Stuff You Should Be Aware Of #2

Steel Panther- 'Death to All But Metal'
Discovered this band today. I can't get enough of this song. You probably shouldn't listen to it at work, around children, or your wife.

Stuff You Should Be Aware Of #1

For this first installment, I'll pick what is undoubtedly my favorite U2 song- 'Red Hill Mining Town.' It was never released as a single, but there's still a promo video anyway. I just discovered it tonight looking for a suitable video for this post, and here ya go. Yeah, I didn't like it either. It would have looked so much better if they had been outdoors in the American southwest like the album cover, but no dice.

in related news, R&R HOF continues its slide into irrelevancy

WE PROTEST!!!: ABBA makes the rock hall of fame and KISS does not

This is unbelievable. ABBA in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Kiss and the RHCP aren't? This is a blunder on par with Jethro Tull winning a Grammy for Best Metal Performance over Metallica, and the HOF will pay dearly for this one.

I must say that it's complete nonsense that Kiss isn't already in the HOF. An artist is eligible 25 years after their first album is released (I imagine that means major-label release), which means Kiss had been eligible since 1999. They weren't even nominated until this year, and they were passed over. That's complete bullshit, if you'll excuse the vernacular. Kiss embodies the very essence of rock & roll- they did what they wanted the way they wanted, and the mainstream came to them. I would say the same about the Red Hot Chili Peppers- it's hard to find a more unique band than them, who also have done things their way.

Billboard article on nominees. I have no complaints about the rest of this year's nominees. The Stooges deserve it, as does Genesis, and the Hollies represent rock's early days (more or less), Jimmy Cliff is reggae, so I don't get that one, but someone could consider reggae a cousin to r&r, so whatever. But fucking ABBA? Come on.

video killed the radio star

So, Kiss finally released the video for 'Modern Day Delilah.' I don't see the wisdom in waiting two months after the album came out to release a video for the first single, but whatever.

Clicky!

Not their best, but far from their worst video ever made. Kind of how I feel about the Sonic Boom album as a whole.

Full Pearl Jam ACL performance

Clicky!

Because I know you missed it, just like I did. I like the songs they chose to play- no pandering to a large audience, just pure band self-indulgence playing what they felt like playing.

democracy! in action!

Hola, amigos. Been awhile since I've rapped at ya. Anyway, Spin Magazine has their 2009 Reader's Poll voting open. Vote here! And since this is a rock blog, I probably don't have to tell you I can't deal with Lady Gaga winning Artist of the Year. (I voted for Pearl Jam.)

recent gets

Picked up some great stuff this weekend. Firstly, I found a nice vinyl reissue of Megadeth's 'Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?' at Hot Topic. Best part was, it was clearance priced, so they knocked 50% off, so I got it for $8. Yep, a brand new vinyl album for $8. Not bad any way you choose to slice it. Then I popped over to Target, since the Muse album just came out and was still on sale. I didn't get that one, however. I picked up Megadeth's newest CD, called 'Endgame.' Good news, everyone- Dave Mustaine is still pissed at people, can still really shred on the geeetar, and has surrounded himself with yet another lineup, I think it's the 1,086th lineup Megadeth has seen. Anyway, they are all pretty decent musicians, even if you figure that they're just session dudes and Dave is really Megadeth.
I also picked up a 7" single of Pearl Jam's 'The Fixer', which was weird. I haven't seen anything on vinyl at Target in almost 20 years, but when you consider that Backspacer is exclusive to Target, they probably just went for the jugular this time. If you care, it was a white vinyl version, and no, I'll probably never play it, just like the rest of my PJ 7".

I also got my copy of Backspacer from the Ten Club on Saturday. It's awesome. Pearl Jam finally has a spark, after spending all of this decade without one. Seriously, I haven't liked a PJ album this much since Yield, and that's my desert island album. I doubt Backspacer will ever take over that spot, but it's a good damn album that you should go buy at Target, the 10c, iTunes, or your local CIMS shop if you're lucky enough to have one in your city, since those are the only places it's available.

And I still have yet to pick up that new Muse album...

city of blinding lights

Finally got to see U2 at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday night. Where do I begin? It was without a doubt the best show I've ever been to. The light show alone would trump any show I've ever seen, but when you throw in U2's best songs in a 2 hour and 10 minute show, you have the biggest yet most intimate spectacle in rock.

