Tag Archives: Breaking Benjamin

Superband

by Revis Edgewater

One of the guys I work with posed a question to me. He said it was to get to know me a little better. I don’t know if the answer would help him know me better as a person, but it might help him know my musical taste a little better. The question was this, “If you could form your own superband out of members of other bands, who would you choose? Limit ten members.”

It’s actually an interesting question. There are many musicians and singers out there that I really like. Narrowing it down to less than ten is a daunting task. I gave it some thought and this is what I came up with. Remember: these picks are just my personal preferences. I’m not saying anyone on this list is better than anyone else.

Bass guitar: Flea – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Now, I don’t even like the Chili Peppers, but I give credit where credit is due. Flea is a hell of a bass player. Plus, he was in the Back to the Future movies, which gives him an added dimension of cool.

Drums: Shannon Larkin – Godsmack – Not only does he kick ass on the drums with Godsmack, but he also has a side project playing with a blues band, so he’s versatile.

Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals: Shaun Morgan – Seether – I have pretty much liked everything that Seether has put out and Shaun is a big reason why. I know he’s the lead singer in his band, but in this one he’s just providing backing vocals.

Lead Guitar: Aaron Fink – Breaking Benjamin – Well, he’s the original lead guitarist for Breaking Benjamin. He was with them for their first four albums which were, in my opinion, their best albums.

Keyboards/ Rapping Vocals: Mike Shinoda – Linkin Park – Not sure how much rapping I want my superband to do, but maybe I’ll have some. Either way, I needed someone who could play the keyboard so I figured I’d pick someone who could do both. Plus, I do like some of Shinoda’s solo stuff.

Female Vocals: Sharon den Adel – Within Temptation – Put simply, this woman has the best voice I think I’ve ever heard. She can sing anything: rock, pop, even opera. Don’t believe me? Listen to this song, which is a little bit of rock and opera together.

Lead Vocals: Brandon Johnson – Late Night Savior – This was the hardest one for me because there’s so many good vocalists out there. I ended up picking Brandon for this spot because there’s just something about his voice, the way he sings, that resonates with me.

That’s all I got. I know I still have three spots left, but I’m OK with that. If I were to fill them, I’d do it with a string trio. Put a little violin/cello/viola behind it. I don’t know anyone who plays those instruments, or which of those particular musicians is good, so I’ll just leave it at that.

What about you? Do you know who you would pick to to build your own superband?

Fake It

by Revis Edgewater

My brother, twindaddy, and I went to a concert Wednesday night. It was a pretty good show. Lacey Sturm (the former lead singer of the band Flyleaf) opened things up. She was OK. Not great, but not too horrible. Certainly not the worst opening act we’ve ever seen.

Starset came on next. I like them. They have a number of good songs, so I was looking forward to seeing how they were live. They didn’t disappoint. They put on a good show. Other than a two songs from their newest album, they stuck with their older, more well-known songs. I was most excited for their final song, My Demons, because not only do I really like it, Baby E loves that song. So, I recorded some of it and sent it to my wife so she could play it for her. I got a text back saying that both my girls were singing along to it.

The headliner was Breaking Benjamin. They’ve been one of my favorite bands for a while now, but I really haven’t liked their newer stuff that much. Specifically, their latest album of new music, Ember. There’s something about it that just doesn’t sound right to me. I like the music. I like the vocals. But, for whatever reason, they don’t sound right together for me. I don’t know what it is.

Thankfully, they too played almost all older music. I loved it. They rocked out. Based on him talking in between songs, the lead singer is kind of a dork, but I won’t hold that against him too much.

As for the title of this post, it comes from the third band that played that night, Seether. I was actually looking forward to seeing them more than the other three bands. I’ve liked almost every song they’ve put out. Granted, there have been a few that weren’t great, but no one’s perfect. Back when burning CDs was still a thing, I once made a disc that had every song of theirs (up to that point) on it and could play the whole thing without having to skip any songs.

Now, whenever twindaddy and I go to a concert together, something strange always happens. Whether it’s some drunk guy talking to us while peeing on a dumpster when we’re walking to the venue or a very large man falling down some stairs and landing so hard we felt it a few rows over, there’s always something. Every. Single. Time. This concert was no different. Something happened this time too.

Ok. There actually was one difference. This time, I was recording when it happened.

