I posted this review on the Sputnik Music website a little earlier tonight. Credit where credit is due, I borrowed ("stole" is such a judgmental term) the Review Summary quote, and I'm pretty sure it was from that fiery genius Mike Ferrari. (Wasn't that the Aural Fix tagline?) Haven't seen him in ages, but I'm sure if he ever sees this review, it will bring a smile to his face and warmth to his heart.
The mid-'90s was the point when the national music scene went south for me. Prior to that, I always prided myself on remaining open to new music. While many in my so-called cohort group jumped off of the tunes train at various stations along the way, I stayed on board, savoring each new musical genre I passed through. In the early '90s, it was the whole grunge scene, which reminded me of punk, slowed down and turned inside out. I thought that would last for a bit longer, but then Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, and grunge as a national obsession ground to a halt. For a year or so after that, alternative rock was on the rise, and all of the music papers swore that it was the next big thing. The record sales just weren't big enough to satisfy the major labels, though, so alternative rock quickly became indie rock, and got shuttled off to college radio.
After that, it all went to doggy doo. The Spice Girls in 1996; Britney, Christina and The Backstreets at the end of '90s, American Idol and all of those vomit-inducing Disney pop kids in the early 2000s -- add all of them together with the rise of hip-hop, a musical genre that I accept as genuinely artistic but I nevertheless take little personal pleasure in -- and I ran for the hills. I retreated, first into college radio, then eventually into my own local music scene, where I learned that not only was there quality music being created in virtually any genre I could ask for, it was available abundantly, inexpensively, and right in my own backyard. A wise man once said that every band is a local band from somewhere. People are out there every night, creating and performing music that comes from their hearts, unaided by expensive recording studios and huge marketing budgets.
Which brings me to He-Bird, She-Bird. This is a local band from my own hometown of Long Island, NY, that just released their first album, a self-titled LP in the country/folk/Americana genre. The band consists of one he-bird, Todd Evans, and two she-birds, Terri Hall and Christine Keller. And like Godzilla's old foe Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, these guys are a triple threat -- each of the trio sings lead on different tracks. Evans has what I think of as a traditional male country voice -- smooth sometimes, gravelly others. As for the ladies, Keller's sound is sweet and earnest, while Hall's has a little more of a kick to it. And man, can they harmonize.
The music throughout is mostly a product of acoustic stringed instruments. There's a light sprinkling of electric bass, organ, hand percussion and drums. Mostly, though, it's all about acoustic guitars, accompanied by various fiddles, mandolins, banjos, violins, etc. The result is a light and down-to-earth sound that complements the vocals rather than competing with them. And if you're thinking that indie band equals less-than-professional recording, in this case, banish the thought. This is a polished album, especially for a debut.
All of the music and lyrics throughout were written by Ms. Keller, who manages to mix it up enough to keep the sound consistently interesting. There are fast and slow songs, folk ballads and gritty blues songs, even a little bluegrass and honky-tonk. Between the different styles of music and the individual fortes of the three vocalists, He-Bird, She-Bird engages the listener from beginning to end.
He-bird Evans takes the lead on six of the album's twelve tracks, while Hall and Keller sing three apiece. Each of the three has their share of nice moments. Evans' best track is probably the one that leads off the album, "Once I Called You Mine". The one-sheet describes it as a "wistful love song", and that's a pretty accurate description. It's a sad but fond look back at a relationship that didn't work out. I also like "Spark", a darker number that's as elemental as a dance around a campfire, and "She Got Married", the musical tale of a young spitfire of a gal who's her own worst enemy.
My favorite track on the whole album is one where Keller sings lead, "Someone Said a Prayer". It's a simple, pretty song with an upbeat outlook on life. In contrast, "Call It Love" is a brooding, more turbulent number. It's about a passionate romance that seems to be equal parts love and pain. As for Hall, her strongest track is "It's Just Me", a slow, soft song about an entirely more wholesome relationship. "Don't Tempt Me", a brassy, more country-flavored offering, is also strong.
Wherever you live, if you don't have the big bucks to shell out to catch whatever musical superstar the industry happens to be hawking these days, or if you live somewhere where the big acts don't come anywhere near your hometown, take heart. Odds are that somewhere nearby, in a small club, a coffee house or even a garage is a band making music not because they expect to sell a million units, but simply because the music lives in their souls. Some of it is as good or better than the stuff that gets all the airplay. He-Bird, She-Bird is a band like that, who I'm proud to say comes from the Island I call home. If you happen to like folk, country and roots music, you might give them a listen. And while you're at it, don't be afraid to check out your own local scene. There's good music out there, if you're willing to go and find it.
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Review of The Monkees' "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd."
I've been slowing up a little with my reviews lately. Maybe a little summer (or almost summer) funk. But I posted this one on the Sputnik Music website earlier this morning. This one is especially nostalgic for me -- it was the first album I ever owned.
In the mid-1960s, The Beatles reigned supreme in the music world, particularly in the singles market. They sold so many records and raked in so much money that it was inevitable that challengers would pop up to try to cash in on their popularity. Perhaps the strangest of these would-be rivals was The Monkees. Formed by a pair of television producers for a slapstick comedy show meant to appeal to kids and teens, The Monkees consisted of four young actors/musicians (Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork) who initially weren't even allowed to play any of the musical instruments on their records. Although they were derided by many as the "Prefab Four" in mockery of their faux-Beatles status, much like Disney's Pinocchio, they eventually evolved into (sort of) a real band. And Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. was arguably their finest album.
Pisces was The Monkees' fourth album, all four coming within a two-year span. By the time of its release, the four band members had successfully lobbied to gain some control over the choice of material on the LP, and to be allowed to play at least some of their own instruments. Nesmith even wrote one of the songs, and he and Jones each received partial songwriting credits on other numbers, while Tork was credited with the authorship of the comical story of "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky".
The album featured two hit singles. "Pleasant Valley Sunday", sung by Dolenz, is one of the band's best. Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, the song envisions suburbia as a soul-crushing lotus land, with "Rows of houses that are all the same/And no one seems to care". "Words", the lesser of the two singles, is also sung by Dolenz with an assist from Tork. Written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who wrote many of the songs on the band's first two albums, this one is notable for some dark and vaguely psychedelic music on the verses that works pretty effectively. Unfortunately, it's marred by a below-average chorus.
The real secret of Pisces' strength, however, is that to a far greater extent than on previous Monkees' albums, Nesmith is set loose here. While most of the leads on the first three LPs were split between Dolenz and Jones, on Pisces, Nesmith sings lead on five of the thirteen tracks, and he generally makes the most of the opportunity. Particularly strong are "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round" and "The Door Into Summer". Both are songs of regret. In the first, a brash Yankee protagonist laments a lost romance with a beautiful Mexican girl, while the second tells the story of a man who chooses money and a career over true happiness, only to realize too late that he's wasted his life.
Two of Nesmith's other numbers are also pretty strong. "Don't Call on Me" is a sad pseudo-lounge song that finds him finally breaking free from an exploitive relationship, while "Love Is Only Sleeping" is a more optimistic tale of patience that is ultimately rewarded with the growth of love. His only misfire is the album-opening "Salesman", a country-rock novelty track that's just a little too bloated with corn pone.
Jones does a serviceable job with his four leads, although nothing here approaches the level of his later hit "Daydream Believer". His best number on the LP is probably "Star Collector", a somewhat flip dismissal of a groupie who's only interested in the rich and famous. "Cuddly Toy" finds him playing the role of a smarmy Casanova explaining to his latest conquest "I never told you that I'd love no other/You must have dreamed it in your sleep." Nice guy. "She Hangs Out" finds him cautioning a girlfriend that her baby sister is growing up a little too fast. Finally, "Hard to Believe", a slow, rueful love song, is probably the weakest of his tracks, although it's the songwriting and not his vocal that's at fault.
As for Dolenz, in addition to the album's two singles, he also contributes "Daily Nightly", a song actually written by Nesmith, which is an admirable, if not completely successful, attempt at a more psychedelic brand of rock.
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. will be fifty years old come this November. Even today, there's a playfulness to the LP that still makes it enjoyable. It serves as a fine example of '60s pop-rock in general, and also gives a good flavor of the what the Monkees phenomena was all about. The band might never make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Pisces is solid proof that while The Monkees were often funny, in a silly, lighthearted way, their music was never a joke.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Review Summary: "Another Pleasant Valley Sunday here in status symbol land. Mothers complain about how hard life is, and the kids just don't understand".
In the mid-1960s, The Beatles reigned supreme in the music world, particularly in the singles market. They sold so many records and raked in so much money that it was inevitable that challengers would pop up to try to cash in on their popularity. Perhaps the strangest of these would-be rivals was The Monkees. Formed by a pair of television producers for a slapstick comedy show meant to appeal to kids and teens, The Monkees consisted of four young actors/musicians (Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork) who initially weren't even allowed to play any of the musical instruments on their records. Although they were derided by many as the "Prefab Four" in mockery of their faux-Beatles status, much like Disney's Pinocchio, they eventually evolved into (sort of) a real band. And Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. was arguably their finest album.
Pisces was The Monkees' fourth album, all four coming within a two-year span. By the time of its release, the four band members had successfully lobbied to gain some control over the choice of material on the LP, and to be allowed to play at least some of their own instruments. Nesmith even wrote one of the songs, and he and Jones each received partial songwriting credits on other numbers, while Tork was credited with the authorship of the comical story of "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky".
The album featured two hit singles. "Pleasant Valley Sunday", sung by Dolenz, is one of the band's best. Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, the song envisions suburbia as a soul-crushing lotus land, with "Rows of houses that are all the same/And no one seems to care". "Words", the lesser of the two singles, is also sung by Dolenz with an assist from Tork. Written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who wrote many of the songs on the band's first two albums, this one is notable for some dark and vaguely psychedelic music on the verses that works pretty effectively. Unfortunately, it's marred by a below-average chorus.
The real secret of Pisces' strength, however, is that to a far greater extent than on previous Monkees' albums, Nesmith is set loose here. While most of the leads on the first three LPs were split between Dolenz and Jones, on Pisces, Nesmith sings lead on five of the thirteen tracks, and he generally makes the most of the opportunity. Particularly strong are "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round" and "The Door Into Summer". Both are songs of regret. In the first, a brash Yankee protagonist laments a lost romance with a beautiful Mexican girl, while the second tells the story of a man who chooses money and a career over true happiness, only to realize too late that he's wasted his life.
Two of Nesmith's other numbers are also pretty strong. "Don't Call on Me" is a sad pseudo-lounge song that finds him finally breaking free from an exploitive relationship, while "Love Is Only Sleeping" is a more optimistic tale of patience that is ultimately rewarded with the growth of love. His only misfire is the album-opening "Salesman", a country-rock novelty track that's just a little too bloated with corn pone.
Jones does a serviceable job with his four leads, although nothing here approaches the level of his later hit "Daydream Believer". His best number on the LP is probably "Star Collector", a somewhat flip dismissal of a groupie who's only interested in the rich and famous. "Cuddly Toy" finds him playing the role of a smarmy Casanova explaining to his latest conquest "I never told you that I'd love no other/You must have dreamed it in your sleep." Nice guy. "She Hangs Out" finds him cautioning a girlfriend that her baby sister is growing up a little too fast. Finally, "Hard to Believe", a slow, rueful love song, is probably the weakest of his tracks, although it's the songwriting and not his vocal that's at fault.
As for Dolenz, in addition to the album's two singles, he also contributes "Daily Nightly", a song actually written by Nesmith, which is an admirable, if not completely successful, attempt at a more psychedelic brand of rock.
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. will be fifty years old come this November. Even today, there's a playfulness to the LP that still makes it enjoyable. It serves as a fine example of '60s pop-rock in general, and also gives a good flavor of the what the Monkees phenomena was all about. The band might never make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Pisces is solid proof that while The Monkees were often funny, in a silly, lighthearted way, their music was never a joke.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Monday, June 12, 2017
Review of The Prodigals' "Brothers"
I posted this review on the Sputnik music website earlier this morning:
The Prodigals are a rock band from New York City who combine traditional Celtic songs and melodies with rock rhythms. They describe their music as "jig punk". Unlike some of their contemporaries such as Black 47, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, they're somewhat unknown beyond their home city and the American Celtic/Irish festival circuit. Nevertheless, they're certainly no less talented than their better known Celt-rock brethren.
Brothers, released in 2016, is The Prodigals' sixth studio album. The band on this LP consists of Gregory Grene on lead vocals and button accordion, Dave Fahy on lead vocals and guitar, Alex Grene (Gregory Grene's nephew) on fiddle, Trifton Dimitrov on bass and Brian Tracey on drums and percussion. Brothers contains thirteen songs, including six original songs, plus six traditional Irish pieces and one American standard rearranged in the band's own unique style.
