I appreciate Neil Young, but when I was a young kid I remember seeing Wonderin' as my first exposure to him, and for some reason I found it hilarious. He just seemed like a dirty weirdo.


When I was in college, my roommate was a big Neil Young fan, and I was becoming a big Pearl Jam fan, so I learned to respect him and found out more about him - the classics like Ohio and Rockin' In The Free World, although I still remember making fun of Transformer Man a lot. His high pitched voice often came across as silly.

Then Philadelphia came out and found out how that voice could also break my heart.

I actually saw him once in a toy shop in the San Francisco area, buying model trains with his special needs kids. I locked eyes with him, recognized him, and just gave him a nod rather than bothering him. My recollection is he nodded back and went about his business.

I like that he bothered Lynyrd Skynrd with Southern Man and Alabama and inspired their most famous song as a diss track against him. Not much of an actual feud, I gather, but enough that they had to call him out by name.

I just saw an article about it, claiming that the confederate flag that Skynrd used on their album cover "was not a racist symbol in the 1970s." It absolutely was, but it was just that not enough white people understood that in the 1970s, apparently Skynrd included.

Caught this tune on my local radio station today. First time I've heard them play it. Dr. Demento used to play it on his show..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU8EqkQKfw0

I'll take this original over the Metallica cover any day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K59EMGgrUA

A less well-known song by them. Nonsense lyrics but a good tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5MkTSW-LYY

One I hadn't heard by them until recently but pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opxft_u0GNw

OK bear with me on this. It is a black metal band with a saxophonist. The music is so interesting because the saxophone is so melodic and kind of sets the theme to the songs. There are many times when the guitarists play riffs that are variations on the saxophone melody. I get that this will not be for everyone because of the vocalist but I was able to tune it out.

https://youtu.be/7b_cNjfeV8g?si=VDW4IgVqhr3vBYd9

Here is a youtube clip where the guitarist plays Blackmetal riffs with no distortion and it sounds like surf rock. Hha ha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwGgDmHuGpA

I think after all these years and all these songs, you have finally found a group in White Ward that no one could truly love as a whole. Yes, I am thankful to have seen it and thanks for the experience but what? Makes you wonder if the saxophonist's uncle has blackmail on the rest of the group, or if they owe the uncle a lot of money. I have a similar suspicion regarding the singer/bassist. There ARE parts very interesting, musically, but it's hard to imagine music fans of any genre embracing the entirety of what is presented. As with us, parts are good, parts are not what we enjoy. I think they manage to present some parts that will not be to someone's liking.

We have discussed Mahavishnu Orchestra before and in a very weird (personal opinion) way, they remind me of them in only one way. A group I wish had produced an entire song that embodies the parts I really like and omitted other parts. The singer is too much for me to tune out.

Yes, interesting.

I feel like calling that 'black metal' is misleading.

Because this should probably be what we call black metal. Maybe.

In the early to mid 90s I found this band. A weird ensemble for a rock band consisting of a bassist, drummer and a baritone / tenor saxophonist. I thought, why not give these guys a shot. To say I was mildly pleased would be an understatement. For whatever reason, the US market could never get behind them. I don't know if it was because every band at that time had to sound like Pearl Jam, STP, AiC or Soundgarden. Anyway, it was an unusual choice of instruments, but the music was, IMO, awesome. It has a bluesy feel to it.

Morphine - The Night
Morphine - Buena
Morphine - You Loo Like Rain

I find everything entertaining except those vocals.

He's playing those licks on a tele. Love it.

Back in the early 70s Warner Brothers released a bunch of compilation albums featuring artists that appeared on their label. Most of them were double albums but one was a triple album called Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. My older stepbrother decided to mail-order a copy. It featured artists like Captain Beefheart and Vandyke Parks but this stood out to me partially for it's weirdness coupled with my fascination with fantasy and science fiction caused me to never forget this song despite the fact I was unable to obtain my own copy of that album. Apparently the artist's other work was more along the likes of Bob Dylan but I have yet to investigate that. I wonder if Dr. Demento ever looked into this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSViNGPmVm8

A little warning on this link. It is probably only for Band-Maid "Maidiacs" and is three hours and thirty five minutes long.

Update- This may now be blocked. I apologize.

Band-Maid just finished their 10th Anniversary World Tour yesterday. Today there is a link for the entire final performance of that tour at Yokohama Arena in Japan, posted one hour ago. There are about 12,000 people in attendance for this celebration. I am a little shocked that it is already online as they will be releasing blu-rays in February. There are some new intros and arrangements and for those who care, they have new "battle armor”, their costumes. Kanami really looks like a star in her new garb. I never cared what she wore before, just how she wrote and played guitar. Now I care.

Band-Maid 10th Anniversary World Tour Final Performance, Yokohama Arena

I am having the best morning watching this.

I was fortunate enough to watch the entire Band-Maid performance from the previous post this morning. By this afternoon, it had been blocked. Sorry about that. I did find a lower quality video of just one song.

CHOOSE ME (Band-Maid Final 10th Anniversary show)

TOKYO CALLING (Atarashi Gakko)

The English lyrics are a scream.

This is the second Atarashi Gakko song we've seen, and they are hilarious. Their videos are funny and their choreography is weirdly impressive. Haven't yet added them to my playlists, but this is starting to grow on me.

So just saw this for the first time. Appears the song is about a year old, but with a new video. Since we've been doing World Music, guess that I've gotten behind on more domestic tunes. Anyway, when I first saw the listing, I wasn't too excited to hear a newer Skid Row song. But turns out that I like it a lot. Surprise.

RESURRECTED (Skid Row)

Those were such a mixture of gems and weirdness. I have one of the series and I think it was my first introduction to Wishbone Ash. Loved those albums.

BLIND EYE (Wishbone Ash)

Another great track was Matthews Southern Comfort doing a version of the song Woodstock.

WOODSTOCK (Matthews Southern Comfort)