Timpani Symphony!!!

Today I attended the second-to-last MMYS rehearsal that I'll ever participate in, and the last time I'll ever be inside that room again. We're playing the Wharton tomorrow in front of a bunch of elementary kids. I get to miss the first four hours of school!
Anyway, I had the idea for a timpani concerto played by Neil Peart with dozens of timpani (almost akin to the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony) and Matt Stumpf the trombone player sitting next to me added that an entire symphony of different-pitched kettle drums could play orchestra music!! Something to think about.

Pop Music Pie Chart

I made this picture after this larger picture given to me by StumbleUpon. It's distorted to reflect perception.

Nerdcore

Nerdcore- Hip Hop concerning nerdy things like computers and science fiction. It's sweet.
Here's some links to check out:
MC Lars' "True Player For Real" was NPR's song of the day today. See the article, listen to the song.
Weird Al was a pioneer of this genre by parodying popular rap songs- see "White and Nerdy", "It's All About the Pentiums", and "I Can't Watch This."

PRFLE

For the Progressive Rock Fantasy League I'm co-founding with Livingston, here is my fantasy band (with a salary cap of $150,000- salary is determined by Google results and will increase with time) :
Mike Donehey- vocals- Tenth Avenue North- $1,410. Really, why drop a bunch of cash on a singer? It all comes down to whether or not you like the voice) See him here.
Giuliano Savona- keyboard- No band that I know of- $984. Check this guy out! He pwns n00bs on keyboard and guitar! See him here and here
Ron Jarzombek- guitar- Spastic Ink & Blotted Science- $33,200. He costs a ton, but he sure is worth it!!!)
Domenico Citriniti- bass- Citriniti- $660. This guy is a monster slapper! Not my favorite, but a good buy. Thing is, all these Google results will probably increase...
Damon Che- drums- Don Caballero-$14.300

Well that's it, and it totals to $50,554. Let's see what happens.



I've got a ton more for the future, but I can't give those away to the only other player. :)

Mysterious Edguy song review

My friend Livingston burned me a copy of Anchor Drops by Umphree's McGee, and he included an Edguy song without the name. Here's my review:

Guitars have bad tone, low in the mix, doing that same old tired 3+3+3+3+4 rhythm. Bass is inaudible.
The drums sound huge, but with low volume. Like the 80's or something. The singer sounds like a cross from the guy from Sonata Arctica and Geddy Lee of Rush. Eew. His background vocals on the chorus were very often out-of-tune.
There are various vocal breaks right before the chorus, whereupon he leans really close to the mic suddenly, or something. Nice guitar solo, almost as good as Angra. I don't like the drummer. The lyrics, while being about "flying away together" or something (I tried half-heartedly to Google them to determine the song title) are generally of higher quality than the standard power metal fare. I like their other songs better.

Will's Favorite Power Metal Bands, in order
1. Angra (but how to pronounce it?)
2. Sonata Arctica
3. Theocracy (Christian, one guy actually; you should listen to their Christmas stuff)
4. Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody, and before that Thundercross. What a sweet name!)
5. Dark Moor
6. Twilightning (Gotta love this name)
7. Helloween (Old school)
8. Edguy
9. DragonForce (or StudioForce, or the one that I made up, DragginFarce) Click here to see what I think of them.
I would like the genre as a whole better if everything didn't sound the same.
ATTENTION: This is an edit of this post executed on April 29th. My favorite Power Metal band is actually Kamelot, but I didn't include it on the list nor even think about it because I have it files in my brain under progressive power metal, although a few bands listed above could also be described as such.
Wow, lots of links in this one. Click on them all!

PDQ Bach

This guy is funny. Here's a video of him doing a sports commentary thing of Beethoven's Fifth.



Check this post out on my other blog.

Left Foot Foreword

Left Foot Foreword is a band (kind of) based in Michigan that writes creative, genre-busting music. The incredibly talented leader is proficient at multiple instruments and is a really awesome person. I know her personally, actually. So click the link and absorb her tunes.

Keyboardists are friendly

I have tried to get into contact with several progressive rock musicians on Myspace, but only Matt Guillory and Tomas Bodin have responded. Matt is a producer, singer, and songwriter who has worked with James LaBrie of Dream Theater and many others. He graciously responded to my heckling that he didn't even say he was a keyboardist on his headline. Tomas Bodin is a Flower King who sticks out in my mind for a funny yet awesome solo in "Minor Giant Steps" off of Paradox Hotel. He seems very nice. John Myung did not respond to my lenghty heartfelt message. :(

My Nerdiness

"Call this Number"

Wow, is this my third post today? That's what happens when you're on Spring Break and have nothing to do except sit around on the computer. Anyway, I just received an email from Musician's Friend telling me to call a number and say "Sharp" to receive juicy phone-only specials. I refuse. That's dumb. You want me to call a number and say a special word to some person I don't know so I can know how expensive stuff I don't want is? Why do they do that? Why can't they just tell me? I'm signed up for their email and catalog!!! I have a friend who called in once. It was a very exciting experience. Not. They do this all the time and it's stupid.
Click here to read it.