For whatever reason, many of the more popular Celtic rock bands in the U.S. seem to feature lead vocalists with voices that challenge the ear, like Shane MacGowan of The Pogues or Larry Kirwan of Black 47. This isn't the case with The Prodigals. While Fahy has more of the traditional gruff voice often associated with Irish rock, Gregory Grene, who sings lead on approximately two thirds of the songs on Brothers, has a sweet, smooth voice that goes down as nicely as a pint of Guinness. He's also the songwriter for all six original tracks.
Brothers is one of the band's best albums to date. It does a stellar job of showing off their versatility on fast-paced classics such as "Tell Me Ma" and "Jug of Punch", as well as on slower, more sentimental numbers like "Snow Falls on Derrycark" and "Eileen Aroon". Alex Grene's fiddling is a particular joy throughout.
While the standards are well played and enjoyable throughout the LP, it's Grene's original numbers that give Brothers that little extra oomph. Particularly memorable are the album's opening track "Home to You" and the third track, "Song of Repentence". "Home to You" is a simple but wistful song sung by a well-traveled protagonist to his beloved homeland, while "Song of Repentence" is a track laced with both regret and acceptance, sung by a penitent man to the wronged lover he knows will never forgive him. Also of special note is the album's closing track "Candle", an a cappella tribute to Grene's deceased twin brother Andrew, who perished during the 2010 Haitian earthquake while he was working for the United Nations. (Hence, the album's title).
The only real misstep on Brothers is its second track "Kansas City", a cover of the 1952 blues rock standard by the American songwriting team of Lieber and Stoller. While the song does allow the band to rock out a little and flaunt their musical chops, it's a case of "which doesn't belong and why" -- it just doesn't go with the rest of the LP. Even so, by any reasonable measure, you'd have to say that Brothers is a successful album. It will please people who are fans of the band already, and make new fans out of those who give it a chance. Admirers of bands like The Pogues, The Mollys, The Murphys or Black 47 would be likely to find this album a treat.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Review Summary: "Brother, father, husband, son; mother's cake and the morning dew. The candle lit to all you've done, and we bow our heads as we think of you."
The Prodigals are a rock band from New York City who combine traditional Celtic songs and melodies with rock rhythms. They describe their music as "jig punk". Unlike some of their contemporaries such as Black 47, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, they're somewhat unknown beyond their home city and the American Celtic/Irish festival circuit. Nevertheless, they're certainly no less talented than their better known Celt-rock brethren.
Brothers, released in 2016, is The Prodigals' sixth studio album. The band on this LP consists of Gregory Grene on lead vocals and button accordion, Dave Fahy on lead vocals and guitar, Alex Grene (Gregory Grene's nephew) on fiddle, Trifton Dimitrov on bass and Brian Tracey on drums and percussion. Brothers contains thirteen songs, including six original songs, plus six traditional Irish pieces and one American standard rearranged in the band's own unique style.
For whatever reason, many of the more popular Celtic rock bands in the U.S. seem to feature lead vocalists with voices that challenge the ear, like Shane MacGowan of The Pogues or Larry Kirwan of Black 47. This isn't the case with The Prodigals. While Fahy has more of the traditional gruff voice often associated with Irish rock, Gregory Grene, who sings lead on approximately two thirds of the songs on Brothers, has a sweet, smooth voice that goes down as nicely as a pint of Guinness. He's also the songwriter for all six original tracks.
Brothers is one of the band's best albums to date. It does a stellar job of showing off their versatility on fast-paced classics such as "Tell Me Ma" and "Jug of Punch", as well as on slower, more sentimental numbers like "Snow Falls on Derrycark" and "Eileen Aroon". Alex Grene's fiddling is a particular joy throughout.
While the standards are well played and enjoyable throughout the LP, it's Grene's original numbers that give Brothers that little extra oomph. Particularly memorable are the album's opening track "Home to You" and the third track, "Song of Repentence". "Home to You" is a simple but wistful song sung by a well-traveled protagonist to his beloved homeland, while "Song of Repentence" is a track laced with both regret and acceptance, sung by a penitent man to the wronged lover he knows will never forgive him. Also of special note is the album's closing track "Candle", an a cappella tribute to Grene's deceased twin brother Andrew, who perished during the 2010 Haitian earthquake while he was working for the United Nations. (Hence, the album's title).
The only real misstep on Brothers is its second track "Kansas City", a cover of the 1952 blues rock standard by the American songwriting team of Lieber and Stoller. While the song does allow the band to rock out a little and flaunt their musical chops, it's a case of "which doesn't belong and why" -- it just doesn't go with the rest of the LP. Even so, by any reasonable measure, you'd have to say that Brothers is a successful album. It will please people who are fans of the band already, and make new fans out of those who give it a chance. Admirers of bands like The Pogues, The Mollys, The Murphys or Black 47 would be likely to find this album a treat.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Review of Joe Jackson's "I'm the Man"
I posted this a little while earlier on the Sputnik Music website:
I'm the Man, released in 1979, was British musician Joe Jackson's second LP. It built on the success of his debut album, Look Sharp, which had been released earlier that same year, and helped to make him an international star. In later years, Jackson moved into other genres such as jazz and classical, much like Elvis Costello, the artist to whom he is most often compared. At this point in his career, though, his music was firmly in the new wave category, with just a pinch of punk attitude.
Look Sharp brought Jackson fame largely on the strength of the hit single "Is She Really Going Out With Him?", and to a lesser extent, to significant U.S. FM radio airplay of tracks such as "Sunday Papers" and the title track. In contrast, I'm the Man, scored slightly lower on the U.S. album charts but significantly higher in the UK, and featured a single that did less well in the U.S. but hit #5 on the British charts, "Different for Girls". It also had a number of other tracks that received frequent FM airplay , including "On Your Radio", "I'm the Man", "Get That Girl" and "Friday".
In many ways, I'm the Man is about as fine an example of new wave pop rock as you could find. The music is dominated by frequently-rapid guitar licks, and by Jackson's brash vocals, with sprinklings of harmonica, piano and melodica just to give it some flavor. Many of the more striking songs are faster numbers -- tracks such as "On Your Radio", "I'm the Man", "Don't Wanna Be Like That" and "Get That Girl" almost race each other, as they give the album a sometimes breathless pace. Nevertheless, slower tracks like "It's Different for Girls" and lesser known gems "Geraldine and John" and "The Band Wore Blue Shirts" add depth and heart.
