Water and Bodies

keep watching their blog kids.

Diablo Swing Orchestra - Sing-Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious (2009)

myspace

1 A Tapdancer's Dilemma big-band feel to it with Patton-like vox
2 A Rancid Romance
3 Lucy Fears the Morning Star awesome ending..latin build with trumpet
4 Bedlam Sticks unexpect
5 New World Windows moody, catchy, ENERGETIC
6 Siberian Love Affairs
7 Vodka Inferno did at PP..ending rules
8 Memoirs of a Roadkill jazzy, acoustic
9 Ricerca Dell'anima surf rock
10 Stratosphere Serenade epic 8min song, great riff to end the album

only played it once. This thing rocks. Reminds me of uneXpect or Akphaezya with a bit less Metal. This albums lives up to the awesome performance they did last Friday at ProgPowerUSA.

Muse - The Resistance Mark II?

I'm liking this album a fair amount. I need to hear it more, and a 1st generation copy before being a bit more settled on an evaluation. But for now, it seems like easily, the best or most-complete record they have made start-to-finish.

There aren't as many or maybe no over-the-top amazing songs on it. No "Stockholm Syndrome" or "Map of the Problematique" but there's more than enough energy and style-variation, while still being cohesive, for my liking.

Also i need to point out. The 5th cut, "Unnatural Selection" has a lead bassline I'm not sure I will ever be able to ignore how similar it is to Porcupine Tree's song "Signify" and even Muse's song "New Born" off "Origin of Symmetry" (2001). That being said, it's still a good song, and the similarity doesn't hurt it one-bit.




As with so many 21st-century mainstream (or quasi-mainstream) rock albums unafraid to stuff 10 tons of quasi-operatic melodrama into 60 or so minutes, The Resistance will be easily dismissed by those into the Grizzly Bear/Dirty Projectors brand of orchestrated art-rock. You know, where the album has a pleasing ramshackle feel under the surface-level skillfulness, the sense that the vocal acrobatics or tricky instrumental interplay could suddenly veer into uncomfortable, mock amateurish expressionism.

By contrast, you never get the sense that Muse are anything less than in total control of their "difficult" music at all times. Throughout The Resistance, frontman Matt Bellamy is ready and willing to foreground his chops, be it tickling the ivories, hopping octaves, or tossing out increasingly tasteful solos. If the The Resistance is "about" anything, aside from the conceptual malarkey encoded in the lyrics, it's about mastery, ego-security, etc. It's the kind of all-caps, no half-stepping ART-ROCK that closes with a three-part mini-epic so shameless about its own classic rock bigness that it's billed as a "Symphony", complete with "Overture". Jumped ship yet?

For the wary or outright dismissive, however, The Resistance is also a very smartly sequenced album. it opens with the most "pop" sequence of the band's career, a three-song sequence aping the stadium-grade synth-rock of Depeche Mode at their crossover height. It then segues into a middle section of hard (but not too hard) rock, nodding in the direction of grottier bands like Queens of the Stone Age or System of a Down without stripping away the sparkle. Only then does The Resistance shift into the sort of fist-pumping, kitchen-sink prog you were probably expecting. It's canny: Leading the uncommitted down a drum machine paved path of catchy 1980s revivalism and straight into the path of an army of kids straddling the gap between entry-level classical and "Headbanger's Ball".

And "army" is right: Unity in the face of faceless post-industrial society grinding down beautiful stuff like love and friendship is perhaps Muse's great theme. Bellamy is constantly tossing out mass-shout-along-ready lyrics like "we will be victorious" and "they won't stop breaking us down." Songs get titles like "Uprising" and (natch) "Resistance". Things break down easily into a "we" (rarely does an "I" creep into Bellamy's songwriting) and a "they." Your age-old, rock-standard good (we, the fans) vs. evil (them, the nebulous straight government-corporate nexus) set-up, got it?

But unlike the creepy mass-rally overtones that so bugged early rock critics about music designed to pack civic centers-- or thrilled them when it was punk leading in the kids in revolt-- you get the sense that Bellamy's lyrics are an outgrowth of wanting to make his music as big and inclusive as possible, rather than any inchoate political impulses. No doubt Bellamy fancies himself some sort of social crusader, but his mush-headed vagueness (like Bono and Chris Martin and just about any Brit frontman operating on this scale) is designed to inspire warm fuzzy feelings of togetherness and resistance rather than offer any ten-point plan to overthrow the emotionally fascist modern world.

