Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Live 8 - Philly vs. London

Well Live 8 is on it's way here to Philly and what do I have to say?

What's on TV that night?

You think I'm joking? Here's a rundown the Philly show:

Bon Jovi, Maroon 5, P Diddy, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, the Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, Rob Thomas, Keith Urban, 50 Cent, and Kaiser Chiefs

Respectable - Jay-Z and 50 Cent are at the top of hip-op. DMB? Fratboys of the world rejoice! But let's take a look at London:

Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Dido, Keane, Elton John, Annie Lennox, Madonna, Muse, Scissor Sisters, Paul McCartney, Joss Stone, Stereophonics, Sting, Robbie Williams, U2, R.E.M., Velvet Revolver, Bob Geldof, the Killers, The Cure, Snow Patrol.

They have 6 icons in their line-up and that's not even including Coldplay who after their next cd probably should be included. Their line-up more than makes up for Mariah Carey being there. (Jesus, how'd she get into that lineup anyway? I feel sorry for those brits...oh wait, U2 and Coldplay on the same bill - nevermind.)

Honestly - the second rate London acts by themselves make a better show than we have here - how much would you pay for Muse, Scissor Sisters, Stereophonics, The Killers, and Snow Patrol on the same bill?

I live in Philly and I won't go see our show for free.

Audioscrobbler

I have to recommend this plug-in called Audioscrobbler - here's the description from their site:

Audioscrobbler builds a profile of your musical taste using a plugin for your media player (Winamp, iTunes, XMMS etc..). Plugins send the name of every song you play to the Audioscrobbler server, which updates your musical profile with the new song. Every person with a plugin has their own page on this site which shows their listening statistics. The system automatically matches you to people with a similar music taste, and generates personalised recommendations.

Click here for Audioscrobbler

Click here for Spencer's Audioscrobbler page

June 2005 New Music

Back from vacation. I must recommend North Carolina's Outer Banks before the summer season starts - no crowds.

Getting a jump start on the next month. Waiting impatiently for Coldplay's disc which Paste Magazine gave 5 out of 5 stars.

Adam Richman - Patience And Science (2005)
Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations (2005)
Gay Dad - Transmission (2001)
Lush - Cíao 1989-1996 (2001)
P.J. Harvey - Uh Huh Her (2004)
P.J. Harvey - Dry (1992)
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (2005)
Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth (2005)

As always, not all from 2005, but all are new to me. Coming soon, reviews from May and my "What the fuck was I thinking list."

BTW - add these to my May list

The Go Betweens - Oceans Apart
Sugar - Copper Blue

Friday, May 20, 2005

THE POINT TO CLOSE BRYN MAWR LOCATION

OK - this is getting fucking ridiculous. First we lose Y100 and now the Point? What is wronhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifg with this city.

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THE POINT TO CLOSE BRYN MAWR LOCATION

After almost 7 years The Point will be leaving Bryn Mawr for a new location. Thanks to all of you, it has been an amazing run with over 1450 shows and 140,000 tickets sold. We have become a nationally known venue that has developed the reputation as one of the top listening rooms in the country. A room artists can come and develop their career in front of an attentive, appreciative audience, again, thanks to all of you.

After months of negotiating with our landlord, we were unable to reach a new lease agreement. We had planned to make a considerable investment in upgrading the kitchen (enabling us to have a more extensive menu), adding a liquor license (serving wine by the glass, micro brews, martini’s and the like), and sprucing up the place. We would continue to do all ages shows for our early shows, with the late shows being 21 & older.

After giving a preliminary approval, the landlord began having concerns of how our having a liquor license would negatively impact the neighborhood. Even with our assurances that we were not going to change what had made The Point successful, and that we have always strived to make positive contributions to the community, we were unable to agree on a lease term that would justify the kind of financial commitment we intended to make.

It is really unfortunate, we would have liked to remain at our current location. I believe that we brought a lot to the community and our plans would have had a positive impact on the future growth of Bryn Mawr. We are truly saddened to be leaving.

We are aggressively searching for a new location. We have a few things we’re looking at and are open to any location ideas any of you may have. We will continue to do shows at The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, as well as producing outdoor events like Eagleview Concerts on the Square, co-production of the Sundown Music Series (with our friends at Jack Utsick Presents NE, Inc.) and the Philadelphia Weekly Concert Series. In addition we will be looking at utilizing other venues in the area to produce shows for our regular artists.

It is our intent to have the month of June be a great celebration of our years in Bryn Mawr. Matt Nathanson, an artist that first played here as an opening act in 2002, will be recording a live album during his 4 sold out shows here June 15, 16 & 17. The fastest sellouts ever at The Point (8 minutes). We have visits from old friends like Dan Bern, Last Train Home, Common Rotation and Slaid Cleaves; we will have shows with artists who are far bigger than The Point like Duncan Sheik and Eddie From Ohio; and we will take one last step in helping develop the careers of newer acts that we think will be headliners soon like Charlotte Martin, Joel Plaskett, Todd Martin and Eric Hutchinson. Our complete June schedule is listed below.

