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Monday, November 30, 2009

I'm With You in Rockland

An audience electrified.


An exhausted but humble John Hickey takes a break between songs.

Usually when you want to "wake up electrified," you need a Red Bull and thirty milligrams of Adderall. Or, on very lucky occasions, you can see John Hickey, David Green, and Jeremy Beckwith perform in the Rockland County area as I did at Olive's on 118 Main Street in Nyack, NY on November 27 during my sojourn to New York. Wake Up Electrified, a name in homage to Allen Ginsberg's most beloved and controversial poem "Howl," is aptly named in its often grin-inducing, sometimes sad, and always sincere style inspired by performance poetry, glamor, alt rock, the Lou Reed that was good, and old-school birthday party magicians.

I have to admit that I don't own Wake Up Electrified's album (and, as such, was hearing many songs for the first time), but not for lack of trying. Its copies sold out within days at our Barnes & Noble, and with good reason. For every "Cowboy Casanova" Carrie Underwood plows through year after year, and with each exhaustive and depressing Michael Jackson compilation under the tree, there is a fresh salute to music's future with WUE rather than a rehashing of the Golden Age of music's past.

However, Hickey, Green, and Beckwith are smart enough to know that a musician's biggest downfall is taking himself too seriously. Hickey covered Taylor Swift's "Love Story" solo on electric guitar, and later, a friend took the stage to sing Nirvana's "Breed." Both were extremely entertaining and at once ironic as the cover lyrics transitioned from, "Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone" to "I don't mean to stare, we don't have to breed." As most performers know, more thought goes into the planning of a Wake Up Electrified than simply smoke and mirrors and a dope hat.

Wake Up Electrified's greatest musical achievement of the night was "Baby Birds," as the crowd stood shaking asses and appletinis. Noisemakers and kazoos thrown at the audience, where I'd recommend women wear heels, were used enthusiastically as a Southern Baptist Church choir, incorporating everyone into the sound as the fourth wall of "Me Musician, You Listener" was broken with glitter and a smile.

I wished the band had played longer, but that's proof positive that Wake Up Electrified has learned a lesson it takes many artists a lifetime to acknowledge: that the key to a successful performance is to leave your audience wanting more.

For "more," check out Wake Up Electrified's myspace page.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

User Review 267085

Sometimes I'm at the supermarket with Ed and I'm like, damn, those Suzy Q's look really good, but I don't know if they taste as good as they look! I guess I'll never know!

But ponder no longer! For those of us too afraid to take any chances in life, there are yahoo's food reviews, one of my personal favorites being the Twizzlers Cherry Pull-N-Peel. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "word of mouth."

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Spanky's Bar, Naples, FL



When Bad Things Happen to Good Cheerleaders

I'm tired of people asking me when I'm going to get my flu shot.

Guinea pigs watching television.

A few youtube videos of guinea pigs watching television.





And lastly, this virgin post wouldn't be complete without British guinea pigs doing a news broadcast.