CD Review - Porcupine Tree - The Incident

If you liked Porcupine Tree’s last three albums (Deadwing, Fear of a Blank Planet and In Absentia), you will love The Incident. Steven Wilson does not stray from what has been working, which is heavily syncopated chunk guitar rhythms, unusual picked acoustic chord progressions, great vocal harmonies and insane, insane drumming.

Except this time he has strung together a 55 minute piece called The Incident, made up of 14 songs that blend together to form one big story. Some of these 14 are soundscape interludes that bridge larger, more structured songs.

The centerpiece is an 11 minute tune called Time Flies. This song sounds a bit like Dogs from Pink Floyd’s Animals to me, with a very cool, simple strummed acoustic rhythm that repeats as the vocals and other instruments build around it, with a mellow, long center section that has dissonant power chords bouncing off of picked arpeggios. The song in fact winds up with some high electric strumming that reminds me of the end of Sheep. Hey why not, it worked for the Floyd! But PT make it their own. It’s a kick ass song.

Thematically, The Incident seems to be a number of different perspectives on a horrible car crash, from the victim’s family to the car driver, to the guy who drives the hearse, to a guy who sees ghosts on the highway. I don’t know – I have only heard this a couple of times. But as usual, Wilson’s lyrics are top notch. Not quite as angst-ridden and despondent as Fear of a Blank Planet, though – they are a bit more introspective.

There are some nice, mellow melodic acoustic-based tunes, such as the album closer, I Drive The Hearse, and some crazy power chord syncopated stuff too like Octane Twisted. In fact, the album starts off with some of the heaviest power chords I have ever heard recorded, and these come back about 80 percent through the CD in Degree Zero of Liberty. But overall, this album is not quite as heavy as the last couple.

I almost hear more 70s prog influences like Floyd and Genesis than on earlier albums, which seemed more based in 90s guitar tones and syncopation. I hear more Hammond organ, Mellotron, Steve Hackett-style acoustic picking and overdriven solos, and man is there a slide tone right off of Echoes in Your Unpleasant Family. The one exception is the title track, which is based around an electronic booming beat that builds and culminates with a catchy “I want to be loved” sung over and over underneath a sustain and reverb-laden ripping guitar solo.

The second CD is a collection of four songs that fall outside of The Incident story and have more involvement from the rest of the band, writing-wise. They could have fit on the first CD but I read that Wilson did not want to muddy up The Incident by putting anything else on that disc. The price reflects that of a single CD, as well, so you are not getting gouged to bring Wilson’s vision to fruition.

I am now really looking forward to tomorrow’s show in Portland. I have a feeling they are going to play The Incident in its entirety, and I really hope they do!

I know I am doing this huge work only partial justice by writing a review after just a few listens. I am sure I will hear lots of other things on repeated listening, but I wanted to get something posted while my first impression thoughts were fresh. But I also know that if I like a CD this much already, I am going to really love it later. So...If U like PT, get this CD ASAP!

PS - excellent Steven Wilson interview here.

Phil Collins Joins Ranks of Retired Prog Rock Drummers

Saw this on Dr John’s blog, and it looks like the rumors are true. Phil Collins has retired from drumming. After undergoing surgery to repair dislocated vertebrae, he has been unable to hold drumsticks or play a piano. The doctors are not sure if he’ll be able to play again. According to reports, Phil’s not too worried about it. I guess he is thinking (again), if Bill Bruford can do it, so can I.

I could make a million jokes here but the fact is, up to the early 80s when Phil became more concerned with crafting pop songs and becoming ubiquitous, he was one of rock’s top drummers. His playing on 70s prog rock staple albums Trick of the Tail, Seconds Out and Three Sides Live raised the bar for prog rock drumming.

And his unique drum sound, which leaned heavily on openly tuned toms played reallllly loudly and no cymbals, was very identifiable in the 80s. The most obvious examples being In The Air Tonight and I Don’t Care Anymore (and Intruder and Biko from Peter Gabriel’s third solo album if you are into PG). I heard that atrocious Frieda song “I Know There’s Something Going On” the other day and it’s mostly Phil’s big drum sound powering that song to the top. And as Dr John pointed out, he’s on Robert Plant’s first two solo albums as well. And he sounds great.

But here is the Phil I will miss – the heavily bearded, long haired hippie Phil, trying to prove he could front Genesis after Peter Gabriel split, who would race back to the leftie drum set after the last verse was sung, to do a double drum solo with Chester Thompson.

Of course, I have been missing THAT Phil since 1980. This is what I am talking about:

New Ace Frehley, Porcupine Tree CDs Hit The Stores Today

Very excited to get the new Ace Frehley and Porcupine Tree CDs after work today. Porcupine Tree kicks their tour off tonight in Seattle, and I will be catching them tomorrow night in Portland, so I will probably listen to that one first. Ace has been doing lots of shows but nothing near me. Anyway, I will try and get reviews posted ASAP.

Mick Taylor Torn and Frayed

Once in a while there is an article about an old rocker that is so weird it makes you turn your head and say "whaaa?" For example, 70s Lennon clone Gerry Rafferty allegedly vanished last year and the rumor mill heated up that he went MIA two days after checking himself into a hospital due to liver disease. People thought he was abducted or took off to go die in peace in a hole somewhere. According to an update on his Wikipedia entry, he's doing just fine thank you.

But yesterday another weirdo story caught my eye - this time an article about former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, indicating he is for the most part broke due to the Stones not paying him any royalties since 1982. There are photos of his dilapidated house and old moss covered car etc. I guess the club circuit keeps him alive but that's it. No side career as a painter like Ronnie Wood or Paul Stanley as a "fall-back."

If true, this is a travesty. Whether or not Mick is the sharpest tool in the shed or best businessman in the music biz (he's not) aside, his playing on the Stones' albums from 1968 to 1974 is glorious and without him, albums like Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock and Roll would not be nearly as staying. And he should be paid for it, like everybody else.

His slide work on stuff like Dancing With Mr D is epic, and his soloing on classics like Time Waits for No One is, well, timeless.

As I loved KISS for Ace Frehley, I love those Stones albums for Mick Taylor's playing.

According to the article, Taylor was written out of his royalties share when the Stones changed labels in 1982, and he never bothered to sue to fix the slight (see 'not the best businessman' above). That plus battling drug issues off and on over the years have taken its toll, and his photo in the article was a bit of a shocker.

I saw Mick Taylor at Slim's in San Francisco in the 90s and he was pretty good. He did the exact same set twice for some reason (must have thought it was an early and late show and didn't notice all the people in the audience were the same), but he was still good.

The article is also a bit of a tell-all (I hope he got paid for it), and an interesting read. I do feel badly for him but it really just makes me want to listen to some old Stones, which of course will only make Mick and Keith richer. Hmmm...

CD Review - Beatles White Album Remaster

So, I couldn't wait. Was at the store two days ago and picked up the White Album remaster. Very nice packaging. They duplicated the poster that used to come in the original LP, and included a pretty cool book that didn't tell me anything new about the recordings but had some very high quality photos I had never seen before and of course all of the lyrics.

But the real anticipation was, how does this sound? I popped it into the car CD player and the screeching airplane that intro's Back In The USSR came on. Hmmm. Then Dear Prudence. OK. It sounded good but not sure if it was any kind of improvement. I was expecting the big emotional whoosh I got when I heard the remixed Yellow Submarine or insane mashup of Love.

But of course that is not what this is. This is Apple taking advantage of modern day technology to put the master mixes onto CD properly, so they sound fresh and vibrant. You shouldn't really hear new guitar parts not on the original albums or anything like that. It should just sound better in general. But I wasn't sure I was hearing anything all that different sonically.

But then something happened. While My Guitar Gently Weeps came on and all of a sudden it sounded EPIC. The piano intro was biting, Clapton's solos were right there in my face and it sounded like Harrison was playing acoustic next to me in the passenger seat.

And it went on - The horn and string parts in Martha My Dear, the bell in Everybody's Got Something to Hide... They were crisp, clear and loud. And the White Album's quiet songs always seemed to be sort of muffled to my ears. But now, songs like Julia, I Will, Blackbird, Long Long Long and Mother Nature's Son sound like they were pulled off of Revolver or Rubber Soul, which I always felt sounded crisper.

In fact the bird sounds in Blackbird were so clear and present that they were almost distracting, as was the bell in Monkey. And Yoko's warbling "Hey Bungarow Birwl" was also more audible (a good thing?).

McCartney said in a statement that these CDs are now as close to what it sounded like being there when the songs were recorded and I believe him.

There are 'making of' videos on each new CD but I haven't watched the White Album one yet.

I am actually going to kick on Revolution 9 and get into the groove (not). But I bet Good Night sounds excellent!

Not sure if I will eventually replace my whole Beatles collection with these but if the White Album is any indication, I just might.

Beatles Remasters Hit the Streets

If you read this blog, you are likely a music fan. And if you have not been under a rock the last week or so, you have been blowing in the wind of hype around The Beatles catalog being released today in remastered format on CD.

I heard a few songs on the radio and they did sound great. My birthday is coming up, so I am waiting patiently for a few to arrive as gifts. I will certainly post something after I give them a listen.

In the meantime, here is a PDF of an interview CNN did with the engineers who were given the master mix tapes to make this happen. This was not a remix a la the Yellow Submarine, Let It Be...Naked, and Love CDs from the last few years. All they did was to take the master mixes that came out of the studio in the 60s and apply modern day technology to transfer them to digital and apply EQ to clean up the sound.

But given the fact that technology has come a long way since the 80s, when The Beatles first showed up on CD, this process alone is enough to make those master tapes sound like you are sitting in the studio with the boys themselves.

Anyway, it's an interesting read. Especially the discussion about mono in the 60s and how up to about 1968, stereo was an afterthought, only afforded by the elite!

Slow Rush

I am sure someone did this so they could focus on the drum part (which actually sounds doable at this speed, if you were a fairly competent drummer), but to me it is funny how it brings Geddy's voice into a normal tonal range! Sounds like a normal guy singing rally slow with cotton in his mouth. Thanks to Tom G for the heads up.

Check it:

Van Halen Made Extra $1 Million by Working With Scalpers

The Wall Street Journal reported this week on a ticket scam spearheaded by Ticketmaster head Irving Azoff. Seems that the best 500 tickets for 20 of Van Halen's shows on the reunion tour were removed from the Ticketbastard system and were given to scalpers, who would be allowed to keep 30 percent of the money they made by scalping the tickets. The remaining 70 percent would go to Ticketmaster, the band and others.

It was part of a clandestine Ticketmaster program called "Project Showtime" that was designed to reap some of the benefits from ticket scalping. Makes me feel a whooooole lot better about the Ticketmaster/LiveNation monopoly.

...not.

According to the article, the program "fell apart because of distrust between participants, but not before the secondary ticket brokers were given tickets to scalp for Van Halen with Azoff's blessing." Yeah no shit. That is like a Walmart letting drug dealers peddle their pharmaceuticals and then wondering why the checks aren't coming in on a regular basis.

Read more here.

New KISS Song - Modern Day Delilah - My Take

KISS made its first single from the upcoming Sonic Boom album available as a streaming song on KissOnline today. My buddy also sent me an MP3 version he got somewhere, so I have listened to it a few times.

My take? I like it. I am not sure that I am eating the dog food that has been placed in front of us that 'this is a return to the 1970s KISS we know and love.' For me to buy into that, Ace and Peter would be in the band.

But the track rocks. It has a cool riff that sounds a little bit like Pearl Jam's Evenflow, and Paul Stanley throws in enough woo-yeah's and falsetto shriekings to make it sound legit. I actually thought it was great until the guitar solo.

Tommy Thayer currently occupies Ace's boots and he is the first guy to say that Ace influenced him as a guitar player long before he started working for the band in the late 80s. He has done a great job carrying the Ace torch, because...well, Ace doesn't want to do that anymore. Ace finally has a new album out and is clean and sober and...good for him.

But when Tommy's solo comes around in Modern Day Delilah, it's just...too much like a guy trying to sound like Ace. OK, I know that Thayer did many of Ace's solos on Psycho Circus, but since I am not really sure which ones, I can pretend they are all Ace. On Sonic Boom, we all know it's Thayer playing every lick.

Half of the solo is fairly original but the other half is right from the book of Ace circa Alive! and it just somehow makes me feel weird listening to it. Like I am cheating on Ace or something. Oh God I am such a tool.

Anyway, I am sure I will get used to the idea. Let me know what you think of the song. The album drops October 6 at WalMart and will be like the recent Journey CD, meaning it will be the 11 new songs, a second CD of re-recorded classics (if you want to know what I think about THAT, read this), and a short DVD of live stuff. For $12.

Here is the song. The solo is at 2:10...

R.I.P. Les Paul

I don't have a lot to say on this. The guy was 94 and some of my fellow bloggers thought he was already dead (Chris! Ha ha). But it doesn't matter. He invented multitrack recording and of course designed one of the first and most iconic electric guitars. AND he was a killer player to boot, kept his shit together and still gigged in his 90s. For any one of those reasons, he's in the history books and will live on forever.

CNN ran a nice obit here.

And here is a cool old video showing why this man KICKED SO MUCH ASS:

Springsteen Rips Off KISS - Hilarious But True!

I really wish this was a joke but holy crap it's not! Why am I just hearing about this now? Didn't Gene Simmons smell a bunch of money here? Has he sued Bruce yet? I'd imagine it's only a matter of time. Forgive me if this is really old news but I just think this is incredible.

Happy Birthday Dio - He's 67 (WHAAAAAT?)

Any of us aging rockers worried about not being able to cut it as we get older, or feeling the need to perhaps take up a different hobby so we don't seem ridiculous rocking away as we get closer to the rocking chair, dig this factoid - Ronnie James Dio turned 67 on Monday.

Dio is 7 years younger than my dad. And I gotta say, if my dad ever dressed up like Dio, I'd shoot myself.

I am sure Dio comes from some crazy healthy gene pool, and I am sure he must have partied a bit in the 70s (who didn't? - well, I was 9, so not me...) but the dude is a testament that moderation and taking care of yourself can pay off in spades as you get older.

Dio - 67. Un fucking believable.

He was 65 in this video:

Taylor Swift Dresses Like Ace Frehley and Sings About Kissing Girls

...not that there is anything WRONG with that. In fact it's mildly arousing.

R.I.P John Hughes

At the end of the work day today, I heard that John Hughes had died of a heart attack in New York, at age 59. It was kind of a busy day so I just posted an obligatory Twitter Tweet and went on with it.

But thinking about his work made me realize that he was a real talent. Yeah he was behind She's Having A Baby, but come on. Ferris Beuller, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Planes Trains and Automobiles stand out as five of the all time favorite 80s movies. Throw in Fast Times and Real Genius and I am pretty much all set on the 'teen flick' front. And let's not forget he was also behind National Lampoon Vacation...