Lyrical themes vary throughout I'm the Man. "On Your Radio" is essentially an extended middle finger to everyone and anyone who made Jackson's life miserable in his early years. "I'm famous now, so bite me!" is the main message here, and let's face it -- given the opportunity, who wouldn't be tempted to do the same? "Kinda Kute", on the other hand, is sort of a benevolent stalker song. On this one, the track's well-meaning protagonist likes to sit in the club and watch his would-be paramour dance, or to show up unexpectedly in places he knows she'll be, but it's all okay because she mostly finds him amusing. And "Get That Girl" takes the whole dance theme in a different direction, as Jackson threatens to use his charm and superior dance moves to steal the girl of his dreams away from a less-deserving competitor. Finally, "It's Different for Girls" plays around with traditional gender role expectations -- on this one, it's the girl who's just out for a good time, while her used and confused boyfriend tries to have the dreaded "love" conversation.
The title track of I'm the Man is one of the album's best. It's a frenzied tribute to a huckster, the kind of guy who can sell anything and everything to an increasingly gullible public, creating new trends such as hula-hoops and kung-fu at the time of the LP's release, (and if the song had been written today, he'd have doubtlessly been responsible for those annoying fidget spinners as well). On a different note, "Friday", follows the life-changes of a fun-loving flower child who leaves her care-free youth behind for the drudgery of a 40-hour work week. "She don't care no more," Jackson explains, "she gets paid on Friday."
I'm the Man makes no claim to be high art. It's a pop LP filled with working class themes and occasionally working-class dreams, all of which contributed to its popularity. It's also a miniature time capsule of what pop rock music was like as the world prepared to enter the 1980s. Mostly, though, it's just a strong album full of fun songs, the majority of which still hold up pretty well today.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Review Summary: This is as fine an example of late '70s new wave pop as you could find, featuring songs full of working class themes and working class dreams.
I'm the Man, released in 1979, was British musician Joe Jackson's second LP. It built on the success of his debut album, Look Sharp, which had been released earlier that same year, and helped to make him an international star. In later years, Jackson moved into other genres such as jazz and classical, much like Elvis Costello, the artist to whom he is most often compared. At this point in his career, though, his music was firmly in the new wave category, with just a pinch of punk attitude.
Look Sharp brought Jackson fame largely on the strength of the hit single "Is She Really Going Out With Him?", and to a lesser extent, to significant U.S. FM radio airplay of tracks such as "Sunday Papers" and the title track. In contrast, I'm the Man, scored slightly lower on the U.S. album charts but significantly higher in the UK, and featured a single that did less well in the U.S. but hit #5 on the British charts, "Different for Girls". It also had a number of other tracks that received frequent FM airplay , including "On Your Radio", "I'm the Man", "Get That Girl" and "Friday".
In many ways, I'm the Man is about as fine an example of new wave pop rock as you could find. The music is dominated by frequently-rapid guitar licks, and by Jackson's brash vocals, with sprinklings of harmonica, piano and melodica just to give it some flavor. Many of the more striking songs are faster numbers -- tracks such as "On Your Radio", "I'm the Man", "Don't Wanna Be Like That" and "Get That Girl" almost race each other, as they give the album a sometimes breathless pace. Nevertheless, slower tracks like "It's Different for Girls" and lesser known gems "Geraldine and John" and "The Band Wore Blue Shirts" add depth and heart.
Lyrical themes vary throughout I'm the Man. "On Your Radio" is essentially an extended middle finger to everyone and anyone who made Jackson's life miserable in his early years. "I'm famous now, so bite me!" is the main message here, and let's face it -- given the opportunity, who wouldn't be tempted to do the same? "Kinda Kute", on the other hand, is sort of a benevolent stalker song. On this one, the track's well-meaning protagonist likes to sit in the club and watch his would-be paramour dance, or to show up unexpectedly in places he knows she'll be, but it's all okay because she mostly finds him amusing. And "Get That Girl" takes the whole dance theme in a different direction, as Jackson threatens to use his charm and superior dance moves to steal the girl of his dreams away from a less-deserving competitor. Finally, "It's Different for Girls" plays around with traditional gender role expectations -- on this one, it's the girl who's just out for a good time, while her used and confused boyfriend tries to have the dreaded "love" conversation.
The title track of I'm the Man is one of the album's best. It's a frenzied tribute to a huckster, the kind of guy who can sell anything and everything to an increasingly gullible public, creating new trends such as hula-hoops and kung-fu at the time of the LP's release, (and if the song had been written today, he'd have doubtlessly been responsible for those annoying fidget spinners as well). On a different note, "Friday", follows the life-changes of a fun-loving flower child who leaves her care-free youth behind for the drudgery of a 40-hour work week. "She don't care no more," Jackson explains, "she gets paid on Friday."
I'm the Man makes no claim to be high art. It's a pop LP filled with working class themes and occasionally working-class dreams, all of which contributed to its popularity. It's also a miniature time capsule of what pop rock music was like as the world prepared to enter the 1980s. Mostly, though, it's just a strong album full of fun songs, the majority of which still hold up pretty well today.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Monday, May 29, 2017
Stuff I Didn't Do and Album Rating System
So over the last couple of weekends, there were a couple of things I considered doing but wound of wussing out of, musicwise.
The first is last weekend, I didn't drive out to catch any of the Montauk Music Festival. I actually looked through the lineup, and there were two artists I was particularly interested in seeing. The first was a young acoustic duo called Lennon and Katie. I'll be honest, I no longer remember exactly where I first heard about them. Well, that's not exactly true -- I heard about them from looking up a band called Youth Be Told who has apparently morphed into Lennon and Katie, and I don't remember where I first heard about Youth Be Told. For some reason, I thought they were from Brooklyn, but they list themselves as a Long Island band. So I'll be on the lookout for when they play again.
The second is another young LI acoustic artist named Paris Ray. In this case, I'm pretty sure I first ran across her on CD Baby. I actually purchased her EP there, but right now, I have such a backlog of CDs it's not even funny, and the ones from 2017 move to the front of the line, so it might be awhile before I actually get to listen to it. But I'm hoping to maybe catch her live this summer.
