Tag: Marc Gunn

11 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, Aurelio Voltaire

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Does anyone not know who Voltaire is?  I mean, anyone reading this Dragon*Con countdown?  I feel like Voltaire is one of those Dragon*Con staples, like the Crüxshadows, or Emerald Rose.  He’s sort of a folksy-macabre-storyteller singer (and he also does movies and comics and TV and toys, he’s pretty busy).  I guess, to me, he’s sort of like Marc Gunn in that I can see his appeal, but I don’t really get it?  I went to Voltaire’s show in 2010 and it was certainly entertaining enough, he’s very charismatic and puts on a great live show, but I wasn’t inspired to go out and buy a CD afterward.  But props to him for having a great stage name (shout out to 10th grade English!), and great website image  (on a flaming unicorn!) and also for being Cuban American. Diversity in the house, right?  I feel like most of the previous bands I’ve profiled have been extremely white.  Also, why is there no Dragon*Con hip hop group?  This is Atlanta, how has no one crossed into sci-fi hip hop yet?  That’d be amazing.

Also, I like his top hat.  Top hats are cool.

Music time!

Everyone knows the “Brains!” song, right?

So this song is called “Riding a Black Unicorn,” which is a wonderful song title, truly.   Actually, I sort of love this song.  Voltaire has just risen in my esteem a bit.

So that’s another one of his classics.  Y’all get the idea.

I’d like to point out here that one of my friends declared “I can’t stand that guy,” when I told him that I was profiling Voltaire.  So that makes me feel a bit better about not being head over heels regarding Voltaire–although that “Riding a Black Unicorn” song is still phenomenal and I love it.

Talking points:

–Macabre-folksy singer-songwriter in a top hat

–Brains!!! (Aka Dragon*Con staple)

–RIDING A BLACK UNICORN.
One thumb up.  For the black unicorn song.

20 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, Pandora Celtica

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Pandora Celtica describes itself as (okay, deep breath here),  “a dark faerie Celtic acappella band from the land of dreams and myth. The Queens and Kings of the Fae have ordered the creation of our band that we may be a beacon of magic and high art in the mundane realms, both for the mortals and for you, our fellow Bright Beings, who make your home here.”

Hoo boy.  Okie dokie then.

I think examples like Pandora Celtica are why con-goers and nerds in general can sort of be given the side eye–IT IS SO WEIRD.  I enjoy keeping a foot in many different worlds, and a lot of people don’t even know that I’m a nerd until I open my mouth and start dropping obscure Star Trek references, but some nerds (like the members of Pandora Celtica) seem fine with keeping themselves firmly in nerd-land.  Which is cool, really, but I think the world is vast and varied and so I like the experience all sorts of different things, and I find that if I call myself “only a nerd” then people might put me into a little box.  BOXES ARE LAME.  Maybe I am putting Pandora Celtica into a box, but with a description like that how can you not?  Also, at a certain point I believe that men just need to cut their hair.  Sorry (not sorry).

ALSO THE WEBSITE IS ALL IN COMIC SANS AND COMIC SANS IS A TERRIBLE FONT IT IS ALMOST AS BAD AS PAPYRUS.  Ungh, comic sans is just such a disaster.

I know, I haven’t even listened to their music yet.  Truth: that description has already biased me against the band. Aside from the over-earnest fae stuff, the acapella band is just…I can’t.   I stopped liking acapella after I left college (because every college has an acapella group, yeah?)–not a comment on talent, mind you, because there are many talented acapella groups.  Just, again, not my thing.   Like, I’m sure there’s some irony in all of this, it is just hard to see on the internets.  I mean, I hope there is some irony?  Please have some good, healthy, self-aware irony?  Who knows.  Here is their Dragon*Con profile if you are interested.

All right.  Let us listen to some music.  Sigh.

So Ren-Fest.

Oh-so Ren-Fest.

So, that’s them hosting ModernPagan.TV, which I think tells you all you need to know.

Yeah, this just isn’t for me guys.  This is sort of like the Marc Gunn post: I acknowledge what Pandora Celtica does, I respect that other people like it, we are all entitled to our own opinions, and this music just isn’t to my taste: my opinion is “NOPE.”

Talking points:

–“HAIL TO THEE BRIGHT BEINGS.”

—Fairy faerie acapella band.

–So Ren-Fest.  SO REN-FEST.

Two thumbs down.  Beware the sparkly fairy magic.

26 Days to Dragon*Con Band Profile, Marc Gunn

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So according to Marc Gunn‘s Dragon*Con profile, he calls himself the “Celtfather”  Celtic music is Marc Gunn’s deal.  If you like Celtic music, read on.  If not, well, I’m guessing you don’t frequent the Pern or Filk or Tolkien tracks at Dragon*Con.   I don’t like Celtic music.  I’m just going to put that out there.

Did you watch the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics?  I did!  I loved it, despite people being all “WAH IT WASN’T BEIJING,” which, hello, nothing can be Beijing, and also it was SO. BRITISH in all the best ways.  I also really loved when the children’s choirs from the England., Wales, Scotland, and Ireland sang traditional songs from their countries.  Marc Gunn does a bit of this–the difference is, I don’t tear up with emotion (the children, guys, the children all united!) when Marc Gunn sings “Danny Boy.”

I am really into neo-folk music: Fleet Foxes, Joanna Newsom, Decemberists, Beirut.  But these all have a bit of winky irony to them, and also move forward with their genre.  Marc Gunn is firmly–from what I can tell, correct me if I am wrong as I am literally being introduced to his music today–in the un-ironic, actual folk-song camp.  I mean, check out this video: the long hair and the pirates and the kilts and the autoharp (which makes me think of the incomparable Catherine O’Hara in A Mighty Wind).

Guys, it is so Ren Fest!  And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you like that, but I can only do it in very small doses.  So here is another small dose:

Okay so that was about cats.  I like cats.  I don’t think I liked that?

One more, just to see if I can handle it:

So that’s from Dragon*Con 2011 and, um…no, no I still don’t like it.  I take back my earlier statement about him not having any irony–I think it is there, it just isn’t really my kind of irony.  Or sarcasm.  I like things with snark and no, there’s no snark here.  He has a nice voice, and he’s clearly good at what he does, but it just isn’t for me at all.

Talking points:

–A man and his autoharp

—Utilikilt

–Celtfather

Two thumbs down.  I’m sorry, Marc Gunn, I am sure you have a very large following, I’m just not going to be a part of it.