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The Anthill 2.0: Albums, Artists & The Chance To Win A Million Dollars!
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...yes, it is time. Time to rise from the ashes like a phoenix and once again TAKE HOLD of the flame....the flame of MB journaling on a semi-regular basis, mediating on topics and albums and artists that mean a lot to me but probably won't mean a lot to all of you at first. Give it time though: soon ye masses shall be seeing things MYYYY way -- MUAHAHWHAHAHAHAJWHAH...hah. *sighs nostalgically, smoking an herbal cigar that won't give him lung cancer in twenty years*. Hard to believe its been almost five years since I first joined MusicBanter. Much to everyone's amusement, I've started up and subsequently run out of steam on a variety of glorious journals. Got quite a few of the bastards under my belt at this point too, everything from weird crap from the 70's to modern progressive rock....and yes, even essential smooth jazz music you should embrace with the fervor of a coked up grizzly bear. ..no, seriously, go read that last one in particular: it's chock-full of br00tal contemporary grooves, complete with the sort of edgy sax and keyboard work that have influenced countless indie and post-punk bands for generations. :tramp: All that being said, 'tis been quite the struggle to maintain long-term activity round these parts: I'm building a business here in the real world and when I actually write reviews its because the boys at MyGlobalMind.com are having me review new rock/metal releases on a constant basis..even the shitty ones! Still, the Anthill is back, for better or for worse! Expect reviews for a variety of interesting albums from my usual genre suspects (rock and metal of all breeds, jazz, ???, folk, pop, soul, funk, R&B, electronic, obscure diddlies and the occasional avant-garde monstrosity), posts on interesting songs, movies and topics that haunt me like an opium addiction, entrepreneurial and life related advice (I peddled insurance for awhile, so I have words of wisdom on the art of salesmanship as well), plus all kinds of other nicknackery. I even take requests...sometimes! I generally prefer money though. In short, this will be my journal to end all journals. You'll get a bit of everything and then some (all filtered through my glorious better-pack-two-sets of underwear writing style). I'm gonna stick with this one fellas, so be prepared to follow me to the depths of Hell and back! Or, you know, just comment every once in awhile. It makes me feel less lonely. *Looks up at the moon as a single tear rolls down his furred proboscis*. ~ A.E. |
I've always liked your way with words Anteater. Good luck with this one!
And where is my million dollars? |
YES! YES! YES! Best news this month! Ant is back! :tramp: This is going right to the top of the journal update (well, your name does begin with A....) ;)
Welcome back, my old friend! :beer: |
Looks like some of my usual pals are onboard, woooh! On that note, lets start things off the way they're supposed to start: with great music! Introducing: a spotlight feature on one of heavy metal's more unappreciated 80's innovators, the magnificent Crimson Glory!
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Every story, no matter the band, has to start somewhere: ours begins in 1982. The place: Sarasota, Florida. In the ensuing years of the decade from this point, the state would spawn wonderful bands such as Iced Earth, not to mention an entire genre unto itself (death metal). But I digress: those years had not yet arrived. Magic, however, was in the air: the burgeoning NWOBHM movement was inspiring many talented people across the pond (and the world) to form outfits of their own. One such group of misfits went by the lovable moniker known as Beowulf, led primarily by (after a bunch of hectic lineup changes) young guitar virtuosos Jon Drenning and an enigmatic, five-octave ranged singer simply known as Midnight. Ooooh. Eventually changing their name to Crimson Glory, they subsequently began ripping through Iron Maiden, Tank and Judas Priest material like no tomorrow in live after live performance as they pursued a unique sound of their own from '82-'86, where they were finally signed by young label Roadrunner Records for the recording of their self-titled. And thus the beginnings of a progressive metal legend had begun, but questions still remain: just how far could these guys go? What makes them so special compared to the heavy metal greats? And perhaps most importantly of all....what's with the silver masks? I will be answering all of these inquiries AND MOREEEE as I review each of their 4 record studio records, starting with the self titled and ending with 1999's "comeback" record Astronomica. In all seriousness though: these guys are a very special band: alongside Fates Warning and the classic Queensrÿche lineup, they spearheaded a bridge approach between atmospheric 70's art rock and thrash metal to spawn the first wave of the genre known as "progressive" metal. Of the pioneering bands though, CG have the lowest profile...hence why they're being spotlit. In any case, enjoy the reviews! Crimson Glory – Crimson Glory (1986) Quote:
1. Valhalla (3:50) 2. Dragon Lady (4:27) 3. Heart Of Steel (6:13) 4. Azrael (5:38) 5. Mayday (3:02) 6. Queen Of The Masquerade (5:28) 7. Angels Of War (5:28) 8. Lost Reflections (4:50) 9. Dream Dancer (6:54) Four years is a long time to hold a group of individuals together when you aren't signed and opening for larger acts that happen to come through Florida on their way to L.A. or wherever the biggies happened to be going at the time, but 1986 was the breakout year for Crimson Glory: they contracted with Roadrunner and went right into studio with many songs in tow that, by this point, they knew better than whatever Metallica cover they'd been jamming the previous night. And what very very good songs they are indeed! The second you turn this sucker on to opening number 'Valhalla', several things become immediately apparent. The first is the clear yet vibrant guitar work of Jon Drenning, anchored by some haunting keys and the killer bass of Jeff Lords. The second is the unusually distinctive and listenable voice of Midnight: his lower register is scratchy with a knotty, almost bluesy bite to it, but when he suddenly goes up three or four octaves in the space of mere seconds, his talent is frightening to behold: this guy is right up there with the best who've ever taken the mic in realms heavy metal, Dio and Dickinson and Halford included. This was a man who was born to sing about dark gods beyond space-time, mystical women of dubious intent and the terrible fates dealt to those who seek madness of their own volition, and boyyy does he sell it! Still, it's not all quiet/loud dynamics and walking that eerie tightrope between the primordial acoustic and pounding rancor. The band cuts loose with the very NWOBHMish 'Dragon Lady' early on in the album and even throw the Judas Priest crowd a bone with headbanger 'Queen Of The Masquerade' at the midway point. In short, this was an incredible debut from a band that literally came out of nowhere, regardless of what genre bus you throw it under. Great dynamics and music matched, perhaps, only by The Warning from Queensrÿche back in '84 (which was also a monster debut). The band toured successfully in the aftermath of its release too, intriguing audiences in the U.S. and Europe with full silver-mask regalia as a way to cement their visual and musical identity in a year where the Big Four had begun ascending and glam metal was all the rage. And yet the band knew they could go even further, reach higher. Two years went by.... (TBC) |
I love the first two Crimson Glory albums and they're a band I only discovered a couple of years ago thanks to another member on here. I was shocked to see that they're vocalist Midnight died not so long ago.
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Even when I was 13 I found Crimson Glory to be too corny.
This guy at school would not shut up about them and insisted I listen to them. Made me listen to their first 2 albums, hated them. I also remember Radio One broadcasting a live gig of theirs for the Friday Rock Show sometime around 88/89. They were atrocious live. There's a reason they had such a low profile compared to someone like Queensryche, they were awful. |
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Secondly, they weren't that low profile. If anything, Fates Warning were probably the lowest profile among the original prog-metal bands (at least until the release of Parallels in 1991). CG toured with Anthrax and Ozzy in '88 and '89 for quite a while, and even briefly with QR themselves around the time they started selling out stadiums. But I'll be getting into that stuff on my next post, lol. If they aren't your cup of tea, fine....but there's nothing wrong with CG musically or lyrically. They're a heavy metal band for Crissakes! Might as well piss all over Maiden and Judas Priest while we're at it. |
The next three years after the debut would get quite busy for Crimson Glory. Tours overseas through most of Europe with Anthrax, Metallica and Metal Church, combined with more mainstream attention from magazines, TV and radio was a whole lot for any new band to handle. However, all the touring and newfound attention ultimately proved positive: the band's self image was bolstered and the desire to make even greater music intensified severely: the stage was set for an even better record than their first. That record, Transcendence, would be recorded and subsequently released in November of '88. With it would come a hit single in the form of 'Lonely' and even more attention, which would result in huge tours with Ozzy Osbourne and fellow progressive metal pioneers Queensrÿche. By 1990, they were doing venues of thousands, the largest being a premiere performance at Germany's Metal Hammer Festival for over 20,000+. All, it seemed, was very well. But by 1991...well, I'll get to that in the next post. :laughing: Thus, let's take a look at Crimson Glory's most lauded record, and a classic of first wave progressive metal. Ladies and gents....Transcendence! Crimson Glory – Transcendence (1988) 1. Lady Of Winter (4:00) 2. Red Sharks (4:49) 3. Painted Skies (5:13) 4. Masque Of The Red Death (4:13) 5. In Dark Places (6:58) 6. Where Dragons Rule (5:05) 7. Lonely (5:17) 8. Burning Bridges (6:29) 9. Eternal World (3:51) 10. Transcendence (4:31) This sophomore recording marks Crimson Glory's ascension to the realms of classic heavy metal, and even a cursory listen makes it easy to see why people hold this up alongside any of Iron Maiden or the Big Four's output from the same period: the mixing and overall atmosphere is gorgeous, the interplay between the harmonizing guitars and rhythm section were tighter than they had ever been...and hell, even Midnight's already distinctive vocals have taken on a more confident approach with the new songs. Listen to how the rest of the band harmonizes with him on radio-smash 'Lonely' or the tremolo picked 'Painted Skies': this is the sort of stuff people get into heavy metal for in the first place. That being said, besides everything being a couple of steps up from the self-titled, this album's swagger covers surprisingly diverse ground: for starters, you have the especially stomping, Poe-inspired 'Masque Of The Red Death' and the percussive, almost militaristic power metal of 'Where Dragons Rule', kept anchored & raging by Midnight's croon. Secondly, there's nary a moment where something interesting unusual or progressive isn't going on in the rhythm sections or the songs themselves, such as album centerpiece 'In Dark Places', a venomous near-7 minute anthem that would later prove to be a live favorite. "In dark places we will be, forever beyond the light": tight! My favorite of the ten songs here though is probably the closing title track, where Midnight's voice, an acoustic guitar and some scary sounding synths set up this hopeful yet strangely menacing bit of imagery as the last sounds fade away... Quote:
From my perspective, what makes Transcendence not only a top-notch progressive metal release, but also just a damn fine heavy metal album is general, is that it brings some of those unconventional chord structures and progressions which Fates Warning and Watchtower were known for back in the late 80's, but also draws upon the great fantasy imagery of CG's NWOBHM influences (and power metal contemporaries), subsequently mixing up these various traits with the heavier thrash sound pioneered by Megadeth, Metallica and Testament. This is no simple synthesis to pull off, and yet Transcendence makes it sound like it was the easiest thing in the world to accomplish. In other words, this is a case where the various matrices of the music's DNA are so well integrated into a core sound that the listener will be hard pressed to find any of the inconsistencies that sometimes arise when a band labors to do too many things at once. Still, no matter how good a metal record is, great music like this still a tough sell for anyone who doesn't dig the genre (or possesses the capacity to enjoy it on its own merits) to begin with, which is unfortunate. Many people are so caught up in whether or not the music they listen to is lyrically relevant to their bland, boring lives that they forget that music isn't always about connecting with you emotionally: sometimes what makes music interesting or special is how it transports your mind (and perhaps your soul) to venues and places that you'd otherwise never go yourself. This record, ladies and gents, can do that for anyone who gives it an honest-to-God opportunity to do so. Additionally, Transcendence is fascinating even in its lyrical content at times: amidst all the swords and magic and dragons, there's some real classy dialogue going on here about what it really means to rise above your mundane, day-to-day existence: some people think the answer lies in the manner of your death (understanding your own unique and inevitable doom as it were), while other people think the answer lies in arcane knowledge that others don't possess, finding patterns in the movements of the stars: perhaps even the Earth itself holds the means to determining one's purpose. And yet no matter what you believe in, death is going to find you anyway. The question is, are you someone who can reconcile with what may lie beyond...or not? All in all, a fascinating album that stands at the peak of CG's output. And yet, interesting things were still to come....(TBC) |
****ing awesome post! I probably found out about Crimson Glory the same place as Unknown Soldier did, cause it was probably about two years ago, and they are fantastic. I can never decide which is the greatest eighties power metal album, Transcendence or Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. II. I think I'm gonna go throw on Transcendence and find out...
