Ah, welcome, welcome! Come in, sit down. Now where were we? You were telling me last week that you seem to have lost the will to write, can't muster the enthusiasm, have no inspiration. No, no, I assure you it's nothing to be ashamed of. Happens to the best of us. Could happen to a bishop. If they were allowed write music blogs. Which of course they're not. Bad metaphor. Never mind, just sit down here and let's go through what's been happening down at Journaltown, see if you can get the old creative juices flowing, yes? Just lie back, close your eyes and listen to my voice...
Anteater is back with
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html, and praise the Lord! In this Easter week he's looking into Christcoast! What is Chriscoast? Step this way and save your soul. Possibly.
I must just have missed
Aux-in's update last week, so let it be known that in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...continuum.html there is a “Bangers-only club” in force. How do you check it out? Ask your mouse to direct you...
Having received some feedback finally about good ol' George H,
Black Francis is moving on to a band he discovered called Kas Product, and in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-journey.html he's reviewing three of their albums, with the first up this week.
Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, O'Death and Agalloch all feature in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2013-a.html
while
innerspaceboy is talking excitedly about the best concert of 2015 that you'll never have heard of, much less had tickets to, in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nnerspace.html and also querying how much artistes get back from Spotify?
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...is-arcade.html is hopping, very successful and popular, and this week he's putting the spotlight on his favourite characters from games, as well as beginning a list of his top ten video games. But there's still time for music and in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-music.html he has more about the Franz Ferdinand/Sparks collaboration.
His lady on the other hand is kicking off a new journal (presumably motivated by the same “big news”) and in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...de-sparks.html she's introducing the band and telling us who they are and why we should care.
Machine is giving his final verdict on Kendrick Lamaar's
To pimp a butterfly in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-its-dumb.html
Pet_Sounds is considering the benefits of CanCon on
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html. Don't know what that is? Me neither, till I read his article.
Winding up my discography of Tom Waits, I have a review of the monstrously huge
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html and with Star Trek Month coming to an end in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html expect something totally opposite to sci-fi to hit there soon. There's a lot happening though in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ive-metal.html as we check out albums by The Moody Blues, Giles Giles and Fripp, and Caravan.
Dee Snider is at number 7 in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html as Twisted Sister bring us closer to the top five for 1984, and in their shared journal,
Unknown Soldier and
Anteater (Antsoldier, perhaps? Gimme something to work with here guys!) look into the only Toto album I own,
Toto IV, with their by-now-trademarked discussion to follow no doubt.
goes to Anteater, for this highly entertaining explanation of a term I didn't even know existed before this. Oh Lord I have seen the light! No I haven't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anteater
Sorry for the slow updates. I run a business IRL and as some of you know I'm doing a great journal collaboration every week with Unknown Soldier. But, without further ado, here is the Yacht Rock Question Of The Month-
"Anteater...wtf is Christcoast?"
Pray...pray for your mortal SOULLLLLL
That's a great question kids! But to truly answer this question to any real degree of effectiveness, we must travel back in time to the good ol' 1980's, the decade where CCM (aka Christian Contemporary Music) because a multi-million dollar industry.
See, what some labels were beginning to realize at the end of the 70's (such as World Records and Myrrh Records) was that there was actually a huge market of Evangelical Steely Dan and Bread fans who didn't mind it much when smooth, jazzy grooves and their faith intersected. Hell, sometimes the results were pretty interesting, even if the album covers tended to range from abysmal to downright hilarious:
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..and so on and so forth.
That being said, there are some real gems in this (arguable) genre of yacht rock, and a couple of key artists who are downright impeccable IMO. I'll highlight a few key songs below to those willing to get their feet washed in the holy waters of the Californian faithful:
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October brought with it a desire in Briks/Isbjorn to investigate Punk and New Wave, and so he did. Firstly through a compilation as the month opened, and then more comprehensively via Blondie, DAF, The Sex Pistols and The Buzzcocks, The Stranglers and then My Chemical Romance. Four Non Blondes were also on the menu (hah! You wish, kid!) as were Morissey and more MCR, Xysma and Weezer. Feeling the need for Metal then he went all Mayhem,
Deathcrush taking us into November.
Starting off with Kaizers Orchestra and then a review of
Van Helsing (the movie) he then decided to get into folk, beginning with Bob Dylan. Soon after began his haiku reviews, which have been very well received and have become “a thing” around these parts. Stumbling over one of Ki's favourite post-rock albums in Kairon; IRSE! halfway through the month was followed by a review of Ozzy's
Blizzard of Ozz and then he did his part, like all of us, for Urban's proposed-but-never-contributed-to Bowie Week, with a review of
Hunky Dory. And that brought November to an end.
Well, that's it I'm afraid: our time has run out. What? No I can't, sorry. I have other patients waiting. Same time next week? You're making good progress, don't be downhearted. We'll soon cure you of this writer's block and you'll be back updating like, like ... well, like me I guess. Oh by the way, would this be a bad time to mention your last check bounced when I --- oh. You're gone. Well. There's always next week I guess.
Till then,
Toodles!