Josh King - Into the Blue (2017-2018) [RIYL: House of Fools]

6/30/18 12:30PM

Article  from popmatters mentioning the August 17th release date.

These 2 tracks below are good, although not surprised how they are not exactly like House of Fools. But just having his voice reminds me how much I love and could go for more House of Fools music.

https://www.popmatters.com/josh-king-dreamers-dream-2579290758.html#

He cites Jackson Browne, Simon and Garfunkel, and Tom Petty as inspirations for his songwriting, cheekily interjecting, "#WWTPD."











2/20/18


As passionate fan of Josh's with House of Fools I am naturally curious to check this debut album out from him.

Yeah, it's being done per Kickstarter, which per the Goal and time, it seems quite likely to be a success.

I guess a lot of my interest is the fact we haven't seen a new House of Fools album since 2012, so I'm wondering if some of the best songwriting ideas could come on this.

Granted, I do know House of Fools are still active and are working on a new album, but maybe with a lot of song ideas, not all of those tunes will end up as HoF tracks. And maybe most importantly, this thing is already recorded, mixed, mastered and will definitely be coming out soon.

The next House of Fools album? who knows right now.

Also the projected time frame is APRIL 2018 per the pledge section.

Kickstarter



About

Greensboro, North Carolina native Josh King needs your help to release his full-length album! As the longtime front man of the nationally touring rock band House of Fools, King has been running the musical gambit for 15 years and recently decided to record and release a solo effort. With the album already fully tracked, mixed, and mastered, King is turning to you, his friends and fans, to help with the final details. A variety of pre-order packages are available here at Kickstarter and the exclusive 
content will be updated frequently! 

Coheed and Cambria - Vaxis - Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

This upcoming album is being released on October 5th, 2018.

The 1st 2 tracks are available to stream including "The Dark Sentencer" below. Not bad, although I need to hear it with headphones to be more clear.

It is 78 minutes long, and some of the comments are comparing it to Good Apollo 1. I suppose in scope perhaps, and it maybe didn't help they did GA 1 on Neverender in 2017, when they presumably wrote much of it.

But where's David Botrill?

I'm not assuming anything. I hope this may surprise me, but there have been other Coheed albums I got excited for and then just were underwhelmed by.

I guess we'll see soon enough.

Deluxe Edition Preorder


1. Prologue
2. The Dark Sentencer
3. Unheavenly Creatures
4. Toys
5. Black Sunday
6. Queen Of The Dark
7. True Ugly
8. Love Protocol
9. The Pavilion (A Long Way Back)
10. Night-Time Walkers
11. The Gutter
12. All On Fire
13. It Walks Among Us
14. Old Flames
15. Lucky Stars

78 mins

Vennart - To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea (2017-2018)

6/21/18

Digital Preorder (physical preorders coming soon)

Preorder for physical items coming SOON. #redtape #fuckwits #ballaches #diy

— Mike Vennart 🔺🔺🔻 (@Vennart) June 21, 2018

1. Binary
2. Donkey Kong 05:25
3. Immortal Soldiers 04:51
4. Into The Wave
5. Friends Don't Owe
6. Spider Bones
7. Sentientia
8. That's Not Entertainment
9. Diamond Ballgag
10. Robots In Disguise

6/11/18

"Immortal Soldiers" new song. The section at 3:06 I enjoy most.

Album comes out September 14th. Preorders coming soon.


https://twitter.com/Vennart/status/1006104566109233154

'To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea' will be released on September 14th. Pre-order soon. Stay tuned. x

6/7/18
New album from Vennart titled "To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea" coming soon.
2nd song single coming on June 10th on Radio One "Immortal Soldiers"
More of the details coming soon of course.
Oceansize fans are going to need to hear this of course.


From Vennart's email list:

RADIO ONE ROCK SHOW PREMIERE! 

It’s coming, i swear…

 A BRAND NEW TRACK WILL BE PLAYED ON THE RADIO ONE ROCK SHOW ON JUNE 10TH! DON'T MISS IT!

Rock Show with Daniel P Carter

Here’s the annoyingly brief teaser…

Immortal Soliders
We cannot wait for you to hear this record. It’s called ‘To Cure A Blizzard Upon A Plastic Sea’ and you're gonna be so good together.

