9/25/2020 releases and a look back at last week

 

               Another week gone by, and more music to talk about.  Last week was rather busy, but I can say I really enjoyed Ace Frehley’s new album on Spotify and am looking forward to the CD shipment as a woman sang his version of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and I would like to know who she was.  There was also a surprise re-release of Ozzy Osbourne’s first solo career album, Blizzard of Ozz, with new, never-before-heard live tracks featuring Randy Rhoads on guitar from the first tour.  I honestly recommend both the Origins Vol. 2 album and this for Metal/Classic Rock fans and the Alicia album for Pop fans.

 

               There are two releases I’m looking forward to right now that will be available tonight at 9:00 PDT, both being opportunities to get some good mental release.

 

Carrie Underwood-My Gift: The First Christmas album, a month before Halloween.  Its poor timing aside (though as I saw last year, October is when artists’ Christmas albums tend to get released), this is the first full album of Christmas music by Carrie Underwood, who is a great singer, and her single from the album, “Let there Be Peace,” was an inspiring message we all need right now in our time of polarization and weariness from political problems.  Carrie is no stranger to putting herself out there with strong messages, such as “Love Wins” on her last album, a supportive anthem to the LGBTQ+ community, and this album looks to continue that and also offer classics like “Mary, Did You Know?”

 

Natalie Grant-No Stranger: A Gospel album, this got on my personal radar due to the cover of Casting Crowns’ “Praise You In This Storm” on it.  I’m hopeful the rest of the album will consist of messages that people can find either applicable or uplifting, rather than just providing lip service to conservatives as quite a few “Gospel” albums have been in the last decade.  I won’t name names, but I think people know there’s quite a few that just say, “keep doing what you’re doing, nothing you do is wrong, the other guys have the problem,” much like the Pharisee praying, when what people need is something like the tax collector, “have mercy on me, a sinner,” or reassurance God is there, listening and caring, no matter who you are or what you do.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind people to register to vote, and I have to state if you want things to change, you have to vote for Biden.  Voting for a third-party or write-in candidate is just throwing your ballot away.  Also, if you vote for the current guy to "silence the whiners," you won't get that unless it's through bloodshed, and even then, that will just make people protest louder.

On this day; 1995 Mariners-A's game

 

               Two days ago, I shared a story about one of my favorite Mariner games as a kid.  Now, I’m going to share another from the year before.  It was on this day in 1995 when my family went down to the Kingdome, the Mariners playing the Oakland Athletics with 6’10” pitcher and intimidation master Randy Johnson on the mound for Seattle.  With his mullet, mustache and piercing stare, he could give you goosebumps even at home, and one year he was my Halloween costume while my brother was catcher Dan Wilson.  Part of the costume was a sleep shirt designed after Randy Johnson’s 1989-1992 Mariners uniform.

 

               True to form, Randy Johnson intimidated the Oakland lineup, the boxscore reads he recorded 15 strikeouts that night before they turned it over to Bobby Ayala, who had one more strikeout for a total of 16 strikeouts on the night.  The dominating pitching was also evident in the final score, the Mariners won 7-0.  The Mariners brought their usual lineup at the time to the game, with stars Ken Griffey Jr. (who had recently returned from a nasty wrist injury), Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson playing in the game.  Vince Coleman led off and played in left field, and the first Mariner whose card I got in a 1995 Upper Deck pack, Mike Blowers, played third base and started a double play during the game.  Last I watched the broadcasts, he was one of the TV commentators.

 

               Oakland had brought a unique lineup which has left a bit of an impression on me over the years.  Future Mariners Brent Gates and Stan Javier played in the game, and today some of their cards hold a special place for me.  Former Mariner Danny Tartabull was their Designated Hitter, as well.  Their leadoff hitter was Mike Gallego, who had returned to Oakland after a stint playing for the New York Yankees.  Both Tartabull and Gallego had played for the Yankees in the previous season, but Gallego signed with Oakland as a free agent in the offseason, while Tartabull was traded midseason for Ruben Sierra.  Also, Mark Acre pitched in relief for them and I had gotten his Upper Deck rookie card earlier in the year.  Oakland also wore their green jerseys with yellow font in the game, rather than the typical gray road jerseys.

