The other night I was watching Leno (again, an inspiration for a post) when Minnie Driver was in the hotseat chatting with our favorite skunky late night host. The show went to commercial, and then, to my surprise, came back with Minnie Driver on stage about to perform. Musically. What the fuck? I didn't see that one coming. 

And guess what. Unlike most actor-turned-musicians, this chica is good. Like, really good. I love her voice, and I fell head over heels in love with the song she and her band performed. It's called "Beloved". I've been singing it ever since. I chalk it up a bit to her being British (ahem, go England). I've always loved Minnie Driver anyways, if not for her acting, but for her incredible laugh. It makes me giggle ridiculously. 

And, this is her second album! Sheesh.  

It must be crappy to be compared to your former career in reviews, Minnie, but thats what happens. Your fellow actors have tried to the music thing and sucked at it, so we have to be cautious when you do it. But don't worry, love, you've done well.

Anyways, 

the song was sung well, lyrically very good, and not overdone. Simple in it's simpleness and beautiful at the same time, if you get what that means.

Right, so anyways, I've now got the album, yay, and I'm very much enjoying it. I'd love for you to love it too, so check out these MP3s, or better yet, go out and get the bloody album.   

To summarize:

I liked her before, when I just knew her as an actress.

She turns out to be a kickass musician.

And she lives in a trailer park.

And the boyfriend thinks her music is good.

So basically, all systems go. You'll like. 

Minnie Driver Official Website // MySpace // Buy Seastories 

Beloved MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/03-minnie_driver-beloved.mp3]

Cold Dark River MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/04-minnie_driver-cold_dark_river.mp3]

Sorry Baby MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/02-minnie_driver-sorry_baby.mp3]

Once again, going with the obvious band for the summer jam spotlight, but I'll be steering clear of the obvious tunes.  Even as I speak 311's cover of the Cure's "Lovesong" is on the radio.  So I thought I'd hook you up with a few lesser known tunes.  When I say "lesser known" I'm not talking to 311 fans, I'm not hardcore enough to have stuff they don't know, but it's stuff you don't come across every day.  It's great pool-side jammin'.  "Stealing Happy Hours" is the closer and my favourite track on Transistor [which is also my favourite 311 album], "Purpose" is one of the mellower tracks from their self-titled album, and "Summer of Love" goes all the way back to Omaha Sessions.  As a bonus, because I like you, I'm throwing in the song I always thought of as "Amber"s little brother, it's called "Champagne" and I like it a little bit more than its more popular cousin.
Keep it jammin'.

Champagne - 311

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/07%20Champagne.mp3]

Purpose - 311

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/08%20Purpose.mp3] 

Stealing Happy Hours - 311

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/311%20-%20Stealing%20Happy%20Hours.mp3] 