Here's "the claw" at Soldier Field before the show:


Here is the stage in action during 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'City of Blinding Lights', easily the highlight of the show, though the second encore (Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender) with the mirror ball at the top of the spire glinting throughout the stadium is a very close second.


I had no idea that the screen was going to go down like that, which made it all the more awesome. To have it happen during a couple of my favorite U2 songs just made it all the more great.

I have never seen so many people in one place in my life. I figure there was 70,000 people there. There had to have been 20,000 in the field alone, never mind the seats in the stadium. Still, the sound from U2 and Snow Patrol (the opening act) was peerless, sounding better than pretty much any show I've ever been to. Of course, with the size of the PA and the 72 subwoofers that adorn this stage, it should be that way.

You're probably too late to get tickets now from anyone but a scalper for the rest of the shows, but man, if you can go when they get to your city, you should. I traveled five hours each way for this, and it was worth it.

the band from my region is vastly superior to the band from your region

Insane Clown Posse's 'Bang Pow Boom' debuts at No. 4 on Billboard chart

I can only think that it has something to do with kids in middle school who think they're badass by purchasing said record. Because, you know, they don't know better.

If you're over 12 and buying it, however, you're too stupid to even know you're already wallowing in your punishment, and this post where I'm gloating over my undoubtedly superior taste will never be seen by you, so why am I doing this again? Oh yeah, fuck you.

viva la vinyl

I went to Vegas this weekend for my brother's wedding (which was wonderful.)
Since I had a couple extra days that I didn't have to do wedding-related stuff, I decided to hit a record store I looked up on the internet before I left.

Record City is located on E. Sahara in Vegas. I only stopped at the 300 block one, but apparently, there's a second one there.

I spent about an hour there in vinyl paradise. I filled up my hands with some 80s Kiss LPs that I didn't have, but put them back when I found the Black Album from Metallica, which I've been searching for for months. (Screw ordering vinyl from Amazon- stuff always arrives fucked up.) Then I picked up the only two U2 LPs they had, which were The Unforgettable Fire and Wide Awake in America, which I had heard of, but never thought to acquire.

The stuff I didn't buy is the more interesting story. Imports and collectible vinyl from the UK, really obscure NWOBHM, Beatles stuff in the intended mono (which are extremely hard to find and very, very expensive), plus I found several copies of Metallica's $5.98 EP from 1987, which I do regret not buying right now. I have a Mexican import of it on a picture disc, but an American pressing, I lack. I found one for $30 and didn't get it, even though the sleeve was a little rough. Of course, I could have spent a grand there if I had it, and then I'd just have to go through airport security with all of them, or risk them being utterly destroyed in the check bag.

Despite that, it was great to see a independent store like that. They are sorely lacking in Iowa, at least for me. I have to go at least and hour to get to a decent one, and the only two places I've found in the town I live in have either new hipster stuff I'm not into (Hot Topic) or way too much crap (CDs Plus) though I will admit I have found quite a few gems at both.

Wilco (the post)

So I'm finally getting around to talking about this one. It only came out two months ago, and I bought it that same day. I just didn't really get into until this weekend, which was odd, since this has to be the most accessible (to overuse a phrase) Wilco has yet produced.

I'm guessing that I was expecting something similar to Sky Blue Sky or A Ghost is Born. While there's a bit of those albums here, it's clearer, more concise, and more joyful than those two albums. There's still great guitar work from virtuoso Nels Cline, if you're wondering.

As I said, this album finally clicked with me, and I'm glad it has. It's great stuff, and I'd recommend checking it out soon if you haven't already.

Ace Frehley: Still Kicking Ass

New Ace song 'Outer Space'

Man, I really think Kiss is missing something without Ace in the band.

'The Fixer' video

Just so this doesn't turn into a Kiss-only blog, and because I'm kind of depressed I couldn't afford to go to Chicago on Monday night for the big Pearl Jam show there...



Man, this is nuts. Two of my favorite bands (possibly, my two favorite bands) have new albums out within weeks of each other. If I ever got giddy, it might be something like this.

KISS tour dates!

Clicky!

Looks like I'll be going to the Nov. 7th show in Minneapolis, depending on how much tickets cost. Who's going with?

