A Return...to Rock \oo/

Hello my friend(s) who may still pay attention to this blog. I wish a warm welcome. This blog entry is intended to bring you up to speed on some things lately. Recently, the UMBC Symphony presented a strong, almost professional caliber performance of the 3rd and 4th movement of the Symphonie Fantasique by Hector Berlioz. I was particularly proud. My brass section got a standing ovation. The corwd started standing once we were told to stand alone for applause. One of the best honors I've ever received playing. Also before the concert, the quintet knocked the lobby crowd out with Irish Tune from County Dairy by Percy Grainger, Ashokan Farewell, from the Civil War miniseries by Ken Burns, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles and Springtime For Hitler from the Producers. Big time hit. The group right now is working on the 5th movement of the Berlioz, and the quintet is working on Open Arms by Journey and Brain Damage by Pink Floyd.

Now to the subject above. I was recently blessed to hear an up and coming power rock band from Australia named Airbourne. I first heard them on the airing of the WWE Royal Rumble. I purchased their CD and it was love. They have all the power, sound, skill, and quality of a young AC/DC. I consider myself lucky to have seen them live, in an intimate setting like the Recher Theatre in Towson, MD. The place only holds 700 and its standing room only. I was also there for another Several Species concert but I had to leave early due to throwing my back out breaking the fall of a guy who blacked out. But, I digress.

The two opening bands were quite...interesting. For $10 to see Airbourne was quite a deal, but we know for $10, the openers were going to be rough. The first band, called Stone Riders. They were pretty good. Sounded strangely like a mix of Zeppelin and Rolling Stones but its missing the technical proficiency. The second band, Endeverafter, sucked big time. They did nothing play fast, guitar licks that sounded strangely familiar with bad lyrics and really my friend Pat and I thought were trying to audition for Guitar Hero. We were convinced when the guitarist did a name that tune section that included "Rain of Blood" by Slayer (Guitar Hero 3), and "Cowboys from Hell" by Pantera (Guitar Hero 1). Their music really sounded like nothing but copy and pasted licks from the video game. No passion, no soul, little skill. I should have known better when the bassist from the band was warming up by playing other peoples music (he warmed up on the bass line to Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. Now you all know I heart Journey the Steve Perry years, but still this is a clue that the group you're about to hear sucks. Besides an on stage warm up, totally unacceptable if you're not a symphony, or in a venue so small theres a parking lot and a stage, and its raining in the parking lot).

So that brings me to Airbourne, where they opened with "Stand Up for Rock 'n' Roll" (thats right I wasn't baked or drunk enough to forget the set). This song has a very similar feel to "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, except for a massive accelerando, that immediately lets you know this band is going to be in your face for the next 90 minutes. They did every song from their album "Runnin' Wild" but in a more concert appropriate order, closing the set with "Too Much Too Young Too Fast" and "Running Wild". Then for an encore which was demanded so fast they barely got off stage that was about 10 minutes long and was insanely loud because the front vocalist/guitarist turned his stage amps all the way up, which sounded amazing. The song was something lightning. I didn't get the exact title through the screams and his grovely Aussie accent. But rest assured the song kicked my ass, my friends ass, and every ass in there that stayed for the encore. We were pumped. The concert was pure testosterone and adrenaline. I witnessed first hand my first mosh pit, and stage diving. I will definitely be paying attention to their tour location to see them again.

Well my friends I must sign off for the evening. my pals and I are currently in search of more concerts to attend, which I will write about. I apologize for abandoning my blog for so long and I hope you will continue to come back. I will try not to be so distant. Let your Rock be rollin' and your bass drum pedal be double, Rock on dudes. To quote the genius(sic) lead singer and guitarist of Endeverafter, "You are the fuck. Metal is the fuck" Good night

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.

A long Overdue

Hello again, thanks for tuning in. I know it has been quite awhile since I've written and I apologize. It is the holidays and is causing chaos as expected.

First of all, the big stresser is out of the way, with the Holiday Brass Quintet gig at the library being over with. We were well received, and the quintet sounded strong. Some issues surfaced in my arrangements, such as Carol of the Bells being a nightmare to count. We had about 70 show up, and this made me really happy. The research I did so I could talk between the pieces was extremely well received as well. I sense that the library will definitely be willing to hire us again.

