8 posts tagged “music”

What the crap have I been playing these last weeks?  To relax, I listen to Iron Maiden, and then I play THIS on my blog?  I think I'm having some sort of identity crisis here.

This is another one of those CDs I actually bought myself.  Admittedly, I bought it for Heather because I'd heard a tune or three from it and thought she'd like it.  I was right.  These guys came to Chicago shortly after my purchase, but we didn't make it.  We went to a number of local shows in those days, and I guess we didn't feel we had the time.  Who knows.

This CD comes out of its hiding from time to time, but I think it's largely due to the memories attached to it.  I bought it for her in the first few weeks of being married to her.  And if you know anything about us, you know that we'd only known each other two months before eloping.  I'd been her husband for weeks before I'd pinned down her favorite dessert!  So this CD was a bit of a guess, maybe more than just a bit of one, but I got it right.  It is true that Hetta likes a good deal of music that could be referred to as, "sing-songy", although she continues to surprise me.

I'll play some metal soon.  I promise!  Of course, "soon" is a relative term...

In case you were wondering, the White Sox just swept the Cubs in a three-game stretch played at home.  Although we live exactly one mile north of Wrigley Field, we're Sox fans and are quite happy about this!

Anyway, here's another "Hetta Music" selection.  Heather likes her because she sings in a genuine, slightly older style and not the breathy vocal lurching that is so often mistaken for singing these days.

Enjoy!

Yeah, that's right, I'm playing the Dixie Chicks.  If you're a metal fan who can't stand country (like I used to be), you'll have to wait a while.  This is the first installment in a series of "Hetta Music" selections, as promised.  I "made" Heather buy this CD when I discovered how badly she wanted it, and I've listened to it several times with her since she got it.  I gotta say, not bad.  And I admit that I hear a lot of Heather's soul in the music she likes, so I'm biased.

But hell, any bunch of ladies who can piss off enough moronic Texans so that they literally burn their CDs in protest like a bunch of Nazis over a comment one of the members of the group made about George Bush can't be half bad.  I mean, my wife could have made that comment, and I'd have been laughing myself silly.  Get over it, people of Texas.  Your former governor was missing a brain.  And a soul, from what I can tell.

Here's to the Dixie Chicks, dammit!

I hope you all have finished your taxes by now.  If not, hey, you've got until the end of tomorrow even.  Why bother until, say, tomorrow evening around 9pm?  Yeah...that should do it...  I do know that a number of post offices will be open tomorrow until midnight, some of them even with workers on the curb to receive stamped returns from folks driving by.  Kinda nutty if you ask me.  I could brag and say we've had our refunds from the feds and the state for several weeks now, but that would be cruel, so I'll just pretend to do it and say I didn't.

Well, I'm posting Deep Purple's most recognizable and most popular song, "Smoke on the Water".  Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of this song, but I figured I'd not be doing this band justice if I didn't feature their most well-known ditty at least once.

The funny thing about this tune is that it was never intended to be an actual song.  According to some of the reading I've done, the song's introductory riff (a "riff" is simply a chord progression that repeats throughout a rock song, if you weren't sure) was used to warm up at the beginning of concerts.  When they'd play the riff, though, fans began to become increasingly excited and agitated, assuming it was a song and wanting to hear more.  The band finally decided that the only solution was to write a song around the riff, and the result is this week's Tune of the Week.

I hope you enjoy, and here's hoping none of you who've procrastinated in getting your taxes done have cardiac arrest in the process while you race the clock.  Seriously, though, I'm sure you will all be fine.  Good luck!

A little background is required with this one.  Heavy metal bands, that is, pure heavy metal bands have the tendancy to do funny things.  Many of them are the same funny things that other metal bands do.  And most of them are pretty corny.  Such as, for Christian metal bands, writing a song about "rocking for the Rock," and then saying it over and over and over again throughout the tune.  Or the ever-popular practice of wearing a t-shirt with your band's name on it while performing on stage (groups from other music genres, including other styles of rock music, would never do this). Or how about including the name of your band in a song, or even naming a song completely after your band?  Two bands that have done this that come to mind are Iron Maiden and Iced Earth, two of my very favorite bands I should say.

Hammerfall tops the charts of corniness in that they've got a song with their name in it, "Let the Hammer Fall," and a song just called, "Hammerfall."  Fabulous!  Rock gods!

Anyway, even though these fellows are the kings of corn, they also write some pretty solid, straight-up metal.  But you've got to really like metal to even slightly like this.  It's neither imaginative nor intricate stuff.  But for metal fans such as myself, it's downright contagious.

I bought The Cult's self-entitled album at the Salvation Army near our home for $1.  Needless to say, I was pretty happy.  Although, from what I've read, this album did not receive good reviews, I absolutely dig it.  There is a lot of thoughtful stuff going on on this album, and it's definitely worth your time.  Plus, there's a whole lot of melody in this tune!  If you don't feel something when you hear this song, even just a little bit, me thinks you need to reevaluate some things.  Just my humble opinion.  Enjoy!

 

 

This one's for Gus.  This song was recorded before you were born (1983), and I was eleven.  However, the "theme", err, the name of the song seemed most appropriate to your efforts on that there blog of yours.

Also, Gus, I have been truly fascinated by your tendency to see life's meaning as expressed in visual "snippets."  I've had the habit of recording sounds, like Heather doing something stupid, Miles purring, etc.  A certain sound will catch my ear, and I'll feel the need to record.  I've included a few of those here.  Hope you enjoy!

My wife, Hurricane Hetta, has a cool monthly feature on her blog which she refers to as the "Toy of the Month".  I have decided to pick a tune from my vast collection of music and feature it on a monthly basis.

So, stay tuned for what May brings!