What the Hell are you Listening to (2024)?
 

Might as well make a new one for this year.

I'll start with a group I am going to see next month and pumped for it.

another group I'll be seeing...

Just got home from seeing Vandenberg & Geoff Tate.

Quite solid, AV is still a guitar god, Tate was surprisingly good tbh.

Best of all to me maybe? Both seemed ... happy.

Considering there were maybe 200 people in attendance, made me feel better to see no sign of disappointment or anything other than they looked happy to be playing ... period.

Tate is definitely a douchenozzle. He's like the prog metal version of Dennis DeYoung. Undeniable talent though.

Grandaddy.

It’s their first since like 2006. Bassist dies a bit ago. Jason Lytle didn’t want to continue at that point.

But they/he are coming back.

Not sure what to describe them as. Lofi brilliant? Bits and pieces and a shit ton of heart.

I'll admit to being a huge Judas Priest fan going back 40 years to my pre- and early teens, but I'll be damned if the new album isn't some of the best stuff they've done in decades. The last album was really good but this one's better - 50 years after the release of their first album.

Nothing groundbreaking, just some damn good metal.

I'll be seeing them in May in Atlanta with a couple of high school friends. I last saw them around 1990 or so with Megadeth and Testament. I definitely want to see Halford at least one more time. Hard to believe that dude is only a few years younger than parents.

KK's Priest was a solid set, if a bit heavy on early Judas Priest material. Despite that (which suited the pretty good crowd just fine best I could tell) my neck is a little sore today, most legit headbanging set I've seen anyone do in a long time.

More surprised by how solid LA Guns were tbh. Phil Lewis is 67 and probably sounds as good as he's ever sounded.

I prefer the version they did with Alissa White-Gluz, seems more appropriate with a female singer

Anyone here listen on vinyl? Final got around to getting a somewhat real turntable and speakers. It really does feel warmer. And having to get up every 20 minutes or so makes the music feel more engaging. 90% of my "collection" are Goodwill dumpster dives, but I've still found some albums I've always liked. Like listening to Chicago Transit Authority, even a copy I literally paid a dime for, sounds more enjoyable than streaming it losslessly from Apple.

Also, cleaning records really does make a huge difference. As a kid I just assumed everything had pops and cracks every second or 2. It's because my dad played the shit out of his records on bargain turntables without ever cleaning them.

You do you, by all means.

For me, I can't think of anything with less appeal than doing that. From an equipment standpoint, from a storage standpoint, from an irritation & aggravation standpoint, from a price/selection standpoint, that's about as big a nope combo meal as I could come up with.

I agree. And then throw in that I sold/gave away probably 1000 vinyl, 2000 cassette, still have a wall and a half of CD... I'm good with MP3s. 98% of my listening is done in the car anyway.

So yeah, lots of famous people collaborated for this one

Not bad but could be better. The video is below par.




... do think Miley's is better.

Dolly says she likes Beyonce's version. I will defer to the Queen.


Edit: That is the official lyric video, not the official video.

Lots of good British albums recently (Creeper, Lathums, Last Dinner Party, etc) but stand out is Yard Act’s second album Where’s My Utopia… A mix of great music, lyrics and wry wit

My daughter stayed up for the new Taylor Swift release since she doesn't have school tomorrow... This also marks the 8th time in the last 10 weeks she hasn't had school on Friday.

Dola, and so I stay relevant and am able to embarrass said daughter, I listened to all 31 tracks of the new album. The main album is basically Midnights 2.0 filtered through her Folklore/Evermore era. The extra album is basically her Folklore/Evermore era with a splash of Midnights. While it all sounds samesy, even for a Taylor Swift album, the second set is much stronger. This isn't an album with a natural hit and doesn't really have anything that could be considered upbeat.

The National influence strikes again

Got tickets to Smashing Pumpkins and another set to Weezer. Supposedly Weezer will play the Blue Album straight through so I'll probably leave after that. I'm not sure I've intentionally heard a Pumpkins song since Mellon Collie, so not looking forward to a concert of more recent stuff. But Live Nation is doing a $25 ticket sale, so for $100 all in my wife and I get to go to 2 concerts that would normally cost at leave twice as much.

