Music Game With Tower Defense Minigame
Just like how "Doom" and "Doom Eternal" are Mick Gordon solo albums that come with a free first-person shooter game, so does Arknights continue to be a growing collection of OSTs with a tower defense mini game associated with it.
A new "side story" event begins in a couple of days, but since the global server is six months behind China's and Japan's, the music is already on yootoob. Cyberpunk/EDM and choirs don't seem like things that go together well, but:
...we'd be wrong.
Edit: Something sounded familiar here. Took me a few minutes to figure out, but these would fit into the Dredd OST quite well.
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The music department's doing solid work there, yeah.
Posted by: GreyDuck at September 15, 2022 08:56 AM (rKFiU)
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Oh my gosh, my joke spam comment got deleted, but real ones are still in the sidebar XD
(I posted something like "Your blog is very excellent and I learned very much" and then clarified it was just a joke, but it definitely did look like a spam comment)
Posted by: Kathryn at September 22, 2022 02:59 PM (jrY13)
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Mine wasn't even jokey spamlike. Methinks some process got overzealous trying to clean things up.
Posted by: DougO at September 25, 2022 10:01 PM (T6enK)
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Posted by: kathy23 at December 16, 2023 02:16 AM (mLREZ)
Arknights: When The Music Is Better Than The Game
As I mentioned last time we got together here, I began playing the tower defense game Arknights a few weeks ago. It's really quite decent with so many possible team combinations that it makes your head spin. I recently stopped doing "build-a-team" for every mission, after stumbling on a team that can handle itself against anything but overwhelming aerial attacks.
But that's not why I'm here at the moment. Just in the last couple of days I've been paying attention to the OST involved and I'm glad I did. I'm VERY impressed. From the very first song you hear when you start the game, which most players may never listen to more than a few seconds of, to battle music, general day-by-day tracks, and events, the songs in this are outstanding.
That's the opening song I mentioned before. It took me nearly two weeks before I found out there were guitar breaks involved... I just kept hitting "play" when the game said it was ready.
That is the second track you hear in the game, on the "control room" screen (EDIT: if you have the night-time background selected). Fortunately it is very chill, because you're going to hear it a lot. It's comfortable enough that you don't care and it just becomes part of the experience.
Music from the in-game shop. It wouldn't be too out of place on a modern jazz album.
Finally, one of a gazillion battle themes. I actually can't say when it plays; I'm usually too busy commanding my Operators to truly listen. As I recognized it immediately, it's pretty clear some part of the turnip I use in place of a brain was listening.
I can go on and on about the various facets of the game... basebuilding is taking up more of my time than actual story mode, for example. Or the astonishing artwork of the Operators, including their combat chibis. Seriously, I didn't think FGO's art could be beaten, but on the whole I'd rather look at Arknights characters. I don't know enough of the story yet to say anything about it, save that it could probably be used as a X-Men plot line.
I don't really know what I'm doing quite yet, but I'm having fun not doing it.
Guess I know what I'm going hunting for later this morning.
Posted by: GreyDuck at July 17, 2022 08:38 AM (rKFiU)
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Hello, my name is Chris! For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying to find out if Chuck E. Yeager knew about Shirley from Strike witches. After god knows how long of searching I eventually came upon your 2008 post about someone informing him on my space. This was the first shred of evidence I had found so far. It seems however that his my space account no longer exists. I was wondering if you saw his response or not if he even responded at all.
Posted by: chris at August 02, 2022 12:40 AM (Ar78U)
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Chris, I certainly never saw a response... and believe me, I was watching for one. I'd like to think that he was mildly amused by the information, though perhaps a bit baffled. Whatever his reaction, I'm sure he never gave it another thought.
The thought of Chuck Yeager actually watching an episode of Strike Witches triggers so many alarms and klaxons in my brain that a brain scan would look like nighttime over Chicago...
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 03, 2022 03:58 PM (DB9Lx)
Pond Scum: Many Comments.
Me When I Saw Them: ?????... !
Seriously, I did not expect so many of you to have stuck around for so long. If I had not cried after typing "More Zombies" last night, I assuredly would be now.
tsundere
It's not like I wanted you guys to stick around or anything... baka Pond Scum-chan.
