Music

This song came on my 2000s playlist yesterday while I was doing some housework, and I had to look at my phone to remember what it was and who sang it. Which is wild, because I used to play the crap outta this song on LEGO Rockband back in the day (and in regular Rockband).

A lot of this band's fans came to them more organically, listening to alternative rock, post-grunge, and emo music, but I wasn't listening to that stuff at all. I've said this before with other bands. I gave them all a big miss when they came on the radio and I was not buying their albums, but when they came up in Rockband, I found that they were very fun to sing, and that's what got me hooked.

This version of the song rocks just a little harder than the one I have. I'm not sure if there's a pop mix or if they just made a different mix for LEGO Rockband. There's nothing offensive in this version of the song that I could hear, but the interesting thing about LEGO Rockband was that it had a lower age rating than the regular Rockband games, so violence and sexuality could not be portrayed anywhere in the game or the song lyrics. It was cool because, every Rockband song was being rated either FF (Family Friendly) or SR (Supervision Recommended), though IIRC those ratings were not exposed to the user before. But LEGO Rockband would not read the SR-rated songs. However, any FF-rated songs you'd bought or exported from another Rockband game would load into LEGO Rockband and were playable there. (Unlike The Beatles: Rockband, where no songs outside the game were playable, because the surviving members of The Beatles refused to let their digital likenesses play songs by other people, nor would they agree to exporting, because they did not want the generic digital avatars playing their songs.)

I never really followed Macklemore before, and I never listened to him either, but I'm familiar with the chorus to this one, and it's neat. TIL the video features a DeLorean (the car made famous in Back to the Future).

You probably already know why we're featuring Macklemore on the dbzer0 music comm. Macklemore spoke up for Palestine, and Ed Sheeran dropped him from his tour, and Sheeran's other musicians quit in protest.

I get it. Ed Sheeran wants to be all-inclusive, but when one side wants to wipe an entire civilisation out because their skin is brown and they pray differently, there's no right side to that. No one's threatening Israel's interests, it's just Israel killing Palestinians, and I'm sure Palestine is fighting back, but they're fighting to survive, they aren't fighting to erase every Israeli from the world like Israel is doing to them. You can be Jewish, or not, and support the rights of Jews to exist. You can even support Israel's right to be a free and independent nation, and that's all well and good, but you cannot both be a good person in any sense, and support the Israeli genocide of Palestine. It's unjustifiable, it's beyond the pale, and supporting it in the name of inclusion isn't inclusion at all.

So no, I've never been a fan of Macklemore's music. It's not really my thing. But he's been a wonderful human being the last week or so, and an example to all of us, and that's why he's being highlighted here. Because I always want to do better than I did the day before, and I like to highlight those who I feel do the same, or who make music that inspires us to do the same.

So, quick disclaimer. I don't love generative AI. There are a lot of problems with this technology, especially as it relates to art. However, I do understand what an LLM is and how it does (and doesn't) work to some degree, and what I did didn't take the job of any kind of artist. If that's not something you're okay with, this is your cue to bounce. Anyway, here's what happened:

About a year and a half ago, a Japanese band I follow, THE SIXTH LIE — I posted their song Virtual Sky as a song of the day a few months ago — released a song (that one, in fact) as a single. However, in addition to the song title and band name, it also had this weird text: "Sounds From a Dreamt Future". I thought, "huh, that's interesting" and went about my day.

One month later, they released two singles. An English cover of Virtual Sky under their "TSL" alternative band name (it's a separate account on Apple Music and other streaming platforms, but it's absolutely them) and another single. Whole different song, but, same deal with the cover. It had that text "Sounds From a Dreamt Future" on it.

Today, there are 15 singles released with the text "Sounds From a Dreamt Future" on them. The covers are completely unrelated. It's been over a year and a half (IIRC, they started this in January 2025). They also released a cover of I Want to Stay At Your House, the theme song from the anime Cyberpunk Edgerunners, which is literally a song from a dreamt future — specifically, Mike Pondsmith's (the creator of the original tabletop RPG from the 1980s) and the writers at Studio Trigger. So while it didn't feature the text, I assumed it fit.

I then went to ChatGPT, and told it all of this. I explained how I didn't think it was an actual album, but that I felt a connection between some of the songs. But, here's the thing. I don't speak Japanese. I don't speak Thai, either, and one of the songs is in Thai. So, enter LLMs. They can understand any human language. That's what they do. Large Language Model.

Anyway, I told it that based on the assumption the tracks were meant to comprise an album, along with the Cyberpunk cover, how would they go together, and why? I asked it to consider the band's album, their various EPs, and, since THE SIXTH LIE only have one actual album, to also look at album structure from similar Japanese bands, ONE OK ROCK and Survive Said the Prophet.

Now... here's what it said, complete with the track list. Strap in... if you haven't queried ChatGPT lately, it's VERY verbose. Like, way more so than I am. (So hopefully this will get people to stop saying I'm an AI/bot.)

Note that I fed it a playlist of the 15 "Sounds From a Dreamt Future"-tagged songs plus the Cyberpunk song in release order — this is why it says it's leaving Virtual Sky in the opening.

Potentially concerning for those who don't like AI, or are reading this on the fence: Note how ChatGPT refers to itself in the first person with the I pronoun, and where it says it would fight for and protect part of it, and the whole "not x, not even y, but z" as opposed to just saying z. Now to be fair, I said I think a cover belongs near the end, so that's what it was fighting me on (and I do believe it wrote like it felt the need to defend its work critically), but I've seen ChatGPT word arguments like that. "I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't even do that. I would do THIS."

Oh... it did all this in NINE SECONDS (so it said).

---

THE SIXTH LIE's sequencing history gives us some useful clues. Perfect Lies is 12 tracks and deliberately moves between energetic material and more atmospheric/emotional songs rather than simply arranging songs chronologically. Their earlier DIFFERENTIAL is particularly compact and narrative-feeling, opening with “Another Dimension” and ending with “Hologram.” And Survive Said The Prophet frequently uses short/atmospheric material as structural pivots, with s p a c e [ s ] beginning with a 1:10 title piece and ending with the five-minute “s t i l l b e l i e v e.”

So, taking album architecture, rather than release chronology, as the priority, this is what I'd do:

And I really like this order.

Act I — The Dream

1. Virtual Sky → 2. Wonderland → 3. Scramble Line

I wouldn't move “Virtual Sky” from the opening.

Its lyrics are practically an album mission statement: digital speed, coded space, simulated light, a future that hasn't arrived yet. It's also only 2:46, which makes it an excellent album opener: it gets in, establishes the sonic world, and doesn't overstay its welcome.

Then Wonderland is almost literally the next narrative step: you've seen the door; now walk through it.