This has been both the busiest and most satisfying concert season I've ever had, even with all the lateness and missing opening acts.  This exciting season of loving continued recently with my second Ozma concert in less than a year.  Before I get going on the concert, lemme just say again that Kilby Court rocks my socks all the way off.  There.  I said it.  Again.
First act of the night was former Something Corporate guitarist William Tell.  He plays nice poppy guitar-based musics, sometimes piano-y ones.  It reminded Dave of an edgier Counting Crows, although I'm sure he's forgetting just how raw and emotional Recovering the Satellites was [I'm not alone on this, right?].  What I thought of was when Weezer toured with The Fray a few years back, if those two bands somehow merged.  But without Weezer's quirky sense of humour.  Anyhow, I've included his single "Fairfax" for your consideration.
Next was a Portland group called Kaddisfly.  These guys really upped the energy level of the show, lemme tell you.  When I saw the guys and the set up I was half worried that we were in for thirty minutes of screamo sludge.  Not so!  The band is really quite interesting to watch; Christopher Ruff [vocals/piano] really made the most of that tiny stage, running about, smashing his cymbal, shaking his maraca, etc.  He also played an emergency flashlight.  Way cool stuff.  Speaking of multi-instrumentation, one guitarist played guitar [obviously], keyboards, and drums during the same song.  An impressive feat.  Kile Brewer [bass] is both a very nice guy and an obvious Primus fan.  Not that he said anything, or has thunder thumbs, but his five-string sits about belly high, not around his knees, he plays technical bits, and even has the Les Claypool stance going.
Usually you can kind of get a feel for what a band's about before they start playing, but New Years Day threw me for a loop.  The guitarists, Keith and Mike, looked very metal with their long hair and all blackness.  Keith even had some metal band's shirt on [the more metal the bands get, the harder their fonts are to read, so I couldn't tell who].  Then Adam and Russell [drums and bass, respectively] were in nappy tuxedo shirts, which indicated a genre more ironic than metal can muster.  During warm up we heard snatches of both NoFX and Rage Against the Machine songs.  Turns out they play music that's hard to categorize, not because it's so highly stylized that you don't have words for it, but because it's so simple.  You don't want to just call it rock because we have all these subgenres that go to waste if we do.  So, if I must, I guess they're a little pop punk.  Even littler emo tones.  Their singer's a girl, too, so that puts them in whatever category people put those bands in.  But the important thing is they put on a great show and Keith looks like Alan Ruck.  And if it's important to you, Ashely Costello is pretty cute, and Adam Lorbach used to be in Home Grown.  Their first album just came out, I kinda got flirted into buying it, so you'll get a review of that pretty soon.

Then there's Ozma.  They've got a new album out on Tuesday.  Hearing songs from it live made me realize that Ozma is a lot like AC/DC: they aren't all that interested in musical evolution, just rocking out; new albums are mostly an excuse to go back on tour.  And I really mean this in the best way possible.  I was going to buy the new Ozma record so I could be hip and review it before it's released proper, but, as I said, I got flirted into buying the NYD album.

Verdicts!

William Tell: Fairly good California pops.
Kaddisfly: Heady hardcore, kinda progressive.  Excellent live energies.
New Years Day: Very probably going to be hot business in the near future.  Super fun.
Ozma: Still rocking socks.  Also, Daniel Brummel is still the sweatiest manbeast ever, but he's learned his lesson and started wearing black.
Overall Final Verdict: Amazing tour, only a few dates left!

P.S. Sorry this one's a little wordy.  I'll do better next time.

Related Links:

Ozma Official MySpace // Buy CD

Kaddisfly Official Website // MySpace // Buy CD

New Years Day Official MySpace // Buy CD 

William Tell Official Website // MySpace // Buy CD

Related Audio:

New Years Day - I Was Right

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01%20I%20Was%20Right.mp3] 

Kaddisfly - (Noyabr) Empire

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/07-kaddisfly-(noyabr)_empire.mp3]

William Tell - Fairfax

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/William%20Tell%20-%20Just%20For%20You.mp3] 

Ozma - No One Needs To Know

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/02%20No%20One%20Needs%20To%20Know.mp3] 

