Author Archives: destroyerofharmony

My Stories, Stupidity

COVID-19

There’s an evil virus that’s threatening mankind
From Virus by Iron Maiden

Yeah, I know, the Maiden song is using virus as an analogy of the ills that the two faced elites and backstabbers do to society. Regardless, the song highlights a troubled society and we are living in troubled times.

COVID-19 is spreading around the world and people are scared.

I’m due to go to London, Mallorca and Munich at the start of April with two of my boys for a football tournament. And there is no travel insurance for a pandemic. Although the virus hasn’t been classed as one yet, it’s getting close.

There also isn’t any insurance for travelling when a virus is circulating. Yeah there is some grey wording around it, like, “if you took out the insurance policy before it became a known event, you might be covered”, but I’ve worked in insurance and policy of the insurance companies is to deny all claims from the outset. Then if people persist with appeals, they will revisit the claim, and try to wear down the people, hoping that they give up.

Viruses are contagious based on their R-nought rating, and the R0 rating of COVID-19 is 2, which means that for each person who has it, another two more people will get infected. And looking at people who are coughing in a strange way doesn’t help the situation, as people who are not coughing are as contagious.

And no one cannot escape this or buy their way out of this. It’s something we will need to face and a mask will not do the trick nor will the riches of a person.

The public is scared, panicked and fearful. And Governments like fear, because fear is control,

On the way to paranoia
From “Hardwired To Self-Destruct” by Metallica

We live in a world where facts don’t matter.

So social media spreads the paranoia even more with disinformation mixed in with facts to suit the narrative. People start panic buying, because its every person for themselves. And the ones who need it most, the sick, have no supplies, because all of the hospital gear comes from China and all imports are stopped or delayed for 14 days.

Yet, millions of people would die from smoke related illnesses, a motor vehicle accident, a cancer or heart related complications then they would die from this virus.

China was first, then Japan, then a cruise ship, then Korea, then Italy, then Iran and the rest of the world is slowly getting cases. And how the hell did the patients of a hospital that caters for the elderly in Washington State get it. In Australia, the virus entered via the returning citizens from Italy, Iran and China.

Dean Koontz even wrote about a biological virus called “Wuhan-400”, manufactured by the Chinese to kill humans. It appeared in a book he released in 1981, called “The Eyes Of Darkness”. It’s another event of fiction mirroring real life, sort of like that Simpson episode that had Trump as President in the future.

So, once again, we are on our own.
I don’t want to live forever but I don’t want to die
From “Live Forever” by Black Sabbath

To a pandemic.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Aeromantic

I really like The Night Flight Orchestra, otherwise known as TNFO for short. This little side project from melodic death metallers which paid homage to their classic rock and pop influences from the past has grown into its own beast.  

The first album, “Internal Affairs” came out in 2012 and I thought it was a one off. Then in 2015 they dropped “Skyline Whispers”, then “Amber Galactic” in 2017, “Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough” in 2018, then a couple of stand-alone tracks in 2019 called “Satellite” and “Cabin Pressure Drops” and in 2020, the new one.

In between the album release years, the guys in the band did albums and tours with their “original” bands of Soilwork and Arch Enemy and released albums with those bands and toured with those bands.

So for all those artists from the past complaining about everything not being like how it used to be, change your mindset and your work ethic and anything is possible.

And man there are so many good songs on this.

The opening track, “Servants Of The Air” has a similar riff to “This Time” from their previous album, “Sometimes The World Ain’t Enough”. The similarity is enough to make me a fan.

“Divinyls” is one of the pre-release tracks, with its infectious keyboard lick still remaining in my brain long after the song is finished. Actually the keyboard lick is the chorus vocal melody, hence the reason why it remains.

Glancing at the stars, mending my own heart
Is it time to break the chains?
Now I will embark, making my own mark
Waiting for the world to quake

We all had dreams to get out of the town we lived in and make it in the big city. Then we grew up and became comfortable and we don’t want our kids to even think about things like this. But we still yearn and dream of making our own mark.