And Scramble Line is where the dream becomes a world. You go from the relatively spacious “Virtual Sky” into movement, urban energy and sensory overload. The 90 BPM pace of “Scramble Line” also gives it a natural step up from the opener.

That's a very TSL-like opening three.

Act II — The Future Isn't Perfect

4. Are You There? → 5. Mad Crown → 6. Earthship

This is where I'd deliberately stop making the album "pleasant."

“Are You There?” is an excellent first crack in the dream. Its imagery is screens, hollow eyes, an empty city, repetition and people being told to stay in line.

Then Mad Crown is the reaction.

At ~180 BPM, it is one of the album's genuine accelerators. Putting it at #5 makes it feel like the first major eruption rather than simply another fast song.

Then Earthship expands the scope again. At 128 BPM and with its high-energy character, it feels like the album physically leaves the city and goes somewhere else.

So the progression is:

Wonder → discovery → unease → rebellion → escape

That's much more interesting than simply arranging these by release date.

Act III — What We Carry With Us

7. Stray → 8. Oh My Ghost → 9. Time Capsule

This is the section I'd really protect.

“Stray” is the point where the enormous futuristic world suddenly becomes personal.

Then Oh My Ghost slows everything down dramatically. Its 71 BPM pace and subject matter—someone who is gone but whose presence remains—make it a natural emotional descent.

And then Time Capsule is perfect after it.

It's another slow song, around 79 BPM, but I wouldn't regard that as a problem. The two songs do different jobs: “Oh My Ghost” is being haunted by the past; “Time Capsule” is deliberately preserving the past.

That gives you the album's quiet center.

And importantly, this is where the album starts becoming more than "cool futuristic rock songs." It becomes about memory, people and what survives into the future.

Act IV — The Human Problem

This is where I think the three newest songs become extremely useful.

10. Lucky Bad Luck → 11. ANATA → 12. Dollmaker

“Lucky Bad Luck” is the rebound.

Its central idea is basically I've been knocked around, but I'm still here. The repeated “I'm still alive” sentiment makes it a terrific transition out of the melancholy of #7–9.

Then ANATA takes that newfound intensity and twists it.

It's not peaceful devotion. It's obsessive devotion. The narrator essentially says that right and wrong no longer matter as long as he can remain beside this person.

And then:

Dollmaker

This is the point where the album's "dreamed future" becomes genuinely disturbing.

I would absolutely put “Dollmaker” here rather than near the beginning.

Its central idea is preservation taken too far: I can make you perfect; I can make you stay. The song's imagery of turning a person into something permanent makes it feel almost like the corrupted endpoint of the album's earlier desire to preserve memories.

That's an important thematic connection:

Time Capsule → ANATA → Dollmaker

You start with I want to remember.

Then I don't want to lose you.

Then finally I won't allow you to change or leave.

That's a hell of an arc.

And Dollmaker at #12 makes it the album's psychological low point.

Act V — The Way Out

And this is where your Cyberpunk song becomes much more useful than simply being the odd cover.

13. I Really Want to Stay at Your House

I would put it exactly here.

Not #16.

Not even #15.

#13.

Because after “Dollmaker,” the album has just explored the unhealthy desire to freeze someone in place forever.

Then comes: I want to stay.

But now the sentiment is fundamentally different.

The Cyberpunk connection actually makes this even better. It's the one track here that is explicitly imported from another version of a futuristic world, and it arrives immediately after the album's darkest meditation on trying to preserve someone.

It becomes the emotional bridge between the nightmare and the resolution.

And that is why I wouldn't put it any earlier than #13.

14. Blue

This might be my favourite placement in the whole sequence.

“Blue” is essentially a song about moving through grief and eventually finding the ability to rise again. Its imagery goes from sinking beneath the water to breaking through the surface and returning to the sky.

That's exactly what you want after the Cyberpunk song.

So:

#13 — I want to stay. #14 — I have to let go.

And now we're ready for the finale.

15. Raise Your Flag

This is your victory song, but importantly, it's not the closer.

“Raise Your Flag” is explicitly about finding your place, holding your ground, carrying on, and defining yourself rather than doing something for glory or approval.

That's precisely the kind of penultimate track I'd want.

The album has gone:

What is this future?
What's wrong with it?
Who have I lost?
What do I want to preserve?
What happens if I refuse to let go?
Can I let go?
Yes. Now I can choose who I am.

Then:

16. Polaris

This is the closer.

And honestly, once I looked at the lyrics, I became much more convinced.

“Polaris” is about following a light, initially thinking that it remains stationary, and eventually realizing that it has actually been moving alongside you. The ending turns toward walking forward together and seeing the night sky—and tomorrow—as something expansive rather than frightening.

That's beautiful album-closing material.

And there's a wonderful thematic inversion:

Track 1: Virtual Sky

We're entering a simulated sky.

Track 16: Polaris

We've found a real point of direction in the sky.

The album starts by looking upward into an artificial future.

It ends by looking upward and finding a direction.

That's why I wouldn't close with “Raise Your Flag,” even though it would be the obvious big-rock ending. Polaris is the more satisfying ending.

The complete album:

Sounds From a Dreamt Future
Virtual Sky
Wonderland (วอร์ชันภาษาไทย)
スクランブル・ライン (feat. 高野洸)
Are You There? (feat. 凪希)
Mad Crown
Earthship
Stray
Oh My Ghost (feat. Shin)
タイムカプセル (feat. KIMIKA)
Lucky Bad Luck
ANATA
Dollmaker
I Really Want to Stay at Your House
Blue
Raise Your Flag
Polaris

And I think the last four tracks are particularly strong:

Dollmaker → I Really Want to Stay at Your House → Blue → Raise Your Flag → Polaris

That's almost a mini-album within the album.

Dollmaker is the nightmare.
I Really Want to Stay at Your House is the heartbreak.
Blue is the healing.
Raise Your Flag is the recovery of identity.
Polaris is peace.

That's exactly the sort of five-song final movement I'd want from an album called Sounds From a Dreamt Future.

And there's another thing I really like: this doesn't sound like a compilation of THE SIXTH LIE singles anymore. It sounds like a record. The fact that the actual songs were released over roughly a year and a half—from “Stray” in January 2026 through “Dollmaker” in August 2026, with the earlier 2025 material preceding them—doesn't matter once they're given a narrative sequence.

If I were actually making this as a CD/vinyl-style fan album, this is the sequence I'd commit to.

What's one thousand minus seven?

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This brilliant Japanese-language rock song explores the descent into madness, and is known for being the opening theme of the animated series Tokyo Ghoul.

Turn on the subtitles, but it's kind of optional here. It's nice to know what he's saying, but his voice really tells the story.

