Rock Advent Calendar

Should have posted this a couple of weeks ago... my Rock Advent Calendar is back... I admit, it is very similar to last year's but there are a couple of new tracks in there. Feel free to make suggestions on tracks I should have included.

Day one is an obvious choice... and I don't care what anyone says, they are a rock band! As the days go on though, I hope you will find a diverse and occasionally bizarre mix of Rock and Blues Christmas songs. Enjoy!

Free Download Friday #125: Roadrunner Records goes to Download

I've been too busy of late to update this blog but I'm back this week with a link that will net you not one, but thirteen tracks! But first a slight diversion.

For the last couple of Christmases, I've posted links and downloads for Christmas songs from a variety of Pop, Blues and Rock artists. I thought that, since this is Good Friday, I should look for an Easter related song to offer as a download. The problem is, there are next to no Easter Pop, Blues and Rock songs at all... let alone free downloadable ones. At least, I couldn't find any. I guess that Easter is just not seen in the same light as Christmas by the music industry. If any of you can think of Easter songs, I'd be interested to hear your suggestions. The best I could come up with is this YouTube video of Larry Norman singing Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music? which contains the lines: "Jesus is the Rock and he rolled my Blues away." :-)

So, what about the promised thirteen track download? Well, it comes courtesy of Roadrunner Records - probably my favourite record label. Not only are they currently the home of the greatest band in the world but they also give away a ton of free tracks!


And once again, as they did last year, they are giving away a Download Festival sampler. I think this is a brilliant idea and I don't know why more bands/record labels don't do it. There are so many bands at a festival, how do you choose who to go and see? In general, I suspect most people will go to bands they've heard of, bands where they already have at least a couple of tracks in their music collection. So Roadrunner Records gives you a sample track from each of their artists that will be appearing at the festival. As I said, brilliant!

This year, the tracks on offer are:

1. Black Stone Cherry - White Trash Millionaire
2. Soulfly - World Scum
3. Lamb of God - Ghost Walking
4. Revoker - Stay Down
5. Royal Republic - Tommy Gun
6. Kids in Glass Houses - Gold Blood
7. Trivium - In Waves
8. DevilDriver - You Make Me Sick
9. Periphery - Icarus Lives
10. Theory of a Deadman - Lowlife
11. Machine Head - Locust
12. Megadeth - Public Enemy No 1
13. Opeth - The Devil's Orchard  

A really good mix of tracks. My favourite is Black Stone Cherry but there's a really good mix of styles there - pretty much something for everyone. Just go to the Roadrunner Records facebook page, enter your details, sign up for a mailing list and you'll be sent a link to the download page.

So, what's your favourite track?

Part 3 - Rock Advent Calendar

And here's the final eight. Have a great Christmas!

Day	Artist	Video	Download
17	Steve Lukather	The Christmas Song	Amazon (CD) iTunes
18	Northern Light Orchestra	Away In A Manger /  Come Let Us Adore Him	NLO Website
19	B. B. King	Please Come Home For Christmas	Amazon iTunes
20	The Ramones	Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)	Amazon iTunes
21	Joe Perry	Blue Christmas	Amazon (CD) iTunes
22	Keith Richards	Run, Run, Rudolf	Amazon iTunes
23	AC/DC	Mistress For Christmas	Amazon (CD) iTunes
24	The Darkness	Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)	Amazon iTunes

Let me know what you think of the selection and feel free to offer alternatives.

You can see all of these and more on the online Rock Christmas Advent calendar.

Part 2 - Rock Advent Calendar

And here's the next eight:

Day	Artist	Video	Download
9	Manowar	Silent Night	YouTube only?
10	Joan Jett And The Blackhearts	Little Drummer Boy	Amazon iTunes
11	August Burns Red	O Come, O Come Emmanuel	Amazon iTunes
12	Seasick Steve	Xmas Prison Blues	Amazon iTunes
13	Radwan Hoteit (?)	Happy Xmas (War Is Over)	Amazon iTunes
14	The Black Crowes	Back Door Santa	Black Crowes
15	Jethro Tull	Ring Out Solstice Bells	Amazon iTunes
16	Alice Cooper et al	Santa Claws Is Coming To Town	Amazon iTunes

Let me know what you think of the selection and feel free to offer alternatives.

You can see all of these and more on the online Rock Christmas Advent calendar.

Part 1 - Rock Advent Calendar

File this one in the "It seemed like a good idea at the time..." category.

I like Rock music and I like Christmas music but Rock radio stations seem reluctant to play Christmas music... perhaps because it is generally associated with a high cheese factor. We were discussing this issue on a Rock Radio facebook page and I said that you could easily fill a couple of hours of programme with Christmas music that would appeal to Rock fans. Unfortunately, Don Macbeth called my bluff and challenged me to post a different Rock Christmas song every day in advent.

So that's what I've been doing. I only made two provisos: one, I didn't want any grumpy comments about this or that not being Rock; and two, I was going to include some Blues.

I noticed, however, that my daily posts don't seem to show up on my facebook wall, so if you don't go the the right page, you wont have noticed the songs. Therefore, I created an online music video Rock Advent Calendar and I wrote this post. This will be the first of three posts, taking me up to Christmas Eve, when I will list the last eight of the videos.

Let me know what you think of the selection and feel free to offer alternatives.

Day	Artist	Video	Download
1	Slade	Merry Xmas Everybody	Amazon iTunes
2	Bruce Springsteen	Santa Claus Is Coming To Town	Amazon iTunes
3	The Greedies	A Merry Jingle	Amazon (Vinyl) iTunes
4	Twisted Sister	O Come All Ye Faithfull	Amazon iTunes
5	Joe Bonamassa	Santa Claus Is Back In Town	Try Joe's download from last year
6	Joe Satriani	Silent Night/Holy Night Jam	Amazon (CD) iTunes
7	Dio, Tony Iommi et. al	God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen	Amazon iTunes
8	Eric Clapton	Christmas Tears	Amazon iTunes

Free Download Friday #114: Manic Street Preachers

I'm not sure what I make of the Manic Street Preachers. It seems that I like them in small doses, in that I quite enjoy individual tracks but find a whole album's worth a bit too much.

If you like them better than I do, or if you too like them in small doses, I can highly recommend a track currently available for free download from 7 Digital. The tune on offer is an acoustic track called This Is The Day - a cover of a song from The The.

Guitar, harmonica and vocals. Sparse and stark - it seems to suit the lyrics perfectly, but perhaps that's because I'm old and cynical and don't believe it when they sing, "This is the day your life will surely change. This is the day when things fall into place."

If you want to hear the plugged in version, check out the official video:

So what do you think? I think I prefer the unplugged version.

Thirty Day Movie Music Challenge - Day 1

Back in April (grief, I didn't think it was that long ago) I had a go at a 30 Day Music Challenge from a facebook page. Since then, I've been inundated with requests to do something like it again. (Well, OK... two people asked me if I was going to do it again!) I didn't want to do a repeat, so I had a look to see what else was out there.

There are other music challenges but I thought there'd be too much overlap. There are film challenges which I thought would be interesting but this is a music blog.

Since I couldn't find an existing list I wanted to try, I thought I'd invent my own. So here is the first ever posting in the Thirty Day Movie Music Challenge. So without further ado, I give you:

Thirty Day Movie Music Challenge

Day 01 - Music that is integral to an iconic movie scene. 

 There were a number of possibilities I considered here. But in the end, there could be only one:

Wayne's World - Bohemian Rhapsody. Simply awesome. Is it possible to reach "that point" in Bohemian Rhapsody without headbanging? Not just an iconic moment, but one of the great opening title sequences.

I acknowledge that my thirty days might be a bit more idiosyncratic than other thirty day challenges and perhaps even a bit too tied to my own interests but I hope the categories are general enough that others feel able to join in.

What do you think? What iconic scene would you choose?

Free Download Friday #112: Subdivisions

Now this is a bit closer to normal free download service... albeit that it's very late for a feature called "Free Download FRIDAY". (Supercheap Sunday anyone?)

PS I Love You, a photo by 

musicisentropy on Flickr.

I have made no secret of my love of Rush, so I was intrigued to hear of a Canadian indie band offering a free download of their cover of a Rush track. The band are called PS I Love You and the track they are covering is Subdivisions. (See the Rolling Stone site, MP3 Download: PS I Love You's Gritty Rush Cover 'Subdivisions' for details and the download link.)

PS I Love You are a duo of musicians who, like the Black Keys, are a guitar and drums only outfit, so they have a simmilar stripped down, raw style to the Black Keys. This makes the choice of Subdivisions for a cover all the more interesting. Subdivisions opens with Geddy playing the synth and is typical of that period of Rush where they were developing a slick, multi-layered approach to their music. In this cover, the synth part has been replaced by a rough and raucous guitar riff that really works (IMHO). In fact, if they had kept it as an instrumental cover, I think I would have loved it but then the vocal kick in... For me at least, Paul's vocals will take a bit of getting used to, so I only really like the track rather than an out and out love!

