March Music Monday 4 · 12:35am March 26th
March Music Monday 4
For all the 
. . . guff I pile on my manager, he occasionally dispenses pearls of wisdom, or names songs that it turns out that I really, really like.
Popular Monster kinda reminded me of a different song (I can't remember which one), and one day when I said that I liked it—back when we had more than one radio station on rotation—he mentioned the Tom MacDonald song Best Rapper Ever which I looked up and liked.
Some years ago when he heard I was headed to Milwaukee (PVCF), he said that I ought to visit the Harley museum. I'm not really that into motorcycles, but he is. If you picture the kind of person who's riding a Harley, you're pretty close to picturing him. I did visit, briefly, and it was interesting. Less than a year later when I was buying train cars for my Instagram, I found a Harley caboose and eventually gifted it to him, but not before taking a picture of it in front of The Shed.
(If you want to see the caboose pic, check out my Instagram! [it's about fourteen posts down])
Anyway, not sure how it came up, but he mentioned a band that I'd never heard of, although their name is very similar to a band you might have heard of.
Given the video I'm about to show you, it's easy to imagine that the motorcycles were appealing to him. And, given the video I'm about to show you, the horse is obviously appealing to me.
This is another one I've seen reactions to, and the best are ones where the reactor doesn't know the singing techniques or the instruments. I'll admit I had no clue on the instruments (YouTube comments quickly solved that conundrum), but I did know of the singing technique and can, in fact, almost get there. Not with any real skill, but sometimes I can just touch upon it, and I'll be honest it feels kind of magical when I touch upon it.
It's very much not Western; it comes from Mongolia and while I don't know much about Mongolia I do know that they're associated with horses.
And now that I've thoroughly buried the lede, a video!
Before I even comment on the music, I can say with confidence if you're leading a motorcycle gang on a horse, you've already won. Or I suppose if you're a horse on a motorcycle.
Besides harmonies that aren't familiar to Westerners, some of the instruments aren't either. As Alex Hefner said in his review: "What kind of wizard instrument is that?" (The comments on the video were quick to answer: they're a morin khuur and a tovshuur; the one with the horse head is the morin khurr.)
And if that wasn't enough, they also do throat-singing. I don't know how to describe it (but you'll know it when you hear it); if I had to describe it, I'd say it's the opposite of falsetto.
Oh, and to make it even more epic, the lyrics are apparently an old Mongolian war chant that Genghis Kahn's soldiers supposedly chanted before battle.
They also did a version of the song with Jacoby Shaddix, which has the lyrics in English. I personally prefer the original version of it, although watching The Hu headbanging (while throat-singing and playing a morin khurr) is pretty epic.
Finding Mongolian-themed ponies was difficult enough, but imagine finding one with a morin khuur!
The instant I saw the Asian Octavia I figured this had to be leading up to The Hu, though I got the song wrong. I prefer Yuve Yuve Yu to Wolf Totem.
This was the tipoff for me and i'm pleased to have been right n_n They're excellent folks.
You may also enjoy collabs The Kiffness has done on youtube, one of his latest involve a group of brothers from China that isn't throat singing but has a similar feeling to my untrained ear.
👏👏👏
Yet again, the admiral has shared some very different, but very good music.
However, this one just exudes a level of musical power I can't even begin to put into words.
I will definitely have to listen to it again soon.
Still determined to make it to the Evil Knievel museum in Topeka someday.
Oh shit, Vicky Wyman art. Haven't seen her stuff in a while. Only just found out she died 6 years ago. RIP.
The HU are epic : ) And they were the final nudge for me to buy Jedi: Fallen Order. I mean, the game that starts with mongols throat singing a song in SW conlang can't be that bad : )
I also guessed the band right from the first image!
They're about the most metal band that can be. I should try listening to them while doing metalworking in the shop, rather than my usual go-to of Sabaton. Or podcasts on electronics, quality, or history.
For some reason, listening to The Hu and reading the lyric translations makes me think a bit, on what in life is worth doing, creating, and building.
this man likes the HU, you know he's a scholar and a gentleman :)
Went to see The HU when they were down here in Aus a couple years back in a smallish venue and am disappointed I was unable to make it to see them last weekend when they were here again. Would have been interesting to compare how they audibly fill a larger venue as they were amazing in a small venue. Imagine that level of intensity in a room which only held around 300 people.
Pretty sure you folks in the US are next on their schedule later this year.
I don't see myself listening to a lot of music in the near future. I just had to disconnect my car battery to clean the terminals, but doing so triggered the radio's anti-theft lockout feature. The previous owner did not include the code to unlock it in the car's documentation (even though they did include the GPS navigation's code). The manual says I need to talk to a dealer to get the code, but because of my Asperger's, I'm way too nervous and socially awkward to make that call on my own. I also don't know whether I should talk to the dealer I got it from or an official dealer. I hope it's not the latter because there are no official dealers anywhere near here.
5773752
It was kind of a giveaway if you know the band, but I bet a lot of people who read the blog didn't.
I also like Yuve Yuve Yu, but I gotta be honest, the horse in the beginning of this video makes it better in my book.
5773754
I'm not familiar with the Kiffness, I'll have to check them out! Do you have a particular video that you'd recommend?
