What Band are you Currently Addicted too?

[slueth]

Symphonic Metal. A genre I would not have imagined even existing.

Have you heard of Nightwish?  They have some orchestral metal stuff.

[manfaux]

[keyb_gr]

Have you heard of Nightwish?  They have some orchestral metal stuff.

An understatement if I ever saw one. These Finnish guys pretty much kicked off the whole symphonic metal craze with their '97 album. Popular stuff about ten years ago over here, and judging by album review numbers on Amazon, this continued throughout the decade. All that without a whole lot of mainstream media exposure.

At the time, Nightwish could build upon what Dutch band The Gathering had done 2 years before. I posted a video of these guys in this very thread at some point, IIRC. The world is a small place at times.

Symphonic metal has one big problem, it's pretty much stuck in a niche without a lot of room for evolution. It's quite stereotypical.

Speaking of metal, have I mentioned Ayreon's metal operas already? Maybe not the very most original stories ever, but definitely well executed.

Yours truly currently has a bit of a classical phase. Lately I was looking into various interpretations of Bruckner's 8th, and read up on Karajan (you don't have to like the guy, in fact there's plenty of reasons not to, but even with all the controversy, he's a whole lot more of an inspiration than, say, Lady Gaga...).

Oh, and I read this over @ Head-Fi:

SECRETS TO A RADIO HIT!!!

    * Take an artist who may have some real talent.
    * record an acoustic demo with a guitar and them singing.
    * Toss it in the trash or the extra CD no one listens to.
    * Record the artist saying a few chose words and phrases.
    * Add auto tune.
    * Add bass.
    * Add claps.
    * add hits.
    * more bass.
    * Listen.
    * More auto tuning.
    * more bass.
    * more bass.
    * more bass.
    * more auto tune.
    * more auto tune.
    * more bass.
    * electronic chorus.
    * call in DJ to add a filter effect.
    * Chip/bit tune for about 30 seconds.
    * RADIO HIT!!!

The guy's onto something, I'd say.

[quadibloc]

The guy's onto something, I'd say.

More auto tune. So that's what's replaced more cowbell.

Ah, and here's Nightwish:

I was astounded when I heard Emma Bunton (the artist formerly known as Baby Spice) covering Downtown, mildly surprised when I heard her covering So Nice (Summer Samba, Samba de Verao)... but quite utterly flabbergasted when discovering that she dared to cover Where Did Our Love Go (and pulled it off quite nicely, I think).

Given the T-shirt she was wearing when she covered Where Did Our Love Go above, I should have expected that she would do this one too:

But when it comes to covers, I can't help but be impressed by this one by Susanna Hoffs:

And here's some sheer chutzpah from Finland, a cover of a performer seldom covered:

but seldom is not never, even in France itself... oh, no, this is Italy:

but I'll spare you Grace Jones' version of La Vie en Rose.

Perhaps I'm underestimating. Bobby Darin had a hit with that lovely melody in English, and it was covered again...

[turbocharged]

Been addicted to Dream Theater for a few years now....my favorite Prog Metal band. Favorite album has to be "Train of Thought"

I also love listening to some old NOFX and old school AFI

[keyboardlover]

Old nofx and afi kick ass =)

[quadibloc]

Here's another old foreign-language cover that I thought of some note...

At first, glancing at the group's name, I thought the name of the group was what would actually have been, in French, "Les Schtroumpfs"...

and here's another cover of a lovely old song that they do well:

and yet another:

They sang in French as well as Spanish, incidentally.

But then, yes, I listen to really old music...

But then, good old music lasts...

[keyb_gr]

Cab Calloway- Jumpin' Jive

Fabtastic. Apparently Fred Astaire called this the best movie dance scene ever, and you can see why.

Last night I was zapping through the radio just for fun, to see whether there would be anything interesting out there (turns out it's quite listenable if you zap a lot), and was hooked by this song:

One of those really distinctive voices that one always recognizes.

Seemed like a good opportunity to look out for a used best-of. A vinyl edition of Fleetwood Mac's mega-seller "Rumours" is floating around here, but I don't have anything else.

Here's one that used to be popular in Southwest Germany in the '80s since SWF3 (I think) liked to play it... back in the day when it was common for radio stations to put work into their playlists (and employ people who loved doing that) rather than being spoon-fed by the industry.