 

               Another memory I have from the game is a souvenir shop was selling miniature pennants.  I guess the last Mariners game I had been to at the time, which was in May against the Baltimore Orioles, had left something of an impression on me, because I chose the Baltimore one and my Dad bought it for me.  It still sits in my Mom’s house among my wall of pennants, which include ones from the Seattle Mariners, Tacoma Rainiers and short-lived Bellingham Giants.  Today, that wall is a good memory of the mid-90s, when people weren’t cynical or jaded about baseball, but optimistic.  Hopefully, we can return to that mindset someday, as our constant dour attitudes about most things are wearing down the wonder of the world.

On this day; 1996 Mariners-A's game

 

               Last month, I talked about the first Major League Baseball game I saw by myself, five years ago in 2015.  Now I’d like to talk about one from my childhood that happened on this day in 1996.  I actually did have to look up the day and this is actually my first anniversary celebration of it.  Appropriately, it’s on the 24^th anniversary.

 

               This was the last game my family saw live in 1996, seen back in the Kingdome.  It was also the third of at least four years in a row when we saw the Seattle Mariners play against the Oakland Athletics, the 1994 one was the Turn Back the Clock game where the teams dressed as the Seattle Rainiers and Oakland Oaks (and according to a different blog, Ken Griffey Jr. and Rickey Henderson shared a glove for the game in homage to the budgets of teams of the 1950s), I’ll be talking about the 1995 one in a couple of days and the 1997 one was the last game of the season.  In a sign of things to come, Oakland’s regular first baseman Mark McGwire played Designated Hitter while Jason Giambi played first base.  Seattle also used recent acquisitions David Hollins and Mark Whiten at third base and left field, respectively.

 

               In the bottom of one of the innings, my Dad, my brother and I decided to go for refreshments.  As we headed down the tunnel, Alex Rodriguez came to bat.  Just as we left, fireworks went off, indicating he hit a home run.  We raced up to see him round the bases, glad, then turned around and started back to the concession stand as Ken Griffey Jr. came up to bat.  We got no further than we did before when we heard fireworks go off again!  Back-to-back home runs!  We ran back up to see Griffey rounding the bases, then went back down as Edgar Martinez came up to bat.  Again, booms were heard!  Back-to-back-to-back, the Mariners had combined for three home runs!  This time we stayed for Jay Buhner’s at-bat.  He flew out, so we expected nothing as Paul Sorrento, the then-first baseman of the Mariners, came up to bat.

 

               We were wrong.

 

               Fireworks went off as Paul Sorrento had hit the fourth home run of the inning, us running back up a fourth time to see them.  While the Mariners didn’t make the playoffs that year, that was a feat I’ve never seen any team do before or since.  It was one of my favorite games I’ve ever seen and I will remember for my whole life the day the Mariners hit four home runs in one inning.  This is also one short of the Major League record, as I found out when the Yankees recently hit five home runs in one inning, which tied the Major League record.

Release Highlights and Unofficial Start of Halloween Season

 

               It’s Thursday and that means a release post.  As is tradition, I will start with my favorites from last week, which in this case were just a pair of singles.  First was “Found/Tonight” by Ben Platt and American Icon Lin-Manuel Miranda, a mashup of a song I’m not familiar with and “Another Round Tonight” from Miranda’s musical “Hamilton,” a biography of founding father and freedom fighter Alexander Hamilton done mostly in a hip-hop style.  “Another Round Tonight” is one of my favorite pieces from the musical, especially for the lyrics “Raise a glass to freedom/something they can never take away/no matter what they tell you.”  The other favorite was a collaboration between one of my favorites, Demi Lovato and Marshmello, who I’m not sure what they are, exactly, because they show up as a person who covers their entire head in a mask and don’t appear to sing at all on their tracks.  It was called “OK Not To Be OK,” and the message was the self-explanatory, it’s okay to not feel okay.  This week I’ve realized I’ve kept myself so ridiculously busy over at least the past two years, maybe more, with self-projects that I’m going at such a breakneck pace I’m surprised I haven’t had a heart attack.  I think it’s because death became just too uncomfortably close to my family then.