Fake It – Seether

Music Post

by Revis Edgewater

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about music. A few years ago, I used to do one once a week. They were called My Weekly Soundtrack, and in them I’d put the links to YouTube videos of songs that had been stuck in my head at some point during that week. A few of you were fans of this series of posts, but after taking a break from blogging a while back, I never revived the idea.

For those of you who are hoping that this post will be that revival, it’s not.

It might be fun to start up that series again, but I doubt that I’d keep up with it for very long. There’s no point in going on with it if I’m just going to drop it again soon.

So, what I’m going to do instead is review a few albums, that have released within the last year or so, by bands that I have followed for a while. Up first is the one I liked the least.

Ember by Breaking Benjamin was a big disappointment to me. Up until this album, I’ve pretty much liked everything they’ve ever done. On this one, not so much.

Don’t get me wrong. There are a couple of good songs on it. Red Cold River isn’t bad. But, overall, it just really wasn’t that good to me. Listening to it, I felt like they were going out of their way to not sound like Breaking Benjamin anymore.

The next CD is the newest on, Evolution by Disturbed. I haven’t listened to this one as much as the others. I try to give an album a few listens before I render judgment and I might need to listen to this one at least one more time before coming to a final conclusion. I’m kinda on the fence about it.

On one hand, there are a number of regular Disturbed-type songs, and they’re good. On the other, there are a couple of songs in the same style as Sound of Silence. I mean, the melodies were different. The lyrics were different, but all I kept hearing was, “Hello, darkness, my old friend.” I’m not sure what to do with that.

The last of the albums is the one that I thought I’d like the least, but, in my mind anyway, ended up being the best of the bunch: When Legends Rise by Godsmack.

Godsmack’s previous album, 1000hp, was not very good in my opinion. So, when this one released, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it. Most of the songs are very catchy and infectious, but still have a good dose of kickass to them. Their first single, Bulletproof, is a good example of that.

There’s not really a bad song on this album. Sure, there’s a couple teetering on the border between decent and good, but there aren’t any that are bad. I can’t think of many albums that have no bad songs on them and this is one of them.

That’s all for now, folks. May all your music be good.

My Weekly Soundtrack 1/28/14

by Revis Edgewater

It’s been awhile……since I’ve done one of these posts.

In my defense, I’ve been busy…and lazy. Anyways, it’s time for me to force my music upon you once again. These are just songs that have been stuck in my head at one point or another during the past week. Let’s get on with the show!

Up first, the song that inspired the first line of this post. Here’s some Staind.

Second on this list is The Kill, by 30 Seconds to Mars.

Our third song for today is Away by Breaking Benjamin.

Fourth is Flaw with their song Recognize.

In the fifth spot is Green Day with their song Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.

Sixth is Classic Rock Song by Stephen Lynch.

Our last song for this week is Race Against Myself by The Offspring.

Well, folks, there you have it. Another week’s worth of music that has been floating around in my head. I know it’s not pleasant being in my head, but be thankful. You only have to be in there once a week. I’m in there all the time.

My Weekly Soundtrack 10-1

by Revis Edgewater

It’s Tuesday again, my friends. That means it’s time for another installment of my weekly soundtrack. I know, I know. Control yourselves, though. Lining up to bow down to my impeccable taste in music may seem necessary, but, I assure you, it isn’t.

With that in mind, I decided to do a theme this week. Not in the music, as it is just random songs, but in the way I present them. I bet you’ll never guess what it is, either. Continue reading →

My Weekly Soundtrack: 8-20

by Revis Edgewater

When I first started doing this, it was a list of songs that had been stuck in my head at one point or another in the week. It soon shifted to me just picking random songs. I did this because some songs stay stuck in my head for weeks at a time and I didn’t want to keep having the same songs on them. I also threw in a few themed lists. This week, I thought I’d go back to the beginning and just post songs that have been stuck in my head.

I hope you enjoy these as much as my mind apparently does.

Continue reading →

My Weekly Soundtrack: Remakes

by Revis Edgewater

I know I haven’t done any of these soundtracks the past couple of Tuesdays, but I have good reasons. Last Tuesday was my birthday, and the Tuesday before that was my wife’s. As much as I like sharing music with you all, I’m not going to be giving up birthday time with my family to do it.

In honor of my return from break, I will be doing a special soudtrack. This week I will be focusing on a particular type of song: remakes. Continue reading →