a Halloween list...

Happy Halloween everyone! So I was awoken by "Monster Mash" on the radio and figured I'd better post a list of Halloween-ish songs:

1. Halloween - Dave Matthews Band
2. They Are Zombies!!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhh! - Sufjan Stevens
3. Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
4. (Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
5. Skeleton Song - Kate Nash
6. Cemetery Drive - My Chemical Romance
7. Black Magic Woman - Santana
8. Gravedigger - Dave Matthews
9. Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon (this song has an annoying habit of getting stuck in my head)
10. Halloween - Jonathan Larson (from the RENT soundtrack)

And a moderately amusing two-part list of Halloween-related songs here: http://www.hearya.com/2007/10/08/top-50-halloween-songs-part-1/.

* I got the pumpkin photo off Flickr. And yes, that's Dobby and Severus Snape from Harry Potter. And though they may seemingly have nothing to do with music or Halloween, Alan Rickman does sing and play a pretty scary role in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Album Review: Simple Times

Joshua Radin released his second album in September, but due to being jobless and generally overwhelmed by good music, I just purchased it on iTunes today.

I am already in love with Simple Times and wish I would have purchased it sooner. If you are already a fan of Radin's comforting, brooding melodies, I think you'll be pleased with the new album. If you just can't get in to Radin's whispery style, I think you still may enjoy his new album. Though he stays true to the sound we heard of We Were Here, as well as his earlier EPs, Simple Times offers new variety and range.

The album starts with "One of Those Days," which features Radin's trademark use of layered vocals and twinkling xylophone sounds (at least I think that's a xylophone?). "I'd Rather Be With You" and "Vegetable Car" are both uncharacteristically upbeat (well, as upbeat as Joshua can get) and offer some complexity of sounds (especially "Vegetable Car"). Also, if anyone knows what a vegetable car is, I would love to know.

My personal favorites on the album are "Free of Me" and the album ender, "No Envy No Fear." The only disappointments to me are two songs that appeared on Unclear Sky, the EP Joshua released earlier in the summer. I preferred the Unclear Sky versions of both "Sky" and "You Got Growing Up to Do," but for opposite reasons. I loved the duet of "Sky" with Ingrid Michaelson, and she is either missing or extremely muted (there are female vocals, but I can't tell whether it is Ingrid or Schuyler Fisk) on Simple Times. "Growing Up" was stripped down and beautifully sad on the EP, but the version on the new album (which features Patty Griffin) is countryfied and loses a lot of the raw emotion.

That being said, overall, I love the album and definitely recommend it. If I knew how to do those little stars Kyle does, I think I'd give it 4 and a half.

Coming clean with Country...

As promised, I'm going to come clean in regards to Country music. If you haven't read our "A versus B sides" take on the genre, you can here.

Country has never been and probably never will be my favorite musical genre (or even one of my top ten), but if I'm being completely frank, as I've grown older I've come to enjoy and certainly appreciate country music more. For one, it's had an irrefutable and tremendous influence on some of my favorite rock artists (from CCR to the Eagles to Dave Matthews Band). The triumph of human achievement that is Rock n' Roll wouldn't be the same without country and I'm grateful for that (grateful enough not to quote the Donny and Marie Osmond song). For two, as Katie pointed out, it's lyrics can be just as dreadful as anything in pop or rock music, but they can also be as poignant. Personally, as long as the lyrics aren't painfully stupid, I can enjoy a little Shania Twain or Faith Hill, which is probably more pop-country, but it still says "country" on the CD. It'll never touch Rock in my opinion, but for me, it's a fun diversion.

"The Guilty Ones" from Spring Awakening

If you, like me, wondered what Duncan Sheik had been doing since 2003 when his last hit single, "On a High" played on the radio, here's a quick update: he recorded and released White Limousine in 2006 and released a (probably premature) Greatest Hits collection in 2007. Most notably and unexpectedly, however, he composed the music for the Tony award-winning musical Spring Awakening, which depending on your opinion of musical theatre and Duncan Shiek as a musican, is an incredible blend of the two.



