Reviews

This time it's RTVI. Friday, July 24, at either 3pm or 7pm EST, I will be in the news segment. Today we were filming it at Paddy Reilly's bar / open mic. Overall I was not in the top shape, but I think it should still be alright.

В пятницу, 24го июля, в 3 часа и 7 часов я буду в новостях на RTVI. Можете полюбопытствовать.

Wednesday, July 1, at 10pm EST, I will be on the "PERSONA GRATA" show on the channel NTV-America.

В среду, 1 июля, в 10 вечера, я буду на передаче "ПЕРСОНА ГРАТА" на НТВ-Америка. Можете полюбопытствовать.

Vysotsky (and myself): first time in English, first time in England!


Thursday, July 9, 7.30pm
“MOST” CAFÉ / Bar
The Horace Jones Vault
Shad Thames
London SE1 2UP

Sunday, July 12, 7pm
"MEADOW" Bar
42 - 44 Buccleuch St.
Edinburgh, UK

Over the past couple of months I have attended several open mic nights. Most of them have been a pleasant experience. Here are my thoughts and ratings on the ones I played at or tried to play at:

Tagine (Hell's Kitchen). The basement of a Moroccan restaurant. A bunch of mostly bad startup comedians, so I was clearly an odd-ball there. Still I had fun. I wonder what was it like for people who can barely put two words together to hear actually funny songs: with rhymes, alliterations, etc. I got to play 3 songs, instead of usual two. The hostess was very nice, but as a comedian she... well, needs work. Plus, she had no idea about the equipment. Too well lit for my tastes, killing the atmosphere. Extremely overpriced food, but I actually tried a pheasant dish for the first time in my life, and it was terrific. C+

Paddy Reilly's Music Bar (Kips Bay). An Irish pub near NYC Medical Center. All music, all folk: blues, country, Celtic, etc. The host has a strange sense of humor. Two songs to play, 1 drink minimum. Solid reception. B+

Nightingale Lounge (East Village). A lounge. Mostly poets (with some musicians) and old hippies. Two songs to play, 1 drink minimum. Good reception. B

Bowery Poetry Club (East Village). Held in a comedy club, but mostly musicians. A lovely hostess. Two songs to play, good crowd, excellent sound and reception. The problem is: the hostess draws the names and people then sign up, leaving much to a chance. I got lucky and ended up going second. A-

New York Comedy Club (Kips Bay). A pitch-black room in the back of the bar, a comedy club. Mostly terrible comedians. A handful of people, 2 songs to play, good reception. C+

Rehearsal Studios NY (Times Square). A small room that resembles a classroom. Mostly poets (some -- very good), a few musicians, 3 songs. An old hippie hostess. A $5 contribution. Excellent reception. B+

Common Ground (Stuyvessant City / East Village). An excellent place, folk musicians, a competent host, 20 minute slots (5 songs!). Excellent reception and sound, but I wish people were more interested in music than food. A

Silk Road Cafe (China Town). Played there last night. Comedians, rock/folk/rap musicians, anything goes. A very cool host. 2 songs to play, a superb reception. Will be going back. A-

WHERE I DIDN'T GET TO PLAY:

NYC Baha'i Center (North Village). They were celebrating Women's History Month, so it was for "sistas" only (the place is clearly African-American oriented).

Cafe Vivaldi (West Village). Been there twice, both times drew very late numbers from the bucket. But the place is packed, so I'm gonna try again.

Last Saturday I played three songs -- "The One Who Was with Her Before," "The Airfight," and "The Flight Aborted" -- at the legendary pub Paddy Reilly's. Even though there weren't many people in the audience, the reception was good. I managed to sell one disc and got a free Henessey shot from the excited bartender. Ah, my humble beginnings

They have an open mic there every Saturday, and I try to get there around 6 pm. I will probably do this again, and I'll keep you posted as far as my next open-mic gig. I was gonna do one today, but the circumstances beyond my control prevented it.

