Monthly Archives: December 2011

“New” Music for the New Year — Vegetarian Metalhead’s Picks

Posted by on December 28, 2011 1 comment

 

Jamie Shields performing at Molten Java in Bethel, CT

King of Salem — New Haven, CT — Heavy rock meets 70s, meets Southern rock
http://www.myspace.com/fullofworms
http://www.kingofsalem.com/

Jamie Shields — Somers, NY — singer/songwriter with an angelic voice, plays folk acoustic music
http://www.reverbnation.com/jamieshields
http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Jamie-Shields/346656466759

Ultrabunny — Danbury, CT — extreme/glam/psych/noise/post-punk/no-wave/70s rock
http://www.facebook.com/ultrabunny
www.ultrabunny.com

Lord Fowl — New Haven, CT — classic rock
http://www.myspace.com/lordfowl

“New” Music for the New Year — Vanessa’s Picks

Posted by on December 27, 2011 No comments

 

My first pick is usually to stay home! It is a rare event (and it takes a monumental effort) for us to get out of the house past 9PM. This is why we love the afternoon Pink Missile shows at JB’s Biker Bar. But, in the spirit of the article, I will pretend to know what I’m talking about, somewhat.

Jump the Gunn at Lucky Break Cafe in Stamford.

Jump the Gunn – a local country cover band. I do dig me some country music. (That, along with my early bedtime, is a sure sign of my age.) Funny story, I got a friend request from someone in the band. They asked me if I was still playing, which narrowed down the search for the era in my history to when I played an instrument (I still own the instrument, I just can’t say I play it anymore.) But I really had no idea who the person was. I e-mailed a few friends and with their help, and the power of deductive reasoning, I realized I’d been in a band with him 20 years ago for about a minute. Tangent was the name of the band, because we’d start talking about one thing and end up talking about another. Read more »

“New” Music for the New Year — Jessie’s Picks

Posted by on December 27, 2011 1 comment

 

It’s a bit incongruous with most of the bands I end up in, but I love folk music. Here are some locals I recommend:

  • The String Fingers Band

    The String Fingers Band — This Easton folk outfit just released their second album, Don’t Forget.  Voted “Best Bluegrass Band” by Fairfield County Weekly readers for the past two years, they’re known for their beautiful vocal harmonies and fresh take on “old-fashioned” musical styles.  The next String Fingers gig is in Vermont on 1/20, but they’ll be back in Easton on 3/18 ,at the Jesse Lee Church opening for country songwriter Darrell Scott. Read more »

“New” Music for the New Year

Posted by on December 27, 2011 No comments

 

In the past one year and four months of our illustrious existence, Alternative Control music columns have featured everything from Connecticut metal to Rhode Island metal… to Massachusetts metal-ish punk… To nomadic noise-metal… To scary metal that you could play on Halloween… Well, you get the idea!

In an effort to expand our repertoire, we’ve compiled a list of NON-METAL Connecticut musicians and bands that we think you should check out in 2012.  For the next couple days, we will be posting New Year’s listening suggestions from our writers — enjoy!

Healthy Eating in the New Year

Posted by on December 26, 2011 2 comments

It is time again, time for that most recycled, reused and repurposed New Year’s Resolution: it’s time to lose some weight!

I understand that most of you know me because of my cooking, because I’m the Headbanging Hostess. But once upon a time, I was just a struggling, starving actress. Literally starving. I weighed 105 pounds for most of my adult life. Sure there were some temporary weight spikes, but my diet of yogurt, high fiber cereal and candy bars served me very well, well into my mid-30’s — until I learned how to cook.

25 pounds in two years, that’s just over a pound a month. Each pound is 3,500 calories. So that’s 87,500 calories I need to cut from my diet this year to get back to my fighting weight by my 40th birthday in November. (If you ever needed any evidence that I wasn’t like most women, there it is. Who tells their weight and their age? Me. I don’t care.)

The average woman should take in about 1800 calories a day… Roughly 300 days until the big 4-0, that’s 540,000 calories, minus the 87,500 I need to cut to lost the weight… Carry the seven… That’s 452,500 calories I can take in between now and November. That’s about 1500 calories a day.

Crap. That looks like nothing. I’m hungry already! Read more »

Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover

Posted by on December 16, 2011 No comments

 

I had a little time to spare one day before picking up my husband from work. I pulled into the Harry Bennett Branch Library on the Turn of River campus. I rushed in, trying not to look at the source of all my junior high angst, looking for a book called The Believing Brain. They did not have it. Story of my life. The book is supposed to be about the physical differences in the brain between believers and non-believers, it could have answered so many of my questions. But, alas, those questions were to go unanswered (for now). As I wandered around the new book section a chicken jumped out at me – a chicken on the cover of a book that is.

The Chicken Chronicles by Alice Walker. Looked good to me, I love chickens. I took advantage of the self-checkout, grabbed my book and left. In the car I took a photo of the cover and announced to the entire Alternative Control staff I’d be writing a book review. Read more »

Alternative Control’s #UnoccupytheMall Holiday Shopping Guide

Posted by on December 14, 2011 3 comments

 

By Jessica May and Vanessa David

Aah! Help!

Hi folks, Jessie here.  ‘Tis the season of joy and wonder, carols and tinsel, Frosty and the Grinch… And the season where big-box retailers keep their serfs, er, employees working overtime to sell us cheap electronics and Chinese-sweatshop-sewn underpants.  From a historical viewpoint, this may be one of the more benign follies that have occurred in the name of Christianity — but it still pisses me off every time I see a Lexus commercial where the car has a goddamn bow on it! (Or should I say Baby-Christ-damn bow?)

This year I’ve decided that if I’m going to have chest pains and shortness of breath for a month wondering if my grandmother will enjoy her corkscrew, I’ll at least try to shop at local merchants whenever possible. Borrowing a page from The Mercurial, The Headbanging Hostess and I would like to share some Stamford-area gift ideas that will please the relatives AND piss off Wal-Mart. Read more »