7th Symphony

Once again, I'm here to bring you the music that you might have missed (in fact, almost certainly missed). It's the music that you would proudly describe as 'indie' or 'hip,' if those terms were still cool (sorry to say, they've been co-opted and so we have moved beyond them. Alas.)


In short, I'm here to bring you music that's just a little bit weird.

With that said, let's talk about a cello metal band from Finland called Apocalyptica and their album 7th Symphony.

It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: in 1993, four cellists (that's a fancy word for people who play the cello) walk into a concert hall and decide they want to be a Metallica cover band. Nobody in the group plays a guitar. They call themselves Apocalyptica. What's the punchline, you ask?

Anywhere but Home

One of my favorite things in Freegal is how it's helped me find some hidden gems that I never would have known about otherwise. Now, most of the time, when you hear the phrase "hidden gem," it's referring to a band or album that was overlooked despite being amazing. For me, however, there's another kind of hidden gem: songs or albums by some of my own favorite artists that I never knew existed. These are particularly exciting in my opinion because they blend the familiar with the unfamiliar, the new with the old. You get the excitement of discovering something new even though it still sounds comfortably familiar.

My hidden gem for today is "Anywhere but Home." It's a live album recording from Evanescence, recorded during a 2004 tour. Now, I'm a fan of live albums for several reasons; I think it's interesting (albeit sometimes sad) to hear the difference between a studio album and a live one. In my opinion, there's something more visceral about hearing the music without all the cleaning, modifying and other audio tricks that go into a studio work. Most importantly, however, is that you can usually find a hidden gem on a live album that didn't make it into the studio release.

A Sneak Peek* from the Cheap Seats (Regina Spektor)

On the first day of every month, a little voice inside my head reminds me, "Hey buddy! Check the Orders Placed section of the library catalog!" For those of you who don't know, if you head over to the "Catalog" section of the library website, there is a wonderful button on the right side called, "Browse Our New Titles." One of its subsections is "Orders Placed," where I discover all the new books, movies, television shows, and music that are coming soon to our library (and stake a nice little spot near the front of the reserve line)! The ritual always leads to some great finds: for example, on June 1st, when I discovered that Regina Spektor had released a new album!