Damn, you all are indecisive! Another tie for the week's voting, which takes our track listing to:
01 Sweet Wine by Cream
02 Into the Void by Black Sabbath
03 Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll by Blue Oyster Cult
04 I'm Eighteen by Alice Cooper 05 Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones
06 Neat, Neat, Neat by The Damned
This week's nominees come from the Power Metal category which Wikipedia describes as:
"Power metal is highly focused on the vocalist, with "clean" vocals being much more prevalent than the growling vocals often associated with death metal...Following in the tradition of Ronnie James Dio, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and other heavy metal vocalists, power metal vocals are often in a high register. The majority of the genre's vocalists sing in the tenor range, capable of hitting very high notes...Power metal guitarists and bassists generally play rapid streams of notes, but change chords comparatively slowly, with a harmonic tempo of once per measure or slower. Fast and demanding guitar solos, however, are almost guaranteed...A number of power metal drummers generally play with two bass drums for added speed, utilizing them to play a constant stream of sixteenth notes (semiquavers) with snare drum accents on the beat. This style is fairly common in power metal as in other heavy metal subgenres, though it is by no means universal...Power metal bands often incorporate keyboards into their musical arrangements, though their usage varies from subtle accents to a full-blown melody line."
And the nominees are:
Man on the Silver Mountain by Rainbow
Victim of Changes by Judas Priest
The Zoo by The Scorpions
Holy Diver by Dio
Balls to the Wall by Accept
Can you name the future rock star in the back row, second from right? Leave a comment with your guess...You can click here for a larger view of the image...
I was digging through some old cassettes a week or two ago and came across a mixtape a buddy of mine gave me in high school. The tape looked to be a mess so instead of popping it into my deck (yes, I still have one) I thought I would rebuild it as an iTunes playlist.
I didn't have all of the tracks, so I used Amazon's MP3 store to assemble those that were missing. I had all of the source albums on vinyl at one point but no longer do...this is a funny mix, I suppose...
MOG is another music community site that I use for burningdervish.com...It has a very intimate feel...there is definitely a core group of people who are very active readers, writers and commentors. I find that most posts get at least one comment if not more.
The site has some cool features, which allow you to display your music library, recently played music and other facts and anecdotes about your musical experiences and likes.
In honor of his big win yesterday in my weekly poll, I'd like to make some interesting Alice Cooper tracks available...A friend of mine started to work with Alice on the Love it to Death record and was involved for several years thereafter. I am not privy to a ton of stories but given what I know about Alice in the 70s that must have been a wild run.
These are Alice's first two albums, which were released on Frank Zappa's Straight Records. They are much different than the more produced, commercial hard rock sound the band would develop as their career exploded. The first record - Pretties for You - is more raw, psychedelic and left of center (what would you expect from a Zappa signing?). The second record - Easy Action - was produced by David Briggs, Neil Young's producer at the time, and is much more a conventional rock record.
I only ever heard these on vinyl and cassette. Listening to "Titanic Overture", the excellent instrumental track that opens Pretties for You on a mixtape recently, caused me to search the whole record out again. A buddy sent me a rip earlier this week of both of these and I am posting them here...Would love to hear your reaction, especially if you are a fan of Alice's more widely known stuff...
Back in the early and mid-80s I was not afraid to get my metal on. Man, I went to so many concerts at the New Haven Coliseum and saw all of those bands: KISS, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Twisted Sister, Metallica, Anthrax, etc etc...Even though I moved on to and through a lot of music in the subsequent twenty-odd years I never really outgrew metal. I can't say I go to many metal shows anymore or keep up with any of those bands but I do still listen to the old stuff from time to time. Black Sabbath, especially, is never far from my "recently played" list...
W.A.S.P. was a band I liked for a year or so, maybe in 84 or 85. I was into the hair bands like Motley Crue and Ratt but these guys were something different...they were a lot heavier than the other glam metal bands and probably more outrageous (ok, ridiculous), too. If you doubt me, look up some photos of the band circa 1984 and get a load of their costumes...
I was W.A.S.P. as the middle act on a triple bill with Anthrax and Black Sabbath in 1985. Blackie Lawless, W.A.S.P.'s leader and singing bass player, was running around throwing posters into the audience and I would swear the bass line was still coming out of the speakers..ha.
Anyway, that was at the tail end of my interest in W.A.S.P. and I never heard any of their other music. I don't think I listened to any of their music ever again - until last week when I was putting together the post on shock rock.
In poking around YouTube I came across this video, a cover by W.A.S.P. of The Who's "The Real Me", from their 1988 record The Headless Children (which All Music Guide calls the bands "most accomplished work"...in fact, after reading their biography on AMG, especially the last few paragraphs, I am mildly intrigued about their recent albums, but not enough to buy them).
"5:15" and "The Real Me" are my favorite Who tracks and this is a respectable take on the latter:
Anybody have a copy of this record on vinyl that they would be willing to rip? Or a digital copy of some sort? The CD is out of print and I need a copy...leave a comment to let me know. Thanks!
