8 BlowUpRadio.com / Lazlo's Den Newsletter 2/14/12

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Newsletter 2-14-12

Hey Everyone,

This Saturday, February 18th, is going to be another amazing lineup for the BlowUpRadio.com Free Concert Series

We begin the evening at 9pm sharp with sullen acoustic songs of The Black 100s. Followed at 10pm by a set of witty, often sarcastic folk-punk from Happy Joe. Closing out the evening at 11pm is the synthesizer based eclectic rock stylings of No Use For Humans.

This is going to be one heck of a fascinating night of music, and as always the show is FREE!

Also, I’ll be spinning tunes between sets, and giving away CDs to the first 30 people to come up to me and say, “the password is pizza”.

Speaking of pizza, Buddie’s Tavern has great pizza, burgers, and other food to accompany your beverage of choice and evening of rock.

Buddie’s Tavern is located at 277 Johnsons Lane, Parlin (Sayreville), NJ

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As you know, my wife suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis, and every year we do a benefit for the Spondylitis Association of America.

But we are not the only one's putting together benefits for this worthy cause.

Below is the information for a benefit taking place in NYC on Thursday, February 23rd.

“The Best Medicine” - A Night of Comedy to Benefit The Spondylitis Association of America.

‘Comic Strip Live’
1568 Second Ave. (bet. 81st & 82nd Sts.) in Manhattan.

Scheduled to appear: Michael Rakosi, D. F. Sweedler, Bill McCarty, Wilson McDermut, Michael King and Regina DeCicco.

Tickets start at $100. and includes finger food, drinks, tips and entertainment.

You can purchase tickets for “The Best Medicine” by going to:
www.spondylitis.org/comedy or you can use the SAA's Toll-Free Phone Number (U.S. Only): 1-800-777-8189

Again, this benefit is not put on by BlowUpRadio.com, but we do support the cause and therefore wanted to mention it.

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Lazlo’s Corner

Sometimes I have a really bad day where it seems like everyone and everything is against me. Call it bad luck, bad karma, whatever. Anyway, I was sitting around just trying to find something on TV to distract me from my horrible day when I stumbled on to “The Union”, a documentary film about Elton John & Leon Russell recording their absolutely brilliant album of the same name. Seeing Elton & Leon working together with T Bone Burnett, producer of the album, along with historical footage was more than just entertaining and insightful, it was also inspiring. I thought I needed a laugh to get out of my funk, I should have known the power of music (and stories about the making of music) would pick me up. Oh, and did I mention that Cameron Crowe directed this documentary? Of course I didn’t that is why I am mentioning it now. “The Union” is airing on HBO channels this month.
http://ww2.eltonjohn.com/union/index.html

I caught a different music documentary on Showtime, “Still Bill”, a profile of musician Bill Withers (“ain’t no sunshine”, “lean on me”, “just the two of us”, among many other songs). You have to have a lot of respect for someone who started late in life by industry standards (he was 32), did not want to play by the record industry rules, still managed to write so many memorable hits, and then stopped recording in 1985 apparently because of not wanting to deal with the industry and wanting to be with his family. The only downside to that is when you hear him singing in this film in present day, you know he could still make some amazing albums. There’s still time Bill, we would all be happy if you made an album on your terms.
http://www.billwithers.com

Just because I am on a documentary kick right now doesn’t mean that is the only type of film I’m watching right now. Starz early premiere on demand just added “Attack the Block”, which I had heard wonderful things about when it got a limited release in America last year. It’s really quite a simple premise, gang of teens from a block in South London end up in the center of ground zero for an alien invasion. Of course you figure out more as the film goes, likely you’ll figure it out before the teens do. That’s ok though, because this film keeps things moving, has some witty amusing moments, and lots of action and violence (the film is R rated, so if you are blood squeamish, this may not be the film for you). My favorite two moments appear to be homages to other films. The first being what I hope was an intentional play on E.T. early on in the film, the second being a funny play on the, “I’m too old for this hit”, line (which I believe was first done in “Lethal Weapon”, but really it’s become a film cliché). Anyway, “Attack The Block” may not be the best film I will see this year, but it was certainly entertaining. Oh, and Nick Frost (Shaun Of The Dead, hot Fuzz, Pirate Radio, etc.) had a small role in it. Cool!
www.attacktheblock.com

