In the category of Wildcard Singer, Neon Dion And The Iggy Pops select Darren Hayes.
Darren Stanley Hayes (born May 8, 1972) is an Australiansinger-songwriter. Hayes debuted in 1996 as the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden, whose 1997 album Savage Garden propelled them to stardom. It spawned the singles "I Want You", "To the Moon and Back", and the airplay number-one "Truly Madly Deeply". The duo followed the success of their debut album with Affirmation (1999), which also produced several hits such as "I Knew I Loved You", "The Animal Song" and "Crash and Burn". Savage Garden sold more than 23 million albums worldwide before parting ways in 2001.[1]
Hayes released his first solo album Spin in 2002. The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuted at #2 in the UK album charts and spawned the hit single "Insatiable". The album was supposed to continue the success of Savage Garden and make Hayes an even bigger star. However, it failed to meet the expectations of Hayes' record company at the time, despite selling several million copies worldwide. Hayes' second solo album The Tension and the Spark marked a big change of direction for the singer-songwriter, showing him experimenting with electronica and dark, depressing lyrics. This ultimately became the reason why Hayes and his record label parted ways in 2006. Hayes then started his own independent record label Powdered Sugar, from which he would release his third solo album This Delicate Thing We've Made (2007). Including his work with Savage Garden, Hayes has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide.
With the 225th Pick Girly's In-Box selects Evans Blue in the Canada category
Toronto modern hard rock quintet Evans Blue came together around 2003 after its members found each other by chance through a local musician's message board. Comprised of vocalist Matisyn, guitarists Parker Lauzon and Vlad Tanaskovic, bassist Joe Pitter, and drummer Darryl Brown, the group signed with Pocket Recordings in 2005, entering Pocket Studios with Trevor Kustiak (Cool for August) soon after. The result was their debut, The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume, jointly released in February 2006 by Pocket and Hollywood Records. A spring tour supporting Taproot followed, during which Brown left unannounced, to later be replaced by Davis Howard. In July 2007 the band's second album, The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends, hit shelves. Corey Apar, All Music Guide
The Pursuit:
Over:
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First I will pick Andres Segovia in the Instrumental Soloist category.
Quote:
Andrés Torres Segovia, 1st Marquess of Salobreña (21 February 1893–2 June 1987) was a Spanish classical guitarist born in Linares, Jaén, Spain. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures of the classical guitar in the beginning and mid 20th century. Segovia's main musical aesthetic preferences were Spanish romantic and Spanish nationalist music of the late 19th and early 20th century - a style different from flamenco. Many works of this style were written especially for him and formed part of his core repertoire, e.g. the guitar works of Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982).
And for my final pick in the Keyboard/Piano category I'll take Richard Wright
Quote:
Richard William "Rick" Wright (28 July 1943 – 15 September 2008) was a pianist and keyboardist best known for his career with Pink Floyd.[1] Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound. In addition, Wright frequently sang background and occasionally lead vocals onstage and in the studio with Pink Floyd (most notably on the songs "Time", "Echoes", and on the Syd Barrett composition "Astronomy Domine").
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"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
With my last selection team Hot Banana Thrust is happy to select by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the category of Song:
This is the Place
"I don't want to do it
Like my daddy did
I don't want to give it
To my baby's kid"
This verse refers to Blackie Dammet, Anthony's father with whom he moved in with when he was 13. Blackie got Anthony started on speed around age 13! Anthony used to come to school after not sleeping for days and still be up and running...
"On the day my best friend died
I could not get my copper clean"
When Hillel Slovak died Anthony didnt show at his funeral. Jack Irons (the Chili's drummer at the time), famously said "Hillel will only be the first" at the funeral.
Anthony rented a boathouse for three months, bought lots of food and water, then locked himself in and took his supposed last hit of heroin. He also wrote the song "Taste the Pain" in there.
