BlowUpRadio.com / Lazlo's Den Newsletter 2/28/12

Hey Everyone,

BlowUpRadio.com's Free Concert Series is back at Buddie's Tavern this Saturday night with an incredible line-up.

We begin at 9pm sharp with ERASE:REWIND, aka J Orellana from the Tea & Whiskey and his indie acoustic rock.

Followed at 10pm by The Monacchio's, the glorious acoustic pairing of newlyweds Keith Monacchio & Sheli Aarden-Monacchio whose album "wedding album" was my 9th favorite album of 2011.

Closing out the night at 11pm is O'Neill & Martin, another male/female acoustic pairing, this one with a more classic country sound to them.

This all adds up to a great night of music. Plus, 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 acoustic".

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

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Lazlo’s Corner

Anyone who knows me, listens to my show, follows me on Twitter (@Lazlo_BUR), or reads this newsletter regularly, knows I am a hockey fan, and a huge NJ DEVILS fan (and that I don‘t always agree with the NHL refs). Though I have admit, in recent years, and especially this year, I find myself watching less hockey and turning games off. The frustration of seeing rules applied in an inconsistent manner has removed my love of the game. However, I had to tune in this past Friday as the Devils honored MIKE “DOC“ EMRICK, who was the NJ Devils play by play announcer for their TV broadcasts for 21 years. I’ve never met Doc, but as someone who watched 60-70 games a year (plus playoff games), I want to publicly thank him for 21 wonderful seasons. His knowledge, enthusiasm, and love of the game, always added something special to the broadcasts. Thanks Doc! You can still hear Doc calling play by play on some NHL games on NBC.
http://www.msg.com/tv/network-talent/mike-emrick

Kudos to NBC for making a show that (at least in the pilot I saw) requires paying attention. There are plenty of shows on TV that are dumb, mindless entertainment that you can half watch while doing other things (I actually have one such show on in the background right now while typing this). AWAKE (premieres Thursday at 10pm) isn’t so much a complicated show so much as it is just a show that you have to pay attention to in order to appreciate. The pilot begins with a car overturning with Detective Michael Britten, his wife, and teenage son in the vehicle. The show then deftly cuts between the Detective’s awake life and his asleep life, or is it the other way around. Neither he, nor we know which is his real life and which is his dream life. In one life his son survived the crash, in the other his wife did. In both he is still a police detective solving crimes that, at least in the pilot, had related factors. But the show is as much about his lives, and discussions with shrinks in both lives (both of which of course tell him their’s is his real life), as it is about solving the case. The writing on this show will have to remain top notch for this premise to work, but this well done pilot gives me hope they can pull this off. This almost makes up for NBC choosing to keep painfully unfunny sitcoms “Whitney” & “Up All Night” on the air over the much more entertaining “Free Agents”.
Don’t want to wait until Thursday? You can watch the pilot right now on NBC on Demand or here:
http://www.nbc.com/awake/video/pilot/1385322

I knew when I watched, "The Clash Westway To The World", a few weeks ago that I owed it to myself to also seek out "THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN - JOE STRUMMER", Julien Temple's documentary. Surprisingly. there was very little overlap between the two films. In the latter I learned a lot about how complex Joe Strummer really was. I mean we are all complex people, even those that live public lives (whether willingly or not), but it is easy to forget that sometimes with public figures that you perceive in a certain way from what you see and hear. it's like the politician's running in the primary right now, they want us to perceive them a certain way (as assholes?) so they act a certain way in public to give that perception, but that is only part of the real them (or an act and not the real them at all). I suspect people who read this and listen to my show see me in a certain way, that may be good or bad, but is likely only based on part of me. I am certainly not putting on an act, but I doubt I'm laying my whole life out there in my writing or my radio show. Anyway, I think my point was that even though I have been a fan of Joe's music for a large chunk of my life, I really did not know the man behind the music that well. "The Future is Unwritten" gave me a lot more background on a legendary musician. the DVD also features 100 minutes (a whole other film's length) worth of extra interview footage and a director's commentary. I have not had a chance to watch either yet.
www.joestrummerthemovie.com