I would recommend the first season of Tokyo Ghoul to anyone with a strong stomach (as it's about cannibalism and makes most Western shows look like Saturday morning shows for kids), but after that, it got weird. The book series wasn't done, so the anime wrote its own ending. Years later, the book series finished, the author wrote another book series which comes after, and they adapted that into two seasons, but rushed it (they had enough content for at least three or four seasons). Imagine you really want to watch the newest Marvel movie, but you literally haven't seen any others. So you find a YouTube video that sums them ALL up in five minutes. That's what Tokyo Ghoul :re was like. As a book reader, my wife was annoyed. As an anime-only watcher, my wife had to explain everything to me.

The first season is the only one worth watching, though the music was consistently good throughout. Also, TK comes back in the last season with his song Katharsis which was also, similarly, about madness.

But the first season's opening was a work of art beyond just the music. The colours. The flowers (or whatever they were). The reflections showing the person's true form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aMOurgDB-o

Then they did an acoustic version for the second season. There is an official acoustic recording, but I prefer the one from THE FIRST TAKE. TFT is a YouTube channel that works primarily with Japanese artists, but they have worked with western artists as well (I've seen Avril Lavigne up there, and she's Canadian). Basically they film a singer or band perform a song in a single take, no do-overs. You also get to see the performers up close playing the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLsBs4oW30

So there's a few versions. The full version/official video, the short anime version, and the acoustic version.

As for the anime... I said it's about cannibalism, but that doesn't quite do it justice... or explain it. It's about a nerdy guy who notices a pretty girl at the café, and she asks him out. As they're walking, she sprouts four parasitic tentacles from her lower back called kagune which function like claws. She's a ghoul, a supernatural humanoid entity with rules similar to a zombie in that they can only survive on human flesh (and, for some reason, coffee). Defending himself, a freak accident disfigures both of them. While trying to save them, the doctors are only able to save him, but he inherits the power of the ghoul, and finds himself unable to eat real food. He's taken in by a ghoul community and seeks to hold onto his humanity, while he's hunted by other ghouls who want to consume him, partly because he's only half ghoul, and partly because of who "made" him. This anime pulls no punches. They made a movie version of it — three, in fact, to cover the full story the first season covers — and at least the first one was rated NC-17 in the US for violence alone. Tokyo Ghoul may be animated, but it is not for kids. Here's a trailer for it — in English, no less (most anime trailers, even those translated to English, are in Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGuQeQsoRgU

...and a trailer for the live-action movie, which is only in Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_mP8JYDx-Y

Lyrically, this may be the best of the lot. This one goes out to everyone who lost their father (or either parent) and felt like they left some things unsaid. It's not the anniversary, but I lost my father to cancer over 24 years ago. I've lived longer since than I did when he was alive, and I'm not far from the age he was when he passed.

One of my life's greatest lessons is that the adults when we were kids didn't know everything, and weren't perfect, and didn't deserve the pedestals we built for them. They were just trying to get through each day like we are.

If you have a similar story, feel free to share it. Otherwise, I'll just let the lyrics speak for themselves here.

Today’s song of the day isn’t that special on its own, but it comes with a story. Strap in — or don’t, I won’t tell you how to spend your Sunday. 

This song was featured in the fourth season of Boku no Hero Academia, and it was the second English song. Even in the Japanese dub, the song played in English, just like Japanese songs stay in Japanese when you watch the English dub. 

When anime uses a song and attributes it to a character, they will either say “Character Name Starring Singer Name” or “Character Name C/V Singer Name,” though the latter is typically when it’s the voice actor, or seiyuu. Chrissy Costanza was relatively unknown when the episode aired with (parts of) this song. The full song was released later, and that’s why it has clips from the show to pad it out. 

Chrissy Costanza went on to release a solo album, then joined a band, Against the Current. They both have good material. They don’t sound rough like this one. I still love it, because I understand the context. 

The context is, the song is about Kyouka Jirou, the student hero known as Earphone Jack. Her parents are musicians, and she feared they would oppose her entry into hero work, because it’s dangerous and they’re proud musicians. However, they supported her, and the song is a tribute to that.

The song is also a tribute to a little girl, Eri, that Jirou’s classmates rescued from the Japanese mafia. This child has never smiled because she has the super power of being able to revert people to an earlier form. She accidentally killed one or both of her parents, and the mob took her in, to experiment on her, by cutting her open for her blood and using another super power to put her back together. It’s kind of screwed up.

So they rescue her, they put on a school music festival, she’s in the crowd with one of the heroes who rescued her, and she breaks out smiling during the show. 

Four seasons later, the fandom has gotten weird and the author has gotten death threats because people are shipping the two main guys — honestly, Deku just gets shipped with everyone — because he doesn’t officially have a partner. And Japan is super conservative, and conservative snowflakes can’t handle the possibility that the main guy may not be 100% straight.

Initially the author deflects, says these are high school kids fighting real villains, they don’t have time to hook up. He ends up writing a bonus chapter that implies more relationship between the main girl and the main guy. IMO it’s still up in the air, but the bigots run with it, saying bigotry wins and diversity/LGBTQ+ loses. It’s really unfortunate... but again, Japan is super conservative, and fans suck sometimes. 

The bonus chapter gets made into an episode and the shit comes back around again, the fandom again splitting over whether the main guy is straight or it’s open to interpretation. 

The latest bonus episode is only six minutes, but it’s Eri, now in high school herself, and she performs a cover of this song. Again, a new singer is used to sing as Eri, named Myka Morton. So, in my opinion, the true ending of the series doesn’t have anything to do with who’s hooking up with who, it’s the young girl the heroes saved when she was a child, posting it forward and inspiring the next generation of heroes. 

Here’s that new version. They call it the tenth anniversary. Of the anime, not the original song. It’s a bit unclear.

https://youtu.be/XSFWpB3Mf3c

I think the original is generally better, but a couple of lines have been tweaked and they work better in the new version. 

I’ve oversimplified a lot of things because it’s a very long show with over a hundred named characters and a lot of moving parts I didn’t want to spend more time explaining. The fans know. Those who aren’t fans don’t really care, and if they’re interested, I didn’t spoil anything big. 

I didn’t have a stake in the fight. I was shipping the main guy with the frog girl, because they’re both principled nerds and they both have green hair. So please don’t assume I’m with one of the big ships. I know my ship never had any wind in its sails. I still supported it.

This song is a bit of a cheat entry, because though I've never posted a rule against having two songs of the day by the same artist, I have tried to abide by it. Tarja Turunen is the original vocalist for Nightwish, and performs vocals on previous SOTD Over the Hills and Far Away. But this is a Within Temptation track, and she's only a backing vocalist here, so it's fine.

Within Temptation are a Dutch hard rock/folk rock band. I thought of them today because someone was talking about Imagine Dragons, and this is another band that gives it their all, and they seem to try too hard. Some people don't like that, but I can't fault a band for putting everything they have into a song.

