These Petey USA songs continue to impress. Peter Martin, who has carved out a niche as a TikTok comedian/content creator, is also a musical artist with a distinctive point of view and a knack for gargantuan hooks. I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve heard from the guy, and now he’s got a whole new project out.
The post Petey USA’s <em>oooo</em> Is Well Worth A Spin appeared first on Stereogum.
Melodic Revolution Records is thrilled to announce the signing of New York multi-instrumentalist, composer, and musician T. Virgil Parker for the release of his creative new album, sorry to bug you, with a release date to be announced soon.
Sometimes the most unexpected ideas make the most interesting music. sorry to bug you began with a simple musical observation: Parker wrote a song that sounded like a grasshopper bouncing its way through his daily routine. His wife suggested that he write more songs about insects, and from that simple suggestion, an entire musical world took shape.
The result is sorry to bug you, an unconventional and imaginative album that explores the sounds, personalities, and movements of the insect world through Parker’s musical perspective. The album culminates with the ambitious 12-minute “Butterfly Suite,” a fitting opener to a project that refuses to follow conventional musical boundaries.
Raised in a musical family, Parker began performing at a young age and was playing keyboards professionally by the time he was sixteen. Over the years, he has developed a remarkably diverse musical vocabulary encompassing avant-garde, reggae, country, Renaissance, world music, techno, and beyond.
His instrumentation is equally eclectic. While piano remains central to his musical life, Parker has explored an extraordinary range of instruments, including sitar, erhu, hulusi, harmonium, and keyboards, allowing him to move freely between musical traditions and genres.
Parker’s Renaissance duo Arethusa, formed with his son, toured extensively throughout the Northeast and played an important role in shaping his eclectic musical identity. His career has continued to evolve across music, performance, production, and publishing. Today, Parker produces a Renaissance festival, co-publishes a biweekly newspaper, and continues to perform primarily on piano while also pursuing techno-oriented projects.
With sorry to bug you, Parker once again demonstrates that creativity knows no boundaries. A whimsical concept is unique musical exploration, and an invitation to listen, and perhaps pay a little more attention to the fascinating world buzzing, crawling, and fluttering all around us.
“This work had such random origins; it felt like someone else was developing the ideas until I caught myself being less than honest to my imagination when I was working on one of the songs, and literally took it apart.”
“In the past, I did musical portraits of people; this felt like portraits of insects, the darting of a dragonfly, the stalwart determination of a caterpillar; the relentless multitasking of the spider (the only non-insect in the collection). I feel a strange empathy for the little guys in a way I never would until I painted them with sound.”
“Signing with Melodic Revolution Music is making me feel like I finally got into an amazing, arty, brilliant music family.”
Says Parker
Melodic Revolution Records is proud to welcome T. Virgil Parker to the family and looks forward to introducing sorry to bug you to listeners who appreciate music that ventures above and beyond.
T. Virgil Parker Online
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.parker
MRR Profile Page: https://mrrmusic.com/project/t-virgil-parker/
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/t-virgil-parker/1671889246
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Sswk2l3M9zQNhgkT8SU2G
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@timparker33
T. Virgil Parker “sorry to bug you”
Coming soon from Melodic Revolution Records
“music you didn’t know you would love.”
Josh Rand‘s post-Stone Sour project, The L.I.F.E. Project, has released a cover of Blondie‘s “Call Me,” out now via Frontiers Music Srl alongside an official visualizer. The recording predates the band’s existence in any public sense, going all the way back to how Rand and vocalist Casandra Carson (Paralandra, Casandra’s Crossing) first connected.
Rand explained the backstory: “Back in 2020, I was searching for a female vocalist to front my new project. I was connected with Casandra Carson and asked her what song she’d like to sing for the audition.
“‘Call Me’ was her choice so I quickly put it together musically for her to sing to. She crushed it and the rest is history. We never intended to release this track, but we thought it would be cool for you to hear the song that started it all.”
