The Music Banter Members' Journals Monthly Update Thread

[Trollheart]

Oh wow! It's so hot here today (no, I haven't unexpectedly relocated to the Azores!) that I almost can't face typing this update, but hey, who else is going to do it? Oh well, rain forecast tomorrow so back to normal. Meanwhile let's see what's been coming out of the chimneys of the houses of the good folk down in Journal Land.

Well, for a start there are two brand new journals and the return of an old one, so let's mosey on down through these streets and look in some doors, eh?

Antonio is looking at some "songs he's diggin'" over at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ng-ground.html, one of which is Captain Beyond, whom we looked at in the Prog Rock Album Club some time ago. I wasn't particularly impressed with that album, but obviously Antonio was. Maybe you should join the PRAC, Ant?

The Batlord has been updating all three of his journals this week, and in his latest, http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-fidelity.html, he's reached page pages 38 and 39 (slow reader. eh Batty?) and is quite annoyed to find that the Licorice Comfits are just a made-up band, so consoles himself by listening to one that does exist, the Lemonheads. Meanwhile in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...lks-about.html, seems like he's had enough girly pop for now and has returned to his first love, death metal, with demos from Embalmed, Morbid (seeing a pattern here?) and, er, Eructation. Is that even a word? Of course he always has to go to http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...t-schemes.html where he's talking about Dave Mustaine. Well, more laughing at, really...

Big Ears meanwhile, not content with doing a pretty in-depth review in the PRAC of Ambrosia's debut album (our current project) has an even more detailed one in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...s-journal.html, so head there to read all about it.

Gavin B, always a great source of information and education on music, is talking about "The decline of western civilisation", another punk cult movie in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...use-songs.html

while Ladyislingering's http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ic-memory.html is concentrating on, well, ladies this week, with Blondie, Pat Benatar and the Go-Gos on offer. Not literally, sadly...


Pedestrian does a rare album review, and going by this one it's a shame she doesn't do more. It's the new one from The Knife, and you can find it if you go http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...sswalking.html

Complete with snappy new title, Screen 13 is back in the http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...all-music.html and looking at the Comsat Angels, which he describes as an epic fail. Want to know why? Step this way...

Three years later duga is updating his journal, telling us all about http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-got-here.html, with a review of Savage Garden. Hope to hear more from ya soon mate!

And this week I doggedly buck the trend and make history again (read, show off) by opening my fourth journal, a feat until now thought impossible ... whaddya mean, yeah yeah, get on with it you toss...? Oh, okay. Well, before we get to that, what's been happening at http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html? Not much to be fair: a review of ELO's "Face the music" is all I could muster (and you want to do ANOTHER journal???) although in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html there's been considerably more happening, with a review of the classic comedy "The odd couple", as well as (finally) episode two of the Onedin Line, and also an offbeat look at some of the ugliest spaceships in science-fiction history!

As for that new journal, well it's all about http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ver-heard.html, with the first on the chopping block being that well-known and respected second album from My Bloody Valentine, "Loveless" -- can't say I'm too impressed (what's that crowd angrily coming towards me with pitchforks and burning torches?), while next up is ZZ's classic "Tres hombres". Much to listen to!

It's 1976 in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html and Unknown Soldier is looking at albums by the Ian Gillan Band and some crowd called Piper? Check it out and learn things you did not know, as well as hear music you should!

Urban has posted the full list of Melody Maker's top albums in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...79-2000-a.html but some of them he doesn't have. I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you can help him out. What? No he doesn't bite. So far as I know.


and that leaves us with one more journal, the other new one I spoke of. Say hello to the newest member of our Journal Land residence,

Yorkedaddy, who has started a journal in which http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...used-hate.html. Great idea! So far he's already hit up "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac and "vertigo" by Boxcar. Interesting outcomes, to say the least.