The two I liked the most were Ferris and Planes. I emphasized with the isolated Cameron character in Ferris, and loved the comic weirdness of Planes. Like when John Candy drives the car the wrong way on the highway and in the crash scene, they turn into screaming skeletons for three seconds. Surreal touches like that were cool. I also loved the end of that movie, where the frame freezes on John Candy's smiling face. I always wondered if that was how Hughes envisioned the ending or if he came up with it on the fly in editing.

From the CNN obituary: "The script for 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' was the best script I had ever read," Steve Martin told CNN. "I asked John how long it took to write it, he said, 'I wrote it over the weekend.' The weekend. That shows you what he was able to do."

New Ace Frehley Track - Outer Space

Ace Frehley has made one of his new tracks available as a streaming file (steaming pile?). The song is classic old-school Ace, just as it has been billed. Heavy guitars, Anton Fig on drums, and pretty humorous lyrics. Basically, it's about Ace being in your face because he's from outer space.

Frankly, I dig the sound of this and it makes me kind of stoked to hear the whole album Sept. 15.

Rumor has it that KISS' new 'old school' album will drop in early October from Wal-Mart. Might be called Sonic Boom, and would be a 3-disc set: the new CD, the CD of re-hashed KISS songs recorded by the new version of KISS (and released in Japan already) and a DVD.

Sound familiar? That is exactly what Journey did with their Wal-Mart release.

Dig Ace's Outer Space here or below:

The Who Windmill Contest Winners Announced - Yawn, Snore and WTF?

I wrote about this a while ago here. Kind of interesting to see the winners. I think the guy who won the grand prize had a funny video but didn't really bust out any solid windmills, which I thought was the point of the contest. The runners up are just flat out weird. I don't know who the judges were but they need to stay away from the brown acid...

You can check out the winners at The Who page here, or just watch them below:

The winner:


Runners-Up:
Kind of funny...


Kinda cool, but lame windmills...


WTF?....


Whatever. I think the people I put on my post blow all of these out of the water...

In other Who news, Roger Daltry announced a solo tour called the "Use It Or Lose It" tour. The idea is that the voice is a muscle and if he doesn't keep it in shape, when old Pete calls for the next Who project, Daltry's voice may be shrivelled to a whisper.

The closest he gets to my neck of the woods is Seattle, but I won't be driving up to support the cause. Tour dates are listed here.

Spinal Tap on Jon Stewart

Pretty funny rendition of Sex Farm after second commercial break. Who taught Harry Shearer to play bass? He's pretty good!

Toxicology Reports Show How Michael Jackson Died...

..and it's now how you think. Check out the below to find out what REALLY happened.

Who Said Iron Maiden Never Had A Hit?

OK, so I admit I have been very negligent with my blog as of late. Work has been crazy, and I have more projects at home than time to complete them. So I apologize if I have not been posting as frequently.

But this should go towards making up for it. Someone with waaay too much time on their hands made an audio mashup of Iron Maiden and The Monkees and put it on YouTube. Prepare to die with your boots on, laughing...

New Site Added to Blogroll - Candygurus

Who likes candy? Well shit, who DOESN'T like candy? But these guys like it a lot. I mean A LOT. The whole site is dedicated to testing and rating all the different types of yummies out there.

I am posting this for two reasons - I know one of the two guys who runs the site, and because they are funny as hell. I laugh my ass off every time I read a new review or post. Here is one of the more recent ones:

It’s not fair to blame the masses for the faults of a few. Like, you can’t say every Iranian is a numbnut; just the dumdum leaders who use religion to hide behind a fascist regime stuck in the middle ages. Similarly, just because there seems to be an inordinate amount of crap candy out of Mexico, it’s not like there is no good Mexican candy. On the contrary, we found a few items worth purchasing again. Unfortunately, these Serpentinas aren’t them. Perhaps if I had grown up on these…? M A Ybe if I had been force-fed these as a chillun I could find some semblance of candy satisfaction? As it stands, I couldn’t be more putrified.

Serpentinas are terrible. They are inedible. I put them in my mouth and immediately relegated them to the spitter pile. Wanna re-enactment? Watch any Seinfeld episode where Kramer is lauding some kind of fruit and then tries some inferior piece that Jerry bought and immediately spits it out and says, “no – that’s no good.” Insert me as Kramer. Done.

Simply: bad. Just awful. If you happen to come upon them in some international foods aisle, I suggest you slowly turn back around and slink away.

Check out Candygurus here.

RIP Allen Klein - I Guess

With all the celeb deaths in the last two weeks - Farrah Fawcett, The Gloved One, Billy Mays, Karl Malden, Steve McNair etc, a pretty big one got glossed over - Allen Klein.

Klein was the famous New York businessman who managed business affairs for the Rolling Stones and later The Beatles - hosing both groups in the end.

He is one of the many reasons for the rift between Paul McCartney and the other Beatles that hastened the band's end. Later, the other three Beatles said Paul was right and they never should have signed on with Klein. Oh well...

Read the Wikipedia entry for the gory details of all his various business noodlings, but for now, dig the take on Klein from the Beatles parody movie The Rutles. Klein is played by John Belushi and his two henchmen are SNL writers Tom Davis and Minnesota Senator Al Franken (whaaaa?):

Fellow Floydian Slip Scores Big Hit

I have to share this. My buddy Ehren Ebbage, from the Floydian Slips, has a song on the season finale of ABC's Eli Stone this Sunday.

The song is called Land On Me. It's a great tune, off of his new album Ten Cent Souvenir.

Ehren was also in Isor Wallobee, a band I led for a few years in the mid 90s after I quit The Strangers, after 5 years on the road and about 1,000 shows across the country with that band. 

The story of how I met Ebbage is kind of funny. I didn't really have direction after leaving The Strangers, and was living in Eugene Oregon. So a buddy and I started having pick up jams at local clubs.

One night I see this guy watching the band through the window. At the break, the waitress hands me a note. Ebbage was 19 and couldn't get into the bar but he wanted to jam. For some reason I went out and talked to him and we agreed to get together and play.

From those jams, we put Isor Wallobee together and had a two or three year run and a CD I am still really proud of. Until he turned 21, he'd have to either stay onstage or leave the venue at set breaks! Classic.

Anyway, he's gone on to get into producing, recording, writing and touring etc. Congrats on this great score, dude!

Neil Peart Launches Cooking Site

Rush drummer Neil Peart has bounced back admirably from the tragedies of separately losing his only daughter and his wife in a short horrible year back in 1998. Not only is he back on his game with Rush, kicking ass harder than ever, but he is remarried and is expecting a new baby this summer. Well, his wife is. Good for him!

Now Neil is branching out into another one of his passions. Cooking. Like motorcycling, Neil got into cooking rather late in the game, saying on his Web site, "I was in my forties before I learned to cook anything more complicated than soft-boiled eggs."

Now, Neil is launching Bubba's Bar and Grill, a site that will offer recipes for "good, simple food" from Neil's alter ego, "Bubba."

From Neil's site:

“I have learned a few things about preparing good simple food that might be worth sharing. In this space I will assemble and present some of that lore, along with some simple recipes, because it seems a shame that other Bubbas (of any gender and ethnicity) should have to suffer the foolishness of my youth — I was in my forties before I learned to cook anything more complicated than soft-boiled eggs.”