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^^ As much as I enjoy Helloween, I think most people would be hard pressed to find that long of a list of metal records at by the tail end of the 80's as good as Transcendence. Now, however, I'll be moving beyond the classic era, which is interesting on its own merits too. ;)
So after two killer records, tours all over the planet with some of the biggest names in heavy metal and headlining friggin' huge festivals in Europe AND their home state of Florida (where they won multiple accolades at the Tampa Bay Music Awards), just where would the mighty Crimson Glory go next? Up? Down? Somewhere completely new entirely? This, my friends, is where the story gets unusual...but to really appreciate my following review for Crimson Glory's controversial and bizarre 3rd studio release, you have to appreciate the context from which it arose. By the summer of 1990 following the band's last major tour with Queensrÿche (who were riding high on a wave of their own thanks to their newly released record Empire, which went Platinum within a year) and Ozzy (who was busy with his own stuff at the time), core members Ben Jackson (guitar) and drummer Dana Burnell both departed simultaneously to pursue projects of their own. While they exited with the blessings of the rest of the band, this left the group with a couple of holes left to fill from out of nowhere. Furthermore, Transcendence had sold really well and anticipation for an even better follow up albums was in the air. However, two things happened around this period which changed the game overnight. 1. Grunge. Lots of it! 2. CG got themselves a new drummer, a fella named Ravi Jakhotia (a future DJ superstar), who brought a "groovier" less metal-oriented dynamic to the lineup. 3. Lead vocalist Midnight demanded a more active role in the songwriting process. Naturally, the rest of the band let him do whatever he wanted. His favorite genres of music? Glam/funk metal, psychedelic rock...and all that trendy alternative & grunge stuff from Seattle, fascinations which seemed ironic to the rest of the group at the time. In short, 1990-1991 was an interesting year for any metal band to throw the gauntlet down in studio. The music industry's tectonic plates had literally shifted overnight, and whilst the 'Reich had managed to score a surprise blockbuster in their rock-oriented followup to Operation: Mindcrime with the spacey power ballad 'Silent Lucidity', within six months you were dead meat if you tried to do the same thing. Thus, the question remained: what could a progressive power metal band do in a musical environment that would commercially condemn a second Transcendence before you could snap your fingers and say Cobain? The answer to that question was 1991's Strange And Beautiful, an album that would prove to be the band's most unusual record...and yet one which finalized their doom as well. Crimson Glory – Strange And Beautiful (1991) 1. Strange And Beautiful (6:17) 2. Promised Land (5:22) 3. Love And Dreams (5:29) 4. The Chant (3:45) 5. Dance On Fire (5:27) 6. Song For Angels (5:19) 7. In The Mood (5:55) 8. Starchamber (7:28) 9. Deep Inside Your Heart (5:13) 10. Make You Love Me (4:05) 11. Far Away (4:44) So, pop quiz for my readers: what happens when a progressive metal band gets taken over by their spiritually-minded singer with a huge hard-on for sleaze rock, the RHCP, Faith No More and the first two Jane's Addiction LPs? Well, that's pretty much Strange And Beautiful in a nutshell, and it's either one of the ballsiest and most underrated left turns of the early 90's or a helluva headscratcher that'll leave you feeling nearly as bamboozled as this album's initial buyers were back upon its release. Either way, this album is so radically different, both in style and in approach, from the 1986 self-titled and Transcendence that it's hard to believe this is the same band that recorded those two records not even half a decade before. The opening title track, for instance, plucks its way into a heavy, glam-oriented groove that would give Guns & Roses a run for their money, strung from high above by Midnight's puppeetered gutteral: it's the same powerful voice we're all familiar with, but his trademark shriekery has been replaced with a scuzzy, slinking sort of quality that drones into your mind in time with those heavy basslines. Unusual, but a great start to an unconventional album! At this point though, I'm sure any metal fan that bought this album were probably thinking "wtf?". Some may have even wondered if they had bought the wrong record by mistake. And yet, lean in with those ears brothas and sistahs: characteristics of the classic CG sound are still evident here! The acoustic/loud contrasting dynamics especially, not to mention Midnight's voice. It's as good as ever, even if he's channeling Perry Farrell instead of Bruce Dickinson this time around. Different? Yes. Bad? Not at all! Side one has some great stuff beyond the opener though, particularly 'Promised Land': its a gritty, percussive monster and the best song that Jane's Addiction never wrote. Everybody just rips, giving the song an infectious propulsion that oscillates with a life of its own. Again, nothing like anything the group did in the 80's, but it's still a great song. Assuming you get used to Midnight's newly discovered inner glam metal/alternative rock muso within the first few tracks, there's plenty of surprises left. 'Songs For Angels' is an Axl Rose-ish ballad: you'll either love it or hate it, lol! 'Chant', 'In The Mood' (which features some sax in the second half) & 'Dance On Fire' are all excellent funk-metal numbers, while the epic 'Starchamber' is something of a throwback to Transcendence's songwriting style, featuring some killer syncopated rhythms and a tasty chorus to boot. It gets quite spacy over its 7 minute run, so be preparrrrrrrred! So, my verdict: this is a really good album that, unfortunately, had the odds stacked against it from the beginning. Going from progressive/power metal to a heavy glam metal/alternative rock/grunge hybrid style in the space of one record was probably too much for most of the people who had probably gotten on board with the band due to Transcendence and their subsequent tours with Ozzy and Anthrax. Thousands initially bought it based on unrealistic expectations and then subsequently trashed it and spread the word...and in all likelihood without having given the album a proper listen either. Not helping matters were that publications like Kerrang! wouldn't give it a chance either (see where I red-circled in my initial post heading). In short -- a great album that fucked up any possibility for a long-term career for Crimson Glory: Midnight left the band almost immediately upon its release (due to public reception to the album) and went into a self-imposed exile that would last nearly ten years. Guitarist and band leader Jon Drenning, on the other hand, held what was left of the group together as best he could in light of their iconic singer's departure: he recruited singer David Van Landing and the group toured in support of Strange And Beautiful across the U.S. for the remainder of '91. Funnily enough, they would be opening shows by the end of the year for both Alice In Chains AND Soundgarden. Despite a fairly successful run, Atlantic (who CG were signed to) stopped promoting them completely. Due to this, Drenning would break Crimson Glory up in 1992, participate in various other bands/projects alongside other ex-CG members, and life would go on. And yet, this was not the end....(TBC) |
The years following the dissolution of Crimson Glory proved to be fruitful, albeit unfocused ones, for Jon Drenning and the rest of the gang. The next few years passed quietly, spent mostly on two side project albums with other vocalists that served as continuations sonically of CG's psychedelic early 90's sound. Still, it was an inevitability that interest in reforming the band would eventually come to a head. In the winter of 1996, Drenning sought out Midnight, who was still in self-imposed exile and wouldn't have anything to do with anyone musically. Naturally, he refused to reform the group. After all, who needs music and a great voice when you can have drugs instead? Thus, a new singer was required. After some searching around, the ideal candidate appeared in the form of wailmeister Wade Black, who was not only the ideal match for the band in terms of sheer vocal ability, but also in temperament. He was easy to work with, enthusiastic about joining the group and, most importantly, was very professional. This was followed by the return of original lineup guitarist Ben Jackson and the recruitment of Savatage drummer Steve Wachholz, completing Crimson Glory Mk. II and giving them the golden opportunity to take the metal world by storm once again. Several delays, one stolen-and-then-re-recorded set of master tapes later....1999 arrived, and LP numero quatro Astronomica was released unto the world. Would it succeed where Strange & Beautiful had failed? Read below to find out! Crimson Glory – Astronomica (1999) 1. March To Glory (3:30) 2. War Of The Worlds (4:09) 3. New World Machine (4:14) 4. Astronomica (4:59) 5. Edge Of Forever (5:46) 6. Touch Of The Sun (5:56) 7. Lucifer's Hammer (4:25) 8. The Other Side Of Midnight (4:29) 9. Cyber-Christ (5:13) 10. Cydonia (5:47) After letting Midnight's unusual genre preferences rule over the songwriting for commercial swansong Strange & Beautiful back in 1991, Drenning and the rest of the boys took a hard look at the band's sonic legacy with Wade and unanimous agreed on one important point immediately: this was going to be a METAL record. In short, a logical yet modern followup to 1988's Transcendence. One thing that becomes apparent as the militaristic pummelage of opening instrumental 'March To Glory' rolls into shore is there's a more symphonic nature to composition than what we've heard in the past. On top of that, the bass of Jeff Lords has never been more visible to the naked ear or palpable than it is on Astronomica, and its these impressions that'll lead you into 'War Of The Worlds', where you get an auditory gander of Wade's vocal blitzing for the first time: the guy's a bizarre yet fascinating hybrid between Bruce Dickinson and King Diamond, wielding a pleasant and throaty mid-range that suddenly shoots upwards into a glass-shattering howl when you least expect it. Very fun song though, a Maiden-esque stampede rife with apocalyptic imagery of black eyed angels that raze the world to ashes with fire. As my fellow bros might say..."righteous brah!" It isn't until you hear a vocoded Wade snarl "I FEEL I'M BECOMING MECHANIZED" on the amazing 'New World Machine' that it begins to dawn on you at just how good this new lineup really is. Wade moves up and down between his registers the way some people ride elevators in a hotel as Lords' bass and Drennings' guitar crumble the Earth below in their frantic interplay. Quite the anthem really, and the record's first big high point. Side A is actually pretty strong on the whole though: the title track in particular is a nice mid-tempo stomper with some Middle Eastern flourishes and a chorus on par with anything out of the classic Judas Priest or Saxon back catalog, along with being a fun mediation upon mankind itself: "World's spinning round in space / Lonely star without a face / Left by ourselves we trace / Our footsteps back / To Astronomica". And then comes big highlight numbah three, a psychedelic thrasher called 'Touch The Sun'. More mystic mumbo jumbo lyrically, but when it all sounds THIS good, its hard not to get sucked in. Killer bassline, plus we get more of Wade's lower and clean mid-range throughout than in the past few cuts, giving the listener more appreciation of just how good a find this dude was: any metal band back in '99 would have been ecstatic with someone on this level at the mic. The album finishes out with a menacing ballad ('The Other Side Of Midnight') the scorching 'Cyber-Christ' which copulates the gloom of Alice In Chains with the classic CG sound and an atmospheric, spacious little metal number called 'Cydonia' that brings this musical chapter to a satisfying close. Drowning in mystery indeed! So how's it stack up to the last three records you might ask? To put it lightly...well, it kicks major fuckin' ass! Although sonically quite different in many ways from both the self-titled and Transcendence, this is the album that should have followed in the early 90's as opposed to Strange & Beautiful. Not because S&B is a bad album, but because Astronomica blends some of the latter album's psychedelic tendencies far more effectively with the prog-power metal aesthetic that made the band huge to begin with. In particular, songs like 'Cyber-Christ' and 'New World Machine' are absolute monsters of rage & rhythm that rank right up there with any of the best songs from the first two albums, and the title track, 'Cydonia' and 'Touch The Sun' aren't slouches either! This leads me to my last point: I can't say for sure whether or not Astronomica (or an album like it with Midnight on vox instead) would have saved the band from commercially collapsing back in 1991, but once you spend some quality time with it...you really can't help but wonder. It's a very strong album (maybe even on par with Transcendence) with a couple songs that might've done really well on radio back then, plus it sports a great bass-leaden production that gives the proceedings a real sense of urgency and drive. In short, whether your a CG fan or not, Astronomica is a great late 90's metal album that deserves a place in your collection. Some of these songs won't hit you immediately, but give 'em time...they WILL. :afro: So what happened after Astronomica? Lots of things. Everyone went their separate ways after a brief tour in 2000. Thankfully, and this time with a cleaned-up Midnight in tow, the band reunited fully in 2005. A new album was promised and great things seemed to be on the horizon. That being said, things never seem to go according to plan...(TBC for the last time) |