This weekend is the Baltimore Tubachristmas, to which I'm looking forward to. On the 1st, I played the first Bel Air Tubachristmas, which was fun. It was cool being in a group of only 27, instead of the 250 that show up to the Baltimore one. The conductor of the Bel Air one was a bit of a jerk. He conducted us like we were the "Philadelphia Symphony" playing "Mahler's 5th". He said this but he never made any actual musical statements or used musical terms. It was very frustrating. Not to mention constant insults of expecting bad players to show up, and not thinking we could handle certain arrangements. Combine that with the 2 hour rehearsal, we got a little punchy and luckily found an Irish pub to drink and eat during the hour break. The concert did result in fun. Though a horrible thing happened, a trombone...A TROMBONE, as in non valved, cylindrical bore instrument showed up and was allowed to play. This made me sick to my stomach. I may be a trumpet player, but I make sure to bring a member of the tuba family to this. A trombone is not a member of the tuba family, and should not have been allowed. I had no say though and thus they were permitted. I don't think I could do the Bel Air one again after that.

I leave you tonight with a crappy video of the quintet playing at the library. I will probably not have another entry before Christmas, so have a merry one!

Its the time

Well first off, Merry Thanksgiving to you, my loyal readers. I do know its been awhile since my recent publishing but you must understand holidays, family stress and videos games have taken a toll on the time I can dedicate to this blog. Never mind the endless preparation for Christmas gigs.

So this entry will be scattered as usual as it will cover a couple issues these past few weeks have brought up. First off, the UMBC Symphony concert last Sunday went incredibly well. The group pulled off almost professional level performances of Stravinsky, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Strauss, and Mozart. I must say this concert left me quite winded due to the recent dietary changes I have made. Less calories = Less fuel for a performing. I cracked a few notes but overall I felt good about my playing. The quintet also played before the concert in the lobby, and as usual people enjoyed my arrangements. They especially liked the arrangement of the Godfather theme for tuba, and Good King Wenceslas. So lets say it was a success.

In the mail today, I received my copy of Jekyl and Hyde Concert Tour. This is PDQ Bach's newest CD. It was recorded live at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills, MD. I was lucky enough to attend this concert for a bargain of $11. It was quite interest to witness how these sessions work. The string quartet that was there was able to pick up in the middle of phrases, and actually sound like they had played all the notes before it. Almost like a live "drop the needle". At this concert I was also blessed to meet THE PDQ Bach himself, Professor Peter Schickele.


With that photo I must say good night and take care, and may your turkey left overs be tender and moist.

Explorations

Hello friend(s). I write to you with fond greetings and a grasp at being entertained.

In my quest to find myself entertained, I took a journey to the local Super Walmart which just opened its doors to my Baltimore suburb. It is a bittersweet thing. As much as I despise walmart for censoring song lyrics on albums, thus making me go to a local record store to get my new copy of the Avenged Sevenfold CD. But they did happen to have, set up in demo mode, "Rock Band".

"Rock Band" is a new game coming out from the original designers of Guitar Hero, that not only allows you to play guitar, but drums, bass, and even be a vocalist! I played this demo for an hour, mot of it with a complete stranger on guitar. We became an amazing band. It will be coming out for PS2 on December 11, so I have started saving my pennies already. I may even...trade in....Guitar Hero III to help pay for it.

As I mentioned above about having to go to a local record store to pick up a CD. Thanks to the Walmart policy of censoring, it helped me rediscover the coolness of the "Record and Tape Traders" store in Catonsville. A whole section dedicated to metal. I'm in heaven. While picking up Avenged Sevenfold's new CD, which is incredible, as they continue what they did last album with amazing arrangements, and great vocals, with wonderful lyrics. Its a must buy. Back on topic though, I was able to also pick up another Dream Theater album, and an actual album by Dragonforce. This store not only had the albums I wanted and uncensored, but the CDs were a dollar cheaper. I spent 45 minutes in this little store just browsing. I was never bothered nor did I get odd looks for browsing metal, or buying the groups I was buying. It was a great shopping experience. Not to mention that the CDs I bought, all three of them, stellar.