 With love,

Mike Vennart


1st single "Donkey Kong"

Journal - Chrysalis Ordalias (2017-2018)

6/19/18 6:44PM

Dat book.

July 17th can't come soon enough!

https://journalmusic.bandcamp.com/

title track, both with and without vocals there to stream.



1. Apotheon Gaze
2. Calamity Smile
3. Eden, the Uncherished
4. Duplicitous Moonlight
5. Sealing the Cosmos
6. Chrysalis Ordalias
7. Tyrannical Enrapture
8. Irreverent Decomposition
9. Forsake in Umbra
10. Polyentropy
11. Omnipenance

12. Apotheon Gaze (Instrumental)

13. Calamity Smile (Instrumental)
14. Eden, The Uncherished (Instrumental)
15. Duplicitous Moonlight (Instrumental)
16. Scaling The Cosmos (Instrumental)
17. Chrysalis Ordalias (Instrumental)
18. Tyrannical Enrapture (Instrumental)
19. Irreverent Decomposition (Instrumental)
20. Forsake In Umbra (Instrumental)
21. Polyentropy (Instrumental)
22. Omnipenance (Instrumental)


5/29/18
The long awaited (8 years) 2nd record from Journal, the progressive mathcore band from
Sacramento, CA.

And it seems they went all-out with this thing, in some large multi-format? concept album titled Chrysalis Ordalias.

Their debut album Unlorja, from 2010, while not something I was addicted to, I remember being beyond impressed by all the styles of music and technicality they had.

Even the 30 minute closing piece "Affinity" is a highlight, even if a lot of it is ambient music.

In just looking at some of the comments there, there will be 4 different vocalists on this one, and like the trailer says and Unlorja, an instrumental version.

More details (release date, link to bandcamp, etc) coming soon.

1st song also coming this week.

Facebook

Band/Artist and What Album-Generation Fan Are You? (Pt 1)

I was thinking about this in a discussion with the wife about her generation of being a fan of The Monkees. How she came along when The Monkees hit MTV and Nick at Nite in the mid 80's ('86-87) and the new studio album at that time was Pool It! for her.

It's not exactly a "1st Generation, 2nd Generation, 3rd Generation" (or 1st, 2nd or 3rd Wave, etc) exactly, but more based on the newest album released.

The 1st new album that comes out either after you become a fan, or I suppose it works best, before if it is relatively recently.



There were some fans that reacted to The Monkees album Good Times! in 2016 as being not nearly as good as Justus, which it was based on partially at least, Justus was the new/1st/most-recent album from The Monkees at-the-time they became a fan.

Mind you, some actually did or do prefer Justus, but my wife and many others thought that album sucked. And many like her and myself really liked Good Times!.



And she also likes Pool It more than Justus, maybe a lot of it just based on how much she likes the music, but also she says based on nostalgia for when it came out around the time she became a fan.

So she's a Pool It!-generation fan of The Monkees. Maybe consider 3rd generation or wave by some, but it seems easiest to just label per the album that was out or came out around the time she became a fan.




So I'm gonna make some more of these entries per time/discipline, etc. But here's 10 artists and the Generation I fall under.

Off the top of my head, I think only 2 or 3 artists I would be in the 1st release/album generation (The Dear Hunter, Kimbra, Janelle Monae kind of..and a few others..Hotel of the Laughing Tree).

Oddly enough though, I told her the whole nostalgia for the new/most recent when I got into the artist doesn't always work for me. Open Your Eyes and Calling All Stations are 2 perfect examples of that. 2 of my least favorite albums from those artists.

Kevin Gilbert: (2004) The Kaviar Demo-generation
Marillion: (1995) Afraid of Sunlight-generation
Fates Warning: (1995) Inside Out-generation
Rush: (1992) Roll the Bones-generation
Dream Theater: (1995) Awake-generation
King's X: (1996) Ear Candy-generation
The Dear Hunter: (2007) Act I: The Lake South, the River North-generation
Yes: (1996 or 1997) The Open Your Eyes-generation
Genesis: (1997) Calling All Stations-generation
Pink Floyd: (1991 or 1992) A Momentary Lapse of Reason-generation

Bend Sinister - "I Do" + Kevin Gilbert "Shrug" (+ Giraffe)

So this track "I Do" from the new Bend Sinister album Foolish Games is 1 of many tracks I've been enjoying on it. But I can't help but think of Kevin Gilbert's "Shrug (Because of Me and You)" and the previous incarnation of that tune from Giraffe "Because of You."