BTW, happy 60th birthday Gene!

wanna hear a new Kiss song?

Fuck yes you do. Careful with that if you happen to be at work or have the speakers up loud. "Modern Day Delilah," the first single from Sonic Boom, streams automatically from that link.

i feel fine

Possibly the best use of Flash, ever. Turn those speakers on. It's The Beatles, man.

New Kiss album at Wal-Mart October 6th!

Details here!

Hell yeah. I can't wait to hear it. Now I know why I saw that M&Ms ad campaign that had those little dudes all dressed up like Kiss. I'm also kind of curious to hear the re-recorded classic songs. Getting 2 CDs and a DVD for $12 is really a steal, and Wal-Mart did a great job with the exclusive AC/DC album they had last year, so hopefully Kiss sees that kind of success this year.

Backspacer

Cover!

Now that's great. And you can dig on the first single, 'The Fixer,' here.

Gene will kill you with his glare

Another thing I dug up this weekend were my Kissology DVDs. I popped in the second disc of the second volume. It had some Elder-related stuff that I really dig. And now you can too! You can thank me later.



They kind of look like an evil Duran Duran, don't they?

if you'd been a dog, they would have drowned you at birth

As I was moving, I located my copy of Radiohead's Amnesiac in a box with a bunch of my books. I hadn't listened to it since (probably) 2002, so this weekend I listened to it again. Holy shit, what a great album. I really didn't 'get' this and Kid A when they were first released. I was really getting too ahead of myself, since just a mere year before these albums were released, I was an unabashed metalhead. Now though, I'm really getting it.

It sounds like the era in which it was released- before 9/11; just shortly after GWB took office and hadn't had time to completely destroy the world as we knew it; and more than a little ambivalent. It was an album for the sake of art, going beyond a usual five-piece band, adding electronic somethings-or-others and Thom Yorke using his voice as another instrument. An interesting experiment that I doubt anybody but Radiohead could have pulled off.

It's not as satisfying as OK Computer or In Rainbows, but could ANYTHING be comparable to those? I remain doubtful.

got some

Wow, long time no post. Anyway, this happened a week ago, and it's Pearl Jam related, so I'm shocked it's taken me this long to post this...



It's a new song 'Got Some' from the new album due in September, titled Backspacer.

it's like this

In order to get you so fuckin' pumped for the comic, I'm going to show you what really inspired me to go with it in the first place- a band called Sons of Butcher.

"We Fuckin Rule (All Your Asses)"


"Fuck The Shit"


Best not to watch these at work, around children, or big babies. You know who you are.

international radio sensation

Work continues to proceed on the heavy metal comic. Still working/fucking with the copyright stuff, but I want to have a backlog before I start since I work remorselessly slow on stuff like this. That and I'm a Luddite and haven't figured out my scanner yet.

I've been thinking that I'll need a pen name for this comic. Sure, I'm a hound for the glory and would love to have everyone know that it was me that created this little absurd comic, but some of the things/song titles in these comics MIGHT come back to bite me in the ass in five or ten years. I was thinking Joseph Gravelshitter. Yay? Nay? God help me if I ever have to name a kid, amirite?

Oh yeah, I recently dug out some stuff I haven't listened to in a while. You should dig on Black Mountain. I've written about them before, but you should do yourself a great favor and get a copy of their album 'In The Future' or at least just listen to 'Tyrants.' It's kind of like if Rush, Jefferson Airplane and Uriah Heep did acid together, got all freaked out, read the Lord of the Rings, and wrote a really bitchin' song.

moving. blah.

I really don't like moving. Sure, I like being in a new and better place, but getting there is such a bitch. It doesn't help when you have as much shit as I do, and it all has to be boxed. As far as all my music is concerned, I am really considering leaving most of it in the boxes I've put them in for long-term storage. I won't sell them, since I won't get much for them and nobody buys CDs anymore anyway. But with as many as I have, they are difficult to keep around sometimes. To say nothing of the LPs.

Anyway, this was just an outlet to complain about the packing-up thing. Ha, made you read.

buried you alive in a fireworks display

Damn. Not a lot happening here, huh? I really haven't bought much lately, or listened to much new stuff. I did finish U2's discography, so that was keen. I suppose there won't be much here until Wilco's new album comes out.

