Local Artist Spotlight: The Returners

For this spotlight, I am going to detail a group that I alluded to in my previous post on Orlando Nerd Fest, The Returners. The Returners are a five piece group from Austin that positively blew me away; this was due in part to many factors. To organize my thoughts, I feel it will be more interesting to convey my chronological thought process rather than structure by topic.

My initial reaction right from sound check was that this band was going to bring something big to the table. I was instantly filled with anticipation sheerly by virtue of keyboards and a flute! Given my music tastes, this should come as no surprise. The next thing that caught my eye was the double bass drums. This is where I really started to get excited. Keys and flute suggest some sort of folk or orchestral type arrangements, but double bass can only mean one thing: metal. Following that, I noticed the fretless bass, so my assumption there is that the bassist is going to be quite talented. And, to cap it all off, the guitarist is wielding a seven string guitar. For those of you counting at home, that's five out of five on band members that have me amped up for the performance, and this all before even a single note has emanated from any of the speakers.

After all of this initial anticipation, the event itself didn't disappoint, in fact, it met and exceeded any and all expectations I could have had. If you were to take this band out of this convention room and drop them onto a stage with thousands of people watching, they'd fit perfectly. It was unbelievable. I thought they excelled in so many aspects of their performance, particularly for a group that just formed last year. The musical talent is evident; they can flat out shred. It's the little things, though, the attention to detail, that I felt really made them stand out and created that much more of a lasting impression. There are many bands with a great deal of talent and who can perform in front of an audience, but creating a cohesive setlist with a good flow so that it guides the crowd through a vast gamut of experience and emotion is something that is not quite as easy to do, but the The Returners did a very good job of that, in my estimation. They went loud, they went soft, they picked up the pace and brought it back down, they mixed in vocals with instrumentals, and they did it all with transitions that produced a very good ebb and flow for the entire set (and also within their songs and medleys given the arrangements they created). Staying on the subject of the setlist, too, it was a very diverse, well thought out, and well executed blend of tracks. They hit on crowd favorites, but they really went with some less widely known tracks that I definitely appreciated, Ecco being one of the games that I was really pleasantly surprised to hear. My second favorite song of the set (I'll get to the favorite in a second) was their Star Ocean 2 Medley. I think this song really summarizes all I've commented on quite well, both in terms of musical talent and the thoughtful arrangements. The video doesn't do them justice, as the sound really mutes the bass, but you get the general idea of what they bring to the table.

So, back to my favorite song. All this time I have spoken very little about the vocals of this band, which are perhaps the greatest of their many strengths. Lauren, "The Flute", in addition to being a talented flutist and knowledgable video game enthusiast is a phenomenal opera vocalist. This surprise was spoiled given she opened with a vocal intro for Random Encounter earlier in the day, which is probably a good thing because if I had discovered that along with all of the other astounding revelations about this band all at once, I'd probably have to watch the show from the floor because I wouldn't be able to pick my jaw up off of it. While much of their performance is purely instrumental, Lauren definitely has her moments where she puts the pipes on display, none more so than their cover of Phantom of the Opera. Now, here's the thing, right from the instant I heard the first organ note, my thought is "you don't do Phantom of the Opera unless you know you're going to nail it". I knew Lauren could nail it from her vocals in other songs, but here's where they left the crowd in awe: John, the drummer, absolutely killed it on male vocals. His vocals alone are incredible, but the fact that he can sing like that while playing drums is pretty remarkable. Here's a guy who could never pick up a drumstick again and focus solely on singing if he wanted to, and he'd probably be very successful doing it. If I had to guess, though, he's probably in like 10 different bands because he's a drummer, and that's what drummers do, right? Supply and demand :) Don't take my word for it, though, below is a video. While the song is also in the video of their set linked above, the vocals are barely audible in that video, and in this video you can hear them pretty clearly (albeit with video from the opposite side of the room).