Well my friends, I hope you find your drum heads tuned and your fills even and intriguing.

The Modern Legacy

With the recent passing of Robert Goulet and Lucianno Pavarotti, my brain has been working overtime on a single question to which I am at a loss to come up with an answer and hope my loyal readers can assist me with. The Question is this:

Who will be the legendary performers, that when they die, will truly be missed and be the defining voice and music of this generation, my generation?

Before we can approach this question, we must ask how an artist would reach that level. The obvious answers are they must sustain their popularity, they must be prolific, and of course, a smart agent and label that knows how to get them to the masses quickly.

The 1950's obviously gave us the "Rat Pack", led by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Frankie Blue Eyes made it in the 40's but was able to keep performing and recording into the 1980's carrying that generation from adolescence pretty much all the way to death. The same with Dean Martin, but the days then required them to be more than music personalities but stagemen and movie stars. They were also supported by a cast of lesser known musicians. Paul Anka and other songwriters, along with the bands of Al hirt, Tommy Dorsey, and others helped these talented vocalists obtain superstar status.

The 1960's changed this whole thing. Singer/songwriters took over as the folk movement pulled musc out of the nightclubs and theaters and put it in any long haired hippie with enough money to buy a guitar and get to San Francisco. The Beatles, holy moses were they big. John and Pauls songwriting charmed just about every ear in America, as Rock n Roll was being brought to forefront on the variety shows popping up on TV as the appliance was found in almost every living room. The birth of multimedia meant that you not only had to sound good, you had to look good. This idea was HUGE in the 1980's with the birth of MTV and later, VH1. A whole channel dedicated to music, and the art of the music video.

MTV started the overflow of bands. This overflow really led to the groups getting wilder and wilder, with the long hair, bright costumes, and really the virtuosity on electric guitar. If the Beatles were around in the 1980's they would have hair to their butt, wore leopard print pants and make up to make you kind of think they were girls so they could survive this era of you have 4 minutes of air time to hook teenagers with your crappy song to sell a million albums. GO! This really continued through 90's. If you ask someone to name a great band from the 1980's everyone will disagree. Everyone liked Sinatra, Deano and Sammy Davis Jr in their hayday.

The new millinium really brought this market saturation to a new level, with broadband music sharing. Everybody with a synthesizer and a microphone has a myspace music account, every band has a separate release date for iTunes and stores for hard copies of their music. They put demos on the net. Someone actually showe dme a band that was really good, bu they don't even have an album out yet! Just 4 tracks on myspace.

So with age of oversaturation (notice I'm not saying mediocrity, because there is some really great stuff going on) how is our generation to recognize an icon of their time when we no longer have them? The segregation of genres as well these days can cause a loss of focus. There is no Rock, Rap, Folk, Jazz, Classical anymore. Its not that simple. There are atleast 4 different types of metal these days. I can't tell someone I like Heavy Metal, I have to say Progressive/Symphonic metal. To which they say, "What the hell is that?" And I say, "Groups like Dream Theater, Symphony X." "Who the hell are they?". "They have a great guitarist, drummer, and synth players." "Oh, thats cool." We can't discuss music anymore without leaving one person completely clueless within two sentences. My grandfather though could talk for hours comparing Nat King Cole to Frank Sinatra to my great uncle, Ralph Sigwald, who was a famous singer for awhile in the 1950's. He was known as "The Caruso of the South."

So really this brings up the backside of the question of, does our generation care enough? The only artist I can imagine my generation and people a few years older and younger than me really caring about when his time comes is Michael Jackson. But I hope its for his amazing dancing and his partnership with Quincy Jones that made him bigger than Elvis. Elvis, I always like to think that if he was still alive, he'd have one of those every night shows in Vegas in his own theater. He would atleast make Celine Dion shut up. Maybe she wouldn't even have her own show.

On an unrelated topic, i bought tickets yesterday to go see Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie. ALLLL ABOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA