The Warlocks do one thing and they do it well: droney psychedelic rock that often recalls Spacemen 3, and alternates between heavy Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, and Stooges influences. This evening’s set was no exception, although judging from the audience one suspects the concurrently-timed Cure show may have drawn off a certain amount of the core demographic. The Warlocks never failed to deliver, though, pounding out a solid set filled with glorious guitar noise.
The psychedelic atmosphere that The Warlocks seemingly evoked naturally and musically with three guitars, vocals, bass, and drums, the Black Angels seemed to be trying too hard to pull off what with their with their overbearing cavernously echoed vocals on every song and pretentiously retro projected light and film show. Not terrible, but it says a lot that the most interesting sound that caught my attention while they were playing occurred while we’d stepped outside to get some air and then heard this tremendous whooshing noise that seemed to fit quite well. Then we realized it was just a plane flying over, and the music went back to the same undifferentiated cavernously echoed vocals and volume unjustified by the material. We left not too long after that.
Iron Maiden - Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989: Although Iron Maiden has churned out any number of compilations and collections over the years, this may just be the perfect single-disc distillation of their oeuvre. While their early records with vocalist Paul Di’Anno are great for what they are, the years with Blaze Bayley singing weren’t entirely useless, and the material the reunited classic lineup has produced since regathering has been largely exemplary, it’s hard to argue that the years covered by Somewhere Back in Time document their strongest and most fertile period. While to a Maiden fan the idea of doing without the full albums from this period is sacrilege, many among the less devout can probably get by with only the unassailable selection here. Perhaps best of all, the band is offering the chance to download Somewhere Back in Time at http://www.ironmaiden.com/try/ for free, though the high-quality wma files are drm-protected and limited to three plays. Still, it’s hard to argue that this provides the curious a good opportunity to check out the band: honestly, if you get through this album three times and still don’t get into it, then you just don’t like Iron Maiden.
Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!: Green Day treads water under this assumed name while continuing to duck the four-year interval since American Idiot, the last proper Green Day album.Recycled garage-rock riffs, Strokes cops, and attempted exuberance abound, but somehow Stop Drop and Roll!!! lacks the presumably intended charm.Rather than raggedly appealing, the album just comes off kind of half-assed, and wears out its welcome barely halfway into its half-hour playing time.I guess the junior-high kids anxiously awaiting new material from Billie Joe Armstrong and company will eat it up, but chances are everyone else will forget this just as quickly as Green Day’s last pseudonymous project, the Network’s Money Money 2020.When was the last time you put that on?Yeah, thought so.
Spiritualized - Songs in A&E: Jason Pierce returns with another album of basic three-chord songs overarranged to the nth degree, layered with everything from choirs and glockenspiels to fuzz guitar and acoustic plucking.Unfortunately, the coherence of Spiritualized’s masterpiece Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is sorely missed here.The vocals are a bit wan, the tuneage feels a bit thin despite the kitchen-sink production approach (”Baby I’m Just A Fool” updates “Walkin’ With Jesus” for about the tenth time of Jason’s career), and too often the arrangements fail to elaborate successfully or add enough filigree to adorn the flimsy, repetitive songs. Even the incidental “Harmony” pieces between songs mostly just come off random and fragmentary. Songs in A&E doesn’t contain any real surprises, as there just doesn’t seem to be much here Pierce hasn’t done before, better – essentially, it’s another Spiritualized LP, so if you’re looking for one, here it is.
Stone Gods - Burn the Witch EP: The remnants of the Darkness attempt to pick up the pieces in the wake of charismatic frontman Justin Hawkins’ departure, shifting their replacement bassist up front and shifting to a somewhat more conventional direction.Unfortunately it seems that without Justin, they’ve largely lost the plot.Admittedly, replacing a frontman is one of the most difficult problems a band can face, but it definitely doesn’t help establish a bold new order when the new singer’s work recalls no one so strongly as Rick Springfield.The generically forgettable songs here lack flair and don’t nearly live up even to the weak tunes on the second Darkness album.Expect Stone Gods to be a footnote, one mentioned only in articles announcing the inevitable reunion of the Darkness — once Justin comes to his senses.