Visit Bubba’s Bar ’n’ Grill, where you will learn about “The One Hour Rule,” “The Queen’s Portion,” and why Bubba says, “If you want to impress a woman, bake her a pie.”

The site opens July 4.

In reporting the news, ClassicRock.com listed a hilarious run of possible cringe-worthy recipe titles based on Rush songs, including Lakeside Pork, Jacob’s Larder, Red Bruschetta, Thyme Stand Still, A Passage To Bangers & Mash, Pesto and my fave, Fry By Night.

My money says that if Neil's site catches on, he will publish a cookbook, and wouldn't it be cool to see Neil have a cooking show on the Food Network? Cookin' with Neil!

Maybe it could be Cooking With the Neils and he could co-host with fellow Canadian Neil Young. They could have Bob and Doug McKenzie suggest Canadian beers to compliment the food. OK, where do I pitch this idea?

Keith Emerson Joins Spinal Tap Onstage

Spinal Tap finished their "world tour" of one gig at Wembley Stadium last night. The band was joined by Keith Emerson on Hammond for Heavy Duty and a few other songs according to reports.

Emerson also appears on the song on Back From The Dead, Tap's new studio album, which is excellent by the way.

Anyway, someone posted a couple of short videos to their Flickr account. Check it out:

Chickenfoot’s Chad Smith Sustains ‘Serious Injury’

According to a statement from the band, Chickenfoot drummer Chad Smith suffered a serious injury on stage during Monday night’s concert in Paris.

The statement reads, “We are sorry to inform our Spanish fans that Chickenfoot cannot perform tomorrow night in Madrid due to a serious injury to drummer Chad Smith. ”

“Chad was performing on stage last night in Paris and during the show he hurt his right arm badly. He has torn his small bicep and cannot play the show Wednesday, July 1st. The band is very sorry they cannot play for their Spanish fans this week and plan to return as soon as possible.”

Eeeks. I'd think they'd have to take a few shows off to allow Smith to heal. In the meantime, I am still enjoying the new album.

Pete Townshend Windmill Contest

The Who are giving away a Strat signed by Pete Townshend to the person who submits the best 30 second video of them doing a Pete Townshend windmill (that was BOWLING...). Contest details here.

The contest ended Sunday and I had been getting emails about it for a few weeks but blew them all off.

I kind of wish I had entered, as there are many lame entries and I could have been a contender! But there are a few great ones too. I like the ones below, especially the guy who drew blood. I think there should be a rule for this that if you don't draw blood, you are disqualified.

When I was 13 or 14, I was doing windmills in my room (playing to either Who Are You or live Won't Get Fooled Again from the Kids Are Alright soundtrack) and my hand hit the glass light fixture cover on the ceiling. It came crashing down and shattered everywhere. My mom ran in and said what happened, are you hurt? I said No and looked at my hand, which was covered with blood. I wish I had a video of THAT!

Here is the man himself, from a recent tour. Note how he almost certainly has wounded himself doing this. When Townshend does the windmills, his nails go flying. He bleeds. It's real, not some bullshit stage move. Dig it:


There were tons of lame submissions. Here are a few cool ones:

I like how this guy even put the number on the guitar and even looks like a young Pete (and he bleeds too):


This guys has all the moves down and likely hurt himself. Good man.


Love how this guy used a real gig. Band doesn't sound too smoking but I dig how he is throwing windmills all over the place in LA Woman!

Neil Young and Paul McCartney Go Apeshit

I am really not sure what to say about this, except that even though it doesn't sound that great, make sure to watch all the way to the end. The last two minutes are the payoff.

Michael Jackson Death Brings Down The Internet

You would have had to have been off the grid hiking in the Appalachians or hooking up with your Argentinian mistress if you had not heard that Michael Jackson the "king of pop" died yesterday of heart failure.

I was never a big fan, so this news isn't devastating me like it would if this were, say Neil Young or Geddy Lee. I mean, Jackson hasn't really been significantly creatively active in the last couple of decades if I recall, and that whole pedophile thing doesn't sit too well.

But I am clearly in the minority on this, and I fully expect to be inundated by Michael Jackson for the next few weeks. I am ready. Bring it on.

The one interesting side-product tidbit is that so many people were freaking out about Jackson's death yesterday that the Internet almost ground to a halt.

Gotta give the guy some credit for being that big of a deal to that many people. CNN posted a comprehensive story on what happened here. Excerpt:

"Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for queries related to Michael Jackson," a Google spokesman told CNET, which also reported that Google News users complained that the service was inaccessible for a time. At its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as "volcanic."

As sites fell, users raced to other sites: TechCrunch reported that TMZ, which broke the story, had several outages; users then switched to Perez Hilton's blog, which also struggled to deal with the requests it received.

CNN reported a fivefold rise in traffic and visitors in just over an hour, receiving 20 million page views in the hour the story broke.

Van Halen Guitar Hero Discludes Michael Anthony

They say that in war, the winners write history. In rock and roll, the most recent example of this is certainly Eddie Van Halen, who not only is trying to get his version of Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony's departures from the band set in stone. He is now trying to delete their very existence in the band's history.

When Van Halen's son Wolfgang took over bass duties from Anthony on the recent reunion tour, some of the band's artwork was altered on the VH Web site - Anthony was actually airbrushed out of the covers from some of VH's first releases.

Now, Hagar and Anthony won't be represented in the VH Guitar Hero video game. According to Rolling Stone, the trailer was previewed at the recent E3 Expo, and follow up reports confirmed that Wolfgang will be your VH bass player if you want to play the game.

No reports yet if any Hagar-era songs will even be IN the game. But I doubt it.

Which would be a shame. The band has a great history, being hugely successful TWICE, with the different singers. I don't think they would (or should) put out a Guitar Hero - The Hagar Years. But come on, Ed, own up to your history and do it right.

Some folks may want to jam out to Summer Nights as much as to Jamie's Crying. Wait...

New KISS Album to Rock, Out of WalMart?

Paul Stanley reports from the band's Web that the new KISS album "rocks big time," and should be out in Sept/Oct.

Stanley said:

We’re about four days from finishing the new Kiss album. Eleven tracks, and it is everything I’ve told you. It is classic. It is all written within the band. And it rocks big time!

Tommy [Thayer, guitar] and Eric (Singer, drums] both handle lead vocals. The songs, sound and playing will knock your socks off. You will all be as proud and excited as we all are. Oh…and WAIT till you see the cover!

Regarding that cover, Michael Doret, who designed the 1977 cover for Rock and Roll Over, has been tapped to do the new one, according to this recent interview:

You said you drew your inspiration (for the KISS cover) from a job for a (Japanese) magazine cover, IDEA. Where did you get your inspiration for that cover?

The magazine was doing a feature on my work and they asked me to come up with a cover for that issue. I did the cover image to look like a shooting gallery. So the inspiration probably goes all the way back to Coney Island—but the direct inspiration was also vintage tin toys and tin litho target games. Anyway I did the IDEA cover first and the whole KISS / Rock and Roll Over thing came afterward. I loved the way the IDEA cover came out, the way I had them print it in Pantone colors—it almost felt like a silkscreen. I really wanted to go that route again. As the members of KISS were wearing Kabuki-style makeup, the Japanese-y approach I did on the IDEA cover seemed a perfect match. So I came up with that graphic and used a similar color scheme and look. We even did it in five flat colors—not in 4 color process.

(The KISS cover) was like a shooting gallery then?

