Boom Pam

Readers may remember this band from Puuda's review on the 2007 Winnipeg Folk Festival. Puuda rated Boom Pam as the second best show there (right after Bela Fleck and the Flecktones so it's understandable). Nothing kept Puuda from going to every show either, even when Puuda's "friends" wanted to go see some other band, Puuda made sure to see Boom Pam and even got a picture taken with Uri and Yuval (Tubi). Even though Puuda knew long before everyone else there that they were going to be the biggest surprise there, that didn't help Puuda get off his lazy four day-old hippy butt in time to buy a CD. *sigh*

Oh well, at least Puuda gets to help spread the word of this tremendous Israeli-Meditteranean Surf Pop/Rock blend. Not even kidding, the music has so many different influences and cultural inspirations in it that you need a check list. Don't worry though, that doesn't mean it's an overdose of progressive music that's extremely hard to play and looks cool on paper, but sounds like crap. Boom Pam is made for jumping and dancing. The band actually started out as a wedding band (hence the "Wedding Song") so they know what it takes to get people going.

On top of their spectacular and authentic music and their ability to get you to party they have something that very few bands have the guts to pull off; Tuba. They have no need for another guitar in the mix, they already have two great guitar players. Besides, the bass player of most bands get the least action (unless they play funk bass). So to spice it upYuval (Tubi) takes the place of the bass with his tuba and throws in the ocassional solo in live shows.

Although they are getting to be a big hit through many parts of Europe and their home, Israel, they still aren't as well known in North America. Until they are able to play more in North America, people will have to just visit their Myspace and buy their CD on their website. Puuda highly recommends buying this unique band's CD.

http://www.myspace.com/boompam

http://www.boompam.org/

Hall's Guide Service (aka Sleepless Tour) Updates

During the month of July, Hall's Guide Service will be touring the Eastern half of the continental U.S. along with The Voice of Sleep and Your City/State. Besides my crazy antics seen on this page, check out these other links:
HGS-
Myspace http://myspace.com/hallsguideservice
Facebook group-http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2260810727
VOC-
Myspace http://www.myspace.com/thevoiceofsleep
YCS-
Myspace http://www.myspace.com/yourcitystate
LOL-
Internetz- http://steamsteamlol.ytmnd.com/

CURRENT/UPCOMING SHOWS

• Delray Beach, Florida Jul 21 2007 8:00P The Neptune Lounge






• Tarpon Springs, Florida Jul 21 2007 8:00P Glen Cove Lanes






• Glen Cove Lanes, New York Jul 29 2007 8:00P Cousin Larry's






• Danbury, Connecticut

CURRENT EVENTS

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  July 12- Show at Toybox in Minneapolis was cancelled due to ludicrous policies

• 
  
  
  
  July 13- HGS, Voice of Sleep, and Your City State avoided their first of several Music Pirates crossing into Iowa. Pray they don't get captured by!





• July 13- HGS bass player, Luke, scored several extra chick points after the show due to drunk fans





• July 14- Only about a pack of hot dogs have been eaten so far.





• July 15- Jake, Luke and Andy learned about Charlotte Stokely and Johnny Gardella after their show on the 14th. Also, Tara Reid's head is slowly making its way towards Florida hoping to meet HGS, VOS and YCS...hopefully they make it out before she gets there.
  


• July 17-Puuda has learned that he is indeed the biggest asshole of the century.

# OF GALLONS USED

527

# OF HOTDOGS EATEN

Jake-29 Andy-14Luke-36

Puuda's Review: Winnipeg Folk Festival 2007

Yesterday, Puuda got back from his week long trip up at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. A week long trip spent mostly in the shade listening to local and world folk music, chickenfighting in the local reservoir, cooking brats over an open fire, and partying on Pope's Hill with horses covered in glowsticks. Puuda even joined one of the nightly drum cirlces that took place nonstop until about 6/7 a.m. Since Puuda didn't have a drum, he shook his coin purse filled with Loonies and Toonies. The only bad things that really happened was getting sunburned on the feet badly and finding an algae-covered pair of underwear in the reservoir.