Nick Frost had a much larger role along with his often co-star Simon Pegg in “Paul“, a film they co-wrote. The premise is pretty silly, two British sci-fi geeks head to America to go to Comic Con and travel across the country in an RV to places where there were UFO sightings, running into an alien (voiced by Seth Rogan) and helping him elude the feds as he heads to his meeting with the mothership to take him home. As much as I love Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz (as well as the British series, Spaced, that they both were on), I went into this film with very low expectations. The advertising for the film did not impress me. As it turns out, the advertising appears to have been showing some of the weakest footage from the film. This film is no award winner, but it is a very funny hour and forty-five minutes, and if you have seen a lot of science fiction films you will likely get some added laughs out of references that they worked in. “Paul” airs on Cinemax this month.
www.whatispaul.com

On to music…

Rotary Club has a new album coming out next week (2/28) called, “second year in swine”, and if you think the album title is the strangest/uniquest thing about this band, you would be wrong. I would say the most unique thing is that rotating lineup of musicians Tom Delaney has backing him (hence the name Rotary Club), allows Tom to try his hand at combing many different sounds from indie rock into a fascinating collection of tunes.
http://rotaryclubnyc.com

For the last few years Cymbals Eat Guitars have been a “buzz” band. Another band that I expect to start having that same type of buzz this year is Oberhofer. The brain child of 21 year old Brad Oberhofer, the band’s forthcoming album (out 3/27), “time capsule II”, is a glorious indie-pop album that deftly combines rock with orchestral instrumentation and lush vocals. I seriously expect big things for this band. While they are not playing NJ on their current tour (hopefully on the next leg guys?), they do have two area shows coming up next month.
3/20 - Johnny Brenda's (Philly)
3/21 - Bowery Ballroom (NYC)
http://www.facebook.com/OberhoferJamz

Maybe it’s a sign of getting older and changing tastes, but when I was growing up I really didn’t care for Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles music. Hell yeah I loved his songs with the Beatles, but is other music always left me rather bored. But his last few albums I have really enjoyed, and his newest, arguably the mellowest of his career, may be my favorite of his post Beatles releases. “Kisses on the bottom”, is a collection of standards Paul grew up listening to in his childhood as well as the two new songs he wrote that fit perfectly into this collection. Not being familiar with most of these standards, I would not have been able to pick out the two new songs without being told. This is definitely not the album of garage rock tunes he said he was inspired to do after seeing Dave Grohl’s home studio, but it is a wonderful album to kick back and relax with. It put a smile on my face.
www.paulmccartney.com

Guy Capecelatro III has an album coming out next week on Dromedary Records called, “north for the winter”, and with the mild winter we’re having I can understand the title. This album is largely mellow, but Guy is smart enough to alter the tempos to keep the album from sounding the same the whole way through. The lyrics are gorgeous poetry, but I don’t recall there be any happy songs on the album. All of the songs have pain and/or sorrow to them, but that is a positive when done skillfully. The deeper I delved into this album the more I fell in love with it. At times Guy reminds me of Damien Rice. You can make your own mind up as to who he sounds like by giving lead off track, “like anything”, a listen here:
http://www.dromedary-records.com/news/guy-capecelatro-iii-releases-first-single

Dromedary records has an album out this week also, by a band I have been a fan of for a long time. It’s been 18 years since Cuppa Joe’s classic album, “nurture” (which Dromedary Records re-released in 2010), but they’re back with a new album entitled, “tunnel trees”. Those of you who heard me interview them back in 2010, already know this, but for everyone else: back in my college radio days (WMCX, Monmouth College/University) I played tracks from “nurture” all the time on my local music show. In the early 2000’s one member of the band moved to Wisconsin, and that was that, the band was done. Or was it? Doug & Steve, the main members of the band, stayed in touch and started writing some songs together despite the miles between them. Then Doug moved back to NJ and the recording of a full on reunion album became a reality. So what makes a fan of their new album after all these years? I like it! It is a really enjoyable dream-pop album. It’s different from “nurture”, but in a natural progression sort of way. I don’t want to mischaracterize it as drastically different, it’s more appropriate to say they’ve grown with time, and so has their music. Hopefully we can convince them to play some live shows to promote “tunnel trees”. In the meantime, you can download “something new” from their album here:
http://www.dromedary-records.com/news/something-new-from-cuppa-joe

