Tag: Musical ensemble

17 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, The Aeronauts

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Aiden Sinclair is a magician, not a band, so I won’t be profiling him, but this is the link to his website and this is the link to his Dragon*Con profile.

The Aeronauts have a very brief Dragon*Con profile (what’s the deal with that y’all), so I’ll just quote it all here: “The Aeronauts were formed on an idea of creative a fun visual performance that equals their musical performance. Since formed in Nashville in ’08, they’ve grown in number of members, costumes, balloons, allies, and an even bigger number of fans. They want everyone to join in their adventure across the world and join in the fight against the boring!”  I haven’t even Googled them yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to fall into the “Steampunk band” category.

Here’s a link to their Facebook page and yes, it does look like they are Steampunk, but I am loving the picture of them in normal clothes THANK YOU FOR NOT PUTTING YOURSELVES IN A BOX (and I totally love that one of the guys is in what looks like a paisley-print sarong).

I love costumes, and I love balloons, and adventures are pretty great too, so let us see if I will like their music:

That’s the song they wrote for Steampunk Boba Fett.  I like it a lot but I’d like to more if they weren’t wearing Steampunk clothes.  LET THE NASHVILLE BLUES/ROCK STAND ON ITS OWN MAN.  LET IT STAND.

That’s the only other video of them that I could easily find–I also like that they have a female bassist.

Ungh, so many “Steampunk” bands y’all.  Talking points:

–Steampunk band from Nashville…

–…Since they are from Nashville they have a good musical sound…

–…but they are still Steampunk…

–…but, hey, female bassist!

Eh, one thumb up.  I wouldn’t seek them out, but if I stumbled into one of their sets I might stick around for a few songs.

thAT’

18 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, S.S. Vendetta

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S.S. Vendetta has a really short, pathetic Dragon*Con profile and also a ReverbNation profile (did you know that ReverbNation is based in Durham?  Neither did I.  I LOVE DURHAM).

So their Dragon*Con profile says the following: “Ska Punk was their core, but as they progressed further, they have become much more than that. S.S. Vendetta are serious about their music and have fun writing and playing it in the studio and at shows. They are currently writing their full length album using some from the old demos and also writing a batch of brand new songs with a completely new feel. They’re gonna try something that not a lot of people have heard. ”  I don’t understand what that last part means, that is such a broad, ambitious statement for such a short little profile.

Unnngh, time to listen to some music:

Oof.  Sounds like 6th grade.

And so does that.

I was hoping that this would be a remix of “Seize the Day” from Newsies, but no dice.  This is terrible and screamy.   I think we need to recover with some actual Newsies:

This counts for Dragon*Con because of Christian Bale amirite?

All right, talking points:

–Ska even though they say they aren’t

–Screamy ska

–Ska happened at my middle school dances y’all.

Two thumbs down, but mostly because I have a splitting headache and that music just exacerbated it.  Sorry, S.S. Vendetta.  Music is a situational thing.

 

19 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, Peter Pepper

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Peter Pepper is an adventure-punk.  On the website, this is what Peter Pepper writes: “Turn up the volume with your middle finger till the walls collapse. This is the Adventure Punk movement.”  I still don’t know what being an Adventure Punk means, but you can read the full manifesto at the bottom of the page.  It feels vaguely anarchistic so…yeah, punk.

Peter Pepper, according to his Dragon*Con profile, has a band of action-adventurers who sing to help those of us who suffer from the great whatever.  I’m going to assume that the great whatever is the general malaise and ennui that happens with every day life, but I could be wrong.

So we should listen to some music, yeah?

Oh, this might be a bit too hard for me maybe?  Jon would like it though.

Yeah, it is a little hard.  That isn’t necessarily terrible but, um, this video is sort of scary isn’t it?  It sort of feels like Korn.  You can decide whether or not that is a good thing.

Yep.  Whatever, I guess.

Talking points:

–Adventure punk!

–Sort of scary lead.  Also sort of like Korn.

–COMBAT THE ENNUI.

One thumb up.  I could take it or leave it in all honesty.

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.

23 Days to Dragon*Con: Band Profile, Megan Jean and the KFB

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Megan Jean describes herself as a “hard-touring, foot-stompin’, guitar beatin, upright lickin, washboard scratchin,’ banjo pickin’ madness with a voice like the devil herself.”  Her band, Megan Jean and the KFB, is a Charleston-based duo that from their description probably falls into the “Steampunk” music category.  They play gypsy, circus, americana, and the avant-garde style music.   Their Dragon*Con profile offers a nice little summary of their journey: NYC refugees who fled the city to settle in the Southeast, where they are now part of Charleston’s burgeoning music scene (I need to visit Charleston for serious y’all).  At first listen, their music is a little bluesier than some of the other “Steampunk” stuff I’ve heard at Con/during this band profile journey:

That’s the song that’s going to be featured in the PBS documentary in which the band is involved.

Not sure I like that song quite as much as the first one.

Or that one, for that matter–for a bit I thought it was a man singing but then I realized that Megan Jean has a very k.d. lang voice.

Check out the stand-up bass!

So if Dragon*Con were to have a blues band I’d say this would be it.

Talking points:

–NYC refugees, fled to the south.

–Steampunk via the blues.

–Stand up bass!

No thumbs–honestly this band didn’t make much of an impression on me, and in terms of female-fronted Steampunk bands I think I prefer Frenchy and the Punk.