“If Tonight Is Our Only Chance” sounds like it came from an ABBA album, but with metal overtones.

If tonight is our only chance, we’ll take it,
If tonight is our only chance, we’ll try it

So much truth in these lines. Our situations and lifestyles determine what chances we take. And when those chances come up, the aim is to be free to take it.

“Transmissions” is another pre-release track. It’s classic TNFO, full of hooks and homage to past influences, even a killer violin solo to close it off.

Talk to me
Won’t you talk to me?
You’re the remedy
For my starless visions

Ace Frehley once said talk to me, all he needs is a little conversation. I guess he wasn’t wrong. It’s why we always look for connections.

“Aeromantic” has my favourite drum beat in the intro. “Curves” has this funky groove. “Taurus” sounds like it could come from a Styx/Toto/Steely Dan album (the earlier ones).

“Carmencita Seven” has this musical passage after the chorus that I keep scrolling back to listen to. “Sister Mercurial” has a super catchy synth riff over my favourite drum beat. I call it the tark, tark, tark, beat, as its metronomic in nature.

“Dead Of Winter” is the closer and it’s such a good closing song, that the only thing I can do is press repeat and re-listen to the album again.

In other words, I love this album.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Can’t Get Enough

It came out in 1990 on “In The Heart Of The Young”, the follow up to their mega successful debut. And the power of this track, the bass sound and the guitar riff is made for big speakers. Which people don’t have any more and those rigs have been replaced by headphones, some good and a lot of em are really bad.

This is Winger at its peak. I think its spelled “Can’t Get Enuff” on the album, but spelt properly on digital services.

After many years of doing their time with other projects and other artists, the band members Kip Winger, Reb Beach, Paul Taylor and Rod Morgenstein got together and recorded a brilliant debut with songs mainly written by Kip Winger.

But the follow up cemented them, with songs mainly written by Winger and Beach. The album was helped by the rock momentum from the early eighties, as rock still ruled MTV at the start of the 90’s. For the kids who have grown up with pop and hip hop as the dominating force, rock did dominate TV and radio stations once upon a time.

For me, it’s the vocal line and the sound of the voice which connects. It’s like a cross between Bryan Adams and Joe Elliot and I dig it.

Reb Beach on guitar decorates the song throughout with power chords, little fills here and there and triad chords. Underpinning it all, is the locked in bass and drums of Kip Winger and Rod Morgenstein, driving the song forward like a diesel train.

And a few years after this release, the rock landscape became confused, between 1993 to 2000. Lars Ulrich threw darts at Kip Winger during the making of the Black album and Beavis And Butthead built a cartoon comedy career from poking fun at Kip Winger and his nude spread.

The record labels abandoned rock music and went looking for Grunge artists (while their back catalogues of rock music kept selling), then the labels went looking for Industrial artists (while their back catalogues of rock music kept on selling), then Nu Metal artists (while their back catalogues of rock music kept on selling and selling) and then pop artists (while their back catalogues of rock music kept on selling and selling and selling).

Then came file trading/sharing.

I guess I just can’t get enough.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Love Song

Tesla followed up their debut album “Mechanical Resonance” with “The Great Radio Controversy”. And there isn’t a song on the album that I wouldn’t listen to today. It’s consistent with some big songs thrown in the mix. “Hang Tough” brings the metal, “Heavens Trail” brings the acoustic slide guitar, “The Way It Is” brings the Southern Rock, “Paradise” brings the progressive 70s style of song writing to the fore and then there is “Love Song”.

The album was on Spotify Australia, and when 2020 started, it was off. I don’t understand why artists or their labels would remove or even withhold their music from streaming services. And “Psychotic Supper” has never been on Spotify Australia. At this point in time, this is the Tesla catalogue on Spotify Australia;

  • 1986 – Mechanical Resonance
  • 1990 – Five Man Acoustical Jam
  • 2001 – RePlugged Live
  • 2007 – Real To Reel Vol.1
  • 2007 – Real to Reel Vol.2
  • 2008 – Forever More
  • 2008 – Gold
  • 2010 – Alive In Europe!
  • 2011 – Twisted Wires
  • 2014 – Simplicity
  • 2016 – Mechanical Resonance Live
  • 2019 – Shock

Yes, there is a lot of music there, but my favourite albums are the first four, which I have on vinyl and CD, but when you are out and about, those two mediums don’t cut it. YouTube has them, but not Spotify Australia. It’s insane.

