Category Archives: Music

UPDATE III (2/18/023): ‘Underworld’ By Symphony X: A Triumph

Art, Human Accomplishment, Music, Pop-Culture

“Underworld” by progressive metal band Symphony X features evocative melodies, harmonic complexity, gorgeous arrangements, furious licks, sublime singing and impossible time-signature fluctuations. No contrapuntal incompetence in this outfit’s repertoire of abilities.

The CD is in the grand tradition of the band’s 2000 album “V: The New Mythology Suite,” down to the heroic, epic themes—except that Russell Allen’s voice has vastly improved. (How unusual an achievement is that with age?) And guitarist Michael Romeo has now establishment himself in the mind of this long-time lover of fine progressive metal—which means a handful of outfits ONLY—as far and away superior to Dream Theater’s John Petrucci. Another difficult feat. Dream Theatre, alas, is encumbered by singer James LaBrie (unless he too has improved with age).

ILANA Mercer
Author, Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa
Columnist, WND’s longest-standing, paleolibertarian weekly column, The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine
Contributor, Townhall.com., American Greatness
Fellow, Jerusalem Institute for market Studies (JIMS)
www.ilanamercer.com

UPDATE I (9/20/020):

UPDATE II (6/23/021): Great Ballads.

 

UPDATE III (2/18/023): SYMPHONY X – “Without You” is one of the greatest rock ballads. Up there with “Silent Lucidity” by Queensrÿche

Choir Lady Callista Gingrich (Or A Look-Alike) Killed It

Christianity, Music, The West

I’m sure I recognized Mrs. Newt Gingrich in the papal mass choir that sang so sublimely for Pope Francis (who seemed to be dozing off). The music still honored by the Catholic Church—mostly Western, J. S. Bach being the God of music—is enough to make a classical-music loving Jew convert. Callista is famous for her helmeted hair-do, and now for her devotion to music. Indeed:

A devoted Catholic, Mrs. Gingrich is a member of the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., a resident professional choir.

And:

The five groups scheduled to perform include a gospel choir, the Catholic University Chamber Choir and a “Papal Mass Choir” of 90 participants selected from more than 300 people who auditioned in the D.C. area.

UPDATED: Chrissie Hynde On Skanks (Serena Williams Agrees)

Crime, Feminism, Gender, Music

Tough, quite talented and smart: Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde also says what needs to be said just to keep the truth alive in the public square: Women who dress like skanks and then sue or cry rape when men come on to them are not blameless.

Where I disagree with Hynde is when she asserts that the rape of a woman who dresses and behaves like a hooker is somehow deserved. No! It’s understandable, not deserved.

Before being abducted, raped and killed by Jesse Matthew, Hannah Graham drew his attention by wondering about with midriff so bare that her crotch is almost visible. In surveillance footage she can be seen swaying as though tipsy.

Skank attire and conduct is sanctioned these days by parents of small girls. What’s in their heads, one wonders.

As for Hynde’s claim “that pop stars who call themselves feminists but use their sex appeal to sell records were effectively just ‘prostitutes'”: More crucially, most are nothing without their looks. They aren’t musicians. Auto-Tune technology is what makes a cast of vain ventriloquists like Katy Perry and other screamers what they are.

UPDATE: Another strong, sensible woman, tennis star Serena Williams, agrees. “If you’re a 16-year-old and you’re drunk like that, your parents should teach you—don’t take drinks from other people,” she said about the case of the intoxicated teen who cried rape in Steubenville, Ohio.

‘She’s 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn’t remember? It could have been much worse. She’s lucky. Obviously I don’t know, maybe she wasn’t a virgin, but she shouldn’t have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that’s different.’

Coachella: Hardly Salve For The Soul

Art, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Music

Coachella, it would, appear, is a whole lot of crap: The musical equivalent of “Burning Man,” which is a “solstice bonfire” for collectivists posing as individualists. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has featured crap acts like “Amy Winehouse, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Prince, Arcade Fire, Wu-Tang Clan, The Killers, Radiohead, Daft Punk, Madonna, The Cure, Kanye West, Eminem, Gorillaz, The Black Keys, Rage Against the Machine, Beck, Nine Inch Nails, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Muse, Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

I would not pay to hear AC/DC or Motorhead either.

What makes people want to sweat it out with masses of others in the desert, bobbing about to hip hop and electronic dance music and pretending “installation art” is art.

Hardly salve to the soul.