You're viewing all posts tagged with 555%
Played 19 times

Ginger Wildheart - “I-N-T-E-R-N-A-L R-adio” (555%)

And there’s a one line melody guaranteed to put a smile upon the face of everyone including me
On my radio
On my radio

On my Internal Radio

One Billion Percent More Guitar Riffs

Hot on the heels of his wildly successful 3-disc 555% PledgeMusic project, Ginger has announced two new projects, also exclusively available on PledgeMusic — Mutation and Hey! Hello!

Mutation promises to be an ultra-heavy, riff-laden project with many guest appearances. The first album Mutation: The Frankenstein Effect was recorded in early 2011 but was set aside until now, I would assume due to lack of funds. Recording for a second album, as yet unnamed, began in May 2012 and will continue over the upcoming months.

Hey! Hello! is a new noise-pop project with Victoria Liedtke, who was also a part of the 555% project. Ginger will play guitar, bass, and drums on the album and will share the vocal duties. Victoria is currently recording her vocals, and the album should be mixed and mastered by November. Here’s what Ginger has to say about this one:

Expect big choruses, big (noisy) guitars and big smiles.

Big smiles indeed if Victoria’s contribution to this is anything like her work on 555%. And just like with his last PledgeMusic effort, Ginger reached the goal for this project in only 2 hours, and at this time, it is at almost 350% of its target. It should be interesting to see how high this one goes.

All albums from both projects are exclusive to this PledgeMusic campaign, and there are several different package options for each project, so go make your pledge today.
Played 39 times

Ginger Wildheart - “Westward Ho! (A New Reputation)” (555%)

What’s the point going over your mistakes?
Gotta make ’em
To not repeat ’em
You gotta give yourself a break

Lover It'll All Work Out

I don’t know how I missed this, but the 100% (and by extension, 555%) track “Lover It’ll All Work Out” is available for free right now on iTunes.

Life Plays Heavy on My Mind

Ginger Wildheart - “Forget About It”

The new video for “Forget About It” shows Ginger and friends performing, hamming it up, and generally having lots of fun on the recent June 2012 Japanese tour. This track opens Ginger’s record-setting—and quite excellent—3-disc PledgeMusic project 555%, but it also kicks off the shorter, 1-disc commercial release of the 100% album that was made available to the general public today.

100% contains the top 12 of the 30 available 555% tracks as voted on by the pledgers of the project. You should be able to find it at any of your favorite music retailers, such as Amazon (hint, hint) or iTunes. Some of my favorite tracks didn’t make it onto the release, but it’s still a fantastic album. The tracklisting goes a little something like this:

  1. Forget About It
  2. Internal Radio
  3. Lover It’ll all Work Out
  4. You’re The One, You’re The One, Yeah, I Know You’re The One, You’re The One (Yeah, I Know You’re The One)
  5. It Appears That The Party Is Over
  6. Taste Aversion
  7. Another Spinning F*cking Rainbow
  8. Just Another Song About Someone
  9. Westward Ho! (A New Reputation)
  10. Beautifully, Blissfully Unsettled
  11. We’ve Been Expecting You
  12. Time

And if you don’t mind not having physical media, you can still grab the full 555% release over at PledgeMusic. I would highly recommend it.

Enjoy!

The Friday Five: June 8, 2012

Nothing much to tell you, I’ve got Friday Five on my mind.

Coheed and Cambria - “Sentry the Defiant”
Coheed frontman Claudio Sanchez unveiled a new song from the band’s as yet untitled sixth album by way of a guitar cam video posted to YouTube on Valentine’s Day. He claimed the acoustic version was “literally the first time [he] played the song through in its entirety,” and after catching the video, I quickly jumped in line to claim a copy of the audio when it was made available on the band’s website.

Anthrax - “Taking the Music Back” (We’ve Come For You All, 2003)
“Taking the Music Back” is a great example of why WCFYA was my favorite album from John Bush era Anthrax. Lots of energy and tons of attitude, coupled with lots of melody and—dare I say it—some pop sensibility to boot. It also doesn’t hurt that the songwriting on the album is good.

Def Leppard - “Overture” (Live at the BBC, 1979)
Live bootleg version of a song that the Lep had released on an EP that eventually found its home on On Through the Night way back when they were still a New Wave of British Heavy Metal band. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes and containing several thematic shifts, “Overture” was no doubt intended to be a grand, epic statement from the band similar to that of progressive bands of the day. This recording shows a young, hungry, energetic band belting out something that sounds somewhere between Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden that today remains quite a bit different from anything else they ever recorded.

King’s X - “Talk to You” (Faith Hope Love, 1990)
“Talk to You” is a wild, careening King’s X tune with twists and turns and stop-start rhythms that sounds like it could run off the tracks at any moment. For years I’ve wondered why my favorite band has been overlooked so often, but as I listen back now, I’m keenly aware that King’s X was probably just a bit too much for casual music listeners to take in. Oh well, their loss.

Ginger Wildheart - “In Vino Veritas” (555%, 2012)
Another tune from Ginger’s latest solo project—this time an instrumental—and the third track today to feature more than a few rhythm changes and thematic shifts. The title translates to “in wine [there is] truth,” but for the life of me, I can’t figure out the connection. Maybe it was the inspiration?

