So, what are you listening to these days?

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Somehow, in spite of this being from a 2020 album, I have not heard this wonderful cover of "Both Sides Now" before. It was the song that introduced me to Joni Mitchell way back in grade six or something like that and remains an all-time favourite and one of my "perfect songs". The performers are pop tenor Josh Groban and singer-songwriter-Broadway star Sara Bareilles, as perfect a pair as you are going to find in mainstream pop music.

 
Actress Vera Farmiga has been a staple of Hollywood since the 1990s. She has been nominated for an Oscar. She has appeared in starring or supporting roles in several big ticket franchises (The Conjuring, Legendary Monsterverse, Marvel Cinematic Universe). But she is trying out a new role: lead singer of her own band, The Yagas. She's married to a rock musician (Renn Hawkey of Deadsy) so that clearly is a factor in this career move and he is also in The Yagas. And it's a pretty good song, too. Farmiga is of Ukrainian descent so the song's proceeds are going to a Ukrainian organization. Album is due next year.


The band name is taken from Baba Yaga, a famous witch from Slavic folklore.
 
Mendalla said:
Somehow, in spite of this being from a 2020 album, I have not heard this wonderful cover of "Both Sides Now" before. It was the song that introduced me to Joni Mitchell way back in grade six or something like that and remains an all-time favourite and one of my "perfect songs". The performers are pop tenor Josh Groban and singer-songwriter-Broadway star Sara Bareilles, as perfect a pair as you are going to find in mainstream pop music.

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Well that took me down a Joni Mitchell rabbit hole....ahhh
 
Waterfall said:
Well that took me down a Joni Mitchell rabbit hole....ahhh
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Sound like a nice rabbit hole to go down. My rabbit hole du jour seems to be Devin Townsend (Vancouver metal/prog/rock artist). Listened to his new album twice, now listening to one of his older ones from the nineties.
 
There's a big tour coming through Canada right now featuring some of the best female rockers out there. You have Evanesence, featuring vocalist Amy Lee. You have Halestorm, featuring vocalist Lzzy Hale. And the supporting act is The Warning, consisting of sisters Dany, Pau, and Ale Villareal. This is from last night's show in Quebec City and has guitarist Dany of The Warning trading licks with Joe Hottinger of Halestorm in a performance of an old Halestorm song. She's fantastic and Lzzy's shouter voice is at its finest. (PS. you have to click through to YouTube to watch it)


Trivia: Joe is Lzzy's partner and drummer Arejay Hale is her brother so Halestorm is almost as much a family band as The Warning at this point.
 
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Welp, it's November 1 and Halloween is over. You know what means. Yep. Christmas is less two months away. Queue the new Christmas music.

Icelandic jazz singer Laufey is wasting no time, releasing her cover of (gag, splurt) "Santa Baby" this morning. I know this song has its critics but Laufey has some fun with it and her mid-20th century jazz-pop vocal style is just perfect for this. And is having Bill Murray book end your video a sign that you've made it?


(To be clear, if anyone else had non-ironically covered "Santa Baby" in 2024, I would have passed but it's Laufey and I won't pass on anything she does. And I am not entirely sure it is non-ironic.)
 
I've tried to listen to the silence ... there is a lot of interference because of paranoia about strange dimensions ... consider what's up there doc? Doctors of astronomy as they peer into it ... puzzling about what is mostly invisible to mortals ... and then the contrary things that incarnate ... flashing out of the great out-of-here ...

Exotic hums ... no pure vacuums ... although items close to that state spew alien black beams ... jetz? Ji tease? Coquet ... as the dark lady ... Ur 've the night winds ...
 
I first encountered Emma Heesters through her appearance on the Dutch TV show Beste Zangers alongside my favourite, Floor Jansen. She's a very talented young Dutch singer who mostly does covers. Emma has announced through her Youtube channel that, at only 28 years old, she is undergoing chemo for cervical cancer. This is one of her performances from Beste Zangers, a beautiful cover of Floor's emotional, powerful ballad "Strong". Floor wrote it about her mother's health struggles but Emma was able to relate to it through her own mother's health struggles with, ironically, cancer. Sending it out to Emma herself this time.

 
Any Swifties on here? Taylor's run at the Roger's Centre in Toronto starts tonight and it sounds like it is going to be absolute mayhem in Downtown TO. Streets closed except for local traffic, extra TTC and GO transit runs, hotel rates skyrocketing. No zombies yet, but we'll see what the fans are like after the show. :LOL:

Anyhow, I am not a Swiftie. Swift is decently talented and some of her music is kind of catch-y but she's not my cuppa and, frankly, is overblown. When her presence at a football game gets more attention than the game, something is awry IMHO.