I'm also thinking this is where the heavy metal comic will be seen. As soon as I get everything copyrighted, that is. I've been up til 4 AM for a while now working on it, so I'd really like to let this project be seen by folks. So let's see- copyrighting, and then figuring out how to use the scanner on my printer, and not have to clean them up digitally since I don't have the technology to do so.

proof that your parents were hip at one time

I was helping my dad figure his new USB turntable last weekend. One of the albums wanted to rip was this masterpiece by Uriah Heep, called Demons and Wizards. I asked to take it home so I could dig it on my own turntable.

Holy shit, is this some great music. The kind of stuff that you never knew you wanted to hear until you actually heard it, as if it fills a previously-unknown area in your soul, as all good music should.

It sounds like a Dungeons & Dragons game if all the players were minstrels, to put it in a too-distilled way. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I bet I'd have a lot more fun playing that game had my DM not been so focused on combat and dungeon crawling, but that is another story.

I've been on the search for the CD since I spun my dad's LP. Surprise, it's obscure as far as big box retailers are concerned. (Oh, how I miss the local FYE.) I guess it'll be like everything else- I search for weeks, until I finally break down and order it from Amazon. Le sigh.

i'm hatching some plot, scheming some scheme

Got out of bed this morning expressly to buy a ticket to U2's Chicago show. I tried for ten minutes, but could not get any GA tickets. However, I did manage to get a pretty decent seat in section 128, so I'm good. It was of course more than I wanted to pay, and Ticketmaster's fees were insulting, but I'm just fucking stoked I'm finally going to see U2.

After hearing that Giants Stadium in NY sold out in 8 minutes, well, I was pretty happy to get a decent seat at the Chicago show. I'm willing to bet that more GA tickets come up for sale 'magically' about a week before the show, and if that's the case, I'll try to get one of those.

Still, I'M FINALLY GOING TO SEE U2!!!

recent gets

CD-

U2- The Unforgettable Fire- I'm trying to finish up my U2 discography. One very essential step for that to happen, and now I'm really just left with the first three albums yet to get now. And Pop. But I'm not buying Pop.

Tom Waits- Used Songs- A wonderful compilation of his work from 1973-1980. Somebody unloaded like, his entire catalog at my local used music peddler, so I picked up this one. It's good. Really good. Waits is the poet that my life's been missing.

DVD-

U2 Popmart- Live in Mexico City- holy shit. I wish I could have seen U2 on this tour and the previous Zoo TV tour. It must have been amazing, much more than a mere video can show. Which reminds me, I get to get up early tomorrow and fight for a ticket to the big U2 show in Chicago this September. Man, I hope the same shit that befell the Springsteen shows on Ticketmaster is avoided here. I want to go so badly.

expression of awe

Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1

It's finally being released. Awesome. He waited for Blu-Ray technology in order to do this properly, and I'm looking to order the plain ol' CD set. As much as I respect all the work Mr. Young has put into this, I don't plan on sitting at my TV listening to all that stuff, even if I did have a Blu-Ray player, I wouldn't spend $300 on this. That price is too prohibitive. I'd get the same kicks from the CDs and the film bought seperately. I wouldn't get that big book, but I'm fairly certain I'd get over it.

I'm just glad to see the Archives finally being released. Mr. Young has been at this for at least twenty years.

evil little goat

Picked up the Legacy Edition of the remixed Ten from Pearl Jam today. I figured it'll be a little stopgap until I can afford the Super Deluxe box set in a week or so, it was $12, and I can keep it in my car when I get the box set.

I've been digging on it for a while, and gone is all the reverb that the album had originally, which is the biggest difference. It allows more of the guitars and vocals to come through, Eddie Vedder's vocals particularly shining in comparison to the 1991 album.

There's extra tracks too! I was standing in the aisle before I bought it, and I said to myself "what, no 'Breath?'" Then I listened to the demo 'Breath and a Scream' and there it was. It lacks the punch of the studio version you can find on the 'Singles' soundtrack or the Rearviewmirror compilation, but it's different, and if there's something us PJ superfans love, it's demos of early stuff. You get six of them on the Redux CD, so that's keen. I just like having this version of 'Brother', which is the single from this album, and topped the Modern Rock charts last week, which is a sad commentary on Modern Rock if a song written in 1991 can top the charts in 2009.

