Introducing Susana Baca

“The party is great, but then later you find yourself in a corner and this is the music for those times.”

Seis Poemas Susana Baca
out September 1st on Luaka Bop

Born in Lima, Susana Baca grew up in a small coastal town called Chorillos. Baca describes life in the predominantly Afro-Peruvian barrio as “filled with music.” As a child, she would accompany her mother when she cleaned homes and says that the only way she could keep still was when her mother put on classical music. Her father, who was a driver, was also the barrio’s own street guitarist and would often play outdoors with a group of neighborhood musicians.

“El Bosque Armado (La Canoa)”

While she was growing up, families in Chorillos would often gather in parks for festivals and religious processions. It was at these festivals that Susana found a place to perform, entering dance contests and singing before audiences of familiar faces.

Her main literary influences include writers like Arturo Perez Revete, Alfredo Bryce, Javier Marias and Mario Vargas Llosa. She has a kinship to Vargas Llosa, in the tradition of Peruvian social protest in her understated manner and actions against machismo and racial prejudice—a manner that never becomes propaganda.

LuakaBop.com

US Air Guitar and ‘Rock of Ages’ Team Up to Break Guinness World Record For Largest Air Guitar Ensemble

Having conquered the World Air Guitar Championships three out of the last six years, US Air Guitar is proud to announce that it has once again triumphed on the world stage. Only this time, they took aim at the Guinness Book of World Records. With the help of the five-time Tony Award Nominated smash hit musical, Rock of Ages, US Air Guitar broke the Guinness World Record for Largest Air Guitar Ensemble immediately following the matinee performance on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 4:30pm at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 256 W. 47th Street.
Read the story »

Comedian on Comedian: Kevin Wilson

Kevin Wilson!

Kevin Wilson from poprockcandymountain on Vimeo.

The PRCM Show: Howard!

Howard Kremer is a comedian, actor and co-star of one of the best show’s to ever grace Mtv’s greasy walls “Austin Stories”.

“She even likes the Wu Tang Clan!”

Kremer’s Bio from Comedy Central: Howard Kremer has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Comedy Central’s Premium Blend as well as at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, the Montreal Comedy Festival, as part of the Comedians of Comedy and at top comedy clubs around the world. He just performed at the Coachella Festival in April, 2007, and his half-hour comedy special aired on Comedy Central on April 6th.

As Dragon Boy Suede, he performs and records filthy, funny, infectious rap. They say the average man thinks about sex once every six seconds…these rhymes will hold them over for the other five.

Kremer also currently writes alongside Mike Judge and his costar from “Austin Stories”, Chip Pope for ABC’s The Goode Family.

Howard Kremer on MySpace

Dragon Boy Suede

Howard/ Dragon Boy Suede on YouTube

Brand New Never Before Released Jeff Buckley Track: “We All Fall in Love Sometimes”

From the Soundtrack for the Film My Sister’s Keeper

Jeff Buckley.com

special to PRCM

Comedian on Comedian: Hard ‘N Phirm

BY COMEDIAN COREE SPENCER
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

I love Hardwick’s expressions in this video. And the ever sweet and hysterical Mike Phirman. Could you wrap him in bacon and eat him?

If you stop this video in certain designated spots, you can catch Phirman and Hardwick givin’ Coree’s ample bosom the -0.5 hundredth of a second- glances.

Thanks for the interview guys. You rock.

Untitled from poprockcandymountain on Vimeo.

Pop- Rock Candy Mountain Reviews Marc Maron’s “Scorching the Earth”

BY Kristina Tortoriello
Pop- Rock Candy Mountain

“Complete happiness is like retardation” according to Marc Maron. Assuming he carries this belief into his personal life, Maron is something of a cracked genius. Of course, it helps to be aware of one’s own flaws.

The comic’s latest endeavor, a one man show entitled Scorching the Earth, reflects on two failed relationships from marriage to divorce, resulting in something rare: a one-sided (dare I say enjoyable?) therapy session– in which the artist takes the liberty of self-diagnosis.

Topics like addiction, religious questioning, and the role of cats in bachelordom are all laid bare for review. Scorching grips audiences poignantly between punchlines- bursts of humor, possum imitations, and all the other emotional variables that come with healing. It is clear Maron remains in the process, and that despite all efforts to bury his own sensitive side in anger, somewhere a genuine romantic lurks. (After all, he was led by love in his actions, though “[his] heart was a fucking moron”).

Regardless, to watch him relive the ups and downs is a special brand of Maron-exposure that will charm and surprise fans. Ultimately, we come to see his rejection of total happiness as the better choice- something less predictable, and are allowed to join in the thrill of “being fucked up”. See? We get some therapy too. Scorching the Earth proves an electric shock.

Marc’s new CD is available at MarcMaron.com

PS. Should you catch the show at Montreal’s Just for Laughs fest, it’s the perfect antidote to all those mindless summer blockbusters headed your way.