| Music review: The Killers show growing maturity | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 11:25:39 AM by Blog57 Team | | If The Killers seemed like schoolboys before, then with the release of their sophomore album, "Sam's Town," they have officially become young men -- albeit skinny and grungy young men with ridiculously unruly hairstyles. The Killers said they wanted to show the world that they've matured and entered a new phase of their musical career. .... | |
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| | | It's Sunday night in Cleveland, and the party's just beginning | | Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 11:04:28 PM by Blog57 Team | | Maybe it was the thumping Balkan techno. Or the whirling belly dancer shaking the floor. Or the Italian flick flashing on the wall, about a woman and her behind. Maybe it was all that AND the vodka martinis I was drinking that made me feel like I was elsewhere. No way this is a Sunday night in Cleveland. Well, it was. (I definitely realized it when the sound of my alarm clock hit my head like a jackhammer Monday morning.) Since May 2004, you see, the Mercury Lounge has hosted one of the city's most vibrant of parties, Roma. The weekly dance party transforms the club, 1392 West Sixth St., Cleveland, into a United Nations of Partying. Roma not only spins out contemporary world dance music, but also boasts belly dancers, Italian flicks and transplants the world over.... | |
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| | | The Zen of Revolution | | Posted Thursday, August 17, 2006 9:32:49 PM by Blog57 Team | | Michael Ramos bears not a single distinguishing characteristic of the revolutionary. He's a quiet, unassuming, trim, and well-dressed man who has spent almost his entire career in subordinate roles in a variety of groups. He's been a member of the Bodeans and the Rembrandts and played accordion and keyboards for Patty Griffin, John Mellencamp, Paul Simon, and, currently, Los Lonely Boys. Yet on the long bus journeys and overnight hotel stays that take up far too great a percentage of a road musician's life, Ramos uses Pro Tools to transform all the music he's played and has grown up with into a unique synthesis that blows apart preconceptions. Ramos has released two albums as Charanga Cakewalk, which is what he calls the result. It's a conceptual group, like Steely Dan, consisting of Ramos and whatever friends, acquaintances, and heroes he manages to corral.... | |
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| | | Ask The DJ: Cristy | | Posted Saturday, August 12, 2006 3:05:09 PM by Blog57 Team | | Detroit is the home to some serious music; from Motown to rock and, more recently, to techno. Not surprisingly its also the place where some of the hottest DJs on the planet work their stuff. But South East Michigan is also the home of DJ Cristy, who is now semi-retired but who still has a lot to say about music, superstar DJs, queer life and more. Read on! Where do you DJ? I am semi-retired now, but I used to spin at two Detroit dyke clubs, one called Stilettos and the other called Crocktales. Crocktales is closed now, probably because of its beach theme which made no sense in an industrial section of Detroit. I still spin at least once a year at the NOLOSE conference for fat dykes and their allies. I like to play fat-positive music. How did you get started? I went to DJ school.... | |
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| | | DJ Spooky sends a subliminal message | | Posted Sunday, July 09, 2006 1:01:38 AM by Blog57 Team | | Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, will perform this weekend at Bard College's SpiegelPalais, part of the SummerScape festival. Miller is the author of "Rhythm Science," a book about DJ culture and contemporary art, and just released his latest compilation of 30 years of Jamaican music, "DJ Spooky Presents: In Fine Style 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records." He spoke to the Poughkeepsie Journal about the Bard College performances in a recent e-mail interview: Spiegeltents are pavilions built of wood, mirrors, canvas and leaded glass that have been used as traveling entertainment halls since the early 20th century. How do you think the cabaret salon setting will affect your performance of "Subliminal Strings?" I'm a big fan of architecture and music some of my favorites are the Philips Pavilion of 1958 and J.... | |
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| | | Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires | | Posted Tuesday, July 04, 2006 7:06:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | Ancient China. A land where rival warlords deliver inexplicably American speeches woodenly, and battle is joined to the stirring strains of ancient Chinese heavy metal and techno music. In this strategy-cum- fighting game, you get to choose from a huge number of leaders and campaigns, some with political solutions, some military. As the title suggests, different iterations of Dynasty Warriors have been successfully knocking about for years, and the developers make great claims for this Xbox 360 game being a step- change forward. It isn?t. The strategy elements are complicated, but if that?s the kind of game you want, there are plenty better and deeper to be found on PC, and the graphics are no more than adequate. As for the combat sequences, they rely too much on repetitive button- mashing, and leaderless soldiers stand around like sheep awaiting the slaughter.... | |
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