Music aside, the band members were all so incredibly friendly. While I didn't spend an incredibly long time talking to everyone, it was long enough to see how humble they were and very gracious of the support they'd received. I also don't think it would be a stretch to declare Lauren as the nicest person ever. She really is so sweet. So here's a proposition for everyone (yes, all my legions of readers, haha): go to the Facebook Page of The Returners and "Like" them. Let me know in the comments, and I will do a drawing at random for one person that I will give a digital download pre-order for their upcoming album, Immune to Silence (what an awesome name, by the way). Who can argue with free music? Plus, when you factor in the lack of readers, poor distribution of posts on Facebook, and the general laziness of people, you're probably going to end up with like a 50/50 shot to win, so take advantage of the easy numbers game you'll be getting into. Worth a shot, right? The Returners, to me, are a band with limitless potential. They already have talent and performance beyond that of so many acts, and as they spend more and more time together, they will only continue to become more polished, have tighter performances, and expand their repertoire of songs. I am very excited to see what the next chapter holds in their story.

Orlando Nerd Fest

This post comes far too late after the 2014 Orlando Nerd Fest, but I have been traveling and taking care of other pressing issues. I want to take a moment to overview the event and some of the particular high points and reflections on the event and its significance.

To begin, I should probably explain what Orlando Nerd Fest is more explicitly. It is a multi-day event centering mostly around video game music (VGM), while also having some artists, indie game developers, gaming rooms, and vendors at the event. This event is new, and it differs from other conventions in that there is constant music; it is the primary focus rather than just a minor element such as in large conventions like Dragon*Con. I attended two days of the festival, so those are the ones I will be commenting on.

The performers range from rap and nerdcore to metal and many things in between. There were bands big and small, those who were local, those who traveled across the country, and a special group that traveled across the world! The band, you ask? Well, it was Nobuo Uematsu and the Earthbound Papas. For those of you unfamiliar with Uematsu, the man is a legendary composer in the video game world responsible for most of the iconic music.in the Final Fantasy series, among other games. If you want to see an RPG gamer fawn over someone, put that person in a room with Uematsu. His band performed and also did a signing session, where I had my PS2 copy of Final Fantasy X signed by the band. Seeing them really have fun and laugh about how they could have all of the adoring fans do anything they wanted was very entertaining. So yeah, that was a cool experience, and anyone with an appreciation for video game music will understand the influence Uematsu has had in the gaming world.

The following bands were my highlights of the convention, in no particular order (excluding Uematsu, since I mentioned him above):

Eight Bit Disaster: Video game music in the form of a funk rock band from North Carolina. Their music was good, the band members fun and entertaining, and they had a good mix of songs, including some less highly celebrated ones from games such as Dr. Mario. Musically, I thought they definitely deserved a better time slot, for sure. My only question: how can a funk rock band cover video game music and not do something from Toejam and Earl???

Urizen: It's hard to really say enough about this band, as they were a fantastic group to cap off the festivities. Their stage presence without all of the extra-curricular items was very good, and then when you factor in the entire story that they play out with props, machines, and crowd involvement, you've got a heck of a show. Their music is somewhere between electro-rock and electro-metal, as some songs can get a bit harder and feature some aggressive double bass, but all in all, I think they can be diverse and cater to whichever type of crowd they play for. What they also did wonderfully was incorporate other acts from the festival into the performance, having other musicians come and help battle space aliens, for example. The crowd engagement was perhaps the best of the entire event, and fun was had by all.

Critical Hit: Critical Hit is the brainchild of Andrew Gluck (Piano Squall) and Jason Hayes (of Blizzard music acclaim, most notably) and features Hayes along with a host of numerous other professional musicians performing very well done arrangements of video game music. Their sets tend to blend Eastern and Western gaming along with different genres of games and play songs that both appeal to casual gamers and more dedicated fans. With the musical talent they've amassed, it's impossible not to put on an impressive show. While their lineup features some musicians with serious chops, including an award winning concert pianist from the time she was 14, Tina Guo on cello stole this show. Her charisma while playing reigns supreme, and her talent on the cello is just absurd. Expect them to be touring in a city near you next year!

