Memorable Zaps Guild



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Memorable Zaps Guild

Memorable Zaps Guild

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Memorable Zaps Guild

Memorable Zaps is a guild on Neopets that is 18+, Semi-Lit, Adoption/Zapping.


3 posters

    Memorable Tunes...

    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Re: Memorable Tunes...

    Post  Lenny59 Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:19 am

    You should write for Rolling Stone, Raven. Or for somebody who pays you money to do so. You write VERY well.....just sayin'. and thanks for TAD - raised in PNW, but missed them too, apparently! *huggas*

    Off to find something suitable...
    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Re: Memorable Tunes...

    Post  Lenny59 Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:40 am

    AHA!! I know some of these guys - back from when I was 19 yrs old living in Portland OR...LOL
    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Ride, Sally Ride

    Post  Lenny59 Wed Jul 25, 2012 2:57 am

    RIP honey...we know this song was not about you, but it makes me dream of the stars...

    SyntheticPaper
    SyntheticPaper


    Posts : 81
    Join date : 2012-04-22
    Age : 102

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Ned's Atomic Dustbin - "God Fodder"

    Post  SyntheticPaper Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:44 pm

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    Ned's Atomic Dustbin - "God Fodder"

    1991. Goodness, that was a long time ago. I was still in high school and like most other people in high school I was listening to a lot of music and like a smaller group of people in high school I couldn't care less about the music that most of my local peer group was listening to. Nope, sorry, I just couldn't make myself listen to MC Hammer or Vanilla Ice or whatever else was playing on the little radio in the art room. Instead I gravitated towards the early and still mostly underground alternative music. Now, admittedly, this is not extremely subterranean, but it still was something that no one else in my school ever listened to, which of course made me the coolest one there. Oh, wait, no it didn't, it made me the person everyone looked askance at as they played "Ice Ice Baby" for the 50th time that day.

    Ned's Atomic Dustbin, however, were not anything extremely out of the norm for music though, semi noisy (but still melodic) guitars buzzing about under a singer who never shrieked, growled, screamed or even shouted. Really, the only thing unique about this band (aside from the singers hair, which was always mentioned in articles about the band) is the fact that they had two bass player, one playing the normal bass lines and another playing a melody. It wasn't some hugely odd thing, but it gave the songs a nicely "different" sound. Ultimately though what we have here is a pleasant album from the early days of alternative musics first tentative steps into the mainstream. Supposedly "the kids all loved it", but at my school I was 100% of "the kids" and I was fine with that.

    The biggest "hit" was probably Grey Cell Green.





    SyntheticPaper
    SyntheticPaper


    Posts : 81
    Join date : 2012-04-22
    Age : 102

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Shooter Jennings - "Family Man"

    Post  SyntheticPaper Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:21 pm

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    Shooter Jennings - "Family Man"

    Uh oh, taking a quick break from reliving the '90's for a second.

    Anytime a long(ish) established genre gets really popular in the mainstream there are going to be people complaining about the purity of that genre being corrupted. It happened in the '80s with metal, in the early 2000's with punk and now it's country musics turn (again, it also went through this in the early '80s and '90s. to an extent country has always had this thing going on). Yes for every 15 yr old girl who thinks Taylor Swift is the greatest country singer ever there is an 18 yr old boy who thinks she is nothing but pop and real country is summed up perfectly by Hank 3. And his dad thinks nothing has been country since Garth Brooks. And his grandpa knows that real country music died in the back of a blue Cadillac on the first day of 1953.

    Smack dab in the middle of the current controversy is Shooter Jennings. Yes, that name sounds familiar and indeed it should, he is Waylon Jennings son and as such he has about as much attention in country music as anyone can expect to get. In the last few years Shooter has positioned himself as a champion of underground "true" country music, playing a number of underground bands on his satellite radio program, compiling compilation album downloads of underground bands, producing albums and such. However he has also done a number of controversial things such as use a photoshopped photo of a tank laying siege to the Country Music Hall of Fame on the cover of one of of the aforementioned compilations, naming his underground country movement "XXX" based on moonshine having "XXX" on the jugs, but also turning away quite a few prospective listeners due to XXX having another meaning (and I don't mean straight edge Razz)

    His latest controversial move has been to re-record an older song with one time American Idol contestant and ultra-poppy country singer Bucky Covington. An obvious sell-out move, right? Well, maybe not. According to Shooter, Bucky never wanted to be quite so poppy and after AI he just kind of got thrown into the contract with his label and had no say in the way he was presented or the music he could record. Now that he is no longer signed to that label he wants to move in a different direction and Shooter, being his friend, just wants to help him out. Still, it's a very controversial topic, especially as the song is a very standard pop country tune and the video plays on a lot of southern and country stereotypes.

    Now, all of this is giving a lot of publicity to both Bucky and Shooter, Bucky has a new album coming out next month which I probably will ignore, and Shooter has an album that came out about 5 months ago. Well, what do you know, I have it, even before the latest controversy erupted nonetheless. So let's do what the promo-guys want us to and take a listen.