Not at all. It turned out to be more like a mandala, more Asian-influenced. I was just going for the look I had come up with on that other cover. The visual theme I chose came out of the album’s name, the “Rollover” thing. There was no “right side up” to that cover…An interesting side-note is that after all these years since I did that work for KISS, they’ve come back to me and asked me to design their next CD cover. It’s a big project, and at the moment, I’m totally immersed in it.

And photographer Ross Halfin, who has worked with KISS in the past, posted to his diary recently:

"Fathers Day today - spent it at the pool. The Love Gun Paul Stanley was at the hotel for lunch with his family. Jimmy and I chatted with him and his son Evan. Paul showed me the new Kiss album cover on his iphone and I'm still not saying what it's called, but it's old school Kiss..."

Other reports indicate that the band's new album will follow The Eagles, AC/DC and others by being available exclusively at WalMart.

According to Rolling Stone:

However, when Kiss do release their new album, it will apparently be a Walmart exclusive. Simmons revealed the news to an unlikely source — actress Denise Richards — during a Sirius XM visit. The promotional blitz will include Walmart dedicating an area of their stores to the band and dubbing it “Kiss Korner,” Simmons told Richards in the video posted at Blabbermouth. Rumors of a deal along the lines of AC/DC’s massively successful exclusive with the retail giant first emerged after Simmons and Stanley attended an Arkansas Walmart shareholders meeting on June 5th.

New Porcupine Tree Album Details Released

According to ClassicRock.com, Porcupine Tree's upcoming 10th studio album, a double CD, is called The Incident and will be released September 21.

According to the story, the CD centerpiece is the 55 minute title track, which takes up one of the two CDs. The other CD contains four stand alone tracks written by the band last December.

From the story, the title track is “a slightly surreal song cycle about beginnings and endings and the sense that ‘after this, things will never be the same again’.”

The seeds of the idea that led to The Incident came to Wilson as he became caught up in a motorway traffic jam whilst driving past a road accident.

“There was a sign saying ‘POLICE – INCIDENT’ and everyone was slowing down to rubber neck to see what had happened,” he recalls.

“Afterwards, it struck me that ‘incident’ is a very detached word for something so destructive and traumatic for the people involved. And then I had the sensation that the spirit of someone that had died in the car accident entered into my car and was sitting next to me.”

“The irony of such a cold expression for such seismic events appealed to me, and I began to pick out other ‘incidents’ reported in the media and news,” continues Wilson.

“I wrote about the evacuation of teenage girls from a religious cult in Texas, a family terrorising its neighbours, a body found floating in a river by some people on a fishing trip, and more. Each song is written in the first person and tries to humanize the detached media reportage.”

The band put up a video from the studio that doesn't reveal too much but is still kind of cool:



And here is a video from a couple of albums ago of a song I find really cool. The video ain't bad either:

Alice Video Freaks Me Out

Not to get too deep into my past but at a younger phase I tried... ahem... psychedelic substances. Hey, I was in a band in San Francisco and that was something you just did. Anyway, someone on Twitter forwarded this video and I have to say, I feel like I am back in Golden Gate Park watching the trees melt.

This is made up of actual samples from the Disney movie Alice In Wonderland. A miracle Disney's lawyers haven't shut this down, but maybe they are all tripping on it too. I can't imagine how much trouble it must have been to create the audio, much less sync it to video. Some people have waaaaay too much time on their hands.

Enjoy.

CD Review - Chickenfoot

I bought the new Chickenfoot CD partly because I liked the sound clips found in the YouTube montage fellow blogger Dr John posted. And partly because I wanted to check out the neato disappearing black ink packaging (it is very cool).

But I have been surprised at how strong an album this is, if you like guitar-based rock and roll (and who doesn't?). Right out of the gate, the first song Avenida Revolucion sets the stage for what you get on this CD. Namely, lots of shredding guitar and screamy Sammy Hagar vocals to a super solid backbeat.

But despite my initial impression, this is not a Van Halen soundalike band.

Some of Hagar's vocal approach leans on the Van Halen years but for the most part his work is standing on its own. And he mostly avoids the VH cliche vocal breakdowns "Come on fellas..." Instead, he goes into Jim Morrison-esque spoken word passages a couple of times.

Hagar is also kind of restrained with the 'party and hump chicks' lyrics, but let's be honest - it's a "good time" album, lyric-wise. As usual, Hagar's voice is in fine form and he delivers like you'd expect.

And yeah Satriani owes a lot to EVH, but he has taken the style into different areas. Truthfully, he is pretty restrained on this release. Oh yeah, it's shredaliscious, but only where it needs to be. The rest of the time, he plays some great tasty licks. I hear some Stevie Ray in there, and even his peers Neal Schon and Eric Johnson too. Overall his guitar tones are punchy and present. 

I don't have a lot of Satriani's stuff, because I stayed away from the shredding thing back in the 80s. But he really shines in a group context and is this band's secret weapon. Very impressive.

The songs are mostly based around interesting, sometimes heavy rock riffs. In fact, I hear almost as much Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page on this CD as I do EVH. You just know that Satriani brought in kick ass riffs, to which Hagar laid down catchy rock and roll vocals and everyone said 'Yeah!" 

The other great element is the rhythm section of Michael Anthony and Chad Smith. I have never liked the Red Hot Chili Peppers and always thought they were amazingly overrated (still do). But I have to admit that I am now a very big fan of Chad Smith, who lays down behind-the-beat grooves with just the right amount of Bonham fills. And Michael Anthony is right there doubling the complex licks (unless Satriani did the bass lines too).

I always hated how the Van Hagar era production always buried Anthony's bass. But it's very present on this CD, which helps it kick along.

Of course when Anthony sings back-up, we get that Van Hagar vocal sound, which is great. But I rarely thought the band sounded anything like Van Halen. To me, they are a kick ass hard rock band made up of very skilled musicians who are clearly clicking. I'd give this an 8.5 out of 10 and would recommend getting it if you dig any of these guys' former bands.

DVD Review - Iron Maiden Flight 666

Despite the Iron Maiden Flight 666 filmmaker's contention that Iron Maiden is a private group who hasn't granted behind the scenes access to film crews, I feel like the band has released a number of excellent documentaries.

My favorite being Iron Maiden: The Early Days, and the Classic Album series episode on the making of the Number of the Beast.

But I have a new favorite, and (wait for it)...it's Iron Maiden Flight 666. This nearly two hour film documents the first leg of the band's 2008 worldwide tour bringing the rich Powerslave era show to 5 different continents over a month and a half via the band's plane, Ed Force One. Piloted by singer Bruce Dickinson.

There a few unique angles here. It is the first time any tour has combined the band, crew and gear on one vehicle (the plane) for travel. Usually the band and crew travel separately, mostly for logistical reasons.

And I am pretty sure it's the first time the lead singer flew the plane...

Putting the tour together this way enabled the band to visit countries it had never (or rarely) played in, like India, Costa Rica and Argentina. In the film, Dickinson says they told the booking guy to string together all the countries that the accountants have always said they couldn't play, because they were too out of the way and would therefore cost too much.

The story of how the tour went from a crazy idea to reality is really interesting.

But then there is the whole story of how fanatical the fans in these countries are. Especially India, Central and South America, who don't get a lot of big name touring bands rolling through. These fans go absolutely bugshit and the live scenes from these shows are unreal. A bonus DVD has a complete concert from the tour. But each song is filmed in a different country. People love their Maiden and it's an emotional watch.