The people there were also the friendliest that Puuda has ever come across. Whether it was because the hippies were in some other world at the time or they are just naturally nice, Puuda enjoyed their company. sice the review is suppose to be about the music for the most part, here is a list of 10 groups that were either incredible or were there because of their popularity:

Boom Pam- (A) They were even better live so Puuda couldn't help but watch all three shows.



The Cat Empire- (B-) No doubt they have the music ability, but it dragged on a bit.



Béla Fleck and the Flecktones- (A+) Very little dancing happened with these legends in blu-bop, not because they sucked, but because people were in awe of their incredible skills...especially Victor Wooten's bass playing



Michael Franti and Spearhead- (A) Modern Reggae at its best and Franti was able to get people to dance way past the line for the Whale Tails.



Leo Kottke- (B+) The legendary 12-string guitar player/storyteller did great, but lacked due to his one short stage set



Los Lobos- (C) The music was decent, but again, the time slot was bad and it didn't really get many hippies moving. Takes more than just a single cover song to get Puuda moving anyways.



That 1 Guy- (B) Was delayed for half a day in California and was average techno. What made it unique is his Magice Pipe; a custom contraption that does it all, including bellowing smoke. His show back in Festival Camping was good though.



Kiran Ahluwalia- (A-) Very melodic and entrancing. Indian Punjabi and ghazal at its best. Funny that the songs such topics as selfish love, true love, wanting a koka, and then ending with a song about getting bagals.

Final Fantasy- (B-) Played good music on his violin, when he did play. Glad he didn't resort to playing actual Final Fantasy music when some crowd members requested though.

Randy Newman- (A-) It was awesome to finally see the legendary songwriter on stage. Randy made a great finale to the Folk Festival. Unfortunately, it felt like Randy left almost as soon as he got on stage.

Finally, Puuda would like to give the best act to..........

The Festival Camping Drummers- Whether it was joining them in the 4 hour glowstick waving, Loonie shaking rave at 3 a.m. or falling asleep to their nearby drumming, this group consisting of almost a hundred people and a dozen regulars made the biggest impression on Puuda.

PICTURES WILL BE ADDED SOON

Puuda Maggui Visits the 2007 Winnipeg Folk Festival!

This year will mark Puuda's first year at this legendary event. A week filled with A wide range of music for all kinds of tastes: folk, country-folk, funky folk, folk rock, hippy folk and Randy Newman. To tell the truth, Puuda isn't sure what to expect besides all the stories he's been told by friends. Added on to that, I am in festival camping, from what I've been told, has all night drum circles.

Getting past all the hippy activity and what-nots, Puuda will try to report as often as he can on different aspects of the festival when Puuda goes North this Tuesday. Not to be outdone, the famous Dr. Kuha has decided to join in on the fun this year as well, so it will be yet another run-in on that akward fellow. Puuda is also going to be updating as often as he can before he leaves as well on several of the bands and artists that he thinks have what it takes to join his collection. Upon arrival home, Puuda will also give an overall grade of several musical groups and the festival in general.

With that in mind, whether or not you make it a great week, a great weekend, and great Fourth of July or not, the choice is yours!

Dragonfish Killswitch

I'm going to just let everyone know right away that I am not writing about someone who makes music with those spinning rack for dinner tables. You know, the things that allows the extremely lazy to reach the salt on the other side. Those are called Lazy Susans; Turntablism is an actual form of music and isn't just another lame term that supposedly seperates it from the rest of the rock genre. Turntablism is a very unique genre and is rarely done nowadays.

From what Puuda has researched, on Wikipedia, turntablism, at its peak, was during the 80s and early 90s when rap used it as its background music and beat. Sadly, that came to an end when they decided to use pre-recorded beats in the mid-90s. So nowadays many Turntablists, including Dragonfish Killswitch, play their own style that's more than just back-up music.

