Music Theory #12 – A Day To Remember

New week, new music! Let’s go!

Artist: A Day To Remember

Latest Album: Bad Vibrations (2016)

Genre: Metalcore/Pop-punk

Favorite Track: Best of Me (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: I’m Made of Wax Larry What Are You Made Of?, All Signs Point To Lauderdale, Right Back At It Again, Sometimes You’re The Hammer Sometimes You’re The Nail, Leave All The Lights On, Paranoia, Naivety

Why I Enjoy Them: My first exposure to A Day To Remember was when I went to a Rise Against concert and they were the second band of the line-up. I was impressed by their live performance and ended up checking out Common Courtesy (their most recent album at the time). After coincidentally ending up seeing them live a second time (opening for Blink-182 this time) and buying their latest album Bad Vibrations, I became a big fan of their music. You have to like both screaming and the pop-punk style of the 2000s to really enjoy all their music, but it fits right into my wheelhouse and I recommend their stuff if you’re looking for something a little different.

Music Theory #11 – Bullet For My Valentine

It’s yet another week in our inexorable march through time, so why not sit down and listen to another music recommendation?

Artist: Bullet For My Valentine

Latest Album: Gravity (2018)

Genre: Heavy metal/Post-hardcore

Favorite Track: Your Betrayal (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Scream Aim Fire, Fever, Pleasure and Pain, Temper Temper, Dirty Little Secret, Army of Noise, Skin, Gravity

Why I Enjoy Them: I was introduced to Bullet For My Valentine by Guitar Hero: World Tour, where I got to shred Scream Aim Fire on a plastic guitar. And while I really liked the vocals and awesome guitar riffs of that particular song, it wasn’t until their next album Fever that I really got into band. Fever, Temper Temper, and Venom are a trilogy of albums that I can play from start to finish whenever I’m in the mood to thrash, headbang, and play some wicked air guitar. They’re one of my top metal/rock bands and while their latest album Gravity was a slight genre shift and not as great (in my opinion) it has a few alright songs and I still consider Bullet For My Valentine a favorite band of mine.

Music Theory #10: The Prodigy

Earlier this week, Keith Flint the frontman and lead singer of The Prodigy passed away. In honor of the incredible music that The Prodigy made over the course of several decades, this week’s Music Theory will be about them.

Artist: The Prodigy

Latest Album: No Tourists (2018)

Genre: Electronica/Electronic rock

Favorite Track: Omen (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Poison, Breathe, Firestarter, Run With The Wolves, World’s On Fire, Rebel Radio, Rhythm Bomb, Roadblox, No Tourists

Why I Enjoy Them: While I definitely had a soft spot for The Prodigy and their singles during the 90s and early 2000s, it wasn’t under 2009’s Invaders Must Die that they really became a band I truly appreciated. I’d grown into electronic music as I got older and the song Omen was like a bolt of lightning to the music adoration part of my brain. The entire album is great, but I love that particular song to death. And their follow-up in 2015 was also up my alley, cementing them as an electronic band I had high regard for. I was on the verge of going to see The Prodigy perform live this year on their tour and now I’m sad that I won’t ever get to see them live in concert.

Music Theory #9: PSY

Time for another artist recommendation! This time I’m going into K-Pop and recommending an artist that’s already pretty well-known.

Artist: PSY

Latest Album: 4×2=8 (2017)

Genre: K-Pop/Hip-hop

Favorite Track: Napal Baji (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Right Now, It’s Art, Blue Frog, Daddy, ROCKnROLLbaby, I Luv It, New Face

Why I Enjoy Him: Like most Americans, my introduction to PSY was through Gangnam Style taking off in 2012. While I’ve only really dabbled in listening to most K-Pop music, I’ve really liked PSY’s music and kept up with him via YouTube as new albums were released. Right Now was the first song I heard (after Gangnam Style) that really stuck with me. He’s also one an artist that still goes balls-to-the-wall with music videos (alongside lots of other K-Pop groups) that are always entertaining to watch. I highly recommend listening to more of his work if you’re only familiar with Gangnam Style because he’s very, very good and very entertaining.

Music Theory #8: The Faint

Another day, another band to recommend!

Band: The Faint

Latest Album: Egowerk (Releasing March 15, 2019)

Genre: Dancepunk/Electro-pop-punk

Favorite Track: Birth (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Posed to Death, The Conductor, How Could I Forget?, Symptom Finger, The Geeks Were Right, Mirror Error, Evil Voices, Lesson from the Darkness

Why I Enjoy Them: My first experience with the Faint was kind of weird: the song Birth was used as the soundtrack to some Flash game on Newgrounds back in the mid-2000s internet era. I really, really liked Birth (as it’s still my favorite track by them) and ended up exploring their Wet From Birth album as well as Danse Macabre and both albums ended up high on my “must listen” list. I’ve seen them live and they put on an amazing concert, and thanks to me putting this together this week I learned they have a new album coming out in a month and will be on tour later this year! They’re a pretty awesome electronic/pop/punk band that has a very unique style which I never get tired of.

Music Theory #7: Assemblage 23

This is not a podcast! I know this is probably obvious to most of you upon reading this, but I’ve had to rearrange a few things in my schedule this week. Due to a busy weekend and also having a slightly larger than normal podcast for this week, I’m not quite done with the editing process yet. I’m aiming to have the podcast uploaded and available for listening on Thursday of this week instead of Tuesday. Sorry for the delay, but it’ll be worth the wait I promise!

That being said, I’ve gone ahead and moved my Music Theory recommendation for this week into the podcast slot so there’s something for you all to listen to in its place. Apologies again, but there’s only so much one TMan can do at a time. Hope you enjoy this week’s music!

