The stage show was impressive, and the music was solid, but someone blundered big time booking Duran Duran at the Agannis Arena on Wednesday night. Capacity is 7,000, and my estimation is that the venue was probably at 2/3 capacity (at best). Let’s just say there were a lot of empty red seats…but we got a free upgrade, so I pretended not to notice.

Chris McDermott was born and raised 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia, and he’s never been able to shake the Philly soul sound he grew up with in the 60s. You can hear it in his latest album, Radio Ghosts. It’s a melting pot of sounds that McDermott has explored over his 25+ years as a top notch guitarist, including stints with blues greats like Eddie Kirkland. Hell, he even recruited former James Brown drummer Clyde Stubblefield to drop some funky nasty rhythms on Radio Ghosts. And it’s that Philly soul sound that connects the dots.

Next Saturday, June 7, McDermott will play the first ever full-scale live music show at the Outlook Restaurant in Westford. In case you’re not sure where that place is, think Nashoba Valley Ski Mountain. The Outlook is in the ski lodge. The cool part about next Saturday is there won’t be a bunch of people clomping around while Chris is playing, there won’t be a hunk of melted snow in the doorways, and the view will probably be pretty spectacular.

For this week’s Lowell Sun Nightlife story, I interviewed McDermott about his education at Berklee, his years on the road, and his latest album.

With the help of his trademark headgear (a porkpie hat) and instrument of choice (the ukulele), Melvern Taylor has become a legend in Lowell. He’s been around for years, he plays a lot of hip local events, and best of all, his music is timeless. Love Songs for Losers is his fourth album and the follow-up to his 2006 release Fabuloso. This Friday, Taylor will celebrate the grand opening of LSFL with a hometown CD release show at Sangria’s in Lowell.

Van Halen - Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester - tomorrow night
Of course, you already knew this. Hell, you've probably already got yer drink on.
I will be in Boston watching Duran Duran.
Don't worry, I'll give you a full report (of Duran Duran, that is) before the week's up.

Hey, folks. It's time to set the record straight. We here at AudioFloss want you to be more than just passive receivers of music information. We want you to scope out new music from Lowell and beyond.

To help you in this quest, we've added a Media Player to this blog, which you'll find in the upper left corner of this page. This media player will house streaming music by many of the artists gracing these blog pages. Our intent is to do more than give you a written synopsis of the artist, but to let you get a taste of the music for yourself.

Of course, we can only include music with the artists' permission, but in this day and age, most people are willing to oblige, especially if we ask nicely. We hope you enjoy this new addition to the blog. As always, feel free to give us feedback, recommend bands to us, or send us free show tickets (we like that).

Your Friends at AudioFloss

I came across this National Lampoon movie by accident on Netflix, and when I found out it was directed by Primus bassist extraordinaire Les Claypool, I had to give it a chance. A jam band mockumentary a la Spinal Tap, Electric Apricot traces the origins of the band in its title and their exciting invitation to play Festeroo, a fictional mecca of jamfests.

When I was in seventh grade, I wrote a ten-line poem for Tracy, a girl I was desperately in love with. At around the same age, Gordon Goodwin wrote his first big band chart. Now, it could be argued that my accomplishment was more important in the grand scheme of things, but by high school, Tracy had dumped me. Gordo went on to become a Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated composer. I’ll let you be the judge.

These days, Goodwin is leading the Big Phat Band, an 18-piece L.A.-based jazz ensemble that honors the big band tradition with a creative and contemporary twist. They have two Grammy-nominated albums, and their latest is called The Phat Pack (get it?). This Saturday night, May 31, they’ll phatten up Manchester locals with a healthy dose of big band shenanigans at the Palace Theater.

Dan Blakeslee has been a live mainstay along the New England Seacoast for the last decade or so, bouncing between southern Maine, Portsmouth, Newburyport, and Boston. His latest residence in Newburyport has lasted for 2½ years, with a major milestone being this little gem of a record. Lincoln Street Roughs was actually released in September 2007, but having just discovered it through a separate freelance assignment, I’m passing along the wealth to you, lucky readers.

Boston’s Eli Reed & the True Loves are bringing back 60s soul. And if you don’t go to the Firehouse Center in Newburyport on Friday night, May 23, you are gonna’ kick yourself later for missing the opportunity. Not unlike Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, James Hunter, and everyone’s favorite train wreck Amy Winehouse, Eli and his wrecking crew dip into Stax soul, Delta blues, and Southern gospel.