Anthony said in an interview with Rolling Stone that by now, probably every one of his genes was encoded with drug addiction. He's afraid that if he ever has children they'll lead the life he did (don't want to take it up with little joe/ do it like my daddy did). He's spurred to these thougts by revisiting his past and seeing how low he went (all the devils plead) and doesn't want to give it to his kids.
With the 18th selection for Hanna Sniper's EC and the G-String Band, selects in the "Wildcard Band" Category is 1970's supergroup Derek and the Dominoes
Members
Eric Clapton
Bobby Whitlock
Carl Radle
Jim Gordon
Duane Allman
Quote:
Derek and the Dominos were a blues-rock supergroup formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends.
The band released only one studio album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which featured prominent contributions from guest guitarist Duane Allman[1] from the Allman Brothers Band. The album went on to receive critical acclaim, but initially faltered in sales and in radio airplay. Although released in 1970 it was not until March 1972 that the album's single "Layla" (a tale of unrequited love inspired by Clapton's relationship with his friend George Harrison's then wife, Pattie Boyd Harrison) would make the top ten in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album, which has received praise from both critics and fans alike, is often considered to be the defining achievement of Clapton's career.
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With my 18th round Pick, scwf's Creeping Death is extremey proud to select in the “World” category, a little metal group out of Sweden - Meshuggah
Quote:
Offering a complex form of metal that combined the sweeping adverturism of math rock, the oddball tempos of experimental jazz, and the stunning brutality of thrash metal, Meshuggah raised the bar for metal bands everywhere upon their debut. The roots of Swedish metal band Meshuggah were planted in 1985; originally named Metallien, the founding line-up included frontman Roger Olofsson, guitarists Peder Gustafsson and Fredrik Tordendahl, bassist Janne Wiklund and drummer Örjan Lundmark. After a few demos made the rounds, Metallien broke up and Fredrik Thordendal continued the band with a different lineup and a different name. The original lineup of Meshuggah also included vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarist Johan Sjögren, bassist Jörgen Lindmark and drummer Per Sjögren. A handful of demos followed before Kidman left the group to form a new outfit, Calipash, with guitarist Torbjörn Granström, bassist Peter Nordin and drummer Niclas Lundgren; the surviving members of Meshuggah soon disbanded, and when Granström left Calipash, Thordendal assumed guitar duties in the new band. Kidman and Thordendal then agreed to reclaim the Meshuggah name, and in 1989 the band released a three-song mini-LP; after signing to Nuclear Blast (and swapping Lundgren for new drummer Tomas Haake), they issued the full-length Contradictions Collapse in 1991. Second guitarist Mårten Hagström was recruited for 1993's None EP, followed two years later by Selfcaged; in the interim, however, the group was forced to maintain a low profile — first Thordendal severed a finger in a carpentry accident, then Haake injured his hand in a mysterious grinder mishap. Destroy Erase Improve appeared later in 1995, and won over critics with their heady tempos and abstract approach. In 1997 Meshuggah returned with The True Human Design EP; that same year, Thordendal's side project, Special Defects, released their LP Sol Niger Within. Meshuggah reunited for 1998's Chaosphere, a thunderous album that was unbearably dense in its songwriting and scope. Several successful tours followed, and their incredible abilities were starting to get recognized by mainstream music magazines, especially those dedicated to particular instruments. Once they left the touring circuit, the band was surprisingly quiet, cooking up new material for a few years while on a rarities disc marked the time. But in the summer of 2002, they released Nothing, a masterpiece of atmosphere that added psychedelic touches to their ever tightening sound. Unique in almost every way, the album didn't make much of a mainstream impact but had metal fans banging their heads to 7/4 tempos and esoteric lyrics. A good word from Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack scored the band a spot on the annual Ozzfest tour, where they flourished on the second stage, often stealing the show with their original and savage math metal. After a brief break, Meshuggah released the I EP in 2004. Composed of a single epic track, the complex arrangements of I were just a hint of what was to follow. Their next album, Catch Thirty-Three, was released the following year and proved to be their most ambitious to date. 2006 saw the remastered re-release of Nothing with a bonus DVD. The same year, Meshuggah returned to the studio to record the album that would become obZen, their sixth, which was released in March of 2008 in advance of a world tour that began in the United States as the opening slot for Ministry's final jaunt before moving to Europe, Asia, and Australia as a headliner.
