparently, he wrote all the songs that appear on this album, which I applaud. You can tell there is a great production quality to each song. Few of the songs are of such outstanding quality (lyrically, musically, or what have you) that you will want to listen to them for days on end. However, I haven’t heard a song that I immediately wanted to skip right past, which is a good thing for me. One song that stands out to me is “Street Corner Preacher.” The blues-ish feel just takes me to a good place. If you are in the market for good music to work to in an office environment, this could be a good choice to add to your collection. All in all, it’s worth a listen, and if you are a fan of Amos Lee, then a must buy. Rating: 7/10 I have recently discovered a new music group that is just incredible. The sisterly duo, known as The Callen Sisters, are unique, to say the least. With a pairing of a guitar and a harp, along with beautiful vocal harmonization, they have created a wonderful blend of music. |
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