Black Stone Cherry-Black to Blues 2: A collection of old blues songs covered by the Hard Rock/Southern Rock Band. It's a five track EP and three of the tracks have already been released as singles, so there isn't going to be much tonight, but Black Stone Cherry is always worth listening to.
Nirvana-25th Anniversary MTV Unplugged in New York: A mostly acoustic show featuring Nirvana, the early 90s Grunge band that inspired quite a few musicians. I first got interested in Nirvana in 2011 when "Nevermind" was going to be 20 and Billy Ray Cyrus shared his story of meeting Kurt Cobain as the two were passing in an arena. Apparently, Greg Fletcher, Billy Ray's drummer, was a huge fan of Nirvana, and Kurt asked Billy Ray to not tell Greg he was here. Later, in his autobiography, Billy Ray mentioned meeting Kurt again at an awards show and had hoped the two could've been friends, deeply saddened that he ended his life. Nirvana can be hit or miss for me, but I do love that they had a sense of humor in music, such as the lyrics "We can plant a house/we can build a tree" in "Breed" or how "Lounge Act" ends, and I love that "Heart-Shaped Box" is in my Guitar Hero game.
Prog Rock Christmas-This has Malcolm McDowell singing "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch." That's all the reason I need.
Charlie's Angels Album with Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus-This is the album "Don't Call Me Angel" is going to be on. Ariana Grande is also going to sing a song by herself and sing one with Chaka Khan as well as one with Victoria Monet. I wasn't much of a fan of Grande, but her performances with Miley Cyrus and Idina Menzel have convinced me to give her more of a shot.
Mike Zito-Rock N Roll: A Tribute To Chuck Berry: There are two tributes to Chuck Berry coming out in the coming weeks, this one by Blues-Rocker Mike Zito. According to Spotify's data on the singles, each track has a guest star, one of whom was Richard Fortus, the rhythm guitarist of Guns N Roses on the "Not In This Lifetime" Tour. I look forward to seeing who else is going to play on an album that homages one of the inventors of Rock and Roll.
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour Lyve: We sadly close the final chapter on a storied rock and roll career that has endured a lot of pain, yet persevered. Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the first major Classic Rock bands I got into with Billy Ray Cyrus endorsing them with his song "The Freebird Fell." In 2013, I managed to get to the White River Amphitheater in Auburn and see them, the driving "Call Me The Breeze," the pounding "I Ain't the One," the warning of "That Smell," the aggressive "Saturday Night Special" and the soaring yet melancholy "Free Bird." As the band retires, I don't have words myself, so I will use Charlie Daniels'. "Fly on Proud Bird, You're Free At Last."
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Halloween music tips
First off, I'd like to apologize for that rant last time. My sister-in-law's Mom may have cancer and it's been almost an exact year since my favorite WWE wrestler had to battle Leukemia. He managed to beat it and get into remission and has since resumed his career, having exciting tag-team Pay-Per-View matches where he teams up with The Undertaker and Daniel Bryan, two of my other favorites, but for months, I had a very defeatist attitude because in my family, cancer is a death sentence. Combined with losing my Uncle, the voting results of the UMC General Conference and the death of Activist and Left Wing Christian Author Rachel Held Evans, I keep imagining high-powered right wing Trump fanatics toasting champagne, laughing and preaching that "God is truly on the side of the Republicans, so join our cause and think what we think or die!" I've seen the price of our callousness, God's children, God's LGBTQ+ children who don't know their father and as such, turn to worship His enemy. Nothing hurts worse to me, we're doing all we can and it still doesn't feel like enough.
Anyway, today is Halloween, a special day for Horror Film fans and people who love the feeling of being scared. I have a good collection of Godzilla films and a few entries in the Friday the 13th film series, though Godzilla is less frightening and more of a way to pump myself up and the Friday the 13th film I made sure to get was Part VI, which is more comedic than scary (at one point Jason walks onto a paintball field and the songs are all performed by Alice Cooper). Speaking of Alice Cooper, though, there are some good songs that work for this day if you want to be scared or experience Horror-Comedy.
Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath: For me, no Heavy Metal Halloween is complete without the Church Bell, Thunder and the dark chord sequence. It's a horror movie setting of a man getting pulled to Hell by the devil, which works well for the Holiday.
