Music update 7/1/2022

     Well, another month in this rough year comes to a close and this feels like it was the worst.  I am concerned about the musicians and voice actresses I've followed on Twitter, they seem extremely hurt and despairing over the recent SCOTUS decisions against Roe v. Wade and for school prayer.  It makes me feel they will soon lead a charge of a new hashtag: ACAF, All Christians Are Fascists and that all the kindness and support I've shown them will mean nothing and they will kill me violently, or that SCOTUS will declare the LGBTQ+ community and its allies non-human and non-animal "because of their decisions," making it legal to murder us and deny us food and housing and penalize people for giving us that.  A lot of their despair seems to stem from a lack of belief in a God of restorative justice and liberation, because spending time with them makes my belief erode and wonder if the fundamentalists are right and Jesus is a White Supremacist, Misogynist and Homophobe after all.

 

    To that end, I have decided to just get the video games Demon Slayer and Fire Emblem Warriors; Three Hopes, beating the Scarlet Blaze story of Three Hopes and taking pictures of Nezuko in the fighting game mode of Demon Slayer, thus saying goodbye to Tara Platt and Abby Trott, who have helped me immensely, before outright blocking Twitter after beating Three Hopes' story.  These days, all I use it for is answering Classic Rock/Hard Rock opinion questions from three separate accounts and if I still enjoy doing so when this is over (roughly early-mid September, given the manner of game), I will not block it, but pretty much solely use it for that and weekly favorite music.

 

    Speaking of, since it's Thursday, it's time to reveal my picks from last week.  Ozzy Osbourne announced what will likely be his last studio album with a killer single with Jeff Beck doing the guitar solo.  Beck is one of several guest guitarists lending their talents to this album, Eric Clapton and Mike McCready each play a track and Ozzy reunites with Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde for a few songs each.  I have pre-ordered the album, which is due September 9th.  Noah Cyrus released a nice single, though there is confusion if it's released July 15th or September 16th.  Either way, one of the songs is a collaboration with Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie, and I've fantasized about a Ben Gibbard-Miley/Noah collab for some time now, so it's gratifying.  Hayley Kiyoko and FLETCHER released good singles for Pride Month, I think FLETCHER's "Her Body is Bible" will be a June staple for years to come.  Jimmie Allen made a great country-pop album that I think my sister-in-law would enjoy and I also liked a lot of it, and Dove Cameron released a great pop single.

 

    This week we have singles from Rina Sawayama and Generation Radio released earlier in the week, Gary Clark Jr. on the Minions soundtrack album and a new album from keyboardist Derek Shirinian that includes a track featuring guitar virtuosos Zakk Wylde and Michael Schenker, I believe this is the first time they have played together.

 

I'm going to listen to this today:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4UDQeJwBRYTic9wFYhi9EV?si=06df6360bcd24c00 

 

And parts of this tomorrow: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6MjwxXnR6UqDkoOWLIjv87?si=26ade54628594c15

 

And parts of this on Monday: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mSBD3rIDhYfMlpfhI1eKe?si=1332f82f503f4045

My thoughts on Patriotism right now

 I’ve seen there is likely some debate about celebrating the patriotic holiday of the 4^th of July after yesterday.  To be honest, I’ve been wondering the same thing for years, not just about it, but also about September 11^th, Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, don’t those just fuel the radicals who see the stars and stripes only for white, straight conservative males and those who agree with them, playing Skynyrd and Billy Ray’s “Some Gave All?”

 

Certainly, that is the image patriotism has taken at least in my lifetime.  But, in 2019, Don Felder, formerly of the Eagles, released a song called “American Rock and Roll,” which mentions many acts people likely don’t think about who are American; Jimi Hendrix, Santana, The Allman Brothers Band, Van Halen, Guns N Roses and the “Grunge, Cantrell, Cornell and Vedder.”  This isn’t just the GOP’s country, this isn’t just SCOTUS’ country, this isn’t just Lynyrd Skynyrd’s country, this is also Soundgarden and Audioslave’s country, this is Miley Cyrus’ country, this is Ariana Grande’s country, this is Demi Lovato’s country, this is Carrie Underwood and Bon Jovi’s country, this is Geoff Tate’s country, this is Sammy Hagar’s country, this is Brandi Carlile’s country, this is Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal’s country and we need to make room for us all or outside forces like Putin will knock us down or we will tear ourselves apart and die.

