September 4, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: September 4, 2021] The Zappa Band
When this tour was announced, I was pretty pleased to see that The Zappa Band was opening for King Crimson. I’ve been a fan of Frank Zappa’s music for years, but I never saw him while he was a live and I’ve never seen any of the various posthumuous offerings that have come around.
I’ve often thought about going to see Dweezil play his dad’s music but I haven’t (looking at the setlist, there’s quite a lot of good stuff there).
But this was an “official” Zappa project, and better yet they were going to be playing where I was planning to be. Although this lineup isn’t exactly chock full of great Zappa names, everyone in the group has a connection of some merit.
The Zappa Band’s lineup features Zappa alumni Ray White (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Keneally (guitar, keys, vocals), Scott Thunes (bassist) and Robert Martin (keyboards, sax, vocals), and ZPZ alums Jamie Kime (guitar) and ZAPPA archivist Joe “Vaultmeister” Travers (drums, vocals).
I recognized Ray White’s voice immediately (he’s been on 20 plus records). The other voices were actually quite close approximations to the original. But really the most amazing thing was hearing these really complicated and fast pieces done live (and perfectly).
I was pretty delighted to hear “Zomby Woof” a nonsensical song that I’ve always liked. And I would have been thoroughly disappointed if they hadn’t played “Peaches en Regalia.” It was somewhere during this song t hat I realized that none of the people on stage was Dweezil Zappa. I was fairly certain this was his band, but it clearly was not.
I have listened to most of Zappa’s albums many times, (but he has about 1,000 releases). So I was surprised when I didn’t recognize some songs. I was even more surprised to find that “I Ain’t Got No Heart” was on Freak Out, and album I particularly like. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adrian Belew, Holmdel, NJ, King Crimson, PNC Bank Center, The Zappa Band | Leave a Comment »
September 3, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[POSTPONED: September 3, 2021] The Residents [rescheduled from May 1, 2020 and May 14, 2021; moved to March 31, 2023]
I didn’t hear about this cancellation, but it appears that The Residents basically decided to stay in nd around California rather than making any big touring plans. And it looks like they are laying low for 2022 as well, with concerts in San Francisco and Glendale only.
So, the official confirmed date for Philly is now March, 31, 2023, which seems like a lifetime away. Glad to know that they’re still planning to come around.
~~~~~~~~~
It seemed like a May date would be safe, but now things are getting pushed back to the middle of the summer and the Fall. This new date might happen.
The Residents are one of the most famous obscure bands in the world. Many people have never heard of them. Many people who have heard of them know that they wear giant eyeballs on their heads, but don’t know much about their music. And some of us who own a couple of Residents records have no idea what their full output is like.
They’ve been around since the mid 1970s and have released some sixty albums covering all styles and genres, with the focus on avant garde sounds. They are also hugely influential to all kinds of musicians.
When they play live, each band member wears a costume (usually the giant eyeball, but not always) and aside from the main composer for the band who died two years ago, no one really knows who is in the band.
I’ve heard their live shows were amazing spectacles, so I thought it might be fun to see them.I didn’t even realize they were still touring, so I was quiet surprised to see them coming to Philly in 2020. I’ve heard their live shows were amazing spectacles, so I thought it might be fun to see them. Because they’ve been around forever, I kind of assume they can play a larger venue, but again, no one has heard of them, so it makes sense that they were playing The Foundry. But how big of a spectacle can you have at t The Foundry?
I suspected that cancelling their show might be the end of the tour for them (If the recently deceased member of the band was nearly 80, how old are the rest of them? Who knows, they could all be in their 20s). I’m glad to see the show is postponed, as I might just have to see what they are all about live. 
Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, The Foundry, The Residents | Leave a Comment »
September 3, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: Summer 2021] The Light Fantastic
After finishing the cliffhanger ending Colour of Magic, I quickly started book two.
Unlike the previous book, this one feels like a full novel–one story about the coming end of the Discworld.
Rincewind and Twoflower (with the luggage) have just fallen of off of the Disc. The one wonderfully convenient thing about writing about wizards and magic and such is that you can have pretty much anything happen.
