So, what are you listening to these days?

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Back in August, I posted the debut single from Veda Amaru, whose father Bobby is lead singer of the band Saliva. She's back with a nice pop ballad. Dad once again has his band and other musical connections providing backup.

 
Kat Von D is better known as a tattoo artist and TV personality than for music. But, dang, when I saw that she had the fantastic Canadian metal singer Alissa White-Gluz along for the ride on her new single, I had to give it a lesson. Definitely a far cry from Alissa's usual (melodic death metal) though her powerful growls are very much in evidence.

 
Chrissy Costanza's solo debut, an EP titled VII, comes out next week. She has been fronting the band Against the Current since her teens (she's 29) and has done one off solo work here and there but this marks her first real solo effort. The third single came out a few weeks ago. I love her work in ATC and the singles released so far bode well for her solo debut. And she's been touring with ATC so clearly this is a side project, not a breakup with the band.

 
So I posted in my thread on Floor Jansen about her recent interview with Elizabeth Zharoff, a vocal coach and YouTuber who hosts the channel The Charismatic Voice. On the channel, she does reaction videos, mostly to rock and metal these days, interviews, and other topics all related to singing. But, strangely, I never heard Elizabeth herself, an opera singer by training and trade, sing. Until last night when this came across my recommendations. It's Elizabeth singing Mozart. Very, very well.

 
After attending Frank Turner's Lost Evenings 4 day event a couple weeks ago, I've been letting Spotify suggest more related artists. I came across Micak Schnabel yesterday. I think this one is brilliant:

 
chansen said:
After attending Frank Turner's Lost Evenings 4 day event a couple weeks ago, I've been letting Spotify suggest more related artists. I came across Micak Schnabel yesterday. I think this one is brilliant:
Click to expand...
I think I have found more through YouTube than Spotify but, yeah, those recommendation algorithms are actually getting pretty good.
 
Mendalla said:
I think I have found more through YouTube than Spotify but, yeah, those recommendation algorithms are actually getting pretty good.
Click to expand...
Right? It's scary at first, but it doesn't seem to be all that advanced of an algorithm. If you search the artists suggested, they've mostly toured with Frank or been at the same festivals. Makes sense, but it hardly takes a lot of AI.
 
After discovering singer Emily Armstrong from her new gig as a vocalist in Linkin Park, I finally got around to checking out Dead Sara, her original band. The band dates back to 2005 when Armstrong and her friend Siouxsie Medley (they met in their teens) started the group under the name Epiphany before changing to Dead Sara as a reference to a misheard Fleetwood Mac lyric. Sean Friday joined on drums and backing vocals in 2009. They enjoyed some success with their first couple albums but Ain't It Tragic, their latest, seems to have flown under the radar. I'm listening to it this afternoon, though, and it's pretty good. One of those records that is hard to classify beyond just "rock". Have not heard what impact Emily's new role will have on Dead Sara, but they've gone 6 years between albums before so maybe there's room in her life for both bands.

 
Not sure Thanksgiving songs are really a thing, but multi-talented Canadian musician Devin Townsend rather fittingly released a song called "Gratitude" today. His new album is due soon so I imagine he is thankful that's almost done, if nothing else.

 
I'm listening to the Kennedy Center Honors video for Carole King.
You can hear the whole thing here:

Carole Kings reactions as people came on stage was heartwearming.

Sara Bareilles interpretation was eye watering.

 
Sara Bareilles singing a Carole King song was kind of a dream come true for me. That was the period when I was really into Sara. Still think she's a fantastic singer-songwriter, just not the kind of music I usually have on these days.
 
I love Tapestry but actually first came across Carole as the co-writer (with Gerry Goffin, of course) of "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (10 weeks on the Hot 100, peaking at no. 3) for The Monkees. They apparently wrote four Monkees songs in total but only that one was a hit for the band.
 
Here it is:


Apparently, Mike's famous guitar riff at the beginning was added for The Monkees' version. At the beginning, IIRC, he was the only Monkee who could actually play his instrument.
 
So in another thread, I rant and rave about Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen. But, as I have pointed out there a few times, there's actually two Jansens in the Dutch music scene. Floor's younger sister Irene has been around quite a while herself, though has not pursued a fulltime music career like Floor so does not have her sister's visibility. When she does come into the spotlight, though, Irene shows off a magnificent set of pipes that, in her latest performances, may actually rival big sister Floor. Fortunately, there's no sibling rivalry and many of Irene's recent public performances have actually been as her sister's duet partner. This time, though, she's on her own, albeit with Floor's solo tour band backing her. The venue is the Dutch TV show VPO On Stage and the episode was devoted to Floor, featuring performances by a number of musicians who are friends or associate of Floor Jansen. Floor herself debuted a new version of her solo song "Fire". But Irene's performance really stands out for me. The song is great and at times I could close my eyes and not know which sister I was hearing. The power and the skill are there in both.


With Irene being more active of late, I'm kind of hoping for either an album from her or my dream of a Jansen Sisters project/tour coming true.
 
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