Ray LaMontagne Hollywood Bowl 8/12/2009

When ray LaMontagne takes the stage something happens. The room draws silent whether it be a small coffee shop or the Hollywood Bowl. His bearded almost frail appearance in the middle back of the stage screams someone who tries to avoid attention the beard acting as a mask to hide him away from the world. If it were a social gathering he'd be in the corner with a drink and a hard pack of cigarettes holding up a wall and he would appear to be brooding. The reality is that he's thinking and ever writing and constantly creating in this world where his songs bellow from his lips like the soul of a thousand tortured troubadours trying to find solace in the bottom of a bourbon.

When Ray sings people not only listen, they feel they feel the pain that comes behind every raspy note and identify.

"Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born…"

"The very things that make you live are killing you"

This is so far beyond that it evokes images whether they be your first heartbreak or the day where everything goes wrong or a deeper love for someone you can't have or love come and gone. It's all magnified by Ray LaMontagne's soulful power which the LA Philharmonic orchestra was able to round out behind Ray expertly.

Despite a small microphone snag in the beginning the set rolled on as Ray made the crowd his. Trouble was especially wonderful as he went off and told us more about the woman who has saved him. You could feel every single note through the music though his voice and through the Bowl itself. It became the church of ray and we were all saved for one evening.

Jenny Lewis and Blitzen Trapper brought it to the stage and were wonderfully entertaining, but the night clearly belonged to Ray LaMontagne as he and the orchestra gave the music lovers in attendance a set which won't soon be forgotten.

There's something undeniable about the power of the sung word. Writers get kudos for their mastery of weaving the languages into tapestries and beautiful mosaics of language. Hemingway, Shakespeare, Salinger the list goes on while the musician gets credit for a good beat. There are few poets in the music world who get credit for their words. Bob Dylan comes to mind, and for me so does Ray LaMontagne.

Giving it a Whirl

So it's been long times once again. For me to be without all of you my friends. But I always come back I just don't know when and I told we'd all meet up again.

Drop the lights and pour the wine, everybody's feeling fine. Drums beat a little behind
not out of time but in the groove its fine.

Floating left and floating right, everybody's feeling good tonight. Band is locked in music's tight.
men in blue with little flash lights.

But they don't see whats going round. Get so high when you kneel down. Looking over you feel the sound, the groove takes you up n down town.

Intermission second set coming in on a music jet. Time to take off don't want to go yet got time for just one more oh yea

Wining down the crowd is in. Show's over but its ready to begin. A few saints a lot of sin the air around is sweet like gin.

The lights go up time go go. Everyone is floating home. bouncing round then we start to roam. Don't know whats in store.

Nights over time for bed. Images swirl in my head. Hit the pillow feeling dead. The Dark Star made it happen again.


I'm not normally a poetic waxer it just flowed and I went with it. Enjoy. There will be more to come.

Dev 2.0

The apocalypse is nigh!!!!

Dev 2.0 exists.

Let me explain for those who are uninformed. Take Devo and have them get fucked by barney the purple dinosaur with a dash of the mickey Mouse Club and there you have it Dev2.0.

your favorite Devo hits from the 80's redone by two 12 year olds.

The video for "whip it" features icing and whisks.

The cyanide pill looks like a better option every day.

the music industry is completely soulless and will do anything to make money.

This is no revelation, however the fact that the industry refuses to develop the product which allows it to thrive completely blows my mind.

It had a recipe for success and decided that the enormous sums of money they make weren't enough.

Greed killed music. Greed will eventually kill anything.

Call it what you want "overexpansion globalization whatever"

its all greed.

Enron

Haliburton

Tyco

Warner Music

Universal Music

Disney

the list goes on and on and on.....

it just sickens me as someone who truly has a love affair with music. I associate poignant moments of my life with music. What songs go with what?

none of your fucking business.

I can't wait for all the 2.0 bands to come out (as the skies rip open with demons and wildebeests and our eternal souls melt into a block of smoldering humanity)

the Do2.0rs
M2.0torhead
M2.0tley Crue (though they kind of already are)
The Beatles 2.0
M2.0rresey (with 25% more androgyny)

the list goes on.

Riddle me this: How could something that pretends to be so nice and good and child driven like Disney be the most soulless entity on the planet.

Go listen to the classics. This planet of music is drying up fast.

Super Bowl Sunday

Greetings fellow football fans!

I figure the whole United states is loosening our collective top button of our jeans for the first unofficial holday of the New Year: Super Bowl Sunday.

I love me some super bowl. Funny commercials, lots of snack foods and reckless abandonment for ones liver.

And hey in case that wasn' enough for you the Stones are playing halftime.

I have to admit since the whole titty thing the Super Bowl halftime show has become dare I say something people watch?

Truth is I was on a beer run and missed the titty. Now there are 2 things wrong with this:

1) I love me some ladies and their breasts
2) I don't drink beer.

I did however catch all the replays, screenshots, slow motion captures ET al of Janet's right boob floating in hyperspace.

Personally I think it's much less of a big deal to see a breast than deplorable violence and the decay of civilization on the news but that's not where I'm going with this...

Paul McCartney last year brought it on the world stage of the Super Bowl. his set was dare I say pretty good (if you took away all of the bullshit floating around him). A single spotlight on him and a piano would have been minimalist, innovative and captivating.

but I live in the land of over the top so it's not a halftime show with out explosions and pomp and circumstance.

Anyway I doubt the Stones with play anything I really want to hear. I doubt highly the "Emotional Rescue" "Miss You".

Lets see if I can predict what they will play...

I go with "Start Me Up" to lead off. No brainer, big hit bla bla bla. they sold it to Microsoft the songs soul has been forever decimated since then. Big friggin deal.

