ranks with Joni Mitchell's "Blue" as one of the best breakup records ever
author: Matthew Finch, Music Director, KUNM-FM
Chris, o Chris,
Where were you, say, in 1986? This record could've saved me a lot of time & money back then.
I think this maybe ranks with Joni Mitchell's "Blue" as one of the best breakup records I've ever heard, but Joni didn't find her sense of humor until years later. I also notice the sequencing is vaguely reminiscent of the 5 (or was it 8?) Stages of Grief by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
I'll be adding it to New Releases next week -- of course with 6 of the 12 songs not FCC-friendly your best shot for airplay is between 10pm & 5:59am. I'd love to play "Don't Need You Anymore" for Xmas eve, but I'm on in the afternoon. I will have a shot on the night of Dec 28th & I'll definitely play it then.
Do you work solo in performance or do you bring a band? That might determine where the best local Albuquerque venues might be.
I'd love to hear your ideas on how to market this. It's the kind of record that could become an underground classic years after you've moved on to other things, & then you might not see any money from it. I'd think you should send it as-is to Sirius & XM, maybe direct to Howard Stern, & then cleaned up or not to WFMU in New Jersey, to my pal Max Schmid at WBAI -- you know more about webcasters than I do, but they're free of censorship, and considering the subject matter, I can think of non-music magazines where you could advertise it for mail order. Hmmm.
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Matthew Finch, Music Director
KUNM-FM
Albuquerque, NM
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Chris Valenti Is An Emotional Wreck
author: Dave Rayburn
I can't believe how many of my musical friends are enjoying the success of a critical stage in their music careers... a factory pressed full-length CD! Chris Valenti marks the latest addition to the ranks with his rightly-titled Emotional Wreck album. The new CD... Emotional Wreck, upon the first spin, is a freakin' riot. This is mainly attributed to the realistic situations that he pokes fun at. To me, that's what made Woody Allen so brilliant. "Passive Aggressive" is a non-stop cascade of one cutting edge quip after another from a guy who has finally had enough. "Boyfriend" sounds great with a full band, and is even funnier in it's evolution. It sort of swings a bit like the Violent Femmes' "Blister In The Sun". Even the ballads are not immune from the "f-bomb", but if you've seen Chris play live, you will TOTALLY understand the needed context. From "Don't Pass Out" to his anthemic "Booty Call", Chris raises our spirits as a result of his continual let-downs. What a guy!
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I take pleasure in his pain
author: apeshallnotkillape
It's obivous Chris has had a couple seriously screwed up relationships, the liner notes from this album illustrate that perfectly... I think it's all real pictures of ex-girlfriends. Sheesh, this guy is worse than me!
Now, don't get me wrong. Some of these songs, and some of his past work are hilarious. Seeing him live is a treat, run, dont walk. You need the exercise anyways probably.
But, his humor has a strong backbeat of real world experience and emotion, that comes shining through in each song, even when he's making a joke about it, you can really feel his persepective. Who hasn't experienced something along the lines of "Heidi"... the girl you meet briefy who sets your mind and hormones jangling.... who you never see again. I've been there brother, I've been there.
Chris is the kind of guy who makes me wish I had a sister, so I could set him up with her.
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a true pleasant surprise and a very impressive debut
author: Massimo Ferro, Music Director, Highway61 - Italy
I received a copy of your CD and I want to thank you so much for sending it to me: "Emotional Wreck" has been in fact a true pleasant surprise and a very impressive debut, filled with so many good songs covering some different moods, from more acoustic and intimate ballads to some powerful rock numbers, but always expressed through a catchy sound. There is something on "Emotional Wreck" reminding me of a young John Cougar and that's particularly good because there are just a few artists doing that kind of music in these days unfortunately!
As you can see from the playlists, I already started playing it in my radio show of American roots music and be sure that more will follow in the next weeks.
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