Feb
27
2007
good show tonight. Cradle of Filth had some weird stage setup though with palm trees and camo netting… but you still have to respect a black metal band who manages to incorporate an opera singer :-) and Nymphetamine always hits the spot. not sure what the keyboardist was doing but i’m pretty sure the keyboard music wasn’t quite synchronized with her fingers hitting the keys. hrm.
it’s unclear whether The 69 Eyes take themselves seriously… but it’s emo-metal from Helsinki… so it’s pretty much awesome either way. if you count HIM among your guilty pleasures, you’ll like The 69 Eyes too. if you need a quick primer, buy their best-of album titled Framed in Blood.
and finally our friends to the north have produced something definitely worth listening to in 3 Inches of Blood. if you’re not familiar with them, their Advance and Vanquish album covers the important metal topics (orcs, medieval war, naval power, and futuristic robots). their new songs sound cool, but they’re a bit more prog than previous albums i think. prog rock pretty much started in the great white north with rush, so why not have some prog metal from 3 Inches? one song actually reminded me of mastodon’s blood mountain album – if you discount the vocals. which isn’t a bad impression to make. i only wish they had gotten more songs in.. they were the opening act and only did 7. (and this was the band I most wanted to see)
next week – Killswitch Engage and Dragonforce!
no comments | tags: concert, metal, music, review | posted in music
Dec
28
2006
I was sitting here working, listening to 3 Inches of Blood and decided to start this list of some of the coolest first lines/phrases in music. I wish there was a better way to present these but I don’t think there is. They’re in no particular order, but tend to be loosely grouped by artist.
Bolded lines are the ones where I _really_ like the song itself or the line.
How many do you know? Did I miss any wicked awesome songs?
In the year four thousand fifty five, Wykydtron came to life
Just a small town girl, livin in a lonely world, She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Mama take this badge from me, I can’t use it anymore
Here in your bedroom, I can turn my head off
Im broke but Im happy, Im poor but Im kind
I want you to know that Im happy for you, I wish nothing but the best for you both
On the floor of Tokyo, Or down in London town to go, go
Hey little sister what have you done, Hey little sister who’s the only one
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2 comments | tags: music | posted in music
Dec
27
2006
Read
Metal Council Convenes To Discuss ‘Metal Hand Sign’ Abuse
The Problem:
“We have all heard the reports of people using it to greet their in-laws, or after starting their lawn mowers with a single pull,” Butler said. “But recently it was brought to our attention that someone used the gesture in a Texas convenience store after snagging the last box of carrot cakes. This simply won’t do.”
The Criteria:
“If your head is neither banging nor thrashing, you should not be throwing the sign,” Butler said. “It’s that simple.”
1 comment | tags: metal, music | posted in asides, music
Dec
26
2006
The art of covering a song is complex. Just singing the same song is boring, you have to make it yours. Here are some of my favorite covers, (parentheticals show the original artist).
These five covers I like better than the version from the original artist.
Cake – I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)
The original version of this song is just so… boring. Cake’s rendition is catchy, and though it is pretty much word-for-word the same, changing one little word in there totally gives this cover so much more emotion than Gloria Gaynor did. If I’m in this situation, I’m not gonna change the “stupid lock”, I’m gonna change the “Fucking lock” (with a capital F).
Marilyn Manson – Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
When I first heard this cover, coupled with the music video, I was totally sold on it. I’m not a huge Marilyn Manson fan – I like Sweet Dreams, The Beautiful People, and Disposable Teens – but this cover really makes the song so much more _real_. In the same way that Cake sells I Will Survive, I really believe that Marilyn Manson knows all about Tainted Love.
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2 comments | tags: music, rock | posted in music
Dec
26
2006
Sometime in 2003 I changed. Previously I was just like all of my Georgia Tech classmates and I would use a variety of post-Napster software tools to procure any music that I wanted (and plenty that I didn’t really want, but it was free, so why not download it??). At that time, how many gigs of music you had was really more important than how many songs and it was definitely more important than whether the music was any good or not.
Sure, I owned some actual CDs but those were from my pre-Internet2-connection days at Tech. Looking back, I didn’t think anybody saw downloading music as “illegal”. The excuses for downloading music instead of buying it – “I don’t want all the whole album, just one track”, “$16 CDs are way overpriced and I’m not going to pay that much” – were more like explanations since there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Certainly it wasn’t like pirating software – that was bad and even though everyone did it, pirating a $600 copy of Photoshop just felt different than downloading a song.
So what changed? I discovered the value of Intellectual Property and I realized why copyright law was kind of a big deal… thanks to photography.
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1 comment | tags: copyright, essay, music | posted in music
Dec
23
2006
Listen
2 Minutes Hate – Killing Time (post-punk) I think the band name refers to 1984
Utopia Banished – Night of the Black Wyvern (melodic death metal)
Bludgeon – Carnage Begins (metal / east-cost hardcore) reminds me of Hatebreed
no comments | tags: music, review | posted in asides, music