Steve Howe Trio Sage Gateshead Mon 8 March

Steve Howe Trio Sage Gateshead Mon 8 March
Will and I went to see the Steve Howe Trio at the Sage on Monday. Laura and her friends were in Hall One watching Grizzly Bear (must admit I didn’t know who they were) while we were in Hall Two. Steve’s Trio consists of himself on (of course) guitar, his son on drums and a fine keyboard player. He opened the first set with a jazzy version of He Ain’t Heavy which was rather appropriate as I had been to see the Hollies two days before. The rest of the set, which was in two halfs, consisted of instrumental versions of Yes classics and some jazzz pieces. Steve is undoubtedly a fine guitarist, but I found the material a little tow jazz-oriented for my liking. Highlight for me was a great version of Heart of the Sunrise.

ticket

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The sound of Settling - Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie is an American indie rock band, formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Benjamin Gibbard (vocals, guitar), Chris Walla (guitar, production), Nick Harmer (bass) and Jason McGerr (drums). Gibbard took the band name from the title of the song written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and performed by their group, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, in The Beatles‘ 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour.

Gibbard’s first album, You Can Play These Songs with Chords, was released as a demo, leading to a record deal with Barsuk Records.It was at this time that Gibbard decided to expand the project into a complete band, and recruited band members to join. The band has released six studio albums, five EPs, and one demo to date. Their most recent album, Narrow Stairs, was released in May 2008.

Members:

Ben Gibbard
Chris Walla
Nick Harmer
Jason McGerr

Discography:

• You Can Play These Songs With Chords (1997)
• Something About Airplanes (1998)
• We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes (2000)
• The Photo Album (2001)
• Transatlanticism (2003)
• Plans (2005)
• Narrow Stairs (2008)

Website:

http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/

Featured: Meet me on the Equinox – from the New Moon OST

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Lady Gaga ft Beyonce: Telephone

Another day in Pop, Another music video that has no real link to its song lyrics…

When Lady Gaga wrote ‘Telephone’ I highly doubt that this was the video she had in mind. However, a video like this guarantees headlines and blog posts like this.

I don’t know about you, but watching Lady Gaga naked is not my cup of tea. B doesn’t look as bad but that has to be the worst dance she has ever participated in. I expect more from her but everybody makes mistakes! We forgive you, B!

[Via http://misslolomarie.wordpress.com]

Religion - 1

Part One – Realisation

A few years ago, I decided that I was an atheist. I say decided, it’s more like I realised because that’s usually what happens when you “stop believing” as Journey once warned us against. The thing is, there comes a point in your life where you have to stop lying to yourself. I know I don’t believe in God, so do I just pretend to just in-case there really is a Hell? Isn’t that the most dishonest thing you can do? To be a Christian I presume you have to literally believe God exists don’t you? So, if you don’t believe it, do you just wait around until you eventually do? What if you get hit by a car before then and die? If theres a Hell do you go to it? Because that hardly seems fair.

I think ultimately, that was my main problem with Religion. I could go into a typical argument like “If God exists, why do new born babies die?” but for me, non belief is actually easier just on the basis of in-continuity. Shit just doesn’t add up, to phrase it like a cool youth. But something I’ve always been uncomfortable with is being called an Atheist. Not because Im agnostic. I’m definitely not. Theres no time to sit on the fence, choose a side and defend it. It’s because at the moment its hailed as a belief structure all in itself and I dont like it. I actively avoided reading “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins for years just so I could think about Religion for myself with an open mind and not let his opinions influence me. Eventually I did get around to reading it though and found that we were in agreement on many a subject, so it worked out okay. The thing is, the right wing media is trying to pin us all down as dedicated Dawkins worshippers and I’m not comfortable with that. The point of atheism in my opinion is, is that it isn’t a belief structure but is actually more of a belief breakdown. It’s not a weird club where all the atheists meet up on a Sunday and throw darts at a photo of the Pope while kicking a flaming bible around in the car park, its just the encouragement of  conversation and expanding ideas about the world, not sticking to one set regimentation. It’s about coming to moral conclusions based on logic and your own opinions, and most importantly debate. Vicars can pretend that they are capable of debate, but it’s only within the circle of God’s existence so it’s ultimately pointless. A vicar and his cronies can argue about the morals of homosexuality, just as long as it concludes on the basis that everyone agrees being gay is still a sin, but I’ll go into that whole other kettle of fish another day.

Thats all for now though, but yeah next time I’m talking about the gays so get your flags ready.

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March Adds

“Crazy” Ray Lamontagne
“How You Like Me Now” The Heavy
“My Lagan Love” Celtic Woman
“A Whiter Shade of Pale” Annie Lennox
“Uprising” Muse
“Letters From the Sky” Civil Twilight
“Here Before” Lissie

[Via http://myitunes.wordpress.com]

Exclusive: Michael Jackson's Secretive ...

Exclusive: Michael Jackson’s Secretive Life

But the men also said Jackson’s lifestyle was isolated and lonely and described it as full of “stress, paranoia and pain.”

In an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America,” Mike Garcia, Bill Whitfield and Javon “BJ” Beard spoke out about Jackson’s secretive life, describing some moments as just plain “sad.”

For instance, when Jackson held a birthday party for one of his children, only Jackson, the teacher, the nanny and the three bodyguards would attend, the men said. No other children were there.

“None,” the three men said.

read more http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/MichaelJackson/michael-jacksons-bodyguard-speak-good-morning-america/story?id=10042458

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Video Vault - Emiliana Torrini

Another video vault from Emiliana Torrini this week purely because so many of her music videos feature single versions of her album tracks and this one is no exception. “Me and Armini” is reworked into an electro-disco track and sounds completely different to the original’s ska feel. I really like it!

[Via http://higherplainmusic.com]