I think if I could have lined it up so I could have caught both of these artists back to back, it would have inspired me to take the drive. But the times didn't really line up, which would have meant I'd have had to drive out there twice. And with my usual parental duties going on last Saturday, I just didn't get it done, although I very seriously considered getting up very early on Sunday morning to at least catch Paris Ray at a morning bagel shop gig -- I', not that into bars these days, but I still do breakfast.
In any event, I didn't get it done. But these guys are both on my radar now, so hopefully I'll rectify that sometime soon.
The other thing I didn't get done, either last weekend or this one, was to catch a performance of Spring Awakening by the CAP playhouse at their new performance space in their building in Syosset.
The play won the TONY for Best Musical a few years back, and the soundtrack album is excellent. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly happy story, so I wasn't able to tempt my daughter into coming with me, and the timing didn't line up good enough for me to talk my wife into it either. And I find that these days, when left to my own devices, sometimes I just get lazy. If the theater was nearby like The Gateway where I saw Rent the other night, I probably would have gone for it. But I just couldn't motivate myself to drive to Syosset by myself this time. Bad on me.
***
Anyway, this post at least gives me an excuse to explain the star rating system I've been using on all of these album reviews I've been posting here this year. Because I post these reviews on The Sputnik Music website first, I've been using their rating system, so it occurred to me I ought to explain it. You might look at an album, for example, that I've rated 3 out of 5 stars and think "Oh, only 60%. That sucks!" But actually, that isn't true. Here is the Sputnik Music rating system, which is what I've been using for the Album Reviews I post on this blog:
1 - Awful
1.5 - Very Poor
2 - Poor
2.5 - Average
3 - Good
3.5 - Great
4 - Excellent
4.5 - Superb
5 - Classic
"Staff" members and official "Contributors" can actually go as low as .5 stars when they rate an album, and they can also rate between these numbers (e.g. 3.2). But I'm not one of those, so this is what I'm working with. So as you can see, a "3" is actually "Good" or above average.
I grade pretty strictly, especially at the top. In the entire history of music, I've only ever given out fourteen "5's", most of them for albums released in the 1970s. They are:
Blondie - Parallel Lines
The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
Future Bible Heroes - Memories of Love
The Good Rats - Tasty
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
Paramore - Riot!
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
The Who - Quadrophenia
The Who - Tommy
The Who - Who's Next
So that's the rating system. Next planned album review is of an album by yet another '80s icon. 'Til then ...
The first is last weekend, I didn't drive out to catch any of the Montauk Music Festival. I actually looked through the lineup, and there were two artists I was particularly interested in seeing. The first was a young acoustic duo called Lennon and Katie. I'll be honest, I no longer remember exactly where I first heard about them. Well, that's not exactly true -- I heard about them from looking up a band called Youth Be Told who has apparently morphed into Lennon and Katie, and I don't remember where I first heard about Youth Be Told. For some reason, I thought they were from Brooklyn, but they list themselves as a Long Island band. So I'll be on the lookout for when they play again.
The second is another young LI acoustic artist named Paris Ray. In this case, I'm pretty sure I first ran across her on CD Baby. I actually purchased her EP there, but right now, I have such a backlog of CDs it's not even funny, and the ones from 2017 move to the front of the line, so it might be awhile before I actually get to listen to it. But I'm hoping to maybe catch her live this summer.
I think if I could have lined it up so I could have caught both of these artists back to back, it would have inspired me to take the drive. But the times didn't really line up, which would have meant I'd have had to drive out there twice. And with my usual parental duties going on last Saturday, I just didn't get it done, although I very seriously considered getting up very early on Sunday morning to at least catch Paris Ray at a morning bagel shop gig -- I', not that into bars these days, but I still do breakfast.
In any event, I didn't get it done. But these guys are both on my radar now, so hopefully I'll rectify that sometime soon.
The other thing I didn't get done, either last weekend or this one, was to catch a performance of Spring Awakening by the CAP playhouse at their new performance space in their building in Syosset.
The play won the TONY for Best Musical a few years back, and the soundtrack album is excellent. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly happy story, so I wasn't able to tempt my daughter into coming with me, and the timing didn't line up good enough for me to talk my wife into it either. And I find that these days, when left to my own devices, sometimes I just get lazy. If the theater was nearby like The Gateway where I saw Rent the other night, I probably would have gone for it. But I just couldn't motivate myself to drive to Syosset by myself this time. Bad on me.
***
Anyway, this post at least gives me an excuse to explain the star rating system I've been using on all of these album reviews I've been posting here this year. Because I post these reviews on The Sputnik Music website first, I've been using their rating system, so it occurred to me I ought to explain it. You might look at an album, for example, that I've rated 3 out of 5 stars and think "Oh, only 60%. That sucks!" But actually, that isn't true. Here is the Sputnik Music rating system, which is what I've been using for the Album Reviews I post on this blog:
1 - Awful
1.5 - Very Poor
2 - Poor
2.5 - Average
3 - Good
3.5 - Great
4 - Excellent
4.5 - Superb
5 - Classic
"Staff" members and official "Contributors" can actually go as low as .5 stars when they rate an album, and they can also rate between these numbers (e.g. 3.2). But I'm not one of those, so this is what I'm working with. So as you can see, a "3" is actually "Good" or above average.
I grade pretty strictly, especially at the top. In the entire history of music, I've only ever given out fourteen "5's", most of them for albums released in the 1970s. They are:
Blondie - Parallel Lines
The Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
Future Bible Heroes - Memories of Love
The Good Rats - Tasty
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
Paramore - Riot!
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
The Who - Quadrophenia
The Who - Tommy
The Who - Who's Next
So that's the rating system. Next planned album review is of an album by yet another '80s icon. 'Til then ...
Review of M+M's "Mystery Walk"
I posted this review a little earlier this morning on the Sputnik Music Website:
Martha and the Muffins (or M+M as they were calling themselves by the time they released Mystery Walk) were one of Canada's strongest contributions to the category of '80s new wave music. Although their biggest hit both at home and internationally was "Echo Beach" from their 1979 debut album Metro Music, the band had a solid career, releasing six studio albums from 1979 through 1985, then reuniting in 1992 and again in 2010 to add two more LPs to their catalog.
While many groups at the forefront of the new wave movement had their roots at least partially in punk rock, including bands such as Blondie, The Go-Go's and even the Talking Heads, Martha and the Muffins weren't one of these. They were more staid, and more in the mold of bands like The Cars or Tears for Fears, relying on slow-to-mid-tempo songs and seldom letting go and completely rocking out. They mixed elements of synth-pop, dance music and occasional jazzy saxophone or horns to create atmospheric little musical tableau's.