 

               Anyway, we’ve got some great-looking stuff over the next week and here’s some of the things I’m looking forward to the most.

 

Ace Frehley-Origins Vol 2: For those wondering, Origins Vol. 1 was released in March/April 2016 and was one of the best releases that year, with highlight tracks including a cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Emerald” featuring a guitar duet with Slash of Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver fame and a re-recording of KISS’ own “Cold Gin” with the lead guitar and solo played by Mike McCready of Pearl Jam.  No special guests have been announced this time, but the covers include a bit of a who’s who of Classic Rock, with The Beatles’ “I’m Down,” The Rolling Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash,” Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression,” Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times” and Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin’” all making appearances.  Naturally, I have actually pre-ordered this album and hope it’ll be as good as the first one.

 

Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets-Live At The Roundhouse: While David Gilmour and Roger Waters have the more distinguished solo careers, drummer Nick Mason of Pink Floyd toured last year and decided to release one of these shows as an album this year.  There are good versions of “Fearless” and “One Of These Days” from the “Meddle” album on this album that have been released as singles and it seems more focused on the early days of the band than Waters or Gilmour’s live albums, which tend to focus on “Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall” due to them being the most popular albums.  So this should be fresh and different, if nothing else.

 

Alicia Keys-Alicia: The longtime Pop/R&B singer releases her newest album, titled after her first name.  She has released several good singles for this already, “Underdog” speaking about the unsung heroes and heroines of society, the commonfolk we tend to ignore but some people desperately need (it was also effectively advertised in the Miley Cyrus Bright Minded Episode that also featured Millie Bobbie Brown, as both hosts from The Voice had a chat in it), and “Perfect Way To Die” was a well-timed release after the death of George Floyd and talks of the needless murders of African-Americans in our society. 

 

September 19^th: String Gamer Player-Respawn: Contains Themes of beloved Square-Enix RPG characters Terra from Final Fantasy VI, Tifa from Final Fantasy VII and Primrose from Octopath Traveler.  Terra Branford is a mage in a world that has forgotten magic that turns into a more powerful pink form called an esper.  Tifa Lockheart (or Lockhart, I’m not quite sure which), is one of the love interests of the protagonist Cloud Strife whose specialty is punches and kicks, and Primrose is an attractive dancer character, which means she powers up the other characters in the party through dancing and can also attack by dancing.

 

September 22^nd: Vanilla Fudge-Immigrant Song: Vanilla Fudge is a rock band that some consider a sibling band to Led Zeppelin, making this 50^th anniversary cover of one of Zeppelin’s most well-known tracks especially appropriate.  Most of the comparison between the two stems from the similarities in styles of their drummers, Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and Vanilla Fudge’s Carmine Appice, who also drummed for Cactus, the supergroup Beck, Bogert, Appice and Ozzy Osbourne’s 1983 tour and whose brother Vinny Appice has been the drummer for Black Sabbath when Ronnie James Dio is the lead singer, as well as the band Dio itself.

 

Also, I consider September 17^th, due to the busy-ness of yesterday, to be my personal start of the Halloween season, namely due to one year when a Let’s Player (person who plays video games on YouTube) started their Halloween special around this time and the local grocery store put up their decorations at the latest, the same day.  So, here’s my Spotify Halloween Playlist for this year.

 

1.)    Scythian Suite (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

2.)    Black Sabbath (Live 2017)-Black Sabbath

3.)    Crazy Train (Live 1981)-Ozzy Osbourne

4.)    Crazy Train (Live 1992)-Ozzy Osbourne

5.)    Moth into Flame (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

6.)    Nothing Else Matters (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

7.)    For Whom The Bell Tolls (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

8.)    Ride the Lightning-Metallica

9.)    Ride the Lightning-Halestorm

10.) Eat Me-Ozzy Osbourne

11.) Scary Little Green Men-Ozzy Osbourne

12.) Straight to Hell-Ozzy Osbourne

13.) Under the Graveyard-Ozzy Osbourne

14.) Take What You Want-Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott

15.) Crucify The Dead-Slash and Ozzy Osbourne

16.) Diary of a Madman-Ozzy Osbourne

17.) Paranoid (Live 1981)-Ozzy Osbourne

18.) Over the Mountain-Ozzy Osbourne

19.) Breaking the Law-Judas Priest

20.) Breaking the Law (Live 2015)-Judas Priest

21.) Suicide Solution-Ozzy Osbourne

22.) Fear of the Dark (Live in Brazil)-Iron Maiden

23.) Black Widow-Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith

24.) Ace of Spades-Motorhead

25.) Ace of Spades (Live Belfast 1981)-Motorhead

26.) We Will Rock You-In This Moment feat. Lzzy Hale and Taylor Momsen

27.) Black Wedding-In This Moment feat. Rob Halford

28.) STFU-Rina Sawayama

29.) The Trooper-Iron Maiden

30.) Iron Man (Live 2017)-Black Sabbath

31.) Experiment on Me-Halsey

32.) What Baby Wants-Alice Cooper and Kesha

33.) Swing It-Phil Campbell, Alice Cooper

34.) Feed My Frankenstein-Alice Cooper

35.) Unholy War-Alice Cooper

36.) He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)-Alice Cooper

37.) Dream Warriors-Dokken

38.) War Pigs (Live 2017)-Black Sabbath

39.) War Pigs (Live 1992)-Ozzy Osbourne

40.) Children of the Grave-Ted Kirkpatrick and Tim “Ripper” Owens

41.) Starbreaker-Judas Priest

42.) Starbreaker (Live)-Judas Priest

43.) Living After Midnight-Judas Priest

44.) Necromancer-Judas Priest

45.) Evil Never Dies-Judas Priest

46.) You’ve Got Another Thing Coming (Live 2015)-Judas Priest

47.) Hell Bent for Leather (Live 2015)-Judas Priest

48.) Victim of Changes (Live 2015)-Judas Priest

49.) March of the Damned-Judas Priest

50.) Hell Bent For Leather (Live 1979)-Judas Priest

51.) Victim of Changes (Live 1979)-Judas Priest

52.) Running Wild (Live 1979)-Judas Priest

53.) Die Young-Black Sabbath

54.) Neon Knights-Black Sabbath

55.) End of the Beginning-Black Sabbath

56.) Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath

57.) Sabbra Cadabra-Black Sabbath

58.) Mob Rules-Black Sabbath

59.) Bad Memory-K.Flay

60.) Run For Your Life-K.Flay

61.) Lucky One-K.Flay and Tom Morello

62.) Edge of Dawn-AmaLee

63.) Fodlan Winds-Celestial Aeon Project

64.) Straight Up-Phil Campbell, Rob Halford

65.) Tarot Woman-Rainbow

66.) Die Young (Radio Edit)-Jorn

67.) As Above, So Below-In This Moment

68.) Nothing Else Matters-Metallica

69.) Saturday Night Special-BPMD

70.) One (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

71.) The Iron Foundry (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

72.) Keeping Halloween Alive-Alice Cooper

73.) Iron Man (Live)-Metallica

74.) The Ecstasy of Gold (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

75.) Enter Sandman (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

76.) Confusion (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

77.) Straight Through The Heart-Halestorm

78.) Blackened 2020-Metallica

79.) Into The Void (Sealth) (Live)-Soundgarden

80.) Rainbow in the Dark (Live on the Master of the Moon Tour)-Dio

81.) Rainbow in the Dark-Dio

82.) Godzilla Appears-Akira Ifukube

83.) Godzilla-Bear McCreary and Serj Tankian

84.) Battle in Boston-Bear McCreary

85.) Redemption-Bear McCreary

86.) King of the Monsters-Bear McCreary

87.) The Outlaw Torn (Live)-Metallica and San Francisco Symphony

88.) Blackened (Live, Seattle Coliseum 1989)-Metallica

89.) For Whom The Bell Tolls (Live, Seattle Coliseum 1989)-Metallica

 

