This is actually a band that I'm going to see in a month or two. As such, I had planned on posting this around the time that I was going to the show, but I just crawled in at three in the morning drunk, and this is the only post that I've written up and saved....So guess what? It's getting posted now. I'm also hoping that it's finished....I'm passing out now. G'night.
Volbeat is a Danish band that plays a mix of rock 'n' roll, heavy metal, punk and rockabilly. Personally, the reason that I love this band so much is that the vocals are so unique. I can't really explain how. They're just....unique. As far as clarity goes, there's a couple songs that have growls, bu for the most part the sound is clean.
This first song, Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza, comes from their freshman album, The Strength/The Sound/The Songs
Next, Devil or the Blue Cat´s Song from their album, Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil
This song, Still Counting, is probably their most famous. (At least, it's what I hear the most on XM.) It's from their third album, Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood.
Finally, we have The Mirror and The Ripper, from their latest album, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven
I mentioned these guys briefly a couple days ago, when I said that all I want is Serj and Maynard to be locked in a studio with enough food, water, and drugs to last a month. Well, I wasn't going to write up a post about them, but then, on Tuesday, I saw North American tour dates posted on Blabbermouth, and experianced the biggest wave of excitement ever.....Followed by a even bigger wave of depression.....Followed by a slight spout of confusion when I saw "AL". (For those that don't recall, I live in Alabama.)
SYSTEM OF A DOWN has scheduled the following North American headlining shows:
May 10 - Edmonton, AL - Rexall Place
May 12 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
May 13 - Seattle, WA - Key Arena
May 15 - Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre
May 18 - Denver, CO - Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
May 19 - Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion
May 22 - Las Vegas, NV - The Pear
GOGOL BORDELLO will also appear on the bill as "special guests."
That's right. After half a decade of being on hiatus, they finally return, and perform FIVE dates in the US. None of which are under 1,000 miles from me. Oh, and of course, this is at the same time that Rammstein are doing the same thing. No US dates in 10 years....BAM! New York, Washington, California, and Nevada dates! So, even, if by some miracle, I CAN afford to travel to one of these shows, (Not to mention getting the tickets the second they go on sale, which shortens the time I have to save up money.) there's no way in Hell I can ever afford to go to both SYOD and Rammstein. (Two bands that are on my Top 10 to See Before I Die list.) So, basically, what I'm saying is if there is anyone out there that you are willing to pay for me to kill and/or fuck (In the order of your choosing.) then, well, I need money. Alternatively, I suppose clicking those ads over there --> could help.......But seriously....I hear that the hit-gigolo line of work can be a pretty lucrative business.
Also, I doubt there's very many of you that haven't heard of System of a Down, but this wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong. So, if you want, I can write up a real post about them, but this rant is long enough for one post.
Puscifer is MJK's most recent band. In this band, Maynard is the only permanent member, and with him, is a "revolving door of talent". I will tell you right now, if you ever have the chance to see this band. Do it. On their last tour, they had 3-4 shows, and performed two nights in every city. When they came by Atlanta, they performed an airliner themed show the first night, and then the second was "country night". While it was nice to see different versions of the songs the second night, I am just not a country person. Don't get me wrong, it was still good, but it didn't live up to the first night--which was, hands down, the best show I've ever been to. I use the term "show" loosely here, as it is so much more than just a concert. First off, they played only in small theaters. Then, the show itself had a loose story, props, videos and people interacting with the audience.
Remember that "different versions" thing I mentioned? Well, as it turns out, Puscifer really only has a handful of unique songs. They just have a LOT of different versions/remixes of those songs. This is most evident when you see that they have three main albums and two of them are remix albums. If you look a bit harder however, you will find an EP and two singles that have new songs, and also new songs and rare MJK stuff is uploaded to Puscifer.com regularly. As such, instead of my usual posting one song from each CD, I'm just going to throw up some of my favorites.
Rev. 22:20 (Dry Martini Mix)
The Humbling River (Duet Mix)
The Undertaker (Renholder Mix)
The Mission (M is for Milla Mix)
This last one has Milla Jovovich (From the Resident Evil movies) singing.
I was once asked who I would choose to include in a band, if availability, money and ego were no objects. My answer is a simple one. I would take Maynard James Keenan and Serj Tankian (System of a Down; solo work) and lock them in a studio with enough food, water, and drugs to last a month, and see what is produced. They can both sing, play a vast array of instruments, and do everything required to mix and produce an album.
As I posted Tool yesterday, I though I would go ahead and take care of MJK's other bands. One of which, is A Perfect Circle. APC is a rock supergroup formed in 1999 by MJK and Billy Howerdel. They have since produced three albums, and are currently working on a fourth.
Their first album, Mer De Noms is French for Sea of Names. Most of the tracks are dedicated to people that Maynard knew. One of my favorite APC tracks, 3 Libras, is about "parasitic-like people seeing something different or special about a person [...] and feed off of the energy in a bad way instead of using it for good."
:( I was going to post a live version of this song, but I forgot that the song's intro (Which is the reason I love it so much.) is on the end of the track before it. The intro says, "This song...This song...is called 3 Libras. And at least two --maybe three-- of those Libras are here tonight...If this song sounds bitter, it's because it is, and I am."