A fictional band

Go here to see what's up with this.

A GRAND DIGIMON WAR

Between ZeedMilleniumon, Apocalymon, Imperialdramon Paladin Mode, Armageddemon, Omnimon X, Susanoomon, Alphamon Ouryuuken, Diaboromon, Daemon Super Ultimate, MaloMyotismon, GranDracmon, Lucemon, Chaosmon, UlforceVeedramon, and Snatchmon.

Man, I used to be so obsessed with Digimon, when I was in first grade or something. I think the third generation wrecked it, just like Pokemon.

Debbie Stab-You-Now!!!! She hates babies.

Coldplay vs. Joe Satriani

Coldplay, a pathetic pop band, ripped off "If I could Fly" by Joe Satriani (one the the world's most talented guitar players) for their Grammy-Award winning song "Viva la Vida." He sued them, like he should have. They're saying that the similarity is not enough to warrant charges, and besides, Satriani's music "lacks originality" and therefore should not receive copyright protection. Excuse me, Coldplay? What do you know about music? Joe Satriani has been creating complex and challenging instrumental rock for decades, and you want to come in here with your ripped-off formulaic pop fluff and say he's not original? Besides, their arguments are pretty much, "We shouldn't be prosecuted because the song sucks & we didn't rip it off too much." Hey Coldplay, if it lacks originality and you plagiarized it, what does that make you? Apparently they liked it enough to record it. Again. Without permission. And win a Grammy for "Most Popular Piece of Crap." Seriously, who judges the Grammys? Anybody with any musical knowledge? The public isn't qualified to judge musical superiority, as evidenced by the charts these days. Right now, "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga is Numero Uno- I heard it on the radio this morning, and one of my friends played on the way to Higher Ground a couple of days ago. Dumb song "about sex and gambling." Oh, to return to the days when Kansas, Foghat and Yes were popular.....I am disgusted by this pathetic band. GO JOE SATRIANI!!! Since he composed much of it, he deserves a slice of that Grammy. Check out his new band Chickenfoot.

Animal on the Muppets

Animal on the Muppet Show is part of the fictional band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem and in Episode 38 he dueled Buddy Rich, who some call the greatest drummer in history. I'd just like to see him duel Neil Peart or Mike Portnoy.
Watch the video here.

Elton John

It's incredible that Elton John wrote the music to Lion King- that's fabulous! I went to see it last might at the Wharton and woooowwww!!!!!
I might have to give him a listen now.

A Bass Post

Les Claypool, Cliff Burton, Flea, and Victor Wooten are the most talked about bassists on YouTube. I will state my opinion:
1. Les Claypool is a monster slapper with great stamina and coordination (he sings at the same time)!! Everything about his playing is different and groundbreaking, he's just a joy to listen to. But the best? No. Few people can do all he does, but I have a feeling that he can't play like Victor Wooten.

2. Cliff Burton was the bassist for Metallica in the 80's. People herald him as groundbreaking, but he was not that groundbreaking really. He's seen as a "bass shredder" but Billy Sheehan would make him cry. Metallica was and is a popular band, so people think he's the best because all other popular music has poor bass representation.

3. Flea is like a modern-day Cliff Burton. He's excellent, no doubt, but the only reason he's heralded as the best is because people a. think showiness=quality and b. the Red Hot Chili Peppers are very popular. A few months ago my friend who plays keyboard challenged me to find a better bassist than Flea. Of course I pulled up Victor Wooten on YouTube, knowing that he would never appreciate Jaco Pastorius (or James Jamerson). What I quickly garnered from his reaction to Victor was that he sought the flashiest player. That eliminated Stanley Clarke also. So I brought up Stu Hamm, whose intricate tapping was not perceived as more difficult than rapid slapping. I figured out that my friend pretty much only liked bass and thought it was awesome whilst slapping- like most of the population. Forgetting about Les Claypool, I brought up Jonas Hellborg, but he still didn't concede. I knew he would hate Alex Webster and Billy Sheehan, so I just let him drown in ignorance and self-righteousness. I didn't know about Franck Hermanny back then. Here is a list of bassists that I believe I could surpass in my lifetime:
John Myung, Flea, Alex Webster, Juan Alderete, Chris Squire, Cliff Burton, and Paolo Gregoletto.

New Almost Favorite Band

Spastic Ink is an amazing progressive metal band that sounds like a cross between Citriniti and Blotted Science, and overall much more coherent than Behold...the Arctopus. I heard their song "Multi Masker" during the credits of this video, and went over to Project Playlist to hear some other songs. They are way more technical than Dream Theater usually is. It makes sense that it sounds like a less-heavy version of Blotted Science, because it's the same guy running both trios: Ron Jarzombek. He's an incredible player - he might be the most progressive musician I've found. His songs are incredibly complex, but he also does concept albums and writes music to go along with video clips. They're so awesome!!! The bass gets at least one long solo per song, and the rest of the band doesn't insult him by dropping out.

Unique Web Site

Search for "semmai serkil" in Google, and I guarantee that this is the only website to contain those two words. It's like "Semi Circle", except spelled differently. I now officailly reserve it for an album title, Google searchers.