Musical Balance, Q4 2021: Wobble, Wobble, Wobble

As you might remember, gentle reader, I often posit that my musical purchases are evenly balanced between jazz songbirds and heavy metal, although the heavy metal often has female lead singers, so maybe my taste in music is pretty and lovely sounding women.

Well, since the end of August, my music balance has become all a-wobbly as I have bought music outside those simple genres (although in August, I’d admitted to buying jazz music by non-songbirds).

If you’re wondering, here’s what I got:

  • Chapter I: Monarcy by Ad Infinitum. Metal, female lead.
  • American IV: The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash. Uh, country? Because my oldest son asked my my favorite Johnny Cash song, and I said it was the title track, but then I realized I had no Johnny Cash in my library.
  • The Dana Owens Album by Queen Latifah, after I heard her singing a jazz standard on WSIE.
  • Trav’lin’ Light by Queen Latifah, ibid, although the song I heard came from this album.
  • Chapter 2: Legacy by Ad Infinitum.
  • Welcome to Fat City by Crobot. Hard rock. A couple of the favorites on my gym playlist are from this band.
  • Original Album Classics by Pretty Maids, a five CD set that includes Red, Hot and Heavy, Future World, Jump the Gun, Sin-Decade, and Stripped. My beautiful wife introduced me to the band via Future World fifteen or so years ago; given how much I liked the band, it’s taken me a long time to fill out my collection.
  • Undress Your Madness by Pretty Maids, their 2019 album.
  • Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys (single, MP3).
  • Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys (single, MP3). Funny; I have put these on my gym playlist, but I have not yet downloaded the first Beastie Boys cassette single I bought (“So Whatcha Want?”). I’ve never bought a whole Beastie Boys album.
  • The Pioneer” by Follow the Cipher, who are long overdue for a real CD or album.
  • Independenz by Null Positiv. I ordered the CD directly from Germany and got a signed picture from Elli Berlin for my effort.
  • Mirror, Mirror by Eliane Elias. A jazz songbird and pianist I heard on WSIE; this album is mostly the pianist.
  • American Dream by Diamante. C’mon, man, I warned you.
  • BRKN Love by BRKN Love.

So that’s 9 rock/metal albums versus 3 jazz records with 1 Johnny Cash album with three singles, of which 2 are rap and 1 is metal. Definitely unbalanced, and unfortunately no metal additions to the gym playlist yet (although I have added the Beastie Boys songs, but mostly for non-intensive workout listening).

But enough about that. Let’s talk about Elli Berlin, Melissa Bonny, and Linda Toni Grahn.

Continue reading “Musical Balance, Q4 2021: Wobble, Wobble, Wobble”

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Summer Musical Balance Update

This spring, my musical balance was awobble as I bought some pop music. I’ve been accumulating more music this summer, and my normal musical balance has been upended a bit as well.

As you might remember, gentle reader, my CD purchases tend to even out between heavy metal and jazz songbirds. However, I seem to have broadened my purchases a bit as I have bought some male jazz performers as well.

Since March, I have bought:

So, we have 5 female jazz singers; 4 metal bands with women lead singers; 1 jazz male singer, 2 male jazz trumpeter, and 1 Japanese pop cellist.

Also, when I played one of the Chris Botti albums whilst reading in the evening, my beautiful wife said, “He’s not a woman.” So apparently she has discovered my musical predilections–pretty women on the cover or performing. Although not exclusively.

So who can resist CDs with these lovely women on the cover?

Continue reading “Summer Musical Balance Update”

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Musical Balance, Spring 2021

Forgive me, Father; it has been five months (November 11, 2020) since my last confession about my musical purchasing balance.

Perhaps I was holding off because my musical purchases were unbalanced. Perhaps I held off because I’m not sure that anyone reads these posts. Perhaps I was being lazy because I really have been buying a lot from individuals’ Web sites, so it’s not like I can just roll down my Amazon ordered list (strangely, my Amazon orders have really dropped of a cliff this year).

However, we shall see as we go here if I bought more than the 18 albums I bought in the summer and autumn of 2020. Spoiler alert: The album I mentioned I was thinking about buying? I bought it. Perhaps you did not need a spoiler alert for that; you probably expected that non-twist.

Continue reading “Musical Balance, Spring 2021”

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Musical Balance, Autumn 2020 Update

Ah, 2020. What a year. I was gainfully employed for much of it and housebound, which meant I comfort purchased CDs at an astounding clip. My musical balance post from May indicates covered nine months and included 18 albums and three MP3 singles. Before I start tabulating the results in real time here as I write the post, I’m going to have to take the “over” bet.

Well, tuck it, I don’t know if any of you are interested in these posts, so I will once again abuse the below-the-fold feature. Continue reading “Musical Balance, Autumn 2020 Update”

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Four CDs I’ll Probably Never Play (and Recent Musical Balance)

Today, I received four CDs that I ordered at the beginning of May, but I don’t think I’ll be putting them in my computer to rip them.

Imperial Age is a symphonic metal band.

I ordered these CDs from the band’s Web site, signed, and then I got to thinking. Because Imperial Age is a Russian band, these are Russian CDs, so I’m not sure I want to put them into my computer. Or near it for that matter.

In May, I didn’t actually count these albums probably because I did not get them yet, but my balance was way out of alignment with 12 metal albums to 1 jazz songbird album.

So what have I gotten since?

  • The aforephotographed Imperial Age albums.
  • Alive and Spectrum by jazz pianist Hiromi. Not a song bird, per se, and more traditional jazz piano than Keiko Matsui.
  • For All We Know by Gloria Reuben.
  • A Woman Like Me by Lindsay Webster, whose “One Step Forward” I included in my May post.
  • Revolution by Damascus, the band of a guy I know from high school. I’ll probably do a whole post of it by and by.
  • “Yes, I Have Ghosts” by David Gilmour (as I mentioned.

So I haven’t gone crazy on the buying in the last two months, and it’s kind of even. Well, four jazz songbird to five metal band CDs.

I did preorder the new 10 Years album, and I see that Unleash The Archers and Amaranthe have new CDs dropping this fall. So it looks as though my balance might be out of whack the rest of the year as well. If only I could get to the gym.

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Brian J., Unbalanced

It’s been last August since I’ve spoken of my musical purchasing balance.

As you might recall, I tend to end up buying fairly equal amounts between jazz songbirds and metal. When last we spoke, I’d boughten slightly more metal than jazz songbirds (eight to seven, I think, over four months) which sort of balanced a preceding year that was a little heavy on jazz songbirds.

But in the last, my goodness, ten months I’ve bought a lot more metal than jazz.

I’ve also boughten a couple of singles (and even an album or two) on MP3 because during the recent unpleasantness Amazon gave you big credits to the digital store for delaying your order.

So I’ve gotten:

  • Birth of the Cool Miles Davis
  • Generation Flee Connor Fiehler
  • Rival Seasons (EP) Hard Loss
  • “Wish You Were Here” (Single) Janet Evra
  • It Just Happens That Way Mindi Abair
  • “82nd All The Way” Amaranthe
  • Massive Addictive Amaranthe
  • “What Lies Ahead” Semblant
  • Weather Huey Lewis and the News
  • Lux Gemini Syndrome
  • Helix Amaranthe
  • Silent Machine Twelve Foot Ninja
  • Something Supernatural Crobot
  • Motherbrain Crobot
  • “Mere Shadow” Semblant
  • Battles In Flames
  • I, The Mask In Flames
  • Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terror Vortex Gloryhammer
  • Follow the Cipher Follow the Cipher
  • Fifth of Beethoven Walter Murphy Band
  • Welcome Home Hellyeah
  • Atonement Killswitch Engage

I don’t know why I have been hitting the metal so hard. I think it’s because I really get into an artist like Amaranthe, Crobot, or In Flames, and I buy a couple CDs from them.

But that’s 12 metal albums and three singles compared to one album and one singles for jazz songbirds.

Rival Seasons and Generation Flee are bands/artists whose parents I know. I got Fifth of Beethoven on the off chance that we would have to use a CD player for our disco-themed Trunk or Treat trunk instead of a mobile device. And I got the last latest Huey Lewis and the News album after reading another profile on him (strangely enough, a different profile than I linked in February).

And, cmon, man, I got The Birth of the Cool because Miles Davis (and hence doubling my score on this quiz.)

But the lack of balance ultimately gives me permission to buy one or more Lindsay Webster albums.

