Category Archives: music

Things aren’t looking good for Led Zep, band members questioned over “Stairway” alleged infringement…

Led Zeppelin lost their battle against Willie Dixon in the past but could the band lose again? Hopefully not. This isn’t look too good for Led Zep ’cause the band been questioned by the federal court.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-03/led-zeppelin-rock-gods-deposed-in-stairway-to-heaven-lawsuit

I’m hoping Led Zep will prevail though ’cause it would be sad if Spirit wins. If Spirit wins the demands would be pretty harsh too. Spirit is asking for lots of money in damages, plus they demand Randy California to get a writing credit in “Stairway”.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-03/stairway-to-heaven-lawsuit-demands-jimmy-pages-casette-tapes

I don’t know why Led Zep is a huge target for “plagiarism” so much. I mean look at the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Those two iconic bands rip off songs all the time but you never see people get mad at them either.

Kev

More on Dream Theater’s “The Astonishing”…

As I type this blog post, I’m listening to Dream Theater’s “The Astonishing” album again. I wanted to read the lyrics to the album but when I downloaded the album from Itunes, I noticed it didn’t come with a digital booklet so I did some googling for the lyrics and found them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw98b2EOpWbQb3BoRzZWOE5QNFU/view

As you can see the album is written as a screenplay for a movie or something. It tells the story of Lord Nafaryus who appears to be the main character. John Petrucci wrote this story himself and presented it to the band & the labels. Everybody seemed to be on board with the story and concept record so they gave it a go…

It’s a futuristic story taken place in the year 2285. As you can see on the cover of the album it’s futuristic.

Read more on the Astonishing here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Astonishing

This album was all Petrucci’s creation. He inspired to write this album ’cause he’s a huge fan of “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars” so he created his own story putting both together.

I don’t know what the fans are complaining about but I think it’s an excellent album and an interesting idea. Tell a story by song.

For my own music, I actually came up with an idea to do a concept album myself by giving “Evil Fred” a backstory but I scrapped it. I’m thinking of going back to that idea now that I think about it.

Kev

Dream Theater’s new album “The Astonishing” is their best album in their career!!! HOLY FREAKING CRAP!!!

I’ve only listened to this album once. I listened to it all the way through from start to finish. It’s a pretty long album ’cause it’s a double album and has a lot of tracks! You know how when Dream Theater does an album, there are like 5 or 6 tracks ’cause all of ’em are like 20 to 30 minute long songs? Well this album is a little different. “The Astonishing” has so many tracks on it ’cause all the songs are pretty short this time around. Fans ever wondered if Dream Theater are capable of writing short songs ’cause they never wrote short songs that much. Finally they did an album of mostly short songs ranging from 2 to 7 minutes. From what I’m seeing, there are no 20 minute songs on this album at all which is cool.

I’m reading a lot of fan reviews saying that this album is a “disappointment” ’cause they say it’s too long and way too mellow. They’re complaining that there are not a lot of heavy songs that shred like they are known for. Yeah most of the songs on “The Astonishing” are pretty mellow and slow but that’s what I like about it. The album shows a different side of Dream Theater. The reason that this album isn’t all that “rocky” is ’cause it’s a concept album. The album wanted to tell you a story by song kind of like Pink Floyd “The Wall” or The Who “Tommy”. When I listened to Dream Theater’s “The Astonishing”, I felt like I was listening to a theatrical play. I felt like I was listening to a staged musical which is what the album is pretty much. The album has characters and stories to tell on it. Since it’s a concept album and wanted to tell a story, you’ll have to expect that not all songs are going to be heavy. There are heavy songs on it if you actually listen to it. The album also has some of John Petrucci’s best guitar playing too.

With that being said I think this is Dream Theater’s best album in their career. I’m gonna give it another listen this week as I’ve just bought my own copy from the Itunes store so I’m now a proud owner of this album. I’m a huge Dream Theater fan. Have been for years. I’ve heard all of their albums and “The Astonishing” is their best record. I knew the band was capable of writing short songs and they proved the doubters wrong.

People are always trashing James Labrie’s singing but in my opinion, I think this album has his best singing too. He’s a good singer, in my opinion and I find it unfair that people criticize him. He just gives what the songs needs. James is a great singer. I wish I could sing like him.

If you’re a Dream Theater fan, you should get this album.

Kev

Remembering “The Day The Music Died”…

Remember, they were the pioneers of Rock n’ roll. These three started it all. If it weren’t for these guys then there would have been no Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, the Stones, Sabbath, etc. These three musicians definitely changed rock n’ roll music history.

I love the movies, “La Bamba” with Lou Diamond Phillips and “The Buddy Holly Story” with Gary Busey.

I didn’t forget to post this as I usually post about “The Day The Music Died” every year ’cause this is an important part of music history. Remember that, y’all!

Kev

Mary Lou Lord (who is Kurt Cobain’s ex-girlfriend) promises to crush Courtney Love…

Mary Lou Lord was one of Kurt’s ex-girlfriends… I think Kurt dated Mary Lou before Nirvana was made famous. Mary Lou finally called out Courtney Love after all these years. She kept it quiet at first ’cause she didn’t want to put more hurt on the Cobain family since Frances Bean was a baby and all. Now Frances is a full grown adult, Mary Lou feels this is an appropriate time to call out Courtney.

In Mary Lou’s rant here, she promises to crush Courtney. Meaning that Mary Lou plans to destroy Courtney. After what Mary Lou wrote here, it gives more insight that Courtney Love is a psycho. While some may believe that Mary Lou is a whack job but I don’t think so. After reading Mary Lou’s piece here, I actually believe everything she’s saying 100%.