As a bonus, included is the original mix of Ten on the first CD, in case you weren't one of the 12 million people who bought it already. I was thinking about this, and this is the fourth (!) edition of Ten that I own- CD, vinyl, cassette, and now this version. Yeah, I officially own more copies of this than anything else.

Classic Album Review: Kiss Alive!

The year is 1975. A struggling rock band from New York is on the brink of being dropped from their record label, which itself is about to fold. Their concerts sold out, but it didn't translate into album sales. What to do? Roll the dice on a double-live album.

It wasn't as predictable in 1975 as it is now. Live albums didn't do well, and double albums, even worse. But it was a necessary evil in order to get a full Kiss show recorded. And what a recording it is. I'm willing to gamble that a couple of things were overdubbed in the studio, but after seeing several live performances of Kiss either live or on video, it's pretty damn close.

This is the ultimate document of a band in their early days, when they craved stardom and all it brought and didn't have it. This is what a band sounds like that lives for their fans and rock n'roll, because that's all they have. Which is why it's a classic. You can hear Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, and Paul Stanley give it their all on stage, even if they're broke, starving and mold is growing in their leather boots.

I've listened to it countless times. I have it on vinyl, the remastered CD, and the Alive box set that came out a couple years ago. It's one of those albums I never get tired of, and sounds great cranked up wherever you are, pissing off your neighbors (you know what I say- "fuck 'em"). As much as I love Alive II, this is where it's at, before the success of this album brought them insane fortune and fame. I'll argue that the success did change them and their songwriting; how could it not? This is Kiss when they really were the world's most dangerous band, and all those religious zealots had every reason to be afraid of them. But that's neither here nor there. You owe it to yourself to own this one. You don't even have to like Kiss to like this album.

this week's gets

Vinyl-
Heavy Metal soundtrack- I found it, and it was in good condition. Why not?

CD-
AC/DC- High Voltage- bluh. You know this one.

Amon Amarth- Twilight of the Thunder God- the first time in a very long time I've bought an album just based on kick-ass cover art.

I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Good ol' Swedish metal with Cookie Monster on vocals. Great song titles, awesome guitar work, and thundering, how-the-fuck-is-he-doing-that drums.

U2- No Line on the Horizon- I liked this a lot better than the last two albums they made. I don't understand the comparisons to Achtung Baby, other than the fact that the band is back to experimenting. I had a theory that U2 is like the banking industry- the music industry as a whole can't afford U2 to fail. They really are the last supergroup, the last cultural sensation we have that still exists, now that the interwebs and the access to more music than ever before have divided people's interests more. Nothing like U2 will ever be able to come along again, and it's not every day they have an album. So, the celebration over and album that doesn't give itself up easily.

Neko Case- Middle Cyclone- Well, it has a beautiful red-haired girl crouching on the hood of a Pontiac with a sword in her hand on the cover. I had heard of Neko Case, and for $10, I'd happily buy this awesomely-covered album. I've listened to it three times today alone, so I'm digging the hell out of it.

this week's gets

CD-
The Sword- Gods of the Earth- Holy fuck. Took me damn near forever to find this one, and I finally found it at Wal-Mart, of all places. I have not played an album this loud for a long time. It's ear-blasting monster riffage, kind of like Black Sabbath, only this band doesn't allow themselves mellow trips through the daises like Sabbath did with stuff like 'Laguna Sunrise'. The entire album demands to be heard, which is rare.

The Answer-Never Too Late EP- Look out, America- the Answer is coming, and they're going to totally own you with great, classic hooks. If you saw them with AC/DC this fall, I envy you.

AC/DC- Let There Be Rock- Another 'why not?' AC/DC purchase. Bon Scott-era stuff never lets me down.

The Chinese Democracy Years

1994-2008

An absurdly exhaustive recounting of the shit gone through to make the Axl Rose Band's Chinese Democracy. It's a worthy read of something that wasn't worth the effort put into it.

this week's gets

CD-
Bruce Springsteen- The Rising- Great album. I've had a rip for ages, but bought the CD this weekend. I hadn't heard it in awhile. Great to hear it again.

Bruce Springsteen- Magic- Haven't got into it yet. I heard a bit of it when it came out, but not the whole album.