Which takes us to our Showcase for this week. So, who shall it be? Well, I'd like to move back to page two and introduce you to someone who's certainly active, though not enough for my liking. Ladies and gentlebeings, meet

He's been doing his journal on and off for nearly three years now, and as a fellow Irishman I think he deserves a little encouragement and praise. Also, with a name starting with Z he's destined to always be the last on any update, unless that new guy Zggfftt starts a journal, but I think it's hard to write when you have pseudopods instead of fingers! Here's the kind of thing our man Zero is capable of:

Originally Posted by Zer0

Belle and Sebastian - 3..6..9 Seconds Of Light (1997)



Track Listing:
1. A Century Of Fakers
2. Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie
3. Beautiful
4. Put The Book Back On The Shelf

Belle and Sebastian were a very prolific band in their early days indeed. Not only did they manage to release not one but two, TWO, damn good albums in 1996 (Tigermilk and If You’re Feeling Sinister), but they also managed to follow these up the following year with three rather fine EPs Dog On Wheels, Lazy Painter Jane and last but not least the magnificent 3..6..9 Seconds Of Light. Why I chose this EP over the other two is simply because these four tracks seem to encapsulate everything I love about early Belle and Sebastian into just under twenty minutes. That timeless, warm and bittersweet sound that they could pull off so effortlessly and those highly literate lyrics that could rival any great poet.

The bittersweet melodies of ‘A Century of Fakers’ reminds you of the coming of Autumn and the fading memories of the Summer gone by. You will also notice that this song has the exact same backing track as ‘A Century Of Elvis’ from Lazy Painter Jane. But compare that with the up-tempo and teeth-rattling ‘Le Pastie De La Bourgeoisie’ which shows that Belle and Sebastian can rock out if they want to. ‘Beautiful’ is a downbeat and touching acoustic-based song which some nicely effective touches of trumpet and strings. Stuart Murdoch’s knack for writing about downtrodden characters always fascinates me and he does this brilliantly with this song. The upbeat swagger of ‘Put the Book Back on the Shelf’ ties this four-track EP together very nicely. And just when you think it’s over there’s a hidden song at the very end called ‘Songs for Children’, which seems to hark back to the faded outro of ‘Beautiful’. It’s a very well put together collection of songs and they exist together as a powerful entity.

If you wanted to you could get all their EPs and non-album singles collected together on the compilation Push Barman to Open Old Wounds, but I prefer to have them individually. The songs just seem to stand out more when you listen to them the way they were originally meant to be listened, plus the associated artwork gives the songs that extra bit of character and group identity. Some could even argue that their EPs are better than their albums but then again they could be right.

And so, with the weather forecaster glumly predicting rain tomorrow, it's back to normal for an Irish summer. But things are moving here in Journal Land, whatever the weather, and if you want to be part of that, take the example of Yorkedaddy and others who have decided to give this a go and, well, give it a go! What have you to lose, apart from your self-esteem, confidence, respect of others, friends, free time, sleep, social life...?

Till next week at the same time,
Toodles!

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Eructation. Is that even a word?

Originally Posted by Merriam-Webster.com

Definition of ERUCTATION

: an act or instance of belching

"Bam!" said the lady.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

"Bam!" said the lady.

Fair enough, but you're the guy who uses words like "edumacation"...

[The Batlord]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Fair enough, but you're the guy who uses words like "edumacation"...

Gimme a break. I'm from Virginia.

[Unknown Soldier]

One thing I've noticed since Trollheart has started this thread, is the upsurge in people doing journals, not just starting them but maintaining them as well. I can remember when I first used to submit a journal entry, it would normally occupy the first few places until I submitted the next entry three or four days later. If I do the same now, my journal is usually about ten places down. If I didn't do it for more than a week then I'd probably be off the page!

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Zer0

Hey thanks for the showcase Trollheart!

You are of course very welcome, or perhaps I should say "is failte romhat" (is that right? Can't remember, been so long)

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Gimme a break. I'm from Virginia.

Jeez Batty! I wouldn't have thought you'd have anything to do with the word "virgin"!

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

One thing I've noticed since Trollheart has started this thread, is the upsurge in people doing journals, not just starting them but maintaining them as well. I can remember when I first used to submit a journal entry, it would normally occupy the first few places until I submitted the next entry three or four days later. If I do the same now, my journal is usually about ten places down. If I didn't do it for more than a week then I'd probably be off the page!

