Again, how do you define rock? I would say Fleetwood is unquestionably rock and I don't even know what the term means if you're excluding them. Are we talking hard rock? Or rock as it descended from Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, etc.?

I would say Elton blends pop and rock, and is certainly very distinctly different than a traditional pop artist like Streisand, for example. Both him and Fleetwood Mac are closer to the origins of rock than the narrow definition many people would use for modern rock.

None of these have an etched in stone meaning, there's certainly an evolution of them. But with the existence of the term A(dult) C(contemporary) that's where "Dreams" -- their biggest hit -- falls.

Honestly not trying to be combative, I just think the term "rock" is more broad than how you guys are defining it, especially if we trace it from its origins to today. I think all of it qualifies as rock, and was wondering if you guys more meant hard rock or some other more specific subgenre of rock (which is how I would classify AC).

Maybe it depends on what Elton. "Saturday Night's Alright" is probably rock, now that I think about it. "Sad Songs" I'm not so sure about. And I like "Sad Songs."

(Or is it some sort of modernized do-wop? I guess it does have drums and a bass in it.)

There's probably the difference, I consider AC a sub-genre more of pop than rock. If anything it's the modern descendent of Easy Listening.

I hope the one thing we can all agree on is that ABBA has no place on a list of rock artists.

I guess we'll just extend 24 into 25.

Anyway, I will see this band live if it's the last thing I do...

Watching The Grammys with my daughter.

Sabrina Carpenter looks like a Temu sex doll.

Just saw Beyonce won for best country duo song and best country album. I'm sure that will sit well with the NASCAR crowd.

I know the Grammys don't matter, but a song about another artist being a pedophile winning song of the year is wild. And literally having the entire crowd sing along to "a minor." Like how do you come back from literally having the most "important" people in the field all laughing at you. And then it's going to be even worse next week.

I think Trump got his tariff idea after seeing what Kendrick did to Drake.

I have no idea what any of this means and honestly I think I am glad I don't.

Same here. I don't watch that crap, but I did see that Gojira won the Metal Grammy, which was beyond obvious that a bunch of stodgy Grammy voters would give it to the band that did the high-profile Olympics performance. Well-deserved, but obvious. I love that a band as heavy as them won a Grammy because without the Olympics tie-in, it would have been another Metallica Grammy.

Amigo the Devil announced a solo US tour a couple of days ago, including a stop in Lexington. I jumped all over that. And, it's on Mother's Day, so it will be a family affair. Caitlin's been to 2 shows with me, Michelle 1, and it will be Mack's first. I think I've seen him 4 or 5 times myself. He's come pretty far - used to play small dive bars, now he's at Lexington Opera House with actual seating, lol. I decided to get orchestra pit seats, 3rd row center.

As much as I like his band, his solo performances are next level. I was afraid once he started a band he'd not give it up, so this is a nice surprise that he's heading out for solo shows like he used to do. And I don't even have to drive more than 20 minutes - absolute no-brainer!

It'll be a relatively busy spring for shows for me - John Waite on 4/5 in Cincy, possibly seeing Dan Spencer the next night in Lexington, Leprous on 4/12 in Cincy, AtD on 5/11 in Lexington, and Joe Gatto on 5/16 in Louisville. And I run a marathon on 5/4 in Cincy in the middle of all of that, too.

I'll be curious to hear how Gatto is. I love the Jokers, and we met Murr a few months back and he couldn't have been nicer, I just always wonder what their stand up is like.

We saw him once already in Toronto. He was good. Not as good as Sal, but Sal is more of a professional stand-up comedian than the others.

See that is interesting because I find Sal by far the least funny of them all...

I've heard Sal doing stand-up on the clips they play on the SXM comedy channels, and of course I didn't know who he was until IJ hit it big.

It has been years since I've gone to a show at a club, but I'm pretty into Uncle Lucius, and I noticed that they are coming to Raleigh next week, so I'll have to find one of my cool t-shirts and not one of my Dad Joke t-shirts and make it out there.