Band: Assemblage 23

Latest Album: Endure (2016)

Genre: Electronic/Synthpop

Favorite Track: Infinite (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Disappoint, I Am The Rain, Ground, Regret, 30KFT, Greed, Crosstalk, Automaton

Why I Enjoy Them: Assemblage 23 is one of the first electronic bands that I really got into. Storm is probably one of my top electronic albums ever and up there in my list of all-time favorites since I can pretty much listen to it from start to finish without skipping anything. They feel like a gateway band to electronic music because while they have a lot of synth and typical electronic stylings, they also usually stick to the typical format of verse-chorus-verse-chorus that most pop songs use and shy away from the repetitive vocals/samples of other electronic bands. I really enjoy their style and they remain a staple in my rotation of favorite musicians.

Music Theory #6: Electric Six

In case you didn’t notice, there wasn’t a blog post this past Monday because even though I wanted to keep up my 5 days a week posting, I was a little busy over Super Bowl weekend and wasn’t able to write anything up for Monday. Hopefully going forward I’ll still be able to stick to the schedule, but don’t be surprised if there are a few days here and there where I take a break just for my own breathing room.

With that said, let’s go ahead and get into the next Music Theory – this week it’s one of my favorite bands ever!

Band: Electric Six

Latest Album: Bride of the Devil (2018)

Genre: Alternative rock/Dance-punk

Favorite Track: After Hours (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Danger! High Voltage, Gay Bar, Boy or Girl, Down at McDonnelzzz, The Newark Airport Boogie, Clusterfuck!, Late Night Obama Food, When Cowboys File For Divorce

Why I Enjoy Them: Electric Six snuck up on me as one of my favorite bands after I realized I had all their albums (and enjoyed most of them) and had seen them live every year for seven or eight years running. They’re one of my favorite bands to see in concert live (obviously) and their unique style of rock is hardly replicated with any other band. They have a weird sense of humor and often times the lyrics to their songs are catchy but don’t make much sense. They have a special place in my heart even though their last album or two have been more miss than hit. That being said, they release a new album every year which means they have a huge catalogue to go through and I’m sure there’s something for everybody within their songs.

Music Theory #4: The Offspring

Welp, it’s time for another Music Theory and I guess it’s about time to get this band out of the way. They go way back to my high school years and I consider them to be one of my favorite bands of all-time. You’ve probably heard of them already…although I guess since they were popular in the 90s there’s a possibility you haven’t!

Band: The Offspring

Latest Album: Days Go By

Genre: Pop Punk/Alternative Rock

Favorite Track: Special Delivery (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Bad Habit, The Kids Aren’t Alright, Americana, Lightning Rod, Spare Me The Details, Nothingtown, Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom

Why I Enjoy Them: They were part of my formative teenage years in terms of music. They were the first band I went to see live in concert, I listened to all their albums non-stop in high school and college. While my music tastes have changed, evolved, and expanded over the years I’ve continued to enjoy their music as they released new albums (although they haven’t released a new album since 2012) even though the general opinion was their quality declined soon after Americana. They’ll always have a special place in my heart.

Music Theory #3: Turmion Kätilöt

So this is a slight departure from the schedule I had planned. We’ve been recording podcasts on Tuesday nights and it so happened that after the recording session I was a little too exhausted to put what I considered a worthwhile amount of effort into a full writing article. So for this week (and future weeks until our podcast scheduling changes) I’m moving the Music Theory posts to Wednesdays since they require less work overall.

This week’s band is one I’ve listened to for a long time and is a departure into a different genre than previous weeks!

Band: Turmion Kätilöt

Latest Album: Universal Satan

Genre: Industrial metal

Favorite Track: Grand Ball (See above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Verta ja Lihaa, Tirehtööri, U.S.C.H!, Sinä saatana, Dance Panique, Sikiö

Why I Enjoy Them: I first learned about Turmion Kätilöt from the very old flash video “Bunnykill“* – a take on the popular Madness Combat Flash video style from back in the early-to-mid 2000s. The video used Verta ja Lihaa as its backing track and I really enjoyed the hard metal beat and how well it paired with the action of the video. Over time I continued to follow the band and every album they released always had a few songs that really got me pumped up and excited. I consider them one of my favorite “action scene imagination” bands – a lot of their songs sync up well in my mind with hardcore action, and I have planned many story beats and action sequences in my head to Turmion Kätilöt’s music. Despite them being a Finnish band, I have always considered them one of my low-key guilty pleasure bands, especially since they have helped me with my creative processes numerous times.

*While the first Bunnykill does not hold up as much, the last sequence of Bunnykill 5 is something I still watch from time to time because of how ridiculously awesome it is.

Music Theory #2: Dance With The Dead

We’re back with another Music Theory! This week’s band is Dance With The Dead!

Band: Dance With The Dead

Latest Album: Loved to Death

Genre: Synthwave

Favorite Track: From Hell (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Graveyard Shift, Poison, Riot, Diabolic, The Man who Made a Monster, Snap, Into the Shadows

Why I Enjoy Them: I don’t remember how I ended up listening to them – I think their album The Shape popped up as a recommended YouTube video at some point and I just fell into a hole of listening to all of their discography. Dance With The Dead just excels at that retro 80s techno sound with awesome beats and great synth. They’re a good pair to Infected Mushroom for me in terms of the spectrum of techno that I enjoy. Their tracks are also some of my favorite to Audiosurf to as the constant drums and their usual fast beats per second make a great challenge. They’re one of my top “listen to while driving” bands.