I mean musically and even lyrically they aren't identical in message and tone in many ways. On both songs/versions from Kevin, they are more cynical and criticizing of someone, as opposed to Bend Sinister which seem to be more thankful and I guess positive in a lot of ways.

But the repeated "Because of You" I guess per my obsession and time spent listening to those 2 songs Kevin did, I keep hearing at this point, the "All Because of You' from Shrug and the song from Giraffe.

Actually a remix of 2 of them or all 3 might be cool. I could try with a little time, effort and maybe some software (at KFAI if I ever went back there sometime and found time to do it/reserve the studio).

As far as do I think Bend Sinister and Dan Moxon know the Kevin Gilbert tune? fat chance they even have heard his name. But o well, maybe they could.

Scifi Movies/TV/Stories involving Artificial Intelligence and Evolved/Advanced Breeding

This is a work-in-progress/Incomplete list of Movies, Television and other examples in Media of enhanced humans or technology.

I made this with the stuff I've been taking-in over the last 6 months or so involving robots, androids and genetically evolved or advanced humans in Scifi.

I.e. I had some stuff like Logan's Run, Blade Runner and Westworld which I had never seen before, and coming across more about someone like Philip K Dick and his life story. How many things in Hollywood were based-on if not at least largely inspired by his work.

There are a couple of documentaries on YouTube, but I guess they aren't great. Hollywood or some independent filmmaker needs to make a quality documentary or Biopic about him.

Anyway, I'm about to start watching Westworld from HBO, Season 1, after having seen the original movie and sequel Futureworld finally (the new James Franco thing looks awful btw).

I may try and make some kind of Video or Podcast review of Westworld and its umbrella. I don't foresee being able to find Beyond Westworld sadly though as it was short-lived (3 episodes).

Androids/Artificial Intelligence/Cyborgs/Cylons/Robots

Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Twilight Zone: The Lonely (1959)
The Outer Limits: I, Robot (1964)
Lost in Space (1965)
Star Trek: What Are Little Girls Made of (1966)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Westworld (1973)
Futureworld (1976)
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Buck Rogers (1979)
Terminator (1984)
Small Wonder (1985-1989)
Short Circuit (1986)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1986-1994)
Not Quite Human (1987)
Cyborg (1989)
Terminator 2 (1992)
The Outer Limits: Bits of Love (1997)
The Outer Limits: The Camp (1997)
The Matrix (1999)
A.I. (2001)
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
I, Robot (2004)
Blood Moon (2008)
Caprica (2009)
The Archandroid (2010)
Robot and Frank (2012)
Her (2013)
Ex Machina (2015)
Westworld (TV Series, 2016-)
Electric Dreams: Autofac (2017)


Evolved/Genetically Engineered Humans/Mutants
Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
Star Trek: Space Seed (1967)
The Clonus Horror (1979)
Blade Runner (1982)
Total Recall (1990)
Prey (1998 TV Series)
Lucy (2014)
Electric Dreams: Crazy Diamond (2017)

MISC
Logan's Run (1976)
Lawnmower Man (1992)

OT: The word "Pretentious" :facepalm:

The word "pretentious" among a few other examples, has been disgustingly MISUSED in (social) media the last 10 or so years especially.


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. . . .. . {.._ ;_. . .”=,_. . . .“-,_. . . ,.-~-,}, .~”; /. .. .}
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`=-,. . . . . . . . . .,%`>–


"Pretentious" is derived from the word "Pretend"

"Pretend"  
"Pretend"  
"Pretend"
"Pretend"
"Pretend"
"Pretend" 
"Pretend"
"Pretend"
"Pretend"
"Pretend"
"Pretend"     

Which more or less means it refers to something insincere or fake.

However 99.99999999999999999999999999999% of the times it is used or has been used over at least the last 5, or maybe more like 10+ years, the word "pretentious" is being used with a meaning of, or acting, thinking like something or someone is better or superior than.

"They are so pretentious"

which translates or really means

"Look at how how much better they think they are"

That shares no connection really with pretending, being fake, lying, etc.

