Tuesday 20 October 2009

Paint it Black

I think it was the chaps on the Classic Rock Progcast that first brought Crippled Black Pheonix to my attention. I was pleased to discover that some of the work was available for download from eMusic and so I acquired 200 Tons of Bad Luck. This is a great album. I would describe it as progressive rock but other descriptions I've seen include ambient and post-rock. Probably my favourite track is 444 which includes samples of Donald Sutherland as Oddball from the film Kelly's Heroes. "Crazy! I mean like so many positive waves maybe we can't lose! You're on!" Brilliant.


Black Rainbow
Originally uploaded by The Kozy Shack
Then, I discovered The Black Keys. I'm not sure where I first heard about these chaps but, again, I was pleased to discover them on eMusic. I downloaded Rubber Factory and really like it. Stripped back, lo-fi Blues that sound a bit like The White Stripes in approach and feel but much more blusey.

It struck me as I listened to these two albums that both bands had the word black in their name, not a particularly profound observation I realise but I started thinking of other artists with the word black in their name.
I realised that I couldn't think of a single group with the word black in their name that I didn't like. I thought I'd discovered the secret to musical success... just use the word Black in your bands name!

And then with crashing horror, I remembered Black Lace and my theory was blown completely out the water!

Over to you
Is that the exception that proves the rule? Can you think of any other examples either for or against the proposition that bands with the word black in their name are worth listening too?

(Small Print: I've talked about eMusic before. Please note that if you sign up after following the links on this blog, I get a few extra downloads for sending you in their direction. You can get fifty free downloads just for checking them out and, as long as you remember to cancel your subscription, those fifty downloads are yours to keep for free. However, I think you will find plenty of music to download if you choose to pay your money and sign up fully.)

4 comments:

MrStrathmore said...

The Heaven and Hell album (the original Black Sabbath one) is one of my favourites. I also saw the Heaven and Hell gig at the SECC and was amazed at how small Ronnie James Dio is. I saw him many moons ago when he started Dio but couldn't remember him looking as small as that. Ahh, the distortion that is youth.

On the 'Black' question, maybe you should re-frame the question. Can you name any bands that had 'Lace' in the title that were any good?

Mosher said...

The Black Dahlia Murder spring to mind, but I can't comment on them as I've heard *of* them, but not anything by them.

Black Label Society aren't quite my cup of tea, but I know people who love them. No denying that Zakk Wylde is an amazing guitarist though.

Mosher said...

Another I'm not hugely familiar with but who are definitely historically huge in their genre are Black Flag. They were one of the first hardcore metal bands. Henry Rollins was a member for some time.

David said...

Hello MrStrathmore

It's like when you go back to the road where you grew up and the hill that you remember as being enormous is just a gentle incline. :-)

As for your last comment... if the data doesn't fit the hypothesis, change the question. Genius!


Hell Mr Mosher

I've not heard of Black Dahlia Murder or Black Flag but I have a Black Label Society album (Kings of Damnation) - mostly 3 stars but one 5 star and two four star tracks - making it pretty good, certainly above average. So that's at least one more on the plus side for bands with Black in their name.