Category Archives: Music

Ziad el Rahbani’s Concert: A Failure?

Ziad el Rahbani Concert Lebanon

Many of my friends went to Ziad el Rahbani’s concert yesterday and all of them had not very nice things to say about it.

Apparently the seating arrangement was a mess. Those who paid for the $40 tickets got much better seats than those who paid for $60. Some of those who paid for the pricier tickets couldn’t even see the performers.

The organization of the event was all over the place. Ziad el Rahbani and his artists were more than 90 minutes late to the concert. And to top things off, the concert itself wasn’t impressive: Ziad sang a couple of phrases in the whole concert. His artists sang the entire setlist.

I personally don’t have time to go nor am I that big of a fan. However, I would expect the artist in question and the event organizers not to take everyone who’s attending for granted and handle things much better than they did.

Two concerts remain – hopefully they’ll be better for those who can’t wait to see him. For those who couldn’t go, it looks like you’re not missing out on much, except on a serious test to your anger management.

Apple Launches Lebanese iTunes Music Store

iTunes Music Store Lebanon

This should be interesting. Apple has launched iTunes’ Music Store in over 56 countries yesterday, one of those being Lebanon. In addition to the AppStore which Lebanese customers had for a while now, they’ll be able to – yes you guessed it – buy songs and albums online, however far-fetched that happening might be.

In addition to Lebanon, Apple’s iTunes Music Store has launched in other countries of the region such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain as well as Israel. This means it’s the first time the region gets a legal alternative for websites such as Nogomi which allow free downloads of music.

I personally buy most of the music I listen to off the American iTunes Store. Some Lebanese have called me crazy for doing so. So I wonder how many Lebanese are actually willing to leave their music piracy ways behind and start paying for the music they listen to? I’m sure it won’t be many.

Tania Saleh Fundraiser Concert for World AIDS Day

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The Lebanese Medical Students International Committee – LeMSIC in short – will be holding a fundraiser concert by Tania Saleh on December 15th, as part of its World AIDS Day awareness campaign.

The concert’s revenue will go to the HIV/AIDS fund of one of LeMSIC’s committees that’s involved in reproductive health which will then help HIV positive Lebanese patients get CD4 counts, which is not covered by the ministry of health or by Lebanese insurance companies.

A CD4 count determines the stage of the disease. The lower it is, the worse a person’s status is. It’s a mark of how far HIV has gone in destroying a person’s immunity and it is one of the criteria used to determine whether a patient has reached a state of AIDS or not, which would in turn affect the patient’s treatment options. The test itself is not cheap at all and many patients cannot afford one on their own.

Tickets prices are as follows: $20 if you are a medical student who’s a member of LeMSIC. $25 if you’re a non-member medical student and $35 for non-medical students.

And in case you’re worried, the concert will not comprise any medical lectures.

The Facebook link for the event in case you’re interested: click here.

Two Black Cadillacs (Single Review) – Carrie Underwood

 

Carrie Underwood’s new single, off her platinum selling album Blown Away and as a follow up to one of 2012’s biggest country hits Blown Away, is Two Black Cadillacs, a song which sets an ominous tone the moment the first note strikes.

Two black Cadillacs driving in a slow parade. Headlights shining bright in the middle of the day. One’s for his wife, the other for the woman who loved him at night, Underwood sings as a dramatic melody plays in the background. She immediately throws us into the setting of a funeral where a preacher man is saying the man being buried was a good man and his brother says he was a good friend.

But the two women in the black veils have a secret to hide. The story could very well serve to make a movie drama and Underwood delivers it effortlessly in a few minutes.

Two months ago his wife found the number on his phone, turns out he’d been lying to both of them for far too long. They decided then he’d never get away with doing this to them, Underwood lets the plot thicken. The women, taking turns in lying a rose down on the coffin and throwing dirt into the deep ground, also have a secret to hide. So they share a crimson smile and leave their secret with the man they killed, at the grave, to die with them.

Two Black Cadillacs is a hauntingly dark song by Underwood that serves as a one-two punch by the country star as she delivers her album’s most critically acclaimed tracks as back to back singles. The darkness with which her tone delivers this song would make you think she’s lived these events herself but it’s only telling of the caliber that Underwood has turned into as a performer. As she sings “bye bye” to signal the women biding farewell to the man who betrayed them both, you can feel her voice pierce through.

Two Black Cadillacs is a song where the musicians playing couldn’t stop after it was done so they kept playing and playing. Part of them jamming is found on the album track and will probably be cut with the radio edit. The song goes fifty shades deep and is Underwood’s darkest and most thought-provoking single release to date. From the haunting thumping melody that is reminiscent of a funeral march to the rich and multi-layered storytelling lyrics, Carrie Underwood delivers. Releasing a “softer” song may have been a safer bet. But Underwood is here to let her detractors know that Blown Away was just a storm warning. Bye bye, bye bye. 

A.

Better Dig Two – The Band Perry

One of my favorite country bands, The Band Perry, have just released their first single off their yet untitled second album. The song titled “Better Dig Two” is the story of a newlywed so deeply in love that she’d rather tell the grave digger he “better dig two” than go on a day without living without her significant other.

It is a dark, bluesy, twangy country song – starting with a banjo riff that sets the tone for a mid-tempo sung by Kimberly Perry. The song boasts a refreshing sound with shifts from the twangy verses to the feisty choruses. The build-up in the story to showcase the deep attachment of the protagonist is also interesting and it follows the change of sound clearly as the tempo increases.

“Better Dig Two” is a good enough song to continue The Band Perry’s good performance on country radio, though it fails to grasp the height of their signature song “If I Die Young” and even though they both address the issue of death, they do so differently and are very different from each other  sonically as well as thematically.

“Better Dig Two” will be released to iTunes tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can listen to it here:

The Band Perry – Better Dig Two

And here are the lyrics:

I told you on the day we wed

I was gonna love you till I was dead

Made you wait till our wedding night

That’s the first and last time I wear white

 

So if the ties that bind ever do come loose

Tie ’em in a knot like a hangman’s noose 

Cause I’ll go to heaven or I’ll go to hell

Before I see you with someone else

 

Put me in the ground 

Put me six foot down

And let the stone say

 

Here lies a girl whose only crutch

was loving one man just a little too much

If you go before I do

I’m gonna tell the gravedigger he better dig two

 

It won’t be whiskey, it won’t be meth

It’ll be your name on my last breath

If divorce and death ever do us part

the coroner will call it a broken heart

 

So put me in the ground

Put me six foot down

And let the stone say

 

Here lies a girl whose only crutch

was loving one man just a little too much

If you go before I do

I’m gonna tell the gravedigger he better dig two

Dig two

 

I took your names when I took those vows

Took those vows 

I made them back then and I need them right now

 

If the ties that bind ever do come loose

If forever ever ends for you

If that ring gets a little too tight,

It might as well read me my last rites

 

And let the stone say

Here lies a girl whose only crutch

was loving one man just a little too much

If you go before I do

I’m gonna tell the gravedigger he better dig two

 

Have your stone right next to mine

We’ll be together till the end of time

Don’t you go before I do,

I’m gonna tell the grave digger he better dig two

 

I told you on the day we wed

I was gonna love you till I was dead