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Por eso de no ofrecer siempre el lado más bien durillo de la música popular actual, vamos con una tanda de canciones «light», totalmente inofensivas, y que sonrojarían a cualquier macarra de pro si se averiguase que le gustan. Todo videos de YouTube.

Y ahí queda eso. Que el gusto es personal e incontrolable.

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Sacado de digg:

Graphical Music: Harmonics Animated

A flash animation showing the relationship between chromatics, harmonics, and even primes and non-primes. It sounds as cool as it looks! From the author’s site: «a musical realization of the motion graphics of john whitney as described in his book ‘digital harmony'»

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Al parecer ha sdo un fin de semana movidito en el sector discográfico:

En primer lugar, el grupo de Jeff Waters, Annihilator [wiki], ha postpuesto su gira europea para poder terminar de grabar en condiciones el que será su próximo disco:

ANNIHILATOR Cancel European Tour

Long-running Canadian thrashers ANNIHILATOR have been forced to cancel their previously announced European tour, which was slated to kick off in July. In a posting on the band’s official forum, mainman Jeff Waters wrote, «We were, of course, really looking forward to doing this tour but will unfortunately have to push it back to late 2006. We had planned on finishing up our new CD by tour time. However, the recording is taking longer than anticipated and some of the people involved in the recording/mixing are not avaliable after the tour. We sincerely apologize to the fans and promoters but will see you all in the fall!»

ANNIHILATOR‘s eleventh studio album, «Schizo Deluxe», was released in North America last November via Locomotive Music. The band recently issued a retrospective double-disc DVD set, entitled «Ten Years in Hell», via SPV. The set contains seven classic, official ANNIHILATOR music videos, offstage band footage and bonus underground, fan-shot, live performances and a special interview with Waters as he recounts his memories of the band’s «first ten years in Hell.» Also included are special appearances by original co-lyricist John Bates, «Neverland» frontman Coburn Pharr, «Criteria» bassist Russell Bergquist, and «Set the World on Fire»‘s Mike Mangini and Neil Goldberg.

Otro grupo que tiene la mira puesta en un nuevo disco es Dark Tranquillity [wiki]:

DARK TRANQUILLITY To Record New Album In October

Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY have posted the following message on their official web site:

«No updates for a while, but rest assured that we haven’t been resting on our laurels. We’re insanely busy with the songwriting for the next album, and it’s now decided that the recordings will start in October. More details about studios (yes, that’s in plural), working partners and so forth will follow as soon as everything is 100% confirmed.

«As for the music itself, the material we’re working on covers the whole gamut from laid back acoustic sections to furious blastbeats, so you can all look forward to a diverse and challenging offering. Most songs are still in the embryonic stages, so it’ll be interesting to see how things develop.

«Some media goodness to make the wait for the next magnum opus easier: A 15-minute video clip of our gig at the Fury Fest in France (June 25, 2005) has been uploaded to our MySpace page. As usual with these homemade recordings, the quality itsn’t stellar, but it gives a good enough representation of the show. Also, we found an old version of ‘Away, Delight, Away’ from an 8-track promo recording we did in our rehearsal studio back in the spring of 1994. This is an early incarnation of the song that differs slightly from the version that ended up on the ‘Of Chaos and Eternal Night’ MCD. The promo itself also contained ‘Punish my Heaven’ and ‘The Gallery’, and was sent out to a select few record labels and tape trading contacts.»

DARK TRANQUILLITY recently completed a North American tour with OPETH, THE DEVIN TOWNSEND BAND and DEVILDRIVER in support of «Character», their highly acclaimed latest album that brought these originators of the famed Gothenburg scene back to the forefront of the genre. «Character», recorded once again at Studio Fredman (IN FLAMES, ARCH ENEMY), has also been praised as their most groundbreaking yet as it retains all of the band’s classic elements and thought-provoking lyrical content while blending the perfect amount of unrelenting aggression and melody.