As if I need permission to be profligate. I have laid off of the K-Cups and Duraflame logs for months now.

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A Musically Unbalanced Summer

It was March when I last updated you, gentle reader, as to my musical purchases and checked to see how balanced they were between heavy metal and jazz songbirds.

I’ve been a little naughty in buying CDs here recently, so I thought I’d go back through time to see how I’m doing.

In the last six months, I’ve purchased:

  • True Love by Jessy J
  • Second Chances by Jessy J
  • Rewind, Replay, Rebound by Volbeat
  • Cherry Blossom by Keiko Matsui
  • A Drop of Water by Keiko Matsui
  • Another Place by Hiroshima (I already own it on vinyl, but want it available when I am not at a working record player.)
  • Meliora by Ghost
  • Crossfade by Crossfade
  • All I See Is War by Sevendust
  • Storyteller by Morgan James
  • Hunter by Morgan James
  • We’ve Only Just Begun by Ashley Pezzotti
  • Core by Stone Temple Pilots
  • No. 4 by Stone Temple Pilots
  • The Purple Album by Stone Temple Pilots
  • Shangri-La Dee Dah by Stone Temple Pilots
  • Tiny Music…. by Stone Temple Pilots
  • Storyteller by Tine Thing Helseth

In my defense, the Stone Temple Pilots CDs came in a set that cost as much as a single CD.

So we’ve got 8 jazz songbirds, although Hiroshima is a stretch even with Barbara Long on the vocals and Morgan James considers herself to be a soul singer and not a jazz singer. We’ve got 9 metal albums. So it’s not as unbalanced as I thought. Also, one classical trumpeter who might be the second prettiest trumpeter in the world.

But it doesn’t make up for the jazz-heavy winter and spring, but there’s a new Hellyeah! album coming out next month. Which will help. Also, my opportunity to listen to metal has been curtailed. I’ve not been going to the gym that frequently lately. My job has frequent phone meetings which interrupt. And I’m not driving far enough to listen in the car.

So perhaps it is just as well, although it’s just as sad.

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Brian J. Unbalanced

It’s been like eight months since I posted about my musical balance, wherein I prove yet again that my musical taste runs in jazz songbirds and heavy metal.

Well, Brian J., you ask. How have you done over the Christmas season, where the One For You/One For Me protocol takes effect?

Well. Last Christmas, the One For You/One For Me protocol took place mostly at antique malls which don’t count in the arbitrary classifications that I made up for these posts (especially since they don’t fit into the schtick of these posts, but note that my album buying tends to be jazz or easy listening from the mid-twentieth century, R&B, and lately a little disco and 80s pop). So I’ve only bought fourteen CDs new in the last eight months (is that a lot?), and most of them have been the jazz songbirds. Reeling backwards through my Amazon order history, I see that I bought a bunch of metal in the late summer and early autumn and mostly jazz songbirds since.

Here’s what I’ve bought since last July:

  • Cindy Bradley Unscripted
  • Cindy Bradley Natural
  • Sara Gazarek Return to You
  • Erin Bode Little Garden
  • Erin Bode Be Still My Soul
  • Erin Bode A Cold December Night
  • Erin Bode Here and Now
  • Erin Bode The Little Garden
  • Natsumi Kiyoura Jyukuiro
  • U.D.O. Rev-Raptor
  • Diamonte Coming In Hot
  • Unleash The Archers Time Stands Still
  • Ghost Prequelle
  • Unleash the Archers Apex

That’s eight jazz, one Japanese pop singer, and five metal CDs (three of which are bands fronted by women who might be metal songbirds if the concept were not so alien as to be almost incomprehensible).

I warned you that Erin Bode would unbalance my purchases, but that’s not the only reason.

I haven’t been listening to Spotify to find metal artists that sound similar to bands that I already like. I haven’t been hearing much new metal on the local hard rock station. That’s partly because I’ve been listening to audio courses or books like this one, and partly because Q102 hasn’t yet convinced me that I like Bring Me The Horizon.

Instead, I’ve been listening to the stream of WSIE a lot, and it has reminded me that I like Sara Gazarek and recently introduced me to Cindy Bradley who sounds a little like later Herb Alpert:

She might be the second prettiest trumpeter in the world. The first, unfortunately, is not on YouTube.

