SWIK Summer Concerts 2010

It’s that time of year again. Summer has arrived (at least the steamy temperatures last weekend made me feel like it’s here) so I’m planning my summer concert schedule. Last year when I posted The SWIKest Summer Tours, my good friend Sadie was amused by the fact that I planned my summer concerts the same way some people plan a vacation. Yes, it may seem pathetic. But it’s so easy to miss a good show if you don’t plan ahead, at least a little. I’m generally not much of a planner. I’m more a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants kinda girl, particularly when it comes to vacations or social activities. But I’ve missed several great shows this year, finding out that someone is coming to town after a show has sold out or missing the show by just a day or two. For example, I already missed Melody Gardot with The New York Pops at Summer Stage in Central Park last week. Ugh!! So frustrating. Therefore, I’m taking time to check out who’s around this summer and mark the dates in my calendar.

A SWIK Icon with a Bad Reputation

This week is the anniversary of my first SWIK Music blog post. I want to say that I can’t believe that I’ve been writing this for a year. But I’ve barely posted in 2010, so I don’t think that I can call it a year. The anniversary does seem to be a good excuse to finally get back to the business of the SWIK Music blog. Unfortunately, it was a night of drunkenness and some karaoke a few weekends ago that motivated me to finally draft this post. I was out with my friend Michelle. She is frequently my partner in activities that involve music and drinking. I met up with her and a bunch of her friends at a karaoke bar in the East Village. (A shout out to the Jersey crew, including the birthday boy, his lovely wife, and everyone else who made it such a great night.) Michelle and I sang some classic Joan Jett tunes, reminding me of the post that I’ve wanted to write for two months. It’s Joan Jett though. I want to do her justice. With a new greatest hits and a movie about her former band, The Runaways, it’s time to get it down and pay homage.

A SWIK Soldier of Love

It’s been a while since the the last SWIK post. My iMac finally has a new hard drive. This past week, I caught Olympic fever as well as a bad cold. Both kept me on the couch and unmotivated to write. I’ve also been struggling with ‘makin' it happen‘ (see related post). Figuring out what’s next, in my career as well as in my love life, has been a challenge. Luckily there’s a new album from Sade to help me through. Sade has been a staple in my music collection since I first saw “Smooth Operator” on Friday Night Videos circa 1984. Although Sade’s albums are released infrequently, the last one was 10 years ago, the music is always relevant and captures my mood. This time it’s the title track to her new album, Soldier of Love. The song evokes the feeling of marching through a battlefield, albeit with a slow, funky groove. The past few years of my life have felt like a bit of a battlefield. Not just in love, but also in finding a new direction and passion for my career. Yet, despite the struggles, I’m ready to jump back into the fray, getting out there, believing again. Leading me to feel like, yes, some sort of soldier of love.

“I’ve lost the use of my heart, but I’m still alive, still looking for the light...
I’m a soldier of love, every day and every night, I’m a soldier of love, all the days of my life.”

For all my SWIKs with Madonna as our soundtrack

Today, September 29, 2009 Madonna released her third (or fourth?) greatest hits album. Celebration is a double CD set that spans her twenty-five year career. I can’t let the moment pass without saying a few words about this SWIK Icon. A great deal has already been said about her. What can I possibly add? First, a mix of a few songs that didn’t make this new album and weren’t necessarily hits, but that you may have missed and are worth checking out. Second, a personal history. Any woman my age has grown up with Madonna. We all have some Madonna memories at this point. Whether you love her or hate her, there are probably moments where her music played a part and there’s a specific instance where you can recall hearing a song and having some sort of reaction. I’m huge fan of her music, but this post is not a tribute to her. It’s a trip down memory lane with Madonna providing the soundtrack. So even if you aren’t a Madonna fan, you may enjoy the post. It’s actually a tribute to all the woman in my life who have shared my personal Madonna soundtrack. You can start playing the SWIK Icon Madonna Mix with this new Grooveshark widget and listen while you read. Just press play.

SWIK Icon Series: The voice of glamour and danger

In a wonderful end to what was otherwise a not-so-fabulous summer, this past weekend I had the opportunity to navigate some curvy Maine roads in a peach-colored 1960 MGA convertible. The car belongs to my uncle, who is attempting to restore it to a semblance of its former glory. After a brief lesson on the quirks of a car nearly five decades old, I was permitted to take it for a spin. With my scarf blowing in the wind, but no working radio, the song blaring inside my head was “Kiss Them For Me” by Siouxsie and The Banshees. Why? Or you may even ask, who?

In The Background and In High Heels

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind. In a highly unusual case of social activity, I found myself out every night long past my regular bedtime. From tapas with my cousin to a work-related roof deck party as well as a Wine Library TV event, the weekend couldn’t come soon enough. Yet, I knew the weekend wouldn’t be any slower and that live music would be part of it. My friend Suzy T. was in town. We work together at a large, conservative, multi-national organization, but we both started our careers in the music industry. With a fellow music-lover in town, a live show was on the agenda. While there’s plenty of live music on any given weekend in NYC, it’s easy to make a bad choice and hear something awful. Fortunately for us, we got it exactly right and found what was probably the best show in town. We headed to the Bell House on Saturday for the second night of the Brooklyn Soul Festival.

Call Us Invincible

Thursday night I ventured out to the very edge of Brooklyn to see the Call Me Invincible tour with Pat Benatar and Blondie. I returned home with a few thoughts. First, it’s true what a man once told me, “rock ‘n roll is not an aesthetic or even a sound, but a spirit. And you can't kill a spirit.” Second, while the crowd is critical to the experience of live music, it’s possible to enjoy a show in spite of a lame audience. Finally, despite the focus on youth in today’s media, older women are cool. We will inevitably bring more to the table than our teen and twenty-something sisters. It’s not that we don’t love our younger sisters. We remember what it was like being young but, honestly, it’s WAY better now. Plus, generally we’re just better at whatever it is that we do because of all those years of experience. Thanks Patricia and Debbie for reminding me.

Watts and SWIK Drummers

The passing of writer/director John Hughes last week brought back a rush of ’80’s memories. He wrote some classic comedies including National Lampoon’s Vacation and Mr. Mom. Yet for many of us, it was movies like Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that captured our high school experiences with stories and music that came to, dare I say, almost define a generation. My favorite of his films was not a huge hit. Some Kind of Wonderful starred Mary Stuart Masterson as quirky drummer chick, Watts. I’ve seen this movie so many times, I’ve lost count. John Hughes movies reminded me of Watts, which started me thinking about female drummers.

SWIK Icon Series: The girl still wants to have fun

After her performance on last month’s final episode of American Idol, some may say she’s back. In fact, she never left us. 1980’s indie-pop icon, Cyndi Lauper has been putting out albums - 12 to be specific - for years. It started with the party anthem, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” in 1983. Since then, she’s done everything from rock to big band. (We’ll forgive her unfortunate foray into WWF). I discovered she had a new album in the previously mentioned dance class (see Trina’s Single Again post), where we warmed up to “Into The Nightlife” a few months ago. It’s a high energy dance tune, but does the rest of the album hold up?