 

Halloween may be a little different this year, but one thing I always will love is that I can celebrate with an upswing in dark, snarling Metal Music.  Enjoy this time of year, my friends!

Concert Memories; September 16th

               Today is a very special day in my concert-viewing history as I’ve seen two different shows on this date six years apart.  In 2009, I went with two people from the Church I was going to at the time to the Tacoma Dome to see the Miley Cyrus concert.  There was quite a lot of traffic on the way down, as this was her heyday, and we stopped a few times for sodas.  We also listened to Carrie Underwood’s debut album “Some Hearts” on the way down, which made me a Carrie Underwood fan.

 

               The show started with opening act Metro Station, a band founded by Miley’s older half-brother Tracer and Mitchel Musso’s older brother Mason Musso.  While they have a very hard rock/heavy metal look to them, especially with Trace’s arms and torso covered in tattoos, they play synth-pop music and were responsible for some songs at the time that were big dance hits, “Seventeen Forever” and “Shake It.”  I also heard their song “Japanese Girl” at that show for the first time, it would later officially debut on an EP of remixes of their song “Kelsey” the next month.  They also stated during the show before playing “Kelsey” that while its title is “Kelsey,” it can be about anyone you love deeply.

 

               Miley’s show was a surprise for me, namely because I thought artists only performed their latest songs and ignored previous releases on tours before this show.  When the second song she sang was “Start All Over” from her debut album, that thought ended quickly, since she had already performed it live in the area and was now doing so again.  She strutted confidently around the stage and often did a thrashing, head-banging maneuver which was impressive with the waterfall of burnt auburn hair she had at the time.  Her performances of “Kicking And Screaming,” “Let’s Get Crazy,” “Spotlight,” “GNO,” the Joan Jett classic “I Love Rock and Roll” (which got me into the 1980s icon), “Wake Up America” and “See You Again” were a pure rush of energy and excitement, with her belting out lyrics with ferocity.  There was also the tender side with “These Four Walls,” “When I Look At You” and perhaps her biggest hit that year, “The Climb.”  These showcased a soft heart behind the dominating powerhouse, showing that she really wanted people to be able to positively rise from the aches and pains of their lives to a happier existence of mutual compassion.  When the entire Dome sang along to “The Climb,” I was moved.  I was moved again shortly after as I left after the show ended, seeing an elementary school girl on crutches leaving her seat with her Dad.  And to me, maybe that’s the message of these shows, just have one night when you can forget your pains and sadness, leave them at the door, and have fun with someone whose music you love.

 

               Six years later, in 2015, there was a concert at the White River Amphitheater in Auburn.  The headliner was 80s Hard Rock/Hair Metal band Def Leppard, and opening for them were Styx and the very first artist on the stage would be Tesla.  Tesla is an 80s Hair Band from Sacramento who has performed some amazing original songs and popularized some older ones.  Their biggest hit is probably “Signs,” a cover of a song by the Five Man Electric Band.  The main hook is the chorus, “Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs/blocking out the scenery, breakin’ my mind/do this, don’t do that/can’t you read the sign?”  Their most famous original song is probably “Love Song” all about how “Love Will Find A Way” and in live performances, ends with lead singer Jeff Keith repeating “I Know,” and when the audience echoes him and says “I Know,” he invariably says “I knew you knew.”  If you’re a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd, UFO and Led Zeppelin, you’ll probably have a good time at a Tesla show.