All right, so by popular demand of people continually asking me “So, are there any good shows coming up?” (you know who you are) and frequency of me replying “Uuuuhhhhhh…..” I have compiled the following list of upcoming shows of musical interest. Chances are slim to impossible I’ll end up attending each and every one of these performances, but these are some shows I would consider likely to reward my time and yours. Let me know what sounds interesting to you. (Press agents, get in touch if you’re interested in having me write about a show).
I’ve linked each bandname below to a page where you can hear some music — sadly, it’s mostly myspace pages. If you need to know more, do some googling, and there’s also allmusic and wikipedia for background/biographical type info.
I plan to update this list regularly if it seems like a worthwhile endeavor, so we’ll see how that goes. If there’s something coming up I missed that you think should be added to the list, let me know. Feel free to forward this to any interested parties as well, this list isn’t restricted to a select group of elite douchebags or anything.
Upcoming San Diego shows of musical interest in June and beyond:
The Wedding Present - El Rey: For this second proper Wedding Present album since David Gedge reclaimed the name a few years ago the group returned to Steve Albini for recording, so you can be assured at least the drums and guitars sound brilliant, though the bass is bit low in places. Fortunately, El Rey sounds like Gedge convinced Steve to push the vocals further forward in the mix than in his previous work with the band, and ever better Gedge gets off several classic Weddoes heartbreak laments shot through with his characteristic eye for detail and ear for dialogue. While the strummier El Rey sounds like a more conscious throwback to older material, evidence abounds of the music’s California-penned nature, clearly delineating it from Gedge’s mopier Brit years. In fact, the album plays largely as commentary on the peculiar nature of California relationships. A simple glance at the cover art and perusal of the track titles should clue you in: “Santa Ana Winds”, “Model, Actress, Whatever…”, “Spider-Man on Hollywood”, and most blatantly “Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend [Santa Monica and La Brea]”. Closers “Boo Boo” and “Swingers” are a little flimsy, and the decades-out-of-date lyrical Seinfeld references in “Soup” are trying a bit too hard for the song’s own good, but pretty much everything else here is top notch. The ‘04 comeback LP Take Fountain quickly became one of my favorites, and judging from the way lines from El Rey’s tunes keep coming into my head, this one’s likely to take its place right alongside it, even if it’s overall just a notch below in terms of quality.
Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge: Def Leppard concertgoers: these are the songs during which you will be going to the bathroom this summer. Granted, the group’s been on cruise control for awhile, but this album really feels like the type of record classic rock bands release without even a hope of recapturing their glory days — you know, like any Journey album without Steve Perry. Though some criticized Def Leppard’s last original LP, 2002’s X, for its pop leanings, that album at least featured some hooks and a few memorable songs as a result. While most Def Lep fans were probably hoping for a return to the form of 1999’s Euphoria here, this just sounds like 2006’s pointless covers compilation Yeah! – only with flat-sounding production and without the hooky borrowed tunes. “Tomorrow” and “Bad Actress” are the closest things to highlights here, but in the end not much from Songs From The Sparkle Lounge really, uh, sparkles. Time for another -ia album, guys.
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip: Well, you have to give Trent Reznor credit for walking the walk and pushing the bounds of the music industry, if nothing else: this album just appeared online today at http://theslip.nin.com/ available for free download in a variety of formats, from high-quality mp3, to torrents of lossless FLAC/ALAC, all the way up better-than-CD high-res wav files (I downloaded the FLAC but am reviewing the more portable mp3 version).As expected, though, unfortunately the method of distribution is far more interesting than the music.I’m sure the NIN fanatics who keep Trent afloat by buying shirts and such will eat it up, but Trent’s standard angsty industrial rock grind has seemed pretty samey and tedious for awhile now.Far too much of The Slip boils down to the standard formula of a single repetitive drum groove layered with distorted guitar/bass riffs, and too often I find myself thinking the same thing I’ve always tended to think while listening to NIN: “sounds like a mix between Ministry, Depeche Mode, and Swans, but less interesting.”Still, give the guy credit: while others talk, debate, and meticulously line up new album releases with TV appearances, tabloid rumors, and movie placements, Trent’s putting new stuff out and moving ahead, and at least giving the impression that, you know, actually making new music is the important part of being a musician.It’s hard to argue he’s successful at getting his music out in front of listeners –- I certainly hadn’t planned on listening to NIN today, but here I am — I just wish I found the music he puts out somewhat more rewarding.
