Season’s Greetings, Internet!

One hundred four years ago today, something remarkable happened during World War I:

• A German soldier dodged gun fire so that he could carry a Christmas tree to his enemies, enacting a “Christmas Truce”.
• Many areas on the western front spontaneously broke out in Christmas celebrations between the warring armies, including German, British, and French troops.
• In “No Man’s Land,” the barren wasteland between the opposing sides’ trenches, the enemy armies played soccer.
• They sang Christmas carols together.
• They drank wine and brandy, and gave gifts to each other.

There is a book about this amazing incident called Silent Night by Stanley Weintraub.

My new song, The Christmas Truce, is based on this true story.

Please download it for free as my gift to you. Thanks for reading this, and Merry Christmas! Or “Happy Holidays” if you prefer.

I came to find out the Google has taken notice of me, specifically a post I made back in July:

Number 1 out of 1,280,000 results! Wow! I have discovered my niche, I suppose: Libertarian Rock scholarship. If you missed my thesis, see what everyone on Google is searching for:

the Top 10 Libertarian Rock Bands

And don’t forget my AMAZING MUSIC SALE!

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In the Earbuds: “In Absentia” by Porcupine Tree

I am somewhat astounded by how wonderful this album is. I’m just sad I didn’t discover it back in 2002 when it was released. Only recently was the existence of the now defunct alternative/prog-rock band Porcupine Tree made known to me. Man, did I miss out.

“In Absentia” tells a creepy story involving serial killers and people on the fringes in the voice of chunky drop-D riffs coupled with airy clean guitars and acoustic strumming. The vocals are clean and understated, yet provide a powerful melodic core to the songs. Sort of a Pink Floyd turned to 11.

The guy with the messed up face on the album’s cover probably looks like that because he heard the opening track, “Blackest Eyes”, a pounding hard rock song with ethereal vocal harmonies in the chorus.

“Trains” tones it down a bit with acoustic guitar, but still keeps a driving rhythm and a pop melody. “The Sound of Muzak” sounds like a great lost Soundgarden song, while “Prodigal” starts out with a light, meandering bassline then hits with an anthemic rock riff in the chorus. The album closes with a light, beautiful piano ballad.

It sounds similar to the alternative rock of that era – but on a much higher plane of existence. Highly recommended!

Wise Sayings of Matt

The Gibson SG is the Batman of guitars.

Nowadays, you should not open a door with your hand out of fear of germs. Use your elbow instead. Therefore, never EVER touch anyone’s elbow.

Why does Garfield hate Mondays? It’s not like he has a job.

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Next Week

A new song!!

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I was a guest on a great podcast series called Foreign Policy Focus on the topic “Anti-War Music”:

https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/fpf-246-music-war-guest-matt-bankert/

If you like my ramblings, gratuitous use of “um”, and awkward pauses, then you may like this youtube playlist I made on the subject:

Anti-War Rock

Do You Have $5? Do You Want Songs? Perfect.

All my music is JUST $5 on CDBaby.com. Just CLICK THESE LETTERS.

On the Horizon

1. A new cover song on YouTube
2. A new acoustic demo on YouTube
3. “Enlighten Me” single released!
4. The sun

Concrete and Gold – Foo Fighters cover

In appreciation of the Foo Fighters’ latest album, I recorded a finger-picking cover of the title track, “Concrete and Gold”:

Think that song isgood?? Wait until you read about the rest of the album below…

In The Earbuds – Concrete and Gold by Foo Fighters

The Foo Fighters can’t seem to stop making music. They’ve dug deep into their classic rock inspiration well for their, forging another batch of strong songs. “Run” is an earnest, meandering, and powerful song that goes between quiet ballad in ¾ time to a pounding metal force. “Make It Right” has the Foos dabbling in 70s classic rock funk. “Sky Is a Neighborhood” throws some soul in the classic raw rock mix for a powerful result. Alison Mosshart of The Kills provides vocals on this song as well as the rhythmically off-kilter punk track “La Dee Da.” “Happy Ever After” is an acoustic CCR-style ballad while “Sunday Rain” sounds like a lost Beatles track from their later years, featuring drummer Taylor Hawkins on lead vocals. The album closes with the title track, and as Dave Grohl described it, it’s sort of Pink Floyd meets Black Sabbath – drifting, ethereal verses fused with a heavy, glass-shattering chorus. The chorus is enhanced even more by a choir of myriad Shawn Stockmans, of Boyz 2 Men fame.

There are a few bands I think of where it’s tough for them to make a bad album, and Foo Fighters is certainly on that list. Concrete and Gold is up there with their best.

In The Eyes and Ears – Foo Fighters concert

Man, can FF put on a show! I had the pleasure of seeing them on their Concrete and Gold tour at an outdoor pavilion among a sea of rock fans, and it was glorious.

Not only was it a great setlist, but the band was so casual and comfortable, you could tell they were having a great time, too. They threw in some extending jamming along with some covers, which included a humorous mashup of John Lennon’s “Imagine” with Van Halen’s “Jump.” I can’t believe Dave can still speak, because he tortured his vocal cords all night – but it’s worth the sacrifice in my opinion.

