smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "andrea kremer" <kremer@shore.net> |
| Subject | Re: Random Things |
| Date | Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:53:22 -0400 (EDT) |
[Part 1 text/plain iso-8859-1 (4.0 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
> 1) First, congrats to our own Andrea Kremer, who was profiled in this
> Sunday's Boston Globe "Your Career" section. She's successfully changed her
> career
> full-time into something music industry related, and certainly seems to love
> it. It's somewhat inspiring to me since I'm in my own career crisis (ie.,
> I've been in one since finishing college) and am currently unemployed and have
> absolutely no idea what to do. I've grown so discouraged in the past few years
> that I don't even know what field to go into anymore. I'd be happy with any
> job that pays a living wage and is 9-5 and close to home about now.
Aw shucks - thanks! I think I'm the only one who hasn't actually seen that
article.... I hope I didn't sound like a dork. Uhh, you know, or at least
sounded like less of a dork than usual. And Jason, you should email me offlist
about your career crisis... I might be able to help. (In fact, I wish I'd
known you were unemployed a few weeks ago!)
Also, while I'm writing -- I've got three shout-outs from the Boston Pop
Underground shows this weekend, for three bands I had the pleasure of seeing
live for the first time:
1. Eugene Edwards. I know *everyone*'s been singing this guy's praises, but I
had to see for myself to see what all the fuss was about. Well, all the fuss
is justified -- Eugene is an incredible, high-energy, immensely talented and
likeable performer who obviously derives great joy from performing and
radiates that joy to the audience. I think the true litmus test of a great
live act is when the venue staff come over to compliment me on my lineup, and
Eugene won everyone in the place over, audience and staff alike. His songs are
tight, fun and memorable, and his band seriously kicks ass. If you have the
chance to catch him on his East Coast or UK tours, please do. Highly
recommended.
2. Adam Marsland. His live full-band set was a revelation. I get kind of a Ben
Folds Five vibe from both his material and his delivery. And his count-offs
were memorably clever ("One, two, buckle my shoe"; "One, two, three, go.") But
here's the really genius part: he's got Evie Sands on guitar --- famous in her
own right -- and a female bassist, and they both sing backing vocals. Which
means that every song gets the full-on Tony Orlando and Dawn treatment on the
3-part harmonies. There's just something about a male lead vocal with two
female backing vocals that lends a sort of choir-of-angels effect that really
illuminates the songs and shows them off to their best advantage. (It didn't
hurt that these women were also terrific musicians, too.) I don't understand
why every male singer-songwriter doesn't take advantage of that same sort of
musical halo effect by surrounding himself with female musicians who can sing.
Think about it. Also, they did a killer cover of Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in
Paris, a great song that you just don't hear enough of these days.
3. SNMNMNM. They might be my new favorite band. Very much like They Might Be
Giants, in that they are funny and goofy and also monstrously talented. I
think they have the potential to be huge. Their instrumentation is guitar,
drums, accordion and tuba. The tuba player brings a pedal board which
includes, among other things, a wah pedal... and you really haven't lived
until you've heard wah-wah tuba. The guitarist doubles as a trumpet player
and, at one point, as a karaoke singer during a brilliantly inspired medley of
cheesy karaoke favorites that all seem to have the same chord changes. The
accordion player jumps up and down. The drummer twirls his sticks. The songs
are great, bouncy and fun, and are about things like Spanish cucumbers. It
would all be easily dismissable as fluff and gimmicks, were it not for the
fact that they're really great musicians and songwriters. You can try, but you
can't not like this band. They're too good; they've won you over before you
even knew they were doing it. And then suddenly you're in love.
That's all from here...
A
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.