 

When I think of America, I think of when a French ambassador visited Thomas Jefferson during his presidency.  Protesters were outside.  The ambassador asked why Jefferson allowed it, Jefferson replied something to the effect of “We fought so they could do that.”

Music Update 6/24/2022

     It was a fun 2 weeks with my Dad, we managed 3 innings of a Dust Devils game before rare Eastern Washington rain delayed the rest of the game to the next day, when I was seeing Brandi Carlile in concert.  She and her opening acts Lucius and Sarah McLachlan were amazing, she brought out her daughters and imitated her wife shopping for RVs (apparently Catherine is British) and her performance rearranged my Pride Month playlist for the year.  One highlight not in the playlist was when she and Lucius covered "Alone" by Heart, it reminded me of when Heart invited Carrie Underwood on stage in Atlantic City to sing that song, another was her singing "Over the Rainbow," which reminded me of the Billy Ray Cyrus and Ariana Grande versions.

 

    I got to spend a lot of time with my family, playing card games, board games, watching old episodes of NCIS (Abby or no deal!) and playing my Spotify playlists for my Dad, Paul McCartney, Ann Wilson, my sister-in-law and African-Americans since Juneteenth was during the trip.  We went to Mt. Rainier during the last few days (I took a lot of pictures, I need to decide which are best before posting them to here or Twitter) and since I had limited-to-no service, I tended to use music downloaded to my phone.  I need to repair/replace my microSD card on the phone, as it isn't working and the phone itself is getting full.  I dealt with some stress related to my current living situation and the state of the United States during the trip, but Dad and his wife offered some good wisdom.

 

    I tried to keep up with music, but I still have some to catch up on.  I can say what my favorite music of the last two weeks was, though.  Two weeks ago, Carrie Underwood released her third album in three years and it is a contender for my favorite so far alongside Miley Cyrus' live album, Envy of None's debut album, Kaiju Crescendo and Ann Wilson's Fierce Bliss.  Demi Lovato also had a kick-butt single, Kelly Clarkson had a version of Whitney Houston's "Queen of the Night," Journey had the best single yet for their upcoming album, Switchfoot had another strong single with "youth of the young" and Generation Radio (a supergroup involving members of Journey, Rascal Flatts and Chicago (?!)) had a strong debut single.

 

    Last week's best release so far was Iconic, though Michael Sweet seems a bit oblivious to the fact his political choices are causing a lot of the problems he wants to stop, which is something that bothered me six years ago and still bothers me now.  I guess some people are just like that, but I've ultimately found the Apostle James was right; anyone, even a demon, can SAY they're a Christian, a Christian is shown through acts of kindness, compassion, caring and protection.  Some of the most Christ-like people I've met weren't in Church, others were.  Grey Daze had a good song with guitarist Dave Navarro, the Nova Twins did well with Choose Your Fighter (and since there's a whole album there, I'll need to check it out in the coming week), and Halocene with First to Eleven did a cover of Evanescence's  Everybody's Fool.

 

    This week has a live album from Black Stone Cherry, who I listed as one of my top 3 American Bands on Twitter twice over vacation alongside Ronnie Van Zant era Lynyrd Skynyrd and Geoff Tate era Queensryche.  This album has Godzilla selling ice cream on the cover, I'm not sure why, but I love it.  Christine McVie (of Fleetwood Mac  and Jimmie Allen (an African-American Country Singer and the opening act for Carrie Underwood's next tour) both have album releases tonight as well, as well as a new Noah Cyrus single.  I am considering buying tickets to a 1990s-early 2000s Alternative Rock Tribute Band that will play in Bellingham on August 6th since they are cheap and I want to see if I can hear Soundgarden, Nirvana and Pearl Jam music live.  I know from their Facebook page they do "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.  If I can't, the next concert will be August 31st at T-Mobile Park.  The next baseball game will also be there on July 9th.  I'm looking forward to it.