Did you miss my interview with HOSTAGE CALM talking about their PRO-MARRIAGE EQUALITY RALLY that happened over the weekend? You can still hear it here:
http://blowupradio.tripod.com/interviews/hostage.html

And while the rally has passed, the fight for the cause is still ongoing. You can find out more here:
http://www.gardenstateequality.org

As a result of the rally I learned about the band LVL UP, who put out a fascinating collection of songs back in October called, “space brothers”. The album is a 13 song tribute to Giorgio Tsoukalos, who I found out by doing some research is a writer that believes that ancient astronauts interacted with ancient humans. Knowing that does help explain some of the songs which appear to play upon that, but even without that knowledge “space brothers” is an enjoyable listen of straight ahead garage rock, and folk-garage rock (which may be a description I just invented). Check out the album for yourself at “pay what you want” price on Bandcamp, or go to one of their shows to pick it up on vinyl or cassette (yes, I wrote cassette)
http://lvlup.bandcamp.com

I apparently need to pay better attention to our friends from the great white north. HEY ROSETTA! has won or been nominated for numerous awards in their homeland of Canada, where they released the epic album, “seeds”, last year. The pairing of intricate art-pop soundscapes with lead vocalist’s Tim Baker’s voice makes this album absolute magic. “Seeds” is finally coming out in America on May 1st, in deluxe edition featuring three bonus acoustic tracks. You can also catch them playing a few shows in the area (though no NJ gig…boo!)
3/11 @ Bowery Ballroom
3/14 @ Theatre of the Living Arts
Both shows are with GOMEZ.
http://www.heyrosetta.com

Most people I know have a negative reaction when they hear the term, “easy listening” (even I cringe when I hear the term), but really the term gets a bad rap. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of horrible bands that fall under the easy listening, but easy listening stations also play some of the great mellow songs Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and even Neil Young, along side early Elton John, and Hall & Oats. NJ band RAINBOW FRESH is easy listening in that same vein. Though not necessarily sounding like any of the afore mentioned bands, they too make smart songs that just happen to be mellow enough that an easy listening station can play them. Check out Rainbow Fresh’s music on their web link below and help to remove the stigma associated with easy listening.
http://rainbowfreshmusic.com

You may not recognize the name Gregg Rolie, but you have undoubtedly heard his music. Rolie is the vocalist on Santana's hits "Black Magic Woman" "Evil Ways" and "Oye Como Va". he went on to form Journey with Neal Schon, and sang on songs such as "anytime" both before and shortly after Steve Perry joined the band. On his new ep, "five days", Rolie covers two of those old gems, "black magic woman" & "anytime", giving inspired jazz/lounge versions of the songs with just him playing piano and singing. The result breathes new life into songs that after years of working at a classic rock station in the 90's I had grown tired of hearing. there are four original tunes on the ep also, but I was not sent those tracks to review.
Gregg Rolie plays the Iridium Jazz Club in NYC this Friday (that‘s right, again no NJ gig).
http://www.GreggRolie.com

And I leave you this week with a video from sassy new Aussie singer, Kitty Clementine. I’m sure people will compare her to Adele and Amy Winehouse, and that’s not without it’s merit, but her music her self-titled album is good in it’s own right, and uniquely her own, that should be mentioned with them as contemporaries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KajYXf7DDv0&feature=youtu.be

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

ARTIST - ALBUM
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Hey Rosetta! - seeds (deluxe edition)

Geographer - myth

The Pines - dark so gold

Cathy Jordan - all the way home

Gregg Rolie - five days

Macy Gray - covered

The Mowgli’s - blue live recordings

Brian McGee - the taking or the leaving

Lvl Up - space brothers

Castle Cruz - follow the sun ep

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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Latest Updates on BlowUpRadio.com & LazlosDen.com

INTERVIEW ARCHIVE: Hostage Calm

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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