So last night I got to see The Smashing Pumpkins at the Midland here in Kansas City for their Plain Songs acoustic-electric shows they've been doing as a warm up before the End of Times tour with Marilyn Manson and I'm not going to lie it was a pretty fucking spectacular time people and sadly enough I don't have any pictures of the show because of a combination of having a pretty ghetto phone and the fact that Senor Corgan and company didn't want people to be taking a bunch of pictures which didn't stop some people from trying it just stopped me so I could enjoy the amazement.
Although I will make note that there was an opening act on this show in the form of a singer song writter known as Katie Cole that actually did a pretty damn good job opening even though there wasn't hardly anyone at the venue up until the pumpkins set but still props for her and when she joined them onstage later in the night to sing along and even do the majority of vocal duties for a very VERY AMAZING rendition of Stand Inside Your Love there was a bit of a heart glow around her.
So all that aside Plainsong for those who aren't aware is a series of Acoustic shows that Billy Corgan seems to be throwing as both a means of warming up for his upcomming tour and of course kind of testing out some newish material and updated versions of Live only tracks he's been playing since around 2009, like 99 Floors which has shaped up into a very noteworthy tune in it's own right, also these shows are very heavy in Adore era cuts and various other album cuts like The Crying Tree of Mercury from their MACHINA effort.
Overall there was an increadibly relaxed tone to the whole show that really didn't have a full band at any point but rather Billy and Jeff Schroder with a Drum machine which in all honesty kind of harks back to the bands beginnings back in 1988 and also this was probably the most loose I've ever seen Billy Perform because when I saw them the last two times he was very tight in his playing and kind of straight faced and rapid fire through each song and this time around he was walking around, interacting with the crowd( with a really funny gesture during Run2Me), and overall just kind of taking this show as him wanting to and having a great time and it showed because even when Ava Adore's track fucked up and accidentally playing over again he just kind of said fuck it and restarted the song and let the crowd have a better chance to sing along.
The Setlist for this show was as I said earlier REALLY heavy in Adore cuts which I'm not going to complain about one bit because they played all my favorite songs from that album and honestly almost made me cry when they got to For Martha which was heartwreanchingly amazing and the acoustic renditions of the staple hits and pumpkins tracks where also spectacular as well with a serious highlight to Tonight, Tonight which was probably the best opening to any show I've ever seen in my entire life period.
So yeah this was a night for Pumpkins fans, filled with Pumpkins fans, and sure to be enjoyed by all pumpkins fans and I was more then glad I got to be there because it was worth every penny and I'd love for Billy Corgan and company to do more of these types of intimate evening type shows because their amazing also I'd like to see that Katie Cole chick go on to bigger things because she's a pretty charming act or at the very least maybe become a permanent member....just saying she fit in pretty well...but all things aside one huge recommendation from me and if this video from one of the earlier shows doesn't convince you then well..thanks for hopefully letting me get a closer ticket for the next show..
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Perfect 10's: A Fever You Can't Sweat Out-Panic! at the Disco
So I'll have all sorts of irrelevant thoughts come to mind through out the day's but I seem to have a hard time really wording them which is why I almost never post on here anymore it's hard to really justify putting out sub optimal articles even if I do that fairly often but that's besides the point because I was talking to my Girlfriend a couple of nights ago and we were talking about some of her favorite bands and it occured to me that a decent amount of acts from about 10 years ago are a little too similar in terms of just how their careers laid out and I found myself comparing the year 2005 to 1991 in that there was about 3 BIG artist that kind of broke into the mainstream and defined a genre as a whole and if you're curious obviously the big 3 for 1991 the year of my birth BY THE WAY!!! ALSO MAYBE ONE OF IF NOT THE GREATEST YEARS IN MUSICAL HISTORY!!!!! were of course Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and The Red Hot Chilie Peppers who all had their biggest records and produced some of the most essential and successful alternative records of all time and it's kind of odd because that year was an impressively eclipsing debut album and two semi established acts having their commercial break and that happened again but rather then it being Grunge we had Emo have it's phase.