So, to put a long and rather interesting story to rest, on the verge of the original lineup fully reuniting, doing a new record, and all that wonderful stuff...Midnight croaks in July 2009. Not from drugs like you'd expect, but rather from a stomach aneurysm of all things...at the ripe old age of 47. Bleh!! But that's not quite the end either. See, the band ended up finding the frontman they had always wanted not too long after Midnight's death during a tribute concert to their deceased former frontman -- a relatively unknown drummer out of Tampa Bay by the name of Todd La Torre, who was introduced to CG by the guitarist from Jon Oliva's Pain. A mainstay in a variety of local metal acts throughout Florida, Todd has since been catapulted to the attention of modern metal fandom not because of CG...but rather because of Queensrÿche, who ALSO recruited him as lead vocalist in 2012 following a very messy breakup with original frontman Geoff Tate. His debut record as lead vocalist with the original members of QR was released in late June of this year, sounds pretty damn awesome, and currently the band is on tour. What a lucky guy eh? See, Crimson Glory has been incredibly quiet since 2011. For reasons we don't know, guitarist and founding member Jon Drenning allegedly didn't communicate with Todd or the rest of the band over the last two years. The promised new album? Never happened, leaving this promising new frontman at a complete loss. Thus, when QR came calling, Todd logically (and happily) joined up with them and has been kicking ass ever since. So, although it remains to be seen on whether or not Crimson Glory will ever grace the world with another fantastic metal release anytime soon, it can at least be said that they've done some damn fine work (4 albums worth) in the past for us to enjoy in the present day. And that, my fine feathered friends, is something only the best bands can aspire to accomplish. Hail to the bloody metal kings! :ar_15s: Coming Up Next: A movie review! Stay tuned.:) |
For any of you that might be under the illusion that The Room was the "best 'bad' movie of all time" or something along those lines, you are in for a rather rude awakening -- this particular gem starring Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, Lawrence Tierney and the infamous Wings Hauser has held that particular title for twenty six years now and counting! There's nothing else out there quite like it: at some point the acting, dialogue and head-scratching plot exceed the Coefficient Of Incomprehensibility and becomes something akin to high art. To be precise, this is a bizarrely fantastic adaptation of Norman Mailer's noir novel of the same name, directed by...yeah, Norman Mailer himself. Which means that on top of the gut-busting laughter that ensues upon attempting to watch this film, you have the self-deprecated ego of the novelist who wrote AND decided to adapt his own work thrown into the mix. It's very hard to discern what Mr. Mailer was trying to do exactly here -- did he find his own gumshoe fiction so laughable that he thought it needed to be reinterpreted as a nonsensical satirical exercise upon the genre? Did Wings Hauser pass Mailer the blunt at some point mid-production in order to insert his own choice of dialogue into the script as Capt. Alvin Luther Regency, a man who has the power to turn every word that passes between his lips into comedy gold? And a crotchety Lawrence Tierny too of all things? ANNNND Ryan O' Neal being Ryan O'Neal? Absolute madness...madness I say! :laughing: I could rave for hours about Tough Guys Don't Dance, elucidate accolade after accolade in regards to this wonderful wonderful movie's cinematic merits, but at the end of the day the best thing you can do for yourself is obtain a copy immediately. It truly is an experience unlike any other, a movie so off the scale bad (in an endearing sort of way) that you'll be thrown off your circadian rhythm for at least a day afterwards. Watch the trailer below, then get hoppin'! Andele, andele, andele! |
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Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Ecophony Rinne (1986) 1. Primordial Germination (11:50) 2. Falling As Flowers Do - Dying A Glorious Death (7:56) 3. Dark Slumber (5:12) 4. Reincarnation (13:38) From my perspective, great music in any genre is clairvoyance: for a brief period of time, whether through words or via vibrational patterns and a rich instrumental palette, you are allowed a glimpse into some facet of experience or reality that lies beyond your immediate forbearance. And when it comes to the album experience itself, your time with it might tell you far more than you ever could have imagined about those who conjured it into being. Ecophony Rinne (which translates to Reincarnated Orchestra) is a late 80's offering by the elusive Japanese music cabal Geinoh Yamishirogumi (the guys behind the soundtrack to Akira) which attempts to capture the experience of death and rebirth in a musical setting. Lots of primordial musical elements collide with chime-infused Gamelan and some sleek synthesizer work that wouldn't be out of place on a Tangerine Dream outing or some of New Age's spacier purveyors. Needless to say, it's a beautiful combination between the bizarre & unnerving, managing to get under your skin a bit despite being only 4 tracks long and not even clocking out at 40 minutes. Sitting through this album from start to finish is a bit like reading Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem 'The Bells' for the first time, or maybe something like the first part of Shirley Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House'. Despite being the musical equivalent of a seemingly tranquil descent into death, there's some darkness right there under the surface, beating like a heart. Watching as a life trickles into nothingness. Waiting for the spirit to leave the body... |
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Five Things To Watch Out For When It Comes To Insurance First, a bit of background. When I came straight out of college, I was unsurprisingly greeted with an inflexible and rather ornery marketplace that couldn't give two shits about my Mass Communications degree and internships. Secondly, the college I graduated from, whilst not a terrible educational institution, wasn't exactly on most businesses' top hiring locale lists when searching for new blood. Thus, I made something of a left turn and ended up getting hired as an "independent insurance producer" for Farmers Insurance, which is one of the biggest players in the industry here in the U.S. Needless to say, I learned a lot of things during my half year tenure on the sales end of things. Wasn't exactly a walk in the park getting my certifications for auto, homeowners, health & life insurance, etc. either. Thus, here's a five point summary on a few things I learned, stuff which applies both to people looking to get INTO the industry, but also to any of you who have ever bought insurance or are getting to the point where you need to look into it. :) 1. Don't just sign an insurance contract because the price is low. The agents WILL let it happen even if you aren't properly covered. The above exclamation may seem like something you all probably suspected anyway, but I just wanted to lay those doubts to rest decisively: its true to a fault no matter what company you end up going with. Even a successful guy with his own personal agency possessing a decade or more under the belt will rarely, if ever, go out of his way to tell you the specifics of a policy unless it factors into his or her pitch. As far as Farmers went, the typical renewal rate for any one person for their auto or homeowners' policies was something like 40% back in 2012. Why? Because when your rates go up after a few months, you'll most likely seek out a company that offers you a lower price for the same level of coverage. Basically, most agents are aware of the turnover and simply want you to sign a policy whether it properly covers you or not. To quote my own regional supervisor -- "Its just a numbers game. Don't stress too much about individual prospects.". My advice? Educate yourself a bit on the specifics of your policies if you haven't already and don't just go with someone just because the price appears low. Because they're perfectly happy to screw you over since they know you'll most likely change companies in six months anyway. 2. Being a "reserve" or "independent" agent for a big insurance company is like trying to use Google without an internet connection: futile. I'm just going to lay it out here right now for any of you who are curious about becoming an agent for a major insurance company, are thinking about it, etc: they WILL blue sky you and then give you absolutely nothing to work with afterwards. What does that mean exactly? Basically, most insurance companies are incredibly antiquated when it comes to training & supporting new agents who get hired. You're thrown into an industry where you are INUNDATED with competition at both the local and national level, are forced to buy all your own stuff (leads, marketing materials, direct mail, etc.) and are paid mediocre commissions despite the complicated sales & delivery process that occurs even after someone agrees to buy (for me it was 10% on auto, 20% on home and 40% on life). Furthermore, this is the 21st century right? Well, guess what your superiors tell you if you try to do any marketing online? "You can't use Facebook to market, you can't make a website and you can't market yourself. You can only use what we provide to market." And yet they make you pay hand-over-fist for what they "provide"...*vomits* I could go on and on all day about numerous problems I ran into getting into this industry during my six month tenure, but in laymen's terms most insurance companies with an agent program go out of their way to make it as excruciatingly difficult as possible to sell a product that's already difficult to sell in the first place. 