Have A Digital Electric-Acoustic Multiangle 5.1 Surround Sound Christmas
Bryan Rodgers
2003-10-29
It's coming...that one day that most retailers base their entire financial
lives on. As you read this, billions of twinkling lights and metric tons of
faux greenery are being systematically displayed across the nation. By the
time November rolls around every year, the escapist chicanery of Christmas
is everywhere. I usually start noticing around October 25, two months out,
which many housewives apparently mark as D-Day for their yearly onslaught of
festive yard implements. The funniest part is driving by a doublewide in
the sticks and seeing an inflatable ghost near the road, framed by a
backdrop of Christmas cheer. I noticed the onset of Christmas fury in a different way this year (no, not
religiously). In handling all the incoming products for the HGMN, I spend a
fair amount of time in New Release mode, voluntarily or involuntarily
finding out about everything from the new Ben Harper DVD to the third
release from Germany's most potent speed metal band. Sometimes I don't find
out about them until they are in my hand. This year, there has simply been
a tidal wave of products that started in early October and has not let up
since. All the music fans will be hankering for the new Pearl Jam rarities CD or
the new Coldplay DVD, but how about the stuff that is coming out from our
little world? Shopping for the music-crazed person on your list is going to
be very difficult this year, and you may not escape without buying yourself
a gift or two. The madness is coming in different formats, too. With DVD taking over, the
choices for killer gifts this year are definitely shaped like DVD cases.
November will see the release of DVDs from Blues Traveler, Ben Harper,
Grateful Dead, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Frank Zappa, Little Feat, and
Umphrey's McGee. The Umphrey's DVD, "Live From the Lake Coast", just popped
into my hands recently, and I must say it is well worth the wait since July
of 2002 when the shows were filmed. It jazzes up the typical concert format
with frequent multi-frame segments where you may see three dramatic views of
the same band member, or five entirely different vantage points all at once
in different combinations. There's also a host of biographical material on
the band and a slew of hidden and up-front extras. The Grateful Dead
"Closing Of Winterland" DVD has been the talk of the town for a few weeks
now, and with good reason. The 400 minute presentation chronicles the last
night of music at the legendary Winterland venue, and of course Bill Graham
chose The Grateful Dead to bring the house lights down. Special guests
aplenty and some nice extras make this a top priority for any Deadhead! One release that makes everyone go "wow" is the new "The Deepest End" set
from Gov't Mule. I took some time with this one and was amazed! It is 2
CDs and 1 DVD, which is a nice twist on the format. You get the expansive
2-disc live show, and one DVD of the highlights. There's so many special
guests coming on and off the stage, it will make your head spin. Somehow,
Warren Haynes still manages to be the star of the show when all is said and
done. Another interesting DVD we just got is Strangefolk's first foray into
the format. They have released a selection of tunes filmed at their Garden
of Eden Festival in 2002. Also blowing minds this month is the long-awaited
release of Pink Floyd's "Live At Pompeii" on DVD. Pink Floyd are truly the
forefathers of the audio-visual music experience! SCI fans have been
gobbling up the new "Live At The Fillmore" 2 DVD set, which is the Cheese's
first true concert DVD. The last DVD I have to mention here is the 2-DVD
set recently released by Tabla Beat Science. Although not a well-known
group, everyone who hears this project is mesmerized by the mix of
hypersonic Indian percussion and futuristic techno sounds. Tabla master
Zakir Hussain is a joy to watch all the way through this concert, which
utilizes surround sound to the highest degree. Those are just a few of the hundreds of delectable DVDs that will be
released in the next month, and we are personally excited to be releasing 5
new albums at this time of the year on Harmonized records. Just out are the
new studio albums from ulu and MODEREKO. One band is all lowercase, the
other upper, but both smokin' on their new CDs! The MODEREKO album features
Keller Williams on three tracks and is truly an all-star release. Coming in
a few weeks are new albums from Cadillac Jones (whose song "Concourse '73"
is among the top downloads at porn music site www.fluffertrax.com) and
supergroup Garaj Mahal, whose first recording together will finally be
released under the moniker "Mondo Garaj". Coming soon is a new live album
from The Recipe, a group that has not released an album in 3 years. It's
called "All You Can Eat" and it is pure, uncut Recipe good times! I'll keep
you posted! A new set of Allman Brothers Band live tracks has just been released.
Recorded on July 3 and 5, 1970 at the Atlanta Pop Festival, this set
highlights the earliest ABB lineup in all its glory with 2 CDs of their
psychedelic southern blues. The Slip has also released two live CDs, one
electric and one acoustic, in separate packages with different artwork. The
trio is in it's finest form on both of these albums. Finally, I must
mention the new Vida Blue release, "The Illustrated Band", which is a 100%
improvement over the dirgelike tempos of the all-star band's first release.
Utilizing the fiery Latin grooves of The Spam Allstars, the trio of Page
McConnell, Oteil Burbridge, and Russell Batiste lay down open-ended grooves
that are punctuated by DJ madness, horn blasts, and furious percussion. One
of the biggest surprises of the year! Hopefully I've gotten all of this out of my system and given you a
mini-Sears-catalog of music to pine for this winter, or maybe I've made it
harder. But if you've got a minute, I can give you MY list...
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