Officially obsessed with Khruangbin. They performed at the Grammys the other night and god damn they are my vibe

https://youtu.be/q4xKvHANqjk?si=1nKkhKSoNPmNWvKh

They lost me at "Pitchfork presents..." :D

The background reminds me of the early 70s attempts at performance music videos like Black Sabbath doing Paranoid.

Actually, it's not bad but a little too chill for me. Or at least, I need it to be more of a depressing/sadboi vibe to be the kind of chill music I can listen to for more than a few minutes. Stylistically, this is kinda like if you switched out atmospheric black metal (removed the tremelo distorted guitars and screaming) and replaced it with a jazzy/groovy vibe. In all seriousness, it's kinda similar to this just a totally different vibe:



It's like Khruangbin are more at home on South Beach and Saor are in the Scottish Highlands.

They aren't going to be for everyone. They are certainly helping me after a depressing Manchester City loss and a joint, however

I'll raise you some ornamental masks, Ksyrup.

- YouTube

Looks and sounds like what would happen if the dude who created Ghost was a Phish fan.

More Bon Jovi

Must be nice to have a friend that is a well known performer

So, we went to see John Waite last night. Phenomenal show, as always. At 72 (soon to be 73), he's aged incredibly well. Still sounds like he did 30 years ago, honestly. His touring guitarist is from Matchbox Twenty. All I know about them is the jokes. Dude looked kinda like Kevin Cronin - short, white hair. I joked to my wife that Waite brought his grandmother on tour as his guitarist. And then I looked him up and saw that he's 4 years younger than me...

Opening was Tommy Tutone - well, Tommy Heath, the main guy from the band. It was just him and a young guy, no other band. He was good, but holy cripes has he aged. He's 78. You can hear that somewhat odd/distinctive voice he has still, but he sounded like a mush-mouthed Neil Young at a slightly lower register. He's pretty active for nearly 80 though - he was talking about a ton of projects and tours he's doing, plus a new album. I found his backstory interesting, which he talked about - for a period, he was a computer analyst and software engineer, but it sounds like he got back into music after retiring from a real job as a way to pass time doing what he loves for the rest of his life.

One other thing that was interesting, and we've seen a few times at some of these nostalgia tours that are performed in theatres in front of mostly geriatrics - a real tension between the people who are like, "This is a rock concert, why are you people sitting?", and most of the crowd who either can't or don't want to stand. There was a dust-up a few songs into Waite's set because 2 guys were standing a few rows in front of us to the side, and the people behind them got increasingly pissed until one of them yelled, "Sit down asshole!" That started a fair bit of back-and-forth between them (separated by about 4-5 rows). I would have stood because that's just, like, what I do at shows, but I didn't unless others around us got up. I definitely get the "rock concert" sentiment, but also, you should be polite when you're literally the only person standing in an entire section.

I feel like Tomorrow Never Knows is currently my favorite Beatles song.

A key reason that I simply don't go to the "dinner theater" venues. Not sure there's anybody -- alive OR dead -- that'd be enjoyable to me in that sort of environment .

I have really strong feelings about the standing thing and I'd end up criminally charged if anybody decided to take issue with it. And I really don't need to do "held without bond" at this point in life. Suffice to say that anybody that has a problem with folks standing at a rock show would be a mercy killing afaic.

I get the sentiment. I still remember the first time it happened to me, back in HS. I took my then-GF to see Debbie Gibson at 6 Flags and at some point - probably for a ballad or something - the entire crowd sat, and there I was, oblivious to it all, until my GF started tugging at me to sit down. I kind of turned to both sides, looking around, incredulous, but eventually I sat.

I don't mind sitting at certain times, as I understand peoples' limitations. My wife can't stand for very long - when we went to Leprous 2 weeks ago, she stood during the opener but was hurting so bad, she went to the back of the venue and sat in the wheelchair section while I watched from about 10 feet back - so I have some sympathy for people who are unable to stand. And these nostalgia tours are going to bring out a bunch of people who have physical limitations, and they are in seated venues, so it's hard to argue that standing the entire time is expected.