Metallica- Garage Inc.- I so kick myself for ever parting with my Metallica collection. Having this on CD again is awesome, because I only seem to enjoy every other song on this collection and it's not good for cassettes to be rewound all the time. Plus, cheap ($7!) used Amazon purchase.

Metallica- S&M- A greatest hits and live album in one. Never really was a big fan of this, but it was cheap from the used sellers on Amazon. Some songs are great with the symphony, others are just messy, like Master of Puppets. The best tunes are clearly The Call of Ktulu and Nothing Else Matters, especially the latter since Michael Kamen arranged the strings on that one for its Black Album release.

Metallica- St. Anger- Another cheap buy on Amazon. I figured 'why not, it's five bucks.' You know, I did not give this album its proper due. A lot of the lyrics are retarded, and the lack of solos and the garage-band sound that, while a neat concept, ruined the album. If this was rerecorded with better drums and some short solos, they might have something here. But that's like expecting to hear a remixed version of And Justice For All that you can hear bass on- it ain't gonna happen.

Album of 2008

I know. Two months after everyone else, but fuck it. Many will decry this as nonsense, but hey, everyone’s opinion on album of the year is a mere opinion, after all. This was the album that brought it all back for me. I got back into my metal days because of this album, and now all of my phases can rest comfortably beside each other. I picked up my guitar again, after several years of not touching it. As much as it was a return to form for Metallica, it reminded me of how much I used to love just sitting around listening to a really great album, poring over the liner notes or just admiring the cover.

This album really needs to be listened to as a complete work from beginning to end, not piecemealed out like so much of our music today. I really like that in my favorite albums, which include Radiohead’s OK Computer, Metallica’s own Master of Puppets, Pearl Jam's Yield, and U2’s The Joshua Tree.

Most of all, it was like discovering Metallica for the first time again. Hearing this was like that first time I heard …And Justice For All. I was scarcely aware Metallica had a new album coming out this year until a month before its release. I mean, hell, they had gone off on a faux-gay tangent in 1996 (even though I like the Load album, I could do without Lars’ and Kirk’s images), Jason Newsted left in 2001, there was the Napster thing that bothered everyone but me, and worst of all, St. Anger, which I still can’t get into other than a couple of songs. I guess they just slipped off my radar for about five years while I went into other lower-decibel genres. In August of last year, my brother Andy says that the single from Death Magnetic, ‘The Day That Never Comes’ was streaming from Metallica’s website, and he showed me. I was floored, really. It was full of riffs, and most importantly, a day hoped for that never came was a particularly relevant topic to me at that point (and still is) so it was the right song at the right time.

This album still holds up in repeated listens. I listened to it nonstop for the first couple of weeks after I bought it. Then I let it rest, but eventually, I came back to it and I still listen to most of it at least once a week. I was lucky enough to see Metallica on the World Magnetic tour on its fourth stop in Des Moines, and hearing about five new songs live really helped to reinforce the strength of this album.

I was going to do a top seven of my favorite albums, but I decided to just go with a post about my favorite of this year. If you must know, numbers two and three were AC/DC’s Black Ice and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. Believe it or not, Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy actually made my list. It’s a strong work, almost too strong. Had it been allowed to escape before 2002, it might have been pretty good.

high voltage rock'n'roll

I love rock music. I love listening to it, buying albums, searching high and low for that one album I've got in my mind that I must own. I love reading about music as well. For years, all I really paid attention to were Spin and Rolling Stone, and to put it bluntly, they're a little too snooty (I guess that's the word) for me, giving their covers to pop sensations or bands that looked a little too, well, faggy for a guy like me to carry around the magazine. So, I resigned myself to just reading about music on the interwebs. (In an ironic twist, Rolling Stone's website has some pretty good stuff on it.)

Then I found out my local bookstores had something called Classic Rock magazine. Yay me for finally looking at the big expensive imported magazines.

I probably wouldn't have noticed it if it didn't have a Metallica feature on the cover (Oct. '08), an article about the 1000 days between ...And Justice For All and the Black Album, when Metallica was still the most dangerous band in the world.

