Lisnaholic

Hallo Ki - I thought I`d dip into your journal as you seem such an agreeable guy elsewhere on MB. I was interested to read about M.Ward, whose name is new to me - and yes, his instrumental Psalm does have a touch of The Clap about it, although suddenly, right at the end his guitar sounds more like Nick Drake`s.
Congratulations on being a published poet, and congrats on an interesting journal too; I like the way you`ve kept your options open and can just add in what you like. Any chance of any more Satriani-style music turning up ?

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Key

Hey! Thanks for popping in

Oh sure! I'll get some more Satriani-esque stuff in my queue to feature in my journal.

Key

The Satch (A Story)

As Lisnaholic suggested, I am going to write a short paragraph or two about a few artists that I stumbled upon around high school. I was about...17 or 18 years old, can't exactly pin point which, doesn't matter. I was being suggested bands by a friend of mine who was highly into Dream Theater at the time, he lent me their Score DVD and the G3 DVD which featured John Petrucci from Dream Theater, so after having watched the Score DVD, I knew it was going to be good. Little did I know, there were two other guitarist featured on the DVD along with Petrucci, two guitarist that I have not heard of before, but really like their style:

Joe Satriani


and Steve Vai


I was able to find quite a few albums from each guitarist, but was mostly impressed by Joe Satriani, especially since my introduction to his music was Summer Song, and still to this day, that remains my favorite song of his, even though I have had a lot of exposure to all of his albums, even his recent one;


Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards

I didn't find as much enjoyment out of this album as I wanted to, I feel like he played it safe throughout a lot of it, and wasn't really much that was jaw droppingly great, fun album, but nowhere near what I was expecting.

Back to G3 and segway
The performance of Smoke On The Water that the three of them performed really got me interested in each of the guitarist individually. I had a few months of strictly listening to and searching for instrumental guitarist that I could find some sort of enjoyment out of; there was one that was a bit on the "unknown" status, Sebastian Cloutier:



I remember having to search and search and search to find just one full album that somebody may have somehow uploaded to the internet, so the satisfaction that came with finding the album was well worth the look.

Basically, I feel like most of the taste that I have grown to enjoy today was due to a close friend of mine lending me a few DVD's to check out, and I am thankful for that every day. It opened my mind to listen to new things, and in a way, it helped me grow a liking for prog and anything out of the range of style that I was used to listening to. I still listed to what I liked back then, but he really made me realize what all is out there.

Key

Taking a break from my journal for the rest of the year. A fresh batch of entries coming Jan. 1st. I've gotta finish my top 100 albums, and some other entries that i've been thinking about.

Probably taking a break from forums, etc as well.

So until then, have a happy new year!

Key

I lied, I'm back a day before the 1st of January, but that's only because I don't have much to do for the day.

My 100 favorite albums (part 8 of 10)

Key

I couldn't really be bothered to write a lot of reviews for the rest of Robert Plant's discography for two reasons:

1) There's another band that I am more interested in looking into, and

2) A lot of his later albums did nothing for me, so I don't want to just write a hateful review on the album, i'd rather spend my time writing a constructive review. Which leads me to the rest of the post.

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My Introduction To...


The Beach Boys

I've been meaning to check these guys out for quite a long time, but never really felt any reason to do so, as their discography is massive, but I am up for the challenge, and hopefully i'll do the albums justice in the reviews to come after. I'll probably do it in chronological order from their first album, to their most recent album. This'll be a long project as I don't have ALL the time in the world to listen to music as I'd like, but it'll give me something to do in during the "slow days".

Anyway, expect a review of Surfin' Safari soon.

Key

Surfin' Safari (1962)



All I can say is...wow. I really need to think about why I never listened to these guys before. They are so chill, especially noticeable in this album alone. I also regret not looking into them more after only hearing the popular "Surfin' USA" because there is so much more to them. I've been given some advice that as I go on to their further albums, it gets more psychedelic, which I am pretty stoked for. This album though, I don't have much to say because it's just the beginning of the discography, but I can safely say that this will be a repeat listen in the near future, I really enjoyed it, and can see a lot of potential in terms of how much enjoyment I will get out of the rest of their albums.

Key

Surfin' USA (1963)



The first album that I listened to again after the first listen before going to the next album. It brought a bit of nostalgia hearing the title track as the first track of this album. But I was not familiar with the rest of this album, and as I have given it almost two consecutive listens already, it shows that it has been doing a pretty good job at keeping me interested. It's packed with a lot of cool groove California styled rock that I haven't been too familiar with prior. My favorite track on the album is probably the instrumental Misorlou, mostly for the imagery that it gives, laying on the beach in 90 degree weather enjoying the waves in the ocean, at least that's what I get out of it.

Fantastic album overall, very excited to hear the next album.

Key

Mini Highlight
Iron Maiden (Ev Vivo, The Final Frontier)

So, this Christmas, I wanted to get my dad something pretty cool. He's a huge fan of music DVD's, and I saw that Iron Maiden had released their new live DVD "En Vivo". It was conveniently on sale at the local Fred Meyer as I was getting my shopping done.

He was watching/listening to it last night, and I gotta say, they've still got it in them. Bruce Dickinson sounds amazing, and the rest of the band looks like they're having a great time. Lots of energy and great chemistry throughout the entire performance. They started off with one of my favorite newer releases "The Final Frontier"



I'm also going to be getting my dad a copy of The Final Frontier, because he told me he's never heard the album before, which doesn't surprise me since he's not really up to date on all that stuff, but he loves it when one of his favorite bands brings out something new. This'll give me an excuse to give the album another listen for myself, because I only gave it 3 or 4 listens when it was first released, than it sort of flew away, and I had totally forgotten about it until I saw the DVD.

Key

Surfer Girl (1963)



At first glance, I thought "holy hell, two albums in the same year?" but than I realized that that notion was crazy based on how good of an impression this album left upon first listen. I put off listening to The Beach Boys for a little while, because they can get a little overwhelming at first (at least in my experience) knowing how many more albums there are to listen to. But they do have a very refreshing and relaxing sound, evident in this one album alone. There was a nice sunny vacation feel to this album as their was with the others that i've listened to. And the title track Surfer Girl was a very nicely placed song that led me into a much more relaxing sit through. Personally, the one song that was above all the rest in this album had to be The Surfer Moon, I really like the slow pace it takes, makes it much easier to focus in on the vocals than anything else. I think i'll take some time away from The Beach Boys and listened to the next album in a week or so, because that seems to have a better effect than giving it all a listen as quick as possible. Not sure why that wasn't obvious before, but I tend to get over excited sometimes.