So, what are you listening to these days?

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Mendalla said:
Now forever known as the "Jobs look". :D

I have a black long sleeve shirt that I wear with black slacks for work but that's as close as I come.

On topic, I see Bahamas (real name Afie Jurvanen) has new tunes out. And since the CBC can't well bring him into the studio for a "First Play Live" these days, they shot him performing them in (apparently) his house with his family as extras. Listened to one today while I exercised and will listen to more as the week wears on. Bahamas plays and writes lean, spare (mostly) acoustic pop that tends to the mellow end of the spectrum. Fits his stage name, really, because I can picture mellowing to it on vacation or something like that.

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That true. How could I forget Jobs?! (How can I wiggle back on topic... Well, he was almost like a rock star!)
 
Chase Truran (who records just as Chase) first came to my attention as a member of Foxes & Fossils. However, I knew she had a solo career going and finally checked out her own YouTube. Quite impressive. I already knew she was an accomplished singer from her work with F&F, but hearing her solo work clinched it.



And one that kind of surprised me given that I first her singing classic rock with F&F.


Yep, she's a pretty good jazz singer, too.
 
And one of Chase's best performances singing lead with Foxes & Fossils, the Todd Rundgren classic "Love is the Answer".


Apparently Rundgren himself is a fan of this cover and shared it on social media.
 
And lest you think Chase is the only talented young lady in the band, here's Maggie Adams (her departure to go to college was why they originally recruited Chase) with band founders Tim and Sammie Purcell on harmonies. She has since returned, giving the band three solid female voices.


And from one of their early gigs a decade ago, Sammie Purcell sings lead on a country hit from the nineties, with her Dad and Maggie on harmonies.

 
And a marvellous performance by Maggie and Sammie on a Supremes classic.


One sad thing right now is that between the pandemic and the band being scattered over multiple states (the foxes are all in college for starters), the full band has not played a live gig in something like three years, though they continue to do studio recordings courtesy of the Internet and the "Fossils" do gigs under their old name of the Mustangs.
 
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I discovered the Alan Parsons Project fairly early on. They were kind of prog-light, with some of the drama and musicianship of bands like Yes and Floyd but lighter, more pop-friendly. Parsons himself came in with incredible credentials as an engineer and producer, having worked on albums like the Beatles Abbey Road, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (both as engineer) and Al Stewart's Year of the Cat (as both producer and engineer). When he teamed up with Eric Woolfson and put together APP, they produced a string of beautifully written and produced albums. Woolfson left to pursue a career in musical theatre and passed away in 2009, but Parsons continues to perform as a solo artist.

In 2013, Parsons put together a new incarnation of the band and a performance in Medellin, Colombia with a full orchestra was recorded and distributed by earMusic, who have kindly put videos of the event up on their YouTube channel. A few of my favorite Alan Parsons Project songs from that concert follow.

"Don't Answer Me" was the lead single from 1983's Ammonia Avenue. It is a lovely, melodic song and came with an animated pulp-influenced story video. Parsons himself sings lead on this one.


"La Sagrada Familia" is closer to prog rock than a lot of APP's work. A longer, powerfully dramatic piece of music, it is inspired by the Church of the Holy Family (La Sagrada Familia) in Barcelona, Spain. That church was begun in the early twentieth century and is still not complete, having stood and been worked on sporadically throughout Spain's turbulent 20th century history. The album from which this song comes is titled Gaudi, after the architect who conceived the church and oversaw the early part of its construction. There are multiple lead singers on this song, with a choir providing backup.


And probably their best known song, the lovely ballad "Time" from 1980's Turn of a Friendly Card.

 
FYI, that first video isn't showing it's cover image but if you click play, it does load. Not sure what's up with that.
 
First to Eleven seem to be quite unabashedly a cover band. I have yet to find any original material from them. However, they are a pretty good one. The guys are all good to great on their instruments and lead singer Audra Miller has a solid voice and skills. She looks a bit too "girl next door" to be fronting a hard rock band at times, but she loves the material and sings it well. Oh, did I mention she is 19 and has been in the band since she was 8?

I have been listening to them of late and am impressed. Very good considering their young ages.

First up, some classic Green Day.


One of their Halloween covers for this year. This is the second female cover of this that I have heard recently and it actually works pretty well with a woman singing.


This next one really blew me away. The guitar playing is excellent, a necessity when covering GnR, whose lead guitar, Slash, is one of the best.

 
Welp, I was wrong. First to Eleven do have some original material out. In fact they released an EP of original songs a few years ago. Here's a sampler. They are a really talented band all round, and I hope they get bigger at some point. They sure deserve it.


 
Metallica is one of the most musical (for lack of a better word) heavy metal bands. And that means it takes some real skill to cover them, let alone cover them well. And, damn, First to Eleven did it. Twice. Guitarist Matthew Yost and drummer Charlie Root are amazing in these covers.


 
I just posted in cover songs about Floor Jansen of metal band Nightwish covering "Let It Go" from Frozen (she has a young daughter and, hey, when you front a successful band, you can turn your child's Disney obsession into new repetoire).

Back to listening to Floor in her native environment fronting Nightwish. This is a live performance from Wembley Arena in London.

 
And from the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany, a nice Celtic-influenced instrumental track.

 
A piece they did for a movie soundtrack with bassist Marco Hietala on vocals.


Damn, I want his his beard but my wife would make me cut it long before I got it long enough.
 
Marco playing and singing solo in a Nightwish concert.


And the band does join towards the end, with Floor adding some lovely backing vocals.
 
And lest the last couple tracks make you forget, this is a metal band we are talking about.

 
Tonight ... mostly listening to Diwali fireworks in the neighbourhood! Not as many as usual ... but still early & hopefully too people are heeding the 'celebrate don't congregate' advice locally.
 
Carolla said:
Tonight ... mostly listening to Diwali fireworks in the neighbourhood! Not as many as usual ... but still early & hopefully too people are heeding the 'celebrate don't congregate' advice locally.
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Yeah, I heard some here, too. Took me a minute to figure out why someone was lighting fireworks this weekend, though.
 
Checking out, with enjoyment, the Alan Parsons vids upthread. Thanks. The Project was (is) one of my favourite "geek" bands. Speaking of which, this old one is a geek's vintage candy store. That watch! The equipment!
Time travel....

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Now this, my friends, is music. A 13 minute five-part suite by symphonic metal band Nightwish. Live at Wembley Stadium in 2015.


And Nightwish are finally coming back from their COVID break, with a two night virtual gig in March 2021 to support their latest album.
 
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