It's rare that we get such a unique and raw punk sound out of Portland, Maine. Sure, Portland's had its' fair share of "the next big thing," but aside from a bit of a solo sensation out of Brewer - about 150 miles to the northeast - Maine hasn't had much to spout about on the musical scene.
...And then there are The Leftovers. In between semesters of college, these guys are rockin' out everywhere from Genos to the clubs of Europe. With their hometown roots meshed with the influences of everything from The Beach Boys to the Ramones, The Leftovers sort of remind me of a cross between Rancid and The Dropkick Murphys. In other words, they are kicking some butt and know that getting an education is really smart, especially in their line of work.
Check you their myspace page and click on "Dance With Me," their current single.
The Leftovers
You'll be glad you did. ~J. Graffam
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2008
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
OAR in Disturbia!
Last Thursday brought dark skies, crashing thunder, and lightning flashing throughout the New Hampshire sky as OAR took the stage in Gilford at Meadowbrook Farms. While thousands of fans, young and old, made their way to the shores of the state's largest lake, Stephen Cooper opened with an eclectic mix of covers, upbeat rifts, and praise for the band that made a name for his new label, Everfine Records.
Sandwiched between the young jammer and perhaps the country's most successful college band (Yes, oxymoron intended) was Augustana. While the crowd was anxious for the headliners to take the stage, chants for the hit "Boston" rang through the pavilion. While opening for a band that everyone else came to see must be hard on an up and coming act, Augustana was a real treat for those with patience. The seamless melodies and wonderful range of the lead singer were pleasing and soothing.
Playing a 2-hour set mixed with new and old tunes, OAR didn't disappoint. Oddly, they opened with "52-50" and closed their encore with "Love and Memories," but didn't leave the crowd without some of the bands long list of favorites from their years of touring just about everywhere. Patrons may have left in anger without the obligatory rendition of "Crazy Game of Poker," but this kid, the song of the night was "Road Outside Columbus." And while I would have loved to hear "Hey Girl," "About An Hour Ago," and "I Feel Home;" I've heard them all live before and was pleased to hear some lesser known songs and new material.
I look forward to OAR's next trip to New England and having gone to the show with my girlfriend, I'm willing to bet that OAR's unique blend of rock, melodious rifts, unbeatable horns, and a little reggae mixed in; have won over another fan!
Sandwiched between the young jammer and perhaps the country's most successful college band (Yes, oxymoron intended) was Augustana. While the crowd was anxious for the headliners to take the stage, chants for the hit "Boston" rang through the pavilion. While opening for a band that everyone else came to see must be hard on an up and coming act, Augustana was a real treat for those with patience. The seamless melodies and wonderful range of the lead singer were pleasing and soothing.
Playing a 2-hour set mixed with new and old tunes, OAR didn't disappoint. Oddly, they opened with "52-50" and closed their encore with "Love and Memories," but didn't leave the crowd without some of the bands long list of favorites from their years of touring just about everywhere. Patrons may have left in anger without the obligatory rendition of "Crazy Game of Poker," but this kid, the song of the night was "Road Outside Columbus." And while I would have loved to hear "Hey Girl," "About An Hour Ago," and "I Feel Home;" I've heard them all live before and was pleased to hear some lesser known songs and new material.
I look forward to OAR's next trip to New England and having gone to the show with my girlfriend, I'm willing to bet that OAR's unique blend of rock, melodious rifts, unbeatable horns, and a little reggae mixed in; have won over another fan!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
iPhones an investment? Not so much!
It's rather ironic that I am writing an opinion piece about technology on a website that more or less is a byproduct of our dependence on all things new, but websites are easily changed, refreshed, and updated. iPhones will be updated, they will be changed, and they will be updated, but in case you didn't realize when you plucked the $500 down for a new one with the smaller memory version; yours will not fit that bill.
Phones of any sort, be it a regular camera phone, PDA, or smart phone are not investments in the traditional sense. An investment is something we put money towards to have an impact on our future. A lot of time there is risk involved. Sure, for those who want to be hip and in the now, buying an iPhone is a great investment in today, but do you really need it? Do other phones do almost, it not all the same things? Are those phones cheaper to buy? What do you do next year when the cost of your iPhone is down to $250 and the new one on the market has a new feature and will run you $600?
Having the newest and the best innovations is great, but sometimes it's good to know when something has long-term value. People get into a pattern of always buying the newest, cutting edge items, when they really should be buying something more practical and putting the rest of the money towards better use.
