A never ending change of bizarre music links

It has been a while since I updated this old sucker, mostly due to lack of interest. However, I have been stumbling on too much good stuff lately to not share it.

I have noticed that in researching, listening, and interpretting music and musical artists, that if you look hard enough, a lot of stuff is connected. For example; one of my compositional idols is Mr. John Zorn, a phenomenally talented and prolific avant-garde saxophonist who was awarded the "MacArthur Genius Grant" in 2006 for his virtuoso playing and compositions which transcend genres (notable projects include Painkiller and one of my favorite jazz combos of all time, Naked City). Following that chain, we can come up with a lot of the interesting musical acts that I've been listening to lately.

-John Zorn has worked extensively with Japanese 'vocalist' Yamantaka (Yamatsuka) eYe, the frontman of the crazy Japanese group The Boredoms.

-John Zorn's record label was used for the first several releases of virtuoso guitarist (and all around weirdo) Buckethead.

-Buckethead has done some work and guest contributions with Les Claypool, and his band of note, Primus - the only band given their own genre tag. Awesome.

-Primus have toured with genre-bending funk-metal act Mr. Bungle - fronted and arranged by a Mr. Mike Patton, who has worked extensively with John Zorn, and eYe. (Also, another act to tour with Mr. Bungle - Incubus. >>;)

-Zorn, Patton, and eYe have all worked with with Masami Akita (aka Merzbow), one of the most prolific and notable noise 'music' producers in the world.

Which leads us all in a big circle - from that group I can find a lot more stuff. I can link Buckethead to Estradasphere (a genre defying instrumental group), and them to Liquid Tension Experiment, and them to Dream Theater - thus providing the methodology through which I came to acknowledge the existence of a lot of these artists. It's not always a straight line, I guess.

My reccomendation to people is to follow connections - you never know what kind of amazing stuff you might wind up with if you look for it.

Today's song is probably something people have heard a lot lately, mostly due to the fame of Guitar Hero 2 amongst... well, just in general. So that means people might know it. I could pick something less cliche', but these are just good songs, and I see no reason not to let people know they're around. Plus, I'm not yet familiar enough with Buckethead (or Primus, tomorrow) to show people other stuff. So deal.

Today's song of the day: Jordan by Buckethead. Enjoy. Link is Here.

Power Surf-Metal? Win!

Song of the day: Mr. Sandman by Blind Guardian. This is without a doubt one of the best covers I've ever heard. For one, this song is utterly addictive by itself... adding in the little chorus hum is almost impossible not to do. Secondly, Blind Guardian, one of the premier pioneers of the power-metal sound, deserves some recognition - they started talking about wizards and swords in their songs and actually meant it. For note, the 'breakthrough' album for power-metal was Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1, though I haven't listened to it as much as I should. Suppose there's always more music for me to dip my tastes into. Megaupload link is here.

On the note of new music, I just recently came into the possession of Necrophagist's amazing two album discography - I was listening to their first album, Onset of Putrefaction last night, and I have to be honest - I didn't know death metal bands like this actually existed. Song names like Dismembered Self-immolation and Intestinal Incubation - I was totally taken aghast. This is one of those bands that people use when they want to make fun of death metal. And yet, I actually liked listening to them. So far, that first album is a top contender for album of the week. At least they didn't stretch quite as far as "Dripping Bloodgore in the Demonic Rancid Filth of Your Putrid Wounds", or something. Though, that would be a cool song. I will go about trying to work out what it would sound like.

The great thing about the year 2007, is that it holds more releases from one of my favorite artists - I speak here of Venetian Snares. If you hadn't gathered from the blog url, VSnares is, in my opinion, one of the best artists out there - and at three albums a year, it's hard for me to not be excited about his next releases. I got into Mr. Funk a while after he'd been producing, so while I can appreciate all his older albums, it's different than saying that I liked him while he actually produced something - though, to be fair, I thought Hospitality (his latest release, in October 2006) was just an in-part continuation to his prior album. It was only six-tracks long, and didn't do much for me. Thankfully, however, new soundscapes are always being explored, and maybe his next album will push boundaries even further. In case anyone really wanted to know, my favorite album of his is Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole. Love love love.