Congratulations to all the participants for an enjoyable draft and a big thank you to GS for organizing this.
With my final pick in the draft, troutman's K-Tel Sound Explosion selects in the song category, from Vienna, Austria, Johann Strauss Jr, for THE BLUE DANUBE WALTZ:
This song is special to me for many reasons, chief among them, my first dance at my wedding with Mrs. troutman, was the Blue Danube Waltz. Aeneas's fiancee and my sister-in-law helped me practice the steps for the big day:
We were married in this castle in Budingen, Germany:
Johann Strauss Jr.'s status as an internationally recognized Austrian icon began with the success of his waltz, An der schönen, blauen Donau (The Blue Danube Waltz), at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. The Austrians, still smarting from their military defeat at the hands of the Prussians at Königgrätz in July of 1866, whole-heartedly supported Strauss's music; when the Blue Danube achieved a resounding success at the Paris exhibition, the Viennese felt they had shown the French that Austria, despite its recent military setback, was still an important cultural force. Writers even described Strauss's triumph with military imagery, calling Strauss a "Napoleon among composers."
Strauss's international triumph in Paris makes it easy to forget that this was neither the first performance of the Blue Danube, nor representative of the piece's original conception. Composed for the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men's Singing Society), the waltz was originally scored for four-part choir and orchestra or piano. Josef Weyl (1821-1895) supplied the text; it was in this version that the world first heard the Blue Danube waltz on February 15, 1867, sung by the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, and accompanied by the orchestra of the Forty-Second Infantry Regiment, directed by Rudolf Weinwurm. The waltz was first performed without voices probably on March 4, 1867, and was certainly played in its familiar format on March 10, 1867, at a benefit concert for Strauss's brothers.
The title An der schönen, blauen Donau may have been derived from a poem by Karl Beck (1817-1879) entitled, An der Donau; the poem, Die feindlichen Brüder also contains the line, "An der schönen, blauen Donau liegt mein Dörfchen still und fein." Strauss sold the Blue Danube for only 250fl. to Carl Anton Spina (1827-1906), who published the work in 1867. Spina realized an exceptional return on his investment.
Like most of Strauss's waltzes, the Blue Danube features five distinct "mini-waltzes," each with two sections. To modern listeners, the slow introduction to the Blue Danube is the ultimate tease, delaying what seemingly all of us know in our sleep. At the Paris exhibition, however, the opening probably produced a different effect: a heightened sense of anticipation, and curiosity about when the actual dance will begin. Even after the orchestra reaches a waltz tempo there still is no real tune, and the music seems to amble without aim.
Strauss's wealth of melodic material provides great contrast; waltz sections featuring melodies with large leaps give way to those with linear tunes within a narrow range. Quarter-note motion is juxtaposed with eighth-note motion and, of course, there are contrasting keys. The D major first waltz follows an introduction on the dominant, A major, while the second half of the second is in B flat and the entire fourth waltz is in F. The coda partially summarizes the entire piece, revisiting the first part of Waltzes two and four (again in F), and then Waltz one in D. Variations of the first waltz precede the work's rousing close.
I also love how this song was featured in the greatest movie of all time IMO:
__________________
"The problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence."
—Bill Clinton
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
—Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, former Librarian of Congress
"But the Senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity"
—WKRP in Cincinatti
Very nice pick Troutman. The universal recognition of that piece of music is a statement to what a great composition it is.
If I had the guts to take a classical piece I might have taken Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries. That one gets me.
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