Recommended Reading: Nick Hornby's Songbook

Nick Hornby wrote the music lover's book that was made into the music lover's film High Fidelity. Hornby wrote a collection of essays about 31 songs.

Songbook is not a critique of the songs, but a celebration. He writes about how they make him feel, what they inspire in him, or simply why he loves them. The writing is witty, sharp and so very enjoyable. I often laughed out loud. Sometimes I had to read a piece over again just because it was so much fun.

He takes on some of the sillier tropes in music criticism such as the idea that music must be "edgy" to be noteworthy. He defends pop music with humor, vigor and persuasiveness.

He also recommends several albums at the end and most of them are one's I love.

To celebrate this lovely book, I am going to play his 31 songs for my Monday set, so I will be starting a bit early - at 4:30 PM on Monday, January 27th.

Ugly Celebrates The Man in Pink!

It was The Man in Pink's birthday last week and today I am dedicating an entire set to him.  Expect an abundance of strangeness.  Here is one of the coolest artists he has introduced to me, Hugh Laurie.  Enjoy!

An Evening of Classic Rock

7-9pm, Friday Jan 10th:

It's been a hard week. And when it's been a hard week, a really hard week, I need some hard rock. Hard rock, of the classic kind. Sure, a lot of this came out of the 1970s, but there'll be a dab or two from other decades as well. I haven't put the playlist together yet, but you can depend on hearing Alice Cooper, some Gong, some Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Van Halen, maybe some Rush, and absolutely Led Zeppelin will be included ... the music that makes this old dude feel good. So don your denim jacket and your best concert t-shirt, and head over to the V tonight for the stuff your dad used to listen to. When he was cool. And dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Obligatory Best of 2013 Set!

Today I'm playing a 2013-heavy set with great songs from 2013, like this gem from the Kopecky Family Band from last year's Kids Raising Kids album.  Enjoy!

(Some of) The Music of Frank Zappa

Friday the 20th, 7-9pm SL time - While he insisted his music not be remembered (as it was intended only for the time it was released), it's my pleasure to grate against the artist's postmortem druthers and present a two hour set of the music of Frank Zappa at The Velvet.

December might as well be declared an official Frank Zappa month; Wednesday the 4th was the 20th anniversary of the musician's death, and Saturday the 21st would have been his 71st birthday. What better time to construct a set of music showcasing this man's contributions? Frank Zappa's stances on social engineering, politics or pop culture, his genius in musical arrangement, his standing as guitar virtuoso and musical composer, and his willingness to say what he thought - often as sarcastically as possible and regardless of popular opinion - created, I suspect to Frank's chagrin, a legend.

For this evening, I have selected a fairly even mix of standard songs-with-vocals and straight-up instrumentals from the 1970-1985 period. Of course, there's a bonus here and there for the folks who enjoy the really early releases, but this is when Frank produced his best work, IMHO. In other words, tonight will feature a fairly approachable set of Frank's music, including a lion's share of live material, perfect for those not familiar with the artist's body of work. I hope you will attend tonight's set and experience the music of Frank Zappa for yourself.

A Very Ugly Holiday!

Happy holidays everyone!

Ugly's Community Celebration!

A while ago I did a last minute set about and inspired by a show with great music, Community.  Since then I've wanted to rework it and make it a proper set.  Today I'm celebrating Community, both the show and the concept.  Here's the theme to the show by The 88.  Enjoy!