Rush – Snakes & Arrows Live: I used to like Rush okay when I was a kid — they were one of the first concerts I ever saw — but man, I can’t get through this.The title doesn’t lie: 9 tracks from last year’s Snakes & Arrows appear here. Even the old standards sound impeccably played, but stultifyingly boring (how many live albums have “YYZ,” “Spirit of Radio,” and “Tom Sawyer” already been on?), and Geddy Lee’s voice sure hasn’t gotten any less strained or easy on the ears with age.While their last live album, 2003’s Rush In Rio, struck me as something of a sign of possible revitalization, this one just seems unnecessary –- after all, the band has only released one studio album since then, and none of the playful spirit evidenced by 2004’s fun Feedback covers EP seems to have made its way on here.I guess I’m glad Rush is still out there doing what they do and maybe the shows were a lot of fun if you were there, but while this might be a great concert souvenir it doesn’t translate to a compelling listen for the non-Rush fanatic.
Faith No More – The Works: Faith No More’s legacy has been repackaged twice before, in the 2-disc hits & rarities anthology Who Cares A Lot (The Greatest Hits) and in the single-disc This Is It: The Best of Faith No More which packaged up pretty much the same hits with a few different rarities.Now comes the 3-disc The Works, which contains all the same hits along with most of the band’s other recorded work (was your favorite song on either The Real Thing or Angel Dust?Then it’s here!) and fleshes out the ‘rarities’ quotient by resurrecting 8 of the 10 tracks from the out-of-print, UK-only Live at the Brixton Academy.The live cuts badly need remixing, but otherwise it’s good to hear this artifact of the classic FNM lineup in full flight, even if they had to be tacked onto another superfluous compilation.Really, it’s getting a bit silly: the band only made six albums (four with Mike Patton), and more than anything The Works just feels like a intermediate step along the road to the four-disc bookshelf format box set, then the “Compleat Works” collection – and of course, the inevitable shocking reunion tour, the remastering/reissue of the original albums with bonus tracks, and yet another hits collection.
“You’re a waste of space, no natural grace, you’re so bloody thin, you don’t even begin to interest me, not even curiosity. It’s not animosity, it’s just you don’t interest me.”
- Wire, “Mannequin”
I don’t mind flipping through Rolling Stone and Maxim in the bathroom, in fact I kind of enjoy it as a reminder of a time when I actually used to pay money for magazines and read them voraciously (never Maxim or its ilk though — the heavy photoshopping they do to “improve” their model shots somehow manage to suck every possible ounce of life and sex appeal from their stale photo spreads). Now they just basically give them away with ridiculous subscription offers in an attempt to keep their circulation numbers up, and the content within has gotten so lowest-common-denominator I often find myself flipping pages madly, fruitlessly trying to find something remotely interesting to while away my time. I mean, with no exaggeration, the most stimulating article I found in the most recent issue of Maxim I finished and deposited in the trash was a piece on the history of NASCAR. I neither know nor care about sports in general, so this was really scraping bottom.
I also consider and reject many current hot discussion points for blog posts here, often because I find even I don’t care what my opinion on a particular topic is. Not that my opinions aren’t always fascinating, but we are in the era of talking exceedingly loud and saying less than nothing. There is more stimulation coming at us all day every day than ever before, but so little is even slightly substantive, why dignify it with my attention?
The typical internet shtick as practiced by such wits as George “Maddox” Ouzounian and his ilk is to work a head of false outrage about some nonissue and then assault said topic in print using many colorful expletives in an attempt to either attract attention from viewers who will either be outraged, or nod in agreement, or simply rack up the number of views and move on. It’s getting to be a fairly common tactic, and while in contrast with the ‘offend no one’ tact maintained by print magazines at least these types pretend to assert some position, it’s no more sincere and just as transparent.
So: things I just don’t care about. Don’t misread this as ‘Things I hate,’ because that would imply that I actively dislike these things. No, these are things that just make so little difference in my world that it’s barely worth the time to consider them briefly and discard them. Some are things that seem to mean a lot to other people; that’s fine, I’m not saying no one should care about these things, I’m just saying I don’t. “It’s not animosity, it’s just you don’t interest me.”
So: Things I Don’t Care About, Part One.
