More Fair Fare

Got out to see another county fair concert a week and a half ago. It was a triple bill: Blues Traveler, Collective Soul, and Live.

Blues traveler is still traveling, and still kicking ass. That Popper dude sure knows how to blow the old mouth organ. Seriously, it was mindblowing how much air that guy has. Highlight of their show: a rendition of Devil Went Down to Georgia where he played the fiddle parts on the harmonica. Crazy.

I've heard Collective Soul on the radio before and I was kind of hoping they would rock. They didn't.

Live rocked the house, though they didn't rock quite as hard as I would have liked. As much as I was looking forward to seeing Live I think I liked Blues Traveler more for overall entertainment. However, they did play I Alone and a bunch of other old hits and I have to admit I stood next to the speakers and, uh, let loose with my inner headbanger. It was somewhat embarassing, but worth it.

NOW....on to more electronic matters....

I found a great album to run with. Ursula 1000 :Here Comes Tomorrow. It's not the newest thing on the block (released in 2006), but man is it fun. He's got this nice modern twist on old-school funk/soul samples and original vocal recordings that makes him stand out from the million other remixers out there in my opinion. You may recognize the first track "Kaboom!" from a cell phone commercial last year (or something like that). The rest of the album isn't quite as fun/jumpy/pop sounding as that one, though. He does some very interesting and subtle things throughout. For example, "Electric Boogie" (track 4) sounds like some seriously retro trash even before you get past the title. However, to me it sounds like a sweet combination of Prince and Justin Timberlake, both in the production and in the vocal style. I have no idea who he uses for his vocals (it might be Ursula himself) but it hits my workout right around the time I'm getting warmed up (somewhere in the middle of my second mile) and gets me juiced for the run.