To get to Shamrock Fest, I had to navigate a phalanx of Bible-thumpers. Shamrock Fest is an Irish and Celtic music festival held annually at RFK Stadium, and the organizers recommend that people take the DC Metro to reach the music festival. You take the Blue or Orange line, disembark at the Stadium-Armory stop, climbContinue reading “On Shamrock Fest 2013”
Category Archives: Music
On Carbon Leaf’s Free Sampler
It’s been too long since Carbon Leaf’s last album. How do you count their last album? Their last release was 2011’s Live, Acoustic, and In Cinemascope!, which, as you can tell from the title, is an acoustic live album. How the West Was One and Christmas Child, both 2010, were longer than EPs but shorterContinue reading “On Carbon Leaf’s Free Sampler”
On Ramping Up the Christmas Music
It wouldn’t be December without “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Instead of the version that you probably hear on the radio at least twice this time of year, this is the extended remix by Trevor Horn. It’s notable for a few things. The instrumentation is mixed lower so the vocals are more prominent. And thereContinue reading “On Ramping Up the Christmas Music”
On Six Songs of Me
Can people’s lives be measured meaningfully by the music they listen to? That’s the question NPR raises in an article on The Guardian‘s “Six Songs of Me” project which seeks to understand how people identify themselves by the music they listen to. The six questions… What was the first song you ever bought? What songContinue reading “On Six Songs of Me”
On the New Admiral Fallow Album
Admiral Fallow, a Scottish band, sees the release of their second album, Tree Bursts in Snow, next week. I’ve been a Fallow fan since they called themselves “The Brother Louis Collective,” and I love their first album, Boots Met My Face. (The side-project album by The Moth & The Mirror, Honestly, This World, is excellent,Continue reading “On the New Admiral Fallow Album”
On the Demise of a Band I Liked
Sunday evening I learned a band I liked had broken up. The band is Aerials Up. Unsurprisingly, they’re from Scotland. When I wrote about Aerials Up originally, I wrote that “there’s a certain similarity to Arcade Fire in the sound of Aerials Up; there’s a similar instrumentation, a similar mixture of male and female voices.Continue reading “On the Demise of a Band I Liked”
On the Shamrock Fest 2012 Post-Mortem
I promised myself that I wasn’t going to spend much money on CDs at Shamrock Fest. After last year, when I bought five CDs (two from the Charm City Saints, two from Barleyjuice, and one from The Gobshites), what more was there to buy? Well… Shamrock Fest is a Celtic rock/punk festival held in DCContinue reading “On the Shamrock Fest 2012 Post-Mortem”
On Receiving the Ringo Starr Tickets
Yesterday in the mail, the tickets for the Ringo Starr concert arrived. On my birthday, Ringo and his All-Starr Band — including Todd Rundgren, Gregg Rolie (of Santana fame), Steve Lukather (Toto), Richard Page (Mr. Mister), saxophonist Mark Rivera, and drummer Gregg Bissonette — will be playing in Baltimore. And I’m going to take myContinue reading “On Receiving the Ringo Starr Tickets”
On Noel Gallagher’s Next Release
Epic. That’s the only way to describe Noel Gallagher’s “Shoot a Hole into the Sun,” the first track released from his collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous for his next album. Seven and a half minutes of psychedelic, trippy stuff mixed with reverb, echo, and stinging guitar work. This is to “If I Had a Gun…” whatContinue reading “On Noel Gallagher’s Next Release”
On Christmas Day Music Musings
Like many atheists, I love Christmas. Richard Dawkins, for instance, says that he’s “culturally Christian” when he’s asked why he does Christmas things — the Christmas celebrations are part of the cultural DNA. Elizabeth Cornwell wrote an essay for the Washington Post about her own “Very Atheist Christmas” and it hits a lot of myContinue reading “On Christmas Day Music Musings”