Stone Sour

So, really the only reason I'm writing this post is because remember those two free tickets my friend won? Well, he won those by entering a weekly raffle for a venue in Atlanta (The Masquerade). Ever since then, I too have entered. I mean, I'm already on their mailing list, so I'm not going to get any more spam. And all I have to do is choose three of their upcoming shows, and I have a chance to win two tickets to one of those shows. Guess what? I WON!....Unfortunately, for the past several weeks, my number one pick has been Amon Amarth, and alas I did not win those tickets. Instead, I won two tickets to see Stone Sour with Theory of a Deadman, Skillet, Halestorm and Art of Dying. (Which, I mean free is awesome. Don't get me wrong, but first off, this isn't a show I would consider paying to see, and secondly, I'm already planning to see An Evening With Amon Amarth and I don't have tickets yet. I'm worried why I didn't win them. I REALLY hope they aren't sold out!)

Moving on, Stone Sour is an American rock group that is mostly known for being the side project of Cory Taylor. (The lead singer for Slipknot.) I'll admit, I listen to both. But, are they my favorite bands? No. Stone Sour is supposed to be a side project that Taylor can record slower songs for. As such, I like *GASP* a lot of the really slow stuff they've put out. Well, guess what? A lot of that is on their second album Come What(ever) May. I'm not saying that their first, self titled album has no good songs, or that none of them are slow. What I guess I'm saying that I like their second album more. As such, I'm skipping the first, and posting more of the second. The only song that I kinda want to post from their self-titled is Omega. But that's spoken word. Fuck it. Here's a hyper link. BUT I'M NOT POSTING A VIDEO!

Okay, so for actual music, here's Through Glass........Okay, so I can't find just a normal "studio version song + cover art" video. It's all either live or music video. And both annoy me. I dunno.... Perhaps it's just my mood....Or the 100 proof vodka in me. No. It's not that. Anywho, here's the music video.



Next is Zzyzx Road. Yey. Normal video.



I also really like Sillyworld from this album, but I'll move on...

Here's Say You'll Haunt Me from their newest album, Audio Secrecy. I don't know about you, but I hear this ALL THE TIME on XM.



And lastly, here is Hesitate from the same album....This video also annoys me for some reason. So you get cover art.

Ross The Boss

Okay. Well, part of me really wants to cover the first five Manowar albums that I missed yesterday, but I can't really do that AND cover the two albums Ross has released as Ross The Boss. Anywho, like I said yesterday, Ross left Manowar in '89, and has since toured solo. (Well, not COMPLETELY solo. Ross The Boss is a band. Think Alice Cooper. There's the person and the band.)

Something that I left out yesterday is that I actually got to see Ross perform last year at the ProgPower kick-off show. I was going to post one of the photos I took there, but I seem to have deleted the PPXI Thursday night photos. :( I WILL post a photo of the setlist that I was able to grab though. I didn't get it signed, but I always collect the random concert stuff that I obtain.

yeyz setlist. You can also see a Mastodon setlist there,
as well as a signed Leaves Eyes drumstick, and my PPXI Gold Badge. 

Because I kept wanting to post it yesterday, I'm going to start today's music listing off with All Men Play On 10. As you can see, that was not played at the show, no matter how many times the crowd yelled "PLAY ON TEN!!" (I guess no one tells the man what to play....It just ain't done that way.)



Next is the title track for Manowar's first album, Battle Hymn.



And now for some non-Manowar material. This is I.L.H./Blood Of Knives, from New Metal Leaders.



And finally, Dead Man's Curve. It's not my favorite track off of the 2010 album, Halestorm, but it's the only one that I could find on Youtube.

Manowar

First off, yes, these guys can be a bit cheesy. But if you just learn to roll with it, then their music is actually pretty good, and really fun. Manowar is an American heavy metal group that was formed in 1980. Most of their songs have a sword and sorcery theme to them. They also have the Guinness World Records for being the loudest band, and playing the longest set (5hours and 1 minute). With a band that has been around for over 30 years, there's no way I can cover all their albums, so I won't even try. (I lied here....See below) I also won't be covering their first five albums. Even though some of my favorite tracks come from them, their guitarist/co-founder left the band in '89. He has since, among other things, toured as Ross The Boss, playing some unique songs, but mostly songs from those early albums. Since this is an easy way to squeeze another post out of my music collection, I'll cover them tomorrow.