Bit Brigade: A lot of bands play video game music. Bit Brigade plays video games, music. If you want to see a speed run of old favorites such as Legend of Zelda, Megaman, or Castlevania and have it accompanied by some sweet metal music, Bit Brigade is the band for you. Now if we could all only have our own band accompanying us in our gaming sessions. The did Legend of Zelda at the event, and it was a great performance. One of the most impressive things when you actually see them perform is just how little time they get to take it easy through the whole set. It's basically a nonstop dose of gaming and metal for 55 minutes.

The Megas: The Megas are an electro rock band that are unique in that they take the Megaman series music to a new level by borrowing the musical style and adding lyrics pertaining to the game, which is pretty neat. On stage, they sounded great, have spiffy outfits and a good color scheme, and they just came across all around as very polished. If I had to nominate best looking musicians at the event, Tina Guo takes it on the female side and Eric, who does guitars and vocals (who looked like Lleyton Hewitt at the event), takes it for the males. I really enjoyed them, and they reminded me a little bit of a softer, slightly more poppy version of Attention System, one of my favorite local bands from Atlanta.

Schaffer the Darklord: Schaffer the Darklord (or STD, as he is also called) was one of the funniest and most entertaining performers at the event, in my opinion. I am not a fan of rap, or even nerdcore for that matter, but he was funny and engaging enough to win me over. He throws a few more words from the dictionary out there than most other performers I've seen doing nerdcore (which, admittedly, isn't a whole lot), and he really does a great job creating a villainous persona while still coming across as a likable person under the persona.

Killer Robots!: Really, the best thing you can do is click the link. Killer Robots! are the robot version of GWAR. In terms of which set had the most pure fun and insanity, Killer Robots! take the cake. In all honesty, the music, which is surf rock, takes such a back seat solely because the performance itself is so entertaining. The band comes on after a live action movie intro, and pool noodles cut into thirds are distributed into the crowd for the ensuing battle against all sorts of monster, aliens, lobster creatures, and I couldn't even tell you what else. Oh, and your friends...especially your friends.

Random Encounter: The local group featuring one of my favorite instruments, the accordion, put on a great, high energy show. Any group that features Chrono Trigger music in its set list is a winner in my book, and their cover of Frog's theme is one of my favorite covers of a video game song. I had been waiting to see them for a while and just happened to keep missing them when they played a local event, so I was tremendously excited to finally see them, and they didn't disappoint.

The Returners: These folks get their own blog post, so more on them later. Yes, I liked them that much.

Well, there you have it. I can emphatically say that the Orlando Nerd Fest 2014 was a great success, and I can definitely see this as one that continuously grows over the years in both attendance and prestige, because it seems to me the folks putting this on did a good job and the attendees had a real blast.

RIP

While I have a seemingly endless amount of things I have still yet to do today and other thoughts and pieces I have been yearning to write but have not done it because of said things, I had to make time for this post. At age 63, Robin Williams is dead, and that is simply something I cannot postpone my thoughts on for another time.

Admittedly, I am not typically one that pays much attention to celebrity deaths. A lot of that is due to being removed from pop culture in general, and there is a component where perhaps I feel the death of a celebrity can be talked about in a manner that is somewhat inappropriate to me. It's obvious why so many people care when a celebrity dies, but it wouldn't be innately right to place a celebrity death above the death of an "average" person. I also don't know how it would feel to be a family member of a deceased celebrity, but I imagine the whole situation being run on the news and talked about by the general public does not make it easy to go through the grieving process. I by no means feel indifferent to celebrity death; a loss of life, no matter who it was nor what the cause, is always a painful thing to someone else, and while as individuals we may never share contact, experiences, or the like, we as people all experience the same emotions. We know what it is to laugh, to cry, the joy of life and the pain of loss. So death, by and large, is a sad event, but one that I don't drastically differentiate based on the person who dies, aside from people close to me in my own life. So what makes the death of Robin Williams different? Why did I drop everything to write about his death and not that of others?