Carson offered her own recollection: “‘Call Me’ has been one of those staple songs that I’ve been doing live since my first cover band when I was 17. This recording, specifically, was kind of my audition to be in The L.I.F.E. Project. Josh wanted me to pick a song to cover that would be comfortable, and we could use to test out how we would work together, and this felt like the perfect choice. Turns out, I got the job! It’s crazy that it’s coming out of the vault and going public after all these years.”
The L.I.F.E. Project grew out of a chance introduction rather than a plan. Rand had wanted to front a project with a female singer for a while, but it wasn’t until 2020, when a mutual connection put him in touch with Carson, that the concept found its shape. A trial run turned into a full creative partnership from there.
The band pairs Rand‘s riff-driven, hook-heavy songwriting with Carson‘s range as a vocalist, pulling from classic metal, thrash and prog. Lyrically, the group tends to reach past the usual rock subject matter, digging into history and social commentary rather than sticking to familiar themes.
The post THE L.I.F.E. PROJECT Releases Cover Of BLONDIE’s “Call Me” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
The news follows Brother’s Keeper’s first new song in 23 years.
The post Brother’s Keeper Announce Their Live Return Via An October Hometown Show Alongside Snapcase, One King Down & More appeared first on Theprp.com.
In 2019 Tool finally made their albums available on streaming services – presenting the opportunity to select their proggiest material for fans of the genre.
Given that the band sprang from grunge and alt metal, 1992 EP Opiate and 1993 album Undertow didn’t offer much in the way of prog, but that changed with 1996’s Ænima. Hence our 12-track list featuring material from that record and onward.
Mixing basic 4/4 time with 7/8, the fifth track on Ænima deals with lyrical concepts that espouse Carl Jung and American mystic Drunvalo Melchizedek.
It opens with Justin Chancellor‘s loose but mesmeric bass, building in slow fashion over repetitive guitar riffs into a big proggy groove. Amazingly, it was released as a single.
Opening with drug-related clips from the late comedian Bill Hicks, the closing track from Ænima is a near 14-minute epic that helped point the way the band would take with later work.
It’s expansive, brooding, prone to occasional bursts of frenetic activity with a message about expanding the mind. The fact that producer Dave Bottrill had worked with King Crimson the year before on Thrak should not go unnoticed
The live version from the 2000 live album Salival is held to be the best version.
Hypnotic bass lines, chanting vocals, crashing guitar crescendos. The Grudge opens 2001’s Lateralus as a statement of proggy intent.
By this point Tool were far more about atmospheric soundscapes building into prog metal workouts. The abrasiveness of early albums had been replaced with a maturity and desire to break musical boundaries.
The two tracks merge into one nine-minute prog rock workout. The opening Parabol features Maynard James Keenan‘s chant-like vocals over a haunting musical backdrop.
Then the band crash in with Parabola, Adam Jones‘ guitar searing through the mix as the band lock into a super-tight progressive groove.
Parabola was released as a single, with one of Jones’ trademark videos to accompany it.
Drummer Danny Carey has said of the title track: “It was originally titled 9-8-7, for the time signatures. Then it turned out that 987 was the 16th number of the Fibonacci sequence – so that was cool.”
Is that prog enough for you? The nine-minute plus song mixes 9/8, 8/8 and 7/8 as Keenan implores humans to explore a deeper understanding of everything.
Although listed as three separate songs, this triptych towards the end of the album are meant to coalesce into one lengthy piece of music, running at over 20 minutes in total.
Opening with the gentle, reflective Disposition, the band move into centrepiece Reflection, which slowly builds before bursting into life about eight minutes in. The more percussive Triad gradually brings things to a close.
Possibly Tool’s proggiest moment ever!
About as catchy and immediate as Tool get on 10,000 Days, the opening track and first single is the closest connection to the band’s past – in other words, all that was left of the alt. metal band of yore.