For example, I'm willing to bet that almost every, if not all, the people who bought iPhone, already have a nice cell phone with Bluetooth and internet capability. Furthermore, I bet these same folks have iPods. No, not the Nano, but the ones with the bigger screen and the loaded memory. Additionally, I'm willing to bet that both of these work perfectly fine, despite being separate devices. Now how about you take the $500-$600 dollars and either allocate that towards your 401K, IRA, or through it into a mutual fund. Then wait a year. Your devices will still probably work just as well, but you'll have made an investment that has yielded you something for the future. Women may not be swarming to see your new iPhone, but did you really think they would anyway? Bottom line; if you have the money to throw around, go ahead and buy one. It will still be a poor investment, but will not have the same economic impact that these have on most of their buyers.
Phones of any sort, be it a regular camera phone, PDA, or smart phone are not investments in the traditional sense. An investment is something we put money towards to have an impact on our future. A lot of time there is risk involved. Sure, for those who want to be hip and in the now, buying an iPhone is a great investment in today, but do you really need it? Do other phones do almost, it not all the same things? Are those phones cheaper to buy? What do you do next year when the cost of your iPhone is down to $250 and the new one on the market has a new feature and will run you $600?
Having the newest and the best innovations is great, but sometimes it's good to know when something has long-term value. People get into a pattern of always buying the newest, cutting edge items, when they really should be buying something more practical and putting the rest of the money towards better use.
For example, I'm willing to bet that almost every, if not all, the people who bought iPhone, already have a nice cell phone with Bluetooth and internet capability. Furthermore, I bet these same folks have iPods. No, not the Nano, but the ones with the bigger screen and the loaded memory. Additionally, I'm willing to bet that both of these work perfectly fine, despite being separate devices. Now how about you take the $500-$600 dollars and either allocate that towards your 401K, IRA, or through it into a mutual fund. Then wait a year. Your devices will still probably work just as well, but you'll have made an investment that has yielded you something for the future. Women may not be swarming to see your new iPhone, but did you really think they would anyway? Bottom line; if you have the money to throw around, go ahead and buy one. It will still be a poor investment, but will not have the same economic impact that these have on most of their buyers.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
The Essence of The Title... The Soprano's and Journey!
So what the hell does that mean - the essence of the title? Well, it means that from time to time I will write something directly or indirectly relates to the name of this blog - "33 is the new 23." That being said, I thought I would chime in on the Soprano's ending. Kind of. I didn't see the ending when it aired, nor did I have to because it has become one of the most talked about endings of any show, ever, and deservedly so. When I finally saw it, it was like watching a re-run. I watched the show for a few seasons while I had HBO and enjoyed it, but I can't saw I am as crazed as others. However, there is one part of the ending that while making some people shake their head, made me smile.
You see, like a few other 33-year-olds, I'm a fan of Journey. Nope. I don't have any tattoos of their logos or of anything, I don't ride a chopper, and I will never be found donning leather, but I think the allure of the band far out-reaches the stereotypes it has had over the years. Can some of their music be referred to as "cheesy 80's ballads?" Sure, but that doesn't mean the music isn't good. Journey may have drawn most of their current fan-base on stardom of two songs in particular - "Faithfully" and "Open Arms," but the band's 75 million plus, world-wide sales reaches much further than these songs. When they came out, "Open Arms" in 1981 and "Faithfully" in 1983, the terms power ballad and arena rock were in their infancy, but bands like Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Stix pushed this sub-genre to every corner of America - whether they wanted to or not. While the band may have rather had the critics writing about the other guitar-driven songs on their albums, the songs that made the albums sell made the most chatter and are most aligned with the band today.
Yet, Journey, of these three bands in particular was able to transcend its' success to sales of their albums to the once extremely popular medium of movie soundtracks. It's a fact that Journey has had more songs appear in movies and on soundtracks than most, if not any other band, ever. The list is somewhat suprising, but given the royalties the band has collected from the aforementioned; it's probably something they aren't shy about. So the fact that "Don't Stop Believing" was featured in the Soprano's last episode may still be a little odd given the show's audience, but it makes more sense than some would think.