Second great Friday Five in a row. I’m starting to get worried.
Played 11 times

Ginger Wildheart - “Powderkeg” (555%)

And then the crack of thunder drags intention to the ground.
And when the weak are stunned they see only danger all around.

Eargasm. Again.
Played 20 times

Ginger Wildheart - “Beautifully, Blissfully Unsettled” (555%)

I feel unsettled, unhappy, unable to deal
with the commotion and emotion of the motion I feel.
A little bitter, I sit here, the quitter in me,
and he is troubled, unstable and unable to be.

Eargasm.

The Friday Five: June 1, 2012

Every now and again I get lost in a Friday Five over at Popdose.

Ramones - “We Want the Airwaves” (Pleasant Dreams, 1981)
Alright. Already off to a good start. A slicker, heavier, more polished sound for the Ramones, but good nonetheless.

Mae - “Anything” (The Everglow, 2005)
Wall-of-sound production that is equal parts heavy, sweet, soaring, and shimmery. I can’t talk enough about how much I like this band.

The Wildhearts - “Tim Smith” (¡Chutzpah!, 2009)
Heck yeah! 3 for 3. This song from the most recent Wildhearts release—and probably the last unless something changes in the near future—is a sort of dedication to the Cardiacs frontman who suffered a heart attack and stroke in 2008. Heavy, thrashy verses and harmony-vocal-laden singalong choruses. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Glen Phillips - “The Hole” (Live at Messiah College in Grantham, PA, 11/15/2003)
Another great bootleg from this Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman. “The Hole” is one of those rare strange tunes that Glen has come up with during his solo career that has a way of digging into your subconscious and coming out when you least expect. I really need to try to get to one of his solo shows sometime.

Ginger Wildheart - “Westward Ho! (A New Reputation)” (555%, 2012)
Second track from the more experimental second set of songs from Ginger’s triple-album PledgeMusic project. This song in particular plays around with an island feel and electronic elements and prominently features vocalist Victoria Liedtke as it builds into a middle portion that sounds like an African tribal singalong with Victoria doing her best black gospel choir imitation à la Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky.” Lots of twists and turns and very enjoyable if you’re up for the ride. I can’t recommend the entire album enough.

Excellent Friday Five this week! Hope you enjoy yours.

The Friday Five: April 27, 2012

The Friday Five over at Popdose is the one, it’s the one, yeah you know it’s the one, it’s the one (yeah, you know it’s the one).

Torche - “Amnesian” (Meanderthal, 2008)
I (ahem) acquired this album from a friend, and while I like the sludgy, Soundgarden-y, stoner-rock riffage, I wish I liked the actual songs as much as I like the album title. Now that’s pure genius.

Ginger Wildheart - “You’re the One, You’re the One, Yeah, I Know You’re the One, You’re the One (Yeah, I Know You’re the One)” (555%, 2012)
The (former? current? future, hopefully?) Wildhearts frontman’s PledgeMusic experiment to create a new triple-album solo release was wildly (maybe insanely?) successful, far exceeding his pledge goal and reaching 100% of the target in less than 6 hours. The album’s title reflects the point at which Ginger chose to cut off availability of hard-copy versions of packages that include CDs or vinyl, with all pledges beyond that receiving digital-only versions (and because 5 is Ginger’s favorite number). With 16 days remaining to pledge, the project stands at 581% of target with 6010 pledges. Impressive. But what about the music? 30 songs, most of them top-notch, none of them throw-aways, and in true Ginger fashion, stylistically all over the map. This particular song is one of the best of the bunch.

The Beautiful Mistake - “Stabbing Backwards” (Light a Match, For I Deserve to Burn, 2002)
OK, so this is an emo/screamo band, and as the album title suggests, they take themselves a little too seriously. I only wish other emo bands took their musicianship as seriously as these guys did on this release—tight performances with great production and good songs, for the most part. “Stabbing Backwards” is one of the best tracks on the album. I could do with a little less of the screaming, though. I like my screaming with a little dose of metal, crazy guitar solos, more attitude, and less whining.

Glen Phillip - “Dam Would Break” (Live at Atlanta’s Red Light Cafe with Nickel Creek, 2003)
Excellent cut from an excellent bootleg of an excellent show the former Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman performed with special guests Nickel Creek appearing for the second half of the show. The bootleg is available at the Internet Archive and is definitely worth the download if you like Glen, Toad, Nickel Creek, or good muscianship.

Arcade Fire - “Deep Blue” (The Suburbs, 2010)
Another acquisition from the aforementioned friend. It seems I have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to this album as it is often hit or miss with me. This particular song leans toward miss today.

The air rains heavy like a gun
A weight that crushes conversation
In frozen flesh and bone
We share this bed alone
Ginger Wildheart - “Silence” (555%, 2012)
Hallelujah! Eureka!
You reek of the cheap alternative
Ginger Wildheart - “There Is Something Wrong With My Mind” (555%, 2012)
Now, I can see later
It was a brilliantly successful failure
Ginger Wildheart - “You’re The One, You’re The One, Yeah, I Know You’re The One, You’re The One (Yeah, I Know You’re The One)” (555%, 2012)
Played 70 times

Ginger - “Forget About It” (555%)

My favorite song so far off the first set of Ginger’s 555% triple-disc PledgeMusic project

Once again you forget to remind yourself to just forget about it
Ginger Wildheart - “Forget About It” (555%, 2012)