Amaldo Music Spotlight: Regina Goes Mainstream, But the Proper Way

I did a Youtube search for one of my favorite artists today and discovered that Ms. Spektor is doing the theme song for the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. It’s a big coup for the artist, whose music has graced many a Grey’s Anatomy/CSI episode over and over again, but has yet to venture into the lucrative, albeit potential shark infested waters of Hollywood.

Anyways, as we’re huge fans of Regina on this blog and were planning on sneaking a peak of the new Narnia flick this weekend (Note: Not the Sex & The City movie), I say a celebratory drink is in high order. However, given that it’s 5 PM and I have a night of work ahead of me, I think I might have to settle for a run to the local Dunkin Donuts…

To hear a clip of the song, click below.

Little Amy Got Arrested

Amy, Amy, what are we going to do with you? After the Norwegian Police arrested one of our blog’s main subjects, she was released just in time to go on stage and do her thing. I also hear that some of her friends seemed pleased of the fact she only got arrested for the possession of weed and not something stronger. If they are so concerned about her they should send her to this place in Utah, to dry her talented but disturbed soul of all the shit that runs there. After watching Regina Spektor performers last week, without all the meshigayes*, but with a lot of magic, I understand that you don’t have to be a nut job to succeed, well maybe just a little…

*Craziness

Regina Spektor is More Glorious Live Than Pre-Recorded!

I’ve been owing readers here a recap of the Regina Spektor concert I attended last Sunday for roughly a week now, so here goes. In my defense, I turned the big 3-0 last week and was slightly preoccupied with birthday shenanigans. So now I’m back and ready to give Regina Spektor, experimental folk-acoustic, seductive songstress du jour (du semaine) a proper ode.

Headlining the Regina show was Only Son, aka iPod Man. His act was decent enough, but he went on for way too long and his shtick involved an iPod, which he used in lieu of a band. It got a little irksome after a while and as he came onstage drunk and saying a little too many “F*cks,” I quickly realized that a) I’m too old to find this MySpace-generated Mick Jagger/Bono wannabe remotely appealing and b) My generation (X) is WAY cooler than the 18-year-olds bopping along to the Yeah, like, that’s so f*cked man. Shit, ya know. Yeah, f*ck. Then again, maybe I’m being way too hard on our nation’s youth and even more frightening, maybe my generation sounded like that 12 years ago.

But then again, why were all these youngsters who I couldn’t envision really “getting” Regina’s brand of music, the overriding demographic present at her show?

Regina came out onstage 1.5 hours after the 7:30 starting time. While one can argue that the wait augments the level of anticipation, being stuck in the auditorium seating in Boston’s Orpheum Theater- whose seating was constructed and hasn’t been renovated since the early 20th Century when my height of 5′3 was the average height of a male, you can imagine the physical comfort level by the time the illustrious Ms. SpeKtor finally came onto stage.

Don’t get me wrong. Regina is a force to be reckoned with and well worth any wait. Coming onto stage, bright curly red hair, bright royal blue babydoll dress, with intermittent sprinklings of softspoken “thank you(s)” between belting out “Mary Anne is a B*tch” (it’s a song) and songs about people f*cking to her music, she carefully positions herself as the naughty nice girl. Others have gone down this road before in more gimmicky fashion, but Regina successfully avoids the common pitfalls of her peers and predecessors, salvaged by her musical range (high-pitched, discordant elongated shrieks a la Laurie Anderson to heavy, bluesy spirituals) and well, her, incredibly diverse RAW talent. (Norah Jones may also sing to the tune of the sweet songstress, but doesn’t manage the same sub-alt following, perhaps limited by range and level of experimentation. ) The difference being Regina owns her music, even when it’s not her music. Take her cover of John Lennon’s “Real Love” or her recent gig covering “Little Boxes” for the show Weeds. You can’t imagine (no pun intended) either song wasn’t written by her for her.

But back to the concert’s finale, Regina gave us our encores (”Samson”/”Fidelity” et al) and didn’t hold out on her audience, instead generously playing to the crowd, amidst delayed starts and iPod men that read more like boys. Oh, yeah. And really young kids yelling, That’s the f*ckin sh*t iPod Man!

The Postal Service Is The Best Cover Band That Ever Was

I recently heard a cover of Iron & Wine’s “Such Great Heights” on the radio and loved it more than the original. (Ben Folds’ cover is the version usually attributed as the original version of the song, but it’s not.) Nonetheless, it got me thinking that most often, we squirm at the thought of song covers (similar to the reaction to a movie sequel) and for good reason. Have you listened to Kelly Clarkson try and replicate the brilliance of Ray LaMontagne’s “Shelter”? If you haven’t, don’t. You’re better off listening to this guy on YouTube. He does a pretty good rendition. Of course, “Shelter” is a tough song to sing as my husband and I (and our neighbors who’ve listened to us) can both attest to.

But back to my new-found obsession with pop-techno, 80s retro band The Postal Service. They first broke onto the mainstream scene with their cover of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” for the Wicker Park soundtrack. That caught my attention a few years back, but listen to “Such Great Heights” below and enjoy them a bit. If you like, give “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” a try.

PS- Off to see Regina Spektor tonight (finally!) at the Orpheum. To give a synopsis in days to come…

Where Is Regina Spektor?

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met