Pushing Daisies, or, the Best Show of the Year

ABC aired one of their newest shows last night, and I caught it earlier today via their nifty online TV thingy.

Go. Watch. This. Show.

Asside from being utterly brilliant, the show is extremely well acted, highly, highly, highly original and quirky and is probably one of the coolest things to hit TV since ... I don't know when. Reminded me a lot of the film Big Fish.
The plot of the show is this: A boy, Ned, finds that he has the ability to bring people back to life, with just one touch.

A couple problems: 1 - if he touches them again, they're dead, for good, he can't bring them back, ever. 2 - If he doesn't touch the person again, someone nearby dies. 3 - he just brought his childhood sweetheart back to life..
He's in the business with a private investigator (who's the same guy who played Vogler in House), and they've been making a living bringing people back to life, asking them who killed them, and collecting the reward.
Just simplely an amazing show. The guy who created it also did Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, Heroes and Star Trek Voyager, as a producer and writer for both shows, so he knows the business.

Now, the real question is, can this show hold an audience? I really hope so, because this one is just too good to die. However, it's a bit out there, and very, very different, so it might have a hard time holding onto an audience. I guess we'll see.

Ferraby Lionheart's coming with this, because his sound fits with the show perfectly. And of course, the title of the song...

Before We're Dead - Ferraby Lionheart

Hype - Buy - Look

New Cary Brothers Video - Honestly

I just came across this, a new Cary Brothers video with scenes from Feast of Love, which looks like a new movie coming out. The song was on his first album, Who You Are, a fantastic first album.

Looks pretty good - Brothers is certainly good at getting his music into films. I'll be seeing him next week when he comes to South Burlington with Matt Nathanson.

Honestly - Cary Brothers

Hype - Buy - Look

Three Days, Three Concerts

So, this weekend should be fun and full of sound. As things lined up, I'm going to hit three concerts this weekend.

Friday -
Avi & Celia are out of Vermont, having formed a couple years ago at the University of Vermont (where other notable acts such as Phish formed), and have recently been named the best act of the month by Higher Ground, the best music place in Vermont. They're doing a show at the Langdon Street Cafe, a small music venue in Montpelier.

Saturday -

Up at the University of Vermont, two bands are playing for the school, Guster with Brett Dennen opening for them. I've only listened to a limited number of these guys songs, but I've enjoyed them. Guster recently released their latest album, Ganging Up on the Sun, which has some good songs on it. Brett Dennen's got a folk-ish sound that's quite good. I'm looking forwards to this show, even though I just found out about it about a week ago.

She's Mine - Brett Dennen
Satellite - Guster


Sunday -

This is a show that I've really been looking forwards to for the past month or so, Brandi Carlile with A Fine Frenzy opening. Both women are fantastic singers, each with a fantastic sound. They're playing up at the Higher Ground Music Hall in South Burlington, and this should be a good one.

Rangers - A Fine Frenzy
The Story - Brandi Carlile

I'll most likely be posting up reviews of each of these concerts on Monday, when I get back to my computer, so stay tuned.

Hype - Buy

Duet - U2 and Greenday

This is a lineup that I never really would have put together - Irish rockers U2 and pseudo-punk rockers Greenday. The Saints Are Coming was a collaboration between the two bands shortly after Hurricane Katrina. The two played the song together for a charity concert, and the song was released on U2's singles album U218. The song has primarily been seen as a response to the government's reaction to the Hurricane. Given both band's histories with activism or protest, it's not a surprise that this is something that they would take on as a message.

The song was originally sung by a punk band called the Skids.

The result is a pretty good song. Both bands work pretty well together and it sounds pretty good.

The Saints Are Coming (The Skids) - U2 & Green Day

Hype - Buy

C&O - Heartbeats

This song quickly became one of my favorite songs ever last year, after I heard it a couple times. It's the song that's featured in the bouncing ball commercial, and it's the one that turned me to José González and I've been listening to his stuff ever since. It's a beauiful work on the acoustic guitar.

So imagine my surprise when this turns out to have been a techno song by the Knife. I'm not a huge fan of the original. Some parts of it doesn't sit well with me, which makes Gonzalez's cover all the more interesting. He's gone and completely changed the song and made it his own work, which for me, shows an incredible musical skill. This isn't meer emulation, this is creativity at it's height.

Heartbeats - The Knife

Heartbeats - José González

Hype - Buy

Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace

Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace is the latest studio album from the Foo Fighters, and it's one that I've been looking forwards to for a little while now. While it has several fairly good songs that are up with the best of their stuff, this album doesn't quite made the grade as compared to their other albums. Instead, it's more of the same, especially after the fantastic double album, In Your Honor. Where In Your Honor was split between fast and slow songs, Echoes Silence Patience and Grace is much the same, just with fewer songs. And, while they were at it, they did do a good job with this album, it just feels very much like that prior album.

