Z's Music Corner - Christmas Edition

[ChloeTzang]

Tarja Turunen - 'Dark Christmas' from the album "Dark Christmas"

 

[ChloeTzang]

Tarja Turunen - 'White Christmas' from the album "Dark Christmas"

 

[ChloeTzang]

I won't bore you with the whole album - the songs are easy to find....

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[Kelliezgirl]

 

[YmaOHyd]

Another group I've been lucky enough to see in concert, though their set had to be cut short; the headliners threw and ego fit and delayed the whole show. Pain in the ass. Anyway. Tobi Sammet, the lead singer, performed despite the flu. He was... very sweaty, but otherwise I wouldn't have known he was sick; he did his signature jump-off-the-drum-kit-midair-splits and had some of the best crowd control and patter I've seen at a show. The drummer told me after the show that he'd lost eight pounds in 45 minutes and had to go to the hospital.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

@ChloeTzang thanks for participating, these songs are great. I love the idea of going "So your cozy, idyllic Christmas music is nice, what if Opera-Vampires though?"
Also have you heard the Sabaton song about the Christmas Truce? It has the current lead singer of Nightwish singing in the credits.

Despite my name being on the thread, I'm obviously not actually in charge or anything. I do ask though that people try to limit themselves to one song a day so everyone can keep up - honestly in part to prevent myself from going off on a tear

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Tom Lehrer - A Christmas Carol

Tom Lehrer, amazing satirical songwriter from the US, died at 97 earlier this year. He mostly ended his music career around 1970 to pursue his other job and passion, teaching maths and musical theater.

If you haven't heard his stuff, you really should go look up some more of it. 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park', 'The Old Dope Peddler', 'The Masochism Tango' and more, how could those not possibly be fun?

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Guld Jul by Gulddreng

In 2015, talented but largely unknown Danish musician, Malte Ebert wrote a song satirizing and criticizing some of the larger Danish popular artists at the time and the Danish music industry at large. He didn't want to publish it under his own name, so his alter ego Gulddreng (literally "Gold Boy") was born.

Gulddreng was himself a caricature of the overly self-absorbed, self-congratulatory, and sometimes self-destructive parts of the industry. The parody act had a fair amount of success, pissed off many stars, and got violence threats from at least one of his 'victims'. The character officially 'retired' in 2018.

 

[THBGato]

Not very Christmassy, but if anyone isn't listening to Rosalia's album Lux, I urge you to give it a go. Most exciting record since Bjork was in her 90's prime.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Amazing Grace (and more) by Victor Wooten

"But Z, Amazing Grace isn't-" It's a Christian song and I'm running on fumes here, shaddap!

Victor Wooten is one of the most amazing bass players ever. I was obsessed with this performance when I first saw it. I felt like this shouldn't be possible to do with a bass. In case you're not familiar with the mechanics of playing bass, the very high notes he's doing are called overtones or harmonics, and they're quite difficult to control.

One of the guitarists of Vulfpeck, Cory Wong, says this specific performance "gave him permission" to make the kind of music he does. If this many people would come see something like this, then maybe Cory's own ideas could find an audience too, despite being far from mainstream pop music.

 

[Actingup]

Not very Christmassy, but if anyone isn't listening to Rosalia's album Lux, I urge you to give it a go. Most exciting record since Bjork was in her 90's prime.

I agree (although I'd argue that Bjork's prime lasted into the 2010s )

 

[Z_TheWriter]

It's the day before Christmas Eve, so this felt fitting.

What's This? by Danny Elfman, from The Nightmare Before Christmas

I love the music and the characters are great, but most stop motion has always unsettled me in a very unpleasant way, so I really don't like watching this movie. I think it has something to do with my brain picking up on all the tiny details of how these are actual real physical objects, but they shouldn't be moving on their own. There's also something unsettling about things I can subconsciously tell are very small, behaving as if they're full size people or objects.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

December 24th, the primary day of celebration here. Merry Christmas everyone!

You may or may not remember me mentioning a Danish Christmas TV series about 3 anthropomorphic animals going on a mission to find Santa Claus, who is missing.
Well here it is!

Vi er på Vej til Dig Julemand, from Bamses Julerejse

Titular Bamse ('Teddy', right), Kylling ('Chicken', middle), and Ælling ('Duckling', left) entertained children in a weekly TV series for decades. It is some of the most well known and beloved Danish TV ever created.

Bamses Julerejse, 'Teddy's Christmas Journey' was first shown in December of the year I was 5 and again when I was 8 and 14. For many years this song was the Christmas song of my childhood. It translates as 'We're on the way to you, Santa Claus', and features heavily in the show.

Interesting tidbit: This isn't really explored in the show itself, but Kylling is officially gender neutral, which is kinda cool for a children's character created in 1982.

 

[Trionyx]

Merry Christmas

From the humor thread.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Canon

Merry Christmas everyone <3

No more Christmas music (from me) from tomorrow.

 

[alohadave]

 

[YmaOHyd]

Edit credits song from The Fall Guy, which is a very adorable movie. It's also a country song that's not about truck Jesus ex-wives and dogs.

 

[Trionyx]

Edit credits song from The Fall Guy, which is a very adorable movie. It's also a country song that's not about truck Jesus ex-wives and dogs.

You forgot Momma, trains and getting drunk.

 

[Z_TheWriter]

(It seems the forums finally decided to cooperate. Dunno if it will last long enough to post this. If there's no song tomorrow or for a few days, it's because the forums won't load properly for me except in very short random intervals.)

You probably know Christina Aguilera, but did you know she could do this?

Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera - A Song for You

 

[YmaOHyd]

The final song of Arjen Lucassen's rock opera The Human Equation, about a man who, after a mysterious car accident, lies in a coma for twenty days wrestling with himself. The song features, in order, [deep breath] Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon, ex-Vengeance), James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion, MaYaN), Heather Findlay (ex-Mostly Autumn), Devon Graves (ex-Psychotic Waltz, ex-Deadsoul Tribe), Irene Jansen, Eric Clayton (ex-Saviour Machine), Magnus Ekwall (The Quill), and Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth). Mike Baker (Shadow Gallery, before his unfortunate death) and Devin Townsend (Casualties of Cool, ex-Devin Townsend Project, ex-Strapping Young Lad) feature on the album but not in the song. Peter Daltrey of Kaleidoscope provides the final spoken vocals.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

 

[YmaOHyd]

Singer Luke Kelly, who wasn't Bob Dylan's hero Liam Clancy but was acknowledged as just as good (or better...?), gets the audience clapping in perfect time with two claps and one nod. Kind of an incredible display of crowd control.