2017 - October 29 - Cats, Sex, and Nazis

It's time to summarize the Trump presidency so far - and probably whatever is left of it as well. I'll let NoMeansNo do it - to get a perspective that is both removed geographically (they are Canadian, after all) and temporally (this song is from the album Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy from 1993). Oh - if you fail to see the reference to cats here, just remember what Donald Trump likes to grab women by (also, as a complete aside, today should be all about cats, as it was Rufus' birthday - and he will forever be my one and only cat - he would turn 34 today). Here's the Trump presidency in a nutshell: Cats, Sex, and Nazis.

2017 - October 28 - Ocean Cloud

So I drifted away from Marillion in 1989, when Steve Hogarth came into the band, and I really didn't take another look at them until my daughters got a new pediatrician. At one of the first appointments, I saw he was wearing a Marillion t-shirt - and it turned out he was a big fan (there is nothing like finding shared musical interests...). I started exploring their later work again at that point, and they had just released the album Marbles (2004). It was available both as a single and double cd - and I will admit that I found the double CD for download and listened to it. I liked what I heard, but put it away and stopped listening again - until fairly recently, when I ended up purchasing several post-Fish releases, including the 2 CD Marbles. And that is where today's song is from - and it really showcases what Marillion is all about now. Probably different than they would have been with Fish, but that is not a knock. However, I thought it a nice touch to present post-Fish Marillion in relative proximity to the last song I featured with him. Here is Ocean Cloud....

2017 - October 27 - Storm Son

I was really surprised to see that I hadn't included any songs by Enslaved yet on this blog. They are one of my absolute favorite extreme metal bands, although I fail to see how they are all that extreme anymore. They are definitely challenging at times - Grutle Kjellson's growls sound really makes him sound like a corpse whose vocal chords have rotted beyond salvation - but the inclusion of clean singing and atmospherics really has elevated their music far into the progressive realm during this young century.

They started in Haugesund in the year I graduated high school, which was way back in 1991, but are now based in Bergen, Norway. I was not listening to them at the time, as I didn't discover them until right around the release of Vertebrae in 2008 as a result of finding Opeth and exploring the more extreme metal I had dismissed when I was younger (which is kind of the opposite of what most people do - mellowing out with the seems to be the norm). They were started by friends Grutle Kjellson (bass and vocals) and Ivar Bjørnson (guitar), and eventually evolved into a five-piece band before the release of Isa in 2004. Their lineup was stable from 2004-2016, with Cato Bekkevold on drums, Arve "Ice Dale" Isdal on guitars, and Herbrand Larsen on keys, vocals, and guitars, but in 2016 Larsen left and was replaced by eminent Håkon Vinje. They just released their fourteenth studio album, E, two weeks ago today, on Friday the 13th of October, which is only fitting...

They had the best ever response to the debate of music downloads following the Norwegian political party Venstre suggesting that all downloads should be legal for free. The leader of Venstre at the time, Lars Sponheim was a farmer with free-range sheep in the mountains, so they decided that since the sheep was grazing on public land, that was similar enough to music being available online, they could just "download" a sheep. They then took it in to the Norwegian parliament to return it to Sponheim - but he wasn't there... Ironically, he was in the mountains reigning in his sheep when they tried bringing it to him. But the point was pretty darn solid, if you ask me - and a much better approach than Metallica's Napster crusade in terms of getting at the heart of the problem with music downloads.

But - back to the song of the day. The album E is really solid, and the opening track really showcases all sides of Enslaved. Storm Son is well worth a listen...

2017 - October 26 - Angel Or Devil

OK... So it's time for some raucous rock'n'roll... And where better to go than to British Columbia, Canada for a visit with now disbanded band NoMeansNo. They remain one of my favorite punk rock (jazz) bands - with brothers Rob and Tom Wright on bass (and lead vocals) and drums respectively along with Tom Holliston on guitar starting with The Worldhood Of The World (As Such) in 1995. They retired last year following an announcement that Tom Holliston was leaving. For today's song, we are going all the way back to the 1995 album that featured the debut of Tom Holliston as well as a second drummer in Ken Kempster. I love the title - The Worldhood Of The World (as Such) - and I love the driving drums on today's track, Angel or Devil.

2017 - October 25 - Alpha

OK - so not a raucous rocker today either, but one of my all time favorite pieces of electronic music: Alpha by Vangelis from the album Albedo 0.39 from 1976 - which also was used in the TV series Cosmos, where Carl Sagan explored the universe in 1980. Vangelis a Greek composer who is no stranger to soundtracks - he won an Oscar for Chariots of Fire, and he also scored Blade Runner, which is one of my favorite sci-fi movies. He was not used for Blade Runner 2049, but I could hear echoes of his original soundtrack in the new music by Hans Zimmer as well. But here he is from 1976, a song well worth listening to: Alpha.