You can find the album on iTunes and there's also a touring production going around the country (for more info go to: www.springawakening.com). My track recommendations are "The Guilty Ones", "The Bitch of Living", "The Song of Purple Summer" and "And Then There Were None".

10 musicals you should listen to even if you're not into musical theatre...

In the last line of my Phantom review, I wrote "this is a show that anyone who likes musical theatre should see at least once", but in truth, anyone can enjoy The Phantom of the Opera, whether or not you consider yourself a musical aficionado. Here are nine more musicals you should listen to at least once, even if you think "musicals are not you're thing" - if you enjoy music you'll appreciate their surprising melodies, diverse arrangements and intriguing lyrics you won't often hear in mainstream music.

1. Phantom of the Opera - Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart
2. The Last Five Years - Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
3. Spring Awakening - Music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics by Steven Sater
4. Tick, Tick... BOOM! - Music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
5. Chicago - Music and lyrics by Kander and Ebb
6. Sweeney Todd - Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
7. A Chorus Line - Music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban
8. Songs for a New World - Music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
9. RENT - Music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson
10. Les Miserables - Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

And there are loads more in both film and stage versions (I stuck with stage productions for this list and based my selection purely on the accessibility of the music). For more, you can check out Film4's Top 100 Greatest Musicals HERE.

What musicals would you recommend to the non-musical fan?

*the picture is from The Black Crook (1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical.

Phantom of the Opera at the INB Performing Arts Center

Though not technically a "concert", I figured I'd give my two cents on this musical performance anyway. Before now, I would've thought that anyone who wasn't living under a rock had seen or at least heard The Phantom of the Opera (in the 2004 film adaptation or otherwise). I would've been wrong. Of the seven people I talked to about the show here in Spokane, only three were familiar with the story. That presented a rather large barrier for them in enjoying the show, because much of the sung dialogue was near incomprehensible. And since this is a musical, most everything is sung. Now I don't know if that was a technical issue with the sound equipment or poor acoustics due to the venue (though I've heard and understood shows I'm far less familiar with before), or if it was just a matter of poor articulation (though I find that somewhat difficult to swallow being these actors are professionals), but nevertheless - every person I talked to about the show, across four different performances, confirmed the lyrics were difficult to hear. And if you don't know the storyline or the lyrics like the back of your hand, you're in trouble (in that case, I'd recommend renting the movie first).

Unintelligible lyrics aside, the performances were good overall. Of course, they're not Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman or even Gerald Butler and Emmy Rossum (so don't expect that), but they are incredible performers in their own right. And the Phantom, played by Richard Todd Adams was especially vigorous and engaging in his performance. As expected, the sets and costumes were opulent and extravagant and well worth the price of admission (particularly those for the underground labyrinth and the masquerade). My selection of highlights for the show (in any of its iterations) are: "Angel of Music", "Masquerade" and "The Point of No Return". Perhaps, like Les Miserables, this is a show that anyone who likes musical theatre should see at least once.

Have you heard...

I got to hear Raining Jane open last weekend for Sara Bareilles at the Knitting Factory. I thought they were great performers. I liked their sound (self described as "rock-folk"). And one of the members played a sitar (how freaking awesome is that)! So I downloaded their latest album Paper Nest on iTunes and have been listening to it since. My track recommendations are "Castles and Factories", "Desperate Sails", "Incline" and "Browntown" if you want to hear the sitar. A short, but fantastic album. They're an all-female band, which I must admit I was a bit smitten with them at first (one of the members even played a cello during a couple songs and confession time: I'm a huge sap for females playing stringed instruments) , but they're incredible, real musicians and not just a run-of-the-mill female pop group like All Saints or Spice Girls or Bananarama (nothing against the aforementioned groups). Have a listen for yourself!





For more info check out: www.rainingjane.com