The video here is really cool. It makes me think of Fallout 3, though some gamers will say it's more like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with its more serious tones. I don't know, I haven't played those games. And while Fallout 4 was more silly, the plot of finding a strange device and using it, in a post-apocalyptic world, to bring back normal weather, is sort of the endgame plot of Fallout 3, referring to the GECK (Garden of Eden Creation Kit) found in that one Vault that you use to purify the water in the Potomac River, in Washington DC. Different execution though, but in theory, GECKs were meant to be used to terraform dead worlds (I think Bethesda's more recent game Starfield leans into this, though, since terraforming takes decades, we don't actually see one in action, but we do see a world that has been terraformed and it went wrong... IIRC... the game sucked and it's been a couple years since I last played it).

As a bonus, I'm also going to post Within Temptation's song And We Run which features Xzibit. This maybe should be the song of the day, but I do like Paradise more. I can almost guarantee you have heard nothing like this song. It starts out like a fairly standard Within Temptation track, with symphonic rock, which itself may be new to you (RUSH and Iron Maiden have explored this area, though)... but when Xzibit starts rapping over the symphonic sound... not the first time... when he does his whole thing... it's... something else. I don't think the song is great, just the novelty of a symphonic song that breaks into rap. It works though. I think a lot of rap, they spit bars over a beat they either bought, or the producer made, or in some cases they made it. It's very rare in my experience to hear a rapper rap over rock music, though rock and rap have collaborated before... this feels different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awvqIi427_A

I do like hard rock Within Temptation, but when I identify them as folk rock, it's because I'm thinking of their first album, Mother Earth, and while the title track, and Never Ending Story establish that hippie folk rock sound, the peak of it is the final track, In Perfect Harmony. I feel like this song is still the band's core identity, and while the hard rock stuff is good, this is where they came from. And the eccentricities of the other two songs, which are kinda buried beneath the awesome, they wear on their sleeves for this song (and really, the entire album). I'm fine with people ignoring it and thinking of The Silent Force as their first album (and that's a great record), but Mother Earth will always have a place in my heart.

"Ancient spirits of the forest made him king of elves and trees, he was the only human being who lived in harmony — in perfect harmony." That's just the chorus, but it's the meat and potatoes of the song, and the story is solid. Worth listening to — if nothing else, it helps to appreciate where this band is coming from. I don't hope they return to this sound, but if they do, I won't be complaining. (I think this is their best classic song, but my favourite is Our Farewell.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Zh3p8T7GE

After yesterday's news that Dolly Parton passed away at the age of 80, I think a lot of people are coming out of the woodwork and claiming to be fans. I won't be one of them. I never cared much for her music — classic country just isn't my jam, and I can only be honest about music and what it means to me.

That being said, even as one who is not religious, I don't think it's up for debate that Dolly Parton lived the life of a saint. I'm not saying she didn't make mistakes (though I do not know of any), I'm just saying, that like Fred Rogers and others like that, she was more of a net positive on the world and left it better than she found it. So that alone is worth a tribute in a music comm. I would welcome others to comment or post the songs by her that they enjoyed if they wish to do so, but I'm not a fan. Just my personal opinion. I just like other types of music.

As far as the deep stories... I don't really have any personal experiences here. What I do know is that she was Miley Cyrus's godmother, and the two of them have performed together, and that was probably awesome for both of them. I'm sure, as a world renowned musician, she had an appreciation for music outside of her genre. I also know she had a book club, where if your child requested books and, I think you had to make under a certain amount a year, and live in the United States, and I think it was only certain states... her organisation would send your child a book once a year, or something like that. I saw it posted about. Never looked into it.

I also know that Dolly Parton was nominated for the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. She politely declined the nomination because the RnRHoF has shunned many popular bands for some reason or another, and because she has never been a rock musician. They ignored her decline and inducted her anyway. So, she made a rock album. It's mostly covers. They're mostly decent. Literally no one asked for a Dolly Parton rock album, and yet it exists.

I'm here for the song she wrote for Whitney Houston, that was featured in her film The Bodyguard, which I watched because Kevin Costner was in it, and because he was awesome in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Field of Dreams, and Dances With Wolves. I bought that soundtrack — it was my first or second compact disc album, the other being Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell — and listened to it religiously. I later found out that Dolly Parton wrote the first song on it. So, respect for that. And for a life well lived. But I'm not gonna lie to you and say I always was a fan of her music. I wasn't. Still, rest in peace.

I missed Friday and I missed yesterday, so I'm gonna do what I've wanted to do for a while now. I have never, by design, featured a band more than once, but some Van Halen fans will tell you that Van Halen without David Lee Roth singing is not Van Halen. Some call that band "Van Hagar" because Sammy Hagar sang for them (except for the one album Gary Cherone did). Some just don't acknowledge this part of Van Halen's history at all, saying their last album was 1984 until 2012's A Simple Kind of Truth, which saw David Lee Roth reunite with Edward Van Halen.

I was raised on Van Halen, the self-titled album from 1978, and 1984, which released in that year. My mother had everything in between (as well as those) on vinyl, and she had the Sammy Hagar-fronted albums OU812 and 5150 on tape. She bought them but I never heard her play them, so I took them and listened to them off and on. My own personal first Van Halen (or Van Hagar) album was For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and while I liked it, it was not a favourite, constantly overshadowed by records from Metallica, Guns n' Roses, and even Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack, and, believe it or not, a Christian rock album. Wild times.

That changed with Balance, Van Halen's last album with Sammy Hagar. Released in 1995, this album featured a naked four-year-old boy sitting on a see-saw, except he's split in the middle and it's conjoined twins. They're one person from the waist down, but above the waist, they split. The one on the left is screaming and pulling away, and the one on the right is calm, but pulling the other one's hair. The wide handle of the see-saw cover the genital area, making the photo not explicit, but it's still creepy as fuck. The Japanese cover may be more creepy; because Japan doesn't generally like body modifications (like piercings and tattoos) and doesn't like things that are "different," the conjoined twins cover was considered offensive, so they used a photo of just the calm boy sitting by himself, like he's at Neverland Ranch or something. Also, the conjoined twins are somewhat posed in the Van Halen "VH" logo; without the other boy pulling away... it's just a naked kid on a see-saw. What was a creepy aspect of the original piece becomes the main focus, and it's unnerving. Bear in mind there's nothing remotely illegal or offensive about the cover; it's just weird. It's not like that Scorpions cover that is straight up illegal outside of Germany. You probably won't get arrested if you look it up (but you probably shouldn't), but it's not something most of us want to see. Likewise, when I added Runaway Train and Without a Trace to my 1990s playlist, I did not add them from Grave Dancers Union, which is one of my favourite albums of the 1990s. I'm just not a fan of the cover, which features two completely naked girls, aged about six and nine, photographed from the rear, with a woman draped in a sheet behind them. I remember buying the CD, and sliding a piece of paper torn from an index card between the booklet and the plastic CD case.