Our final show at our present location will be Jim Boggia on June 25th. I can’t think of anybody else I’d rather have for our final show. Jim, he has called the Point “home” for over 40 shows in the past 6 ½ years. He is truly part of The Point family and we’re all huge fans.

For nostalgia’s sake, just a partial listing of some of the performers who have graced our stage (in no particular order):

Norah Jones, Howie Day, Vanessa Carlton, The Duhks, Amos Lee, Tegan & Sara, Erin McKeown, Ween, Michael Penn, Lisa Loeb, Allan Holdsworth, Five for Fighting, Sam Phillips, Michelle Shocked, Jim Capaldi, Al Kooper, Tim Reynolds, Sophie B Hawkins, Rhett Miller, Al Stewart, Kinky Friedman, Tommy Emmanuel, Jane Siberry, Loudon Wainwright, Silvertide, Evan Dando, Juliana Hatfield, Moxy Fruvous, Shawn Mullins, Del McCoury, Janis Ian, Richie Havens, Dan Hicks, Karla Bonoff, Julie Gold, Danny O’Keefe, Maria Muldaur, Barrere & Tackett, Steve Forbert, Dave Edmunds, Jonathan Edwards, Country Joe McDonald, Tom Rush, Eric Andersen, Graham Parker, Richard Shindell, Susan Werner, Jeffrey Gaines, Dan Bern, Jules Shear, The Nields, The Kennedys, Marshall Crenshaw, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Garth Hudson, Jesse Colin Young, Geoff Muldaur, Kathleen Edwards, Sarah Harmer, Ollabelle, Jesse Sykes, Kasey Chambers, Martha Wainwright, Xavier Rudd, Vienna Teng, Nellie McKay, Johnny A, Rachael Yamagata, eastmountainsouth, Andy Stochansky, State Radio, Braddigan, The Avett Brothers, Phil Roy, Ari Hest, The Be Good Tanyas, Ed Harcourt, Angel Band, Feist, AJ Croce, Gary Jules, Alexi Murdoch, Ben Taylor Band, Sally Taylor, Matt Nathanson, David Berkeley, Ryan Montbleau, Rockwell Church and Stephen Kellogg, 4 Way Street, Ben Arnold, Stargazer Lily, Pepper’s Ghost, John Francis, The Brakes, The Builders, Pawnshop Roses, Seth Kallen, Lelia Broussard, Kate Gaffney, Vanida Gail, Joseph Parsons, Song Circle feat: Amber deLaurentis - Christine Havrilla - Nancy Falkow & Colleen McFarland, Transistor Rodeo and Lauren Hart

Cinderella Man

Hey - I just saw this movie and if you're a sports fan, you must see. It's a great story - well filmed, great acting (although Renée Zellweger is kind of a waste in this role). The fight scenes are awesome (don't recommend sitting in the first row). It's amazing that the Ali/Foreman story is really an old one.

Cinderella Man Trailer

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Sites I can waste an afternoon on

...and have

Web Economy Bullshit Generator

Spamusement - Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines. Awesome.

Windows - GRRRR

There is no computer experience worse than windows when all your preferences and settings have been lost.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Michael Penn on Myspace

Looks like Michael Penn created a Myspace page. You can listen to Walter Reed - his new song from Mr. Hollywood Jr. 1947 there.

Michael Penn's Myspace Page

Great Internet Radio Station (Y100 Reborn)

For those of you who miss Y100 here in Philadelphia - you should try out their new internet radio station that the former dj's put together and run in former Y100 GM's basement. It's as if a huge weight has been lifted off of their shoulders and now they don't have to play shit anymore. They've been playing a lot of bands you might not hear on the radio. You can listen through iTunes (recommended) or access it here Y100Rocks Radio

Friday, May 13, 2005

Brini Maxwell

OK - if you get a chance, you've got to catch the Brini Maxwell show. The only way I can describe it is as a cross dressing and kitchy Martha Stewart. This is what the extra 100 channels you get with cable is for.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

May 2005 new music

Oooh - my first blog. Here's what my ipod prefers in May 2005

Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
Jim Boggia - Safe in Sound
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Spoon - Give Me Fiction
The Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart
Weezer - Make Believe

Yeah I know, the Cardigans and the Stills cds are not new - but they're new to me. This is going to be a great summer for music - Coldplay and Sleater-Kinney in the next few weeks. Michael Penn's Mr. Hollywood Jr. 1947 on August 2nd. I can't wait to see Wilco and Sleater-Kinney in June.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Simply Amazing

The Amazing Race this past week was simply Amazing. I actually jumped up and yelled when Uchenna and Joyce crossed the finish line. Last race I was so bummed when Kris and John came in second. This race Uchenna and Joyce were even more likable. To make it better, the beat down the evil Romber (Rob and Amber from Survivor). Hopefully this will get more people watching the best of reality shows.