So it’s looking like that Mary Lou is gonna do all she can to help get the case re-opened.

I’ve always believed that Courtney killed Kurt for his wealth and his fame. I predict that the case will get re-opened soon and the truth is gonna come out. Courtney certainly deserves a life prison sentence along with death penalty. That’s what she’s asking for. Death penalty is worthy, I think. You gotta wonder how much money Courtney spent to cover up the murder and make it look like a suicide. I bet she spent millions, wouldn’t surprise me.

Kev

David Bowie had more albums planned??? So expect a lot more unreleased Bowie music in the future…

Before David Bowie’s passing, it looks like he originally wanted to keep making new music and keep making new albums ’cause as I said before, Bowie has recorded plenty of unreleased material. Look like he wanted to keep releasing albums after “Blackstar” but he won’t be able to now obviously.

They already have plans in releasing Bowie’s theater musical starring Michael C. Hall “Lazarus” into an album soon so that’s probably gonna be the next Bowie release even though it won’t be Bowie singing the songs. Michael C. Hall will be singing on it.

http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/david-bowie-prepared-a-number-of-records-to-be-released-posthumously/

While I’m sure fans would think that his record labels shouldn’t release music with him being gone, I’m pretty sure Bowie himself would have wanted them to keep releasing his music. I’m pretty sure we’ll get another Bowie studio album pretty soon. He probably already recorded a new album before his passing but never got a chance to get it out to his record label due to his health, probably.

When a famous music artist dies, the label always look for unreleased material as a way to help celebrate their music and honor that artist. We’ll get plenty more Bowie music, I’m sure.

Kev

Kirk Hammett of Metallica speaks on David Bowie… says Bowie was a huge influence on Metallica…

Like I said before, if you’re a music lover… how can you not have been influenced by David Bowie? Bowie was respected by all people who loved all genres of music. Bowie influenced everybody whether you’re a musician or not, ya know?

Kirk Hammett has some cool things to say about Bowie.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/kirk-hammett-david-bowie-was-a-pretty-huge-influence-on-me-and-other-people-in-metallica/

Bowie was a huge influence in my own music and his music changed my life forever as well. Bowie’s songs will help get you through hard times as well.

When I first started playing guitar, I originally wanted to be just a guitar player. I didn’t want anything to do with singing at first but until I discovered Bowie’s music that’s when I decided I wanted to learn how to sing myself. Bowie’s singing was so powerful. He was so good at making his singing sound so melodic and memorable. He was great at making vocal melodies that can never leave your head.

Kev

Peter Gabriel and Sting announce tour together but they will do things a little differently…

Peter Gabriel and Sting has just announced that they will tour together. However, the two will perform songs a little differently. Rather than performing hits from their catalogs of music, they will explore each others tracks meaning separately or together. So does that mean that Peter will be singing some of Sting’s songs and Sting will be singing some of Peter’s songs? Interesting. That means we’ll probably be hearing Peter sing “Roxanne” or “Message In a Bottle” and Sting will probably sing “Sledgehammer” or “Digging In the Dirt”. That’s what they’re experimenting I believe. Cool. I’m a big fan of both of these guys.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sting-peter-gabriel-announce-joint-rock-paper-scissors-tour-20160119

Kev

Do a lot of people only like David Bowie for his popular songs? Seems like it…

It seems to me that a lot of music fans only like David Bowie for his popular songs. All of his well known hits that people know and love. They only know Bowie for his popular albums, really. I’m sure a lot of Bowie fans aren’t really into all of his music like me. I’ve been listening to his music for years so I can tell you for sure that I’m a true die-hard Bowie fan. What I’m trying to say is a lot of people know him for his music in the 70’s and 80’s but what about some of his newer stuff? Albums like “Black Tie, White Noise”, “Buddha of Suburbia”, “Outside”, “Earthling”, “Hours…”, and lets not forget that Bowie was also in another band that most of you probably don’t know about called, Tin Machine. Look up Tin Machine. Tin Machine has only done two albums but very good!

Everything Bowie has done in his music career is good. There’s not one album that I don’t like by him. I love every studio album he did. Ever since Bowie’s passing, I’ve been listening to Bowie albums all week so I guess you can I’m listening through his discography of albums again. Just celebrating his work.

How can you not like David Bowie? Everybody should love David Bowie no matter what genre of music you like. David Bowie was respected by people who liked all genres of music. If you’re a metalhead, you’d probably like Bowie. If you’re a country music fan, you’d probably like Bowie. He was respected by everybody and he influenced everybody in some way. Even if you’re not much of a Bowie fan at all, I’m pretty sure you’ve been inspired by him still.

I usually don’t cry and feel emotional over musician deaths but Bowie really did it to me. This one kind of hit me hard. I’ve always been a lifelong Bowie fan. He’s a huge influence in my own singing as well ’cause in case you haven’t noticed, a lot of my original songs are Bowie inspired.

Kev

The boys in Metallica are good dudes, they’ve always loved their tribute bands!!!

This is a cool story and it really shows that the boys in Metallica are really great guys. It wasn’t Metallica that sent the tribute band a “cease and desist” letter, it was their overzealous attorney who sent the letter without the band’s knowledgement. Well their overzealous attorney will for sure get an immediate termination.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/metallica-canadian-cover-band-reconcile-over-cease-and-desist-letter-20160114

Metallica would never do such a thing to their fans especially tribute bands. Metallica love their tribute bands and they love it when tribute bands honor them.

Love Lars or hate him all you want to, he’s a pretty classy dude and he’s a nice guy too!

Kev