HERE COME THE WAVES: THE HAZARDS OF LOVE VISUALIZED @ UCLA. THE DECEMBERISTS LIVE!

In early 2009, Portland’s own, The Decemberists along with Shara Worden from my Brightest Diamond and Becky Stark from Lavender Diamond, put together one of their finest albums to date. ‘The Hazards of Love’ is a rock opera of a one continuous track, displaying songs of love, falling stars, wounded fawn, crippled children, marriage, fireflies, life, and death.

This was truly something different and successfully done: a masterpiece. In the springtime, I had the opportunity to see them perform this album from start to finish without stopping, just like on the album, and they did it with finesse. It was then front man Colin Meloy had the genius idea to turn this lyrical story into a visual narrative. He collaborated with artists/filmmakers/animators Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria to create this vision of beauty with the idea that they would perform the album synced up to this series of vignettes, and they did, without a hitch and flawlessly.

This was the conclusion, and last day of the their US tour and the debut and premiere of ‘Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized’. This night was truly special. They created a mood that I have not witnessed in a live performance for a very long time. I can honestly say this was the first show that I have gone to in a while, and we go to many here at Musicbleep, that left me with speechless. Once they completed a non-stop performance of the videos and ‘The Hazards of Love’, they came back for another full set of older tunes starting off with a Morrissey cover “The Sporting Life’, my favorite ‘The Crane Wife 1&2”, and Shara Worden and Becky Stark along with the rest of the band did a smashing cover of Heart’s “Crazy On You”. I was floored.

This was a truly honored event to have attended and could not have been at a more appropriate venue, Royce Hall at UCLA. Although this does not do it justice, here are some photographs and a sample of clips from the collection of films that we saw that evening. If you are not familiar with this amazing group of artists check them out at

GREG LASWELL

It seems as almost every other week we have a review of a Greg Laswell show or an update, as he is a resident artist of Musicbleep and we frequent his shows as much as we possibly can. However, last Saturday's show, a last before he hits a summer long tour, my close friends all gathered at the Hotel Cafe to not only check out his performance, but to celebrate my date of birth. So I would like to thank my friends, AJC, NMIT (ILYG), and to Greg himself (thank you for the dedication).

The show was sold out, per usual, and packed in my favorite venue. He had all of his "teammates" on stage to perform with him, which created a familiar, yet rare dynamic (he played solo the previous night). As you all know from previous posts we have seen Greg at various venues, playing with varies acts, and on the Hotel Cafe tour; it never gets old. I would also like to congratulate him on the single that he wrote especially for the season finale of Grey's Anatomy, 'Off I Go'. If you knew what was best for you, after reading this blog, go to iTunes and download this song, it's amazing! Check him out... www.myspace.com/greglaswell.com and www.greglaswell.com