Entretanto, Slayer [wiki] sigue suscitando polémicas con su nuevo trabajo y el ya «infame» tema «Jihad»:

SLAYER Spark 9/11 Controversy

According to the World Entertainment News Network, SLAYER has sparked controversy with a new song about 9/11 from the terrorists’ viewpoint.

The California foursome were fed up with other bands’ American perspective of the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. in 2001, so they wrote their own unique version.

Guitarist/songwriter Jeff Hanneman has angered 9/11 victims’ families with the extremist angled track «Jihad», which will feature on their new album.

Guitarist Kerry King says, «In America every band under the sun has written their 9/11 song. And that’s why I didn’t want to have any part of it, but this is really cool. It kind of has an ‘Angel of Death’ feel because it doesn’t condemn anyone or say that anyone’s right or wrong.»

Y, por poner algo de contraste, vamos a mirar un poco al pasado.

Por un lado, están disponibles en YouTube los videos de las actuaciones de Metallica (quienes han querido dejar claro de, de momento, no están grabando su siguiente disco) en el festival Download de hace un par de años con Dave Lombardo [wiki] y Joey Jordison a la batería:

METALLICA: Classic DOWNLOAD Festival Clips With LOMBARDO, JORDISON Posted Online

A live video of METALLICA members James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo performing the track «Battery» with SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo at the Download festival in England on June 6, 2004 has been posted online at YouTube.com. More footage ? including interview clips with some of the other bands performing at the Download 2004 festival (such as DAMAGEPLAN, HATEBREED and ILL NINO) ? can be found here.

METALLICA‘s regular drummer, Lars Ulrich, was taken to hospital with an undisclosed illness just hours before METALLICA were due to headline the festival. Rather than pull the show and risk a revolt from fans, METALLICA called upon SLAYER and SLIPKNOT drummers, Lombardo and Joey Jordison (respectively), alongside Ulrich‘s long-standing drum tech Flemming Larsen, to rescue the gig. Jordison played in his SLIPKNOT mask. Watch a clip of Joey Jordison performing «Enter Sandman» with METALLICA at this location. Video of Jordison‘s rendition of «For Whom the Bell Tolls» with METALLICA can be viewed here.

Y para terminar este post, un poco de retrospectiva nostálgica, con la entrevista que Guitar One hace a Tony Iommi [wiki], en la conmemoración del trigésimo quinto aniversario del «Paranoid» de Black Sabbath:

BLACK SABBATH’s IOMMI Talks About Making Of ‘Paranoid’ Album

Guitar One magazine (cover, web site) recently conducted an interview with BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the band’s «Paranoid» LP, which is regarded by many as the first real heavy metal album. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Guitar One: Do you recall a specific early moment when the SABBATH sound began to take shape?

Iommi: «I had a band with Bill Ward called MYTHOLOGY, which was into a sort of bluesy, jazzy thing. But it went into a totally different, heavier side as well. I recall one time at rehearsal when I played this riff that made the hair on my arm stand up. It was such a different vibe, I knew that was it. That riff led to ‘Wicked World’; ‘Black Sabbath’ came soon after. ‘Wicked World’ still had a very jazzy feel, as you know. But ‘Black Sabbath’ took a total turn, and it grabbed us all. That started me writing in that darker vein.»

Guitar One: Did you make that change, at least in part, for commercial reasons? Did you see a possible opportunity?

Iommi: No, never. We never thought about commercialism. It was just that the style grabbed us. We tested that sound out at a blues club, of all places, and it was interesting to see the shock on people’s faces in the middle of our blues set. But they seemed turned on by it, or so we gathered. Anyway, we knew we liked it.»

Guitar One: When did the material for «Paranoid» first start to appear?

Iommi: «When we were on tour for a bit after the first record. We had a six-week stint at a club in Zurich, where we’d start at 3:00 p.m. and play seven 45-minute sets ? for six weeks! Well, we didn’t have enough songs, so we’d keep playing the same things, which got really boring, as you can imagine. So we used that time to start jamming and making up things, especially in the off hours, when there only a few people in the club. That’s when ‘War Pigs’ came about. At the end of the six-week period, we had two or three real songs to start the new album with.»