That pretty much describes Turntablism in general, but I chose Dragonfish Killswitch for a reason.

Dragonfish Killswitch is a one-man-band, like many Turntablists. Yet, that doesn't stop him from displaying many styles and genres in his music. Although his music is made electronically, he plays with hip hop, funk, rock sounds and clips from other songs. He's also a member of a Justice-League-style group of musicians, poets and producers called The Daily Dose of Funk. You can learn more about them on http://soundclick.com/, which would be a great idea because if you're reading this, you have time to kill.

What Puuda really likes about Dragonfish Killswitch is the fact that he's loves playing and layering/blending/mixing/ecetera his music. Sure, he could've become a sellout

80s glam band member or wrote cheesy love songs about girls he never met, but he didn't. He's like the guy who loves playing his accordian......except turntablism is A LOT cooler.......and gets more ladies......Check him out now if you love a sweet ambient sound that you won't hear anywhere else, unless this catches on and people begin to copy him.

http://www.myspace.com/dragonfishkillswitch

Jason Fresta

Puuda has some good news, and some bad news. Since Puuda likes to screw with people, he will just tell you the bad news first. Sigh, here it goes: acoustic guitar gets old and repetitive really fast. Acoustic guitar also been done so much that everything possible that could be done with it has been done thousands of times, thus making it no longer original. There it was, the cold, sad truth that made up Puuda's bad news.

Now, here is Puuda's good news: the music of Jason Fresta has one the best acoustic rock sounds I have heard in a long time. The only two bands that can pull that off, nowadays, is Jason and Tenacious D. It also reminds me of the two greatest Alices in rock; Alice Cooper and Alice in Chains. Not much else is able to be said, I mean, I told you that they rock and they bring back honor to the acoustic rock. If you don't believe me that they did, check out their Myspace page.

http://www.myspace.com/jasonfresta

Cornstock 2007

Concordia College, located in Moorhead, Minnesota, is the home of the annual music event called Cornstock. Not too sure, but I think it was originally held in a corn field, so yes, the name has meaning. Anyways, I decided to take the long trip to Minnesota after being invited by the members of Hall's Guide Service, who were chosen this year to play after winning the Battle of the Bands. As you should know, if you bother to read more than one page on my site, Hall's Guide Service was the original winner of my Myspace Music contest last summer.

Besides getting to hang out with one of my favorite Myspace bands, the main band was what finally pushed me to the limit, of driving. The great genre-defying CAKE was the what attracted most people. Yet, most of the hard-studying college students stayed for the wacky party inflatables such as a boxing ring with giant gloves, a prison race, one of those balancing stick fighting arena and just plain old "Look-At-Me-Act-My-Age as I Jump Around inflatables. They even had a mechanical bull, which Puuda did quite well at. Also, as a side note, their did not seem to be any alcohol allowed, so all the crazy behavior was indeed a result of the wacky entertainment.

Unfortunately Hall's Guide Service didn't get that long of a set and CAKE didn't show up on time, causing the third band in the line-up, Ari Hernstand, to play until they were about to pass out. Thankfully they were able to pull it off for almost the two hours they played. The members of CAKE aren't really what they have been labeled (by the work themselves or by others): laid back College Funk-Rock musicians. They were never around unless they absolutely had to be and were late arriving and never talked to anyone. I'm also sure they didn't realize they added more to the "death of playing in 3/4 time" by saying they were going to play a song in it, but end up playing in 6/8 time.

Their set wasn't all the long due to their unknown lateness. Yet, even despite their attitudes and short play time, it was still an awesome show. Puuda even got to meet Dr. Kuha in person and hit him in the face with a padded stick. If I get the chance, I would definately go to it next year...if I can somehow get one of those darned buddy passes.

CAKE: B
Ari Herstand: A
Hall's Guide Service: A
Overall Event: B+

Grades are based on what was expected from each band/event (Ex. Going to see Angus Young in his school uniform, but instead he was only in regular clothes or a leotard)

Pictures from before and after the show should be up soon as well