check out this BLOG

I came across the blog of Chad Bower, a music journalist, who has interviewed lots of BIG names like Judas Priest, Metallica, Sepultura etc. He seems to update his blog daily or weekly with some insightful and interesting reviews/interviews.
There is an interview with Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro on their latest album Shallow Life. I haven't heard it all yet but I'm not tooooo impressed with the first single Spellbound. But still, you gotta love Lacuna.
Check Chad Bower's blog here.

METAL MAY

There will be many many things going on in May.
For starters we have Nightwish May 2nd at the Nokia Theater. I must say that I am not a big fan of operatic metal so Tarja's departure did not bother me. i know she has a lot of faithful followers but I prefer the sound of Anette.
Then at the end of May we have legendary Opeth playing at the Grand Ballroom with Enslaved on the 26th. This has got to be a very powerful show.

Of course there will be a much smaller-scale metal show May 30th at the Delancey with my band and Invidia and Metal John. This is a "proven-to-work" formula guaranteed to get your heads banging.

Thoughts

There are definitely a lot of indie rock, metal, pop rock, alternative band in NY playing shows at every live gig place in the city. It's a challenge to try to keep up and to spend time distinguishing between what's good and what's bad. Sometimes there is no such thing as good and bad. Sometimes it's the music that makes one band stand out, other times it's the frontman/frontwoman, other times the energy during shows, other times some shocking memorability trick...
Of course I have prejudice for bands that I know and am affiliated with. For example, Invidia are a great example of a band that combined skilled musicians, energy and catchy songs. www.myspace.com/indiviatheband (of course this true if you like death metal)

Other "big" events coming up are the HAUNTED April 19th 2009 at BB KING BLUES CLUB AND GRILL and one of my old favorites QUEENSRYCHE at the NOKIA THEATER May 15th 2009.
Price is usually an issue with such bands. I'm starting to become a bigger fan of local, smaller gigs where the atmosphere is much more personal and there is more human contact.
Nevertheless, all bands need our support so....

Wikipedia

I was reading an interesting article in TPM (the philosopher's magazine) about Wikipedia. There was a debate concerning the entries in Wikipedia in terms of their ability to make qualitative distinction on information and knowledge. In other words, one author suggested that there should be a prioritizing, a hierarchy of information like in an encyclopedia written by experts, while the other author supported writers' rights to define for themselves what is important information, what gets to be included etc without setting limit. For example, the opposer of Wikipedia made the point that in Wikipedia, an article about Pamela Anderson may be longer than an article about the Edgar Allan Poe. In addition, the later may be filled with information written by people who are not experts. On the other hand, the supporter was saying that since Wikipedia entries are not in paper, thus there is no need to save space, there shouldn't be such limitations. And that the entries should reflect the writer's perceived notion of importance.
Nevertheless, this NY times article makes a good point by saying that "the greater the foot traffic, the safer the neighborhood". This may have implications about the importance of multiple voices and opinions for each entry.