Song Of The Day 1/21/2014: Attila - "Brain Invasion"

Before They Were Famous: Fun Fact: Never, not once, on this blog have I gone on a Billy Joel rant. This is relatively surprising information. I looked it up and noticed that I've only mentioned him twice on Paul Pearson: The Blog, both times in passing. Whereas not too long ago, part of my venom as a music mini-critic came from knocking the Piano Man down as many pegs as possible, during a time when he wasn't releasing any new music and was kind of an easy target. Oh, how I snarked.

But the times have changed and I've mellowed a little towards Billy Joel. Part of it may have been because my slam-fests may have been an act of denial on my part -- Joel was one of my primary role models when I was learning piano, and maybe I was trying to retroactively slay the father. But let's face it: I know most of Joel's stuff forwards and backwards. Also I realized that The Stranger and most of Glass Houses and The Nylon Curtain were really good. And, as Anthony Bourdain found out, it's almost impossible to dislike Billy Joel as a person -- he seems to possess a healthy amount of humor and self-deflation about his colorful musical past.

You know, like that time he formed a heavy metal duo featuring nothing but drums and Hammond B3 organ? Yep! They were called Attila!

Well, this isn't what I'd call metal. This is, strictly speaking, prog. With some jazz leanings and what sounds like variations on circus themes. Whatever we call it, it certainly is some behemoth, ball-grinding, Balkans-invading mash. This is some serious flash, some manic fingerplay, storming out of your speakers like a runaway mine train filled to the brim with a beige-colored, gelatinous goop, piling headlong onto your shag carpet with all the subtlety of an exhibitionist skilled in Method acting.

Ah, well, it's still rock and roll to me.*

*(Actually, no, it's not.)