Cooking Something Up: The Class of 1996

The Class of 1996. Or the Class of 2021. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction rules, which I am borrowing, is 25 years from the date of the first album. This year is 25 years from a release in 1996. And what a year it is.

The list is by no means inclusive, but I think the following would be first ballot Hall of Fame. 

First, the also rans. These may eventually get in, but not first ballot. Blackball, Ghoti Hook, and My Friend Stephanie. Rock, Alternative and Ska.

The Class of 2021 is 6 Strong. We Start with a little house cleaning, and when you do, it's best to use Bleach. A punk alternative band that made it's bones by appearing on the Jenny Jones Show and performing Super Good Feeling. The Post Punk scene wasn't very big, but Bleach fans were loyal. They burned out quickly as their final concert was in 2004. I saw them 3 times in 1997 with Seven Day Jesus, in 1999 with Joy Electric and Miss Angie, and as part of Soulfest in 2004. The Cause of Death was a tired heart caused by the death of friends in the Gulf War. We have been waiting for a reunion since.

Seven Day Jesus came on to the scene at the same time, and actually toured together for a time. They were more straight up rock than Bleach an so got overwhelmed in the crowd. A. Point of trivia is that Bass player Russ Fox also played with Bleach

The Ska Scene blew up in 1996. When a genre takes off it seems like the band flow to it like mice to the Pied Piper. The most successful of them was the Orange County Supertones.

Punk had the Ramones, and the Christian World's Ramones were called The Huntington's. If you like your songs under 2 minutes, this is the band for you.

Starting from Hard Rock and mellowing to Emo, Stavesacre. Their latest release was in 2017 after they had taken a 7 year hiatus.

And finally, the most successful of them all, Skillet. I still consider their debut almost unlistenable, though not as bad as ZoeGirl. The sole constant in a quarter century, Bass Guitar/Lead Singer John Cooper. His wife Korey joined in 2000 as keyboardist/guitar

R/programming/only adult in The room and the Band has been invincible ever since. Based on recent events, I expect they will be around for a long time to come.

There you have it, the Class of 2021. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Rewind Reboot: January 2021

Happy New Year Everyone. Yes, I know it's March, but the year used to begin here. (In case you didn't know the prefixes Sept, Oct, Nov and Dec are latin for Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten, and that only works if the first month is March).

The point of this trivial pursuit is that I think it's easier to get 2021 under control than 2020. What I'm going to do is ditch the song categories for now and focus on the albums. And since formatting these posts with neat lists is still a problem, I will just hit the highlights. Not every album will be covered. And finally, since this is a labor of love and I am not currently an affiliate with anyone, I will link to purchase directly from the artists website.

Maybe the lockdown has mellowed me, but only 3 albums missed the mark. Two of them were worship albums New Wine Worship Forever Glorified and Grace City Music's Revival Town. Both albums are pretty good, but flat. They don't transport you to the throne. The third was a cover album by MassAnthem.

There was a full dozen (12) Perfect 5 EMERALD albums to start the year. I will highlight four of them. Graves Into Gardens Morning and Evening is a remix album of sorts by Elevation Worship. This is exactly what I mean by transported. Skin and Wind by CCM legendary musician and producer Charlie Peacock is a folk masterpiece and a rare vocal album, as he has been on an instrumental jazz tear of late. Unseen: The Lion and The Lamb by Seventh Day Slumber is a rarity. A worship album by a rock band where the band is not ashamed to adjust the songs to their sound. And finally Don't Lose Hope by Cochren and Co.  I love the style that I would dub honkey tonk rock.

The other 18 albums were in the semi-precious metal category. I'll keep track of them but won't comment here.

That wraps January. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

2021: New Year, New Hope

2020 was a difficult year for a lot of us, and we here at The Night Beat we're not immune either. While we weren't affected personally by COVID, being a small time operation reliant on public computers, government overreaction to the virus threw things into disarray. While we managed to piece together Awards for #PlatVnyl9 and #PVX, year 11 is a total mess and year 12, who knows?

Our Facebook Page  is going to be the most reliable source of information right now. You will even find out that a blog post will be active there. Mostly you will find video recommendations and news of album release,maybe even short reviews. We shall see how things shape up as we continue to reinvent things. Stay with us, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.