(Disclaimer: all pictures here are courtesy of a Google search. I don’t own them. If you do, and you’re mad, ask me to remove them. Or document them. I’m easygoing like that)
Since I pick up my comics on Thursdays, I’m still under time to get a Crush of the Week out for you fine folks. Because I make my own rules, gosh darn it.
My pull list for the past week was huge. I had the new Before Watchmen: Comedian, The Secret History of D.B. Cooper, Batwoman, Avengers Academy, Birds of Prey, AvX, and Avenging Spider-Man all this week, so you’d think that there would be plenty of material to choose from. But, aside from a couple of standout moments (Starling giving Batman a piece of her mind in Birds of Prey, Maggie Sawyer talking to her (I’m hoping) daughter on the phone for a moment in Batwoman, and even Jackie Kennedy (yes, you read that right and it’s exactly who you think it is) being a total badass about Marilyn Monroe in Comedian) no one really grabbed me. Maybe if they’d focused on Julie Powers for more than a brief cameo in Avengers Academy but, alas, it was not to be.
Clearly I’m reading the wrong comics.
However, after my night last night, I feel confident taking another approach to my Crush of the Week. After all, this is Pop Culture Sushi, not All Comics All The Time Sushi. And music counts as pop culture, right? Right!
This week’s Crush of the Week is a local musician who stole my heart last year after she played a show with my absolute favorite artist, Chad Perrone. She opened for him at a little place called the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, NH and I was hooked within the first verse of her first song. Later in the night, she joined him on stage to sing some of his brilliant music together and I decided right then and there that there were no two more perfect voices to sing together. I immediately bought her album, Momentum, and have come damn near wearing it out, I play it so much.
The one, the only.
Her name is Lisa Piccirillo (Pick-uh-rill-oh) and she is just sheer talent wrapped up in adorableness. She is a singer/songwriter from Vermont with a voice that she must have sold her soul in order to obtain, though we know that she must have her soul intact because that’s the only way she could have written such beautiful music.
I haven’t been a music student in almost ten years so I’m not going to let myself sound stupid by trying to review her album, her concert, her songs, or anything like that for you. Besides, honestly, nothing I could say, intelligent or not, can come close to explaining to you in words what she sounds like. Just believe me when I say that if you went onto iTunes right now and spent $9.99 on Momentum, you will not be disappointed. And if you’re too scared to fork out ten big ones for the whole album, at least give the title track, “Momentum” a try. You’ll be convinced, let me tell you.
Hotels and Highways
So, I discovered Lisa last year at a Chad show and have had the pleasure to hear her several times at the Tupelo. But what makes me discuss her tonight is the last show she played during Hotels & Highways with Mia Dyson‘s month-like residency at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA. The Lizard Lounge is a cool venue below a restaurant with a nice bar and a menu that reflects the restaurant upstairs. The sound is good, the set-up is a little awkward, but it’s perfectly lit for the scene.
No one can disprove my love of lizards now!
One of the things that impresses me as a fan and as a music lover is a musician who really appreciates her audience. After starting to follow Lisa on Facebook, it became apparent that she actually pays attention to the fans in her life. At the next show we saw her in, she gave us big hugs and asked after our vacations, our weight loss journey, and other things that were going on in our lives. Can you out there tell me that one of your favorite artists knows that you’re trying to get healthy? Probably not. But that’s why Lisa Piccirillo is amazing.
Go buy her album. Right now.
Lisa just makes you feel good, whether you’re listening to her perform or whether she’s just listening to you stumble over your words at her because you’re still nervous to be talking to someone so talented. She’s got a beautiful voice and plays guitar, keys, bass, and shaker like she was born to do it. And she probably was. I’m so lucky to have been able to see her play twice in one month and can’t wait to see her again. Lisa Piccirillo is my Crush of the Week and I hope that means she doesn’t try to hide from me next time I go see her play!
Thanks from her dad