Posts filed under ‘Acoustic’
The Hold Steady’s “Heaven is Whenever” Cover Art: Simple But Beautiful
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feinsteinbandpics/ / CC BY 2.0
In today’s age of digital downloads and evaporating record sales, everything we know about the album is going by the wayside.
Track order used to be a daunting and precise task, CD booklets offered as much in the way of supplementary entertainment as the band desired to eager fans, and album covers were often the iconic image associated with classic collections of music. Case in point: who can’t think of Dark Side of the Moon without picturing that rainbow-crossed prism with the black background?
While Brooklyn-based rockers The Hold Steady may be known much more for their riff-heavy classic rock stylings and frontman Craig Finn’s massively dense lyrical tales, they know how to convey thoughts about their albums through the covers. Their last release, 2008′s highly acclaimed (they’ve actually been highly acclaimed since their debut) Stay Positive, presented a rough, brown, dirty image of a small, dumpy, and utterly soulless town that Finn sang about on tracks like “Constructive Summer” and “Sequestered in Memphis.”
The cover art for their latest album, Heaven is Whenever (due in stores May 4) is probably the simplest album cover they’ve released to date, and perhaps their most powerful. The titles are in text that is decorated only slightly, giving us a clear indication of who we’re getting into, and reaching for the text is the hand of a young boy or girl.
Lead guitarist Tad Kubler described the music of Heaven is Whenever in a press release announcing the album as “evocative,” adding that “There’s a lot more melody. It’s more sonically diverse and dynamically expansive than any of our previous records.”
Finn described his lyrics as being about “embracing suffering and understanding its place in a joyful life.” He explained the significance of the album’s title as referencing “the way that love can help us rise above our modern struggles.” Man does that guy ever know how to express himself!
With dozens of tour dates already lined up, appearances scheduled at several summer festivals such as Lollapalooza and the Isle of Wight Festival, and an as-of-this-writing opening between May 30 and June 12, I am hoping as a Bonnaroo ticket holder that The Hold Steady will be added to the four-day Manchester, Tenn. festival as a second-tier headliner.
Street Musicians: Boston-based Singers, Guitarists and Bucket Drummers (VIDEO)
Boston certainly has no shortage of creative minds. Many of them can be found scattered across the city at street corners, subway stations and other locations to perform music for whoever cares to listen. And plenty of people do listen. I decided to venture around the city looking for such performers, and naturally I had no trouble finding several on a simple ride up and down the MBTA red line.
John Gerard was the first person I found, performing original material at Park St. Station. Gerard has his own website at JohnGerard.com, and plays shows at local bars and clubs in addition to performing his songs for the public. Next was Anthony Mayville, an acoustic guitarist originally from Haiti who performs covers and some original material at various MBTA locations, most often at the always-bustling South Station.
Finally, I met Joshua, a bucket drummer whom I had the pleasure of watching on previous occasions. Joshua feeds off the enthusiasm of crowds that gather around him when he performs, and based on his performance in the video it should come as no surprise that he has little trouble drawing attention. Enjoy the people and music!
Pants on the Ground Jimmy Fallon: Late-Night Host Performs as Neil Young
The internet is abuzz for its latest unlikely sensation- 62-year-old Larry Platt, who was just slightly over the age limit of 28 to audition for American Idol. Despite his age, Platt bravely decided to go ahead with the venture anyway and do his original song “Pants on the Ground” for Simon Cowell & Co.
This video of Platt performing the song has already exploded on Youtube, amassing nearly 1.2 million views in less than 48 hours:
What’s an internet video sensation without getting further mentions on television? Jimmy Fallon is the most notable celebrity so far to honor the instant classic clip. The host of Late Night donned a wig, brown jacket and cowboy hat, grabbed a harmonica and turned “Pants on the Ground” into a Harvest-esque acoustic ballad.
The performance by Fallon, known for doing great impressions, actually sounds strikingly like the real thing. If one were to only hear the audio of the song- not including the laughs from the audience- this might actually come across as an actual work by Young himself.
The performance is so uncanny, blogs like The Huffington Post are actually referring to Fallon as Young in their headlines. And in all honesty, there probably won’t be a better parody of the video than this one.