Every page of this magazine had something I wanted to read, which was stunning. I pored over this issue for no less than three hours, outlasting the included CD. Speaking of which, yes, this mag includes a CD with every issue. This one was called Guitarmageddon, and it was awesome. Megadeth, Dream Theater, Dragonforce, and Extreme, if you can believe, plus a bunch of other artists I had never heard of, but was glad to. This rock periodical had done its job- broadened my horizons, making me aware of things that I otherwise wouldn't, which never happened with Spin and RS. I was stuck reading and hearing about pop stars, rappers, and the popular like. It takes a magazine dedicated to a particular genre to excite me, I guess. I'm a rock fan; it's not like I'm going to change gears and get into jazz or hip-hop at this point. And now I have a monthly magazine written by people who are even more into this than I am, and that love shows.

this week's gets

CD-
Jenny Lewis- Acid Tongue- Great, great stuff. I'm quite disappointed in myself for taking so long to buy it.

Metallica- Kill 'Em All- yet another necessary piece in the quest to rebuild my 'Tallica catalog. Oh yeah, and it has 'The Four Horsemen' on it, not to mention the 19-year-old buffoons that made up Metallica in '83 on the back cover.

Vinyl-
Bruce Springsteen- Working on a Dream- It's damn good, plus I got a download of the album in the package, negating the need for a seperate CD purchase. The album as a whole doesn't have anything on The Rising, but it seems to close a trilogy started with that album, continued with Magic, and ended here. There's a certain assuredness to the album as a whole, except for the bonus track, The Wrestler, which was written for the Darren Aronofsky film that everyone but me has seen. It doesn't really fit with the rest of the album, which would be why it's a bonus track.

I also scored a sampler of new music for 2009 from Classic Rock magazine, but I haven't listened to it yet.

new Kiss album this fall!!!!!

Clicky.

PAUL ON NEW KISS ALBUM

Paul Stanley tells Page Six that he, Gene Simmons and the band are headed into the studio to grind out a new record for release this fall. "It's a KISS album in the most true and classic sense - we're recording it in analog, not digital, and writing it ourselves," says Stanley, who also paints and will hold an exhibit Feb. 27-28 at the Wentworth Gallery in Hackensack, NJ.

so I'm really into Iced Earth now

It all started with this:



It's a cover album, full of Kiss, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and other covers (Blue Oyster Cult woo.) Then that led to me acquiring the Dark Saga CD, which has a track called 'I Died For You' which so far seems to be my favorite song from them.

Then I dug deeper, and there's an entire catalog of power metal dating back to 1991. I've got a lot of ground to cover here, and since I have a perosnality that demands I learn everything I can about something once I'm interested in it, I could be at this for a while. But it's better than listening to a Metallica album for the umpteenth time, I suppose. Onward and upwards and such.

not a lot to do today?

Then check out this gallery of famous folks throwin' the goat.

this week's gets

CD-
The Best of Bob Dylan- a cheap collection I found at Wal-Mart. I really can't say much, except that since FYE closed here a few weeks ago, Wal-Mart is pretty much the only place to get decent stuff. (Fuck Best Buy.)

The Flaming Lips- At War with the Mystics- I've been meaning to get into the Lips for a while, so I figured it may as well be now. It's great.

Paid download-
Metallica- World Magnetic- Des Moines, IA 10/26/08- I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I finally did it. I was surprised by it. I figured it'd be a soundboard recording with no audience track, but it was as perfectly balanced as you can hope for a live recording to be between audience noise and band sound quality. But at $10 a whack, I doubt I'll buy any more shows from the tour, even though they've played some really great tunes at all shows during the encore.

riot act

I finally gave this a listen through my really nice headphones. HOLY SHIT LAYERS SON. When the organ kicked in during 'Love Boat Captain' I almost peed. I should try Binaural next.

And, I was just on Amazon stealing the cover image for this post, and I noticed that some private sellers on that site want between $95-270 (not a typo) for the LP. And I paid $25 for mine in 2003. Huh. One seller mentioned that this will be out of print forever, which I sincerely doubt. The Legacy series of Pearl Jam's catalog features vinyl reissues, so I think they'll get to Riot Act at some point. I just hope they at least release No Code, Live on Two Legs, and Binaural, since those are the really, really, really hard-to-get ones.

gosh

I know I haven't updated this little vanity project in awhile. I really haven't bought anything new since my last haul post. The only thing I'm looking to buy is a copy of Metallica's Black Album on vinyl.

I guess I recently bought King Crimson's 'In the Court of the Crimson King' but that is about as old as the hills, and I haven't finished listening to it yet.