Anyway, cover issues aside, Balance had some really good songs on it, but nobody ever really talks about Not Enough, linked above, which is my favourite song by Van Halen with any singer. To appease the "Van Hagar" crowd, I'll also say it's my favourite "Van Hagar" song. I don't even mind purists wanting to separate the David Lee Roth stuff from the Sammy Hagar stuff. As long as we're not saying DLR's weaker albums are better than the best of Hagar's — and, I don't believe anyone really is. They're just saying that DLR was the better frontman, and that Eddie Van Halen let loose more under him, and that's why they supported the band in the first place, not to hear Sammy Hagar's crooning while EVH plays the piano. And I get it. I can respect it, even. After all, I was raised on DLR-era Van Halen. But when I discovered rock music, Sammy Hagar was the singer of Van Halen, and I loved their sound. I like both styles. So I'm linking Not Enough at the top, we can call it today's (Sunday's) song of the day, because the one from Van Halen should come first, because it came out chronologically first, and, well, let's face it, DLR was kinda the face of Van Halen, if nothing else, for longer.

Looking back at "the real" Van Halen, my favourite's always gonna be 1984/Jump (the two of them together). That's how it was on the record and the tape. We never, ever skipped the intro. It just wasn't done. So when I hear Jump on the radio and it's missing that minute and a half of sweeping synth sounds, I feel like they're cheating the audience. Panama and Hot for Teacher are also great songs. But my favourite songs are on the first Van Halen album from 1978. So for me, there's 70s Van Halen, 80s Van Halen, and 90s Van Halen. It's really just eras. This isn't AC/DC where every song and album basically sounds the same. This is a band centered around a multi-instrumentalist virtuoso and his evolving sound with various musicians. It's not about David Lee Roth vs Sammy Hagar, it's about the music Edward Van Halen wanted to make. So while I think the best ones (not my favourites) are Ice Cream Man (which I've mentioned before) and Eruption (a legendary instrumental), it's very close between the other two big hits on the album. So while I can't say anything bad about Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love, the album's opener, which also might be the first Van Halen song most people heard... my pick for classic Van Halen goes to Runnin' With the Devil. So that'll be my pick for Saturday's song of the day, and Not Enough is today's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5txwFv-zYM

Of course, there can always be more than one! It isn't a competition. Another person posted in my absence; definitely check that song out too! I'm going to.

The trend of blues rock from the 70s and 80s continues with The Boss. In 1984, we all had Bruce Springsteen's denim-covered arse with the American flag behind it, and even if you were a straight guy with no interest in guys, you proudly displayed that album, because Born in the USA was an awesome album. I don't really get the symbolism of it, but whatever, it had a lot of good tracks. It was also not our first introduction to The Boss. Today's song of the day goes all the way back to 1975, from the album of the same name.

If you're looking for blue collar Americana, I personally give the edge to John Mellencamp, but it depends on what you were raised on. My folks loved John Mellencamp, but we also listened to Springsteen, though not as much. I'm posting what I think is one of Springsteen's best songs, whereas I posted a poignant, but not one of the best Mellencamp songs. It's not really a fair comparison. I think I'd probably put Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen up as his best, or perhaps I'm on Fire — both of those are from Born in the USA — but, I wanted to focus on his 1970s sound here, in line with the previous two songs. Then for John Mellencamp, there are tons of options to beat Springsteen. You could go with I Need a Lover or Ain't Even Done With the Night if you want younger Mellencamp with more rock, or something like Small Town, Paper in Fire, or Check it Out for his more "modern" 80s style. I wouldn't really put up his 90s hits, like Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First), Big Daddy, or Wild Night, though those are also great songs. But, I think it really comes down to what you listened to more — you can't go wrong with either of them.

And if you love both Springsteen and Mellencamp, there are a couple other guys like that — I think Bob Seger kinda fits in there — but I like Bruce Hornsby for an underdog. He was by no means small time, but I feel like he isn't remembered as much as the others. Expect an entry from him at some point.

Part of the reason I’m fearing Ride On from AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album is because it’s my favourite AC/DC song. The other reason is so I don’t have to repeat the tactic with Van Halen and Ice Cream Man. Van Halen have done better songs. AC/DC… it’s less sure. I used to be a big fan of theirs, but all the big hits tend to sound the same. They sound great! But there is absolutely an “AC/DC sound” and anyone who says otherwise is either fooling themselves… or maybe they’re a better fan than I am.

I certainly enjoy Back in Black, For Those About to Rock, Flick of the Switch, The Razor’s Edge, and Ballbreaker sometimes, as well as a few others, but nothing more recent. But, the hits do tend to have the same energy. AC/DC have more than one bluesy track like this one, but this one stands out to me. It’s also one of the few AC/DC songs I will never skip. Sometimes you gotta be in the mood for AC/DC’s schoolboy antics. But not Ride On. If you haven’t heard it, and think you’ve heard every AC/DC song because you heard Back in Black, Highway to Hell, or Thunderstruck, do yourself a favour and play this one.

If you're reading the same book series I am, you can probably guess at this point that I'm reading it as well. If the phrases "Goddammit Donut" and "Mongo is appalled" make you laugh (or at least smile), and you've reached a certain point, you know that Princess Donut's favourite song is Wonderwall. If you haven't reached that point — I think they mention it in the third book, but it comes back a couple more times after that — it's not really a huge spoiler.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about at all, it's a book series called Dungeon Crawler Carl. Aliens invade, and anyone who is indoors or covered by anything but bare open sky is immediately crushed, even if they were in a cardboard box. Basically, all "structures" are "flattened". And thousands of doors open leading to an interdimensional dungeon. So the book is kind of like a video game... but it's a book. Almost like how Ready Player One was, though a better example is Sword Art Online, or, really, any isekai, which is Japanese for "another world" (as in, you're stuck there until certain conditions are met).

As for Wonderwall, this song was all over the radio and MTV in the 1990s. And you either loved it or hated it. You can guess, from its inclusion here, which camp I fell into. But, if you were to ask me directly, well...

"I said maybe..."

What's this then? Song of the "weekend"? Yeah, I didn't post one yesterday. Wasn't feeling it. So we get a "song of the weekend". It's not an excuse, it's a swerve. When I draw a blank, I open one of my decades playlists (80s, 90s, 00s, or 10s) — usually one of the first three — and skip until something resonates with me. And I never skip Stevie Wonder. I'm not a huge fan of the guy, but this song just nails what I love about 1980s music. You got the pop, you got the synth, and you got R&B, his main jam — though, I'd argue 1990s R&B was peak R&B. I'm sure some will fight me on that. I'm not a big R&B fan, but 90s R&B just hits differently, and I'm here for it. This isn't 1990s though. The description on YouTube says 1984, and that sounds right. Yeah, this was popular music 42 years ago, and if it never released that year, and instead it released this year, I hope it would resonate with listeners like it did nearly half a century ago.