Weezer is fabulous live. Really fun.

We are seeing Smashing Pumpkins with Rancid and Green Day this summer.

Just saw The Interrupters and SUM 41 the other night. The Interrupters are always fantastic live. Sum 41 had tons of energy

I'm driving 2.5 hours and staying overnight in a couple weeks to go see Frank Turner. Really looking forward to that one as he is amazing live and it's in a smaller setting.

Spent about 24 hours in Atlanta over the weekend to hang out with a couple of HS friends and see Judas Priest. Great time. Was great to see the Priest for the first time in over 30 years. Halford can still bring it.

Opener was Sabaton, a band I knew about but had never heard. Their gimmick is military-themed power metal. While they were entertaining enough and put on a good show, I'm not much of a fan of power metal and song after song about battles and wars and whatever got old quick. It was like they looked at Iron Maiden's catalog and said, "Nope, not enough military history."

It also ignited a bit of a discussion about backing tracks, because this band was clearly using them. The backing vocals were full and pristine and clearly not being sung by the band live. And at one point, they did some song about poison gas and the entire band came out wearing gas masks - including the lead singer, who proceeded to "sing" through his mask for the entire song. That lead us to question what other lead vocal parts might not have been live, although I'm pretty sure he was doing it live. Didn't necessarily ruin the performance, and I get for a band that heavily relies on layered backing vocals during recording, you want to reproduce that sound live as best you can. But this seemed a bit more performative in that they weren't just supporting the vocals - they were the vocals.

Anyway, great weekend and a perfect night on Saturday night for an outdoor show even if getting from PTC to Alpharetta was a shitshow.

Good Lord. PTC to Alpharetta is a horrible commute. Easier to cross the Alps.

Yeah, it was bad. They were talking about some place in Macon where there are a decent amount of shows and that it was 20 miles farther to get to Macon but it usually takes 15 less minutes to get there compared to Ameris Bank Ampitheater.

Well fuck .. we were there too. You coulda waved or something lol.

And on a 2 show weekend (Staind/Seether in GVL last night), Sabaton was absolutely the standout performance of the whole weekend for me ... and probably drew as much of the crowd as Priest. I was absolutely stunned & amazed by how much of a fanbase they had, I never knew.

Same here! We were looking around and people were actually singing all the words. Like I said, I thought they were entertaining but the other stuff kinda took them down a notch or two. The Hello Kitty guitar was a nice touch, though.

FWIW -- just in case someone else hasn't discovered it -- Groupon made a HUGE difference in pricing for that show, and quite a few others recently.

A difference big enough that I could justify going to both shows this weekend, whereas I might have passed on one if not both otherwise.

At today's prices (which I thought clearly hurt both crowds), 48% to 62% off is pretty noticeable.

Good deal. Yeah, my buddies who know the venue were surprised they didn't even attempt to sell the lawn. I said, it's probably because sitting on a blanket is not METAL.

That's such a good heads up, Jon. Just looked, and there are a bunch of concerts at $25 a ticket on there. Stone Temple Pilots, Rob Zombie with Alice Cooper, Five Finger Death Punch...nothing I would necessarily go to, but I'm going to keep my eye on it.

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Nah, I've been on the lawns around Atlanta plenty of times. Saving money is respectably metal :)

That was all about pricing IMO. They knew if they offered $25 lawn (which with the $25 lawn sale now underway they'd had to have gone low), they'd be 75% unsold in the reserved.

Just got tickets to see Rise Against in Philly in October. Really excited for this show.

Every so often I am reminded just how fucking awesome The Offspring is.

I hope they are, they will be at the MMRBQ as headliner and are the group I am least looking forward to.

Also, from the concert I went to last month. It was the trifecta of shows. Great performance, great crowd (mostly), and the venue was incredible (Pier 17 rooftop in NYC).

I would like to see those guys live. But yeah, the crowd has got to be good for max enjoyment. Basically, it can't be a bunch of me's.

Since discovering Amigo the Devil about 5 years ago, I've jumped into a lot of dark folk/country/rock/pop, etc. A couple months ago I ran across this guy Dan Spencer and he blew me away. Definitely way more country than anything I'd typically listen to, but he definitely has that metal vibe Amigo has - lyrically dark/edgy/underground but with really smart/funny lyrics.

