Here's an interesting one: Light Years Away is a seven song EP from New York City comedian Paul Maged and is produced by Sean Gill. Is it funny? you ask. Are there joke songs? No, the songs are real songs and one, a tribute to the late, great Chris Cornell of Soundgarden is quite touching. Like his songs, Paul's voice and musicianship is no joke either and the production treats the tunes with the respect they deserve. Acoustic guitars, piano, strings as well as electric Pop Rock gives this EP a dynamic range of both sound and emotion that is difficult to fit on what is basically half an album. I'd like to hear the other half.
I'm not sure how to explain some of Paul's unique background so I'll quote from his press kit here: "Paul Maged wrote and
performed stand up and sketch comedy for over a decade straight out of high
school. He appeared in background roles on Saturday Night Live as well as
lead and supporting roles in independent films. An important part of Maged's
life, Paul wished to somehow tie his comedy past into this album. Light Years
Away is accompanied by a video to the title track in which Maged parodies his
comedy days; playing animated versions of himself as comedy characters he
played during his decade plus in comedy. His "comedy band" includes
Stoner Moonshine on bass guitar, Italian Chef/Mafioso Vinny Tortellini on lead
guitar and legendary Porn Star Randy Phella on drums. The video showcases the
lighter side to Paul as his comedy band plays live in space. Other videos
for this album include PC Police and Like a Stone".
As you can probably tell if you've watched Paul's two videos above, he has a fun, New Wave Pop side to him along with his more serious side. And he's not alone either as he is joined in this endeavor by Ari Friedman on lead guitar and bass, Marc Hoffman on drums and Cabbage Pomeranz on harmonica. On the song Like A Stone Paul played acoustic guitar, bass and piano. On everything else he's the keyboard player.
You can buy Paul Maged's CDs including his previous CD Diamonds & Demons at CD Baby and download his MP3s on iTunes and basically everywhere since CD Baby does such a thorough job of distributing your music everywhere in the virtual universe. In fact, here he is somewhere I'm not even sure where: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B075W6GN84.
Unfortunately I can't find any information on where he may be playing live. With records not selling since the current belief is that music should be free, live shows are one of the few ways musicians can support themselves financially. Maybe, since he has a comedy background, he preforms his music in comedy clubs. Maybe he sandwiches in a serious tune between sketches. I can imagine his parents hearing their young son's future plans; "Mom, Pop, I've decided I'm going to follow my dream of being a rock star. But don't worry, I can always fall back on my day job, as a stand up comic." Oye.
No comments:
Post a Comment