Long-time blog readers (all three of them – Hi Dave, Jacqui and TC!) might recall that a few weeks ago I threw my hat into the ring as a potential host for a Living Room Tour show by Craig Finn. (Original post is here.) Craig is the lead singer of The Hold Steady, one of my faves, and his solo stuff is pretty tasty too.
His third solo album, We All Want The Same Things is due out March 24th (and now available for pre-order with bonus goodies here). Here’s the first track off the new album:
About a week after I volunteered our home as a concert venue (without telling my wife – “better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission” right?), I got a rejection email from the company organizing the tour. No harm, no foul. I still bought a ticket to the show, which was supposed to be at an art gallery about five minutes from my house.
This afternoon, I got this email:
Yes, he misspelled my name… but wait, there’s more, he sent a follow-up email two minutes later:
Do you even have to ask what my reply to their request was?
So, one week from today, Craig Finn (and 40 or so of my new best friends) will be filling Casa de Dubbatrubba with music and merriment. I can’t wait. Join us if you’re a fan and you can make it.
A new year means 365 new opportunities to connect (with other human beings, not with your smartphone).
Singer-songwriter (and Gilmore Girls town troubadour) Grant-Lee Phillips recently sent a nice note to all those on his mailing list, and I thought a couple of excerpts were well worth sharing.
“A renewed commitment to compassion.” Yep, that’s a darn fine resolution from a darn good performer.
The new album from Buffalo Tom has been fully funded by their fans (including yours truly). My faith in humanity has been restored.
A note from Buffalo Tom:
I used to think it was a bit sad that bands and artists I love had to resort to crowd-funding platforms to release new music. But upon further reflection, I think it’s better this way – no meddling from the suits at a record label, and a more direct connection to the fans that love their music. Rock on!
Here are a few tunes that have caught my ear lately. A Nashville cat named Ron Gallo (he’s a Napoleon Dynamite doppelgänger) did a guerrilla video on the tourist strip that is Lower Broadway:
Here’s a video for another tune from his forthcoming album:
Ron Gallo’s album Heavy Meta comes out February 3.
And then there’s Alynda Lee Segarra, who goes by the stage name of Hurray for the Riff Raff. I loved her last album, Small Town Heroes, and really liked her performance in concert at an outdoor festival during that tour. Based on the first track from the new album, it should be a good one as well:
Hurray for the Riff Raff’s album The Navigator will be available on March 10th.
And in case you were wondering (you weren’t), my house wasn’t chosen as the site for Craig Finn’s living room tour stop in Cincinnati. That’s the bad news. The good news is the place that was chosen is five minutes from my house. So nearly as convenient and I don’t have to have 50 strangers in my living room. Win-win with Mr. Finn.
As an auditory learner, a music lover, a kid from the radio era (OK, we did have a whopping 3 TV networks) and someone who spent a decade working in advertising, I’m hard-wired to like jingles. A few of those earworms that were created merely to move the merchandise are still stuck in my head decades after I last heard them.
As a kid in rural Arkansas, I used to stay up at night (and sometimes get up very early in the morning) and tune my transistor radio to WLS, a 50,000-watt powerhouse out of Chicago.
I remember a few of the songs from that era, although the 70’s weren’t a great time for rock and roll. Actually, I remember the band Journey doing a spoof of Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” most of all.
Sadly, the advertising jingle is a dying art. Now advertisers find it easier (read: lazier) to license an existing song or commission a pop knockoff. Here’s a great NPR interview with the “Jingle King” Steve Karmen. He wrote “I Love New York,” “This Bud’s for You,” “Nationwide is on your side” and dozens of other memorable jingles so it’s hard to argue with his title… although Barry Manilow got his start penning jingles for the likes of State Farm (“like a good neighbor…”) Band-Aid (“I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand…”) and McDonald’s (“You deserve a break today…”).
Where have you gone, “Oscar Meyer Wiener Song”? If White Hen stores were still around, and they sold cassette tapes of advertising jingles (or even 8-tracks), I’d totally buy the entire set.
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