The album opens up with the fantastic The Pretender, which reminds me a lot of the fanstastic Best Of You. Both songs have an incredible amount of energy between the two of them. Fast, heavy guitarwork and loud lyrics. This is one area where the Fighters excel atl. They also do a good job with ramping up the energy, such as in what happens with Let It Die, where it starts off slowly, with some soft guitar licks, while building over the length of the song. Erase/Replace is fast and blunt, and easily one of the weaker songs of the album. The rest of the album settles into two catagories, fast with a decent beat and slower, more thoughtful. Long Road to Ruin, Cheer Up Boys, Summer's End, and But, Honestly all fit into the first catagory, and blend together nicely. Come Alive, Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners, Statues and Home all fit into the second and likewise work well together.
This is one of the weaknesses of the album - there's really nothing, except for The Predender, Let It Die and Home that really stand out here, even among their other albums. Even back to The Colour and the Shape, there's a predictible sound that holds the Foo Fighters back a bit.
This isn't to say that this album is horrible and should be set on fire and returned to the store - quite the opposite, these guys aren't Nickelback. The album is very listenable and fairly enjoyable. It's a very good thing that I really enjoyed In Your Honor, because there's not a whole lot of differences between the two. Which isn't a bad thing, because sometimes it's nice to listen to something like that. The formula that they've come up with is variable, and it's a good sound for them - it works. I'd recommend this album, but it's not mindblowing. But comfortable.

Let It Die - Foo Fighters
Home - Foo Fighters

Hype - Buy - Look

iTunes Free Music of the Week

This week for the free stuff:

Pictures of You - The Last Goodnight
No Hay Espacio - Black Guayaba
Love Is a Drug - Jypsi
No Such Thing As Vampires - Moonlight - Television pilot.

New Radiohead

I'm not really a big Radiohead fan. Actually, I don't know that I've really listened to a lot of their music. But, news has been spreading like wildfire about their next album, which was announced today to be released in... ten days. That's a really short period of time.

This was posted on Sterogum, via their promotionalists:

There will be no advances, promotional copies, digital streams, media sites, etc of RADIOHEAD'S In Rainbows.

Everyone in the world will be getting the music at the same time: Oct. 10. That includes us. We don't have anything to play anyone in the nine days until the record is available. Everyone at nasty has put his or her order in and just to clarify: you are not being asked to pay for a promo (as some have inquired). you can pay nothing or as much or as little as you want.

There will be no promotional copies of the discbox either, as each discbox is being made to order. Sorry.

And from their official page:

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;

We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny

Interesting. I wonder if it's to combat piracy. I guess we'll see.

Evolution of ... The Dave Matthew's Band

Since it's inception in 1991, The Dave Matthew's Band has been one of the biggestand most successful modern rock bands to date. Utilizing a number of different styles and roots, the band has a song list that numbers in the hundreds, it not thousands, and routinely fills stadiums and venues wherever they go. In addition, a number of its members have gone on to numerous side projects between solo albums, as well as television and film acting. They have also frequently collaborated with the likes of Johnny Cash, Alanis Morsette, Trey Anastasio, Mike Doughty, Santana, Jimmy Buffet and the Rolling Stones, among others.



The group's first album, Remember Two Things, was released in 1993, an indie release that attracted a lot of attention, leading to the 1994 release of Under the Table and Dreaming, which featured a number of hits, eventually going four times platnium. Under the Table and Dreaming featured a number of DMB favorites, characterized by it's quick guitar and drum work, tight vocals and saxaphone.

What Would You Say? - Dave Matthew's Band


Under the Table and Dreaming was followed in 1996 by Crash, which spawned several more hits for the band. It continued with a similar sound to UTTAD, although with several slower songs to go along with it.



Too Much - Dave Matthew's Band



After Crash, the band released two live albums, Live at Red Rocks and Live at Luther College, before returning to the studio to record Before These Crowded Streets. This album was more experimental than the prior two albums. Rapunzel utilizes some interesting rhythems, while Don't Drink the Water, Last Stop and Halloween are some of the darker songs that the band has released, tonewise and themewise.

The Last Stop - Dave Matthew's Band




The band's 2001's release, Everyday was also a departure from their normal sound. Already with a huge fanbase, there was a huge anticipation for their next album. However, tensions in the studio forced the band to scrap their work and start anew, creating an album in just a couple of weeks. This marked the first time that Dave Matthews used an electric guitar, and while the album was a commercial success, it was viewed as too mainstream and pop-like by numerous fans, as well as some of the band members.




Fool to Think - Dave Matthew's Band




Everyday was followed up by the remains of the scrapped album, known as the Lillywhite Sessions, dusted off and now called Busted Stuff. The album went back a bit to the band's typical style, with it's distinctive guitar and drumwork and lyrics. The album's speed is a bit slower, but musically, it was much stronger than Everyday. Dave Matthews would also collaborate with Carlos Santana in 2002




Bartender - Dave Matthew's Band




2004 for Dave Matthews brought Some Devil, a fantastic solo album that brought in a number of well known artists, such as Trey Anastasio and Tim Reynolds. The album is brilliant musically and lyrically, and some of it's song have been used by the band as a whole.




