Monday, November 23, 2009

Native style...


Hey folks! Cool weekend of music I got to experience. First up was Guitarist/Flute player Aaron White (Burning Sky/Sky Chasers/Blue Stone Project) at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Aaron was playing at the Heard as part of the 'NU: Native + You' series. Music, film, and exhibit openings. Aaron was kicked back in the museum's gift shop, playing whatever the spirit moved him, with a small variety of flutes and his guitar at hand. Aaron's headed for NYC to play a series of dates at the Lincoln Center.

Next, it was over to another part of the museum to see a Navajo band from New Mexico, the Plateros. A family trio led by 17 year old Levi Platero, this band is HOT! While their latest CD, "Hold On" is a bit slick and shows a heavy Los Lonely Boys influence (not that that's a bad thing), seeing them live really shows the wide variety of influences this band has. They played a bit of original material and spread out some covers, amongst them being a great rendition of "Voodoo Child", "Pride and Joy", and "Red House". But make no mistake; this was no Jimi/Srv clone/wannabe thing. The absolute high point of the show was an incredible version of "John Henry" (I gotta find out whose version of that they're doing... isn't that a Leadbelly song?). They just tore... it... up... It was the kinda song where you have no idea what they played after it because you're still stunned from the song before. I just felt so sorry for alla the people who didn't make it out there to see them. They played a club with a buncha other bands on Saturday. I hope there were a few more people in the seats for that one. I didn't make that show. Saturday, I took in a pow wow out on the Fort McDowell reservation. Cool tunes, good food, nice weather, great vibes. Not a bad weekend with my Native friends...
www.notimewarp.com

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Full Moon Rising Where the Wild Things Are


'Where the Wild Things Are' is the new release from Steve Vai. Not having seen the movie, I don't believe this is the soundtrack. Recorded at the State Theater in Minneapolis, this is being released on both CD and DVD. I got a hold of my copy of the CD last night but haven't had a chance to check it out. Look out for some tracks on the station coming soon...

I'm also checking out the new CD from Native artist Pura Fe, 'Full Moon Rising'. An interesting mix of Blues, Folk, Acoustic, and Native with even some hip-hop type vocals thrown in here and there, marks one of her most ambitious works to date. Some of the tracks (17 in all) draw back from her days with Ulali ("Mahk Jchi" makes it's third appearance on cd, also recorded for Robbie Robertson's 'Music for The Native Americans'). She revisits past works on all of her cd's, offering a different take of each song. Some don't quite hit the mark of the originals but mostly her remakes are quite refreshing. It looks like the first song from this CD to make it on to NOTIMEWARP RADIO will be 'Borders'. A real different piece of work for her, very lively and electric.

Also in the listening bag is the Beastie Boy's "Check Your Head". The Beasties have kinda grown on me like a fungus. I've always liked a few songs but not enough to chase down anything. I'll save that story for another time... www.notimewarp.com

Monday, November 16, 2009

There's more at the door...


The weekend saw the addition of 40 more new songs added to the NOTIMEWARP RADIO playlist including songs by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Earth Wind & Fire, Who, Blind Boys of Alabama, Blackfire, Junior Wells, King Crimson, Elvis Presley, Doobie Brothers, Clifton Chenier, David Bowie, James Brown, Indigenous, and a buncha more stuff. The playlist has been expanded to almost 21 hours of music, with more to come. The weekend also saw a number of listeners from around the world that usually don't hang out on the 'warp on the weekends. Most of the audience for internet radio comes from the 'cubicle crowd'; your workers lucky enough to work somewhere that lets them listen to music while they work. Hopefully these weekend people find their ways back this week, as well as you reading this blog! Free your mind and your ears will follow! www.notimewarp.com

Sunday, November 8, 2009

A little bit o' this and a little bit o' that...


After being a bit under the weather the last few days, I've been adding a little bit of this and that to the NOTIMEWARP universe..

First up, was a few more items scanned and posted to the NOTIMEWARP RADIO Flickr page. Included this time 'round are some concert souvenirs from a few Rolling Stones concerts I went to over the years. When possible, I try to snag a couple of whatever item, so I can have one for display and one to lock away for safe keeping. You could say to keep it in mint condition but, I'm not interested in selling anything, whatever it's worth. I was collecting before collecting became such a huge business. I don't think anything I've got is worth a tremendous amount of dough anyways... Nothing that's gonna put the grand kids through college anyway. Besides, I'm a fan. I like this stuff. www.flickr.com/photos/notimewarpradio/

I've also added 30 songs to the ol' lonely radio station. Tune in to hear Raconteurs, Stooges, Aerosmith, Latin Playboys, Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Howlin' Wolf, Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, and a whole gaggle of groovy tunes.