Ever since I caught Reed on a Boston Harbor Rock Cruise a couple years back, I’ve been hooked. In a live setting, the guy is in his element. And his three-piece horn section hits you like a freight train. They were listed as one of the top artists to watch from this year's South by Southwest Festival (there are literally hundreds of bands playing the Festival, so this is a big feat), and you'll understand after listening to their new album Roll With You.

For this week’s Lowell Sun Nightlife article, I got to interview Reed and find out where the hell he got all that soul from.

The Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., was built in 1878, and it’s one of the oldest operating theaters in the United States. Season after season, they keep bringing great performances to the Seacoast (and those of us lucky enough to live within driving distance of it). Last week, the Music Hall announced their 2008-2009 season, and it’s another doozie.

Oh, how I remember the sweet strums of that guitar opening. It was celestial melancholy, and it would burrow into my mind for days. “Under the Milky Way” by The Church is, in my humble opinion, one of the most timeless songs of the 1980s. It was the song that broke the band into the mainstream after eight years of kicking around in their native Australia.

No doubt those who will be excited about this announcement have already been notified via text, IM, or RSS feed, but Boys Like Girls - those lovable dudes who grew up in nearby Andover and have taken the MySpace music world by storm - will be screaming their emo hearts out at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell on August 15.

Joining them for the therapy session will be like-minded emo punks Good Charlotte and emo-with-a-synth Californians Metro Station. Tickets are $25 through Ticketmaster and go on sale Thursday, May 22 at 5 p.m., so better start hitting up your mom for money pronto. Enjoy!

My wife and I took advantage of a trip into Boston this past Saturday night for a friend’s 40th birthday party by capping the night’s shenanigans with a late show at the Middle East Downstairs. I’m a casual fan of both Silver Mt. Zion and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the band that shares three SMZ members, and I was curious to see how their unique and unclassifiable music would transfer to a live setting.

When I first came upon the Neil Young tribute band Rust Never Sleeps, which plays the Bull Run in Shirley, Mass., on Saturday night, May 17, I was immediately struck by the striking similarity of their covers to Young's earbursting original rockers. I'm personally not all that big on tribute bands, but something about their sound and sincerity struck a chord with me (pun intended). So for this week's Lowell Sun Nightlife story, I interviewed band founder and lead singer Ken Gibson, who turned out to be a really great guy.

Okay, punk/ska fans – your fantasy double bill is coming to Lowell. MassConcerts has announced that the Dropkick Murphys and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones will be playing three New England shows in July, and one of them happens to be at the home of the Lowell Spinners, LeLacheur Park! That show will be on Thursday, July 10. From there, the party continues at Hadlock Field in Portland on Friday, July 11, and on Saturday, July 12, the invasion moves south to McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket.

Gates will be at 5 p.m. and show time will be 6 p.m. for all three shows, rain or shine. Tickets are $32.50 for each show, and for those who just can’t get enough, you can actually get a ticket good for all three for a discounted rate of $86. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, May 17, at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster. Call (617) 931-2000 or (207) 775-3331. Or, of course, www.ticketmaster.com.

The Dropkicks are actually on tour all summer, but these shows with their old buds from the Bosstones are only for us lucky New Englanders. Sa-weeeet! In case you haven’t noticed, these three shows are all being held at the ballparks of minor league Red Sox affiliates, and that Celtic dancer (and part-time Red Sox pitcher) Jonathan Papelbon pitched on all three teams before joining the Sox. Oh, and this is the first concert (hopefully not the last) ever to be held at LeLacheur!

Here are some links in case you don’t know who these bands are. But seriously, if you don’t, why the hell are you still reading this? Crawl back under your rock.

www.massconcerts.com

www.dropkickmurphys.com

www.bosstonesmusic.com

The phrase “high-brow prank call record” may sound like an oxymoron, but the highly pop culture-literate team of Andy Earles and Jeffrey Jensen deliver exactly that with Just Farr a Laugh: The Greatest Prank Phone Calls Ever!, Vols. 1 & 2. The duo released Volume 1 of the collection on their own a few years back, and since that time convinced Gerard Cosloy, co-owner of well-known (and well-funded) Matador Records, to release this expanded collection on his distinguished label.