So let's take the warm fuzzy bigness of the music at face value. It's understandable if the Buckley mannerisms and Mercury multi-tracking on "The United States of Eurasia" aren't your cup of tea. You may cringe at the Pavlov-approved crescendos that surge through "Guiding Light", the sort of thing where you imagine a ProTools preset producers have nicknamed "10,000 People Holding up Bics They Bought Especially for the Concert." And then there's "Exogenesis", the aforementioned "Symphony" in three parts. Now a Daydream Nation style knowing "trilogy" this is not. There's massed strings. There's half-time chest-beating theatrics ready for flashpots and Vegas set design. If it's not quite Keith Emerson's territory-- or Celine Dion's, for that matter-- it's a similarly grandiose ballpark where the fans wear slightly different clothes.

But still: I'm a punk at heart, suspicious about the meeting of rock band and orchestra after all these years, and even I have to admit there's something cornily beautiful about "Exogenesis", like Radiohead with no fear of pushing things until the motor bursts into flames. Judged on its own terms-- out of control scale, genre-smashing ambition, musical and vocal virtuosity-- The Resistance is a success. It's just the kind of success where you have to appreciate a guy who builds his own guitars daring himself to make the next song even more rapturously overstuffed and classically cathartic. It's an album you can embrace or get the fuck out of its way. There's really no in between. It's high-test pop-prog hokum, better suited to mashing buttons to kill wizards or gorging on a stack of four-color batshittery than working on your thesis or darning your socks.

Video games or comics are probably a closer comparison than most of the music Pitchfork covers, actually. There's a prevailing idea that there's something spiritually and emotionally dangerous about grown men and women spending most of their alone-time immersed in improbable fantasies where interpersonal relationships and the traumas of the real world can be dispatched/ignored via magical powers. But do you want to wallow in grey impotence in the face of quotidian bullshit every damn minute of the day? Escape, whether via Matt Bellamy or the Immortal Iron Fist or the fine folks at Nintendo, shouldn't be a dirty word, at least when used sparingly.

— Jess Harvell, September 15, 2009


Here's what Shitfork Media wrote about it. a 5.9/10. Given their typical reviews and rating approach, that is actually pretty high. My thought is, it's about ego and reverse psychology. The blogosphere is being critical as hell on this new album, saying it's pretentious, soul-less, and bombastic without substance or what people loved about past Muse albums. So given their desire to act like they know everything over at Shitfork, instead of following-suit and taking pleasure in shredding apart another band tapping into "prog" (or their more common term in that review, "Art Rock"), they gave it a bit more of favorable review. To me, that's them saying

"sorry, but you're wrong. Muse (and prog) may suck, but you all don't know as much as you seem to know."

dredg to tour with Karnivool in Australia (Nov/Dec'09

Karnivool's myspace Blog

Supports announced for Sine Waves and Mirrors tour
Dredg (all dates except SA/WA) from the US and Adelaide's Coerce will be joining us!

http://www.myspace.com/karnivool
Nov 18 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ The Enmore Theatre - Lic AA Sydney, New South Wales
Nov 20 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Waves Nightclub - 18+ Wollongong, New South Wales
Nov 21 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Trackside Festival - Lic AA Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Nov 22 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Bar On The Hill, University of Newcastle - 18+ Newcastle, New South Wales
Nov 24 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Tivoli - 18+ Brisbane, Queensland
Nov 25 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Tivoli - 18+ Brisbane, Queensland
Nov 27 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ The Coolangatta Hotel - 18+ Coolangatta, New South Wales
Nov 28 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Open Arms Festival - Lic AA Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
Nov 29 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ The Northern Byron Bay, New South Wales
Dec 2 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ The Palace Theatre - 18+ Melbourne, Victoria
Dec 4 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ The Ferntree Gully Hotel - 18+ Ferntree Gully, Victoria
Dec 5 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Pier Live - 18+ Frankston, Victoria


Dec 8 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ The Thebarton Theatre - Lic AA Adelaide, South Australia
Dec 11 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Metro City - 18+ Perth, Western Australia
Dec 12 2009 8:00P
’Sine Waves and Mirrors’ tour @ Maxx Youth Festival Bunbury, Western Australia

Lucky Aussie..dredg + Karnivool Tour = Win.

Then again, the people in the UK are lucky as Oceansize are doing a MOVIE screening of their new 'Feed-To-Feed" DVD on September 23rd. The band will be at the showing to sign copies too.

Minnesota 1/2 a world away from Australia and London. Where's the Star Trek beaming-technology when I need it?