Also, I have a very untrained ear, too; these are very much in the spirit of 'I like what I like.' For proper music theory/technique, there are far better resources than me . . . but I hope that some folks who read my blogs are finding something that they'd never heard before and maybe liking it.
5773759
I do what I can
Right? That song is a war chant, and you can feel it. It's very motivational.
5773879
Oh I absolutely hear that. my partner is very knowledgeable about music and theory and even practical, but I just go with, "This sounds nice, I like it"
for Kiffness i'd say try this or this The former was the one I was thinking of and the latter has actual throat singing. n_n
I especially like him as he does very well in crediting and compensating folks he collabs with when he can. He often employs his fanbase to help him track down the original creators so he can share revenue with them which is a lovely touch.
5773763
That can't be more than a few hours from you. . .
5773788
That was one of those that felt very familiar but I didn't pay that much attention who who'd drawn it. Also didn't know she'd passed away.
5773791
You can't go wrong with throat-singing, and that's just a fact. I have also bought a video game just for the music, which is all the more amusing since I don't own a console which can play it (but I saw it and I knew the soundtrack, and I can always buy the console later).
5773805
Yay!
Isn't it amazing that you can be a super metal band even with ancient instruments? Elivite does the same.
Yeah, create something that will last the ages. Or barring that, at least inspire some people to greatness.
5773811
Even though you're wrong about batponies, I do respect your ecclectic taste in music. I wonder if I'm gonna be able to post anything that you've never heard of?
I'll also say that in a blog post some years back you mentioned On eBay and I looked that song up and really liked it; it's actually on one of my YouTube playlists now.
5773817
I can't even imagine how loud they would be in a 300 seat room. I expect that if it's well-designed they'd do well in a bigger space; I listened to a mariachi band in a college auditorium and even though we were back in the nosebleed seats they lost nothing in intensity.
Ooh, I wonder if there's a concert near me? I'm not much on going to live concerts, but that's one I'd make an exception for just on pure epicness.
5773874
It's not uncommon for a person to have a used car and not have the radio code for it; a number of our customers have cars with locked radios due to that. Depending on the make of car, you might be able to go to an independent shop and they can fix it (there's a whole bunch of 'mights' in that; we can do GM radios 'cause we have a good relationship with a local dealer and we can get the backup code and just ask them to 'translate' it for us). I don't think a good dealer would look down on you for not having the code for a car that you bought used. It's also possible that you could get it online, depending on who built your car--it's something I've never had to look up so I don't know for sure.
The other option, depending on local laws, is just use an alternate source of music. For years, I've been using a trucker's bluetooth headset (one earpiece and a mic) rather than the radio in my van. The radio doesn't work right and I can't be arsed to replace it, plus I can wear the headset when I'm not in the van, so it's win/win!
5773883 45 minutes actually. But I'm terribly lazy.
5773887
I'll say it definitely is possible. Only, once you do, then I'll have heard of it. >:V I always win!
5773890
That second paragraph reminds me of one of my favorite songs: "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong With the Radio" by Aaron Tippin. It's a country song from the early '90s about a guy whose car is the most run-down barely-functional beater on the streets, but has a ridiculously high-quality sound system.
Gotta love metal. It's such a diverse and creative genre, only made better by how much overlap it has with classical works.
Even just among the stuff I listen to, you've got The Hu (yeah, I'd already run into them), Eluvetie (2) (Celtic Metal, often sung in Gaulish), Nanowar of Steel (Comedy Metal), X Japan (Japanese Prog Metal), Alestorm (Scottish Pirate Metal), Sabaton (Military History Power Metal), Blind Guardian (Power Metal with an entire Silmarillion concept album), TÝR (Viking Metal), Nightwish (1,2,3,4) , Savatage who became Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Famous for their Christmas metal), Iron Maiden (2) (Classic metal with some history-oriented songs), Rammstein (2a, 2b) (German industrial metal with word-play that needs translator's notes), Rhapsody of Fire (Symphonic power metal band who achieved a song combining power metal, epic fantasy, Christopher Lee, and Vivaldi's RV441), Antti Martikainen (Instrumental celtic metal), God of Shamisen (a blend of metal and prog rock, featuring the Shamisen), Evanescence (Nu metal), etc. etc. etc.
...not to mention the fun individual songs that happen because metal fans and bands know not to take ourselves too seriously, such as Wind Rose's cover of Diggy Diggy hole or random fan covers like this one.
...wow. For someone who sucks at discovering new music, doesn't actively try, and generally just cycles through what I already have, I've accumulated a lot over the last couple of decades.
5773934
Well, you've got me there.
My only possible rebuttal is this:
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Source
5773941
I know that song . . . it also reminds me of Da Yoopers song Rusty Chevrolet; I've owned a car like that. It was an Oldsmobile, but point stands.
5774010
It really does, and it works with things you wouldn't imagine that it does.
About half those bands are already on my playlist, and if I were gonna drag music mondays out forever I'd be hitting a few of them. Nanowar of Steel is brilliant; Valhalleluja proves that you can mix metal and gospel and comedy into something magnificent and that's now right up there as on of my favorite Christmas songs.
I feel the same way. I generally don't actively search, but stuff just falls in my lap and I'm not mad about that at all.