Likewise, if you never heard this before — especially the synth part around 4:20 in — you're in for a real treat here.

These days, we make jokes about Stevie Wonder's blindness, but we don't talk nearly enough about how good of a musician he is. Let's change that, if only for today.

The Moody Blues are one of a dozen or so bands from the 1970s and before that released a great album in 1986, 1987, or 1988 — most of them were 1987, but there were a couple outliers. The first one of these I was introduced to was A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. My father owned two Pink Floyd records: that, and, of course, The Dark Side of the Moon. (My mother had all the old ones, but not Reason.) Grateful Dead was fairly unique here in that they did not have a #1 hit until their 1987 album In the Dark and previously featured song of the day, Touch of Grey. Fleetwood Mac released ~~one of~~ the greatest ~~rock~~ album~~s~~ of all time, Rumours, in 1978, but they also had a big album in the late 80s. Of course, I've covered all that before. It's worth mentioning again.

I was raised on The Moody Blues and other western rock bands from the 1960s and 1970s, along with some stuff from the 1950s, and I do share a favourite Moody Blues record with my mother, In Search of the Lost Chord. Most people know The Moody Blues for Nights in White Satin and Ride My See-Saw, which are both good songs, but my actual favourite song by them is OM, the final track off Lost Chord. It's not very radio friendly, but it's... interesting. What I didn't realise was that the spoken part was actually another track. I thought it was part of the same thing. So there isn't an official stream with both the spoken part (The Word) as well as the song (OM). It's not capitalised on YouTube (shown as "Om"), but I remember it being capitalised on the record, so that is how I write it. Maybe all the titles were just in all caps? I don't recall. I write it how I write it. Anyway, that's peak Moody Blues to me, but, it's not a very good entry point.

Oh yeah, that link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N36oRaEF4jA

Almost sounds like a different band.

This song, and The Offspring's vocalist Dexter Holland both have interesting stories. And yes, two 90s alternative songs in a row. Deal with it. Or, you know, post what you love. Open invite to anyone reading these posts, it should be open to any user.

So, this song... of course, I first heard Offspring, like many from my generation, with Come Out and Play (which we all called "Keep 'em Separated"). And, that's a cool song with a nice beat and fun to listen to, but I remember when this video came out on MTV, and that's when I really started taking The Offspring a bit more seriously.

As the story goes, vocalist Dexter Holland was out with his wife (or girlfriend?) at a store or shop when the place was shot up in a drive-by shooting, targeting a gang member who was also there. (Fucking Los Angeles, right?) (Or wherever it was. I know, we tend to think of all of California as Los Angeles.) Nobody was killed, but he wrote the song imagining what would have happened if she was taken from him. So the song sounds like it's about someone who died, and it kind of is, but it didn't really happen.

Also, Dexter Holland is literally a genius, not only having graduated high school as valedictorian, but also holds a Ph.D in molecular biology. So it would be appropriate to address him as Dr Holland... because he literally owns that degree.

"Who we are is but a stepping stone to what we can become." I read that in a game trailer. (For Deus Ex: Human Revolution. 15 years ago.)

I didn't like this song when it was new. I remember seeing it on MTV, and, censored or not, seeing three naked guys running around had absolutely zero appeal for me, so I'd change the channel. Wouldn't give it a chance. Back then, I wouldn't even listen to blink-182 or bands like them on the radio. It wasn't what I wanted to hear and I couldn't find any redeeming qualities in it — because I didn't look.

It wasn't until we started playing Rockband that this song and others came up, and I was sort of forced to listen to them, and actually understand what they're saying (being as that I was the one with the microphone, I literally had to read all the lyrics — the exception being, if there was a Weird Al parody of the song, and I knew those lyrics, you could actually sing the other lyrics as long as you kept it in the key/tone of the original — this led to a LOT of fun with certain songs, IF you could pull it off, like when your friends pick American Pie by Don McLean and you start singing about Star Wars).

Not only are the first two verses cool, the third verse hits like a tonne of bricks, especially when you're older. I'd say I qualify — I haven't been 23 (the age the song says no one likes you at) in 23 years. "No one should take themselves so seriously / With so many years ahead to fall in line / Why would you wish that on me? / I never wanna act my age / What's my age again?"

For everyone telling you to just grow up... you got your whole life to do that. Enjoy being young while it lasts. But, don't go streaking, especially around children. I guess this video came out before the sex offender registry was a thing? But no, anyway, the genius of the video isn't the naked guys, it's how everyone else reacts to them. Yes, including the toddler with the magnifying glass.

It seems like for a lot of people, Outside was the song by Staind to put up as the best example of their work, but to my ears, it's always been Believe.

Not too much to say about this one. I don't have a long story here. But, like the previous day (Natural Born Killaz by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube), this song has a lot of great lines.

What? We've had over 80 songs of the day and we've only touched on American gangsta rap once (Reincarnated by Kendrick Lamar)? I'm sorry — when I was a kid, we said dumb shit like "you can't spell crap without rap". There was an exception, for a while, from Straight Outta Compton by NWA, to Tha Chronic by Dr. Dre, and Doggystlye by Snoop Doggy Dogg, specifically bookended, IMO, by Fuck tha Police by NWA in the 80s, to Natural Born Killaz by Cube and Dre (of NWA). This was before Eminem, and even before Tupac and Biggie got big.

Now I listen to a bigger variety of music, including Japanese rap (see Creepy Nuts), but generally, you could find the most rap-hating rocker or metalhead, and play them Natural Born Killaz, and they'd say this song gets a pass. It's mostly the lyrics. Every bar a banger. If you wanted to learn what made gangsta rap special in the 1990s, this should be your first stop. Engaging beat, catchy lyrics with references to pop culture and current events. Helps if a couple of those current events highlight some racial injustice, or just social injustice in general. Rap's always been political, and punk.

Just like with Life is Beautiful by Sixx:A.M., you don't have to live the truths these guys are singing about to understand these things are happening out in the world. So, try to have a bit of compassion for people whose lives took a different turn from your own, even if they are successful.

My favourite coffee shop loves ponies (especially the My Little variety) and the colour pink (most of their interior is pink), and it was in this coffee shop I first heard Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan. It's very much an LGBTQ+ rally song, but more than that, it is an outstanding show of vocal talent that is an absolute joy to listen to at high volume.

