While I am not a Christian I do love the secular holiday aspects of Christmas. Getting together with family. Relaxing at the end of the year. Making some great food (homemade pizzas tonight) and yes giving presents.
So let's get this Christmas going with some of my favorite Christmas songs!
Friday Night Videos is a prime example. And in truth, there might not be a Friday Night Videos (or even an MTV as we used to know it) without the pioneering work of Mike Nesmith.
Nesmith, who passed away on December 10 at the age of 78 was one of the members of the fake rock band, The Monkees. LAter he created the show PopClips that was later sold to Time Warner and gave us MTV. This is not a surprise since the Monkees show was essentially a surreal sitcom with music video sensibilities. It played in reruns to kids like me that would grow up into teens with MTV.
Mike Nesmith is the Godfather of Music Videos. Yes, there were music videos before, some WAY before, but he turned them into entertainment for the masses.
So here's Nes and some of my favorite songs he has written.
He also was featured on songs written by others.
His best though, is one he wrote and performed and became something of a signature song.
Weren't they good, they made me happy. Miss yeah Nes.
The day job was crazy today! Didn't get my last post in for Norse Week, so I thought I'd throw in a Friday Night Videos for it!
So what are Viking Songs?
Glad you asked!
Well, maybe not Viking songs exactly, but certainly ones that want me to play a Viking/Norse-themed game.
So up first, the most Viking song there is.
Is this a Viking song? No. But the band, Saga, always makes me think of the TSR Mini-game Saga, and that is good enough for me.
Do you know who does know about Vikings? The British. And who better to tell us about it than Iron Maiden.
Ok. So. This song is not at all about Vikings, not even if you try REALLY hard. But it is a song Saxon and I dig it.
Sabaton is a Swedish symphonic metal band that pretty much only sing about Vikings. I want to include them here too since I feel my "Norse Week" might have weighted too heavily on Norway.
Let's not forget the haunting "If I had a Heart" from the series Vikings.
It's been a bit since I did a Friday Night Videos, but maybe it's the dark of winter that has my mood looking to some new music from some of my favorite women-fronted bands. And while we are at it let's make this a #FollowFriday too! Follow them all and don't forget to buy their songs, albums, or whatever they have. People have been saying "we don't need artists during this quarantine" and to that I say bullshit! Artists have kept me living in all of this. We need them more than ever.
Let's get into it!
Up first is a favorite of The Other Side, Arden Leigh.
Arden fronted the band Arden and the Wolves. Now she has a new project she is doing Prospertine. Which consists of her and Jeremy Bastard. Their first single is Home.
You can follow her, The Wolves, and Prospertine on the web at:
Another favorite here is the sister group Neoni. Their newest song Notorious is now out. It has a serious Lorde vibe and I mean that is the best possible way.
Neoni also gave Fandom the gift of covering "Carry On (Wayward Son)" for the Supernatural Series Finale. For this alone they have earned a solid place in geekdom.
Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless has been putting out some great music for while now. Their newest album, Death by Rock and Roll has a lot of great songs on it. Personal, Taylor is getting better with each album and I have to admit I am pleased she quit acting to do this full time.
Witches Burn grabbed my attention right away.
It's going to be interesting to see where she is in a few years because I think she is just getting better with each album.
Confession time. When they first came out I really didn't care for Evanescence. I mean I recognized that Amy Lee had a powerful voice, but they never connected with me really. Fast forward a few years and I am listening to her doing duets and singing background on other artists' songs and I am just impressed with her. I think she is a better singer now than she was 20 years ago. Here is Evanescence's most recent one and as a bonus Lzzy Hale is singing backup.
It's Friday! It's October! Let's start some Friday Night Videos!
Since I am also doing my October Horror Movie Marathon posts I am writing these posts early to autopost.
So let's get started.
Last week I did the Hex Girls, a fake all-girl band. Tonight lets do a real all-girl, witch-themed band. And these women have more in common with the Ostrogoths than they do with eco-goths.
This is the first video of the Witches I ever saw and features their former lead singer Seraina Telli (now of Dead Venus) and former guitarist Sonja "Anubis" Nusselder.
After this Lead singer Laura Guldemond took over and oh does she has some energy!
And just released two weeks ago, The Circle of Five! With new Witch Larissa.
I am looking forward to seeing some more new material with Larissa!
It's Friday! It's October! Let's start some Friday Night Videos!