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Good Morning; Or, How Charity Silent Auctions Upset My Musical Balance

I go on and on about how my musical purchases tend to fall neatly into two camps: Heavy metal and jazz songbirds (or maybe three if you include “Pop Music Recommended By Mr. Hill). But the truth is much more complicated.

Okay, it’s not. I will also buy CDs of local artists when I find them in silent auctions, and sometimes I do not include them in my balance tallies simply because I use my Amazon order history to build those lists. Which is why I don’t mention the Liz Moriondo self-titled CD I bought at a trivia night silent auction last winter, although I did mention her parody “All About That Bass” (which is not on the album) here.

Well, friends, I confess: I did it again.

On Friday night, I went to the Republic Pregnancy Resource Center for its annual Bluegrass and BBQ fund raiser which features bluegrass music from local bands and a silent auction. I behaved myself this year and did not bid the face price on every gift card and buy a bunch of Branson shows and attraction gift cards since the summer is winding down, and we won’t be traveling an hour to the south much this year. But I did bid on two CD auctions.

The first was for a single CD from Lily Belle called The Sunshine Projects.

The has a video for the catchy song “Good Morning”, which would I guess be the first single from the album if anyone still thinks in those terms:

It’s a little poppier than what I listen to, but darn, if it doesn’t kind of make me want to smile. Which is about as close to smiling as I get.

I just assume that she’s local, so I’d like to think I recognize the park as Sequiota Park, but I’m likely mistaken. My Springfield park knowledge is pretty limited, although I did visit Nathaniel Greene park yesterday.

The second auction I bid on was a lot featuring CDs from the two performers that played at the event, That Dalton Gang and Lonesome Road:

 

I’ve listened to the That Dalton Gang CD, but not yet the Lonesome Road album. Bluegrass. You know. I actually have a number of bluegrass CDs bought in this manner, but I don’t tend to listen to them a lot. It’s not my bag, but supporting the Republic Pregnancy Resource Center is.

So, yeah, I paid more than the asking price for these CDs.

Now, before you get to worrying about me, I also did get a No Grave But The Sea by Alestorm and From Birth to Burial by 10 Years on the heavy metal side (and I’m looking closely at Prequelle by Ghost to pick up when I next buy Christmas gifts on Amazon according to the One For You/One For Me protocol). I’ve also picked up another disc from Natsumi Kiyoura, Hodo Auko.

So on the whole, I’m still in balance, but the silent auctions throw me out of whack a bit.

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A Perfectly Balanced Few Months

Not that you’re keeping track, but my musical purchases have, in fact, remained in balance the last few months. As I’ve pointed out (originally here), my music purchases tend to be two types of music: Jazz songbirds and heavy metal. Over the last year and a half, this balance has been remarkably consistent. Sometimes, the balance shifts if I hear more metal or more new jazz, but it always seems to return to equilibrium. At the end of March, I last provided an update on my music purchases.

Well, I’ve bought essentially ten albums since then (with some asterisks).

Here’s what I’ve gotten:

Forget the buying, you might say. How’s the balance in listening?

Well, to be honest, the metal songs by Leo get the heaviest rotation. They’re among the oldest selections on the list, and I burned them to CDs and listen to them in the car, so they get a lot of play then. I only just got the Jessy J album this weekend, and the Natsumi Kiyoura CD has yet to arrive. So it’s mostly Leo.

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How’s Your Balance, Brian J.?

As you might recall, gentle reader, for the last part of a year, I’ve highlighted how my CD purchases tend to be balanced between heavy metal or hard rock bands and female jazz singers. (See here, here, and here.)

You might also wonder if the trend continues.

Indeed it does.

Here are the last ten CDs I got:

  • Everclear Ten Years Gone (Resulting in this parenting goal.)
  • Keiko Matsui The Ring
  • Keiko Matsui Sapphire (Who mentioned this artist? I don’t think she appeared on WSIE, but I’m not sure.)
  • 10 Years How To Live As Ghosts (The one bright spot on the Q102 playlist currently.)
  • Hard Loss Never Better (A St. Louis Blues loving group that an Internet friend likes–I got their EP.)
  • Testament The New Order
  • Testament Brotherhood of the Snake (A middle school friend and member of the Legion of Metal Friends Facebook group posted some Testament; he was a little reluctant to post old stuff because he was sure we were already familiar with it. As I came to metal late, I was not, so I bought something old and something new.)
  • Sara Gazarek Yours
  • Sara Gazarek Blossom & Bee (WSIE played her, and she’s on the vocal spectrum near Sacha Boutros, so I picked up a couple of albums.)
  • New Noise #5 (I got this CD when I bought a copy of the new Metal Hammer magazine.

