Just...what the hell is it?

Greetings and salutations my good friends. I hope this blog finds you in good health and spirits. The rainy and snowy Baltimore has somewhat isolated me to the indoors, providing for some quality time with the Xbox 360 and some lovely listening choices. Well besides maiming fellow geeks and 13 year old children who insist on screaming in the microphone with their mouth filled with hardware, I took time to listen to two CDs.
The first of which I won't spend much time on it as it was somewhat covered before. This CD is Rob Zombie's new release, "Live". Which is just that, a CD of a live performance. The liner has no location or date listed which makes me sad. I like to know things like that. The thing is metal works so much better with a crowd. Not that I don't enjoy the art on a recording, but the audience reflects the energy and really brings it out. Not to mention, a band can't do a fade out on a live album, so we get to hear them fully composed out. As some of you know, the fade out, in my opinion, is a huge cop out. The hardest part of composing is the ending, how to finish your idea. Too many bands just let it go and fade out on a loop. This is lame. Anyways. This CD had lots of energy, and the standard primal rage feel the Zombie packs into a show. It was great to recover the fun of a few Saturdays ago with a CD. It is practically the same set.

The second CD that I listened to was by a band I never heard of before. It was recommended to me by my branch manager and friend, Bob. He had heard them on NPR. The group is called "Over the Rhine". It is hard to describe them. The library cataloged it as "Rock". I would put it more in popular. The core of the group is a duo, of a guy on piano and a lovely female vocalist (appearance and voice wise). They add on an unusual combo including bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and some others. The arrangements for the instruments are quite good. They have a New Orleans brass band kind of sound to them, with very smooth, complex chord progressions. The lyrics are very deep, yet simple and have great movement to them. The words themselves are part of the melody, the syllables flow wonderfully. So this brings me to the title. Just what the hell would you classify this music?


Theres a clip of them. Are they jazz? Are they rock? Are they blues? I can't tell you, but they hit something in me. I haven't been excited by a newish band like this since "The Killers". Their flow is something to be envied and studied for my lyric writing in the future.

With the sounds of the Trumpet Child, I end this blog entry with wishes of your A's be 440, and your Allegro to be brisk but controlled. Good evening

All aboard the Crazy Train

Alright, hello again music fans. I am here and still alive after the 12 days of Christmas. I almost didn't survive.

The topic of this entry will be the Rob Zombie/Ozzy Osbourne concert I attended on January 5th in Washington, DC.

Before I go into the musicality, I must say I am disappointed in parents and the "straights" who showed up to the concert, behaving kind of like its a piano recital at Carnegie Hall. there were children there. Parents brought their kids, to hear Ozzy Osbourne, the "Prince of Fucking Darkness". Rob Zombie showing his gore fest, naked lady B movie clips while playing, and never mind the chicks in the crowd flashing the cameras for the giant screens in around the arena. Bad idea folks. I saw many parents taking their kids out. Good job wasting that money. Take them to Hannah Montana.

Anyways, the music. The first band to go on was the opening act of "In This Moment". good metal group. Four goth looking guys then one pretty blond lead singer who dresses like little bo peep. She skips around the stage then starts screaming. But don't let the scream fool you, shes got some pipes on her for some real singing. I was impressed.



Thats a clip of them from Ozzfest.

Rob Zombie was everything as expected. His stage presence, presentation, and performance were all tight, and well synchronized. Puppets, costumes and all were amazing. Not to mention the Rob zombie feel of always pushing the tempo, in your face, primal pulse really surges through you and rattles everything in your body. Plus, the dancing girls he always has, which is a trademark, were really good, and good looking. "Dragula" was amazing live. He really puts on a multimedia experience.

During the break I enjoyed watching the roadies go up the rigging and such, and thought it was interesting they played AC/DC over the PA system. That was cool. It reminded me of the DreamTheatre concert where they actually played string quartets.

So Ozzy hits the stage and immediately begins cursing and then the first song tears it up. It was from his new album, so a good way to warm people up before he hits them with Crazy Train and Mr Crowley back to back. This is where Zakk Wylde was owning everything. His solos were tight, original, and technically sound. Ozzy was having hearing issues, so the monitors were turned up causing some feedback. Ozzy was recovering from the flu so he was probably on cough syrup, and had clogged ears. Ozzy sadly only did one Black Sabbath song, Paranoid, and it was his encore. The cool thing was though it was an extended version with tons of Zakk Wylde solos. During "Mamma I'm Comin' Home", Zakk broke a string during a solo. He walks over to Ozzy who bends over and breaks off the string completely for him and Zakk doesn't miss a beat or note. It was quite impressive.

Overall this concert was amazing. I can't imagine a better musical experience in this genre. The opening act was actualyl able to put me into the trance, which is a big thing, and then the rest of the concert locked in. It was three and a half hours of pure metal joy, and it felt like 15 minutes to me. Just intense and fun.

So here I am at the end of this fun entry. Let your metal be hard, and your double bass pedal quick and even stroke.