/tsundere
Part II of the story of my predicament vacation is coming; there's a lot of badthings fun things to cover though, and you guys know me... my writing style is not what you could call brief and succinct, even as a joke.
One thing that may surprise y'all is that I didn't discover a lot of new music. Yootoob on my smurtfon was and is clumsy and rife with ads, I don't have Spotify, and there isn't enough storage in it for more than a couple tunes anyway. There was some though, so of course I'm going to makethispostseemlonger share it with you folks!
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Every now and then I think about dabbling in stop-motion, and Koopiskeva is both helping make me want to try it more and making sure I never bother because DANG, DUDE.
I missed the Lagtrain, er, train but dang that's a catchy little number.
Posted by: GreyDuck at January 04, 2022 09:28 AM (rKFiU)
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I think anybody who has owned a figma has at least imagined watching them move on their own. I know I certainly did, but there's two types of people in the world: people that take an hour to stand a figma straight up on its base... and Koopiskeva.
Lagtrain was an obsession of mine for at least a month. I probably watched 3/4 of the video covers, including the compilation one that synced up 60 versions all on one screen. Watching that one was a trip. But it's the song that makes it. There are actually vids analysing why it's so good, what is it that makes it so successful from a music theory-style place.
I haven't watched them. I don't need people to tell me it's got a great hook and that having that particular vocaloid sing with its fragile sound was a perfect choice.
But I can be something of an egotistical snob, too.
Posted by: Wonderduck at January 05, 2022 09:35 AM (bHHXR)
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Reminds me, I've got an android game loaded called "Figure Fantasy" and the characters are apparently anime figures (generic but familiar, I'm guessing). I haven't tried it yet, though.
Posted by: Ben at January 05, 2022 01:39 PM (3npKf)
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Ha, am I the resident idle-gacha-game expert? (WD is, of course, the FGO guru, no contest.)
Figure Fantasy is probably the most beautiful idler I've ever played. It's just staggeringly pretty. It's still, however, an idle game. You have to be okay with the fact that if you give them any money at all, what you're doing is paying to race toward the nearest available progression wall which you'll be able to surmount once enough time has elapsed to amass enough loot to "buy" your way past that hurdle and on to the next.
Did I mention it's pretty, though? So far I'm honestly quite happy with it. It's even being moderately generous, considering this is still early days on global mind you, as with all such games the drop rates will go to Helena Handbasket at some point.
Also, purely from an "I play too many idle games" perspective, I like the mild strategy positioning elements and that there are only three main factions (plus two kind of side factions that aren't in the main rock paper scissors structure) instead of four, and there's a lot of good QOL UI elements.
Which is to say: If you're okay with idle games at all, Figure Fantasy is about as good an option as I've seen, so go for it.
Posted by: GreyDuck at January 05, 2022 06:11 PM (rKFiU)
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Excellent! The positioning strategy is a fun aspect of a game called Valor Legends I'm playing. I've pretty much let idle gaming take over my gaming life, mainly because I can chat while the game is running.
One I have to be careful about with that because the story is so good and you never know when dialogue is going to pop up is Endless World. It's on Steam. As I told Wonderduck, the second the protaganist called me "
Ftumch" I was sold.
Posted by: Ben at January 08, 2022 02:06 AM (3npKf)
When You Consider The Future...
Late Night Final released their third track just a couple of hours ago... and it's very much a banger. I mean, as far as ambient-ish music can ever be described as "a banger."
Surprise! Music!
I had very few hopes when I clicked on a link about "science rock."
I was wrong. Very wrong.
Now that is a kickarse track, and apparently the "red string" is/was an actual thing created by Japan's National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences where a red silk containing oxytocin was really created. Wild!
It would be trite to say that this is many dozens of times better than any of the new Star Wars movies. Not incorrect, but trite.
Many years ago... over a decade... there was a free game called TrackMania Nations Forever that occupied much of my spare time. I got pretty good at it, too... I mean, not true World Record good, but on some of the tracks I could at least see the top of the leaderboard from where I was. But even though it no longer works on modern computers without a metric farkton of work... it's XP-based, for heaven's sake... I still remember the music. Fondly.
Okay. It's now time for the apparently government-mandated excursion into HoloLive. Pixy has been on a roll of late covering their antics. I've watched some streams... I'll be honest. The HoloLiveEN Vtubers don't do much for me, and I don't know anywhere near enough Japanese to get the original crew's videos. But the music is... something.
That was my first exposure in any way to HoloLive, and it's cute. Nice beat. But some of those voices are eardrum-shredding, dear god. I have to assume that having Pekora and "Miko Sakura", with their nasal, cutesy, falsetto-y, awful singing back to back was due to heavy bribery from the singer that came next... Towa Tokoyami.
Who sounds NOTHING like any of the other HoloLive crew. After hearing her in that whole-crew viddy, I went looking to see if she had anything solo. Oh yes. Yes she does.
Sold. That she can do justice to God Knows..., both live and "in-studio", is just the icing on the cake.
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I spent some time browsing through Towa Tokoyami's YouTube channel last night after watching these, and her singing quality is consistent. At a minimum it makes a pleasant playlist, although you have to sort out her music from her gaming livestreams.
It surprised me it was a livestream channel, until I remembered that this group of idols is called "hololive". I guess that makes perfect sense.
Posted by: Ben at December 03, 2020 08:14 AM (VtwaX)
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That "Red Silk of Fate" track does kick ass, and in a weird sort of way the video's a mirror image of Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science"...
Posted by: GreyDuck at December 03, 2020 10:22 AM (rKFiU)
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Totally agreed on Towa Tokoyami, such a pleasant voice after all the vocal posturing (And gah, the stuff right after her!)
Posted by: Mauser at December 04, 2020 11:47 PM (Ix1l6)
I'm not convinced that J Wilgoose's Late Night Final persona isn't actually one of the guys from Daft Punk or Kraftwerk "slumming", as it were. Song picks up around the four-minute mark. Again, ambient isn't my cup of fish, but this isn't so bad at all.
I think I've seen the actual video before, running on an Amiga back in the day.
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Given how ambient-adjacent the last PSB project (the Titanic one) is, I get the feeling this stuff is really where his heart is, and the more catchy pop-y stuff is there to pay the bills.
I mean, I'll probably still pick this up. As you say, it isn't so bad at all.
Posted by: GreyDuck at November 21, 2020 09:29 AM (rKFiU)
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That one was right up my alley and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for posting it!
Posted by: Ed Hering at November 22, 2020 04:06 PM (/cXdK)
A Wonderful Late Night Final Hope
The other day I was lamenting the loss of my entire digital music collection after the death of my external hard drive... and suddenly realizing just how useful a CD/DVD drive would be right about now... when I got to wondering what some favorite bands are up to. The answer, as it is for so many of us lately, is "not much."
I mean, Joe Jackson updated his website for the first time in about a year the other day, so that was nice, but other than that? There's a new anime entry in the Love Live! franchise, the first episode of which aired last week. I was amused to see that the game's player character analogue in the anime is named "Yu." And then...
...I stopped. Do I even have any other 'favorite bands' anymore? Random songs, sure, but a whole artist? All of the names I came up with were dead or '80s bands. Or both. Almost frantically I cast about my computer desk, looking for someone else to call a "favorite". Foo Fighters? David Gilmour? How in the world did Selena Gomez get... nevermind. Finally, finally, I realized who I'd forgotten.
Public Service Broadcasting. Just how they managed to slip my mind is a study in the effects of isolation, but at least I remembered them, hey? So what are they up to?
Nothing. The band members are holed up and hunkered down just like the rest of us, but apparently their instruments and equipment is in another country altogether. I assume it never made it back from a tour when the Most Recent Great Unpleasantness set in. However, Artists gonna art, and Musicians gonna music. J Wilgoose Esq, the tweed jacket behind PSB, falls into that vein. Reportedly he threw together a motley assortment of old synths and other odds and ends and said "hey kids, let's put on a show."
Except there weren't any kids, and you still can't have shows due to the plague. So instead, he did the next best thing: a side project. It hasn't been released, but there's been a song revealed. Here's the viddy.