Anyway, my 13 year old has been playing “Love Song” on the acoustic guitar for a while (he’s been listening to it on Spotify because the song is on the “Gold” compilation) and I’ve overdosed on it again, in the same way I did when the song came out. I spent time learning the song and its Randy Rhoads inspired acoustic intro.

Its written by Jeff Keith and Frank Hannon.

Actually Frank Hannon is one of the most underrated guitar heroes ever. Hannon’s grasp of 60’s Rock like The Beatles and Rolling Stones, 70’s rock like Aerosmith and Styx and Kiss, Southern Rock like The Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd, 80’s rock and metal, rhythm and blues, plus technical shredding is impressive and makes him a complete player. An MVP to have in your team.  Of course there was also Tommy Skeoch who could also play.

Once that acoustic intro is over, there is a D pedal point ringing throughout, while Hannon plays diads on the high B and E strings.

So you think that it’s over
That your love has finally reached the end
Any time you call, night or day
I’ll be right there for you when you need a friend, yeah

You see, love is not just what you do in bed. It’s a person to laugh with, a person to challenge you and offer different viewpoints, a person to share experiences with, a person to be there for you, a person to listen and a person to help you be a better version of who you are.

Love is all around you, yeah
Love is knocking’ outside your door
Waiting’ for you is this love made just for two
Keep an open heart and you’ll find love again, I know

Damn right, but people don’t know it or refuse to see it, because they have seen love involving roses, fancy trips and so many other dollar crunching events. But the truth is, love is free. It doesn’t really cost anything. And if you are alone in your house, feeling lonely, well guess what, there is another like you, looking for a connection.

So ignore all the social media friends who boast about how great their life is, because the cold hard truth is this, every single one of us in insecure.

Then the first guitar solo begins. A lot of people talk up the “November Rain” solos from Slash, but goddamn, Frank Hannon delivers here a solo full of emotion, vocal melodies and perfect phrasing.

And the ending begins about love finding a way back to you. It always does. Then another solo begins under the vocal melody. It doesn’t take away from it, it supplements it.

And this song keeps finding a way back to me.

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Mean Town Red House At The Crossroads

There is a Guitar World interview from July 1989 with Jake E Lee and it goes into a little section called “JAKE’S TOP FIVE GUITAR SOLOS”. It just lists the songs and that’s it.

With the interview being conducted during the Badlands promotion campaign, I wasn’t surprised at the top 5 at all and the focus on blues.

Red House – Hendrix In The West [Reprise] 1971 – Jimi Hendrix

Artists once upon a time very rarely played the studio cut live. The live show was a chance to jam, be free and have fun. Jimi Hendrix was a huge innovator in that department.

Crossroads – Wheels Of Fire [Polydor] 1968 – Eric Clapton

This is a live version of “Crossroads” in which Clapton sings and goes all pentatonic.

Since I’ve Been Loving You – Led Zeppelin III [Atlantic] – Jimmy Page

I don’t know any guitarist who hasn’t been affected by Jimmy Page. Even the new up and comers will be exposed to a Jimmy Page riff or lick or song. And Page is another innovator when it comes to the live show and jamming.

Mean Town Blues – Johnny Winter and Live [Columbia] 1971 – Johnny Winter

The blues is repetitive, especially these days when everything is available instantly, but it provided a canvas of opportunity once upon a time. Bands built careers on 12 bar blues romps.

Stratus – Spectrum album by Billy Cobham [Atlantic] 1973 – Tommy Bolin

Tommy Bolin was a huge talent that was lost to the music world very early. His understanding of jazz and rock and roll was impressive.

Also check out the bass line on this song.

