So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

Charley Ryan wrote and sang the original in 1955, it was inspired by Arkie Shibley's Hot Rod Race (1950), which is supposedly the first hot rod song. Ryan was actually building a hot rod Lincoln at the time, and it still exists. Ryan released a second version a few years later.



The actual car (2013 video)


Hot Rod Race

[uwe]

You live and learn, I had no idea it went that far back!

[Pilgrim]

I've been really impressed by the tune that opens the Amazon series Bosch. Extremely cool intro, and the trumpet riff just nails the detective and film noir aspects of the series.

I finally looked up the artist and tune, and discovered the YouTube video that uses scenes from Orson Welles' 1962 movie The Trial for the video. 

The artist is Caught a Ghost. The tune is Can't let Go...one of the coolest tunes I have heard in a long, long time!



And here's the program opening; great visual effects to go with the music...

[uwe]

Cool tune, but does his mom approve of the music?


Normaaaaan, turn it down!

She was always a little on the intrusive side.

[westen44]

This band was a You Tube suggestion about a week ago.  I tried to check out their music.  In general, I don't favor music with a nu-metal influence.  Also, I like just a raw sound without backing tracks.  However, I like this band April Art, especially the lead singer's raspy vocals.  I was once in a band called April Smile.  Nevertheless, we never got as good as this.  A similar name, but not a similar sound.   

[uwe]

I like that she has an alto voice, too few women in rock do.

Why do they dress like they're all in jail?

[westen44]

I like that she has an alto voice, too few women in rock do.

Why do they dress like they're all in jail?

The orange clothes must be a deliberate effort to project some kind of new image for the band.  I don't know much about them.  I tried to look them up, but didn't find much info. 

[Pilgrim]

Orange is the new Rock? 

[uwe]

Himmel!, I only realize zis jetzt, sie sind fellow Krauts! From Gießen (in the same Bundesland as I am) of all places. Not bad at all and if I have to say so myself.

They didn't always look this Agent Orange-y, they were liebe Kinder once:





Of course you can hear where they are coming from, another bunch of country(wo)men, who ruled the alt metal scene in Germany for a while:

[westen44]

The Guano Apes videos are good.  I still prefer April Art, though, once again, mostly because of the vocals. 

[uwe]

I'm only attracted by the music. Have always greatly appreciated Led Zeppelin in case that has gone unnoticed here.

[westen44]

Led Zeppelin was a great band.  But I just never could quite get into Robert Plant's high, idiosyncratic vocals.  I'm sure many people say exactly the same thing about Matthew Bellamy.  But I like Muse and have all their albums.  With Led Zeppelin I could take it or leave it and never got any of their albums.  Despite being an American, I never latched on to the fervor for LZ which was here for years and to some extent has never gone away.  Getting into with an argument about it isn't worth it, though.  I just don't care.  I don't even care that so many people don't like Muse and I'm a fan.  Once they got into doing music for that teenage vampire stuff, a blow to their image was inevitable.  In fact, I read somewhere that Chris Wolstenholme never supported their participation in that.  Besides that, you've also got the law of diminishing returns with each Muse album being worse than the last.  Bands can peak and decline, though.  That can be an unfortunate reality. 

[uwe]

I find Muse ... for lack of a better word ... a little contrived. I don't mind if music is weird or eclectic, I dig Max Webster, Be Bop Deluxe, Super Furry Animals, System of a Down, but with Muse everything sounds like hard work and intense planning to me, there is no fun in it and I hear little that is organic either. I can live with flashy grandeur if it's tongue in cheek, that is why Queen never rubbed me the wrong way. But Muse are serious, solemn, somber ... Yes, you guessed it, Radiohead does nothing for me either, I'm a creep!!!

For the avoidance of doubt: I'm not saying that Muse's (and Radiohead's for that matter) music is not written, played and recorded with great craftsmanship. Just not very exciting to me.

[uwe]

In case the Super Furry Animals mean nothing to you:

[westen44]

I find Muse ... for lack of a better word ... a little contrived. I don't mind if music is weird or eclectic, I dig Max Webster, Be Bop Deluxe, Super Furry Animals, System of a Down, but with Muse everything sounds like hard work and intense planning to me, there is no fun in it and I hear little that is organic either. I can live with flashy grandeur if it's tongue in cheek, that is why Queen never rubbed me the wrong way. But Muse are serious, solemn, somber ... Yes, you guessed it, Radiohead does nothing for me either, I'm a creep!!!

For the avoidance of doubt: I'm not saying that Muse's (and Radiohead's for that matter) music is not written, played and recorded with great craftsmanship. Just not very exciting to me.

I'm not sure if I could even find them now, but I've seen videos of them where they are joking around quite a bit, even when supposedly they're performing.  I'm not sure if they always do take themselves seriously.  Also, I believe in some cases they are paying homage to Queen and doing so deliberately at their own expense.  But the comparison to Radiohead has always been a problem.  They've never tried to compare themselves to Radiohead.  I think the two bands are very different.  I've never been able to relate to Radiohead's music at all.  I gave up after attempting to watch a complete concert on TV.  Just not my cup of tea I guess. 

With Muse I think it may also be helpful to experience them in a particular time frame.  In my case, I started listening to them in December 2004.  By December of 2005 I was in Ireland for a while and there again in 2006.  Over there the attitude toward Muse was much different than here.  People were certainly more aware of them and were listening to them a lot it seems.  To some extent, Muse never really has caught on completely in the U.S. and I don't expect they ever will.  I've noticed that Muse tends to be a polarizing band.  People like them or they don't.  There usually isn't an in between.  What I probably like about them the most is the melodic rock aspect of it all.  Supposedly, Hendrix was an inspiration for Muse, except maybe not for the bassist.  Hendrix himself spoke of the importance of the melodic.  He discussed it in a Boston interview and said that being around the British music scene helped him with this.  I think I may have mentioned this in another thread from long ago.