2017 - October 24 - Script for a Jester's Tear

Today's song is how Marillion introduced themselves to the LP buying world. They had released the single Market Square Heroes prior to the release of the album Script For A Jester's Tear in 1983. Led by a tall and charismatic Scotsman going by the name Fish (his real name was Derek Dick), they had Mick Pointer on drums for a little bit longer (he was fired after their UK tour for the album) before he was replaced by Ian Moseley, who still remains with the band. Fish left in 1988, with Steve Hogarth as the new lead singer, while the core of the band - Pete Trewavas on bass, Mark Kelly on keyboards, and Steve Rothery on guitar - still remains the same. The departure of Fish was such a dramatic one that people still are split on what version of Marillion they like better - the 5 years (on records, 9 in total) with Fish or the 29 years with Steve Hogarth. I was solidly entrenched in the Fish camp, but I have come along with h. and may actually go see them when they come to Grand Rapids next year. But there is no doubt that they are a very different band depending on who sings - much like one could say about Genesis.

The song today is really strong. It is also long - and it has the same melancholy quality to it as the songs of the last few days. That might mean I have to bring out a raucous rocker tomorrow just to change the pace, but for today, I am sticking with Marillion and Script From A Jester's Tear...

2017 - October 23 - Dirt In The Ground

It's October. It's rainy. The leaves that had a pretty color have all fallen to the ground and are turning brown. I think this is a perfect day for a reminder from Tom Waits. Dirt In The Ground is from his 1992 Grammy winning album Bone Machine, and it is the perfect fall song.

2017 - October 21 - Nobody's Fault But My Own

Beck (Hansen) just released a new album, Colors. It is bad. At least for me it is just about unlistenable. But then again, when I started to look at the albums he has released, I realized that he has been very hit and miss for me since the Mutations album - and that made me take that album out again, just so I could remember just how good he used to be - and can be. And track two is just amazingly great. It's called Nobody's Fault But My Own, and with a great droning acoustic backdrop, it is an elegy for a relationship the protagonist messed up... Enjoy!

2017 - October 20 - Try To Disappear

It seems like this is happening from time to time with my blog - that I disappear for a few days, only to come back stronger. Maybe that's part of my personality - I never like crowds, so I try to disappear a little. Of course, given my stature and appearance, that is way easier said than done... But thinking back, that has always been what I have tried doing - finding a seat on the perimeter, shoulders pulled forward, head slightly down (and this was even before I had the excuse of looking at my cell phone). And trying to avoid manspreading, especially if it is crowded on either side, not giving anyone an excuse to talk about that big guy who invaded their space. Being a big guy makes making yourself smaller quite the challenge.

Granted, that's not the theme of the Baroness song Try To Disappear, but it is an awesome song, and I need a little Baroness in my life today. Time to change music in the car (although Motorpsycho's The Tower is great). Time for a new song here...

2017 - October 15 - Tin Soldier

I really like The Small Faces... Kenney Jones on drums, Ian McLagan on organ/keyboards, and the leaders, Steve Marriott on guitar and vocals and Ronnie Lane on bass and vocals. Eventually they added Peter Frampton, and then it all collapsed. However, it didn't collapse until after they had released some mighty powerful music on both Decca (which also was the home of The Rolling Stones) and Immediate Records (which was run by The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham). As part of their Immediate output, they released the song Tin Soldier in 1967, the second of two instant classics (the other was Itchycoo Park - and yes, I expect to play that one as well). Tin Soldier was not released on any regular album - it was a single only. It is a Steve Marriott composition - and he also takes the lead vocals on it...

2017 - October 14 - Uninvited

I don't know what made me think about this song today, but I remember when I first heard it and how incredibly powerful it was. Alanis Morissette was a powerhouse in the late 90s. Her albums Jagged Little Pill and Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie sold well, she had a great live band (featuring Taylor Hawkins, who left to join the Foo Fighters), and she seemed unstoppable (even though there was the great SNL line, going something like, Alanis, not everything you write in your journal is a song - referencing her very strange phrasing of words in her songs to make the words she wanted fit the song.

Today's song is a great example of that. I had never understood what she sang (but now I do because the words are in the YouTube link). Her syllables are stretched and pronounced in ways that completely prevented me from hearing them. But... The music spoke to me. So simple, yet building and building to an incredible climax. The use of dynamics is spectacular.