Still, I don't care how old the performer is, rock is rock, and there are times when it feels uncomfortable to be sitting politely while the band is rocking out. It's a little like a bizarro world. I'd love to talk to some performers about how they feel out on stage, giving it their all, while people politely sit on their hands. It wasn't until John Waite ended the show with about 3-4 hits strung together (interestingly and awesomely, all from his Babys years, plus a cover of Whole Lotta Love), that the crowd broke loose and most people stood. The rest of the show, it was more down than up.

First, did people stand for Missing You, because that seems like the ultimate old person sit down song?

Second, I honestly thought that song was sung by a woman until like a decade ago.

Third, I was flipping through the calendar of the main small music venue in town and saw the name Tantric. It sounded familiar but I couldn't place it, so I went to listen to streaming and immediately remembered a few songs from their album almost 25 years ago. I was "Astounded" that they're still touring, let alone releasing new albums. They seem like a quintessential post-grunge band that should have just disappeared. But then I see bands like Puddle of Mudd, Chevelle, or Godsmack are still making music and I guess there must be this market that I can't fathom.

Also, only the lead singer of Tantric is still in the band. Looking slat their past members, it's like 30 something people long. Kind of like at what point does a boat stop being the original boat, at what point does a band stop being the original band after replacing members?

Pretty cool they've been able to stay up all this time.

My first thought is that he's probably a real asshole.

No, and he did that song relatively early in his set.

John Waite has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. As I really got into music around 8-9 years old, I was a huge Babys fan. He was the lead singer. I'm sure you've probably heard 4-5 of their songs (Back On My Feet Again, Midnight Rendevous, Every Time I Think of You, Isn't It Time, etc.) and probably don't know it. Jonathon Cain was in the Babys for a short period, and left to join Journey. The rest is history there. And of course, the "new" Babys formed in the late 80s with Waite, Ricky Phillips (Babys bassist), Cain and Neal Schon after Steve Perry left Journey. When I See You Smile was a huge hit, but they only lasted 2 albums and they had already broken up by the time the second one was released. He's been doing solo stuff for the past 30+ years. There's a really good, honest documentary of his career out on streaming services called The Hard Way.

Funny thing about Tantric being left with only one founding member - they got started as a band because they were all fired (or quit) Days of the New, which left only Travis Meeks as the sole member of DotN. And after they left, DotN got so much better, honestly. Unfortunately, Travis Meeks has spent much of the past 30+ years in and out of jail, rehab facilities, etc., and hasn't put out an album that I'm aware of since the early 2000s. They even attempted to reunite the original DotN lineup about a decade ago, but Meeks was too drunk to perform and they gave up on him. Pretty sad. The second and third DotN albums are really good and while still the same acoustic guitar-based sound, greatly expanded their sound with all sorts of interesting instruments and arrangements. He's one of my personal "what if" artists who I wished could have gotten his shit together.

Tantric, on the other hand... not a fan. I can see why he didn't want to write music with them, based on what he went on to produce himself versus their output.

Thinking about DotN got me thinking about this song. Last song on the last album he put out. So freaking good.

Matt Berninger's (The National) latest solo single is such an earworm, I haven't stopped listening.

Chevelle and Godsmack are both quite popular still although I believe Godsmack is winding down. Two members announced they were done and the others don't really sound like they are interested in making new albums, at least as Godsmack.

I saw Barry Manilow in concert on Tuesday. He was really good, especially for someone who is turning 82 in a couple of weeks.

Good times!

Saw these guys on Thursday (with Laura Jane Grace) for their farewell tour.

I was listening to Donovan's Mellow Yellow album and Hampstead Incident came on. It took me a moment, but the song sounds extremely similar to Led Zeppelin's Have I'm Gonna Leave You. I guess it makes sense since it's almost certain that John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page played on that Donovan song.

Also, Taylor Dane's Tell It To My Heart is just a 1.5 speed One You Love by Glenn Frey.

Now I have a Taylor Dayne song in my head, but it's "don't rush me" instead of "tell it to my heart" -- weird

Sometimes you just stumble on the most random shit - like Primus covering Dio's Holy Diver with Puddles Pity Party on vocals.

Anyone listening to Velvet Sundown?

"Indie Rock Band" That's Clearly Using AI Claims That "We Never Use AI"

I wasn't sure at first about the "new" Linkin Park but I am ally digging them.