Cyndi Lauper Show Review and... Bring on Vampire Weekend!!

Last month I gave y'all a little heads-up about Cyndi Lauper's show at the Fox, this month I am here to tell you what a good time it was (and reveal the VIP guests in attendance).  I am also going to give you the lowdown on the new Vampire Weekend CD, Modern Vampires of the City.  AND, BONUS... Vampire Weekend is coming to the Rialto this Fall!  Tickets go on sale tomorrow (June 28), and while I do not have a great track record with such predictions, I think the show will sell out.  Cyndi Lauper's show sold out (must have been my blog promoting the show, you're welcome Cyndi!).  Read on to hear about the Cyndi Lauper show and the Vampire Weekend CD and show details...

Pretty Cool, and...Meh. Or: Pat Benatar and Cheap Trick

Hi boys and girls--

I went to the Pat Benatar and Cheap Trick show at AVA on June 16. I had been wanting to see Pat Benatar for years and finally got my chance. A big reason I loved Pat Benatar when I was a kid was that she was a woman singing in a more male-sounding style of music. She sounded so strong, so confident, and so cool, and I thought, "Wow. I wanna be her!" I still remember when Hit Me With Your

Best Shot came out and I just thought it was the greatest song. Here's the funny thing:  Benatar was the opening act for Cheap Trick, and I think most people (myself included) thought it would be the other way around. Benatar walked out onstage and opened with All Fired Up, one of her later hits. Her guitar player (who is also her husband), Neil Giraldo (also known as Spyder) had some really great looking guitars and I really liked his sound. She performed Hit Me With Your Best Shot (of course) and the crowd really got into it. Other songs she performed included Love Is A Battlefield, We Belong, Promises In The Dark, and Hell Is For Children. If you're not familiar with this song, it's a song she wrote nearly thirty years ago about child abuse. As she explained to the crowd, "We will continue to perform this song at every show we do until every child is safe." I had tears in my eyes and chills down my spine while they played this one.

As Benatar's set came to a close, I started to panic. She hadn't done the ONE song I really wanted to hear....

The Show I'll Never Forget:

Last year I came across this wonderful book while I working at the Golf Links Library. This is must reading for any type of music buff as it covers nearly every genre of music. There is nothing better than talking with someone about the music they love and why they love it. Usually, when I hear a fresh perspective through heartfelt and organic words regarding a particular musician, I find myself eager to learn more about that artist. I often ask friends what was the best show they ever attended. This single question often blossoms into some of the finest discussions I've shared with friends. Just listening to someone talk about a great live act they once saw is almost like seeing the show for yourself because the person talking always describes everything so vividly with fondness. "The Show I'll Never Forget" is a collection of such descriptions. Please continue reading to learn more.

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

While you're up all night dancing to Daft Punk's single "Get Lucky," please note that the full CD is available for immediate download through the library's Freegal database. Since Random Access Memories' May 20th release, the album has been in constant rotation on my iTunes playlist. I spent a long time digesting the album, a far cry from the other electronic dance music I've consumed this past year (Burial's ghostly dubstep / Kaskade's dance-floor beats). My final opinion: Random Access Memories is a stellar album, a superb mixing of disco, electronic, off-Broadway, and funk. I can see how fans yearning for the rush of Alive 2007 might find R.A.M. shocking in its pacing, but I encourage you to explore Daft Punk's latest for yourself. Here is a simple guide to the tracks to get you started:

Who is Daft Punk - In 1999, a freak studio accident turned Frenchmen Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter into robots bent on making the world dance.

1. Give Life Back to Music - I love this funky opening track. Daft Punk's signature robot vocals, "Let the music in tonight/Just turn on the music" showcase their passion for making timeless music.

2. The Game of Love - Bubbly synth-pop song with sugary sweet lyrics. It straddles a strange line between "too fast for background music" and "too slow to dance to."

3. Giorgio by Moroder - This nine minute epic gives Daft Punk a chance both to pay homage to producer Giorgio Moroder (a pioneer of dance and pop music that worked on the Top Gun soundtrack) by using interview clips as the foundation for the song, while expanding on his influence with electrifying beats on their own.

Video Game Delights

Want to hear a joke?

What fabric are Mario's overalls made of?
Denim denim denim.

It's not so funny when written down. The trick of this joke is that the punchline is sung to the tune of the background music in the underground level of the Super Mario Brothers video game. To people who (like me) grew up playing video games and hearing the music of these games this joke is somewhat hilarious. To those who aren't familiar with it.... maybe not.

Original video game soundtracks, like movie soundtracks, seem to be of growing interest to a certain group of people (myself included!). As video games begin to earnestly take their place in social and cultural consciousness they are also beginning to receive mainstream treatment.

Psychedelic Furs on June 6

Have you ever purchased tickets to see a band that you haven't listened to in 10, 20, even 30 years? For me there is always a mix of emotions. If you want to know all about the Psychedelic Furs' history, read Gene Armstrong's article in last week's Tucson Weekly. I'm just going to talk about feelings.