Indeed. When I suggested this thread idea there were two aims: one, to get people reading journals again, two, to have journals regularly updated as the writers realised people were (shock! Horror!) reading them and three, to encourage others to start.

Three. Three aims. And to promote the best journals. Four, four aims.
Among the aims of this thread were...

Glad to see it seems to have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Keep it up people! The journals section is no longer only a place for lonely bastards who have all the social skills of an alsatian after a headswap operation, like me...

[Trollheart]

In an expansion of what US said about this thread seeming to encourage people both to update and start journals, I've decided to throw in two new sections to the update thread, make it a bit more interesting, fun and perhaps even give people something to shoot for.

The first is a league table. Still working out the details but it won't be just based on views, as that would be unfair to new journals. I'm working something along the lines of views, updates, type of updates and will assign a number for each then add them up. Look, I said I was working on it, ok? It'll be in place by Sunday. Oh, and my journals will be featuring but NOT the Playlist because that would just be unfair. Not saying that to be conceited but it's a fact that I have the highest views of any journal, so I want to give others a chance. I also don't want anyone thinking I just did this to show off how great my journal is. I'm not doing that.

So hopefully it'll give people an incentive to update more, and put more into their journals as you'll get a higher score for, say, an album review than just a YouTube with a few lines and a higher score for a full article than an album review, and so on. This means that (or should mean that) people who have low view counts but work really hard on their journals should be able to rise up the chart as easily as, or easier than, someone with a lot of views who only throws in the odd update. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

The other thing is the Roll of Honour. No, it's spelt honour! Anyhoo, this is going to be a growing list of all the members who have started journals since I began doing this update. That will include those who started when I was still using the "What's happening" thread too. So if you started a new journal in the last few months, you're in.

Just a few more little things to try to pay tribute to those who put time into making their journals, and maybe encourage others to try their hand at it.

And to prove I have way more time on my hands than any man should. Although really, I don't...

Watch for all this on Sunday.

[Trollheart]

Gaaahhh! Sometimes an idea sounds great but when you look at it in the cold clinical light of day it's, well, not.

I initially thought the concept of Special Award points was a good one, give the younger journals a leg-up. However I now see, looking at the table in its current incarnation, that what it actually does is not level the playing field but stack the odds unfairly in favour of the younger journals. I mean, say someone gets 5000 points as a Special Award: they go probably to the top of the table. How long before an honest, hard-working, normal journal member who's been here years can ever hope to match that? It's an unassailable lead.

So I'm rethinking this and dropping the idea. I mean, i want to help out the young 'uns, encourage them and all, but realistically, you don't get a promotion on your first day at work do you? You have to work for it. So everyone is now going to be treated the same. There's no reason why a good rising young journal can't climb the table, but you're going to have to make it on your own merits. I think that's fairer.

Hope everyone agrees with that. If not, tough: it's my system and I really think this is the fairest way to ensure everyone has a decent crack at the top spot. Sorry for any confusion, but before I published the first table I wanted to have the bugs ironed out, and this is one bug that needed killing.

[Trollheart]

Well, after all the excitement, setting down of rules, tearing up those rules in frustration, starting out again, tearing up those rules and so on, we're finally at the first update which will feature the new Music Journals League Table. Who will head it? Who will be even in it? Find out later in the update. Right now it's time to see what exactly has been happening as people try to outdo each other to get in the league table.

Antonio's first up, with another "song he's diggin'" in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ng-ground.html

The Batlord has of course been doing his damndest to get to the top by updating all his journals, which is of course what everyone should do if you want to get your name in lights. Mind you, our batty friend may have gone too far! He's invited a guest reviewer into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...t-schemes.html to review Marduk's album "Panzer division Marduk". So what's wrong with that, you say? Well, wait till you see who he asked to review it...