Undeniably, celebrities have touched the lives of so, so, so many people. If they hadn't, they wouldn't be called celebrities. I can't say that Robin Williams moved me on a deeper level than other celebrities or that he has any extraordinarily profound significance on me, personally Of course, it is obvious to say that he touched, many, many lives all over the world, but that does not make him unique relative to other superstars. After seeing the initial reaction of those around me, though, it really accentuated just how loved and just how much of an impact this man had on so many people, and that was primarily due to his ability to make us laugh, and laugh in the purest way. What I mean by that is that to laugh, truly laugh, is an unfiltered expression of joy. To laugh is to, at least momentarily, remove one's self from any negativity and sorrow, to enter a state where everything melts away into happiness, even if only for a second or two. Even in the darkest of times, there is solace in laughter, and though it may be hard to come by in those times, being given the gift of laughter is perhaps the greatest gift one can receive. Indeed, there may be times where when engulfed in a bleak reality, one of unrelenting darkness and misery, that laughter may be all we have, our only reprieve. That is the gift Williams so regularly gave to us all, and all the while, his life may have well been in the blackest of places, illuminated only with his desire to hang on to the laughter, to give this gift to the world, to smile and spread the elation that he may himself never possess again. If this is the case, and only he knew for sure, that desire burned brightly for so many years, but even the brightest flame will dull to a flicker before becoming extinguished, and much to the dismay of all of us, that flame finally burned out.

It may come as a surprise to so many that the man once titled "The Funniest Man Alive" could be possess such sadness that he would take his own life. There are many people with depression, myself included, that know all too well how unsurprising this is, though. The routine putting on a skin that is not your own to fool the world just enough to make it through another day is all too common. And here's what's interesting: there's a key word in that previous sentence. It's "fool". The word fool, as a noun, is used interchangeably with the word jester. As a verb it obviously is used a bit differently, but the job of a fool or a jester is to entertain and to make laugh. Obviously as a verb, to fool is to trick or confuse, but depending on the context, it can also have the entertainment element to it, typically because the manner in which an individual is "fooled" is to the bemusement of onlookers. So when those of us who have depression decide to take on the world again for at least one more day, many times we arm ourselves with humor to fool the world. Perhaps Williams was the best of us all in this regard. And in his death, hopefully Williams gave us yet another gift, maybe almost as valuable as the gift of laughter he gave us in his life provided we as a population are attentive enough to see it, and that is the gift of awareness.

The fact that suicide as the cause of death for the funniest man alive is such a terrible and ironic fate, one most never could have imagined, should draw people's attention to the seriousness of the problem that is mental illness. "If this man, of all people, took his life, then this may be more serious than we imagined". It might be too soon for people to open this dialogue up for discussion, but when a beloved man such as he dies with that affliction being the primary cause, it's hard to imagine this issue going unnoticed. It's my hope that there is awareness generated and that the topic of mental illness does not get pushed to the background. It would be a small bit of solace and great continuing legacy for this incident to go on and become the impetus for change, for more open discussion about the prevalence and severity of mental illness all over and the resources available to help remove the very real and very painful barriers that range from preventing someone from operating at the fullest extent of his/her abilities to being a completely debilitating and crushing weight on a person's daily life. I don't know that this may come out of this all, but I'd like to think I can play some small part by being someone to talk about it. Rest in peace Mr. Williams, and may your death be a means to help save the lives of others.

Artist Spotlight: Alestorm

The time has come, the time for a drink... and a new Alestorm album, and with it, I wanted to write a piece on Alestorm. I have not listened to Sunset on the Golden Age in its entirety yet; it's out in Europe and comes out in two days in the United States. Needless to say, with my enthusiasm for pagan metal combined with my love for pirates and innately pirate-like looks, I am looking forward to sitting down and taking a good listen to the album. For now, though, I am more interested in speaking to both the band in general, and their latest video, a cover of the song Hangover, which I had never heard of before their rendition of it.