Anywho, here's the song
Next is the song The Nurse Who Loved Me, from their second album, Thirteenth Step. Little known fact: This is actually a cover. The original was by a band named Failure.
APC's third album, eMotive, [sic] is actually a cover album. The only original song on it is Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums, which is a redone version of their previous song, Pet.
So far, I've posted largely unknown bands. I decided to change it up today, and post one that I hope most of you have at least heard of. Tool is one of the three bands that Maynard James Keenan sings in. (The other two, in order of creation, are A Perfect Circle and Puscifer.) Tool is a progressive rock band that was founded in 1990, and have since only released four major CDs. (They've also put out an EP and a live CD/DVD.) However they have said that they are working on a new album, so hopefully that will be released this/next year.
First up, one of their most famous songs, Sober, as seen live at the Reading Festival in 1993. I decided to post this clip, as not only is the song great, but also, it really speaks to how much talent Maynard has to see him that fucked up on drugs and not miss a single beat.
For their next album, AEnima, I couldn't decide on only one song. I eventually narrowed it down to two tracks, the title track (Which is probably my favorite Tool track) and Third Eye. An interesting note here is that both these tracks are based on the works of the late comedian Bill Hicks.
Their third album Lateralus, carries the theme of the Fibonacci sequence. One of the songs, Schism incorporates this in how the chorus is spoken. (see below)
Black | 1
Then | 1
White are | 2
All I See | 3
In my in*fan*cy | 5
Red and yell*ow then came to be | 8
reach*ing out to me | 5
Lets me see | 3
There is |2
So | 1
Much | 1
More and | 2
Beck*ons me | 3
To look through to these | 5
In*fin*ite poss*ib*il*it*ies | 8
As bel*ow, so ab*ove and bey*ond, I im*ag*ine | 13
Drawn out*side the lines of rea*son | 8
Push the En*vel*ope | 5
watch it bend | 3
Lastly, their fourth album, 10,000 Days brought a song about Maynard's' mother, who was paralyzed for the last 27 years of her life (10,000 days). The song was cut into two parts as it's pretty long.
Okay, first off, if you read the description for my blog, I made a point not to dedicate myself to any one topic. As such, I've tried to vary my posts up. However, the fact of the matter is I detest "forced writing". While this primarily applies to school work, it's starting to creep into my blog posts. (I'm notorious for having writer's block.) As such, I'm thinking that I will, for the most part, return to music. It's something that I'm familiar with, and engage in all the time. Also, as I'm sure you all know, I love to discover really unique bands, so there's a good chance you too will discover some new music. With this being said, however, I'm also a super-geek, so don't be surprised if/when some other random topic creeps up from time to time.
Moving on, if you recall, I said that a friend of mine got free tickets to see a folk metal band, Eluveitie. That concert was Saturday night. It was actually a REALLY good show, and was made even better by the fact that we got in free, and before the rest of the crowd. Which means we got right up front. The first band, System Divide, came on stage with the rock version of America, Fuck Yeah! (From Team America: World Police) which was fun. After that, they went into their own songs. System Divide is a melodic death metal band that has both male and female vocals. I was a bit apprehensive when I first saw they were opening (Along with another opener.) because for the last couple of years, I have gotten into a lot of power metal, which almost exclusively has really clean vocals. As such, death metal (even melodic) has become a bit hit or miss with me. I have to say though, that the female vocals made it more enjoyable. If only I was more familiar with their work beforehand, I could have really gotten into them.
Next, was Holy Grail. If you follow metal, you probably have heard of these guys in the past year, or so. Holy Grail came to be when members of White Wizzard (Who has one of the best music videos ever.) left. They are a general heavy metal band from California. They put on a decent set. I say "decent" as I have heard so much about them, and then had the chance to see them open for Blind Guardian in December, but had to go to the lobby because I was sick. (And I wasn't about to miss Blind Guardian!) So, I'm glad I finally saw them, but I guess I hyped them up too much.
Next was a band that some here might have heard of, 3 Inches of Blood. This was another band that I was apprehensive about because I was under the impression that they were a black metal band. (I had heard of them, but never bothered to seek out their work.) To my delight, however, they were more heavy/thrash metal. Because I still need to familiarize myself with their work, I can't say much. The crowd certainly loved them, and they converted me pretty quickly. Also their stage presence was fun. They kept climbing on the speakers to do solos, and such, which prompted the crowd to do the same (And then naturally, dive off of them.)
Finally, Eluveitie played. The venue that we were at has two floors. Upstairs, "Heaven", is where all my previous experiences have been. It's by no means big, but it's decent enough. However, Skillrix had a sold out show up there that night, so we were downstairs, in "Hell". If there is one thing I learned, Hell is tiny. The stage couldn't have been more than 10 feet wide, and Eluveitie had to cram eight people onto it. (Nine, if you count a guest they brought up for a song.) Throughout the night, they broke out multiple steel flutes, a bag pipe, hurdy gurdy, a couple violins, several Old World guitar-like instruments, and of course, modern day guitar/bass/drums. Also, of note is getting to hear the Star Wars title theme being played on a hurdy gurdy. Which, I'll post below.
If you can't tell from the video name, this was taken in Ontario, Canada. I always try to find videos of the concerts I go to, but as of this writing, there is only one video from the show I attended, and it's really poor quality. So when/if I find better videos, I'll add them here.