Now a song doesn't have to be old to be good. Here's what I perceived to be one of the big hits of last year:

Finally, the current #1 in the German single charts, something listenable for once (sorry to my fellow countrymen who can no longer bear it, but it is a good song, all overplaying aside):

Bit of a KT Tunstall vibe going on there. Apparently this is the best track on the album, the rest supposedly isn't so hot for the most part.

[quadibloc]

I ran across this beautiful melody, and I can't seem to pin it down...

It was also covered in Finnish by another artist, and in that version the sound quality may be slightly better:

It seemed familiar, but apparently it is not a cover of an English-language song: the Swedish version is apparently the original.

[quadibloc]

Well, I always think that someone will appreciate the old memories that I am bringing to them... thus, when they hear this melody, it will bring back pleasant memories of when they heard the English version in the very early years of the 1960s:

This was the original, but it doesn't sound like the hit version most people remember:

One of these is the hit:

Oh, my. Here's something for Ripster:

[JelinaNU]

@quadibloc:
Simone (of Epica) actually learned to sing classically because of Nightwish, specifically the performance of the band's original lead vocalist, Tarja Turunen. The Nightwish video that you posted is from the band's most recent album, its first since their firing of Tarja. (The event caused a major schism in their fanbase.) Their new lead Anette (Olzon) is thought to sound "too rock" to be true Nightwish. For me, Nightwish has always had amazing music outside of the vocals, too. And that is a credit to their composer/keyboardist. He's still in the band; so I still listen to them.

...

I've also spent many hours listening to Andy McKee. Do yourself a favor and Youtube him. He recorded the entirety of two of his albums just for that purpose, and it's worth every moment.

[quadibloc]

I've also spent many hours listening to Andy McKee. Do yourself a favor and Youtube him. He recorded the entirety of two of his albums just for that purpose, and it's worth every moment.

Yes, he plays lovely guitar music. And the video I looked at inspired me to try to find out what the instrument he was playing was called, so now I know what a "harp guitar" is.

Right now, I've been immersing myself in the surreal impression resulting from finding popular songs being performed in other languages, sometimes even involving the transposition of geographical locations:

Harper Valley becomes the head of a fjord, and

Jackson becomes the town of Laxå.

But that doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed other genres:

even though the bulk of my listening is unadventurous easy listening:

[godly_music]

I'm listening a lot to Trentemøller, Zero Cult and The River Empires at the moment. They're all worth checking out. The last one is probably the most obscure. Think The Dear Hunter, but prettier.

[Brian8bit]

Today I came across a band called The Gentleman Losers on Spotify while idly clicking through related artists of someone I've forgotten now. Only the Dustland album is up, but it's really good. Pretty chilled. I especially like track 4 - Ballad Of Sparrow Young.

http://open.spotify.com/album/4x31RikE7FngqN1NfhqpIE
spotify:album:4x31RikE7FngqN1NfhqpIE

[quadibloc]

Found this forgotten gem on YouTube:

It even had a little-known vocal version, although the performer was famous enough:

This, on the other hand, is a very well-known and familiar song, but it has surprisingly good sound quality:

[ironman31]

Been addicted to Dream Theater for a few years now....my favorite Prog Metal band. Favorite album has to be "Train of Thought"

Dream Theater is pretty amazing. My favorite album is either Scenes from a Memory or Six Degrees

[1391401]

Dream Theater is pretty amazing. My favorite album is either Scenes from a Memory or Six Degrees

Live at the Marquee - Surrounded

[RoboKrikit]

Might not be work-safe unless you have closed headphones.

[quadibloc]

When I was a student in Junior High, at one time another student brought an accordion to class and played it for a special occasion. It was a rather unusual-looking accordion, and I wondered how it worked.

The other day, I was looking for information on the chord buttons of a conventional accordion, and in my searches, I came across this video,

which, amazingly enough, was from Finland, a place under my intense musical scrutiny over the past while. And the performer in this video is playing just that unusual kind of accordion.

Well, to make a long story short (actually, it was short enough, involving the Wikipedia article on the accordion), such an accordion is called a chromatic button accordion.