We learned early in book one that Rincewind had read a spell from the Octavo–the most powerful book of magic (so powerful that it was locked up and it had been assumed that no one would ever open it)–nice job Rincewind. The spell then became lodged in Rincewind’s mind. It has tried on occasion to get out (bit thankfully it never has). It has also prevented Rincewind from learning any other spells–but that’s his problem. Continue Reading »
Posted in Anachronisms, Death, Discworld, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Magic, Rincewind, Terry Pratchett, The Luggage, Trolls, Twoflower, Wizards, Wizards, Ysabell | Leave a Comment »
September 2, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: Summer 2021] The Colour of Magic
Back in the mid 1990s I was working at a bookstore in Boston (Wordsworth, R.I.P.). They had a great imported books section (from England) and I bought the first four Discworld books in mini editions. They were adorable and preposterous, with a font size of about 4pt. They were about four inches square.
Imagine reading a book that small. I would be physically incapable of reading it now.
But I read all four books.
At least I thought I did. Because when I decided to reread the Discworld series, I distinctly remembered that Rincewind was a bad wizard and that he wore a hat with the word “Wizzard” on it. He traveled with Twoflower and Twflower had magical luggage.
But when I read this book, he never wore a hat that said “Wizzard” and literally nothing in the story was familiar to me. So maybe I never read these books? Granted it was over 25 years ago but still
So it was like reading them for the first time.
This first book is rally four interconnected stories. But there’s enough repetition of basic information at the start of each story that you know that these were intended to be read separately.
Discworld itself is very well established already, though.
“The Color of Magic”
We start in the city of Ankh-Morpork which is presently on fire. We meet Rincewind who is instantly revealed as a terrible wizard and a cowardly person (as many wizards prove to be). He has lodged in his brain one of the eight mega powerful spells from the Octavo and as a result can fit no other spells into his head. No one know what will happen is he says the Spell, but it probably wont be good.
He is with (and sort of protecting) Twoflower, the world’s first tourist. Twoflower is an insurance clerk from the Agatean Empire. Hhe tries to sell “in-sewer-ants” to a tavern owner who is used to getting his inn burnt down in brawls. And yes, Twoflower has luggage made of sapient pearwood. It will follow its owner anywhere (on little legs that everyone finds very disturbing). The Luggage is aggressive and always looks angry (as angry as a keyhole can look). It also tends to eat anyone who tries to break in. Continue Reading »
Posted in Death, Death, Discworld, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Short Story, Terry Pratchett | Leave a Comment »
September 1, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[CANCELLED: September 1, 2021] Alanis Morissette / Garbage / Liz Phair Cat Power [rescheduled from July 1, 2020]
UPDATE: This show was actually cancelled because of the outrageous storm that was the remnants of Hurricane Ida. Fortunately, they cancelled it long before anyone would have been heading there (I assume), because this rain storm was one of the worst I can remember–insane flooding and even tornados.
It will not be rescheduled because of previous commitments, so that stinks.
~~~
This show had been postponed once and since then, Liz Phair has been replaced by Cat Power, which seems like a VERY different dynamic to me.
I have two shows coming up this weekend, and it seemed like real folly to go out to a show on a Wednesday night as well. But as I said, I did want to see Garbage again. But now with the promise of serious rain and probably thunderstorms, it just seems silly to go out at all.
This was a show I wasn’t sure about.
I have seen Alanis Morissette a few times live way back in the 90s when she toured with Tori Amos. I was there for Tori and I don’t really remember much about Alanis (which is sad, I know).
On this tour, I was more interested in seeing Garbage again (they put on a heck of a show) and for checking out Liz Phair who I once liked and now kinda don’t but who I’m curious about what she’s like live.
This was definitely a show I was going to get lawn seats and try to upgrade.
Concerts are now being postponed earlier.
On May 9, Alanis sent out this message
“Hi everyone. My North American tour scheduled to begin in a few weeks is being rescheduled to Summer 2021 out of an abundance of caution. Please hold on to your tickets as they will be honored for the new dates which we hope to announce very soon.
So much going on inside and outside take care of yourselves and each other. Thank you for understanding. Can’t wait to see you when it is safe for us all to gather. Hand on all hearts til then.”
Garbage wrote this message:
So the @Alanis tour that @garbage and @lizphairofficial were supposed to be tagging along on this summer got postponed yesterday. We are totally gutted and apologise for any heartache caused. We assure you that we have every intention of fulfilling our obligations to Alanis and to any garbage fans who bought tickets in support of us. We appreciate you so. Please head on over to the @Alanis socials in the days ahead for further info. Please note this is not our tour so we have no answers whatsoever about what happens next.
Looking forward to the days when we all get to hangout and play for you.
No official word from Liz Phair that I have seen.
