THE RETURN OF 'A FINE FRENZY':





















Alison Sudol (A Fine Frenzy) returns with a follow up to her great album 'One Cell In The Sea' with 'Bomb In A Birdcage', due for release on September 8th (album cover above). I've seen Alison live twice and she is an amazing singer and performer. It sounds like the new cd is a bit more uptempo, she describes the album as "11 infectious, bubbly, fun tracks infused with gorgeous lyrics and danceable beats." The first single 'Blow Away' is growing on me, you can watch an acoustic performance of the song below.

Her cover of Frank Sinatra's song 'The Things We Did Last Summer' is now available for download on iTunes. You can follow Alison on her Twitter page.



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A FINE FRENZY - THE MEDIA CLUB, VANCOUVER - CONCERT REVIEW:





















Photo Copyright KulPop

Alison Sudol returned to Vancouver to play the intimate Media Club venue for an early show with Ferras and Ben's Brother as opening acts. Ferras played a short four song set finishing with his current single 'Hollywood's Not America'. He performed well and is definitely a talented singer/songwriter and is a bit of a joker too. From listening to samples of his forthcoming album 'Aliens And Rainbows' I think he should be quite successful. This was only his third show on the tour and only his third actual gig outside of L.A. where he moved to from Illinois to pursue his music career. I video taped the last song but the lighting wasn't very good (see comment below) so it isn't that great (although the audio is okay).

Ben's Brother from the U.K. (two members of the band) were also playing their first Canadian gig and it was the last date of this tour for them before heading down to Texas for the SXSW music conference. They were enjoyable and performed their hit 'Stuttering' which is used in a Dentyne Ice gum commercial.

Alison Sudol and her two band members played for just under and hour with all the songs coming from her debut cd 'One Cell In The Sea' except the encore. Alison played guitar on the encore (she has just recently learned to play it) the new song 'What I Wouldn't Do' which will be on her next cd. She is a great vocalist and charming performer and was impressed when the audience sang a verse of 'Almost Lover' for her as well as how quiet the audience was waiting for her to perform the encore. The only thing that took away from the concert (besides the obligatory strange female fan that insists on yelling to Alison several times during the show and making a fool of herself) was the poor stage lighting provided by the club. Maybe Alison requested to be dimly lit but it was so dark I'm sure the people further back in the club would have had trouble seeing her face during most of the show while she was playing seated at the piano. I highly recommend you go see A Fine Frenzy live if you like the cd, hopefully you'll get to see Ferras as well before he becomes huge.

Set List:

Ferras:

Marshmallow Spaceship
Aliens And Rainbows
Rush
Hollywood's Not America

Ben's Brother:
Time ???
Holding Out For More
Beauty Queen
Carry On
Stutttering
Live

A Fine Frenzy:

Come On Come Out
You Picked Me
Last Of Days
Think Of You
Ashes And Wine
Borrowed Time
an unnamed classical instrumental
The Minnow And The Trout
Hope For The Hopeless
Almost Lover
Rangers

Encore:

What I Wouldn't Do (new song)

SECOND SINGLES AND OTHER BITS & PIECES:















The Feeling are releasing 'Without You' - MP3 as the second single in the U.K. from their new cd 'Join With Us' (BUY IT HERE). I'm still trying to get into the album, it's solid but just doesn't seem to have the stand out tracks that their debut cd 'Twelve Stops & Home' had. Still no word on if the new cd will get a North American release.

The Last Goodnight are releasing the song 'Stay Beautiful' - MP3 as the second single from their debut cd "Poison Kiss' (BUY IT HERE). I'm really enjoying the cd and hope this will be another hit for them.

Not sure why Kylie Minogue is releasing the Janet Jackson sounding "All I See' from X as a North American single when 'Wow' seems like the obvious choice for her to return to the charts over here. Here is a link to the MP3 of the single featuring rapper MIMS doing his best to sound like Kanye West.

I'm enjoying the song 'Superstar'- MP3 by Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthew Santos (wasn't that Jimmy Smits character's name on The West Wing?).

A Fine Frenzy are returning to Vancouver for a headline show at the intimate 'Media Club', I hope to make it to the show. I met the beautiful Alison Sudol when they opened for Brandi Carlile and she was very kind and put on a great show (I hope they perform the track 'Lifesize' this time as they didn't last time). Check out their MySpace page to hear a remix of the song "Almost Lover" from their debut cd 'One Cell In The Sea' (BUY IT HERE).

Teitur has added a Seattle gig to his upcoming tour, still hoping for a Vancouver show.

Not sure why the band Chester French are getting a fair amount of blog hype, nothing I've heard from this band has impressed me that much.