Adventure Gamers - Forums

I love the lyrics of the two animated songs, Timo, but the Valhalleluja clip is priceless!  I’m saving that link.

Chrissie,
I came across that cheap flight link before, but it had me in stitches yet again.

This summer I’m going to the Alcatraz Open Air metal festival.
It’s very close to where I live, so I can even go by bike. Heck, if the wind is right, we can hear the main stage in our garden - not enough to recognise the lyrics but sometimes enough to recognise the song or band.

I’ve checked the daily line-ups for all four stages and am now checking out all the bands (especially the ones I don’t know) to figure out which bands I’m going to see and which I’m going to skip.



In my research so far, I’ve been reminded of how good Trivium is. Hadn’t really listened to their music since their early days (2004-5), despite liking them back then.

Trivium - “The Heart From Your Hate”

And I’ve now discovered a band I didn’t know, but I like what I hear *a lot*. Will definitely watch their gig at the festival.
It’s a Swedish band called “H.E.A.T.” and it sounds like they’re trying to revive 80s “hair metal”.

H.E.A.T. - “1000 Miles”

H.E.A.T. - “Dangerous Ground”

Slightly offtopic:

AOR FTW!

Although that list is blatantly missing Journey.

Can’t get enough of “Nanowar of Steel”...

Nanowar of Steel - “And Then I Noticed That She Was a Gargoyle”

The chorus in this has no right being so awesome and catchy, considering the lyrics. Fun fact: guest singer Madeleine Liljestam is the lead singer and namesake of “Eleine”, the band that will open the Alcatraz Open Air festival I’m attending this summer…

Nanowar of Steel - “Winterstorm in the Night”

And this next song is one that’s been playing on repeat for two whole weeks on end with my kids. We went to the Super Mario Bros. Movie two weeks ago, which was fun and solid, but now my kids are obsessed with a song that Bowser sings. It’s basically the scene in the movie where I finally identified Jack Black as being the voice of Bowser, so it’s both awesome and funny. But it’s an earworm that nearly puts “Let It Go” to shame…

Bowser (Jack Black) - “Peaches”

I’ve completed my preliminary prep work for the Alcatraz festival.
Have the schedule of all the bands I’m going to see (and when they’re playing) and am currently listening to a Spotify list with songs that are likely going to be played live for each of them. Over 400 songs, over 24 hours of music. Good thing it’s only in August…

In doing this prep work, I have learned that I very much like the stoner / desert rock genre.
The drums and rhythm guitars are droning in a way resembling a motorcycle engine, and the songs make you *feel* like you’re biking through the desert. I quite like the vibe.

There are a couple of such bands playing on the first day of the festival, and I’ve marked all of them.

Especially Psychlona - those guys sound AWESOME!

Psychlona - “Blast Off”

Slomosa - “Horses”

Acid King - “Electric Machine”

chrissie - 08 May 2023 11:19 AM

I’d love to go to the Alcatraz Open Ait metal festival! A lot of the bands you have mentioned Timo I hadn’t heard of but really enjoyed the music. The last track, Acid King, reminded me of Black Sabbath particularly the intro that had a hint of ‘Paranoid’. 
As a contrast I thought I’d post 3 songs sung by, in my mind, the most beautiful voices (i.e., the songs are secondary):

Garfunkel has the voice of an angel, and Paul Rodgers is the only one capable of going on tour with Queen post-Mercury (although it helps that it’s not “Paul Rodgers does Queen” but more “Queen does Paul Rodgers” since no-one can replace Freddie Mercury)...



My soundtrack at work has been awesome these past days. My Alcatraz prep turns out to have been a *really* good idea. I’ve been discovering some great bands, and also discovering some different songs for bands I did know beforehand.


For instance, I knew a lot of Powerwolf songs, and I know they’re very tongue-in-cheek with their whole werewolf-theme. What I didn’t know is that they had a song I could just as likely label “comedy metal”. This one gave me a good chuckle:

Powerwolf - “Resurrection by Erection”

“Raise your phallus to the sky and you’re never gonna die!” 🤣



This is a band that was a part of the part of the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” (like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest). Didn’t know much of their music, but I like what I hear.
This song was released in 2016. It still has that classic heavy metal sound, but actually feels fresh enough to not seem dated. The band may have been going at it for four decades, these guys still know how to rock, imo! 🤘

Tygers of Pan Tang - “Only the Brave”

And here’s another band I didn’t know beforehand, but am now very much looking forward to:

Dynazty - “Heartless Madness”

I’m really happy that - with four stages on the festival - I get to focus on the heavy metal, power, stoner and post bands and get to skip most of the black/death/doom bands… 

I just listened to Regina Spektor’s Far album.  I wasn’t familiar with her music at all, but her song lyrics are unusual and have grabbed me like some of my favorite poems.  I’m only posting one for now, due to time constraints.  This is her “Laughing With"video:

Lady Kestrel - 14 May 2023 05:22 PM

I just listened to Regina Spektor’s Far album.  I wasn’t familiar with her music at all, but her song lyrics are unusual and have grabbed me like some of my favorite poems.  I’m only posting one for now, due to time constraints.

I first heard of her around a year ago and was quite impressed but, sadly, nothing available on vinyl which is all I’m looking at these days. Interested enough though to purchase a promo CD copy of “Laughing With” which is pretty good, somewhat idiosyncratic and pleasantly original.