I try to explain its workings very briefly at the bottom of this page on my own web site now, but there are more detailed explanations and diagrams elsewhere.

[cheerios]

This is not a new obsession by any means, but I am definitely digging Kings of Leon's new cd! They never let you down with their music! And no matter how many times I listen to the old stuff, I never get sick of it!

[quadibloc]

I couldn't find a really good-sounding clip on YouTube of a performance on the Wanamaker Grand Court organ, so I settled for a more ordinary instrument...

In any case, associated web searches led me to find this web site which offers an interesting free computer program, called MidiTzer, which lets you turn your computer into a Wurlitzer Series 216 theater pipe organ.

You can play MIDI files downloaded from their forums (registration is required to access that part of their forums), and if you attach MIDI keyboards to your computer, you can play the organ.

[keyb_gr]

Well, I always think that someone will appreciate the old memories that I am bringing to them...

*chuckle* I couldn't help but be reminded of a certain someone in front of this keyboard when I read this. You never know whether people actually read some of the more exotic stuff you put on the web 1.0, except when you get e-mail feedback. That's much like being on the radio. I still wonder whether anyone ever reads my big fancy page on receiver technology.

[panda-R]

A disbanded band called fear of music

[quadibloc]

I still wonder whether anyone ever reads my big fancy page on receiver technology.

Since I knew that I had read some big fancy pages on radio recievers, like the boatanchors page, I had to go and check.

I see that I hadn't encountered your site before, but it is a good page, with useful information even in English. This page reminded me of a recent discussion I engaged in on LiveJournal, where I tried to explain what a superheterodyne receiver was to the nontechnical in a couple of paragraphs.

The subject came up because it is a discussion page about a comic about a young woman named Agatha Heterodyne. She is the latest scion of a family of mad scientists.

Incidentally, I think the performance of Sambalina I linked to above is the only one on YouTube; it was recorded before by Joe Venuti and his Blue Five, and this recording was even reissued on a recent CD compilation, but while there are other recordings of Joe Venuti and his Blue Four, and Joe Venuti and his Blue Six, Joe Venuti and his New Yorkers, Joe Venuti's Rhythm Boys, Joe Venuti's All Star Band, and Joe Venuti's All Star Orchestra (not to mention Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang with their All Star Orchestra) there just isn't that one.

Oh, and here he is with someone famous.

And here's the theme music from a movie which happened to have the same name as a completely different song...

a piano performance of music by the composer of the music for the movie that rocketed the governor of California to stardom. You know, this one:

As for the song I was thinking of... it was belatedly given a funny music video...

in which the singer herself made a cameo appearance apparently...

And YouTube hasn't run out of foreign-language versions of her songs, either...

[bhtooefr]

Myself, I've been listening to Cira Las Vegas's stuff lately... most of what she does is covers, though.

Here's the only original song she's got up:

A couple of covers (most of them aren't made in a studio with professional editing, when she does editing, she does it in Windows Movie Maker):

Yes, an Amazing Horse cover. (This is actually the one I was linked to first.)

[bhtooefr]

Fixed.

[quadibloc]

Here's an unusual cello performance on YouTube:

The composer, rather than the performers, is credited in the video title. I'm sorry, Euday, I can't do that.

[CephalicCarnage]

impractical to list.

But let me highlight some underdogs:

yes!

Shawn Lane was so amazing...

woody, I bow to you.

[woody]

We all bow to the late great Shawn Lane.

Welcome to GeekHack!

[CephalicCarnage]

Wow, just realized that without even thinking, I made my first post in response to seeing Shawn Lane haha.

G.A.S. is quickly turning into K.A.S.  (hopefully someone will know what I mean)

[woody]

G.A.S. is quickly turning into K.A.S.  (hopefully someone will know what I mean)

... that you have now a strange hunch for keyboards, too?


Here, something to soothe you:

[CephalicCarnage]

Wow, you just read my mind.  I was just watching some Jimmy Herring clips and recently dug out my old Coricidin medicine bottle to pathetically try to play some slide ala Trucks.

[woody]

Wow, you just read my mind.  I was just watching some Jimmy Herring clips and recently dug out my old Coricidin medicine bottle to pathetically try to play some slide ala Trucks.

