Music

This bit of news made me do a double take upon opening my regularly scheduled newsletter from Radio Radio: On May 21st, 2008, Pete Best will be at Radio Radio performing with The Pete Best Band. Here's a chance for any rock aficionado to watch one of the founders of rock 'n' roll in a very intimate setting that simply should not be missed.

Local staples Bigger Than Elvis will open the night and tickets are only $10 in advance.

It's not often that you really get your money's worth from a big name rock act these days. I've waited longer, paid more and gotten less from bands too many times. Tuesday night at the Music Mill was not one of these times.

Continue reading "Black Rebel Motorcycle Club"

This just came across our desk, and since it's a free event and seems like a nice cultural opportunity, I thought I'd pass it along. Dunno yet if anyone from the IndyScribe team will attend.

Free event -- Sunday, January 28 at 3:00 pm

The 24-voice Indianapolis Symphonic Choir Chamber Singers, led by Artistic Director Eric Stark, with accompanist Charles Manning will present an entertaining and interactive performance—discussion of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Messiah.

The audience is invited to sing along at the conclusion of the event, joining the performers in a complete performance of the beloved chorus (no audition required!). Souvenir copies of the music will be given to those in attendance.

WHEN/WHERE?

Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 3:00 pm.
The event is being hosted by Plainfield Friends Meeting and will be held in the historic Western Yearly Meeting room. The facility is on highway 40 at East Street in downtown Plainfield. Parking is available off of East Street.

HOW MUCH?

Due to a generous grant by the Lilly Endowment, the Symphonic Choir is able to offer this 45-minute presentation FREE OF CHARGE .

OTHER QUESTIONS?

Contact the Plainfield Friends Meeting office at (317)839-6490 (Monday-Friday, 9:00 am – Noon)

I went shopping on lunch, and heard Christmas music in the store for the first time this year. Seems a little early to me, but it reminded me that the Indianapolis Symphony will soon be performing its annual Yuletide Celebration concerts—and it's never too early to get tickets for that series, for it's very popular. The Yuletide Celebration features instrumental and choral holiday music, plus dancers, guest tenor Mike Eldred, and even Santa himself—there really is something for everyone to enjoy.

Fortunately, you have something like 27 performances to choose from! Check out their December calendar to see all the date and time options for the 2006 Yuletide Celebration. There are even some "SuperSaver" performances during the week, where you can save up to $15 per ticket compared to the weekend performances. The Yuletide Celebration concerts are sponsored by Duke Energy.

On August 11 and 12 at the Hilbert Circle Theater, the ISO is teaming up with renowned game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall for Video Games Live—a music experience like no other.

Lasers, lights, and videogame footage will accompany music from some of the most popular games in history such as Halo, Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Kingdom Hearts, Medal of Honor, Tomb Raider, Myst, Madden Football, Finding Nemo, and many more. You'll also hear virtuoso Martin Leung, the Video Game Pianist, perform his exclusive piano arrangement of music from ten of the hit Final Fantasy games!

If you've ever wanted to introduce your kids to the symphony, now's the time—once they experience the power of the ISO with music they recognize, maybe you can get them to go back again later to hear something new.

Read the Press Release • Buy Tickets Online

So you're looking for some live music in town and you just don't know where the heck to go. Ok, maybe you're not, but for the sake of this post, let's pretend that you are. By no means am I a club hound, bar hopper or even much of a scenester anymore, but I've spent my time in some of the more infamous juke joints this town has to offer back when I did my music journalism thing. So if you will, allow me to blather my perspective on Indianapolis music clubs.

Continue reading "Indy Live Music Clubs: A Quick and Dirty Guide"

So you only turn 250 once; you might as well celebrate. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and friends made it a special occasion for Mozart—birthday cupcakes and all!—on his actual birthday, as part of their ongoing Mozart Festival. Together with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and four soloists, the ISO performed an all-Mozart program including his final masterpiece, the Requiem.

Continue reading "Symphony Review: Mozart's Requiem (and Birthday!)"

If you're into local music, then you know the name Extra Blue Kind. Conceived roughly five years ago, the band has been gaining notoriety locally and even nationally - snagging some corporate radio play and spots on arena stages. But check this out...

A fourteen year old girl from Chile named Fernanda Frick Hassenberg snagged one of their tunes, put in six months of animating time, and posted her own video for the song Pinch, Blink, Stay Alive to Newgrounds, a website devoted to new Flash animation. The band is pretty well stoked.

Fernanda proves herself to be a natural with animation and storytelling, having only used Flash for a short while. Her animation has caught the attention of the press, and the nature of her homespun video for an indie band has so much charm, you can't help but to say "Hey... that's pretty cool".

So check it out. Pinch, Blink, Stay Alive

Listen to Throw Rag. Just because. Desert Shores ftw.

"Dude, it's my belt. If I don't have it, my pants will fall down."

I was giving the security guard some lip. Sometimes, things just fall out of my mouth – like when you're trying to change a lightbulb in a lamp suspended above your head and you need to get a tiny screw in place to secure the bulb. Your arms are stretched above up high, you're trying not to fall from the chair you've turned into a step-stool and you've almost quite got it… then the tiny screw slips from your grasp and rattles across the floor to gawd knows where. You don't want it to happen, but in the back of your mind you know it's going to, and there's nothing you can do. That's how my mouth works.

Continue reading "Green Day Rakes In The Green Backs"

Friday was a warm night, the moon was bright and full - only occassionally obscured by clouds. Outside Radio Radio, I chatted with David A., the braided and fanged bass player for Form30. My pal Leigh had appeared from within the club, giving me a friendly hug. It was good to see these two, as it had been a while. DJ Coppter Top joined us outside, leaving the beat behind in the club.

"Who's spinning?", David asked Copper Top.

"I am", she replied, grinning.

Continue reading "Form30"

I hoped to gawd that was beer that had run down my leg and into my shoe - and only beer. It was definitely cold, which was almost refreshing, but damn, I really didn't want to smell like beer. I suppose there was just no way to avoid it. I quickly forgot about it and decided to pay more attention to the chaos around me.

Continue reading "I Need Someone To Shove"

Damn.

I need to get some more tattoos.

I realize I'm going to get torn to shreds by my fellow Indyscribers for the utter cheesy sappiness of this post, but I don't care. It's Valentine's Day, I'm in love, and someone actually loves me back. The confluence of those three conditions is rare, so I choose to wallow in the spectacular sickening sweetness of it all, because, hey this never happens to me. Here are my top 10 favorite love songs.

Continue reading "My Top 10 Favorite Love Songs"

In a previous discussion we touched upon the subject of the general suckiness of Indianapolis radio stations. With the possible exception of high school stations and NPR, commercial radio stations have little to be desired. What's a geek-bling loving guy to do? In my case, it was XM Radio to the rescue.

Continue reading "XM Radio - Save me from Sucky Indy Radio Stations!"

Starting at 6 this morning, WTTS radio station began playing through their entire catalog of songs alphabetically. Currently they've finished all songs beginning with "All." I fully realize that I will get made fun of for posting this, since three writers on our IndyScribe team are in a alt/punk band, but somebody needed to put something in the "Music" category.