Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Centerstage MN this week – Vampires and Red Balloons…

by Doug MacRostie

This week on Centerstage MN I’ll be talking with the Floodwood hard rock band Preemptive Strike about their debut CD “1st Shot.” These guys are old school rockers (not OLD school, but…something like early 80’s hard rock) and its fun having them on to represent Floodwood :D Loud guitars, pounding drums and attitude.

I’ll be starting the show with a new CD from Jake Dilley and the Color Pharmacy. When I “befriended” Jake on myspace and asked him to send a copy of the CD – he said, “Sure – it’ll be the one in the red balloon.” I didn’t think he was actually serious, but low and behold a CD arrived IN a balloon with instructions to inflate and pop to get the CD. The album is called “Le Ballon Rouge,” a.k.a The Red Balloon (I get it… :p) and its amazing!!! I’ve listened to it a few times through and its hard to pick a song to start with – SO, I’ll be playing 3 songs off it (they go together) to start Centerstage MN this week. They are definitely future guests, seeing as I’ve already listened to the entire album 3 or 4 times. I don’t know how to describe the music, some kind of mix between NIN (without the screaming-scariness) and Coldplay (without the “biggest band that isn’t U2”-ness). I asked Jake how they got the CDs in the balloons and he told me they have magic elves…which is good enough for me.

Also, I’ve added some previous interview highlights to www.myspace.com/macedelic. The first one if from my conversation with Sam Miltich about his CD with the Clearwater Hot Club feat/ Dave Karr called “Just You, Just Me.” Sam talks about the evolution of jazz and the inherited experimentation and inspiration. You can also check out a highlight from my conversation with Marc Gartman (of Two Many Banjos) talking about The Marc Gartband’s CD “Me and My Big Ego.” Check ‘em out!!!

Next week I’ll be joined by Lisa Kane and (hopefully) Thea Ennen (remember Thea and the Algorhythms?) for some live music and conversation – they’ll be performing at Brewed Awakenings in Grand Rapids on Sat. the 14th and we’ll do a miniature preview of the performance :D

Read more of Doug's Blogs at www.myspace.com/macedelic.

No comments: