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Super awesome. I just learned that David Grohl and his daughter played Blackbird together... made me realize I need to relearn it and learn to sing the words to it.
I haven't listened to Help start to finish in decades. That's so weird to say. My Beatles collection is miserable. One of these days beefing up my music stash will be a priority again. For now I'm paying off debts and getting ahead financially. And it's actually working, which is nice. But we're retrenching on music instrument purchases for the moment.
Fortunately, before the moratorium we got up to two electric guitars, two acoustic-electrics, a bass, two amps, a drum kit, a keytar, a piano, a kalimba, a slide whistle, a trumpet, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. If we cheat on the moratotium it'll probably be for a tambourine. A nice one that's mellow, not too jangly.
The kids are getting good at their few songs and we had an amazing jam session getting pretty solid on Island in the Sun by Weezer last week. That's such a fun one to play!
Sounds like you've got more instruments than band members - which isn't a bad problem! :)
Sun Jan 16 2022 21:07:00 MST from Wangiss <wangiss@wallofhate.com>I haven't listened to Help start to finish in decades. That's so weird to say. My Beatles collection is miserable. One of these days beefing up my music stash will be a priority again. For now I'm paying off debts and getting ahead financially. And it's actually working, which is nice. But we're retrenching on music instrument purchases for the moment.
Fortunately, before the moratorium we got up to two electric guitars, two acoustic-electrics, a bass, two amps, a drum kit, a keytar, a piano, a kalimba, a slide whistle, a trumpet, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. If we cheat on the moratotium it'll probably be for a tambourine. A nice one that's mellow, not too jangly.
The kids are getting good at their few songs and we had an amazing jam session getting pretty solid on Island in the Sun by Weezer last week. That's such a fun one to play!
It may be that the music industry killed or deferred the rise of the next wave of musical genius, with it's focus on throwaway music and lack of funding and nurturing of real new talent. Maybe they are out there somewhere, just marketing to the 11,000 Patreon supporters that keep the fires burning for them.
The conversation in here has been fascinating. I have to echo your sentiments about Led Zeppelin. They are so overplayed that even though I think Bonham could be one of the best rock drummers ever, I still have almost no inclination to listen to them these days. When The Beat went out of business I had a chance to to buy the giant 10 album boxed set for $50-60 and I declined. I just couldn't foresee a time where it wouldn't be easier to just open up Youtube if I really needed to hear Tangerine or Kashmir. I went to listen to both of them just now to see if it stirred anything significant and ended up being lured away by a suggested link to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by NMH about halfway through.
I've loved PDs insight into Metallica's (heh) decline. I can't help but think that Newsted's significant talent was wasted as the rest of the band's mourning for Cliff turned into lashing out at him and even actively abusing him. It was a mega-crowd stadium experience for him so I can understand why he rode that ride as long as he did, but it must have been soul crushing to look back on. I loved Master of Puppets, it was a conscious display of an increase in acumen for the band as both Hetfield and Lars were working hard to improve their craft. I still love the raw sound of earlier albums more, Kill 'em All being my personal go to. Though that could be related to the fact that I listened to Ride the Lightening repeatedly during my bouts of depression in the late 80's and early 90's to help calm and center me so often that now I usually start to feel sleepy when I listen to the album as a whole.
Weird that you show up and suddenly I'm running into shit like this, Thanny. You need to check this out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6URPndg9cg
Tue Feb 01 2022 17:19:29 MST from ParanoidDelusions <paranoiddelusions@wallofhate.com>Weird that you show up and suddenly I'm running into shit like this, Thanny. You need to check this out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6URPndg9cg
I enjoyed that, it was the soundtrack for my morning. Glad he is so emotionally well, he really seems at peace with his past in ways I don't see in the members of what is currently called Metallica. Great stuff!
I even noticed he started to get some of that Dave Mustaine ego and... venom at the start, and seemed to catch himself and go... "But that is a dick thing for me to say..."
I've always *really* liked this guy - because... I mean... he is an egotistical asshole - and it does come out throughout the interview - "you're fucking off, you're gone... and suddenly I realized that talented people wanted to play with me and I didn't have to play with hacks..." shit like that - is *pointed* and I think done on purpose - but I think he *tries* to be nice. But he is also smart. It comes through over and over again in the interview. He isn't a dumbass like so many musicians. Fucked up like most musicians, sure - excessive and prone to overdoing it all - but not illiterate. Well versed and well read.
I do think the content of a lot of his music holds up better than Metallica's themes - than a lot of metal bands themes from the time.