Last night I, rather unexpectedly, played almost a full set at "Le Caire" lounge in the Village (3rd St, between A & B). I was told it was going to be a freestyle open mic night. However, when I showed up, the promoter told me they were going to have a hip-hop night instead. I decided to stick around anyway (plus, they have really great Turkish coffee there). Around 11 pm the promoter said that there's not enough people, and he's canceling the event. I convinced him to let me play anyway, in front of four ghetto rapper boys. Incredibly enough, they loved it so much, that they kept asking for more and more, and I ended up playing 6 songs. They were nodding and rocking along, laughing at all the right places, and certainly cheering me up. After the show two of them bought CDs. It was truly a surreal experience.

Setlist:

"The One Who Was with Her Before." That one got them started. I think the line "Hold on, bro, if you can" broke the ice.
"The Cab Meter." Superbly received. From the first line "He told me 'Fine, but she's mine!'" they listened very carefully. And the line "You gotta pay up when the ride is over" just rocked the house.
"Seven Years of Blue." This one I explained a little bit, but it went fine also.
"The Airfight." They loved the groove here big time; along with "The Cab Meter" -- the most popular number of the night.
"The High Jumper." I tied it to the overall sports theme; went well.
"The Flight Aborted." Definitely the most challenging number, they were still very impressed.

Overall, a smashing success. I only wish there were more people in the audience And big kudos to Max and Alya for showing up and more so to Arina and Polina for showing up and staying.

After the show Polina said that I made history: could anybody imagine these fellas rocking out to Vysotsky? But, of course, it makes sense: the "real-ness" of Vysotsky's songs is such that people as lyrics-oriented as hip-hoppers, can't but appreciate it. And that's exactly what happened.

A lot of people seem to be upset at the job that the engineers did when mastering Metallica's latest album, "Death Magnetic". They complain that the mastering was simply too loud, obliterating all details in the sound. Indeed, many people prefer to download the "Guitar Hero III" videogame version, which, for some strange reason, has a much quieter, more accessible sound. I bought the original, but still found the "GH3" version as well.

The following is a culmination of this public frustration, expressed as a parody of Metallica's classic song, "Master of Puppets." It was posted on the forum of a famous producer, Andy Sneap. I loved it so much that decided to post it here.

MASTERED BY MUPPETS (lyrics by Dan Weapon)

End of session day, Rubin works away:
I'm your source of song-destruction
Tunes that hurt you ear, poor sound engineer
Leaving spikes on my instruction
Trust me you will see
Volume’s all you need
Dedicated to
How I'll limit you

Compressing faster
Limit your Master
Your albums sell faster
With a loud Master
Master

Mastered by muppets, brickwalling your dreams
Clipping, distorting and smashing extremes
Ruined by me, you can't hear a thing…
Just spiking snares, and auto-tuned screams
Mastered
Mastered
Rubin’s my name, and I'll hear you scream
Bastard
Bastard

Need to mix this way, never you dismay
”Loud” makes death magnetic clearer
Gain monopoly, ritual Waves L3
Squash your tracks til it’s severe
Gate and you will see
More and more dB
Dedicated to
How I’m killing you

Compressing faster
Limit your Master
Your albums sell faster
With a loud Master
Master

Mastered by muppets, brickwalling your dreams
Clipping, distorting and smashing extremes
Ruined by me, you can't hear a thing…
Just spiking snares, and auto-tuned screams
Mastered
Mastered
Rubin’s my name, and I'll hear you scream
Bastard
Bastard

Master, Master, where's the version I've been after?
Bearded, Bastard, you promised only lies
Blaster, Blaster, recorded on a ghetto blaster?
Laughter, laughter, laughing at those highs
Spike to me!

Lars ain’t worth all that – “natural” kick and hats
Kirk adds wah without a reason
Never ending phrase, Jaymz goes on for days
Rob, your shirt is out of season…
I’ll record til 5 (then)
I will help you buy
Sandals that suit you
Now you look cool too !

This is a letter I have received from my buddy, a Swedish vocalist Urban Breed (ex-TAD MOROSE):

==============================================
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on how you saw this project
through. Impressive! Not because it's your first album (while this is true and it's somewhat
difficult not to have that in mind when listening) but because I think, overall, when you sing, it comes across as being sung
with that same conviction we spoke about earlier.

