Love & Memories

Of a Revolution. What comes to mind? Weed and a field of hippy dancers. You know the kind. You're not quite sure if they're fighting a bee or dancing? Yeah, that's what I think of. But maybe that's not fair. No, I know that's not fair. I've been a fan of O.A.R. (as they are more commonly known) for some years now. I don't think I ever bought a full album in college but I had some songs from various places. They had that mellow jammin' groove that I love so much. Bands like Dave Matthews Band, Phish, The Dead, they have this ability to get on stage and create music on the spot. They are so in tune with each other that they just groooove together. It always blows me away to see. O.A.R. is of the same mold. I saw them in concert recently at UNH. It was in the Whittemore Center Arena which probably seats about 6000. Previous to seeing them in concert, I had seen a video of their concert on msn.com. It was at Madison Square Garden and it was packed. Their fan base is the college crowd. Pretty much age 16-30 I would say. They got their start in college so it's only fitting that that is the crowd they tend to attract. I was sadly disappointed initially at the crowd. The floor was 3/4 full and then the rest of us were sitting in the stands. A big part of a show is the energy from the crowd and when it's not a full house, it's not as electric. We got there early, thinking that it was going to be a full house so we had some time to kill. We quickly found our entertainment. There was clearly a high percentage of high school age kids there. The girls were trying to look like they were in college and the boys were trying to pretend they weren't looking for real college girls. It seemed that the majority of them were there because they felt it was the cool place to be. I'm sure the enjoy the music but I don't think that was the number one reason they were there. I'm getting sidetracked.

The show was awesome. They have that dynamic on stage that (to quote Paula Abdul) gives them the "wow factor". Marc Roberge, the lead singer, has a quality to his voice that is very unique. It's sexy and emotional. Most of the songs are about love, lost, new, pretty much any way you can find it. He often ad-libs from the record version, which I love. For me, that is a sign of a true musican. If it sounds like the record every time they perform it, why bother paying to see them?? I can just go watch them on MTV and get the same experience. There were 2 moments in the show that brought out the smile on my face. Well, there were more than 2 but these stuck out. In the middle of a song, I forget which one, they melded into the song, another song. Cannonball by The Breeders. And then they did it again later with So Lonely by the Police. The songs were so well melded in that you almost didn't notice the transition. It was just a few bars of each but I loved it! John Mayer has done that live but it's more obvious. O.A.R. did it with such fluidity!

My favorite song that they performed was Love and Memories. I heard that song on the radio some time ago, on an indie station. I instantly loved it. It sounded like O.A.R. but it seemed more streamlined than their usual mash-up of times (which was one of my favorite things about their music, ever changing beat) When I heard that it was O.A.R., I was surprised and pleased. While some hardcore fans might have been upset at the seeming departure from their grassroots music, I'm more of the mindset, if I like the music, I like the music and that's it. I bought the album, Stories of a Stranger that had Love and Memories and loved the whole thing. I listened over and over. Love and Memories still was a favorite. Sometimes, you find that song that just speaks to your heart. It may not make sense why but you are drawn to it and find yourself playing it on repeat. Can't get it out of your head. When I heard it live, it was even better. He ad-libbed some new lyrics that made it clear to me why I loved it so much. But that's a story for another time. Music speaks better than words, sometimes.

Overall, the show was awesome from the music side. Unfortunately, the crowd took away from it a bit because they were very distracting with their constant crowd-surfing. Yes, crowd-surfing. At a hippy show. Makes sense, no?

Ozomatli

Ever find yourself listening to some latin music and you can't stop yourself from dancing? You could be in the grocery store, pushing a cart, cha cha cha-ing down the frozen food aisle. Or in your house, cooking (because there's nothing better than cooking to latin music) and you find yourself trying to shake it like Shakira. Hopefully I'm not the only one! I love latin music. I can't help myself. It makes me smile and want to channel Charro. Just give me some marraccas.

The newest band that I found is Ozomatli. Granted, they've been together for 12 years but I just found them. It's a melting pot of heavy latin influences coupled with English hip-hop and topped off with anti-war lyrics. Not that I actually know what the lyrics are but they sure sound great. As soon as the music starts to play on my iPod, I'm grooving in my car. And I don't care WHAT I look like to the other drivers on the road. I'm a prime candidate for that show on VH-1 where they secretly video people singing in their car. If it were a contest, I'd win for looking like the biggest idiot.

For that reason alone, everyone should download their music because it's food for the soul!

In a Word...SOUL

Newest discovery- James Morrison. I heard of him in a round about way. I found myself downloading as much of his music as I could find. And I listened to it. And loved it. He's from the UK, which doesn't really matter to me. What matters is how his music makes me feel. I have this filing system with music. If it doesn't make me feel anything, if it's just some low-rate singer with a computer generated backup, that get's the click-and-drag to the recycle bin. If it makes me happy, that goes on the feel good playlist in my head (which I often find myself singing to myself. At work. A few songs in.) Then there's the file that holds all else. The music that makes me really feeeeeeel it in my bones. There are musicians out there that do more than sing a song. They feel it and in turn, the listener feels it. Music that moves the soul. Musicians that do that should be brought to an island somewhere so they can write the soundtrack to our world.

Morrison is one of those musicans. He has this roughness to his voice, like he just got out of bed in the morning-every time he sings. It's this roughness, and the way he feels his way through his music, that brings out his soul. After I listened to his music for a while and just fell in love with him as an artist, I went to his myspace page and found this quote, which I found absolutely fitting for what I felt about his music.

"I grew up on artists like Otis Redding, Al Green, Cat Stevens, The Kinks and Van Morrison. I always loved songs where the singer would sing with real soul, like they really believed in what they were singing about. Those are the kinds of songs that really stayed with me. I can't sing a song about something I don't believe in."

For me, that quote encapsulates exactly how I feel listening to his music. His current album is called Undiscovered. I can't imagine him being undiscovered by the main stream music scene much longer. Sometimes, I'd like to keep secret my favorite musicians so that I could still go see them in dingy, smoky bars in some out of the way town in middle America but that's not fair to them. If I have to, I'll go to the stadiums if it means success for them as they have earned it. I'll deal with Singing (off-key) Sally, Drunk Dan and Talking Tammy if it means hearing music that makes me feel good. Thankfully (for me), Morrison is still under the big-time radar so I have a bit more time to enjoy him as I like to.