Iran’s biggest secret: the skiing’s great
The News Review:
- Iran’s biggest secret: the skiing’s great
- Startup bands rock Beaumont’s music scene
- Moroccan heavy metal lives on after Satanism trial
- The Gauntlet: All Shall Perish Metal News
- Flamenco at the Crossroads How the Bay Area scene found its roots
- Members of Born a Number tossed the rules to make music without…
- The sound of Christmas carols in the air
Iran’s biggest secret: the skiing’s great
Guardian Unlimited – Feb 24, 2008
My guide was very embarrassed by the whole thing but I couldn’t get enough of it. Eventually we left the city and headed off in his car towards the impressive mountains that serve as a mighty snowy backdrop to the Iranian capital. As is not uncommon in these sorts of destinations my guide was a big fan of British heavy metal music. I was treated to a track from the new solo album by the former lead singer of Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson famous for such songs as ‘Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter’. This particular composition was something about swords and warriors and beasts – the usual awful heavy metal lyrical content. My guide was in ecstasy: ‘This Bruce Dickinson he is great poet yes? He is like English Sufi philosopher. ‘ I was speechless.
Startup bands rock Beaumont’s music scene
Houston Chronicle – Feb 24, 2008
“There are so many truly great bands that never rise out of the pack” said Danny Broussard owner of independent label Set X Records. When deciding which band to book it comes down not to potential or talent but how many people an act has pulled in the past. “Club owners don’t care if a metal band shows up and does a juggling act as long as people are smiling and entertained” he said. Bands aspiring to make a living with their talent must master not only their instruments but also the art of selling their music and themselves. When on tour the take from the door will usually do little more than cover the cost of gas and lodging. While the goal might be album sales in order to afford studio time then mixing mastering and copying a CD bands have to sell a lot of merchandise. “If kids go to a show and jump around they will buy merchandise and then the band gets to eat” Broussard said… “For far too long bigger labels have focused on a standard radio song format where everything is cookie cutter. However record labels can still serve a useful function by serving as a portal that connects fans of a particular band or style to other artists they may enjoy. Broussard cited Brian Slagel’s Metal Blade Records founded in the early 1980s as an example. “His label has become a brand a symbol that means bands on that label have a certain sound a certain style” Broussard said. Comments are subject to the site’s.
Moroccan heavy metal lives on after Satanism trial
stuff.co.nz – Feb 24, 2008
Braving the opprobrium of Islamists and heavy rain young men in black jeans and jackets goatee beards and dreadlocks trudged to a cavernous concert hall in Sidi Kacem a market town in a farming region of northern Morocco. As the first group Hammerhead began tuning up a small Fiat drew up outside the hall and two police officers stepped out. "It's K" said organiser Yassine uld Abbou 22. "They're just here to check the security arrangements… "The big problem is finding somewhere to practise" said Xenophiliya's Khalid Lamnour. "People stop us playing sometimes. They think we are Satanists but they don't know our music. "Eleven young Moroccans were convicted in 2003 for distributing material which "undermines good morals" and makes "people listen with bad intent to songs which contravene good morals or incite debauchery". Three were given a year in prison for "employing seductive methods with the aim of undermining the faith of a Muslim" sparking protests from rights activists. "These people weren't Morocco's first metal players but they were sacrificed by the government to set an example" said Anas Tabouti 19 from Sidi Kacem. "The rap scene went through similar problems in the 1990s and now it's mainstream.
The Gauntlet: All Shall Perish Metal News
The Gauntlet – Feb 24, 2008
We have probably created enough music and riffs to fill up two CDs but after running it through the famous ‘ALL SHALL PERISH Shit Filter’ only the best of the material will end up on the new disc. “Unlike many bands ALL SHALL PERISH have all sacrificed our lives and jobs to put in the quality time needed to make this new disc all that it can be and trust me this disc is going to turn some heads. “ur music is always so hard to describe because we hate putting it in genre subcategories. that type of labeling just dumbs down music.
Flamenco at the Crossroads How the Bay Area scene found its roots
San Francisco Chronicle – Feb 24, 2008
” Gypsy DavyDiego survived from private fiestas organized by se?tos (a sometimes disparaging term for upper class Spaniards) and the lessons he and his guitarist nephews gave to foreigners. ne of those was Berkeley-born guitarist David Serva who arrived at 21 in Mor?n the summer of 1962 and became Diego’s most accomplished American disciple. Serva first introduced Diego’s music to Bay Area audiences at the flamenco room of the old Spaghetti Factory in North Beach graduating to pursue a successful performing career in Madrid where today he is a much sought after accompanist of traditional cante flamenco. Serva had come to Mor?t the suggestion of an American expatriate and flamenco aficionado named Donn Pohren who had briefly lived in San Francisco. The author of several books on flamenco Pohren had given Serva some tapes of Diego and raved about Mor? authentic music scene. He introduced Serva to the maestro at Casa Pepe. A number of Gypsy artists had gathered there including Manolito el de la Maria a singer and sheep shearer who lived in a cave and one of Diego’s relatives the singer Luis Joselero… Segundo composed a catchy tune with a four-note melody that is arguably the best known piece of Cuban music today: “Chan Chan” the opening track of Ry Cooder’s Buena Vista Social Club. Segundo asked Martirio to join his European tour and sing at his 90th birthday celebration in Havana. When he heard about it Rodriguez asked his mother to bring him back a tres a guitar-like instrument with three sets of double-course metal strings. And she did – a present from Compay Segundo. Martirio’s backup band eventually jelled into Son de la Frontera and their bold fusion of two roots traditions flamenco and son cubano has yielded two CDs. In their own and Diego’s compositions they make the rhythmic exuberance of his rhythms and riffs accessible to new audiences. Son de la Frontera has journeyed deep into the heart of flamenco crossing many musical frontiers.
Members of Born a Number tossed the rules to make music without…
Tulsa World (subscription) – Feb 24, 2008
?As human beings we mightbe different in almost every way?said Born a Number drummerJustin Siggins. ?Yet technologysomehow always brings ustogether. ?Indeed technology morphedthis music trio into somethingfar more spectacular than itspolymath parts. Bailey and Darras have aninteresting kinship: As a boyBailey who grew up in Seminolewould often trek to Darras?father?s home in nearby Ada tohear wild stories of Charlie Darras?days as a drummer. ?He was an iconic figure?said the dreadlocked Bailey in arecent interview in the downtownTulsa World newsroom. ?He?dtell us how the Doors did things? he?d tell us his war stories… ? ?Both men laughed at thatmemory but in 2005 that experimentbecame local prog-rock actManic State. ?It was more like The MarsVolta than it was mariachi? admittedDarras. Bailey when not on the roadas a drummer for Tulsa Soundlegend Leon Russell also workedwith Siggins in the industrialelectro-metal act Jakob. In 2006 when Rewake?s numberwas up (and Darras was laidup with a broken leg after beinginjured by a hit-and-run driver)he formed a ?one-off tongue-in-cheek? project he called theMalan Darras rchestra. His CD ?Who Is Malan D??garnered explosive recognitionin 2007 ? a video for the single?Ink Blot? hit No. 1 on theMySpace video music charts withmore than 500000 views.
The sound of Christmas carols in the air
Citizen.com – The Citizen.com – Feb 24, 2008
My first official action was to cue up Percy Faith?s version of ?The Hallelujah Chorus? from Handel?s ?Messiah. ?Some may conclude I reached the high point of my working life early. At any rate I love Christmas music and I increasingly miss hearing the grand old songs of the season. The way it was in those days of local radio Christmas tunes slipped into the record rotation right after Thanksgiving roughly a ratio of one seasonal tune every sixth or seventh record. (Yes in those far-off days we spun something called ?records? thin disks of dark plastic with spiral grooves on both sides which produced sounds when a diamond needle was applied to the surfaces. They rotated on larger spinning metal platters called ?turntables. ?)The closer we got to Christmas the higher the ratio of Christmas songs to regular records… The way it was in those days of local radio Christmas tunes slipped into the record rotation right after Thanksgiving roughly a ratio of one seasonal tune every sixth or seventh record. (Yes in those far-off days we spun something called ?records? thin disks of dark plastic with spiral grooves on both sides which produced sounds when a diamond needle was applied to the surfaces. They rotated on larger spinning metal platters called ?turntables. ?)The closer we got to Christmas the higher the ratio of Christmas songs to regular records. By Christmas Eve every song was a carol usually about three-to-one religious to secular. Christmas Day (and I worked from sign-on to sign-off several of them) we played mostly the great old anthems announcing the Good News. Elvis was bigger than the Beatles ever would be and his ?Blue Christmas? was two years old and already on its way to classic status.
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