This is from the Wim Wenders movie City of Angels. This is Uninvited.

2017 - October 13 - I Ain't Superstitious

Friday the 13th. Long held to be a day of bad luck... It's a good thing we have Willie Dixon to set the record straight... Granted, it was recorded by Howling Wolf in 1961, and artists as far apart as Santana and Megadeth have also had their take on it. But... Then there is Jeff Beck - from the album Truth from 1968 featuring Rod Stewart on vocals... Yeah, now we're talking... I Ain't Superstitious.

2017 - October 12 - Somewhere In Space

Today's featured musician was weird. By any standard. Just plain weird. What else can you say about someone who takes on a name after the Egyptian sun god Ra. However, he created some wonderfully strange music. Today's tune, Somewhere In Space is by Sun Ra and His Myth Science Orchestra, and it is one of the more accessible pieces. He was out there in thought and in music, but there is something very compelling about that...

2017 - October 11 - 'Round Midnight

So I missed a great milestone yesterday - the late great Thelonious Monk would have turned 100. I got introduced to Monk late - just a few years ago, I believe it might have been in the music appreciation class I took at MCC. What I found was a composer and pianist capable of devastating beauty and intricacy. There are so many tracks to play, but this is one of my absolute favorites. 'Round Midnight has become a jazz standard since it was written in the early 40s and recorded in 1944, and I first got to know Miles Davis' version with the haunting muted trumpet. However, in 1957, Thelonious Monk released a solo piano album, Thelonious Himself, and that's where this solo piano version of 'Round Midnight is found. I am glad I discovered Monk - he is a true treasure in jazz, and he was born one hundred years and a day ago today.

2017 - October 10 - No Quarter

It's been quiet from me again for about a week, but have no fear, I am back again... I have known this was the song I would play today for quite some time - I just had to think about the approach for a minute or so (maybe 10,000 minutes, but who's counting). Anyway - the song is No Quarter and the artist is Led Zeppelin. And the version is from Celebration Day, so it is only 10 years old, and it features Jason Bonham on drums.

I think this might start my trinity series... I have three favorite Led Zeppelin songs that tower over anything else they've done, so I started thinking about finding three songs from other bands as well - especially if there is one of them I haven't played yet. For Led Zeppelin, my trinity is When The Levee Breaks from their fourth album (1971), Kashmir from Physical Grafitti (1975), and today's song, No Quarter, from Houses Of The Holy (1973) - although I play the live version from 2007.

I still remember when I got Houses Of The Holy. I bought it on cassette tape, and it wasn't very expensive. I remember wondering about the song titles, especially D'yer Mak'er, wondering how the hell I was supposed to pronounce that (hint: Jamaica - but that took a lot of reading of their history to figure out). But I had no expectations at all to No Quarter, a song that came out of nowhere and swept me off in a blizzard, because that is what I am feeling (the winds of Thor are blowing cold). This is John Paul Jones' finest moment in Led Zeppelin - his electric piano completely owns this song. And Jimmy Page's guitar isn't far behind. Bonzo's drumming was always understated on this song - but in his son Jason Bonham's hands, it gets even better. And Robert Plant... Well... He is Robert Plant. He is releasing a new solo album on Friday, and I am excited about that.

But to me, No Quarter is simply one of Led Zeppelin's finest moments - regardless of version. And I hope you will enjoy it as well...

2017 - October 3 - Into The Great Wide Open

What a weekend... I took time off from just about everything to spend with my parents before they left for Norway again. I had to teach on Friday, but other than that I didn't do much that could be considered productive... So over the scope of this one weekend, we ended up watching soccer, celebrating my mom's birthday, visiting Grand Rapids' tourist trap #1, Artprize, where I ran into Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top but was too starstruck to get a picture taken, having them leave - and then take in news of death and destruction. I won't comment directly on the shooting in Vegas outside saying it's a tragedy. However, too many news outlets and people are doing too much speculation, and it's not doing anyone any good. Just report the facts as they come out. Talk about the aftermath. But this incessant analysis of what could be behind the shooting is bullshit in its purest form. Until trained people gather a ton of information and have the full picture, it is a waste of air to speculate based on the steady trickle of information leaking from who knows where...

And then there was Tom Petty. I wasn't the biggest fan, but I liked him a lot. I like that he got to finish what he already had labeled his final tour. There is poetry in that to me. But I will miss his voice. Free Falling has had a great place in my heart for a long time, but today I want to play another one of his great songs: Into The Great Wide Open, the title track from his 1991 album. How many stars can you identify in this video?