There hasn't really been a big flood of people passing through the sites but that's alright. The Flickr site's actually been doing pretty good. I got some cool stuff to check out. The station's been slow. It's that weird variety thing, I think. It'd do a whole lot better if I'd narrow it down to just Rock and Blues but, I like a lotta stuff that goes beyond that. This blog, geez, I got no idea if anybody reads this thing. I mean, how does anyone find it in the first place? That "next blog" thing at the top of the page is pretty random but ends up taking you to the same blogs over and over. You ever notice all the people who just talk about nothing? At least I'm talking about music but... Well, anyway, there's not really a way to see how many people have passed through either. No telling if anyone reads this or not. But, for those who may stumble across it, I try to keep it interesting enough.

Well, until next time...

Monday, November 2, 2009

Twice as nice



Oh, man, was this worth the hype! I got my copy of 'Double Down Live' last week and checked them out last weekend. First, I checked out the "Now" disc. Great shots, top notch music, cool edits and effects. Way cool. There is also an interview by a French media outlet with the band which I found disappointing. Same old questions, no new info for anyone who's followed the band for any length of time. Otherwise, I really liked the video. Yesterday, I let disc one fly. What a incredible show! With the rest of the sound filled out and something to lay the eyes on, it put my bootleg to shame! It looks like this was the complete show as well (which, even at 2 CD's, the boot didn't completely capture). Having first seen the band live in 1994, I'd never seen them with all that energy before! Billy G. is almost non-stop bouncing and running all over the place. The craziest part of this show was that they didn't hit the stage until 4a! At one point, you see them going backstage and passing a clock reading 5:35! If you think about it, that is about 11:35p Texas time (-ish) so, as long as they hadn't readjusted the ol' body clocks, they were already physically there for it. This is a great pick up if you're a ZZ fan. Not a bad place to start either...

Monday, October 26, 2009

Wiser time

Wow! Another great show by the Black Crowes (10/22/09)! They came out and cruised through "Good Morning Captain" and followed that with a few singles from the past. They played about 3 or 4 songs from the new album and weaved in and out of their past catalog. It's the first show I can remember where all 3 of my favorite Crowes songs ("Wiser Time", "Thorn in My Pride", and "Jealous Again") were all performed. "Wiser Time" was the absolute high point of the show, with an absolutely searing guitar duel between Rich Robinson and Luther Dickinson. The show was another one of those mini-State Fair sets, only an hour long but for $15 (plus fair admission), it was a killer deal for a Thursday night.

There's all kinds of new stuff added to the playlist since I posted here. As of this Thursday, I'll be able to expand my playlist to almost twice it's size (although I won't do that all at once...) so look for all kindsa sounds to be comin' atcha! Again, feel free to suggest anything you'd like to hear and I'll see if I can accommodate ya.
I hope to be getting some more pics up on the Flickr page too so, keep an eyeball peeled over there for some cool sights to go witcha sounds on the NOTIMEWARP network of media! (I need a catchy name for that...). So, until next time, keep it low down and funky and don't stop groovin'! http://www.notimewarp.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/notimewarpradio/

Monday, October 19, 2009

It's all good!


Ok, he didn't play that, but there were a few tunes from his latest "Together Through Life" that he played last Saturday at his show at the AZ State Fair. He came out with 'Cats in the Well' and followed that up with 'Lay Lady Lay' and 'Beyond Here Lies Nothin' '. Highlights included an unreal version of 'Highway 61 Revisited' (my fave of the night), 'Thunder on the Mountain', and 'Ballad of a Thin Man'. He came out for an encore of a trio of songs, 'Like a Rolling Stone', Jolene' and a ridiculous 'All Along the Watchtower'. All in all, a really good show. He didn't talk to the audience except for introducing his band towards the end of the show. I was also surprised there weren't any video screens on the sides of the stage, usually a staple at a show deez days but, it was cool. We had reasonably good seats anyways. I was also a short set (about 80-90 minutes)but they do that for shows at the fair. But when you consider the ticket price was only $20 (you also had to pay to get into the fair), I think we got our money's worth.