There is some behind the scenes stuff too, like what the guys do on their rare days off (golf, tennis and soccer), and there are short segments on each band member, as told by their bandmates. And the obligatory, "Iron Maiden has sold more than 70 million albums with no radio or TV support, blah blah."

If you are a fan of Maiden, rock, or even just rock documentaries, this is a must-add to your collection.

Scream for me, Santiago!

Chickenfoot Montage

So, I didn't even know it was out but the new Chickenfoot album is apparently available. Fellow blogger Dr John reviewed it and gave it 7 out of 10 stars. He posted the below montage video of songs. Some good moments. I may pick it up.

The one thing that strikes me is that the Hagar-Anthony vocals are so "Van Halen." Michael Anthony's sky high harmonies are as big a part of the band as Eddie's guitar work. Well, maybe not, but they are pretty damn important. You really do have half of Van Halen here - pretty cool.

Satriani and drummer Chad Smith sound great. Looks like a cool band. What do you think?

Oh, and if you go buy the actual CD, the packaging is something very different - it's heat sensitive. According to the band's site:

The ink reacts to heat and changes it’s appearance above and below 84ºF /29ºC. For example; If the package is at a general room temperature (around 73ºF) and is touched by a warm body part (above 84ºF) the ink will appear transparent at the point of contact. Once the surface of the ink returns to a cooler temperature (below 84ºF) it will return to it’s original opaque black color.

(Techie Fact) When you touch the thermo ink, you are literally moving millions of protons. This patented technology works by mastering the movement of a proton – essentially disconnecting and reattaching protons to turn colors “on” and “off."

Spinal Tap Official Widget

First Look: Beatles Rock Band Video

Here is the first look trailer of the Beatles Rock Band game, due on Sept 9, as unveiled today by Paul and Ringo at Microshit's E3 conference. It looks pretty flipping epic.

According to an article on PaidContent.org, "The 45 tracks bundled in The Beatles: Rock Band include I Saw Her Standing There, Day Tripper and I Want To Hold Your Hand; players will be able to download other songs on Xbox Live, of course, including the entire Abbey Road album. There’s even a charity angle: all sales of the track All You Need Is Love will be donated to Doctors Without Borders."

I just hope it will work on the Wii...

Ozzy the Dumb Ass Sues Tony Iommi

This has Sharon Osbourne written all over it. According to the Associated Press, Ozzy is suing Tony Iommi, who owns the Black Sabbath name, for 50 percent ownership of same name.

Check out Sharon's full statement:

“It is with great regret that I had to resort to legal action against my long term partner, Tony Iommi, but after three years of trying to resolve this issue amicably, I feel I have no other recourse. As of the mid-1990’s, after constant and numerous changes in band members, the brand of "Black Sabbath" was literally in the toilet and Tony Iommi (touring under the name Black Sabbath) was reduced to performing in clubs. Since 1997 when Geezer, Bill and myself rejoined the band, Black Sabbath has returned to its former glory as we headlined sold-out arenas and amphitheatres playing to upwards of 50,000 people at each show around the world. We worked collectively to restore credibility and bring dignity back to the name “Black Sabbath” which lead to the band being inducted into the UK and US Rock & Roll Hall of Fames in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Throughout the last 12 years, it was my management representatives who oversaw the marketing and quality control of the “Black Sabbath” brand through OZZFEST, touring, merchandising and album reissues. The name "Black Sabbath" now has a worldwide prestige and merchandising value that it would not have had by continuing on the road it was on prior to the 1997 reunion tour. Tony, I am so sorry it’s had to get to this point by me having to take this action against you. I don’t have the right to speak for Geezer and Bill, but I feel that morally and ethically the trademark should be owned by the four of us equally. I hope that by me taking this first step that it will ultimately end up that way. We’ve all worked too hard and long in our careers to allow you to sell merchandise that features all our faces, old Black Sabbath album covers and band logos, and then you tell us that you own the copyright. We’re all in our 60’s now. The Black Sabbath legacy should live on long after we have all gone. Please do the right thing.”

Ooops, I meant Ozzy's statement.

Here is my take - I agree that Ozzy injected new life into the band when the original four Sabbath members reunited. I am sure he was paid very well on those tours. But here's the thing. I saw Sabbath with Ozzy a few years ago and they sucked. Well, Ozzy sucked. I was even impressed with Bill Ward - but Ozzy couldn't hack it. They did the same old songs they had been doing the last bunch of tours. Ozzy's voice went out and he threw the mic to the ground and stormed offstage. It was sad, actually.

Fast forward a few years. The band is touring with Dio, who is singing better than ever. Not only did they write three strong songs for a Dio retrospective CD set, they have a brand new album, which is not the greatest but at least they have a brand new album! According to Iommi, had they been trying to do an album with Ozzy, they wouldn't even have written the first song yet.

The new album, which goes by the name Heaven and Hell, by the way - not Black Sabbath - debuted at number 8 on the Billboard charts.

So of course Sharon is bitter and wants a piece of the pie. From reading Rudy Sarzo's book, she has always been this way, trying to get Ozzy to put out Speak of the Devil - a live album of Sabbath covers - before the real Sabbath could put out the Dio-fronted Live Evil.

Just get back to your reality shows, Sharon, and quit trying to roll Ozzy out on more tours. Let the man rest. And give credit where credit is due. I contend that if Iommi had skipped the Ozzy reunion and went right back to working with Dio in 1997, they'd be as big as ever.

What's In Ace Frehley's Bag?

Ace Frehley recently supported the struggling Indie record industry by appearing at Amoeba Music in California, signing autographs (for free I presume) and appearing in the below video. It's great that Ace still seems to be on the wagon and doing great.

I love how Ace kind of hits on the pink haired interview girl who is probably younger than his daughter!

Nick Mason Interview Completes Floyd Reposts on ClassicRock.com

I posted earlier about ClassicRock.com re-publishing some fairly revealing interviews with David Gilmour and Roger Waters from 2000, when the Floyd released the live version of one of The Wall performances, called Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live.

The publication has now posted a typically witty chat with drummer Nick Mason from the same time period. Mason's dry humor is always a nice counterpoint to the seriousness of the other two guys. I didn't get as many new nuggets of info in Mason's interview, but it's worth a read.

Oh and by the way, if you don't have Is There Anybody Out There? and are a Floyd fan, you need to get it. Roger Waters shouting at the crowd to "Clap! Come On! Have a GOOD TIME!!! ENJOY YOURSELVES!!!" at the front end of Run Like Hell is worth the admission alone.

Plus, you get the song "Last Few Bricks," which is a medley that was inserted before "Goodbye Cruel World" to give the crew a chance to finish placing the last few bricks in the wall at the end of the first set. Many of the other songs are extended. "The Show Must Go On" has an extra verse, for example, and "Empty Spaces" is totally different from the album version.

I recently found a bootleg of one of the rehearsals for these Wall shows and Waters barks orders left right and center at band, crew, sound guys, the guys building the wall across the stage. He is large and in charge! Pretty classic.

Read Mason's interview here.

KISS On American Idol

I don't really give a crap about American Idol. I have never watched it. I always figured it would just make me angry and who needs that?

My older kids like it though, and watch it at their mom's house. So when I wouldn't let my 11 year old watch the finale last night (too late for a school night - yeah I am a prick), I got the silent treatment all morning. I guess I forgot that when all the kids are talking abut something at school and you missed it, that makes you LAME.