Mystery Walk, released in 1984, was their 5th studio album, and one of their best. It only charted at #56 in Canada and #163 in the U.S., but it did feature their second most successful single ever, "Black Stations/White Stations", which reached as high as #2 on the U.S. Dance charts. Another single from the album, "Cooling the Medium" though less successful, is still an excellent song. By the time Mystery Walk was released, the essence of the band was the husband/wife team of Martha Johnson, who took the lead vocals on three quarters of the songs, and guitarist Mark Gane, who sang lead on the others (hence the shortened name, M+M, for "Martha" and "Mark").
In addition to the synthesizer and the intermittent horns, there are a lot of interesting percussive elements going on throughout Mystery Walk, including varied use of electronic drums and hand percussion. "Black Stations/White Stations" is a particularly trippy song, as Johnson petitions for more intermingling of so-called "black" and "white" music on the radio, pleading "Black stations, white stations/Break down the doors/Stand up and face the music/This is 1984", and inviting them to "Dance on the ceiling with us". A later, slower number on the LP, "Come Out and Dance" also recommends the curative effects of dancing, this time as a remedy for heartache. And the somewhat cryptic "Cooling the Medium" extols the virtues of a different kind of movement, as Johnson takes a walk on the spiritual side, asking her lover to "Carry me down into the river" and "Walk me back to life again", before the last chords of the song change to those of the love theme from the 1959 romance film A Summer Place. All the while, the percussion encourages you to move along with it in a manner of your choosing.
The album also features a pair of slow and moody songs that are each, in different ways, exquisitely beautiful. "I Start to Stop" is a well-crafted musical depiction of post-breakup depression. Built largely around three notes that recur repeatedly throughout the track like a stabbing pain, the song is both delicate and occasionally dissonant. It's like a fine porcelain teacup with a slight but ruinous crack running through it. "I dial your number on the phone/I hear a voice, you're not alone/The traffic rips the night apart" Johnson sings with a quiet desperation, but in the end, there's nothing she can do but to keep repeating "I Start to Stop" until the music fades. Moving on is more difficult than it sounds.
On a somewhat happier note, "Garden in the Sky" depicts someone whose reality seems to be slipping away, as he fades into a fantasy world. The song has always made me think of the short story "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken, although here it's lush images of garden paradises and "beaches of ivory" that seduce our protagonist away from the "real" world, rather than thoughts of a frozen tundra. "Garden in the sky/His heart is living in another place/Garden in the sky/The world around him sees a madman's face", Johnson tells us. By the last verse, though, we learn that instead of seeing the thoughts of a "madman", we've actually entered the mind of an artist who sees these images in his head in order to paint portraits of "places that will never die".
Although the album loses some steam towards the end ("Nation of Followers", "Alibi Room" and especially "Rhythm of Life", while okay, aren't as memorable as most of the earlier tracks), Mystery Walk is still a minor treasure from a bygone decade. Much like the subject of the band's most enduring single "Echo Beach", the album is far away in time, but still close to my heart.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Review Summary: "Rest my head inside your hands/Cooling the medium/Walk me back to life again/Cooling the medium."
Martha and the Muffins (or M+M as they were calling themselves by the time they released Mystery Walk) were one of Canada's strongest contributions to the category of '80s new wave music. Although their biggest hit both at home and internationally was "Echo Beach" from their 1979 debut album Metro Music, the band had a solid career, releasing six studio albums from 1979 through 1985, then reuniting in 1992 and again in 2010 to add two more LPs to their catalog.
While many groups at the forefront of the new wave movement had their roots at least partially in punk rock, including bands such as Blondie, The Go-Go's and even the Talking Heads, Martha and the Muffins weren't one of these. They were more staid, and more in the mold of bands like The Cars or Tears for Fears, relying on slow-to-mid-tempo songs and seldom letting go and completely rocking out. They mixed elements of synth-pop, dance music and occasional jazzy saxophone or horns to create atmospheric little musical tableau's.
Mystery Walk, released in 1984, was their 5th studio album, and one of their best. It only charted at #56 in Canada and #163 in the U.S., but it did feature their second most successful single ever, "Black Stations/White Stations", which reached as high as #2 on the U.S. Dance charts. Another single from the album, "Cooling the Medium" though less successful, is still an excellent song. By the time Mystery Walk was released, the essence of the band was the husband/wife team of Martha Johnson, who took the lead vocals on three quarters of the songs, and guitarist Mark Gane, who sang lead on the others (hence the shortened name, M+M, for "Martha" and "Mark").
In addition to the synthesizer and the intermittent horns, there are a lot of interesting percussive elements going on throughout Mystery Walk, including varied use of electronic drums and hand percussion. "Black Stations/White Stations" is a particularly trippy song, as Johnson petitions for more intermingling of so-called "black" and "white" music on the radio, pleading "Black stations, white stations/Break down the doors/Stand up and face the music/This is 1984", and inviting them to "Dance on the ceiling with us". A later, slower number on the LP, "Come Out and Dance" also recommends the curative effects of dancing, this time as a remedy for heartache. And the somewhat cryptic "Cooling the Medium" extols the virtues of a different kind of movement, as Johnson takes a walk on the spiritual side, asking her lover to "Carry me down into the river" and "Walk me back to life again", before the last chords of the song change to those of the love theme from the 1959 romance film A Summer Place. All the while, the percussion encourages you to move along with it in a manner of your choosing.
The album also features a pair of slow and moody songs that are each, in different ways, exquisitely beautiful. "I Start to Stop" is a well-crafted musical depiction of post-breakup depression. Built largely around three notes that recur repeatedly throughout the track like a stabbing pain, the song is both delicate and occasionally dissonant. It's like a fine porcelain teacup with a slight but ruinous crack running through it. "I dial your number on the phone/I hear a voice, you're not alone/The traffic rips the night apart" Johnson sings with a quiet desperation, but in the end, there's nothing she can do but to keep repeating "I Start to Stop" until the music fades. Moving on is more difficult than it sounds.