Funny. You're the only one around that is on my waves of music.
Small world, they say.

[CephalicCarnage]

Funny. You're the only one around that is on my waves of music.
Small world, they say.

Small world indeed, never know what to expect eh?

[keyb_gr]

Yours truly has been looking more into the important female(-fronted) side of '80s post-punk / new-wave and related stuff lately. Those interested may want to listen to "The Young Lady’s Post-Punk Handbook, Vol. 1 to 3" or take a look at this playlist.

Now just about everyone and their dog already knows about Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, Cocteau Twins, Nina Hagen or Lene Lovich. But what about Danielle Dax?

(Not too many smart women with guts in popular music these days, unfortunately. Watch an interview, and you'll know what I mean.)

Or Young Marble Giants, who...

...are a likely influence for this popular modern-day indie act.

And of these guys, Jamie XX has proven to be a source of quality dubstep remixes:

And what would a list of female-fronted one-offs be without the brilliant Throwing Muses?

With all of this background, it should be a bit easier to understand where this young lady was coming from at the time:

[KosherPieFiasco]

Enjoy!

[quadibloc]

I only knew of this song as an instrumental, but the sheet music - in a compilation of "song hits of today" from the early '60s - gave me the original German title, which led me to this:

Here it is sung in English by the singer who apparently had the original German hit in 1960:

(the German words are different, largely dealing with the geographical locations of many cities around the world)... but I think that Americans have a reply to that song...

[WaffleIron]

Totally hooked right now. Perfect music for getting in a good mood.

[quadibloc]

Here is a Russian singer, possessed of remarkable vocal talents, encouraging Soviet youth to study hard in school:

At 0:23, on the blackboard, there is a diagram of a transistor flip-flop.

Note that the singer is Eduard Khil' - another song he has performed, known variously as Trololo or Vocalise, has the potential of damaging your sanity should you listen to it. Please exercise caution.

[quadibloc]

Translated it is A Paean To Potatos

While the title there means "Nikita Mikhailov Loves Kolbasa", which is a kind of sausage, the title of this particular "vocalise" selection, sung by Eduard Khil', actually is about the joy of returning home after an absence.

Given the nature of the Soviet political system (secret police, labor camps), a silly demented grin is probably entirely appropriate.

[quadibloc]

Gigliola Cinquetti, famous for making a hit of the song later covered, again as a hit, in the United States by Al Martino as "To the Door of the Sun", here sings a song I only knew of as an instrumental... particularly by Paul Mauriat:

But it originally came from about the last place I would expect:

Although the singer is from Afghanistan, he is singing in Farsi, not Pashto. (Possibly in Dari, which is Afghanistan's dialect of Farsi - although Pashto is Afghanistan's official language, Dari is apparently used more, at least in business and in the cities.)

[quadibloc]

El Bimbo?

Yes. It was composed in Afghanistan, and given its Portuguese title by a French musical group that made a hit out of it.

[keyb_gr]

Here's one for the collection of classically-rooted songs (I hope I didn't post this one before):

No need for me to write much here, it's all documented very well.

[quadibloc]

Amazingly enough, I still encountered something surprising from Laila Kinnunen:

here seen performing early in her career with her sister Ritva, who ended up leaving the performing side of showbiz for a relatively unexciting career as a television executive.

Fortunately, the A. Aallon Rytmorkestra from Finland also performed this song, giving its English name. It was so familiar, but I had not heard it in ages... and so I could not have thought of its name myself. (Saija Varjus, on the other hand, has a recent hit with a completely different Finnish song of the same title.)

Here's a familar version:

and another one that was a hit:

and a version with the English lyrics:

When the title is a single word, one has to search in other places to get extra keywords with which to find the good versions...

[Oqsy]

**** yeah, Chet Atkins.  Finally this thread is interesting to me again

[cerhem293]

Totally hooked right now. Perfect music for getting in a good mood.

Parov Stelar gogogogo!

Discovered him while watching root.Drewbie's Starcraft stream.  So sick!

[keyboardlover]

For some reason I'm totally addicted to this song right now:

Btw, the album is in my top 10 of all time.

[strum4h]

The Avalanches, Bonobo, Toro Y Moi.

[panda-R]

KATIE MELUA ftw!

[panda-R]