Vinyl Notes

The 28th Annual Ragga Muffins Festival in Long Beach drew a smaller crowd – could be the economy, or not enough mainstream artists to draw the parade of hipsters, pretty people and meat-heads so prevalent three years ago. In keeping with the festival’s oft spoken of return to its roots, this year’s line-up was about uplifting your spirits, not just shaking your booty.

In our preview we touched on the contributions of Lee “Scratch” Perry and Tony Rebel. On Sunday we got a history lesson on Leroy Sibbles…given by Sibbles himself.  A legend by most standards, Sibbles is not attributed for his contributions to reggae (most notably his famed baseline popularized in “Pass the Dutchie”).

Well, we can give Sibbles credit for injecting the day with energy and establishing a collective desire for communion. As he repeated the refrain, “love is in air” we could see it was, as strangers danced together and refreshments were shared freely.

Sibbles set left the audience well primed for Pressure, a performer who may lack wrinkles but does not lack depth. It was obvious he enjoyed performing as much as the crowd was feeling him. When the crowd started singing his lyrics, Pressure couldn’t resist a smile and wink, reveling in their energy.

Great performances abounded, but this Bob Marley Day clearly belonged to Stephen Marley. The acoustic gig had an ethereal power, commanding the crowd’s attention from a seat in center stage. The crowd was enraptured and reverent, receiving his music like an offering. Festival goer Addison Alkire said it best, “this feels like church.” While Marley’s rendition of his father’s songs were true to form, his use of flute & sax imparted his own resonance.

At the end of the set Ziggy and Julian joined their brother onstage. The audience responded with exuberance, appreciative to have so many Marley’s back.

It wasn’t all roses though. Introduced as “the son of a legend”, it seemed the Marley name got Julian a better time slot than he merited. Tanya even speculated that dubious intro might be foreshadowing. The audience was not impressed with his lineage and zoned out after the second song, missing repetitive melodies and gratuitous face grabbing.

By contrast, up-and-comer E-Dee’s energetic exhibition would have benefited from better placement; his was the first set on Sunday. He delivered songs heavy on bass with danceable beats, but it was like trying to light a wet match. After the set E-Dee acknowledged his attempts to draw audience, saying “If you don’t get hype the audience won’t.”

Another notable, Etana, also had a lackluster response, though for entirely different reasons. She blamed inadequate time for failing to get her message across; we humbly submit our own hypothesis. The instrumentation overpowered her voice from the start. As time went the strain on her voice was evident, perhaps from the effort of singing over the music. Even so, we must bear witness, she sings with grace, free of superfluous vibrato. And onstage she is regal.

Onto non-musical details. There were fewer vendors this year, but that was not a bad thing. Gone were the mass produced Bob Marley onesies sold at a dozen booths. When asked about the improved quality of the cultural wares, festival organizer Barbara Barabino said, “I was tired of the crap too.” She went on to say that she prioritized vendor selection this year, personally inviting real artists to “bring it back.”

Despite lower attendance, the 28th Annual Ragga Muffins Festival was a success. Buju Banton, Saturday’s headliner, said he makes music “to uplift, educate and eradicate negativity from the minds of the people.” That charge may well be applied to the real purpose of reggae music. This weekend that promise was fulfilled.

Tonight you can catch the 2008 BET Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, airing live at 8PM ET on BET. While the BET (NYSE:VIA) is calling this awards show “the hottest ticket on television” there has been virtually no buzz until today. This begs the question, has this event been marketed effectively? Or am I just that detached from BET?   

Truth be told, I haven’t tuned in to anything BET related in years, so the answer could be the latter. However, I do make efforts to keep my finger on the pulse of music news (so I can deliver the important bits to you dear readers) and the BET Awards just sort of snuck up on me. Oh well…

The show does sound promising with performances by Rihanna, Marvin Sapp, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys, a lifetime achievement award for Al Green, the Humanitarian Award for Quincy Jones and a litany of stars to present the awards.

Music award categories and nominees after the jump…

(more…)

This Saturday independent record stores across the nation celebrated their cultural contributions to their local neighborhoods with National Record Store Day. When I found out about this event, I went straight to the list of participating retailers to see if my local record store, Fingerprints, was taking part and was pleased to see that they were. So I spent Saturday afternoon digging through crates of albums, observed a signing by Metal legend Rob Halford and in the evening caught a performance by Limbeck.

My friends at Listen In reported  Record Store Day from their respective corners of the US. Eric Atienza rose early to go to Other Music - his favorite record store in New York - and couldn't control his urges; leaving with a host of things to add to his vinyl collection. Evan Mix lamented that he was unable to visit his local record store but made a recommendation for a performance in his area. My partner in crime and I wrote about the Long Beach celebration of Record Store Day.

While Fingerprints has expanded over the years, there is absolutely no wasted space. Stacks of CDs 3′ high were liberally strewn about as were boxes of t-shirts. Suffice it to say Fingerprints is your typical neighborhood record store. We would like to offer details of the Silversun Pickups’ set, but the list was full within minutes and we missed out. We did, however, have a chance to check out Limbeck and lead singer Robb MacLean’s gravely alto timbre was perfectly suited to their country tinged indie rock sound.

Fans weren’t discouraged by the late start of the set or the lack of a rhythm section. In fact, there was no room for percussion or the bass, two dudes and two guitars was all the stage could handle for this intimate performance.

(more…)

As far as I’m concerned, most award shows are about hype, especially the Grammys. There was nothing truly inspired by this year’s awards. Yes, Amy Winehouse has a phenomenal voice and Back to Black was her breakout album, but her first one was better. True enough The Pretender by Foo Fighters was in constant rotation, but it was by no means the best rock performance of the year. And someone please explain how Alicia Keys won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “No One”? C’mon people, seriously!

Since I really have nothing good to say about the Grammys, I invite you to have a good laugh with the Listen In writers at Newsvine and their first annual Blammy Awards:

 

“Roll out the red carpet! The Grammys are a farce, so we at Listen In have decided to host our very own music awards show. We'll laugh… we'll cry… we'll take aim at some of the more vulnerable targets available. We'll even hand out a few awards. We're calling it the Blammys.”

kmmad