The Pope visiting, or doing anything for that matter. I’m not Catholic, not Christian, not religious, so to me it’s just an old dude in creepy clothes making apologies for a good number of his organization’s employees having sex with so many kids over the years. Yeah.
I mentionedsports above, but let me emphasize again: sports. Nothing is more tedious to me than going to one of those parties where the guys go in one room and the women in another because within two seconds the guys’ conversation turns to the trials of the local football team and holy shit those converations are all exactly the same. Some group of dudes threw a ball through something more times than some other group of guys, none of whom I know or have any connection with. Wow. Truly awesome. And yes, this includes the Olympics.
What actors have to say about anything, especially in interviews. The fact is that no actor who has anything of substance to say ever says any of it while promoting the work they do because they and their handlers don’t want anything to overshadow whatever they’re promoting. Actor interviews are calculatedly boring so there is nothing anyone could possibly take away from them other than “Movie opening May 2nd.” Don’t believe me? Tom Cruise ranting his crazy Scientology horsewash was interesting, and the studio even came out and blamed him for whatever movie he was promoting not doing so well. If he’d sat there like a good boy and just parroted the same stultifying “Oh yeah she was a real pleasure to work with, a real pleasure” bullshit they wouldn’t be complaining. Actors don’t know crap about the movies and shows they’re in, they only see themselves.
Children of famous people. I’m sure I’ll come up with an exception to this rule, but yeah, you’re not automatically interesting because the vagina you popped out of or the sperm that fertilized you belonged to a famous person. No inherently interesting traits are biologically inheritable, and despite the fawning reviews Rolling Stone keeps giving to Sean Lennon, neither is musical talent.
That’s all for now. More will almost certainly follow.
Here’s something I’ve planned on doing for quite awhile and finally got around to: doing a podcast for this site. I approached this like an old-school cassette mix tape, although not to the degree of dividing it into sides or anything. Nevertheless I ended up with about the same amount of music as would have fit on an old Maxell XL-II 100 minute tape, my old standby medium of choice back in the day. Go figure.
Anyway, I ended up with quite an eclectic mix spanning music of many genres produced over the last forty years. Enjoy, and I heartily encourage you to investigate further via the links below should anything in particular catch your ear and to support artists whose work you enjoy by purchasing their work.
Technical notes: the whole thing was assembled in Cool Edit 2, and I used both Cool Edit 2 and Audiograbber to normalize the songs’ volume, boosting the older tracks and toning down the overzealous mastering of the newer tracks, edit out blank space in lead-ins and lead-outs, and fade the Soft Machine cut in/out (Soft Machine I is sequenced as pretty much one solid piece of music). The resultant .wav file was then encoded to VBR mp3 using the LAME alt-preset-extreme encoding profile and proper ID3 tags with cover art and complete track listing in comments section were added using Tag & Rename.
Listen below or download via right-click/save-as on the Download link below. I don’t know what you one-button Mac freaks do to download files, but do whatever it is you do to download stuff without a second mouse button.
Although the Misfits have long since degenerated into a joke, existing more as a merchandising machine than a musical entity, I always enjoyed the rudimentary horror-punk of the original, Glenn Danzig-fronted version of the band far more than I would have expected based upon the moronic simplemindedness with which many of their fans used to plaster themselves with all manner of patches, stickers, and whatever other crappy paraphernalia sole remaining Misfits original members Jerry Only would slap the Misfits logo or the appropriated image of the Crimson Ghost on. Combining the gothic image of the Damned with the merchandising tenacity of Kiss seems like a good way to attract an audience even dumber than that of Insane Clown Posse, but based on the band’s history we can only assume they’ve done as best they can with the resources available to them. There is something truly sad about men in and around 50 years of age dressing up in ‘corpse paint’ and combing their receding bits of hair forward into some sort of Archie Bunker version of the band’s trademark ‘devilocks,’ but even sadder is their continual determination to get Damned vocalist Dave Vanian’s approval. Much as I love the Damned (well, their first few records anyway) they’ve never been exactly huge or influential arbiters of taste, so the Misfits’ continual attempts to get Vanian to work with them are hilariously misguided, especially when you take into account that Vanian lives in London and the Misfits were from none other than Lodi, New Jersey (”Oh Lord, I’m stuck in Lodi again…”).