 

               Styx was next, performing hits like “Too Much Time On My Hands,” “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)”, “Miss America” and “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights).”  Lawrence Gowan is the new keyboardist/sometimes lead singer as Styx is currently run by Tommy Shaw, who disliked Kilroy was Here, which was Dennis DeYoung’s project for the most part.  Tommy Shaw was also amazing that night, playing guitar in an incredible fashion and singing beautifully.  It also seems Shaw played most of the solos.  Todd Sucherman, the current drummer, was also great that night, making great drum fills and keeping a good, steady rhythm.  I would definitely be interested in seeing Styx again.

 

               Def Leppard headlined the night, playing mostly hits off the Hysteria album, such as “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Armageddon It,” “Love Bites” and the title track.  “Let’s Get Rocked,” “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak/Switch 625” and “Foolin’” were also part of the main set, the band performing each song excellently.  They can still maintain their harmonies after 40 years being a band, Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen are both excellent guitar players, Rick Savage is great on bass and Rick Allen is one of the most talented drummers you will ever see, especially because between recording the Pyromania album and the Hysteria album, he lost his left arm in a car accident.  As such, he plays the drums using his feet, his right arm and synthesizers, pressing a pedal with his left foot for a snare drum sound.  Joe Elliot also often seems like one of the friendliest lead singers a band has ever had, introducing the other band members like he’s at a bar and just happens to meet his old friends.  I am looking forward to the Def Leppard concert I have a ticket to, which will feature them, Poison, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Motley Crue at T-Mobile Park.

Concert Memories; September 13th

 Six years ago today, September 13th, 2014, I went to the Tacoma Dome and saw part of the Katy Perry concert.  I had to leave early to catch a bus back to Seattle to stay in the Hostel overnight.  The big thing I remember most about the show due to this was the opening act, Tegan and Sara, the Alberta-born lesbian twins who play alternative pop.  They performed mostly from their newest album at the time, "Heartthrob," playing "Goodbye, Goodbye," "I Was A Fool" and "I'm Not Your Hero."  They also performed "Everything Is Awesome," the song they recorded for The Lego Movie.  Katy herself did a great job performing, as well, wearing memorable costumes throughout the night, such as dressing as a cat while performing her hit "Hot N Cold" in a slowed-down, jazzy style.  She also dressed in an Egyptian Style of outfit, looking like most depictions of Cleopatra, for "Legendary Lovers" and "E.T."  She started her show with the opening track of her newest album, "Roar," from the "Prism" album.  After that, she did the memorable "Part of Me," which was the title track of her documentary and also had a music video featuring her training with the Marines.

I would like to see either act again, but it's been hard in the last six years because Katy Perry toured only once during that time and when Tegan and Sara perform locally, tickets get sold out quickly.  I attribute this to how progressive Seattle is and how they want to support like-minded artists, which is a good thing, but sometimes, it doesn't feel so pleasant to be unable to buy tickets for those artists myself.

The very next day, after a rest in the Hostel, I went to the Seattle and Bellevue Schools of Rock performances of Hair Metal and The History of Metal at El Corazon in Seattle.  There were several great performances from the young people who performed, ones that stand out (names according to complementary program) are Miranda Kitchpanich on the Hair Metal side, who sang "Yankee Rose" by David Lee Roth, "Too Young To Fall In Love" by Motley Crue, "Still of the Night" by Whitesnake and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Warrant.  On the heavier side, Izzy Hughes stood out for her bass playing and singing, much like classic rocker Glenn who has the same last name, which made me wonder if they were related.  She played bass on "Into The Void" by Black Sabbath, "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica and "Die With Your Boots On" by Iron Maiden, filling the roles of classic bass players Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton and Steve Harris.  Later, she sang "Metal Meltdown" by Judas Priest, hitting all the major bands during her night and providing a very strong voice that was well-suited for the song.  All in all, it was fun, and there were also great performances by "Stargazer" by Rainbow and "You Could Be Mine" by Guns N Roses, but I was disappointed that there were no Ozzy Osbourne solo career songs and there were too many thrash metal songs with the guttural voice that some call "Cookie Monster vocals" and others call "imitating Satan."  Despite this, the good easily outweighed the bad.