The Dear Hunter update

just a small one. I wonder if the Minnesota show will get any of those acoustic arrangements in that video, especially seeing as we missed-out in July unlike other towns.

I should be doing more recap with PP, the tv blogs, etc, etc soon. Part of my problem right now is the fact my apartment has no Central Air working. And I also only got about 5+ hours of sleep on Saturday and am feeling the effects still. Coming home to a sauna like my apt didn't help.

Thursday is the only day this week with tv premieres I care about (Fringe and maybe "Community" the new Chevy Chase show on NBC), so that helps with a lot of premieres next week and the week after.

ProgPowerUSA Day 1

Briefly as it's nearly 5am early Saturday morning here at the Hotel, and of course I like many, have not gone to bed yet, lol.

The Good/Surprising:
Diablo Swing Orchestra and the Midnight/Crimson Glory Tribute. I had tears in my eye, very nostalgic, seeing the Midnight tribute. Specifically during "Lonely." I could elaborate more on that in due time, but in short, I felt like I was 20 years old again and it was 1996. DSO, more or less floored me with their energy and styles. The opera-vocals I actually found very little issue with. Perhaps they could be like with Screaming and Metal. Hearing them as a rhythm guitar part, allows my focus to be on the part of their music I enjoy the most, the instrumental sections. They had this sweet surf-rock tune even.

The less than satisfying:
Missing the Orphaned Land signing session for Mindflow. Some folks spoke highly of Mindflow, they were okay, probably could use a producer to help their songwriting. I had no clue OL was signing during their set sadly. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a few minutes to chat with the guys in OL.

Also missing Sabaton's set, which everyone raved about. "Combat/Military Metal" okay. I feel bad for seeing the guys in the elevator beforehand. I was grabbing a bite to eat and seeking out thye Orphaned Land guys in the dealer's room. And probably part of Sabaton's set was when I was in line for Fates Warning's signing. Which of course I went fanboy and forgot to ask Jim Matheos the obvious question about John Arch and maybe even who the drummer on the new record will be. He probably doesn't know, it may be Ron Jarzombeck (sp?) who was there. Spastic Ink-drummer.

Met Ted Leonard and Ed Platt (sort-of) from Enchant at this late hour in the outside lounge here at Artmore Hotel. Briefly, but better than nothing. Perhaps some tomorrow. Not Doug Ott unfortunately.

Of course I met a number of cool fans which I can't rattle off. 1 dude from NY whose a musician and I will check out his stuff. He sounded rather intrigued by my favorite music.

It's pretty clear, I am a bit of a fish-out-of-water here..wearing a dredg t-shirt. The ProgPowerUSA XI Video, not surprisingly di almost NOTHING for me. I know, the bands are what people want. I don't blame Glenn one-bit. But I only had heard-of 3 of 11? Hammerfall, Nocturnal Rites and Kamelot, lol. Oceans of Sadness might have been the most intriguing..and perhaps the band with a female singer I'm forgetting.

But certainly, these bands aren't my cup of tea anymore. I'll see, but maybe PP XII, namely if Andre is finally here with an approved Visa..or some other mircale reunion like The Galactic Cowboys or a Mike Baker-tribute. Of course he passed away within the last year, like Midnight, but where's his tribute? Shadow Gallery need to play 1 concert before they call it a day. A Mike Baker tribute would be totally fitting and classy. But I'd doubt it.

A lot of corset-dressed women..very beautiful, and very much not women I will likely ever see again unless it's at another festival here. Damn, eye-candy.

Fates Warning and Orphaned Land later today..a John Arch special appearance would be golden, but I also wouldn't expect anything of that stature.

Short update: Ramona, Jeff Buckley..mtba

a forum post I made last night.
Ramona Falls 9/9/09

Ramona Falls were awesome, even being the 1st night of their tour. Their drummer was being fueled by adrenaline, pounding away. They did nearly the whole Intuit record I think.

Sucks, the 2nd local opener, Spiritual Mansions, had this big crowd there, and most of them took off after they finished. Reminds me of the RX Bandits Crowd leaving and not staying for dredg last month. Spiritual Mansions are a good band, but I wish more of their fan-base could have stuck around for a little while longer. So goes a weeknight I guess.

edit: I might add, i met really, a number of cool people there last night. Namely the band members from Spiritual Mansions and some of their fans, despite them leaving early like that. This guy whose a drummer named Steve who I knew from meeting him after the Protest the Hero concert last Spring. He needs to meet my friend Josh from Mike Portnoy's forum. I think as music fans, specifically Tech/Death and other progressive music, and being drummers, I think the 2 of them would enjoy talking. It'll probably happen eventually; the Twin Cities concert/metal scene isn't all that big a place really.