Even the idea of being ego-headed or narcissistic  is a better wording or really what those who keep misusing the word "pretentious" really mean.

But I'm about 99.99999999999999999999999999% sure the ignorant masses and media will continue to misuse the word "pretentious" until someone, or more than one person of actual influence (obviously not me) finally realizes this and calls people out.

It's like the spelling of the word "Nite" with "Nick at Nite." There is no word spelled "Nite" yet it was used for decades before I suppose that incorrect spelling use died out.

Album Collage: Kevin Gilbert

Testing something involving Album Collages.

This came out in some ways how I'd like, although it's hardly perfect and having the stupid "Adobe Spark" watermark on it is annoying.

Bend Sinister - Foolish Games (2017-2018)

5/30/18-5/31/18

Preorders there for CD and Vinyl which includes "puzzle piece signed by the band used in the making of the album cover."

https://www.bendsinisterband.com/ 

Digital Links (incl iTunes w/ the track list)


1 Gang of Wolves 4:25
2 Heard It All Before 2:40
3 Luck Will Set You Free 3:48
4 Shannon 3:05
5 Show Me How to Love 2:48
6 Got Your Back 3:52
7 Foolish Games 4:02
8 Reaction 3:20
9 I Do 4:12
10 Morning Comes 4:41


5/19/18

2 more songs. Thumbs up of course. Catchy, energetic. I think Shannon may be the best of the 3 actually.

SHANNON

"Show Me How to Love":



lyric video for "Heard it All Before". Fun tune!




Popmatters Article


Their upcoming full-length album, Foolish Games, is set to be released in May 2018.

 The 1st single "Heard it All Before" is there to stream (haven't listened yet of course).

More details coming, of course my Fanboy-bias is in full-force here.

But the honest to gawd truth is, I enjoy every single release they've had, to varying degrees. But the full-lengths especially are all between 3.5-5 stars. Animals was great in 2014 and Small Fame I have almost come to prefer even more.

2017's EP Walk the Other Way also I thoroughly enjoy.

Also we'll see what this one it like with their new drummer. 

Coming to AMR YouTube: RYM ARTIST ALBUM RATINGS

This is just a brief post about this.

I have seen some YouTube channels list Album and even Song RANKINGS, Worst-to-Best, etc, which I could do per time of course. And 1 of the channels I noticed did 1 over this past weekend, inspired by another channel (Notes Reviews), which kind of got me thinking of wanting to try and make some of these.

They may end up like the Random Artist Feature/Artist Review videos, except I don't anticipate using or showing my collection in these cases.

The comments about each album, I would prefer to be as short as possible (but likely won't always be).

But here's where mine should differ: I plan to just GIVE MY RATEYOURMUSIC.COM RATING of each album, AND NOT IN RANKING/ORDER.

More likely just in chronological order, I'm not sure though. I.e., Ideally, I'd like the viewer to watch/listen to the whole video.

I also imagine many artists lists that aren't that long, to be relatively short videos. but others that have long catalogs, maybe not.

Anyway, a bit of a heads up. We'll see how this goes. I do like the fact I'm using the RATEYOURMUSIC RATING SYSTEM OF OUT OF 5-STARS, which next to nobody uses on YouTube (but it would be nice to see more anyway).

Will I rank them at the end? guess I doubt, but maybe if it may make sense. Maybe a quick review of all the 5-stars, 4.5-stars, 4-stars, 3.5-stars, etc.

Shiina Ringo - 人生は夢だらけ (Life is Full of Dreams)

Oh man, this tune starts out a little slow, but about midway through the when the instrumentation kicks in, it totally rules. All major keys, but the video and tone/mood fits. It has a bit of a Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" vibe to it, which as it turns out, Shiina Ringo covered .

I haven't thought about Shiina in quite awhile, but knowing her, she's like Prince or Steven Wilson I suppose in that she always seems to be making new music, so I probably have missed a lot.

Edit: I wishlisted her album  逆輸入 ～航空局～ (Reverse import ~ Aviation station ~ which came out December 6th, but never got around to it. I suppose part of that is I don't frequent the places her music is talked about much, but that should not be an excuse.

I'll have to try and find a way to hear this record soon for sure. The ratings and comments on rym are very positive about it.

