Norway's Naveblues



As an animator during the "Second Golden Age Of Animation" I lamented the apparent death of traditional hand drawn animation. But I've been informed that "2D" animation is still alive and well, overseas.

As a long time lead guitarist for Rock & Roll bands I've lamented the apparent death of the lead solo since the age of Garage Band and drum machines. Not just guitar solos but solos of any kind. But now comes the new single and video from Naveblues which proves the soloist isn't dead but is simply overseas. "Thank You", the old Led Zeppelin track from Led Zep 2 is redone with both a great new lead guitar solo, I say "new" because it is not a tribute solo to Jimmy Page, and a really great harmonica solo (what ever happened to Blues Traveler?). Here is a Norwegian singing like an Englishmen trying to sing like an American. He seems to have completely eliminated the middleman and is vocals are convincingly American, bluesy and soulful.

 This CD cover design looks real familiar. I wonder...


It's tough to record a hard rock, bluesy version of a Led Zep song with great solos as that is pretty much the description of a Led Zeppelin song. To come close to the original yet not becoming a clone or a parody is a risky trick but Naveblues pulls it off. The "Robert Plant" of Naveblues, singer - harmonica player, Nave Pundik is the only performer named in the Naveblues press release and since it is also mentioned that he is "making a name for himself as a craftsman of provocative music videos" it makes me think the Naveblues might be more of a recording/video project than an actual band despite what their press release states. Who is that great lead guitar player (I assume the drums are a machine)?

Nave Pundik, I presume?

So if the real "product" here is the music video, let's take a look at that. It is described as being a scene of one of the first settlers on Mars. 
 
 

An uncredited actress (this act doesn't just hand out credits), isolated in her sterile futuristic enclosure and staring out of its wall size picture window to the bleak Martian landscape gets teary eyed when she goes through her grab bag of trinkets from "home". It's a lonely yet beautiful video but it brings up some questions for me: if Mars is a dead planet, it has a solid, frozen core, then it can't generate a magnetic field. Life on Earth is only possible because Earth has a molten core which generates a magnetic field which protects all life from Solar radiation. Even if you could get a bunch of Blue-green Algae to grow and create an oxygen rich atmosphere, the radiation would eventually kill anyone unprotected on the surface for any length of time. I also think the first "settlers" on Mars wouldn't be the nice lady in video but probably the Earth's nastiest convicted felons. We'd probably colonize Mars the way the British colonized Australia. The first people on Mars would most certainly find it more of a punishment and a prison than a "Paradise".

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