Actual reason for posting is putting up a new 3 following a conversation with a friend of mine asking why I had no singles, only albums. Reason was quite simple as I find singles are aimed at the masses for obvious reasons and tend to be rather blah to my hearing. There’s always exceptions of course but far too few to have made singles of any interest to me.
However, I did admit to her that I had, in the past, owned, I think, 9 singles all of which I’ve long since given to an old mate for his club DJ nights - not that I think that they’d be played very often. A couple were chart hits in the UK (Ode To Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry and 25 Or 6 To 4 by Chicago) and one was bought as a birthday present by my then girlfriend as a joke. This was Sinitta’s Toy Boy. It was a joke as she was 9 years my junior and knew I couldn’t stand the song. Appreciated the joke though.
Anyway, thought I’d post 3 of the 9 that I could remember that may well be new to people and give a further insight into my somewhat eclectic taste.
Firstly a “heavy metal” version of the old Archie’s hit. This was one of Jonathon King’s one off bands::

Secondly a single by the South London band Savoy Brown, formed in the mid Sixties. Rather surprisingly they were bigger in the States than the UK so might be known to some of our American members here:

Lastly another mid Sixties formed band, John Dummer’s Famous Music Band. They were well known for having just about anyone known in the British Blues boom of the Sixties passing through the line-up as well as a number of touring American bluesmen/ladies. Found a live version from French TV for this which was a bit of a surprise. For those who don’t know John Dummer is the drummer (cue all sorts of rubbish poetic attempts )

chrissie - 20 May 2023 09:26 AM

Jabod - 19 May 2023 11:30 AM

……Actual reason for posting is putting up a new 3 following a conversation with a friend of mine asking why I had no singles, only albums. Reason was quite simple as I find singles are aimed at the masses…

I don’t disagree with that but I got rid of all of my albums ((I didn’t have the space for them) & kept my singles…most of them keep me aware of points in my life….. if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense Chrissie. Most people buy singles during their younger years and they tend to buy them for two main reasons (although more exist of course).
Firstly because they’re fans of the band and would buy anything that they could (explains why the Beatles sold so many ).

Secondly because a particular song resonates with them for personal reasons and is always remembered as a milestone in their life, which is, I think, what you were saying.

For me singles never did that and the only ones that I ever bought were because I DID like the song but the band didn’t interest me anything like enough to buy the album that they might be on or weren’t on an album at all. There is a slight oddity regarding a single I’d forgotten about, also a chart hit in the UK, and that was Curved Air’s Back Street Luv. I’d got the Air Conditioning album (their first album) which I really enjoyed but Second Album (which carried Back Street Luv) I found a bit too “poppy” for my taste although it could be reasonably argued that Back Street Luv was somewhat “poppy”. Hey-ho

Jabod - 19 May 2023 11:30 AM

…… Firstly a “heavy metal” version of the old

chrissie - 20 May 2023 09:26 AM

Archie’s hit. This was one of Jonathon King’s one off bands::

That’s one of the singles I have & a far more interesting version of that annoyingly likeable (to me) original!!!!

For me the Archies version was an abomination and summed up all that was wrong with popular music at the time. Musical snob? Me? 

chrissie - 20 May 2023 09:26 AM

I’ve recently been to a theatre production that were presenting rock anthems. Not by a cover band as such but a very talented group of musicians & singers, the individuals varying as I understand in each production.

What I would call an ensemble and, given quality musicians and it sounds like theses were, can be truly brilliant to listen to.

chrissie - 20 May 2023 09:26 AM

Anyway, I couldn’t find any footage of individual songs by the group of very talented musicians & singers

Shame

I was catching up on a bio of Kate Bush last night and one of the people passing views (Neil Gaiman I think it was but it might have been Elton John) said that she was a complete one off and nothing could be compared to her oeuvre (whether you can or can’t isn’t up for discussion here so please don’t bother) which made me think of other artistes in my collection that the same could be applied to. Here’s the 3 that the thread allows that I thought of - with examples (be a bit pointless without ):

I post nothing in this thread for 6 months (nothing triggered the “3 in the moment” is why) and then two in a week!

The UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has just listed “60 great albums you’ve (probably) never heard” which made for interesting reading. It’s obviously very subjective and I have a problem with a couple there (Mick Jagger and Taylor Swift! Really?) and a lot is of musical types that I have no interest in but there’s a couple I’ll be checking out. What makes me feel slightly smug is that there’s one artiste listed there twice, and he’s the only one that so appears, and I’ve listed him in this thread and that is Jackie Leven – as a solo artiste and also his band Doll By Doll.

The full list is behind a partial pay-wall so you may not be able to see it easily but it can be found here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/0/60-amazing-albums-never-heard/
As it happens I own 5 of the 60 (and know of several more) and those 5 are:

Howlin’ Wolf   – The London Sessions
Jackie Leven   – Creatures Of Light & Darkness
Anne Briggs   – Anne Briggs
Liz Phair     – Exile In Guyville
Laurie Anderson   – Strange Angels
and I thought I’d share 3 tracks. Since I’ve already done 3 Jackie Leven tracks I’m leaving him off plus Laurie Anderson for no other reason than there has to be another missed off to keep thread “purity”.

This includes the false start

Edited to add/change:
Remembered that I’d posted an Anne Briggs track earlier in the thread so I’m now adding a Laurie Anderson in its place:

Exile In Guyville I read somewhere was Liz Phair’s take on The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street but from a female point of view. The album can be said to be rather rude!