I've only recently started listening to Vagabon's new album, but I like what I'm hearing so far!
Book pairing: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
(5 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
Loading... https://youtu.be/6CH9BBuqyYY
I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from J.S. Ondara in 2020 and beyond.
(8 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10)Loading... Your calls for an encore have been heard and granted. More Finnish Metal! This is another one that makes me grin when it comes through my earbuds. I wouldn't for a moment want anybody to know what in the hell I'm listening to, but more silly metal fun for me.
As an added bonus, while looking for a video (tough call by the way...Official Turisas video is kind of obnoxious, but better audio than the live performance versions), I happened to learn that the original performer was Boney M, below. It’s worth watching for the choreography, if nothing else:
https://youtu.be/OBXRJgSd-aU?t=119
Who is Boney M, you ask? (I would love to know if anybody has heard of them.) A collection of Carribean disco-pop performers based our of West Germany. Why not? The song made to number 1 on a handful of European charts. Charts of what? Couldn't tell you. The fact that this was originally a disco song does answer a few questions I had about what lyrics the Finns were trying to sing.
Even better, Boney M was founded by Frank Farian, who (co) wrote and produced the song.
Farian...why does that name ring a bell? I mean, it didn't, but while trying to figure out what the heck Boney M was, I found out he was the mastermind behind the Milli Vanilli fiasco. I guess having fronts for his music was kind of his thing. He may have been singing the Boney M track above.
Just... weird.
(3 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)Loading... Just wanted to switch things up a little bit.
This is another recent bedtime video request.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 10)Loading... Finnish Folk Power Metal. Ha.
(3 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10)Loading... We interrupt our weird metal program to honor of the Minnesotan-by-choice Okee Dokee Brothers, who were again Grammy-nominated for their 2018 album Winterland.
They're still a bedtime staple at our house, and everything they do is great.
The Abominable Yeti is currently the most asked-for, followed by Snowpeople. My daughter likes to comment on the artwork.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading... Powerwolf, by request. You can thank Cheaptoy.
Again, weird shtick. This time it's a combination of religion and combat (Amen & Attack, Incense & Iron, Christ & Combat, Blessed & Possessed, etc...). Not totally sure what they're getting at. Very dramatic, though.
Again, I'm here for the tempo and the triumphant, choral delivery.
I'm still trying to figure out what it is with European metal bands and this whole power genre.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading... I'm going to spend a couple days on the Power Metal rabbit hole. Again, I'm not saying this is good music, but more of a "right music, right energy, right time" situation. With the situation being I want to use the fitness center here in the middle of the day, rather than work.
Anyway, the Gloryhammer station on Pandora features a fair amount of Sabaton. They have an odd affinity for relating famous battle scenarios through music, with a lot of WWII featured. There's a bit of glorification of war and battle, which makes me cautious, and I suspect that the audiences for their shows might lean...nationalistic...but I don't hear it in their message. I keep an ear out.
But, again, mid-day energy when I need it. And I've actually been to the part of the Argonne where the Lost Battalion was surrounded. So that's cool.
I was going to pick Primo Victoria, but the video had a lot of Armor sounds and explosions. But it's about fighting Nazis on D-Day.
(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 10)Loading... So, some while back Cheaptoy posted a Gloryhammer video. I’m not sure if it was that one or a FMD somewhere along the way, but they’ve been on my radar since.
I find this particular power metal genre both largely ridiculous and also juuust about right kind of sound and intensity for a good workout, which is when I do most of my Pandora listening.
There’s something amusing to me about looking like I’m having a serious gym session, but the song that only I can hear includes the phrase “An army of undead unicorns/Are riding into the fray...”
(3 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)Loading... I first heard this one back in the day when the guys putting our HS wrestling banquet video together used it for my montage of highlights, but I’d never actually seen this video. Looks about like I should have imagined.
Work today, class tonight. I really like going to school again, but sometimes it feels a bit like this.
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)Loading...