Guitar One: So then you went in to record «Paranoid».

Iommi: «Right. The recording of ‘Paranoid’ went very quickly. We went in, and five days later it was finished. Most of my ideas came from gigs ? I’d throw them in, a little riff here or there. It was tricky, though, because you had to remember it in those days; there were no simple recording devices. A lot of the ideas were structured at shows, and when it came time to do an album, we’d have to recall them and put them together.»

Guitar One: There must have been a lot of pressure on you to come up with material.

Iommi: «They looked to me to come up with the music. If I didn’t come up with something, we didn’t do anything. You couldn’t start with the drum thing, that didn’t work for us. The guitar was the most tuneful element in the band, so everything stemmed from it.»

Guitar One: It’s been written that you worked well on the spot.

Iommi: «I tended to come up with stuff on the spot all the time. I wasn’t the type to go home and think about it and work on something ? I don’t know why I couldn’t do that. I’d go in with nothing, but I took it upon myself to not let anyone else down. I couldn’t tell them, ‘I can’t think of anything, guys, sorry.’ I had to come up with something.»

Guitar One: Did you ever hit a wall and come up empty?

Iommi: «It wasn’t until the later years, while we were recording ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, that I hit a blank, but that was five records in. I really did hit a wall, too. I couldn’t think of anything. I was gutted. The band had shipped everything ? all our gear ? to L.A., where we’d rented a house for six months. But I was dry, so we basically turned right back around and went home.»

Guitar One: Then what happened?

Iommi: «We came back together a bit later and went to Clearwell Castle in Wales. We set up in the dungeon and made sure the mood was right for us. Not long after we got there, I wrote the riff for ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’, and we went from there. That song set the album up nicely.»

Guitar One‘s entire interview with Tony Iommi appears in the magazine’s July 2006 issue, available on the newsstands now.

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Detectado por Xristo en El Mundo:

Guns n’ Roses escenifican en Madrid la autodestrucción en estado puro
ELENA MENGUAL (elmundo.es)

MADRID.- Hace casi 14 años, miles de fans de Guns n’ Roses se quedaban con una entrada en la mano y todas sus ilusiones (lejos de usarlas, como pedía en su título el mítico doble álbum de la banda, ‘Use your Illusion’) se degradaban al ritmo de la aluminosis del Estadio Vicente Calderón. Muchos intentaron anoche desquitarse; pocos lo habrán conseguido, a juzgar por el concierto ofrecido por el grupo, o, mejor dicho, por lo que queda de él.

Axl Rose y sus secuaces, una banda formada por ex componentes de grupos de cierto prestigio, pero que brillan más bien poco a la sombra del que fuera mítico líder de los Guns n’ Roses ?y no precisamente por su brillantez?, han ofrecido un concierto en el que, a pesar de intercalar algunos de los clásicos del grupo californiano con nuevos temas del álbum ‘Chinese Democracy’ (ese en el que Axl Rose lleva 11 años trabajando sin lograr que vea la luz), no han conseguido que el público de Madrid entrara en calor, y eso que llegaba predispuesto.

Claro que las dos horas de retraso respecto al horario original (Rose, cual Cenicienta, sólo se ha dignado a salir a escena cuando el reloj marcaba ya las 0.00 horas) han hecho aparecer los primeros bostezos entre el público presente en el auditorio del Parque Juan Carlos I de Madrid, además de algún que otro grito de «hijos de puta», con el que han sido recibidos a su salida al escenario. Y también han llevado a alguno a arrancar las sillas de las gradas. Y a tirar cervezas al vocalista. No era más que el principio.

