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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: heavy metal

  • Holiday Music That Won’t Kill You – Part 1: Christmas Present

    Holiday music sucks!  No, actually it’s only sappy overplayed Christmas music that gets annoying.  The listening environment counts too.  Anything played at Christmas Tree Shops while you are waiting for your mom to decide what size glass beads to buy will torture you.  Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane could be jamming right in front of you but the stink of scented candles and the puddle of sweat inside your jacket will ruin everything.

    Relax.  The truth is there are some really great Christmas CDs available.  Here is a guide to some holiday music that won’t kill you.

    Part One:  Christmas Present

    Various Artists – We Wish You a Metal Christmas and a Headbanging New Year

    The obvious comparison is to Twisted Sister’s 2006 release Twisted Christmas. This is way better.
    The CD was produced by Ronnie James Dio’s wife/manager and one of the Kulick brothers.  (I can never remember which one is the producer and which was in Kiss, but it doesn’t matter for this review.)  It contains twelve very well-known Christmas songs performed by very well-known 70s and 80s metal and hard rock guys.  Here are just a few of the bands they were in:  Kiss, Motorhead, David Lee Roth (not him, thankfully), Alice Cooper (yes, him), ZZ Top, Foo Fighters, Black Sabbath, Dokken, Dio, Styx, Judas Priest, and Deep Purple.

    The lineup is what makes this CD so successful.  All the musicians are really good (much better than anybody in Twisted Sister), but it’s really the variety that makes this work.  The concept could get boring very quickly (Beatallica, anyone?).  A different lineup and singer on every track keeps things fresh.

    If you think you might like it, you probably will.  If not, read on…

    Enya – And Winter Came…

    Like the previous selection, this is exactly what you would expect.  Remember the song that goes “Sail away, sail away, sail away?”  No, not Randy Newman.  I mean the one that sounds like the music Jet Blue plays when it’s time to get off the plane.

    This CD sounds just like everything else Enya has done. If you like her ethereal vocals, orchestral synth playing and new agey Celticness, you will dig this.  Holiday CDs can frequently disappoint, but I think this one works because Enya put a lot into it.  She wrote ten of the twelve songs and came up with interesting arrangements for the other two.

    Many songs are not specifically about Christmas.  Some just refer to winter or the Star of Bethlehem.  Two songs are about time passing, which makes them really more appropriate for the Winter Solstice or New Years.

    James Taylor – At Christmas

    Smarm Sandwich.

    Various Artists – The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs

    This new compilation showcases the new generation of female singer-songwriters. It’s mostly very good, but I find myself skipping some of the standards.  That’s to be expected from a holiday comp and I don’t think it’s a big problem, especially for people who really like this kind of music.  Many of these women are good songwriters and it’s the original songs that I find most compelling.  Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson, Brandi Carlisle, Lenka, Meiko, and Colbie Caillat all contributed very interesting songs.  Priscilla Ahn’s version of “Silent Night” is really cool and a couple lesser names handle their standards well.  KT Tunstall, Alice Smith, Katy Perry, and Nicole Atkins are among those who decided to turn their chestnuts into torch songs.

    Like the metal CD, if you think you’ll like this, you probably will.

    I’ll be back soon with Christmas Past and Future.  Shine on.

    Rock Dad is hoping whoever brings presents for the winter solstice brings him the Genesis 1970-75 box set and a good rock and mineral field guide.

  • MisenPOPic-The Resurgence of Hair Metal; Am I happy or still upset?

    At the 1991 American Music Awards, the nominees for best hard rock band were Alice In Chains, Nirvana, and Firehouse. And the winner was… Firehouse. This would be us hair metal fans’ last triumph until sixteen years later when we realized that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Because bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains were soon building steam by bringing a new flavor to hard rock, while the beloved glam-metal bands were slowly but surely becoming extinct. Dial MTV which featured all these terrific bands went bye-bye so more exposure could be given to the up and coming grunge scene in th early 90’s. No more fist in the air, bang your head, make love to the nearest stripper music on the radio or the Billboard charts. We were supposed to think more when we listened to hard rock, wear flannel shirts to make us appear that we just didn’t give a shit and it should be about the music and not the appearance, and sing along to songs about how life sucked and how we needed to stand up to our government. I didn’t care about kids named Jeremy who wanted to kill their classmates because they didn’t fit in, I cared about Suzy and her all day sucker! I cared about nothing but a good time! I didn’t want to think when I listened to hard rock, I wanted to bang my head because metal health drove me mad!

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  • That Guy Who Listens To Psychotic Death XXX? He’s Really a Teddy Bear!

    Some random metalhead kids. Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurek_durczak/.

    This morning, I came across a very interesting article on Yahoo. A survey conducted by those lovable, yet crazy Brits has revealed that musical taste can be an indicator of someone’s personality. While the purpose of the survey alone caused me to make the people’s eyebrow like The Rock Dwayne Johnson, I decided to read on, and I gotta admit, it was an interesting read. Here are a few factoids, according to the researchers.

    Our first “uh, doy” moment comes when it’s said that people who listen to rock and rap tend to be more rebellious, while folks who listen to opera are wealthy and well-educated. They probably should have also thrown “gay” in there, but hey…wasn’t my survey (Just in case anyone is offended by that statement, let me just say that for the record, I and three other members of the MHW staff happen to be gay. So suck it).

    Jazz and classical fans are creative with more self-esteem. Well, hey, creative types tend to do lots of drugs, right? Do me a favor. Listen to “Bitches’ Brew”. Then listen to “Bitches’ Brew” after smoking half a pound of weed. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it better after smoking the pot. You’ll probably also want to sit down with a sketch pad and draw out the colors you see in front of you while you are in the process of listening. See? Hallucinations are fun!!

    Indie lovers lack self-esteem and are not very gentle. Considering most indie-exclusive listeners are douchebags who look down their glasses at anyone who listens to and appreciates pop music unironically, I guess that makes sense. We can also flip this and apply it to those annoying backpacker “all commercial hip-hop sucks” types. It certainly makes me feel better about being hassled by those types. You may love Atmosphere, but you also have the self-esteem of a kid who has been picked on his whole life for being a GEEK!! HA!!

    Metal listeners, contrary to public opinion, are gentle and creative. The creative part I knew all the way back in high school, considering the metalheads were usually the most artistic folks in class. It takes talent to be able to draw some of those band logos, man! It’s only recently, now that I’ve started working around metal bands and labels, that I realize how friendly, nice, and generally soft spoken those tattooed, angry-looking people are. Seriously. Guess all that screaming gets the aggression out!!

    You can read the entire article here and you can actually participate in the study yourself (it’s ongoing!!) here. I wonder what they’ll have to say about a 32 year old black guy who listens to New Kids on the Block.