#3

In the past few days I've listened to some great stuff! Of course I have...

I was completely mesmerized by Kraftwerks-"Computer World" from 1981 on my new Bose 5.1 Companion 5 series speakers for my I-Mac. WOW! The sound really is fantastic. I had it cranked up and it was amazing. Also Gary Numans-"Telekon" album remastered sounded fantastic as well. Something tells me everything will sound amazing on it.

Mojo Magazine issued a remake of Pink Floyd's "The Wall". One disc in Dec 2009 and one disc in Jan 2010 issue. I listened to those as well. It's interesting. Some good stuff on it some was like whatever! But I prefer the original. That reminds me that I bought from I-Tunes the new Flaming Lips cover of "Dark Side Of The Moon". YIKES! The reviews are very mixed. They have Peaches and Henry Rollins guesting. Hmm... I'll dig into that soon I'm sure...

The latest Dinosaur Jr - "Farm" was in heavy rotation on my new speakers. Needed to get some good guitars going on there. Wow! This is a terrific album. Better than the comeback album "Beyond" which was good but this is better. I took my sista Jane to see them in West Hollywood at the Troubadour and the bass hum nearly killed us and the vocals were so muddy you couldn't make a thing out. He was not impressed. I saw them in their heyday and they were unbelievable. Still, those boys can play and there is always a time for Dinosaur Jr!!!

This morning I just listened to my first 2010 release that I've gotten which is: Badly Drawn Boy-"Is There Nothing We Could Do? (Music Inspired By The Motion Picture 'The Fattest Man In Britain'). It's a lovely mellow perfectly made affair. Reminded me that I need to finish going through my fav's of each year of this decade. So far I've come up with:

2000: Badly Drawn Boy-The Hour Of Bewilderbeast (Honestly, I played that album so so much when it came out. It was, and still is amazing!!!! He's never come close to it again though. A debut for the history books though.)

2001: Elbow-Asleep In The Back. Another debut for the history books!!! Wow!!! What a stunner this album is. And Jane (James) and I have our memory of that concert at the Casbah that I dragged him to and he left STUNNED to this day!!! What a great show that was!!!

2004: The Shore-The Shore. I must give it up and say this is my favourite album of this first decade of the 2000's. I've played it so many times I could sing it in my sleep (no you don't want to hear that!). It's just soooo good! Timeless songs made to last. It's perfect.

I'll have to dig deep for the other years since it's not coming to me off the top of my head.

Until next time...

Entry #2

Hello world! It's good to think BIG (sometimes). Speaking of big, the past couple of days I listened to the band LOOP. They were around in the 80s-90s and had their small catalogue released in 2009. I listened to the 3-cd (BIG) collection of singles from 1987 and remastered 2009, titled "The World In Your Eyes". It was a glorious walk through the past for me. They were fantastic. They didn't get the attention that a band like The Jesus And Mary Chain did, probably because their sound was more psychedelic and not as easier to digest as JAMC material later became. Still, during their tenure they were a great band and these reissues sound AMAZING on my Bose headphones! A real treat.

Wanted to mention a couple of releases I listened to recently that I really LOVED! The new Pete Yorn "Back and Fourth" is just excellent!!! The reviews were bad?! This is where I ask, "did we listen to the same record"? Whatever, it's his best - just take my word for it and listen to it - world!!! The other one is from a band called Paper Route. This new album is their 2nd (and they have an EP out as well) and is called "Absence". Just the first 4 songs alone are worth the price of admission! It's terrific and I would love to see them live...

It's Christmas Eve and I've finished dinner with my partner Michael and I'm currently listening to UNCUT Magazine's January 2010 disc compilation that is their "Best Of 2009" cd. I love this magazine! It's one of my (many) favourites. They have (mostly) good taste, but even when I don't agree with them, I always agree with their musical prowess. Their picks of 2009 are good. I like 14 of the 15 so that's good. Not all of these are in my top 15 though. However, THE LOW ANTHEM are! LOVE their newest album. Delicious.

My First Blog Post

I'm welcoming myself to the world of blogging with this entry. I've decided to create this blog as an outlet for myself to talk about what is going on in new music as well as what has gone on in music. I have an insatiable appetite for music, all the time, and wonder if there are others out there in the universe who feel the same way I do. (I'm sure I just nicked that from a Morrissey song) Ah, and that is a great way to begin my first blog by mentioning one of my all time favourite male artists, Morrissey. Just so happens I recently saw him here in San Diego on Dec 8th at our Symphony Hall. It was a stop on his "Swords" tour and it was glorious!!! The last 2 times he had been in San Diego he was HORRIBLE and BITCHY, but not this time. He even had the decency to comment and apologize about those 2 visits. Anyway, his voice was perfect and the set list was rather great as well. Not a typical Moz setlist which made the set even better.

Then the next evening I got to see another one of my all time favourite bands, Skinny Puppy. They put on another AMAZING show at the always horrible House of Blues (or House of Rules as Lucinda Williams likes to call it!). Since I've seen them many times over the past 26 years (!!!) I couldn't NOT go regardless of the venue. Ohgr and the band were top notch and the sound was actually pretty good for a change in that venue and people weren't talking throughout the entire show. Unfortunately, San Diego is known for that nasty habit. Anyway it was a 2 night extravaganza that I loved...

Since this is my first time doing an entry I'm going to keep it short here so I can check it out and see what it looks like. One of the things I'd like to do with my blog is share the music I am listening to and talk about upcoming releases and just released music as well as whomever artist may strike me at that moment to bring up and discuss. This is supposed to be fun, isn't it? And it is basically just for myself since I've not much of a clue how anyone else would find this and/or want to read it anyway.

I'm currently listening to (and enjoying) Efterklang & The Danish National Chamber Orchestra-"Performing Parades". It came with a DVD of the show as well which I have not yet looked at... Until next time remember, life is too short to listen to bad music!!!!!