I was kind of surprised to hear they had a fairly recent album. I realized almost everything that they've released over the years that I have been exposed to, I've liked. I can't say that for most other metal bands. I guess - Motley Crue.
Thu Feb 03 2022 16:32:49 MST from thanatos
Tue Feb 01 2022 17:19:29 MST from ParanoidDelusions <paranoiddelusions@wallofhate.com>Weird that you show up and suddenly I'm running into shit like this, Thanny. You need to check this out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6URPndg9cg
I enjoyed that, it was the soundtrack for my morning. Glad he is so emotionally well, he really seems at peace with his past in ways I don't see in the members of what is currently called Metallica. Great stuff!
Changing my opinion on hearing Led Zep songs. I think I just want to hear a fresh take. This was fun: https://youtu.be/LH0-WXUFY2k
I've always been sort of ambivalent about Led Zepplin. I think they're a good, solid band. I am not sure why they were so exalted among rock legends. Robert Prance is a prancing English primadona, and their songs are super adolescent...
I mean, Kashmir is a great song - but they had no *idea* where Kashmir was or what it was about - they just thought it sounded exotic... where are you going to go DOWN to Chicago when a Levee breaks? Is this a song about a Canadian mountain man that lives by a river mountain that contains *levees*? The rest of their songs are adolescent fan-fic about Middle Earth.
They're no Doors, Page is no Morrison. They're no Pink Floyd. They're kind of like Van Halen - except for Page is no Eddie Van Halen and Plant really is no David Lee Roth... the Queen of Prancing Divas.
How did they get elevated to one of the seminal bands of rock and roll? Stairway to Heaven... I guess. That *is* their Freebird.
As for the linked video - while it is cool to see international collaborations of interesting artists like this - I'm of course, very distrustful of the Left militarizing art for political agenda at this point. It can do a lot of good for society - but it can do a lot of harm - and most artists - they're often not the brightest or most highly educated people - but they tend to be very effective useful idiots who are motivated by altruistic goals to being pawns for selfish agendas.
I have a belief about artists of all sorts, too. Painters, writers, journalists, actors, singers, whatever kind of art you are talking about... there is a narcissism in wanting not just to create things - but to SHARE those things with large audiences. Not only is there a need and desire for affirmation and confirmation from *other* people in that act - but there is a certain confidence that whatever you create is *so* good - it will enrich other people's lives if you share it with them. Sharing something you've created with one person you know, opening yourself up to criticism and ridicule, is a brave act. Sharing it with a room full of strangers - is a sign of outrageous self confidence and certainty that they're going to like it.
And at one point, like anybody - I was able to just enjoy the music, the art, the creation and separate it from the agenda behind the reason the art was created.
That isn't as much of a luxury any more - as putting too much weight on the opinions of people like Leo DiCaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow, David Ghrol, the Kardashians, Kanye, Bono, Robin Williams, Alec Baldwin...
Is kind of what got us in this current mess. Maybe we shouldn't be putting ANY weight in causes that ARTISTS rally behind. Maybe they should just entertain us - instead of influence our opinions.
Although - maybe we just need to be able to recognize that actors are not the characters they play. Just because Robin Williams can play the part of an inspiring literature professor at an Ivy League college and had a very keen wit - doesn't mean he was a well balanced person fit to shape public policy.
And he is one of the folks from the collective community of artists who I like - but I just feel like when you look at the body of his troubled life - why at all do we look at his opinions on how to improve the world and think, "wait, wait... maybe we should listen to this person who spent most of his career promoting the idea he suffered from serious mental health issues?"
Then you get to guys like Alec Baldwin - and really - why does ANYONE give a fuck what that guy thinks, and why did they ever?
I wish I could remember who it was who said that actors are just highly skilled liars who all crave being the center of attention and that you should never listen to them. It was an actor who said it, while on a news or opinion show, which made it even funnier to me. It definitely had a ring of truth to it.
Writing semi-professionally for Tech Republic is when I realized...
I'm not a PRO level narcissist. The sense of *importance* among every published technology journalist is *insane*. You would think they were changing the world by having opinions on which is the best choice, Android or iOS.
Having someone decide to PAY you for YOUR opinion so that it can be shared with other people... is the *ultimate* like/thumbs up affirmation... and it does convince you that YOUR opinion is more valid than anyone else who can't get *their* opinion published.
The dudes in the technology writing industry are almost all assholes. Huge ones.
And once I could see it in that industry - I could really see it in ALL industries where people try and make a living by sharing their *content creation*.
I know I am absolutely guilty of this... but I'm like... beginner level.
