Sometimes called Chap Hop, SteamPunk music has quite a few interesting tunes. Tonight we are presenting Lady Has Bustle from the Desert Rose Theatre, and the second tune is the Steampunk Style parody of the famous Psy song. OK, one more I couldn’t resist; the Gentleman Robot VS Iron Man 1889!
Nothing I can say will help you understand how amazing this band is live unless you have seen them for yourself, but at least a few of the videos should give you the general idea. The first one on tonight’s group is The Way Back, the Japanese Version this time. The next is C.h.a.o.s.m.y.t.h., and the one after that is from their A-Sketch days, Liar. I heard that when they signed with Warner they cut a deal so all their A-Sketch tunes had the rights grandfathered back to that distributor; if true, that indicates an ethical attitude pretty much unmatched these days, and I like it. Finally, the track they still play as their closing song, even after the last decade of changes; No Scared! I will do my best to stop ranting and raving about them now, but I suspect I will not quite succeed. Because they really are that amazing live and in person, as I learned myself this past Tuesday when they played in my town; enjoy!
They are touring North America right now, promoting their latest album on their first tour with an American release, 35xxxv (DELUXE EDITION), a best of collection from all their recordings since they formed in 2005. The lyrics are all in English, and the first song posted is Last Dance, the next one here from the same album is Cry Out. Don’t let their initial ballad for the US fool you, this band is all about serious Rock-N-Roll, in a way so many bands wish they could pull off. If you have even the slimmest chance to see them, I urge you to do so; they are truly amazing. The last few tracks here are Mighty Long Fall, Decision, and Be The Light. And yes, while all of their music has been available through iTunes for the last half decade, it is nice to finally have a natively available source for it. And OK, the final track of this set might be just a bit of a ballad again, if you are going to be a stickler about formats.
Dick and the Back Beats are quite a bit of fun, being a German band playing Rockabilly versions of classic 1980s New Wave songs. The first track is Just Can’t Get Enough from 2011, the second is Just The Way You Are which arrived by way of Filtr Germany. There are several more excellent songs out there, but I could not vet their legitimacy so I can not post them here.
The German band Guano Apes got together in 1994 and they have been creating solid rock music ever since, with the occasional break. The first track is Close To The Sun from their new album Offline, the second is 2014’s Fake, released on the same album. The final song is Sandra Nasic singing Fever, possibly from a solo project. I love that one of their several Best Of albums has the title Planet of the Apes. The band broke up in 2005, but when they got back together in 2009 they were reborn, releasing more music each year than ever before, lots of it climbing the charts, some of it making it to number 1.
Another quality artist Live on KEXP in Seattle, Lady Lamb is a good vocalist/song writer with a couple of good musicians backing her up. They bring an energy to the stage that you don’t see very often these days, so take a listen and see if you don’t find something worth checking out and following.