First up is Metal Warriors, and it's more of a 'metal anthem', from their first album without Ross, Triumph Of Steel.



Next is Call To Arms, from their 2002 album, Warriors Of The World United.



This is Fight Until We Die, from the same album.



And lastly, Sons Of Odin, from their album, Gods of War




Hmmm...I just noticed that if I exclude live, compilation and remastered albums, I can cover all their 90s+ albums if I add one more song. (Of course, I could replace one of the WotWU songs, to make this post shorter. But it's not like I'm forcing any of you to watch every video. If you like what you hear, continue. If not, then it's cool.)

In that case, here's The Gods Made Heavy Metal, from their album, Louder Than Hell. It's another anthem-ish song.

North American tour dates for A Perfect Circle

I saw this posted on Blabbermouth recently. I am disappointed that they aren't mimicking their west coast tour from last year. (Three nights in each city, playing one full album per night. Also each venue was really small. Some even with a capacity under 1000!) With that being said, however, this is the only Maynard band that I haven't seen live yet. AND.......THEY'RE PERFORMING NEW MATERIAL!!!!!!

May 22 - Columbus, OH - Rock on the Range
Jun. 29 - Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Jun. 30 - Kent, WA - Showare Center
Jul. 02 - Gibbons, AL - Boonstock Festival
Jul. 04 - Winnipeg, MB - Centennial Concert Hall
Jul. 06 - St. Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium
Jul. 08 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
Jul. 09 - Toronto, ON - Edgefest
Jul. 12 - Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion
Jul. 13 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
Jul. 15 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
Jul. 16 - Philadelphia, PA - Penn's Landing - Festival Pier
Jul. 17 - Washington, DC - Constitution Hall
Jul. 19 - Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheatre
Jul. 20 - Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle
Jul. 22 - San Antonio, TX - Freeman Coliseum
Jul. 23 - Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theatre
Jul. 25 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
Jul. 28 - Los Angeles, CA - Gibson Amphitheater
Jul. 29 - Sacramento, CA - Memorial Auditorium
Jul. 30 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre
Aug. 02 - Denver, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Aug. 09 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE

In other Maynard news, Puscifer has been planning a DVD release for a while. I forget where I heard it, but Maynard said he was thinking of doing it more as a "Puscifer: Season 1" than "Puscifer: Live At X". Which makes sense as their live shows were so theatric and varied so much from night to night. The reason I bring this up today is because FourthEye.net recently said, "we can expect a Puscifer announcement in the coming weeks as well". So I'm thinking it will be some DVD news.

And that only leaves Tool. I've heard a lot of people bitch that with Maynard involved in APC/Puscifer, he's forgotten about Tool. While there's no new news right now, they ARE working on a new album, which should be out either this year, or next.

Random Video of the Whenever I Feel

I tried to think of a way that I could incorporate this into a "real" post, but when I failed, I decided that I still loved it so much that I had to share it. Ergo the new Random Video of the Whenever I Feel. Will this be a weekly segment? Monthly? Will there ever be another Random Video again? Who knows? I don't! If one of you do, please contact me. I must know your trade secrets!

Anywho, this is Lernert & Sander's "Elektrotechnique" and it is, hands down, the dirtiest worksafe video I have ever found.


Elektrotechnique from Lernert & Sander on Vimeo.


Post-writing/pre-posting edit:

HUZZA! I bring you.....MOAR CONTENT! Two more music videos these guys did. Personally, I don't think they top the first one, but I still like their style.


Coffin Poser from Lernert & Sander on Vimeo.


and


A dog and pony show from Lernert & Sander on Vimeo.

Ayreon

Ayreon is one of the many projects that Dutch composer and musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen has going on. Like Maynard and Puscifer, Ajern is the only permanent member in Ayreon. With that being said though, each Ayreon album has a complex story, with many characters, and each character is voiced by a different singer. So, like in a movie, if a character appears in another album (As all the CDs are connected in some fashion.) then he makes sure to cast the same singer for that part.

