Lily Allen’s Alright Still is by far the most addictive album of the year! It’s brit pop, reggae, hip hop and just about anything else thrown into the mix. At it’s core it is upbeat music juxtaposed against gritty lyrics. She’s currently touring the u.s. and will be making a stop in new york.
There’s nothing like catching an intimate performance by one of your favorite artists. Jorge Drexler, of Motorcycles Diaries fame, gave an amazing performance last tuesday at Town Hall in NY and I was lucky enough to be there. He was touring his new album 12 Segundos de Oscuridad which is just as good as his last cd Eco. Now, you might not be able to appreciate Jorge’s piercing poetry if you don’t speak spanish. But for those of you who do, his live “unplugged” performance is like a mirror to his soul, truly a magical moment.
Here’s a treat for Bollywood fans. An NPR interview with legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle on NPR’s Soundcheck. She has done playback singing for over 925 Bollywood movies and she is sister to none other than Lata Mangeshkar.
I got to see Corinne Bailey Rae at the Troubadour on monday. She has become one of my new favorites and since she rocked the show she is now on heavy rotation on my playlist. If you don’t know her yet, you will soon. Make sure to check her out.
It rained all day and all night yesterday. A rare thing here in L.A. Rainy days usually turn melancholic for me and yesterday was no exception. I felt so sad thinking of my Tata that I kept replaying in my head how everything went down the day she passed away. Early in the day I had found these 22 unreleased Elliott Smith tracks ( via Ed ) that are rumored to be disc two of what should have been a double album. They’re calling it “From A Basement On The Hill II”. So I listened to Elliott Smith the whole day. His voice carries so much fragility that I just connected with it because I was feeling just as fragile. Man, the power of music.
Link - This guy has a link to a 90mb “YouSendIt” file. Get it while you can.
I am so saddened, I just found out that while I was attending my grandparent’s funerals last month in Puerto Rico, Ibrahim Ferrer from Buena Vista Social Club died in a Havana Hospital at age 78. According to BBC News, he has joined the fate of Compay Segundo and Rubén Gonzalez who also died in recent years. We will miss their music greatly. It’s amazing how Ry Cooder captured their brilliance in the Buena Vista Social Club documentary right before they died. Because of this film they found International stardom at a very old age. I had the pleasure of seeing Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén Gonzalez live at UCLA a couple of years ago. It was one of the most memorable concerts I’ve experienced. If you don’t know who they are or ever heard of the film, I STRONGLY recommend you look into it.
Whenever my family gets together there’s an immediate sharing of music. There’s CD ripping, iPod hacking, file transfering and that’s just with grandma. I’m visiting my sisters right now so the sharing time has come and the biggest musical discovery was Jorge Drexler, a singer songwriter from Uruguay. Jorge won an oscar for best song with “Al otro lado del rio” from the film The Motorcycle Diaries. His song was performed at the show by Antonio Banderas accompanied by Santana. A painful experience to say the least. But he made justice to his music when he received the award from Prince ( a treat by itself ), he simply just sang it. No thanks to agents or studio executives, it was the best Oscar speech ever.
Links
Buy Eco from iTunes
Buy Eco from Amazon
Buy Frontera from Amazon
Jorge Drexler’s Website
I’ve been wanting to hear some good new Hip-Hop for a while. This is not an easy task for me since I’m not a Hip-Hop fan perse. I mean I like Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def and De La Soul but only in small doses. Last year I ran into Black Eyed Peas and just really played it a lot. So I was glad to hear they got a new album out and even happier to hear how good it is. Ed thinks it might be a bit too commercial, but I think it’s just perfect for me. What does he know, he’s white.
What is All Forces?
All Forces is the blog of Melvin Rivera. The name All Forces came from the fact that I am a designer turned programmer( a rare species ) and I can call on an All Forces when working on a project. The left and the right side of the brain. The esthetics and the function. The beauty and the brains.
Do you have a wish list?
I have an Amazon wish list for set up for when my family and friends need a little help picking out a gift for me. And just in time for my July 16th birthday!
Behind the scenes
This blog is powered by WordPress, an open source PHP/MySQL weblog. The design is loosely based on Kubrik originally by Michael Heilemann.
Plugins Used
This is a list of the plugins that power allforces.com. As you may know, the power of WordPress lies in the plugins. This list is dynamically generated by guess what, a plugin named “Plugins Used”.
