Classical and Effects Piano

Within the last week I’ve learned of an act, who I’ve spoke of before, who will be coming to the region in the near future. I’ve also had the chance to hear some new music which keeps me occupied while driving my small, no traction car through the mounds of snow.

Last week I got a tip of a band that has been around for awhile but just underground like a lot of the good bands out there. This band is a progressive metal band out of Germany. There’s that word again, metal. I’m not really trying to pawn off this genre by talking about it so much, but maybe I should explain what good metal really is. But I will do that in a future post, I must continue my point for this one. The name of this band is Vanden Plas. The car company? No, the band. That’s right, there’s a car company called that too. But they are very much un-similar.

I was able to get my hands on their latest album “Christ 0” and it’s been a good listen since I got it. I put it in my car and I’ve probably listened to it 7 times over, if not more. Vanden Plas sounds a lot like Dream Theater, but the vocals are better in my opinion. I would have to say that the focal point of this band is their keyboard player. He has a very distinct keyboard sound by using different effects. I was told that his sound is a lot like the keyboards sounds of Vince DiCola who played songs for Transformers: the Movie back in 1986 (Better than the recent Transformers movies).  He also sounds like the keyboards from Rocky IV, very 80’s I know, but he doesn’t sound like 80’s on this album, just cool effects wise.  But anyways, something to check out.  Vanden Plas, Wikipedia

The upcoming show I was talking about is actually a debut for this artist, Jonah Weingarten.  I wrote about him in my post Piano’s Underground.  After his first solo album “Dance of the Mourning Child,” Jonah got set up with a gig up in cities for this Sunday, December 21st.  He’s going to be playing at the Triple Rock Club which is on the west bank of Minneapolis.  He will be playing stuff from his album “Dance of the Mourning Child” and selling his self-released CD’s there too.  So if you’re up in that area over the weekend and you’re looking for a good show, he will not disappoint.

To leave you on this post, I will display the first round of What’s on your iPod…

Emily Hintzman - Chief News Director NewsChannel 8 - In no particular order
1)  Alice In Chains “Would?”
2)  Tool “H”
3)  Beck “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”
4)  Goldfrapp “Deerstop”
5)  Ani DiFranco “Shy”
6)  The Smiths “How Soon is Now?”
7)  The Bad Plus “Lost of Love”
8)  Fiona Apple “On The Bound”
9)  The Shins “Pink Bullets”
10) Radiohead “Climbing Up the Walls”

Very cool I must say!
Rock, BC