Early Christmas List Thoughts

 

1.)    Hyrule Warriors; Age of Calamity for the Nintendo Switch-Originally, this spot was going to the WWE Fighting game, but I’ve been soured on the organization since Vince McMahon doesn’t want the athletes to have YouTube accounts and Xavier Woods’ UpUpDownDown videos with Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Bayley, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch was the first time I laughed in November 2016, it was the medicine I needed at that time.  Raw Women’s Champion Asuka also has a YouTube channel where she assembled a Capcom collection arcade machine and made her own strawberry jam, and losing these doesn’t make me want to give the organization money at the moment.  Plus, this game covers the war 100 years before the Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild game, aka the Zelda game where Zelda wears pants.  Characters such as Urbosa the Gerudo, Mipha the Zora and Daruk the Goron have also been popular among fans and even appeared as Spirit Battles in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Zero Suit Samus playing Urbosa, the pink Inkling playing Mipha and Donkey Kong with an Ore Club playing Daruk while Link and Zelda played themselves.  (Yes, I know there’s a Rito character named I believe Raphtali and he was played by Falco)  Hopefully, in this game, you will not be the only competent soldier in a mission, thus requiring you to be in multiple areas at once, like in Hyrule Warriors Legends for the 3DS.

2.)    Black Stone Cherry-The Human Condition CD: Black Stone Cherry is one of the best Southern Rock Bands in existence today, and I’m not just saying that because Billy Ray Cyrus endorses them and appeared in their music video for “The Rambler.”  With catchy hooks like “Cheaper To Drink Alone,” guests like Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and a mix of redneck partying and respect for all people, regardless of skin color or background, Black Stone Cherry carries the flag Lynyrd Skynyrd started.  They’ve toured with acts as varied as Skynyrd and Halestorm and even covered Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” in tribute to Lemmy.  This new album looks to take on our current divisiveness and political problems the way non-racist Southerners should from its first single.

3.)    Bon Jovi-2020 CD: If there’s a rock band saying what I’m thinking this year, it’s Bon Jovi.  It’s amazing how the New Jersey veterans of the 80s can put into words through their singles the feelings I find hard to put down.  Two of their better songs for this album, “Unbroken” and “American Reckoning” cover two sides of the American coin, the soldiers sent to war in the Middle East, coming back wounded, hearing of their buddies committing suicide, and yet, they outright state the experience of gaining these comrades, these brothers, was worth more than the pain and trials afterwards.  American Reckoning tackles the murder of George Floyd, asking us what we as Americans are to do when confronted with a truth we have been to comfortable ignoring.  “I see a shirt on a 12-year-old who hasn’t lived life yet/’Am I next?’/’Am I next?’”  Hopefully, the combined efforts of men and women nationwide can dismantle systemic racism and end police brutality.  As Dee Strange-Gordon says, “We’re human, man, we just want to be equal, we don’t want to be better.”

4.)    USB CD Drive: There are several CDs I have I want to partially burn onto my laptop into iTunes.  Most of these had no digital source, so it’s impossible to get the MP3s onto my phone and I actually lost my iPod some time ago, so this would be the only way to listen to these songs on the go.  I’d also need to prioritize some of these CDs and songs if I get this.

5.)    RWBY Vol. 7 DVD: Thus far, the pre-order only lists Blu-Ray and I’m hoping that changes.  RWBY Vol. 7 is important to me as it is the volume where Yang and Blake are fully out of the closet and enjoying a lesbian relationship.  They remind me of friends of mine from my Church.  This volume also covers political commentary, but it shows that behind the awful decisions that hurt so many in this series lies fear, the opposite of love.  The ending asks who you will become when you’re afraid, challenging that we do not become the very monsters we fight out of fear of them.  I don’t quote Nietzsche often, but he was right when he said, “whoever fights monsters must take care that in the process, he does not become a monster.”

