Sunday, October 4, 2020

Upcoming Music Interests

 Back in January, I tried to make some plans about future musical explorations. Of course, I had no idea that the whole world was going to go to hell in a hand basket in March, so like a lot of people, I got more than a little thrown off by the COVID. 

But I feel like I have a little bit of a better idea now what the upcoming months will look like, even if that look will be somewhat chaotic. And I've begun to crystallize plans for some of the musical explorations I spoke about back in January.

Live concerts look like they're mostly off the table for a while. And maybe that's a good thing, because I was spending way too much money on concert tickets anyway. I can't believe how much I've been able to catch up on my credit cards, etc., without my shelling out a couple of hundred bucks for concert tickets every month.

Of course, one of my primary concerns will still be to keep up with new music. I enjoy doing my Best Of lists every year, and to do them, I have to stay somewhat current with listening to new stuff. I try to mix up my genres a little, but let's face it, I have my prejudices. So as far as the new stuff goes, I'm mostly checking out various forms of rock and/or folk, especially alternative rock, progressive rock and electronic rock, along with some pop and singer/songwriter stuff.

But one of the goals I set for myself back in January was to explore more progressive rock and metal stuff that I hadn't been previously all that familiar with. And while there are certainly bands from other genres of music whose back catalogs I want to explore (like Screaming Orphans and Cut Copy), I've kind of zeroed in on ten artists/bands I really want to focus on. Because let's face it, as much as I love the artists I've been writing about in the My Favorite Artists series, I've been listening to most of them for so long that I really need to leave many of them alone for a while so I can come back to them with fresh ears.

So here, in no particular order, are ten artists I plan to target over the next nine months or so. Some are older bands I've neglected more than I should. Others are newer (although all ten have been around long enough to have created impressive bodies of work.) I've listened to each of them enough to know I like them a lot, but for each, there is still plenty of their discography that I haven't heard yet.

1. Nightwish

This probably won't be a surprise to you, since I named their LP Endless Forms Most Beautiful my Album of the Decade for the 2010's. But this Finnish symphonic metal band continues to intrigue me. There's a lot I like about their latest effort Human. : Nature. (in spite of its stupid name). And their 2011 offering Imaginaerum is also scrumptious. 

One of the most interesting things about these guys is that they've had three different lead singers over their 24-year career. So it will be fun comparing the styles and contributions of each. So far, Nightwish is by far my favorite epic metal band.

2. Mostly Autumn

This British band is one of those artists I never would have discovered without the recommendations of some of my prog rock friends on the Sputnik Music web site. They are really making modern progressive rock the way it should be, with sounds that remind me of everyone from Pink Floyd to Jethro Tull to Blackmore's Night. This is another band that has had two different lead vocalists over the years. So far, my favorite LP of theirs has been 2017's Sight of Day, but I'm looking forward to working my way back to some of their older stuff.

3. Strawbs

These guys are one of the quintessential British folk prog bands of all time. I've certainly made myself familiar with a lot of this band's classic 1970s material, but they have such an extensive discography that there's way too much of it I've never listened to. Now is the time to start catching up. 

4. Renaissance

See # 3 above. Their back catalog isn't as huge as Strawbs', because they took a long hiatus from 1983 until 2001. But I've always loved Annie Haslam's exquisite voice, and seeing them live twice in the last three or four years has whet my appetite to complete my experience with this great band's music.

5. Virgin Steele

I'll be honest - this band's mostly-metal style, and David DeFeis's high-pitched hard rock vocals are a little out of the wheelhouse of my usual musical taste. But their complex music, "barbaric romantic" themes and propensity for creating heavy metal operas with deep (and classical mythological) story lines are certainly attractive to me. And like Dream Theater, whose discography I completed sometime last year, they get extra points for their Long Island origins.

6. Hawkwind

I don't know how I missed these guys for so many years, but I'm embarrassed to say I never listened to a Hawkwind album prior to 2018. My only excuse is that as far as I can tell, these British progressive space rockers got almost no airplay in the U.S. in their heyday, especially in comparison to contemporaries like Pink Floyd, The Who, etc. But I plan to make up for lost time now. I can already tell you that Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975) and Quark, Strangeness and Charm (1977) are all-time classics, and Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974) didn't suck either. And they've continued making albums for all these years - they even have a new one (as The Hawkwind Symphony Orchestra) coming out in a few weeks. Ridiculous.