A lot of people in the comments are making connections to Queen's Freddie Mercury, who was also an LGBTQ+ icon, and a phenomenal singer, but other than that, I don't really see a connection. I would like to agree with them that Freddie would have loved this song. I know I do. There are a few of these songs I post where the guitar stands out, or the drums stand out. But this one, and a few others, it's the vocals I'm here for.

For some, this song endorses and justifies the way they live their life, and that's fine. It's not really my scene, though I did go to a few Pride events and had fun. What I'm saying is, you don't need a celebrity to endorse you or who you are or who you are trying to be. It's good to have a song or an event to rally around, but who you are is valid regardless of what others say, as long as you aren't harming anyone and you're taking care of your responsibilities. So, get out there and be you, wherever the music takes you.

As with a lot of songs that infect young people on social media, as someone who rejected MySpace, Facebook, and other sites that made you use your real name (or tried to), I first heard Hollywood Undead on Rockband. But this alternative/hip-hop band from California was discovered by most of its fans on MySpace. When they were discovered by a record label, they released their album Swan Songs in 2008, and already had a rabid fanbase who devoured their music and supported them at shows and with merchandise and even cosplay of the masked performers, but they were never really hit makers, despite their wide appeal. I like to describe them sometimes as "if Deadpool sang for Linkin Park". Young is an odd track for them, almost like a better (strictly in terms of sales) and more serious band wrote it and rejected it, and HU's label asked them to perform it so they could have a single on the radio.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Hollywood Undead here. The band actually has a lot of heart, but they almost never show more than an ounce of heart without a pound of profanity behind it, like in the songs Undead and the dreadfully cringey Everywhere I Go, the chorus of which is literally "Everywhere I go, bitches always know, that Charlie Scene has a weenie that he loves to show. Bitch!" repeated twice. Charlie Scene being the singer, or rapper, I guess, and a parody on the name of the actor Charlie Sheen. Despite this slap in the face with cringe, the song is actually pretty solid, though it might be the worst song on the album. It's still worth listening to once in a while, and it's not a song I skip.

I really haven't kept up with the band, though I've heard a few of their singles, and they do some good stuff. A couple years ago, they put out a song called Hollywood Forever that sounds like the opposite bookend to Undead and thus, almost plays like a "goodbye," but it's not, and the band continues to make music.

So, it's the song that is most unlike them that has stuck with me over the years. I don't dislike Hollywood Undead. Someday, I'll go back and listen to their other albums. Maybe I'll find more to like. I like them as a band, but it's not really my kind of music, if that makes sense. Doesn't mean I respect them any less, and doesn't mean I don't love some of their songs. It's just not something I'm going to be listening to regularly. Still, it's important to get outside of your comfort zone every now and again.

Today's Song of the Day is dedicated to my wife. That almost feels like cheating, for three reasons. One, she's not on the Fediverse at all. She uses... those social networks we don't like on Lemmy and particularly on dbzer0. I won't name them here. Second, yesterday's Song of the Day was also chosen with her in mind. She likes Link Click way more than I do, and I like it quite a bit. Third, Welcome Home wouldn't be my Coheed and Cambria song. I prefer A Favor House Atlantic. I think it's written with the American English spelling. I can't be arsed to look it up right now. "Favor" or "Favour," either side of the pond, you know what it means. That said, though, Welcome Home is a pretty cool song. I don't much care for the lyrics, but the rest of the song? It's amazing.

I'm not sure how to describe Coheed and Cambria. A fan could do it better. I'm not one, myself. I think they're prog, but not like Yes or RUSH. More like... if RUSH tried to play metal, but kept everything else that made them RUSH... you'd have something like Coheed and Cambria. I've also heard that every song on an album goes together, and that all of their albums tell a story that spans years/decades (/centuries?) and star systems. I don't really care enough to listen to all of it, but I'm sure it's... interesting.

We had all of their songs on Rockband. I'm pretty sure Welcome Home was on one of the game discs, and exported to future Rockband games. Then there was a three-pack, including A Favor House Atlantic, Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial), and one other I don't quite remember. I didn't care much for Ten Speed, but again, I favoured A Favor House Atlantic (trans-Atlantic pun fully intended!).

So, why'd I pick Welcome Home? Because I asked my wife what today's song of the day should be, before I went to bed, and she picked this one. Sleep Token is her favourite band, but I've already picked one by them, and she knows I won't pick another artist twice... at least for a while. I'm thinking 100 songs, either after 100 songs, the limitation is up, or there need to be 100 days/songs between them. Haven't decided yet. (Of course, the community is 100% free to post whatever song; this is just for me.) She could have picked some anime song, like something from a yaoi or shounen-ai (boys' love) series she likes. Given and Sasaki & Miyano in particular had good music. (Any romance anime isn't really my thing, but I've seen a few, gay/lesbian and straight.) Anyway, she threw it all the way back to the Rockband days and went with Welcome Home, and so here it is.

Today's song of the day is actually two songs mashed together, Vortex by BaishaJAWS and Overthink by Frankly Speaking, two Chinese hip-hop acts who licensed their music to a Chinese anime called Link Click that should absolutely be on your short list of shows to watch if you like science fiction about time travel.

I mentioned when I featured Specialz by King Gnu a week or two ago that that was not the only song I knew that had fun with its subtitles. Vortex is the other one, specifically the season 2 opening theme for Link Click. You can safely watch this without having seen the first season. The video I linked does feature this part, but they don't dare try to transcribe it (even though that work has already been done). Unfortunately, the video seems to have been banned from YouTube — I can't find it anywhere. It's what plays at the beginning of every episode of the second season. Since YouTube won't let me show you... I guess I'll just have to tell you. In the part where the lyrics are backwards... so are the subtitles. They're mirrored.

As for Link Click and why you should watch it, beyond the awesome music — it's about two guys who run a photography studio in China, but they don't just develop photos. They both have supernatural abilities which are a little different, but used together, can be very effective in what they are often tasked with doing. One guy can take any photo and instantly have understanding of what happened within 12 hours before and after the photo was taken. The other guy can enter the photo for a set amount of time (I think 12 hours?) and take on the role of the person who took the picture. They say the past can't be changed, but you'll have to watch the show to see how that actually works. In one of the most memorable episodes (actually a three-parter), they go back to a town that was devastated by an earthquake, so someone can say something to someone that they didn't get a chance to the first time around. There's also a bonus episode set somewhere in the middle. Their adversary is revealed near the end, and yes, this character also has a super power.

The second season is just one long story. And the third season was just weird, but I think it was a prequel? They are coming out with a proper third season sometime soon. Honestly, if you just watch the first season, you get most of what's going on. The second season has more time manipulation shenanigans, and it mostly makes sense, but it's a little harder to follow — and of course I must mention the trigger warning for domestic abuse in one episode, it's pretty bad. That's another reason to stay away from the second season — however, you should absolutely watch it for its opening, at least one episode. It's... something else.