Wed Feb 23 2022 07:08:48 MST from thanatosI wish I could remember who it was who said that actors are just highly skilled liars who all crave being the center of attention and that you should never listen to them. It was an actor who said it, while on a news or opinion show, which made it even funnier to me. It definitely had a ring of truth to it.
Epic Games (makers of Fortnite) are buying Bandcamp... that's probably not good. Ethan Diamond seems pretty stoked about it, but he's getting his solid-gold BMW from the sale, so maybe he isn't seeing things from an entirely objective and dispassionate place. It felt like a pretty good ecosystem for getting your money more directly to the creators, I hope it can stay that. It used to be easier to find new, fun music that I cared about there for the first 8-10 years, maybe they can improve that. Still, it feels like AOL buying Time Warner or, perhaps more accurately, HP buying Compaq.
When HP bought Compaq, they took the worst of both worlds and threw away the rest. It was the end of a pretty good computer company in Compaq and the beginning of HP's trajectory towards selling trash at almost every level.
I'm so jaded about this kind of shit... I just... I don't participate generally. If I do... I limit my financial contributions to "the machine". I'm very pessimistic about everything like this. Working at Bay Area startups and seeing the nepotism of the C level staff who were all insider trading just made me... I dunno... there is a word... it isn't coming to me. Damn this whiskey.
Fucking distrustful.
Wed Mar 02 2022 19:16:15 MST from thanatosEpic Games (makers of Fortnite) are buying Bandcamp... that's probably not good. Ethan Diamond seems pretty stoked about it, but he's getting his solid-gold BMW from the sale, so maybe he isn't seeing things from an entirely objective and dispassionate place. It felt like a pretty good ecosystem for getting your money more directly to the creators, I hope it can stay that. It used to be easier to find new, fun music that I cared about there for the first 8-10 years, maybe they can improve that. Still, it feels like AOL buying Time Warner or, perhaps more accurately, HP buying Compaq.
When HP bought Compaq, they took the worst of both worlds and threw away the rest. It was the end of a pretty good computer company in Compaq and the beginning of HP's trajectory towards selling trash at almost every level.
I got to compose a guitar accompaniment for a song called That Easter Morn and sing it with three other guys at church on Easter. My amateur luthier friend played the guitar. Felt good. Wish we'd done better, but our C- performance makes me relieved that the video didn't record correctly, lol. Still, it was a very pleasant way to worship.
That luthier friend just gave my eldest son his entire guitar construction kit since he hasn't got to play with it in a decade. There was a whole cigar-box guitar and a dozen or so EXPENSIVE tools in there. WOOHOO!
Oh, and all the guys were in my D&D group, too, lol. Such a good time.
Has your kid started making a guitar yet? I always forget that a cigar-box guitar really is a thing, and can be made - sometimes the simple solutions are elegant and every bit as worthwhile as the complex ones.
Thu May 05 2022 12:08:09 MST from Wangiss <wangiss@wallofhate.com>I got to compose a guitar accompaniment for a song called That Easter Morn and sing it with three other guys at church on Easter. My amateur luthier friend played the guitar. Felt good. Wish we'd done better, but our C- performance makes me relieved that the video didn't record correctly, lol. Still, it was a very pleasant way to worship.
That luthier friend just gave my eldest son his entire guitar construction kit since he hasn't got to play with it in a decade. There was a whole cigar-box guitar and a dozen or so EXPENSIVE tools in there. WOOHOO!
Oh, and all the guys were in my D&D group, too, lol. Such a good time.
A few of you here will definitely enjoy this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJjUC9LrwAA
Recent TMBG and they get to every Flood song. They're still in really good voice.
What a strange world we live in.
Am I wrong in saying Voïvod 2022 bears a striking similarity to Megadeth 1987? If so, I like where progmetal is going.
There is something a little less heavy about this - a little more of that 80s new wave sound in the way the chord ends, the key it is in, or something - but yes, remarkably influenced by Megadeth's sound.
And better than I remember Voivod sounding back in the day.
Sat Oct 22 2022 10:30:48 MST from thanatosWhat a strange world we live in.
Am I wrong in saying Voïvod 2022 bears a striking similarity to Megadeth 1987? If so, I like where progmetal is going.
Went to see the New Order/Pet Shop Boys tour what they're co-headlining. New Order haven't aged very well, but Pet Shop Boys have never been better. Paul Oakenfold played before each set, and he's really great too. Very enjoyable trip. Took some videos, posted to Facebook because my friends who were there wanted me to tag them in it.