Black Sabbath-Paranoid: A more upbeat song, used in the movies "Dazed and Confused," "Suicide Squad" and "Kong: Skull Island." The guitar riff is catchy and makes you want to raise your fists to the air.
Black Sabbath-Iron Man: Great low-end chords, a classic riff and especially useful if you're having a Marvel Comics-themed costume party.
Black Sabbath-Into the Void: A song about escaping a polluted Earth for a home where love will last. Great, dark-sounding riff. Also recommended: Soundgarden's Into the Void (Sealth): The same thing, but the lyrics are replaced with words Chief Sealth said.
Judas Priest-Running Wild (Live 1979): I rediscovered Unleashed in the East for its 40th Anniversary and it is an amazing piece of work. There's a lot of great songs on it, with great guitar work and Rob Halford sounds as good as ever. I recommend the recent reissue so you can get live versions of "Hell Bent For Leather" and "Starbreaker" as well.
Rainbow-Stargazer: I covered this a bit on my review of the Rising Album. Ronnie James Dio's lyrics and voice make this amazing, with Blackmore's guitar work and the strings driving it over the top.
Black Sabbath-Neon Knights: The first track on the first Ronnie James Dio Black Sabbath album, aggressive, powerful and with great imagery.
Ozzy Osbourne-Crazy Train: A fun and aggressive metal song. This song showcases Randy Rhoads at his best.
Ozzy Osbourne-Suicide Solution: Another great performance by Rhoads. Ignore the controversy, I've listened to this like 100 times and he sounds like he's saying "Get the Flask out."
Ozzy Osbourne-Over the Mountain: Great drumming, great guitar, great vocals, this is the tightest Ozzy's "Blizzard of Ozz" group sounded.
Ozzy Osbourne-Crazy Train (Live): Get the one off Tribute, that is pretty much a must-have for Heavy Metal guys.
Dio-Rainbow in the Dark: Great riff, great keyboard, great vocals. One of my all-time favorites.
Metallica-Ride the Lightning: Great Thrash Metal piece with aggressive sound that often gets unfairly overlooked by its album-mate "For Whom The Bell Tolls." Also check out the Halestorm version.
Motorhead-Ace of Spades: Aggressive rock song with driving bass and guitar. Was in a film I watched every Halloween, so this says Halloween to me.
Alice Cooper-He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask): One of the songs from Friday the 13th Part VI. Even includes the "Ki-ki-ki, Ma-ma-ma" in it.
Dokken-Dream Warriors: Dokken was to Nightmare on Elm Street 3 what Alice Cooper was to Friday the 13th Part VI. They even made a music video where the band helps a girl escape from Freddy Krueger!
Alice Cooper-Feed My Frankenstein: A classic Halloween song. Also featured in the Wayne's World movie. Featuring guitar work by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and bass played by Nikki Sixx.
Judas Priest-Breaking the Law (Live at Wacken 2015): A classic Judas Priest hit that sounds even better in this live performance. I love the audience interaction and the guitar work and having been to a show on this tour, can picture it easily in my head.
Judas Priest-You've Got Another Thing Comin' (Live at Wacken 2015): Another classic at the same show, extended to 11 minutes with a lengthy virtuoso guitar solo by Richie Faulkner and call and response with the audience.
Crucify the Dead-Slash and Ozzy Osbourne: Two titans of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal combine to make an aggressive statement towards Axl Rose as Slash begins a solo career with an album that ultimately leads to his collaborations with Myles Kennedy.
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow-The Storm: A single released this year, Ronnie Romero sings about a storm as Ritchie Blackmore plays some nice guitar.
Jorn-Trio of covers: Norwegian Metal band Jorn performed at a festival and covered Ozzy Osbourne's Shot in the Dark, Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio)'s Mob Rules and Dio's Rainbow in the Dark. I would consider each a good Heavy Metal cover and something to listen to today.
BabyMetal-Distortion: A fun song with some aggressive backing, the fun part for me was when they performed this live. The video showed a wrecked metropolis with a red tinted sky a few times, each time prompting me to think "I've seen this movie!"
BabyMetal-Karate: My favorite song of theirs. It's a good headbanging song and it's also the song that made me a fan of them.
Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott-Take What You Want: A recent song that is both hip-hop and metal and it's actually a good song. I'm still trying to find out who does the guitar solo. It's about a rough relationship. Words can't describe the feelings when you see this, Miley Cyrus' "Slide Away," and Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana del Rey's "Don't Call Me Angel" on the top Spotify charts all at once.
Phil Campbell-Collaborations: Phil's song "Swing It" with Alice Cooper I already mentioned as being good for the Holiday and I heard "Straight Up" with Rob Halford on Saturday. That also fits and both work for this day.
Anyway, today is Halloween, a special day for Horror Film fans and people who love the feeling of being scared. I have a good collection of Godzilla films and a few entries in the Friday the 13th film series, though Godzilla is less frightening and more of a way to pump myself up and the Friday the 13th film I made sure to get was Part VI, which is more comedic than scary (at one point Jason walks onto a paintball field and the songs are all performed by Alice Cooper). Speaking of Alice Cooper, though, there are some good songs that work for this day if you want to be scared or experience Horror-Comedy.
Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath: For me, no Heavy Metal Halloween is complete without the Church Bell, Thunder and the dark chord sequence. It's a horror movie setting of a man getting pulled to Hell by the devil, which works well for the Holiday.
Black Sabbath-Paranoid: A more upbeat song, used in the movies "Dazed and Confused," "Suicide Squad" and "Kong: Skull Island." The guitar riff is catchy and makes you want to raise your fists to the air.
Black Sabbath-Iron Man: Great low-end chords, a classic riff and especially useful if you're having a Marvel Comics-themed costume party.
Black Sabbath-Into the Void: A song about escaping a polluted Earth for a home where love will last. Great, dark-sounding riff. Also recommended: Soundgarden's Into the Void (Sealth): The same thing, but the lyrics are replaced with words Chief Sealth said.
Judas Priest-Running Wild (Live 1979): I rediscovered Unleashed in the East for its 40th Anniversary and it is an amazing piece of work. There's a lot of great songs on it, with great guitar work and Rob Halford sounds as good as ever. I recommend the recent reissue so you can get live versions of "Hell Bent For Leather" and "Starbreaker" as well.
Rainbow-Stargazer: I covered this a bit on my review of the Rising Album. Ronnie James Dio's lyrics and voice make this amazing, with Blackmore's guitar work and the strings driving it over the top.
Black Sabbath-Neon Knights: The first track on the first Ronnie James Dio Black Sabbath album, aggressive, powerful and with great imagery.
Ozzy Osbourne-Crazy Train: A fun and aggressive metal song. This song showcases Randy Rhoads at his best.
Ozzy Osbourne-Suicide Solution: Another great performance by Rhoads. Ignore the controversy, I've listened to this like 100 times and he sounds like he's saying "Get the Flask out."
Ozzy Osbourne-Over the Mountain: Great drumming, great guitar, great vocals, this is the tightest Ozzy's "Blizzard of Ozz" group sounded.
Ozzy Osbourne-Crazy Train (Live): Get the one off Tribute, that is pretty much a must-have for Heavy Metal guys.
Dio-Rainbow in the Dark: Great riff, great keyboard, great vocals. One of my all-time favorites.
Metallica-Ride the Lightning: Great Thrash Metal piece with aggressive sound that often gets unfairly overlooked by its album-mate "For Whom The Bell Tolls." Also check out the Halestorm version.
Motorhead-Ace of Spades: Aggressive rock song with driving bass and guitar. Was in a film I watched every Halloween, so this says Halloween to me.
Alice Cooper-He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask): One of the songs from Friday the 13th Part VI. Even includes the "Ki-ki-ki, Ma-ma-ma" in it.
Dokken-Dream Warriors: Dokken was to Nightmare on Elm Street 3 what Alice Cooper was to Friday the 13th Part VI. They even made a music video where the band helps a girl escape from Freddy Krueger!
Alice Cooper-Feed My Frankenstein: A classic Halloween song. Also featured in the Wayne's World movie. Featuring guitar work by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and bass played by Nikki Sixx.
Judas Priest-Breaking the Law (Live at Wacken 2015): A classic Judas Priest hit that sounds even better in this live performance. I love the audience interaction and the guitar work and having been to a show on this tour, can picture it easily in my head.