But perhaps most enjoyable, was meeting this girl named Mary who was sitting next to me. I did give her this blog's url, so if she actually were to come here, I wish I'd have been able to tell her it was nice meeting her and goodbye. But perhaps she will be at a future concert I am, namely The Dear Hunter concert on September 30th at The Triple Rock, a band she of course didn't know. But she was one of the only people who was there last night soley for Ramona Falls, and was a Menomena fan. So I think that among some other parts of our conversation, I wish I'd been able to say goodnight/goodbye. It didn't hurt that she was cute of course :P.

I received finally after 3+ months, my 3rd prize? for the Jeff Buckley "Grace Around the World" contest. I won Jeff's own personal cd copy of Led Zeppelin IV believe it or not. It even came with a certificate signed by Mary Guibert, Jeff's mother, whose in charge of Jeff's estate. While in a physical sense, it's just a copy of Led Zeppelin IV with a jb stamp on it. But from a collector's sense, it's kind of cool, and perhaps the most distinctive (and sentimental) piece to my music collection. Jeff maybe bought it in 1987 or '88. He was a HUGE LZ fan, and when their catalog came out on cd, I imagine he bought it along with the rest. The idea of musicians personal music collections, what would be significant. Kevin Gilbert's copy of Genesis "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" or Gentle Giant's "Octopus" maybe? If not dead, say Mike Portnoy's copy of "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" "2112" although those would be on Vinyl I suppose. Might make for a cool forum topic.

Phil Collins will never drum again. He has some kind of spinal condition that forces him to end his time behind the kit. Personally, this bugs me even more that Peter never rejoined them to do THE LAMB with Phil on drums. Damnit, Peter.

-Adrian Belew (King Crimson, Talking Heads, Zappa) plays The Cedar Cultural Center on Monday October 5th
-Wolfmother plays The State Theater (how? and bands like dredg don't sniff any of the Hennepin Ave Theater District. No justice) on Saturday November 14th
-The Swell Season play The State Theater on Saturday December 5th

Shadow Gallery new album is called "Digital Ghosts" and will be released on November 3rd via Inside Out music. A short clip is on their website.

Orphaned Land new album will be out late December/early January. I have grown more appreciation for their last disc "Mabool" from 2004. They will be playing on Saturday night at ProgPowerUSA. Hopefully they'll perform some of "The Neverending Way of ORwarriOR" their upcoming LP. Perhaps I'll have some time to talk to them, along with Enchant and the Fates Warning members about things. Guess I'll see and post whatever I can/feel worth doing/appropriate. I'm still down about missing Enchant tonight, but $250 extra I do not have, and that was BEFORE I had to purchase a new computer, lol.


Yikes..tired, need to pack quickly. No idea about free time in Atlanta over the next few days. If the hotel has web access, I may do some blog-work..namely the TV Previews. Emmys are not this Sunday, but the next thankfully. Not to fall on the NFL Week 1 stuff perhaps. Although I likely will be in Chicago 1-week from Friday for my new niece/nephew's baby naming/bris.

Novel style of CD packaging

I just noticed this on The sElf Forums. I'm not sure how much practical use those would actually have beyond being a cd case, but it's certainly unusual and peculiar enough. Credit goes to the artist, Moldover, for thinking outside the box.

Back

Well, I have a shiny new pc. of course I get to do all the fun installation work, creating cookies, yadayadayada that I have not been forced to do in probably 4 years.

But isn't that half the fun? perhaps

So, Muse leaked, finally. And rather predictably, but still entertainingly, some of the critical reviews on rateyourmusic are worth a read, or 2, 3, 12.

..

This is the sound of a band that doesn't know what they want to do. Parts of this album, such as Uprising and Undisclosed Desires, sound like pop music written for all of their new pre-teen Twilight-loving fans. Other songs like Resistance and Unnatural Selection are banal offerings of the same stadium friendly alternative rock Muse has been pumping out since Showbiz only with a bit more Freddie Mercury worship and weird "pseudo-prog" sounds. Then there's the complete mess United States of Eurasia, a song with so many ideas thrown together that I just want to throw up my hands in frustration when I get to the Chopin piece accompanied by field recordings. Finally the album ends with the three part Exogenesis boasting a full orchestra. It sounded like a great idea. Personally I love string arrangements, but Muse just waste the orchestra. It just sounds like simple stock orchestra music playing before or in the background of a generic Muse song. This album is simply a half-baked attempt from Matt & co at becoming more experimental without alienating their fanbase. I guess in the end it doesn't matter because the kids will still jump around and have fun at a sold-out Wembley to crap like MK ULTRA.

