Iron Maiden Will Never Die

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It sure seems that way. I came up in the 80s, but I was never a Maiden fan for some reason. I listened to a lot of metal and hard and prog rock, and you certainly couldn’t get away from the concert shirts and album art in high school, but I just never knew their songs or had a friend who did.

That’s changed in my creaky early 40s due largely to the fact that Maiden just won’t go away. After some personnel changes and less than huge albums–but no real hiatus of state fair circuits–they have the classic lineup back and are arguably the most popular musical act in the world today. They own their own commercial jumbo jet–piloted by the lead singer, no less–and tour whenever and wherever the fuck they want, all over the world, to hundreds of thousands of fans at a time in soccer arenas.

Maiden in insanely popular today with teenagers across Latin America. Last year they did a full replica of the whole damn Powerslave tour from 1984. They are very serious about their musicianship and entertaining the crowd, yet they don’t themselves too seriously. This all makes me very happy.

Live at Abbey Road, 2008:

Wednesday Roundup

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Here are a few things I’ve been meaning to post but haven’t fit them in anywhere:

  • Great resource for finding free movies online.
  • Game of Thrones playlist on Grooveshark. If you like it you can grab the soundtrack to the first season here.
  • And last but not least, we have a playlist of piano virtuoso Michael Kuhlmann playing Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Yes. Here he is playing Genesis:

Karnivool

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Here’s a great progressive rock band, Karnivool, from Australia. They have two studio albums, Themata (2007 US/2005 AU) and Sound Awake (2008), and are about to launch their third album with a new tour “Melodias Frescas Tour” in Australia and points beyond.

Both of their studio albums are worth a purchase, their songs are reminiscent of A Perfect Circle or maybe Tool. Below are videos of three of the band members (Ian Kenny/vocals,   Mark Hosking/guitar, Drew Goddard/beard and guitar) doing an acoustic set of “All I Know” and “Umbra” from Sound Awake and “Roquefort” from Themata. Enjoy!

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

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Science Fiction Master Ray Bradbury passed away peacefully Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles at 91 years of age. Story here. And here is a wonderful essay he wrote for the New Yorker about his grandfather.

His stories were a great inspiration to me as a kid to not be afraid to look up and wonder, to question authority, to read and read more, and that ‘insanity is relative’ (From the short story The Meadow).

John Fahey

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Here’s to discovering a musician I’ve never heard before but who’s career has touched a wide array of musicians and musical styles. Here he is playing an instrumental piece, “Poor Boys Long Way From Home,” in the late 70’s in the midst of a lot of trouble in his personal life, exhibiting his “style that blended the picking patterns he discovered on old blues 78s with the dissonance of contemporary classical composers he loved…” (wikipedia).