It’s hardly metal though, riding in on a big fat prog groove as Keenan sings of the thrill for people who live through others in the media eye.
This epic two-parter is either the sound of a band living out its fantasies, playing the long-form music so beloved of drummer Carey, a prog fan from an early age – or the sound of a band disappearing up its own arse. Clearly, we favour the former. Typically haunting to open, and building to a fine rolling groove.
In keeping with the band’s love of drug-related allegory, Rosetta Stoned imagines a man waking from a DMT trip, encompassing aliens and his spiritual awakening. The song uses a staggering array of time signatures – 4/4, 5/8, 5/4, 11/8, 3/4, and 6/4 – if that’s not prog enough for you, we don’t know what is!
Another proggy couplet, these two songs joined at the end of 10,000 Days are about as reflective as the band get.
They display their more ambient side on opener Intension before the more epic Right In Two breaks through with more trademark jarring rhythms, twisted time signatures and odd percussive breaks.
A pointer to where Tool Were headed with Fear Inoculum?
The five-year wait between Lateralus and 10,000 Days was nothing compared to the 13 years fans had to wait for Tool’s fifth studio album. When it did arrive in 2019, Fear Inoculum was placed under intense scrutiny, some beleiving it didn’t hold up to such a delay.
Having lived with the music for the ensuing years, with the opportunity to see most of the songs performed live, the general feeling is that it’s a fine addition to the canon, and certainly the most overty proggy – six of the album’s 10 songs weighing in at over 10 minutes.
The opening title track is a brooding beast, which opened the band’s live shows in emphatic style, creating as much a sense of anticipation on the album as it did in the live arena.
Our seciond choice from Tool’s most recent album is the one the band chose to close their live shows with – the 12-minute-plus Invincible.
Despite its length, the song is actually one of the catchiest tunes on the record, riding along on Carey and Chancellor’s tribal rhythm and featuring an inspired vocal performance from Keenan, whoe switches between gentle singing and his more regular loud and mournful howl.
Then at its midway point a typically knotty and twisted Jones guitar solo unfurls. A fitting show closer.
Sharon has made it official.
The post ‘Ozzfest’ Confirms Villa Park Stop For Its 2027 Return appeared first on Theprp.com.
In a new interview with Kati Rausch of Music Interview Corner (transcribed by Blabbermouth), German metal queen Doro Pesch was asked if there is a moment from her four-and-a-half-decade career she would like to travel back in time to witness from the eyes of a fan. Doro reflected on her own experiences as an audience member, describing the raw power of seeing Ronnie James Dio live: “I went to his concert, and then the curtain opened, and I almost fell on my knees because I was so touched. And I thought if I could ever do the same to the fans, then that would be good. So I could learn from the best. And I’m still a big fan, so, to me, the fans and the band, we are one. And yeah, I think that’s the secret of doing it for such a long time. It’s the deep relationship with the fans.”
Asked if she thinks heavy metal keeps her young, Doro said: “Oh, yeah, totally. When you do what you love, there’s nothing, nothing better than that. No cream. Nothing. I went vegan. That’s another thing which I think really helps the body. I think I’m healthier [now] than I was in the ’80s. I started chain-smoking when I was 11. So I gave up smoking, and I turned vegan, yeah, maybe 10 years ago. Before I was a vegetarian. And yeah, I think vegan is good for your body, and I do it for the animals. But I think the skin, everything, yeah… It’s a good thing.”
Last fall, Doro released Warriors of the Sea via her own label Rare Diamonds Production, distributed by Edel. The release grew out of two sold-out “Metal Queen Metal Cruises” in late May and early June 2025, followed by a third cruise in June 2026. Side A featured rare studio recordings; Side B delivered live tracks from her 2024/2025 tour.
Doro’s latest album, Conqueress — Forever Strong and Proud, was released in October 2023 via Nuclear Blast.
The post DORO PESCH Says RONNIE JAMES DIO Inspired Her to Forge a Deep Connection With Fans appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.