Y eso que los acordes de ‘Welcome to the jungle’, uno de los ‘himnos’ de los ‘Gunners’, han marcado un comienzo de un concierto que, pese al retraso, aún podía dejar huella en la memoria de los presentes, sobre todo cuando a continuación han sonado dos temas más de ‘Appetite for destruction’, el primero y mejor disco de los Guns n’ Roses: ‘It’s so easy’ y ‘Mr. Brownstone’

Llegaría después ‘Live and let die’, la versión ‘cañera’ de la canción de Paul McCartney. El público botaba al ritmo de un inexpresivo Axl Rose, que a golpe de ‘botox’ ha logrado perder toda expresión en su cara y asemejarse a una de esas estatuas del Madame Tussaud, rematada por una incipiente calvicie que el cantante refugia tras unas rastas que empiezan bastante más allá de la frente. Los años no perdonan.

Tampoco a sus fans, que, dadas las horas y teniendo en cuenta que muchos trabajan este viernes, bostezaban sin parar. Y es que adelantar un concierto de domingo a jueves, aun cuando es uno de los dos que Guns n’ Roses ofrecerán en España, no es plato de buen gusto para nadie. Y menos si no vives en Madrid.

Tras el subidón de adrenalina provocado por los cuatro primeros temas, la banda decidía relajar los ánimos interpretando uno de los temas de ‘Chinese Democracy‘. Ante el tedio que el tema, como los demás del disco ?bastante ‘blanditos’?,ha provocado en el personal, han sido varios los que se han animado a ocupar el tiempo en ‘exhortar’ a Axl Rose con gritos de «gordo» y pidiendo el regreso de Slash, el mítico guitarrista de la banda que abandonó, empujado por el complicado carácter del ‘divo’ Axl.

Cuando la cosa se complicaba, han comenzado a sonar los acordes de ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’, uno de los temas bandera de Guns n’ Roses, para a continuación dar rienda suelta a la versión del ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ de Bob Dylan. El personal empezaba a calentarse… en vano. A continuación, guitarrista y bajista han decidido marcarse unos solos que más bien podrían haber reservado para sus reuniones de amigos. No obstante, lo han arreglado mínimamente con ‘You could be mine’, uno de los pocos temas que han interpretado del álbum ‘Use Your Illusion’.

A continuación, los Gunners han decidido ofrecer una demostración de esas habilidades instrumentales que estarían mucho mejor si jamás salieran de una reunión de colegas. Los bostezos y los gritos de «que me aburro» han hecho poca mella en la moral del grupo que, tras interminables minutos de acordes de jazz y baladas, ha decidido interpretar ‘Out Ta Get Me’.

Poco permeables a las críticas, han vuelto a la carga con los solos de guitarra, por lo que se han ganado más de un grito de «No eres Slash» y «No le sale, coño». A pesar de intercalar entre solo y solo ‘November Rain’, una de las baladas míticas de la banda, el enfado del público ha ido en aumento, y es que ni los fuegos artificiales que han acompañado el concierto han logrado disimular el bochornoso espectáculo sobre el escenario del recinto ferial.

Ante tal impaciencia, los Gunners se han atrevido con ‘My Michelle’, otra de las canciones del ‘Appetite’, con ‘Patience’, una de las baladas ‘bandera’ de la banda y la única que han interpretado de ‘Lies’, su segundo disco, y con ‘Nightrain’.

A partir de ahí, el concierto ha desencadenado una secuencia de solos poco talentosos que ni la interpretación del ‘Paradise City’ ha logrado borrar de la mente del público. El mismo público que ha pagado entre 40 y 48 euros por ver a los Guns n’ Roses ?o más bien lo poco que queda de ellos? en directo.

No obstante, el concierto ?por cierto, el primero de su gira mundial? ha aportado varias cosas interesantes a aquellos fans que en 1992 se quedaron con la entrada en la mano y sin ver a los Guns n’ Roses.

La primera, que queda demostrado que el ‘alma mater’ de la banda era Izzy Stradlin, aquel teclista, compositor y amigo de Axl Rose que no le aguantó más. Dos, y por mucho que duela, que los grupos tienen un ciclo. Empiezan, arrasan y deben acabar cuando están en lo más alto. Tres, nos hacemos mayores y la paciencia se nos acaba. Las maneras de divo de Axl Rose hace tiempo que nos resultan patéticas.

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Aquí están los programas de las dos últimas semanas: