New music from Wintersleep: Amerika from The Great Detachment

Wintersleep are releasing their follow up to 2012's Hello Hum on March 4. The album is called The Great Detachment and we get to hear the track "Amerika" now. I love the heavy chords, head nodding beat and anthemic chorus. This is going to be a powerful live track.

I hope to catch the band on stage at some point in the not-too-distant future and I hope they'll let me take better pictures of them than I took when they opened for Frightened Rabbit back in 2013.

Pic from Facebook by Norman Wong.

R.I.P Ziggy Stardust: David Bowie has died

David Bowie has been putting out ground-breaking music for longer than I've been alive. Not much longer, mind you, but still, longer. After an 18 month battle with cancer, David Bowie passed away yesterday, just two days after his sixty-ninth birthday and the release of his last album Blackstar.

David Bowie has been a constant in my musical evolution and musical history. I remember his music along with my earliest musical memories. Songs like "Changes", "Fame", "Young Americans" and "Golden Years" were on the radio when I was discovering rock music. They are indelible foundations of my musical life.

I remember discovering that the local library lent out vinyl albums and I took full advantage. I would take out anything that sounded like I'd heard of it, or anything that looked remotely cool. Just like today, there are more misses than hits, but that whole process was part of musical discovery that continues to this day. One of my favourite discoveries was a freaky looking album by David Bowie called Scary Monsters. It was a pretty out-there album for a pre-teen in the early 80s but I loved it. Some of my favourite tunes to this day came from that album; "Up the Hill Backwards", "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Fashion". The first side was relatively normal, but the second side was pretty unhinged. It's got a pretty unique and powerful opening track, too. I loved it. I still do.

I remember seeing Bowie's characters such as Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke, staring in wonderment at the diversity and evolution. I remember his shifting sounds from folk-tinged rock, to early R&B Americana, to avant garde rock, to smooth blues rock, to industrial, to dance music, and so on. I remember his innovation, the way he embraced and sought out change, the flexibility of his image and his thirst for collaboration. I remember that he first introduced me to a young blues guitar player named Stevie Ray Vaughan who would be a huge guitar influence. I remember seeing Bowie's love and thirst for that next new thing that matched my own.

David Bowie's music has become iconic for innumerable fans. "Ziggy Stardust" remains one of my favourite cover songs to play. I will always treasure the joy that his music brought to my life. He will be missed. But his music will be with us forever. For that, I'm truly thankful.

I can't possibly do justice to picking highlights of his musical career, but here are my choices for my favourite David Bowie music.

"Changes" from 1971's Hunky Dory

"Starman" from 1972's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

"Ziggy Stardust" from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

"Young Americans" from 1975's Young Americans

"Golden Years" from 1976's Station to Station

"Heroes" from 1977's Heroes

"Up the Hill Backwards" from 1980's Scary Monsters

"Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)" from Scary Monsters

"Ashes to Ashes" from Scary Monsters

"Fashion" from Scary Monsters

"Modern Love" from 1983's Let's Dance

"China Girl" from Let's Dance

"Let's Dance" from Let's Dance

"Dead Man Walking" from 1997's Earthling

"I'll Take You There" from 2013's The Next Day

"Lazarus" from 2016's Blackstar

I really loved David Bowie's 1989 side project Tin Machine's début Tin Machine

"Heaven's In Here"

"Under The God"

"Bus Stop"

"Baby Can Dance"

"Baby Universal" from Tin Machine II

Pics from Facebook and Amazon.

Ten years ago: We Are Scientists With Love and Squalor

Back in 2012, I put up a "favourites" post on We Are Scientists and their incredible album With Love and Squalor. Since today is the tenth anniversary of the album's release, I'm going to post about this great album again. While that post featured each tune on the album, this post will just focus on the three singles.

With Love and Squalor is a masterpiece of straight-up guitar rock / power pop. It's the kind of music I like best in its purest form. Powerful, propulsive beats, frantic but fluid guitar riffs with gritty distortion, solid bass, aggressive but melodic vocals, and great song writing featuring hooks aplenty. Hope you appreciate it, too.

"Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt"

"The Great Escape"

"It's a Hit"

Pic from Amazon.

Forty years ago: Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive

Peter Frampton put out a landmark live album forty years ago today. The album is Frampton Comes Alive! and unlike many live albums, this album features the definitive versions of some all time classic rock tunes. It was a huge hit and was Rolling Stone magazine's favourite album of the year. And don't forget that distinctive talk box guitar effect. Frampton's use of that effect is what most people think of whenever it's used. Pretty iconic.

Here are the singles from the album, "Show Me the Way", "Baby, I Love Your Way", and "Do You Feel Like We Do".

Pic from Amazon.

Ten years ago: The Strokes First Impressions of Earth

This site is about the music I like. That includes the stuff that's exciting me today, and a look back at what I enjoyed in the past. Last year I started highlighting album anniversaries and I think I'm going to continue that as part of looking back at the music I like.

First up is The Strokes' ten-year old album First Impressions of Earth. It's not their biggest album by any means, but it does get started with two most amazing tracks that I love. Take a listen to "You Only Live Once", "Juicebox" and "Heart In A Cage".

They'll be headlining Governors Ball June 3-5.

Pic from Amazon.