My favorite Aryeon album is The Human Equation. There are 20 tracks on it, and each track is one day that the main character (Me) is in a coma. He comes to inside his own head, with no memory of how he got there. As he starts to piece together his memory, he meets his mental projection of people he knows, and the personas of various emotions. At the same time, Me's Wife and Best Friend visit his body in the hospital.

This might not be the best start to Ayreon as it's not really representative of the rest of the discography. (I believe this is the only track with any kind of screams in it.) But that's also one of the reasons that I love it. It's Day Sixteen: Looser. In it, Me's abusive Father is basically telling him not to fight to leave the coma. That Me is worthless. Et cetera.



Another great album is Into The Electric Castle. In it, a mysterious voice has announced that he has drawn various people from various eras of Earth. They must travel through a plane of "no space and no time", find The Electric Castle, and search it for a way back home. This song, The Castle Hall, is mostly dealing with Barbarian and Knight as they have to face the ghosts of those they have slain.



This next album I'm going to bring up, Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer, is one of the albums that connects many others together. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to try to leave those connections out, and still try to make sense. In short, Earth has been destroyed, and a group of survivors have fled to Mars. But after a while, they ran out supplies, and have died off. The main character of the album is the only surviving human left, and he was born after the colonists fled Earth. So the only way he can experience Earth is by using a machine called the Dream Sequencer that puts the user in an hypnotic sleep so they can experience old memories, or even memories of past lives. It ends with him eventually going back to when the first homo sapien appeared. Musically, UM pt1 is much slower than it's counter-part. Parts of it even remind me a bit of Pink Floyd.



Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator continues the story of The Dream Sequencer, in which the last colonist decides to see if he can go back in time any further. He finds a way to go back to before the Big Bang, and see the birth of the very first soul, The Universal Migrator. Doing so, however short circuits the machine, and kills him. But as the machine can only show you your own past lives, it turn out the he is/was/will be the Universal Migrator. Musically, this album is heavier that pt1 as it's supposed to show the chaos of the Universe before the Big Bang.

Well, I think that's going to be it for Ayreon. If you liked it, be sure to also check out The Final Experiment, Actual Fantasy, and 01011001. Those are his other LPs. Of course, if you're like me, you might also want all the singles, EPs, and compilations as they all have unique songs.

Electric Six

According to Wikipedia, "Electric Six is a six-piece metro Detroit-based band that plays what has been described as a brand of rock music infused with elements of garage, disco, punk, new wave, and metal." They are most known for their music videos, Danger! High Voltage! and Gay Bar. Those two songs really do set a precedence for the rest of their discography. You can't tell if you should laugh uncontrollably, or dance. Also, this band is nothing, if not prolific. They typically release a 13 track album every year. As such, I'll just post a few of their music videos.

This is one of their most popular songs, Danger! High Voltage!, from their freshman album, Fire. I find it hilarious that if you listen, Jack White is obviously singing the backing vocals, but to this day, he still denies it.

Next, is Gay Bar, from the same album. A side note here: I had to search for the uncut version of this song. Not because of any cussing. Not because of the fact that there are multiple Abraham Lincolns giving each other bubble baths....Because of the words "nuclear" and "war"....And THEN, when I found an uncut version, it was flagged as inappropriate. (Whereas the other version that uses whips to bleep out "NUCLEAR" AND "WAR" is apparently perfectly safe for our little virgin ears.) Oh censorship.

This is the opening track, Body Shot, from their album, Kill. I will add a warning that it's basically Monty Python mixed with a porno. So, you know, be sure to watch it right in front of your boss, kids, and minister.

Electric Six "Body Shot" (2009) - NSFW 18+ from Another Reybee Productions, Inc. on Vimeo.

And finally, a sample from their latest album, Zodiac. This is A Love Song For Myself.

As a final note, I should be getting back to my routine schedule now, so I am turning comment moderation on again. It lets me keep track of who's commenting better. And that, of course, ensures that I get back to all of your blogs.