I still think his best work came with his solo albums and his work with Deep Purple.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Treating Fans Like Shit

How Much Should Streaming Services Pay?

A lot of people hate Corey Taylor, but I’m not one of em. I enjoy the music he creates, more with Stone Sour than Slipknot and he has a point of view, a stance, which he shares with the world.

In an interview with the Irish Times which Blabbermouth grabbed and ran with a few months ago, Taylor was asked if SLIPKNOT could live just on royalties from listens.

He said, no they couldn’t survive at the current rates but if the streaming services paid the same publishing rate as radio stations than they could.

In Australia that equates to about $6 per song (for the main cities), as regional cities have a lower fee and then there are separate fees paid for when the song is played, like prime time hours or graveyard hours. In some cases the artists pay to get themselves played and they don’t even know it as it’s charged back to them by the label via miscellaneous expenses.

Also the $6 fee is paid just to the songwriters not the recording act. Since Taylor writes his own songs, he is okay in that department as he would get the payment.

But streaming services charge us $9.99 per month to access a catalogue of music. The math doesn’t work and suddenly piracy looks more appealing of that fee goes up.

Taylor doesn’t have a problem with streaming services for what they are trying to do, but he has a problem with them, when they spend millions of dollars on buildings and then more millions on decking out those buildings for offices and then more millions on flying private and more millions on wages while the artists who bring people to their service are not experiencing the same share of those millions.

But hang on a second, the label he’s signed deals with also spend millions of dollars meant for the artists on the same thing.

Steve Miller said something similar about the recording industry and the RNR Hall Of Fame people at his RNR HoF induction, how they take so much money from the artists and they don’t compensate the artist fairly.

The problem that I have as a fan of music is this;

Artists on a label sell their masters to the record labels for a fee. They are compensated at that point in time. Some for a lot more if they are successful and others for peanuts because they didn’t know any better.

The labels are aware of this power they have and since they are offering the cash, they want a return on investment. So the label benefits in this streaming era because they hold the masters.

Get your masters back like Motley and Metallica and suddenly you will benefit as well.

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Attention

Everything happens at once.

You get a message on WhatsApp, on Messenger, a normal SMS, a blog post notification, a voice mail, an email, a Slack mention, a phone call, while you are listening to music with the earpiece in one ear and you are carrying out a conversation with a work colleague or a family member or a friend.

This is a crisis, and its real.

We have to choose on what to focus on, as our attention is a scarce resource. We need to find ways to use it wisely because every single human being gets the same amount of attention to spend each day, but some use it better than others and have an ability to focus on getting stuff done.

While others just waste their time on their smartphones or gaming or watching streaming TV. Imagine if all that time wasted on your smartphone scrolling the social media feed was money.

Would you waste your money like that?  

On absolutely nothing.

I suppose the question to be asked is, how do we want to live each day?

Do we want to live to just get through the day, and tomorrow will be another day to get through?  

And then what happens?

We’ve gone through all the days and lived the same as all the previous days. Is this a life fulfilled?

But what would happen if we saw each day as an opportunity to do something different, just for 10 minutes, instead of a task in a process.

How would that feel 12 months from now?

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The Record Vault – Bon Jovi From 2000 to 2009

After a very limited release schedule of new music in the 90s, Bon Jovi became a different beast at the start of the 2000’s releasing more frequently. Almost yearly.

Was it the Napster effect?

100% it was.

When fans of music could get their music fix for free or by cherry picking from the iTunes Store, it meant the old business model of living off the royalties of your past successes and releasing music every two to five years was challenged and a new way was needed. Suddenly not a lot of people wanted the album, just the “hits”.

And because of the internet, people moved on to different artists and sounds quicker than ever before. So in order to stay relevant and in the public conversation, artists had to release more frequently. Which Bon Jovi did.

There was no escaping “Crush” released in 2000. “It’s My Life” was everywhere and Bon Jovi had another Super Bowl title win with this song. It’s no surprise that the hitmeister of the day, Max Martin co-wrote the song, in the same way Desmond Child co-wrote a lot of the Jovi hits back in the 80s and early 90s. I even got “Collectors Edition 05686”, whatever that means.