On a somewhat happier note, "Garden in the Sky" depicts someone whose reality seems to be slipping away, as he fades into a fantasy world. The song has always made me think of the short story "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken, although here it's lush images of garden paradises and "beaches of ivory" that seduce our protagonist away from the "real" world, rather than thoughts of a frozen tundra. "Garden in the sky/His heart is living in another place/Garden in the sky/The world around him sees a madman's face", Johnson tells us. By the last verse, though, we learn that instead of seeing the thoughts of a "madman", we've actually entered the mind of an artist who sees these images in his head in order to paint portraits of "places that will never die".
Although the album loses some steam towards the end ("Nation of Followers", "Alibi Room" and especially "Rhythm of Life", while okay, aren't as memorable as most of the earlier tracks), Mystery Walk is still a minor treasure from a bygone decade. Much like the subject of the band's most enduring single "Echo Beach", the album is far away in time, but still close to my heart.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Sunday, May 28, 2017
"Rent"
Denise and I caught a performance of the season-opening show at The Gateway Playhouse in Bellport last night, Jonathan Larson's Rent.
The Gateway describes itself as "one of only three professional theaters on Long Island" and as the "oldest of the three". Every spring through summer season, they present a series of high-quality shows, generally musicals, in professional productions that are probably the closest any LI theater comes to Broadway-level productions.
The downsides of their standing in the LI theater community are that 1) they're (quite reasonably) the most expensive theater on the Island, although they're nowhere near as expensive as a Broadway show; 2) Their choices can be a kind of vanilla at times, because they really have a need to sell tickets, and much of their clientele tends to be a little aged (present author included). So every year, I usually find their choice of shows slightly disappointing, as I wait in vain for some riskier fare (Chess! Chess! Chess! Did I mention Chess?). And 3) Because of their standing as probably the top dog of LI theater, they can sometimes have a little bit of an attitude that makes me want to slap them, which I'm about to do, lovingly, for their ad campaign for Rent.
Rent is being advertised on their website (and other places) as "Featuring Michelle Veintimilla, Star of the Fox TV Series Gotham as Mimi," next to a photo of an attractive dark-haired actress. I saw this, and my first reaction was "Wait a minute. I watch Gotham. Who the hell is Michelle Veintimilla?" I compared notes with Denise, and when we looked it up, the reason we didn't recognize her is that she plays a super villain (sort of) called Firefly who accidentally burnt half of her face off.
Now I want to be careful here not to take this out on Miss Veintimilla. I get that the theater is trying to sell tickets. Furthermore, I also get that, as it turns out, she's one of Gateway's own -- the show's playbill makes it clear that as a teen, she spent a significant amount of time in Gateway's Acting School, and they're understandably proud of her. She's one of their success stories. But by my calculation, Firefly is at best the 7th most important female character on Gotham, and that's only because they killed off Penguin's mother in Season 2. And it's a male-dominated show! So "Star of" my butt!
OK, got that out of my system. So Rent. I have to admit, I probably would have skipped the show if Denise hadn't really wanted to see it. Not that it's a bad show -- far from it. But it's a little depressing. Rent is basically a rock musical reconfiguration of Puccini's La Boheme, which is actually my favorite opera. It's set in alphabet city in Manhattan in the late '80s at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and features a colorful group of characters, many of whom are HIV positive, who are waiting for the virus to kill them. I like a lot of the music, and I saw the film, but let's face it -- on the surface, at least, this isn't exactly a chuckle fest.
Nevertheless, I realized after seeing the Gateway performance that I really didn't know the show as well as I thought I did. It's significantly different than the film, and in spite of its subject matter, more life affirming. Larson does an amazing job of taking the story of La Boheme and pulling it in a logical way into a modern setting. His characters are in no way perfect, which makes them human and very sympathetic.
Furthermore, the young cast of this production does a masterful job of bringing this story to life. The casting is universally excellent -- there really isn't a weak link in the bunch. I was particularly impressed with Jeremy Greenbaum's portrayal of Mark Cohen, the young filmographer who documents a year in the lives (or deaths) of this family of friends. But Denise's favorite was Anthony Festa who plays Roger Davis, an HIV positive musician who is recovering from both heroin addiction and the suicide of his former girlfriend April. His performance is very understated in the early parts of the play, and at first I wasn't sure if he was up to the part. As the play goes on, however, it becomes obvious that this was a deliberate choice on his part, as he plays Roger as someone who has shut off all of his a feelings in self defense until Veintimilla's Mimi Marquez character forces him back to life.
As for Michelle Veintimilla, whose Firefly role I so loutishly trashed at the beginning of this review, she has a strong and attractive voice, and has a great chemistry with Mr. Festa. She is especially impressive during "Another Day", where her Mimi teases, flirts with, and coaxes the Roger character as he tries to push her away, ultimately gripping him with both hands and pulling him back into the living world. It was as good a moment of theater as I've seen in a long time.
A special shout out goes to one of the actresses who plays a series of minor characters throughout the production, Amma Osei, who is given a moment to really break through with her voice during Rent's best-known song "Seasons of Love" and essentially uses it to bring the house down. What an amazing set of pipes!
Now Rent isn't a perfect fit for me. I'm not really a counter-culture kind of guy. As the son and brother of two lifelong police officers (who lost his father last year), I don't much care for the brief portrayal of police officers as evil storm troopers. And the supposedly amusing story where the otherwise sympathetic Angel character commits dog-i-cide is never going to be OK with me. (And I have a lot more sympathy than Larson probably wanted me to have for Kyle Robert Carter's Benny character, who's abhorred by most of the other characters throughout the play for being sellout yuppie scum, but who continually pays the bills so that the other characters can sit around and think noble thoughts.) But these are minor beefs about an otherwise fine production of an excellent show.
And since I abused The Gateway for their slightly overzealous ad campaign for this show, let me say something nice (and true) about them. When our children came to us seven years ago, we took them to a Gateway production of West Side Story that first summer, and we've taken them to a number of other shows there over the ensuing years. Both kids came to that first show just short of kicking and screaming, with my daughter swearing that she and her brother were going to be the only heads in the house not covered in grey hair. My son never really became a musical fan, which is fine, but he did like the show more than he thought he would, and he's come back with us for a few shows since then.