Judas Priest-You've Got Another Thing Comin' (Live at Wacken 2015): Another classic at the same show, extended to 11 minutes with a lengthy virtuoso guitar solo by Richie Faulkner and call and response with the audience.
Crucify the Dead-Slash and Ozzy Osbourne: Two titans of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal combine to make an aggressive statement towards Axl Rose as Slash begins a solo career with an album that ultimately leads to his collaborations with Myles Kennedy.
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow-The Storm: A single released this year, Ronnie Romero sings about a storm as Ritchie Blackmore plays some nice guitar.
Jorn-Trio of covers: Norwegian Metal band Jorn performed at a festival and covered Ozzy Osbourne's Shot in the Dark, Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio)'s Mob Rules and Dio's Rainbow in the Dark. I would consider each a good Heavy Metal cover and something to listen to today.
BabyMetal-Distortion: A fun song with some aggressive backing, the fun part for me was when they performed this live. The video showed a wrecked metropolis with a red tinted sky a few times, each time prompting me to think "I've seen this movie!"
BabyMetal-Karate: My favorite song of theirs. It's a good headbanging song and it's also the song that made me a fan of them.
Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott-Take What You Want: A recent song that is both hip-hop and metal and it's actually a good song. I'm still trying to find out who does the guitar solo. It's about a rough relationship. Words can't describe the feelings when you see this, Miley Cyrus' "Slide Away," and Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana del Rey's "Don't Call Me Angel" on the top Spotify charts all at once.
Phil Campbell-Collaborations: Phil's song "Swing It" with Alice Cooper I already mentioned as being good for the Holiday and I heard "Straight Up" with Rob Halford on Saturday. That also fits and both work for this day.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Rage against a broken system
I don't want to do this anymore. I want to be arrested. I want to be beaten by the police and called a threat to national security solely for being a Christian ally to the LGBTQ+ community. I can't take living in a country where high-ranking politicians are homophobic, high-ranking "Christians" are homophobic and there is no hope for change, unless change means my Church, other reconciling congregations, the ELCA and the LGBTQ+ community get shoved into Gitmo-style military prisons. I use the 21st century drugs of choice, the internet and music, to convince myself everything will be fine and I don't need to worry or stress about these things. But it's all a smoke and mirrors lie. Fanart provides a few moments of a thrill before it gets old, musicians routinely get torn apart for their imperfections by society or are hailed as gods and the only constant is the bile of hatred from the right wing ordering you into a smaller and smaller box! I've left such a Church, and someone who would fit right it lives right across the hall from me, playing sermons from a pre-rock and roll era on his iPad or iPhone as loud as possible with THE DOOR OPEN TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE HEARS IT! There are better ways to be a missionary, but I imagine this is what he feels God is ordering him to do. I can't even make out the words, all I hear is an enraged emotion and it makes me feel like when one of the congregants at the old Church invited me to those far-right Facebook pages that claimed Obama was born in Africa, being gay was a choice and Islam was a religion of violence. The people behind this page went on to contribute most of their finances to Donald Trump in hopes he would create genocide. Most of the people who voted for this monster, I believe, did so in the hopes of an anti-LGBTQ+ genocide. I can't get out of my head the thought that Pat Robertson, Michael Sweet, Kirk Cameron and Franklin Graham laughed and broke out the good champagne when my uncle died, when the UMC voted against the One Church plan and especially when Rachel Held Evans died. These "Spiritual Leaders" are leading people in the opposite direction of Heaven by portraying God as partisan, petty, mean-spirited, un-compassionate and full of wrath and rage over minor, unchangeable things while turning a blind eye to sexual assault and bragging about it! No wonder American Church Attendance is at an All-Time low! If we refuse to fix this trend by remaining un-compassionate, by staying where Jonah did when he was first told to go to Nineveh, WE will be the ones in the Lake of Fire!
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
10/25/2019 Releases of Note
Getting this done early this week, I'll be busy most of tomorrow.
Phil Campbell-Old Lions Still Roar: An album where every track features the guitar work of former Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell. The collaboration with Alice Cooper was a good single and I'm looking forward to hearing the song featuring Rob Halford. I would recommend the Alice Cooper-Phil Campbell track for anyone looking for a good new Heavy Metal Halloween song.
