| Over the 'Borderline'
Geopolitics being what they are today, Madonna might want to reconsider one element of her "Confessions Tour," which returns to Madison Square Garden tomorrow for two nights. Midway through the show - which is otherwise excellent, even inspiring - a montage of images of world leaders is displayed above the stage. There's President Bush, President Ahmadinejad, Secretary of State Rice, Kim Jong Il, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Fidel Castro, and everyone's favorite punching bag, Vice President Cheney. The montage makes Madonna's worldview quite clear: The only difference between a Republican and a dictator is a mustache. Right, they're all the same. This jolting moment of moral equivalency is topped only by Madonna giving the president of the United States the middle finger. It's all a big dollop of juvenile thinking in the middle of a highly sophisticated show.
MUSIC: The Spin
Rarely do the worlds of Belle Meade high society and Nashville's hipster underground meet, but when they do, it's a good bet Tupper Saussy is involved. The former ad exec/'60s rocker/author/painter/IRS fugitive brought his latest incarnation, the Chocolate Orchid Piano Bar, to The Basement last Thursday night, and it's safe to say that the jewelry in the joint was worth more than the combined annual salaries of all the bands that have played the club in the last year. Though the crowd was mostly made up of what NFocus magazine would call “A-listers," there were more than a few local rockers in sight, including bassist Hags Haggerty, guitarist Audley Freed, Charlie Degenhart, Bill Lloyd and The Plastic Rulers' Warren Pash, who is currently producing a Saussy CD. The evening started with a short film about Saussy's life, including priceless footage from an early-'90s WSMV news broadcast about his time as a tax protestor on the lam from the IRS.
Boston's annual music festival takes over Fenway
The worlds of baseball and music have long been intertwined,going back to1908 when Jack Norworth wrote the lyrics to Take Me Out to the Ballgame and famously in 1967when Paul Simon wondered what happened to Joe DiMaggio in Mrs. Robinson. Buton Wednesday night, the two come together in Boston, where musicians and baseball fans alike converge on Fenway Park for the annual Hot Stove, Cool Music Festival. Scheduled to perform are James Taylor, Howie Day, Kay Hanley, Buffalo Tom (with guest rhythm guitarist Theo Epstein), Cowboy Mouth, Red Sox pitcher Lenny DiNardo anda slew of others. The event was born in 2000 as the brainchild of Boston Herald Red Sox beat writer Jeff Horrigan and ESPN's Peter Gammons. The two were hanging out at the Paradise Club in Boston when they noticed a poster on the wall for a band called Thurman Munson.
8. The Relentless Quest Of Paul Smith
At first listen you'd be forgiven for thinking that Beyond Reasonable Doubt are the latest in a long line of U.S. imports to hit these shores. Naturally, they hail from that well known American state: Surrey. Anyone with a passing interest in the fortunes of Punk and Hardcore will be more than familiar with the kind of sound that BRD bring to the table. Despite claiming a massive Green Day influence, the band in fact sound as if they've come straight from the rosters of either Fat Wreck or Epitaph. Indeed if you were blindfolded and forced to guess, it might even cross your mind that this is the new album from Bad Religion. So, an American influence is very much in evidence, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps the major give away though, is the focus of the lyrics.
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