Serendipitous Nostalgia

Today I was walking home from work and absent-mindedly listening to music, when I noticed that that my supposedly shuffled iPod was displaying a definite preference for one band in particular. A band I haven't really spared a seconds thought in some years. As I walked I hatched a plot a write a blog post regarding the nostalgia this inspired. So I arrived home and thought to have a look on youTube for some reference material to post...

There is a reason I have a marked preference for the combination of a heavy rock music and female vocals, and her name is Aimee Echo. In the late nineties she fronted a band called Human Waste Project with vocals which managed to be both sugary sweet and ragged at the same time. My youthful self took notice. My youthful self also attended a festival called the "Ozzfest" with his friend Rich and said friend's father, where he found Human Waste Project to be a late addition to the bill. My youthful self promptly had the back of head damn near blown off by one of the best live shows he had (or was ever to) see.

As it turned out, that was to be their second to last show. Aimee Echo left the band, who sounded like this:

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and formed a new one, called at first Hero and then theSTART, who sounded more like this:

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Though I like this second song, I find that the raw edge is missing from her voice. This is probably due to the more electronic sound of the new band and thus the requisite multi-tracking of a voice I don't feel requires it. The point is I don't like the second band as much, not least because this is the only song of there's I found which has much of a chorus.

So where was I... ah yes, I was searching youTube for content to post. What I found was a lot of presumably live videos. I saw one for "Dog", thought "sweet!" and clicked. The video loaded. Aimee Echo was talking into the mike. "So a long time ago... there was a band in the nineties... called Human Waste Project... and we are them..."

Hang on... this is a new video... and then the opening riff gave me goose bumps...

I'm aware the sound quality is awful on the video, but here it is:

{% include youtube.html video="V-fFg3b76j0" %}

A bit of frantic web searching promptly revealed that yes, gloriously, the band were back to together. At least to some extent. They'd played two shows in 2008 (well... more like one and a half, since the first one was actually the encore from a theSTART show) and were rehearsing for a reunion tour.

It's when things like this come together that I'm given to smile inwardly and think that perhaps there is someone "up there" who likes me.

For what it's worth, another lady who had an (arguably stronger) effect on my musical taste is Sandra Nasic. So, for the sake of completeness, here's a couple of videos of her singing with her (now defunct) band, "Guano Apes", and another of her providing guest vocals on an Apocalyptica song.

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{% include youtube.html video="XvfYrKo1KGs html5" %}

{% include youtube.html video="wCeMJR33fkg" %}

Apocalyptica, in case you were wondering, are a group of Finnish 'cello players, who once exclusively played Metalica covers, but now play original material. Here's another one, this time with Corey Taylor:

{% include youtube.html video="OCqUR_iActA" %}

I think that's enough music for now. Tootles.