Motorhead-1979: The aforementioned band, led by the late Lemmy Kilmister. This features a few live performances from 40 years ago, including their biggest song then, "Overkill."
Ringo Starr-What's My Name?: The album from which the single I mentioned some weeks ago comes from, an album from a 79-year-young legend. It combines rock, pop and country and so far sounds great, and it's always nice to hear Ringo's voice.
Desmond Child-Live: You may not be familiar with the name, but you're probably familiar with his writing. Desmond Child co-wrote many famous songs in the 80s, 90s and continues to the modern era, writing "I Hate Myself For Loving You" with Joan Jett, "House of Fire" with Joan Jett and Alice Cooper, "Living on A Prayer" with Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi and "Dude Looks Like A Lady" with Aerosmith. This features him singing some of the songs he wrote.
Joe Bonamassa-Live At The Sydney Opera House: Joe Bonamassa is a great blues player famous for being part of Black Country Communion and being part of the "America Salutes Guitar Players" compilation released earlier this year. This features some of his bigger hits he wrote himself played live at the most famous Sydney landmark.
Pride and Glory and Black Label Society-Pride And Glory re-release: The first solo album from guitarist Zakk Wylde, Pride and Glory featured a distinct Country Flavor mixed with some aggressive hard rock, creating songs like "Losin' Your Mind" and "A Horse Called War." Here, it's bundled with some covers probably recorded around the same time, such as "The Wizard," originally by Black Sabbath, "Come Together," originally by The Beatles and "In My Time Of Dying," originally by Led Zeppelin.
Phil Campbell-Old Lions Still Roar: An album where every track features the guitar work of former Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell. The collaboration with Alice Cooper was a good single and I'm looking forward to hearing the song featuring Rob Halford. I would recommend the Alice Cooper-Phil Campbell track for anyone looking for a good new Heavy Metal Halloween song.
Motorhead-1979: The aforementioned band, led by the late Lemmy Kilmister. This features a few live performances from 40 years ago, including their biggest song then, "Overkill."
Ringo Starr-What's My Name?: The album from which the single I mentioned some weeks ago comes from, an album from a 79-year-young legend. It combines rock, pop and country and so far sounds great, and it's always nice to hear Ringo's voice.
Desmond Child-Live: You may not be familiar with the name, but you're probably familiar with his writing. Desmond Child co-wrote many famous songs in the 80s, 90s and continues to the modern era, writing "I Hate Myself For Loving You" with Joan Jett, "House of Fire" with Joan Jett and Alice Cooper, "Living on A Prayer" with Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi and "Dude Looks Like A Lady" with Aerosmith. This features him singing some of the songs he wrote.
Joe Bonamassa-Live At The Sydney Opera House: Joe Bonamassa is a great blues player famous for being part of Black Country Communion and being part of the "America Salutes Guitar Players" compilation released earlier this year. This features some of his bigger hits he wrote himself played live at the most famous Sydney landmark.
Pride and Glory and Black Label Society-Pride And Glory re-release: The first solo album from guitarist Zakk Wylde, Pride and Glory featured a distinct Country Flavor mixed with some aggressive hard rock, creating songs like "Losin' Your Mind" and "A Horse Called War." Here, it's bundled with some covers probably recorded around the same time, such as "The Wizard," originally by Black Sabbath, "Come Together," originally by The Beatles and "In My Time Of Dying," originally by Led Zeppelin.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
BabyMetal concert and 10/18/2019 releases of note
Last night I was at the Paramount Theater in Seattle to see BabyMetal, a band from Japan that backs cute J-Pop with aggressive thrash metal. It was awesome and fun and I smiled and clapped throughout the show. The three girls were well-choreographed, Su-Metal is a wonderful lead singer and backing singer/dancer Moametal is just adorable with her curly pigtails. The third girl is new because Yuimetal left the band a year ago, though they're all still friends. It was a very fun time and I would even recommend this show if you're not very into metal music, they also have good Pop sensibilities and can please fans of either or both genres at the same time.
Tonight's releases I'm looking forward to the most are:
Alter Bridge-Walk the Sky: An album with its first single released sometime around May/June and the second album featuring singer Myles Kennedy. He's a great singer and the music here has sounded good thus far, featuring hard rock guitars and some really great singing. The single "Pay No Mind" stands out in particular for its melody right now as I look back.