This Vanian fixation has continued through all versions of the band, from the original Danzig-fronted lineup through years of inactivity up to the resuscitated Danzigless merchandise press. (All quotes taken from http://www.misfitscentral.com/, a far more useful informational resource than the band’s official website at http://www.misfits.com/.)
First, the original band takes idle backstage chatter as an invitation to come open for the Damned, who after the Misfits show up unexpected and uninvited on their doorstep actually do get them on the bill and get them instruments, only to have the Misfits crap out on them two dates in.
06/26/1979: The Misfits opened for The Damned at Hurrah in New York City. Before the show, Jerry talked to The Damned vocalist Dave Vanian about The Misfits possibly opening for The Damned in the UK.
11/1979: Based on Jerry’s conversation in June with Dave Vanian, Danzig began preparing for the upcoming UK tour by sending out promotional packages which included an itinerary that announced the band’s plan to do 24 shows in 28 days.
11/21/1979: Late in the evening on the 21st, the band arrived in England for the UK tour with The Damned. On the morning of the 22nd, Jerry showed up at the home of Dave Vanian while the remaining Misfits waited at the hotel. Even though Jerry and Vanian had previously discussed touring together, the members of The Damned had apparently not taken it seriously, and Jerry’s arrival was a complete surprise. The Damned, who already had scheduled a tour with a North Ireland band called Victim opening, added The Misfits to the bill and found them equipment to use. On the 24th, after doing the soundcheck for what would have been the second show, The Misfits walked off the tour because they felt they were not being paid enough and were unhappy with the instruments they had been loaned.
They tried to record with Vanian also, but, well…Vanian couldn’t be bothered to show up.
1981: In the spring of 1981, Danzig and Jerry recorded a demo version of “Archangel,” a song Danzig had written for Dave Vanian of The Damned, at Mix-O-Lydian Studio. Danzig did the vocals, guitar, and drums and Jerry played bass. When Vanian was never able to join them to record the vocals, the recording was shelved until August 1983, when Danzig completed the song with Samhain.
Then, after the Misfits broke up, Jerry Only and brother Doyle decide to form a Christian band called Kryst the Conqueror. Sure, that sounds like something Vanian would be interested in! A brilliant plan!
01/1989: Jerry invited Dave Vanian to join Kryst The Conqueror. Dave said in Lively Arts #12 (spring 1989), “I’ll be seeing Jerry in New Jersey next week and he says that The Misfits have 14 new songs that are really good. He wants me to work with them, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to. He’s asked me several times to do something with them.”
Dave is clearly getting annoyed at this point. (The vocals on the Kryst the Conqueror EP would eventually be done by future Journey lead singer Jeff Scott Soto. No, the songs aren’t “really good.”)
After years of legal wrangling, Jerry and Doyle got the rights to perform and record new material as the Misfits — reportedly by giving up all royalties to the real Misfits records over to Glenn. Of course, without Glenn writing new songs or singing, there’s a problem, so obviously they need to either convince Glenn to rejoin, or…
10/28/1994: At this point, Jerry and Doyle began auditioning singers in the practice room at Proedge. Their initial hope was to have Peter Steele of Type O Negative or Dave Vanian of The Damned join the band as vocalist.
11/22/1994: Johnathan Grimm (later to become the all-purpose Misfits roadie, artist, and merchandise man) became the first person to audition to be the new lead singer.
04/26/1995: After the Danzig show in Red Bank, NJ, Jerry and Doyle went to visit Glenn at his hotel room, to ask him to join the band. Jerry stated in Metal Maniacs (June 1996), “We went to his door and knocked and fifteen minutes later security came and walked us out of the hotel. So we took that as a ‘no’.”
05/1995: Jerry asked Dave Vanian of The Damned to join The Misfits as their singer.
10/27/1995: The Misfits appeared at the Chiller Theatre Horror Convention again. This was the first official appearance of the complete lineup, including Dr. Chud and Michale Graves. For months rumors had been circulating that Dave Vanian would be the new vocalist, but after several months, and no response, The Misfits decided to go with Graves.
“Rumors had been circulating…” I’m not sure Jerry’s wishful thinking actually counts as “rumors.”
