Amph What Album Did You Just Hear?

So, its a violin/electronic blend of music, most of the songs are pretty catchy and upbeat. A couple slower songs but they are also not bad. There are no vocals for the most part (except one song with actual lyrics), which is a good thing; vocals would just distract from the music. A couple of my favorite tracks at the moment are "Heist" and "Roundtable Rivals".

 

Yeah, I've been listening to that album too.

 

Abbey Road

I doubt I'll ever tire of that album.

 

Periphery, "Periphery II: This Time It's Personal"

The brainchild of guitar wunderkind Misha "Bulb" Mansoor (he goes by Bulb on the sevenstring.org forums), this noodly djent outfit's second album is a delightfully proggy metal album with a string of awesome punny titles like "Facepalm Mute" (Facepalm = obvious, palm muting = technique common in djent to truncate the reverb of a chorb and make it sound more chuggy) and "MAKE TOTAL DESTROY".



4/5 stars, and better than any Christmas music.

 

A Love Supreme

John Coltrane

 

After the Disco by Broken Bells

 

The Fillmore East seems to be one of those venues where it's nigh onto impossible to play a bad show. Like CBGB or the Newport Jazz Festival.

 

Speaking of, I remember a colleague reading a book about Jewish punk bands playing that famous club. It was called:

 

Hemispheres (1978) - Rush



Right, so this album is worse than A Farewell to Kings. This one opens with Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres. It’s over eighteen minutes long. It’s based on Apollonian vs. Dionysian literary criticism. It has a Table of Contents. The song has a Table of Contents. It’s . . . I mean, it’s part two of the track that ended the last album. So, in essence, Cygnus X-1 is twenty-nine minutes long. So, okay, long songs are okay. I’m a Dylan fan. But when your song is almost thirty minutes long, it needs to be a darn good song and this one has a couple of nice bits. I mean it’s thirty minutes long, how could it not have a couple of nice bits? But just no. Just no to this.

And then the album ends with a nine minute instrumental piece called La Villa Strangiata (An Exercise in Self-Indulgence). Hey, you said it, buddy. Anyway, it’s ten minutes long almost and it has a Table of Contents also. A Table of Contents TWELVE ITEMS LONG. It is sort of the definitive “let’s just smash all these little throwaway bits together and call it a suite or something” piece, if you know what I mean. I mean, this is beyond pretentious. And I don’t mind pretensions to greatness; a lot of times, you never have greatness unless you have pretensions to get there. But the pretensions are annoying when you have nothing to back them up and this album has nothing to back them up.

And while I’m ranting here, was there a reason you put a naked man on the cover of the album? Yes, yes, I know, Dionysian literary criticism. I have a BA too, you pretentious git. But Dionysius could have ******* clothes on, couldn’t he? I mean, really? You’re gonna make me carry around a CD sleeve that has a naked man on it? I should really take another half-star off just for that awful sleeve design; pretentious, heavy-handed and, oh, yes, contains one too many naked men for my tastes.

Anyway, there’s also a couple of shorter songs. The Trees is a heavy-handed sermon about conflict and the other one is so forgettable I remember nothing about it. The Trees isn’t bad. It’s not good either, but it’s not bad. But those two marathon tracks are just cringe-inducing. This one’s a big step down from A Farewell to Kings. Taken as a whole, this is just an awful album. This album is STRONGLY WARNED AGAINST. ½ star.

tl;dr – pretentious “song-suites” are interminable exercises in wankery without a bit of soul. Rest of album is forgettable. ½ star.

 

After watching "Crossfire Hurricane" on TV a few weeks ago I was inspired to finally pick up Let It Bleed and Beggar's Banquet. I'd heard the latter (borrowed the record from a friend way back when) so I knew i was good but not quite great, mainly wanted it for "Salt of the Earth".

I'd really expected a bit more from "Let It Bleed", though. I love "Sticky Fingers", one of my absolute favorite albums, brilliant from start to finish. I've generally gotten the impression that LIB is considered even better. I'd have to disagree. Brilliant high point sin "Gimme Shelter" and "Can't Always Get ..." but not as consistently great from start to finish.

 

Sticky Fingers is far and away my favorite Stones album. It used to be one of my top ten albums of all time. I haven't revisited that list in so long I have no idea if it would still be there, but yeah it's basically a perfect album.

 

https://soundcloud.com/deliciousvinyl/sets/slimkid3-dj-nu-mark

slimkid3 of the pharcyde and dj numark of jurassic 5 not surprisingly making hip hop that harkens back to the golden age of the mid to late 90's. been bumping this one a lot lately.

 

The Gaslight Anthem - Get Hurt

 

kayo dot - coffins on io (15th time)

 

Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones

Considering the turmoil surrounding the recording of this album, it is easily one of their best, if not, their greatest album.

 

if you're on smack, or perhaps just really really really really hammered, yes.

 

Not at all. Wonderfully bluesy ensemble with those tracks. I love that album.

 

i know, i was just being flippant.

*bows down low in front of exile cd*

 

I can appreciate flippant with the best of them!

 

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: Live in Europe 1967 - Miles Davis Quintet

I'm not sure if it's because I prefer fusion-era Miles, or because I just re-listened to Agharta recently, but this collection didn't really do it for me. Each disc contains a different live performance at a different venue, and it really isn't until the final set in the collection (Paris, 6 November) that everything really starts to click performance-wise. It's also weakened by the fact that the set lists contain a lot of repeats, so while the solos are different, there's still a fair amount of repetition. Couple that with a 3 hour run time and by the end I really just wished I had listened to Live-Evil again. I can't really recommend this since only about a third of it works, but it's kind of an oddly completionist curio for a man who already had a gigantic discography.

 

i can appreciate flippers as well. though i don't like when they chafe my ankle area. it is important to lube that area up before you go diving, but not so much that the flippers will slip off just when you find some really good marine life to look at.

 

Shout, by Gov't Mule.



Solid two disc hard rock/blues-rock album. I particularly enjoy the songs Stoop So Low and World Boss.

Something unique about this album is the second disc. It features alternative versions of the same songs from the first disc with guest appearances by the likes of Ben Harper, Dr. John, Steve Winwood and number of other musicians. While the second disc is an interesting concept, I generally prefer Gov't Mule's original versions of the songs.

4/5

 

If it's good Xmas music you're after check this out:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/oh-santa!-new-used-christmas-classics-from-yep-roc-mw0000490519

Great stuff including the Moaners, Reverend Horton Heat, and The Legendary Shack Shakers, who do a version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen that is hands down the best version I've ever heard of that song.

 

Thrust - Herbie Hancock (I'm on a jazz kick, it happens)

I think I have to commit an arch-heresy here and say I prefer this to Head Hunters. While that album is incredibly good, it also has a bit of experimental rawness - which is unavoidable, really, the man was essentially carving himself a new sound from whole cloth for that record, up to and including a new performing ensemble - here, everything's drawn together more tightly, resulting in a more cohesive sound. Production practice and about a year's worth of touring allow the keyboard grooves to facilitate, rather than dominate, the other instruments. This is especially nice because I'm a fan of Bennie Maupin, and he kills it on these tracks. Good stuff.