3. To become a "career" agent for any insurance company, you have to go thousands of dollars into debt. The selling point of becoming a reserve agent like I did for a big insurance company is that if you A. Make your 40/4 sales quota and B. Diligently attend training over a six month period in any major insurance company, you'll be able to sign a Career Agent contract and open up your own agency at a location of your choice, which then leads to huge money down the line. Thing is, they don't tell you that you don't get that agency just because you made Career: Farmers needs to let you "borrow" money to open up the location, which you "agree" to do upon getting "promoted" from reserve to Career. Furthermore, your agency from the point it opens needs to meet certain monthly quotas or your debt accumulates huge interest. There's even a term in the industry for the process of repaying the often astronomical debt you accumulate to open an agency - "running to daylight". Scary stuff, no? 4. Insurance agents have little to no control over how much a policy will cost a prospect, but consumers always have a better option somewhere else. The hardest part about selling insurance for just one company is manifold: the cost of acquisition when it comes to a lead who will even let you quote them can range from an actual financial cost ($10-$50 on average if buying leads, marketing locally, etc) to time (making 100 or more phone calls a day just to get someone to talk to you), to the biggest variable of all: even if you get someone to let you quote them on their cars, house, a life policy, whatever...there's simply no way to know how cheap or expensive its going to be for them until you spend an hour or two dicking with your company's quoting interface. Which ain't something you can do on a smartphone, lemme tell you lol! From my point of view, this is a huge problem for the insurance industry. Delivery and speed is everything in today's world: How can you effectively sell something to someone when it takes you hours just to give them a price point? Especially when that's the only thing that'll make or break a sale in an industry this competitive? It's a troubling reality that is in stark contrast to what they'll tell you at the office. During my weekly training seminars, one thing the district manager would stress ad nauseum was that price ultimately didn't matter to most prospects if the policy you pitched to them could meet their needs comprehensively. This, it turned out, was complete bullshit. Price IS everything, and how great a policy is only matters if the person can afford it begin with. People can get reliable insurance anywhere. Reliable insurance at the best price though? That's their prerogative. 5. You run into a lot of crazies, unfortunates or a combination of the two. Just a forewarning to prospective insurers among ye: you WILL run into all kinds of prospects, and a lot of them are going to weird you the fuck out. For example, I spent a three day stretch just cold calling last year about a month into my contract. About 200 calls in or so on day two, I managed to secure an appointment with a Russian fella (we'll call him Vlad) at a local Starbucks to go over his various policies. As you can imagine, I was pretty happy. He sounded polite, friendly AND told me he was going to open up a restaurant later in the year. I could see the big $$$ lighting up before my eyes. Za-zing cha-ching! The following day, I went there. Was about a 20 minute drive or so. I was dressed to kill in one of my suits, had my materials and notepad ready, the works. Felt pretty damn good at first...until nearly 2 hours passed and nobody showed up for the appointment. The crazy part? I called his phone again the next day to reschedule the appointment, only to get some OTHER Russian dude on the phone who asked me who I was working for. After a brief explanation, he told me never to call again or something would "happen" to me that "looked like an accident'. Hung up pretty fast after that one. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty scared and perplexed. Had I inadvertently nearly met up with someone from the Russian mob earlier? On another occasion, I managed to secure a client in a nearby city. Upon arriving at her home, I was aware that I was in an economically questionable location, the "projects" as it were. The client herself was nice enough though, an older African-American lady with a big family and an incredibly ramshackled looking abode. Before even making the visit, I had done a pre-quote on her based on the information she gave me and even printed it out. The price was good, the history looked stable, etc. Basically, I thought I'd be walking out of there with 3 auto policies and a homeowners policy within the hour. Upon hopping on her PC and doing an official quote though my company's system though, it turned out she had neglected to tell me about two prior wrecks, plus wrecks her kids had within the last year. The cost of her prospective policies, of course, skyrocketed, and there was nothing I could do. So after multiple days, many phone calls, an hour long drive and an additional hour of quoting...I walked out of that home without a sale. She didn't even have the money to pay the first month, and she was already living paycheck to paycheck. And these two incidents were just a couple of many I ran into in my quest to wrangle the money out of people for commissions. Enlightening to be sure, but it also lets you see people at their lowest whether you want to or not. Conclusion Do your homework thoroughly whether you are buying insurance or getting into it as a career. Trust me on this one! :) |
The Omega Experiment – Self-Titled (2012/2013) Genre: Progressive/Atmospheric Metal Sounds Like: Devin Townsend, Anathema, TesseracT So, since Metal Month is just about here, feel like asking...who here is a fan of Heavy Devy? *looks around as everyone raises their hand* Good, because The Omega Experiment are one helluva Townsendian knockoff if there ever was one, as well as being one of metal music's best kept secrets of the last year or so. A quick bit of background: the guys behind this project are a dynamic duo from Michigan, Dan Wieten (singer/guitarist) and Ryan Aldridge (keyboardist). After releasing a killer EP back in 2011 or so, they caught the attention of Devin Townsend himself and proved to be an incredibly popular opening act during his Deconstruction tour. Which really helps when you have a musical approach that's as enthralling, atmospheric and professional as the guy you are opening for! So, onto the independent self-titled debut they released last year (but got re-released this year officially): basically, its pretty damn close to perfect. Dan's got a more "pop-rock" sort of voice than Devin does, but when you layer him a billion times over and give him a killer hook to work with on soaring single-worthy numbers like 'Gift' or 'Karma', the results are spectacular. Although its never stated explicitly, the album plays out a bit like a concept record about substance addiction and recovery, with the songs themselves following the ups and downs that come with the territory. That being said, the music is so engrossing and stratospheric that the lyrics become almost like an afterthought, but its still interesting nevertheless. But enough beating around the bush: if anyone has an itch to sink their teeth into some indie modern melodic metal with a serious case of Devin Townsenditus...you've come to the right bus stop. Oh, and for those of you living in Europe., they're going to be at ProgPower 2013 in a few weeks with Hacride, Fates Warning and Shadow Gallery....don't miss 'em if you get the opportunity!! |
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One finds it hard to look into New Zealand cinema over the last twenty years or so without running into Peter Jackson atleast once or twice. His iconic adaptations of Tolkien's fantasy universe aside, every film this guy has done stand out from the crowd in some way. He also has quite a knack for horror-comedic panache, a trait he shares with American director Sam Raimi. Available evidence of this include his debut Bad Taste and 1992's Braindead, both of which I highly recommend to the splatter/horror aficionados among ye. They're a lot of fun! :D Still, if there's one film in Jackson's filmography that qualifies as a bonafide cult classic "tabasco laced-enchillada-up-your-nearest-orifice" sort of experience, it would be this hilarious and demented Muppets-parody called Meet The Feebles. Funded by a bunch of loony Japanese investors and subsequently released back in 1989, audiences didn't take to it at all, resulting in an abysmal box office performance. However, in retrospect...they just didn't know what they were missing. Jackson excels at savage, black-hearted humor, and this film is a loaded gun full of laughs that either enchants you or makes you wonder if you ingested LSD on accident prior to viewing. Regardless...this is easily one of the funniest movies ever made in any genre or era bar-none, whatever your preferences. Like Tough Guys Don't Dance, this film is something you need to see to really believe it. The premise of a theatre troop of Muppet knockoffs preparing for a big television debut doesn't seem like much at first, but Jackson's comedic insanity grabs you before you even realize you've stepped into his world. From the gut-busting dialogue to parades of lulzy absurdities that just keep on coming, there's a relentless sort of glee chortling beneath the plot and characters here that is damn near infectious, and I mean that in the best possible way. Every director has a period of time in their careers where they're willing to do anything and craft films that seem almost schizophrenic in comparison to movies they do later on which win them critical and commercial acclaim. Although some may disagree, I still believe Jackson was firing on all his cylinders best from the late 80's through the mid 90's, and Meet The Feebles captures this maniacal creativity at an all time peak. So watch the trailer below, grab a bag of jellybeans, and light up a blunt. You're going to need 'em, but don't worry: you'll have a helluva good time! :clap: |
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Queensrÿche – Promised Land (1994) Genre: Art Rock / Progressive Metal / Alternative Rock Sounds Like: Pretty unique sounding album...no immediate contemporaries Although this doesn't always hold true across the genre spectrum when investigating a band or artist's music for the first time, the general rule is that the albums that don't get talked about much tend to be the ones...well, not worth talking about. However, like most things in life, there are always exceptions to the rule. Exceptions such as progressive metal pioneer Queensrÿche's 1994 release Promised Land, a strange and experimental followup to the 1990's multi-platinum smash hit record Empire. Put together over a 6 month period over on the San Juan Islands north of Seattle, Promised Land remains, in my humble opinion, the band's crowning achievement to date. Leering down like the devil himself on a vast, electric ley line between the worlds of alternative rock, heavy metal and a dislocated sense of experimental spaciness, the album remains a menacing, prophetic observance of American society and, as Thoreau might has surmised, a glimpse into the human spirit as it struggles quietly and desperately within that framework. For those of you unfamiliar with the lineup, its the classic one, AKA vocalist Geoff Tate, guitarists Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer/sound effect orchestrator Scott Rockenfield. Possessing a tandemic, awe-inducing harmony together since the classic EP all the way back in 1983, these guys were still on one helluva roll ten years later and the results speak for themselves. It wouldn't last...but the best things never do. Highlights you may ask? All of 'em if you want the honest truth, but the stylistic diversity here really gives you the opportunity to pick your poison as you please. For the straightforward heavy metal/early 90's grunge fans there's the pummeling 'I Am I' and the industrialized fervor of 'Damaged', both quite single worthy I might add. But what if you'd rather have some Pink Floyd inspired acoustica? 'Out Of Mind' and the Beatles-esque 'Lady Jane' might be more to your liking. And for you more adventurous folk who crave the most progressive, out-there material QR have to offer, there's 'One More Time', the monolithic title track and bass-driven 'Disconnected' (complete with some sax!). But really now, this is a deliberately constructed record where every song plays its part: they all have their merits, so let yourself experience them as a whole! So while everyone is enjoying Metal Month and reveling in thine latest discoveries and recommendations (here's lookin' at you Trollheart), take a moment to lend an ear toward Queensrÿche and embark upon your pilgrimage to the Promised Land today: stellar songwriting, performances and interesting metal and non-metal songs await you at your destination! :beer: |
