Category: music

Canyon Club – Getting There?

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I’m going to a concert this evening (Sunday) at The Canyon Club, part of the Bronco Bowl Entertainment Center. Their site offers these directions from Dallas:

  1. Take I-30 west to Hampton Road exit
  2. Exit Hampton Road South
  3. Turn Right (west) on to Fort Worth Avenue at the first stop light
  4. Bronco Bowl Entertainment is located half a mile from Hampton Road on the left (south) side of the street.

For those that have been to The Canyon Club before, do those directions make sense? Or, is there anything else I should know about getting there?

Oh, the bands — almost forgot about that part ;). The headliners are Nile and Napalm Death, but my main interest is in Dark Tranquillity.

I don’t have any Napalm Death albums, but that's primarily because other albums have taken purchasing precedence. My non-deceased friend Brian Wagner quite liked them and I don’t recall disliking the band when he played them for me. Well, I’ll just have to give them a listen and try to form an opinion.

Before reading about them on the show annoucement page, I hadn’t even heard of Nile (which is a bit surprising, since they’re the headliners). However, a quick search of the reviews at Metal-Rules.com turns up some positive results:

While hard-core death fans, particularly those into complex pay-attention, you�ll-be-tested-on-this kind of metal, will probably take to this CD immediately, the album will probably grow on just about everybody given enough listens. The intricate secrets locked within the music will take a good number of listens to unlock. […]

— Metal-Rules.com review of Nile’s Black Seeds of Vengeance with rating 4.5/5.0

Hmm, so I don’t quite know how to take that. I enjoy some death metal, though there are metal subgenres that I prefer even more (such power metal, in particular). Well, since Dark Tranquillity are not the headliners, at least they won’t be playing last. So, if any of the post-DT bands aren’t good, I can just go home without guilt.

New Sirius Radio Channels

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Among Sirius Radio’s announcements at CES 2003, they announced 14 new channels starting on February 3, 2003. A few excerpts:

Wax/42: Turntablism and Freestyle sounds. Tune in to hear world-class DJs show off their cuttin’ and scratchin' skills. Wax will feature your favorite breakbeats and the hottest new MCs engaged in freestyle battles.

You’ll hear artists like: DJ Ace, 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, 2pac, Notorious B.I.G., Big Daddy Kane, and DJ Red Alert.

House Party/60: Tune in for non-stop House groove!

You’ll hear artists like: Marshall Jefferson, Inner City, Doug Lazy, Todd Terry, J.M. Silk, and Frankie Knuckles.

The Rave/62: Tune in for the non-stop energy of the club nightlife. Featuring the hottest club DJs in the world. It’s the 24/7 showcase for the newest Dance remixes breaking out across America.

I’m still not clear on the various distinctions between the subgenres of techno (is that the correct term for the supergenre, or is electronica the supergenre in this case?), but I look forward to checking those out. I know that I like Eurobeat/Eurodance, though I’m not sure whether that matches with any of the above genres.

I also happened to come across this Why is it different? link on the differences between Sirius and some of its competitors. There’re the usual reasons — no commercials, more stations, and so on. But what caught my eye was that they specifically frown on their competitors’ payola, implying that Sirius doesn’t have payola — definitely a Good Thing.

gnod — self-learning ‘like’ system

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

I heard about Gnod through a post on Slashdot from a story on discovering new music. You tell it some of your favorite bands (or favorite books, or favorite movies), it asks you some questions, and then recommends some new bands (or books, or whatever).

Gnod is a self-adapting system that learns about the outer world by asking its visitors what they like and what they don't like. In this instance of gnod all is about music. Gnod is kind of a search engine for music you don't know about. It will ask you what music you like and then think about what you might like too. When I set gnod online its database was completely empty. Now it contains thousands of bands and quite some knowledge about who likes what. […]

I entered a few obscure band names (well, highly successful in the metal scene, but not something you’d ever hear on the radio), and its picks were surprisingly accurate (it picked Iced Earth, Dark Tranquillity, and a few I hadn’t yet heard, for those wondering).

King Diamond, Least Essential?

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

The Onion AV Club features their list of the Least Essential Albums of 2002 (the AV Club isn’t a parody, though I wouldn't blame you for being confused). Most of the artists I haven’t even heard of, but I recognized King Diamond.

Though it's a bit of an acquired taste, I do enjoy some Diamond from time to time. And, as his Abigail album was one of his best, I was rather looking forward to the follow-up. However, The Onion AV Club put it this way:

[…]The album includes a family tree so the easily confused can keep the characters straight, while the lyrics sheet, as always, makes it clear which guitarist is responsible for which solo at all times.

And, they say that like it’s a bad thing ;).

AC/DC – Death Metal

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

While driving to Bed Bath & Beyond last night, I was listening to Sirius Radio’s Metal channel when I heard a cover of AC/DC’s classic “TNT” by Six Feet Under, a death metal band. From their website:

Launched in 1995, Six Feet Under, was originally conceived as a side project by then Cannibal Corpse lead throat Chris Barnes along with Obituary guitarist Allen West, Death’s Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall. Chris’ departure from Cannibal Corpse that same year expedited the bands rapid evolution beyond a one-off Death Metal super group into the world's most respected name in extreme music. The combination of speedy riffs, down tuned groove and lyrics inspired by the horrors of the mind and the world at large had established SFU internationally as the reigning, if not, most feared Death Metal act. […]

Imagine, for a moment, what a growling death metal version of “TNT” would sound like, and you’d probably be fairly close. It was at once slightly amusing but surprisingly catchy ;). And, as it turns out, it’s available as an mp3 from their website if you want to hear what it sounds like.