On January 23, 2012, UK Singer Rod Thomas, better known by his stage name Bright Light Bright Light performed at New York’s Cake Shop. If you’re not familiar with Bright Lightx2′s music, Rod Thomas’ voice is extremely soulful over great electronic beats. New York was in for many treats last night as Bright Light Bright Light changed things up in the best possible way. Rather than perform electronically, the entire show was a solo piano performance, which Rod Thomas admitted was a fun challenge as he performed his upcoming new album in full. Many of the songs, he said, were being played for the first time. Also making the night extra special was a rare guest vocal appearance from his album collaborator, Del Marquis, from Scissor Sisters who sang on “Cry at Films.” The video is below. The venue is fairly dark for extra vibe, so please keep that in mind as you groove to Bright Lightx2 and Del Marquis! Bright Light Bright Light‘s album will be available in the Spring, but while you wait for that day, his singles “Love Part II” and “Disco Moment” are available now for legal download.
See the set list as well as a photo of my encounter with Rod Thomas after the jump.
On January 20, 2012, Alaska’s Portugal. The Man played a sold out show at the Brooklyn Bowl in New York. The show was a warm up gig for Portugal. The Man’s upcoming European tour and it rocked! If you are unfamiliar with their music, it’s psychedelic pop/rock (think MGMT meets Of Montreal – with less meandering). Trippy lighting accompanied the music and early into the set, covers of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and Bowie’s “All The Young Dudes” were played. The band also played the majority of songs from their 2011 album “In The Mountain In The Cloud.” Many of the songs were crowd sing-a-longs and it was fun watching everyone sing with lead singer John Gourley on tracks such as “So American” and “Sleep Forever.”
Portugal. The Man
Their career has been a slow build, but I think the world is finally starting to recognize the talents of Portugal. The Man and I expect to continue hearing bigger and better things from the Alaskan quartet. See the setlist after the jump.
Opinions are opinions obviously, but based on some of the ignorant comments I’ve heard in regards to the singer Lana Del Rey since her weekend appearance on the TV show Saturday Night Live that I’ve heard, I thought I’d offer my two cents about Lana Del Rey. I’m only saying these words as someone who sees HUNDREDS of live acts a year. That might not qualify me as an expert in live music, but I’ll tell you one thing – for some of the shitty things I’ve heard about Lana, I certainly did not see YOU at her show and I’ve certainly not seen YOU going and checking out live music night after night to expand your musical horizons and trust me, I’d remember!
Lana Del Rey became a Youtube sensation in 2011 and based on the strength of two viral videos, many doors have opened for her. She’s gotten international exposure by appearing on many TV programs and up until now, her performances have been pretty solid. She performed two songs on Saturday Night Live, a TV show that everyone seems to say “has lost its thunder years ago,” and yet everyone seems to watch it and complain about how bad it is. So anyone that falls into that bucket, which I’ll conservatively estimate as A LOT of you, deserves to have their words discredited as ALL of the people in that bucket DO NOT STAND BEHIND THEIR WORDS! If you don’t like something, DO NOT SUPPORT IT! Please don’t support it and then complain about how bad it is (that goes for awards shows and reality TV also). It’s a double standard and anyone with half a brain (such as myself) can see right through it! Don’t “watch” train wrecks – GET OUT AND HELP because one day YOU might be on that train!
Yes, Lana Del Rey’s appearance on the TV show was nowhere near as good as her videos and was disappointing, but suddenly, the same people that watched Lana’s videos and made her an internet sensation are doing everything in their power to tear her down. If you believe what you hear on the internet, there has never been anyone ever in the history of music as bad as Lana Del Rey! That makes NO sense! Before you utter another bad word about Lana, PLEASE remember that the world has allowed someone as talentless and tone deaf as Katy Perry to break records set by someone truly talented like Michael Jackson. Please remember that the world has allowed pop auto-tune and lipsynching icons such as Britney Spears and Rihanna to be hugely successful and sell out stadiums across the world! Let’s see them perform acoustically!? It will never happen because it will expose their lack of singing talent. It will prove that they are frauds and that the world is filled with idiots who are incapable of making decisions for themselves!
It’s been avoidable to hear reports that she bought her way into stardom or slept her way to get where she is. SO BE IT if any of that is indeed true. It sure worked for Madonna and look where she is now. We’re not going to get into Madonna’s preaching to the masses about destroying your ego while she maintains one of the largest egos on the planet either, because that’s a diatribe for another day. I’m not on Lana Del Rey’s payroll, but UNLIKE YOU at this point in the game, I’ve seen her perform a full set and I found her songs to be great. Certainly she’s not the best singer in the world, but she’s certainly not the worst either. I found myself intrigued to hear more, and I think that her recent performance was an off night instead of a lack of talent as the armchair critics of the world are condemning her for. Her album will be released at the end of the month and time will tell if the old adage that all publicity is good publicity is still true in 2012.
So with that in mind, revist a live performance of “Video Games” that I recorded from a small club show in December 2011.
On January 14, 2012, Portland’s Jeffrey Jerusalem performed at Mercury Lounge in Manhattan. As his solo career is filled with upbeat electronic music and flashing lights, there’s not much to say other than the fact that everyone in attendance was getting their groove on during his 45 minute set. What I’d like to add is that in addition to having great solo music, Jeffrey Jerusalem is also in the indie band Yacht and has made a bunch of great remixes for the likes of bands such as Penguin Prison. You can check out his solo music on Jeffrey Jerusalem’s Bandcamp page. He has a couple of albums as well as his new single “This Week” available for download, so get to clicking! From one Jeffrey to another, thanks for a fun winter night!
As if seeing Patti Smith performing on New Year’s Eve wasn’t enough, the goddess of Rock and Roll brought out her friend, Michael Stipe, the former lead singer of REM, to perform a special cover of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on December 31, 2011. It looked and sounded like this…
P.S. Sorry about the back of some guy’s head popping up throughout this video. I did the best I could
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