And now for something a little different. :pimp:
Seal – Seal (1991) Genre: Pop, Soul, Funk, House, Art Rock, Ambient Sounds Like: Terence Trent D'Arby, Yes, Massive Attack One of the best things about being involved in music, whether as a hardcore listener/collector or as someone who performs and puts out material, is that everyone has a completely different opinion about what songs and records have stood the test of time, define a particular era, etc. You could have hundreds of discussions with people on what a "classic" album is to them and come up with a new answer every time. In some cases its like arguing with astronomy buffs on which nebulae are the most beautiful to the human eye. However, one debate I've seen pop up often both offline and on is which records best define certain decades, with the 90's being a particular point of argument. The cold synths and gated drumming of the 80's were thrown to the wayside in many circles in favor of stripped down, edgier productions and lots of angst (hence the rise of grunge, a lot of alternative rock and "emo" bands in popular consciousness). By 1992, you'd be hard pressed to find any 80's sounding pop act selling out a stadium. R&B and soul/funk was becoming more urban and modernized as well, which is why the 90's are also remembered as a golden period for hip-hop and neo-soul. Not to mention trip-hop, drum n' bass, World music/New Age hybrid projects like Enigma, and so much more. In some ways, the 90's was a musical universe bigger than any that had come before. But where was it, you might ask, where the sounds of the 80's really "shifted over" and become the 90's on the pop end of things? Some people point to Massive Attack's Blue Lines in '91. Others would tell you it was Primal Scream, Sonic Youth and Depeche Mode. None of those answers would be incorrect, and yet there is a name that trumps them all in sheer influence. And that, my friends, would be the dreadlock-donning, British-Nigerian former bluesman with the weird scars on his face on the cover above, a dude who seemingly appeared out of nowhere at the end of the 80's and subsequently became a household name pretty much overnight. Yes, I'm talking about Seal, AKA the "Kissed From A Rose" guy. But this was three years before Batman got him a Grammy. And as timeless as that particular song may be, his debut (and highly diverse) set of songs trumps it to an almost alarming extent. To the quality-starved pop fans of 1991, his arrival was a godsend: what could a real pop star with real ideas bring to the mainstream if they'd just give him a chance to flex his musical muscles? First though, a quick bit of background. Seal's just your typical British born Nigerian fella with a rare skin condition called Discoid lupus erythematosus. He gets an Associates Degree in architecture, does some work around London for awhile...and then figures out he can sing. From the mid 80's onward he got his feet wet with funk band Push during a tour through Japan and even ran around Thailand awhile as a blues singer. Eventually making his way back to the U.K. though, he met acid house producer Adamski and did vox for a song called 'Killer'. Catching the attention of producer extraordinaire Trevor Horn (Buggles/Yes/Frankie Goes To Hollywood), Seal went into studio, wrote up some songs with Guy Sigsworth (who would later go on to work with Björk!) and a masterpiece debut was created in 1991 for all the world to hear. So, the songs. All great to be sure, but lets go into some details. First up we have 'The Beginning', a cosmic Sigsworth co-write with a heavy Detroit techno influence, featuring a monstrously good chorus and a delicious acoustic outro that leads into the mystical sounding 'Deep Water', a number that starts off in a stripped down fashion but morphs about midway through into something rather beautiful & proggy, akin in some ways to the stuff Yes was doing in the late 70's. Lyrically, it's about two dolphins that get lost from their home waters and end up near a coastal U.K. city. The citizens try to take care of the dolphins, but they both end up dying due to heavy pollution in the surrounding waters. A less literal interpretation might be commentary upon the transitory experience of living and the inevitability of death. Either way, very powerful song and one of my favorites off the S/T. Next up is the album's big single 'Crazy', which is arguably Seal's trademark song. Not hard to see why it was a radio smash: it has a lot of the trip-hop trademarks that people were already hearing with Massive Attack and similar artists, yet there's a progressive edge here coupled with a poppy chorus that makes it an instant classic. Its followed by the Adamski-produced, beat-heavy 'Killer', which features nice guitar/synth textures on counterpoint throughout its hypnotic run. Its interesting to note at this point that a lot of Seal's lyrical content zooms in on reactionary thought processes. In 'The Beginning', its human will vs external evil. In 'Deep Water', its coping with life's transitory nature. In 'Killer', its prejudice and how someone copes with it whilst in 'Crazy', he makes a case for the defense of LSD and a positive examination of its liberating effects upon the human consciousness. Love Seal or hate him, it takes a serious set of balls to create "pop" songs of this caliber, the last of which is in favor of hallucinogenic, illegal substance use...and make it #1 in the world for weeks on end. Clever boy Scarface, clever boy! :beer: We get a bit of downtime next with 'Whirlpool', a bluesy soul piece that details a person struggling between ambition and love. Is it worth pursuing a big dream when you can have immediate gratification with someone close to you? Some people never realize their dreams in life because they settle for something else that distracts from it, so this song could be considered a warning in that regard. 'Future Love Paradise', another single, ain't half bad: a slick bassline coupled with some cool congo and a pretty nice early urban R&B feel makes for good listening. It's a condemnation on some of the worst aspects of early hip-hop culture yet also a defense against the racial profiling that's still prominent today. However, its closing epic 'Violet' that takes this album from "way above average early 90's album" status and into Hall Of Fame territory. An 8-minute ambient soul concoction of the highest order, Seal's voice floats over the sonic equivalent of a tidal phenomenon, moving in and out over dreamlike currents. The song also features some movie sampling here and there, adding to the laidback, surreal progression and allowing the album to end on a picture perfect note. For me, Seal's debut is one in a billion. Very few musicians have ever stepped up to plate and hit a perfect game their first time out, yet that's exactly what he did right here. He caught the zeitgeist (trip-hop, techno, the burgeoning neo-soul movement) and augmented his already formidable songwriting talent with the progressive rock nuances of Trevor Horn. The result is an album that doesn't sound like anything else out there, and one that even Seal himself hasn't been able to surpass in his 20+ year career. It defies classification: people have called everything from the poppier cousin of Massive Attack's Blue Lines to a "synth-soul rock equivalent to Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking", but these descriptions simply don't do the album justice. It doesn't get the recognition it deserves, but if there was ever an album that bridged the 80's and 90's music worlds in a tangible, observable fashion outside of rock and metal, then Seal did it here. So here's a few million dollar questions: do you love beautiful music? Do you enjoy diverse, nuanced songwriting? Do you enjoy thought provoking lyrical content? Hell...do you just like music period? This was one helluva record from a guy who is severely underrated in the critical music snob department, so go pick up a copy of this sucker pronto. It really is that good! |
Sorry for the lack of updates, dear children of the night: it's been a busy winter season for Papa Anteater over yonder. But because I know all of you have been praying for a visitation upon this virtual Hillside, I have THREE things I would like to announce/talk about as we head into the new year- 1. For anyone curious about what I do in real life, I'm the creative director for an online marketing company called BizNearMe. We specialize in helping small businesses reach and retain new customers, plus we build mobile websites and ads that look great on any device. Our website and services kick a lot of ass, so check 'em out here if curiosity strikes. :yeah: 2. I'm currently doing one album review a day (possibly more as we head into next week) for my AOTY end of the year thread, so I'd love to get everyone's feedback and comments. Here's the link - Anteater's 25 Favorite Albums Of 2013 3. Got an album or movie you want me to review? For a limited time only, I will take requests! Doesn't matter what the genre is: I'm an open book, so gimme your best shots! That is all for now. I've actually got an incredibly awesome musician in the queue at the moment for the Anthill who I plan to do an Album Series on, so stay tuned for that starting in 2014. :thumb: Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!!!!!!! ~ Derek |
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The 1970’s must have been a wild time for anyone in love with music. The early part of the decade had hard rock and Motown R&B ruling the roost, but by the end of it you had burgeoning New Wave, disco and outlier acts controlling charts like no tomorrow. And that’s not even mentioning all the amazing experimentation going on in everything from folk to progressive rock to Berlin School electronica. In some ways, this was the wild, wild west of popular music history: record executives would greenlight anything and anyone across disparate styles and genres because you never know who might stick with the newly LP-hungry public. Perhaps moreso than ever before or ever again, commercial audiences actually dug diversity. Due to the nature of the era though, only the best would rise to the top in any form or fashion regardless of their musical identity. Gino Vannelli, an experimental Canadian jazz-pop singer blessed with one of the most powerful and distinctive voices to ever grace a human being, is perhaps the primest example of just how weird and encompassing your music could be whilst still attaining international stardom. Layers of spacey synthesizers meets proggy lounge rock meets hard jazz-fusion? Plus he sings and writes all his own stuff? Only the 70’s could produce a prodigy like this- -cheeseball afro and all. His backstory is fairly interesting too: the whole Vannelli family were verrrrrry music oriented, and Gino was already writing and recording his own tunes by the time he was in his early teens. Eventually after a post-high school deal with RCA went sour and a few performances in New York, he and his siblings packed their bags and made an all-or-nothing gamble to get signed in L.A. They waited in the rain for hours outside the home of A&M executive and trumpeter Herb Alpert in desperation, willing to do anything for an ear, an audition…any acknowledgement at all. Thankfully, a brief listen to their demo material impressed him to the extent where he signed Gino and his brothers mere days later. And thus the career of a goofball was set in motion! Anywho, this artist spotlight will be zeroing in on this pop maestro’s rather intriguing mid to late 70’s six album run, starting from sophomore album Powerful People and ending with 1981’s Nightwalker. Also, Gino still records, performs, etc….but although he’s still great today, the dude was operating at such an amazing level of craft and performance in his prime that its become the stuff of legend in some circles, and that’s what I’m gonna cover. So welcome to the world of one Gino Vannelli. It’s a very weird, funky and fascinating set of albums we’ll be looking over here, but I hope you guys enjoy the ride. |
Strangely enough Crimson Glory missed my radar and its thanks to The Batlord that I found out about them, loved most of what I've heard and looking forward one day to put them into my journal and you've written some good stuff about them.