P.S. - LOVE IS OUR RESISTANCE <3 YEAH, THEY GOT BRIAN MAY AND TIMBALAND TO DO SOME COLLABS AND SHIT

so, having only heard the 2 leaked songs previously, these comments among many others have given me more curiosity. is this going to finally be the record they step up to the plate and be the statement album they have needed to make since, well, they existed? or are these reviews more accurate and we'll have another 3 or 4 years to wait until they finally live up to their potential?...

Mr.Owl how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie-pop?..ah 1, ah 2, ah tree..ahh tree...doo doo doo doo doo..how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop..The World, may never know.

Baroness new album also leaked over my home-pc vacation. Some reviews suggest it's a step-up..more proggy. Could they be this year's Burst?..I wouldn't be shocked. I'll know soon.

Ramona Falls tomorrow night at the cave/entry. I should have won free tix from Radio Kah this afternoon. I dialed the wrong number damnit. My budget is taking a hit of late you could say. Saving $12 on a ticket would have been nice. Damn.

ProgPowerUSA in a few days. Enchant plays Thursday night. I arrive Friday afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to the guys on Friday or Saturday at least. Afterall, i should have a fair amount of free time given I really only am coming for 2 or maybe 3 bands. I may checkout Diablo Swing Orchestra and Royal Hunt. Diablo though, the opera singing may have to be more stomach-able live. Nightwish never worked for me. I dunno. And Royal Hunt I do like, but would prefer DC Cooper singing. I like 1 of their albums "Paradox" with Cooper singing. He won't be there as far as I know.

Crimson Glory I will watch. I was into them for a brief period in the mid 90's. "Transcendence" I still have nostalgia for. I was sad about Midnight passing.

But the real meat of this festival is Fates Warning and Orphaned Land, with Andre Matos gone. So, more or less among the 10 bands on both days, i am seeing 2 as a priority. 1 as a likely, and maybe 2 others. I'll likely have my share of free time telling tons of power and progmetal fans how alternative/indie prog and technical death metal is more my scene now. Why I've been gone for 5 years. And even that if they want to actually hear music that is doing different things, they need to stop getting force-fed the genre-specific music that the bands at the festival are doing year-after-year. And perhaps even tell them how prog metal was a lot better in the 90's and early 2000's anyway, lol. But we'll see. They're nice folks no matter, which hopefully will be another benefit for this return attendance for me after 5 years. Even if the price was $140, lol.

9



Somewhat Tim Burton ANBC-ish, and not that far from a Pixar-style (and quality). Given I received a free-pass for this thing at the last minute (and actually would have been up for seeing "Extract" instead, but no means to theater-jump), I can't say I was disappointed in it.

the story, really not all that different than your hollywood-animated protagonist/coming-of-age deal. The origin of the 9 robots? parts of their creator souls? or whatver, I found probably the most interesting. But this could have used more perhaps. Kind of a Lost-like style backstories. But if the audience is more for kids, kids don't need tons of backstory.

Animation-wise, yeah it was quite impressive visually, albeit rather dark and gothic, but it's Tim Burton, go figure.

If you're into Animated movies, go see it. If you like man vs machine stories, go see it. If you want another Wall-E or UP, rent/wait-for-tv/skip-it.

Update (Labor Day Weekend)

So my pc bit the dust. 2nd time in 4 years. That ole diatribe has been babbled about more than enough times in here.

Right now, I'm waiting on a new PC, which I should have on Tuesday, but depending on some things, may not be totally up and running for another day or 2 after that. We'll see.

The library sucks ass now. 1 hour of internet access (it used to be they had some pcs with 2min). And Dunn Bros, unless it's like 2 hours or less before they close (8pm or later) it seems always has demand for people to use their pcs. Thankfully, on Thursday, I was able to get access for the 1+ hour I needed for my fantasy football online draft. Not perfect, as Yahoo's java draft template doesn't work when the pc you are using requires 1/5 of the monitor space to have ads. But beggars can't be picky.

So, there's a good amount of content missing in here, due to my lack of time online over the last 3 days. Hopefully it'll be made-up. But not right away, as I've got a possible movie on Tuesday, Wednesday Ramona Falls @ The shitty Entry, and then I fly out to Atlanta on Friday for ProgPowerUSA.

