Quiet on the Home Front

My blog is neglected, my brain is full of musical things. My personal computer is dying and it hates the blogger.com site. However, I'm going to be welcoming a new computer into my life shortly, and my publication schedule will become regular, photos will be featured on most posts, and the universe will realign itself.

Here's what I've been up to for the past few days:

- We Were Lovers. I happened to have the good timing to catch their first show ever while I was in Regina last Friday. And what a show it was. Although Elsa Gebremichael and her frequent companion S.J. Kardash can be seen performing with several local bands (including From Chimpan-A to Chimpan-Z, and The Blood Lines) this band is Gebremichael's, a chance to showcase her music, great voice and good looks. Dressed in a ruffled black velvet dress, she dazzled under the red lights above O'Hanlon's small stage. There were a lot of instrumental and not enough vocals (just a consequence of the sound system I believe) and the band seemed pretty tight, especially for a first show. All my friends kept talking about how good it was afterwards, and how beautiful she was. I'm not one to focus on superficial things, but I think it's very important to note. There was a lot of dancing, a little too much booze, I can't remember their song titles, but I'm hoping to see them again before the summer ends.

- Alphababy. Nice guys, good show and someone handed me a tambourine, effectively making me part of the music (or so I'd like to think). To avoid conflict of interest, I'm not going to write anything else. Check out their myspace.

- Craven Country Jamboree. Yes, Craven happened. Musically amazing, emotionally draining. I'd like to post more, and probably will. Or I'll write a book about it.

- Big and Rich, Cowboy Troy, Two-Foot Fred. Gretchen Wilson. The Muzik Mafia. An insane party, it was almost impossible to contain my excitement about this show. Their shtick is so preposterous but their charisma (and John Rich's raw talent) make it work. Big Kenny is a rock star. Plain and simple. This duo deserves respect. They sing about Saving Horses and Riding Cowboys, and then Big Kenny launches into a plea to end genocide in Darfur. Not in that order, but by the time his manifesto began they had me engrossed. Still, I'm afraid most people were far too drunk to catch any of it. I literally have 1/3 of a notebook full of notes about this show. It was wild. Hopefully I'll expand them into something eventually. Or you could just ask me to talk about it to you for about an hour. Who wants to talk about Big and Rich for an hour? Come on people.

- Carrie Underwood. She can sing. She can really sing. And she's gorgeous. I only caught a portion of this show, and from my lackluster vantage point, I couldn't really analyze it, but I think there is a reason for all those Grammy awards.

- Stars. Their new album is available from iTunes although it doesn't come out in physical form until Sept. 25. It's undergoing something of an analysis right now. I'm not sure if it can top Set Yourself on Fire, as the album was all I listened to for umm.. approximately two years. And that's not really an exaggeration.