Tough Guys Don't Dance hell I remember that film when it came out (yer I'm that old) and I remember reading a review before seeing it and it got the lowest rating possible which was 1 star (a dud) but strangely enough I thought it was nowhere as bad as it was made out to be.I never realised that Queensryche were your favourite band but I can certainly see why you would love them, Queensryche = Classic Metal meets AOR:) |
^ Thanks for all the feedback US! Tough Guys Don't Dance is one of those "so bad its good" movies, but at the time it was universally panned. As far as the 'Ryche goes...yeah, love all their stuff up to Promised Land. I'll be interested in seeing you review The Warning or maybe their EP come 1983/84 in your journal. :D
Now then, onto Gino Vannelli... Powerful People (1974) 1. People Gotta Move (3:22) 2. Lady (3:43) 3. Son Of A New York Gun (3:23) 4. Jack Miraculous (2:41) 5. Jo Jo (3:41) 6. Powerful People (6:12) 7. Felicia (3:05) 8. The Work Verse (2:54) 9. Poor Happy Jimmy [Tribute To Jim Croce] (5:13) After an interesting yet ultimately too brief debut, 1973’s Crazy Life, it was hard to say whether or not Gino would be yet another promising talent who would drop off the A&M roster into unknown oblivion or rise to the occasion and stake something unique into the musical landscape that could launch him to great heights. The latter turned out to be the case, but not for the reasons anyone would have expected. Gino’s brother, Joe Vannelli, figured out how to overdub multiple synthesizers convincingly in both a studio and live setting, resulting in a futuristic and (at the time) unorthodox complement to Gino’s jazzy, melodic approach to songwriting. Coupled with some great production values, Powerful People was the record that began to solidify a unique sound which would become Gino’s calling card for the remainder of the decade. And when I say unique, I mean in the sense nobody else sounded like the combination of Gino and Joe Vannelli. Spacey synth-laden lounge funk in 1974? That’s pretty progressive if you ask me! Folks primarily remember this record for opening number ‘People Gotta Move’, a catchy yet slightly off kilter R&B shuffler that hit #22 on the Billboard Top 100 and gave the Vannellis some much needed exposure. But as good as that particular single is, the Hammond-drenched love ballad ‘Lady’ and the six minute title track are better: tantalizing hints of what Gino is capable of as a lyricist and composer when he's working with the right ideas. You get the impression that he’s got a musical depth and aural attention to detail that rivals that of Elton John or Todd Rundgren when he's on the money. Yet due to his showy stage behavior and his jazzy inclinations, he ended up getting lumped in with guys like Tony Bennett, Tom Jones and Barry Manilow. I guess people get put in boxes whether or not we agree with them, but anyone who really listens to this record and beyond can say that Gino was pigeonholed unfairly. Lyrically, things range from thought-provoking to simple & repetitious. The music itself is always interesting of course (such as the Gospel/Bossa Nova hybrid ‘Jo Jo’) but despite some surprisingly moving moments of observation like in the opening section of the title track (Look at the powerful people / Stealing the sun from the day / Wish I could do something about it / When all I can do is pray), Gino tends to walk a fine line between the insightful and the ridiculous on all his records. But hey, sometimes we need to laugh in between all those romantic yearnings and social commentary eh? :yeah: So despite still having a few kinks to work out here and there, this is the first album that really establishes the Gino Vannelli sound going into the mid 70’s. But as solid as this collection is, this is pretty tame compared to later albums. The best, as they say, was yet to come... |
Storm At Sunup (1975) 1. Storm At Sunup (6:37) 2. Love Me Now (3:44) 3. Mama Coco (3:06) 4. Father And Son (3:13) 5. Where Am I Going (7:47) 6. Keep On Walking (3:49) 7. Love Is A Night (3:51) 8. Gettin’ High (3:25) Thanks to ‘People Gotta Move’, a lot of big doors opened for Gino and co. He started touring with Stevie Wonder, became one of the first Caucasian performers to get featured on Soul Train, and suddenly found himself with an audience larger than he could have dreamed of waiting for his next set of songs. That’s a lot to take in over the course of a year, so where would Gino go with his next album? If 1975’s Storm At Sunup was of any indication, the answer was to expand the grandeur of his sound with busier, bigger songs. Carl Sagan once said that the universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition, but when you are the master of your own kind of universe, why not raise the stakes and shoot for the moon? As a result, this album is a marked improvement over Powerful People: the shorter songs are a bit punchier and the longer cuts rank among his best work ever. On top of that, he got drummer Graham Lear (Santana) and guitarist Jay Graydon (Steely Dan) to contribute to the songwriting and arrangements (as well as performance). These new, coagulating elements bring about an overall evolution to Gino's sound that comes across as a pop-oriented take on the Mahavishnu Orchestra. There’s still the spacey synthesizer and electric piano playing of Joe Vannelli, but you also get some instrumental sax/drum interplay on the title track and a series of synth/guitar/sax duals on the jawdroppingly awesome ‘Where Am I Going’. Clocking at nearly 8 minutes, it’s a jazzy progressive rock number that deals with a man’s inner reconciliation with life, death and the nature of time, and a big indicator of what Gino can do at his best from a compositional standpoint: its leagues in quality above anything on Powerful People. Very dramatic, operatic vocal hook going on here too, comparable to some of the best stuff Queen was doing at the time with Freddie Mercury. On the more radio-length side of the pond, the Broadway-esque material is actually pretty interesting. The harmonica/Rhodes flavored ‘Keep On Walking’ and the eerie synth-washed waltz ‘Love Me Now’ stand out the most of the bunch, but the number will raise the most eyebrows is the lyrically ironic stoner lounge of ‘Gettin’ High’, where Gino assures us that “I don't care much for smokin' weed / You know, I'm a man of a different breed / I don't thrive on drinking alcohol / 'Sides, I'm feelin' much too tall”. He goes on to say he’s not getting stoned, yet it’s pretty easy to picture people lighting up the second that single ‘45 of this B-side started spinning on the table… So all n’ all, this album elevated Gino from one-hit wonder to bonafide recording artist. Although some criticisms were directed toward the seemingly schizophrenic songwriting tendencies exhibited by this album to say that Gino “veered from the ridiculous to the sublime with absolutely no middle ground”, people were starting to realize that there was some serious talent at play here. Question was, where was that talent going to go next? The answer, of course, was a concept record. Stay tuned! |
The Gist Of The Gemini (1976) 1. Love Of My Life (4:30) 2. Ugly Man (3:54) 3. A New Fix For ‘76 (3:32) 4. Omens Of Love (4:31) 5. Fly Into This Night (3:27) THE WAR SUITE 6. Prelude To The War [Instrumental] (4:32) 7. The Battle Cry [Instrumental] (1:52) 8. To The War (4:34) 9. Carnal Question (2:36) 10. After The Last Battle [Instrumental] (2:04) 11. To The War [Reflection] (2:02) 12. Summers Of My Life (4:28) The idea of crafting a concept record is always fraught with the risk of providing too much pretension and not enough actual content to justify the album’s existence. Music has always been a storytelling medium, but only the minority of record buying audiences give a damn about song cycles or thematic extrapolation. Even back in the 70’s, you needed that hit single somewhere or your LP was practically dead on arrival for promoters. So in light of changing audience expectations and waning attention spans, what does a afro-sporting troubadour do to remain viable? The answer, of course, was a matter of structure. The Gist Of The Gemini marks the first of two occasions where Gino would delve into the process of writing classical suites, with the aforementioned War Suite taking up all of side B. The first half of the album, on the other hand, is strong collection of songs in and of itself but not directly related to the suite. That being said, while Gino Vannelli’s songwriting style may swing from jammy to hammy in the space of minutes, even a ham sandwich can be amazing with the right amount of cheese….and there’s plenty of that here! So, on to the meat: first thing you’ll notice there's less of jazz influence and more of a late 70’s progressive vibe goin' round. A steady electronic drum kick and some huge synths lead opening number ‘Love Of My Life’, and despite some falling into the goofier side of Gino’s lyricism (You broke the wings of a weary vagabond/ And I’m stranded on the island of your love), it’s great, layered fun. Things head into Alan Parsons Project territory on a couple of numbers afterward, particularly on the sonorous ‘Omens Of Love’ and the whirling after hours highway fireball that is ‘Fly Into This Night’, where Gino launches into a falsetto so high & sharp on the chorus it’s hard to believe it’s a human voice. But again, all part of the charm – progressive rock, yacht rock, synth-pop balladry: Gino Vannelli is well entrenched in all of these traditions and somehow makes them all his own. Whether he hits the mark or just comes off as a complete Italio-Canadian goofball, nobody sounds like him. And in the grand scheme of things, being completely unique and incomparable to others is the greatest compliment one can pay any artist. The War Suite which takes up side 2 is a mostly instrumental excursion with a number of highlights throughout, though obviously its something that meant to be listened to as a singular composition. A full blown orchestra was brought in for it, and when Gino lets his voice rise above the instrumental clamor on ‘To The War’, you realize he actually has a knack for carrying grand accounts about mankind, the pointlessness of war, the bitter homecoming of the veterans and other heady stuff with levity (though the lyrics of ‘Carnal Question’ are kinda funny). The suite ain’t half bad from a musical perspective either: the band is playing at such a furious pace at times that you can smell the electricity brewing in the storm they’re stirring up in studio. This album marks the midway point in Gino’s charismatic six album run, and also paints a lucrative picture of just how confident he was at this point in his career. All the live touring experiences and public exposure has made him a better frontman and a more ambitious songwriter, and since most of the lineup from Storm At Sunup has carried over to this one (including Jay Graydon on guitar), the chemistry between everyone was at an all time peak. All that being said, the album did pretty well commercially and got some radio play with ‘Fly Into This Night’ and closing cut ‘Summers Of My Life’. A&M was happy, a new breed of art rock fandom found Gino’s more ambitious approach interesting, and Canada was already considering turning the dude into a natural treasure. And yet it wasn't quite enough for our bushy afro'd hero. The next album, he said, would go "bigger and bolder". But what exactly would that entail? Keep your eyes on these reviews to find out! |
A Pauper In Paradise (1977) 1. Mardi Gras (3:28) 2. Valleys Of Valhalla (4:23) 3. The Surest Things Can Change (4:36) 4. One Night With You (4:19) 5. A Song And Dance (3:40) 6. Black And Blue (4:23) 7. A Pauper In Paradise (15:57) 1977: a strange year where schmaltzy disco had begun to peak across skating rinks and clubs across the U.S. just as New Wave and punk music began dethroning art-rock, prog-rock and all manners of the virtuosic in popular consciousness. This was also noted as the year where jazz-fusion started cross pollinating with soul, funk and R&B in order to achieve greater commerciality. Taking note of this last trend in particular yet desiring to walk his own way like he'd always done, Gino Vannelli went into studio with his brothers once more to record what would become A Pauper In Paradise. It was, as expected, a step forward in some respects from The Gist Of The Gemini, stripping out the guitar and overt progressive “rock” elements and bringing in sax and a funk centered carnival flair to complete the package. The core ‘Gino’ sound remained of course: there’s plenty of groove and balladry going on here, but at this point it’s all been refined to the point of science. No weak tracks, no weird left-field deviations into questionable songwriting ideas: everything’s on target. Despite (or perhaps because of) a nearly 16 minute orchestral jazz-funk epic on Side B from which the album derives its name, A Pauper In Paradise is probably my favorite album from Cap’n Afro and one of the best lounge rock albums ever depending on how much you enjoy the "Vannelli sound". Things start off with a bang, as it were, with the phantasmagorical shuffle of ‘Mardi Gras’. Gino’s having a wild night in Louisiana and making sweet, sweet love to Cajun womenfolk all over! OH THE HUGHMANITY!! Pretty swell way to kick off in any case, particularly about midway in when Joe Vannelli cuts loose at 'dem keays and goes all Emerson, Lake & Palmer on us. Woooaahh dawg, them housewives can’t handle that! That being said, usual lyric pretensions aside, Gino’s made a straight up late night R&B album here through and through. No grand statements about society, no universal observations – this is an album purely about love, romance and all that other cheesy, sentimental stuff that the musical elite can’t handle in more than small doses. But, as usual, the music is so well done that you can forgive him for his cheesy trespasses – ‘The Surest Things Can Change’ is a stellar Rhodes-laced ballad whilst ‘Valleys Of Valhalla’ is one of those great lost pop gems (complete with a sax solo) that DJs love to pull out of the hat just to fuck with people’s expectations on 70's Night. It also features the following verse which is as amusing as it is genius (take me to heaven /On this cold Norwegian night / My skin is unleaven / Untouched and so unsanctified / Feel the flame that burns my pagan soul). You simply have to applaud the man: it takes a special kind of talent to make lyrics like that work. Doubt even ol’ Frank Zappa could pull that one off with a straight face! xD Still, it’s the title track on the second half of the album where you can’t help but be in awe. Gino’s probably the only guy besides Alan Parsons back in the 70’s who has ever successfully blended proggy rock band virtuosity with the grand arrangements of an ensemble like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and made it work. If you loved ‘The Fall Of The House Of Usher’ from 1976’s Tales Of Mystery & Imagination, you will absolutely adore what Vannelli is going for here. Four movements of sheer celestial force, the soundtrack to a movie we’ll never see… So how does this baby measure up to the last few albums? Well for one thing, it served as the finale and peak of Gino’s purely synthesizer driven era. But if Gist… was very cold and Storm At Sunup jazzy & psychedelic, A Pauper In Paradise is a pure party album, and one that did an excellent job at tapping into the late 70’s R&B/disco market whilst still sounding like something that naturally evolved from previous recordings. Yet consider: the fact that Gino still composed and included a full blown epic to end the album shows that he still enjoyed pushing himself compositionally and seeing just how far down the rabbit hole his typically non-prog audiences might follow him. A&M respected him enough creatively at this point to let the Gino machine record whatever it wanted and not even bat an eye. Of course, what nobody could have predicted was that Gino’s best album had yet to emerge from the void of precreative thought. And with it, a #1 single that would rule the world for atleast a year or more. See ya next time folks! |
Always an interesting read, ant my man! I bet there are people who don't even know who Gino Vanelli is, including me. I think I heard his name on some seventies pop or disco song once. Your usual off-the-wall approach is one of the many reasons why your journal is so successful and consistently readable. Keep it up my friend!