    First of all, Family Man isn't really underground country, it's not the creepy gothic horror country of Those Poor Bastards, nor the punky country of Goddamn Gallows, nor the blending of classic country and metal of Hank 3. Rather what we have here is what mainstream country SHOULD be, accessible, but not really poppy, rockish, but never losing the underlying country feeling. There are no songs that I really dislike, but there are certain songs that stand out from the others.

    "The Long Road Ahead" is probably my favorite on the album, featuring a lot of mandolin (one of my favorite instruments), soft, rather soothing vocals and a rather noisy guitar solo by Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine.

    "Manifesto No. 4" is a nice semi-hard southern rock song.

    "Southern Family Anthem" is a nice significantly harder southern rock song with lyrics about family sticking together despite their flaws with one specific line ("'cause mama's on crank, daddy's got hep-c. yeah, we all die together, we're a family") that seems to offend a lot of people, though personally I like it, but i guess i am a pretty nihilistic person.

    "Born" the final song on the album, a slow ballad that really wouldn't have grabbed my attention other than the fact that the last half turns much more atmospheric with a lot of strings, echoy drums and spoken word samples. This section of the song ends the album on a dark and ever so slightly disturbing note. This is something I can always appreciate.

    Another song, which isn't on the album, but also figures into the whole "sellout" controversy is the recent single "Outlaw You". This song very specifically calls out mainstream, pop country singers (Eric Church, Justin Moore, etc) who go out of their way to call themselves "outlaws" for no reason other than because it's the new money making trend in country music. Now, while Bucky was not someone really associated with the "faux outlaw" movement, he did indeed use the term occasionally. In fact he even used it in the song which he has recently rerecorded with Shooter, however the word was replaced with "ramblers". Is this an attempt to hide "hypocrisy" as some have suggested, or is it simply a case of someone reconsidering their choice of words and changing that word when given an opportunity?

    To sum this long and rambling review up I shall state this:

    The song with Bucky is pretty bleh.

    "Outlaw You" is a good song with a cool, pissed off attitude and message.

    Family Man is a good mainstream (not underground) country album that harkens back to the country and southern rock of the '70s and '80s that was played by Waylon and others. Not every song is amazing, but none of them are awful either. If you can ignore the controversies surrounding the creator and you like country music, it's definitely worth checking out.








    SyntheticPaper
    SyntheticPaper


    Posts : 81
    Join date : 2012-04-22
    Age : 102

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty 16 Horsepower - "Sackcloth 'n' Ashes"

    Post  SyntheticPaper Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:35 pm

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    16 Horsepower - "Sackcloth 'n' Ashes"
    So as we saw last week, country music and it's mainstream status is quite a big deal, but of course this is not a new thing as there was an "underground country" music as well as a "sell-out mainstream" in the '90s too. So shall we take a look and listen to some Garth Brooks and Shania Twain? No, we shall not, we most definitely shall not.

    "Alt-Country" is an odd genre as there are a few different ways to view it's beginning. On the one hand one can say it began with Uncle Tupelo's first album "No Depression" (after all the biggest magazine covering the genre named itself after that album), but on the other hand there's no doubt that music fitting that sound was being recorded for decades before that (some people want to classify Johnny Cash as Alt-Country, in fact. This is, of course, ridiculous). Regardless of it's founding, alt-country wasn't too far removed from country in general, a bit more serious and rocking sometimes, but nothing that would shock your grandma if she heard you listening to it. That all changed when 16HP came along. For the most part this album introduced the sub-sub-genre of Gothic Country / Gothic Americana to the world. Just what kind of an impact did this band have on the world of underground country music? Well, they basically spear-headed an entire scene (the "Denver Scene") that came to define and dominate the genre. Let's play a little game here. I shall name off some gothic country bands and we can see if they have a connection with 16HP.

    Slim Cessna's Auto Club - 16HP leader and singer David Eugene Edwards has played in bands with Slim and they were church friends back when they were kids.

    Munly - Munly appeared in the video for the 16HP song Clogger. DEE also sang on a song from Munly's "Jimmy Carter Syndrome" album

    Those Poor Bastards - recorded "Death Ain't You Got No Shame" which also appeared on Munly's "Galvanized Yankee" ablum.

    The Reverend Glasseye - was a member of the Auto Club

    Strawfoot - named after a 16HP song.