7. Radiohead

No, Radiohead isn't exactly prog rock. But thanks to the complexity of their music, they do share certain characteristics with it. For years I just couldn't get interested in these guys. I think some of it was I was just annoyed at the pretentiousness with which they refused to play "Creep" for all those years. As someone who worked as a telephone teen crisis counselor during the '90s. I can't tell you how many kids used to call me who deeply identified with that song, and I never liked the way the band kind of shit all over it (and by extension, the kids who loved it) because they thought they were above it. It probably didn't help that I had a hard time getting into Thom Yorke's piercing vocals. But when I listened to A Moon Shaped Pool in 2016, I finally got it. And now, I kind of hear them as the Pink Floyd of the 1990s and early 2000s.

8. The Flaming Lips

Likewise, this is another band who certainly can't be classified as classic progressive rock. But again, their psychedelic and experimental leanings hearken back to various aspects of Pink Floyd. Much like Radiohead, I was initially put off by the strange vocal stylings of their singer Wayne Coyne. I bought Transmission from the Satellite Heart back in 1993, but my strongest memory of them back in that period was of Beavis and Butt-Head making fun of them. ("I know a guy/with orange hair/And he sucks!") I definitely got into them a bit more with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). But it wasn't until the somewhat maligned Oczy Mlody (2017) and its magical unicorns (the ones with the purple eyes, not the green eyes) that I really started to appreciate them. Now I want more.

9. Ayreon

This is more of a musical project (by Dutch musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen) than a band, but whatever. I listened to 2017's The Source, and while I liked it OK, I wasn't blown away by it. As I've delved deeper in their discography, however, I've found myself deeply impressed, particularly by 2008's 01011001 and 2013's The Theory of Everything. This is another epic, operatic rock project. And their latest album even features narration by Doctor Who's Tom Baker. Jelly Babies, anyone?

10. Epica

This is yet another female-fronted symphonic metal band. I have to admit, I haven't yet experienced any of their seven (to date) LPs. But I do have their latest three EPs, including this year's excellent The Quantum Enigma B-Sides, and their lead singer Simone Simmons has also done a number of terrific guest appearances on the various Ayreon albums. So I feel I'm in pretty safe hands here.

So that's what I've got planned for the months ahead. How about you?


Saturday, October 3, 2020

September 2020 Song of the Day

In the wackiest year ever, we had a wacky month for Song of the Day in September, with something of a split decision as to what the winning song was. I'll tell you what happened, but first, let me bring you up to speed.

For new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month, one user hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The list of September songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day - September 2020.

Now you'll notice that although September only has 30 days, this month's list has 31 songs. And that's where we got into trouble. Because after the list of recommendations filled up, one last rec came in, and the host allowed it as a "Bonus". Yeah, you can see where this is going, can't you?

1. The theme of the month was Great Songs by Corny Artists. Now this got us off to a strange start, as people had pretty diverse definitions as to what constituted a "corny" artist. (And for a lot of the participants, many of whom are younger than my socks, their definition of "corny" seemed to equal "old". OK, cool, whatever.)

2. Once again, I got to make two recs this month. I chose "Not My Type: Dead as Fuck 2" by the comedic horror-themed band Motionless in White, and the theme song of NYC rock cabaret act Witches in Bikinis, "Witches in Bikinis" (Motionless in White - Not My Type: Dead as Fuck 2Witches in Bikinis - Witches in Bikinis). Neither song went over all that well with this lot of philistines, although WIB scored the higher of the two. But hey, I'm used to it.

3. The song I rated highest was the Dexys Midnight Runners classic, "Come On Eileen" (Dexys Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen.) This, of course, was the bonus song. My highest rated song that was actually recommended for one of the 30 days of September was "Stay" by pop icon Lisa Loeb (Lisa Loeb - Stay.)

4. And, of course, the song that the group scored highest as a whole was - wait for it - "Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners (See #3 above for the link). Why? Because it's f***ing "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners, you silly reader, you. It's awesome. But ... oh, yeah, it was only actually a bonus song. The non-bonus song that the group rated highest was "Undun" by The Guess Who (The Guess Who - Undun). Because apparently, The Guess Who are corny now? Who knew? Certainly not me.

