On The Beat and Path: Music, Travel and more: Michael Franti is the Shit! Day 130, April 18th, 2011

Bored of Directives

Creative Studio Blog

Day 130, April 18th, 2011

We are back from an incredible weekend in Singapore. Gary and I had the opportunity to cover Singapore’s ROCK & ROOTS FESTIVAL. It was a marvelous and radically appropriate kick off to the filming of Season Three and our emphasis on music festivals around the world. We had the opportunity to see Toots & The Maytals, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Imogen Heap, Bob Dylan, John Legend and the show stopping performance of Michael Franti & Spearhead.

Steve Filming Franti at work.

Michael Franti and his incredible band ended the show on Friday night (Night One) and basically embarrassed every other artist with his musicianship and presence. Not to take anything away from Toots and Co. but Bob Dylan doesn’t allow filming for a reason. Simply put, if you do not have any music by Michael Franti, do yourself a favour and pick some up. Your mood will thank you.

The Man, Michael Franti.

Imogen Heap and her multi-instrumental charm and quirky hairdo (which is better face to face, not on large screen for the masses to tolerate) was my pick for performance of the night throughout the second evening. This was not an easy pick as Trombone Shorty and his 2-note-circular-breathing-trombone-ridiculousness was rather epic. John Legend was as great as John Legend could be was but his audience is not the 34-year-old man, unless that 34-year-old man is in bed with a 26-year-old woman.

Imogen Heap doing her thing, which is a lot of things.

We won’t be releasing the “Festival” episodes for a while, as there is still so much to come from ON THE BEAT AND PATH including next month’s show from Myanmar & Thailand. There is so much ridiculous coming your way that Randall no longer watches the episodes as he claims they have the same effect on him as sugar.

Welcome to the new member of our crew, Kyra Boyer who will be lending her photography brilliance to upcoming shoots. She joined Hannah in taking photos at the Rock and Roots Festival. Stay tuned. Check out her work at www.misskyraphotography.com.

We are halfway through April and there is so much to see from our Sumatra release: episodes, podcasts, blogs, photos. Check them all on the official site:

www.boredofdirectives.com/OBPath_index.html

STEEL CAGE MATCH (continued):

ROLLING STONE TOP 500 SONGS OF ALL TIME SMACKDOWN

Today’s Challenge: D’s

Today’s Competition:

David Bowie

Heroes

David Bowie

Changes

David Bowie

Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie

Young Americans

Deep Purple

Smoke On The Water

Del Shannon

Runaway

Depeche Mode

Personal Jesus

Derek And The Dominos

Layla

Diana Ross

Baby Love

Diana Ross

You Keep Me Hangin' On

Diana Ross

Where Did Our Love Go

Dion

The Wanderer

Dion

Runaround Sue

Dionne Warwick

Walk On By

Dolly Parton

Jolene

Donna Summer

Hot Stuff

Donna Summer

I Feel Love

Dr. Dre

Nuthin But A G Thang

Dusty Springfield

Son Of A Preacher Man

Dusty Springfield

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

There are many ways one could evaluate this round. There are some classic gems in this set list (classic gems are sort of missing from my list of finalists so far). Songs like Runaround Sue, which is so annoyingly catchy it makes me beg for ‘Steal my Sunshine’ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwtTOxouD5Q). I know I can be more of a modernist (is that a word?). At times it is like comparing basketball players from the modern era to those from 1960. It is not that I don’t love music from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. I do.

Who doesn’t love putting the bomp in the bomp da bomp da bomp? I love putting the bomp in the bomp da bomp da bomp. However, I am not moved emotionally by putting the bomp in the bomp da bomp and that makes a big difference.

Dionne Warwich is tragically eliminated due to her involvement in late night TV hawking (hey, it’s my competition and I’ll vote how I want to). So since we’re dealing with the D’s, I’ll choose Dolly Parton’s Jolene for obvious reasons. Plus, this Jolene cover by punk rock super group, Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s kicks ass: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBoTwOTKw0I)

Winner of the A’s: AC DC’s HIGHWAY TO HELL.

Winner of the B’s: Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues

Winner of the C’s: The Clash’s London Calling

Winner of the D’s: Dolly Parton’s Jolene

Have you seen Lake Week? It can make you moist and leave you damp:

boredofdirectives.com/windows_to_the_world.html

Otherwise, Catch Us Live Somewhere on this Planet.

Peace,

Steve

www.boredofdirectives.com/OBPath_index.html

Twitter: twitter.com/#!/OnTheBeatNPath

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