Movies:
Galaxy Quest



rym review:
It was more or less Star Trek's answer to "Spaceballs" (Star Wars) except the plot and mostly the jokes weren't really in the same galaxy.

But for what it was, Alan Rickman and Tony Shaloub mostly, it was certainly worth seeing. Some of the notable cast like Justin Long, Missi Pyle, Sam Rockwell, and Shaloub, would go on in the last 10 years to bigger things.

I like Enrico Colantoni, but him and the Alien race, were actually more annoying than funny. Mainly the way they talked.

Ice Man




I caught these on Encore Drama the last few days. Ice-Man was interesting, although at times watching the guy who played the Ice-Man was kind of like watching that woman in the movie Bark!. It was kind of difficult to take entirely seriously. That being said, it was not an easy performance, and Timothy Hutton among the rest of the cast (Danny Glover, David Strathairn sp?) were worth seeing. The set looked at times eerily similar to the John Carpenter picture "The Thing."

Alaska was kind of a guilty-pleasure kiddie kind of movie that while it felt Disney/Hollywood had enough charm to watch. Dirk Benedict aka Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica, is a pilot in Alaska, whose plane goes down in a storm and the authorities rescue attempts fails. So his teen-age kids go after him via kayak, hiking, canoe, etc. Along the way they meet a friend, a baby polar-bear who was entertaining enough actually. And Thora Birch, while yeah she was about 14 or 15, was still cute enough to keep my attention, even then. Charlton Heston even makes an interesting villain.

I have the 1st 2 discs of True Blood checked out from Hollywood as well.

Extract given some comments from a friend of mine and some mediocre reviews, may be delayed. It's not the movie I would be seeing on Tuesday. Either the Renee Zelwegger thing "My One and Only" or "Adam" one that I had a free pass for a few weeks ago and skipped. Although I recall the same evening having another free pass somewhere else, so there was good enough reason for that.

Pain of Salvation new album "Road Salt" drops early 2010 presumably, but they're likely to release some kind of EP in November. More on that soon.

Local Natives based on some recent buzz, I think it's very likely some kind of announcement will happen about "Gorilla Manor" soon. The word was October. We're not that far away from October now, so that makes a lot of sense.

Tangled Thoughts of Leaving a group who I don't think I've mentioned much if at all on this blog until now. Guess to sum it up, at somepoint towards the end of 2008 I came across an ep of theirs. I remember it was around the time I discovered Distrails. I was kind of impressed by both of them, but Distrails moreso. TToL tho put out some kind of split earlier this year with another band. And perhaps an EP as well? I forget. Anyway, last week they posted a blog talking about their debut album, having a handful of songs, etc. And the chances of it coming out in 2010

Our every waking thought seems to be concerned with the release of our debut album in 2010. We have enough rough material to (over)fill it already - we just need to refine and make sure it is everything we have wanted it to be. As we tick into October we will be getting more serious with pre-production and then recording the album - we are planning on documenting this with plentiful youtube updates (we should really aim lower) and a plethora of news snippets showing up here!

so, in now remembering it. I recall also hearing about Grammatics around that time. Perhaps this debut album from TToL will boost their visibility and interest like Grammatics. It's certainly one to keep in mind for 2010. A potential buzz-band with a debut album. Stylistically, give their myspazz a go. Or look for them on last.fm. I guess they could be described as progressive-post rock of a kind. With a classical (or piano and string) element. Mostly instrumental now remembering. The thing that sucks is, everything I've heard from them, the mp3s seem to clip or cutoff or something. Not to the point where my interest goes away, but it's hurt my motivation to go back to them.

okay, well I was going to try and work on the tv blogs tonight, but my energy level keeps dropping and I need to drive home. This pc I'm on was slow as hell earlier, so that deterred my working on those earlier. I mean to/need to as the TV season kind of starts this week. Really next week moreso, but it would fit to put them up now. With a little time and this new computer of mine not requiring too much work to set up, I'll have some time hopefully on Thursday.

Otherwise, maybe tomorrow if I manage to take care of a few things.

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions (2009)

There's another entry on this?..ok, well, so be it. More words here when this sucker finally leaks. November 2nd or 9th..the rel date isn't 100% clear as of yet.

link



1. The Captain
2. That Golden Rule
3. Bubbles
4. God & Satan
5. Born On A Horse
6. Mountains
7. Shock Shock
8. Many Of Horror
9. Booooom. Blast And Ruin
10. Know Your Quarry
11. Whorses
12. I’m Probably In Your Pocket
13. Cloud Of Stink

Small Biffy fact: “I’m Probably In Your Pocket” was originally worked on during the band’s Puzzle recording sessions.

