Rounding up some tasty Vegas music releases
WHAT’S an “Alcoholocaust,” you ask? Find out in the latest roundup of recommended Vegas music releases:
Mercy Music, “Until the End of Your World”
For fans of: Guitar-hero punk with radiant melodies and decidedly less-sunny subject matter.
The lowdown: It’s almost as if Brendan Scholz comes tethered to storm clouds. “I’ve lost the joy in everything,” the Mercy Music frontman confesses on album opener “Song For,” setting an emotionally overcast tone. But Scholz is a pro at channeling his inner Eyeore to transform low spirits into something capable of soundtracking high times. “I’m so delighted to be so messed up,” Scholz contends on “Mark Your Wrists,” and he kind of sounds like it, giving strong, stirring voice to one guitar-driven anthem after the next.
Song you need to hear: “With Love.” No, “Wasted Heartless.” Hmm, let’s go with “Good Faith.” Seriously, it’s hard to pick. This one is that good.
Trade Voorhees, “Saturday 6”
For fans of: Rappers who love their wives, if not always their jobs, so much.
The lowdown: On “Brad Pitt,” Trade Voorhees catalogs his insecurities over a squirrely synth line: He’s out of shape. He’s getting old. He drives a Ford, not a Tesla. Then comes the chorus: “I think I look like (expletive) / But my wife think I look like Brad Pitt.” So it goes with the blue-collar rapper, who finds modest ways to inflate and deflate his ego on this most human of records, his flow laid-back and laconic at times, assertive and booming at others. Whether he’s recalling the time he and a friend got robbed as teenagers or chronicling the
SOUNDING
The concert also will feature as guest conductors “Star Trek” composers Michael Giacchino, who will present his music from the latest cinematic iterations of “Star Trek,” Jeff Russo, who will present theworldpremiereofanorchestral performance of his score for “Star Trek: Discovery,” and Dennis Mccarthy, who will present “The Deep Space Nine Suite.”
As a longtime “Star Trek” fan (favorite series: “Star Trek: The Original Series”; favorite movie: “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”), Mcgee is the perfect conductor to take listeners on a Trekkian musical voyage.
“I was 12 years old when it started, and I watched it faithfully,” Mcgee says. “That’s one reason I love doing the convention, because there are a lot of people in the audience who know that I’m also a fan. So there’s a connection we share.”
For Mcgee, the appeal of “Star Trek” lies in “the relationships between the main characters. Like many people, I found myself in life asking, ‘What would Spock do in this situation?’ He was a role model for me as a kid and being able to handle things without getting upset and finding solutions. It was a great series because it had that very optimistic view of the future.
“And the stories themselves.
From a science fiction standpoint, many of them were excellent stories and were very thought-provoking. Some were silly, but some were very profound, and they’re still worth watching even now.”
In addition, Mcgee says, “I liked themusicfromdayone,andone of the great thrills in doing these concerts is that we are able to get … the actual scores that they used when they did these TV shows and films. So the scribbles they used in the studio when recording it, they’re still on the paper. The audiences are hearing the real thing.”
“Star Trek” always has been blessed with gifted composers, Mcgee says.
“With the movies in particular, some great, great talent has been involved with writing that music.
You have James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Cliff Eidelman, Leonard Rosenman. These are top-drawer
film composers, and what they bring to the stories, it’s hard to quantify. They did a marvelous job of catching the essence of what is on the screen.”
Has Mcgee ever felt tempted to step to the podium for a “Star Trek” concert wearing, say, a Klingon costume? He laughs.
“Well, we dress in concert dress,” he says. “However, one year — I think it was the second year — there was a makeup artist there who insisted on giving me Spock ears. That was fun.”
Contact John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @Jjprzybys on Twitter.