Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Wil Wheaton’ Category

Sincere Engineer (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, September 4, 2026)

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, House of Independents, Sincere Engineer, Smug LLC, Star Trek, Stay Inside, The Simpsons, Wil Wheaton on September 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 4, 2026] Sincere Engineer

I’m not sure how I first heard of Sincere Engineer, but as soon as I heard them, I loved them.  I love their bouncy pop punk sound, I love the snarky lyrics and I love  Deanna Belos’ voice!  Raspy and angry which still being completely clear and easy to understand.  It’s perfect.  Especially with catchy, kiss off lyrics like

And I should’ve said ………something
But I really said …………nothing
And I should’ve said ……………..something
Before I twist my tongue
And clench my teeth
And let you get away
With saying that to me

They opened with that song and I was super psyched from the get go.

Before that song their entrance music was the theme from Star Trek the Next Generation, which was hilarious and wonderful.

After the new song, they jumped back to Cheap Grills for two songs: Anemia and California King–a simple, catchy bouncy song that is pretty irresistible.

Back to new songs with Settle Up With Your Downfall, a slower more serious song, but the follow up The Perfect Crime was super catchy, only beaten in catchiness by Fireplace, one of the catchiest, snarkiest songs in recent memory.  And everyone sang along, including the eleven year old who was celebrating her birthday at the show.  This girl was cute, standing up front wearing a birthday hat.  She’d probably talked to Deanna before, but Deanna made a big deal out of her and dedicated the next song Corn Dog Sonnet to her.

It was fast and fun, just like Cooler.  And even though my understanding is that this is Deanna’s band, the guys behind her are fantastic Adam Beck on drums, Kyle Geib on guitar, and Nick Arvanitis on bass keep the show smooth and clearly enjoying playing. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Paul Acampora–I Kill the Mockingbird (2014)

Posted in Adele, Alice Russell, Charles Dickens, Children's Books, Chuck Wendig, Cory Doctorow, Dusty Springfield, E.B. White, Funny (ha ha), Futility, Harper Lee, Marriage (Happy), Mystery, Myths, Neil Gaiman, Paul Acampora, Regrets, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Tiny Desk Concert, Wil Wheaton on April 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ALICE RUSSELL-Tiny Desk Concert #288 (July 15, 2013).

I read the name Alice Russell and pictured some kind of folk artist.  Boy, was I surprised to see a woman with  bleached blonde hair, a leather jacket and a funny t-shirt.  And then her band started playing low groovy soulful music.

Turns out:

Russell is a classic soul-infused singer — close your eyes and it’s easy to hear a Southern drawl, but truth be told, she’s a Brit. American-style R&B from Britain has a long history dating back to the 1960s with Dusty Springfield and on up through 21st-century artists like Adele. As for Alice Russell, she’s been making great soul music for 10 years, and her arrangements on To Dust often include a dose of electronics.

I didn’t love her voice when the first song “To Dust” started.  But as soon as the chorus kicked in I was hooked–wow, what a great voice she has and with the full band playing behind her it sounded amazing (the sampled backing singers was a bit flat, but otherwise OK).  And by the second chorus, man she is belting out the song—it’s great.  The Adele comparisons are spot on.

Then she hit Bob’s gong at the end of the song and told us that it was an ode to the taxman.

“For a While” is a great big soul song.  The drummer gets some great sounds out of that one drum he has.  And they keys sound great too.  I love the middle part where there’s some seriously long pauses in between beats–they are all wonderfully in sync.  At the end of the song she yells “I didn’t gong!” and then makes a peculiar hand gesture about a turtle.

“Heartbreaker” has such a classic-sounding riff it’s hard to believe it’s a new song.  I like it a lot (although I don’t care for the chanted “when it falls, when it breaks” by the guys).

I have to agree with this blurb about her:

To Dust is Russell’s fifth album, but the hiatus that followed 2008’s Pot of Gold may be the reason too many people don’t yet know what she’s doing. This stuff is as powerful as the work of any American singer making soul music in the 21st century. If you haven’t heard of her yet, think of this as a well-overdue introduction.

[READ: May 15, 2016] I Kill the Mockingbird

I bought this book from the bookstore in Bethlehem, PA.  I don’t buy too many books these days but I saw this one in the PA authors section (and it was 20% off) and the title sounded intriguing.  So I grabbed it.

And I’m I glad I did. This book was outstanding.  I loved it from the first chapter and was thrilled that the ending was also very satisfying–not easy given the way the story was heading for a conclusion that could have gone in many different directions.

So what’s this about?  Well, there are three kids, Lucy Elena and Michael.  They are at the heart of the story.  I loved loved loved that these three were great friends who’d known each other forever.  And they were all big big big readers. Such an awesome start to a story. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Cory Doctorow–Information Doesn’t Want to be Free: Laws for the Internet Age (2014)

Posted in Amanda Palmer, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Cory Doctorow, Crash Test Dummies, Law, Luke Doucet, McSweeney's, Neil Gaiman, Rheostatics, Short Books, Stompin' Tom Connors, Technology, Threats, Veal, Whitehorse, Wil Wheaton, tagged on March 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

information_cover_FINAL_webSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Vertigo, Victoria British Columbia, (January 21, 2000).

21Jan2000I recently learned that the Rheostatics Live website has added dozens of new (old) shows.  It has been almost exactly a year since I last did a tour of some of these live shows, so it was time to move into 2000 (with one new show added since I last looked).

As of 2000, the band is still touring the Harmelodia album, and the set has a lot of songs from that album.  I recently relistened to the album (something I don’t listen to all that much).  I was surprised to hear how many songs had narration–which pretty much precludes them from playing them live.  So that explains why they focus on just a few songs live.

Lucky’s notes for this show state: The Rheos were on a short west-coast swing and they played in Whistler the night before this show. In fact, the inspiration for ‘Satan Is The Whistler’ (from their following album) came from this trip, as Martin remarked something along the lines of ‘They are a bunch of Fascists in Whistler!’.

This is a really good set.  The sound quality is excellent and the band is in very good form.  There’s some great harmonies on “Loving Arms” and Martin really rocks the guitar on “I Fab Thee.”  “Junction Foil Ball” sounds awesome here–a good breakdown in the middle.  And it’s a rare sighting of “Oneilly’s Strange Dream” and a replay of “Good Canadian.”

It’s always fun when the band is feeling chatty.  In this show they joke about the Crash Test Dummies and even sing, “Superman never made any money saving the world from Crash Test Dummies.”  They also have fun with “My First Rock Show” with talk of blood on the seats.

The band has some technical failures, and they play a Stompin’ Tom song (“Bud the Spud”) while they get fixed.  But it doesn’t mess them up as they play a killer version of “Stolen Car” with a great solo.

Luke Doucet (now of Whitehorse, then of opening act Veal) plays during “Legal Age Life” and the band jokes about the Vealostatics.

The whole show ran for nearly two hours.  It’s a great set and the first of two nights at Vertigo.

[READ: February 10, 2015] Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free

This short book is Doctorow’s plea for Copyright common sense, Net Neutrality and internet freedoms (among other things).  Of course Net Neutrality just passed–hurrah!– which makes this book less urgent but no less spot on and worth remembering while going forward.

Doctorow starts each section by stating his three laws:

  • “Anytime someone puts a lock on something you own, against your wishes, and doesn’t give you the key, they’re not doing it for your benefit.”
  • “Fame Won’t Make You Rich, But Yo Can’t Get Paid Without It”  (or as Tim O’Reilly said “The problem for most artists isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity.”)
  • “Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, People Do.”

(more…)

Read Full Post »