First off, let me say this right up front: I don't care if you say the music is all a gimmick. Perhaps it is, but if it was easy, more people would do it. To call it a gimmick is not appropriate, to me, because it diminishes the value of the actual quality of their music; it's awesome, plain and simple. No, the lyrics aren't going to be mistaken for poetry, and there are musicians that can shred better, but don't for one second suggest that these guys aren't talented. The tales Christopher Bowes delivers are fun, and not at all poorly written. In fact, I would say that some of the lyrics are actually pretty clever and make for some good pirate lore. The musicians are all very competent, you have some good guitar solos, and perhaps more importantly, some great keytar solos. Above all else, though, the band is flat out entertaining. Whether it be a concert, the lyrics, a video, or Christopher's various posts, pictures, music side projects (do yourself a favor and look up "Christopher Bowes at the Organ", you'll either think it's ridiculously funny or that I am out of my mind, and in either case, you'd be right), the band never ceases to bring anywhere from amusement to utter hilarity. Quite frankly, I'd say the majority of people who criticize Alestorm are just upset that they can't be highly successful making music that is one of the farthest things from serious possible (make no mistake about it, while the band themselves are a bunch of jokesters and don't take life too seriously, they are very good and dedicated with what they do).

As an extension of the above, I could honestly say that if Alestorm simply continued to replicate their same formula and never tried to do anything remotely different with their music, I would be totally fine with that and love them all the same. While I can appreciate musicians evolving over time, I also think it's absolutely fine to take an approach of "if it's not broken, don't fix it". They have not done that, however, as is evident with their latest album. While they are still the same at their core, Alestorm introduces some guest musicians to the studio for laying down other folk instruments such as violin and flute. From what I have heard of the album, so far too, there is some more variety in the vocals as well. What people are slow to recognize, too, is that innovation with bands is not restricted to just how the music sounds. Alestorm still find new ways to entertain. It's not always the same songs, the same schtick, the same old commentary at concerts. There's always some fun cover or new item being worked on, such as a cover of "In the Navy" by the Village People, or playing a metal cover of the Rugrats theme upon returning for their encore, something that fans will instantly find entertaining and be able to identify with.

This is a good segue into their rendition of Hangover:

When I heard this song for the first time, I couldn't help but spam various people trumpeting the song as my favorite cover ever. From my vantage point, this is a perfect cover. They take a song that the majority of their fans either would not have even heard of or would ordinarily hate, and they make it their own. Now, there has been a fair bit of criticism in the Youtube comments of the video, which, of course, is frequented by a very diverse and well versed group of experts when it comes to music (dripping with sarcasm, in case that didn't come across). To me, this is absurd, and it makes me fear for the upcoming generation of metalheads, as any time I come across a "not brutal enough" comment for music in general, it makes me roll my eyes so hard my vision is blurry for a good 30 minutes. Pertaining to this song, Alestorm shows off some versatility and makes a really catchy, somewhat commercially viable yet still true to metal roots version of a song that loosely fits in the same vein as their general subject matter. My opinion is if you like metal and don't like this song, you're basically trying too hard to be pretentious and not have fun.

Alestorm has been, and remains one of my favorite metal bands. They're one of the first metal bands I really got into; as I mentioned a while back, I am relatively new as it comes to be a metal fan. To me, they are such a great, refreshing mix of characteristics for a band to have in terms of balancing their music, performance, and overall attitude. They're also a good band to get non-metal fans to listen to because, well, who doesn't like pirates? The sad reality is that people are more open minded to something if there is some other socially acceptable or fun reason to entertain something non-mainstream.

     July 31st: "Goth things? Nope, too weird for me."
     October 31st: "I love this!!!"

     Metal: "This is horrible."
     Pirate metal: "Pirates!? This is awesome!"

So now, I propose you all raise your tankards to the sky and toast to Alestorm. Long live the heavy metal pirates!