Musica: Outdoor (and indoor) summer lovin'

By now the greatness that is Alison Moyet should be walking among the mere mortals here in New York. Along with Vince Clarke (as Yaz) she will be performing at two shows at Terminal 5 tomorrow and Thursday and then on Saturday at the more intimate Beacon Theater (and I got good seats! Hmmm... Bacon!).

In the meantime there's even more summer lovin' coming our way so - if you allow me to highlight a couple of the music events that I consider as unmissable - here we go:

This Sunday: Santogold, Diplo, A-Track, Kid Cudi, Blaqstarr & Mz Streamz - Central Park's SummerStage starting at 3PM (Free): OMG, trust me. It'll be hot, humid, drippy and packed! Get there early.

Sunday, August 3, 2008: Jamie Lidell, Janelle Monae, Little Jackie, Jose James & Gilles Peterson (jazzmatazz-funk courtesy of Giant Step) - Central Park's SummerStage starting at 3PM (Free): Spazzmatazz alert!

Thursday, August 14, 2008: Omar (OMG! OMAR! In NYC!!! OMG!!! Yes! OMG!!!) - SOB's starting at 7PM (Show starts at 9PM) One of the most under-appreciated singers ever in the history of amazing singers makes his way to New York City (video above). He's sung with Mary J. Blige and Stevie Wonder, amongst others.

Friday, August 15, 2008: Bajofondo (hm, ok) and Osunlade & The Yorubasoul Orchestra (OMG! Aural orgasm!!) - Central Park's SummerStage starting at 7PM (Free): I swear to you! Orgazm! Orgasm, I say!

Musica: A couple of tips come my way

The 8th Annual Latin Alternative Music Conference is coming our way (July 10-14, NYC) and our friends at I-Tunes Latino have tipped us to free performances by three of the best bands participating in the conference this year. Each performance is open to the public and starts at 2pm in the afternoon so maybe if you have a lunch break or are free on any of those days make sure to check them out:

Wed., July 11th: Zoe (MySpace / I-Tunes)
Thurs., July 12th: Pacha Massive (MySpace / I-Tunes)
Fri., July 13th: The Pinker Tones ( MySpace / I-Tunes)

Pacha Massive, as we've noted, will also be performing for free at the Central Park Summerstage on Saturday, July 14th along with the massively influential and respected Cafe Tacvba and La Sista.

In the meantime, our friends at Sneak Attack Media have been promoting fields (MySpace) here in the United States and have also tipped us to some new mixes for a couple of songs from their current album "Everything Last Winter."

Theres the SebastiAn mix of "If You Fail We All Fail" available here which will probably be the trendy favorite since it comes from the ascendant Ed Banger crew from France. Me? Never been able to get into the Banger crew sound so...

There's also an Ewan Pearson rub of "Song for the Fields" here which is nice and all but not up to par with some of the mixes he did for Goldfrapp.

No, the banger here is the short, sweet, great, rocking, emotional Badlands remix of "If You Fail We All Fail" here (who dat?). Hope you enjoy.

Actually, that remix leads me to my own tip. Not that I wanna give you incredibly high expectations because those always sink a movie-watching experience but if you haven't seen "Once" I suggest you seek it out at your local indie movie theatre.

It's a small independent movie shot in Dublin, Ireland, that is deceptively simple in it's portrayal of two people falling in love with each other. Oh, and in some ways, it's also a musical so expect stretches where there's nothing but people singing. If you manage to get past that and if you've ever been in love, you'll probably fall for this flick.

Even now as I hear the amazing Glen Hansard singing (see below), a tear wells up in my eye. His voice is just so amazing.

In any case, if you're in the United States, I hope you are enjoying your fourth of July.

Musica: SummerStage 2007

The Central Park SummerStage concert and performance line up has just been unveiled. Here are some highlights:

July 1: Rodrigo y Gabriela / Vietnam / JDH and Dave P
July 6: Ronald K. Brown (Evidence) /Full Circle Soul Productions
July 14: Cafe Tacvba / Pacha Massive / La Sista
July 10: Nortec Collective / Federico Aubele
July 11: Femi Kuti & The Positive Force / DJ Rich Medina
July 16: The Decemberists / Grizzly Bear / Land of Talk
July 29: Wild Style 25th Anniversary Reunion

To check the full line up and see if you might have other favorites, go here.