If you're not aware arguably the BIG 3 for the Emo boom in 2005 were Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and My Chemical Romance with of course two of them breaking through with their second album and the other having a stellar debut album which is actually the topic of today's article but for future reference if you're interested in hearing more into this I'll make those connections in a later article but for now let's discuss this perfect 10 of an album.
So if you were to ask me I'd have to say that the band that Panic! most remind me of in terms of how their career has turned out I'd have to say they're a lot like Weezer and I say this because their Debut Album is pretty much a pitch perfect collection of songs that in all honesty have no flaw's to be found and even at their worst or overplayed are perfect power pop numbers that are full of energy, clever song writting, and of course are catchy as fuck and while their second album is the better in both cases both of their second records were kind of critically under appreciated upon release and in time have been more then snubbed out by the band in question even if they're honestly the strongest records of those bands career and also in both cases both bands first album still remains their most treasured and highest sellers which is for a pretty good reason.
Now let's go back and note the things that I said were this albums strong points starting with the most important probably the fact that from beginning to end you are blasted with this kind of combination of synth heavy danceable and ever so electronic tracks that balance just enough fake instruments with the real deal to help highlight a series of songs that oddly enough was probably the strongest Brendon Urie was able to do in the course of this bands history because it's the perfect balance of kind of cheeky and dirty tunes that are meant as nothing more then fun sing alongs(I write sins not Tragedies, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., Lying is the Most Fun a girl can have...) and even a few songs here and there that are actually pretty serious in tone like Camsicado which is about his alcoholic father. The songs on this album are fairly natural really and listening to them through and through you can't help but want to learn all the words and sing along because even 10 years later they're still as amusingly refreshing as they were when these guy's were the biggest band on the planet.
Another thing this album has going for it is the fact that the first half of it is an electronic affair while the second half takes more a rock-ish at times almost cabaret approach which helps to break up the monotony that keyboard heavy records have and also it showcases that this band did actually have a lot more variety in them then you'd expect from their genre.
Now of course I will have to make note that the whole thing of your song titles being paragraphs of unnecessarily that they straight copied from the likes of Fallout Boy is annoying as fuck but in all honesty when that's the only bad thing you can come up with for this album you realize just why it broke them through and why we all have yet to be able to lose our nostalgia goggles when we listen to it because we all still remember just how awesomely big I Write Sins was and to this day you know if it comes on you'll still know every god damn word.
Re-Listening to this album is quite a trip still and what annoys me is that this band made a real leap forward in terms of musical direction with Pretty. Odd. even if it's songwritting wasn't on par but then because it didn't quite measure up they've spent the last couple of albums regressing and making more pop minded attempts at recreating this album which is a shame because it's the complete lack of them trying to be anything more then a bunch of young hungry kids making a record that really give this some character and strength they had nothing to prove and made a classic of their genre because of it too bad they had to follow it up but hey that's life and that's been another edition of Perfect 10's.
Quality Cuts: Camsicado, The Only Difference..., Time to dance, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., I Write Sins not tragedies
If you're not aware arguably the BIG 3 for the Emo boom in 2005 were Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and My Chemical Romance with of course two of them breaking through with their second album and the other having a stellar debut album which is actually the topic of today's article but for future reference if you're interested in hearing more into this I'll make those connections in a later article but for now let's discuss this perfect 10 of an album.
So if you were to ask me I'd have to say that the band that Panic! most remind me of in terms of how their career has turned out I'd have to say they're a lot like Weezer and I say this because their Debut Album is pretty much a pitch perfect collection of songs that in all honesty have no flaw's to be found and even at their worst or overplayed are perfect power pop numbers that are full of energy, clever song writting, and of course are catchy as fuck and while their second album is the better in both cases both of their second records were kind of critically under appreciated upon release and in time have been more then snubbed out by the band in question even if they're honestly the strongest records of those bands career and also in both cases both bands first album still remains their most treasured and highest sellers which is for a pretty good reason.
