Tidal Streams For March

According to my Tidal music streaming app, these were the artists I listened to the most in March.

Simple Minds – A Scottish rock band formed in 1977, of which only Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are still original members. Some of their popular hits are Don’t You Forget About Me, Belfast Child, Sanctify Yourself, She’s A River, Promised You A Miracle, and Alive And Kicking which is my personal favorite. These 11 streams are mainly from the 2016 album Acoustic which is an unplugged (sort of) version of their popular hits.

While the album does feature acoustic instruments, there is still an element of creative mixing that flies in the face of true unplugged albums. This particular album is not everyone’s cup of tea, but makes for some interesting listening for audiophiles.

Dire Straits – The band which needs little introduction, was also formed in 1977 by lead guitarist and singer Mark Knopfler. They’re best known for hits such as Sultans Of Swing, Money For Nothing and Romeo And Juliet. After the world tour to promote probably their most successful album, Brothers In Arms ended, Dire Straits disbanded. This album is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first compact disc (CD) to sell a million copies, and is credited with popularizing the digital format. Money for Nothing, the hit single track off Brothers in Arms features a vocal introduction by Sting, lead singer of English rock band, The Police.

Dire Straits reunited in 1990 to record On Every Street, linking up with Jeff Porcaro, the drummer from rock band Toto. While On Every Street was not very successful, it is my favorite album, and has some of the most amazing blues guitar tracks which audiophiles use to show off their stereo music systems. My favorite song off the album is You And Your Friend. Dire Straits broke up again in 1995, whereupon Mark Knopfler focused on a solo career which continued to produce more brilliant albums.

Dave Matthews Band – The rock band formed in Virginia, USA, in 1991 by lead singer and guitarist, Dave Matthews who was actually born in South Africa. Their debut studio album Under The Table And Dreaming, was recorded in 1994. The hits What Would You Say, Satellite, and Ants Marching, off this album feature very high up on my all-time favorite songs list.

Crash Into Me, from their second and most successful studio album Crash, is also one of my favorite songs and an excellent track to listen to for audiophiles. However, it was So Much To Say, also off the same album, that won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Both Crash and Under The Table And Dreaming are multi-Platinum certified albums.

A Perfect Circle – The alternative rock band was formed in 1999 by Maynard James Keenan, lead singer from the band Tool, and Billy Howerdel who was a guitar technician for the same band. While their initial albums were all released in the early 2000’s, later albums were staggered substantially due to Keenan’s commitment to his original band Tool, and his other project, Puscifer which appears to be a vehicle for his alter-ego.

While Judith and 3 Libras from the first album Mer de Noms are instantly recognizable hits for A Perfect Circle, The Outsider from their second album, Thirteenth Step is also a major hit. A mix of the song The Outsider featured in the film Resident Evil: Apocalypse. A line from the song is still stuck permanently in my head and is probably the most profound line from a song lyric I have ever heard.

Disconnect and self destruct one bullet at a time
What’s your rush now?
Everyone will have his day to die

Since their last album Eat The Elephant from 2018, I understand a new single was released at the end of March this year, which I have yet to listen to.

Fat Coda Studios – This is an interesting concept, in that it’s not really a band in the traditional sense. It’s a production studio company based in California run by Joe Rayhbuck who is an accompanist, performer, and producer specializing in drums and percussion. Apparently he spent the first twelve years of his life studying traditional tribal drums and rhythms in Zaire, Africa.

He composes music for modern dance classes and his work is commissioned by dance studios. The song Flat Back Series is one which I play repeatedly to highlight the bass performance of my stereo system. Here it is on YouTube.