When a band describes themselves as, “reminiscent of great British pop bands from the 60's with a blend of indie rock”, I get high expectations that unfortunately are rarely met (which is why generally I try not to read bios until after I hear the album). However, New Jersey band Sleepless Saints actually exceeded my expectations. This album is pure ear candy in the best way possible. There are tons of great bands I could try to compare them too, but why bother, they are awesome in their own right, and you can download their album for free from Bandcamp right now. http://sleeplesssaints.bandcamp.com Why are you still reading this? Go now. This will still be here when you get back.
http://sleeplesssaints.bandcamp.com

What happens when you combine mandolin, banjo, guitar, upright bass, and vocals? When the people combining those instruments are Colorado band The Way Low Down, the answer is some really good bluegrass infused folk rock. There website is pretty sparse on information (and even their Twitter & Facebook pages don’t appear to be updated regularly), but you can download 3 free tracks from their 2010 album “take one”, and if you like them you can purchase their entire album too.
http://thewaylowdown.com

Just got my hands on the forthcoming self-titled album from Australian folk quartet, Busby Marou. The album is already out in Australia, and will be out here in America soon (release date is TBA). If you like warm acoustic based upbeat folk songs with warm, soulful, and inviting vocals, maybe you should seek out an import copy of this album. Or better yet, see them when they play the Bowery Ballroom on March 26th, and hopefully they will have copies of their album for sale.
http://busbymarou.com

I leave you this week with a link to Butch Walker & The Black Widow’s video for the song, “synthesizers”, a video starring Matthew McConaughey reprising his role of David Wooderson from the clasic Richard link later film, “Dazed & Confused”.
http://blowupradio.tripod.com/videos/butch.html

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Latest Updates on BlowUpRadio.com & LazlosDen.com


ALBUM PROFILE: The Cryptkeeper Five - "the unbeatable cry"

ALBUM PROFILE: double-breasted - "suit yourself"

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This week on Lazlo's Den Presents New Music we have new music from:

ARTIST - ALBUM
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The Way Low Down - take one

Busby Marou - Busby Marou

Cuppa Joe - tunnel trees

Guy Capecelatro III - north for the winter

Sleepless Saints - meditate on it

Oberhofer - time capsules II

Rotary Club - second year in swine

The Young Sinclairs - Indian winter

Scout - all those relays

Jack Brag - unbroken white

The Lanskies - romeo



Full playlist with links to all the bands is at www.LazlosDen.com. Support Good Music!

Lazlo's Den Presents New Music airs on BlowUpRadio.com Tues @ 8pm, Wed @ noon & 10pm, Thurs @ 3am & midnight, Fri @ 9am & 3pm, and Sun @ 8pm (all times are eastern time zone)



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Our on air schedule at BlowUpRadio.com is

Here’s the BlowUpRadio.com programming schedule for this week:

Lazlo’s Den - Monday thru Friday at 8pm ET

BlowUpRadio.com Live – Sat @ 11pm, Sun @ 9pm, Mon @ 10pm, Tues @ noon

The Bumpskey Show – Tuesday @ 9pm ET

Lazlo’s Den presents New Music - Tues @ 8pm ET, Wed @ noon & 10pm, Thurs @ 3am & midnight, Fri @ 9am & 3pm, Sun @ 8pm

‘Rock N Roll Gas Station’ hosted by Jim Testa - Thursday @ 10pm ET, Sun @ 7pm, & Mon @ 6pm

‘The Weekend Mix-Up!’ hosted by Mick Hale - Friday @ 9pm ET, Sat @ 9pm, Sun @ 1pm & 6pm



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That's all for this week folks.

Peace,
Lazlo
www.BlowUpRadio.com
www.LazlosDen.com