    And it just goes on and on. I think perhaps The Handsome Family is the only notably well known band in the genre who doesn't have a connection with 16HP. What this goes to show you is that they hugely dominated the sub-genre to the point that it effected alt-country in general, somewhat killing off the lighter, less dark and less gothic elements. This somewhat annoys some people, as it caused a loss of the "classic country" sound in alt-country, but whatever, one cannot blame the band for being just that good, plus the classic sound has slowly begun creeping back in so I for one say it's time to forgive 16HP for being the amazing band that they are. Razz

    Musically speaking what we have here is something akin to what it would sound like if one of the early gothic or post punk bands had relocated from rainy England to the dusty Western US. In fact it sounds a bit like the old Fields of the Nephilim song "Preacher Man" (though with the country and twang turned way up) which is EXACTLY that. It's like 16HP watched the video for that song and decided to make the music fit the visuals even better with slide guitars, xylophones and concertinas. Vocally DEE twangs it up all over the place, adding random yelps and hollers, basically sounding as "backwoods" as humanly possible.

    Lyrically and image-wise the band was also incredibly influential, though it must be mentioned that I doubt any band other than 16HP (and later on Wovenhand) took the lyrics or image seriously. DEE is definitely, very, extremely outspokenly Christian. He has stated that all of his lyrics come from God (or at least the ideas are all inspired by God) and as a child he was raised by his grandfather who was a Nazarene (the denomination I grew up in, yay) preacher, and all DEE wants to do is spread God's word through the music. Sounds like what your standard CCM singer would say, yes? Well, this is anything but your standard CCM. 16HP were never signed to a Christian record label, rather they started out signed to A&M then moved on to various indie labels and a few of their later albums have been re-released on Alternative Tentacles, yes, that is the Dead Kennedys old label which is still run (as far as I know) by Jello Biafra. So, yeah, 16HP, fronted by a guy who says all he wants to do is spread the message of God is now sold by a guy who once said "God told me to skin you alive" on a label whose logo is a bat breaking a cross. Not only that, but the vast majority of 16HP fans are anything but Christians, they are agnostics, atheists, people of varying religions, straight up satanists in black metal bands cover 16HP songs. Why is this? Because it's just that good and it's just that dark and malevolent sounding. There is no way in the world this could ever pass for CCM, little youth group kiddies would be hiding under the tables crying out to the Newsboys for help as DEE wails about every man being an evil liar singing in the black-souled choir, because sometimes God doesn't sugar-coat everything for us. So, no, this is not any sort of Christian bookstore material, especially since there's some fairly harsh swearing on a few of the songs. No, I don't mean the use of "crap" or "hell" or even that scourge of youth groups everywhere "suck", nope it's straight up usage of "the f-bomb", right next to lyrics that came straight from the bible, and songs about killing people. While all of this might sound very odd, it isn't really. Think back to Johnny Cash's live prison albums, those have that exact same combination of elements.

    So, let's sum this all up. Utterly dark, violent, harsh, western, evil-sounding yet ultimately Christian, but yet only truly accepted by those outside of mainstream Christianity (which, i think says something about mainstream Christianity, but that is something for another day). Yeah, this is a weird album, and a weird band and I adore them to the ends of the earth.









    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Re: Memorable Tunes...

    Post  Lenny59 Fri Sep 14, 2012 12:13 pm

    ZZ Top has a new album out! Here's a good NPR article with a couple of samples attached - great stuff!!

    http://www.npr.org/2012/09/13/160939577/zz-top-taking-the-blues-back-to-the-future?ft=1&f=2&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NprProgramsATC+%28NPR+Programs%3A+All+Things+Considered%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

    And I saw this live last night on Graham Norton - my new favorite song!

    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Pop stars from the 80's, then and now.

    Post  Lenny59 Wed Oct 03, 2012 2:33 pm

    Here's a fun article from the SF Gate music section: http://blog.sfgate.com/loaded/2012/10/02/80s/

    There's bands here I had forgotten all about! DO look through ALL the pictures - you won't believe a couple of them. Robert Smith from the Cure's now picture made me snarf coffee out my nose! And I used to have the biggest crush on Thomas Dolby... What a great time capsule - much fun! Be sure to read the commentary below each picture, too!
    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Disco Duck!

    Post  Lenny59 Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:04 am

    O yeah!!
    i remember my gold suede platform boots... Suspect
    SyntheticPaper
    SyntheticPaper


    Posts : 81
    Join date : 2012-04-22
    Age : 102

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Re: Memorable Tunes...

    Post  SyntheticPaper Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:28 am

    Bryne made me play that song earlier tonight... hehe.

    Oh and about the pictures, Morrissey still looks cool, actually I think his older, more refined look suits his sound quite well. And I love the Nick Cave quote, I was officially diagnosed as "boring" by a psychiatrist, so I can relate to it. Razz
    Lenny59
    Lenny59


    Posts : 308
    Join date : 2012-04-17
    Age : 64
    Location : Southern Oregon

    Memorable Tunes... - Page 2 Empty Re: Memorable Tunes...

    Post  Lenny59 Sun Dec 09, 2012 12:07 am

    Raven, 'boring' is not an apellation I would EVER ascribe to you. You are humorous, intelligent, well-read, well-spoken, shall I go on?? Stupid shrink just didn't ask the right questions! flower


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