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Unknown Soldier: I really appreciated that nomination back then. BTW, noticed you're a couple albums into the 80's for your journal, so keep up the reviews there too. :) |
Brother To Brother (1978) 1. Appaloosa (4:44) 2. The River Must Flow (3:48) 3. I Just Wanna Stop (3:37) 4. Love And Emotion (3:49) 5. Feel Like Flying (5:17) 6. Brother To Brother (7:16) 7. Wheels Of Life (4:14) 8. Evil Eye (4:14) 9. People I Belong To (4:01) And so at last we arrive at Brother To Brother..and as far as both the general populace and critics are concerned, Gino's strongest album. AKA, the culmination of five albums' worth of development and the LP that took the charts by storm with 'I Just Wanna Stop', one of the biggest one hit wonder ballads of the decade. So, for all intents and purposes, this record touched the zeitgeist for late 70's R&B audiences and introduced Gino to an audience probably tens of times larger than he already had internationally. But all of this would mean nothing if the rest of the album wasn't good... ...but of course, we don't have that problem here. If anything, I also consider this his best effort overall for a number of reasons. Firstly, there's the new lineup behind the songs: it's an allstar cast. Just to list a few, you have Marvin Gaye sideman Ernie Watts on sax, the drummer from jazz-fusion violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's band Mark Craney, not to mention electric bass god Jimmy Haslip. And if that's not enough, you have two guitarists and an absolutely bitchin' production and mixing job that really kicks where it needs to. Furthermore, a more rock band oriented ensemble makes everything sound more vital and in your face than Gino's more synthesizer led material was. And the songs? Well, you can have your catchy funk-rock and eat it too with arpeggiated 'Appaloosa', Santana-esque 'Love And Emotion' plus the titanic title track that serves as the album's centerpiece and strongest moment overall. Lots of guitar solos and fiery interplay on all these babies of course, which is of course interesting to hear in any R&B album from the era. What makes this album particularly fun though is that even the ballads and mid-tempo numbers here groove harder, flow better and have basslines as thick as California redwoods than anything on past Gino recordings. And as for 'I Just Wanna Stop'...well, its obviously nowhere near the best song on the album, but you can see why it went to #1. It's got a swingin' hook, a slick beat and Gino's voice in prime condition. What's not to like? So here it is folks, the peak of an artist in action in his element. You go from nascent synthesizer lounge music in '74 and four years later are pulling off complicated guitar driven jazz pop-fusion musical collections like it was nothing. But being able to replicate it live on top of that? This dude was simply on another level by '78, and you hear it on every note in these songs. It's a level of consummate professionalism and performance most people can only dream of, a high tier occupied by only the best frontmen, women and walking phenomena such as David Bowie, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, etc. But last but not least, we'll be back after these messages with the last album in my Gino series next time. Goodnight and good luck. :wavey: |
Nightwalker (1981) 1. Nightwalker (5:07) 2. Seek And You Will Find (4:40) 3. Put The Weight On My Shoulders (4:45) 4. I Believe (4:11) 5. Santa Rosa (4:12) 6. Living Inside Myself (4:23) 7. Stay With Me (4:43) 8. Sally (She Says The Sweetest Things) (4:29) And so we come to end of our journey of Gino reviews. The first record he would put into play for the 80's was, ironically enough, also the last album he'd do with any real sonic relationship to the synth-laden jazz rock & balladeering that had been catapulting him up the charts over the last seven years or so. There was little hint here of the New Wave/synth-pop direction that would dominate the remainder of the decade for Gino's approach for his next three albums, but that's all for the better: the songs here are superb, plain and simple: no long suites or serious experimentation to be found, but perhaps moreso than any past recording, Nightwalker is so slick on the uptake it could sell snow cones to Eskimos. It's a "yacht rock" record with some hair on its balls, and that applies to the best of Gino's material in general. The first half of the album in particular is a series of transitions from strength to strength, starting with the prowling bombast of the title track. It's got some generous keyboard work, some cool quiet/loud dynamics juxtaposed against orchestral elements and a BIGGG groove that culminates into a killer climax at the end, segueing without a hitch into 'Seek And You Will Find' where we get a big fat bassline, lots of snazzy backing vocals and even what sounds like a Stratocaster guitar solo about two minutes in. You just gotta love it when an album opens with not one but TWO great up-tempo numbers in a row right? That's what we got here. But as fun as that stuff is, I think most people who heard this album back in the day remembered it for having the two best ballads Gino ever wrote in one place: 'Put The Weight On My Shoulders' and 'Living Inside Myself', the latter which cracked #5 on the Top 100 in the U.S. The former is a guitar savvy power ballad with a nifty bridge whilst the latter is a soaring manifesto not too unlike 'I Just Wanna Stop', except better in every single way. Cheesy as these sorts of songs are, the melody always makes or breaks them, and this pair are definite winners. Some of you may wonder where Nightwalker fits quality-wise in the "perfect six album run" I mentioned back when I started this series, and the answer is "right in the middle". It's rock solid: better than Powerful People, more consistent than Storm At Sunup, and perhaps more balanced musically than The Gist Of The Gemini. At the same time though, it doesn't have a song on it that screams progressive awesome wtf-ness like 'Where Am I Going', 'Brother To Brother' or something like The War Suite. In the same way that A Pauper In Paradise was a distillation and focusing the Gino's pure synth approach, Nightwalker is a distillation of Brother To Brother guitar-led AOR into something even more immediate. The question is, was that a bad thing or a good thing? For our afro'd artiste, it was the opportunity to move on to new pastures. The commercialized jazz-rock approach had gone as far as it could go, and it was time to shift gears. Unfortunately, Gino's period of transition into New Wave over the following five years coincided with major life changes on the personal end (marriage/kids), as well as all sorts of traumatic experiences and inner turmoil which caused him to renounce his Christian faith and become agnostic...the story of which is quite interesting by the way. Curious? Watch the vids below for the full story. All that being said, that's the end of my classic review series for Gino Vannelli. I hope ya'll dug it! Keep with me into the future as I tackle video games, real life shenanigans, random album reviews, movies and whatever else I can think up. And, of course, I'm always open to review requests. :love: |
Bob Drake – What Day Is It? (1994) Genre: Freaky Acid Folk, Progressive Rock, Americana, Country Musical Contemporaries: Thinking Plague, Yes, Tim Buckley, Elliott Smith, Damien Youth It's not very often in any year nor music "scene" where you get a full on synthesis of good ol' fashioned country, darkly lyrical Appalachian folk and Yes-ish progressive rock... but then again, there's only one Bob Drake: accept no substitutes! A singer/songwriter of extraordinarily darksome talent and vision, he's cut quite the illustrious career for himself since the 1980's and beyond. He's produced Tina Turner, designed B-Movie horror soundscapes for low budget films, and was one of the two primary founding members of legendary avant-rockers Thinking Plague. It's a helluva resume, but merely the tip of the iceberg by the time we come to his 1994 debut. There's really nothing else out there like it, a sentiment even the almighty Pitchfork can agree with me on. See, this is an independent release in every sense of the word. Major labels wouldn't touch it with a 50-foot pole, but it skirts a little too close to those "uncool" prog bands at times for the trendier indie labels to get behind it either. Drake's an ex-pat living in France, so I have no idea how he originally marketed this material, but I'm certain he had his difficulties. Don't get me wrong though: this is a brilliant album, and one of the few times where the bizarre, normally inaccessible world of Rock In Opposition aestheticism compromised successfully with something resembling a normal pop/rock sensibility. It helps that there's a VERY high level of novelty value to be found too: if you've ever wanted to hear a Jon Anderson soundalike narrate and encapsulate the dread of your favorite Lovecraftian yarns, you'll get your wish on fun yet sinister songs such as 'Rainy' and 'The House', complete with twangy guitars and plenty of self-aware menace. However, my favorite moments are when the album divorces itself of the Gothic Americana aesthetic that haunts it and makes deliberate shifts into more psychedelic territory, particularly on B-sides like the percussive 'Going Somewhere' and the spine-tingling 'Death Valley'. That moment near the end where Bob's layered vox intones 'the sun remembers a ritual' is about as disquietingly awesome as anything I've run across in other genres. Of further note: besides production and singing, Drake handles most of the instrumental work here (including guitars, keyboards, violin, bass and drums). I'm always thoroughly impressed by anyone who can really run with a DIY approach to so-called solo material, but this is really in a class of its own. Makes one think we really can do it all ourselves if the stars are right and the material is up to snuff ya know? :thumb: As I mentioned earlier, this album is certainly not for everyone. Hell, I don't even think its for that many people in general. But at the same time, there's so much personality shining through these songs that you can't help but be impressed constantly and consistently. It's a strange, twisted and entertaining journey into truly progressive territory..and I can't recommend it enough to the adventurous among ye. ;) |
Five Awesome Movies You Can Watch For Free On YouTube Right Now 1. Suspiria (1977) Among the greatest "giallo" films (an Italian subgenre of suspense horror) of all time, I've always considered this a masterpiece for anyone looking for a top-notch 70's exercise in dread and atmosphere. Watch this one even if you ignore the rest of my picks. :pimp: 2. Flight Of The Navigator (1986) Disney was notorious back in the late 70's and 80's for occasionally cooking up weird films that couldn't make up their minds on what kind of audience they wanted...which means kids and adults alike ended up enjoying them. This 1986 film was an intriguing excursion into heavy sci-fi with some unexpected existentialism thrown into the mix, and it still holds up today. 3. Bicentennial Man (1999) One of Robin Williams more underrated starring roles. It's second half is a tad sentimental, but the movie remains true in spirit to the Isaac Asimov masterpiece it was based upon. Definitely worth atleast one watch! 4. Night Of The Demons (1988) Late 80's horror gore-schlock at its best. Unless you hate demons, slasher flicks, etc., this one's a lot of fun for a Friday night when everyone at your house is high, drunk, or a combination of the two. 5. The Hitcher (1986) A nifty thriller that got panned initially but has grown in esteem over time. It's biggest draw is definitely Rutger Hauer of Blade Runner fame's superb acting, so check it out for that if nothing else. |
These are all great films and indeed you can find all kinds of great stuff (complete films etc) on Youtube.