While you may not sing in a style that would normally appeal to me, it is a
style these songs for the most part demands. It is also not a style that makes me go, "Hey! That's a highly accomplished
singer", but nevertheless you had the hairs on my arms standing on end more than once over the course of the album.
That is far more important than impressive range and near perfect intonation. Occasionally, style-wise, there are times I wish you had backed off just a little but that's inevitable, I'm sure.

So a quick run through with some comments then, shall we?

The opening track, 'The One Who Was With Her Before' is an interesting
little number that keeps me interested throughout the track.
I find, however that the format with repeating the last two lines gets in
the way of the storytelling. Traditional, I know, and also, I'm sure, how
the song was originally performed, right?

'The Cab Meter' then. Excellent guitar playing. Very tasteful and I like the
sound. The vocal melody lines are a little too similar to the first track
but that's not your fault. It is after all how it's supposed to be.

'Seven Years of Blue'. I rather like this one. So much that I feel like
getting in there and changing things that would (to my ears) make
it catchier. First and foremost I would change the "Here are the storms and
the blue winters" into "Here are the storms and the winters blue". Oh, well,
never mind me...

'Everybody's Gone to War'. This is a captivating song. I just love the
lyrics here. Hmmm, no, I'll stop here and write some more about each song
while on the plane. I want to do your work justice. As I'm unfamiliar with
this style of music I need to focus on one track at a time. Writing my
review while listening intently and, quite possibly, repeatedly.

Btw, I was listening to this yesterday and at one point I was skipping to
the next song half-way through another when Belinda (my daughter) said; "No! I like this. Go back. You can't just skip
through songs like that."

Later then!

...Urban
=================================================

Urban and I in Chicago, April 2005

Another letter:

=================
Vadim

In most of the songs, I see a young man in a conflict he cannot win who, instead of spinning down into quiet depression, soldiers on often violently giving voice to his rage and his passion. I"m put off by his relationship with the women in his life - conflict ridden relationships filled with frustration and rejection so he gets no solace from them either. A Hemingway type macho gritty character - living hard and drinking hard - trying to live in a world that makes no sense. Justice never seems to win here, so it's living on in a world of injustice, trying to keep the powers that be from getting you down. A man's man. The Leonardo one made me giggle however.

The musicians are astoundingly talented.

I liked the range of tones in your voice from song to song.

I'd love to read translations of some of the love songs. You could really appreciate Vysotsky the actor when you listen to him sing. He still reminds me of Richard Burton in that both have a commanding presence, are brilliant, macho, and sexy, even without understanding a word he was singing.

Last night I attended the "METAL MASTERS" show at Holmdel, NJ. That was a killer show (in spite of being a senior citizen's parade). Testament started it off with their brand of heavy thrash. The sound was too muffled, I could only discern "Souls of Black" and two pieces off the new one, "More Than Meets the Eye" and "Formation of Damnation" (with a stupid name like this, there is not a chance that I'm gonna buy it). But at least they sounded better than...

Motorhead! This was the worst sound I have EVER heard, and I've seen plenty of shitty sounds. I stood next to the soundboard, so I don't know what that guy was smoking, because I could not hear anything whatsoever, except for drums. I guessed 5 tracks: "Killers," "In the Name of Tragedy," "Killed by Death," and the two mandatory conclusion tracks. Simply terrible. Mikki is a phenomenal drummer, though.

Black Sabbath. Would somebody tell me: WHO OWNS THE RIGHTS TO THE NAME "BLACK SABBATH"? Anyhow, Heaven & Hell it was. Dio sounded better than any other time I've heard him, he is truly incredible. It was a complete threeway tossup between him, Geezer, and Tony. Great performance and great setlist:

The Mob Rules
Children of the Sea
I
Sign of the Southern Cross
Time Machine
Falling off the Edge of the World
Die Young
Heaven & Hell

I wish they did something other than from those three albums, but hey: they only had enough time for these (didn't even do "Neon Knights"!). Killer stuff.

