Regardless of what this does to my credibility, I just had to be share: I recently spent a Saturday with my friend from high school at a Backstreet Boys concert.
It was fun being a teenager again, just for one day. Forgetting the responsibilities of being an adult and just having fun dancing and singing along to mindless pop. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
This weekend, I’m going to see Lady Gaga live in concert as part of her Monster Ball tour.
What I’ve always liked about Gaga is that she never turns the Gaga image and personality off – as crazy, out-there and strange as that may be. At times, it’s even scary…
I always enjoyed the singles I heard on the radio, but I never expected that I would love her album. When I finally took the time to listen to it, it became one of my favourite discoveries from the past year – full of excellent and catchy pop and dance songs. I still can’t stop listening to it.
I’m sure it’s going to be a Gaga-good time – a delight to both the ears and eyes and an unbelievable night of entertainment. I expect no less than a full-on spectacle.
Image source: whittlz (Creative Commons License – BY-NC-ND)
I love movies, books, music and TV shows. Who doesn’t?
Here’s the thing: I have a habit of getting into shows, books and musicians late in the game.
At face value, this may seem like a bad thing – it means I rarely get to be the “one who discovered the awesomeness of…”
But the truth is that I don’t actually care.
Waiting and being late in the game has its benefits:
Here are some examples of things I love now but didn’t pay attention to for a long time:
The list could go on forever.
So what does this mean? People get to be excited and watch in anticipation as I fall in love and become addicted. They participate enthusiastically as I go on and on about these shows or books that they’ve loved for years already.
This also means that people think I’m slow and really out of touch – but I don’t mind.
From this point forward, I plan to write about and share my thoughts on all of my “new discoveries” here. So please bare with me – sometimes I’ll be on the ball and other times I won’t. Either way, your feedback and comments will greatly be appreciated.
Image source: Suchitra Prints (Creative Commons License – BY)
A few months ago, one of my friends from high school was talking to me about Justin Timberlake and all of his business ventures. While we were talking, I decided to look up his record label Tennman Records. At that time, I discovered an artist with a talent that I can’t get enough of. An artist with a vastly different music style than I had expected from Timberlake’s label.
That artist is Matt Morris.
Matt was a Mickey Mouse Club star along with Timberlake (and Christina Aguilera, JC Chasez and Britney Spears). While his MMC peers went on to become pop sensations, Matt went home to a more normal life. He didn’t give up his music though and over time he worked with some famous pop stars on their albums, writing for Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and Timberlake himself.
Long story short, after Timberlake decided he was going to create his own label, he signed Matt as his first artist. The first time I heard Matt sing was when he performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” with Timberlake at Hope for Haiti Now earlier this year. Remember that performance?
Matt’s first album When Everything Breaks Open was released earlier this year and is currently one of my favourite cds. His music style is quite different from those he’s written for – Amazon lists him as rock/pop and iTunes lists him as more singer/songwriter. His album is diverse as each song is different from the others. I strongly recommend you listen to “Live Forever,” “Un-American,” “Bloodline,” “Money”, “Forgiveness” and “Love” here.
I recently got to see him perform live as the opening act for Ingrid Michaelson. I went to the show as a big fan of the album but I was blown away the minute he started singing. Matt’s voice was a lot richer, fuller and soulful than I had expected. He was a great performer and a half an hour set just wasn’t enough. I can’t wait for him to return to Toronto to do a full show.
We did manage to meet him after the show and had our CDs signed. He was soft spoken and kind, and seemed surprised by everyone’s enthusiasm for his music.
I will leave you with this acoustic performance by Matt of “Live Forever” – one of my favourite tracks from his album and his new single:
PS. Here’s a short but great interview that InMusic did with Matt when he was in Toronto.
In the wake of the devastating Haiti earthquake, we’ve seen groups of artists from around the world get together to record (or re-record) a handful of charity singles.
All are quite moving and some are better than others. Here are a selection:
Oh and I’ll include this next video just because this performance of the song has been haunting me since they performed it live:
Visit your local iTunes store (or any other online vendor you prefer) to purchase any of these songs and donate to Haiti relief.