5. Anyway, all 31 of this 30-day month's song recs are available on YouTube for once. The link is September 2020 Song of the Day YouTube Playlist.

So in the end, the official winner was the Guess Who song "Undun", with Dexys Midnight Runners scoring an honorable mention (even though it scored higher than the official winner.)

I need a drink now. See you next month.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Screaming Orphans and The Best of the Pitchfork Festival (Not)

 Last week, for whatever reason, I really found myself jonesing for some live music (or as close as I could get.)

I guess it actually even started the weekend before, when Denise turned me on to a short concert Erasure did a day or so earlier for BBC's Radio Two. Referred to as "Live at Home", the concert was a little more than a half hour long, and featured Vince Clarke playing from his home, and Andy Bell and his backup singers singing from Bell's lovely English garden. 

This was followed by a pre-taped "concert" (of sorts) by a DJ/music producer who I later learned was named Ellen Allien. Allien and a male friend (who looked like every caricature of a douchy club guy you could ever imagine) danced their little tushes off on her Berlin rooftop as she programmed her various gizmos to play a whole bunch of techno. I'm usually not into that form of music at all, but for some reason, I enjoyed this. (I even picked up a copy of Allien's latest LP, Auraa a few days later.)

So anyway, after this musical doubleheader, I went actively hunting for some more this past weekend. I came up with two possibilities. One was a live concert by Screaming Orphans that could be watched on their Facebook page, scheduled for Saturday at 5PM. (I found about this because I'm on their mailing list, and they sent me an email.) The other was The Best of the Pitchfork Music Festival, which was scheduled that same day at 7PM on YouTube. I figured that the combination of these two events would scratch my live music itch. I was half right.

Screaming Orphans are an Irish pop/Celtic band comprising four sisters. They're not actually orphans -- originally, their parents were involved in the band, but when they dropped out, the girls kind of felt like orphans. Apparently, they've been doing a series of online concerts during the COVID, playing live every other week and challenging themselves to dig deep into their repertoire by refusing to repeat any material from one concert to the next, all the while dodging the fascist FaceBots, Facebook bots that troll live Facebook broadcast to make sure no one is playing cover songs. (The girls were actually able to play cover songs, but they couldn't name them -- the bots recognize spoken words instead of music.)

Anyway, although they probably talked a bit too much between songs (see my review of the Mree concert a couple of weeks ago), the ladies put on a very enjoyable show. I guess they've been sheltering together (?), because they were all squeezed into what appeared to be a living room together. Highlights of the show included "You and Me" from their Lonely Boy LP, a cover of the Buffy Sainte-Marie song "Black Black Black" (but don't tell the bots) , "Finally Free" from their Toy Theatre album, and a cover of the Paddy Reilly classic "The Fields of Athenry" (but again don't tell the bots). In all, the concert ran an hour and forty-five minutes. Although I've got financial issues of my own right now, I gave them a small tip through Paypal, because these gals are primarily a performing band and usually make their living by playing showcases and Celtic Music Festivals the world over. Of course, those have all been cancelled by the coronavirus.

The timing was perfect for me to then move from one event to the other. But unfortunately, the other event was less than perfect. 

Pitchfork is a web-based music publication that originated in Chicago, but is currently based in New York. They host a yearly summer music festival (which I always thought took place in Brooklyn, but apparently actually occurred in Union Park in Chicago.)

Naturally, like everything else involving crowds, this year's festival was cancelled. So they decided to put together a Best of the Pitchfork Festival event, and to debut it last Saturday at 7PM. Most of the artists involved aren't people I typically listen to, but they did list Beach House as being one of the bands involved, so I figured it was worth a shot.

Unfortunately, not so much. The tape started with a live performance by Grimes. OK. But the damned thing kept freezing and reloading to the point where it was unwatchable. But the time I clicked a few buttons to try to watch it on my Amazon Firestick, Grimes was finished and there was some hideous rap group playing. This was followed by an ad for the left-wing social advocacy group Movement for Black Lives. After a summer of protests and riots, I was in no mood for this, so I ditched the concert and switched over to the UFC Fights.

So Screaming Orphans si, Pitchfork Music Festival no.