Rob Halford-Celestial: This is an album I want to own, not just on Spotify. Rob Halford is the voice behind Judas Priest and this is his second Christmas album. His first featured heavy metal renditions of classic hymns "We Three Kings," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and "O Holy Night." This one features "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Away in a Manger," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Joy to the World." I heard Rob Halford say God was important in his battle with drug abuse and the passion he puts into this makes me believe it, as do the lyrics of last year's great Judas Priest song "Rising From Ruins," which has often been what I need in the hard times. I am really looking forward to this album.
Tonight's releases I'm looking forward to the most are:
Alter Bridge-Walk the Sky: An album with its first single released sometime around May/June and the second album featuring singer Myles Kennedy. He's a great singer and the music here has sounded good thus far, featuring hard rock guitars and some really great singing. The single "Pay No Mind" stands out in particular for its melody right now as I look back.
Rob Halford-Celestial: This is an album I want to own, not just on Spotify. Rob Halford is the voice behind Judas Priest and this is his second Christmas album. His first featured heavy metal renditions of classic hymns "We Three Kings," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and "O Holy Night." This one features "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Away in a Manger," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Joy to the World." I heard Rob Halford say God was important in his battle with drug abuse and the passion he puts into this makes me believe it, as do the lyrics of last year's great Judas Priest song "Rising From Ruins," which has often been what I need in the hard times. I am really looking forward to this album.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
10/11/2019 Releases of Note
It's that time of the week again, to spotlight what I'm looking forward to on Spotify tonight and ahead in the coming week that I'm aware of. Last week also brought a surprise single from The Dead Daisies that revealed Glenn Hughes is the new lead singer of that band and an enjoyable single from The Who's next and possibly final album, so there may be some surprise singles for upcoming projects I'm not aware of.
BabyMetal-Metal Galaxy; The third album from the Japanese girl-led metal band, Metal Galaxy has released quite a few singles already, the ones I most enjoy being "Distortion" and "Elevator Girl." I'm also seeing this band next week at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, and this will be a nice warmup to seeing them live, especially since there are a few tracks not publicly available yet from this album that they've performed live.
The Ferrymen-A New Evil; Ronnie Romero is one of the busiest singers in heavy metal currently, having released singles with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow earlier in the year, recorded a song with Michael Schenker and he's now releasing this album. It's easy to see why he's in demand, his passionate delivery and Spanish accent make him stand out in the field and you want to hear more. This album will allow just that.
Down N Outz-This Is How We Roll; A supergroup formed by singer Joe Elliot of Def Leppard and the members of Hair Metal band The Quireboys, this group apparently covers Mott the Hoople songs. I don't really know, though, since the only song of that band I know is "All the Young Dudes," which David Bowie wrote. Regardless, it's good music and it's always nice to hear Joe Elliot's voice.
Freddie Mercury-Several Solo Career albums, the ones I'm most interested in are Never Boring and Mr. Bad Guy; One of the top voices of rock and roll, heck, one of the top singing voices ever. Freddie Mercury had an amazing multi-octave delivery and his solo music is getting a remastered re-release for the present so we can hear it again. It likely won't be as memorable as Queen, but it will be some amazing songs worth listening to all the same.
BabyMetal-Metal Galaxy; The third album from the Japanese girl-led metal band, Metal Galaxy has released quite a few singles already, the ones I most enjoy being "Distortion" and "Elevator Girl." I'm also seeing this band next week at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, and this will be a nice warmup to seeing them live, especially since there are a few tracks not publicly available yet from this album that they've performed live.
The Ferrymen-A New Evil; Ronnie Romero is one of the busiest singers in heavy metal currently, having released singles with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow earlier in the year, recorded a song with Michael Schenker and he's now releasing this album. It's easy to see why he's in demand, his passionate delivery and Spanish accent make him stand out in the field and you want to hear more. This album will allow just that.
Down N Outz-This Is How We Roll; A supergroup formed by singer Joe Elliot of Def Leppard and the members of Hair Metal band The Quireboys, this group apparently covers Mott the Hoople songs. I don't really know, though, since the only song of that band I know is "All the Young Dudes," which David Bowie wrote. Regardless, it's good music and it's always nice to hear Joe Elliot's voice.