I can't find much info on him at all. He just released a new album and I saw a local Tennessee article that showed a tour that includes Lexington, but I'll be damned if I can find any info on either his site or the venue's site about it.

Anyway, I want more stuff like this or Amigo.

NSFW!







These lyrics - awesome!

It don't take much to make a few bucks
Down in Music Town, Tennessee
Read the right books, find the right look
And have your dad own an oil refinery
Really what's the difference
Between grunge and country music?
They're both gonna kill themselves
But one needs a way to prove it
One has to live what he wrote
And I hate to say I love, to hate to say I love to hate to say I love
Love to hate. I love to say "I hate to say"
It didn't take long to find the true scot or the DIY bourgeoisie
Americonartist polyamateurs
Fuckin with a limp dick pointed straight at me
Really what's the difference between blues and Black Metal?
It's the same line of work it's just a different devil
And the pay is just about the same
And I wish I had a dime for every time I wished a had a dime
Wished I had a dime for every time I had a dime
I kinda thought I'd be paid for and bought
And go to work in the machine
A life on my knees, singing dirt on my jeans
I think you know exactly what I mean
So what's the difference between punk and southern gospel?
They both had their place in time
And they're both gonna turn to fossil
And I can't say I dig either one
And I think that you deserve to think that you deserve
To think that you're the thing to beat; the thing you think
That you deserve to be
I really can't wait to be what ya hate
And have it all work out just fine
I don't need your love on a latex glove
But I'm lubed up and ready for a real hard time
So to the city I swear a solemn see ya later
You taught me I'm my one and only savior
Ive been loyal, but you couldn't be bothered to return the favor
So now I have to go off
And now be bursting with country fresh flavor

Speaking of Amigo, the true sign of an artist is to come up with a quote so good you end up selling it on merchandise, then you feel guilty because it's not associated with an actual song you wrote, so you write said song and it's freaking awesome.

Also NSFW.

.

Seeing a packed arena rap along to a song about Drake being a pedophile is wild... and they did it 5 times.

OK, so I have to admit - I never really liked Crazy Train. I know it's hugely popular, but after the intro, it kinda sucks.

So when I ran across this tweet, I immediately identified with it:

The intro of Crazy Train vs the rest of the song. pic.twitter.com/W0Ny0hvvcY

— Mickey Blowtorch (@MickeyBlowtorch) May 19, 2021

That led me down a rabbithole to this...




Have a nice day!

Every couple of months I play this video to usher myself into a slow, sleepy wake-up. It's a vibe.

I know I'll be the only one on this board geeking out about this, but Opeth just announced their new album, tour and first single for the album The Last Will and Testament. And holy shit, THE GROWLS ARE BACK.

It's been like 15 years since Akerfeldt dropped the death metal and went 70s prog. And while I like what they've produced since then, it's got nothing on the old stuff. The light/day, dynamic sounds they used to produce have been sorely missing. I have no idea if this is just a one-off for the first single (it's also the first track), but the metal internet is blowing up about the new song.

It's a concept album set in post-WWI era, unfolding the story of a wealthy, conservative patriarch whose last will and testament reveals shocking family secrets. Bring it on!

So anyway... my wife thought I was fucking nuts, and I felt like giving her some company by having the rest of you think the same.

Damn Opeth still making music, that's cool.

They never went away, it's just that Akerfeldt had a falling out with death metal and decided to channel his inner-Camel and write the 70s prog rock that's he's always loved. At first, he really bristled at the fact that the fans were not happy about it. The first tour they did post-growl, he didn't perform any songs with growls and heard it from the fanbase. So the live shows went back to what they should have always been - a mix of new and old - but all 3 or 4 releases since Watershed have been only clean vocals and a cleaner guitar tone. So, this new song kinda marries the old with the new a bit. I really like it.

Citing Steven Tyler's inability to recover fully from his vocal injury, Aerosmith announces their retirement from touring, effective immediately

x.com

That's sad, but then shocking that they had still been touring. These old rockers tour till they are in the grave, and then sometimes after.

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Waiting on the new one from this guy.