Razia's Shadow: A Musical

I just ordered Forgive Durden's new album Razia's Shadow: A Musical. Forgive Durden released their first full-length two years ago. I heard decent things about it, but not enough to really give it a listen. I heard it was very derivative of Gatsby's American Dream (RIP) and just sort of ignored it.

Then I started hearing a lot of buzz about the new Forgive Durden album. It became impossible to ignore this time around because it is not only a musical (I'm a sucker for musicals), but also features guest vocals from a lot of singers that I love:

Max Bemis (Say Anything)
Shawn Harris (The Matches)
Chris Conley (Saves the Day)
Casey Crescenzo (The Dear Hunter)
Nic Newsham (Gatsbys American Dream)
John Baldwin Gourley (Portugal. The Man)

As well as other singers I don't listen to as much:

Aaron Weiss (mewithoutYou)
Danny Stevens (The Audition)
Brendon Urie (Panic at the Disco)
Daniel Young (This Providence)
Greta Salpeter (The Hush Sound)
Lizzie Huffman (Man in the Blue Van)
Kris Anaya (An Angle)



Short description of the album: "The album tells the story of a world divided in two by the selfish actions of a powerful and egotistical, yet insecure angel. After generations of darkness, the world is eventually brought back together by the love and sacrifice of a couple brave enough to fulfill their destinies."

I ordered the album because it comes with a script of the musical. I'm pretty excited to give this a proper listen with the script. In the meantime, I am streaming it while I write my boring paper for Charles E Young. If you give it a listen, let me know what you think. I have a feeling it is going to take quite a few listens before I understand it properly and can adequately evaluate how much I like it.

Stream it here and check out all the characters in the musical here

Jack's Mannequin

After an incredibly long week that feels like it was a month ago but actually only ended two days ago, I went to a secret Jack's Mannequin show. It was a warm-up for his upcoming tour where he plays the entire new album all the way through. It was at the very intimate Viper Room and half of those in attendance were friends and family of JM.

Having my good friend Aaron J. pick me up after I attended the vigil for my resident that was killed earlier that week and taking me to an amazing show was just what the doctor ordered. Luckily concerts are a relatively cheap way for me to take a mental health holiday.

Not only did Jack's Mannequin play all of the incredible new album The Glass Passenger, he played an old song from his former band (Something Corporate's "Cavanaugh Park') and a cover of a MGMT song (I've been spinning MGMT a lot this week). I can't wait to see JM again at the end of the month at the Troubadour.

Jack's Mannequin Covers MGMT's "Kids"



Jack's Mannequin plays SoCo's "Cavanaugh Park"