And I got all the singles from this album because they had so many unreleased tracks on them. Check em out.

“One Wild Night Live 1985–2001” came out in 2001 and I purchased it, to hear Jovi, still firing on all cylinders.

“Bounce” released in 2002 is one of my favorite Jovi albums. There is a lot of Dropped D riffing, it’s heavy and it’s angry. It’s written post September 11 and everyone who saw those images of the planes hitting the towers could forget em.

And I purchased the singles because they had a lot of B sides to them. Something that Jovi was doing really well.

“This Left Feels Right” came out in 2003. Sambora went to town here, re-interpreting all the classics in an acoustic folky way.

“100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong” is one hell of a box set, released in 2004. This is the jewel in the Jovi crown. There is so much history on this.

“Have a Nice Day” came out in 2005 and it had some cool tunes on it as well. I’ve got the Aus Edition with bonus tracks and a DVD I haven’t played.

“Lost Highway” released in 2007 was interesting, because I liked it. I liked the ballsy change to country rock.

“The Circle” was released in 2009 and after the GFC so it had songs on it about the working man doing it tough. It was interesting how people took offense to Jovi even attempting to write an album like this while he was so far removed from the working man.

Regardless, it still had some cool tunes on it and I was still on board.

Coming up is my Jovi collection from 2010 to 2020.

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Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Working Man

Alex Lifeson really gets to work on this song in the riffs and the guitar solos.

The opening riff could easily be used on a Metallica or Pantera album, it’s that heavy.

I get up at seven, yeah
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin’
Yes, I’m workin’ all the time

And when you add overtime to the mix which everyone would say yes to, as it added that little bit of extra in the pay, then there is zero time for living because you are working all the time.

But hey, you are thinking that the holidays are coming soon and you will have time for living then and you will go away with your family, but suddenly, you and your partner are disconnected because of all the time you spent away and your kids just don’t have that connection with you either.

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that’s why they call me
They call me the working man

Live to work or work to live. Jobs in the past provided security. It was the norm that someone would start and retire in the same job. My Dad did. These days it’s very different. There is a gig economy, part time work, casual work, full time work and most people have been in more than one job. Sometimes a lot of jobs.

The thing I like about music is when artists are creative.

From the 2 minute mark “Working Man” changes. That whole lead section and that riff from 3.10 is basically a song within a song. And it keeps going, so far removed from the pop formula of verse, chorus and bridge.

Then at the 5.20 mark the song comes back to the original music. After 7 plus minutes, the only option left is to press repeat.

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Copyright, Music, My Stories

Money

It’s all about money, money and money.

I’ve never used Trivago to book any hotel. I normally re-book at the hotels I like and have stayed before and I do it direct with the hotel. Like my music, I’m a pretty loyal to things I like.

But a lot of people do use Trivago and recently a court case brought against Trivago by the ACCC in Australia found that Trivago, didn’t actually promote the cheapest rates to its users. What it actually did promote was the hotels that paid Trivago the most commission as the cheapest.

And speaking of sleazy tactics, how much more bullshit is the recording industry going to spread over free ad-supported music being a negative in the industry.

Isn’t $3 billion enough?

I guess not.

And on the topic of YouTube, it’s 15 years old this year. It all started in February, 2005. Eight years later, it was getting 1bn users a month. Another seven years after that it reached the 2bn users a month stat.

Are there lessons there for aspiring musicians or for musicians who want to make it?

Of course there are.

Stop thinking about the traditional label album deal and start embracing what the world has to offer. The Guardian article interviews five people who have used it to great success from the early days. And of course there are millions of others who have used YouTube, without any success at this point in time. Like the recording business.

How many artists get signed and end up unsuccessful in commercial terms versus the artists who get signed and end up successful in commercial terms?

Because it’s all about money. Everyone wants to be paid and in music, too many people make money from music, who shouldn’t, like the label CEO and workers who fly private, because it’s these people who keep money away from artists who are on the road in shitty buses and vans.

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