Category: Music

Categories
Music

I Heart the Ladies

BNL in CalgaryAs promised here is my review from the BNL concert on April 1st in Calgary. It was great! As we were getting seated Anna questioned me about the tickets I purchased, “Do people that sit in these seats really get more nosebleeds?” Very funny. :)

The concert itself was a blast. Jason Plumb and Ron Sexsmith were the two opening acts. They seem like unknowns to me but Anna recognized Ron Sexsmith’s name and apparently Jason Plumb played for the Waltons — which I vaguely recall.

Anyway it was a great concert in which almost every song they played seemed like my favorite. I know I’m a big geek for this Canadian band, but whatever – it was fun. They played:

  • Maybe Katie
  • Too Little Too Late
  • Enid
  • Some Adlibing
  • It’s All Been Done
  • Another Postcard
  • Celebrity
  • More Adlib
  • Never Is Enough
  • I Live With It Every Day
  • Roadrunner
  • For You
  • One Week
  • Upside Down
  • A Bass Solo
  • Alternative Girlfriend
  • Testing 1,2,3
  • Never Do Anything
  • Blame It On Me
  • Shopping
  • Concert Going
  • Pinch Me
  • War On Drugs
  • Beat The Crew
  • Shoe Box
  • Old Apartment
  • Brian Wilson
  • Rio
  • If I Had $1,000,000
  • What A Good Boy

They weren’t planning on playing Alternative Girlfriend but got talked into it when someone in the audience held up a big sign that said quote/unquote Please let my husband drum Alternative Girlfriend with you. So they did. Ed told the audience that if he was at least half decent we should really cheer him on, but that if he sucked then we should beat him to a pulp. He was actually pretty good and it was really fun to watch. It’s stuff like that that makes a concert so memorable.

They had a fun choreographed shopping cart ballet in which they ran around with shopping carts, passed around boxes of cereal and made snow angels on the stage. They did three encore songs, which was more than the last time they were in Calgary, and I must say it was just a perfect concert.

BNL in Calgary

Ed wrote about the concert tour and specifically about Calgary’s show. Ed and Steve are by far my favorite bloggers in BNL – not just because they do the majority of the singing.

Categories
copyright Music

Grey Tuesday

I read the headlines about Grey Tuesday last week as it approached but I didn’t bother to read what it was all about. I thought it sounded boring.

So today I read all about it and I downloaded a couple of songs from DJ Danger Mouse’s Grey Album this afternoon. While I strongly believe in the principle of Grey Tuesday, that is to say that copyright law needs reform, I have to say the songs themselves didn’t bake my cake. I guess I’m just not into that indie rap stuff. Anyway I do hope the attention that the Grey Album is getting will bring about some common-sense changes to copyright law.

For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, let me catch you up to speed.

DJ Danger Mouse has taken audio tracks from Rapper Jay-Z’s Black Album and remixed them with music from the Beatles White Album. The new album is cleverly titled The Grey Album.

Enter EMI and copyright lawyers. They claimed that he had not asked permission or paid for the rights to use The Beatles music and demanded that he stop selling his record. The DJ agreed to comply with the order and is no longer distributing the record, which was allegedly only intended for the ears of friends.

But the story doesn’t end there. In issuing the order, EMI has unwittingly thrust The Grey Album into the public spotlight, prompting guerilla music lovers to post MP3s on their websites and blogs specifically on, but not limited to, Tuesday February 24th. Considering that only 3,000 copies of The Gray Album were pressed and the fact that it has been banned pretty much guarantees a Holy Grail status among hip-hop fans and serious music collectors alike.

“Grey Tuesday” Civil Disobedience Planned February 24th Against Copyright Cartel

In protest of EMI’s action approximately 170 sites hosted a full copy of the Grey Album on Tuesday, in spite of the fact that many of those sites had received cease and desist letters from EMI’s lawyers.

So how successful did Grey Tuesday turn out to be?

“After a survey of the sites that hosted files during Grey Tuesday, and an analysis of filesharing activity on that day, we can confidently report that the Grey Album was the number one album in the US on February 24 by a large margin. Danger Mouse moved more “units” than Norah Jones and Kanye West, with well over 100,000 copies downloaded. That’s more than 1 million digital tracks.”

I think that’s pretty cool.

Categories
Music

Maid Queen Vs. May Queen

A couple have people have written the same basic message:

Just to let you know the correct lyric [in Stairway to Heaven] is ‘just a spring clean for the maid queen’ not may queen.

Actually folks, it is may queen, but if you looked up the lyrics before emailing me, you’d already know that. What is a maid queen anyway? I bet if I had one my house would be spotless.

Categories
Music

"We Know You’re Innocent"

Britney Spears might say she’s not that innocent, but some fans of Michael Jackson have put together a song that PROVES he was set-up. Ok it doesn’t really prove anything but a fun game when you are listening to the song is to try and figure out whether this is parody or not.

Categories
life Music

Go Deaf for Def Leppard Update

At the crack of dawn this morning Anna-Maria and I headed off to Rock 106 to try and win some concert tickets. When I got there, there was only one other contestant. Things were looking up, but then they got on the radio and asked more people to come down and be in on the contest. Well a few more people started to show up and after a slight mishap with dead batteries in the decibel reader they got things underway.

First off, I should explain the basis behind this contest. The idea was that whoever sang the loudest Def Leppard line would win tickets to the Def Leppard concert on Monday. They talked Anna into also participating and she sang at an amazing 101.2 decibels (or was it 102.1?) She sang Pour a Little Sugar on Me — which she said she didn’t even know and nobody else sang louder than Anna-Maria, in fact nobody else even broke 100 decibels, except for me. I yelled a spectacular 106.6 decibels of Let’s Get Rocked and then after the contest was over did an encore performance and sang at 108.1!

We won the tickets and now all that’s between me and a sweet free Def Leppard concert is getting out of my evening class on Monday night. We are pumped.

Categories
animation copyright Music

Girl 12, Settles Lawsuit

Recently, the RIAA laid charges on a 12 year old girl from New York State for copyright violations by downloading music over the Internet.

It has now been announced (CNN story) that the RIAA has rushed to settle with the young Brianna LaHara, after serving her with a lawsuit on Monday. It looks like her single mother will be paying a $2,000 fine to the RIAA for her daughter’s song-swapping, which they had thought was legal. They purchased the software that allowed them to swap files with other users.

Quoting Brianna: “I am sorry for what I have done. I love music and don’t want to hurt the artists I love.” What a relief this must be for the huge bands like Metallica.

You might think that the RIAA was being excessive but see, downloading files is just a gateway crime… by the time this girl is 17, she’ll be sharing video games, and maybe by the time she’s in her early 20’s she’ll be giving away illegal copies of Microsoft Office! Thank goodness for American justice.</sarcasm>

Categories
life Music

Go Deaf for Def Leppard – Rock 106 Radio Contest

I forgot to mention that this morning on the radio I heard them talking about free tickets for Def Leppard for the next 10 callers. Well I whipped out the cell phone and then Fraser and Rosie (the breakfast boys) explained to me that I didn’t win yet but that I had to come down to the studio on Friday morning and sing a short clip from Def Leppard. Whoever sings the loudest will win the tickets. Somewhat hesitantly I told them I would be there.

Update: Apparently I have quite the ability to raise my voice — see how the contest turned out.