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I never knew I was a member of the mafia until I became a parent.

 “Oh, I see you didn’t eat your chicken.  It would be a real shame if something happened to Doggie.  No one would want that.”

 

“Wow, this is quite a mess in here.  It better be clean when I come back, or Bunny gets it.”

 

“I’ve got an idea.  Let’s brush your hair and get ready to go.”

“But, I don’t want to!”

“We can brush it while you’re sitting in time out.  Would you like that?  Huh?”

In the Earbuds: Young Hearts by BUNT. (feat. BEGINNERS)

This song, Young Hearts, is infectious.

The honky-tonk piano and synth trumpet create a strong urge to smile.  Life affirming and empowering lyrics.  There’s another non-remix version out there which is equally delightful.  This song eventually hooked me because I heard it repeatedly in a Spotify ad.  Don’t listen to Spotify?  Try it! www.Spotify.com.  You can hear virtually every song in the world on demand.  Except Tool for some reason.  You can hear me on Spotify, though!  Take a listen to my playlist.

Matt Bankert Digitally Live

I am planning to play a digital acoustic concert via live stream over the Internet!  As far as the time and content of the concert, I would love nothing more than to give the people what they want.  But I don’t know what they want!  If you’d like to see such a concert, oh person, would you please tell me what you would prefer?  Just click below!

 

Stay tuned for my announcement on when the concert will be. I hope you can tune in!

In the Earbuds: “Paranormal” by Alice Cooper

These days seem to be a renaissance of veteran rockers returning to make new and really good music (see Museletters 4, 8, 9 for reviews of Metallica, Ray Davies, Van Halen, and Matthew Sweet). This is the 127^th (give or take 100) studio album by the original shock-rocker and evangelical Christian, Alice Cooper.  Although he turns 70 next month, Cooper and his signature snarl are as visceral as ever. These songs are gripping and powerful with attractive melodies.  There is a spooky Trans-Siberian vibe on the title track and hyped-up Hendrix riffs on “Dead Flies.” “Rats” sounds like a deranged and enraged Chuck Berry howling out a low view of humanity.  A “love” song only Alice Cooper could write, “Fallen in Love (And I Can’t Get Up),” has a great ZZ Top blues rhythm – so much so, they had to get Billy Gibbons himself to play guitar on it.

 There is an Iggy and the Stooges kind of sound on “Private Public Breakdown” and “You and all your friends.”  The production is polished and punchy. This album is hard to stop listening to.  Highly recommended!

You can hear the spotlight on Alice cooper on my latest playlist on Spotify: “Give Me Liberty and Give Me Rock”

Send In The Tanks – the Bloopers!

You know when you are practicing something and you mess up a lot of times before you get it right?  Well, if you really need a lesson in humility, I recommend hitting record on a camera while you are practicing so you can capture your mistakes for eternity.  Thanks to this outtake video I just posted, I am the humblest man ever:

I think it turned out kind of amusing.

In the Earbuds: Matthew Sweet, Tomorrow Forever

Matthew Sweet is one of those rock artists whose work from a bygone era (the 90s in Sweet’s case) is burned in my mind, although they have been steadily releasing music unknown to me.  Sweet is known for his hit radio songs “Girlfriend”, “Sick of my Myself”, and he is still very much here with his 12^th album, Tomorrow Forever.  It’s terrific.

There are some hard rockers (Pretty Please), some slow ballads (Haunted), and plenty of feel-good guitar pop songs (Trick, Music for Love).  I love the bluesy, surfy beat to “the Searcher”.  The beat throbs under a mildly sung verse until the chorus kicks in with Matthew yelling in your face “You still can’t see!”

Matthew Sweet’s strong suits are stronger than ever here:

1. His ability to write catchy, but tasteful, fresh melodies.
2. His penchant for hiring astounding lead guitarists to noodle all the way through his songs – Jason Victor and John Moreman compete for who can melt more faces.
3. He may be among the best background vocalists out there.  That is, he always knows exactly when to place a nice “Oooo” or “Ahhh” to compliment the song, and the small army of overdubbed Matthews in the background just couldn’t sound any more harmonious.

The album is sure to delight Matthew Sweet fans, and even those new to him who just enjoy well-written songs that feel good going down.  More background on the album can be found here.

The Show

I had the privilege of seeing Matthew Sweet and band at the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis recently on the Tomorrow Forever tour, and came away completely fulfilled.  There were slain-by-the-Spirit guitar solos from Jason Victor, Paul Chastain was solid on bass, and Ric Menck just pounded the drums into drum powder (he’s been playing with Sweet since the “Girlfriend” album in 1991!).  Matthew sounded strong on vocals and rhythm guitar, and ably performed all the hits as well as a healthy dose of the new songs: Trick, Pretty Please (maybe my favorite from the new album), Music for Love, the Searcher.  I’m sad they didn’t do “Entangled,” among the strongest of his new songs, but I guess they couldn’t play forever.

I’ve been so excited about Matthew Sweet lately, that he has made his debut on my Spotify playlist, “Give Me Liberty and Give Me Rock.”  Give it a listen.

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