But of course what he does best is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...lks-about.html, and at the moment he's deep into unfamiliar territory ... ah, no, not really. Slayer, Dr. Shrinker, Bullet for my Valentine (kinda) ... all the sort of stuff you'd expect from MB's premier metalhead. But then he does also delve into the world of Author and Punisher as well as talking about the Punk LA forgot, so there's a hell of a lot going on in there! And then of course there's his usual http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-fidelity.html where he's being forced to listen to ..... wait for it .... wait for it.... Dana! BWA HA HA HA HA! Now you know how us poor Irish felt when she won the bloody Eurovision for us mate, and all you could hear on the radio was "All kinds of bloody everything"!

A new journal starting up this week is everyone's favourite wannabe mod, CrazyVegn, who tells us all about what http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...veg-likes.html

while returning with a bang since his, er, resurrection last week, Duga is continuing to talk abou thttp://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-got-here.html, with Garbage this week's feature. No, the band. I don't mean his journal's garbage. Yeah, predictable joke # 23,507...

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...use-songs.html is doing good business, with the first and second parts of the Motown Story ... excellent, rivietting stuff, definitely worth checking out.

The Big3 is back! And he's annoyed! In fact, he's http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ming-moon.html about "when good bands go ****ty", looking in particular at TV on the Radio...

Remember that "I am not Drew"? thing Pedestrian ran a few months back? No? Well go back and read it cos it was hilarious. She's unveiling the second instalment this week in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...sswalking.html --- make sure your sides are well sewn together!!!

Powerstars is throwing the spotlight on a rap song about Pokemon called "The bird and the beedrill" (huh?) as well as reviewing Franz Ferdinand's debut and is soon to look at Bowie's new masterpiece too. Catch it all in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...sicalness.html. Oh, and there's a rant too, always fun. This one is about live albums. Or something.

Screen13 must never sleep! There's so much work gone into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...all-music.html it's frightening! Not only has he "Ghost Mall Music Special Overview" with albums "bubbling under" by the fistful, but he also runs an "Introduction to Crazy Louie's Hit Man Archive Cutouts, and reviews an album by Herman's Hermits! This guy does not know when to eat!

Another new journal is http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-observer.html and the alien in question is Stephen, formerly known as stp formely known as fastsp. He's looking at some Australian band in his first feature, Hunters and Collectors. Looks good!

Now don't blame me for having not too much in the way of updates this week, as I've been diligently working on the league table, format, rules and the table itself, carefully following all your journals and adding points up like a proper little bean-counter, as well as listening to some classic albums. So in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html all you'll find this week is two old sections returning: "Crimes against Music" has the tale of the capture of Justin Bieber (ARRGGHH!) while after a year's hiatus there's finally part four of my NWOBHM feature. In http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html there's the first of only two two-part episodes in Babylon 5, and the incredible House of Cards begins. No, the original. Hey, I even managed to squeeze in a review of Rush's "Permanent waves" in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...i-reviews.html! Not bad for a slow week!


Unknown Soldier is hammering through 1976 with reviews of albums by Judas Priest and Moxy in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html

while Urban is looking at "Now that's what I call music!" No, I'm serious, and a very fine job he's doing too. Don't believe me? Head to http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-stuff.html and be amazed!

And speaking of being amazed, well anything Unknown Soldier can do Vanilla can too! She's reviewing a different Judas Priest album in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-eargasms.html, and making a very fine job of it too if I may say.

And so to this week's Showcase. I've had to go right back to page 3 for this, which is sad, but hopefully it may convince him to start updating again.


This journal was started by our favourite locomotive back in February and was shaping up to be one amazing story, however it seems to have (sorry!) run out of steam at the moment. Hopefully not for long because I for one want to know what happened to Erik.
Here's the very first post/chapter of "An equivocal flail aka The American Dream"...