Now, before anyone else says it, I know that Geddy's vocal style is a stumbling block to many. His voice seems to be an acquired taste (although I never had any problem acquiring it!). I have no doubt therefore that there are people who have no problem the the PS I Love You vocals. However, I've listened to the cover version a few times now and the vocals are growing on me. I really like the feel of the track, and so have no hesitation in recommending it for download despite my reservations about the vocals. Oh, and it ends with a great bit of feedback!

What do you make of it though?

Just before I leave this band, I was amused by Paul's description of his gradual conversion to Rush in the Rolling Stone's article and Subdivision in particular with its, "epic synth intro". Subdivisions is a track I have used in the past to try and convert people to all things Rush. My recommendation is that people listen to it all the way through once, then go back and listen to it while concentrating on the bass line. Then again but concentrating on the drums. Then again, a fourth time, but trying to isolate the guitar part in their head before finally listening to it as a whole again. Each individual part is brilliant but the whole is even better. (And note, that I don't even touch on the "epic synth"!)

Finally then, a bit of the real thing. Rush have a live DVD: Rush Time Machine 2011: Live In Cleveland coming out in October and here is a trailer to whet your appetite:

Well, it's has my mouth watering!

Free Download Friday #110: Gary Moore

It's late and I'm tired but I think this one speaks for itself. A free video of Gary playing live.

A quote from the Free Gary Moore Video page on the Eagle Rock site explains:

Enter your email... to get your free download of "Oh Wild One" from "Live at Montreux 2010".

What do you think? A bit different to link to a video on Free Download Friday. Would you like to see more video downloads? Leave a comment to let me know, or click one of the feedback check boxes below.

Free Download Friday #109: Black Country Communion Live

Another freebie from Black Country Communion (see previous posts) - this time from their forthcoming concert DVD (and album?): Live Over Europe.

To whet your appetite, here's a trailer:

According the the bumph on the pre-order page, the double DVD comes with a free download of a live track. Thankfully though, you don't have to wait for the DVD release because they are giving the track away on their website just now. Give them an email address, and they'll give you the link to download a live version of Song Of Yesterday.

And it is a belter of a track. From the opening solo by, through the outstanding solo about halfway through, to the ending that romps and then ends on a more gentle reprise, it would seem that Mr Bonamassa is on fine form and thoroughly enjoying himself.

Joe Bonamassa also takes the bulk of the vocal duties which is more than fine by me!

I can't remember why I couldn't see this band when they played Glasgow at the end of July but hearing this live track makes me absolutely determined not to miss them the next time they tour. (In fact, I've not managed to see Joe Bonamassa in concert either. Something else I really need to put right!)

So what do you think? Is Song Of Yesterday your cup of tea? And would you consider getting the DVD when it becomes available?

Rush - From the first Album

Going to see Rush when they hit Glasgow on 14th May. I enjoyed finding and posting videos for the 30 Day Challenge, so I thought I'd post some Rush videos on the run up to the concert.

Here's the one that started it: an American DJ picked up on this song and started playing it. The interest this generated helped Rush secure a record deal... and the rest is history.

Great stuff! Interesting to see the original drummer and hear him introduce the song.

Day 30 – Your favourite song of all time

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 30 – Your favourite song of all time

This is too hard as my favourite changes on a regular basis depending on mood and circumstances. That it would be by Rush though was fairly certain!

I've already used a couple of classic Rush tracks in this challenge that otherwise might have been contenders, after all, if it is the one you play most on your iPod, it's likely to be one of your favourites!

Then, it hit me. Of course it's a Rush track but it has to be something off their latest album. I've gone for one of the instrumental tracks:


What I like most about Rush is that they are a progressive band and by that I mean that they are never content to rest on their laurels. They are always challenging themselves to explore new areas of music, to develop their already considerable musicianship, ...to use ever more complex time signatures! They challenge their fans. With every new release they say, "Come on. Keep up! This is where we're going this time." And let's be honest, they challenge their record company who probably just want some rock radio friendly product! There were complaints on their last tour that they played too much from their new album but I thought that was brilliant - they were not doing a nostalgia tour, they were promoting the new album, an album that they were proud of and that they enjoyed playing.

So my favourite track is not a trip down memory lane but something new. It is one from my favourite band, one that makes me think and one that reminds me why they are still my favourite!