My daughter, on the other hand, who at first couldn't get used to the idea of a show where everybody just stops what they're doing and sings, has grown into a true musical fan over the years, She didn't come with us to Rent because her tastes have developed enough that she knows what she likes (namely upbeat shows with happy endings). But she's come with us to The Gateway to a whole series of shows over the years, including Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, South Pacific and The Addams Family to name a few, and she's looking forward to bringing her boyfriend with us to see The Gateway's production of Little Shop Horrors towards the end of the summer. She's also subsequently seen both Phantom of the Opera and Wicked on Broadway, as well as various other musicals at other Long Island theaters. So The Gateway played a significant part in making her a lifelong fan of musical theater, for which I'll be eternally grateful to them. (Just calm down a little with those ad campaigns, OK guys. And Chess! Just consider it, that's all I'm saying.)
The Gateway describes itself as "one of only three professional theaters on Long Island" and as the "oldest of the three". Every spring through summer season, they present a series of high-quality shows, generally musicals, in professional productions that are probably the closest any LI theater comes to Broadway-level productions.
The downsides of their standing in the LI theater community are that 1) they're (quite reasonably) the most expensive theater on the Island, although they're nowhere near as expensive as a Broadway show; 2) Their choices can be a kind of vanilla at times, because they really have a need to sell tickets, and much of their clientele tends to be a little aged (present author included). So every year, I usually find their choice of shows slightly disappointing, as I wait in vain for some riskier fare (Chess! Chess! Chess! Did I mention Chess?). And 3) Because of their standing as probably the top dog of LI theater, they can sometimes have a little bit of an attitude that makes me want to slap them, which I'm about to do, lovingly, for their ad campaign for Rent.
Rent is being advertised on their website (and other places) as "Featuring Michelle Veintimilla, Star of the Fox TV Series Gotham as Mimi," next to a photo of an attractive dark-haired actress. I saw this, and my first reaction was "Wait a minute. I watch Gotham. Who the hell is Michelle Veintimilla?" I compared notes with Denise, and when we looked it up, the reason we didn't recognize her is that she plays a super villain (sort of) called Firefly who accidentally burnt half of her face off.
Now I want to be careful here not to take this out on Miss Veintimilla. I get that the theater is trying to sell tickets. Furthermore, I also get that, as it turns out, she's one of Gateway's own -- the show's playbill makes it clear that as a teen, she spent a significant amount of time in Gateway's Acting School, and they're understandably proud of her. She's one of their success stories. But by my calculation, Firefly is at best the 7th most important female character on Gotham, and that's only because they killed off Penguin's mother in Season 2. And it's a male-dominated show! So "Star of" my butt!
OK, got that out of my system. So Rent. I have to admit, I probably would have skipped the show if Denise hadn't really wanted to see it. Not that it's a bad show -- far from it. But it's a little depressing. Rent is basically a rock musical reconfiguration of Puccini's La Boheme, which is actually my favorite opera. It's set in alphabet city in Manhattan in the late '80s at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and features a colorful group of characters, many of whom are HIV positive, who are waiting for the virus to kill them. I like a lot of the music, and I saw the film, but let's face it -- on the surface, at least, this isn't exactly a chuckle fest.
Nevertheless, I realized after seeing the Gateway performance that I really didn't know the show as well as I thought I did. It's significantly different than the film, and in spite of its subject matter, more life affirming. Larson does an amazing job of taking the story of La Boheme and pulling it in a logical way into a modern setting. His characters are in no way perfect, which makes them human and very sympathetic.
Furthermore, the young cast of this production does a masterful job of bringing this story to life. The casting is universally excellent -- there really isn't a weak link in the bunch. I was particularly impressed with Jeremy Greenbaum's portrayal of Mark Cohen, the young filmographer who documents a year in the lives (or deaths) of this family of friends. But Denise's favorite was Anthony Festa who plays Roger Davis, an HIV positive musician who is recovering from both heroin addiction and the suicide of his former girlfriend April. His performance is very understated in the early parts of the play, and at first I wasn't sure if he was up to the part. As the play goes on, however, it becomes obvious that this was a deliberate choice on his part, as he plays Roger as someone who has shut off all of his a feelings in self defense until Veintimilla's Mimi Marquez character forces him back to life.
As for Michelle Veintimilla, whose Firefly role I so loutishly trashed at the beginning of this review, she has a strong and attractive voice, and has a great chemistry with Mr. Festa. She is especially impressive during "Another Day", where her Mimi teases, flirts with, and coaxes the Roger character as he tries to push her away, ultimately gripping him with both hands and pulling him back into the living world. It was as good a moment of theater as I've seen in a long time.
A special shout out goes to one of the actresses who plays a series of minor characters throughout the production, Amma Osei, who is given a moment to really break through with her voice during Rent's best-known song "Seasons of Love" and essentially uses it to bring the house down. What an amazing set of pipes!
Now Rent isn't a perfect fit for me. I'm not really a counter-culture kind of guy. As the son and brother of two lifelong police officers (who lost his father last year), I don't much care for the brief portrayal of police officers as evil storm troopers. And the supposedly amusing story where the otherwise sympathetic Angel character commits dog-i-cide is never going to be OK with me. (And I have a lot more sympathy than Larson probably wanted me to have for Kyle Robert Carter's Benny character, who's abhorred by most of the other characters throughout the play for being sellout yuppie scum, but who continually pays the bills so that the other characters can sit around and think noble thoughts.) But these are minor beefs about an otherwise fine production of an excellent show.
And since I abused The Gateway for their slightly overzealous ad campaign for this show, let me say something nice (and true) about them. When our children came to us seven years ago, we took them to a Gateway production of West Side Story that first summer, and we've taken them to a number of other shows there over the ensuing years. Both kids came to that first show just short of kicking and screaming, with my daughter swearing that she and her brother were going to be the only heads in the house not covered in grey hair. My son never really became a musical fan, which is fine, but he did like the show more than he thought he would, and he's come back with us for a few shows since then.
My daughter, on the other hand, who at first couldn't get used to the idea of a show where everybody just stops what they're doing and sings, has grown into a true musical fan over the years, She didn't come with us to Rent because her tastes have developed enough that she knows what she likes (namely upbeat shows with happy endings). But she's come with us to The Gateway to a whole series of shows over the years, including Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, South Pacific and The Addams Family to name a few, and she's looking forward to bringing her boyfriend with us to see The Gateway's production of Little Shop Horrors towards the end of the summer. She's also subsequently seen both Phantom of the Opera and Wicked on Broadway, as well as various other musicals at other Long Island theaters. So The Gateway played a significant part in making her a lifelong fan of musical theater, for which I'll be eternally grateful to them. (Just calm down a little with those ad campaigns, OK guys. And Chess! Just consider it, that's all I'm saying.)
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