Ah, the glorious, majestic coffee house. Perhaps it's the soft sound of milk frothing in the background, or that wonderful aroma enhancing the heady music emanating from the front of the room...whatever it is, it's hard to deny that live music in a coffee house just feels right (and I don't even drink coffee!).

Fortunately, we are blessed with three great coffee shops in Lowell, but unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of live music at them...at least not at the moment. But if you're willing to hop in the car for a drive this weekend, there are some good shows at some of our area coffee houses.

The 119 Gallery on Chelmsford St. in Lowell has live music events on occasion, but Director Walter Wright and Music Director Dan Adam seem to be ramping things up as of late. This week, there are three shows on tap, all of them experimental in nature. For a change of pace, check out one of these brow-raising performances.

Inanna know a lot about rhythm. They’re a group of five women from Alna, Maine, who have been playing African drum music for almost 20 years. In fact, they met through a drumming class they took together. How convenient.

On Saturday, May 10, Inanna will bring their entrancing beats to the Simple Gifts Coffee House at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua. For this week’s Lowell Sun Nightlife feature, I had a wonderful interview with Inanna percussionist and founding member Tori Morrill (she's the one in the middle).

For those of you wondering where all the hip, intelligent bands in Lowell went, I have three words for you - The Night Café. More than just an impressive collection of songs, Benedict Arnold's debut album is sure to be the soundtrack to your next late night come-down party or low-key get together.

Yesterday was a LaLa day. So was this past Saturday. And last Wednesday. As a matter of fact, I seem to be LaLa’ing about three times a week these days. The truth is, once you start, it’s hard to stop. They make it so easy.

See, I have this borderline-destructive music addiction. I have to have new music…constantly. I have new CD’s that I’ve never listened to. Not even once. And I have a LOT of those. But with LaLa, I don’t feel quite so guilty about this problem.

If you've been to any of UMass Lowell's Urban Village Arts Society (UVAS) events, you know they are free monthly events at the National Park Visitor's Center in which three artists from varying backgrounds perform in their respective areas of expertise.

On Thursday, May 8, UVAS will celebrate the release of its first CD, "The Best of UVAS '07-'08," with a free party at the Revolving Museum from 7-9 p.m. The double-disc recording is a grab bag of performances from the past year - from musicians and singers to authors and poets.

The CD will be for sale at the event for a paltry $10, and there will also be readings by Lowell poet Ryan Gallagher and a performance by local bluegrass heroes Hot Day at the Zoo. Oh, and did I mention free grub? Boo-ya!

For deets about UVAS or the party, contact Gigi.Thibodeau@gmail.com or Todd_Avery@uml.edu.

Ten-piece L.A. band Ozomatli have been bringing their unique stew of hip-hop, salsa, funk, and reggae sounds to awestruck audiences for more than ten years. I was lucky enough to catch them on their first major US tour in 1998, and I've been a diehard fan ever since. When I tell you that their concerts are a hip-shaking, fist-pumping, mind-altering experience, it's not an exaggeration. Blasting horns, percussion breaks, ukulele solos, dancing MCs, and a drum circle only scratch the surface of the things you'll get at this non-stop party.

More than just a party, though, Ozomatli have a message in their mayhem. They inject a healthy amount of political themes in their addictive hooks and rump-shaking beats. I must admit that it was rather shocking to see them on Dancing with the Stars recently, but I suppose in this age of declining record sales and disappearing record labels, you have to do what you can to get your name out there.

It's nice to see the band adding an extra show outside of Boston this tour, so by all means, get up to the Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., if you can this Sunday, May 11. It all starts at 8 p.m., with tickets going for $30 and $26. By the way, there's also the regular live date at the Paradise in Boston (more room there for dancing, actually) on Saturday, May 10, at 8 p.m.

It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since Men at Work capitalized on the video age with their hits "Down Under," "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Overkill." Writing songs that successfully injected both corny humor and insightful honesty, lead singer Colin Hay was a frontman you wanted to sit down and have a beer with.

These days, Hay is writing in a similar style, with more time-weathered wisdom flowing through his lyrics, and music that's scaled back to more of a singer/songwriter style. In the live setting, Hay performs solo with a few acoustic guitars. This Sunday, May 4, he's bringing his show to the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, N.H., and for this week's Lowell Sun Nightlife article, I chatted with him about his current tour, his latest album, and the recent announcement of his second stint with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band.