Self Care – Animals As Leaders Play CAFO

As I mentioned when I shared some Orianthi, I’m not anti-shredding. When it works, it works incredibly well. And this is yet another example of it working extremely well…

Tosin Abasi is absolutely incredible. His playing is definitely powerful, and he does something some of those shredders I don’t like don’t do… he injects quite a bit of emotion into his near-perfect playing. He’s not afraid of effects or space, and it shows.

I’m not going to put a time stamp on the guitar solo, because this song is an instrumental. So it’s the whole song.

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First Aid Kit Plays You Are the Problem Here

(Content note: the song I’m highlighting is a song written in response to the way society allows rapists to get away with their crimes.)

I’ve been a pretty big fan of First Aid Kit ever since I first saw the music video for their song Hard Believer, a pretty openly atheist song.

First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo consisting of sisters Klara (vocals/guitar) and Johanna Söderberg (vocals/keyboards/AutoHarp). They’ve actually been around for a long while, now, and are immensely talented.

On March 8th, International Women’s Day, they released a new song called You Are The Problem Here. This is how they described it:

“You Are the Problem Here” isn’t a typical First Aid Kit-song. It’s angry and direct. It’s a song written out of despair. After reading about yet another rape case where the perpetrator was handed a sentence which did not at all reflect the severity of his crime we felt upset and vengeful. We were, and are, sick of living in a society where the victims of rape are often blamed for the horrible thing that has been done to them. Our message is clear and should not be controversial in the least: if you rape, you are the problem. Alcohol is not the problem. So called “youth culture” is not the problem. You are. And you always have a choice.

On March 11th, they released the lyric video for the song:

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Self Care – Oscar Peterson and Keith Emerson Play Honky Tonk Train Blues

Sadly, some have used this video as “proof” that Keith Emerson couldn’t improvise as a piano player. But listening to or watching him play live in most cases would prove that very wrong. I think he chose to let Oscar Peterson (one of his piano idols) do the improvising here because he believed that Oscar was the better piano player.

And as much as I love Keith, I can’t disagree with him. Oscar Peterson was another titan of the keys who seems, at least to me, to be criminally underrated. He, like Hazel Scott, is another piano player I think everyone should know, especially if you’re a fan of Keith’s.

Here, Keith Emerson and Oscar Peterson are joined by a band featuring a heavily disguised Carl Palmer on drums to play the song “Honky Tonk Train Blues”.

Enjoy!