Space Pirates Ltd.

I’m not going to lie: I hate ska. I swear, every song sounds the same. Three chords! Upbeat! Hep hep hep! As soon as I hear that twangy guitar and high-tuned snare drum start to crack, I either turn off the radio or grab the closest heavy, blunt object and proceed to bash my head.

Anyways, despite my distaste for the genre as a whole, I came across a rather catchy ska song a few years ago. The band is Fishbone and the song is “Party at Ground Zero.” This song, to quote Marvin Berry from Back to the Future, “really cooks.” It kicks off with double-time shuffle ska groove. The musicianship of the band members really shows, as the trumpet player and guitarist play some ripping solos. Vocally, the song is powerful, as the is a commentary on the Cold War.

The video is worth checking out for the band’s costumes/face paint alone. It also makes an interesting use of newspaper headlines and pictures of political leaders, making them do goofy things reminiscent of Mony Python animation.

Fishbone – Party at Ground Zero

If you ask someone if they’ve ever heard of Thin Lizzy, chances are they’ll respond with something along the lines of “that’s the band that did ‘The Boys Are Back in Town,’ right?” Yes, that’s their biggest radio hit. But most people don’t know that Thin Lizzy has an extensive discography and a musical career which spans about 30 years. (more…)

Crystal King - Daitokai

+= This song.

This track is more of a finished work than a test track, but I was so pleased with its outcome, that I decided it deserved it’s own update.

One night, as I was enjoying a bit of night air on my back porch, I could hear my neighbor strumming three chords over and over again. Simple melodies always get stuck in my head on loop. It happens with commercials, creaking signs and cricket chirps. This time was no different. I went back inside and sat down at my computer. With the little melody in mind, I opened Garageband, plugged in my keyboard and started to play the chord with different voices. I chose electric piano, an instrument I play around with a lot. I recorded a solid loop for the keyboards and started to record the vocals. For whatever reason, the lyrics to this song came very naturally. They were all off the top of my head and to my surprise, work very well.

For a week or two, I played around wih vocal harmonies, hand claps and assorted drum loops. I had done all that I could think of, but the song was missing a soul and a skeleton. I instant messaged Eamonn, and asked him if he would work on the song with me. He did and it is more than I could have hoped for.

The end.

Edd and Dd - The Flower

Space Pirate Podcast #6: HAM Radio Hotzone

A once in a lifetime glimpse into the exciting world of HAM Radio users. On the INTERNET.

I first became familiar with Gogol Bordello in February, as Steve and I were driving from Pittsburgh to Penn State. He had a few songs of theirs on his iPod mix, and they began to catch my fancy. Gogol Bordello plays a high-energy mix of punk rock and Roma (that is, gypsy) folk.

This week I chose one of their slower songs, “Start Wearing Purple.” To me at least, the lyrics make no sense. In the third verse, the lead singer even lapses into another language (which language exactly, I’m not sure; it sounds Slavic). Despite the slower tempo, the song has a powerful groove augmented by a simplistic yet effective bass line, and an interesting instrumentation. Accordions and fiddles can be heard throughout the song.

Gogol Bordello – Start Wearing Purple

I remember as a teen and seeing Busta Rhymes on MTV and thinking that he was part of some rapper fad that I would never understand. He was crazy, goofy, colorful and an amazing lyricist. So, I put his memory in the storgae bin in my brain of musical garbage that I’ll most likely never use. Well, the Mom in my brain must have had a yard sale and rummaged through that bin, and then the kid that lives in my brain came home from school and was all like “Mom, what the hell, you’re going to sell this? This is awesome.” Then the kid took it (Busta Rhymes) upstairs and investigated what he had just saved. This is what that kid found:

In Fire It Up, Busta gets abducted by some people who hold him hostage until a dystopian future, where he explores this 1984-ish wasteland (supposedly 2012) with the help of the NightRider theme song.

In Gimme Some Mo, Busta pretends to be in a cartoon where he terrorizes his hot Mom. He becomes a cowboy, a cop, a business man and a muscle man. Busta’s message to viewers:

Even though we getting money you can
Gimme some more
With the cars and the big crib
Gimme some more
Everybody spread love
Gimme some more
If you want it let me hear you say
Gimme some more

Finally, in Put Your hands Where My Eyes Can See, Busta is an affluent mansion owner. He participates in such activites as sparring, neon tribal dancing, running down a hallway with his elephant, and having his teeth brushed for him.

Space Pirate Podcast #5: Good Forum Bad Forum

After a recent bad experience on the internet, Ethan and I decided to make a podcast that reflected the event in he same vein as the Animaniacs “Good Idea, Bad Idea.”

To me, some of the best examples of good musicians are those who are versatile. King Crimson has gone through three so-called styles, starting with a dark progressive rock from the late 60’s to mid-70’s, then moving on to a progressive new wave style in the 80’s, and then dabbling in experimental rock/ progressive metal in the 90’s.

While each King Crimson lineup is composed of stellar musicians, one of their more impressive members is Adrian Belew, who had formerly worked with Frank Zappa and David Bowie. He first worked with King Crimson in 1981 on the album Discipline, in which Belew’s powerful vocals and guitar wizardry stood out on the album.

This week, I chose a live version of the first track from Discipline, “Elephant Talk.” Belew’s amazing vocals and guitar work is complemented by a powerful rhythm section featuring drum-maestro Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, a progenitor of the bass-like instrument called “the stick.”

This is one of the tightest live performances I have ever seen. Enjoy this. I certainly do.

King Crimson - Elephant Talk

Space Pirate Podcast #4: MYSTERY BOX CONTEST

This particular MP3 encoded sound treat features the winner of the Mystery Box, Seth Rickards. Ethan and I interview him and also make lots of fart and poop jokes. Standard fare, really.

What happened to the third podcast? I’ll tell you what happned to it! Right at the end of this podcast. You have to listen to the whole thing to find out.

How do you say “good day” in Swedish? “Goddag.”

How do you say “a great band” in Swedish? “Dungen.”

I was introduced to Dungen about two years ago when a friend told me about their show that he had seen at his college. (more…)

Beck has always given us lyrics that make sense in a way that you can’t quite put your finger on – words and descriptions that make you wonder how he sees the world. Verse that makes you think that maybe this guy is an alien trying to tell us something, and one of these days he is just going to blast off and go home.

Traditionally, Beck’s albums stick to abstract concepts that most people pick up on, but can’t quite identify. Odelay was experimental electronica mixed with hard rock and faux rap in Hell. Mutations was folk throwback with deep Latin American undertones. Midnite Vultures was rich people having sex with robots. Like his more recent albums however, The Information is a little more acceptable – a modified version of hip-hop with simple, catchy beats. (more…)

Welcome to our newest feature, a showcase for musicians who frequent the messageboard. The maiden featured MP3 is done by eamonnforkill. Individually, he’s known as EDD, but Eamonn Donnelly also writes music and plays bass for the Robotniks, a band focused in Baltimore that includes our own Dave Randle (lead vocalist).

EDD - Test 53

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Aightchyall, listen up. For dis week’s Pick of da Week, I picked a phat jawn from across the pond.

Of course, by “pond” I mean the Atlantic Ocean and by “phat jawn” I mean an interesting pop-cultural anomaly.

Hip hop is an American verbal art form, plain and simple. Tibet has throat singing, Pakistan has sufi musiqi, and we have that salvo of syllables called hip hop. Rooted in east- and west-coast scenes in the 1980’s, hip hop is now popular all over the world. (more…)