… Newport News Va. Sam McDonald column: An offbeat time…

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- … Newport News Va. Sam McDonald column: An offbeat time…
- Articulate: Your picks of 2006. December 31 2006. ABC News (Australia…
- Whole Albums in Concert – Music – Report – New York Times
- n Death and dying

… Newport News Va. Sam McDonald column: An offbeat time…
Free with registration – Daily Press – AccessMyLibrary.com – Dec 31, 2006
Sam McDonald column: An offbeat time for the popular music beat. 31–Looking back at live music in Hampton Roads in 2006 I’m struck by how much I missed. For instance what on Earth could have prevented me from seeing Irish music legen.

Articulate: Your picks of 2006. December 31 2006. ABC News (Australia…
ABC Regional nline – ABC Regional nline – Dec 31, 2006
A charity event providing money for people with brain injuries it is a day filled with the best metal acts from across the country. Highlights for me were the amazing… Humorous art adventures with exploding objects. Miles:The arts highlight for 2006 would have to be the Douglas John Leslie tribute gig at Drum power on the 3rd of December it was amazing to see so many bands pull together to play for the recently departed. From the brutal bone-grinding face-shredding Death Metal of The ccularis Infernum to the mind-boggling soul-crushing unstoppable force of Ruins. Truly the highlight of the 2006 music calendar. Jill Keogh northern New South Wales:Without doubt Jindabyne was a riveting experience the opening scene culturally gutting to any woman as the Chris Haywood character stalks his prey the young Aboriginal woman. A courageous look at sexist racist Australia in 2006 this film will never be forgotten by this viewer!Laura in Perth:Movies: ver here in Australia we started or moreover crossed into the year with Narnia and RENT which were both excellent movies in their own right. Since Australia by way of location and all that hoo hah receives some things a little late we were then treated to Capote which was indeed a fascinating masterpiece.

Whole Albums in Concert – Music – Report – New York Times
New York Times – Dec 31, 2006
Newer albums are aired out as well: Iron Maiden is performing its latest offering “A Matter of Life and Death” on its current world tour. Such shows tend to receive positive critical attention but the current transformation of the music marketplace suggests that albums are being presented onstage because they’re becoming museum-ified relics. As digital downloading changes the way music is consumed could the album be going live because it’s dead?Maybe the album’s dead; but then maybe it isn’t. It’s become a commonplace that albums are losing their authority as artistic entities as an increasing number of people buy music song by song via services like iTunes. So playing an album live helps artists regain a modicum of creative control. The experience is like listening to a playlist but this time (as earlier) it’s the musicians and producers themselves who are devising it. What’s curious is that the same changes in music consumption that are hurting the album are helping to keep it alive… A Welsh paper reported that in December “vocalist Bruce Dickinson bouncy-balled magnificently onto the stage but when five tracks in he confirmed they would play the whole album there was a negative reaction; largely silence even the odd boo. ” The impetus to find new ways to freshen up a stage act is so strong that the live-album phenomenon isn’t limited to grizzled classic-rock veterans. In the tours that followed its 2003 reunion for instance the funk-metal group Primus played “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” (1991) and “Frizzle Fry” (1990) in their entirety. “It was an interesting way of presenting material that for a good portion of our fans held a dear place” said Les Claypool that band’s bassist-singer underlining the allure of LP recreation for both audience and musicians. Many of the younger bands invited by Don’t Look Back a series created in 2005 by the ultra-hip British festival All Tomorrow’s Parties come from punk’s song-oriented rebellion. For them the impetus seems slightly different since they already tend to do well enough on the live circuit and playing an album live does not suddenly vault them into larger venues. In their case what’s at stake is the opportunity for the press and the fans to evaluate (or re-evaluate) a particular album’s place in underground-music history.

n Death and dying
Toronto Star – Dec 31, 2006
For me that would be a nightmare. Still that album’s headstrong barrage of minimalist metal bluster punk brevity and pop song writing crystallized in the smashing crossover single "Romantic Rights" was the rare breed of hard rock that played equally well to indie hipsters head bangers "modern rock" radio listeners and MuchMusic viewers. It put the band in the esteemed company of such forebears as Nirvana and Queens of the Stone Age. Greater success was more or less assured; DFA’s last show was playing to 12000 people at the Calgary Saddledome while opening for the aforementioned Queens and Nine Inch Nails. As it stands Death From Above 1979 is destined to take on "legendary" status in the annals of Can-rock history. The band was one of the key figures in Canada’s recent internationally notorious indie-rock renaissance… Grainger who now shares studio space with Metric’s Jimmy Shaw has resurfaced on MySpace with intriguing new material of his own and can be heard making a variety of noises on Tangiers frontman Josh Reichmann’s solo album as Jewish Legend. Neither DFA refugee is about to disappear. Nor is the music they made together. Copyright 1997-2006 mniture Inc.