Tag Archives: Rock music

Musical Side Notes on an Illegitimate Holiday

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

Today is Presidents’  Day and Definition 6 where I’m interning this semester gave everyone the day off. What a ridiculous federal Holiday, but it does give me the opportunity to share some great music that even Tommy can enjoy.

First off all, I checked out Tommy’s band of the week, Ra, and was impressed. I was expecting something a little more…screamo.

I have two songs I want to share with you. It’s an injustice that neither Tommy nor I have so much as mentioned this band. They were the object of both of our musical obsessions about a year ago and this is one of best live performances I’ve ever seen on YouTube. Enjoy Hollow by Submersed.

I hope/assume you liked Submersed. Sadly enough they are defunct. Lead singer Donald Carpenter did some work with another band called Thousand Man Army, but it just wasn’t the same.

I’ll give you one more song to listen to. This particular song is a more recent revelation of mine. The intro is especially good and I am a big fan of the lyrics. It’s Rebirthing by Skillet.

Thanks for reading/listening and be on the look out for a marketing related post from me and a new Band of the week from Tommy very soon. There’s some big stuff happening at Definition 6 and Tommy told me he has a great “Band of the Week” up his sleeve and he won’t tell me who they are until he writes his post.

Finally, I leave you with this. Here’s a blog about quotation marks and the stupid people who “use” them ‘incorrectly’ and unnecessarily. The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. Very funny stuff, enjoy!

Chris’s Chatter: Resurgence in the Realm of Rock?

Posted on by cedxc2005

Allow me to begin this vicarious post with a brief introduction: I am Chris, the older brother of Tommy on this board. An engineer, tinkerer, amateur chef, and casual guitarist, I will be entering my first year of graduate school at Virginia Tech. I would like to believe that I am chiefly responsible for Tommy’s tastes in music, for which I am most proud.

As the title of this post suggests, I wish to draw your collective attention to the resurgence of what Tommy and I call real music. While what Neil Young said is true, rock certainly did take a back seat recently. As such, it pleases me that a slew of new hard rock bands are gaining attention on the national level. Perhaps there is hope for music yet.

This past year has been particularly fruitful, with nearly a dozen new albums from major rock and metal bands, including Disturbed, Chevelle, Bullet For My Valentine, All That Remains, Halestorm, Sevendust, and even Puddle of Mudd. Capping this peak of progress is Avenged Sevenfold, releasing their new album, Nightmare, in the wake of the passing of their drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Barely two weeks old, the album is being hailed as the band’s greatest work to date, and achieved the rare honor of holding the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 list. More importantly, the record usurped the position of bestselling album in the country from Eminem’s freshest attempt to polish a turd.

Rock has gained new exposure from the video game market in the form of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band series, which have sought out increasingly more difficult guitar pieces for their games. Their search seems to have landed them on the goldmine known as metalcore – harsh, loud, aggressive, and most of all, technical, metal that will blast the pop crap out of one’s rear with extreme repugnance.

So, cheers to rock and metal, striking fear into the hearts of the ignorant, joy and euphoria into those who are not, and proving that some of us still realize that lip synching and prancing about onstage is not music (or even evidence of talent for that matter). Cheers to those out there who have joined the ranks of rockers and metal-heads and who have thus helped bring about this change in the wind. Now go to the nearest concert and rock out!