LATE NIGHT FINAL - A Wonderful Hope
Before you start, please realize that this is not your standard PSB fare. No historical news samples, no movie snippets, and a lot of what I call "ambient". This is important for the main reason that I generally dislike ambient music... if you drop the "t", that's the effect it usually has on me. Fortunately, while it starts out like that, it doesn't STAY ambient. It's not anybody's idea of dance music or stuff, but it's not a bad listen at all.
I guess the actual album/EP/whatever is coming out sometime in November. A nice little holiday present, eh?
...and then I stumbled upon something called the Elfstedentocht, or Eleven Cities Tour in English. For those of you who, like me, have never heard of it, the Elfstedentocht is a 200km long speed-skating event held when the weather allows in the Netherlands. As can be guessed by the name, it runs through "the eleven historic cities of the province of Friesland" via canals, rivers, and lakes, beginning and terminating in the city of Leeuwarden, which I'd only heard of because it was the birthplace of the noted spy Mata Hari.
The race has only been held 15 times since 1909, with the most recent having been in 1997. See, the entire route must have at least six inches of good ice on it... no thinning ice, no mush, and at least a 12-day stretch of sub-zero Celsius temperatures preceding a race. As you can guess, this is A Big Deal; there's usually just 48 hours warning that the race will actually occur. Apparently in 2012, the last time conditions appeared perfect, it hovered right below the target for long enough that any tiny temperature increase would have nixed the race. On the day the "go" would have been given, organizers said "no" for safety reasons, disappointing the 16000 casual skaters, 300 racers, and the entire nation.
In 2013, the Elfstedentocht organizers, as part of a Leeuwarden festival, contacted Public Service Broadcasting and asked them to write some tunes about the race using historical footage from earlier events. Of course they said "yep!"
From what I've read, the 1963 race, shown in this second video, was held in absolutely brutal conditions: overly cold, strong winds, and snow gunking up the ice. Only 69 out of 10000 people were able to finish it, and the winner did not realize he had actually crossed the finish line due to being snowblind. Broken bones and eye damage were common that year.
I had no idea these tracks existed until they fell into my lap. A rare bright spot on another shut-in sort of day. Enjoy!
The Loss Of A (Little) Giant
No, not that one... Little Charlie Baty. Come with me on a voyage back in time...
The year was 1987. Duckford was in the midst of its annual end-of-summer music festival, On The Waterfront. Yours truly, having wandered away from Vaucaunson's Duck and some others, had stumbled upon a smaller stage... one of seven that year... as the sun had begun to set. While most of the people attending gathered for that year's headliner... Duckford's own Cheap Trick... to take the main stage, tucked away back here a young Duck was about to be truly exposed to a form of music he'd never heard before: The Blues.
While Rick Estrin was the frontman for the band, it was guitarist Little Charlie Baty that led The Nightcats. He "retired" from the band in 2008, still playing with them at certain festivals and shows in Europe, but he certainly didn't stop playing live.
I thought you had to be down on fingers to play Django Reinhardt correctly. His studio stuff didn't stop either.
The album "Skronky Tonk" was on got a four-star review from Downbeat, long the bible of blues and jazz music, and a notoriously stern grader when it comes to music.
While I only found out a couple of days ago, it turns out that Little Charlie passed away in March from a heart attack. He was 66. While I probably would have been a fan of the blues even if I didn't stumble into that small outdoor concert tucked into a back corner of a large festival, I think it certainly helped that the Nightcats were my first exposure to them... they were both talented and funny at the same time. I even bought their album that night... yes, on vinyl.
Thanks, Little Charlie... you were a huge influence on my music tastes, and I may not have realized it until just now.
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Dang. If I was still in touch with my old radio mentor/boss Bob Ancheta I'd ask what he thought of Little Charlie. (BA has been a blues hound most of his career.)
Posted by: GreyDuck at May 15, 2020 08:21 AM (rKFiU)
Land of continent-closing volcanoes with names that are impossible to pronounce (or spell)!
It's Eyjafjallajokull, by the way.
Land of broiled puffin!
Yes, really.
What Iceland generally is NOT known for is its popular music. Oh sure, there was Bjork (and the Sugarcubes) and Sigur Ros, you have to be particularly keyed in to know any others.
Until now.
Dadi Freyr is a DJ/EDM/whatever guy, I can only assume that Gagnamagnio is the band, and that considering this is Iceland, they're almost all certainly related. I went through much of what he/they have on yootoob looking for another gem like Think About Things, and came up mostly empty.
Fans of Hibike! Euphonium, however, will recognize one tune... for better or worse.
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Apparently Dadi is the musician and songwriter, and Gagnamagnid is the group of his friends whom he convinced to dress up and dance and sing with him for a Eurovision entry.
I had no idea all this stuff was going on....
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at April 29, 2020 04:44 AM (sF8WE)
2More detail!!! It appears that it's Dadi and his sister as the actual musicians, his wife, and three friends. So I wasn't terribly far off the mark as it turns out.
Sadly, Eurovision 2020 has been cancelled this year, so we are not going to get the great Dadi/Little Big showdown that was predicted. A shame, that.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 29, 2020 05:11 PM (cTMj+)
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While it's true that Dadi Freyr Strands and Gagnamagnid might be the most prominent names in Icelandic music at the moment, the country's music scene offers much more diversity and talent beyond them.
Posted by: Strands at April 09, 2024 09:58 PM (RMfPi)
Music... From Foreign Lands!
Over the past few months I've been spending time listening to a lot of music I've never experienced before. When you do this, you get a lot of stuff that's... not worth listening to again. Sometimes you get stuff that's... nice, but not anything you're going to go out of your way to hear again. Then there's the small percentage of tunes that make you sit up and pay attention (or even better, make you lean back, close your eyes, and pay attention). That's the category that I'll be inflicting upon you here now. We've got music from such far-flung places as Scandahoovia, India, California, Japan, Sweden, and an odd Irish/Italian thing.
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The proto-germanic chanting scared my two smaller dogs out of the room, but my larger dog was hoping around with a waggy tail. I'm not sure what to think about that...
I have several SIDH songs in my generic playlist, Iridium is my favorite, but I prefer the cleaner studio version.
An antidote to the proto-germanic chanting. It's possible I originally found it here in a post like this one, I'm not sure.
Two of my favorites right now come from youtube's recommendation system, from very different genre's. I don't think this drumstep one will keep my interest long-term, but it's fun for a while. This one will have more staying power.
Posted by: David at February 02, 2020 03:32 PM (rweeV)
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Among other things, you've reminded me that I've had a Red Hot Chilli Pipers record in my to-purchase queue for a few months now. Hmm.
Posted by: GreyDuck at February 02, 2020 09:26 PM (rKFiU)
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I happen to like pipes, so we're good. Very good.
Posted by: Mauser at February 03, 2020 09:39 PM (Ix1l6)
Neal Peart
If you are approximately my age, you or someone you knew was a fan of Rush when you were in high school. Me, I liked a number of their songs but I couldn't call myself a real fan... mainly because of the rabidness of the REAL fans who insisted they were the greatest band ever. Kinda off-putting, y'know? Particularly when you were like me and you preferred more synths and new wave.
As time went on, nothing ever really changed my opinions towards the band... a few great songs, a lot of usually pretentious prog-rock-y stuff, and an overzealous fan base. I did acknowledge, however, the unquestioned skill of Geddy Lee on bass, Alex Lifeson on guitar, and Neal Peart who is pretty much on the very very very short list of "best rock drummers of all time." You might be able to convince me there's someone better. Modern Drummer has him as the #2 rock drummer, #3 overall, behind Buddy Rich and Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. Well, maybe so.
Neal Peart died today at the age of 67. He apparently had been battling brain cancer for the past few years, but keeping it quiet from the public at large. Despite not being the megafan who will be deeply wounded by his passing, I wanted to acknowledge him... if for no other reason than he was the subject of one of the first bits of fan-made CGI I had ever seen.
2004. Remember 2004? I have a hard time remembering that far back anymore... I had just started working at the Duck U Bookstore after CowPuters went under, that's how far back we're talking. I'm sure many of the Pond Scum remember the video fondly, or at least remember it.
The Pond's condolences to his family, friends, and fans.
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I've had an on-again/off-again relationship with the band's work but I could not and will not ever deny that Mister Peart was an absolutely tip-top outstanding musician.
He shall be missed.
Posted by: GreyDuck at January 10, 2020 06:52 PM (yisPP)
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This just tops off the loss of Mike Resnick. Wonder who #3 is going to be.
Posted by: Mauser at January 10, 2020 11:48 PM (Ix1l6)
Once Upon A Time...
Back in the days before the Duck U Bookstore, heck back before the days of CowPuters, I worked at the local news-talk radio station as a buttonpusher show producer on a fill-in basis. I did have one regular shift however... the Sunday Morning Church shift. I mean, it started at 6am with the Catholic Mass in Swedish, for heaven's sake, pun not intended. The Salvation Army had a recorded program, there was a program I literally never paid attention to except to make sure it was still running, there was the live-in-studio show with the purple-suit-clad preacher who was, eventually, removed from his position in his church because he got a little too close to some of his female parishioners, and then there was the show I privately called "the church ladies."
Yeah, kinda like that, except not at all. The preacher in purple I mentioned earlier? The church ladies usually matched him sequin for sequin when they came in, spoke loudly and cackled even louder. But their chat show took place in and around gospel music songs... and since I was the button-pusher I had to pay attention for the cues and stuff. And along the way, I discovered something: gospel music could be quite good.
I found out today that one of my favorite groups from that show, The Blind Boys of Alabama are still recording, and what I was playing for the Church Ladies was already 30 years old at the time.
Really, there's no reason for this post other than to mention that. Have a nice day!
Yee-Haw.
So I'm browsing around Reddit one day this week and I stumble upon a charming little story about a 90-something-year-old WWII veteran that approached a bunch of musicians performing at a festival to request a song. I don't remember the name of the tune, but it was what the dockside band was playing when the vet's troop transport pulled away to head into the Pacific War.
Well, that's cool, I thought, and got into the comments section. The guy who posted the thing original was a member of a group called "Shoot Low Sheriff", which made me laugh because I knew the rest of that sentence is "... they're ridin' shetlands!" What really made me arch an eyebrow was that the band plays "Western Swing."
Now it's no secret to anybody who's read The Pond for a while that I do like me some big band / swing music. I'm still enjoying the electroswing movement, for example, and one of my favorite Joe Jackson albums is "Jumpin' Jive". But "I've never heard of no Western Swing before, wonder what it sounds like" is what I thought to myself, so I looked them up.
Well, I'll be.
That's kinda darn fun right there! I bought both of their albums from Amazon, and they're a blast to listen to. Obviously if you don't like Western music, you're probably not going to like this... and I understand that. If you don't like swing music, you're probably not going to like this... and while I don't understand that, people are different. Even if you're wrong.
They get a Wonderduck two wingtips up! Enjoy, won't you?
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"So did this" is so very very wrong and I'm a bad man for laughing so hard at it.
Posted by: GreyDuck at August 12, 2019 07:36 AM (hDUbp)
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Yeah, there's good reasons why I didn't just embed that one... "poor taste" immediately leaps to mind, but damn if it didn't make me laugh and wince at the same time.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 12, 2019 11:17 AM (ssz1E)
I Had No Idea...
Y'all remember The Art Of Noise, right? New Wave band, did that thing with Max Headroom, and that other thing with Tom Jones, and that other other thing with Duane Eddy, and the video with the kinda creepy little girl directing people to destroy various musical instruments in various entertaining ways? Right, that song was titled "Close (To The Edit)", and like a lot of Noise's stuff, it still holds up really well today.
But here's the thing: I always assumed that it was all electronic stuff and samples and drum machines. And maybe it was, but I only just learned that Trevor Horn produced the band... indeed, he was actually part of the band. And between him, Anne Dudley, and a Fairlight, there was actual, y'know, music. That could be played live. A stunning concept for what I thought was nothing but a studio band.
How did I discover this? Like most revelations, I discovered it accidentally, by stumbling over a 2004 Prince's Trust concert celebrating the career of Trevor Horn. His work with The Buggles, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Yes, Seal, ABC, and others all performed live... and then this:
Completely gobsmacked. I knew Horn played bass, but holy crepe on a stick, he does seem to be pretty damn good at it. Oh, and those drummers are doing some serious work.
