***Aslyn***

I've fallen in love with a singer/piano player we saw with Better Than Ezra last night. Her name is Aslyn and she has a very potent, powerful voice (Matt and I think she could easily be in Rent on broadway...) and her music is great. What's the icing on the cake? The fact that she is this tiny little sprite of a woman with unruly blonde hair and a very sweet personality.

I went out to meet her after her set, and fell a little bit in love. It's pretty rare that you meet someone as talented as she is who is also so friendly and sincere.

Her album is called "Lemon Love" (like cars are lemons). It's damn good.
I think she and our lovely, dirty little Nikka should go on tour together. They could call it the Sugar and Spice tour.

Anyway, that's about it.

Shut Up and Listen

I don't mention music I'm listening to that much here, so let me talk about a brand new album I purchased recently. This is a new segment I would like to call,

"Shut Up and Listen"

Can'tneverdidnothin' by Nikka Costa.

Nikka is an old RockChicks favorite, first introduced to me by Elaine back when we used to terrorize the good folk of Chesapeake, Virginia. Her second album is more funky and more fun. She channels everything from Nina Simone (OK, she doesn't exactly channel Nina so much as brilliantly cover her song "Mosquita's Tweeter." Does anyone know what the hell a tweeter is? anyone? No? OK...) to AC/DC in the guitar and drum-drenched "On and On." I think that in the time between the last album and this one, Nikka has been sitting with her head between the speakers listening to Elaine's Funk CD's and old Led Zeppelin records. The result is a CD that grooves hard but doesn't overextend itself. The lyrics are tongue-in-cheek in some places and mournful in others. Nikka wails and screeches like her life depends on it.

Let's just face it... I'm shamelessly in love with this album.
It's so damn good.

So, please...Go get the CD, and shut up and listen.