Anyhow, here's some Taylor Swift for those who are not familiar with her work.



And possibly the only time I have really enjoyed her work, a solo acoustic performance with no drama or hype done for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. Just Swift and her guitar.

 
Mendalla said:
Any Swifties on here? Taylor's run at the Roger's Centre in Toronto starts tonight and it sounds like it is going to be absolute mayhem in Downtown TO. Streets closed except for local traffic, extra TTC and GO transit runs, hotel rates skyrocketing. No zombies yet, but we'll see what the fans are like after the show. :LOL:

Anyhow, I am not a Swiftie. Swift is decently talented and some of her music is kind of catch-y but she's not my cuppa and, frankly, is overblown. When her presence at a football game gets more attention than the game, something is awry IMHO.

Anyhow, here's some Taylor Swift for those who are not familiar with her work.



And possibly the only time I have really enjoyed her work, a solo acoustic performance with no drama or hype done for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. Just Swift and her guitar.

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Swift's a cult leader who gives messages to her cult members using song. Hard pass
 
Jae said:
Swift's a cult leader who gives messages to her cult members using song. Hard pass
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Not sure I would go that far. She and her team are f-ing marketing geniuses, though, and I have a grudging admiration for how she handled Scooter Braun. I would definitely NOT want to be her ex-boyfriend or a rival, though. She's vicious.
 
Big Mama is said to be vicious as a grandmother Jettae in some lost languages ... Jettae is said to be a shady thing like that lady down the lane ... Knot eth? Thus the entanglement ... connections? James Bourke elaborated ...
 
New song that may be my favourite new release of November. Patty Gurdy is a German musician and singer who specializes in the hurdy-gurdy. Marko Hietala is a legend in European metal as singer and bass player for the bands Tarot and Nightwish and now as a solo artist. And they make a helluva team in this release from Patty's newly released album, Tavern.

 
I am a fan of Finnish singer Noora Louhimo but am normally hearing Noora deploy her powerful roar of a voice as vocalist of Finnish metal band Battle Beast. So imagine my delight to find her taking a crack at singing the blues. The band, JJ Explosion, is a trio of Finnish musicians who do improvisational blues music and they invited Noora to sit in on one of their sessions.

 
"Legends Never Die" belongs to a rather tight group of two songs that I absolutely adore that originated in the videogaming world. It began as the anthem for the 2017 World Championships of the popular game League of Legends, co-written and performed by American power trio Against the Current. However, it is a powerful, melodic rock anthem that has taken on a life of its own. Here, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra & Choir perform it in a concert of videogame music, with the incredible Faeroese singer Eivor and Danish soprano Isabel Schwartzbach on vocals. My favourite version used to be a metal cover by Swiss rocker Melissa Bonny and her band Dark Side of the Moon (and can probably be found in the metal thread) but I think this one has overtaken it.


Yes, you read that right. A major orchestra did a concert of videogame music. The world has come a long way from the 8-bit beeps and boops of my youth.
 
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The other song, by the way, is the choral work "Baba Yetu" by American composer Christopher Tin, which debuted as the theme music of the strategy came Civilization IV. It's a setting of the Swahili version of the Lord's Prayer and is one of the most dramatic choral works to come along this century.

This performance from the Llangolen festival in Wales has Tin himself on the podium.

 
Oops, forgot that "tight group" is now up to three, with Linkin Park's "Heavy is the Crown" being the anthem for this year's League of Legends World Championships and also appearing in Arcane, an animated TV series based on the game. This is the live debut and the scream/howl that new lead singer Emily Armstrong rips loose at about the two minute mark sold me on her instantly.


And I saw an interview with Emily where she talked about the importance of Hybrid Theory, the band's debut album, in getting her into music so she's kind of come full circle.
 
I woke this morning (a Sunday) and what was coming down but a tune called Read Between the Lines! Is that awe sum or something else gathered ...

Is that a Roue or a Rhode ... a way spanning multiple understandings? Its enough to confuse a mortal fixed in a DIN ... Allah 'vite or a death defying olive ide?

Relax it is just a saying or sa'ne ... something best to listen up TU!
 

Some of us vintage ones remember clap in/clap out games. Haven't found a partner to try this with, but it's just an infectious tune!
 
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