Save Me - Dave Matthews




2005's Stand Up is the band's latest album, and once again represents a jump in style, this time utilizing a sound closer to Before These Crowded Streets, as well as R&B, a little country and seems more whimsical to me. In addition, it's far more laid back than most of their music, but seems to be the most advanced and rich of all their albums.

Stand Up (For It) - Dave Matthew's Band

In 2006, DMB released their greatest hits album, something that they were a bit reluctant to do, pulling a list of their better known hits and a list of fan-picked live favorites. In 2007, Dave Matthews released the odd Eh Hee, as well as Live at Radio City, a live album with longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds. As of now, the band is currently writing for their next album, which should be released in the next year or so. I'm excited for it, and from some of their latest concert releases, they've got a bunch of newer songs that sound really cool.
The band is a huge staple in the music industry, with a huge track collection and from all reports that I've heard, have an amazing live experience. (Hopefully I'll get out to see them in the near future.) All in all, DMB will probably be looked back on as a band that was just as important as the Rolling Stones or Chicago as far as influence goes (although not music style) in the music industry. Hopefully, they'll be around for years to come.

Hype - Buy - Look

The Best of September

This has been a really good month for music, with a ton of albums being released and with some good stuff floating around out there. Here's the best of what I found this month -

You Can't Always Get What You Want - Band from TV

The Band from TV is just as it sounds, a band from TV. It's a collection of actors from various TV shows who've come together, including Hugh Laurie (House MD) and Greg Grunsberg (Heroes, Alias), among others. One of their first tracks released was for the House, MD Soundtrack, a cover of the Rolling Stones song, You Can't Always Get What You Want, one of the trademark songs from House, MD. It's a fun cover, with a bit of a different take than the original.

Eh Hee - Dave Matthews

This song is weird. Just plain weird, and really different from everything that Dave Matthews has done thus far. It's got a weird beat, lyrics and video. And it's pretty cool, once you get over how odd it is.

State of Massachusetts - Dropkick Murphys

This is the latest from the Dropkick Murphys, which sounds like one of their Irish rock songs, with a kickass beat and an interesting story with their lyrics.

Hard Sun - Eddie Vedder

One of the main tracks from the soundtrack Into the Wild, this is a cover of somebody's (I can't remember what the original artist was), and it's one of those songs that just struck me while I was driving. Good lyrics, and when the chorus kicks in, I'm good.

Beautiful - Elvis Costello

I've been trying to find this for a while, ever since it was used in a House, MD episode, Elvis Costello's cover of Christina Agulara's Beautiful. It's got a good beat and overall, a much better cover than the original.

Let It Die - Foo Fighters

Just off of Echoes, Silence and Grace, the Foo Fighters are back (review coming soon) and this is one of the cooler songs off the album, starting off really slowly, but building over the whole song.

Home - Foo Fighters

This is one of the softer Foo Fighters songs off the album, and it really goes to show that these guys can do more than just fast rock. Dave Gohl's voice with the piano is just fantastic here.

Pagen Angel and a Borrowed Car - Iron & Wine

This is one of my favorite favorites of the month. It starts off stripped of sound before opening up about 20 seconds into the song, with amazing drum and guitar work, as well as Sam Beam's fantastic voice. I love this song.

Carousel - Iron & Wine

I also love this one. It's got some amazing guitar work and vocals and has a delicate and relaxed sound to it. One of the best off of the album The Shepherd's Dog.

In Our Nature - José González

José González is back with In Our Nature, and the title track has a fantastic sound and off beat tone to his acoustic guitar and drum work.

Teardrop - José González

This is a cover of Massive Attack's song, and like Heartbeats before in Veneer, González shows what he can do with an electronic song, although the result isn't as dramatic as it was with Heartbeats. No matter, this song is just amazing as is.

White Bird - KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall is back with Drastic Fantastic. While not as good as her earlier album, White Bird is one of the stronger songs on the album, with a nice laid back sound and really good vocal work on her part.

Hopeless - KT Tunstall

This is another one of the stronger songs off of Drastic Fantastic, with a nice beat and good KT Tunstall sound. The vocals and drumwork are flawless here.

Love Song - Sara Bareilles

This is the lead single off of newcomer Sara Bareille's album Little Voice. She's got a good sound with the piano and a strong voice here, and some fantastic lyrics.

Many The Miles - Sara Bareilles

This is another fantastic song off of Little Voice, with fantastic piano and vocals, with a good opener that eases nicely into the chorus here, with a nice blend of soul, R&B and rock.

Buttons - Sia

Sia's best known (at least to me) for her collaborations with Zero 7. I like her work with them just fine, but it wasn't until this song that I really listened to her. This song's quirky pop sound is really cool, and distinctive.

Hype - Buy