This is probably one of my favorite Van Halen songs. Also, David Lee Roth is entirely superior to Sammy Hagar.

So metal week was a failure. Whatever. Like I said, I don't know a whole lot about metal music. I went out with a friend tonight, it was supposed to be friends, but pretty much everyone had an excuse not to come out. I feel like sometimes I put more into maintaining my friendships than my friends do. For the past several months, I have tried to get my friends to come out with me but it has never really coalesced. Not too long ago, it seemed like barely a week would go by without some party happening. Now it seems like no one wants to expend any effort. Of course I could be paranoid.

Day 2

Today's song is by a band that features arguably one of the most influential guitarists in the metal scene. I am of course referring to Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page. Page is capable of producing a wide range of sound from the soft lyrical notes of Bron-Yr-Aur to the heavy ponderous sound in Immigrant Song (my two absolute favorites by Zeppelin).

I've been listening to a bit of Metal lately and I've found I really don't know much about the genre. I know the mainstream bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden, and I am familiar with some of the founders of the genre such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. However it feels that compared to my knowledge of Rock and Punk, I really don't have a deep understanding of Metal and the surrounding scene. So this week is my attempt to gain a better understanding of Metal. I've read a lot of arguments about what was the first true metal song, whether it was Helter Skelter by The Beatles of Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix or if these were instead precursors to the true Metal sound, proto-Metal if you will. One thing I am aware of is the groundbreaking contribution of Black Sabbath to Metal. Guitarist Tommy Iommi suffered an accident and lost the tips of his middle and ring fingers on his right hand. Iommi learned to play guitar left handed and used thimbles to make up the damage to his hands. He also began to detune his guitar in order to reduce strain to his hands. He as one of the first guitarists to do so and helped create the darker slightly discordant darker sound that is now associated with Metal. Here is Children of the Grave by Black Sabbath from the album Master of Reality. This was the first album by Sabbath on which Iommi used a detuned guitar.

Nothing really much to say. Here is T. Rex.

I heard about the Black Keys a while ago when a friend of mine posted a video of theirs. I enjoyed it, but never got around to listening to any of their other songs until recently. I have to say I am impressed by the powerful blues driven rock coming out of two skinny white dudes. This video in particular cracked me up.

I've mentioned earlier that I saw the Toadies perform in Dallas at the Observer Awards showcase. Growing up in Texas, I've always been aware of them but I never went out of my way to listen to them. I heard Possum Kingdom and Tyler on the radio countless times but really didn't appreciate the music. That is until I saw them live. I now love the album Rubberneck. They really are a great example of early 90s grunge rock.