Now let's go back and note the things that I said were this albums strong points starting with the most important probably the fact that from beginning to end you are blasted with this kind of combination of synth heavy danceable and ever so electronic tracks that balance just enough fake instruments with the real deal to help highlight a series of songs that oddly enough was probably the strongest Brendon Urie was able to do in the course of this bands history because it's the perfect balance of kind of cheeky and dirty tunes that are meant as nothing more then fun sing alongs(I write sins not Tragedies, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., Lying is the Most Fun a girl can have...) and even a few songs here and there that are actually pretty serious in tone like Camsicado which is about his alcoholic father. The songs on this album are fairly natural really and listening to them through and through you can't help but want to learn all the words and sing along because even 10 years later they're still as amusingly refreshing as they were when these guy's were the biggest band on the planet.
Another thing this album has going for it is the fact that the first half of it is an electronic affair while the second half takes more a rock-ish at times almost cabaret approach which helps to break up the monotony that keyboard heavy records have and also it showcases that this band did actually have a lot more variety in them then you'd expect from their genre.
Now of course I will have to make note that the whole thing of your song titles being paragraphs of unnecessarily that they straight copied from the likes of Fallout Boy is annoying as fuck but in all honesty when that's the only bad thing you can come up with for this album you realize just why it broke them through and why we all have yet to be able to lose our nostalgia goggles when we listen to it because we all still remember just how awesomely big I Write Sins was and to this day you know if it comes on you'll still know every god damn word.
Re-Listening to this album is quite a trip still and what annoys me is that this band made a real leap forward in terms of musical direction with Pretty. Odd. even if it's songwritting wasn't on par but then because it didn't quite measure up they've spent the last couple of albums regressing and making more pop minded attempts at recreating this album which is a shame because it's the complete lack of them trying to be anything more then a bunch of young hungry kids making a record that really give this some character and strength they had nothing to prove and made a classic of their genre because of it too bad they had to follow it up but hey that's life and that's been another edition of Perfect 10's.
Quality Cuts: Camsicado, The Only Difference..., Time to dance, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., I Write Sins not tragedies
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Sam Reviews a Video Songs I can't Listen To-Neon Trees
So Tyler Glenn is out and proud...wait we already knew that so I guess this video is just more him being adorable as hell showcasing the build up and decline of a relationship inter-spliced with band shots, some performance clips, and other random shit to kind of showcase the point of how emotions effect us all....and that's about it as typical as it sounds I'm highly disappointing really because this song is a pretty bad ass bit of 80's new wavey rock goodness and the video isn't really anything at all so I guess you can say rather then being underwhelmed with the single this time I just feel that way towards the music video....
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Song of the Day 6/3/15
So after blasting the ever loving fuck out of that new Melanie Martinez single I decided to actually go back and re-listen to the song it's basically an interpretation on and realized that that song came out 50 years ago....shit son time is a crazy thing but either way it's interesting really that she's done a modernized take on a very sad but catchy number...
Monday, June 1, 2015
Sam Sugguest a Song Pity Party-Melanie Martinez
So as I'm going around Facebook I see that one Melanie Martinez has posted a video for a new single called Pity Party and I'm not going to lie this song is dope as fuck people.
Now the video is just simply her doing some fucked up stuff and trying to make a dark and very disturbing showcasing of how nobody seems to love her and to help support the usage of Leslie Gore's, "It's My Party," to create a kind of re-imagining of sorts that has this very Dubsteppy beat to go along with a tune that I'm more then sure is playing along with some grander theme of Cry Baby as an upcomming album which should really interest me considering that after a couple of listens I really do now have complete interest in that she probably has made a record that'll be the surprise of the year....
Now the video is just simply her doing some fucked up stuff and trying to make a dark and very disturbing showcasing of how nobody seems to love her and to help support the usage of Leslie Gore's, "It's My Party," to create a kind of re-imagining of sorts that has this very Dubsteppy beat to go along with a tune that I'm more then sure is playing along with some grander theme of Cry Baby as an upcomming album which should really interest me considering that after a couple of listens I really do now have complete interest in that she probably has made a record that'll be the surprise of the year....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)