Category — Concert on the Blog

Welcome to the fourth concert on the blog. Get your lighters ready because here we go…

[For those who are new: Concert on the Blog Series is a weekly post highlighting a musical, theater, film, or comedy performance. It’s also a chance for viewers to communicate with the artists via the comment section on the post. In other words, it’s free publicity for artists and it’s free enjoyment for viewers — a win-win for all participants. Please click here to find out how you can have your performance featured.]

Melissa the Emcee: Beyond his work with One Ring Zero, Michael Hearst also writes his own music — both quirky pieces for ice cream trucks or unusual animals as well as movie music.  It’s the sort of music you want to listen to early in the evening so you can go out to dinner after the concert and talk about it over tapas.

Yes, he has really written new music for ice cream trucks.

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/01-Ice-Cream.mp3]

And then there is the ever fun “Meh.”

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Meh.mp3]

And isn’t this the most delightfully creepy movie music?  This first one is from The Good Mother.

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Waltz-For-A-Creepy-Hotel.mp3]

And this second, emotional piece is from House of Suh.

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/8-Rob-Intro.mp3]

And enjoy these 6-word memoirs:

More about Michael Hearst: “Michael Hearst is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer. Michael’s solo works include the albums Songs For Ice Cream Trucks and the forthcoming Songs For Unusual Creatures, the website Songs For Newsworthy News, and the soundtracks for the movies The House Of Suh and The Good Mother. As a writer, Michael’s work has appeared in such journals as McSweeney’s, The Lifted Brow, and Post Road. He hosts a podcast series with Rick Moody called 18:59 and is a producer for the website Cassette From My Ex.  Hearst has appeared on such shows as NPR’s Fresh Air, A+E’s Breakfast With The Arts, and NBC’s The Today Show.”

For those in love with the music (and please let him know in the comment section below), you can find him in many places on the Web:

• Website: http://www.michaelhearst.com/
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Hearst/133007470050315
• Twitter: twitter.com/michaelhearst

Now go mill about the lawn (fine, the comment section), hanging out with your fellow concert goers and chat about what you just heard and saw.

Welcome to the third concert on the blog. Get your lighters ready because here we go…

[For those who are new: Concert on the Blog Series is a weekly post highlighting a musical, theater, film, or comedy performance. It’s also a chance for viewers to communicate with the artists via the comment section on the post. In other words, it’s free publicity for artists and it’s free enjoyment for viewers — a win-win for all participants. Please click here to find out how you can have your performance featured.]

Melissa the Emcee: We’ve heard quirky and we’ve heard mind-expanding, but it’s time to focus on some good, old-fashioned folk rock.  This band is the embodiment of the outdoor, evening concert.  The sort where you throw a picnic blanket on the ground and lie around with old friends, listening to jeans-and-chucks rock-and-roll.

There’s a story behind the song: He wrote it in 1997 as a lonely, single guy living in Israel, and “I actually used it to propose to my then-girlfriend Beverly almost a decade later.  MKB had a gig at the music venue where Bev and I had our first date — a club called the Middle East in Cambridge MA.  She was there, along with a whole lot of friends and family, and when the time came, I hopped off the stage, got down on one knee, and sang the ‘Will you marry me?’ lyric.”

Seriously, hearing that, how can you not get goosebumps?

The beautiful, lilting “Maple Tree” by the Max Klau Band.

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/07-Maple-Tree.mp3]

The band is actually currently holding a contest that you can read about on their Facebook page.  They’ve launched the “Best Musical Proposal Story” competition.  Go send in any true stories of ways that someone used music to propose marriage, and whoever submits the most creative, moving, and romantic story will win a free CD.

More about the band: “In just over two years of playing the clubs of Boston, MKB has built an enthusiastic base of fans who appreciate great musicianship, quality songwriting and energetic live shows. Fans love their Dave Matthews Band Alternative/Folk via Van Morrison style. The band has a rare combination of catchy, intelligent hooks, soulful lyrics and musical sophistication that’s too good to pass up.”

For those in love with the music (and please let them know in the comment section below), you can find them in many places on the Web:

• Website: http://www.myspace.com/maxklauband.
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Max-Klau-Band/100607403926

Now go mill about the lawn (fine, the comment section), hanging out with your fellow concert goers and chat about what you just heard and saw.

Welcome to the second concert on the blog. Get your lighters ready because here we go…

[For those who are new: Concert on the Blog Series is a weekly post highlighting a musical, theater, film, or comedy performance. It’s also a chance for viewers to communicate with the artists via the comment section on the post. In other words, it’s free publicity for artists and it’s free enjoyment for viewers — a win-win for all participants. Please click here to find out how you can have your performance featured.]

Melissa the Emcee: A long time ago, this musician below gave me the excellent advice of standing on my head when I couldn’t make a decision; when it wasn’t clear what I should do or when I simply couldn’t see a solution at all.  His point was that standing on my head would literally change the way I saw my space (upside down) but it would also force me to get to an answer quickly lest all the blood leave my extremities and pool in my brain. (Does that actually happen?  I guess not since my blood isn’t currently residing solely in my ass when I’m sitting.)