I felt even worse when I found out that KISS made a surprise appearance. Had I been monitoring my bookmarked sites, Twitter etc, I may have seen the rumors yesterday. But hey, work sometimes takes priority over surfing the Internet.

I took Alex to see KISS when he was six, so it's not like he's never seen them. But I remember the baby boners I got when I was a kid and KISS graced the TV screen. I wonder, actually, how many people were introduced to KISS for the first time last night? American Idol has a pretty large and rabid fan base of viewers but I would not image the younger ones were aware of KISS.

Anyway, here it is. I guess the kid singing with them didn't win, but he sure sports the boots well, as well as a screech worthy of Rock Star's Izzy Cole.

Cool Piano Covers of Tool/Rush

I stumbled on this artist on RushIsABand.com, as she does a very cool version of Limelight that they had posted. But the thing that really got to me was her incredible version of Tool's Wings For Marie.

If you can believe this, I ran a 5k race for cancer listening to the Tool version (twice in a row) and it somehow got me to the finish line. That is very emotional race and I was kind of choked up while running and listening to the song, cranked.

The way this woman does the song turns it into a more of a Firth of Fifth-style Genesis tune, combined with Sarah McLachlan vocals. See what you think:



Oh, and here is her version of Limelight:

DVD Review - Rush Snakes and Arrows Live

Spring finally sprung in Portland and this weekend we had weather in the mid 80s with full sun. But sadly, I spent all day Sunday on my back in bed with some kind of stomach bug I caught from my oldest son (thanks, Alex).

The one semi-productive thing I did all day was to crawl out of bed long enough watch the Rush live Snakes and Arrows DVD I got for Christmas but totally forgot about.

I have been going over the numerous Rush bootlegs I pulled off the Web. I mostly opted for pre-1980 tours, where they were in screaming good form, but still very raw. You know, the tours where they would still do all of 2112 and Hemispheres in the same gig.

So watching this Snakes and Arrows DVD with all of those old bootlegs in the back of my head, I have to say the band has for sure returned to the power of their early years. The new songs are so riff-heavy, and even older stuff like Digital Man and yeah even Mission, are far heavier than their originals.

But it's a rawness with the precision that only comes with being as good as Rush and playing for 30 years. The whole first set, Lifeson plays every song on a Les Paul. It's so refreshing to hear how pummeling a song like Limelight can be when its played on a Gibson instead of the various Fenders, PRS' etc that he's used. The dude is a total master.

Geddy's voice sounds great, and aside from the newer stuff, there seems to be far fewer pre-programmed sound bites humming along in the background. The DVD is also filmed from a musician's standpoint. Many, many closeups of fret work and drum fills shot from above the drum kit. Need I say that Neil is flipping sick on those drums?

There are also some hilarious bonus features - little "You-Tube worthy" skits featuring Geddy Lee as the Scottish "Harry Satchel" driving a delivery truck looking for chicken, when Alex Lifeson as a gut-bustingly ODD Mountie pulls him over.

I don't care if you already have the 3 DVD re-release of the 80s live videos, Rush in Rio and R30 - If you are a fan, get this DVD.

Oh and if you haven't seen this yet, dig this 1979 performance of La Villa Strangiato. This is the kind of stuff I am digging up in my quest for bootlegs:

Top Five Albums That Took A While To Grow On Me

Fellow blogger Seano posted a list of five albums that took him a while to latch onto but once he did, they became seminal listening. He challenged his readers to post their own lists in the comments. Instead, I thought I would hijack his idea and make my own list here. Thanks, Seano!

So here we go:

August and Everything After - The Counting Crows
I know why I didn’t like this album when it came out. Too much initial hype. Too much whiny singing. And NO guitar solos. The horror. But after many years and faded memories of all the magazine cover stories, these songs hold up very well. They paint great stories and the band supports the songs – imagine that. We don’t NEED a guitar solo here, folks. It’s about the song. My favorite Counting Crows tune though is a cover that is not on this album. It’s their version of Friend of the Devil. Seek it out. It’ll move you.

Born Again - Black Sabbath
In high school, my buddies and I originally liked this album because it was so bad. I mean the cover itself was enough shock value for us to want to consume this album if it was good or not. Turns out that there are some great moments on it, despite it being a weird release in a dark time for the band. The title track is very stony and who can argue that the riff for Zero the Hero is as pummeling as anything Iommi and crew ever cooked up? Hell, Guns and Roses stole it for Paradise City, so there ya go!

Black and Blue - The Rolling Stones
Sandwiched between the Stones’ more fruitful, Mick Taylor era and the rebirth of the band with Some Girls, Black and Blue was kind of a throwaway. The band itself called the album the ‘guitar audition album’ because they had not hired Ronnie Wood yet and there are a ton of guitar players sitting in on this release. But over the years I have come to realize there is not a bad track on it. Crazy Mama is as rocking as the Stones get, Hand of Fate is a keeper and two of my favorite Stones tunes are on it – Fool to Cry and Memory Motel. Enough said.

Pre-Help! Beatles
I had pretty much written off the Beatles' early stuff as pop pap, with the exception of standout hits like I Saw Her Standing There. But candy-assed tunes like She Loves You always made me think that whole period was not very deep. But checking out the band’s first four albums showed me a couple of things. 1) Lennon was totally in charge of that band, as he sings almost all the songs, and 2) he is much more bluesy and ballsy out of the gate than I had recalled. Songs like All I’ve Got to Do, You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me and You Can’t Do That totally kick ass. This Boy is incredibly bluesy and shows how well these guys could harmonize. Finally, check out their take on Please Mr. Postman. It’s as raw as some of Lennon’s later stuff.

Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
Even the guys in Pink Floyd hate this album. I got it in high school and liked If and Fat Old Sun but that was about it. My perception turned when it came out on CD and it seemed…well, louder. I think they mastered it louder. And it sounded pretty good. The Atom Heart Mother side-long suite is dodgy in spots for sure but has some great moments. The notion of Floyd working with orchestrator/artist Ron Geesin must have seemed like a good idea. But remember that he also did an album with Waters that was nothing but songs made up of body noises. Rick Wright’s sub-par song on side two benefits from killer horn breaks thanks to Geesin. I think Gilmour’s latest work leans back towards Fat Old Sun much more than anything Floyd did in the late 70s or 80s. The album has a kind of dreamy quality and little of the intensity of something like Careful With That Axe Eugene or One of These Days. The night Wright died, for some reason I put this one on and it did the job.

That’s my five. So what else? Three bands I am trying to get into but it just ain’t clicking for me yet are The Foo Fighters, The Decemberists and Wilco. I mean, I like what I hear but maybe they’ll make the next list.

Seano, for your next roundup, how about guilty pleasure albums? Ones we like but probably shouldn’t? I’d be happy to take first crack, and then you can swipe MY idea!

Irish Student Dupes Media Via Wikipedia

This is interesting. According to news reports this week, an Irish student posted a phony quote in the bio of a freshly dead French composer on Wikipedia to see what would happen. Sure enough, before Wikipedia's crack team of editors flagged it as 'unattributed,' various news outlets had pulled the juicy quote and ran it in the composer's obituary. D'oh!

Per the AP story:

When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

The sociology major's made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India.

They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia quickly caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it, but not quickly enough to keep some journalists from cutting and pasting it first.

A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud.

Now, I am as eager to break news on this blog as anyone, but I am not a journalist and I'll post just about anything. But you'd think that journalists would have the wherewithal to verify their quotes. Seems like in the news-hungry instant-entertainment driven world we live in, I guess there is no time for little details like 'verifying sources.'