Freddie Mercury-Several Solo Career albums, the ones I'm most interested in are Never Boring and Mr. Bad Guy; One of the top voices of rock and roll, heck, one of the top singing voices ever. Freddie Mercury had an amazing multi-octave delivery and his solo music is getting a remastered re-release for the present so we can hear it again. It likely won't be as memorable as Queen, but it will be some amazing songs worth listening to all the same.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Hard Chargin' Woman; an unheard gem
In my time on Spotify, I've gotten to explore the music world quite a bit, see more of certain musicians discographies and understand side projects of members of big rock bands. Something that impressed me was the song mentioned in the title of this post, the final track of the 1969 debut album of Zephyr, a forgotten hard rock/blues band. Their lead singer was a woman who sang like Ann Wilson of Heart and the guitarist in question was Tommy Bolin. You may remember that name from when I talked about Deep Purple's "Come Taste The Band" album. For this song, he delivers a solo along the lines of Jimmy Page's "Stairway to Heaven" or Allen Collins' "Free Bird," it's that potent, lengthy and full of virtuoso talent. It honestly makes me wonder why this hasn't been ranked among one of the top guitar performances and I only heard about it in the last three months because of my interest in Bolin because of Glenn Hughes. This is honestly a track hard rock fans should look up and listen to, it needs to be heard and placed among the other fantastic solos being played around that time.
10/4/2019 Releases of Personal Note
I've got to admit, I wasn't so enthused coming to this one. I've gotten a ton of anxiety worrying about spending away my food budget before I can see BabyMetal in the middle of the month, the same problem which caused me to miss a baseball game earlier in the year. I've been dealing with what I can best call "stress-caused illness and fatigue" as a result, which has caused me to not want to leave my bed. I've also had issues with Amazon Music on my phone and my cable box isn't working and I don't know how to fix it and I don't want to call an overpriced Xfinity repairman who will charge over $200 to do nothing. But, I decided that I do love music and nothing has severed my connection to Spotify, so I can talk about what I'm looking forward to tonight.
Whitesnake: Slip Of The Tongue 30th Anniversary Ultra Super Deluxe Edition: Slip of the Tongue was an album of Whitesnake where the members of the band have more of a reputation in hard rock and heavy metal circles than the songs. The rhythm section was bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Tommy Aldridge, who backed Randy Rhoads and Ozzy Osbourne in 1981 and 1982. Sarzo currently plays in The Guess Who, but has had stints with Tracii Guns, Geoff Tate, Blue Oyster Cult and Dio in the last 30 years. Tommy Aldridge, meanwhile, has come full circle and has become the drummer for Whitesnake again since sometime between 2012 and 2015. The guitar parts for the album were recorded by virtuoso Steve Vai and played live by him and Adrian Vandeberg, who co-wrote the album with David Coverdale. The most famous song on there is "Fool For Your Lovin'," which is still played today, but I really like "Kitten's Got Claws" for its snarling slide guitar work.
Hiromi-Spectrum: A pianist presumably from Japan (at least that's what the Spotify playlists tell me, these days I couldn't tell if someone with that name would be native to Japan or Japanese-American), Hiromi plays beautiful piano music that is very soothing. She's already released a cover of The Beatles' "Blackbird" from the album and it looks like there will be a cover of "Rhapsody in Blue," which I remember fondly from Fantasia 2000. After this week, I could use some soothing, mellow music.
Mister Rogers-It's Such A Good Feeling: A compilation of songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, a show that was a lot bolder than we give it credit for, considering what it did against the backdrop of the late 60s. For example, some African-Americans were cooling off in a pool and some Caucasians chased them out and bleached the pool. In response, Fred Rogers sat in his Kiddy Pool with Officer Clemens, who was both African American and as we would later find out, gay, and washed both of their feet with his hose to show we're all human. If only our TVs could show something like that now, instead of trying to find out how far they can go before they get angry letters. Songs I can recommend, either from my youth or watching the "Won't You Be My Neighbor" Documentary last year are "Won't You Be My Neighbor," "It's You I Like" and "I'm Taking Care of You."