Two things come to mind in particular when choosing such a song. First, the premise of the show itself - in this writer's opinion - has stronger cultural ties to the 1970s and 1980s than today's cultural landscape. The characters in this show would have listened to Journey and not Green Day; it's just the way it is. As for the significance of using "Don't Stop Believing," well there are some people that don't think there was any, but we all know that such a notion is silly. We're talking about a show that ended by cutting to a black screen. we're talking about David Chase. He wouldn't just write a song into the series ending without something up his sleeve. What that something is, we may never know. Let's not fool ourselves. At the end of every episode, Tony reflects while a song is playing. It's not usually a song like this, but therein lies the unique nature of the choice. One can listen to the words of the song and come up with a few difference anecdote like the fact the episode stops after the lyrics, "don't stop," or you can go a little further and think that the song title as a metaphor for what David Chase wanted to do with the ending - leave it up to the imagination of the viewer. If so, it's perfect. You can believe whatever you want to believe in regard to what happened to Tony or any of the other characters in the bar that night and in the years to come. Thinking of it that way, Chase was brilliant to choose this song, but then there's more. Like I said earlier, I am not a Soprano's expert and don't claim to be, but I know that people from everywhere have poured over this topic looking for answers and there is one more that, to me, has to raise some eyebrows. Of course it has to mentioned that prior to licensing the song to Chase, former Journey frontman, Steve Perry, insisted on knowing the outcome. A bit demanding for a musical has-been? Sure, but to his credit, Perry kept quiet about the ending. Now he and his former bandmates are laughing all the way to the bank as they have seen a resurgence of album sales since the finale.
The various sets of lyrics in this song and how they could be used with plot is just plain uncanny. "Some will in, some will lose," is one that fits very well into the Soprano's landscape, but moreover, to fans of the show that are perhaps a little upset that the show has now ended, maybe it doesn't have to for them. As Steve Perry sings, "oh, the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on..." I was left a little in awe. I expect I'm not the only one.
You see, like a few other 33-year-olds, I'm a fan of Journey. Nope. I don't have any tattoos of their logos or of anything, I don't ride a chopper, and I will never be found donning leather, but I think the allure of the band far out-reaches the stereotypes it has had over the years. Can some of their music be referred to as "cheesy 80's ballads?" Sure, but that doesn't mean the music isn't good. Journey may have drawn most of their current fan-base on stardom of two songs in particular - "Faithfully" and "Open Arms," but the band's 75 million plus, world-wide sales reaches much further than these songs. When they came out, "Open Arms" in 1981 and "Faithfully" in 1983, the terms power ballad and arena rock were in their infancy, but bands like Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Stix pushed this sub-genre to every corner of America - whether they wanted to or not. While the band may have rather had the critics writing about the other guitar-driven songs on their albums, the songs that made the albums sell made the most chatter and are most aligned with the band today.
Yet, Journey, of these three bands in particular was able to transcend its' success to sales of their albums to the once extremely popular medium of movie soundtracks. It's a fact that Journey has had more songs appear in movies and on soundtracks than most, if not any other band, ever. The list is somewhat suprising, but given the royalties the band has collected from the aforementioned; it's probably something they aren't shy about. So the fact that "Don't Stop Believing" was featured in the Soprano's last episode may still be a little odd given the show's audience, but it makes more sense than some would think.
Two things come to mind in particular when choosing such a song. First, the premise of the show itself - in this writer's opinion - has stronger cultural ties to the 1970s and 1980s than today's cultural landscape. The characters in this show would have listened to Journey and not Green Day; it's just the way it is. As for the significance of using "Don't Stop Believing," well there are some people that don't think there was any, but we all know that such a notion is silly. We're talking about a show that ended by cutting to a black screen. we're talking about David Chase. He wouldn't just write a song into the series ending without something up his sleeve. What that something is, we may never know. Let's not fool ourselves. At the end of every episode, Tony reflects while a song is playing. It's not usually a song like this, but therein lies the unique nature of the choice. One can listen to the words of the song and come up with a few difference anecdote like the fact the episode stops after the lyrics, "don't stop," or you can go a little further and think that the song title as a metaphor for what David Chase wanted to do with the ending - leave it up to the imagination of the viewer. If so, it's perfect. You can believe whatever you want to believe in regard to what happened to Tony or any of the other characters in the bar that night and in the years to come. Thinking of it that way, Chase was brilliant to choose this song, but then there's more. Like I said earlier, I am not a Soprano's expert and don't claim to be, but I know that people from everywhere have poured over this topic looking for answers and there is one more that, to me, has to raise some eyebrows. Of course it has to mentioned that prior to licensing the song to Chase, former Journey frontman, Steve Perry, insisted on knowing the outcome. A bit demanding for a musical has-been? Sure, but to his credit, Perry kept quiet about the ending. Now he and his former bandmates are laughing all the way to the bank as they have seen a resurgence of album sales since the finale.
The various sets of lyrics in this song and how they could be used with plot is just plain uncanny. "Some will in, some will lose," is one that fits very well into the Soprano's landscape, but moreover, to fans of the show that are perhaps a little upset that the show has now ended, maybe it doesn't have to for them. As Steve Perry sings, "oh, the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on..." I was left a little in awe. I expect I'm not the only one.
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