Heavy Metal Tuesday

 Last night I received my Zakk Sabbath "Vertigo" album and some tracks from the new live albums by BabyMetal and decided to declare it "Heavy Metal Tuesday" at 9:30 pm PDT due to the high energy music of the day.  Zakk Sabbath performed a track-by-track recreation of the first Black Sabbath album, now 50 years old.  Some lyrics still hold up,

"A Politician's Job, they say, Is Very Hard,

For He's Got To Choose Who's Got To Go And Die

They can put a man on the moon quite easy

But people here on Earth are dying from All Diseases" from "Wicked World"

Showing that some of the issues of 50 years ago's Vietnam climate are still alive.  In fact, I'm reminded of this gem from John Lennon's album that will be turning 50 later this year,

"There's room at the top, there'll telling you still/

But first you must learn to smile as you kill/

If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

Hopefully, we can end our pointless 20-year conflict going nowhere soon.  On the other side of Metal, BabyMetal released two live albums recorded earlier that reminded me of the live show I saw of theirs last year.  I honestly believe this band has a bright future ahead of them and would list either them or Noah Cyrus as my top act of the 2010s, looking forward to their future.  This week doesn't have much in the way of releases, but Country fans should look forward to a 30th anniversary re-release of Reba McIntire.

Fun Fact; 30 years ago, Reba McIntire was also in the first film of a sci-fi series called "Tremors" where she played the wife of Survivalist Bert Gummer.  Bert reappeared in all the sequels, Reba is only referenced.  Bert Gummer is also the favorite character in the series of Internet Reviewer Allison Pregler.  One of the best scenes in the first movie is him single-handedly killing a Graboid with shotguns when it breaks into his underground rec room with Reba helping.  Tremors also created a short-lived series on the Sci-Fi channel.

Musical Check-in

 Well, September started and the biggest thing released last weekend that panned out was the Deluxe Edition of The Rolling Stones' album Goat Head Soup due to the full show they included that featured hits like "Honky Tonk Women" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."  I'm awaiting a non-digital release I pre-ordered coming in the mail, Zakk Sabbath's cover of the first Black Sabbath album, which will feature Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde on guitar and vocals.  Metallica's S&M2 album was great, I'm planning on using parts of it for a Halloween playlist, and I also enjoyed Katy Perry's "Smile" album.  I also bought the entire "Hamilton" soundtrack.

Wednesday, BabyMetal is releasing a two-part live album digitally, called Legend-Metal Galaxy Day 1 and 2.  The first tracks were released late Thursday and sound great, bringing me back to the show last year at the Paramount.  I'm hopeful live music will return soon.

Musical Thoughts: Gary Clark Jr.

              One of my favorite African-American musicians of the contemporary scene is Gary Clark Jr.  He is a phenomenal guitar player who combines blues and hard rock in his playing and can sing passionate soul music and in a falsetto that sounds natural.  His biggest hit on the national scene was performing the cover of “Come Together” for the Justice League movie.  However, he has quite a career, dealing with everyday issues such as relationships, dealing with racial tension and other social justice issues like hunger.  His song “This Land,” off the album of the same name, released last year, was inspired by an encounter with a white person who didn’t believe he could own his Austin, TX ranch simply due to his skin color.  Gary Clark Jr. responds to the racist slurs aimed at him in his song with, “F*** you, I’m American, son.  This land is where I come from.”  His version of Come Together also impressed Ringo Starr, who featured a live version of it in his 80^th Birthday celebration this year.

 

               Clark’s playing style is reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, and he even made a medley of Third Stone From The Sun on one of his albums.  He tends to favor a bluesy sound with less feedback, making him an easier listen, and creates very entertaining music that also has a message that will hopefully help lead to racial equality.  I know for sure I always feel like I’m doing something positive when I buy a song Gary Clark Jr. made or played on.