New Music - Sad Britney on iTunes

What can I say? Buy it! This EP, with four songs including ...Baby One More Time are beyond fantastic!



Christopher Dallman does melancholy Britney Spears might seem an odd choice, but leave it to Christopher to mine beyond the obvious humor and find the jewel in the pop music of Pop Princess Spears. Starting with Gimme More, the stripped down acoustic guitar adds more depth to the song, and Dallman's voice adds more urgency than than Brit could ever offer. The drive of the acoustic sound continues on Radar, with the 'I get that tingle, I wanna mingle' certainly keeps with the eerie yet sexy vibe to the song. Christopher keeps the sexy going on with Toxic. He claims the song as his own, making it more of a journey filled with love and lust, whispering the knowledge of a doomed relationship. And then there is ...Baby One More Time, with the horns mixed with the guitar to amplify the longing in Dallman's voice. Indeed, I am just crazy about this collection, and all four-songs for under $4, you can't go wrong. As much as I loved ...Baby One More Time the minute I heard it, I am now torn between Toxic and Radar being my favorite. Or maybe it's Gimme More. Damn you, Christopher Dallman! Buy it now, here is the link. If iTunes isn't working for you, try this alternative site here.

Blog Update - Holiday week

First, this is a holiday week, so I will most likely be a little light in the posting department. Will be hanging with family and overeating, cause that is what Thanksgiving is for.

Dark Monday - Avenue Q

Avenue Q is an interesting musical to be sure. I have to admit I didn't see it myself, but know many who have. I did buy the Original Cast album [available on iTunes] and enjoy it very much. Avenue Q is like Sesame Street on steroids, going through a bit of a 'roid rage episode. The characters are both human and puppet, and the puppets are often worked by the humans who give them voice and movement on the stage. The characters discuss more adult topics, like sex, porn, and racism. And they curse, often and freely.

It opened off-Broadway in the spring of 2003, and moved to Broadway by mid-summer. It opened to rave reviews, and people lined up to buy tickets. Here is a basic taste.



Like Sesame Street, the characters in the show live on a city street, and the puppets speak with the humans. Unlike the PBS counterpart, Avenue Q is not fare meant for children. However, both contain lessons to be learned. Take, for example, this scene when the cast discusses racial issues.



And who hasn't woken up some morning thinking about your life, and how it could be better? When life is just not the bowl of cherries you were hoping for, we all start to think It Sucks To Be Me.



The London cast of Avenue Q perform Better The Devil You Know by Sonia, the UK's 1993 Eurovision entry.



Speaking of the London production, one of my favorite British stage stars, Daniel Boys, will soon be concluding his run in Avenue Q. Obviously, I will not get the chance to see him in the show - where he got rave reviews - playing Princeton/Rod for the last two years.




The cast of London's Avenue Q appeared on the BBC this past weekend for the Children In Need charity. Here is the clip. I think Daniel looks terrific! So does Tom Parsons, another blog favorite.



Avenue Q is now running off-Broadway in New York City, has a National Tour Company, and continues to run on London's West End. For more information about the show, or to find out about getting tickets, click here.

News - Christopher Dallman's Sad Britney

Christopher Dallman, the talented singer/songwriter who released Never Was not too long ago [click here], has another EP on iTunes starting tomorrow. The new release is named Sad Britney, a collection of melancholy Britney Spears songs inspired by the hidden song on Never Was, an amazing cover of ...Baby One More Time. If Sad Britney is as good as I think, I will be a very happy fan!



Until I have more info on the new EP, or something to share with you, here is Christopher Dallman covering Michael Jackson's Human Nature.



And here is a quick video I did for the ....Baby One More Time version Christopher did for Never Was.



For more about Christopher, check out his website here. You can also follow him on Twitter here.

Worth Another Listen - Modern English

Despite producing perhaps the best song of the 80s, Modern English never got the respect it deserved as a band. Formed in 1979, the British band started with singer Robbie Grey, guitarist Gary McDowell, and bassist Michael Conroy, and soon drummer Richard Brown and keyboardist Stephen Walker completed the group. They had the distinct sound of New Wave, with a hard-edged romanticism that defied the punk roots. New Wave bands like them took the beat of the punk music and the feel of the post-punk music like Joy Division, and their own new romantic movement to create the a new sound and feel.



In 1981, they released their first album, Mesh And Lace. The debut was a bit more punk than New Wave, but it certainly helped map out the direction to come. The following year, they released After The Snow, a breakthrough both in sound and recognition. The second single, I Melt With You, scored with listeners both in the US and the UK. It was helped by the use of the song in the soundtrack to the movie Valley Girl, an independent feature starring a young Nicholas Cage.



After The Snow delivered with a different sound, with the songs of love and lust lending to a more keyboard-driven mainstream pop sound. Next out was Ricochet Days, the 1984 release. This veered more toward the pop sound, and hit with resistance by both critics and fans. But it did produce the single Hands Across The Sea, which met with some success.



The 1986 release, Stop Start, on Sire Records, their first big label effort. But it was met with critical disdain, for the band moved to an even greater pop sound, and the production was slicker and quite smooth. I didn't mind it at all, and in fact the album had one of my favorite songs on it, Ink And Paper.



Soon after Stop Start, the band broke up and went their separate ways, only to regroup to put out more music that met with little success. They finally broke up for good in the late 90s. Later, singer Robbie Grey went out on tour with a new band, and is said to be working on new songs to release at some point. I can't, however, find them on the web to give a link. But I will always have I Melt With You, perhaps the finest song from a very fertile decade.

Great Music - Tom Goss - Legacy of You

Photos of Tom Goss by me at World Cafe Live May 20, 2008

Well, I am at a Tom Goss show tonight at the Live Cafe in Philadelphia, so I thought I would set it up so you can hear on of my favorite songs by Tom while I am listening to him singing live. This is Legacy of You, a gorgeous song that actually made me cry the first time I heard it. It is on his Back To Love CD.



Thanks to MillersBandPromote for the clip. I will be reporting on the show in the coming days, and look forward to seeing Tom once again. In the meantime, you can find his official website here.

New Video - Adam Joseph - Finally

The fabulous Adam Joseph has released a new song and video and I am excited. I have been a fan since the release of his fantastic How I Seem To Be a couple years ago. His Flow With Your Soul is amazing (see it here), as are many other songs. So he posted a video on YouTube of Finally, the old CeCe Peniston disco hit that was also featured in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.



So nice to see a young gay man coming out and making a statement about marriage equality. Not that Adam has ever stepped away from taking a bold step, as he did with the song and video of Faggotty Attention [which can been seen in the previous link]. He is also an amazing singer, as you can tell on the song You're Mine, from his first album.



For more about Adam, you can go to his website here. You can also download How I Seem To Be from Amazon.com for under $9 by clicking here. I am very glad to have my copy!