Whitesnake: Slip Of The Tongue 30th Anniversary Ultra Super Deluxe Edition: Slip of the Tongue was an album of Whitesnake where the members of the band have more of a reputation in hard rock and heavy metal circles than the songs. The rhythm section was bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Tommy Aldridge, who backed Randy Rhoads and Ozzy Osbourne in 1981 and 1982. Sarzo currently plays in The Guess Who, but has had stints with Tracii Guns, Geoff Tate, Blue Oyster Cult and Dio in the last 30 years. Tommy Aldridge, meanwhile, has come full circle and has become the drummer for Whitesnake again since sometime between 2012 and 2015. The guitar parts for the album were recorded by virtuoso Steve Vai and played live by him and Adrian Vandeberg, who co-wrote the album with David Coverdale. The most famous song on there is "Fool For Your Lovin'," which is still played today, but I really like "Kitten's Got Claws" for its snarling slide guitar work.
Hiromi-Spectrum: A pianist presumably from Japan (at least that's what the Spotify playlists tell me, these days I couldn't tell if someone with that name would be native to Japan or Japanese-American), Hiromi plays beautiful piano music that is very soothing. She's already released a cover of The Beatles' "Blackbird" from the album and it looks like there will be a cover of "Rhapsody in Blue," which I remember fondly from Fantasia 2000. After this week, I could use some soothing, mellow music.
Mister Rogers-It's Such A Good Feeling: A compilation of songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, a show that was a lot bolder than we give it credit for, considering what it did against the backdrop of the late 60s. For example, some African-Americans were cooling off in a pool and some Caucasians chased them out and bleached the pool. In response, Fred Rogers sat in his Kiddy Pool with Officer Clemens, who was both African American and as we would later find out, gay, and washed both of their feet with his hose to show we're all human. If only our TVs could show something like that now, instead of trying to find out how far they can go before they get angry letters. Songs I can recommend, either from my youth or watching the "Won't You Be My Neighbor" Documentary last year are "Won't You Be My Neighbor," "It's You I Like" and "I'm Taking Care of You."
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Why I like the DCEU
It was February 2016 when I first saw a trailer for a DCEU film that made me want to stick my toe in the pond. That was a trailer for Batman v. Superman that played before Star Wars; The Force Awakens. Batman v. Superman wasn't as good as I was hoping, there were many lengthy sequences that seemed to mean nothing other than Bruce Wayne was crazy and Clark Kent was overly suspicious of Batman. Also, Lex Luthor was turned into a stereotypical atheist, spouting dialogue I would expect from a cardboard Pureflix villain, not a businessman who seeks to turn the spotlight on him and away from Superman. The saving grace of the film is Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and looking at the actress beyond the film, it's not hard to see why. She almost seems to be the real-world Wonder Woman. And for all its faults, I did feel sad at the death of Superman. A few months later, Suicide Squad was released and I saw it. Margot Robbie was great and Will Smith acted well, too. Karen Fukuhara gave a great performance as Katana, and the film worked much better than its predecessor and is a good reflection of the comics its based on. It's not for everyone, with its trippy atmosphere and sometimes over-the-top violence, but it proved DC could improve. Wonder Woman was next and is easily the best of the DCEU thus far. Gal Gadot shines in the film and Chris Pine acts well, too. The cast plays their roles beautifully and it really brings to life Wonder Woman's origin story and the temptations of lashing out or putting in the hard work to fix a problem. Justice League followed and had a wonderful ensemble cast, the characters all getting played well and accurately. The film has a negative reputation online for using CGI to fix Superman's face, but since most of his scenes were in a heavy CGI area (Steppenwolf's dome) I didn't notice, plus some scenes with other heroes seemed to have some CGI touches, such as Wonder Woman reaching for her sword in slow-motion. Best of all, I bought the Funko Pops of Wonder Woman and Aquaman before seeing the movie, and they attack Steppenwolf physically at the start of the final battle, which made me feel great. Aquaman was another great character piece like Wonder Woman, and Mera shone alongside Aquaman. Jason Momoa and Amber Heard were both great actors and the film had a lot of great moments. I especially loved Aquaman riding atop a Pacific Rim-esque kaiju in the Final Battle. I haven't seen Shazam yet, but I am aiming to see Birds of Prey when it comes out in February. It already looks quite fun.
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