Judas Priest. Astounding to finally see them together. Rob rocked, even if he was hunched over the teleprompter half the time. But he changed costumes a lot ("Prophecy" he sang in a bishop's outfit with a staff) and wailed like a madman. Also some nice comments in between songs. Glenn stole the show though, his leads were just so... effortless! When he started "Dissident Aggressor" he looked like he was having so much fun! And the choreography is still pretty cool: not as intense as it used to be, but still incredibly driving. Nice stage set to top it off.

Prophecy
Metal Gods
Eat Me Alive
Between the Hammer & the Anvil
Devil's Child
Hell Patrol
Breaking the Law
Dissident Aggressor
Electric Eye
Rock Hard Ride Free
Painkiller
Angel

Encore:
Hell Bent for Leather
Green Manalishi
You Got Another Thing Coming

An incredibly fresh setlist, and two songs I didn't think I would ever hear, "BtH&tA" and "RHRF," were there! God, was I a happy camper!

I bought a Priest shirt too. Now it's time to start gearing up for the PropPower Festival.

This was sent to me by my coworker.

=================================================================
"Singer, Sailor, Soldier, Spirit"

As an American, I have never heard of Vladimir Vysotsky. I guess in Russia, one might not have heard of Johnny Cash. By taking a famous singer/songwriter and translating his/her work into foreign language is a daunting task. Vadim Astrakhan takes on the challenge and does it well. The poetry that is Vysotsky can be translated literally, but to turn that into a song that works, Astrakhan accomplishes with style. Lyrically, his album is terrific. To read the translations and to be able to sing to them is great. The accompaniment of guest musicians is astounding. Astrakhan brings in multi-talented musicians who make this album. All types of sounds are generated by different instruments, creating a visual scene of the song. The third part to a memorable album is a singer’s voice. Sadly, Astrakhan’s voice is not as strong as hoped, but he attempts to bring Vysotsky’s singing style to life. I guess even an attempt at imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

Overall, the music, lyrics, and cultural education are worth the price of admission ($15). War in the Mountains (К Вершине) is my overall favorite song on the album. Do not miss out on musical experience that is The Airfight (Песня о Воздушном Бое). Lyrically, Everybody’s Gone to War (Все Ушли на Фронт) is the strongest and makes you want to cry. Don’t expect too much from this fledging singer’s voice; you are here for the overall experience.

-Jennifer Dondero
===========================================================

I`m presently in Quebec City, enjoying the WCH. QC is a strange place. I know it`s 400 y.o., but it looks very stylized, as if it`s trying to appear older than it is. That`s just the Old City, because the outskirts look more like an even sleepier Boston.

A lot of Russian fans here, but very few Americans. How retarded are we? Very, apparently, if nobody comes to support our national team when it`s playing next door to us.

Russians won the quarterfinals game against Switzerland 6-0, but that idiot Kovalchuk was suspended, so now they only have one scoring line. So now they`re likely to lose to the Finns, and it`s going to be really disappointing.

Alright, I`m out.

On Friday I made friends with the restaurant musicians at the "Russian Samovar" restaurant (52 St & 8 Ave). They turned out to be fans of Vysotsky and, after some chit-chatting, they invited me "on stage" (there's no stage as such at the "RS" but whatever it was, did the trick) to sing. I sang five songs, two -- with the band, a complete improvisation. It was fun.

And Saturday I went to the "Bard Night" in Columbia. Not a lot of people (much less than last year), but it was fun as well. I even managed to sell some discs. Honestly, I don't dig bards, but Nevermoon was there, and they kicked as, as usual.

The ARP went rather well. Lots of people, and, for the nth time, I came to realize just how loyal, supportive, and overall great my friends are. Also, it seems, most (if not all) of them genuinely enjoyed both my performance and my album. While the venue, "GLASS," was not exactly suited for this sort of "chamber" live music, those who came to listen, they listened well and enjoyed it. Many special thanks go to Volodya Ponomarev for his sound work. The sales were solid, and the reception was fine.

I wish there more people from the industry, though. What I need is exposure, and at this point I'm not even sure how to get it. I honestly believe any person with even a slightest interest in the genre of "storytelling" should enjoy this project, but the trick is to get it to them. Any ideas?

Unfortunately, the pictures did not come out well, and the video is unusable as well. The only usable pictures can be found at the following location:

http://goslava.com/gallery/view/id_615/