Monday 8 June 2015

Breathing Machines In Rome and Old Friends

Stage of Reality Live In Rome


On May 29th 2015 Hard Rock / Metal band Stage of Reality played a huge concert in Rome. It was a "innovative" multimedia show according to Outsiders Music Rome


Actor Alessandro Porcu joined the band onstage reading passages from the Writings Corsairs. The intent was much more than a simple rock show. It was a visual and musical journey through the mind of Pier Paolo Pasolini, an important and controversial Italian poet, writer, and intellectual.  

Pasolini was in many ways well ahead of His Time. He perceived the chaos that economic globalization and consumerism has wrought on Italy and the world. Angered by the loss of historic regional dialects, he even wrote many of his poems in Friulian. 

 The works of this iconic Italian Intellectual were the spark that ignited the flame of Stage of Reality and fueled their entire concept album Breathing Machines. Now the band has fused those over forty year old warnings against an Orwellian conformist  future  into a modern stage-show that "is a cry of rebellion," according to Tuttorock



The combination of dystopian imagery, critical writing, and Progressive Metal sheds a bright spotlight on our modern world. It Rages against our present day practice of "creating a false global democracy that instead of providing everyone the same opportunities and merits merely unify political thought and eliminate dissent."

Talk about Metal with a Message, Stage of Reality Seems to be on the right path.



_________________________________________________________

Greg Ball


Last month one of our favorite musical artists just finished the  Rocket Ball Road Show - Rocket Surgery (w / Rueben deGroot) & The Greg Ball Band . The tour took them across Western Canada. 

Thanks to Facebook the wild ride was well documented, and according to the pictures and comments it looks like it was a great time.

As much as it is great to see Greg getting out there and showing the rest of Canada what a good front man he is, it will be good to have him home in Kingston again. His hometown fans are sure to agree with me on that point, not to mention that I still have not been able to nail down a time to go see him live this year yet!



________________________________________________________

Keith Muracz



Keith Muracz is an old friend of mine from Manitoba, Canada and he has to be the best musician I have ever met in my life, period. A consummate professional, he has worked tirelessly playing in many different groups such as Terry Spencer Trials , Falling Down, and other Winnipeg based groups.

Both with a smooth blues based voice and an expert talent with a guitar he has created some of my favorite songs of all time (Cocaine Angel and I'll Have Another One for example.) Unfortunately I was only able to work with him for a short time on music, but I have to say that he has been the greatest inspiration for my interest in making music.  

At present he resides in the prairies of Manitoba enjoying a peaceful and wonder filled life among-st the ducks, goats, cats, chickens, dogs, and all sorts of other wildlife country. Do not get me wrong, he still plays. Just sometimes his concerts are for a whole different kind of crowd than a packed stadium or bar. 


Recently he has been putting together a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe "White Lightning" clone he refers to affectionately as "Lightningstein."  

You can find a lot of his music on Youtube. I am listening to his uploads as I am typing this. There is an emotional power that just flows from his playing and singing that is missing from most of the music produced today for mass production.

It is for artists like him that I have started this blog. Hopefully I can bring some light and to these amazing artists that the fame machine have overlooked and enable them to sparkle with all the quality and strength that they exude.



____________________________________________________

Well that is it for now. Thank you for reading and keep on making and listening to music.

Kevin Sweeney



  



No comments:

Post a Comment