Only Revolutions will be released on either November 2nd or November 9th (there appears to be two conflicting release dates) on 14th Floor Records.

Annuals - Hi-Hat (2009)

New EP "Hi-Hat" they want to put out in November.

The Dear Hunter tour should help promote it.

blog

Thursday, September 03, 2009
OMG!! A new Annuals ep!!!
that's right my friends, we annuals have new material coming to your precious little ears very soon. The hi-hat ep is schedueld to come out, with our fingers crossed, early november. we will be promoting the new release on an upcoming week long tour with The Dear Hunter. tour starts october 25 in vienna, virginia and will work its way up the east coast and end in boston november 1st. keep checking back for new material as it is in the process of being mastered right now. tour dates are listed on our page. come see us because we would love to see you!!

<3 Annuals

my guess is, they were looking to release a full-length either late this year, or sometime next year from a previous blog. But when The Dear Hunter came about, getting something new to support it would benefit the band.

I'm excietd for the headlining TDH gig with some nice openers in locals Empires and City of Sound, but to see Annuals WITH them would rule. Tood bad, but 3 Annuals shows in '07-'09 I can't complain. Those NorthEast folks are lucky tho.

I (Hate) Love You Man (2009)

Blech. Lou Ferrigno and Rush were absolutely THE only parts of this movie that was worth ANYTHING. Painful.

Here's what a friend of mine did in watching the DVD. We sat through the 1st 20-30mins (I'm not sure how long it was, it certainly SEEMED much longer of course), and then we pretty much fast-forwarded to the scenes with Rush/involving_Rush and the Lou Ferrigno scene. Which, I'll admit, was pretty fucking funny. Just calling him "Hulk" and him getting annoyed.

But far too little. What the fuck were some of the cast thinking? And how is it, some Rush fan in Hollywood pulls-off getting this kind of rubbish past the MPAA and the studios?

Farting jokes, fesces, VOMITING, forced-gay humor and exposure. And frankly, none-of-it-seemed REAL, let alone FUNNY in THE LEAST. It was the constant way they threw this dung in your face that made this movie one of the most un-watchable movies I've ever seen.

Jason Segel has been pretty good in basically everything he's done. How I Met Your Mother, Freaks and Geeks, a small role in Knocked Up, and of course Forgetting Sarah Marshall. WTF?..Jason Jason Jason. ..well, most talents have their mis-steps. I wouldn't be surprised if 5 or 10 years from now, he looks back on this and wonders what the fuck he was thinking.

Paul Rudd suffers kind of badly from Jack Black disease. He needs good writing, with in some cases (Role Models, Knocked Up) he's pretty good. He just came across as stiff and unbelievable. He was like someone trying to be gay, but not knowing they are, but still doing a poor job of it.

Andy Samberg?..lol..no thanks. The guy's not funny. Rashida Jones? she's pretty, but ya know, had she been shown more as eye-candy it might have helped. Jane Curtin, JK Simmons, Jon Favreu..all underused. Ivan Reitman even co-produced this thing.

This definitely is a contender for Turkey of the year. The Lou Ferrigno scene and seeing the Rush guys, altho some of their trademark artwork was nowhere to be seen, not surprisingly. Frankly, I'd be a bit embarrassed by being involved with this movie to begin with if I were them.

No, this will go down as one of the worst comedies and movies in general this decade. As my friend said, it deserves "MST3K commentary" instead of watching the real thing. Additonally, the commentary on the DVD were not much either. They talked a little about Rush, but no mention of "Freaks and Geeks" the fact that Segel's character played the drums in that show and idolized Neil Peart, lol. And more or less the predictable, yet dillusional praise of this movie, which sadly, was the original reason I wanted to see it after being underwhelmed by the preview. This certainly gets an award for being disgustingly overated.

5-15/100. Take out Ferrigno and Rush, you get 0 or even -/100 perhaps.

Pain of Salvation - Road Salt (2010?)

new album's title and a bit more info on it. If you don't mind clicking on the link below, you have to register to read for some reason.

blog linked to their official site

Back on track!

cmlogo1Earlier this year SPV (distributors and co-owners of InsideOut Music) declared insolvency and filed for bankruptcy, causing a lot of damage for us and other bands. As for ourselves, the planned album release and four tours were effectively postponed and/or cancelled indefinitely. Therefore we are now happy to announce that we are back on track again, with Century Media picking up InsideOut, together sorting out the sordid mess that SPV caused.