    You might be asking, “Did Brian J. buy the magazine for the CD because he is disappointed with what he’s hearing on the radio or because Floor Jansen is on the cover?” Yes.)

So I bought like ten CDs (well, nine the Hard Loss EP was a digital download) this quarter. You can tell when I’ve been working a full time contract for a couple of months as my CD expenditures go up. As do our trips to restaurants. Which, if I trim the latter expense, I can get more music. Depending upon the contents of the sampler CD and the new albums from Shaman’s Harvest and Pop Evil, I might need all the help I can get.

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Balance Has Returned To The Music Library

Well, perhaps it’s not the music library and more the recent purchases.

As I’ve mentioned, my music purchases tend to fall into two camps: Heavy metal and female jazz vocalists.

However, the I recently noted that I’d bought a run of metal:

Well, I recently bought a run of jazz and pop:

  • Anna Danes, Find Your Wings

    She, like Sacha Boutros, is based in San Diego, which means clearly San Diego is a hotbed of jazz divas.

     

  • Lauren Meccia, In Your Eyes

    I have joined the 21st century and have installed Spotify to get introduced to a few more musicians akin to those I already like, so I’ve used it to discover the aforementioned Anna Danes and this artist.
     

  • Anastacia, Heavy Rotation

    I already had Freak of Nature based on a friend’s Facebook post. (Another good source of new music: Facebook. Also, old music, like the aforementioned Danger Danger.)

     

  • Rebecca Black, RE/BL


     
    Hey, this salesman won’t take no for an answer.
     

I also bought the new Imagine Dragons CD, Evolve, but it really doesn’t fit into the two categories listed above.

So clearly I am due to go on a tear and buy a number of new metal CDs. Perhaps the new Rudyard disc.

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The Hard Rock CD That The Blogosphere Insisted I Get

Danger Danger’s The Return of the Great Gildersleeves:

Well, all right, maybe not, but the old timey blogs pointed the way.

First, on the Facebook, Blackfive posted a song by eighties band Danger Danger:

I liked the sound–man, do I miss the eighties–so I bought the debut CD.

When I was thinking about picking up something else, I looked for another Danger Danger album, and their 2000 release was called The Return of the Great Gildersleeves.

If you’re a Lileks reader, you know who the Great Gildersleeves was. He posts about the old radio show all the time. Including today.

So I had to have it.

I don’t regret it; it’s a pretty good album.

So thanks to all those guys who I’ve been reading for years (one of whom actually visited our home in Casinoport, if you can believe it, making me like a real blogger back in the day) for the pointer.

“How’s the hard rock/songbird balance going these days, Brian J.?” you might ask.

Well, it’s not fifty/fifty these days.

Here are the last ten albums I got:

I just haven’t heard anything compelling on WSIE and have been looking for stuff to put on my iPod at the gym.

But I’ve got The Return of the Great Gildersleeves. If the blogosphere as any recommendations for songbirds, I’m all ears.

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Not As Varied As Advertised

When I was younger and people asked me what music I liked, I proclaimed eclectic tastes. I listened to oldies. I listened to Album Oriented Rock (kids these days call it “classic rock”). I listened to country. I listened to pop. I even listened to jazz when I could find it.

Well, now I’m older, and nobody asks me that question any more because I’m old (they must assume it’s all 60s easy listening/Sinatra/Alpert, and they’re not far off). But judging by my Amazon purchases over the last six months, my musical taste has streamlined into two categories:

It’s all hard rock or jazz songbirds except for the Leonard Cohen and Lorde.

It’s either something to get me pumped up for the gym or something to mellow.

Although being it is the Christmas season, the one-for-you-one-for-me Amazon ordering protocol is in effect, so the ratios may change as I buy new music on whim. But given that I learn of new artists from the hard rock station on the radio, my Legion of Metal Friends Facebook group, or the radio stations I stream (KCSM and WSIE), perhaps they will not change much at all.

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