They'll probably do some sort of Disney-esque medley. Nothing worse that one song with 8 lines of 8 songs you really like but not enough to keep you happy. Like finding a fry on the floor of your car. Sure it was good, but now its cold and alone.

So after all of this I realize one thing. I'm going on a beer run at halftime.

Enjoy the game.

It's Been A Long Time

Yes its true. It has been a long time. I shouldn't have left you without a dope rhyme to step to. I hope you all are doing fine in '06. Crazy world we're in. You can do everything from everywhere in the country but leave the US and it's 1960 around the world. The drop of is huge between the 1st and 3rd world. Think about the t term "Third World" it makes it sound like its not as good as the 1st world. Like it's some backup world sitting on the bench of the cosmos. It dresses for the games but doesn't really expect to get any playing time. That's how we pay it at least. So when you can't get cell service think of the people of the world who can't get power or medicines or food.

God Bless America and it's supreme holy warrior Bush.

I'm not coming out against the man, I'm not coming out for the man either. He's just indicative of the country we're in. He is the captain of a ship where more teenagers look to American Idol for their dreams than read their books. Tangible dreams aren't cool apparently. I guess it's not as glam to wish to make a small dent in the world than a large crater. I get it, I'm just saying that it's always good to have something else in case Simon Cowell thinks you suck. If we focus don education as much as we focus on entertainment we'd be better off.

So I bet in person GW is a hell of a guy. I bet he's the life of the party. I'd like to sit down and have a drink with him and I bet we'd hit it off pretty well. I think that's how he got the job.

I'm off on a tangent. I think I'll stop for now.

Peace Little cowboys and cowgirls.

Long live rock n roll

Wish You Would Tour

Gonzo here, yea it's been a while but I just hadn't had anything to say until now. First off let me talk about Live 8. Incredible show with a gaggle of incredible music artists. I am not sure how much this will effect the G8 but when Bob Geldof throws a party it is pretty evident that the whole world shows up. It is quite impressive that they were able to pull of such big shows at the same time all over the world and even though the African Artist leg was promoted by Peter Gabriel kudos all around for a quite impressive show.

Now onto the whole reason I tuned in. Pink Floyd. Man thy sounded good, it's quite impressive when a band can reunite after 25 years and play 4 of their hits perfectly like they never missed a beat. They sounded excellent and actually looked to be having a GOOD time.

So why not tour? I hear they were offered $200 million to tour the US. Why Not? End this silly Pink Floyd feud and get over your fucking selves. Give the world what it wants for once and shelve your egos. Look at the Who or what they call the Who these days. It's half a Who that's not Who if you ask me. Time to stop the whole Who thing. Have some class guys. Zeppelin did it right they never toured again and that was out of respect to Bonzo. The one reunion show? Live Aid, but no subsequent tour. Now I know you're thinking, "Page and Plant toured" but they aren't going as Led Zeppelin when they easily could have. Nope they lost their glue and moved on. Take a note Pete...

This is neither here nor there for Pink Floyd. They’re all still alive! They can't say they won't tour out of respect to Syd because they toured after Syd left so there's no leg to stand on there. Just buy the hatchet and overcharge for tickets and let the world experience you again for what should be one final time. it would make a nice Swan Song to an icon of rock and roll.

Incidentally I was doing some math the other day now dig this: the Rose Bowl holds roughly 100000 people. Figure that Floyd would do 3 shows = 300,000 people. You with me so far?Like arenas and football stadiums probably hold a few less so lets say the average is 75,000 per show and they did 300 shows in a year (100 cities roughly 3 shows per city) which still gives them 65 days off for the year. So roughly 22.5 million people get to see Floyd Floyd makes $200 million for the tour (without merchandising points mind you) So the cost per person to get the band in there is roughly $9.00 a person. ($8.88 to be exact). Figure in the ret ad the price of effects stages, stagehands et al and there is now way you can tell me this ticket is going to be worth anything near $100. Man the Clear Channel dildo is going to ream me once again as they do with all shows (not to mention Tickbastard and their convenience fee). if there were an inconvenient way to order tickets and waive the fee think we'd all do it.

Anyway this is all moot since David Gilmore announced that Floyd would not reunite for a reunion. Just can't check the egos at the door.

Shameless PLug

Hi All:

Gonze needs to go the way of the Canyonero here for a minute. Actually i think people might appreciate this once the take a look. I've been working for an internet radio station for a few months now and feel the world should at least give it a look. the url is:

www.pulsenow.com

We promote unsigned artists and independent bands who aren't with the major labels (screw those greedy bastards) and we give them a web page and play their music all across the US and Europe and we give it t the bands for free! yes 100% free no strings no nothing. You send in your music you get a web page. it's that easy. Give it a look. It doesn't cost anything to look and who knows you might even LIKE it.

Let me continue on to expalin to the world why I am starting to hate the current state of the music industry. t's the same reason I hate the airline industry. It's pretty friggin obvious that both are failing and what is the reason? beacause people get what you do cheaper and in some cases for free. Jet Blue got it right, they believe in CUSTOMER service. It is COMPLETE BS to make people purchase food on a plane. that's just f'ed up. The food is sucky but you are a captive audience.

The same thing aplies to the music business. Wah wah peopl are copying our music. Wah Wah we can get $20 for a CD anymore. Smarten up. Clearly your consumer did. Instead of fighting it embrace the change. Make your music readily available electronically. You don't need a distributor whn you have a good server. The bottom line is this poeple WON'T pay more than $9.99 for a CD. Period. It's what they should cost. Lord knows they only cost a dollar or 2 to produce. I am sorry that a 500% markup isn't enough to fill your grasy pig pockets and you can't have a 5th car or 3rd house. F you and your blood money. Pay your fucking artists and share the wealth. There needs to be radical revolutionary change and it's coming soon..

you'll all see..