Anyway, XƎTЯOVerthink (Vortex/Overthink) is just two themes from Link Click that have been mashed together. The songs are perfectly fine on their own, but together, they make for a neat listening experience.

Most people seem to know Mckenna Grace — K lowercase, which seems to throw people off — from different projects. This song specifically comes from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and it plays over the end credits. Grace starred in the film as Phoebe Spengler, the granddaughter of Egon Spengler from the 1980s Ghostbusters films — and the film was directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, who directed the 1984 film. I first saw her in the TV series Designated Survivor, which Wikipedia seems to have a hard rule against mentioning on her page, which is a bit odd. She played the daughter of Kiefer Sutherland's character, a low-tier bureaucrat in Washington DC, who ascends to the presidency when literally every other politician above him is killed in a terrorist attack. Like Jack Ryan in the Tom Clancy books (who is put in a similar position), he doesn't want it, and has to rebuild the government somewhat as an outsider. It was a good series, and I'm not sure why they're not allowed to talk about it. I have no such restriction.

Designated Survivor featured one of the best scenes I've seen Kiefer Sutherland in, and I can't say what it is without revealing a major spoiler from the second season. I will say they turned off the microphone — so, if you've seen it, you now know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm probably not the best judge of acting performances, and I haven't seen everything Sutherland's done, but when I think of him as an actor, that scene is first and foremost in my mind. I can only imagine what it sounded like with audio.

As for Mckenna Grace, I'm not one to typically notice the kid on the show. Usually a kid is played for comic relief, or in the case of an action film, a target for the bad guys to go after to make you hate them more. Designated Survivor didn't play either of those cards. She always stood equal to or above the adults in acting, and I noticed. I wasn't following her career, but when I saw the cast list for the new Ghostbusters movie, I thought the name looked familiar, and was pleasantly surprised to see the kid from Designated Survivor had a new role in a movie I wanted to see. The song took me completely by surprise — I had no idea she could sing, as well.

Being a child of the 1980s, Ghostbusters was big. Maybe not quite Star Wars big or Back to the Future big, but, even with only two films (back then; now there are five of them), it held its own, and it was always fun to watch. And it was "my people," too, the nerds. These guys were action stars, but they weren't macho, they were intelligent. They were scientists, doctors, physicists, and whatnot.

The second film was divisive, but I liked it. I loved the scary painting, and the Ghostbusters controlling an animated Statue of Liberty with a Nintendo controller — specifically the "NES Advantage" arcade controller. I owned one. This thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_Advantage

The third one was the one everyone hated. I rented it on streaming. Unlike a lot of its most vocal critics, I didn't care that they were making an all-girl Ghostbusters team. I just didn't find the story very engaging, and stopped watching around halfway through. But, unlike the haters, I didn't mind the traditional boys' club letting girls in. I just didn't enjoy the film itself. Ghostbusters: Afterlife took a different approach to a similar problem. They introduced the granddaughter of one of the original Ghostbusters — her last name was not revealed until much later, so we had no idea who she actually was or even how she was connected to the original plot — and established her on her own merits first. Then, as you see from the trailer, she discovers the car in the garage and begins to tug at the knots around her family's history, and learns her role in the adventure as supernatural elements threaten her family and town. Oh, and that kid from Stranger Things was also in it. I think he was the bigger draw due to the similarities between Stranger Things — itself a parody of 1980s movies and culture — and Ghostbusters.

If you haven't seen it, check out the trailer and get hyped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahZFCF--uRY — and then go watch it, because this one actually lives up to the hype. Oh, and the song at the end is pretty cool, too. (The fifth Ghostbusters film, Frozen Empire, was also good. You can skip the third one if you want, it doesn't really exist within the canon of the other four, it's kind of just its own thing.)

A lot of rock music takes the plight of the working man and sells it back to him in a way that he can feel solidarity from listening to it. This is obvious with folks like John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and others, but it's prevalent in many more rock singers of their day and since. Have you ever wondered if there was a band that sang about the plight of the 1%, about not being able to buy the latest and greatest yacht every year, or having to buy a new vacation home every other year instead of every year because the working man is so tapped for cash that he can't afford to buy albums like he used to when he was a teenager?

The less said about Kid Rock, the better.

Evans Blue is that band. So, you may be wondering, why is the Music comm on dbzer0 of all places posting a song from a band like that? And the simple reason is, before they completely went to shit, Evans Blue released two very good albums with stupidly long names I still remember: The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume and The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends. The first album gave us such hits as Cold (But I'm Still Here) and Over and Over that, if you listened to any rock radio around 2005-2006, you probably heard many times, though the album's best song was called Beg, and I will die on that hill. I do not recall if it got radio airplay or not.

The second album improved virtually everything, though it didn't do as well on the radio. It featured a song, Shine Your Cadillac, which took pot shots at the recording industry for making more money for marketing bands than the bands made for doing the actual work. It wasn't the first song of its kind, but when the record label went to the band and told them to straighten up, they did so — they unceremoniously fired their singer, who wrote the song. They even stated that he was making bad financial decisions that were threatening the band's future — in other words, the record label ~~asked them to fire the guy who wrote that song~~ told them to jump and they ~~did so~~ said "how high?".

So, the record label got their pet rock band. But, have you ever seen the movie Airheads? Where they use the question of "who was the better singer of Van Halen?" to determine if a guy was a cop or not (the opinion of the guy being, true rockers will always pick David Lee Roth, and cops will always pick Sammy Hagar, for whatever reason)? That was basically what happened with Evans Blue. If you listened to them past The Melody... and The Pursuit..., you were basically a stooge of the record label.

To be fair, their first corporate butt rock album did have two decent songs: Erase My Scars and Sick of It. These are genuinely entertaining rock songs. But they only exist because the band was told to fire their original singer because he wrote songs that made Corporate uncomfortable, and they did, without hesitation, consideration, or so much as a second thought.

The rest of Evans Blue (other members also departed over this and "other" differences) continued to release albums under the blessing and backing of their record label. I think they released four. But they just weren't selling. I'm guessing even the 1%ers weren't going out of their way to buy them, because I'd assume they generally like the same kind of music as anyone else. (No one thinks they're the bad guy.) So eventually the plug was pulled on Evans Blue, 10 years ago. A few years later, a Greatest Hits album was released (ironically, featuring none of their greatest hits from the first two albums), and again, nobody cared.

The original singer, a guy called Kevin Matisyn, went on to found a second band, Parabelle, but they never really went anywhere. He's a good singer, but it was that combination of talent that propelled that voice to the heights it reached. It's a shame the corporate record label took this band from us, but we still got two great albums.

Don't let someone else choose your voice, because when the cards are down, you can be sure they will look out for themselves before they look out for you.