A Rubber Door

Just picked up David Mead’s Wherever You Are from eMusic and I have to say that it is automatically one of my favorite releases this year. Apparently it was recorded years ago and sounds a lot like songs from Mine and Yours (RCA 2001) which I liked better than his last release Indiana (Nettwerk 2004).

The first single from Michael Penn’s new cd Mr. Hollywood Jr. 1947 was released to radio last week and was the most added song on AAA radio. If you want to listen to it, just go to Michael’s Myspace Page where it can be downloaded free and legal.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Michael’s music, listen to some samples on iTunes with the Best of Michael Penn.

Well everyone I’ll be here in Conshohocken about 15 minutes from Live 8 and here is where I’ll stay. 1 million people on the Parkway? God help us - I actually would like to go to experience mass chaos, but then again…does this mean I’m getting old?

So I went and saw Sleater-Kinney here in Philly at the Troc last Friday; it was packed. My wonder is do all these people listen to the radio? Is there no market here? Sleater-Kinney has no room for play on the Philadelphia airwaves and it’s a shame.

I saw Star Wars Episode III this weekend and now believe that this is the second worst trilogy of all time (Blade reserves a special spot for 1st). It’s hard to be a bad trilogy, someone has to allow you to spend their money two more times after the first debacle - of course being that George Lucas is spending George Lucas’ money, that sort of explains things. It’s not that episode III is horrible; the last half of the movie is actually pretty entertaining. It just didn’t do enough to make me forget that I had to sit through the first two movies to get there. Add to that the amazingly bad dialogue (why are all of Lucas’ proper nouns so ridiculous sounding? You get great lines such as “I sense Dooku” or “Hold me like you did by the lakes of Naboo”). The unintentional humor from the writing is CSI Miami-like.

I’ve created a best of Michael Penn or a Michael Penn primer on iTunes. It can be found by clicking the following link : Best of Michael Penn

If you would like to hear the new cd on a stream, click the following link: Mr. Hollywood Jr. 1947

Alright here are my thoughts on the cd’s I’ve been listening to this month….

The best of the month

1. The Woods - Sleater-Kinney - Click Here for a review I wrote earlier this month
2. Patience and Silence - Adam Richman (found on eMusic). This is a great power pop cd. I felt a little dissappointed in the Jim Boggia and Brendan Benson efforts, but Richman’s cd does best what those cd’s couldn’t.
3. X&Y - Coldplay - It generally takes me awhile with their cds and this one is no different. The reviews have varied wildly. I guess my inital thoughts is that it sounds like a Coldplay cd - which is good and bad. The cd is insanely listenable - great tunes like “Fix Me”, “Square One”, and “Speed of Sound” are classic Coldplay. But there are so many bands doing the Coldplay thing right now - even the standard bearer can sound a bit stale. I think this is why bands such as Radiohead with Kid A and Amnesiac, U2 with Zooropa and Pop, and REM with Monster have at times changed their sound dramatically at times - in order to leave the followers behind.

Dissappointment of the month…

• Blinking Lights and Other Revelations - Eels. I didn’t like this album when Beck did it with Sea Change. (found on eMusic)

Jury still out on…

1. Face the Truth - Stephen Malkmus (found on eMusic)
2. Man-Made - Teenage Fanclub (found on eMusic)
3. Don’t Believe the Truth - Oasis

So I just drove to Pittsburgh and #1 - Michael was amazing as always. He did a taping of World Café that will air on July 14th. The show was intersperced with interviews by World Cafe host, David Dye. #2 - Pittsburgh is a gorgeous city. It’s a shame that people don’t walk around the city much - most of the people seem to live in the suburbs.

Here are a few pics from the weekend. (Sorry - my camera is pretty much crap.)

Michael lounging prior to the World Café taping 6/17/05 - The Andy Warhol Museum.

Michael gratiously gives an autograph

Michael with Pennlisters Lance and Jamie

Keyboardist David Palmer checking out the audience

Michael on stage Saturday in Pittsburgh