Since I am also doing my October Horror Movie Marathon posts I am writing these posts early to autopost.
So let's get started.
Tonight I have the music of my favorite all-girl, eco-goth band of witches, the Hex Girls! Not just the songs from their Scooby-Doo episodes but some clever coplayers and cover bands.
Copies of NIGHT SHIFT: VETERANS OF THE SUPERNATURAL WARS have ALL been delivered to the Kickstarter backers and people are also getting the Kickstarter special Player's Guide.
Copies of NIGHT SHIFT: VETERANS OF THE SUPERNATURAL WARS have ALL been delivered to the Kickstarter backers and people are also getting the Kickstarter special Player's Guide.
One of the things that really motivated Jason and me while working on this is music. Spend any time here and you know I am a big music fan.
So I thought it might be great to share some of the music that reminded us of the stories we were telling with NIGHT SHIFT and the games we have ran.
Up this Friday Night Videoes are songs from my playlist. Tonight, songs from "Welcome to the Academy of Magical and Paranormal Arts" for the Generation HEX Night World!
So continuing with the music of the time when the BECMI sets were new here is some music from 1985!
I created this playlist last year to celebrate the start of Stranger Things Season 3. Which, truth be told, has done a lot to get people back into D&D.
So June is BECMI Month and I am going to be doing some BECMI-flavored versions of regular features.
Since the Basic Set of BECMI came out in 1983 I thought it might be fun to pull out a play-list from 83.
But not just any play-list.
No, this one follows the line up of a cassette tape I bought back in 83, likely at the K-Mart. I remember getting it because it was the only tape I could find with my then favorite song "Shock the Monkey" by Peter Gabriel.
Of course, I can only mean K-Tel's "Chart Action '83!"
Does it have anything at all to do with D&D or BECMI?
Not at all! But it is what I was listening to then.
Not music videos tonight but the trailers for The CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths five hour crossover that begins on Sunday.
It is no lie or exaggeration that Crisis. the comic. had a HUGE impact on me and my games. We did our own Crisis of Infinite Oerths back in 1986-87 to bring all our various worlds into alignment. I am doing something like it again with my Come Endless Darkness campaigns for 5e.
Wednesday, July 6 is the birthday of one of my oldest friends Jon "Flat Black" Cook.
Growing up Jon's birthday always meant that going over to his place and playing D&D until sunrise. Great times really.
Since I have not posted one of these in a while I wanted to do this one for him. Plus Jon always had a great collection of music. He got me into Rush and Iron Maiden. He was the one that threw a copy of Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" at me and told me to listen to it and don't come back till I knew all about Eddie.
Metal, D&D and summer's hanging out with Jon were what made the early 80s for me.
Also this is more like Friday Afternoon Videos since I want to tag him on Facebook with this.
I'll admit it. During the height of the "Satanic Panic" Jon and I would do whatever we could to make matters worse. Playing D&D and listening to Iron Maiden was the norm. Thankfully for us we had parents that were neither impressed with two teens nor stupid.
I am not really sure who introduced me to Pink Floyd first. Jon or my late brother Mike. I am inclined to give Mike the credit because Mike was really cool like that and that is how I want to remember it. But Jon certainly introduced "Not Now John" from Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" to me. I am in the minority here, but I rather enjoy the bleakness of this album. People say The Wall is depressing. That's a cake-walk compared to Roger Water's soul-bearing requiem for the post-war dream.
Fuck all that. This is just a great song.
One of these days...I need to do a FNV dedicated to Pink Floyd.
One of these days I am going to dance with the grim reaper...or cut you into little pieces...never was sure hat he was saying here.
It is no doubt that Jon introduced me to Rush. To this day I equate Rush and D&D so tightly largely due to these summers. This was the first song I can remember him playing while we gamed.
Another group Jon played a lot of and I associate with gaming to this day is Blue Öyster Cult. Veteran of the Psychic Wars from "Fire of Unknown Origin" might be the most D&D song ever written.
It wasn't all metal. David Bowie's "Let's Dance" was a BIG hit around this time.
Even years later as I was getting ready to go away to college Jon still had something new for me. With his typical "you need to listen to this now" attitude he popped in a tape (yeah tape) of this new band he discovered; Guns and Roses.
No association with gaming here. Just Jon once again being Jon and finding out about music when no one else in our little midwest town had never even heard of these guys.