What MUSIC are you listening to?

Managed to get my family through the music festival this weekend. It was mostly solid stuff, had a good time. The Saturday headline was Paloma Faith who we didn't sign up for - she was a last minute replacement, and she was awful. Wife and youngest left before she came on, my eldest made me stay to watch it and even she only lasted three songs before deciding she wanted to leave.

Sunday headline was Robert Plant, who was bloody amazing. I've never seen anyone of that stature play live before, and his experience really showed. His band were incredible musicians and the whole act was competent, slick and assured at a level above anything else I've ever seen. Youngest got exhausted and we had to leave right at the end - missed Whole Lotta Love - but that was a small sacrifice to enjoy the rest of his set.

The biggest unexpected pleasure was Alison Moyet, who I had no particular interest in seeing, but who looked delighted to be on stage and was brilliant. 80's new wave is surprisingly danceable when you turn the bass up. Second biggest was Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer who I thought would be an amusing distraction but he's a born entertainer and very funny.

Speaking of Robert Plant, after recording plays on Last.FM for nearly a decade, my top 30 artists look like my actual top 30 artists. Zeppelin slot in at number 28, just above Pink Floyd and just below Robyn.

I think that sometimes people forget how good some of these performers are as PERFORMERS. Even if they're playing the standard Top 40 stuff you've heard for your entire life, they can put on a show because they've been doing it for your entire life. I remember seeing Lenny Kravitz one time and I wasn't much of a Kravitz fan. But the guy doesn't do a ton of recording because he's on the road playing all the time. He was at an outdoor theater here in the Detroit area and he had the whole place throbbing. Every person there was in sync with him; no wandering to other stages, no milling around the bathrooms; the spotlight was on and everyone was watching it. It was spectacular and still one of the best performances I've ever seen on a stage.

After "This is America," I started looking into more Childish Gambino. I had somehow avoided hearing about him up until now, although I had seen a few episodes of Community. Ever since I got the sountrack to Hamilton last summer, the family has been on a hip hop odyssey.

A lot of his early stuff is like this. Although I like this track, it falls way off after this.



I put this song on a mix cd for my wife; it is followed by Joan Jett's Bad Reputation.

My favorite video of all of his is Sweatpants. When I mentioned this to my friend, he told me to see Anomalisa. I've rented it from the library and we still have to see it.



I remembered Eminem's Rap God, which I hadn't heard for a few years. It also went onto that same mix CD, and has been the most played track. Last night we finally saw 8 Mile, which is leaving Netflix at the end of the month.



On the 'throwback' radio station, I heard:



Which is a ubiquitous track that I somehow missed when I was a child because I was too busy listening to either the classical station with my dad or the alternative station with my brother. I also love CAKE, which, with all of their steady beats and forced rhymes, really don't feel all that different. First track I remember hearing on the radio was Rock 'n Roll Lifestyle.

MF Doom and Czarface have continued to get a lot of play from me. I really like this one, which is predominantly instrumental.



As a guitarist, Pete is more likely to be impressed by technical guitar skill than people looking for a catchy or pump-up-able song, just like I get excited when I hear someone rhyme feelin' with villain, because it's both a slant rhyme and something I call a "power" rhyme, where you alliterate with something that has the same point of articulation but different levels of voiced-ness.

Interviews with musicians and writers is one of my favorite forms of entertainment.

I'm a fan of that Books of War track, so I look forward to listening to the rest of those songs when I get home to a computer with speakers.

*shrug* at risk of raising the hackles of those with superior musical tastes, I've been getting into a lot of 80's rock lately.

Early 80's stuff. Must be impending midlife crisis, but I feel a lot of comfort listening to music that my parents listened to at that point.

Main stage has been a lot of Toto, and Steely Dan.

Lots of Police, Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, Alan Parsons Project, etc. mixed in there as well.

I think Toto is getting g a lot of flak from snobs lately about "Africa". Sure, it's not Mozart, but so the fuck what? Have you heard Andy McKee play it fingerstyle ? Fuggidaboudit.

Toto is pretty damned underrated and pawned off like it's a hipster resurgence of ironic appreciation.

Let's break down one tune by a very well versed musician. (Great channel by the way)



It's not meant to make you change your taste on wether you like or dislike them, just to illustrate that they aren't the hacks that most artists seem to get away with being nowadays.

That last statement does come off as snobbish, but it's meant to illustrate that you don't need a band anymore to be a band, but be musically inclined and hit a computer and you can be your own Boston. It lacks a bit of soul when instruments are all digital.

By coincidence, I was binge-watching American Horror Story: Coven recently, and there was a scene where a frat boy was getting mocked by his frat brothers for being a Toto fan.

2018 : Where Weezer will be trending on YouTube doing a cover of "Africa" by Toto.
I put that up there with Anthrax trending doing a cover of "Wayward Son" by Kansas.

This is not my favorite song by The Regrettes, but the instruments they use on this song are killing me. In a good way:

Turning to my embarrassing teenage tastes for some mellow prog.

Shell, the hot chick should really lose the percussion so she can concentrate on the singing. She’s clearly distracted and half her notes are falling flat

Love the drummer