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Genre: Power Pop, Heavy/Progressive Metal, Space Rock Musical Contemporaries: Anthrax, Soundgarden, Faith No More, King's X, Dream Theater, Hawkwind, Jellyfish, Enuff Z'Nuff Years Active: 1989 - 2000 (With occasional reunion shows) As a born and raised anteater/man hybrid from Texas, sometimes I like to remind people that, yes, a lot of great bands have come from my state over the years in all sorts of genres, including the realms of heavy metal. That being said, one particularly exemplary Texan act who emerged in the wake of the early 90's alternative metal/grunge/whatever the fuuck it was music explosion brought on by Pantera and Nirvana were the Galactic Cowboys, a bunch of musical astronauts from Houston who formed out of late 80's prog/glam metal hybrid called The Awful Truth before getting picked up by Geffen Records in 1990. This led to the recording of their amazing self-titled debut album in 1991, which to this day remains one of the best metal albums of the first half of the decade. Ever got a hankerin' for three part vocal harmonies, riffs that will crush your balls to powder, catchy choruses and plenty of general weirdness to boot? That's these guys in a nutshell, and they're pretty goddamn good at what they do whilst still managing to sound fairly unique in the metal landscape. Unfortunately, being unique also means its harder to break out commercially in some respects. Or at the very least, record labels in general seem to really have trouble marketing anything remotely interesting to the sedated masses. In any case, while these guys never did a bad record, I highly recommend the self-titled (1991) and their "breakout commercial" followup Space In Your Face (1993) for your respective collections. Both albums are absolutely stellar and have been criminally forgotten even by diehard fans of awesome heavy metal, so enlighten yourselves today and hear the glory for yourselves! :dj: |
I love this band and I always thought that I was the only person on MB that loved them but now you as well, they just had so much energy and the debut is an absolute classic as well. "The Sea of Tranquillity" hell yer!
I didn't know you were from Texas, I thought you were a New Yorker or something! Well I learn something new everyday:) |
A New Yorker? Get outta town. I'd be in constant fear for my life if I was over there, especially since the Mafia have the cabbies under their thumb. :usehead:
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Sometimes I think the most curious aspect about music on the whole isn't why some songs mean so much to some people...but rather, how it starts to reach into you during that brief period of time in adolescence, that two to five year window where music becomes more than just background noise and you start to build a sonic landscape in your head comprised of the sounds that appeal to you on some instinctual level. Before you know it, your natural inclinations have coalesced and the world seems to become far brighter and more compelling than before. Well, at least that was how it was for me. While there's nothing special about my musical upbringing, I thought I'd do a couple of posts highlighting the "gateway" bands, artists and songs that helped determine my core foundation as a listener. It's my journal, might as well do it here ya know? Anyway, we'll start with the obvious: Progressive Rock. I promise I'll pick genres the rest of you care about on the next few posts! :yeah: After taking a cursory trip back down memory lane, I determined three particular songs that "converted" me per-se into progressive rock, which I consider the first real "genre" of music I ever fell for. And they are as follows- Gentle Giant Nothing At All (1970) People mostly associate this band with the still-bizarre and completely unique Medieval sound they started pushing into with landmark albums like Octopus (which you should check out anyway), but this little opus from their debut was something I ran across on accident during a movie hunt online back in middle school. Needless to say, I was captivated: it sounds completely unlike any other hard rock song in 1970, yet is obviously a big influence on the direction Led Zeppelin would take as they approached their mid 70's peak. GG's first album tends to get overlooked in general by aficionados of the decade, but for me this song was like cracking open the best aural book ever "written" at the time I discovered it, and it definitely was a big factor in settling me in as a "prog rock" fan. And speaking of the Zepps... Led Zeppelin Achilles Last Stand (1976) At one point this was probably the longest song on the tiny little IPod I got my 13 year old scrub-paws on at a clearance sale. At this point in my life the very concept of a song longer than 4 minutes was foreign, but this tune changed all that. While Gentle Giant clued me into what "progressive rock" was and why it kicked the living shit out of stuff I heard on Top 40 radio, Achilles Last Stand showed me how could take one hell of a riff and turn it into something absolutely monolithic and immediate despite the length. Once you get suckered into the groove, those ten minutes go by like greased lightning. This was the first "long" song I ever really cut my teeth on, and it also made me a more patient listener in general. Most people need a hook within 5 seconds or they change the station: I could go minutes now letting a song sink in and evaluate it on its own merits, so kudos to Led Zeppelin! And last but not least... Camel Ice (1979) I got into Camel right as I was starting high school back in '04: ITunes had made it possible by this time to start at point A (like Gentle Giant) and start exploring all the great bands who were associated with initial act's "style", so this one was the latest to the party as far as these three songs go. I ended up cherrypicking a bunch of random cuts from different albums, and 'Ice' just happened to be among them. But without a shadow of a doubt, it singlehandedly turned me on to instrumental music. Not just "progressive" stuff, but other styles of lyric-less exploration as well. The thing's a helluva piece of work. It's guitarist Andy Latimer's greatest moment, somehow managing to be both soaring & contemplative simultaneously. At the time I first sat down with it, I thought it was like the moon: it looks close enough to touch, but you'll never get within spitting distance of it in your entire life unless you became an astronaut. These are just a few key tracks in just one genre I like...but they're also a big part of why I love writing about music, listening to new things all the time and even being part of a community like MusicBanter. Some people grow up into perfectly functioning adults and feel mostly indifferent about things like music, but if there was one genre that spared me from that less-than-appealing end result, it was progressive rock. Next time(s): what got me into heavy metal, jazz and even electronic music and soft rock. Keep your eyes peeled... :dj: |
Funny thing about progressive rock for me back in middle school: it was also a segue way of sorts into certain pop bands and artists. Odd how things work out like that eh? Of course, that's a pretty wide genre umbrella (since "pop" is just another word for anything remotely accessible and catchy), but seeing as I can still distinctly recall specific songs and artists that my (then) newfound musical curiosity was drawn to like flies to meat, I'll go with the five most prominent.... The Flaming Lips Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell (2002) Back when the concept of showing eachother music videos online was incredibly novel and mindblowing, the ginger guy in Algebra who I used to cheat off during math tests showed me a live rendition of this paired with some Neon Genesis Evangelion as an AMV on a computer in the lab during lunch break. Whilst the video in question didn't really go with the song all that well, I was utterly mesmerized. This is classic "spacey" Flaming Lips, and as a 12 year old ignoramus who just discovered albums like Dark Side Of The Moon and such, the fact there were 21st century bands doing great, trippy music was a revelation like you wouldn't believe. The Alan Parsons Project Days Are Numbers (The Traveller) (1985) Next to Queensrÿche, I don't think there's a band or artist more influential or ingrained in me than The Alan Parsons Project. My dad had a "Best Of" collection buried under all the post-grunge and heavy metal vinyl he used to own, and it was pretty much love at first listen. They were my gateway to all kinds of things, including 80's pop music, AOR and a lot of "art" rock such as Electric Light Orchestra and Level 42...and I still don't think anyone ever did the crossover concept-oriented album better than they have. Albums like Tales Of Mystery And Imagination or The Turn Of A Friendly Card set and continue to set the bar high for bands attempting to do catchy, classy & lyrically-interesting rock music, and I love 'em to death. Tears For Fears Advice For The Young At Heart (1989) You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who dislikes Tears For Fears no matter who you ask, but along with APP they're pretty much the soundtrack to my adolescence. This song randomly came on the radio one evening back in 2003 after 'Bittersweet Symphony' (The Verve) on a local radio station, but the artist/song weren't announced before or after so I ended up having to do some rudimentary online sleuthing just to find that out. And of course, I ended up listening to great songs off Songs From The Big Chair and The Hurting during my hunt, and the rest is history. :D However, there was a downside to finding all this great music so early in my teens: I don't think I'll ever escape the 80's for the rest of my life. Thanks a lot Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith! :eek: Lenny Kravitz If I Could Fall In Love (2001) It's so weird: I couldn't give two fucks about this guy as of 2014 and none of his albums do a single thing for me...and yet this song is so damn good for what it is that it continues to haunt me from whatever long-dead stereo system my dad used to blare Lenny (the self-titled album) in between software development projects at the house. Is it that stupidly toe-tapping synth-line in the background, or is it the fact Lenny actually sounds better with his voice being muscled through technology than without? I will never know the real answer, but dis shit be dope mon...and it probably spurred me tangentially into looking for more "electronic" oriented stuff as time went on. Dan Fogelberg Heart Hotels (1980) Exposure to this evil, evil song as a child turned me into a man who absolutely devours and ferociously collects obscure soft-rock records when nobody else is looking. I never asked to be an addict for smoove, smoove 70's and 80's L.A. yacht rock gems, but some monkeys just can't be bribed to disembark from my shoulders. That being said, I love stuff like this, and my current favorite repoitoire of artists in this general style (Ambrosia, Boz Scaggs, Stylus, Steely Dan, etc.) can all be owed to ol' Dan here. Cheers! :beer: |
Ant, your taste in music never fails to impress! I'm a huge APP fan as you know, and a total Fogelberg fanboy. Great to meet someone who actually knows who he is; totally underrated talent and a real loss to the music world.
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