My Origin with Kevin Gilbert;Similar Bands new to me

A post on 1 of the Kevin Gilbert Facebook groups asked today

How were you introduced to Kevin Gilbert? and maybe add a note what led you to that album/concert?

My comment:

technically, the 1st time was hearing him on the Supper's Ready Genesis tribute cd in 1999 or 2000. But I think really the 1st time I consciously read and got to know his name was when Spock's Beard came out with V and the talk online about "The Great Nothing" being about him. That and around the same time on Mike Portnoy's Forum, at least 1 or more topics about him, Sheryl Crow and 1 or more articles about his story was shared sometime in 2001. 

I know it was around that time since I recall going to the official website and reading about Kevin along with DJing a semi-regular show on KFAI Radio in Minneapolis and playing a Mini-disc of songs I had downloaded, on KFAI radio. 

"Shadow Self" I recall was 1 that I played. I stopped DJ-ing on KFAI in early 2003 (until coming back in 2011). However I didn't fully realize how attached I could become to Kevin until getting 2 copies of Toy Matinee in 2004. 

Not long before that, when Portnoy's OSI project came out with their debut album in 2003, Mike Portnoy chimed in on his forum about examples of bands that released both Self-Titled albums with Self-Titled songs. OSI did that back in 2003, and Toy Matinee of course was mentioned among many others.

But with this kind of being uncertain being it was sometime between 1999 and 2004, it got my curious self wanting to pinpoint more accurate details.

The OSI-related topic about Bands who released a Self-Titled song on a Self-Titled album topic on Mike Portnoy's forum I'm afraid I don't think is on his site anymore per I recall it was around the time of the OSI debut album came out which was in February 2003. But Mike Portnoy's forum history only goes back to May 2003, so unless the discussion was bumped or went on for many months, it's gone or in the WebArchives (Way Back Machine maybe?).

So my next thought was to look at my LiveJournal history and I've spent a few hours looking at it, getting distracted of course reading all the nostalgia.

I guess I may spend some more time looking (then again I may not), but at least from looking so far, it was in October and/or November 2004. Which at the same time, was when I checked out Jeff Buckley. But I'm pretty sure there was at least a little gap in time between when I got into Kevin and Jeff. I have a distinct memory of it being the Fall of 2004 and going to the Eagan Library and checking out The Grace EPs, and also finding a copy of the Deluxe Edition of Grace at the St.Paul Cheapo in the Recent Arrivals.

But based on that timing, I wonder if it was in August or July even. Shoot.

But in looking at 1 of the topics, some bands showed up in a suggested listening for fans of Kevin and Toy Matinee

Dada
New Radicals
The Spent Poets
School of Fish

I know Dada and their song "Diz Knee Land" actually I believe I own or owned the cassette single which I bought while working at Sam Goody at the Mall of America the Summer of 1993. But I don't think I ever listened to that whole album or any of their other music. So I went on to YouTube a bit ago and checked some of their other songs out and enjoyed some of them. I.e. I may want to hear Puzzle and in looking at rym, their Self-Titled album also may be worth checking out. And their other 2 records at some point as well.

New Radicals are known best to me for 1 tune "You Get What You Give" which to me always sounded like a cleaner modern sounding Rolling Stones, or even a bit like The Black Crowes for the College Rock crowd. But I imagine there is more to enjoy on their 1 and only record Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too from 1998.

The Spent Poets, i may enjoy most among all of these bands having listened to maybe half of their one and only Self-Titled album from 1992. They use samples and atmosphere well. And among the comparisons in 1 review on rym is XTC and The Beatles.

School of Fish is the only 1 of these bands I'm not as optimistic about. But I will definitely try and check them out as well.

The Peanuts do 2112

Possibly a bit stretched to try and fit something, anything that remotely finds the lyrics or mood from Peanuts animations, this seems still well worked with a lot of effort.

Hopefully some people who love The Peanuts who are unfamiliar with Rush and 2112 will now have found a new band they enjoy (and I suppose vice-versa for Rush fans, but I somehow suspect there are very few Rush fans who aren't familiar with The Peanuts, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, etc).

Of course there is also the animated short film from 2016.

Bend Sinister - Shannon [1B] (2018)

Great tune, maybe the best new one from the new record, Foolish Games.

Cool Black and White Rotoscope-like video.