Rather than stand on my head, which is currently an impossibility with my lack of balance, I can lie on the sofa, turn on Eric Oberthaler’s music, and find space to dream.  I liken his music to an instrumental lava lamp.  Like a free dive into sound.

Others describe the piece “Underglow” as “a dangling lure, an opening, a maw leading into the realm of form gone transparent” and “a smooth ride down a strange lane.”

Part 3 of the three-part “Underglow” (“…at that threshold where structure just begins to dissolve and metamorphose”).

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/eO-Underglow-03-Underglow-Three.mp3]

More about the musician: EO’s compositions have wound their way from the main stage at TED 2009 to the Boom, Bali Arts, and Burning Man Festivals.  He lives in the Berkeley hills, imagining what the “orchestra of the future” might sound like.  Other work includes ArcheDream for Humankind’s UV-Light Dance-Theater, Sweet Can Productions’ intimate circuses, Gamelan X’s world fusion chaostrophe, and Brass Menazeri’s Balkan Brass frenzy, among other delights.

For those in love with the music (and please let him know in the comment section below), you can find them in many places on the Web:

• Website: http://www.soundsliketree.com/.
• To purchase music: http://eomusic.bandcamp.com/.
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/eomusic.
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/xoeo.

Now go mill about the lawn (fine, the comment section), hanging out with your fellow concert goers and chat about what you just heard and saw.

Welcome to the first concert on the blog.  Get your lighters ready because here we go…

[For those who are new: Concert on the Blog Series (and the attached “performance lobby”) is a weekly post highlighting a musical, theater, film, or comedy performance. It’s also a chance for viewers to communicate with the artists via the comment section on the post. In other words, it’s free publicity for artists and it’s free enjoyment for viewers — a win-win for all participants.  Please click here to find out how you can have your performance featured.]

Melissa the Emcee: One Ring Zero is the brain-child of Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp.  Though their sound and record themes are completely unique, if I had to compare them to another band in order to prepare you, I would say they’re like an incredibly well-read They Might Be Giants.  Or the circus if the circus rocked out.  Or a musical Neil Gaiman.  Which actually isn’t that far a stretch since they are the band best known as being part of “lit rock” for their project, As Smart as We Are, setting the words of famous authors to music (samples from that album below).

For those who prefer their music straight no pictures…

Josh’s favourite is the one using the words of Jonathan Ames called “The Story Of The Hairy Call.”

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/17-The-Story-Of-The-Hairy-Call-2.mp3]

Probably my favourite song from that project is the one from Michael Chabon explaining why he can’t participate in the project:

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/15-MC.mp3]

There’s also the slow, creepy words of Neil Gaiman:

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/12-On-The-Wall-1.mp3]

But it’s not all author’s words. Their rewriting of Holst’s The Planets on its 100-year anniversary is a brilliant idea.  Here is Pluto:

[audio:https://www.stirrup-queens.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/12-Pluto.mp3]

For those who prefer to see what they’re hearing…

Michael Chabon:

Lemony Snicket (also known as Daniel Handler):

Venus:

For those in love with the band (and please let them know in the comment section below), you can find them in many places on the Web:

• Website:  www.oneringzero.com
• Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Ring-Zero/29957089340
• Twitter: twitter.com/oneringzero

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The performance lobby (right above the comment section where you can hang out and discuss the band and the artist of the day) is currently featuring the photography of a fellow blogger, Funny Little Pollywogs.

She started out snapping pictures around her city with a point and shoot camera.  When she inherited her Nikon DSLR camera from her grandfather, her photography hobby blossomed.  Her love for portrait photography developed as she witnessed the joy that it brings to others.  She specializes in maternity, babies, and family portraits.  She is a full time teacher and passionately enjoys blogging and her photography.  She is based in south-central PA and will travel to surrounding areas.

Not Just a Kiss

Now go mill about the lawn (fine, the comment section), hanging out with your fellow concert goers and chat about what you just heard and saw.

…Or in the case of what has already been scheduled, bliss out or laugh out… No, really are you?  Because y’all are awfully quiet about this idea.  I feel like I ran into the room and screamed, “let’s get ready to rumble” and everyone sort of turned to listen, so I know they heard, but just stared right at me.  Mouths straight.  Limbs unmoving.  Not really ready to rumble at all.  Though also not not-ready-to-rumble.  Sort of in rumble limbo.

So are you ready to rumble?  Or are you sort of like, “whoa, I’m not really ready to listen to music or see short films or encounter a comedy routine.  In fact, I don’t like performances at all.”

Or are you somewhere in the middle like me — I like to be exposed to new music, film, art, and such, and either I walk away wanting more or I feel like it was two minutes decently spent even if it didn’t resonate with me.  And I always like the idea of interacting with artists — even if it’s just to give them my opinion.  In other words, are you interested or dreading Concert on the Blog?

Do you sometimes wish that I had fewer bloggy ideas?  Trying to make sense of the quiet.

And to go about this backwards — what do you like to listen to?  What type of music or specific bands?  This will help me in doing outreach to bands and scheduling as well as perhaps introduce me to new paths.

Can you tell that I’m excited about this?  And the artists are excited.  So are you?  And what do you hope to hear?