Love – Cirque’s Du Soleil
So every now and then my official day job and my passion for music cross paths. This a rarity but this past weekend it occured. And where else but Sunny Las Vegas, Nevada. For the record, I can’t stand Vegas. But when they’re producing shows like Cirque Du Soleil’s “Love” then I’ll make an exception and look forward to going. If you haven’t heard the entire album yet and you’re a die hard Beatles fan, what the heck you wanting for – purchase right now. If you’re not a die hard fan, you may appreciate a little background on the album.
The album was produced and mixed by George Martin, who many critics call the 5th Beatle. Helping George out was his son, Giles, and together they took Beatles songs and reworked them, a tiny bit. I say tiny because unless you’re a die hard fan (see above) you probably won’t make out too many changes. But they are there. And sometimes they intertwine songs, which is a bit more easy to catch. For example, they interwove “Drive My Car” with “Word.”
And why did they make this album? Was it to make another comp of Beatles songs to fit in with the 100 or so other compilations? No. They did this because Cirque’s Du Soleil asked them to. And if you need me to tell you who they are, you probably shouldn’t keep reading this post or this blog for that matter.
Since the songs don’t change all too much to the untrained ear, it may not make sense to those fare weather Beatles fans to buy the album. But you must keep in mind that the intentions of the album were not to be played by itself – this is for the Cirque Du Soleil accompanying the changes, the enhanced guitar riffs and the interwoven tracks. This takes the Love album concept in to a whole new dimension.
The show follows the album right from the opening track “Because” to “All You Need Is Love.” The performers wear 60’s style garb, as you would expect. Some featured similar Big Band cosutmes as the Fab Four wore on the cover of Sgt. Peppers. Some wear peace symbols and tie dye shirts. There were English armed forces and police officers during “Revolution.” There were strings of lights that reached from the ceiling to just about eye level that came dangling down during “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and the lights blinked on and off to the beat.
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The latter was one of the highlights for me. Another highlight was the “Something – Blue Jay Way (Transition)” scene.
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In this scene a professional male ballet dancer stood in the middle of the stage (All Cirque stages are circular with the audience wrapped around) while four young flying females in loose white cloth swang back and forth gracefully in to the middle of the stage near him. As if to tease him, they all swang back and forth. His arms stretched out every time they came near and when he got close they would swing back away as he awaited another flying temptress. When the song comes in with, “Something in the way she moves…”, combined with the swinging motion and graceful ballet performance the scene was quite impressive.
The theatre has 12,000 speakers. Every seat has 6 speakers in them so you can just imagine with the combined visual effects and audio effects, this was one overwhelming performance.
In conclusion, I say that if you’re a die hard fan, both the album and the show are a must. If you’re just a fan, the album is not necessary but still worth it and the show is a must. And if you’re just a fare weather guy or gal, the album isn’t worth it but the show is a must. In any case, if you’re in Vegas, this is well worth your money.
Links of Interest:
Show is playing at the Mirage Resort & Casino. Tickets cost $70 to $158. Learn more
Visit The Beatles myspace page to hear a few tracks. Purchase from Amazon.com.
Watch a 10 minute YouTube Video of clips from the show
The News
As usual around this time of the week, here is a collection of news articles that I find of interest. Most articles are from Pitchfork, Filter and sometimes Stylus.
Hot Chip announce U.S. Tour dates – Check out their myspace page for a new song, “I Became a Volunteer”
Wilco reveal track list for Sky Blue Sky – Pick up some live recordings of these songs from Jesse Jarnow’s Frank and Earthly Blog
Peter Bjorn and John announe U.S. Tour - Related topic: See Drew Barrymore’s iPod mix over at Stereogum. Hint, it includes “Young Folks” by PB&J.
And if you were like me and didn’t find time to watch the Grammy’s, Filter has broken down the important winners for us.
Andrew Bird announces U.S. Tour dates
And finally, not really news, but a cool addtion to the Stylus Mag section “YouTube / iTube / WeTube”, they’ve compiled a selection of techno videos from Youtube on one page. As they mention, many videos are not work safe.
Mixtape Friday
Download: Make Out Mix
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Today’s mix is a single MP3 mix from a British Columbia DJ, My!Gay!Husbad!. Don’t ask, I have no idea. All I know is that this mix kicks ass if you enjoy extremely cheesy 80’s music perfectly mixed together. The mix starts off with “All Night Long” by Lionel Richie and around each corner and in every crevasse of this mix you’ll find yourself reminicsing your childhood while having a uncontrollable urge to get on the dance floor and boogey.
Black Lips in Tijuana
Could’ve done without the naked guy running in to the shot but these guys look like they put on a fun live show. May have to catch them when they run up through Boston. Here is the complete tour. They’ll be playing with the Chicago band, The Ponys
The Ponys – “Double Vision”
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:
March
18 Houston, TX @ The Mink
19 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks 21 Atlanta, GA @ EARL
22 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
23 Baltimore, MD @ The Ottobar
24 Washington, DC @ Black Cate
25 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
26 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
27 Boston, MA @ T.T. The Bear’s
31 Chicago, IL @ Logan Square Auditorium
The Black Lips – “Not A Problem” (Live from Tijuana)
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Click Here to View the QuickTime Movie
Download this clip along with some other goodies from Vice at their MP3 blog (Hint: Grab the 120 Days (Dave P & Adam Sparkles Remix) “Come Out”)
M. Ward Backstage
There are several reasons why this man was on my top ten list in 2006. Here is just one of those reasons – his guitar skills:
Courtesy of Pitchfork
“Ode to the Weekend”
Every Friday I plan on making a mix out of what ever I have in my iTunes, or rather, what ever is on my internal hard drive as I keep all my music in an external hard drive. The mixes will not have a theme. For the most part it will consist of party music, driving music, classics, the recent hotness and so on. It’s an Ode to the Weekend so to speak.
I hope you enjoy the first mix:
The Delfonics – “La-La Means I Love You” : Purchase The Definitive Collection
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Shuggie Otis – “Inspriation Informartion” : Purchase Inspiration Information
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L.C. Cooke (Sam’s younger brother) – “Put Me Down Easy” : Learn more and pick up another track
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Trentemoller – “Vamp” : Purchase The Last Resort
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Jake Brennan – “Sexy Jihad (Foreign Islands Remix)” : Learn more about Jake from previous post
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Deerhunter – “Octet” : Purchase Cryptograms
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Hot Chip – “Shining Escalade” : Purchase Coming on Strong
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Human League – “Money” : Purchase Crash
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About Editor
Name: Luke "Kip" Owen
Location: Boston, MA
Contact: kippy[AT]hip2besquare[DOT]net
Twitter: twitter.com/kipdog
Youtube: youtube.com/kipdog
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