Day 29 – Your favourite Love song

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 29 – Your favourite Love song

This is the trickiest yet since, as my wife will tell you, I am not naturally the world's most romantic person. If I hadn't already used Joni Mitchell in Day 22 I would have probably gone for for something off of Blue. As I struggled to come up with something, I thought of a few tracks but none felt right. For example, some sounded a bit stalkerish (Every Breath You Take or I Don't Want To Miss A Thing). Others were about breaking up (Ain't Gonna Cry No More) and some were just weird (No More "I Love You's").

Then I thought of this track (if you are not familiar with it, listen right to the end; you'll thank me later!):


To be honest, I think that as a Split Enz track, this is just OK but the keyboard player decided to re-arrange some of their tracks for orchestra and worked with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. They released the resultant recordings under the name ENZSO, (See what they did there?) The album is interesting but this track is outstanding – real hairs on the back of your neck stuff. I especially like the section around the 4:10 mark where the music builds up until the orchestra cuts loose and the section at the end where, despite his firm resolution, he doesn't seem to be able to get past repeating, "I don't wanna to say..."

Day 28 – A song you would sing at a karaoke night

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 28 – A song you would sing at a karaoke night

I've never been to a karaoke night but if I ever go, I think I'd sing something like this:


My thinking is it's best to go for one that's catchy, reasonably well known, and one that might get everyone joining in on the chorus!

Day 27 – A song no one would expect you to love

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 27 – A song no one would expect you to love

I might have gone for Joni Mitchell had I not already gone for her in Day 22. Other contenders were Annie Lennox/The Eurythmics, Newton Faulkner and The Roches. In the end, I decided my least likely like was Michael Jackson, at least from Thriller era and before:


The outstanding video helps!

Day 26 – A song off of the last album you brought/track you downloaded

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 26 – A song off of the last album you brought/track you downloaded

I've always liked David Coverdale's voice so I was saddened to hear he had problems on the last tour. There were suggestions that his voice was shot. Decided to risk getting the new album anyway. Only had time for a couple of listens, no favourite track yet, so here's the single:


Unless it's all studio trickery and ProTools, I'm pleased to hear that he is sounding pretty good.

Day 25 – A song from a band/artist you’ve just ‘discovered’

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 25 – A song from a band/artist you’ve just ‘discovered’

This one is slightly bizarre since the artist I have just "discovered" is hardly a spring chicken: it's Peter Green. I knew Peter Green was in Fleetwood Mac before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. I also knew that in their early days, they were essentially a Blues band but I had no albums from that period. Other than Albatross, I was not consciously aware of anything he had played on.

Then, I saw a documentary about him on BBC Four and as a result went out and found two compilation albums with a selection of his material. The compilations I have contain latter day re-recordings of his early stuff, but here he is in his prime:


A recent discovery of a guitar legend. I want to hear more.

Day 24 – A song you play before a night out

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 24 – A song you play before a night out

Depends on where I'm going but when I go to see Rush next month, I'll have Moving Pictures on permanent repeat.


What do you mean, "That's not the right version!"? I'm Geddy Muir and I'll play whatever version I like... OK. Fine!


Anybody else going to see the Rush in Glasgow next month?

Day 23 – A song you play when you want to relax

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 23 – A song you play when you want to relax

Sometimes I sits and thinks. But sometimes, I just sits...

I am struggling to think when I last had a chance to relax while listening to music! Unfortunately, listening to music now-a-days tends to happen while I am doing something else; driving; walking the dogs; marking essays; ...

It's difficult to say what I would listen to if I did have the chance to relax and listen to music. Probably I'd just go for something at the extra noisy that I can enjoy without having to think too much about it:


Too be fair, there are probably other Motörhead tracks I'd have to think even less about than this one, but it's one of my favourites.

(Thinking further about this, is it my definition of "relax" that needs reconsideration? I find the physical activity and release involved in pumping up the volume and brining out the air guitar usually makes me feel better. Is that relaxing?)

Day 22 – A song that reminds you of your wife

30 Day Song Challenge
Day 22 – A song that reminds you of your wife

I first met when we were at university together where she was in the Arts Faculty and I was in Science studying Computing. I didn't realise that, at the time I was attempting to win her heart, a major stumbling block for her was that I was a scientist! She didn't see how she could love someone that didn't share her love of language and literature.

As I said, I din't realise this at the time but one day, when she was visiting our flat, I played her the Joni Mitchell album - Blue.


Apparently, as I explained to her why My Old Man was such a good song and why I especially liked the lyric: "The frying pan's too wide", she decided there might be hope for me after all: that the heart of an artist might be lurking beneath my cold scientific exterior. Not that she have me any hint of that at the time!