Man, we have a rout going in this week's voting...Here's maybe a reason to vote for one of the other songs in the poll...I'll post some support for the other tracks as the week rolls on:
I am up and running now on Last.fm...It is a pretty interesting site in that it builds custom radio stations for users based on a sync with their itunes library. It also keeps some cool charts of your listening habits if you enable the feature...If you keep an account there I would appreciate an "add".
This is a very special record...so damn musical...anything but "traditional" this, album is a beautiful blend of reggae, jazz and soul...one of my favorite attributes in a record is not being able to place its era or be able to tell when it was recorded when listening to it. Journey to Addis fits the bill...
Anybody have a copy of this record on vinyl that they would be willing to rip? Or a digital copy of some sort? The CD is out of print and I need a copy...leave a comment to let me know. Thanks!
I don't know if it is the election season getting to me or what but I've been in a crazy Peter Tosh zone...Man, he could get outraged...you listen to the first disc on this three disc set and realize just how much so...There are few more righteous tracks than this one, all over the Satta Massaganna rhythm...
"Here Comes the Judge Hear ye him God save the African king Anyone have anything to say before this just judge Come say it now and say it like you glad not like you mad For this judge have no mercy Christopher Columbus Francis Drake Bartholomew De Los Casos Vasco De Gama Alexander so called the Great John Hannon James Grant David Livingston John Constantine Henry Morgan Marco Polo Come say after me I solemly swear That the evidence I shall give shall be the whole truth And nothing but the truth So help me god You're all brought here on count 1 - robbing and raping Africa 2 Stealing black people out of Africa 3 Brainwashing black people 4 Holding black people in captivity for more than 300 yrs 5 Killing over 50 million black people without a cause 6 Teaching black people to hate themselves If any of you have anything to say before this execution Say it quick, say it glad This judge is getting impatient Contempt! - no mercy The penalty for all this Each of you must be hanged by the tongue No appeal will be accepted Court adjourned"
Have you seen this flick? It was on VH1 last night. Good god. Watch the trailer.
I have a 3-year old and a 4-month old. I seldom get to watch TV. But the pop culture gods were smiling upon me last night...the kids went to bed early, the wife was organizing the junk drawer or something and I was able to sit on the couch and watch TV...normally there isn't shit on, and last night would have been no exception had it not been for Air Guitar Nation...
"...AIR GUITAR NATION is the feature documentary about the year that air guitar swept America - from New York to Los Angeles and then all the way to northern Finland. AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the US Air Guitar Championships and the personal journeys of those talented contestants who are vying to become the first World Air Guitar Champion from the United States...What starts as a friendly contest above a New York strip club becomes a battle of naked ambition played out on the national and, ultimately, the world stage. Full of triumph and disappointment, patriotic spirit and political tension - and of course invisible guitars - this tension filled competition quickly turns very real...AIR GUITAR NATION captures the explosion of competitive air guitar through the eyes of former world champions, fans and media, and through the personal rivalries of those trying to attain the title of "The best Air Guitarist in the world.""
The movie has its flaws, but taking competitive air guitar seriously is not one of them...
So I have just gotten around to using iLike over the last month or so...I have it plugged into my iTunes and Facebook and have been watching it work. If you use iLike, please add me as a friend. If you do we can check out each other's music libraries, playlists, favorite artists, etc.
Holy cow a tie...Of the five nominees in the Early Metal category we have a tie between Cream and Black Sabbath! With no tie-breaker round in place both move forward as the first two entries for the work-in-progress History of Metal mixtape which will be released later this year...Tracks one and two will be:
01 Sweet Wine by Cream
02 Into the Void by Black Sabbath
This week's nominees come from the Original Hard Rock (1974 - 1979) category and are represented by Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and AC/DC.
I'll admit it, I resisted these guys (ok, this guy) at first...but holy cow, this song is amazing...really curious about how this stuff comes off live...if you have a live version of this track in particular I would love to hear it.
This a latter-era collection of material recorded mainly at Studio One throughout the 90s... The tracks are a little lighter than you might expect from the band but don't be put off, there are some gems.
Man, what a prolific time this was for McCoy Tyner...in the space of a few months he laid down the sessions that would become The Real McCoy, Time for Tyner, Tender Moments and Expansions - all with a ton of original compositions.
This record gets cited most often for McCoy's take on the standard "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top"...for my money, the track you want is McCoy's own "May Street", a nice up-tempo modal romp with some furious interplay between he and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson.
I present you: Early Metal (1966 - 1971), a mix featuring Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Vanilla Fudge, Led Zeppelin, The Stooges, Black Sabbath and MC5.
Here's where you help: pick the "most definitive" early metal track to be included on the History of Metal mixtape which will be released later this year...Vote throughout the next week in the poll which you will find in the upper left hand corner of burningdervish.com...Check back in coming weeks to vote for tracks representing glam, punk, power metal and even more arcane subgenres...
All I can hope is that you enjoy visiting and reading this site as much as I enjoy working on it. If you like what you find here, please leave a comment. It means a lot to hear from you.
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Damn, you all are indecisive! Another tie for the week's voting, which takes our track listing to:
to assemble those that were missing. I had all of the source albums on vinyl at one point but no longer do...this is a funny mix, I suppose...
set...great collection, I recommend...and I post:
...