From the article:

"I am 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up," Fitzgerald said. "It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact."

Scary. But it makes me further question these urban legend-esque stories I get sent to me by family members, or photos that are probably Photoshopped. There were photos going around of some guy punching a shark in the face that were probably fakes. But there are enough people dumb enough to fall into 'seeing is believing,' whether it's unlikely or not.

Viewers beware...

Pearl Jam Bassist Mugged By Masked Georgia Thieves

I bet they were waiting for Ashton Kutcher to leap out of the woods with a camera crew and say "You've been Punk'd!" But alas, that was not the case. According to CNN, outside of a remote Atlanta recording studio:

Three men reportedly emerged from a nearby wooded area wearing masks and brandishing knives. They smashed windows of the rented Jeep Commander, snatched a BlackBerry phone and other belongings, and demanded money, the police report shows. The suspects allegedly got away with more than $7,300 in goods and cash.

[Pearl Jam bass player Jeff] Ament jumped from the passenger side of the vehicle and started to run, but he was chased by a suspect and knocked to the ground, said Mekka Parish, a public information officer with the police department.

She said he "suffered some lacerations" on the back of his head and was treated at the scene. His backpack was also snatched, she said, and included inside was Ament's passport.

Geez. What does it take to record an album anymore? Does Pearl Jam need to hire bodyguards?

If you want to see the surveillance camera shots over and over again, go here.

Keith Emerson Cancels Tours Due to Medical Condition

People used to jokingly tell Keith Emerson if he keeps playing keyboards as physically as he did in the 70s, he's going to hurt himself. But sadly it looks like that is exactly what happened.

Emerson has posted on his Web site:

Dear Friends,

It is with much regret that I have to announce that due to past right hand injuries the resulting nerve damage and dystonic factor has made it unable for me to play the keyboards to the high standard I have always set myself and have to cancel my forthcoming Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla USA and European tours.

I am also going to have to cancel the proposed Emerson, Lake and Palmer tour which we were going to do at the end of this year.

I will of course continue with my physical/chiropractic/acupuncture therapy etc. in the hope that this will eventually get me back on form.

This is absolutely devastating to me as music will always be my main key to communicating with a world-wide audience. I know how much my fans and fellow band members were looking forward to these shows and it saddens me greatly to have to come to this decision and make this announcement.

Thank you for your understanding.

Keith Emerson

He even included a note from his doctor below the message in case we all thought he was bagging out so he didn't ever have to see Greg Lake again.

Side note - Lake must need money. He has said a number of times that he'd never play with Palmer and Emerson again. Lake's voice has changed so much that for the most recent ELP reunions, the keys of the songs were much lower so he could sing them.

Maybe Emerson fried his hands trying to bust out Hoedown on all the black keys! Disregard the very bizarre outfit he's wearing but check this out from the band's more epic period:

Iron Maiden Movie to Run on VH1 Classic

I was bummed to see that the new Iron Maiden documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666 was not scheduled to play in any Portland theaters. I resigned myself to buying the DVD whenever it comes out. But yesterday word spread around that the film will be aired on June 6 (of course) on VH1 Classic at midnight. I'll be setting the DVR for sure!

Some info on the film: The documentary takes viewers behind the scenes of the first leg of the band's Somewhere Back In Time World Tour, which kicked off February 8th, 2008 with the first of their 23 sold-out stadium concerts all over the world. The documentary has won the SXSW Festival award for Best Music Documentary.

The band has been marketing the movie via a number of channels (the band's fan club even has a Twitter account) and one is the film's YouTube channel. Here is a recent short clip I thought was kind of amusing and...well, different for a heavy metal movie:

Rainbow Reunion of Sorts

I have been meaning to post about this for a long time. A number of ex-members of Rainbow have gathered and are on tour as "Over the Rainbow." One notable absence is founding guitarist Ritchie Blackmore who has been performing Renaissance Faire music the last bunch of years for whatever reason.

But here is the lineup:

Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow 1980-1984) - Vocals
Tony Carey (Rainbow 1975-1978) - Keyboards
Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow 1980-1983) - Drums
Greg Smith (Rainbow 1994-1997) - Bass
Jürgen "J.R." Blackmore - Guitar

Yep, that is Ritchie's son on guitar.

Keyboardist Carey posted a blog entry after the band's recent Russian debut:

We rehearsed like madmen for several days in a Moscow studio — J.R. and I had pre-rehearsed at my house in Germany and Bobby and Greg in New York. After the first 10 minutes, it was pretty clear that when we didn't suck; we were pretty good. The tricky part is playing balls-out, take-no prisoners, and still being (reasonably) accurate. If you start thinking about what you're playing, you're automatically using a safety net...

First couple of shows had great moments and some fairly dodgy ones, as well. What surprised me was the turnout and the excitement level coming back to the stage.

The last four gigs were light-years better. Everybody had sort of figured out how they wanted to play the songs (this doesn't include Greg and Bobby, they had it cold from the beginning, for which they've both earned my eternal emnity).

I think Joe's doing a great job on songs he'd never sung before, great frontman, and Jürgen — well, I knew he was good going in, but he's killer and growing with each performance. And yes, he IS a Blackmore.

Here is a clip of the band doing the Dio-era tune Stargazer. It sounds pretty epic if you ask me:

Surprising Pink Floyd Interviews from 2000

Classic Rock Magazine is pretty big in the UK but I don't think it's available very widely in the States. But thanks to the Web I am able to get a look at the content now and again.

So I wanted to let you know that the magazine has been re-running interviews from 2000 when Pink Floyd put out the live Wall performance Is There Anybody Out There.

Now really. I thought I knew all there was to know about Floyd and its internal strife and the break with Roger Waters after The Final Cut. But in the interviews with Waters and especially Gilmour, I learned a lot. For example, the two were not really fighting during the recording of The Wall except for a couple of artistic arguments. It was really during the filming of the movie that things got bad.

Also, both Gilmour and Waters were very disappointed with Richard Wright at the time, who both say was contributing absolutely nothing to the band or the albums by that point.

In classic form, Waters said, "he played less and less and less and generally wasn’t interested, really. If he thought he’d written a good keyboard part he’d hoard it and put it on one of his awful solo albums. He didn’t want to share anything with anybody, he just got really anal."

Waters fired Wright sort of behind Gilmour's back, but Gilmour puts the blame mostly on Wright, who did nothing fix what was broken.

Anyway, this is the tip of the iceberg. There is loads of info in these interviews.

If you dig Floyd, make a few minutes to check out the article and Waters interview here and especially the Gilmour interview here.

One Way To Get Out Of Jury Duty

Have you ever followed The Smoking Gun? It's a Web site that re-publishes public records and documents and focuses on the sensational or at least the arcane and sometimes hilarious. Check out their pages of celebrity mug shots and you'll get the idea.

Anyway, seems that Montana's Erik Slye was not very interested in doing his jury duty assignment and after leaving a message that didn't get him out of it, submitted a letter that said the following (spelling errors preserved):

Apparently you morons didn't understand me the first time. I CANNOT take time off from work. I'm not putting my familys well being at stake to participate in this crap. I don't believe in the "justice" system and I don't want to have a goddam thing to do with it. Jury duty is a complete waste of time. I would rather count the wrinkles on my dogs balls than sit on a jury. Get it through your thick skulls. Leave me the f--k alone.

See it (and find out the response) for yourself here.

If I wanted to get out of jury duty, I would just show up drunk...