And it was live. Who knew the Art of Noise was a real live boy?
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I always get mixed up between Trevor Rabin and Trevor Horn, to my deep chagrin. To be fair to my feeble brain, they were both members and/or producers of the band Yes...
Dude's got CHOPS though. I should track down the full playlist for that show.
When Cover Songs Try Too Hard
Last night I found myself following a pointer gleaned from over at J's place into the darker recesses of Yootoob. I came hunting for the promise of a good cover song, made likely by the musician being Jonathan Coulton... y'know, the guy who wrote Portal's theme song? So into this den of iniquity I went, and I found an entire album, entitled Some Guys, of cover songs of '70s hits and ballads. I began listening... and I found myself confused.
That's not a cover song! Oh, it is of course... that's Coulton singing instead of Gerry Rafferty... but there's practically no difference between the two. Is that a cover, or is it a tribute, or just a knockoff? The entire album is like this, nigh-on note perfect copies of 40-year-old songs. And I have to ask: why bother? Don't get me wrong, it's a tour-de-force by Coulton. The performances are excellent, and if you didn't know better you'd swear you were listening to the originals.
And that's the problem, isn't it? If I wanted to listen to the original song, I'd just listen to the original, not Jonathan Coulton pretending to be Gerry Rafferty, no matter how good at it he is.
I'm long of the belief that a good cover song must have a healthy dollop of the covering band's flavor on top of the original. The best example of this that I can come up with off the top of my head is the song "Got The Time".
Classic song by Joe Jackson in his "angry young man" phase, somewhere after punk but before new wave kicked in. He's long been my favorite musician, and this is easily one of my favorite of his tracks. Until I heard a cover of it.
By heavy metal band Anthrax.
Now it's still one of my favorite Joe Jackson songs, I just prefer this version. It's still the same song, just performed in Anthrax's inimitable style. It's no slavish copy, it's just a brilliant repurposing.
THAT's what I think a cover song should be like. Don't copy: adapt.
1
It's a strange line. If an act tries to copy a song, and fails, but doesn't suck *too* bad, then it's a cover song. If it's an EXACT copy, it's a concept. Possibly a tribute, in the right circumstances.
But also, if an act copies another act but using an intentional gimmick, that's ALSO a tribute. If the act changes the songs *too* much, or focuses on their gimmick more than the music, then they're a parody act.
2
Yeah, I found most of the album to be a little too on-the-nose, and wish he'd shone a bit of Coulton snark on the painfully earnest lyrics. Everybody's Talkin is the worst, IMHO, because he carefully imitates the annoying woh-woh sound that I'd successfully suppressed all memory of. New Kid In Town works best for me, because he makes it his own just a little.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at May 03, 2019 02:10 AM (ZlYZd)
3
Coulton just does not seem to grok what a cover is for. His project is more like using Photoshop to reproduce famous photographs. It's a marvelous accomplishment while also being unnecessary and not terribly enjoyable.
I'd not heard that Anthrax rendition of "Got The Time" before. Nice!
Posted by: GreyDuck at May 03, 2019 07:31 AM (rKFiU)
4
Disturbed exemplified how it's done with the Sound of Silence. This metal cover of Toto's Africa is also an amazing example. This guitar only cover of Purple Rain by John Petrucci has also featured on my playlist for some time. All of those are recognizably the original song, but also touched by the cover artist's style.
The first version of Little Wing I ever heard was by Sting. I didn't even know at the time that is was a cover of a Hendrix song, and it took me a while to wrap my head around the original.
Posted by: David at May 04, 2019 06:25 PM (JMkaQ)
5
Depeche Mode covered "Route 66." It is a good cover, but it also cracked me up the first time I heard it, last month. I could almost fete what the music video must have looked like.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at May 05, 2019 10:55 PM (sF8WE)
6
Tell, not fete. Argh, predictive spelling must go!