Posted in Alanis Morissette, Cancelled, Coronavirus, Garbage, Holmdel, NJ, Liz Phair, PNC Bank Center, Postponed, Quarantine, Tori Amos | Leave a Comment »
August 31, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: RUSH
[READ: August 2021] Neil Peart Illustrated Quotes
This book came across my desk at work and I was totally surprised. We do get a lot of music book and we get a lot of pop culture books, but this seemed so unlikely to sit in our music library. I hadn’t even known it existed.
So, what we get here is 100 or so pages of things Neil Peart has said with an accompanying cartoon drawn by Lindsay Lee.
Lee’s style is pretty varied which is nice. The selections of quotations are also very varied which is less nice. Some are thoughtful passages and other just seem to be things Neil said at some point.
You get stuff like: Continue Reading »
Posted in Lindsay Lee, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Neil Peart, Rush, Sting | Leave a Comment »
August 30, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: see below.
[READ: August 2021] Rock Stars On The Record
I saw this book at work and rolled my eyes. I thought well, here’s another book about musicians talking about music.
Really, most musicians aren’t very interesting and it was probably just the same old same olds talking about albums that have been praised to high heaven already.
But then I saw a few names that intrigued me. So I read it. And it was fantastic because Eric Spitznagel did a magnificent job with this task.
Not only because he chose diverse people (some hardly even rock stars, really) who had interesting things to say, but because of the way he followed up his questions with better questions–questions that the musicians seemed excited to answer.
And also because the list of people turned out to be really interesting. I didn’t recognize a number of names, but that’s because they might have been the guitarist for a famous lead singer). And this made it really interesting.
I don’t know if it’s worth stating the why’s of each person here (each interview is basically four pages) but I will state each person’s favorite record (with a few extra comments here and there). Continue Reading »
Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adam and the Ants, Against Me!, Alice Bag, Alice Cooper, Amanda Shires, Asia, Bad Brains, Beach Slang, Bjork, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Buggles, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Craig Finn, Crass, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Dip-in Books, Don McLean, Donny Osmond, Drive-By Truckers, Elton John, Eric Spitznagel, Fishbone, Frank Turner, Frank Zappa, Fugazi, Gwar, Henry Rollins, Hole, Interviews, Iron Maiden, John Lennon, Kiss, Kristin Hersh, Laura Jane Grace, Leonard Cohen, M.I.A., Mac Demarco, Mannequin Pussy, Mark Mothersbaugh, MC5, Minor Threat, Mitski, Nickelback, Oasis, Pom Pom Squad, Procol Harum, Rainer Maria, Sex Pistols, Soul Asylum, Stevie Wonder, Superchunk, Suzi Quatro, The Buggs, The Left Banke, The Mothers of Invention, The Runaways, The Velvet Underground, The Who, Todd Rundgren, Van Halen, Wendy & Lisa, White Denim, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yoko Ono | Leave a Comment »
August 29, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: Spotify playlist: The Music Shop–Songs from and Inspired by the Rachel Joyce Novel (2017).
Penguin books has created a Spotify playlist based on the music mentioned in the story.
There’s music by:
- Aretha Franklin
- David Bowie
- Shalamar
- Duke Ellington
- Sex Pistols
- Miles Davis
- Led Zeppelin
- Van Morrison
- James Brown
- Isaac Hayes
- The Troggs
- The Beach Boys
- Billie Holiday
- Nick Drake
and classical composers like
- Bach
- Chopin
- Perotin
- Beethoven
- Verdi
- Barber
- Handel
[READ: August 2021] The Music Shop
I don’t remember how I heard about this book, but it was a fun fast read.
Set in 1988 It’s about a curmudgeon who owns a music shop (vinyl only) and how he falls in love.
Frank has a special gift: he can talk with you for a few minutes and figure out exactly what music you need to hear right now (on vinyl of course). It’s not a lucrative gift, but the people who take advantage of it are beyond thrilled.
The first chapter is about a man who only listed to Chopin and how Frank turned him on to Aretha Franklin exactly when he needed her music.
Frank’s shop is in a cul de sac with a few other businesses. None of them are thriving; most of them are doing almost okay. Maud owns the tattoo shop and sort of has a thing for Frank (he is way too oblivious to realize it). She is tough (a tattoo parlor owner after all) and has some of the best lines in the book (I love her). There’s also Father Anthony, a priest who owns a religious icons shop. He is cool and chill and likes to hang out in the record shop. And there’s a mortician (actually twins) who share space in the cul de sac.