Work on the album has been resumed and we are doing our best to pick up where we left a few months back with new energy. Since you have been waiting for such a long time we will give you some first hand info on the coming album:

rs000227cWe are giving birth to a double album called “Road Salt” - revolving around choices, temptation, sacrifices, passion and the difficult art of giving up. A lot of the intimate issues that have become the core of Pain of Salvation in other words.

The whole album will have a very raw and dry sound, initially described by Daniel as “1976 on steroids”. The music daringly combines the lost worlds of the early Pain of Salvation while at the same time, as always, paving new roads for the band and their fans.

Hey, why not some song titles?
Linoleum, Sisters, Gone, No Way…

Road Salt will come with an extensive booklet and will also be available as a double vinyl! No release date has been confirmed yet, but we are looking at 2010 in any case.

sounds potentially good. But it's just purely reporting here really. "1976 on steroids" huh? well, on paper, that may have me. But a leak won't surface for probably 3 months at best, assuming the 2010 projection is accurate. The only way it drops this year is some Remedy_Lane quick-wrap-up-emergency-tour deal.

The potential for some touring does really sound realistic again thankfully. Minnesota?..a Dream Theater opening slot next late Winter/Early Spring very well could happen. Like Fates Warning/Queensryche/Dt a DT/PoS American-Tour might be happening 5-10 years too late. I hope not. Perhaps a Transatlantic/PoS tour as well could happen.

Kerry Livgren and Margot and the Nuclear So and So's

former Kansas guitarist (and the classic/progressive rock band founder?) Kerry Livgren sadly, suffered a stroke recently. Here's 1 story I saw on the ProgPowerUSA forum.

http://www.cjonline.com/news/local/2009-09-01/kerry_livgren_falls_ill

Kerry Livgren falls ill


By Mike Hall
Created September 1, 2009 at 4:24pm
Updated September 1, 2009 at 5:23pm



Kerry Livgren, most famous for his years with the rock band Kansas, is described as in "serious, but stable condition," following a stroke in the early hours of Tuesday.
Information available on the Internet indicate he is 59 years old.
His sister, Emalie Hunt, confirmed the news for The Topeka Capital-Journal on Tuesday afternoon.
She said Livgren is resting in a Topeka hospital and the family asks for prayers for him and that everyone respect the family's privacy.
A native Topekan, Livgren was a co-founder of the group Kansas in 1970. He played guitar and keyboard and was principal songwriter.
His hits included "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind." An evangelical Christian, he began moving into Christian music even while still with Kansas. In 1983 he left the group to form a new band, AD. Between 1983 and 1986, the new band released two albums and toured extensively.
According to his Web site, in 1994 he moved from Atlanta back to Topeka where he created his production company Grandyzine and record company Numavox Records. He constructed a state-of-the-art recording and production facility in a restored barn on his farm southeast of Topeka.
Lately he has resumed work on what he calls the most ambitious work of his career, "Cantata: The Resurrection Lazarus." He has been working on it for 20 years. It will be an orchestral and vocal composition. It is based on the Biblical story from John, chapter 11.

quite sad and hope him a speedy recovery. Livgren, frankly, was a HUGE part of what made Kansas good. I never got to see him with Kansas (or solo) unforunately; but he's definitely a significant reason of my interest in the band's music. They were prog with him, simply put. After he left? they weren't prog or nearly as good.

Hopefully we'll read of his better health status in the near future.



Margot and the Nuclear So and So's who are currently working on their 3rd LP, yet untitled, but likely to drop within the next year, if not sooner, announced some of the members would be leaving soon. They have some gigs lined up soon, and they will I guess be the final concerts in their current incarnation/lineup.


here's the post on myspazz

This weekend's shows (last with the current band)
Sept 4th and 5th, Margot will play their last shows with the current lineup. It's hard to say if the members will play together again in the future, but if you want to see the good ole' fashion margot, you've got two days to do it. Indianapolis on the 4th, and Bloomington Indiana on the 5th.


It's been a very good run with the current roster, but after the 5th it's a different game.


We hope to see you there,
MArGoTTT.

I need to head over to the Paper Kittens Nightmare Message Board and see if there is any more info about this. What members? possibly why? replacements, etc.

As a fan, while I'm not happy to read about this, I'm not worried either, given how collaborative they are. We'll see if their music is impacted much, but it also may lead to other members doing some cool things that they haven't been able to while-with Margot.