What are you listening to right now?

[mumboking]

[shane]

Didn't realize we had one of these sorts of threads.

[mumboking]

[Zagnorch]

I just discovered a series of popular tunes & themes that are played in an opposite key. After listening to several of them, I was absolutely fascinated by how extensively a key change can completely change the tone and feel of a piece of music.


For example, check out the theme to Chariots of Fire played in a minor key. Thanks to the change, it changes from a hopeful and inspirational tune into one of desperation and slight despair:





Then there's John William's Superman theme in a minor key, which now sounds like a super-villain's theme:





On the other end of the spectrum, Darth Vader's Theme played in a major key is chock-full of auditory sunshine and rainbows:




And finally, George Michael's / Wham!'s Careless Whisper is more like Carefree Whisper when performed in a major key:

[Zagnorch]

Even though it's been a week since I learned of his death, I recently celebrated the life of Rush drummer & lyricist Neal Peart by doing a marathon of my fave Rush tunes from Moving Pictures to  Test for Echo:

This one's for all you Tempest fanboys out there.









By far the most viscerally powerful tune in the Rush discography,
combined with scenes from the concentration camp liberation episode of Band of Brothers,
makes for by far the greatest fan-made music video ever posted on YouTube.

































What really sells me on this one is the lyrics,"I'd rather be a tortoise from Galapagos,
or a span of geological time." How & why da eff did he come up with that?!

Although the world is now a little poorer from Peart's passing, he helped make the world a better place with his lyrical genius. Godspeed, good sir!


...'Late

[MetalFRO]

Good to see some love for "Stick It Out" (underrated song!), and "Test For Echo" which is an underrated song AND album. And yes, Peart's loss is unfortunate, but he gave us so much, that we can always go back to these works for inspiration.

I've been going down the YT rabbit hole after discovering the early 80's movement of Japanese "City Pop" about a month (or so) ago. Currently (as in, while writing this post), I'm listening to this:



But I keep going back to this album, over and over:



Subsequently, I preordered the forthcoming vinyl re-issue by Ship to Shore Records, as well as the CD box set that includes this, and their 2 subsequent albums. So addictive!

However, I'll probably be shifting gears soon, because my favorite band, Onmyo-za (also from Japan, strangely enough) released a new box set that includes remastered versions of all 16 of their albums, and a bonus disc with some older songs re-recorded:

[img width=500 height=331]https://st.cdjapan.co.jp/pictures/l/11/14/KICS-93810_ADD.jpg?v=1[/img]

If the name sounds oddly familiar, you might know their most recognized song, "Kouga Ninpocho" as the intro to the Japanese anime, "Basilisk" from the mid-aughts:



Here's the full song, if that tickles your fancy:



I love that both videos include Romaji, so you can follow along with what Kuroneko is singing. She's amazing, and based on the live videos I've seen, and both of the DVD's of the band I have, she's on-point in a live setting, as well. Amazing band, and one that I've really enjoyed over the last decade plus. Glad to finally have their 1st 3 albums to listen to. The band has also done the theme song for the sequel series to the original "Basilisk" anime, the track "Ouka Ninpocho"



I'm reading that the new anime isn't great, but the song is.

[Zagnorch]

Been gettin' my funk on with several (mostly) '80s R&B/Soul jams, with a focus on synthesizer-heavy hits, with the occasional smattering of that good ol' robot-voice vocalizer thingy that was so novel at the time. We're talking The Gap Band, Midnight Star, and oh so many more:

This"rock" is anything but robotic.

[Zagnorch]

You're listening to WRFG, the official radio station of the RF Generation Nation! Your good buddy DJ Zagnorch here, keeping you in good spirits throughout these trying times! And what better way to do that than drop a big steamin' SPACEBALLS: THE DOUBLE SHOT right on top of your masked & (dark) helmeted heads at ludicrous speed? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, of course!

Ready, Kafka? Annnd GO!

[Zagnorch]

Whoops, forgot all about this selection from SPACEBALLS: THE SOUNDTRACK:

My bad...

[MetalFRO]

Been jumping back and forth between different things, but I thought I'd highlight a recent purchase, from the band Vintersea, their latest release, the "Illuminated" EP. Check the video for the title track:

[Zagnorch]

In the mood for a nice, light pick-me-up kinda tune (who isn't nowadays?), I turned to Al Jarreau's Mornin', which was made into one of the most surreal-- yet oddly charming-- music videos of all time:

This eventually led me down the rabbit hole of interesting music videos made in a time where creative experimentation seemed to be encouraged far more than it is today. Hell, do they even make music videos anymore?

Take, for example, that one tune off of Peter Gabriel's mid-80s album So (AKA the first one where it wasn't merely self-titled) which was crafted into just the most amazing stop-motion/claymation spectacular ever committed to film. Of course, as you all know, obviously the video I'm talking about is... Big Time!

Actually, just about every Peter Gabriel music video I've ever seen is entertainingly surreal. Sadly, some of the videos on his official YouTube channel have had minors edited out of them, and replaced with other imagery... like Games Without Frontiers for example:

Fortunately, the original video is still bouncing around on YouTube as of this posting:

The herky-jerky style of Wang Chung's Everybody Have Fun Tonight had me wondering if I was having an epileptic episode every time I watched it:

I discovered that they recently did a remake of the song AND the stoppy-motiony video with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra:

Dangit, now I want one of those Marvin the Martian t-shirts that guitar guy was wearing.

Then there's Hip to be Square by Huey Lewis and the News, filmed in an odd close-up POV style that just might have inspired the inventor of the GoPro:

Finally, we come to what is objectively, inarguably, the greatest music video of all time! ALL TIME I TELL YOU! Of course, as you already know, obviously I'm talking about...

Yo, ding dong, man! Ding dong! Ding dong, yo!

I also found myself in the mood for the Cheers and Hill Street Blues themes for some reason:

Aaaand finally, after watching and enjoying his History of Japan and History of the World, I Guess YouTube videos, I decided to give the songs of Bill Wurtz a listen... and I'm so glad I did. I'm not exactly sure what genre his music falls into, but boy is it... um... satisfying, I guess? I have a really hard time putting my thoughts about his tunes into words, but I assure you those words would be nothing but good ones.

While the accompanying music videos are chock-full of primitive early-2000s PC effects, color gradients, MS Paint artwork,and clip-art, Wurtz puts it all together in a way where I can't help but be in good cheer when I'm watching them. But don't take my word for it, check 'em out for yourself:

...'Late

[MetalFRO]

Currently have this on as background music at work:

[Zagnorch]

[MetalFRO]

Been going through my CD and vinyl collections, trying to listen to everything, in an effort to not only audit my collection, but make sure I'm actually listening to it. I may post some stuff here from time to time, but I'm putting it all on my Instagram account, in case anyone is interested in following me over there

https://www.instagram.com/metalfro777/

Currently spinning:

[Zagnorch]

I find it kind of a weird coincidence that, while I was convalescing in a hospital in the Silicon Valley after blowing out my left quad a week before Christmas, I started listening to not one, but two podcast series about Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos fraud, as well as the trial and verdict.

I completed the first one called "Bad Blood," based on the book of the same title authored by journalist John Carreyrou, who also hosted the podcast.

I am currently in the middle of "The Dropout," the title being a reference to Elizabeth Holmes dropping out of Stanford after her freshman year to establish Theranos, a far more comprehensive series put out by ABC News.