My smorgasboard of music

This year continues to be one full of music:

Last night I saw The Bad Plus at Ted Mann; last Thursday was Vasen at the Cedar Cultural Center; and we just got our pre-sale tickets to Ray LaMontagne at the Orpheum - 5th Row, albeit side aisle.

I am finally getting to see all of these bands that I have been wanting to check out since I first heard them: the Pixies a couple years ago; Alice In Chains and the Black Crowes this summer.

After the Ray La Montagne show, there will only be a few left.

Give me Iron and Wine, and somehow ressurect John Bonham so I can see Zeppelin, Shannon Hoon so I can see Blind Melon, and Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane and I will die musically fulfilled. Until then, I have to keep on listening.


Luckily this week there have been a ton of new releases I am looking forward to listening to:
Beck you know Beck
The Decemberists Portland-area whale-ship dreamers
Amos Lee soulful singer-songwriter
The Album Leaf quiet spacy intrumental
and check out this band, Rodrigo y Gabriela.
They are, as the links states, former thrashers doing modern flamenco.

Just yesterday, though, I decided it is time for me to be more familiar with older (and I mean oleder) music, so I am going to start listeing to "classical" in hopes that I will be able to separate the greats in my head.

After that, the Bad Plus has inspired me to learn more about jazz, an area in which my knowledge is severely lacking. I know the names, but with only a few of them do I really know the music. And I need to know who played bass on Ole Coltrane - still my favorite jazz piece so far.