Originally Posted by Engine

DISCLAIMER: The events, characters and entities depicted in this journal are fictional. Any resemblance or similarity to actual events, entities or persons, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Chapter One: Birth

In the mid 1970s a child was born on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. This was a monumental event for several people. The sex of the child was unknown until birth (that’s how people did it in the 70s) so there were two names picked out for the oncoming child. If boy: Erik. If girl: Alisha. The child was a boy so forget about the name Alisha insofar as you can, knowing that the boy may have been named that. The boy, of course, won’t forget this detail. There were baby-girl dresses in the closet at home waiting for him if he had emerged as a female. The dresses were yellow and blue, purple and green, brown and turquoise, and whatever else was popular at the time. Instead, Erik was dressed in almost exclusively blue. Navy Blue coincidentally became his favorite color from his infancy onward.

The child was born in a military hospital. These places were known for their cold sterility and nearly absolute void of emotional warmth. The child’s mother, Gabrielle, was particularly upset by her surroundings. Gabrielle had spent over 40 hours in labor in this place while her husband was drinking in a nearby bar. She suspected that he was smoking with his friends in celebration of the birth. Cigars, at least. This upset her not on principal but because she was jonesing hard for nicotine having been a regular smoker for the past decade or so, from the time she was a younger woman until now, in the military hospital bed. She had gone 40 hours without a cigarette, in labor, and was not very happy to put it mildly.

Of course, smoking was not reviled at the time. She also didn’t always necessarily use a seatbelt when she was driving an automobile. This was the 1970s and Gabrielle went with the flow. She was from a dirt-poor town, literally the daughter of a coal miner, a raven-haired beauty in her youth, popular among her peers in the days of disco. So of course she smoked cigarettes. From the womb, Erik listened to a lot of ABBA. Being encased in a warm sac of fluid, dosed with nicotine, and exposed to the rhythm of disco, he began to dance. Nobody can be sure how the prenatal nicotine withdrawal affected him.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Ladies, gentleman and those as yet undecided, I present to you the very first Music Banter Journals League Table!

First though, some notes to forestall any protests. For those of you wondering why there's such a disparity between the top and bottom of the table, those higher scores are based on mostly the points given for a Conversation, as per the rules, and/or High Praise. For the purposes of this table I've decided to define a Conversation as comments or debate involving three or more people. True, it only takes two to have a conversation (or one, if you're me!) but as two people could argue over and back about one thing I don't feel that's worthy of the 100 points awarded for a conversation. Unknown Soldier posts regularly in my journals, and I in Batlord's, but neither of those are considered conversations in this instance. Also, the points are only awarded for each separate conversation, so if you have three, four, five or more people talking about, say, the last Slayer album, even if this debate goes on for days, there's no new award until someone starts a new topic.

With that in mind, here's the table:


Congratulations to Screen13, whose fine work has earned him a top place in the first table. If you want to knock him down from that position then you're going to have to work at it! Kudos also to our two lovely ladies, Vanilla and Pedestrian, who have scored the second and fourth places respectively, and to Duga who, despite being away for three years, has stormed into third!

Bubbling under, this week: Antonio with 9 points, Bob, Burning Down, PoorOldPo and Big Ears, each with 4. Update guys and we should hopefully see you in the table next week.

Competition is good for the soul, they say, so let's see who can scale the table in the next few weeks eh? All you need do is write something, get people to comment, get views. Simple, huh?

Also, please don't argue with me over points, in this or any forthcoming table. It may not be perfect: it's hard to keep track of everything on a daily basis while still working on four journals, but I've done the best I can and it should be reasonably accurate. At worst, the odd entry might be one or two points off either side but not much more.

Anyone who wishes to may have their own individual points tally sent to them. PM me if you want them.


Till next week
Toodles!

[Engine]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

And so to this week's Showcase. I've had to go right back to page 3 for this, which is sad, but hopefully it may convince him to start updating again.


This journal was started by our favourite locomotive back in February and was shaping up to be one amazing story, however it seems to have (sorry!) run out of steam at the moment. Hopefully not for long because I for one want to know what happened to Erik.
Here's the very first post/chapter of "An equivocal flail aka The American Dream"...

Interesting. I hadn't seen this until just now. Thanks for your interest. I suppose I took a hiatus because Erik's backstory was kind of bogging me down. If you hadn't guessed, the story is semi-autobiographical and is a bit emotionally draining to write. But it's fun and cathartic and I'd like to get back to it soon.