Frank has one employee, Kit, an excitable teenaged boy who is clumsy in many ways and provides for most of the honesty in the book. Continue Reading »
Posted in Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, David Bowie, Frédéric Chopin, George Frideric Handel, Giuseppe Verdi, Issac Hayes, James Brown, Johann Sebastian Bach, Led Zeppelin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Miles Davis, Music, Musicians, Nick Drake, Rachel Joyce, Romance, Sex Pistols, The Beach Boys, The Troggs, Unlikable main character, Van Morrison | Leave a Comment »
August 28, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[POSTPONED: August 28, 2021] Ben Folds [rescheduled to August 27, 2022]
Back in May, Ben Folds announced he was doing a new solo tour. I grabbed tickets for myself and S. Initially we considered going to the Mayo Center, but that show was right during the first few weeks of school and that’s chaotic enough. So this show, which was just before school started seemed like a fun way to say goodbye to the summer.
Then on August 13, Ben sent out this message:
Update On My Fall 2021 Tour.
Here are new COVID protocols for my upcoming indoor concerts:
You will be asked for proof of vaccination, and masks will be required at all times inside venues for any indoor shows I perform in 2021.
My York, PA show on August 27 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.
My Bensalem, PA show on August 28 will be postponed – rescheduled to 2022.
And the venue sent us
Dear Ben Folds fans, out of concern for the health and well–being of the community, his audiences, venue staff, and his crew, Ben Folds is instituting a vaccine mandate and requiring mask wearing for his upcoming tour.
Due to this decision once most tickets had been sold for the August, 28 performance here in Bensalem, working in cooperation with Mr. Folds, the difficult decision has been made to postpone his concert in the Xcite Center until Saturday, August 27, 2022 rather than try to retroactively impose this policy after tickets had been sold.
To be honest, it has been a hectic couple of weeks and not having to go out is really not a bad thing. So we’ll see him next year.
Posted in Ben Folds, Bensalem, PA, Coronavirus, Parx Casino, Postponed, Xcite Center | Leave a Comment »
August 27, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[POSTPONED: August 27, 2021] Deftones / Gojira [rescheduled from August 22, 2020 moved to May 18, 2022]
I was pretty excited to see this show this summer. It turned out, however, that the show was the night that we returned home from vacation. Ie, it would have been a pretty exhausting day. So, the fact that Deftones decided to postponed until May was fine with me.
I’m bummed that Poppy is no longer part of the tour because I’d really like to see her. But she is now headlining her own tour–which I don’t really want to see. I’m not sure a full show of hers would be that much fun. But hey, maybe she’ll be back on board
~~~
I saw Deftones at a lousy location (Sands Bethlehem hall), but it was one of my favorite shows that year. The crowd was pushy and shovey, but Chino came within five feet of me and the energy was amazing.
Plus at the end of the show, when a roadie threw out a drumstick, I actually got it.
I knew I’d want to see them at least one more time, but wow was I surprised to see that they were going to play The Met in Philly, which I think of as a more “delicate” hall. I’d be slightly afraid for the seats at a Deftones show.
The opening acts were really intriguing as well.
Gojira area French heavy metal band whose 2012 album I loved. Heavy and very technical I’d imagine they put on a great show.
Poppy is an absolute mystery. She’s an internet creation whose every song is is a different genre. Her latest album was really really heavy but with that fake internet sheen on it (in a Babymetal kind of way but less sincere, if that’s possible). I’ve been intrigued by here since I first heard about her, but I wouldn’t want to see her show if she was headlining. This seemed like a great way to experience her weirdness. I hope that she is still on the bill next year and that she is still into metal, otherwise it could be kind of awkward.
I really thought that this show at the end of August might go on but on May 19, they sent this note.
Due to the current regulations, and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, we must reschedule our North American summer tour dates with special guests, Gojira and Poppy. We’re currently rescheduling the dates for 2021, and you’ll be the first to know once they are confirmed. All tickets will be honored or refunded upon our next announcement regarding the tour.
I’m glad they are promising to come back And by then, their new album (due in September) will be familiar to all of us.
Posted in Coronavirus, Deftones, Gojira, Philadelphia, PA, Poppy, Postponed, Quarantine, The Met Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
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When this tour was announced, I was pretty pleased to see that The Zappa Band was opening for King Crimson. I’ve been a fan of Frank Zappa’s music for years, but I never saw him while he was a live and I’ve never seen any of the various posthumuous offerings that have come around.
I Just Read About That... 