Poor Dave. Even given the Damned’s currently diminished state as a nostalgia act it’s clear he’s never given these idiots nipping at his heels more than a second’s thought, while they desperately yearn for his approval. And unfortunately, there are rumors the Misfits are contemplating yet another attempt at making new music with the estranged members of the 1995-2002 version of the group, inevitably further tarnishing what’s left of their legacy. Can’t blame ‘em for trying, I guess, but until Glenn wants to trawl back through that gutter no one is going to give a shit. Hell, even with Glenn it’d be far from a sure bet at this point.
At this point it’s certainly a hoary cliche to call any album ‘long-awaited’, but Flight of the Conchords’ new eponymous debut studio album finally puts down ‘definitive’ versions of several songs fans have likely heard in a few different versions already, including their 2002 debut Folk the World Tour, 2005 HBO One Night Stand Special, to their BBC Radio 2 series, to their successful 2007 HBO series, to their Grammy-winning The Distant Future EP, or possibly even at one of their relatively infrequent live performances. Being among said fans, it’s difficult not to mentally compare most of these tracks to past renditions — I think ‘Bowie’, ‘Robots’, and ‘Business Time’ have been in at least four of the above already, so it’s good that they’re finally available in one place for listeners’ convenience. Problem is, Flight of the Conchords isn’t just a group, they’re a comedy group, and once you’ve heard a joke a few times already it loses a lot of its zing. So while I certainly enjoyed this album, it didn’t evoke a lot of laughter from me — merely a few wry chuckles scattered here and there. Fortunately, the music itself is largely strong enough to make for pleasant listening even without the additional punch of humor, but while I’ll likely be happy to hear any of these tracks pop up in random play on my ipod the album probably won’t get too many full airings. If nothing else, the album has definitely whetted my appetite for new HBO FotC shows, which presumably will contain more new songs and start the whole cycle over again.
As soon as I saw the Mosrite bass leaning onstage and the drumhead painted with cartoon letters spelling ‘DEATH’ I said to my concertgoing companion “Looks like we’re in for some Ramones action” and sure enough, two songs before the end came the by-the-numbers cover of “Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World.” The Diana Death Band was a standard rock three-piece just a notch shy of achieving actual propulsion. For some reason it’s never a good sign when women get up onstage and yell “Are you ready to rock the fuck out?” Show me, don’t tell me; I mean, Ruyter Suys she wasn’t. Diana Death played the standard rock chick shtick to the hilt, but there just wasn’t enough going on to hold my attention a lot of the time. 4/4 drumming was nice and solid, bass pretty much just held down the root all night, guitar could have been a touch louder, vocals were pretty standard rock chick fare, songwriting showed touches of flair that were promising. They didn’t ever really “rock the fuck out,” unfortunately — upping the tempo a couple of notches would definitely help a lot of the tunes, and maybe stepping outside the ‘basic rock riffs 101′ songbook too — but it was a fairly solid set of retro-rock action. Maybe worth checking back in on in a year or so.
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The Warlocks do one thing and they do it well: droney psychedelic rock that often recalls Spacemen 3, and alternates between heavy Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, and Stooges influences. This evening’s set was no exception, although judging from the audience one suspects the concurrently-timed Cure show may have drawn off a certain amount of the core demographic. The Warlocks never failed to deliver, though, pounding out a solid set filled with glorious guitar noise.
Iron Maiden - Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989: Although Iron Maiden has churned out any number of compilations and collections over the years, this may just be the perfect single-disc distillation of their oeuvre. While their early records with vocalist Paul Di’Anno are great for what they are, the years with Blaze Bayley singing weren’t entirely useless, and the material the reunited classic lineup has produced since regathering has been largely exemplary, it’s hard to argue that the years covered by Somewhere Back in Time document their strongest and most fertile period. While to a Maiden fan the idea of doing without the full albums from this period is sacrilege, many among the less devout can probably get by with only the unassailable selection here. Perhaps best of all, the band is offering the chance to download Somewhere Back in Time at 
All right, so by popular demand of people continually asking me “So, are there any good shows coming up?” (you know who you are) and frequency of me replying “Uuuuhhhhhh…..” I have compiled the following list of upcoming shows of musical interest. Chances are slim to impossible I’ll end up attending each and every one of these performances, but these are some shows I would consider likely to reward my time and yours. Let me know what sounds interesting to you. (Press agents, 