I was wrong about the music video, though. I was sure there would be a red sportscar, whereas it turned out to be all about motorcycles.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at May 05, 2019 11:02 PM (sF8WE)
Posted by: J Greely at May 06, 2019 02:54 PM (ZlYZd)
8
Along the lines of making a cover, but making it your own, I just ran across this:
Posted by: Mauser at May 10, 2019 05:45 AM (Ix1l6)
9
Y'know, I never liked that song... I've always found Stevie Nicks to be creepy as hell, and Fleetwood Mac has always seemed to be overrated (note: does not include The Chain... or at least part of it.).
But I like this version. Good catch, Mauser.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 10, 2019 03:59 PM (EXhwA)
10
Bite your tongue. Well, a little bit, anyway. Agree on Fleetwood Mac being overrated, but Stevie Nicks is a persona that overshadowed a lot of good songs. Pretty sure she was intentionally creepy.
11
It came up in a FB thread, and I immediately thought of this post. One of the more music theory inclined participants noticed a very different chord progression that was more complex than the original. Totally flew over my head.
Posted by: Mauser at May 10, 2019 06:35 PM (Ix1l6)
Well, Ghost is much too weird for me to explain them.
That's what I said in the blurb for the Pet Shop Boys' cover in the last post. I'd like to apologize for that, because some few hours has taught me quite a lot about the band from Sweden. You would do well to turn the volume up on this post, by the way.
Everybody knows what a concept album is, right? A bunch of songs devoted to the same thing telling a story as they go... The Who's Tommy, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Joe Jackson's Big World, Alan Parson's Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Styx's Paradise Theatre, all examples of the concept album. Well, Ghost takes it one farther: they're a concept band! The concept is, however, that they're a Satanic cult led by their charismatic frontman. Said frontman has until only lately been appearing in skull makeup and church regalia. These days, he wears a Uncanny Valley facemask.
Didn't make the satanism rumors go away, which is probably exactly what Ghost wants. The more I think about it, the more I believe them to be more performance art than musical band... though considering their formidable skills, I'd not say that to their faces. These Followers of the Morning Star can friggin' rock.
Yes, that's right, that's a Grammy Award they've got there. They won the 2016 award for Best Metal Performance for their song Cirice.
Nowadays the Grammys aren't worth much of a much, but for people of a certain age... ahem... that remember what they used to be, there's still a cachet to owning one. And while that's a helluva music video they've got there, Ghost seems to be a better live act. Here's a live version of Cirice, for example.
Across the board the band's official videos are... inventive. To the point that sometimes they take away from the actual music... the video for Rats! is so goofballish that the song (which isn't one of their best, it must be said) just gets swamped. At other times, the video will actually explain the song (see Cirice, for example). Often enough, fortunately, the band'll leave things open to interpretation, forcing you to actually listen. Square Hammer appears to be freemasonry, clever since how many people actually KNOW what a Mason is/was anymore?
In a lot of ways, there's nothing new with Ghost. They're absolutely metal, taking cues from all over the map: Kiss and Metallica are references mentioned in interviews (and there's a kickass cover of Enter Sandman played in front of the King of Sweden, too... turns out Hetfield's a fan!). They don't seem to be just the usual headbanging heavy riffers... there's a serious amount of songwriting and musical talent here. I'm tempted to say that this is "Metal For The Thinking Man", except they'd probably make fun of me for being pretentious. But come on, read the lyrics to what I think is their best song, He Is:
If you didn't know better, this is Christian Rock. At least, it is to start. It sort of heads south (if you know what I mean) along the way to the end. Even then though, you really have to be thinking about what the lyrics are saying to catch it. The reference to the story of the burning bush speaking to Moses is really sneaky... when Moses asks for proof that he's truly speaking to God, the reply is "I am who I am." So "he is" is second... or is it third?... person referencing here. Circles within circles.
I find online reaction videos to Ghost to be hilarious. Either people love them, or they're confused as hell... that reaction is usually from self-described christians. These guys love the song, but despise the message, except then they don't like the song, but they do, and... and... and... they're right though, Mere Christianity is a wonderful book.
Go out, give 'em a listen, you might be surprised. Or you might hate them. Either response is perfectly valid, and I'd understand either one. Or don't think about it and just bang your head vigorously. That works too.