Shiny Toy Guns // The Rapture

Venue : In the Venue, SLC

Date: 05-02-07 

So you've already heard all the negatives about the STG show.  Now you get to hear about the good stuff, namely the performances themselves.
We showed up pretty late, yet again, but this time we didn't miss the opening act.  I'm so glad we did because the Rapture encapsulate all that is good about disco.  It doesn't matter how you feel about disco right now, what matters is that if you take everything that is good about any musical genre, it will be good sounds.  On top of that one member of the band, what you would call the keyboardist, is not needed on keyboards for every song.  During those songs he fills the roll of either saxophonist or percussionist.  And by percussionist I mean he dances around with a cowbell and beats it like nobody's business.  It's superb to view.  Also, his saxophoning is akin to that heard on the Beastie Boys track "Brass Monkey" [which I've decided to be the hyphy-est thing ever].  The Rapture are great, but they didn't adhere to the opening act standard practice of saving your biggest hit for the end of the set.  Not a big complaint, but it threw of the momentum of  the show.
Regarding the headliners, there are a lot of nice things that I want to say about Shiny Toy Guns and their live performance.  I hope I cover them all.
First of all, these people take every aspect of their music seriously.  I mentioned earlier that they scrapped the album We Are Pilots twice and redid the whole thing.  That sort of obsession spills over into their live shows, too, with fancy lightings, projections, and serious energy.  They also have and interesting positioning on stage.  Normally a four-piece band will be set up like a diamond, with drums in back, bass and guitar on left and right, and a charismatic frontman out in [surprise] front.  STG was, left to right, Mikey Martin [drums], Chad Petree [guitar, vox], and switching spots were Carah Faye [vox, keys, sometimes bass] and Jeremy Dawson [bass, keys].  I'm very, very, very glad they did this because Mikey Martin is one of the most entertaining people to watch ever.  Dude likes hittin' stuff.  And since a number of songs feature some kind of electronic beat in addition to his drumming, he has a lot of free space to work in.  Also, he enjoys spitting on his bandmates.

One of my favourite things about the set was that after they played "Le Disko" a good number of the dumber people at the show made their exodus, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the show.  "Le Disko", by the way, was dedicated to us in SLC, but then more specifically to Provo.  I have no idea why, and am immensely intrigued.  If anybody can tell me the reasonings, I shall repay you tenfold.  Also they gave shoutouts to X96 for being generally kick-awesome.

Results:
The Rapture: Superfun dancy sounds.  They like you very much.
Shiny Toy Guns: Amazing energetic times.  They've only got one album out, so their set was actually shorter than the Rapture's.  Got a cover of Depeche Mode's "Stripped" [a billion times better than Rammstein's], but no "When They Came for Us".
Final Verdict!: An amazing tour.  Both bands are brilliant, keep an eye on STG.

 Related Links:

 Shiny Toy Guns Official Website // MySpace // Buy Their CD

 The Rapture Official Website // MySpace // Buy Their CD

Related Audio:

You Are The One - Shiny Toy Guns

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01%20You%20Are%20The%20One.mp3] 

When They Came For Us - Shiny Toy Guns

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/04%20When%20They%20Came%20For%20Us.mp3]

The Rapture - Mirror

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Rapture%20-%20Mirror.mp3] 

Sometimes when I find new music, I marvel at the amazingness that it is, and rejoice. 

Other times I wonder why I didn't know about it before, and get annoyed with anyone who walked by me and didn't say, "Hey, Jen, buy this CD! You need it, like you need showers and shelter." 

In this case, the latter is true.

Holy crapola. How in love am I with Atlas? So in love. You need to be in love too.  

As I have no idea who Battles is, I did a little research. According to Wikipedia, they are a 'math rock' band (something I will explore further later) and Mirrored, the album this song is featured on, is going to be released on the 14th of May. Yay. 

Related Links:

Battles Official Website/MySpace

Buy This CD 

Related Audio:

Atlas

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/Battles%20-%20Atlas.mp3] 

I have a little secret. I've never really listened to Bjork before now.

I know, I know. What was I missing out. I'll be working on filling the Bjork-void in my life at a later date. Cinco De Mayo is tonight, and I have a long night ahead of me, filled with crying, being in the weeds, spilling beer everywhere, and serving fajitas. And hopefully a lot of money.

 This mp3 spotlight post was going to be on the track "Innocence", from the new album, but then I realized that I liked Earth Intruders better. So here you have it. 

I love it. I love the beat to the song, makes me want to wiggle all over and shake my booty at top speed. I'm also appreciating the unique way Bjork sings. Reminds me of Johnny Cash, sort of, how in some parts she doesn't really sing, she sort of…talks.  

 Anyways, enjoy. Buy the CD. Seriously. Well worth it. Especially if you're a Bjork virgin like myself. 

Related Links:

Bjork Official Website

Bjork on MySpace

Buy This CD

Related Audio:

Earth Intruders - Bjork 

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01-bjork-earth_intruders_(co-produced_by_timbaland).mp3]